398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



While among savage tribes the evil being is represented by- 

 different members of the animal kingdom, in nearly all mytholo- 

 gies of civilized peoples the evil power is depicted in the form of 

 a gigantic serpent. Indra — in the form of a bull — fights the 

 demon serpent Vitria. In Persia the same idea is represented in 

 the evil Ahriman, in his continual warfare with the good Ormuzd. 

 In Egypt, it was Osiris and Typhon ; in Scandinavia, Odin and 

 Loki ; and in Judaism, Jehovah and Satan. 



The necessity of a third being to mediate between the two op- 

 posing powers seems the natural outgrowth of this dualistic con- 

 ception, producing the triad. It is worthy of note that the idea so 

 prominent in savage theology — immaculate conception — remains 

 imbedded in the mythology of civilized races, the third member 

 of the triads being always represented as virgin-born. In Egypt, 

 Horus, the son of the virgin goddess Isis, overcomes the power of 

 the evil Typhon. Zoroasterism retained for a long period the 

 dualistic conception, finally added to the two antagonistic powers, 

 Mithras as the Savior and Mediator. In India it was Vishnu, 

 who took upon himself the form of a man, and became known as 

 the Restorer. 



The same impulse which forced men to rise from the discon- 

 nected fancies of animal-worship, compelled a further advance to 

 the adoration of one God. This monotheistic element is seen run- 

 ning through the theological conceptions of savage and civilized 

 peoples, in their worship of one supreme God presiding over a 

 number of inferior deities. Even in polytheistic Rome there can 

 be framed from the leading Roman authors an almost complete 

 system of monotheism ; while it is well known that, from the time 

 of Anaxagoras (500 b. a), the great philosophers of Greece were 

 virtually monotheists. The conception of one God was accepted 

 by the Israelites through the spiritual teachings of the great 

 prophets, a few centuries before the Christian era; yet modern 

 scholarship has proved bej^ond all doubt that this belief "was 

 the evolution there of a germ implanted in the human mind 

 everywhere." "When the gentle Prophet of Nazareth — aided by 

 that energetic philosopher Paul — had freed the Hebrew God from 

 the narrow limit of nationality, and portrayed the Soul of the 

 Universe as the loving All-Father, who is a spirit and should be 

 worshiped in spirit and in truth, the highest monotheistic concep- 

 tion was given to the world. 



The striking likeness exhibited in sacrificial ceremonies among 

 all ancient peoples proves that they can be traced to one type of 

 society common to primitive man, and that form, according to 

 the highest scholarship, isbased upon the system of totem stocks. 

 The animal worshiped as a totem is never eaten by members of the 

 clan excepting upon occasions of expiatory sacrifices, although 



