244 W. p. JAMES, ESQ, 



into a sensible world is only apparent. It is a Pantheism, 

 which annihilates the world ; matter and nature are com- 

 pletely absorbed by the world-soul — are plunged and buried 

 in it. 



Such is the mature system of the Pedanta, but many others 

 coexisted with it. Thus, the Sankeja system starts nob from 

 unity, but from two principles, mind and matter. These two 

 alone have existed from the beginning, uncreated and 

 eternal. 



Then, again, we find mythological legends of the Creation, 

 as, for instance, in the Law-book of Manu, in which the 

 world's egg, which is cleft in twain, and other familiar 

 elements, reappear, 



8, Greek Cosmology. — ^The Greek views about the origin of 

 all things are interesting from the genius and originality of 

 the writers and the incomparable beauty of the language in 

 which they clothe their thoughts. From first to last they 

 were of the Aryan type, excluding creation proper, and 

 dwelling chiefly upon the notion of self-development and 

 growth. The oldest cosmogony now in existence is Hesiod's 

 Tkeogony, whose approximate date is the middle of the 

 eighth century b,C. His work, however, has the appear- 

 ance of having been partly borrowed from earlier sources. 

 The following is a version more or less condensed : — 



Verily first of all there came into being Chaos, but afterwards 



The broad-bosomed Earth, (to be) the safe foundation for ever 



Of all the immortals who hold the summit of snowy Olympus, 



And misty Tartarus in the recess of the wide-traversed land, 



And Love, fairest among the immortal gods ; 



And from Chaos were born Erebos and dark Night, 



And from Night again sprang ^ther and Day. 



And the Earth brought forth the starry Heaven and the Mountains 



and the Sea, 

 Afterwards the Earth was wedded to Heaven, and their 

 Off'spring were six Titan brothers and six Titan sisters. 



In all essential points this system agrees with the Hindoo, 

 especially in the early appearance of love (Eros in Greek, 

 Kama in Sanscrit). Hesiod's chaos is usually interpreted as 

 meaning " empty space," and must be carefully distinguished 

 from the latter conception, which, however, dates back to 

 Anaxagoras. 



Greek philosophy attempted by sheer thinking to carry on 

 the problem thus started by the Cosmogonists. The earliest 

 Ionic school chiefly asked itself what was the primeval matter 

 out of which the universe evolved itself, gods and all. 



