l80 HUXLEY 



manifestations of abnormal mental states among our- 

 selves, and furnish a most instructive commentary 

 npon the story of the witch of Endor." Bolotoo 

 answers to Sheol ; among the several hundred gods 

 recognised by " the Tongan theologians " one was 

 greater than all, as among the Israelites Jahveh was 

 u god of gods." And both in Palestine and the 

 Pacific Ocean the anger of the deities was believed 

 to be manifest as strongly in the case of neglect of 

 ritual as for offences against the moral law. The re- 

 sult of these and other comparisons noted in the 

 " Evolution of Theology " is to show how little is 

 left to choose between them. 



One may read from the beginning of the book of 

 Judges to the end of the books of Samuel without dis- 

 covering that the old Israelites had a moral standard 

 which differs, in any essential respect (except perhaps 

 in regard to the chastity of. unmarried women) from 

 that of the Tongans. Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, 

 and David are strong-handed men, some of whom are 

 not outdone by any Polynesian chieftain in the matter 

 of murder and treachery. . . . But it is surely 

 needless to carry the comparison further. Out of the 

 abundant evidence at command I think that sufficient 

 has been produced to furnish ample grounds for the 

 belief that the old Israelites of the time of Samuel en- 

 tertained theological conceptions which were on a 

 level with those current among the more civilised of 

 the Polynesian islanders, though their ethical code may 

 possibly, in some respects, have been more advanced. 1 



1 Coll. Essays, iv. pp. 340, 345. 



