245 
above his creed—has shown himself better than his mythology. As 
Tertullian said long ago, ‘The soul of man is naturally Christian.” I 
could point to many unconscious utterances of heathen writers as proofs 
that man has risen to a higher level than that of his popular theology, 
and has instinctively formed and expressed a belief in the unity of the Deity. 
The subject, however, is one that I am so little prepared to speak on, that it 
is with great diffidence I make these remarks, and I hope’ that some one 
will follow who will favour us with a more coherent speech. (Applause.) 
The Cuarrman.—It is only those who have tried to read a difficult 
essay at short notice who can fully appreciate how much we owe Mr. 
James for reading this paper. I can say that it is by no means an easy 
thing to do, for I have tried it. It was very kind on his part not only to 
read the paper to us, but also to favour us with his remarks uponit. I wish 
the author had been here, because, had he been, I am inclined to think he 
would have gone a long way in the direction Mr. James has indicated with 
regard to our not trusting too implicitly to Prefessor Max Muller’s theories. 
(Hear, hear.) To a certain extent we may accept his evidence of fact, but 
I, for one, am certainly not prepared to accept his theories exactly as he has 
put them forward. Mr. James has referred to the desirability of studying 
the Persian religion, and has thus raised one of the most interesting points 
we could consider ‘in relation to this subject; but it is too late for me to 
attempt to go into it now, and, moreover, it is a matter which requires to 
be dealt with by a specialist.* But I may say that at a very early period, 
before the date of the Vedas, there was a protest against the degeneracy of 
the old Aryan religion so strong that the dev or div, who is mentioned here 
as the Aryan God, was taken by the Persians to express what we express, 
with the same root, in the term “devil,” the word being supposed to have 
been derived from the Persian mythology. It is assumed that they took the 
gods of the rival tribes to express their devils by, and a very simple 
process of thought shows how intensely strong their feeling was with regard 
to the corruption of the old religion that had taken place in India. I 
think that that very corruption of the original religion is a testimony 
against the notion that man was a fetish-worshipper, to begin with 
(Hear, hear.) 
The meeting was then adjourned. 
* A paper on the “Religion of Zoroaster,” by R. Brown, Esq., Jun., F.S.A., 
will be found in vol, xiii, p. 246.—Eb. 
