It has a directness and a simplicity, without affectation, which would incline one to believe that it was not made mechanically, but composed with a devotional spirit that gave voice to genuine feeling.
We will now translate another poem (carefully preserving all the tautological phraseology), a hymn To DAWN _( Rig Veda_ VI.

64).
Aloft the lights of Dawn, for beauty gleaming, Have risen resplendent, like to waves of water; She makes fair paths, (makes) all accessible; And good is she, munificent and kindly.
Thou lovely lookest, through wide spaces shin'st thou, Up fly thy fiery shining beams to heaven; Thy bosom thou reveals't, thyself adorning, Aurora, goddess gleaming bright in greatness.
The ruddy kine (the clouds) resplendent bear her, The blessed One, who far and wide extendeth.
As routs his foes a hero armed with arrows, As driver swift, so she compels the darkness.
Thy ways are fair; thy paths, upon the mountains; In calm, self-shining one, thou cross'st the waters.
O thou whose paths are wide, to us, thou lofty Daughter of Heaven, bring wealth for our subsistence.
Bring (wealth), thou Dawn, who, with the kine, untroubled Dost bring us good commensurate with pleasure, Daughter of Heaven, who, though thou art a goddess, Didst aye at morning-call come bright and early.
Aloft the birds fly ever from their dwelling, And men, who seek for food, at thy clear dawning.
E'en though a mortal stay at home and serve thee, Much joy to him, Dawn, goddess (bright), thou bringest.
The "morning call" might, indeed, suggest the ritual, but it proves only a morning prayer or offering.

Is this poem of a "singularly refined character," or "preeminently sacerdotal" in appearance?
One other example (in still a different metre) may be examined, to see if it bear on its face evidence of having been made with "reference to ritual application," or of being "liturgical from the very start." To INDRA _( Rig Veda_, I.11).
'Tis Indra all (our) songs extol, Him huge as ocean in extent; Of warriors chiefest warrior he, Lord, truest lord for booty's gain.
In friendship, Indra, strong as thine Naught will we fear, O lord of strength; To thee we our laudations sing, The conqueror unconquered.[25] The gifts of Indra many are, And inexhaustible his help Whene'er to them that praise he gives The gift of booty rich in kine.
A fortress-render, youthful, wise, Immeasurably strong was born Indra, the doer of every deed, The lightning-holder, far renowned.
'Twas thou, Bolt-holder, rent'st the cave Of Val, who held the (heavenly) kine;[26] Thee helped the (shining) gods, when roused (To courage) by the fearless one.[27] Indra, who lords it by his strength, Our praises now have loud proclaimed; His generous gifts a thousand are, Aye, even more than this are they.
This is poetry.

Not great poetry perhaps, but certainly not ground out to order, as some of the hymns appear to have been.

Yet, it may be said, why could not a poetic hymn have been written in a ritualistic environment?
But it is on the hymns themselves that one is forced to depend for the belief in the existence of ritualism, and we claim that such hymns as these, which we have translated as literally as possible, show rather that they were composed without reference to ritual application.