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CHAPTER  IV.

FEOM   WHAT   CAUSE  ACTION   OKIGINATES,   AND   HOW  THE
SOUL   IS   CONNECTED   WITH   MATTER.

Voluntary actions cannot originate in the body of any The soui
animal, unless the body be living and exist in close con- bTunlted*'
tact with that which is living of itself, i.e. the soul. body,is\o
The Hindus maintain that the soul is Iv irpd^eL, not Stom^di-
€1' Suj/a/xej, ignorant of its own essential nature and of ^^'^ spirits,
its material substratum, longing to apprehend what it
does not know, and believing that it cannot exist unless
by matter. As, therefore, it longs for the good which
is duration, and wishes to learn that which is hidden
from it, it starts off in order to be united with matter.
However, substances which are dense and such as are
tenuous, if they have these qualities in the very highest
degree, can mix together only by means of interme¬
diary elements which stand in a certain relation to
each of the two. Thus the air is the medium be¬
tween fire and water, which are opposed to each other by
these two qualities, for the air is related to the fire in
tenuity and to the water in density, and by either of
these qualities it renders the one capable of mixing
with the other. Now, there is no greater antithesis than
that between body and not-hody. Therefore the soul,
being what it is, cannot obtain the fulfilment of its
wish but by similar media, spirits which derive their
existence from the matres simplices in the worlds called
Bhurloka, Bhuvarloka, and Svarloka. The Hindus call
them tenuous bodies over which the soul rises like the