er the shadow of the Himalayas, centuries before Homer.

Such uniformity points not to a common source in history, but in
psychology. Man, chiefly cognizant of his soul through his senses,
thought with an awful horror of the night which deprived him of the use
of one and foreshadowed the loss of all. Therefore _light_ and _life_
were to him synonymous; therefore all religions promise to lead

"From night to light,
From night to heavenly light;"

therefore He who rescues is ever the Light of the World; therefore it is
said "to the upright ariseth light in darkness;" therefore everywhere
the kindling East, the pale Dawn, is the embodiment of his hopes and the
centre of his reminiscences. Who shall say that his instinct led him
here astray? For is not, in fact, all life dependent on light? Do not
all those marvellous and subtle forces known to the older chemists as
the imponderable elements, without which not even the inorganic crystal
is possible, proceed from the rays of light? Let us beware of that
shallow science so ready to shout Eureka, and reverently acknowledge a
mysterious intuition here displayed which joins with the latest
conquests of the human mind to repeat and emphasize that message which
the Evangelist heard of the Spirit and declared unto men, that "God is
Light."[173-1]

Both these heroes, let it be observed, live in the uttermost east; both
are the mythical fathers of the race. To the east, therefore, should
these nations have pointed as their original dwelling place. This they
did in spite of history. Cusic, who takes up the story of the Iroquois a
thousand years before the Christian era, locates them first in the most
eastern region they ever possessed. While the Algonkins with one voice
called those of their tribes living nearest the rising sun _Abnakis_,
our ancestors at the east, or at the dawn; literally our _white_
ancestors.[174-1] I designedly emphasize this literal rendering. It
reminds one of the white twin of Iroquois legend, and illustrates how
the color white came to be intimately associated with the morning light
and its beneficent effects. Moreover color has a specific effect on the
mind; there is a music to the eye as well as to the ear; and white,
which holds all hues in itself, disposes the soul to all pleasant and
elevating emotions.[174-2] Not fashion alone bids the bride wreathe her
brow with orange flowers, nor was it a mere figure of speech that led
the inspired poet to