ween the decision arrived at in Grecian
and that in Indian philosophy. Thus the latter says, "I am myself an
irradiated manifestation of the supreme BRAHM." "Never was there a time
in which I was not, nor thou, nor these princes of the people, and never
shall I not be; henceforth we all are." Viewing the soul as merely a
spectator and stranger in this world, they regarded it as occupying
itself rather in contemplation than in action, asserting that in its
origin it is an immediate emanation from the Divinity--not a
modification nor a transformation of the Supreme, but a portion of him;
"its relation is not that of a servant to his master, but of a part to
the whole." It is like a spark separated from a flame; it migrates from
body to body, sometimes found in the higher, then in the lower, and
again in the higher tribes of life, occupying first one, then another
body, as circumstances demand. And, as a drop of water pursues a devious
career in the cloud, in the rain, in the river, a part of a plant, or a
part of an animal, but sooner or later inevitably finds its way back to
the sea from which it came, so the soul, however various its fortunes
may have been, sinks back at last into the divinity from which it
emanated.

Both Greeks and Hindus turned their attention to the delusive phenomena
of the world. Among the latter many figuratively supposed that what we
call visible nature is a mere illusion befalling the soul, because of
its temporary separation from God. In the Buddhist philosophy the world
is thus held to be a creature of the imagination. But among some in
those ancient, as among others in more modern times, it was looked upon
as having a more substantial condition, and the soul as a passive mirror
in which things reflected themselves, or perhaps it might, to some
extent, be the partial creator of its own forms. However that may be,
its final destiny is a perfect repose after its absorption in the
Supreme.

[Sidenote: Illustration of the nature of the soul.]

On this third topic of ancient philosophy an illustration may not be
without use. As a bubble floats upon the sea, and, by reason of its
form, reflects whatever objects may be present, whether the clouds in
the sky, or the stationary and moving things on the shore, nay, even to
a certain extent depicts the sea itself on which it floats, and from
which it arose, offering these various forms not only in shapes
resembling the truth in the proper order of li