260 
thus described The Being whose powers are incomprehen- 
sible having created me (Menu) and this universe, again became 
absorbed in the Supreme Spirit, exchanging the time of work 
for the hour qf rest. When that power awakes, then has this 
world its full expansion; but when He slumbers with a tranquil 
spirit, then the whole system fades away. Thus that immut- 
able power, by waking and reposing alternately, revivifies and 
destroys, in eternal succession, this whole assemblage of loco- 
motive and immovable creatures.* 
21. Passing from India to China, some of the cosmological 
legends of the latter resemble, in some respects, those current 
amongst the Hindoos. Thus it is said that the first man was 
called Puonen, and that he was born of Chaos out of an egg. 
From the shell of this egg, in the deep gloom of night, were 
formed the heavens, and from the white of it was made the 
atmosphere, and from the yolk the earth. In point of order, 
the heavens were first created ; next the foundations of the 
earth were laid ; then the atmosphere was diffused around the 
habitable globe; and, last of all, man was called into existence. 
Further light is thrown upon the cosmogony of the Chinese in 
their book Y-king, supposed to have been written B.C. 500. 
The book teaches that what they call “ the great Term,” is the 
great Unity and the great I"; that Y has neither body nor 
figure; and that all which have body and figure were made by 
that which has neither body nor figure. It asserts also that 
the great Term, or Unity, comprehends “ Three,” and describes 
this comprehension to be of such a nature that the one is three, 
and that the three are one. Iao is Life ; the first lias produced 
the second ; the two have produced the third ; and the three have 
made all things. He, whom the Spirit perceiveth, and whom 
the egg cannot see, is called Y, whose character is explained 
by Hin-chin as follows : — “At the first beginning Reason sub- 
sisted in the Unitv ; that is it which made and divided the 
heaven and the earth, which changed and perfected all 
tilings. ”f 
My Soul absorbed one only Being knows, 
Of all perceptions one abundant source, 
Whence every object every moment flows ; 
Suns here derive their force ; 
Hence planets learn their course ; 
But Suns and fading worlds 1 view no more — 
God only I perceive, God only I adore ! 
* The Institute* of Hindoo Lair, or the Ordinances of Mena, from the 
Sanskrit, c. i. 
f Mernoires chinois, apud Bryant, in Phil. .Ind.. pp. ;ksr> 
