in their helplessness to express their ideas of the
Deity, however partial and imperfect.

The next hymn, which is taken from the Atharva-veda (IV. 16), will
show how near the language of the ancient poets of India may approach
to the language of the Bible:[25]

1. The great lord of these worlds sees as if he were near.
If a man thinks he is walking by stealth, the gods know it
all.

2. If a man stands or walks or hides, if he goes to lie down
or to get up, what two people sitting together whisper, king
Varu_n_a knows it, he is there as the third.

3. This earth, too, belongs to Varu_n_a, the king, and this
wide sky with its ends far apart. The two seas (the sky and
the ocean) are Varu_n_a's loins; he is also contained in
this small drop of water.

4. He who should flee far beyond the sky, even he would not
be rid of Varu_n_a, the king. His spies proceed from heaven
towards this world; with thousand eyes they overlook this
earth.

5. King Varu_n_a sees all this, what is between heaven and
earth, and what is beyond. He has counted the twinklings of
the eyes of men. As a player throws the dice, he settles all
things.

6. May all thy fatal nooses, which stand spread out seven by
seven and threefold, catch the man who tells a lie, may they
pass by him who tells the truth.

[Footnote 25: This hymn was first pointed out by Professor Roth in a
dissertation on the Atharva-veda (Tuebingen, 1856), and it has since
been translated and annotated by Dr. Muir, in his article on the
'Vedic Theogony and Cosmogony,' p. 31.]

Another idea which we find in the Veda is that of faith: not only in
the sense of trust in the gods, in their power, their protection,
their kindness, but in that of belief in their existence. The Latin
word credo, I believe, is the same as the Sanskrit _s_raddha, and this
_s_raddha occurs in the Veda:

Rv. I. 102, 2. 'Sun and moon go on in regular succession, that we may
see, Indra, and believe.'

Rv. I. 104, 6. 'Destroy not our future offspring, O Indra, for we have
believed in thy great power.'

Rv. I. 55, 5. 'When Indra hurls again and again his thunderbolt, then
they believe in the brilliant god.'[26]

[Footnote 26: During violent thunderstorms the natives of New Holland
are so afraid of War-ru-gu-ra, the evil spirit, that they seek shelter
even in caves haunted by Ingnas, subordinate dem