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hand appears a God-power, beneficent, sustaining, renewing, 
a divine Will, who gave to the residue of existence its com- 
mencement and what potentiality it has. On the other hand 
is an Evil power, animated by a malignant hatred against good 
and against man, a power which allies itself with, and whose 
action is illustrated by, the hurtful agencies of nature, as the 
God-power is illustrated and revealed by the beneficial. It is 
a natural thought, — but if the Midhgardhsormr is merely an 
aspect of nature, why should Nidhoggr be more ? If Surtr is 
merely an igneous personification, so is Loki. This idea, which, 
logically regarded, is only saying, If A is an Englishman, so is 
B, will be rebutted by an examination of the story. Thus, the 
Great Serpent is never represented as directly attacking any - 
man, because the rage of storm, aerial or oceanic, is never 
directed against individuals as such ; whereas Nidhoggr, on 
the other hand, is constantly assailing, both verbally* and by 
deeds, the powers of good who maintain the order of the world, 
and has special power and office in connection with the wicked 
dead. Loki, a fallen god, is an equally remarkable concept. 
Many may think such inquiries as the present unimportant, 
but the grand question of the truth of Religion will, so far as 
general argumentation is concerned, have a growing tendency 
to revert to its origin as far as known, and thus to bring us 
face to face with the opinions and belief of archaic man. 
14. The Law of Kosmic Order. 
It will be observed that the foregoing view of ontology 
assumes the habitual triumph of the principle of kosmic 
order, against which the evil-powers constantly vainly strive. 
Far from being of the opinion expressed by a modern that 
“ Nature ought to be hung at the Old Bailey,^ archaic man 
devoutly believed, nay, more, exceedingly rejoiced in the grand 
harmony of existence, although its conditions were often infi- 
nitely sterner than those which are presented to ourselves. 
The doctrine that blind chance or unreasoning and accidental 
atom-play had produced the Apparent, would have been an 
idea almost utterly unintelligible to him ; and when he had 
painfully grasped it, he would have unhesitatingly rejected it 
as an impious absurdity. This belief in universal order took 
a tangible shape in the Vedic concept Rita, whose Baktrio- 
* A curious feature in the Norse kosmic myth, is the squirrel Ratatosk, 
perhaps “ Wandering-whisperer,” who runs up and down Yggdrasil bearing 
rancorous words between the dragon-serpent Nidhoggr at the bottom and a 
wise eagle who sits at the top. 
VOL. XIV. 2 A 
