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night. This illusive operation of the deity the Hindoo philoso- 
phers call maya, or deception/ 7 
The above is extracted from the argument of the hymn to 
Narayena, one of the most sublime and beautiful compositions in 
any language, translated by our great orientalist: the first stanza 
represents the sublimest attributes of the Supreme Being, and the 
three forms in which they most clearly appear to us, power, wis- 
dom, and goodness; or, in the language of Orpheus and his disci- 
ples, love. I shall only copy the first stanza of this divine poem, 
and the concluding lines; although every part of it would delight 
a refined and pious mind, and enlighten the most obscure recesses 
appropriated to such an object of worship. 
The Spirit of God, called Narayena, or inoving on the zvater, 
has a multitude of other epithets in the Sanscrit, the principal of 
which are introduced in different parts of the hymn. 
IIYMN TO NARAYENA. 
Spirit of spirits, who, through every part 
Of space expanded and of endless time. 
Beyond the stretch of labouring thought sublime, 
Badst uproar into beauteous order start. 
Before heaven was, thou art : 
Ere spheres beneath us roll’d or spheres above. 
Ere earth in tirmamental ether hung, 
Thou satst alone, 'till through thy mystic love. 
Things unexisting to existence sprung. 
And grateful descant sung. 
What first imped'd thee to exert thy might ? 
Goodness unlimited. What glorious light 
Thy power directed ? wisdom without bound. 
What prov’d it first ? Oh ! guide my fancy right ; 
