Religion as a Factor in Human Evolution 691 



shoot from Mazdaism or the primitive rehgion of Zarathush- 

 tra, is an illustration of how the transition from polytheism 

 through heliotheism to an evolving monotheism was con- 

 stantly liable to suffer a backward movement. ' The gradual 

 spread of it westward, as well as eastward into Turkestan, 

 is explained by its incorporating a high and even rigid morality, 

 with a firm and yet adaptable belief in one great power or 

 spirit, and also conjoined with both an acceptance of an ele- 

 vated polytheism. These conjointly appealed to the Roman 

 mind in particular, from the first to the fifth century A. D., 

 when the better minds of the nation — stunned by defeat and 

 disgusted by sensual license — turned to a religious system 

 that would be a proenvironal incentive of higher character 

 than that of the old Roman pantheon. This explains why 

 it became a formidable rival to Christianity up to the 5th 

 or even 6th century A. D. 



But, for the purest, noblest, most intensely proenvironing 

 intellects, the lapse of centuries caused summation or cumu- 

 lation of each new upward advance in moral or spiritual life, 

 so that "a closer walk with God" became the life effort of 

 not a few who are known to us historically, and doubtless 

 of a still larger number now lost to fame. So, borrowing the 

 Greek and other national ideas that '*the gods are come down 

 to us in the likeness of men," their more aspiring prophetic 

 leaders proclaimed and looked for a high leader, not temporal, 

 as many of the more degraded cogitic and cognitic intellects 

 of the nations hoped for, but a spiritual, a suprammidane 

 leader. 



For centuries before Christ's day this view was dreamed 

 of, discussed, hoped for, pictured, and with ever-mcreasing 

 earnestness, till amongst the Jews it became a powerful pro- 

 environal expectation of each passing year. The soil therefore 

 was ripe for nourishing a new leader who could combine all 

 that he regarded, or had learned, as best from Iranian, Greek, 

 Semitic, and probably Egyptian sources, into one unified re- 

 sultant that would represent a new and more advanced stand- 

 point than any hitherto attained. Tlu-ee such presented them- 

 selves in the persons of Christ, of Mani, and of Mahomet. 



