takes him by the hand; and, rising, conducts him to a place, where a man was sleeping. He calls the sleeper by various appellations suitable to the priest's doctrine; but without succeeding in awakening him: he then rouses the sleeper by stirring him; and, afterwards, addressing the priest, asks, "While that man was thus asleep, where was his soul, which consists in intellect? and whence came that soul when he was awakened?" GA'RGYA could not solve the question: and the king then proceeds to explain the nature of soul and mind, according to the received notions of the Védánta. As it is not the purpose of this essay to consider those doctrines, I shall not here insert the remainder of the dialogue.

The next, occupying a single article, is a conversation between YA'JNYAWALCYA, and his wife, MAITREVI. He announces to her his intention of retiring from the civil world; requests her consent, and proposes to divide his effects between her, and his second wife, CA'TYA'YANI'. She asks, "Should I become immortal, if this whole earth, full of riches, were mine?" "No," replies YAJNYAWALCYA, "riches serve for the means of living; but immortality is not attained through wealth." MAITRE'YI declares she has no use, then, for that, by which she may not become immortal; and solicits from her husband the communication of the knowledge, which he possesses, on the means, by which beatitude may be attained. YAJNYAWALCYA, answers, "Dear wert thou to me; and a pleasing [sentiment] dost thou make known: come, sit down; I will expound [that doctrine]; do thou endeavour to comprehend it." A discourse follows, in which YAJNYAWALCYA elucidates the notion, that abstraction procures immortality; because affections are relative to the

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soul, which should therefore be contemplated and considered in all objects, since every thing is soul; for all general and particular notions are ultimately resolvable into one, whence all proceed, and in which all merge; and that is identified with the supreme soul, through the knowledge of which beatitude may be attained.

I shall select, as a specimen of the reasoning in this dialogue, a passage, which is material on a different account; as it contains an enumeration of the Védas, and of the various sorts of passages, which they comprise; and tends to confirm some observations hazarded at the beginning of this essay.

'As smoke, and various substances, separately issue from fire lighted with moist wood; so, from this great being, were respired the Rigveda, the Yajurvéda, the Sámavéda, and the Atharvan and Angiras; the Itihása and Purana; the sciences and Upanishads; the verses and aphorisms; the expositions and illustrations: all these were breathed forth by him.'

The commentators remark, that four sorts of prayers (Mantra), and eight kinds of precepts (Brahmana) are here stated. The fourth description of prayers comprehends such, as were revealed to, or discovered by, AT'HARVAN and ANGIRAS: meaning the A'tharvana véda. The Itihása designates such passages in the second part of the Védas entitled Brahmana, as narrate a story: for instance, that of the nymph URVAS'I' and the king PURURAVAS. The Purana intends those, which relate to the creation and similar topics. "Sciences" are meant of religious worship. "Verses" are memorial lines. "Aphorisms" are short sentences in a concise style. "Expositions" interpret

such sentences; and "illustrations" elucidate the meaning of the prayers.

It may not be superfluous to observe in this place, that the Itihasa and Puránas, here meant, are not the mythological poems bearing the same title; but certain passages of the Indian scriptures, which are interspersed among others, throughout that part of the Védas, called Brahmana, and instances of which occur in more than one quotation in the present essay.

The dialogue between YA'JNYAWALCYA and MAITREYI', above-mentioned, is repeated towards the close of the sixth lecture, with a short and immaterial addition to its introduction. In this place, it is succeeded by a discourse on the unity of the soul: said, towards the conclusion, to have been addressed to the two A'swins, by DAD'HYACH, a descendant of AT HARVAN.

The fourth lecture ends with a list of the teachers, by whom that and the three preceding lectures, were handed down, in succession, to PAUTIMA'SHYA. It begins with him, and ascends, through forty steps, to AYA'SYA; or, with two more intervening persons, to the A'swins; and from them, to DAD'HYACH, ATHARVAN, and MRITYU, or death; and, through other gradations of spirits, to VIRA'J; and finally to BRAHME. The same list occurs again at the end of the sixth lecture: and similar lists are found in the corresponding places of this Upanishad, as arranged for the Madhyandina 'Sáchá. The succession is there traced upwards, from the reciter of it, who speaks of himself in the first person, and from his immediate teacher SAURYANAYYA, to the same original revelation, through nearly the same number of gradations. The difference is almost entirely confined to the first ten or twelve names *.

The fifth and sixth lectures of this Upanishad have been paraphrased, like the fourth, by the author before-mentioned. They consist of dialogues, in which YA'JNYAWALCYA is the chief discourser.

'JANACA, a king paramount, or emperor of the race of Vidéhas, was celebrating at great expense, a solemn sacrifice, at which the Brahmanas of Curu and Panchála were assembled; and the king, being desirous of ascertaining which of those priests was the most learned and eloquent theologian, ordered a thousand cows to be made fast in his stables, and their horns to be gilt with a prescribed quantity of gold. He then addressed the priests, "whoever, among you, O venerable Bráhmanas, is most skilled in theology, may take the cows." The rest presumed not to touch the cattle; but YA'JNYAWALCYA bade his pupil SA'MASRAVAS drive them to his home. He did so; and the priests were indignant, that he should thus arrogate to himself superiority. As'WALA, who was the king's officiating priest, asked him, "art

thou, O YA'JNYAWALCYA! more skilled in theology than we are?" He replied, "I bow to the most learned; but I was desirous of possessing the cattle."

This introduction is followed by a long dialogue, or rather by a succession of dialogues, in which six other rival priests (besides a learned female, named GA'RGI', the daughter of VACHACRU;) take part as antagonists of YAJNYAWALCYA; proposing questions to him, which he answers; and, by refuting their objections, silences them successively. Each dialogue fills a single article (Brahmana); but the controversy is maintained by GA'RGI' in two separate discussions; and the contest between YA'JNYAWALCYA and VIDAGD'HA, surnamed SA'CALYA, in the ninth or last article of the fifth lecture, concludes in a singular manner.

YAJNYAWALCYA proposes to his adversary an abstruse question, and declares, "if thou dost not explain this unto me, thy head shall drop off 'SA'CALYA (proceeds the text) could not explain it; and his head did fall off; and robbers stole his bones, mistaking them for some other thing.'

YA'JNYAWALCYA then asks the rest of his antagonists, whether they have any question to propose, or are desirous, that he should propose any. They remain silent, and he addresses them as follows:

"Man is indeed like to a lofty tree: his hairs are the leaves; and his skin, the cuticle. From his skin flows blood, like juice from bark; it issues from his wounded person, as juice from a stricken tree. His flesh is the inner bark; and the membrane, near the bones, is the white sub