they made war upon one another and carried on a process of 
mutual destruction, but as they were in themselves, in their 
thoughts and emotions ; and especially as those thoughts and 
emotions were employed on the momentous question of 
religion. 
We are glad to have the testimony of such an independent 
witness as language in proof of the primary dignity of man. 
Mr. Muller assures us that all the most ancient languages 
indicate a high degree of intelligence and culture, and that 
the most barbarous contain evidence of a much higher state 
from which they have fallen. By a parallel, line of proof he 
shows that Fetishism has not been, and cannot have been, a 
primitive form of religion; but that, on the contrary, it is the 
lowest condition of degradation to which a religion can sink. 
After clearing the way for his description of the Growth of 
Religion among the Aryans of India, by removing the false 
opinions which have been expressed concerning the origin of 
man and his advance from fetishism to the spiritual worship of 
the Living God, he proceeds to unfold his own opinions as to 
how, and in what form, religion began and grew among the 
people whose religious history he especially discusses. The 
sources of this history are the Vedas , which are et four collec- 
tions of hymns respectively known by the names Rig-veda, 
Yagur-veda, Shama-veda, Atharva-vedaY The quotations, 
however, are principally from the Rig-veda, because, “ for 
tracing the earliest growth of religious ideas in India, it is the 
only important, the only real Yeda. The Yagur-veda and 
the Shama-veda may be described as prayer-books, arranged 
according to the order of certain sacrifices, and intended to 
be used by a certain class of priestsY The Rig-veda consists 
of ten books, and contains altogether 1,028 hymns, for which, 
on sufficient historic data, Mr. Muller claims an antiquity 
reaching up from 1200 to 1500 b.c., or from the time of 
Moses to Samuel, They are in ancient Sanskrit, which from 
several centuries before the Christian era has been an un- 
known language to the priests who used them ; they have, 
nevertheless, carefully learned every word, every syllable, and 
every accent, according to the original form, although the 
whole is sound without meaning. To Western ideas and 
habits this seems to be a most precarious mode of preservation, 
but we are informed by Mr. Muller and other authorities that 
no syllable or accent has been lost. 
In our author’s opinion the genesis of Aryan religion was 
on this wise. The fathers of the race saw the wide earth, the 
all-embracing sky, the bright and vivifying sun, the huge 
mountains, the brilliant day and sombre night; they heard 
