Then Brahma his own mind surveyed, 

 Ere spirits were infused, ox forms displayed. 

 As mortal eyes, if finite we compare 

 With infinite, in brightest mirrors gaze, 

 Swift, as is thought*, a shape supremely fair 

 Rose into being, with a boundless blaze 



That fifty suns might daze. 

 Primeval Maya was the Goddess named, 

 Who, to her lord with love divine fa inflamed, 

 Her thoughts divulged, with richest wisdom filled, 

 From which this gorgeous universe he framed ; 



For when great Brahme willed 



Unnumbered worlds to build 

 From unity diversified^ he sprang, 

 Then gay Creation laughed, and procreant Nature rang. 





Omniscient spirit! whose all-ruling power 

 Bids from each sense bright emanations § beam; 

 Glows in the rainbow; sparkles in the stream || ; 

 Smiles in the bud * ; and glistens in the flower 



That crowns each vernal bower ; 

 Sighs in the gale ; and warbles in the throat 

 Of every bird that hails the blooming spring, 

 Or tells his loves in many a liquid note, 

 Whilst envious artists touch the rival string, 



Till rocks and forests ring; 

 Breathes in rich fragrance from the sandal-grove, 

 Or where the precious musk-deer, playful, rove; 

 In dulcet juice from clustering fruit distils; 

 And burns salubrious in the tasteful clove; 

 Soft banks and verdurous hills 

 Thy present influence fills; 

 In air, in floods, in caverns, woods, and plains, 

 Thy will inspirits all, thy sovereign Maya f reigns. 



Jones. 



i 



* A fine conception of the first operation of the heavenly mind. 



+ BRAHME is believed by the Hindoos to be neuter, Brahma and Mai a are masculine and feminine. 

 J Still all is referred to God, or Brahme. 

 § In sluggish matter there is no thought. 

 || Not properties existent in matter. 



* Smiles in the bud! how enchanting the whole account! 



f Ma i a (the Minerva of the Greeks, who is said by them to have been born from the head of Jupiter), means sovereign goodness and 

 wisdom. The Hindoos believe also in an evil spirit which wars against the innocent joys of life, and produces the miseries incident to huma- 

 nity, and all the convulsions of nature, and Brahma is employed, sometimes appearing upon earth, to counteract this evil. There 

 is a fine Hindoo Avatar, or descent of Brahma, representing the deluge, when Brahma appears in the shape of a fish, and having 

 procured from the body of Typhon, the holy books, presents them to Brahme. 



