RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 5 



expresses itself in such dogmas as " What every one says 

 must be true/' or " The voice of the people is the voice of 

 God." On the other hand, the fact disclosed by a survey 

 of the past, that majorities have usually been wrong, must 

 not blind us to the complementary fact, that majorities 

 have usually not been entirely wrong. And the avoidance 

 of these extremes being a prerequisite to catholic thinking, 

 we shall do well to provide ourselves with a safe-guard 

 against them, by making a valuation of opinions in the ab- 

 stract. To this end we must contemplate the kind of rela- 

 tion that ordinarily subsists between opinions and facts. 

 Let us do so with one of those beliefs which under various 

 forms has prevailed among all nations in all times. 



§ 2. The earliest traditions represent rulers as gods or 

 demigods. By their subjects, primitive kings were regarded 

 as superhuman in origin, and superhuman in power. They 

 possessed divine titles; received obeisances like those made 

 before the altars of deities ; and were in some cases actually 

 worshipped. If there needs proof that the divine and half- 

 divine characters originally ascribed to monarchs were as- 

 cribed literally, we have it in the fact that there are still 

 existing savage races, among whom it is held that the chiefs 

 and their kindred are of celestial origin, or, as elsewhere, 

 that only the chiefs have souls. And of course along with 

 beliefs of this kind, there existed a belief in the unlimited 

 power of the ruler over his subjects — an absolute possession 

 of them, extending even to the taking of their lives at will : 

 as even still in Fiji, where a victim stands unbound to be 

 killed at the word of his chief; himself declaring, " what- 

 ever the king says must be done." 



In times and among races somewhat less barbarous, we 

 find these beliefs a little modified. The monarch, instead of 

 being literally thought god or demigod, is conceived to be a 

 man having divine authority, with perhaps more or less of 

 divine nature. He retains however, as in the East to the 



