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so that images of the objects can be obtained, so is it with the Self in the aspect of knowledge towards everything external. His vehicle is a sphere whereon the Self receives from the Not-Self the reflected rays of the One Self, causing to appear on the surface of this sphere images which are the reflections of that which is not himself. The Knower does not know the things themselves in the earlier stages of his consciousness. knows only the images produced in his vehicle by the action of the Not-Self on his responsive casing, the photographs of the external world. Hence the mind, the vehicle of the Self as Knower, has been compared to a mirror, in which are seen the images of all objects placed before it. We do not know the things themselves, but only the effect produced by them in our consciousness; not the objects, but the images of the objects, are what we find in the mind. As the mirror seems to have the objects within it, but those apparent objects are only images, illusions caused by the rays of light reflected from the objects, not the objects themselves; so does the mind, in its knowledge of the outer universe, know only the illusive images and not the things in themselves.

These images, made in the vehicle, are perceived as objects by the Knower, and this

B

perception consists in his reproduction of them in himself. Now, the analogy of the mirror, and the use of the word "reflection" in the preceding paragraph, are a little misleading, for the mental image is a reproduction not a reflection of the object which causes it. The matter of the mind is actually shaped into a likeness of the object presented to it, and this likeness, in its turn, is reproduced by the Knower. When he thus modifies himself into the likeness of an external object, he is said to know that object, but in the case we are considering that which he knows is only the image produced by the object in his vehicle, and not the object itself. And this image is not a perfect reproduction of the object, for a reason we shall see in the next chapter.

"But," it may be said, "will that be so ever? shall we never know the things in themselves?" This brings us to the vital distinction between the consciousness and the matter in which the consciousness is working, and by this we may find an answer to that natural question of the human mind. When the consciousness by long evolution has developed the power to reproduce within itself all that exists outside it, then the envelope of matter in which it has been working falls away, and the consciousness that is knowledge identifies

its Self with all the Selves amid which it has been evolving, and sees as the Not-Self only the matter connected alike with all Selves severally. That is the "Day be with us," the union which is the triumph of evolution, when consciousness knows itself and others, and knows others as itself. By sameness of nature perfect knowledge is attained, and the Self realises that marvellous state where identity perishes not and memory is not lost, but where separation finds its ending, and knower, knowing, and knowledge are one.

It is this wondrous nature of the Self, who is evolving in us through knowledge at the present time, that we have to study, in order to understand the nature of thought, and it is necessary to see clearly the illusory side in order that we may utilise the illusion to transcend it. So let us now study how Knowing the relation between the Knower and the Known-is established, and this will lead us to see more clearly into the nature of thought.

THE CHAIN OF KNOWER, KNOWING,
AND KNOWN.

There is one word, vibration, which is becoming more and more the keynote of Western science,

as it has long been that of the science of the East. Motion is the root of all. Life is motion; consciousness is motion. And that motion affecting matter is vibration. The One, the All, we

think of as Changeless, either as Absolute Motion or as Motionless, since in One relative motion cannot be. Only when there is differentiation, or parts, can we think of what we call motion, which is change of place in succession of time. When the One becomes the Many, then motion arises; it is health, consciousness, life, when rhythmic, regular, as it is disease, unconsciousness, death, when without rhythm, irregular. For life and death are twin sisters, alike born of motion, which is manifestation.

Motion must needs appear when the One becomes the Many; since, when the omnipresent appears as separate particles, infinite motion must represent omnipresence, or, otherwise put, must be its reflection or image in matter. The essence of matter is separateness, as that of spirit is unity, and when the twain appear in the One, as cream in milk, the reflection of the omnipresence of that One in the multiplicity of Matter is ceaseless and infinite motion. Absolute motion-the presence of every moving unit at every point of space at every moment of time—is identical with rest, being

only rest looked at in another way, from the standpoint of matter instead of from that of spirit. From the standpoint of spirit there is always One, from that of matter there are always Many.

This infinite motion appears as rhythmical movements, vibrations, in the matter which manifests it, each Jîva, or separated unit of consciousness, being isolated by an enclosing wall of matter from all other Jîvas.* Each Jîva further becomes embodied, or clothed, in several garments of matter. As these garments matter vibrate, they communicate their

of vibrations to the the matter surrounding them, such matter becoming the the medium wherein the vibrations are carried outwards; and this medium, in turn, communicates the impulse of vibration to the enclosing garments of another Jîva, and thus sets that Jîva vibrating like the first. In this series of vibrations-beginning in one Jîva, made in the body that encircles it, sent on by the body to the medium around it, communicated by that to another body,

* There is no convenient English word for "a separated unit of consciousness "-"spirit" and "soul" connoting various peculiarities in different schools of thought. I shall therefore venture to use the name Jîva, instead of the clumsy a separated unit of consciousness."