viii THEISM; EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 187 



Plume asks whether polytheism really deserves 

 the name of theism. 



" Our ancestors in Europe, before the revival of letters, 

 believed as we do at present, that there was one supreme 

 God, the author of nature, whose power, though in itself 

 uncontrollable, was yet often exerted by the interposition 

 of his angels and subordinate ministers, who executed his 

 sacred purposes. But they also believed, that all nature 

 was full of other invisible powers: fairies, goblins, elves, 

 sprights ; beings stronger and mightier than men, but much 

 inferior to the celestial natures who surround the throne of 

 God. Now, suppose that any one, in these ages, had denied 

 the existence of God and of his angels, would not his impiety 

 justly have deserved the appellation of atheism, even though 

 he had still allowed, by some odd capricious reasoning, that 

 the popular stories of elves and fairies were just and well 

 grounded f The difference, on the one hand, between such 

 a person and a genuine theist, is infinitely greater than that, 

 on the other, between him and one that absolutely excludes 

 all invisible intelligent power. And it is a fallacy, merely 

 from the casual resemblance of names, without any con- 

 formity of meaning, to rank such opposite opinions under 

 the same denomination. 



" To any one who considers justly of the matter, it will 

 appear that the gods of the polytheists are no better than 

 the elves and fairies of our ancestors, and merit as little as 

 any pious worship and veneration. These pretended re- 

 ligionists are really a kind of superstitious atheists, and ac- 

 knowledge no being that corresponds to our idea of a Deity. 

 No first principle of mind or thought ; no supreme govern- 

 ment and administration ; no divine contrivance or inten- 

 tion in the fabric of the world." (IV. pp. 450-51). 



The doctrine that you may call an atheist 

 anybody whose ideas about the Deity do not corre- 

 spond with your own, is so largely acted upon by 



