The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1859-05-27
VOL. XI---NO. 557.
Origin of Idolatry In India.

amount Of metaphysics and poetry. The
paper is on wrhe Castcs and Creeds of
india" and it viii well repay any reader
who will thoroughly study it. Tho au-
thor is profoundly acquainted with the
subject which he discusses. He has been
describing the condition Of the Aryan
race, who from Bactria descended into
Bengal and spread over that province.
and gradually extended into the more
southerly provinces of India :7si lrFii1
/ such are fragmentary facts Of their So
clal existence, as We catch glimpses of it
| IN the ancient hymps and prayers of the
Vedas. But what Of their religion al
that early time? A species OF Sun wor-
ship-rather, we should say. q worship of
Light, alike in its orbs and its phenomena
,l,-came with them from their homeland
beyond the mountains, afterwards to bo
i Isplr1tualized IN far nobler worship by
the Brahmans on the Gangcs. Can we
wonder at the worship of Light by those
early nations? Carry our thoughts back
to their remote times. and our only won..
der would be if they did not SO adore IL.
The Son is life as well as light to all that
is on the Earth--as we of the present day
know even better than they of Old
Moving in dazzling radiance or brilliant.
hued pagentry through the sky scanning
IN calm royalty all that passes below, il
seems the very god of this fair world.
which lives and blooms but in his smile.
The Seasons are the ebbing and flowing
of Earth's life beneath the variance OF
his presence. All day he fills the eve
and gladdens the heart but when he
withdraws, and night comes, all droops.
existence stops, the world disappears
mysterious power then goes forth over
the Earth, causing all things to sink into
q trance--a suspension of being Sleep
does not come upon man at night merely
because his body is wearied, or because he
can no more see to work. but because q
! drowsy spirit is then abroad, the very op-
I posite OF the exciting influence of the
solar rays. Chemists cannot catch and
analyze that influence, but it is there
Flowers foldup their petals-plants droop
; their leaves-and the life spirit of man.
, folding in upon itself, withdraws from tho
surface, and centres in the brain and
d. ganglia to rest and dream. I The world,
, too, sinks out of sight: in the darkness
; it almost ceases to be. Fancy those
primitive Arians in their upland homes,
where they counted time by Winters, or
Journeying under tents in their new
! found Indian cline. Theirs are none of
those appliances by which modern science
enables us to turn night into day; fire
} smouldering lightlcss in it's ashes is oil
, that fingers with one through the dark
ness. If he wake up restless from his
couch during the night, or rise before the
dawn, what are the feelings and thoughts
which fill his mind? The world is gone
from him. Instead of the many colored
earth and brilliant sky, blank darkness
fills his eye, and from out the blackness
things knock against him-objects which
he cannot see, perhaps cannot comprc-
hend-very ghosts of dead world which
once smiled around him. The natural or
accidental sounds Of night come upon
him with weirdlike influence. Perhaps,
too, he is cold, and shiyers in the night
wind as he stands at the door of his hut.
But 10! in the far east beaming radi-
ance streams up from behind the black
circuit of the horizon; sky re-appears
and earth begins to tremble into renewed
being beneath the quivering light. A few
minutes more, and the sun, his god and
benetactor of yesterday-ay, and of all
the yesterdays of his life--shoots up
gradually and in dazzling splendor into
the sky. The uplands first leap into view,
like islets of light above sea of. night
and down, down the heights comes the
r sunny tide of returning day. till it over
2 spreads the whole plains beiow-till woods
and streams and rocks and verdant meads
y start into perceived existence; and one by
one the long shadows shrink up and dis
appear, till the world stands clear and
shadowless beneath the tropic noonday
sum- River and cascade fash and sparkle
the green masses of the woods wave
like leafy seas--birds awake and sing
tho bounding deerand the bleating herds
: are again in motion; mans world is back
st again, and eiate with the sunny JOY he
III resumes the iaPors OF life. NO wonder.
10 then, that Sabaisn, the worship OF light
prevailed amongst all the leading ma
q tions OF the early world. by the rivers
OF lnaia, on tne mountains OF Persia, IN
N tie piaiiis Oh assyria, carry mahkihd thus
O adoreu; the hisher spirits IN eaeh country
Q risihs IN sPirltuai thousht from the solar
orc up 10 filh whose vicegefaht IL seems
: 10 De, the sun OF all pelhg' whose divine
a lient rraohateS ana purihes the world OF
soui as the SOAR raulahce aoes the worio
. OF sense; EgyPt, 100 though its Iaitn ne
ou. 9iilhS haomn W Us, Joihea III l,is
to P tba Sun @ tbo % iouoms Creeks rex se; snortec
With tbo tbo,sbt yI;le foeiina Il a,mnos,
III b;dirg Il under the n,ytbic ind;v;dnai;t,
rb;ob tbe;r Gv.ly fanov s,,oor ;,nnoso3
- mon IL Even mosaic tb;na makas n
- ferings to the yellow orb of day tn,
~ ,yanderino Celts and Teutons hold feast,