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heroes, he could hardly argue up to the idea of the Infinite, 
much less make that idea a god. Indeed, even to take Max 
Miiller’s standpoint, the“ visible’? could hardly suggest to 
untutored man the Infinite; the ‘‘ endless expanse” beyond 
the sky is not visibly so, but only reasonably so ; to “ vision” 
the sky does not suggest boundlessness, but only a dome of 
comparatively small dimensions. And yet the oldest known 
name for Deity is “‘ The Infinite.” This may be a “ startling ”’ 
discovery ; but, however the idea arose, the striking fact is 
that in that aspect of Deity the early men of North India, or 
Central Asia, had as exalted a notion of the Deity as we have, 
and perhaps can have, ourselves. 
It would be impossible to follow at length the history of 
Aditi in this paper, and it must suffice here to add that :— 
(1) Worship is offered to Aditi, the Infinite: “I invoke the 
divine Aditi early in the morning, at noon, and at the setting 
of the sun” (Rig-Veda, v. 69,3). (2) Aditi is named as the 
source and end of being: ‘‘ Who will give us back to the 
ereat Aditi, that I may see father and, mother.” (3) Aditi is 
invoked as supreme in the moral world: ‘ May Aditi protect 
us from all sin”? (Rig-Veda, x. 36, 3); “‘ May Aditi give us 
sinlessness”? (Rig-Veda, i. 162, 22); ‘May we, guiltless 
before Aditi, and in the keeping of the god Savitar, obtain 
all goods’’ (Rig-Veda, v. 82,6). Under this aspect Aditi 
becomes the base of what Professor Max Miiller translates by 
Aditi-hood: ‘“ May we obtain the new favour of the Adityas 
(gods who are said to be the offspring of Aditi), their best 
protection ; may the quick Maruts (the storm gods) listen and 
place this sacrifice in guiltlessness and Aditi-hood” (hiq- 
Veda, v. 51, 1). On this passage Max Miller says :—“ I 
have translated the last words literally, in order to make their 
meaning quite clear. Agas has the same meaning as the 
Greek adyoce, guilt, abomination; an-igds-tva, therefore, as 
applied to a sacrifice or to a man who makes it, means guilt- 
lessness, purity. Aditi - tva, Aditi - hood, has a similar 
meaning; it means freedom from bonds, from anything that 
hinders the proper performance of a religious act; it may 
come to mean perfection or holiness.’’* 
Professor Max Miiller appears to think that the moral 
character of Aditi is a subsequent development of the primary 
abstract idea of the Infinite ; but how would he account for the 
idea of sin, as something against the Deity, arising so early 
in connexion with thoughts of the Infinite, even though that 
* Rig-Veda-Sanhita, vol, i. p, 245. 
