[harvey] PYTHAGORAS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY 245 



"western people, we must conclude that it is the liturgy of a very ancient 

 race indeed, older it would seem as to its civilization than Egyptian 

 or Assyrian, though in its present form it does not much antedate the 

 third century B. C. The system it embodies and consecrates, though 

 encrusted with sacerdotalism the most restrictive, and class legislation 

 the most artificial and minutely worked out, seems to have had its 

 origin in naturalism; the phenomena of nature having been closely 

 studied and. in due course personified and deified by an educated class 

 for the readier comprehension and machine-made faith of a debased 

 commonalty. Possibly the process was reversed; it matters little to 

 us for the present discussion. T)he word Veda is from vid, to know; 

 the German wissen, our wi^=kno'Vvledge, science. The sun and the 

 moon are the first objects of notice, then follow the dawn, the sky, the 

 earth, the wind and other storm-powers, fire and water. We can trace 

 the same order in the Greek system,^ thus the Sanscrit dahâiia, the 

 dawn, in the sense of shining, from dah to give light (which, notwith- 

 sta.nddng objectors, seem'S allied to the German Tiag and the Latin 

 dies=day) is thought to be the Greek half-goddess Daphne, the 

 first love of Phoebus; she disappears as he touches her: 



Ipsis 

 Morsihus eripitur, tatigentiaque ora reliquit. 



A more condensed account of the Indian Cosmogony and of the 

 political and religious systems Pythagoras found under the Himalayas 

 is given us in the laws of Manou; date, perhaps 300 years B.C., though 

 there are some reasons for dating the code at the beginning of our era. 

 A code like this indicates much earlier work, as our " Revised Statutes " 

 point to preceding legislation. It is necessary for our purpose to 

 examine it, but the following extracts must suffice here : — 



Manou sat, absorbed in meditation, when the wisest among his fol- 

 lowers, saluting him, approached, respectfully asking him to discourse 

 of the Order established in the w^orld. Then an>werel Manou: This 

 world was darkness, with nothing distinguishable or distinctive; it 

 was as in sleep. Then He who exists of Himself, having used His 

 energy, appeared of His own accord to dissipate the darkness. He has 



* The Greek forms of the myths are the most artistic, having been woven 

 hy the poets into richly embroidered imagery. Max Miiller has led the way 

 In their interpretation, which has been carried very far by others, almost 

 Tseyond the bounds of probability. Thus Max Miiller says Kephalos is an old 

 name for the sun, Procris for the dew. Then " Kephalos loves Procris" 

 means " the sun kisses the morning dew." Mr. Cox thinks Niobe personifies 

 the mist, her children, pierced by the arrows of Apollo, being the clouds, 

 dissipated by the rays of the sun. Her change into a stone refers these to 

 the hardening of the moisture through frost into ice, and when she sits 

 weeping on her rock her tears are the drip from the mountain mist. 



