THE RELIGIOUS IDEA. 675 



spirits of the dead continue to exist in the unseen world, 

 which is everywhere about us, and that they all become gods, 

 of varying character and degrees of influence,&quot; and also that 

 &quot;the gods who do harm are to be appeased, so that they 

 may not punish those who have offended them, and all the 

 gods are to be worshipped, so that they may be induced to 

 increase their favours ;&quot; we are strengthened in the suspicion 

 that these maleficent gods and beneficent gods have all been 

 derived from &quot;the spirits of the dead ... of varying cha 

 racter and influence.&quot; From the circumstance that in India 

 as Sir Alfred Lyall tells us, &quot; it would seem that the honours 

 which are at first paid to all departed spirits come gradually 

 to be concentrated, as divine honours, upon the Manes of 

 notables,&quot; we derive further support for this view. And 

 when by facts of these kinds we are reminded that among 

 the Greeks down to the time of Plato, parallel beliefs were 

 current, as is shown in the Republic, where Socrates groups 

 as the &quot; chiefest of all &quot; requirements &quot; the service of gods, 

 demigods, and heroes . . . and the rites which have to be 

 observed in order to propitiate the inhabitants of the world 

 below,&quot; proving that there still survived &quot;that fear of the 

 wrath of the departed which strongly possessed the early 

 Greek mind;&quot; we get from this kinship of beliefs among 

 races remote in time, space, and culture, strong warrant for 

 the inference that ghost-propitiation is the origin of all 

 religions. 



This inference receives support wherever we look. As, until 

 lately, no traces of pre-historic man were supposed to exist, 

 though now that attention has been drawn to them, the 

 implements he used are found everywhere; so, once being 

 entertained, the hypothesis that religions in general are derived 

 from ancestor- worship, finds proofs among all races and 

 in every country. Each new book of travels yields fresh 

 evidence ; and from the histories of ancient peoples come 

 more numerous illustrations the more closely they are 



examined. 

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