EVOLUTION OF THE GOD IDEA. 



" KNOWING his adopted land well, the Eastern does not require recon- 

 dite volumes to explain ' Dionysiak myths ' or ' solar theories,' as the 

 old faiths are now called in the West. He sees these pervading the 

 tales and epiks of East and West alike, just as Yahvism or Yahu-ism 

 pervades the Scriptures of Jews or Yahus that ever-familiar and ex- 

 pressive faith-term by which alone Asia knows the ' Yahudean ' race." 

 While fully admitting the true character of the old faith as here 

 expressed, yet, with all due deference to one of such acknowledged 

 repute in the literary world as Major-General Forlong, whose splendid 

 work, entitled "Rivers of Faith" (Preface, p. xxi.) contains the above 

 paragraph, it may be fairly urged that the educated few only, both 

 among Easterns and Westerns, have hitherto been capable of discerning 

 the vein of solar myth which pervades all systems of religion ; while 

 the vast multitude of ignorant and credulous people even yet perceive, 

 or think they perceive, the Divine handiwork in the particular sacred 

 oracle to which they firmly pin their faith. The Hindu supreme deity 

 is known as Brahm, the Persian as Ormuzd, the Mohammedan as 

 Allah, and the Jewish and Christian as El, Elohim, Yahouh (or 

 Jehovah), God, etc. Probably few among the many millions who 

 worship these various deities know much or anything about their origin, 

 innocently imagining that the Deity they bow allegiance to once mani- 

 fested itself to some chosen individual, to whom it gave a revelation, 

 the facts of which were handed down to posterity. They little dream 

 of the vast cycles of time that have rolled past since the brain of 

 man attained such a state of perfection as to enable it to evolve the 

 idea of Deity. It is utterly impossible for the human mind to grasp 

 the enormous interval of time that has elapsed since primeval man 

 emerged from the condition of unreasoning existence to enter upon 

 the bright dawn of intellectual activity, which has developed into such 

 mighty proportions as we behold to-day. Let us carry the mind back 

 far beyond the Dark Ages, through the classic era, as far even as the 

 very commencement of Egyptian history ; and even then we find our- 

 selves but little nearer that remote period in which the first spark of 



