tially
go still further back and speak of a deity common to the Greeks, Romans,
Persians, and Hindus. This deity is Varuna, the most remarkable
personality in the Veda. The name, which is etymologically connected
with [Greek: Ouranos], signifies "the encompasser," and is applied to
heaven--especially the all-encompassing, extreme vault of heaven--not
the nearer sky, which is the region of cloud and storm. It is in
describing Varuna that the Veda rises to the greatest sublimity which it
ever reaches. A mysterious presence, a mysterious power, a mysterious
knowledge amounting almost to omniscience, are ascribed to Varuna. The
winkings of men's eyes are numbered by him. He upholds order, both
physical and moral, throughout the universe.

[Sidenote: Contrast with the laudations of Agni and Soma.
The loftier conceptions of divinity the earlier.]
The winds are his breath, the sun his eye, the sky his garment. He
rewards the good and punishes the wicked. Yet to the truly penitent he
is merciful. It is absolutely confounding to pass from a hymn that
celebrates the serene majesty and awful purity of Varuna to one filled
with measureless laudations of Soma or Agni. Could conceptions of
divinity so incongruous co-exist? That they could not spring up in the
same mind, or even in the same age, is abundantly manifest. And, as we
have mentioned, the loftier conceptions of divinity are unquestionably
the earlier. It is vain to speak, as certain writers do, of religion
gradually refining itself, as a muddy stream can run itself pure;
Hinduism resembles the Ganges, which, when it breaks forth from its
mountain cradle at Hardwar, is comparatively pellucid, but, as it rolls
on, becomes more and more muddy, discolored, and unclean.[5]

[Sidenote: Indra.
His achievements.]
Various scholars affirm that Varuna, in more ancient pre-Vedic times,
held a position still higher than the very high one which he still
retains. This is probable; indeed, it is certain that, before later
divinities had intruded, he held a place of unrivaled majesty. But, in
the Vedas, Indra is a more conspicuous figure. He corresponds to the
Jupiter Pluvius of the Romans. In north-western India, after the burning
heat, the annual return of the rains was hailed with unspeakable joy; it
was like life succeeding death. The clouds that floated up from the
ocean were at first thin and light; ah! a hostile demon was in them,
carrying off the healing waters and not permitting