Note 111 — Chapter XI

I shall attempt to sketch, in the smallest possible compass, the fundamental ideas of Asiatic cosmology, which are rather confusedly stated in the text.

According to the Dasatir, God created primitively, immediately, and singly, the supreme intelligence; this produced the second intelligence, with the primitive soul and body; the second intelligence brought forth the third, and the corresponding heavenly sphere, with soul and body; and so down to the tenth intelligence, to wit that of human reason. The modern Orientals kept the first-born supreme intelligence, which to the Muhammedans was sanctified by the verse of the Koran, saying: The first being which God created was intelligence, and established a double series of descending intelligences and ascending heavenly spheres, as follows, according to the ancient and modern system: