stretching out his golden arms to bless the world and rescue
it from the terror of darkness, he exclaims, 'Arise, our life,
our spirit has come back! the darkness is gone, the light
approaches.'"

Many years ago, the learned Sir William Jones said:

"We must not be surprised at finding, on a close examination,
that the characters of all the Pagan deities, male and female,
melt into each other, and at last into one or two; for it
seems as well founded opinion, that the whole crowd of gods
and goddesses of ancient Rome, and modern Varanes, mean only
the powers of nature, and principally those of the SUN,
expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful
names."[467:2]

Since the first learned president of the Royal Asiatic Society paved
the way for the science of _comparative mythology_, much has been
learned on this subject, so that, as the Rev. George W. Cox remarks,
"recent discussions on the subject seem to justify the conviction that
the foundations of the science of _comparative mythology_ have been
firmly laid, and that its method is unassailable."[468:1]

If we wish to find the gods and goddesses of the ancestors of our race,
we must look to the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the earth, the
sea, the dawn, the clouds, the wind, &c., _which they personified and
worshiped_. That these have been the gods and goddesses of all nations
of antiquity, is an established fact.[468:2]

The words which had denoted the sun and moon would denote not merely
living things but living persons. From personification to deification
the steps would be but few; and the process of disintegration would at
once furnish the materials for a vast fabric of mythology. All the
expressions which had attached a living force to natural objects would
remain as the description of personal and anthropomorphous gods. Every
word would become an attribute, and all ideas, once grouped around a
simple object, would branch off into distinct personifications. The sun
had been the lord of light, the driver of the chariot of the day; he had
toiled and labored for the sons of men, and sunk down to rest, after a
hard battle, in the evening. But now the lord of light would be Phoibos
Apollon, while Helios would remain enthroned in his fiery chariot, and
his toils and labors and death-struggles would be transferred to
Hercules. The violet clouds which greet his rising and his setting wou