BABYLON AND PERSIA

50 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.that the Aryas prayed and sacrificed for in thoseprimitive times,a numerous and healthy posterity,increase of cattle, health and long life for them¬selves, and victory in their wars with the natives ofthe countries they occupied,were the very thingsthat could not fail to come to them in the conditionsin which their life was passed, and with their superi¬ority of race So there was nothing to shake, andevery thing to confirm, their excessive faith; forman, unenlightened by scientific culture, conse¬quently believing in powers, not laws, is ever proneto admit rather supernatural than natural agencies. ,1 8. From this conception there was but one stepand not a wide one eitherto making of the hymn,the Sacred Text (Mantra), a Person, an independentdeity, to be individually invoked and adored, as be¬ing not only beneficent in a general way, but likeIndra, Soma, and other devas, essentially " demonkilling"^vritrahan. It is to be noted that, in orderto ins'lire its full power and effectiveness, the Mantrawas to be recited at the proper time, in the properway, with the proper intonations of voice, all strictlydetermined by rules ; rulesnumerous, complicatedand infinitely minutegoverning also every step ofthe sacrifice which usually accompanied the recitation.If these rules be perfectly complied with, the Mantra,the sacrifice wfll take effect, quite independently of thedisposition of mind of the worshipper. If departedfrom in the smallest particular, prayer and sacrificeboth are worse than useless-they most likely willact the wrong way and bring down disaster on theworshipper's head, though his soul maybe filled with