| ea ei 
suppose we have all, at some time or other, seen the gradual break of day— 
if how, through that deep darkness which precedes the dawn, comes a wavering 
finger which seems to wipe away a little of the blackness from the eastern 
horizon, and how this little clearing grows from green to rose, purple and gold; 
and, as the light grows stronger, objects on the skyline turn from vague masses into 
grotesque arabesques, then to silhouettes, and finally into their every-day forms. 
Then the sun appears above the horizon and brings to life all that complex melange 
of vice and virtue, hypocrisy and honesty, peace and conflict, which makes up 
life. 
It is little wonder that the sun held a high place in the religious beliefs of 
the ancients. Among the primal people it was thought that it was something 
like a glorified electric light (though, of course, they had no conception of an 
electric light as such) which was switched on at dawn and off at dusk, with the 
sole function of giving light to the world. With the development of speech and 
the establishment of the written word, first by hieroglyphic symbols or pictures, 
and then by letters which had a constant value, the thinkers of the early civilisa- 
tions began to ponder on the causes of things. They realised that there was some 
form of law or influence that controlled the development of earthly things, and, 
not understanding the why and the wherefore thereof, they ascribed 
this unknown power to various supernatural beings which, for the 
sake of clarity, we call Gods. It was realised that the sun was something more 
than a lighting apparatus, and that it had some mysterious control over the de- 
velopment of the plants and animals of the world. Hence, in most of the primit- 
ive religions the Sun (under various names) was looked upon as the chief of the 
Gods. ‘This belief was spread over practically the whole of the world, for the 
legends of the peoples of Scandinavia, and many other parts of Europe, Egypt, 
America, and Asia, give evidence of a sun-god who, in most cases, was regarded 
as the creator and propagator of life. In the light of modern knowledge there 
was more than a scintilla of truth in those old beliefs, 
With the growth of this belief in a sun-god, there arose the doctrine of 
appeasement or sacrifice, and it was a normal part of their ritual that on certain 
days of the year, usually at the equinoxes, the longest day of the year, and the 
shortest day, human sacrifices were made to this great god of fruitfulness. 
These sacrifices were generally festivals during which a good time was had by all 
—except, of course, the star performers at the party, who always came to a sticky 
and, generally, a painful end. There may be some analogy between those ancient 
sun-worshippers and those of our day in which thousands of individuals voluntar- 
ily submit themselves to the torture of sunburn as part of the ritual of a form of 
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