430 THE USE OF AiqTHROPOMOEPHISM. 



the creed which preceded it. Not to rest in general state- 

 ments, however, let us consider why this must be so. Let 

 us see whether, in the genesis of men's ideas of deit}', there 

 is not involved a necessity to conceive of deity under the 

 aspect most influential with them. 



It is now generally admitted that a more or less ideal- 

 ized humanity is the form which every conception of a per- 

 gonal God must take. Anthropomorphism is an inevitable 

 result of the laws of thought. We cannot take a step to- 

 wards constructing an idea of God without the ascription 

 of human attributes. We cannot even speak of a divine 

 will without assimilating the divine nature to our own ; 

 for we know nothing of volition save as a property of our 

 own minds. 



While this anthropomorphic tendency, or rather neces- 

 sity, is manifested by themselves with sufficient grossness — 

 a grossness that is offensive to those more advanced — 

 Christians are indignant at the still grosser manifestations 

 of it seen among uncivilized men. Certainly, such concep- 

 tions as those of some Polynesians, who believe that their 

 gods feed on the souls of the dead, or as those of the 

 Greeks, who ascribed to the personages of their Pantheon 

 every vice, from domestic cannibalism downward, are re- 

 pulsive enough. But if, ceasing to regard these notions 

 from the outside, we more philosophically regard them 

 from the inside — if we consider how they looked to believers, 

 and observe the relationships they bore to the natures and 

 needs of such ; we shall begin to think of them with some 

 tolerance. The question to be answered is, whether these 

 beliefs were beneficent in their' effects on those who held 

 tliem ; not whether they would be beneficent for us, or 

 for perfect men ; and to this question the answer must be 

 that while absolutely bad, they were relatively good. 



For is it not obvious that the savage man will be most 

 effectually controlled by his fears of a savage deity ? 



