vm THEISM ; EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 187 



Jew says, that the Deity is absolute unity, and 

 that it is sheer blasphemy to say that He ever 

 became incarnate in the person of a man ; and, if 

 the Trinitarian says, that the Deity is numerically 

 three as well as numerically one, and that it is 

 sheer blasphemy to say that He did not so become 

 incarnate, it is obvious enough that each must be 

 logically held to deny the existence of the other's 

 Deity. Therefore ; that each has a scientific right 

 to call the other an atheist; and that, if he 

 refrains, it is only on the ground of decency and 

 good manners, which should restrain an honour- 

 able man from employing even scientifically 

 justifiable language, if custom has given it an 

 abusive connotation. While one must agree with 

 Hume, then, it is, nevertheless, to be wished that 

 he had not set the bad example of calling poly- 

 theists " superstitious atheists." It probably did 

 not occur to him that, by a parity of reasoning, 

 the Unitarians might justify the application of 

 the same language to the Ultramontanes, and vice 

 versd. But, to return from a digression which 

 may not be wholly unprofitable, Hume proceeds 

 to show in what manner polytheism incorporated 

 physical and moral allegories, and naturally 

 accepted hero-worship; and he sums up his 

 views of the first stages of the evolution of 

 theology as follows: 



"These then are the general principles of polytheism, founded 

 in human nature, and little or nothing dependent on caprice or 



