else can be accounted for. The word "Spirit" comes from the Latin
"spiro" "I breathe," and so means "The Breath," as in Job xxxiii,
4,--"The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath
given me life"; and again in Ps. xxxiii, 6--"By the word of the Lord
were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his
mouth."

In the opening chapter of Genesis, we are told that "the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters." The words rendered "the Spirit of
God" are, in the original Hebrew "rouah Ælohim," which is literally "the
Breathing of God"; and similarly, the ancient religious books of India,
make the "Swára" or Great Breath the commencement of all life and
energy. The word "rouah" in Genesis is remarkable. According to
rabbinical teaching, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a certain
symbolic significance, and when examined in this manner, the root from
which this word is derived conveys the idea of Expansive Movement. It is
the opposite of the word "hoshech," translated "darkness" in the same
passage of our Bible, which is similarly derived from a root conveying
the idea of Hardening and Compressing. It is the same idea that is
personified in the Zendavesta, the sacred book of the ancient Persians,
under the names of Ormuzd, the Spirit of Light; and Ahriman, the Spirit
of Darkness; and similarly in the old Assyrian myth of the struggle
between the Sun-God and Tiámat, the goddess of darkness.

This conception of conflict between two opposite principles, Light and
Darkness, Compression and Expansion, will be found to underlie all the
ancient religions of the world, and it is conspicuous throughout our own
Scriptures. But it should be borne in mind that the oppositeness of
their nature does not necessarily mean conflict. The two principles of
Expansion and Contraction are not necessarily destructive; on the