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THEOSOPHY
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symbols on them: the cross found in Etruscan graves beyond the memory of man, baked into the clay vessel that stands at the foot of the corpse; and the moment the grave is opened, so ancient is it, that a flash, as it were, of the corpse is seen and then but dust. But the clay remains. In Maya temples unburied, in Egyptian tombs unsealed, the same symbols of cross, of triangle, of point, of circle, familiar to every student. The comparative mythologist draws his conclusion. It was aimed originally against one faith, Christianity, for it was in Christendom, from Christendom, that the discoveries were made. What was the conclusion? All religions have one basis; all religions have one foundation; all religions are forms of the same idea ; and then—that foundation is human ignorance. The savage barbarian personified the powers of nature; he saw the sun in his majesty, he heard the wind in its fury, the earthquake shattered the mountain, the torrent over-flooded the valley, and he said: "These are the Gods who are angry, I must propitiate them and make them my friends." And out of that personification of the savage, said the comparative mythologist, every religion of the world has arisen, no matter how refined it may be now, no matter how philosophic it later might have become, no matter what may be the crudities of the old and the perfections of the new, this is the basis of all religions-human ignorance, ignorance of the savage personifying nature and seeing that as God. Out of that every faith has arisen, out of that every faith has grown, their birth-mark shows that they are all the
