POLYTHEISTIC AND MONOTHEISTIC PKIESTHOODS. 745 



glected and whose festivals do not bring due offerings, are said 

 to be angry, and are considered the causers of disasters ; while 

 if one of them is derived from a ruler whose love of power 

 was insatiable, and whose ghost is considered a jealous god, 

 tolerating no recognition of others, he tends, if his devotees 

 become predominant, to originate a worship which suppresses 

 other worships. 



Of course with such an advance towards monotheism there 

 goes an advance towards unification of priesthoods. The 

 official propitiators of minor deities dwindle away and dis 

 appear ; while the official propitiators of the deity who has 

 come to be regarded as the most powerful, or as the posses 

 sor of all power, become established everywhere. 



$ 614. These influences conspiring to evolve monotheism 

 out of polytheism are reinforced by one other the influence 

 of advancing culture and accompanying speculative capacity. 

 Molina says that the Ynca Yupanqui &quot;was of such clear 

 understanding &quot; as to conclude that the Sun could not bo 

 the creator, but that there must be &quot; someone who directs 

 him ; &quot; and he ordered temples to be erected to this inferred 

 creator. So again in Mexico, &quot; NVzahuatl, lord of Tezcuco,&quot; 

 disappointed in his prayers to the established idols, concluded 

 that &quot; there must be some god, invisible and unknown, who 

 is the universal creator ; &quot; and he built a nine-storied temple 

 &quot; to the Unknown Gocl, the Cause of Causes.&quot; Here, among 

 peoples unallied to them, we find results like those shown 

 us by the Greeks. In the Platonic dialogues, along with 

 repudiation of the gross conceptions current among the un 

 cultured, there went arguments evidently implying an advance 

 towards monotheism. And on comparing the ideas of the 

 Hebrew prophets with those of primitive Hebrews, and those 

 of most co-existing Hebrews, it becomes clear that mental 

 progress operated as a part cause of Jewish monotheism. 



It may be observed, too, that once having been set up, 

 the change towards monotheism goes on with increasing 



