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they begotten, who knows, O ye wise seers? Whatever exists, that they carry."[58] But all that they do they do under the command of Mitra.[59]
The most significant fact in connection with the hymns to Heaven and Earth is that most of them are expressly for sacrificial intent. "With sacrifices I praise Heaven and Earth" (I. 159. 1); "For the sake of the sacrifice are ye come down (to us)" (IV. 56. 7). In VI. 70 they are addressed in sacrificial metaphors; in VII. 53. 1 the poet says: "I invoke Heaven and Earth with sacrifices," etc. The passivity of the two gods makes them yield in importance to their son, the active Savitar, who goes between the two parents. None of these hymns bears the impress of active religious feeling or has poetic value. They all seem to be reflective, studied, more or less mechanical, and to belong to a period of theological philosophy. To Earth alone without Heaven are addressed one uninspired hymn and a fragment of the same character: "O Earth be kindly to us, full of dwellings and painless, and give us protection."[60] In the burial service the dead are exhorted to "go into kindly mother earth" who will be "wool-soft, like a maiden."[61] The one hymn to Earth should perhaps be placed parallel with similar meditative and perfunctory laudations in the Homeric hymns:
TO EARTH (V. 84).
In truth, O broad extended earth, Thou bear'st the render of the hills, [62] Thou who, O mighty mountainous one, Quickenest created things with might. Thee praise, O thou that wander'st far, The hymns which light accompany, Thee who, O shining one, dost send Like eager steeds the gushing rain. Thou mighty art, who holdest up With strength on earth the forest trees,