ON MATTER AND FORCE. 7 



sixteenth or fourteenth century before Christ. 

 The Hindu religion contained among its deities 

 Indra, the god of the sky or light ; Vritra, the 

 demon of darkness or night ; Agni, the god of 

 fire ; Savitri, the god of the sun ; Ap, the god 

 of waters ; Prithri, the god of earth. Creation, 

 preservation, and destruction were worshipped 

 as Brahma, Vishna, and Seva. Brahma formed 

 fire, water, and earth.* 



In the sacred books of the Chinese, the seven 

 gods deemed worthy of peculiar homage are the 



* " Wherever in the world around him the Hindu observed 

 extraordinary manifestations of the brilliant or the beautiful, 

 the barren or the prolific, the sombre or the terrible, wherever 

 the action of the elements was such as to produce extraor- 

 dinary effects upon himself, his children, or his property, he 

 betrayed the consciousness of his dependence by some special 

 act of homage. He acknowledged in such powers the pre- 

 sence of divinity. He called the influence which affected 

 him or his a deva (deus}. It was pregnant for a time with a 

 divine or a diabolical efficacy, and therefore it became a fitting 

 object of desire or dread, of adoration or of deprecation, ac- 

 cording to the aspects it assumed in reference to the wor- 

 shipper. Hence also every province of Creation was soon 

 peopled by spiritual energies, all varying in their character 

 with human hopes and fears, with human interests and 

 passions. Nay, so far was the Hindu impelled in this di- 

 rection, that he deified the sacrifice itself (the soma or milky 

 juice of the moon-plant), from which he hoped to profit. He 

 worshipped his own offering. He worshipped the solemn 

 form of words by which his offering was accompanied."- 

 HardwicJe, vol. i., p. 178. 



