POLYTHEISTIC AND MONOTHEISTIC PRIESTHOODS. 747 



memory, and later headships only to be regarded. A 



further cause militating against an unchanged pantheon, is 

 the rise of usurpers, or of men who, by their successes in 

 war or other achievements, so impress themselves on the 

 popular mind as to make relatively weak the impressions 

 derived from traditions of earlier deified men. The acquire 

 ment of supremacy by Kronos over Uranus, and again by 

 Zeus over Kronos, serve as illustrations. And during times 

 in which apotheosis is an ordinary process, there is an evident 

 tendency to such substitutions. Yet another 



analogy between the changes of celestial headships and the 

 changes of terrestrial headships, may be suspected. When 

 dealing with political institutions, we saw that power is apt 

 to lapse from the hands of a supreme ruler into the hands of 

 a chief minister, through whom all information comes and 

 all orders are issued. Similarly, a secondary supernatural 

 being regarded as intercessor with a chief supernatural 

 being, and constantly appealed to by worshippers in that 

 capacity, seems liable to become predominant. Among 

 Roman Catholics the Virgin, habitually addressed in prayers, 

 tends to occupy the foreground of consciousness ; the title 

 &quot;Mother of God&quot; dimly suggests a sort of supremacy; and 

 now in the Vatican may be seen a picture in which she is repre 

 sented at a higher elevation than the persons of the trinity. 



Another fact to be noted respecting the evolution of mono 

 theisms out of polytheisms a fact congruous with the hypo 

 thesis that they are thus evolved, but not congruous with other 

 hypotheses is that they do not become complete; or, at leant, 

 do not maintain their purity. Already I have referred to 

 the truth, obvious enough though habitually ignored, that the 

 Hebrew religion, nominally monotheistic, retained a large 

 infusion of polytheism. Archangels exercising powers in 

 their respective spheres, and capable even of rebellion, 

 were practically demi-gods ; answering in fact, if not in name, 

 to the inferior deities of other pantheons. Moreover, of the 

 derived creeds, that distinguished as trinitarian is partially 



