220 



NATURE 



[July 9, 1891 



And he exhibits the process by which Agni (the Vedic 

 god of fire), from being originally nothing but "the 

 mover," came to be called deva; and it is this word deva 

 which when examined yields the clue to the development, 

 and teaches us a lesson of the highest importance : — 



" Guided by language we can see as clearly as possible 

 how, in the case of deva, the idea of God grew out of the 

 idea of light, of active light, of an awakening, shining, 

 illuminating, and warming light. We are apt to despise 

 the decayed seed when the majestic oak stands before 

 our eyes, and it may cause a certain dismay in the hearts 

 of some philosophers that the voice of God should first 

 have spoken to man from out the fire. Still, as there is 

 no break between deva, bright, as applied to Agni, the 

 fire, and many other powers of nature, and the Deus opti- 

 mus maximus of the Romans— nay, as the God whom the 

 Greeks ignorantly worshipped was the same God whom 

 St. Paul declared unto them— we must learn the lesson, 

 and a most valuable lesson it will turn out to be, that 

 the idea of God is the result of an unbroken historical 

 evolution, call it a development, an unveiling, or a puri- 

 fication, but not of a sudden revelation." 



The two following lectures are devoted to the detailed 

 following out of the biography of Agni, who appears in a 

 variety of characters as the sim, the fire on the hearth, 

 lightning, the messenger between gods and men, and 

 priest. Finally, divested of his material character alto- 

 gether, he is raised to a sublimer level as creator, ruler, 

 and judge. The value of this inquiry, into the details of 

 which we have no space to enter, lies in the fact that it 

 involves the refutation of two objections which are 

 frequently urged — with or without knowledge— against 

 natural religion by the professors of so-called supernatural 

 religion. The first is that natural religion, though it may 

 lead men to a conception of "gods," is powerless to sug- 

 gest to them the conception of God. This is directly 

 contradicted by the history of Agni, whom we can watch, 

 as it were, passing through many stages of growth until 

 he becomes in the end " a supreme god, the Supreme 

 God, till his very name is thrown away, or is recognized 

 as but one out of many names by which ancient seers in 

 their helpless language called that which is, the One and 

 All." Driven from this position, however, the orthodox 

 objector usually takes up another, and contends that the 

 supreme God of natural religion lacks some if not all of 

 the lofty attributes which he is enabled to know and to 

 predicate of his own God by supernatural revelation. 

 But Prof. Max Miiller's answer to this objection is equally 

 decided : — 



" Trusting to the fragments that have been preserved 

 to us in the Veda, to the remains of the most childish as 

 well as the most exalted thoughts, we may say that 

 natural religion, or the natural faculties of man under the 

 dominion of the natural impressions of the world around 

 us, can lead, nay, has led man step by step to the highest 

 conception of deity, a conception that can hardly be 

 surpassed by any of those well-known definitions of deity 

 which so-called supernatural religions have hitherto 

 claimed as their exclusive property." 



In the ninth lecture the Professor leaves for a while the 

 field of his special studies to glance at the history of 

 religious ideas among other peoples than the Aryas of the 

 Veda. And it is noteworthy that he fully recognizes the 

 possibility that Jehovah himself may originally have been 

 a god of fire. But we must protest against the way in 

 NO. 1 132, VOL. 44] 



which he alludes to Abraham, the legendary founder of 

 Hebrew monotheism, as if his historical character had 

 never been questioned. It is, of course, perfectly open to 

 any one to believe that Abraham was a real individual, 

 who received a " revelation," whatever that word may be 

 defined to mean (see p. 221) ; but at the same time, in a 

 course of lectures addressed to an academic audience, it 

 should surely have been mentioned that this is an hypo- 

 thesis, which Renan, for instance, among Semitic scholars, 

 does not even take the trouble to discuss. 



In the lecture on the mythological development of Agni, 

 we would call attention to the importance assigned to riddles 

 as a cause of the growth and preservation of mythology. 

 To take a simple example : — 



" After the Aryas in India had once arrived at the con- 

 ception that fire was apt to consume the fire-sticks, or 

 that Agni had eaten his father and mother, they seem 

 to have amused themselves bv asking such questions 

 as, Who eats his own parents ? The answers given would 

 then enter upon many details, more or less far fetched, 

 and the question would continue to be asked between 

 young and old people." 



And we think that this is a far more natural explanation 

 of the origin and popularity of such stories than the hypo- 

 thesis, which has no external evidence to support it, that 

 the Aryas were simply ascribing to Agni the atrocities 

 which they practised themselves. 



Finally we come to the question. What can a study of 

 natural religion teach us .' " Why," answers Prof. Max 

 Miiller, " it teaches us that religion is natural, is real, is 

 inevitable, is universal," and he proceeds to exhibit in 

 detail one or two of the more important implications of 

 this great lesson. With regard to miracles, for instance : — 



" Is it not clear that in the eyes of those who believe in 

 the omnipresence of the Moral Governor of the world, 

 miracles, in the ordinary sense of the word, have 

 become impossible, and that to them either every 

 event is miraculous or no event can claim that name. 

 Before the great miracle of the manifestation of God in 

 nature, all other miracles vanish. There is but one 

 eternal miracle, the revelation of the Infinite in the 

 finite." 



The Professor then shows by a series of examples that 

 the tendency to ascribe a miraculous birth to the founders 

 of religions is natural and widespread, and asks by what 

 right people claim a different character for the legends of 

 the birth of Jesus than for the similar legends told of 

 Buddha and Mohammed. The honesty and candour 

 with which the question is stated are specially welcome 

 at the present time, when it is becoming the fashion with 

 ecclesiastical amateurs in Biblical criticism to blow hot 

 and cold, as it were, with the same infallible mouth — that 

 is, to reject the miracles of the Old Testament, but retain 

 those of the New. For instance, in a recent manifesto, 

 highly recommended as providing a temporary shelter for 

 the destitution of the semi-reasonable, there is, on the one 

 hand, some tall talk about the imaginative performances 

 of " a dramatizing Jew " in the Old Testament, while, on 

 the other hand, we are gravely informed that " the Church 

 can insist upon the truth " of all that is recorded in the New 

 Testament. That this cheap substitute for criticism will 

 eventually be discredited, even in England, we have no 

 doubt whatever. Meanwhile we cordially recommend 



