History of Religious Evolution 725 



During the above 1600 years there flourished Zarathushtra, 

 Abraham, iVmenophis IV, Gautama, Moses, Socrates, Dem- 

 ocritus, and Plato, all of whom proenvironed and aspired to a 

 high and elevated monotheism, or to a spiritic and non-anthro- 

 pomorphic view of the relation of man to a unified governing 

 power of the universe, that satisfied many of the deepest long- 

 ings and aspirations of the human mind. 



We now know enough of the life, of the moral and the re- 

 ligious struggles, of the teachings, and the effect of these teach- 

 ings on mankind, in the case of each teacher above cited, to 

 estimate their influence on the world. And for all of them 

 we put aside as alike untrustworthy, misleading, and unnat- 

 ural the legendary extravagances, miracles, visions of an 

 unseen world, and other superstitions by which designing 

 and often unscrupulous followers of these religious aspirants 

 have tried to push the claims of their cults, at the expense 

 of all others. All of the above-named religious characters 

 were animated by a high proenvironal enthusiasm for the 

 uplifting of their nation, or of the world, that has borne rich 

 fruit for mankind. 



It is impossible as yet to state accurately for Zarathushtra, 

 Abraham, Moses, and to some extent Gautama, when they 

 flourished and taught by precept or example. But the writ- 

 ings of them or of their period, that have come down to us, 

 show that strong remnants of polytheism along with a stronger 

 and higher heliotheism clung to them in their earlier years, 

 and even persisted long after their death, amongst the nations 

 they represented. 



Thus the frequent likening of Ormazd and of Yaliweh or 

 Jehovah to the brightness of the sun, or to "the sun in his 

 strength," the constant tendency their nations showed to 

 return to polytheism or to the worshiped deities of it, the 

 strong desire these teachers showed to wean their fellows from 

 such worship, and to turn their thoughts to one great Power 

 and Governor of the universe, are cardinal points in their 

 systems. 



If, then. Monotheism represented an advance on Helio- 

 theism or older religious platforms, certain higher and more 



