OF THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 99 



mans. They knew the arts of ploughing, of making roads, of building 

 ships, of weaving and sewing, of erecting houses. They had counted 

 at least as far as loo. They had domesticated the most important 

 animals, the cow, the horse, the sheep and the dog. They were 

 acquainted with the most usful metals, and were armed with 

 hatchets, whether for peaceful or warlike purposes. They had rec- 

 ognized the bonds of blood and the bonds of marriage. They 

 followed their leaders and kings, and the distinction between right 

 and wrong was fixed by laws and customs." (Sci. of Lang. I, 235). 

 The science of philology tells us something concerning the 

 religion of the early Aryans. It furnishes us many specimens of the 

 hymns they sung. The Hindoo religion of to-day, with its idol- 

 worship, widow-burning, caste system, and transmigration of souls, 

 professes to be the religion taught in the sacred books of their 

 ancient ancestors. This however, is far from true. The original 

 sacred book of our Asiatic ancestors is a pure book, on the side of 

 virtue, and opposed to vice. It teaches that Varuna has established 

 the eternal laws of right and wrong ; that he punishes sin and 

 rewards virtue, is just, yet merciful and willing to forgive ; a judge 

 and yet a father. " The Rig- Veda," says Muller, "knows nothing of 

 the worship of idols." It teaches no such doctrine as the doctrine of 

 caste, or of transmigration of souls,- or of the burning of widows with 

 the dead bodies of their husbands. All these are of later origin. 

 The age of the poets who wrote the Vedic hymns, was followed by 

 an age of collectors and imitators, that age was succeeded by an age 

 of theological prose writers, and this last by an age of writers 

 of scientific manuals ; and it is from all these after writings, 

 the Hindoo religion has derived its most objectionable 

 features. The early ancestors of the Hindoos were guilty 

 of no such folly. They had not the same clear revela- 

 tion of God which we have, it is true, yet our Aryan ■ forefathers of 

 the early time, worshipped the same God we worship, and some- 

 times by the same name. They called the Great Father Dyaus or 

 Dyu, a name from which the Greek Zeus, the Latin Deus, and our 

 own term, the Deity, have all been derived. They worshipped him 

 under other names as well, one of the most common of which was 

 Varuna, a name which has the same meaning with Dyaus, — the 

 bright sky, — the Heaven. And they worshipped by sacrifice, as 



