INTERPRETING POWER OF THE POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY. 29

modification of the theological philosophy, to which, especially in a social view, must be referred whatever may appear to be organic in the metaphysical philosophy, These explanations must at first appear obscure; but the applications we shall have to make of them will render them unquestionable as we proceed. Meantime, it was impossible to defer them, and to neglect the true origin of the metaphysical influence, concerned as it is in the great transition from fetichism to polytheism. Besides the immediate scientific necessity, it is certainly desirable to trace, from the cradle of humanity upwards, that spontaneous and constant rivalry, first intellectual and then political, between the theological and the metaphysical spirit, which, protracted to the present moment, and necessary till the preparatory revolution is accomplished, is the main cause of our disturbed and conflicting condition.

For the length and complexity of these discussions, their importance must be my excuse. Any irrationality at our starting-point would have vitiated the whole of my historical investigation, while the first stage of human development is little known and confusedly apprehended. The second period will be comparatively easy to present, as it has been better explored, and is less remote in character from our own experience. We learn already, however, the efficacy of the positive philosophy in transferring us to the successive points of view from which the phases of human development may be understood, without losing any of the homogeneousness and independence of its own. rational decisions. The value of this property, which is owing to the relative spirit of the new philosophy, will appear more and more as we proceed, and will enable us to comprehend the whole of human history without supposing Man to have ever been in his organization intellectually or morally different from what he is now. If I have inspired any kind of intellectual sympathy in favour of fetichism, which is the lowest aspect of the theological philosophy, it will be easy to show henceforth that the spirit of each period has been not only the most suitable to the corresponding situation, but accordant with the special accomplishment of a determinate process, essential to the development of human nature.

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CHAPTER VIII.

SECOND PHASE: POLYTHEISM.--DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL AND MILITARY SYSTEM.

ONOTHEISM occupies so large a space in the view of modern minds, that it is scarcely possible to form a just estimate of the preceding phases of the theological philosophy; but thinkers who can attain to anything like impartiality in their review of religious periods may satisfy themselves by analysis, and in spite of appearances, that polytheism, regarded in its entire course, is the principal form of the theological system. Noble as we shall find the office of monotheism to have been, we shall remain convinced that polytheism was even more completely and specially adapted to satisfy the social needs of the corresponding period. Moreover, we shall feel that, while every state of the theological philosophy is provisional, polytheism has been the most durable of any; while monotheism, being the nearest to the entire cessation of the theological régime, was best fitted to guide civilized humanity through its transition from the ancient to the modern philosophy.

True sense of

Our method must be to take an abstract view of each of the essential properties of polytheism; and then to examine the various forms of the corresponding régime. In doing this, I shall regard Polytheism in Polytheism. the broad popular sense, as it was understood by the multitude and expressed by Homer, and not under any allegorical aspect that erudite and imaginative minds may find in it. It is only under a monotheistic view that the ancient gods can be symbolically regarded. In the infant state of human reason, a great number of gods was required for a great variety of objects, their special attributes being correspondent to the infinite diversity of phenomena; and they were per

MENTAL OPERATION OF POLYTHEISM.

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fectly distinct and independent of each other. This view, prescribed by analysis, is confirmed by all contemporary records, in which I suppose our scholars will hardly look for the hazy symbolism which they themselves propose.

Mind.

We have seen that, intellectually speaking, Its operation fetichism was more closely incorporated with on the human human thought than any other religion; so that the conversion into polytheism was in fact a decline. But the effect of polytheism upon human imagination, and its social efficacy, rendered the second period that of the utmost development of the religious spirit, though its elementary force was already impaired. The religious spirit has indeed never since found so vast a field, and so free a scope, as under the régime of a direct and artless theology, scarcely modified, as yet, by metaphysics, and in

way restrained by positive conceptions, which are traceable at that period only in some unconnected and empirical observations on the simplest cases of natural phenomena. As all incidents were attributed to the arbitrary will of a multitude of supernatural beings, theological ideas must have governed minds in a more varied, determinate, and uncontested way than under any subsequent system. If we compare the daily course of active life as it must have been with the sincere polytheist, with what it is now to the devoutest of monotheists, we cannot but admit, in opposition to popular prejudice, that the religious spirit must have flourished most in the first case, the understanding of the polytheist being beset, on all occasions and under the most varied forms, by a multitude of express theological explanations; so that his commonest operations were spontaneous acts of special worship, perpetually kept alive by a constant renewal of form and object. The imaginary world then filled a much larger space in men's minds than under the monotheistic system, as we may know by the constant complaints of Christian teachers about the difficulty of keeping the disciples of their faith up to the true religious point of view: a difficulty which could scarcely have existed under the more familiar and less abstract influence of a polytheistic faith. Judged by the proper criterion of all philosophy, its degree of contrast

with the doctrine of the invariableness of natural laws, polytheism is much more imperfect than monotheism, as we shall see when we have to consider the diminution of miracles and oracles wherever even the Mohammedan form of monotheism has prevailed. Visions and apparitions, for instance, are exceptional things in modern theology, reserved for a few privileged persons here and there, and for important purposes; whereas every pagan of any mark had personal intercourse with various deities, on the most trifling subjects, some of his divinities being probably his relations, more or less remote.-The only specious objection to this estimate, as far as I know, is that monotheism is superior to polytheism in inspiring devotion. But this objection (besides that it leaves other arguments unaffected) rests upon a confusion between the intellectual and the social power of religious beliefs; and then upon a vicious estimate of the latter, from bringing the ancient and modern habits of thought too near together. Because polytheism pervaded all human action, it is difficult to determine its share in each social act; whereas under monotheism its co-operation may be much less, while it is more marked, under the clearer separation of the active from the speculative life. It would also be absurd to look to polytheism for the particular kind of proselytism, and therefore of fanaticism, which is proper to monotheism, whose spirit of exclusiveness inspires a repugnance towards all other faiths, which could not be felt in the same degree by men who, admitting a multitude of gods, could not much object to recognize a few more, whenever their admission became possible. The only way of estimating the moral and social efficacy of polytheism is by comparing it with its assigned function, in promoting human progress,—that function being very unlike the one appointed to monotheism. In this view, we shall find that the political influence of the one was certainly not less extensive or indispensable than that of the other: so that this consideration leaves untouched the various concurring proofs of polytheism being the greatest possible development of the religious spirit, which began to decline, directly and rapidly, on assuming the form of monotheism.

In our examination of polytheism, I shall take first the

scientific point of view; then the poetic or artistic; and finally the industrial.

Polytheistic science.

It is easily seen how unfavourable to science must be that theological philosophy which represses all scientific expansion under the weight of detailed religious explanations of all phenomena; thereby affixing the stigma of impiety to every idea of invariable physical laws. The superiority of monotheism in this view will be apparent hereafter; but, however great that superiority may be, it is not the less true that scientific education began under polytheism, and cannot therefore be incompatible with it, nor without some encouragement from it.

The first consideration is of the importance of the step taken by human reason in rising from fetichism into polytheism, the first effort of speculative activity, and the greatest. In this, the distinct intellectual life of our race began; and this was the indispensable preparation, without which the conception of invariable natural laws could never have been formed. When all bodies were no longer supposed to be divine in their nature, the secondary details of phenomena were set free for observation, without theological intermixture; and the religious conception related to beings distinct from the body, and residing elsewhere. The general conception of destiny or fate, introduced by polytheism, was also a substantial primitive ground for the principle of the invariableness of natural laws. While phenomena must then have appeared more irregular than we can conceive, polytheism exceeded its aim by presenting such a crowd of heterogeneous and unruly divinities as could not be reconciled with so much of regularity in the external world as must be admitted; and hence the creation of a particular god of immutability, whose supremacy must be acknowledged by all the rest, amidst their proper independence. Thus was the notion of Fate the necessary corrective of polytheism, from which it is naturally inseparable;-to say nothing of the aid it afforded in the final transition to monotheism. Thus polytheism disclosed an access to the ulterior principle of the invariableness of natural laws by subordinating the innumerable wills of its deities to some steady rules, however obscure those rules