they refer
to the birth of the day, the rising of the sun, the return of the
year.

The gods are supposed to dwell in heaven, though several of them, as,
for instance, Agni, the god of fire, are represented as living among
men, or as approaching the sacrifice, and listening to the praises of
their worshippers.

Heaven and earth are believed to have been made or to have been
established by certain gods. Elaborate theories of creation, which
abound in the later works, the Brahma_n_as, are not to be found in the
hymns. What we find are such passages as:

'Agni held the earth, he stablished the heaven by truthful words' (Rv.
I. 67, 3).

'Varu_n_a stemmed asunder the wide firmaments; he lifted on high the
bright and glorious heaven; he stretched out apart the starry sky and
the earth' (Rv. VII. 86, 1).

More frequently, however, the poets confess their ignorance of the
beginning of all things, and one of them exclaims:

'Who has seen the first-born? Where was the life, the blood, the soul
of the world? Who went to ask this from any that knew it? (Rv. I. 164,
4).[24]

Or again, Rv. X. 81, 4: 'What was the forest, what was the tree out of
which they shaped heaven and earth? Wise men, ask this indeed in your
mind, on what he stood when he held the worlds?'

I now come to a more important subject. We find in the Veda, what few
would have expected to find there, the two ideas, so contradictory to
the human understanding, and yet so easily reconciled in every human
heart: God has established the eternal laws of right and wrong, he
punishes sin and rewards virtue, and yet the same God is willing to
forgive; just, yet merciful; a judge, and yet a father. Consider, for
instance, the following lines, Rv. I. 41, 4: 'His path is easy and
without thorns, who does what is right.'

And again, Rv. I. 41, 9: 'Let man fear Him who holds the four (dice),
before he throws them down (i. e. God who holds the destinies of men
in his hand); let no man delight in evil words!'

And then consider the following hymns, and imagine the feelings which
alone could have prompted them:

HYMN TO VARU_N_A (Rv. VII. 89).

1. Let me not yet, O Varu_n_a, enter into the house of clay;
have mercy, almighty, have mercy!

2. If I go along trembling, like a cloud driven by the wind;
have mercy, almighty, have mercy!

3. Through want of strength, thou strong and bright god,
have I gone wrong; have mercy, almighty,