"  But  now,  what  surprised  me  most  in  your  system,  as  it
seemed  also  to  shock  the  A'chkrya,  is  this. You  give  the  human
body  a  soul,  but  you  are  not  convinced  that  the  vast  frame  of
the  world  has  any  supreme  soul,  except  so  far  as  forms  of  power
and  intelligence  may  have  been  developed  out  of  the  sea  of  life,
like  other  productions  of  nature. You  made  it  clear  that  the
beings  you  call  gods  should  be  described  as  having  souls;  but
still  you  represent  their  divine  personality,  in  so  far  as  they  are
objects  of  worship,  to  be  entirely  a  transitory  thing,  since  it  is  an
efflux  of  nature,  and  everything  except  soul  must  pass  away. It
does  not  in  the  least  console  me,  that  you  talk  of  such  vast  periods
of  time ;  for  how  do  I  know  they  will  be  so  long  ?  or  who  told
you  anything  about  them  ?  I  certainly  could  have  wished  you
would  have  persuaded  our  Vedantine  friend  that  each  hxmian
soul  is  distinct  in  itself,  as  we  believe;  and  that  he  in  turn  would
persuade  you  to  believe  in  Deity  as  the  Highest  Soul,  and  tliat
Deity  exists  at  least  as  independently  of  nature,  as  primaeval
before  her  life,  and  as  eternal  throughout  her  every  change  or
annihilation,  as  you  conceive  the  human  soul  to  be  in  relation  to
our  body. Seriously,  I  would  ask,  can  you  think  the  soul  of
man  so  godlike  as  to  have  life  in  itself,  and  to  survive  easily
any  multitude  of  bodies  until  finally  it  exists  as  soul,  though  not
as  humanity,  apart  from  flesh  or  blood;  and  do  you  think  the
supreme  Deity  could  have  no  being  apart  from  earthly  shapes,
or  the  moulding  of  nature  ?

"  You  say  that  an  independent  Deity  could  have  no  induce-
ment to  create  a  world ;  but  can  we  easily  limit  the  range  over
which  either  the  ambition,  or  the  beneficence,  or  the  desire  to
expand  himself  in  any  way,  of  even  an  ordinary  human  being
may  extend?      One  might  as  well  argue  that  Alexander  of


MOTIVES  OF  CREATOR. 171

Macedon,  or  Mahmud  of  Ghazni,  having  Greece  and  Affghanistan
to  dwell  in,  could  never  have  wished  to  overrun  India. 