mer, and winter leading them on
from year to year, and the sun in his rising and setting lifting up
their thoughts from their meadows and groves which they loved, to a
world in the East, from which they had come, or to a world in the
West, to which they were gladly hastening on. They had what I call
religion, though it was very simple, and hardly reduced as yet to the
form of a creed. "There is a Beyond," that was all they felt and knew,
though they tried, as well as they could, to give names to that
Beyond, and thus to change religion into _a_ religion. They had not as
yet a name for God--certainly not in our sense of the word--or even a
general name for the gods; but they invented name after name to enable
them to grasp and comprehend by some outward and visible tokens powers
whose presence they felt in nature, though their true and full essence
was to them, as it is to us, invisible and incomprehensible.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 150: Wilson, Lectures, p. 9.]

[Footnote 151: As it has been doubted, and even denied, that the
publication of the Rig-Veda and its native commentary has had some
important bearing on the resuscitation of the religious life of India,
I feel bound to give at least one from the many testimonials which I
have received from India. It comes from the Adi Brahma Samaj, founded
by Ram Mohun Roy, and now represented by its three branches, the Adi
Brahma Samaj, the Brahma Samaj of India, and the Sadharano Brahma
Samaj. "The Committee of the Adi Brahma Samaj beg to offer you their
hearty congratulations on the completion of the gigantic task which
has occupied you for the last quarter of a century. By publishing the
Rig-Veda at a time when Vedic learning has by some sad fatality become
almost extinct in the land of its birth, you have conferred a boon
upon us Hindus, for which we cannot but be eternally grateful."]

[Footnote 152: Rig-Veda X. 114, 5.]

[Footnote 153: Rig-Veda X. 121.]

[Footnote 154: Muir, iv. 9.]

[Footnote 155: Rig-Veda I. 139, 11.]

[Footnote 156: Rig-Veda III. 6, 9.]

[Footnote 157: The following names of Devapatnis or wives of the gods
are given in the Vaitana Sutra XV. 3 (ed. Garbe): P_ri_thivi, the wife
of Agni, Va_k_ of Vata, Sena of Indra, Dhena of B_ri_haspati, Pathya
of Pushan, Gayatri of Vasu, Trish_t_ubh of Rudra, _G_agati of Aditya,
Anush_t_ubh of Mitra, Vira_g_ of Varu_n_a, Pankti of Vish_n_u, Diksha
of Soma.]

[Footnote 158: Rig-Veda III. 9, 9.]

[Footnote 1