Thus we see that Christ Jesus was born on the same day as Buddha,
Mithras, Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis and other
_personifications of the_ SUN.[474:3]

2. _Christ Jesus was born of a Virgin._ In this respect he is also the
_Sun_, for 'tis the sun alone who can be born of an immaculate virgin,
who conceived him without carnal intercourse, and who is still, after
the birth of her child, a virgin.

This Virgin, of whom the Sun, the true "Saviour of Mankind," is born, is
either the bright and beautiful _Dawn_,[474:4] or the dark
_Earth_,[474:5] or _Night_.[474:6] Hence we have, as we have already
seen, the _Virgin_, or _Virgo_, as one of the signs of the
zodiac.[474:7]

This Celestial Virgin was feigned to be a mother. She is represented in
the Indian Zodiac of Sir William Jones, with ears of corn in one hand,
and the lotus in the other. In Kircher's Zodiac of Hermes, she has corn
in both hands. In other planispheres of the Egyptian priests she carries
ears of corn in one hand, and the infant Saviour _Horus_ in the other.
In Roman Catholic countries, she is generally represented with the
child in one hand, and the lotus or lily in the other. In Vol. II. of
Montfaucon's work, she is represented as a female nursing a child, with
ears of corn in her hand, and the legend IAO. She is seated on clouds, a
star is at her head. The reading of the Greek letters, from right to
left, show this to be very ancient.

In the Vedic hymns Aditi, _the Dawn_, is called the "_Mother of the
Gods_." "She is the mother with powerful, terrible, with _royal sons_."
She is said to have given birth to the _Sun_.[475:1] "As the _Sun_ and
all the _solar deities_ rise from the _east_," says Prof. Max Mueller,
"we can well understand how Aditi (the Dawn) came to be called the
'Mother of the Bright Gods.'"[475:2]

The poets of the Veda indulged freely in theogonic speculations without
being frightened by any contradictions. They knew of Indra as the
greatest of gods, they knew of Agni as the god of gods, they knew of
Varuna as the ruler of all; but they were by no means startled at the
idea that their Indra had a mother, or that Varuna was nursed in the lap
of Aditi. All this was true to nature; for their god was the _Sun_, and
the mother who bore and nursed him was the _Dawn_.[475:3]

We find in the _Vishnu Purana_, that Devaki (the virgin mother of the
Hindoo Saviour Crishna, whose history, as we have seen, corresponds in
most eve