288 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVEBSE. 



a fragment detached from the sun, and that it will 

 eventually return to the bosom of its parent. Modern 

 physiology teaches us that the first source of organic 

 life on the earth is the formation of protoplasm, and 

 that this synthesis of simple inorganic substances, 

 water, carbonic acid, and ammonia, only takes place 

 under the influence of sun-light. On the primary 

 evolution of the plasmodomous plants followed, 

 secondarily, that of the plasmophagous animals, 

 which directly or indirectly depend on them for 

 nourishment; and the origin of the human race 

 itself is only a later stage in the development of the 

 animal kingdom. Indeed, the whole of our bodily 

 and mental life depends, in the last resort, like all 

 other organic life, on the light and heat rays of the 

 sun. Hence in the light of pure reason, sun-worship, 

 as a form of naturalistic monotheism, seems to have a 

 much better foundation than the anthropistic worship 

 of Christians and of other monotheists who conceive 

 their god in human form. As a matter of fact, the sun- 

 worshippers attained, thousands of years ago, a higher 

 intellectual and moral standard than most of the other 

 theists. When I was in Bombay in 1881 I watched 

 with the greatest sympathy the elevating rites of the 

 pious Parsees, who, standing on the sea-shore, or 

 kneeling on their prayer-rugs, offered their devotion 

 to the sun at its rise and setting. 1 



Moon-worship (lunarism and selenotheism) is of 

 much less importance than sun-worship. There are 

 a few uncivilised races that have adored the moon as 

 their only deity, but it has generally been associated 

 with a worship of the stars and the sun. 



1 Vide A Visit to Ceylon, E. Haeckel, translated by C. Bell. 



