30 



ON MATTER, AND 



The loneliest path, by mortal seldom trod 

 The crowded city, all is Cull of God ; 

 Oceans and lakes, for God is all in all, 

 And we are all his oirspring. '' 



So iEschylus, in a passage still stronger in point, and imbued with the full 

 spirit of Brahmism : — 



Jupiter is the air; 

 Jupiter is the earth ; 

 Jupiter is tlie heaven ; 

 All is Jupiter-t 



But perhaps the passage most express is one contained in a very ancient 

 Greek poem entitled De Mundo, and ascribed to Orpheus, in the original highly 

 beautiful, and of which, for want of a better, I must trouble you with the fol- 

 lowing translation : — 



Jove first exists, wliose thunders roll above; 

 Jove last, Jove midmost, all proceeds from Jove. 

 Feuiale is Jove, immoi lal Jove is uiale; 



Jove the broad earth — the heaven's irradiate pale. ^ 



Jove is the boundless spirit, Jove the fire 



'i'liat warms the woild wiih feeling and desire. 



The sea is Jove, the sun, the lunar ball ; 



Jove king supreme, the sovereiiiri source of all. 



All power is his; to him all glory give. 



For his vast form embiaces all that live.J 



This doctrine has not been confined to ancient times, or to the boundaries 

 of India and the rppublics of Greece and Home; it has descended through 

 every age, and has its votaries even in the present day. M. Auquetil du Per- 

 ron, whom I have already spoken of, as the Latin translator of the Oiipnek'- 

 hat, or Upanishad, from the Persian version, has himself distinctly avowed 

 an inclination to it; the writings of M. Neckar are full of it;^ and M. Isnard 

 has professedly advaticed and supported it in his work, " Sur I'lmmortalite de 

 I'Ame," printed at Paris in 1802. I do not know that it exists at present to 

 any great extent in our own country; but if we look back to something less 

 than a century, we shall find it current among the philosophers of various 

 schools, and especially that of which Lord Boiingbroke has been placed at 

 the head ; and hence running through every page of the celebrated Essay on 

 Man, in the composition of which it is probable that Mr. Pope was imposed 

 upon by his noble patron, and was not suffiinently alive to the full tendency 

 of Its principles. The critics on the Continent, however, perceived the ten- 

 dency on Its first appearance ; and hence its author was generally, though in- 

 correctly, denominated the modern Lucretius, and the poem itself was re- 

 garded as one of the most dangerous productions that ever issued from the 

 press; as a most insidious attempt, by confining the whole of our views, our 

 reasonings, and our expectations to the present state of things, to undermiue 



* 'Ek Alb? apxw/i£(70«, rdv ovSenor'' avSpcs iwixev 

 "\ppr]Tov jxtaTai he Aid; irdaai fxEV ayvial, 

 Tlacai (5' avQptj)iT(i)v ayopai nzcrti St ^dXaaaa, 



ToD y«p Kai yevos lajjiev- Lib. i. 1. 



t Zcvs sariv alO^p, 

 Zci's Tt yf}' 

 Zevs 6e ovpavbs, 

 Zeis Tu ndvTa. 



t Zeis irpuiTog yivho, Ztv? vara-os apxixtmivoq' 

 Zevs K£(/»hA>), Zevi fjJaaa' Atoj (5' iK -rrd-^ra ThvKTW 

 Zevi apariv ysvero, Zeiig afiSpoTOs errXfTO vvix(pr}' 

 Zzvg TtvOjinv yturis to. km ovpavov daTepoevTOS- 

 Zzvg m'oir) -jTnvr&V Zevg dicdfjtaTa irvpos ipiJi.fi' 

 Zei'i novTov piCja' Zfuf rjXios rj^e acX^vrj' 

 Zei)? IjuaiXevs' Zzvg avrbg aiTavTojv apxiyiveOXos' 

 'Ev KpuTog ek Adi^i^v yivzTO, ^iya? apxos anavriov' 

 y YidvTa ydp £v ^izydXi^ Zrjvbs TaSe o-w/zan KclTai. 



Ex. Apul. 



§ See Sir W. Jones's Works, i. p. 443. 



