existing? what was the refuge of what? was water the deep abyss, the chaos which swallowed up everything?" Then his mind, turning away from nature, dwells upon man, and the problem of human life. "There was no death, therefore there was nothing immortal There was no space, no life, and lastly, there was no time--no difference between day and night--no solar torch by which morning might have been told from evening. That One breathed breathless by itself, other than it, nothing since has been. That One breathed and lived; it enjoyed more than mere existence; yet its life was not dependent upon anything else, as our life depends upon the air we breathe. It breathed, breathless. Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled in gloom, profound as ocean without life." Mueller then rather describes what the poet means than gives his words; I will, therefore, adopt now, for the rest of the hymn, the metrical version, which he gives at p. 564:-- "The germ that still lay covered in the husk Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat. Then first came Love upon it, the new spring Of mind; yea, poets in their hearts discerned, Pondering this bond between created things And uncreated. Comes this spark from earth, Piercing and all-pervading, or from heaven? These seeds were sown, and mighty power arose, Nature below, and Power and Will above. Who knows the secret? who proclaimed it here? Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang? The gods themselves came later into being. Who knows from whence this great creation sprang? He, from whom all this great creation came. Whether His will created or was mute, The Most High seer, that is in highest heaven, He knows it; or, perchance, e'en He knows not"