HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF MYTH AND SCIENCE. 219 



of things developed by means of heat ; of productive 

 powers as a lower, and energy as a higher form of 

 nature ; of conceptions found in the Ionic, the Pytha- 

 gorean, and the Eleatic philosophies, which all con- 

 verge into the one. All belong to the same Aryan 

 race. 



The Vedic composition represents in Dydvaprthiri 

 the close connection between the two divinities, Heaven 

 and Earth, the one considered as the active and 

 creative principle, the other as that which is passive 

 and fertilized: the same ideas, more or less worked 

 out, underlie not only the first philosophies, but 

 successive theories and systems. The worship of 

 water, of fire, and of air involved their personification, 

 and they then became exciting principles, in accord- 

 ance with the law of evolution which we have laid 

 down. In the Rig- Veda, as well as in the Zendavesta, 

 the waters are collectively invoked by their special 

 name dpas, and they are termed the mothers, the 

 divine, which contain the amrta or ambrosia, and all 

 healing powers. In Agni and its Vedic transformations 

 we clearly trace the worship of fire, and its cosmic 

 value. The Vedic worship of the air is Vayu, from va, 

 to breathe, who is associated with the higher gods, and 

 especially with Indra, ruler of the atmosphere : next 

 comes Eudra, the god of storms, accompanied by the 

 Maruti, the winds ; and in the Zendavesta the air is 

 invoked as an element. Hence we see that a more 

 rational conception of the genesis of the world succeeds 



