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attention be arrested by the impending dangers of each day, the neces- 

 sity of procuring sustenance for himself and family, and the obvious 

 advantages accruing from co-operation, but also by the constantly- 

 recurring natural phenomena, such as the rising and setting of the sun, 

 moon and stars, the never-ending succession of day and night, etc., as 

 well as by the no less wonderful, and certainly more awful, occasional 

 natural occurrences, such as lightning, thunder, and earthquake. He 

 would be as much struck with wonder and amazement at the one set of 

 phenomena as with awe at the other. The returning sun-light would 

 each morning produce joy in his heart equally as much as the inevitable 

 recurrence each night of darkness would produce a feeling of sadness, 

 dread, and despair. We can easily imagine the long hours of horror 

 our first fathers must have passed through each night among the yells 

 and howls of the savage monsters by which they were surrounded, and 

 how they anxiously looked forward to the return of that glorious orb 

 which would bring back to them daylight, sunshine, warmth, and happi- 

 ness. What a boon it must have been to them ! Can we wonder that 

 they should have regarded the sun with particular affection ? It would 

 have been remarkable, indeed, had they not done so ; and it is more 

 than probable that this daily re-appearance of the sun on the eastern 

 horizon was actually what prompted the first conception of deity. The 

 very oldest mythology with which we are acquainted appears strongly 

 to bear out this theory, and, indeed, in every other mythological system 

 we find the re-appearing sun to be one of the principal objects of devo- 

 tion and affection. If we turn our gaze to that part of Asia, along the 

 banks of the Oxus, over which our Aryan ancestors wandered thousands 

 of years before the time of the earliest Egyptian dynasty, we find there 

 a clue to the origin of the original conception of deity. Among these 

 early people were composed the hymns of the Rig-Veda, which are 

 probably the earliest records of any race, and in which we find personi- 

 fied the phenomena of the heavens and earth, the storm, the wind, the 

 rain, the stars, etc. The earth is represented as a flat, indefinite surface, 

 existing passively, and forming the foundation of the whole universe ; 

 while above it the luminous vault of heaven forms a dwelling place for 

 the fertile and life-giving light and a covering for the earth below. To 

 the earth the Aryans gave the name of Prihovi, " the wide expanse ;" 

 the vault of heaven they called Varuna, " the vault ;" while the light 

 between the two, in the cloud region, they named Dyaus, " the luminous 

 air," " the dawn." Varuna and Prihovi, in space, together begat Agni, 

 the fire-god, the sun in heaven and life-giver of the universe ; and Soma, 

 the ambrosial deity of earth, god of immortality, fertiliser of the waters, 

 nourisher of plants, and quickener of the semen of men and animals. 

 In these hymns frequent mention is made of the joy experienced at the 



