GOD AND THE WORLD. 285 



reflection that this confusion led me to in my early 

 school days. 



For the rest, the " Trinity " is not an original 

 element in Christianity ; like most of the other Chris- 

 tian dogmas, it has been borrowed from earlier 

 religions. Out of the sun-worship of the Chaldaean 

 magi was evolved the Trinity of Ilu, the mysterious 

 source of the world ; its three manifestations were 

 Anu, primeval chaos, Bel, the architect of the world, 

 and Aa, the heavenly light, the all-enlightening wisdom. 

 In the Brahmanic religion the Trimurti is also con- 

 ceived asa" divine unity " made up of three persons 

 — Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the sustainer), and 

 Shiva (the destroyer). It would seem that in this and 

 other ideas of a Trinity the " sacred number, three," 

 as such — as a " symbolical number " — has counted 

 for something. The three first Christian virtues — 

 Faith, Hope, and Charity — form a similar triad. 



According to the amphitheists, the world is ruled by 

 two different gods, a good and an evil principle, God 

 and the Devil. They are engaged in a perpetual 

 struggle, like rival emperors, or pope and anti-pope. 

 The condition of the world is the result of this conflict. 

 The loving God, or good principle, is the source of all 

 that is good and beautiful, of joy and of peace. The 

 world would be perfect if his work were not con- 

 tinually thwarted by the evil principle, the Devil ; this 

 being is the cause of all that is bad and hateful, of 

 contradiction and of pain. 



Amphitheism is undoubtedly the most rational of 

 all forms of belief in God, and the one which is least 

 incompatible with a scientific view of the world. 

 Hence we find it elaborated in many ancient peoples 

 thousands of years before Christ. In ancient India 



