'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎111] (782/1024)

1 be Gentiles' of Indoftan. ]
but a general reprifal of all thofe webbs which God had drawn forth out of himfelf.
There is therefore nothing C/a they go on) that is real or dfadfive in all we think, we fee,
hear, fmell, tafte or touch : all this World is nothing but a kind of Dream and a meer
lilufion, in regard that all this multiplicity and diverfity of things that appea&tous, is
nothing but one and the fame thing, which is God himfelf i as all thofe ieveral Num-
bersof io 3 20 3 i 00 5 iooo, axe indeed nothing but one and the fame unity many
times repeated. But if you demand any reafon for this phantafie, or any explication
of the manner, how this iflfuing from and reprifal into the fubftance of God, this ex- '
tenlion, and this variety of things isrpade i or howit can be, that God, being not cor
poreal but Biapek^and incorruptible, fas they acknowledge) fhould yet be divifible into
fomany portions of Bodies and Souls i they never make any other return, but offpme
pretty comparifons, as, That God is like an immenfe Ocean^ in which if many Vials
full of Water (bould be floating, they would, wherever they (hould move, be found al
ways in the fame Ocean, in the fame Water i and that coming to break, their Water
would at the fame time be united with their whole, and with that great Ocean of
which they were portions. Or they will tell you, that it is with God as with Lights
which is the fame through the whole Univerfe, and which yet appears an hundreddif-
ferent ways, according to the diverlity of the Obje&s it falls upon, or according to the
feveral colours and fliapes of Glafles through which it Ihineth. They will pay you, 1
fay, only with fuchkindof flmilitudes, that bear no proportion at all with God, and
are good for nothing, but to caft dufl into the eyes of the ignorant people : And you
muft not exped any folid Anfwer from.them, if you (hould tell them, that thofe Vials
would indeed be in a like Water, but notin the fame'-, and that it is indeed a /% light o-
verallthe World, but not the fame: or if you (houldmake any other obje&ions a-
gainflthem, they return always to the fame coroparifons, pretty expreffions, or as the
Sonfys, to the fine Verfesof thdt Goultchen-raz*
Now Sir, what think you ? Had I not reafon, from this great heap of extravagancies,
I mean, from that panick and child i(h terror ftruck into thofe Indians by Eclipfes Trqm
that fuperftitious compaffion for the Sun to deliver it from that black P<ewa#,accompanied
with thofe Apifli Prayers, Wafhings, Plungings, and Alips caft into the River y from
that mad and infernal obflinacy of the Women, burning themfelves with the Corps’s
of their Husbands j from thofe feveral madnefles of the Fakires i and laftly, from all
that fabulous fluff of the Beths and other Indian Books : Had I not reafon, I fay, to
premife in the title of this Letter i (which is but'a poor advantage to me from fo long
travelling) That there are no opinions fo ridiculous or extravagant, of which the mind of man
is not capable.
Tocmclude, I have no more to add then tmdefire you, to do me the favour and de
liver with your own hands the Letter to Monfieur Chapelle. It is he that firft procured me
that familiar acquaintance I had with Monfieur your intimate and-llluftrious
Friend, that hathrbeen fo advantagious to me s which maketh me acknowledge my great
obligations to him, and exceedingly engageth me to love him, and to remember him in
what part of the World foever lam : As I am no kfs bound to honour you as long as
Hive i as well for the peculiar affe&ion you have always exprefled to me, as for the
good counfel you have aflifted me with in your many letters during the whole courfe of
my voyages, and for that favour of fending tome with fomuch generofity ('without
imereftormony) unto the end of the World : whither my curiofity had carried me, a
Cheftof Books, when thofe, of whom I demanded them formony, ordered by me to
be paid at MarfeiUes, and who fhould have honeftly fent them me, abandoned me there,
andlaughtat all my Letters, looking upon me as a loft man, whom they fhould never
fee again. •