172 CONDENSATION INTO UNITY. 



his inside ;" and when converted prematurely to a 

 higher creed, his god is still to him the invisible but 

 human king. " Oh Allah !" a Somauli woman was 

 heard to say, " Oh Allah ! may thy teeth ache like 

 mine ! oh Allah ! may thy gums be sore as mine !" 

 That Christian monarch, the late King Peppel, once 

 exclaimed, when he thought of his approaching end, 

 that if he could see God he would kill him at once, 

 because he made men die. 



The arithmetical arrangement of the gods depends 

 entirely upon the intellectual facidties of the people 

 concerned. In the period of Thing-worship, as it may 

 be termed, every brook, tree, hill, and star is itself a 

 living creature, benevolent or malignant, asleep or 

 awake. In the next stage, every object and pheno- 

 menon is inhabited or presided over by a genius or 

 spirit ; and with some nations the virtues and the 

 vices are also endowed with personality. As the 

 reasoning powers of men expand, their gods diminish 

 in number, and rule over larger areas, till finally it is 

 perceived that there is unity in nature, that every- 

 thing which exists is a part of one harmonious whole. 

 It is then asserted that one Being manufactured the 

 world, and rules over it supreme. But at first the 

 Great Being is distant and indifferent ; " a god sitting 

 outside the universe ; " and the old gods become viceroys 

 to whom he has deputed the government of the world. 

 They are afterwards degraded to the rank of messengers 

 or angels, and it is believed that God is everywhere 

 present ; that he fills the earth and sky ; that from 

 him directly proceeds both the evil and the good. 

 In some systems of belief, however, he is believed to 

 be the Author of good alone, and the dominion of evil 

 is assigned to a rebellious angel or a rival srod. 



