• muhúrtas let mankind confider as the duration

• of their day and night.

65. The fun caufes the distribution of day ' and night both divine and human; night being • intended for the repose of various beings, and day for their exertion.

66. A month of mortals is a day and a night of the Pitris or patriarchs inhabiting the moon; and the divifion of a month being into equal halves, the half beginning from the full moon is their day for actions; and that beginning from the new moon is their night for flumber? 67. A year of mortals is a day and a night of the Gods, or regents of the univerfe feated round the north pole`; and again their division is this: their day is the northern, and their night the southern, course of the fun.

68. Learn now the duration of a day and a night of BRAHMA', and of the several ages, which fhall be mentioned in order fuccinctly. 69. Sages have given the name of Crita 'to an age containing four thousand years of the Gods; the twilight preceding it confifts of ast hundreds, and the twilight following it,

many

• of the fame number:

70. In the other three ages, with their twilights preceding and following, are thousands ⚫ and hundreds diminished by one.

71. The divine years, in the four human ages

'just enumerated, being added together, their 'fum, or twelve thousand, is called the age of • the Gods;

72. And, by reckoning a thousand such di

' vine ages, a day of BRAHMA' may be known: ' his night has also an equal duration :

-73. Those persons best know the divisions of days and nights, who understand, that the day ' of BRAHMA', which endures to the end of a 'thoufand fuch ages, gives rife to virtuous exer'tions; and that his night endures as long as his

• day.

74. At the close of his night, having long repofed, he awakes, and, awaking, exerts intel'lect, or reproduces the great principle of ani"mation, whose property it is to exist unperceived by sense:

75. 'Intellect, called into action by his will to create worlds, performs again the work of 'creation; and thence first emerges the fubtil 'ether, to which philosophers ascribe the quality of conveying found;

76. From ether, effecting a tranfmutation in form, fprings the pure and potent air, a vehicle ' of all scents; and air is held endued with the quality of touch:

77. Then from air, operating a change, rifes light or fire, making objects visible, difpelling gloom, fpreading bright rays; and it is declared to have the quality of figure;

78. But from light, a change being effected, comes water with the quality of taste; and from 'water is depofited earth with the quality of 'fmell: fuch were they created in the begin'ning.

79. The beforementioned age of the Gods, or twelve thousand of their years, being multiplied by feventy-one, conftitutes what is here ' named a Menwantara, or the reign of a MENU. 80. There are numberlefs Menwantaras; creations alfo and destructions of worlds, innumerable: the Being fupremely exalted performs all this, with as much eafe as if in sport, again and again for the fake of conferring happiness, 81. In the Crita age the Genius of truth and right, in the form of a Bull, ftands firm on ‹ his four feet; nor does any advantage accrue to men from iniquity;

82. But in the following ages, by reason of

unjust gains, he is deprived fucceffively of one foot; and even juft emoluments, through the prevalence of theft, falsehood, and fraud, are gradually dimifhed by a fourth part.

83. Men, free from difeafe, attain all forts of profperity and live four hundred years, in the Crita age; but, in the Trétà and the fucceeding ages, their life is leffened gradually by one quarter.

6

84. The life of mortals, which is mentioned in the Véda, the rewards of good works, and

the powers of embodied fpirits, are fruits proportioned among men to the order of the four

ages.

85. Some duties are performed by good men in the Crita age; others, in the Trétà; some, in the Dwápara; others in the Cali; in pro'portion as thofe ages decrease in length.

86. In the Crita the prevailing virtue is declared to be devotion; in the Trétà, divine 'knowledge; in the Dwápara, holy fages call 'facrifice the duty chiefly performed; in the • Cali, liberality alone.

87. FOR the fake of preferving this universe, the Being fupremely glorious allotted feparate duties to those, who fprang respectively from 'his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and his • foot.

88. To Brahmens he affigned the duties of 'reading the Véda, of teaching it, of facrificing, of affifting others to facrifice, of giving alms, if they be rich, and, if indigent, of receiving gifts:

89. To defend the people, to give alms, to 'facrifice, to read the Véda, to fhun the allure

ments of fenfual gratification, are in few words the duties of a Chhatriya:

90. To keep herds of cattle, to bestow largeffes, to facrifice, to read the scripture, to carry on trade, to lend at intereft, and to culti

vate land, are prefcribed or permitted to a • Vaifya:

91. One principal duty the fupreme Ruler affigned to a Súdra; namely, to ferve the 'beforementioned claffes, without depreciating 'their worth.

92. 'Man is declared purer above the navel; ' but the felf-exifting Power declared the pureft 'part of him to be the mouth:

93. 'Since the Brahmen sprang from the most 'excellent part, fince he was the first born, and fince he poffeffes the Véda, he is by right the 'chief of this whole creation.

94. Him the Being, who exifts of himself, produced in the beginning from his own 'mouth; that, having performed holy rites, he

might present clarified butter to the Gods, and 'cakes of rice to the progenitors of mankind, for 'the prefervation of this world:

95. What created being then can furpafs Him, with whose mouth the Gods of the firmament continually feast on clarified butter, ' and the manes of ancestors, on hallowed cakes? 96. Of created things the most excellent are those which are animated; of the animated, 'those which fubfift by intelligence; of the intelligent, mankind; and of men, the facerdo⚫tal clafs.