Adams, Walter M.: The house of the hidden places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt from Egyptian sources (London, 1895)

84 The Hidden God. [Ch.

that the monarch ruled as the divine representa-
tive. When the disciples of Manu approached
that sage to beg for instruction in the wisdom
which afterwards formed the foundation of
Indian law, they addressed him as follows :
" For thou, 0 lord, alone knowest the purport
(or rites) and the knowledge taught in the
whole ordinance of the Self-Existent (Svayam
bhu), which is unknowable and unfathomable."
And their master, in his reply, laid down the
principle of the One Uncreated God, the
Giver of Light. " The Divine Self-Existent,"
he said, " indiscernible, making the elements
and the rest discernible, appeared with creative
force, dispelling the darkness."

Again, in the Mahabharata, the earliest pro-
duction of post-Vedic literature, a translation
of which, as well as of the laws of Manu, is
"iven in the mamificent series of the Sacred
Books of the East, the most enduring monu-
ment to its illustrious editor, a similar doctrine
is ascribed to Vyasa. " In the commencement