200 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



mingled together that it is now often impossible to 

 disentangle them. 



This was the natural philosophy of the earlier 

 races of man, and it came to a standstill for want of 

 further knowledge. A very imperfect acquaintance 

 with nature had led to erroneous ideas of religion, 

 and a more accurate acquaintance with nature was 

 not then possible. However, a foundation had been 

 laid, which was subsequently built upon by meta- 

 physicians, and in the course of time Polytheism 

 passed into what Professor Max Miiller has called 

 Henotheism. That is, the gods are no longer re- 

 garded as of equal power, but a supreme spirit rules 

 over the others. 



Henotheism appears to have originated indepen- 

 dently among the negroes of Africa and the Red 

 Indians of America, as well as among the semi- 

 civilised nations near the eastern shores of the 

 Mediterranean. In Persia and North- West India 

 the philosophers developed Animism into Pan- 

 theism ; a philosophy which teaches that mind per- 

 vades all matter, and that nature and God are one. 

 On the other hand, among the Semitic nations, the 

 prophets of Israel gradually passed from a belief in 

 tribal gods to Theism, in which God is recognised 

 as existing outside of and unconnected with the 

 material universe which He has created. But with 

 this belief they combined the idea of a rival evil 

 spirit, who was constantly tempting men to break the 

 moral law. 



The originators of these philosophies were, how- 

 ever, poets or mystics, who arrived at their conclu- 



