348 THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY vm 



is the representative of the primitive ancestors, 

 and stands, as it were, between them and the 

 supreme cosmic deities Heaven and Earth who 

 are superadded to them, and who answer to the 

 Tangaloa and the Maui of the Polynesians. 



Sciotheism, under the form of the deification of 

 ancestral ghosts, in its most pronounced form, is 

 therefore the chief element in the theology of a 

 great moiety, possibly of more than half, of the 

 human race. I think this must be taken to be a 

 matter of fact though various opinions may be 

 held as to how this ancestor -worship came about. 

 But on the other hand, it is no less a matter of 

 fact that there are very few people without 

 additional gods, who cannot, with certainty, be 

 accounted for as deified ancestors. 



With all respect for the distinguished au- 

 thorities on the other ' side, I cannot find good 

 reasons for accepting the theory that the cosmic 

 deities who are superadded to deified ancestors 

 even in China ; who are found all over Polynesia, 

 in Tangaloa and Maui, and in old Peru, in the Sun 

 are the product either of the " search after the 

 infinite," or of mistakes arising out of the confusion 

 of a great chief's name with the thing signified by 

 the name. But, however this may be, I think it 

 is again merely matter of fact that, among a 

 large portion of mankind, ancestor-worship is more 

 or less thrown into the background either by such 

 cosmic deities, or by tribal gods of uncertain 



