fedhgs, whilst the' ^isupreTne 'One ''alc^ei'eslists >eally and absolutdy; 

 J&!t^i'rres land pHilo^opHefs in-'the'eastVas^MI'-'as ift' the- west, seldom, 

 if 'eVer,-cdTisitiered^'-JtF*iTER'^as'- the Supreme '■ Being,- 'who:m they':cali 

 DeVa' in'the east, or -DEUs-'^m 'the' '"weSt--:«.©fi^^him -'the ^Hindus n&fiQ3& 

 presume to make any image; an<d,^acG0rdjl1g td I^tATo and Macro- 

 Bius/^) this was exactly the 'di«^^-!ii"^g' west; and the- Greeks and 

 Romans never offered up prayers, nor made sacrifices to him, exadlly like 

 the Hindus : and he was unknown to the multitude in the westj precisely 

 as in India, even to this day. They speak of him in India with the 

 most awful reverence, Vv^hilst they indulge themselves in the most 

 obscene tales and legends concerning the embodied forms or deities of 

 all ranks, exactly like the Gre^^^ and Romans. The reason is that these 

 forms were mere mortals, according to the opinion of several respe6lable 

 schools in India, and. also formerly in the west. Whenever a -man -can 

 divest himself of every worldly affe(5^ion,,.. either good or bad, by self 

 denial, and has extinguished, that is to say, subdued his senses, the 

 inferior deities disappear,and concejit^a-te themselves into the Tri-murtti: 

 soon after, the Tri-murtti itself disappears, and at that very moment, he 

 exclaims /zir/^ Br AHME or -God, and he is > then conscious of his being 

 Brahmev To obtain this, at is not .only necessary to divest, yourself of 

 every sinful taint and appetite; but also of every virtue, and laudable in-= 

 elination : for virtue does not differ from vice materially : it is vice itself, 

 or the extremes of vice, but moderated,; and the difFereiice bet^yeen them 

 is the same as between a gentle, and an intense heat. Virtue, of course, 

 is a worldly afFedlion, which the man, who renounces the- world, ought 

 to consider in- the light of vice, as it is equally inimical to his, purpose. 



(0 Maceob. insomn. Scipion. Lib. L c. 2°. 



