Title:  Atma A Romance

Author:  Caroline Augusta Frazer

Release Date:  November 29, 2005 [EBook #17183]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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ATMA.

A ROMANCE

BY

A.C.F.

(Caroline Augusta Frazer)

“When atman (nom. sing.  Atma) occurs in philosophical treatises ... it has generally been translated by soul, mind, or spirit.  I tried myself to use one or other of these words, but the oftener I employed them the more I felt their inadequacy, and was driven at last to adopt ...  Self as the least liable to misunderstanding.”

     Max Muller, in North American Review for June, 1879.

Montreal: 

John Lovell & son,

23 St. Nicholas Street.

Entered according to Act of Parliament in the year 1891, by John Lovell & son, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture and Statistics at Ottawa.

ATMA

CHAPTER I.

     O that Decay were always beautiful! 
     How soft the exit of the dying day,
     The dying season too, its disarray
     Is gold and scarlet, hues of gay misrule,
     So it in festive cheer may pass away;
     Fading is excellent in earth or air,
     With it no budding April may compare,
     Nor fragrant June with long love-laden hours;
     Sweet is decadence in the quiet bowers
     Where summer songs and mirth are fallen asleep,
     And sweet the woe when fading violets weep.

     O that among things dearer in their wane
     Our fallen faiths might numbered be, that so
     Religions cherished in their hour of woe
     Might linger round the god-deserted fane,
     And worshippers be loath to leave and pray
     That old-time power return, until there may
     Issue a virtue, and the faith revive
     And holiness be there, and all the sphere
     Be filled with happy altars where shall thrive
     The mystic plants of faith and hope to bear
     Immortal fruitage of sweet charity;
     For I believe that every piety,
     And every thirst for truth is gift divine,
     The gifts of God are not to me unclean