d a view of the Deity by
predicating but one quality, whether strength, dominion, or majesty;
and we shall equally perceive the snare which their very language laid
for the Aryan nations, by supplying them with a number of words which,
though they seemed harmless as meaning nothing except what by
tradition or definition they were made to mean, yet were full of
mischief owing to the recollections which, at any time, they might
revive. Dyaus in itself was as good a name as any for God, and in some
respects more appropriate than its derivative deva, the Latin deus,
which the Romance nations still use without meaning any harm. But
Dyaus had meant sky for too long a time to become entirely divested of
all the old mythes or sayings which were true of Dyaus, the sky, but
could only be retained as fables if transferred to Dyaus, God. Dyaus,
the Bright, might be called the husband of the earth; but, when the
same mythe was repeated of Zeus, the god, then Zeus became the husband
of Demeter, Demeter became a goddess, a daughter sprang from their
union, and all the sluices of mythological madness were opened. There
were a few men, no doubt, at all times, who saw through this
mythological phraseology, who called on God, though they called him
Zeus, or Dyaus, or Jupiter. Xenophanes, one of the earliest Greek
heretics, boldly maintained that there was but 'one God, and that He
was not like unto men, either in body or mind.'[102] A poet in the
Veda asserts distinctly, 'They call Him Indra, Mitra, Varu_n_a, Agni;
then He is the well-winged heavenly Garutmat; that which is One the
wise call it many ways--they call it Agni, Yama, Matari_s_van.'[103]

[Footnote 102: Xenophanes, about contemporary with Cyrus, as quoted by
Clemens Alex., Strom. v, p. 601,--[Greek: eis theos en te theoisi kai
anthropoisi megistos, oute demas thnetoisin homoiios oude noema].]

[Footnote 103: 'History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,' by M. M., p.
567.]

But, on the whole, the charm of mythology prevailed among the Aryan
nations, and a return to the primitive intuition of God and a total
negation of all gods, wore rendered more difficult to the Aryan than
to the Semitic man. The Semitic man had hardly ever to resist the
allurements of mythology. The names with which he invoked the Deity
did not trick him by their equivocal character. Nevertheless, these
Semitic names, too, though predicative in the beginning, became
subjective, and from being the various name