PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 601 



imaginary inanities were substituted the chosen forms of Polytheism. It 

 is true that, among Egyptians, Hindoos, or Greeks, there were deities 

 enough, but the process of specialization may be nevertheless plainly dis- 

 cerned. The Fetich stage, the Polytheistic stage, are necessarily in- 

 cluded in the onward progress to a pure metaphysical Monotheistic con- 

 ception. In this it is to be remarked that the Asiatic races Their religious 

 of men have led the way, both in the priority and strictness P ersu asions. 

 of their views. The great statesmen of China, of India, of Arabia, and 

 of Judea, centuries ago, seized upon this as the pivot of their intellectu- 

 al and even political systems. To the last country, Europe itself, as 

 history proves, is indebted for this noble idea. 



European Monotheism is not indigenous, but imported from the He- 

 brews, an Asiatic race. The intellectual condition of the nations among 

 whom it was introduced was but little advanced, and hence among some 

 it came to be degraded mixed up with the remains of popular and an- 

 thropomorphic conceptions, which otherwise were gradually dying out. 

 For a length of time the pagan creeds maintained a conflict with it, and 

 with difficulty it disentangled itself from the base features w T hich they 

 endeavored to impress upon it, as with the Hebrews themselves of old, 

 the people seemed to be reluctant to surrender altogether their Polythe- 

 istic ideas. 



These remarks are to be understood as not applying to individuals, 

 for in every age and nation great men have arisen, whose views on these 

 and other subjects of like vital importance were far in advance of their 

 times. In their best days, both in Greece and Kome, there were men 

 who had attained to the standard here alluded to, but their teaching was 

 without effect on the popular mass. There was a want of equivalency 

 between the individual attainment and the race attainment. Though 

 individuals may be progressive, races are essentially conservative ; and 

 hence there will constantly arise against individual attempts at an ad- 

 vance discountenance and resistance, an opposition which in too many 

 instances becomes a tyranny. Masses of men are not like inorganic mass- 

 es, which resist a change by their inertia alone. The biography of ev- 

 ery great reformer shows that the popular mind resents any disturbance 

 of its repose. [Resistance has to be overcome in the moving of things, 

 resentment is added in the moving of men. 



To the philanthropist it is a most delightful spectacle that the various 

 nations, in spite of the difference of their interests, their Existence of a 

 creeds, and their politics, can yet present certain great prin- ^iTty wit'dis- 

 ciples which they recognize in common, and this is becom- cordant creeds. 

 ing more and more marked with the onward advance of the world. In 

 the course of events, the special is ever coming out of the general, and 

 the great principles of a common morality are gradually disentangling and 



