250 
“ As a loving wife shows herself to her husband, 
So does Ushas, as it were, smiling, reveal her form.”' :! 
Here the symbolism and simile of the Vedic poet are as clear 
and pure as the Psalmist’s. Both are perfectly aware that 
sun and dawn are alike merely natural phenomena, and, lastly, 
there is no monopoly of the mysterious “as.” Steinthal asks, 
“ I wonder whether I am mistaken ? ” I think we may safely 
reply that he is. Man, by the necessity of his being, applies 
anthropomorphisms to the phenomena of nature ; from his 
standpoint the dawn smiles, the thunder shouts or laughs, the 
sun knoweth his going down, and the deep utters his voice 
and lifts up his hands on high. Here is no crude ignorance, 
no grovelling concept, but a rich and splendid vein of natural 
poetry, sublime because — and this is the real power of all 
potent thought and beautiful idea — it is practically, nay 
strictly, true.f 
7. Character and Contents of the Gatlias. 
To revert to the Gatlias : tbeir supreme age and importance 
in the inquiry is evidenced, (1) by the exceedingly archaic 
form of language in which they are composed; (2) by their 
being frequently quoted or referred to with the greatest 
respect in other sacred writings, e.<j., they are expressly called 
“the five Gath, as of the pure Zarathustra.”;]; (3) By their 
being the repositories of numerous ideas and forms of belief 
which have been subsequently elaborated ; and (4) by the 
uniform tradition on the subject. The word is from the root 
gai, “ to sing,” and they are composed in a metrical form for 
recitation, each verse of the first containing forty- eight, of 
the second fifty-five, and of the third forty-four syllables. 
Some of the metres naturally greatly resemble those of the 
Vedic Hymns. In quoting from them I use the translation of 
Haug, as that of Spiegel is admittedly inferior, and indeed in 
many passages absolutely unintelligible. The First Gdtha 
bears the following heading, in the ordinary language of the 
Avesta, and therefore added long subsequent to the composi- 
tion of all five : — 
“The revealed thought, the revealed word, the revealed 
deed of the righteous Zarathustra; the archangels first 
sang the Gatlias.” Here it is implied that Zarathustra 
*■ Rig-Veila, I. exxiv. 7 (translated by Dr. Muir, Sanskrit Tests, v. 185), 
■f “ Hold, in high poetic duty, 
Truest Truth the fairest Beauty. 1 ’ 
Mrs. Browning, The Dead Pan, 
J Yasna, lvi. 3. 
