once: by religious ceremonies he passes the gulph of death, and by divine knowledge he attains immortality."

"They, who adore only the appearances and forms of the deity, are fallen into thick darkness; but they surely have a thicker gloom around them, who are solely devoted to abstract thoughts."

"A distinct reward, they say, is obtained by adoring the forms and attributes, and a distinct reward, they say, by adoring the abstract essence; adding: This we have heard from sages who declare it to us."

"O M, Remember me, divine Spirit!" "OM, Remember my deeds."

That all-pervading spirit, that spirit which gives light to the visible sun, even the same in kind am I, though infinitely distant in degree. Let my soul return to the immortal spirit of God, and then let my body, which ends in ashes, return to dust!"

O Spirit, who pervadest fire, lead us in a straight path to the riches of beatitude! Thou, O God, possessest all the treasures

of knowledge: remove each foul taint from our souls; we continually approach thee with the highest praise, and the most fervid adoration."

"As a tree, the lord of the forest, even so, without fiction, is man; his hairs are as leaves; his skin, as exterior bark."

"Through the skin flows blood; through the rind, sap: from a wounded man, therefore, blood gushes, as the vegetable fluid from a tree that is cut."

"His muscles are as interwoven fibres; the membrane round his bones as interior bark, which is closely fixed; his bones are as the hard pieces of wood within: their marrow is composed of pith."

"Since the tree, when felled, springs again from the root, from what root springs mortal man when felled by the hand of death?"

Say not, he springs from seed: seed surely comes from the living. A tree, no doubt, rises from seed, and after death has a visible renewal."

“But a tree which they have plucked up

by the root, flourishes individually no more. From what root then springs mortal man when felled by the hand of death?—who can make him spring again to birth ?”

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God, who is perfect wisdom, perfect happiness. He is the final refuge of the man, who has liberally bestowed his wealth, who has been firm in virtue, who knows and adores that Great One."

"Let us adore the supremacy of that divine sun, the godhead who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our progress towards his holy seat."

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What the sun and light are to this visible world, such is truth to the intellectual and invisible universe; and, as our corporeal eyes have a distinct perception of objects enlightened by the sun, thus our souls acquire certain knowledge, by meditating on the light of truth, which emanates from the Being of beings: that is the light by which alone our minds can be directed in the path to beatitude."

That Being "without eyes sees, without ears hears all; he knows whatever can be known, but there is none who knows him: Him the wise call the great, supreme, pervading spirit."

Of this verse, and a few others, a Pandit, named Radhacant, gives the following paraphrase.

"Perfect truth; perfect happiness; without equal; immortal; absolute unity; whom neither speech can describe, nor mind comprehend; all-pervading; all-transcending; delighted with his own boundless intelligence, not limited by space, or time; without feet, moving swiftly; without hands, grasping all worlds; without eyes, all-surveying; without ears, all-hearing; without an intelligent guide, understanding all; without cause, the first of all causes; allruling; all-powerful; the creator, preserver, transformer of all things; such is the Great One: this the Vedas declare."

"What relish can there be for enjoyment in this body; assailed by desire and wrath, by avarice and illusion, fear and

sorrow, envy and hate, by absence from those whom we love, and by union with those whom we dislike, by hunger and thirst, by disease and emaciation, by growth and decline, by old age and death?"

Surely we see the things of this world tending to decay, even as these biting gnats and other insects; even as the grass of the field, and the trees of the forest, which spring up and then perish. But what are they?-Others, far greater, have been archers mighty in battle, and some have been kings of the whole earth.

"Sudhumna, Bhuridhumna, Indradhumna, Cuvalayaswa, Yanvanaswa, Avadhyaswa, Aswapati, Sasabindu, Havisehandra, Barishsha, Nahusha, Suryati, Yayati, Vicrava, Acshayasena, Priyavrata, and the

rest.

"Marutta likewise, and Bharata, who enjoyed all corporeal delights, yet left their boundless prosperity, and passed from this world to the next.

"But what are they?-Others yet greater, Gandawas, Asuras, Racshasas, companies