esses it,
"they did not like to retain God in their knowledge." Unless this
principle is fully taken into account we cannot understand the
historical development of Hinduism.

[Sidenote: Varuna the only divinity possessed of pure and elevated
attributes.]
The Veda frequently ascribes to the gods, to use the language of Max
Mueller, "sentiments and passions unworthy of deity." In truth, except in
the case of Varuna, there is not one divinity that is possessed of pure
and elevated attributes.

II.

PHILOSOPHY, AND RITUALISM.

[Sidenote: Speculation begins.
Rise of asceticism.
Upanishads.
They are pantheistic.]
During the Vedic period--certainly toward its conclusion--a tendency to
speculation had begun to appear. Probably it had all along existed in
the Hindu mind, but had remained latent during the stirring period when
the people were engaged in incessant wars. Climate, also, must have
affected the temperament of the race; and, as the Hindus steadily
pressed down the valley of the Ganges into warmer regions, their love of
repose and contemplative quietism would continually deepen. And when the
Brahmans became a fully developed hierarchy, lavishly endowed, with no
employment except the performance of religious ceremonies, their minds
could avoid stagnation only by having recourse to speculative thought.
Again, asceticism has a deep root in human nature; earnest souls,
conscious of their own weakness, will fly from the temptations of the
world. Various causes thus led numbers of men to seek a life of
seclusion; they dwelt chiefly in forests, and there they revolved the
everlasting problems of existence, creation, the soul, and God. The
lively Greeks, for whom, with all their high intellectual endowments, a
happy sensuous existence was nearly all in all, were amazed at the
numbers in northern India who appeared weary of the world and
indifferent to life itself. By and for these recluses were gradually
composed the Aranyakas, or forest treatises; and out of these grew a
series of more regular works, called Upanishads.[13] At least two
hundred and fifty of these are known to exist. They have been called
"guesses at truth;" they are more so than formal solutions of great
questions. Many of them are unintelligible rhapsodies; others rise
almost to sublimity. They frequently contradict each other; the same
writer sometimes contradicts himself. One prevailing characteristic is
all-important; their doctrine is pan