151 
Arjun, in pious ecstasy, exclaims 
Reverence, reverence be unto Thee a thousand times repeated. Again 
and again reverence. 0 thou who art all in all ! Infinite in Thy power and 
glory ! Thou art the Father of all things animate and inanimate. There is 
none like unto Thee. 
16. I am quoting this as pure Monotheism. Those who are 
familiar with the translation of these ancient Hindu writings 
must be well aware that they strangely combine both Pantheism 
and Monotheism ; and that all their pantheistic idealism is more 
or less polytheistic also. But, though this be the case, they are 
nevertheless devoid of that deformed and debased animal-worship 
which afterwards came into usage, and which we still see every- 
where throughout Hindustan. So far from this, the Rig-Veda 
shows us that the character of the early Hindu people was one 
which craved after things unseen and eternal. Dissatisfied with 
this transitory existence, they sought a world without change, 
and endeavoured to grasp the Infinite. And though the ele- 
ments and powers of nature personified were the first gods of 
the Aryan race, the minds of the worshippers passed beyond 
those material and external objects into the One Supreme Spirit 
who nourished nature in Himself.* 
17. From whence, then, I ask, were these high and lofty 
conceptions of religious faith derived? According to Sir John 
Lubbock’s programme, they represent a late phase in the de- 
velopment of civilization ; and they ought to have been preceded 
by a series of changes, beginning with Atheism and Fetichism. 
As to what preceded the Hindu Vedas, we know nothing. All 
we can say is, that the earliest dawn of Aryan mythology pre- 
sents us with a far finer faith in Supernatural Deity than the 
wearisome ages which succeeded it ; and that, consequently, the 
modern theory of man’s degraded origin so far breaks down 
under the light of prehistoric Monotheism. 
18. From ancient India, let us now pass to that of Egypt. 
In this country we have the singular phenomenon presented to 
us of an idolatrous system of animal-worship which not only 
did not precede any purer faith in times of less perfect civili- 
zation, but appears to have been gradually evolved out of that 
purer faith as its visible exponent and delineator. Wilkinson 
observes that the fundamental doctrine of ancient Egypt was 
the Unity of the Deity ; but that, inasmuch as the attributes of 
that Deity were represented under positive forms, there arose a 
See Hunt’s Essay on Pantheism , p. 5. 
