all the qualities which the sky and the sun and the dawn
shared in common, excluding only those that were peculiar to each.

Here you see how, by the simplest process, the D e v a s, the bright ones,
might become and did become the D e v a s, the heavenly, the kind, the
powerful, the invisible, the immortal--and, in the end, something very
like the [Greek: theoi] (or _dii_) of Greeks and Romans.

In this way one Beyond, the Beyond of Nature, was built up in the
ancient religion of the Veda, and peopled with Devas, and Asuras, and
Vasus, and Adityas, all names for the bright solar, celestial,
diurnal, and vernal powers of nature, without altogether excluding,
however, even the dark and unfriendly powers, those of the night, of
the dark clouds, or of winter, capable of mischief, but always
destined in the end to succumb to the valor and strength of their
bright antagonists.

* * * * *

We now come to the second nave of the Vedic temple, the second
_Beyond_ that was dimly perceived, and grasped and named by the
ancient Rishis, namely the world of the Departed Spirits.[276]

There was in India, as elsewhere, another very early faith, springing
up naturally in the hearts of the people, that their fathers and
mothers, when they departed this life, departed to a Beyond, wherever
it might be, either in the East from whence all the bright Devas
seemed to come, or more commonly in the West, the land to which they
seemed to go, called in the Veda the realm of Yama or the setting sun.
The idea that beings which once had been, could ever cease to be, had
not yet entered their minds; and from the belief that their fathers
existed somewhere, though they could see them no more, there arose the
belief in another Beyond, and the germs of another religion.

Nor was the actual power of the fathers quite imperceptible or extinct
even after their death. Their presence continued to be felt in the
ancient laws and customs of the family, most of which rested on their
will and their authority. While their fathers were alive and strong,
their will was law; and when, after their death, doubts or disputes
arose on points of law or custom, it was but natural that the memory
and the authority of the fathers should be appealed to to settle such
points--that the law should still be their will.

Thus Manu says (IV. 178): "On the path on which his fathers and
grandfathers have walked, on that path of good men let hi