Firstly, through parting mists his eye The snowy mountain-peaks explored, Where in the dazzling gulfs of sky The daring eagle wheeled and soared; And, as subsiding lower, they Owned the bright empire of the day, Softly arrayed in living green, The summits of the hills were seen, On which the orient radiance played, Girt with their garlands of broad trees, Whose foliage twinkled in the breeze And formed a lattice-work of shade; And darker still, and deeper still, As widened out each shelving hill, Dispersing placidly, they showed The destined plains for man's abode, Meadow and mount and champaign wide, And sempiternal forests where Wild beasts and birds find food and lair, And like a snake of monstrous birth Then wider as awoke the day Was seen a speck, a tiny wing, That from the sward drifting away Rose up at heaven's gate to sing A matin hymn melodious. Hark! That orison! It was the lark, Hailing the advent of the sun, Forth like a racer come to run His fiery course; in brilliant day The vapors, vanishing away, Had left to his long march a clear Cloud-unencumbered atmosphere, And glowed as on a map unfurled The panorama of the world. Fair was the landscape-very fair ; Pondered in heart the matter over, What is it that his eyes discover? Until, as earth's green plains it neared, Confest, an angel's self appeared. Eye could not gaze on shape so bright, Sweeter than thought's imaginings, From brightest gold to deepest blue, Blossoms of every form and hue Had fallen to earth in radiant showers. Vainly would human words convey The lily of the Nile her nose; And downward o'er her shoulders white, To curl in hyacinthine flow; Her vesture seemed as from the blooms And tissued with the woof of love. DAVID MACBETH MOIR. THE VEDAS, OR SACRED BOOKS OF INDIA. HE oldest, and nominally the most weighty, authorities of the. Brahmans for their religion and institutions are the Vedas, of which works four are usually enumerated -the Rich, or Rig- Veda; the Yajush, or Yajur Veda: the Súman, or Súma- Veda; and the Atharvana, or Atharva- Veda. Many passages are to be found in Sanskrit writings, some in the Vedas themselves, which limit the number to three, and there is no doubt that the fourth, or Atharva- Veda, although it borrows freely from the Rich, has little in common with the others in its general character or in its style; the language clearly indicates a different and later era. It may therefore be allowably regarded rather as a supplement to three than as one of the four Vedas. Of the other three Vedas, each has its peculiar characteristics, although they have much in common, and they are apparently of different dates, although not separated, perhaps, by any very protracted interval. The Rig- Veda consists of metrical prayers or hymns, termed Súktas, addressed to different divinities, each of which is ascribed to a Rishi, a holy or inspired author. These hymns are put together with little attempt at methodical arrangement, although such as are dedicated to the same deity sometimes follow in a consecutive series. There is not much connection in the stanzas of which they are composed, and the same hymn is sometimes addressed to different divinities. There are in the Veda itself no directions for the use and application of the Súktas, no notices of the occasions on which they are to be employed or of the ceremonies at which they are to be recited these are pointed out by subsequent writers in Sútras, or precepts relating to the ritual; and even for the reputed authors of the hymns and for the deities in whose honor they are composed we are for the most part indebted to independent authorities, especially to an Anukramaniká, or index, accompanying each Veda. The Yajur Veda differs from the Rich in being more particularly a ritual or a collection of liturgical formulæ. The prayers or invocations, when not borrowed from the Rich, are mostly brief and in prose, and are applicable to the consecration of the utensils and materials of ceremonial worship as well as to the praise and worship of the gods. The Sama- Veda is little else than a recast of the Rich, being made up, with very few exceptions, of the very same hymns, broken into parts and arranged anew for the purpose of being chanted on different ceremonial occasions. As far, also, as the Atharva- Veda is to be considered as a Veda, it will be found to comprise many of the hymns of the Rich. From the extensive manner, then, in which the hymns of the Rig- Veda enter into the composition of the other three, we must naturally infer its priority to them and its great er importance to the history of the Hindu religion. In truth, it is to the Rig- Veda that we must have recourse principally, if not exclusively, for correct notions of the oldest and most genuine forms of the institutions, religious or civil, of the Hindus. These remarks apply to what are termed the Sanhitás of the Vedas-the aggregate assemblage in a single collection of the prayers, hymns and liturgic formula of which they are composed. Besides the Sanhitás, the designation Veda includes an extensive class of compositions, entitled collectively Brahmana, which all Brahmanical writers term an integral portion of the Veda. According to them, the Veda consists of two component parts, termed severally Mantra and Brahmana, the first being the hymns and formulæ aggregated in the Sanhitá, the second a collection of rules for the application of the Mantras, directions for the performance of particular rites, citations of the hymns or detached stanzas to be repeated on such occasions, and illustrative remarks or narratives explanatory of the origin and object of the Of the Brahmana portions of the Rig- Veda, the most interesting and important is the Aitareya Brahmana, in which a number of remarkable legends are detailed highly illustrative of the condition of Brahmanism at the time at which it was composed. The Aitareya A'ranyaka, another Brahmana of this Veda, is more mystical and speculative than practical or legendary; of a third, the Kausitaki, little is known. The Brahmana of the Yajur Veda, the S'atapatha, partakes more of the character of the Aitareya Bráhmana; it is of considerable extent, consisting of fourteen books, rite. and contains much curious matter. The Brahmanas of the Súma and Atharva Vedas are few and little known, and the supplementary portions of these two Vedas are more especially the metaphysical and mystical treatises termed Upanishads, belonging to' an entirely different state of the Hindu mind from that which the text of the Vedas sprang from and encouraged. Connected with and dependent upon the Vedas generally also are the treatises on grammar, astronomy, intonation, prosody, ritual and the meaning of obsolete words called the Vedúngas; but these are not portions of the Veda itself, but supplementary to it, and in the form in which we have them are not, perhaps, altogether genuine, and with a few exceptions are not of much importance. Besides these works, there are the Prátisákhyas, or treatises on the grammar of the Veda, and the Sútras, or aphorisms inculcating and describing its practices, the whole constituting a body of Vaidik literature the study of which would furnish occupation for a long and laborious. life. The worship which the Súktas describe comprehends offerings, prayer and praise. The former are chiefly oblations and libations-clarified butter poured on fire and the expressed and fermented juice of the Soma plant presented in ladles to the deities invoked, in what manner does not exactly appear, although it seems to have been sometimes sprinkled on the fire, sometimes on the ground, or rather on the Kusa, or sacred grass, strewed on the floor; and in all cases the residue was drunk by the assistants. The ceremony takes place in the dwelling of the worshipper, in a chamber |