viii THEISM; EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 189 



justifiable language, if custom has given it an 

 abusive connotation. While one must agree with 

 Hume, then, it is, nevertheless, to be wished that 

 he had not set the bad example of calling poly- 

 theists " superstitious atheists." It probably did 

 not occur to him that, by a parity of reasoning, 

 the Unitarians might justify the application of 

 the same language to the Ultramontanes, and vice 

 versa. But, to return from a digression which 

 may not be wholly unprofitable, Hume proceeds 

 to show in what manner polytheism incorporated 

 physical and moral allegories, and naturally ac- 

 cepted hero-worship; and he sums up his views 

 of the first stages of the evolution of theology as 

 follows: 



" These then are the general principles of polytheism, 

 founded in human nature, and little or nothing dependent 

 on caprice or accident. As the causes which bestow happi- 

 ness or misery, are in general very little known and very 

 uncertain, our anxious concern endeavours to attain a de- 

 terminate idea of them ; and finds no better expedient than 

 to represent them as intelligent, voluntary agents, like our- 

 selves, only somewhat superior in power and wisdom. The 

 limited influence of these agents, and their proximity to 

 human weakness, introduce the various distribution and 

 division of their authority, and thereby give rise to allegory. 

 The same principles naturally deify mortals, superior in 

 power, courage, or understanding, and produce hero-wor- 

 ship; together with fabulous history and mythological 

 tradition, in all its wild and unaccountable forms. And as 

 an invisible spiritual intelligence is an object too refined 

 for vulgar apprehension, men naturally affix it to some sen- 

 sible representation ; such as either the more conspicuous 



