﻿62 THE SIXTH DISCOURSE '. 



ikiai cycles with distinct names, which seem to indi- 

 cate a knowledge of the period in which the equinoxes 

 appear to revolve. They are said also to have known 

 the most wonderful powers of nature, and thence to 

 have acquired the fame of magicians and enchanters ; 

 but I will only detain you with a few remarks on that 

 metaphysical theology which has been professed im- 

 memorially by a numerous sect of Persians and Hin- 

 dus, was carried in part into Greece, and prevails even 

 now among the learned Muselmans, who sometimes 

 avow it without reserve. The modern philosophers 

 of this persuasion are called Siifis, either from the 

 Greek word for a sage, or from the woollen mantle 

 which they used to wear in some provinces of Persia : 

 their fundamental tenets are, that nothing exists abso- 

 lutely but God ; that the human soul is an emanation 

 from his essence, and though divided for a time 

 from its heavenly source, will be finally reunited with 

 it ; that the highest possible happiness will arise from 

 its reunion; and that the chief good of mankind in 

 this transitory world, consists in as perfect an union 

 with the Eternal Spirit as the incumbrances of a 

 mortal frame will allow ; that for this purpose they 

 should break all connection (or iaalluk, as they call it) 

 with extrinsic objects, and pass through life without 

 attachments, as a swimmer in the ocean strikes freely 

 without the impediment of clothes ; that they should 

 be straight and free as the cypress, whose fruit is hardly 

 perceptible, and not sink under a load, like fruit-trees 

 attached to a trellis ; that, if mere earthly charms 

 have power to influence the soul, the idea of celestial 

 beauty must overwhelm it in extatic delight ; that 

 for want of apt words to express the divine perfec- 

 tions and the ardour of devotion, we must borrow 

 such expressions as approach the nearest to our ideas, 

 and sneak of Beauty and Love in a transcendent and 

 tical sense; that, like a reed 'torn from its native 



