Cir. II.] 



ORIENTAL COSMOGONY. 



7 



n 





• 



BN> 





:: 



el 





inn 





* 



• : 



ho h 



I: 



tv 





in v 



111 r 



in h 



re 





>nni 



i era. 





Ace 

 lit 









bicb 



form, the other spiritual and capable of compelling 'inert 

 matter to develope its sensible properties.' This develop- 

 ment of matter into ' individual and visible existences ' is 

 called creation, and is assigned to a subordinate agent, or the 



embodied 



Brahma 



In the first chapter of the Ordinances of Menu above 

 alluded to, we meet with the following passages relating to 

 former destructions and renovations of the world : — 



The 



mcom 



(M 



time of energy for the 



in the supreme spirit, changing the 



hour of repose. 



'When that Power awakes, then 

 expansion ; but when he slumbers with a tranquil spirit, then 



this world its full 



Le system 

 embodied 



• • 



he reposes, as 

 endowed with principles of action 



from their several acts, and the mind 



inert/ 



The absorption of all beings into the Supreme essence is 



slumber 



UXXOXX UbkJVlIWVUj ^^ *>**V j^*»***^ ~~ 



and to remain for a time immersed in ' the first idea, or in 

 darkness/ After which the text thus proceeds (verse fifty- 

 seven), < Thus that immutable power by waking and reposing 

 alternately, revivifies and destroys, in eternal succession, this 

 whole assemblage of locomotive and immovable creatures.' 



It is then declared that there has been a long succession 



of manwantaras, or periods, each of the duration of many 



thousand ages, and — 



' There are creations also, and destructions of worlds innu- 

 merable : the Being, supremely exalted, performs all this with 

 as much ease as if in sport, again and again, for the sake of 



conferring happiness. 5 * 



No part of the Eastern cosmogony, fr< 



m 



these 



tr 



made 



the doctrine, so frequently alluded to, of the reiterated sub- 



mersion 



r 



* Institutes of Hindoo Law, or the Ordinances of Menu, from the Sanscrit, 

 translated by Sir William Jones, 1796. 



