_, at evening _Siva_."[562:6]

"He is at once," says Mr. Cox, in speaking of the Sun, "the 'Comforter'
and 'Healer,' the 'Saviour' and 'Destroyer,' who can slay and make alive
at will, and from whose piercing glance no secret can be kept
hid."[562:7]

Sir William Jones was also of the opinion that the whole Triad of the
Hindoos were identical with the Sun, expressed under the mythical term
O. M.

The idea of a _Tri-murti_, or triple personification, was developed
gradually, and as it grew, received numerous accretions. It was first
dimly shadowed forth and vaguely expressed in the _Rig-Veda_, where a
triad of principal gods, _Agni_, _Indra_, and _Surya_ is recognized. And
these three gods are _One_, the SUN.[562:8]

We see then that the religious myths of antiquity and the fireside
legends of ancient and modern times, have a common root in the mental
habits of primeval humanity, and that they are the earliest recorded
utterances of men concerning the visible phenomena of the world into
which they were born. At first, thoroughly understood, the _meaning_ in
time became unknown. How stories originally told of the Sun, the Moon,
the Stars, &c., became believed in as facts, is plainly illustrated in
the following story told by Mrs. Jameson in her "History of Our Lord in
Art:" "I once tried to explain," says she, "to a good old woman, the
meaning of the word _parable_, and that the story of the _Prodigal Son_
was not a fact; she was scandalized--she was quite sure that Jesus would
never have told anything to his disciples that was not true. Thus she
settled the matter in her own mind, and I thought it best to leave it
there undisturbed."

Prof. Max Mueller, in speaking of "the comparison of the different forms
of Aryan religion and mythology in India, Persia, Greece, Italy and
Germany," clearly illustrates how such legends are transformed from
intelligible into unintelligible myths. He says:

"In each of these nations there was a tendency to change the original
conception of divine powers, to misunderstand the many names given to
these powers, and to misinterpret the praises addressed to them. In this
manner some of the divine names were changed into half-divine,
half-human heroes, and at last the myths which were true and
intelligible as told originally of the _Sun_, or the _Dawn_, or the
_Storms_, were turned into legends or fables too marvelous to be
believed of common mortals. This process can be watched in India,