BABYLON AND PERSIA

6oMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.quently, between the powers of Light and Darkness,the gods and the demons,is a prominent groundfeatureof the primeval Aryan conception of nature,as of every primitive religion in the world.Withthe Eranians that opposition became the one funda¬mental law, to the absorption and almost exclusionof the many picturescjue mythical details and incidfcntswith which the poetry of other Aryan nationsis adorned to overloading.The hard struggle for alife hedged in with dangers, crowded with hardshipsand difficulties, had weaned them from the idlingcontemplation, the toying wifh fancies and images,which is the essence of a myth-making poetry. Theydrew the great Battle-Myth down- to the earth, andembodied it in the contrasts with which their ownland teemed, thus preparing the way for the dualismwhich is the keynote of their national religion.4. There was no need of inventing new symbols toexpress this tendency.It was sufficient to empha¬size the conflict, which formed the groundwork ofthe oldest Aryan mythical religion. The ancientSky-god and his everlasting foe, the Cloud-Serpentthe Obscurer of Light,became the chief persons inwhom all good and all harm were embodied, andgradually drove the other mythical agents into thebackground. As we trace the ancient myths inwhat is left us of the Avesta, we are struck with thegreat development given to the spiritual meaning ofthem, which, in the sister race of India, is only occa¬sional and subordinate, the physical significance de¬cidedly predominating.5. Thus we shall have some difficulty at first in