ments; and, in particular, one of his familiar friends and companions in sin was smitten with sudden death, going down into the grave as a beast which perisheth. And behold, the Lord blessed this affliction to him that survived; so that he who was dead in sin, began to revive.

First, the Lord God Jehovah, by the power of his Holy Spirit, made Goonah Purist sensible of his vile and abominable state; by opening his eyes, and turning them upon his own pollutions. In that moment, he remembered all his sins and iniquities, and they became as an heavy burden upon his back, too heavy for him to bear. (Psalm xxxviii.) He could now no longer take delight in any of his former pleasures; now, for the first time, he perceived the clouds charged with vengeance, that hung over the town; and felt the quaking of the earth beneath. Whereupon I heard him cry out, "What shall I do to save my. self? Whither shall I fly? for these my sins, which weigh me down as a heavy burden, will sink me into hell.”

Now I saw, in my dream, that while he lay in the street, weighed down with the burden of his sins, and lamenting his sad condition, an aged man came up to him. In his hands he held the vedas, his head was bald, and his loins were girt with many folds of cloth: the poitu, or sacred cord, which passed over his shoulder, discovered him to be a Bramhun; and the marks on his face were indicative of the peculiar deity to whom he paid his devotions.

And behold, the Bramhun questioned him that was lying on the ground, concerning the state in which he found him, wherefore he lay thus in the dust, crying and bemoaning himself.

Then answered Goonah Purist, "I am a man possessing great riches, and was lately esteemed

one of the most honourable inhabitants of this city. But now I am unable to enjoy those things which were formerly my delight; being weighed down, and brought into the dust, by the burden of my sins, which is greater than I can bear, and which will assuredly (unless I find some means of deliverance, which as yet I see not) sink me into hell. And behold, my whole flesh is infected with a deadly disease; so that there is no part about me uncorrupted thereby. I am altogether filthy and abominable, and must, I feel, be hateful in the sight of the Creator of all things."

"I would know," answered the Bramhun, "how you first came by these thoughts, for, from own account, you had them not always?"

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"The time was," answered Goonah Purist, "when I lived like other men, enjoying the pleasures of sense, and taking no thought for any thing beyond them; gliding down the stream of time into the ocean of eternity, without looking before me, or even considering my present state: till, all at once, I was visited by many sore distresses in my own family; together with a sudden and dreadful calamity, which, befalling one of my familiar friends, transfixed my very heart. By these afflictions, I was brought seriously to consider the state of mankind upon earth; and being made gradually sensible of our depraved and miserable circumstances, I began to reflect on the nature of God, and to reason upon his attributes. Nor was it long before I became convinced, by the force of reason, that he who had power and wisdom sufficient to make the heavens and the earth, must, in all respects, be a perfect being: perfectly holy, just, wise, and good; omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

By contemplating these perfections of the Deity, I became more and more sensible of my own de

pravity; and have been hence led to cry, in bitter agony and anguish of mind, How shall I, who am utterly unclean and abominable, a rebel from my birth, a lover of self rather than a lover of God, how shall I dare to appear before my Creator? And yet, appear I must, on being summoned away by death from this mortal state: when I shall assuredly be sentenced to eternal misery; unless, before that time, I find some way of atoning for my sins, and cleansing myself from this my corruption."

Then I saw that Goonah Purist broke out afresh into bitter cries and lamentations; which the Bramhun interrupted, beseeching him to arise, and saying, "Be comforted, my son; your case is not different from that of other men. Your present degraded and polluted state proceeds from that portion of matter to which your soul, which is a part of the divine Spirit, is united. Your deliverance from the influence of this material substance

may be obtained in several ways: either by separation from human society; from the practice of bodily austerities; from entire abstraction of mind; or, from the observance of devotional duties."

When Goonah Purist heard these words of the Bramhun, which seemed to afford him some prospect of relief, he arose, and professed himself willing to become his disciple. I saw then, that the Bramhun sat down under the shade of a tree, and Goonah Purist took his place opposite to him, while they discoursed in the following

manner:

"You seem," said the Bramhun, "to have lived, hitherto, in the most profound ignorance, being scarcely acquainted with the name of the Supreme Being, upon whose nature you nevertheless pretend to reason."

Goonah Purist, with his eyes fixed on the ground,

confessed the ignorance with which he was charged, and professed his desire of instruction.

"The Supreme Deity," replied the Bramhun, "is Brumhu. Brumhu and life are one. Every kind of matter is without life. That which is created, has no inherent life; therefore, all life is the Creator, or Brumhu. He is the soul of the world; and that which animates your body, is only an emanation from the Divinity. Brumhu is everlasting, unchangeable; the world, which is his work, is subject to change and decay."

My reason tells me," replied Goonah Purist, "that my spirit, soul, and body, are the work of God; and, in that sense, an emanation from God. But, I feel myself to be a distinct being; and, so far am I from existing, in every sense, as a part of the Supreme Being, that I have hitherto lived in enmity to him, an alien from him, and capable of an everlasting separation from his presence."

The Bramhun answered, "When the soul takes its mortal birth, it is separated from God, the source of happiness, and remains a miserable wanderer through various births and states, till it regain its place in the divine essence. But when, on its return from these wanderings, the soul is again absorbed in the divine nature; this is the utmost happiness to which we can aspire. This is the happiness after which, in holy aspirations, the yogee devotes his life, in perfect abstraction from all objects of sense."

Then," replied Goonah Purist, "we are to understand, that, when the soul is restored to the Divinity, from whence it emanated, all self-consciousness is gone?"

"Our holy books," said the Bramhun, "teach us that it is so. The deliverance of the soul from the world, and its absorption into the divine nature, is the highest happiness of which we can form any

conception; and, if not obtained in one birth, is to be sought through every future transmigration till obtained."

According to this doctrine," replied Goonah Purist, "it would have been better for the human race, had it never existed: since it appears, that the most holy persons, after having endured the severest penalties, and submitted to the utmost acts of self-torment, do at last merely reach a state, in which they are as if they had never been.”

"Cease," said the Bramhun, "from this profane language. Do you despise that state of absorption for which the holy yogees endure torments unspeakable, subduing every passion, and living in perfect abstraction from every sense? But you are as yet, I see, incapable of estimating the sanctity and happiness of that man, to whom gold, iron, and stones are the same; who is the same in friendship and in hatred, in honour and dishonour, in cold and in heat, in pain and in pleasure."

"Have patience with me," replied Goonah Purist: "I have chosen you for my instructor, and I am willing to be led by you; yea, I am willing to drink the water in which your feet have been bathed. I beg you to speak further to me on the nature of the Supreme Being."

The Bramhun then proceeded to describe Brumhu, the Supreme Being, in that state of repose, in which he is imagined to remain during the revolution of ages; being destitute of ideas or intelligence, and fixed in a state of undisturbed tranquillity; from which, after certain long intervals, he awakes to the work of creation.

He spoke, also, of the various destinies which are impressed upon souls as soon as they are united to matter; and of the qualities or indications of the mind, by which those who come into life under