stated returns of summer and winter, of
day and night, with all the admirable order of the universe,
taught them to believe in the existence and agency of such
superior powers; the irregular and destructive efforts of
nature, such as lightnings and tempests, inundations and
earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had
passions and affections similar to their own, and only
differed in possessing greater strength, power, and
intelligence."[550:1]

When the Grecian astronomers first declared that the Sun was not a
person, but a huge hot ball, instantly an outcry arose against them.
They were called "_blaspheming atheists_," and from that time to the
present, when any new discovery is made which seems to take away from
man his god, the cry of "_Atheist_" is instantly raised.

If we turn from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and take a look still
farther West and North, we shall find that the gods of all the TEUTONIC
nations were the same as we have seen elsewhere. They had Odin or
Woden--from whom we have our _Wednesday_--the Al-fader (the Sky),
Frigga, the Mother Goddess (the Earth), "Baldur the Good," and
Thor--from whom we have our Thursday (personifications of the Sun),
besides innumerable other _genii_, among them Freyja--from whom we have
our Friday--and as she was the "Goddess of Love," we eat _fish_ on that
day.[550:2]

The gods of the ancient inhabitants of what are now called the "British
Islands" were identically the same. The _Sun_-god worshiped by the
Ancient Druids was called _Hu_, _Beli_, _Budd_ and _Buddu-gre_.[550:3]

The same worship which we have found in the Old World, from the farthest
East to the remotest West, may also be traced in AMERICA, from its
simplest or least clearly defined form, among the roving hunters and
squalid Esquimaux of the North, through every intermediate stage of
development, to the imposing systems of Mexico and Peru, where it took a
form nearly corresponding that which it at one time sustained on the
banks of the Ganges, and on the plains of Assyria.[550:4]

Father Acosta, speaking of the Mexicans, says:

"Next to Viracocha, or their Supreme God, that which most
commonly they have, and do adore, is the _Sun_; and after,
those things which are most remarkable in the celestial or
elementary nature, as the Moon, Stars, Sea, and Land.

"Whoso shall merely look into it, shall find this manner which