Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/97

 * 1 T S The Hieratic Religion upon the economic motives, or the all-around per- sonal character of its authors as upon the extent and quality of their mental vision. To treat sacri- ficial themes in the high poctic way seems to most of us hollow mockery. But we must not forget that such performances, to some extent, continue the pious ways of the fathers; that the acts in part sym- bolise real religious feeling; and that most religions have a trick of throwing a poetic and sentimental glamor around practices that are trivial intrinsically. Then the difference of standards in a semi-bar- barous time, such as the time of the Rig-Veda, must count for something. After all that I have said to forefend what may be called a padded or swollen estimate of Rig-Veda poetry and religion, both the poetry and the religion are of singular interest and importance. In its essence the Rig-Veda is not lit- urgy but mythology. Its priest-poets, in their heart of hearts, are not mere technicians, but tense ob- servers of the great facts and acts of nature, and worshippers of the powers whom they fancy at work in nature. In fact they are both poets and philoso- phers. There is in this matter some real cause for surprise. We must not forget the long, almost in- definite past of Hindu mythology and religion. I shall endeavor to make this clear in the next lect- ure when we come to deal with the reconstructions 6 81