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He then who recognises the oneness of speech and thought| preserves both, yet as one ; but he who separates speech fix)m thought, thereby annihilates while he endeavours to make it independent. Similarly action, if it be not animated by thought| is no longer acting. But we must also acknowledge farther, that the same Being may think of himself ; he then being one becomes two, that is, two as the thinker, and the thing thought, yet remaining essentially one. He is no more multiplied in essence than any human body is changed by the modification of what is called time, or by change of place, or by accident of colour. Just as neither time, place, nor colour, change essence ; BO neither does modifying self-contemplation, or appearance, multiply the Supreme. The case is not unlike that of a man gazing in a mirror, and beholding himself so that he becomes both the subject seeing and the object seen in one ; only that you will readily allow the primeval Spirit cotdd have no mirror save his own thought which he threw forward out of himself. Here then we come back to that same appearance in three kinds of modification, which has now been several times spoken of, 7—2 100 VACH — LOGOS. namely, Mdyd. Have you still, my friend, to apprehend that the same appearance, which to men from their ignorance is illusion, is also on the side which more nearly resembles sub- stantial reality, that which the Rig-Veda calls Vdch^ namely, the speech of the primeval Spirit, the eternal yet transitory daughter of Brahm&. * I uphold,' she says, * both the sim and the ocean, the firmament and fire, and both day and night. Me the gods render universally present everywhere, and per- vader of all beings. Even I declare this self, who is worshipped by gods and men ; I make strong whom I choose ; I make him Brahm4, holy and wise. For Rudra I bend the bow, to slay the demon foe of Brahm& ; for the people I make war ; and I pervade heaven and earth .... Originating all beings, I pass like the breeze; I am above this heaven; beyond this earth; and what is the great one, that am I.' This same Vdok^ many wise men say, should be understood by Sachiy the wife of Indra; for her name too signifies speech. Yet speech, we have seen, is nothing without thought. Hence it cannot be wrong to say, with our religious books, that, before any of these worlds, or sky, or aught above it, before day and night, and before death or immortality, the same Vdch was sustained imshaken within the primeval Spirit, who was alone, breathing without breath. Besides Him nothing was yet, which since has been. First in his mind then was formed desire, which the wise recognise by the intellect in their own hearts, as the link of being where as yet is nothing. This sustained within Brahm, therefore, {Swadhd) becoming Vdch, the daughter of Brahm&, presents herself throughout all worlds as M&yd; so that whatever is anywhere seen in creation is the voice of the creating God, and His voice is the thought of the eternal Spirit. The appearance of all creatures is the voice of the Creator, and that again the volition of the Eternal." While Vidy&chdiya was uttering the last three or four sentences, Blancombe appeared to be listening most attentively, and yet to be half lost in wonder ; for he exclaimed to himself DIVINE OUTSHADOWING. 101 nnoonscioiisljy jet half aloud so that I could hear him, '' How wonderful! wonderful alike in its resemblance, and in that, resembling so nearly, it still differs so much T* But at the pause, he said, '' So far I have no great difficulty, however much in one respect you may astonish me ; but still the essential difference between the thinker and the thought is a sort of chasm which to my feeble apprehension is not quite bridged across." " Per- haps, then," resumed Vidy&h&rya, " you have not sufficiently noticed how the same man often thinks of himself in different lights, and as it were from different points of view, according as he rejoices or mourns, justifies his own conduct or condemns ity and conceiyes of himself again as contemplated by other persons who pass their several judgments upon him. Yet many a man's mind is in reality a sort of inward drama, in which he being one plays in himself many parts, and sees in himself many apparent objects. So the Deity, throwing forth His own thought, throws forward Himself, and as on one side He con- templates Himself, so on many other sides all human beings contemplate the reflexion or the embodiment of his thought in a thousand various modifications as it happens to be presented to each ; so that hence they call the world what is truly ap- pearance, and the appearance is the outshadowing of the pro- jected self of the Eternal Spirit. Just then as one man gazing upon many figures fashioned in clay might affirm, These are elephants, or tigers, or cows ; but another might as truly say. All these are porcelain or clay ; so the truly instructed will say of all living forms in creation, These are the appearances of the thought of the Eternal as He comes forth from Himself, and modifies Himself in infinite varieties of outshadowing. He then is not only the potter, but also the clay ; for out of His thought the world is fashioned ; by His life things live ; and in Him everything rejoices. Only these appearances in which He dwells are indeed subject to the limitations already spoken of as the ffunas; whereas no one can piously ascribe any such fetters, or sensations, or conditions, to the Supreme ; and Him 102 APPARENT INCONSISTENCIES. therefore we call Nirguna, the firee from all qualities. Here then, lest 70a should repeat to me the old difficulty which you hare in common with Madhwa and the Fdsupatas, how things subject to the gunaa can be the same as the one Nirffuna, let this suffice for an answer ; it is the necessary condition of Knowledge coming into contact with Ignorance ; or, in other words, the Dlimitable can only mirror forth His thought by making its reflexion subject to limitations. Just then as one sun being reflected in many parts of water, has his brightness agitated in many or in fewer of them, as may happen at any time, yet is free fix)m agitation ; so the Supreme Soid putting itself forth in subjection to the trammels of feeling, whether goodness, or passion, or darkness, is yet free fix)m trammels, being tranquil, and without duality. That human soul, there- fore, which would be rexmited, as a ray of light with the sun, must become daily more independent of all earthly sensations, and doing good acts rather than bad ones, yet not resting in any earthly acts soever, since all are alike perishable, must take refuge alone with the Eternal.*' "I seem now," remarked Blancombe, "to have come as nearly perhaps to an understanding of your doctrines as it can well be in the nature of things for me to arrive; and after troubling you with so many questions, I will not weary you fieurther at present with doubts how far all your own expressions and those of your religious books cohere together in a system. In some respects, indeed, it appears to me there is less difierence between your doctrines and those of some Indian speculators, as for instance, the Bauddhas, than you apprehend to be the case ; for particular words seem to be used by you in difierent senses, rather than opinions radically different to be intended. But let that point now stand over. Yet here is a little difficulty which occurs to me. You began, if you remember, by explain- ing to me some of the sacred names in the Big-Yeda, and also you magnified Siva as the deity to be especially honoured. But in all this latter part of your discourse, in which you have I SIVA— BEVOLUTION. 103 unfolded to me the profounder philosophy of your belief, all those names of the Big-Veda have entirely disappeared, and not only is Siva left nnmentioned, but the room which he might occupy seems assigned to a far earlier tenant. At least I under- stand that the province of Siva is to destroy what exists, and in destruction to reconstruct. Surely then creation must have gone first, as indeed you appear to lay down, when you make Miy& the earthly appearance of Ydch, the heavenly daughter of Brahmi, and again identify her with the volition of that Spirit whom you consider so absolutely primeval, that to de- scribe the absence of anything else you lavish phrases expressive of noAingness. Surely you meant me to underatand all this of a beginning prior to any manifestation of the power of Siva?