home. Some of these inferences of linguistic paleontology may require further evidence to give them scientific certainty. But there are other features in the picture of Aryan religious life which admit of no dispute. The word Div, designating at once the clear light of the sky and whatsoever. spiritual meanings their simple instincts intimately associated therewith, has endured as the root-word of worship for the whole Aryan race; in all its branches the appellatives of Deity are waves of this primal sound, flowing through all its manifold and changing religions with the same trancendence of eternal law.

Again, it has been shown that the whole substance of Greek mythology is but the development, with exquisite poetic feeling, of a primitive Aryan stock of names and legends, recognizable through comparison with the hymns of the Hindoo Rig-Veda, where they are found in simpler and ruder forms. In these early yet secondary stages of their development they represent the daily mystery of solar-movement, the swift passage of dawn and twilight, the conflict with day and night, of sunshine with cloud, of drouth with fertilizing rain, the stealthy path of the breeze, the rising of the storm-wind, the wonder-working. of the elements, the loss of all visible forms at night only to return with fresh splendors in the morning. The old Aryan religion of intimacy with the powers of air and sky has in fact been aptly called a meterolotry. And recent scholarship has applied much ingenuity, as well as insight, in bringing old Vedic names and legends under the one title of solar myths,' using the word in the wide descriptive sense just indicated. And there can be no doubt that they are all more or less intimately related to natural phenomena though proceeding primarily, it is none the less true, from moral and spiritual experiences in their makers, as all mythology must do. But what we have now to observe is that the amount of this mythologic lore, inherited by both the Asiatic and European branches of the Aryan race, warrants our ascribing very great productive capacity, both asthetic and religious, to their common ascestors, the mountain tribes of central Asia. And again, names and traditions, found alike in the Indian Veda and the Iranian Avesta, indi

cate that these unknown fathers of our art, science, and faith must have venerated a mountain-plant and used its sap as a symbol of life renewed through sacrifice; that they believed in a human deliverer, who, after saving men from destruction, had reorganized their reviving forces for social growth; in a human-divine guardian of the world beyond this life; and in a true Aryan hero who slew the serpents of physical and moral evil. And so we learn how early and how cordial was man's prophetic sense of his proper unity with the order of the universe, the ideal which it is the main business of all our religion and science to make good.

"I add another fact of equal significance. The thought that those patient domestic animals which gave milk and bore burdens, and were in other ways indispensable to man, deserved a better lot than they were apt to receive, and that the kind treatment of them was a religious duty, is common to both the Aryan races, and redounds not to their own honor only, but to that of their common progenitors, from whom it must have descended. Finally, we may infer from the testimony of the two related bibles that the oldest Aryan found God in all the forms and functions of fire; that they had great faith in prayer as intercourse with Deity in purity and simplicity of trust; and that they were endowed with qualities that help to explain a certain emphasis on sincerity and abhorrence of falsehood equally characteristic of the precepts of these old ethic scriptures and of the reputation of the early Persians and Hindoos among the western races of antiquity.

"The sacred fire, kept kindled on the domestic altar as the center of religious sentiment and rite, and as consecrating all social, civil, and political rélations, is found to be a common heritage of all Aryan races. Its flame ascended from every household hearth, watched by the pitris, or fathers, alive and dead, of this primitive civilization. Modern scholars have traced its profound influence, as type and sacrament of the family, in shaping the whole religious and municipal life of ancient Greece and Italy. Not only are the words we now use to designate domestic relations and religious beliefs explained by the radicals of this primitive Aryan tongue, but even our terms for dwellings, rivers, mountains, and nations

are in like manner associated with these patriarchal tribes. So much are we at home with the prehistoric men. The largest part of our knowledge of the ancient Aryans has been reached through language alone. The fleeting words of a people have become its most enduring record!

"And here is the tribute the philologist ends by according them: What distinguishes the Aryan race is the harmonious balance of the faculties. It was revealed in the formation of their language, and presided at the opening of their social organization. A happy disposition, in which energy was tempered with mildness; a lively imagination, a strong reasoning faculty; a spirit open to the impressions of beauty; a true sense of right; a sound morality and elevated religious instincts-united to give them, with the consciousness of personal value, the love of liberty and the constant desire of progress' (Pictet, ii, 755).

"I add the impressive words of Renan: 'When the Aryan race shall have become masters of the planet, its first duty will be to explore the mysterious depths of Bokhara and Little Thibet, where so much that is of immense value to science probably lies concealed. How much light must be thrown on the origin of language when we shall find ourselves in presence of the localities where those sounds were first uttered which we still employ and where those intellectual categories were first formed which guide the movement of our faculties! Let us never forget that no amount of progress can enable us to dispense with the verbal and grammatical forms spontaneously chosen by the primeval patriarchs of the Imaus, who laid the foundations of what we are and of what we shall be.'"

According to the conclusions of Pictet, some three thousand years before the Christian era, the Aryans, not yet having divided into Hindoos, Persians, Kelts, Latins, Greeks, Teutons, and Slavi, dwelt in central Asia, in a region of which Bactriana was the center. This was doubtless their dwelling-place for a long period of time, long enough at all events to develop an admirable language, the mother tongue of those since so largely used in the world.

They were a pastoral people, but

They were a

had fixed homes. They were not nomadic. They possessed

the same domestic animals and fowls since so largely propagated by their descendents. Their food was chiefly the prod ucts of the dairy and the flesh of cattle. It is thought that they cultivated some of the cereals, especially barley. They placed the cow above all other animals, and herds of them fed in extensive pastures. These were the property of communities, each of which had a cluster of stables in its center. The daughters of the families were the dairy-maids. Having in still earlier times passed through the stages of fetichism and sorcery, the Aryan people became, to a certain degree, pantheists, or worshipers of nature. They held that "God is one because he is all." To them everything in the universe was divine, especially the heavens, the sun, light, fire, water, the wind, etc. These they regarded as gods, and worshiped them accordingly. The elements and forces of nature were the highest powers they were able to recognize, and their reverence was bestowed upon them with all the devotion they possessed. To them light, heat, and life were good deities, while darkness, cold, and death were the evil ones, and the two classes were in perpetual antagonism. They gave personality to the natural forces, and their gods, Indra, Varuna, Agni, Mitra, etc., were the result. This subject is more fully treated in Hindoo Mythology, in Vol. I, which see.

THE VEDAS.

The Hindoos were the direct decendants of the Aryans, and with their inheritance they received the gods and religion of their forefathers. The Hindoo mythology and religion is divided into two eras, the Vedic and Brahmanic, or the older and the younger. The sacred writings called the Vedas were written in the older age. There are four of the Vedas-the Rig-Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama-Veda, and the AtharvaVeda. The Rig-Veda is the most ancient, and according to Prof. Max Muller was written 1,200 to 1,500 years B. C. According to Prof. Whitney, 1,600 to 2,000 B. C., and according to Dr. Haug, 2,000 to 2,400 years B. c. These were written in the ancient Sanskrit, the parent of the more recent idioms. The Rig Veda, the most important of all, is princi

pally composed of hymns of praise, about one thousand in number, addressed to the Vedic gods Indra, Agni, Varuna, Mitra, Soma, Maruts, etc. They are supposed to have been written at different periods, and by the Richis-seers, or priests. It was believed that some had seen the hymns, which were shown them by divine power, and that the Richis merely copied them as thus presented.

It is said that the original manuscripts of the Vedas made forty-two volumes folio; and that on account of their great bulk the obsolete expressions and obscure metaphors were omitted and the Veda thereby considerably condensed. This collection was called the Vedanta, or Substance of the Vedas, and was received as of authority equal to the original. This compilation was made by a learned Brahman, as is supposed, more. than two thousand years ago. Max Muller holds the Rig-Veda is the original of all the Vedas, and that the three later ones contain extracts from the eldest, with the addition of sacrificial formulas, charms, and incantations. (Chips, vol. i, p. 9.)

It is impossible to conceive of anything held in greater reverence than were these sacred writings by the Hindoos. It was not allowable to bring them into contact with any animal substance like leather or woolen goods. He who would refer to them was required to first cleanse himself by performing prescribed ablutions and other religious ceremonies. It was considered a sacrilege to read them in the presence of a wicked or unbelieving man, or within the sound of a whipping, or in a room through which a corpse was conveyed. These requirements were especially enforced after Brahmanism became established.

PROF. DRAPER ON THE VEDAS.

The Vedas, according to the reasoning of Prof. Draper, were based upon a belief that a universal spirit pervaded all forms of existence, or in other words the soul or spirit of nature. Of this God they acknowledge the unity, thus: "There is in truth but one deity, the supreme spirit, the Lord of the universe, whose work is the universe." "The God