intelligent elements. If, again, matter be essentially eternal, but at the same time essentially unintelligent, both separately and collectively, then, an intelligent principle being traced in the world, and even in man himself, we are put into possession of two co-eternal independent principles, destitute of all relative connexion and common medium of action.

The SECOND HYPOTHESIS to which I have adverted is not less crowded with difficulties and absurdities; but it has a more imposing appearance, and has hence, in many periods and among many nations, been more popular, and was perpetually leading away a multitude of the philosophers from the preceding system. According to this hypothesis, the universe is an emanation or extension of the essence of the Creator. Now, under this belief, however modified, the Creator himself is rendered material; or, in other words, matter itself, or the visible substance of the world is rendered 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 constitutes the two grand religions of the East-Brahmism and Buddhism; and was undoubtedly conveyed by Pythagoras, and, perhaps, antecedently, by Orpheus (if such an individual ever existed, which Cicero * seems to have disbelieved, from a passage of Aristotle,,

* De Nat. Deor. l. i.

not to be found, however, in 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 Xenophanes, 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 Abridgement of the Veids *; the passage at large is as follows, and developes 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 nothing. 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, which is light, &c." So, in another passage of the Yagur Veid, "Thou art Brahma! thou art Vishnu! thou art Kodra! thou art Prajapat! thou art Deïonta! thou art air! thou art Andri! thou art the moon! thou art substance! thou art Djam! thou art the earth! thou art the world! O lord of the world, to thee humble adoration! O soul of the world! thou who superintendest the actions of the world! who de* Tom. i. Paris, 1802、

stroyest the world! who createst the pleasures of the world! O life of the world! the visible and invisible worlds are the sport of thy power! Thou art the sovereign, O universal soul! to thee humble adoration! O thou, of all mysteries, the most mysterious! O thou who art exalted beyond all perception or imagination! thou who hast neither beginning nor end! to thee humble adoration!" *

As this doctrine became embraced 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 Phænomena with that beautiful passage which is so forcibly appealed to by St. Paul in the course of his address to the Athenians on Mar's-hill †, of which I will beg your acceptance of the following version:

From God we spring, whom man can never trace,
Though seen, heard, tasted, felt in every place;
The loneliest path, by mortal seldom trod,

The crowded city, all is full of God;

Oceans and lakes, for God is all in all,
And we are all his offspring.‡

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

† Acts, xvii. 28.

† Εκ Διὸς αρχώμεσθα, τον ουδέποτ' ἄνδρες ἐῶμεν

Αῤῥητον· μεσταὶ δὲ Διὸς πᾶσαι μεν ἀγυιαί,
દે
Πᾶσαι δ ̓ ἀνθρώπων ἀγοραι· μεστῆ δὲ θάλασσα,
Καὶ λιμένες· πάντη δὲ Δίος κεχρήμεθα πάντες
Τὰ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμεν.

Lib. i. 1.

So Eschylus, 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 the heaven ;
All is Jupiter.*

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 following translation :

Jove first exists, whose thunders roll above;

Jove last, Jove midmost, all proceeds fron Jove.
Female is Jove, immortal Jove is male;

Jove the broad earth - the heaven's irradiate pale.
Jove is the boundless spirit, Jove the fire

That warms the world with feeling and desire.
The sea is Jove, the sun, the lunar ball ;

Jove king supreme, the sovereign source of all.

All power is his; to him all glory give,
For his vast form embraces all that live.f

* Ζεὺς ἔστιν ἄιθηρα

Ζευς τε γή
Ζευς δε ουρανος,

Ζεὺς τα πάντα.

† Ζεὺς πρῶτος γενέτο, Ζεὺς ὡστατος ἄρχικεραυνος
Ζεὺς κεφαλη, Ζεὺς μὲσσα. Διὸς δ' εκ παντα τετύκται·
Ζεὺς ἄρσην γενέτο, Ζεὺς ἄμβροτος ἔπλετο νυμφη
Ζεὺς ποθμῆν γαιης τα και ουρανου αστερόεντος"
Ζεὺς πνόιη παντῶν· Ζεὺς ἄκαματα πυρος ορμὴ·
Ζεὺς ποντου ριζα· Ζευς ἥλιος ἡδε σελήνη
Ζεὺς βασιλεύς Ζεύς αΰτος ἀπαντῶν ἄρχιγενεθλος
Ἔν κρατος εις Δαιμῶν γίνετο, μεγας ἄρχος απαντῶν·
Παντα γάρ ἔν μεγαλῳ Ζηνος ταδὲ σωματι κείται.

Ex. Apul.

This doctrine has not been confined to ancient times, or to the boundaries of India and the republics of Greece and Rome; it has descended through every age, and has its votaries even in the present day. M. Anquetil du Perron, whom I have already spoken of, as the Latin translator of the Oupnek'-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 advanced and supported it in his work, "Sur l'Immortalité de l'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 Bolingbroke 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 sufficiently alive to the full tendency of its principles. The critics on the Continent, however, perceived the tendency on its first appearance; and hence its author was generally, though incorrectly, denominated the modern Lucretius, and the poem itself was regarded 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

* See Sir W. Jones's Works, i. p. 448.