“What god shall we adore with sacrifice? Him let us praise, the golden child that rose In the beginning, who was born the lord-- The one sole lord of all that is--who made The earth, and formed the sky, who giveth life, Who giveth strength, whose bidding gods revere, Whose hiding-place is immortality. Whose shadow, death; who by his might is king Of all the breathing, sleeping, waking world. Where’er let loose in space, the mighty waters Have gone, depositing a fruitful seed, And generating fire, there _he_ arose Who is the breath and life of all the gods, Whose mighty glance looks round the vast expanse Of watery vapor--source of energy, Cause of the sacrifice--the only God, Above the gods.” The next selection shows how the worship of one God passed into the worship of many gods, and explains the origin of caste. The previous selection was written long before this one: “The embodied spirit has a thousand heads, A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, around On every side enveloping the earth, Yet filling space no larger than a span. He is himself this very universe; He is whatever is, has been, and shall be; He is the lord of immortality. All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths Are that which is immortal in the sky. From him, called Purusha, was born Viraj, And from Viraj was Purusha produced, Whom gods and holy men made their oblation, With Purusha as victim, they performed A sacrifice. Why did they divide him? How did they cut him up? What was his mouth? What were his arms? and what his thighs and feet? The Brahmin was his mouth, the kingly soldier Was made his arms, the husbandman his thighs, The servile Sudra issued from his feet.” The common creed of the Hindus, as gathered from the Brahmanas and Upanishads, is as follows: 1. The immortality of the soul. Meaning by this, however, not only that it will always live in the future, but that it has always lived in the past, hence we may say, the _eternity_ of the soul. 2. Nothing can come from nothing, and hence, all of the substance of the universe is eternal. [Illustration: IDOLS GUARDING THE HINDU TEMPLE AYENAR.] 3. The soul cannot exercise thought, or any activity apart from the body. 4. Yet the union of body and soul is a source of misery to human beings. 5. Hence we have the belief in the _transmigration of the soul_. That the soul passes from body to body through innumerable changes. These bodies include the widest range and are those of animals or of men. THE LAW-BOOK OF MANU. This was written about the fifth century before Christ. Its rules consist of “immemorial or approved practices,” “practices of law and government,” “penitential exercises,” and “consequences of acts.” The whole is divided into twelve books, of which we give an epitome: