14 



ON MATTER, AND 



the Creator ; and we merely shift the burden, without getting rid of it. 

 There can be no difficulty in tracing this doctrine to its source. It runs, 

 as I have already observed, through the whole texture of that species of 

 materialism which constitusts the tvo grand religions of the East — Brahm- 

 ism and Buddhism ; and was undoubtedly conveyed by Pathagoras, and, 

 perhaps, antecedently, by Orpheus (if such an individual ever existed, 

 which Cicero* seems to have disbelieved, from a passage of Aristotle, not to 

 be found, however, m any of his writings that have descended to us), into 

 different parts of Greece, in consequence of their communications with the 

 gymnosophists. From Pythagoras it descended to Plato and Xeno- 

 phanes, and, under different modifications, became a tenet of the academic 

 and eleatic schools. I have already quoted the principle on which it is 

 founded, from M. Anquetil du Perron's translation of the Oupnek'-hat, or 

 Abridgment of the Voids ;t the passage at large is as follows, and deve- 

 lopes the entire doctrine as well as the principle : " The whole universe is 

 the Creator, proceeds from the Creator, exists in him, and returns to him. 

 The ignorant assert that the universe, in the beginning, did not exist in its 

 Author, and that it was created out of nothmg. O ye, whose hearts are 

 pure ! how could something arise out of nothing ? This First Being alone, 

 and without likeness, was the all in the beginning : he could multiply 

 himself under different forms ; he created fire from his essence, vi'hich is 

 light, &c." So, in another passage of the Yagur Void, " Thou art 

 Brahma ! thou art Vishnu ! thou art Kodra 1 thou art Prajapat ! thou art 

 Dei'onta 1 thou art air ! thou art Andri ! thou art the moon ! thou art sub*' 

 stance ! thou art Djam 1 thou art the earth ! thou art the world 1 O lord of 

 the world, to thee humble adoration ! O soul of the world ! thou who su- 

 perintendest the actions of the world ! who destroyest the world 1 who 

 Greatest the pleasures of the world ! O life of the world ! the visible and in- 

 visible worlds are the sport of thy power ! Thou art the sovereign, O uni- 

 versal soul ! to thee humble adoration ! O thou, of all mysteries, the most 

 mysterious ! O thou who art exalted beyond all perception or imagination I 

 thou who hast neither beginning nor end! to thee humble adoration 



As this doctrine became enabraced by many of the Greek and Roman 

 philosophers, it is not to be wondered at that it captivated still more of their 

 poets; and hence we find it, with perhaps the exception of Empedocles 

 and Lucretius, more or less pervading all of them, from Orpheus to Virgil. 

 It is in reference to this that Aratus opens his Phaenomena with that 

 beautiful passage which is so forcibly appealed to by St Paul in the course 

 of his address to the Athenians on Mars-hill,§ of which I will beg your 

 acceptance of the following version : — 



From God we spring', whom man can never trace, 

 Thpugh seen, heard, tasted, felt in every place ; 

 The loneliest path, by mortal seldom trod, 

 The crowded city, ali is full of God ; 

 Oceans and lakes, for God is all in all, 

 And we are all his offspring.}] 



* De Nat. Deor, 1. 1. 

 I See Transl. of Lucr. i. p. 282 



jl E« Ajoj ap^ainsaQa, rov ovSeiroT^ avSpe; euyjjiev 

 ApprjTOV ritarai 6c Aiosiracai [xev ayviai, 

 Tlacac av9pu}Tr(iiv ayopai' pecTiq Se daXacaUf 

 Kai\tpevEi' TravTi] ()s Aios K£^pr}p£da TTavrcs' 

 Ty yapKai yevos £(rp£v. Lib. i. 1. 



t Tom. i. Paris, 1802. 

 § Acts xvii. 28. 



/ I 



