and Atharvan, are asserted to have been revealed
by Brahma. The fourth is, however, rejected by some authorities and
bears internal evidence of a later composition, at a time when
hierarchical power had become greatly consolidated. These works are
written in an obsolete Sanscrit, the parent of the more recent idiom.
They constitute the basis of an extensive literature, Upavedas, Angas,
&c., of connected works and commentaries. For the most part they consist
of hymns suitable for public and private occasions, prayers, precepts,
legends, and dogmas. The Rig, which is the oldest, is composed chiefly
of hymns, the other three of liturgical formulas. They are of different
periods and of various authorship, internal evidence seeming to indicate
that if the later were composed by priests, the earlier were the
production of military chieftains. They answer to a state of society
advanced from the nomad to the municipal condition. They are based upon
an acknowledgment of a universal Spirit pervading all things. Of this
God they therefore necessarily acknowledge the unity: "There is in truth
but one Deity, the Supreme Spirit, the Lord of the universe, whose work
is the universe." "The God above all gods, who created the earth, the
heavens, the waters." The world, thus considered as an emanation of God,
is therefore a part of him; it is kept in a visible state by his energy,
and would instantly disappear if that energy were for a moment
withdrawn. Even as it is, it is undergoing unceasing transformations,
every thing being in a transitory condition. The moment a given phase is
reached, it is departed from, or ceases. In these perpetual movements
the present can scarcely be said to have any existence, for as the Past
is ending the Future has begun.

[Sidenote: Its transformation.]

In such a never-ceasing career all material things are urged, their
forms continually changing, and returning as it were, through revolving
cycles to similar states. For this reason it is that we may regard our
earth, and the various celestial bodies, as having had a moment of
birth, as having a time of continuance, in which they are passing onward
to an inevitable destruction, and that after the lapse of countless ages
similar progresses will be made, and similar series of events will occur
again and again.

[Sidenote: It is the visi-semblance of God.]

But in this doctrine of universal transformation there is something more
than appears at first. Th