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144
THE SPEECH OF THE GODS
Let us compare this with the Upanishad. "From that self (Brahman) sprang ether, (or spirit.) "From ether sprang air;(expansion and heat.) "From air sprang fire; (light or clour.) "From fire, water; from water, earth; "From earth, herbs; from herbs, food; from food,
man.'
Here we have exactly the order we have arrived at by taking the spiritual values of the sounds as they occur in the human throat and mouth, A,-god;R,-- spirit; H,-heat;L, ---light; W,--water; K,--hardness; J,--earth; Ith,-Growth; B,--life; M,--death.
A few more sounds may be added. S, formed by a rapid number of sibilations, means “ number.” D means "descent"' or "falling"; T "ascend.”
We will now try how far we may be enabled with the key obtained, to comprehend the intellectual and spiritual life of our ancestors. Nothing remaids in writing which tells of their wisdom; but no historian could have taken the measure of it so. exactly as it is recorded in the bare roots which have come down to us. The traditions about these men might be untrustworthy and enlarged upon by the imagination of those who related them; but the!. words contain a history which cannot be otherwise that true, because they were intuitive.
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