To this we make the following reply.—­Although the Vedanta-passages may be conflicting with regard to the order of the things created, such as ether and so on, they do not conflict with regard to the creator, ’on account of his being represented as described.’  That means:  such as the creator is described in any one Vedanta-passage, viz. as all-knowing, the Lord of all, the Self of all, without a second, so he is represented in all other Vedanta-passages also.  Let us consider, for instance, the description of Brahman (given in Taitt.  Up.  II, 1 ff.).  There it is said at first, ‘Truth, knowledge, infinite is Brahman.’  Here the word ‘knowledge,’ and so likewise the statement, made later on, that Brahman desired (II, 6), intimate that Brahman is of the nature of intelligence.  Further, the text declares[241] that the cause of the world is the general Lord, by representing it as not dependent on anything else.  It further applies to the cause of the world the term ‘Self’ (II, 1), and it represents it as abiding within the series of sheaths beginning with the gross body; whereby it affirms it to be the internal Self within all beings.  Again—­in the passage, ’May I be many, may I grow forth’—­it tells how the Self became many, and thereby declares that the creator is non-different from the created effects.  And—­in the passage, ’He created all this whatever there is’—­it represents the creator as the Cause of the entire world, and thereby declares him to have been without a second previously to the creation.  The same characteristics which in the above passages are predicated of Brahman, viewed as the Cause of the world, we find to be predicated of it in other passages also, so, for instance, ’Being only, my dear, was this in the beginning, one only, without a second.  It thought, may I be many, may I grow forth.  It sent forth fire’ (Ch.  Up.  VI, 2, 1; 3), and ’In the beginning all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking whatsoever.  He thought, shall I send forth worlds?’ (Ait.  Ar.  II, 4, 1, 1; 2.) The Vedanta-passages which are concerned with setting forth the cause of the world are thus in harmony throughout.—­On the other hand, there are found conflicting statements concerning the world, the creation being in some places said to begin with ether, in other places with fire, and so on.  But, in the first place, it cannot be said that the conflict of statements concerning the world affects the statements concerning the cause, i.e.  Brahman, in which all the Vedanta-texts are seen to agree—­for that would be an altogether unfounded generalization;—­and, in the second place, the teacher will reconcile later on (II, 3) those conflicting passages also which refer to the world.  And, to consider the matter more thoroughly, a conflict of statements regarding the world would not even matter greatly, since the creation of the world and similar topics are not at all what Scripture wishes to teach.  For we neither observe