ght and shade, the proper
perspective, the proper colours, but, in addition thereto, tincturing
them all with a play of hues arising from itself, so it is with the
soul. From a boundless and unfathomable sea the bubble arose. It does
not in any respect differ in nature from its source. From water it came,
and mere water it ever is. It gathers its qualities, so far as external
things are concerned, only from its form, and from the environment in
which it is placed. As the circumstances to which it is exposed vary, it
floats here and there, merging into other bubbles it meets, and emerging
from the collected foam again. In such migrations it is now larger, now
smaller; at one moment passing into new shapes, at another lost in a
coalescence with those around it. But whatever these its migrations,
these its vicissitudes, there awaits it an inevitable destiny, an
absorption, a re-incorporation with the ocean. In that final moment,
what is it that is lost? what is it that has come to an end? Not the
essential substance, for water it was before it was developed, water it
was during its existence, and water it still remains, ready to be
re-expanded.

Nor does the resemblance fail when we consider the general functions
discharged while the bubble maintained its form. In it were depicted in
their true shapes and relative magnitudes surrounding things. It hence
had a relation to Space. And, if it was in motion, it reflected in
succession the diverse objects as they passed by. Through such
successive representations it maintained a relation to Time. Moreover,
it imparted to the images it thus produced a coloration of its own, and
in all this was an emblem of the Soul. For Space and Time are the
outward conditions with which it is concerned, and it adds thereto
abstract ideas, the product of its own nature.

[Sidenote: Its continued existence--its Nirwana.]

But when the bubble bursts there is an end of all these relations. No
longer is there any reflection of external forms, no longer any motion,
no longer any innate qualities to add. In one respect the bubble is
annihilated, in another it still exists. It has returned to that
infinite expanse in comparison with which it is altogether insignificant
and imperceptible. Transitory, and yet eternal: transitory, since all
its relations of a special and individual kind have come to an end;
eternal in a double sense--the sense of Platonism--since it was
connected with a past of which t