22 Mr. Colebrooke on the PIdlosophy of the Hindus. 



absorbed at the general dissolution of worlds, previous to renovation of all 

 things.'* 



♦ Intellect, mind, and organs of sense and action, being composed of the 

 primary elements, are evolved and re-absorbed in no different order or suc- 

 cession, but in tliat of the elements of which they consist.'t 



♦ The same course, evolution and re-absorption, or material birth and deatli, 

 cannot be affirmed of the soul. Birth and death are predicated of an indi- 

 vidual, referring merely to his association with body, which is matter fixed 

 or moveable. Individual souls are, in the veda, compared to sparks issuing 

 from a blazing fire ; but the soul is likewise declared expressly to be eternal 

 and unborn. Its emanation is no birth, nor original production.^ It is per- 

 petually intelligent and constantly sensible, as the Sdnc'hyas too maintiiin ; 

 not adventitously so, merely by association with mind and intellect, as the 

 disciples of Canade insist. It is for want of sensible objects, not for want of 

 sensibility or faculty of perception, that the soul feels not during profound 

 sleep, fainting, or trance. 



' The soul is not of finite dimensions, as its transmigrations seemingly in. 

 dicate ; nor minutely small abiding within the heart, and no bigger than 

 the hundredth part of a hundredth of a hair's point, as in some passages de- 

 scribed ; but, on the contrary, being identified with supreme Brahme, it 

 participates in his infinity .'§ 



' The soul is active ; not, as the Sdnc'hi/as maintain, merely passive.ll 

 Its activity, however, is not essential, but adventitious. As the carpenter, 

 having his tools in hand, toils and suffers, and laying them aside, rests and 

 is easy, so the soul in conjunction with its instruments (the senses and 

 organs) is active, and quitting them, reposes.^ 



' Blind in the darkness of ignorance, the soul is guided in its actions and 

 fruition, in its attainment of knowledge and consequent liberation and 

 bliss, by the supreme ruler of the universe,** who causes it to act conform- 

 ably with its previous resolves : now, according to its former purposes, as 

 then consonantly to its yet eai'lier predispositions, accruing from preceding 

 forms with no retrospective limit ; for the world had no beginning. The 

 supreme soul makes the individuals act relatively to their virtuous or vicious 



♦ Br. Sutr. 2. 3. § 7-8. (S. 13- U.) f Ibid. § 9. (S. 13.) 



X Ibid. § 10-11. (S. 16-17.) § Ibid. § 13. (S. 19-32.) 



II Ibid. § 14. (S. 33-39.) ^ Ibid. § 15. (S. 40.j •• Ibid. § 16. (S. 41-42.) 



