AND ITS SELF-CONSERVATION. 223 



or feeling. That is, God is here represented under the 

 image of a man, and as exhibiting the limitations of a 

 finite, changeable being. And such must inevitably be 

 the result whenever the Divinity is conceived under 

 imagery,, however lofty and dignified the imagery may be. 



Another remarkable representation of the Supreme 

 Power appears in the Hindu conception of creation. 

 Here Brahm is indeed conceived as universal substance; 

 and yet so imaged as that passivity and activity are 

 assumed to be completely separable states of that sub- 

 stance. Thus, during immeasurable kalpas, or ages of 

 ages, Brahm may remain wholly quiescent, all being, all 

 reality absorbed and merged in his unity, which then 

 presents absolutely no distinctions. At length, however, 

 the repose of Brahm is brought to an end. Then begins 

 a new and likewise enormously extended period, charac- 

 terized by the activity of Brahm the self-unfolding of 

 his substance into a world of infinitely varied reality. 

 And yet this is destined to be at last reabsorbed into the 

 substance whence it emanated. Thus, as having no 

 true, abiding existence, the world of finite forms is 

 declared to be naught but may a, or illusion. 



Thus to the Hindu, more literally perhaps than to the 

 average modern Christian, "the world is all a fleeting 

 show, for man's illusion given/' 



Nevertheless, there is a profound difference also un- 

 derlying the outer similarity. In the Hindu view, the 

 external world appears at first as a world of reality and 

 permanence. It comes, however, to be recognized as in a 

 state of perpetual change and dissolution. Yet the fact 

 that change itself would be impossible otherwise than as 

 a phase of the permanent does not wholly escape them. 



