32 Mr, H. T. Colebrooke on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 



is created and creates; that which is created and creates not; and that 

 which neither creates nor is created."* 



In several of the Upanishads of the Vedas a similar distribution is affirmed, 

 viz., " eight productive principles, and sixteen productions." f 



It is for contemplation of nature, and for abstraction from it, that union 

 of soul with nature takes place, as the halt and the blind join for convey- 

 ance and for guidance : (one bearing and directed, the other borne and 

 directing). By that union of soul and nature, creation, consisting in the 

 development of intellect, and the rest of the principles, is effected. 



The soul's wish is fruition, or liberation. For either purpose, it is in the 

 first place invested with a subtile person, towards the formation of which 

 the evolution of principles proceeds no further than the elementary rudi- 

 ments.t This is composed then of intellect, consciousness, and mind, as 

 well as the rest of the organs and instruments of life, conjoined with parti- 

 cles, or elementary rudiments, of five sorts : thus seventeen principles enter 

 into its composition. § 



This person, or subtile frame, termed li/iga, linga-sarira, or sucshma- 

 sarira, is primeval, produced from original nature at the earliest or initial 

 development of principles. It is unconfined ; too subtile for restraint or 

 hindrance (and thence termed ativdhica, surpassing the wind in swiftness) : 

 incapable of enjoyment, until it be invested with a grosser body, affected 

 nevertheless by sentiments. 



This is termed the rudimental creation (Janmdtra-sarga). 



The notion of an animated atom seems to be a compromise between the 

 refined dogma of an immaterial soul, and the difficulty which a gross 

 understanding finds in grasping the comprehension of individual existence, 

 unattached to matter. 



The grosser body, with which a soul clad in its subtile person is invested 

 for the purpose of fruition, is composed of the five elements; or of four, 

 excluding the etherial, according to some authorities ; or of one, earth 

 alone, according to others.il That grosser body, propagated by generation, 

 is perishable. The subtile person is more durable, transmigrating through 

 successive bodies, which it assumes, as a mimic shifts his disguises, to repre- 

 sent various characters. 



J. Scoti. Erigense de div. nat. lib. 5. f Garbha, Pras'na and Maitreya Upanishads. 

 X Cdr. 40. § Cap. 3. 8. || Cap. 3. 16—18. 



