[80] Is there not a seeming reference to this thought of divine hermaphrodism in the well-known passage of Genesis? "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: _male and female_ created he them." And so being created "male and female," they were "in the image of God." [81] The world being animated by man, says Creuzer, in his learned work on Symbolism, received from him the two sexes, represented by heaven and the earth. Heaven, as the fecundating principle, was male, and the source of fire; the earth, as the fecundated, was female, and the source of humidity. All things issued from the alliance of these two principles. The vivifying powers of the heavens are concentrated in the sun, and the earth, eternally fixed in the place which it occupies, receives the emanations from the sun, through the medium of the moon, which sheds upon the earth the germs which the sun had deposited in its fertile bosom. The Lingam is at once the symbol and the mystery of this religious idea. [82] Such was the opinion of some of the ancient sun-worshippers, whose adorations were always performed in the open air, because they thought no temple was spacious enough to contain the sun; and hence the saying, "Mundus universus est templum solis"--the universe is the temple of the sun. Like our ancient brethren, they worshipped only on _the highest hills_. Another analogy. [83] _Asgard_, the abode of the gods, is shaded by the ash tree, _Ydrasil_, where the gods assemble every day to do justice. The branches of this tree extend themselves over the whole world, and reach above the heavens. It hath three roots, extremely distant from each other: one of them is among the gods; the second is among the giants, where the abyss formerly was; the third covers _Niflheim_, or hell, and under this root is the fountain _Vergelmer_, whence flow the infernal rivers.--_Edda, Fab._ 8. [84] Exod. iii. 5. [85] Commentaries _in loco_. [86] Commentary on Exod. iii. 5. [87] Iamblichi Vita Pythag. c. 105. In another place he says, "Θύειν χρὴ ἀνυπόδετον, ϗαι πρὸς τα ἱερὰ προστιέναι,"--We must sacrifice and enter temples with the shoes off. Ibid. c. 85. [88] "Quod etiam nunc apud plerasque Orientis nationes piaculum sit, calceato pede templorum pavimenta calcasse." [89] Beth Habbechirah, cap. vii. [90] Histor. Landm. vol. ii. p. 481. [91] "Non datur nobis potestas adeundi templum nisi nudibus pedibus." [92] Commentaries, _ut supra_. [93] See a paper "on the religious ceremonies of the Hindus," by H.T. Colebrooke, Esq. in the Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 357. [94] A Specimen of the Critical History of the Celtic Religion and Learning. Letter ii. § xvii.