That germ primeval did the waters cherish, Wherein the gods together all assembled, The One that in the goat's [5] source is established, Within which all the worlds are comprehended. Ye cannot find him who these worlds created: That which comes nearer to you is another. In a cosmogonic poem (x. 121) of considerable beauty the creator further appears under the name of Hiranyagarbha, "germ of gold," a notion doubtless suggested by the rising sun. Here, too, the waters are, in producing Agni, regarded as bearing the germ of all life. The Germ of Gold at first came into being, Produced as the one lord of all existence. The earth he has supported and this heaven: What god shall we with sacrifices worship? Who gives the breath of life and vital power, To whose commands the gods all render homage, Whose shade is death and life immortal: What god shall we with sacrifices worship? What time the mighty waters came containing All germs of life and generating Agni, Then was produced the gods' one vital spirit: What god shall we with sacrifices worship? Who with his mighty power surveyed the waters That intellect and sacrifice engendered, The one god over all the gods exalted: What god shall we with sacrifices worship? The refrain receives its answer in a tenth stanza (added to the poem at a later time), which proclaims the unknown god to be Prajapati. Two other cosmogonic poems explain the origin of the world philosophically as the evolution of the existent (sat) from the non-existent (asat). In the somewhat confused account given in one of them (x. 72), three stages of creation may be distinguished: first the world is produced, then the gods, and lastly the sun. The theory of evolution is here still combined with that of creation:-- Even as a smith, the Lord of Prayer, Together forged this universe: In earliest ages of the gods From what was not arose what is. A far finer composition than this is the Song of Creation (x. 129):-- Non-being then existed not, nor being: There was no air, nor heaven which is beyond it. What motion was there? Where? By whom directed? Was water there, and fathomless abysses? Death then existed not, nor life immortal; Of neither night nor day was any semblance. The One breathed calm and windless by self-impulse: There was not any other thing beyond it. Darkness at first was covered up by darkness; This universe was indistinct and fluid. The empty space that by the void was hidden. That One was by the force of heat engendered. Desire then at the first arose within it, Desire, which was the earliest seed of spirit. The bond of being in non-being sages Discovered searching in their hearts with wisdom.