s and says that
each 'is lord.' It does not lack philosophical speculation which,
although most of it is puerile, sometimes raises questions of wider
scope, as when the sage inquires who made the body with its wonderful
parts--implying, but not stating the argument, from design, in its
oldest form.[2]

Of magical verses there are many, but the content is seldom more than
"do thou, O plant, preserve from harm," etc. Harmless enough, if
somewhat weak, are also many other hymns calculated to procure
blessings:

Blessings blow to us the wind,
Blessings glow to us the sun,
Blessings be to us the day,
Blest to us the night appear,
Blest to us the dawn shall shine,

is a fair specimen of this innocuous sort of verse.[3] Another example
may be seen in this hymn to a king: "Firm is the sky; firm is the
earth; firm, all creation; firm, these hills; firm the king of the
people (shall be)," etc.[4] In another hymn there is an incantation to
release from possible ill coming from a foe and from inherited ill or
sin.[5] A free spirit of doubt and atheism, already foreshadowed in
the Rig Veda, is implied in the prayer that the god will be merciful
to the cattle of that man "whose creed is 'Gods exist.'"[6]
Serpent-worship is not only known, but prevalent.[7] The old gods
still hold, as always, their nominal places, albeit the system is
pantheistic, so that Varuna is god of waters; and Mitra with Varuna,
gods of rain.[8] As a starting-point of philosophy the dictum of the
Rig Veda is repeated: 'Desire is the seed of mind,' and 'love, _i.e._,
desire, was born first.' Here Aditi is defined anew as the one in
whose lap is the wide atmosphere-- she is parent and child, gods and
men, all in all--'may she extend to us a triple shelter.' As an
example of curse against curse may be compared II. 7:

The sin-hated, god-born plant, that frees from the curse as
waters (wash out) the spot, has washed away all curses, the
curse of my rival and of my sister; (that) which the Brahman
in anger cursed, all this lies under my feet ... With this
plant protect this (wife), protect my child, protect our
property ... May the curse return to the curser ... We smite
even the ribs of the foe with the evil (_mantra_) eye.

A love-charm in the same book (II. 30) will remind the classical
student of Theocritus' second idyl: 'As the wind twirls around grass
upon the ground, so I twirl thy mind about, that thou ma