110 
Him unshaken as upon a mountain ; through their operations the moon 
walks in brightness, and the stars which appear in the nightly sky myste- 
riously vanish in daylight. His messengers behold the worlds, He knows 
the flights of birds in the sky, the path of ships on the ocean, the course of 
the far-travelling wind, and beholds all the secret things that have been, or 
shall be done. No creature can even wink without Him. He witnesses 
truth and falsehood. The Great One who rules over these worlds beholds 
all as if He were close at hand. When any man thinks he is doing aught by 
stealth, the Gods know it all, and they perceive every one who stands or 
walks or glides along secretly, or withdraws in his house, or into any lurk- 
ing-place. Whatsoever two persons sitting together devise, Varuna, the 
King, knows it, being 'present there as a third. This earth, too, belongs to 
Varuna, the King, and that vast sky whose ends are so far off.” * . . . . 
I must quote no more, but add Professor Roth’s remarks : f — 
There is no hymn in the whole Vedic literature which expresses 
the Divine Omniscience in such forcible terms as this, which is 
found in the Atharva Veda. There is, however, one in the Rig 
Veda which is quite equally remarkable ; also another in the 
Rig Veda Sanhita, which inquires — “Who has seen the 
primeval Being at the time of Iiis being born ? What is that 
which, having substance, the unsubstantial sustains ? — from earth 
are the breath and blood, but where is the soul? ” 
Now Varuna (from the root var, to cover) is equivalent to the 
Greek Ovpavog; and thus antedates those “ theories which took 
an anthropomorphic form”; for, according to Cicero, j Uranus 
was the father of Mercury and of Venus. We have probably 
another representative of the same idea in the “ Shang Ti,” the 
venerated “ Heaven” of the Chinese. 
These are amongst the most ancient “ historic” records, and 
certainly do not favour the theory of Tyndall. 
It would be easy to adduce abundant additional proof; but 
for the present this must suffice to show that in the opening of 
this Address, and in reference to no less important a subject than 
the rise of religion among mankind, our author (relying upon 
Hume) is deceiving his audience with eloquent but unsubstantial 
figments of the imagination. 
We next are brought into acquaintance with the Greek phi- 
losophers, but I cannot say that justice is done to the deeply 
interesting question (as to its cause and its results) of their search 
after wisdom. The only phase of thought which seems to 
command our author’s real sympathy is that of Epicurus, who 
maintained that the unhappiness and degradation of mankind 
# See “ Contributions to a Knowledge of the Vedic Theogony and Mytho- 
logy,” by S. Muir, LL.D., in Journal of the Royal Asiatic /Society , vol. i. 
p. 1, New Series, page 81. 
f Rig Veda /Sanhita, by H. H. Wilson, M.A., F.R.S., 1854, p. 127. 
+ De Naturd Deorwtn, iii. 22, 23. 
