14 
MYTHOLOGY. 
even the gods themselves. They begin with nothing, which 
produced something, and that brought forth something more, 
and generated a power of increasing. Spirit, being more 
subtle than matter, arose before it, and thought, being sup¬ 
posed to be more so than spirit, the commencement dates 
with its birth. 
There is a degree of thought perceptible in their traditions 
of the creation, which mark a far more advanced state than 
their present. Their ideas in some respects ai’e not so puerile, 
as those even of the more civilized heathen nations of old, and 
without the light of inspiration, we cannot expect they would 
be more advanced than we find them. 
The first period may be styled the epoch of thought— 
“ From the conception the increase, 
From the increase the thought, 
From the thought the remembrance, 
From the remembrance the consciousness, 
From the consciousness the desire.” 
The second period is that of night— 
“ The word became fruitful; 
It dwelt with the feeble glimmering; . 
It brought forth night: 
The great night, the long night, 
The lowest night, the loftiest night, 
The thick night, to he felt, 
The night to he touched, 
The night not to be seen, 
The night of death.” 
This (we are told) is all we have to do with night; during 
these periods there was no light—there were no eyes to the 
world. 
The third period is that of light— 
“ From the nothing the begetting, 
From the nothing the increase, 
From the nothing the abundance, 
The power of increasing, 
The living breath; 
It dwelt with the empty space, and produced the atmosphere 
which is above ns, 
