23. It is the living soul which sees the dream, and imagines the creation in itself; or else the pure intellect is quite unintelligible in its nature, and remains as clear as either in the beginning of creation. 24. The Intellect is neither the observer nor enjoyer (_i.e._ neither the active nor passive agent of creation); it is something as nothing, perfectly quiet and utterly unspeakable in its nature. 25. In the beginning there was no cause of creation, or creative agent of the world; it is only an ideal of the Divine Mind, and exists for ever in the same state, as a vision in the dream or an airy castle of imagination. 26. It is thus that the individual Intelligence, is apprehended as a duality by the unwise, but never by the intelligent; because ignorant men like silly infants are afraid of the tiger or snake that is painted upon their own person; but the intelligent knowing them too well to be marked upon their own bodies, never suspect them as anything otherwise than their own person. 27. The One invariable and translucent soul, which is without its beginning, middle and end, appears as varying and various to the unreflecting dualist and polytheist; but the whole appearing so changeful and conspicuous to sight, is all a perfect calm and quiet and serene prospect in itself. CHAPTER CXXXXVII. THE PHENOMENON AND PERSPECTION OF DREAMS. Argument:--The rise of dream from sound sleep; and the vision of friends and relations in Dreaming. The sage continued:--Hear me now, O strong armed archer, how I awoke from my sound sleep, and saw the sight of the world in my dream; just <as> a man rising on the surface from the depth of the sea, surveys the heavens above him. 2. I saw the heavens, as hewn out of the etherial vacuum; and I beheld the terrestrials, as sculptured out of the earth; but found them all, to be fashioned out of the Divine Mind; or framed in that manner, by my visual organs or ocular deception only. 3. The world appeared, as the early or long sprung blossom of the arbour of the eternal mind; or as the ceaseless waves of the vast ocean, or as phantoms of my deluded eye sight. 4. It seemed to appear from the bosom of the sky above, or to have proceeded from all sides of heaven; it seemed moreover as a masonry carved out of the mountains of all quarters of the firmament, and also as a prodigy rising out of the earth or Tartarus. 5. It seemed also to have sprung out of the heart, as any of its feelings or affections; and to have filled all the space of vacuity, as the all pervading clouds of heaven; methought it likewise as the produce of a large forest, or like seeds or grains growing out of the earth. 6. As pictures of houses with apartments, are painted upon the planes of level plates; so the figures of living beings, are drawn upon the smooth flatness of the Intellect, together with all the members and organs of their bodies.