830 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of ghost-derived beliefs, there resi.lt an involved combina 

 tion of such beliefs, constituting a mythology. 



Of course primitive ghosts being doubles like their originals 

 in all things ; and gods (when not the living members of a 

 conquering race) being doubles of the more powerful men; 

 it results that they are primarily conceived as no less human 

 than other ghosts in their physical characters, their passions, 

 and their intelligences. Like the doubles of the ordinary 

 dead, they are supposed to consume the flesh, blood, bread, 

 wine, given to them ; at first literally, and later in a more 

 spiritual way by consuming the essences of them. They not 

 only appear as visible and tangible persons, but they enter 

 into conflicts with men, are wounded, suffer pain : the sole dis 

 tinction being that they have miraculous powers of healing 

 and consequent immortality. Here, indeed, there 



needs a qualification ; for not only do various peoples hold 

 that gods die a first death (as naturally happens where they 

 are members of a conquering race, called gods because of 

 their superiority), but, as in the case of Pan, it is sup 

 posed, even among the cultured, that there is a second and 

 final death of a god, like that second and final death of a 

 man supposed among existing savages. With advancing 

 civilization the divergence of the supernatural being from 

 the natural being becomes more decided. There is nothing 

 to check the gradual de-materialization of the ghost and 

 of the god ; and this de-materialization is insensibly furthered 

 in the effort to reach consistent ideas of supernatural 

 action : the god ceases to be tangible, and later he ceases to 

 be visible or audible. Along with this differentia 



tion of physical attributes from those of humanity, there 

 goes on more slowly a differentiation of mental attributes. 

 The god of the savage, represented as having intelligence 

 scarcely if at all greater than that of the living man, is 

 deluded with ease. Even the gods of the semi-civilized are 

 deceived, ma,ke mistakes, repent of their plans; and only 

 in course of time does there arise the conception of 



