Mr. Coledrooke on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 25 



according to the predominancy of the one or the other element. When 

 nourishment is received into the corporeal frame, it undergoes a threefold 

 distribution, according to its fineness or coarseness : corn and other terrene 

 food becomes flesh ; but the coarser portion is ejected, and the finer nourishes 

 the mental organ. Water is converted into blood ; the coarser particles are 

 rejected as urine ; the finer supports the breath. Oil or other combustible 

 substance, deemed igneous, becomes marrow ; the coarser part is deposited 

 as bone, and the finer supplies the faculty of speech.'* 



The third lecture treats on the means whereby knowledge is attainable, 

 through which liberation and perpetual bliss may be achieved : and, as 

 preliminaiy thereto, on the passage of the soul furnished with organs into 

 the versatile world and its various conditions ; and on the nature and 

 attributes of the supreme being. 



' The soul is subject to transmigration. It passes from one state to 

 another, invested with a subtile frame consisting of elementary particles, 

 the seed or rudiment of a grosser body. Departing from that which it 

 occupied, it ascends to the moon ; where, clothed with an aqueous form, it 

 experiences the recompense of its works ; and whence it returns to occupy 

 a new body with resulting influence of its former deeds. But evil-doers 

 suffer for tlieir misdeeds in the seven appointed regions of retribution.! 



' The returning soul quits its watery frame in the lunar orb, and passes 

 successively and rapidly through ether, air, vapour, mist, and cloud, into 

 rain ; and thus finds its way into a vegetating plant, and thence, through 

 the medium of nourishment, into an animal embryo. 't 



In the second chapter of this lecture the states or conditions of the 

 embodied soul are treated of. They are chiefly three ; waking, dreaming, 

 and profound sleep : to which may be added for a fourth, that of death ; and 

 for a fifth, that of trance, swoon, or stupor, which is intermediate between 

 profound sleep and death (as it were half-dead), as dreaming is between 

 waking and pi-ofound sleep. In that middle state of dreaming there is a 

 fanciful course of events, an illusory creation, which however testifies the 

 existence of a conscious soul. In profound sleep the soul has retired to tiie 

 supreme one by the route of the arteries of the pericardium. § 



The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the consideration of the 



• Dr. S'ulr. 2. 4. § 9. (S. 20-22.) f Ib'd- 3. 1. § 1-3. (S. 1-7 and 8-U and 12-21.) 



X Ibid. 3. 1. § 4-6. (S. ;.'2-23 and 24-27.) § Ibid. 3. 2. § 1-4. (S. 1-6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.) 



Vol. II. E 



