HINDOO THEOLOGY. 
61 
Hindoo sages have drunk as deeply from the springs of 
speculative wisdom as the most renowned among the 
ancient Greeks. This the records which even now 
exist of their diligence and acquirements will abund- 
antly testify. In confirmation of what I have said,, I 
will present the reader with some recondite reason- 
ings of a Hindoo philosopher, who probably wrote 
before the earliest of the Grecian sages. 
“ The Shoonyuvadees affirm that from nonentity all 
things arose ; for that everything sprung to birth from 
a state in which it did not previously exist : that entity 
absolutely implies nonentity, and that there must be 
some power in nonentity from which entity can spring : 
the sprout does not arise from a sprout, but in the ab- 
sence or nonexistence of a sprout. Goutiimu denies that 
vacuum is the cause of existence, and affirms that the 
cause is to be sought in concurring circumstances ; for 
seed when sown cannot spring to life without rain ; or if 
a latent principle of life, or an embryo state of existence, 
be pleaded for, this will subvert the universally ac- 
knowledged terms of father, maker, &c. The Shoon- 
yuvadee admits the necessity of using the terms 
maker, &c. but maintains that they are mere words 
of course, and are often used when the things spoken 
of are in a state of non-existence ; as when men say a 
son will be born, or such a person had a son. Gou- 
tumii now asks, do you mean by this assertion that 
the living principle in the seed, or that the seed itself, is 
absent ? You cannot mean the former, for that which 
is destroyed can never become the cause of existence. 
If, where the principle of life is wanting, existence may 
G 
