at of the Hebrew religion of the
same time.

+991+. The religious point of view of the Vedas belongs in the same
category with the early Egyptian. Varuna, Agni, and Indra appear in the
hymns, each in his turn, as supreme. The role of Varuna seems to be
practically identical with that of the Iranian Ahura, but unlike the
latter he does not succeed in expelling his brother divinities. This
difference of development between the Hindu and the Iranian people we
cannot hope to explain. India moved not toward monotheism, but toward
pantheism. But the Vedic hymns prove the existence of a certain sense
of oneness in the world, held by the poets, though not by the mass of
the people, and destined to issue in a very remarkable religious system.

+992+. It has been by a very different line that China has reached its
unitary conception of the world. The details of the movement are
obscure, but its general course is clear.[1811] As with many other
peoples it is the objects of nature to which Chinese worship is mainly
paid, but the Chinese mind, impressed by the power of these objects, is
content to rest in them in their visible form; no proper names are
attached to them, and they have a more or less vague personality which
varies in definiteness at different times and with different persons.
The theistic system is a reflection of the social system. The eminently
practical Chinese mind lays the chief stress on the earthly life: in the
common everyday life the family is the unit; but the general course of
affairs is controlled by the great natural Powers of earth and sky,
whence arise the two great divisions of Chinese worship. The State is a
larger family in which the duke or emperor or other chief political
officer occupies the same position that is occupied by the father in the
smaller social circle; the government is patriarchal, with gradations
which correspond to those of the family. Life, it is held, is controlled
by the heavenly bodies, by the mountains and rivers of the earth, and by
deceased members of families. To these the people sacrifice, the
principal part being taken by the civil heads of the larger and smaller
constituent parts of the empire; there is thus no place for priests. As
the emperor (or other head of the State) is supreme on earth, so Heaven
and Earth, Sun and Moon occupy the highest positions in the divine
hierarchy, and ancestors are influential and entitled to worship
according to the rank of the families