242 Evolution of Theologi/. 



ultimately of pure intelligence, who are the exponents of 

 an aggregate social life governed mainly by these ideas. 



In further support of the statement that through the more 

 highly organized and varied social state there arise the more 

 highly organized and varied theisms, we have the fact that 

 societies which have not become thus organized do not show 

 in their mythologies the operation of this classifying prin- 

 ciple to any such extent. The mythology of the early 

 Aryans, as set forth in the Vedas, notably the Rig- Veda, 

 remained, mostly, mere personifications of natural phenom- 

 ena, which, to the mind of the early settler of Northern 

 India, were the most impressive of all his experiences, and 

 became the principal factor in all his theological concep- 

 tions. Aryan mythology is replete with storm-gods, gods 

 of the Dawn and the Twilight and of solar and lunar phe- 

 nomena, and these never became wholly disconnected from 

 the substance of the phenomena themselves. Agni, the god 

 of fire ; Surya, of the sun ; the Maruts, of the thunder and 

 tempest, do not impress us with the idea of personality dis- 

 tinct from the elemental *forces with which they are asso- 

 ciated. Indra possesses it in the highest degree, but the 

 element of self-conscious intelligence is not prominent. 

 Indra is the slayer of the dragon who withholds the bless- 

 ing of the sunlight, and ranks with the mere power-gods. 

 As a consequence, the religious thought of India diverged 

 on the one side into the system of the complex and absurd 

 ceremonial-worship of the Brahmanas, and thereby, ulti- 

 mately, into the manifold idolatries now prevailing ; and, on 

 the other, by a philosophical reaction, into the recondite and 

 mystic philosophy of the Vedanta. The same unregulated 

 ideas are discoverable in the Teutonic and Scandinavian 

 mythologies. In both these instances there was no compact 

 development of social or national life, and consequently no 

 highly developed mythological system. 



Moreover, as, in the well ordered State, the functions of 

 government, and the regulation of the social order, the 

 administration of law, and the permanence of family rela- 

 tionships and civil obligations are conspicuous features, all 

 these will be reflected in the popular mythology where these 

 conditions exist. So it was in the Greek and Roman States. 

 Their mythologies are, essentially, governmental, and, as 

 we might say, sociological. The mythologies of Assyria, 

 Babylonia and Egypt are the reflex of the despotisms which 



