THE KEL1GIOUS IDEA. G87 



but otherwise they imply superfluous absurdities which 

 cannot be legitimately ascribed even to the most unintelli 

 gent. That in primitive times names are used in 

 ways showing such lack of discrimination as leads to the 

 confusions here alleged, we have proof. Grote says of the 

 goddess Ate, &quot; the same name is here employed sometimes 

 to designate the person, sometimes the attribute or event not 

 personified.&quot; And again, it has been remarked that &quot; in 

 Homer, Aides is invariably the name of a god ; but in later 

 times it was transferred to his house, his abode or kingdom &quot; 



O 



Nature-worship, then, is but an aberrant form of ghost- 

 worship. 



In their normal forms, as in their abnormal forms, all gods 

 arise by apotheosis. Originally, the god is the superior 

 living man whose power is conceived as superhuman. From 

 uncivilized peoples at present, and from civilized peoples 

 during their past, evidence is derived. Mr. Selous says 

 the chief of these kraals, Situngweesa/ is considered a 

 very powerful Umlimo/ or god, by the Amandebele.&quot; So, 

 too, among existing Hindus, &quot; General Nicholson . . . was 

 adored as a hero in his lifetime, in spite of his violent 

 persecution of his own devotees.&quot; The Eig Veda shows that 

 it was thus with the ancient people of India. Their gods 

 are addressed &quot; Thou, Agni, the earliest and most Angiras- 

 like sage &quot; (E. V., i, 31). &quot; Thou Agni, the most eminent rishi &quot; 

 (iii, 21, 3). &quot;Thou [Indra] art an anciently-born rishi&quot; 

 (viii, 6,41). &quot;Indra is a priest, Indra is a rishi&quot; (viii, 16, 

 7). That Achilles was apotheosized, and that according 

 to tradition the Pythian priestess preferred to address 

 Lykurgus as a god, are examples sufficiently reminding 

 us of man -derived deities among the Greeks. It is a 

 familiar fact, too, that with the Romans and subject peoples 

 emperor-worship became a developed cult. In &quot; every one 

 of the Gaulish cities,&quot; &quot;a large number of men, who 

 belonged to the highest as well as to the middle classes, 

 were priests and flaniens of Augustus, flamens of Drusus ; 



