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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of Theology: An
+Anthropological Study, by Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study
+       Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
+Author: Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+Posting Date: December 3, 2008 [EBook #2634]
+Release Date: May, 2001
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D.R. Thompson
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY
+
+ESSAY #8 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION"
+
+
+By Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+
+
+I conceive that the origin, the growth, the decline, and the fall
+of those speculations respecting the existence, the powers, and the
+dispositions of beings analogous to men, but more or less devoid of
+corporeal qualities, which may be broadly included under the head of
+theology, are phenomena the study of which legitimately falls within
+the province of the anthropologist. And it is purely as a question of
+anthropology (a department of biology to which, at various times, I have
+given a good deal of attention) that I propose to treat of the evolution
+of theology in the following pages.
+
+With theology as a code of dogmas which are to be believed, or at any
+rate repeated, under penalty of present or future punishment, or as a
+storehouse of anaesthetics for those who find the pains of life too
+hard to bear, I have nothing to do; and, so far as it may be possible,
+I shall avoid the expression of any opinion as to the objective truth or
+falsehood of the systems of theological speculation of which I may find
+occasion to speak. From my present point of view, theology is regarded
+as a natural product of the operations of the human mind, under the
+conditions of its existence, just as any other branch of science, or
+the arts of architecture, or music, or painting are such products. Like
+them, theology has a history. Like them also, it is to be met with in
+certain simple and rudimentary forms; and these can be connected by a
+multitude of gradations, which exist or have existed, among people of
+various ages and races, with the most highly developed theologies of
+past and present times. It is not my object to interfere, even in the
+slightest degree, with beliefs which anybody holds sacred; or to alter
+the conviction of any one who is of opinion that, in dealing with
+theology, we ought to be guided by considerations different from those
+which would be thought appropriate if the problem lay in the province
+of chemistry or of mineralogy. And if people of these ways of thinking
+choose to read beyond the present paragraph, the responsibility for
+meeting with anything they may dislike rests with them and not with me.
+
+We are all likely to be more familiar with the theological history of
+the Israelites than with that of any other nation. We may therefore
+fitly make it the first object of our studies; and it will be convenient
+to commence with that period which lies between the invasion of Canaan
+and the early days of the monarchy, and answers to the eleventh and
+twelfth centuries B.C. or thereabouts. The evidence on which any
+conclusion as to the nature of Israelitic theology in those days must be
+based is wholly contained in the Hebrew Scriptures--an agglomeration
+of documents which certainly belong to very different ages, but of the
+exact dates and authorship of any one of which (except perhaps a few
+of the prophetical writings) there is no evidence, either internal or
+external, so far as I can discover, of such a nature as to justify more
+than a confession of ignorance, or, at most, an approximate conclusion.
+In this venerable record of ancient life, miscalled a book, when it
+is really a library comparable to a selection of works from English
+literature between the times of Beda and those of Milton, we have the
+stratified deposits (often confused and even with their natural order
+inverted) left by the stream of the intellectual and moral life of
+Israel during many centuries. And, embedded in these strata, there are
+numerous remains of forms of thought which once lived, and which,
+though often unfortunately mere fragments, are of priceless value to
+the anthropologist. Our task is to rescue these from their relatively
+unimportant surroundings, and by careful comparison with existing forms
+of theology to make the dead world which they record live again. In
+other words, our problem is palaeontological, and the method pursued
+must be the same as that employed in dealing with other fossil remains.
+
+Among the richest of the fossiliferous strata to which I have alluded
+are the books of Judges and Samuel. [1] It has often been observed that
+these writings stand out, in marked relief from those which precede and
+follow them, in virtue of a certain archaic freshness and of a greater
+freedom from traces of late interpolation and editorial trimming.
+Jephthah, Gideon and Samson are men of old heroic stamp, who would
+look as much in place in a Norse Saga as where they are; and if the
+varnish-brush of later respectability has passed over these memoirs of
+the mighty men of a wild age, here and there, it has not succeeded in
+effacing, or even in seriously obscuring, the essential characteristics
+of the theology traditionally ascribed to their epoch.
+
+There is nothing that I have met with in the results of Biblical
+criticism inconsistent with the conviction that these books give us a
+fairly trustworthy account of Israelitic life and thought in the times
+which they cover; and, as such, apart from the great literary merit of
+many of their episodes, they possess the interest of being, perhaps, the
+oldest genuine history, as apart from mere chronicles on the one hand
+and mere legends on the other, at present accessible to us.
+
+But it is often said with exultation by writers of one party, and often
+admitted, more or less unwillingly, by their opponents, that these
+books are untrustworthy, by reason of being full of obviously unhistoric
+tales. And, as a notable example, the narrative of Saul's visit to the
+so-called "witch of Endor" is often cited. As I have already intimated,
+I have nothing to do with theological partisanship, either heterodox or
+orthodox, nor, for my present purpose, does it matter very much whether
+the story is historically true, or whether it merely shows what the
+writer believed; but, looking at the matter solely from the point of
+view of an anthropologist, I beg leave to express the opinion that
+the account of Saul's necromantic expedition is quite consistent with
+probability. That is to say, I see no reason whatever to doubt, firstly,
+that Saul made such a visit; and, secondly, that he and all who were
+present, including the wise woman of Endor herself, would have given,
+with entire sincerity, very much the same account of the business as
+that which we now read in the twenty-eighth chapter of the first book of
+Samuel; and I am further of opinion that this story is one of the most
+important of those fossils, to which I have referred, in the material
+which it offers for the reconstruction of the theology of the time. Let
+us therefore study it attentively--not merely as a narrative which, in
+the dramatic force of its gruesome simplicity, is not surpassed, if it
+is equalled, by the witch scenes in Macbeth--but as a piece of evidence
+bearing on an important anthropological problem.
+
+We are told (1 Sam. xxviii.) that Saul, encamped at Gilboa, became
+alarmed by the strength of the Philistine army gathered at Shunem. He
+therefore "inquired of Jahveh," but "Jahveh answered him not, neither
+by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." [2] Thus deserted by Jahveh,
+Saul, in his extremity, bethought him of "those that had familiar
+spirits, and the wizards," whom he is said, at some previous time, to
+have "put out of the land"; but who seem, nevertheless, to have been
+very imperfectly banished, since Saul's servants, in answer to his
+command to seek him a woman "that hath a familiar spirit," reply without
+a sign of hesitation or of fear, "Behold, there is a woman that hath
+a familiar spirit at Endor"; just as, in some parts of England, a
+countryman might tell any one who did not look like a magistrate or a
+policeman, where a "wise woman" was to be met with. Saul goes to this
+woman, who, after being assured of immunity, asks, "Whom shall I bring
+up to thee?" whereupon Saul says, "Bring me up Samuel." The woman
+immediately sees an apparition. But to Saul nothing is visible, for he
+asks, "What seest thou?" And the woman replies, "I see Elohim coming up
+out of the earth." Still the spectre remains invisible to Saul, for he
+asks, "What form is he of?" And she replies, "An old man cometh up,
+and he is covered with a robe." So far, therefore, the wise woman
+unquestionably plays the part of a "medium," and Saul is dependent upon
+her version of what happens.
+
+The account continues:--
+
+   And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with
+   his face to the ground and did obeisance. And Samuel said to
+   Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul
+   answered, I am sore distressed: for the Philistines make war
+   against me, and Elohim is departed from me and answereth me no
+   more, neither by prophets nor by dreams; therefore I have called
+   thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
+   And Samuel said, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing that
+   Jahveh is departed from thee and is become thine adversary?
+   And Jahveh hath wrought for himself, as he spake by me, and
+   Jahveh hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to
+   thy neighbour, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the
+   voice of Jahveh and didst not execute his fierce wrath upon
+   Amalek, therefore hath Jahveh done this thing unto thee this
+   day. Moreover, Jahveh will deliver Israel also with thee into
+   the hands of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy
+   sons be with me: Jahveh shall deliver the host of Israel also
+   into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway his
+   full length upon the earth and was sore afraid because of the
+   words of Samuel... (v. 14-20).
+
+The statement that Saul "perceived" that it was Samuel is not to be
+taken to imply that, even now, Saul actually saw the shade of the
+prophet, but only that the woman's allusion to the prophetic mantle and
+to the aged appearance of the spectre convinced him that it was Samuel.
+Reuss [3] in fact translates the passage "Alors Saul reconnut que
+c'etait Samuel." Nor does the dialogue between Saul and Samuel
+necessarily, or probably, signify that Samuel spoke otherwise than by
+the voice of the wise woman. The Septuagint does not hesitate to call
+her [Greek], that is to say, a ventriloquist, implying that it was she
+who spoke--and this view of the matter is in harmony with the fact that
+the exact sense of the Hebrew words which are translated as "a woman
+that hath a familiar spirit" is "a woman mistress of _Ob._" _Ob_ means
+primitively a leather bottle, such as a wine skin, and is applied alike
+to the necromancer and to the spirit evoked. Its use, in these senses,
+appears to have been suggested by the likeness of the hollow sound
+emitted by a half-empty skin when struck, to the sepulchral tones in
+which the oracles of the evoked spirits were uttered by the medium.
+It is most probable that, in accordance with the general theory of
+spiritual influences which obtained among the old Israelites, the spirit
+of Samuel was conceived to pass into the body of the wise woman, and
+to use her vocal organs to speak in his own name--for I cannot discover
+that they drew any clear distinction between possession and inspiration.
+[4]
+
+If the story of Saul's consultation of the occult powers is to be
+regarded as an authentic narrative, or, at any rate, as a statement
+which is perfectly veracious so far as the intention of the narrator
+goes--and, as I have said, I see no reason for refusing it this
+character--it will be found, on further consideration, to throw a
+flood of light, both directly and indirectly, on the theology of Saul's
+countrymen--that is to say, upon their beliefs respecting the nature and
+ways of spiritual beings.
+
+Even without the confirmation of other abundant evidences to the same
+effect, it leaves no doubt as to the existence, among them, of the
+fundamental doctrine that man consists of a body and of a spirit, which
+last, after the death of the body, continues to exist as a ghost. At the
+time of Saul's visit to Endor, Samuel was dead and buried; but that his
+spirit would be believed to continue to exist in Sheol may be concluded
+from the well-known passage in the song attributed to Hannah, his
+mother:--
+
+     Jahveh killeth and maketh alive;
+     He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up.
+                                  (1 Sam. ii. 6.)
+
+And it is obvious that this Sheol was thought to be a place underground
+in which Samuel's spirit had been disturbed by the necromancer's
+summons, and in which, after his return thither, he would be joined by
+the spirits of Saul and his sons when they had met with their bodily
+death on the hill of Gilboa. It is further to be observed that the
+spirit, or ghost, of the dead man presents itself as the image of
+the man himself--it is the man, not merely in his ordinary corporeal
+presentment (even down to the prophet's mantle) but in his moral and
+intellectual characteristics. Samuel, who had begun as Saul's friend and
+ended as his bitter enemy, gives it to be understood that he is annoyed
+at Saul's presumption in disturbing him; and that, in Sheol, he is as
+much the devoted servant of Jahveh and as much empowered to speak in
+Jahveh's name as he was during his sojourn in the upper air.
+
+It appears now to be universally admitted that, before the exile, the
+Israelites had no belief in rewards and punishments after death, nor in
+anything similar to the Christian heaven and hell; but our story proves
+that it would be an error to suppose that they did not believe in the
+continuance of individual existence after death by a ghostly simulacrum
+of life. Nay, I think it would be very hard to produce conclusive
+evidence that they disbelieved in immortality; for I am not aware that
+there is anything to show that they thought the existence of the souls
+of the dead in Sheol ever came to an end. But they do not seem to
+have conceived that the condition of the souls in Sheol was in any way
+affected by their conduct in life. If there was immortality, there was
+no state of retribution in their theology. Samuel expects Saul and his
+sons to come to him in Sheol.
+
+The next circumstance to be remarked is that the name of _Elohim_ is
+applied to the spirit which the woman sees "coming up out of the earth,"
+that is to say, from Sheol. The Authorised Version translates this in
+its literal sense "gods." The Revised Version gives "god" with "gods"
+in the margin. Reuss renders the word by "spectre," remarking in a
+note that it is not quite exact; but that the word Elohim expresses
+"something divine, that is to say, superhuman, commanding respect and
+terror" ("Histoire des Israelites," p. 321). Tuch, in his commentary on
+Genesis, and Thenius, in his commentary on Samuel, express substantially
+the same opinion. Dr. Alexander (in Kitto's "Cyclopaedia" s. v. "God")
+has the following instructive remarks:--
+
+   [_Elohim_ is] sometimes used vaguely to describe unseen
+   powers or superhuman beings that are not properly thought of as
+   divine. Thus the witch of Endor saw "Elohim ascending out of the
+   earth" (1 Sam. xxviii. 13), meaning thereby some beings of an
+   unearthly, superhuman character. So also in Zechariah xii. 8, it
+   is said "the house of David shall be as Elohim, as the angel of
+   the Lord," where, as the transition from Elohim to the angel of
+   the Lord is a minori ad majus, we must regard the former as a
+   vague designation of supernatural powers.
+
+Dr. Alexander speaks here of "beings"; but there is no reason to
+suppose that the wise woman of Endor referred to anything but a solitary
+spectre; and it is quite clear that Saul understood her in this sense,
+for he asks "What form is HE of?"
+
+This fact, that the name of Elohim is applied to a ghost, or disembodied
+soul, conceived as the image of the body in which it once dwelt, is
+of no little importance. For it is well known that the same term was
+employed to denote the gods of the heathen, who were thought to have
+definite quasi-corporeal forms and to be as much real entities as any
+other Elohim. [5] The difference which was supposed to exist between
+the different Elohim was one of degree, not one of kind. Elohim was, in
+logical terminology, the genus of which ghosts, Chemosh, Dagon,
+Baal, and Jahveh were species. The Israelite believed Jahveh to be
+immeasurably superior to all other kinds of Elohim. The inscription
+on the Moabite stone shows that King Mesa held Chemosh to be, as
+unquestionably, the superior of Jahveh. But if Jahveh was thus
+supposed to differ only in degree from the undoubtedly zoomorphic or
+anthropomorphic "gods of the nations," why is it to be assumed that
+he also was not thought of as having a human shape? It is possible for
+those who forget that the time of the great prophetic writers is at
+least as remote from that of Saul as our day is from that of Queen
+Elizabeth, to insist upon interpreting the gross notions current in the
+earlier age and among the mass of the people by the refined conceptions
+promulgated by a few select spirits centuries later. But if we take the
+language constantly used concerning the Deity in the books of Genesis,
+Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, or Kings, in its natural sense (and I am
+aware of no valid reason which can be given for taking it in any other
+sense), there cannot, to my mind, be a doubt that Jahveh was conceived
+by those from whom the substance of these books is mainly derived, to
+possess the appearance and the intellectual and moral attributes of a
+man; and, indeed, of a man of just that type with which the Israelites
+were familiar in their stronger and intellectually abler rulers and
+leaders. In a well-known passage in Genesis (i. 27) Elohim is said to
+have "created man in his own image, in the image of Elohim created he
+him." It is "man" who is here said to be the image of Elohim--not man's
+soul alone, still less his "reason," but the whole man. It is obvious
+that for those who call a manlike ghost Elohim, there could be no
+difficulty in conceiving any other Elohim under the same aspect. And if
+there could be any doubt on this subject, surely it cannot stand in the
+face of what we find in the fifth chapter, where, immediately after a
+repetition of the statement that "Elohim created man, in the likeness
+of Elohim made he him," it is said that Adam begat Seth "in his own
+likeness, after his image." Does this mean that Seth resembled Adam only
+in a spiritual and figurative sense? And if that interpretation of
+the third verse of the fifth chapter of Genesis is absurd, why does it
+become reasonable in the first verse of the same chapter?
+
+But let us go further. Is not the Jahveh who "walks in the garden in
+the cool of the day"; from whom one may hope to "hide oneself among the
+trees"; of whom it is expressly said that "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and
+Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel," saw the Elohim of Israel
+(Exod. xxiv. 9-11); and that, although the seeing Jahveh was understood
+to be a high crime and misdemeanour, worthy of death, under ordinary
+circumstances, yet, for this once, he "laid not his hand on the nobles
+of Israel"; "that they beheld Elohim and did eat and drink"; and that
+afterwards Moses saw his back (Exod. xxxiii. 23)--is not this Deity
+conceived as manlike in form? Again, is not the Jahveh who eats with
+Abraham under the oaks at Mamre, who is pleased with the "sweet savour"
+of Noah's sacrifice, to whom sacrifices are said to be "food" [6]--is
+not this Deity depicted as possessed of human appetites? If this were
+not the current Israelitish idea of Jahveh even in the eighth century
+B.C., where is the point of Isaiah's scathing admonitions to his
+countrymen: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto
+me? saith Jahveh: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat
+of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs,
+or of he-goats" (Isa. i. 11). Or of Micah's inquiry, "Will Jahveh be
+pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?"
+(vi. 7.) And in the innumerable passages in which Jahveh is said to be
+jealous of other gods, to be angry, to be appeased, and to repent; in
+which he is represented as casting off Saul because the king does not
+quite literally execute a command of the most ruthless severity; or as
+smiting Uzzah to death because the unfortunate man thoughtlessly, but
+naturally enough, put out his hand to stay the ark from falling--can any
+one deny that the old Israelites conceived Jahveh not only in the image
+of a man, but in that of a changeable, irritable, and, occasionally,
+violent man? There appears to me, then, to be no reason to doubt that
+the notion of likeness to man, which was indubitably held of the ghost
+Elohim, was carried out consistently throughout the whole series of
+Elohim, and that Jahveh-Elohim was thought of as a being of the same
+substantially human nature as the rest, only immeasurably more powerful
+for good and for evil.
+
+The absence of any real distinction between the Elohim of different
+ranks is further clearly illustrated by the corresponding absence of any
+sharp delimitation between the various kinds of people who serve as the
+media of communication between them and men. The agents through whom
+the lower Elohim are consulted are called necromancers, wizards, and
+diviners, and are looked down upon by the prophets and priests of the
+higher Elohim; but the "seer" [7] connects the two, and they are all
+alike in their essential characters of media. The wise woman of Endor
+was believed by others, and, I have little doubt, believed herself, to
+be able to "bring up" whom she would from Sheol, and to be inspired,
+whether in virtue of actual possession by the evoked Elohim, or
+otherwise, with a knowledge of hidden things, I am unable to see that
+Saul's servant took any really different view of Samuel's powers, though
+he may have believed that he obtained them by the grace of the higher
+Elohim. For when Saul fails to find his father's asses, his servant says
+to him--
+
+   Behold, there is in this city a man of Elohim, and he is a man
+   that is held in honour; all that he saith cometh surely to pass;
+   now let us go thither; peradventure, he can tell us concerning
+   our journey whereon we go. Then said Saul to his servant, But
+   behold if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is
+   spent in our vessels and there is not a present to bring to the
+   man of Elohim. What have we? And the servant answered Saul again
+   and said, Behold I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel
+   of silver: that will I give to the man of Elohim to tell us our
+   way. (Beforetime in Israel when a man went to inquire of Elohim,
+   then he said, Come and let us go to the Seer: for he that is now
+   called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer [8])
+   (1 Sam. ix. 6-10).
+
+In fact, when, shortly afterwards, Saul accidentally meets Samuel, he
+says, "Tell me, I pray thee, where the Seer's house is." Samuel answers,
+"I am the Seer." Immediately afterwards Samuel informs Saul that the
+asses are found, though how he obtained his knowledge of the fact is not
+stated. It will be observed that Samuel is not spoken of here as, in
+any special sense, a seer or prophet of Jahveh, but as a "man of
+Elohim"--that is to say, a seer having access to the "spiritual powers,"
+just as the wise woman of Endor might have been said to be a "woman
+of Elohim"--and the narrator's or editor's explanatory note seems to
+indicate that "Prophet" is merely a name, introduced later than the time
+of Samuel, for a superior kind of "Seer," or "man of Elohim." [9]
+
+Another very instructive passage shows that Samuel was not only
+considered to be diviner, seer, and prophet in one, but that he was
+also, to all intents and purposes, priest of Jahveh--though, according
+to his biographer, he was not a member of the tribe of Levi. At the
+outset of their acquaintance, Samuel says to Saul, "Go up before me into
+the high place," where, as the young maidens of the city had just before
+told Saul, the Seer was going, "for the people will not eat till he
+come, because he doth bless the sacrifice" (1 Sam. x. 12). The use of
+the word "bless" here--as if Samuel were not going to sacrifice, but
+only to offer a blessing or thanksgiving--is curious. But that Samuel
+really acted as priest seems plain from what follows. For he not only
+asks Saul to share in the customary sacrificial feast, but he disposes
+in Saul's favour of that portion of the victim which the Levitical
+legislation, doubtless embodying old customs, recognises as the priest's
+special property. [10]
+
+Although particular persons adopted the profession of media between men
+and Elohim, there was no limitation of the power, in the view of ancient
+Israel, to any special class of the population. Saul inquires of Jahveh
+and builds him altars on his own account; and in the very remarkable
+story told in the fourteenth chapter of the first book of Samuel
+(v. 37-46), Saul appears to conduct the whole process of divination,
+although he has a priest at his elbow. David seems to do the same.
+
+Moreover, Elohim constantly appear in dreams--which in old Israel did
+not mean that, as we should say, the subject of the appearance "dreamed
+he saw the spirit"; but that he veritably saw the Elohim which, as a
+soul, visited his soul while his body was asleep. And, in the course
+of the history of Israel Jahveh himself thus appears to all sorts
+of persons, non-Israelites as well as Israelites. Again, the Elohim
+possess, or inspire, people against their will, as in the case of Saul
+and Saul's messengers, and then these people prophesy--that is to say,
+"rave"--and exhibit the ungoverned gestures attributed by a later age to
+possession by malignant spirits. Apart from other evidence to be adduced
+by and by, the history of ancient demonology and of modern revivalism
+does not permit me to doubt that the accounts of these phenomena given
+in the history of Saul may be perfectly historical.
+
+In the ritual practices, of which evidence is to be found in the books
+of Judges and Samuel, the chief part is played by sacrifices, usually
+burnt offerings. Whenever the aid of the Elohim of Israel is sought, or
+thanks are considered due to him, an altar is built, and oxen, sheep,
+and goats are slaughtered and offered up. Sometimes the entire victim
+is burnt as a holocaust; more frequently only certain parts, notably
+the fat about the kidneys, are burnt on the altar. The rest is properly
+cooked; and, after the reservation of a part for the priest, is made the
+foundation of a joyous banquet, in which the sacrificer, his family,
+and such guests as he thinks fit to invite, participate. [11] Elohim was
+supposed to share in the feast, and it has been already shown that that
+which was set apart on the altar, or consumed by fire, was spoken of as
+the food of Elohim, who was thought to be influenced by the costliness,
+or by the pleasant smell, of the sacrifice in favour of the sacrificer.
+
+All this bears out the view that, in the mind of the old Israelite,
+there was no difference, save one of degree, between one Elohim and
+another. It is true that there is but little direct evidence to show
+that the old Israelites shared the widespread belief of their own, and
+indeed of all times, that the spirits of the dead not only continue to
+exist, but are capable of a ghostly kind of feeding and are grateful for
+such aliment as can be assimilated by their attenuated substance, and
+even for clothes, ornaments, and weapons. [12] That they were familiar
+with this doctrine in the time of the captivity is suggested by the
+well-known reference of Ezekiel (xxxii. 27) to the "mighty that are
+fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to [Sheol] hell with
+their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads."
+Perhaps there is a still earlier allusion in the "giving of food for the
+dead" spoken of in Deuteronomy (xxvi. 14). [13]
+
+It must be remembered that the literature of the old Israelites, as
+it lies before us, has been subjected to the revisal of strictly
+monotheistic editors, violently opposed to all kinds of idolatry, who
+are not likely to have selected from the materials at their disposal any
+obvious evidence, either of the practice under discussion, or of that
+ancestor-worship which is so closely related to it, for preservation in
+the permanent records of their people.
+
+The mysterious objects known as _Teraphim,_ which are occasionally
+mentioned in Judges, Samuel, and elsewhere, however, can hardly be
+interpreted otherwise than as indications of the existence both of
+ancestor-worship and of image-worship in old Israel. The teraphim
+were certainly images of family gods, and, as such, in all probability
+represented deceased ancestors. Laban indignantly demands of his
+son-in-law, "Wherefore hast thou stolen my Elohim?" which Rachel, who
+must be assumed to have worshipped Jacob's God, Jahveh, had carried off,
+obviously because she, like her father, believed in their divinity. It
+is not suggested that Jacob was in any way scandalised by the idolatrous
+practices of his favourite wife, whatever he may have thought of her
+honesty when the truth came to light; for the teraphim seem to have
+remained in his camp, at least until he "hid" his strange gods "under
+the oak that was by Shechem" (Gen. xxxv. 4). And indeed it is open
+to question if he got rid of them then, for the subsequent history of
+Israel renders it more than doubtful whether the teraphim were regarded
+as "strange gods" even as late as the eighth century B.C.
+
+The writer of the books of Samuel takes it quite as a matter of course
+that Michal, daughter of one royal Jahveh worshipper and wife of the
+servant of Jahveh _par excellence,_ the pious David, should have her
+teraphim handy, in her and David's chamber, when she dresses them up in
+their bed into a simulation of her husband, for the purpose of deceiving
+her father's messengers. Even one of the early prophets, Hosea, when
+he threatens that the children of Israel shall abide many days without
+"ephod or teraphim" (iii. 4), appears to regard both as equally proper
+appurtenances of the suspended worship of Jahveh, and equally certain
+to be restored when that is resumed. When we further take into
+consideration that only in the reign of Hezekiah was the brazen serpent,
+preserved in the temple and believed to be the work of Moses, destroyed,
+and the practice of offering incense to it, that is, worshipping it,
+abolished--that Jeroboam could set up "calves of gold" for Israel to
+worship, with apparently none but a political object, and certainly with
+no notion of creating a schism among the worshippers of Jahveh, or of
+repelling the men of Judah from his standard--it seems obvious, either
+that the Israelites of the tenth and eleventh centuries B.C. knew not
+the second commandment, or that they construed it merely as part of the
+prohibition to worship any supreme god other than Jahveh, which precedes
+it.
+
+In seeking for information about the teraphim, I lighted upon the
+following passage in the valuable article on that subject by Archdeacon
+Farrar, in Ritto's "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature," which is
+so much to the purpose of my argument, that I venture to quote it in
+full:--
+
+   The main and certain results of this review are that the
+   teraphim were rude human images; that the use of them was an
+   antique Aramaic custom; that there is reason to suppose them to
+   have been images of deceased ancestors; that they were consulted
+   oracularly; that they were not confined to Jews; that their use
+   continued down to the latest period of Jewish history;
+   and lastly, that although the enlightened prophets and strictest
+   later kings regarded them as idolatrous, the priests were much
+   less averse to such images, and their cult was not considered in
+   any way repugnant to the pious worship of Elohim, nay, even to
+   the worship of him "under the awful title of Jehovah." In fact,
+   they involved _a monotheistic idolatry very different indeed
+   from polytheism;_ and the tolerance of them by priests, as
+   compared with the denunciation of them by the prophets, offers a
+   close analogy to the views of the Roman Catholics respecting
+   pictures and images as compared with the views of Protestants.
+   It was against this use of idolatrous symbols and emblems in a
+   monotheistic worship that the _second_ commandment was
+   directed, whereas the first is aimed against the graver sin of
+   direct polytheism. But the whole history of Israel shows how
+   utterly and how early the law must have fallen into desuetude.
+   The worship of the golden calf and of the calves at Dan and
+   Bethel, against which, so far as we know, neither Elijah nor
+   Elisha said a single word; the tolerance of high places,
+   teraphim and betylia; the offering of incense for centuries to
+   the brazen serpent destroyed by Hezekiah; the occasional
+   glimpses of the most startling irregularities sanctioned
+   apparently even in the temple worship itself, prove most
+   decisively that a pure monotheism and an independence of symbols
+   was the result of a slow and painful course of God's disciplinal
+   dealings among the noblest thinkers of a single nation, and not,
+   as is so constantly and erroneously urged, the instinct of the
+   whole Semitic race; in other words, one single branch of the
+   Semites was under God's providence _educated_ into pure
+   monotheism only by centuries of misfortune and series of
+   inspired men (vol. iii. p. 986).
+
+It appears to me that the researches of the anthropologist lead him to
+conclusions identical in substance, if not in terms, with those here
+enunciated as the result of a careful study of the same subject from a
+totally different point of view.
+
+There is abundant evidence in the books of Samuel and elsewhere that
+an article of dress termed an _ephod_ was supposed to have a peculiar
+efficacy in enabling the wearer to exercise divination by means of
+Jahveh-Elohim. Great and long continued have been the disputes as to the
+exact nature of the ephod--whether it always means something to wear, or
+whether it sometimes means an image. But the probabilities are that
+it usually signifies a kind of waistcoat or broad zone, with
+shoulder-straps, which the person who "inquired of Jahveh" put on. In
+1 Samuel xxiii. 2 David appears to have inquired without an ephod, for
+Abiathar the priest is said to have "come down with an ephod in his
+hand" only subsequently. And then David asks for it before inquiring of
+Jahveh whether the men of Keilah would betray him or not. David's action
+is obviously divination pure and simple; and it is curious that he seems
+to have worn the ephod himself and not to have employed Abiathar as a
+medium. How the answer was given is not clear though the probability is
+that it was obtained by casting lots. The _Urim_ and _Thummim_ seem to
+have been two such lots of a peculiarly sacred character, which were
+carried in the pocket of the high priest's "breastplate." This last was
+worn along with the ephod.
+
+With the exception of one passage (1 Sam. xiv. 18) the ark is ignored in
+the history of Saul. But in this place the Septuagint reads "ephod" for
+ark, while in 1 Chronicles xiii. 3 David says that "we sought not unto
+it [the ark] in the days of Saul." Nor does Samuel seem to have paid
+any regard to the ark after its return from Philistia; though, in his
+childhood, he is said to have slept in "the temple of Jahveh, where the
+ark of Elohim was" (1 Sam. iii. 3), at Shiloh and there to have been the
+seer of the earliest apparitions vouchsafed to him by Jahveh. The
+space between the cherubim or winged images on the canopy or cover
+(_Kapporeth_) of this holy chest was held to be the special seat of
+Jahveh--the place selected for a temporary residence of the Supreme
+Elohim who had, after Aaron and Phineas, Eli and his sons for priests
+and seers. And, when the ark was carried to the camp at Eben-ezer, there
+can be no doubt that the Israelites, no less than the Philistines, held
+that "Elohim is come into the camp" (iv. 7), and that the one, as much
+as the other, conceived that the Israelites had summoned to their aid
+a powerful ally in "these (or this) mighty Elohim"--elsewhere called
+Jahve-Sabaoth, the Jahveh of Hosts. If the "temple" at Shiloh was
+the pentateuchal tabernacle, as is suggested by the name of "tent of
+meeting" given to it in 1 Samuel ii. 22, it was essentially a large
+tent, though constituted of very expensive and ornate materials; if, on
+the other hand, it was a different edifice, there can be little doubt
+that this "house of Jahveh" was built on the model of an ordinary house
+of the time. But there is not the slightest evidence that, during the
+reign of Saul, any greater importance attached to this seat of the cult
+of Jahveh than to others. Sanctuaries, and "high places" for sacrifice,
+were scattered all over the country from Dan to Beersheba. And, as
+Samuel is said to have gone up to one of these high places to bless the
+sacrifice, it may be taken for tolerably certain that he knew nothing of
+the Levitical laws which severely condemn the high places and those who
+sacrifice away from the sanctuary hallowed by the presence of the ark.
+
+There is no evidence that, during the time of the Judges and of Samuel,
+any one occupied the position of the high priest of later days. And
+persons who were neither priests nor Levites sacrificed and divined or
+"inquired of Jahveh," when they pleased and where they pleased, without
+the least indication that they, or any one else in Israel at that
+time, knew they were doing wrong. There is no allusion to any special
+observance of the Sabbath; and the references to circumcision are
+indirect.
+
+Such are the chief articles of the theological creed of the old
+Israelites, which are made known to us by the direct evidence of the
+ancient record to which we have had recourse, and they are as remarkable
+for that which they contain as for that which is absent from them.
+They reveal a firm conviction that, when death takes place, a something
+termed a soul or spirit leaves the body and continues to exist in Sheol
+for a period of indefinite duration, even though there is no proof of
+any belief in absolute immortality; that such spirits can return to
+earth to possess and inspire the living; that they are, in appearance
+and in disposition, likenesses of the men to whom they belonged, but
+that, as spirits, they have larger powers and are freer from physical
+limitations; that they thus form a group among a number of kinds of
+spiritual existences known as Elohim, of whom Jahveh, the national
+God of Israel, is one; that, consistently with this view, Jahveh was
+conceived as a sort of spirit, human in aspect and in senses, and with
+many human passions, but with immensely greater intelligence and power
+than any other Elohim, whether human or divine. Further, the evidence
+proves that this belief was the basis of the Jahveh-worship to which
+Samuel and his followers were devoted; that there is strong reason for
+believing, and none for doubting, that idolatry, in the shape of the
+worship of the family gods or teraphim, was practised by sincere and
+devout Jahveh-worshippers; that the ark, with its protective tent or
+tabernacle, was regarded as a specially, but by no means exclusively,
+favoured sanctuary of Jahveh; that the ephod appears to have had a
+particular value for those who desired to divine by the help of Jahveh;
+and that divination by lots was practised before Jahveh. On the other
+hand, there is not the slightest evidence of any belief in retribution
+after death, but the contrary; ritual obligations have at least as
+strong sanction as moral; there are clear indications that some of
+the most stringent of the Levitical laws were unknown even to Samuel;
+priests often appear to be superseded by laymen, even in the performance
+of sacrifices and divination; and no line of demarcation can be drawn
+between necromancer, wizard, seer, prophet, and priest, each of whom is
+regarded, like all the rest, as a medium of communication between the
+world of Elohim and that of living men.
+
+The theological system thus defined offers to the anthropologist no
+feature which is devoid of a parallel in the known theologies of other
+races of mankind, even of those who inhabit parts of the world most
+remote from Palestine. And the foundation of the whole, the ghost
+theory, is exactly that theological speculation which is the most widely
+spread of all, and the most deeply rooted among uncivilised men. I am
+able to base this statement, to some extent, on facts within my own
+knowledge. In December 1848, H.M.S. _Rattlesnake,_ the ship to which
+I then belonged, was anchored off Mount Ernest, an island in Torres
+Straits. The people were few and well disposed; and, when a friend of
+mine (whom I will call B.) and I went ashore, we made acquaintance
+with an old native, Paouda by name. In course of time we became quite
+intimate with the old gentleman, partly by the rendering of mutual good
+offices, but chiefly because Paouda believed he had discovered that B.
+was his father-in-law. And his grounds for this singular conviction were
+very remarkable. We had made a long stay at Cape York hard by; and, in
+accordance with a theory which is widely spread among the Australians,
+that white men are the reincarnated spirits of black men, B. was held to
+be the ghost, or _narki,_ of a certain Mount Ernest native, one Antarki,
+who had lately died, on the ground of some real or fancied resemblance
+to the latter. Now Paouda had taken to wife a daughter of Antarki's,
+named Domani, and as soon as B. informed him that he was the ghost of
+Antarki, Paouda at once admitted the relationship and acted upon it.
+For, as all the women on the island had hidden away in fear of the ship,
+and we were anxious to see what they were like, B. pleaded pathetically
+with Paouda that it would be very unkind not to let him see his daughter
+and grandchildren. After a good deal of hesitation and the exaction of
+pledges of deep secrecy, Paouda consented to take B., and myself as B.'s
+friend, to see Domani and the three daughters, by whom B. was received
+quite as one of the family, while I was courteously welcomed on his
+account.
+
+This scene made an impression upon me which is not yet effaced. It left
+no question on my mind of the sincerity of the strange ghost theory
+of these savages, and of the influence which their belief has on their
+practical life. I had it in my mind, as well as many a like result
+of subsequent anthropological studies, when, in 1869, [14] I wrote as
+follows:--
+
+   There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word,
+   but none without ghosts. And the Fetishism, Ancestor-worship,
+   Hero-worship, and Demonology of primitive savages are all, I
+   believe, different manners of expression of their belief in
+   ghosts, and of the anthropomorphic interpretation of out-of-the-
+   way events which is its concomitant. Witchcraft and sorcery are
+   the practical expressions of these beliefs; and they stand in
+   the same relation to religious worship as the simple
+   anthropomorphism of children or savages does to theology.
+
+I do not quote myself with any intention of making a claim to
+originality in putting forth this view; for I have since discovered that
+the same conception is virtually contained in the great "Discours sur
+l'Histoire Universelle" of Bossuet, now more than two centuries old:
+[15]--
+
+   Le culte des hommes morta faisoit presque tout le fond de
+   l'idolatrie; presque tous les hommes sacrificient aux manes,
+   c'est-a-dire aux ames des morts. De si anciennes erreurs nous
+   font voir a la verite combien etoit ancienne la croyance de
+   l'immortalite de l'ame, et nous montrent qu'elle doit etre
+   rangee parmi les premieres traditions du genre humain.
+   Mais l'homme, qui gatoit tout, en avoit etrangement abuse,
+   puisqu'elle le portoit a sacrificer aux morts. On alloit meme
+   jusqu'a cet exces, de leur sacrifier des hommes vivans; ou tuoit
+   leurs esclaves, et meme leurs femmes, pour les aller servir dans
+   l'autre monde.
+
+Among more modern writers J. G. Muller, in his excellent "Geschichte
+der amerikanischen Urreligionen" (1855), clearly recognises
+"gespensterhafter Geisterglaube" as the foundation of all savage
+and semi-civilised theology, and I need do no more than mention the
+important developments of the same view which are to be found in Mr.
+Tylor's "Primitive Culture," and in the writings of Mr. Herbert Spencer,
+especially his recently-published "Ecclesiastical Institutions." [16]
+
+It is a matter of fact that, whether we direct our attention to
+the older conditions of civilised societies, in Japan, in China, in
+Hindostan, in Greece, or in Rome, [17] we find, underlying all
+other theological notions, the belief in ghosts, with its inevitable
+concomitant sorcery; and a primitive cult, in the shape of a worship of
+ancestors, which is essentially an attempt to please, or appease their
+ghosts. The same thing is true of old Mexico and Peru, and of all the
+semi-civilised or savage peoples who have developed a definite cult; and
+in those who, like the natives of Australia, have not even a cult, the
+belief in, and fear of, ghosts is as strong as anywhere else. The most
+clearly demonstrable article of the theology of the Israelites in the
+eleventh and twelfth centuries B.C. is therefore simply the article
+which is to be found in all primitive theologies, namely, the belief
+that a man has a soul which continues to exist after death for a longer
+or shorter time, and may return, as a ghost, with a divine, or at least
+demonic, character, to influence for good or evil (and usually for
+evil) the affairs of the living. But the correspondence between the old
+Israelitic and other archaic forms of theology extends to details. If,
+in order to avoid all chance of direct communication, we direct
+our attention to the theology of semi-civilised people, such as the
+Polynesian Islanders, separated by the greatest possible distance,
+and by every conceivable physical barrier, from the inhabitants of
+Palestine, we shall find not merely that all the features of old
+Israelitic theology, which are revealed in the records cited, are found
+among them; but that extant information as to the inner mind of these
+people tends to remove many of the difficulties which those who have not
+studied anthropology find in the Hebrew narrative.
+
+One of the best sources, if not the best source, of information on these
+topics is Mariner's _Tonga Islands,_ which tells us of the condition of
+Cook's "Friendly Islanders" eighty years ago, before European influence
+was sensibly felt among them. Mariner, a youth of fair education and of
+no inconsiderable natural ability (as the work which was drawn up from
+the materials he furnished shows), was about fifteen years of age when
+his ship was attacked and plundered by the Tongans: he remained four
+years in the islands, familiarised himself with the language, lived the
+life of the people, became intimate with many of them, and had every
+opportunity of acquainting himself with their opinions, as well as with
+their habits and customs. He seems to have been devoid of prejudices,
+theological or other, and the impression of strict accuracy which his
+statements convey has been justified by all the knowledge of Polynesian
+life which has been subsequently acquired.
+
+It is desirable, therefore, to pay close attention to that which Mariner
+tells us about the theological views of these people: [18]--
+
+   The human soul, after its separation from the body, is
+   termed a _hotooa_ (a god or spirit), and is believed to
+   exist in the shape of the body; to have the same propensities as
+   during life, but to be corrected by a more enlightened
+   understanding, by which it readily distinguishes good from evil,
+   truth from falsehood, right from wrong; having the same
+   attributes as the original gods, but in a minor degree, and
+   having its dwelling for ever in the happy regions of Bolotoo,
+   holding the same rank in regard to other souls as during this
+   life; it has, however, the power of returning to Tonga to
+   inspire priests, relations, or others, or to appear in dreams to
+   those it wishes to admonish; and sometimes to the external eye
+   in the form of a ghost or apparition; but this power of
+   reappearance at Tonga particularly belongs to the souls of
+   chiefs rather than of matabooles. (vol. ii. p. 130).
+
+The word "hotooa" is the same as that which is usually spelt "atua"
+by Polynesian philologues, and it will be convenient to adopt this
+spelling. Now under this head of "_Atuas_ or supernatural intelligent
+beings" the Tongans include:--
+
+"1. The original gods. 2. The souls of nobles that have all attributes
+in common with the first but inferior in degree. 3. The souls of
+matabooles [19] that are still inferior, and have not the power as the
+two first have of coming back to Tonga to inspire the priest, though
+they are supposed to have the power of appearing to their relatives.
+4. The original attendants or servants, as it were, of the gods, who,
+although they had their origin and have ever since existed in Bolotoo,
+are still inferior to the third class. 5. The _Atua pow_ or mischievous
+gods. 6. _Mooi,_ or the god that supports the earth and does not belong
+to Bolotoo (vol. ii. pp. 103, 104)."
+
+From this it appears that the "Atuas" of the Polynesian are exactly
+equivalent to the "Elohim" of the old Israelite. [20] They comprise
+everything spiritual, from a ghost to a god, and from "the merely
+tutelar gods to particular private families" (vol, ii. p. 104), to
+Ta-li-y-Tooboo, who was the national god of Tonga. The Tongans had no
+doubt that these Atuas daily and hourly influenced their destinies
+and could, conversely, be influenced by them. Hence their "piety," the
+incessant acts of sacrificial worship which occupied their lives, and
+their belief in omens and charms. Moreover, the Atuas were believed to
+visit particular persons,--their own priests in the case of the higher
+gods, but apparently anybody in that of the lower,--and to inspire them
+by a process which was conceived to involve the actual residence of the
+god, for the time being, in the person inspired, who was thus rendered
+capable of prophesying (vol. ii. p. 100). For the Tongan, therefore,
+inspiration indubitably was possession.
+
+When one of the higher gods was invoked, through his priest, by a chief
+who wished to consult the oracle, or, in old Israelitic phraseology,
+to "inquire of," the god, a hog was killed and cooked over night, and,
+together with plantains, yams, and the materials for making the peculiar
+drink _kava_ (of which the Tongans were very fond), was carried next day
+to the priest. A circle, as for an ordinary kava-drinking entertainment,
+was then formed; but the priest, as the representative of the god,
+took the highest place, while the chiefs sat outside the circle, as an
+expression of humility calculated to please the god.
+
+
+   As soon as they are all seated the priest is considered as
+   inspired, the god being supposed to exist within him from that
+   moment. He remains for a considerable time in silence with his
+   hands clasped before him, his eyes are cast down and he rests
+   perfectly still. During the time the victuals are being shared
+   out and the kava preparing, the matabooles sometimes begin to
+   consult him; sometimes he answers, and at other times not;
+   in either case he remains with his eyes cast down. Frequently he
+   will not utter a word till the repast is finished and the kava
+   too. When he speaks he generally begins in a low and very
+   altered tone of voice, which gradually rises to nearly its
+   natural pitch, though sometimes a little above it. All that he
+   says is supposed to be the declaration of the god, and he
+   accordingly speaks in the first person, as if he were the god.
+   All this is done generally without any apparent inward emotion
+   or outward agitation; but, on some occasions, his countenance
+   becomes fierce, and as it were inflamed, and his whole frame
+   agitated with inward feeling; he is seized with an universal
+   trembling, the perspiration breaks out on his forehead, and his
+   lips turning black are convulsed; at length tears start in
+   floods from his eyes, his breast heaves with great emotion, and
+   his utterance is choked. These symptoms gradually subside.
+   Before this paroxysm comes on, and after it is over, he often
+   eats as much as four hungry men under other circumstances could
+   devour. The fit being now gone off, he remains for some time
+   calm and then takes up a club that is placed by him for the
+   purpose, turns it over and regards it attentively; he then looks
+   up earnestly, now to the right, now to the left, and now again
+   at the club; afterwards he looks up again and about him in like
+   manner, and then again fixes his eyes on the club, and so on for
+   several times. At length he suddenly raises the club, and, after
+   a moment's pause, strikes the ground or the adjacent part of the
+   house with considerable force, immediately the god leaves him,
+   and he rises up and retires to the back of the ring among the
+   people (vol. i. pp. 100, 101).
+
+The phenomena thus described, in language which, to any one who is
+familiar with the manifestations of abnormal mental states among
+ourselves, bears the stamp of fidelity, furnish a most instructive
+commentary upon the story of the wise woman of Endor. As in the latter,
+we have the possession by the spirit or soul (Atua, Elohim), the strange
+voice, the speaking in the first person. Unfortunately nothing (beyond
+the loud cry) is mentioned as to the state of the wise woman of Endor.
+But what we learn from other sources (_e.g._ 1 Sam. x. 20-24) respecting
+the physical concomitants of inspiration among the old Israelites
+has its exact equivalent in this and other accounts of Polynesian
+prophetism. An excellent authority, Moerenhout, who lived among the
+people of the Society Islands many years and knew them well, says that,
+in Tahiti, the _role_ of the prophet had very generally passed out of
+the hands of the priests into that of private persons who professed
+to represent the god, often assumed his name, and in this capacity
+prophesied. I will not run the risk of weakening the force of
+Moerenhout's description of the prophetic state by translating it:--
+
+"Un individu, dans cet etat, avait le bras gauche enveloppe d'un morceau
+d'etoffe, signe de la presence de la Divinite. Il ne parlait que d'un
+ton imperieux et vehement. Ses attaques, quand il allait prophetiser,
+etaient aussi effroyables qu'imposantes. Il tremblait d'abord de tous
+ses membres, la figure enflee, les yeux hagards, rouges et etincelants
+d'une expression sauvage. Il gesticulait, articulait des mots vides de
+sens, poussait des cris horribles qui faisaient tressaillir tous
+les assistants, et s'exaltait parfois au point qu'on n'osait par
+l'approcher. Autour de lui, le silence de la terreur et du respect....
+C'est alors qu'il repondait aux questions, annoncait l'avenir, le destin
+des batailles, la volonte des dieux; et, chose etonnante! au sein de
+ce delire, de cet enthousiasme religieux, son langage etait grave,
+imposant, son eloquence noble et persuasive." [21]
+
+Just so Saul strips off his clothes, "prophesies" before Samuel, and
+lies down "naked all that day and night."
+
+Both Mariner and Moerenhout refuse to have recourse to the hypothesis of
+imposture in order to account for the inspired state of the Polynesian
+prophets. On the contrary, they fully believe in their sincerity.
+Mariner tells the story of a young chief, an acquaintance of his, who
+thought himself possessed by the Atua of a dead woman who had fallen in
+love with him, and who wished him to die that he might be near her in
+Bolotoo. And he died accordingly. But the most valuable evidence on this
+head is contained in what the same authority says about King Finow's
+son. The previous king, Toogoo Ahoo, had been assassinated by Finow, and
+his soul, become an Atua of divine rank in Bolotoo, had been pleased
+to visit and inspire Finow's son--with what particular object does not
+appear.
+
+   When this young chief returned to Hapai, Mr. Mariner, who was
+   upon a footing of great friendship with him, one day asked him
+   how he felt himself when the spirit of Toogoo Ahoo visited him;
+   he replied that he could not well describe his feelings, but the
+   best he could say of it was, that he felt himself all over in a
+   glow of heat and quite restless and uncomfortable, and did not
+   feel his own personal identity, as it were, but seemed to have a
+   mind different from his own natural mind, his thoughts wandering
+   upon strange and unusual subjects, though perfectly sensible of
+   surrounding objects. He next asked him how he knew it was the
+   spirit of Toogoo Ahoo? His answer was, 'There's a fool! How can
+   I tell you _how_ I knew it! I felt and knew it was so by a
+   kind of consciousness; my _mind_ told me that it was Toogoo
+   Ahoo (vol. i. pp. 104, 105).
+
+Finow's son was evidently made for a theological disputant, and fell
+back at once on the inexpugnable stronghold of faith when other evidence
+was lacking. "There's a fool! I know it is true, because I know it," is
+the exemplar and epitome of the sceptic-crushing process in other places
+than the Tonga Islands.
+
+The island of Bolotoo, to which all the souls (of the upper classes at
+any rate) repair after the death of the body, and from which they return
+at will to interfere, for good or evil, with the lives of those whom
+they have left behind, obviously answers to Sheol. In Tongan tradition,
+this place of souls is a sort of elysium above ground and pleasant
+enough to live in. But, in other parts of Polynesia, the corresponding
+locality, which is called Po, has to be reached by descending into the
+earth, and is represented dark and gloomy like Sheol. But it was not
+looked upon as a place of rewards and punishments in any sense. Whether
+in Bolotoo or in Po, the soul took the rank it had in the flesh; and,
+a shadow, lived among the shadows of the friends and houses and food of
+its previous life.
+
+The Tongan theologians recognised several hundred gods; but there was
+one, already mentioned as their national god, whom they regarded as far
+greater than any of the others, "as a great chief from the top of the
+sky down to the bottom of the earth" (Mariner, vol. ii. p. 106). He
+was also god of war, and the tutelar deity of the royal family, whoever
+happened to be the incumbent of the royal office for the time being. He
+had no priest except the king himself, and his visits, even to
+royalty, were few and far between. The name of this supreme deity was
+Ta-li-y-Tooboo, the literal meaning of which is said to be "Wait there,
+Tooboo," from which it would appear that the peculiar characteristic
+of Ta-li-y-Tooboo, in the eyes of his worshippers, was persistence of
+duration. And it is curious to notice, in relation to this circumstance,
+that many Hebrew philologers have thought the meaning of Jahveh to be
+best expressed by the word "Eternal." It would probably be difficult to
+express the notion of an eternal being, in a dialect so little fitted
+to convey abstract conceptions as Tongan, better than by that of one who
+always "waits there."
+
+The characteristics of the gods in Tongan theology are exactly those
+of men whose shape they are supposed to possess, only they have more
+intelligence and greater power. The Tongan belief that, after death, the
+human Atua more readily distinguishes good from evil, runs parallel with
+the old Israelitic conception of Elohim expressed in Genesis, "Ye shall
+be as Elohim, knowing good from evil." They further agreed with the old
+Israelites, that "all rewards for virtue and punishments for vice happen
+to men in this world only, and come immediately from the gods" (vol. ii.
+p. 100). Moreover, they were of opinion that though the gods approve of
+some kinds of virtue, are displeased with some kinds of vice, and, to a
+certain extent, protect or forsake their worshippers according to
+their moral conduct, yet neglect to pay due respect to the deities, and
+forgetfulness to keep them in good humour, might be visited with even
+worse consequences than moral delinquency. And those who will carefully
+study the so-called "Mosaic code" contained in the books of Exodus,
+Leviticus, and Numbers, will see that, though Jahveh's prohibitions of
+certain forms of immorality are strict and sweeping, his wrath is quite
+as strongly kindled against infractions of ritual ordinances. Accidental
+homicide may go unpunished, and reparation may be made for wilful theft.
+On the other hand, Nadab and Abihu, who "offered strange fire before
+Jahveh, which he had not commanded them," were swiftly devoured by
+Jahveh's fire; he who sacrificed anywhere except at the allotted place
+was to be "cut off from his people"; so was he who ate blood; and the
+details of the upholstery of the Tabernacle, of the millinery of the
+priests' vestments, and of the cabinet work of the ark, can plead direct
+authority from Jahveh, no less than moral commands.
+
+Amongst the Tongans, the sacrifices were regarded as gifts of food and
+drink offered to the divine Atuas, just as the articles deposited by the
+graves of the recently dead were meant as food for Atuas of lower rank.
+A kava root was a constant form of offering all over Polynesia. In the
+excellent work of the Rev. George Turner, entitled _Nineteen Years in
+Polynesia_ (p. 241), I find it said of the Samoans (near neighbours of
+the Tongans):--
+
+   _The offerings_ were principally cooked food. As in ancient
+   Greece so in Samoa, the first cup was in honour of the god.
+   It was either poured out on the ground or _waved_ towards
+   the heavens, reminding us again of the Mosaic ceremonies.
+   The chiefs all drank a portion out of the same cup, according to
+   rank; and after that, the food brought as an offering was
+   divided and eaten '_there before the Lord._'
+
+In Tonga, when they consulted a god who had a priest, the latter, as
+representative of the god, had the first cup; but if the god, like
+Ta-li-y-Tooboo, had no priest, then the chief place was left vacant, and
+was supposed to be occupied by the god himself. When the first cup of
+kava was filled, the mataboole who acted as master of the ceremonies
+said, "Give it to your god," and it was offered, though only as a matter
+of form. In Tonga and Samoa there were many sacred places or _morais,_
+with houses of the ordinary construction, but which served as temples in
+consequence of being dedicated to various gods; and there were altars
+on which the sacrifices were offered; nevertheless there were few or
+no images. Mariner mentions none in Tonga, and the Samoans seem to have
+been regarded as no better than atheists by other Polynesians because
+they had none. It does not appear that either of these peoples had
+images even of their family or ancestral gods.
+
+In Tahiti and the adjacent islands, Moerenhout (t. i. p. 471) makes the
+very interesting observation, not only that idols were often absent,
+but that, where they existed, the images of the gods served merely as
+depositories for the proper representatives of the divinity. Each of
+these was called a _maro aurou,_ and was a kind of girdle artistically
+adorned with red, yellow, blue, and black feathers--the red feathers
+being especially important--which were consecrated and kept as sacred
+objects within the idols. They were worn by great personages on solemn
+occasions, and conferred upon their wearers a sacred and almost divine
+character. There is no distinct evidence that the _maro aurou_ was
+supposed to have any special efficacy in divination, but one cannot fail
+to see a certain parallelism between this holy girdle, which endowed its
+wearer with a particular sanctity, and the ephod.
+
+According to the Rev. R. Taylor, the New Zealanders formerly used the
+word _karakia_ (now employed for "prayer") to signify a "spell, charm,
+or incantation," and the utterance of these karakias constituted the
+chief part of their cult. In the south, the officiating priest had a
+small image, "about eighteen inches long, resembling a peg with a
+carved head," which reminds one of the form commonly attributed to the
+teraphim.
+
+"The priest first bandaged a fillet of red parrot feathers under the
+god's chin, which was called his pahau or beard; this bandage was made
+of a certain kind of sennet, which was tied on in a peculiar way. When
+this was done it was taken possession of by the Atua, whose spirit
+entered it. The priest then either held it in the hand and vibrated it
+in the air whilst the powerful karakia was repeated, or he tied a piece
+of string (formed of the centre of a flax leaf) round the neck of the
+image and stuck it in the ground. He sat at a little distance from it,
+leaning against a tuahu, a short stone pillar stuck in the ground in a
+slanting position and, holding the string in his hand, he gave the god a
+jerk to arrest his attention, lest he should be otherwise engaged, like
+Baal of old, either hunting, fishing, or sleeping, and therefore must
+be awaked.... The god is supposed to make use of the priest's tongue in
+giving a reply. Image-worship appears to have been confined to one part
+of the island. The Atua was supposed only to enter the image for the
+occasion. The natives declare they did not worship the image itself, but
+only the Atua it represented, and that the image was merely used as a
+way of approaching him." [22]
+
+This is the excuse for image-worship which the more intelligent
+idolaters make all the world over; but it is more interesting to observe
+that, in the present case, we seem to have the equivalents of divination
+by teraphim, with the aid of something like an ephod (which, however, is
+used to sanctify the image and not the priest) mixed up together. Many
+Hebrew archaeologists have supposed that the term "ephod" is sometimes
+used for an image (particularly in the case of Gideon's ephod), and the
+story of Micah, in the book of Judges, shows that images were, at any
+rate, employed in close association with the ephod. If the pulling of
+the string to call the attention of the god seems as absurd to us as
+it appears to have done to the worthy missionary, who tells us of the
+practice, it should be recollected that the high priest of Jahveh was
+ordered to wear a garment fringed with golden bells.
+
+
+   And it shall be upon Aaron to minister; and the sound thereof
+   shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before
+   Jahveh, and when he cometh out, that he die not (Exod.
+   xxviii. 35).
+
+An escape from the obvious conclusion suggested by this passage has
+been sought in the supposition that these bells rang for the sake of
+the worshippers, as at the elevation of the host in the Roman Catholic
+ritual; but then why should the priest be threatened with the well-known
+penalty for inadvisedly beholding the divinity?
+
+In truth, the intermediate step between the Maori practice and that of
+the old Israelites is furnished by the Kami temples in Japan. These are
+provided with bells which the worshippers who present themselves ring,
+in order to call the attention of the ancestor-god to their presence.
+Grant the fundamental assumption of the essentially human character of
+the spirit, whether Atua, Kami, or Elohim, and all these practices are
+equally rational.
+
+The sacrifices to the gods in Tonga, and elsewhere in Polynesia, were
+ordinarily social gatherings, in which the god, either in his own person
+or in that of his priestly representative, was supposed to take part.
+These sacrifices were offered on every occasion of importance, and even
+the daily meals were prefaced by oblations and libations of food and
+drink, exactly answering to those offered by the old Romans to their
+manes, penates, and lares. The sacrifices had no moral significance,
+but were the necessary result of the theory that the god was either a
+deified ghost of an ancestor or chief, or, at any rate, a being of like
+nature to these. If one wanted to get anything out of him, therefore,
+the first step was to put him in good humour by gifts; and if one
+desired to escape his wrath, which might be excited by the most trifling
+neglect or unintentional disrespect, the great thing was to pacify
+him by costly presents. King Finow appears to have been somewhat of a
+freethinker (to the great horror of his subjects), and it was only his
+untimely death which prevented him from dealing with the priest of a
+god, who had not returned a favourable answer to his supplications,
+as Saul dealt with the priests of the sanctuary of Jahveh at Nob.
+Nevertheless, Finow showed his practical belief in the gods during the
+sickness of a daughter, to whom he was fondly attached, in a fashion
+which has a close parallel in the history of Israel.
+
+   If the gods have any resentment against us, let the whole
+   weight of vengeance fall on my head. I fear not their vengeance
+   --but spare my child; and I earnestly entreat you, Toobo Totai
+   [the god whom he had evoked], to exert all your influence with
+   the other gods that I alone may suffer all the punishment they
+   desire to inflict (vol. i. p. 354).
+
+So when the king of Israel has sinned by "numbering the people," and
+they are punished for his fault by a pestilence which slays seventy
+thousand innocent men, David cries to Jahveh:--
+
+   Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep,
+   what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me,
+   and against my father's house. (2 Sam. xxiv. 17).
+
+Human sacrifices were extremely common in Polynesia; and, in Tonga, the
+"devotion" of a child by strangling was a favourite method of averting
+the wrath of the gods. The well-known instances of Jephthah's sacrifice
+of his daughter and of David's giving up the seven sons of Saul to be
+sacrificed by the Gibeonites "before Jahveh," appear to me to leave no
+doubt that the old Israelites, even when devout worshippers of Jahveh,
+considered human sacrifices, under certain circumstances, to be not only
+permissible but laudable. Samuel's hewing to pieces of the miserable
+captive, sole survivor of his nation, Agag, "before Jahveh," can hardly
+be viewed in any other light. The life of Moses is redeemed from Jahveh,
+who "sought to slay him," by Zipporah's symbolical sacrifice of her
+child, by the bloody operation of circumcision. Jahveh expressly affirms
+that the first-born males of men and beasts are devoted to him; in
+accordance with that claim, the first-born males of the beasts are duly
+sacrificed; and it is only by special permission that the claim to the
+first-born of men is waived, and it is enacted that they may be redeemed
+(Exod. xiii. 12-15). Is it possible to avoid the conclusion that
+immolation of their first-born sons would have been incumbent on the
+worshippers of Jahveh, had they not been thus specially excused? Can any
+other conclusion be drawn from the history of Abraham and Isaac?
+Does Abraham exhibit any indication of surprise when he receives the
+astounding order to sacrifice his son? Is there the slightest evidence
+that there was anything in his intimate and personal acquaintance with
+the character of the Deity, who had eaten the meat and drunk the milk
+which Abraham set before him under the oaks of Mamre, to lead him to
+hesitate--even to wait twelve or fourteen hours for a repetition of
+the command? Not a whit. We are told that "Abraham rose early in the
+morning" and led his only child to the slaughter, as if it were the
+most ordinary business imaginable. Whether the story has any historical
+foundation or not, it is valuable as showing that the writer of it
+conceived Jahveh as a deity whose requirement of such a sacrifice need
+excite neither astonishment nor suspicion of mistake on the part of his
+devotee. Hence, when the incessant human sacrifices in Israel,
+during the age of the kings, are put down to the influence of foreign
+idolatries, we may fairly inquire whether editorial Bowdlerising has not
+prevailed over historical truth.
+
+An attempt to compare the ethical standards of two nations, one of which
+has a written code, while the other has not, is beset with difficulties.
+With all that is strange and, in many cases, repulsive to us in the
+social arrangements and opinions respecting moral obligation among
+the Tongans, as they are placed before us, with perfect candour, in
+Mariner's account, there is much that indicates a strong ethical
+sense. They showed great kindliness to one another, and faithfulness in
+standing by their comrades in war. No people could have better observed
+either the third or the fifth commandment; for they had a particular
+horror of blasphemy, and their respectful tenderness towards their
+parents and, indeed, towards old people in general, was remarkable.
+
+It cannot be said that the eighth commandment was generally observed,
+especially where Europeans were concerned; nevertheless a well-bred
+Tongan looked upon theft as a meanness to which he would not condescend.
+As to the seventh commandment, any breach of it was considered
+scandalous in women and as something to be avoided in self-respecting
+men; but, among unmarried and widowed people, chastity was held very
+cheap. Nevertheless the women were extremely well treated, and often
+showed themselves capable of great devotion and entire faithfulness. In
+the matter of cruelty, treachery, and bloodthirstiness, these islanders
+were neither better nor worse than most peoples of antiquity. It is to
+the credit of the Tongans that they particularly objected to slander;
+nor can covetousness be regarded as their characteristic; for Mariner
+says:--
+
+   When any one is about to eat, he always shares out what he has
+   to those about him, without any hesitation, and a contrary
+   conduct would be considered exceedingly vile and selfish (vol.
+   ii p. 145).
+
+In fact, they thought very badly of the English when Mariner told them
+that his countrymen did not act exactly on that principle. It further
+appears that they decidedly belonged to the school of intuitive moral
+philosophers, and believed that virtue is its own reward; for
+
+   Many of the chiefs, on being asked by Mr. Mariner what motives
+   they had for conducting themselves with propriety, besides the
+   fear of misfortunes in this life, replied, the agreeable and
+   happy feeling which a man experiences within himself when he
+   does any good action or conducts himself nobly and generously as
+   a man ought to do; and this question they answered as if they
+   wondered such a question should be asked. (vol. ii. p. 161).
+
+One may read from the beginning of the book of Judges to the end of the
+books of Samuel without discovering 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; while Deborah's jubilation over Jael's violation of the
+primary duty of hospitality, proffered and accepted under circumstances
+which give a peculiarly atrocious character to the murder of the guest;
+and her witch-like gloating over the picture of the disappointment of
+the mother of the victim--
+
+   The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice,
+   Why is his chariot so long in coming? (Jud. v. 28.)
+--would not have been out of place in the choral service of the most
+sanguinary god in the Polynesian pantheon.
+
+With respect to the cannibalism which the Tongans occasionally
+practised, Mariner says:--
+
+   Although a few young ferocious warriors chose to imitate what
+   they considered a mark of courageous fierceness in a
+   neighbouring nation, it was held in disgust by everybody else
+   (vol. ii. p. 171).
+
+That the moral standard of Tongan life was less elevated than that
+indicated in the "Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi.-xxiii.) may be
+freely admitted. But then the evidence that this Book of the Covenant,
+and even the ten commandments as given in Exodus, were known to the
+Israelites of the time of Samuel and Saul, is (to say the least) by no
+means conclusive. The Deuteronomic version of the fourth commandment is
+hopelessly discrepant from that which stands in Exodus. Would any later
+writer have ventured to alter the commandments as given from Sinai, if
+he had had before him that which professed to be an accurate statement
+of the "ten words" in Exodus? And if the writer of Deuteronomy had not
+Exodus before him, what is the value of the claim of the version of the
+ten commandments therein contained to authenticity? From one end to
+the other of the books of Judges and Samuel, the only "commandments
+of Jahveh" which are specially adduced refer to the prohibition of the
+worship of other gods, or are orders given _ad hoc,_ and have nothing to
+do with questions of morality.
+
+In Polynesia, the belief in witchcraft, in the appearance of spiritual
+beings in dreams, in possession as the cause of diseases, and in omens,
+prevailed universally. Mariner tells a story of a woman of rank who was
+greatly attached to King Finow, and who, for the space of six months
+after his death, scarcely ever slept elsewhere than on his grave, which
+she kept carefully decorated with flowers:--
+
+"One day she went, with the deepest affliction, to the house of Mo-oonga
+Toobo, the widow of the deceased chief, to communicate what had happened
+to her at the _fytoca_ [grave] during several nights, and which caused
+her the greatest anxiety. She related that she had dreamed that the
+late How [King] appeared to her and, with a countenance full of
+disappointment, asked why there yet remained at Vavaoo so many
+evil-designing persons; for he declared that, since he had been at
+Bolotoo, his spirit had been disturbed [22] by the evil machinations of
+wicked men conspiring against his son; but he declared that 'the youth'
+should not be molested nor his power shaken by the spirit of rebellion;
+that he therefore came to her with a warning voice to prevent such
+disastrous consequences (vol. i. p. 424)."
+
+On inquiry it turned out that the charm of _tattao_ had been performed
+on Finow's grave, with the view of injuring his son, the reigning king,
+and it is to be presumed that it was this sorcerer's work which had
+"disturbed" Finow's spirit. The Rev. Richard Taylor says in the work
+already cited: "The account given of the witch of Endor agrees most
+remarkably with the witches of New Zealand" (p. 45).
+
+The Tongans also believed in a mode of divination (essentially similar
+to the casting of lots) the twirling of a cocoanut.
+
+   The object of inquiry... is chiefly whether a sick person will
+   recover; for this purpose the nut being placed on the ground, a
+   relation of the sick person determines that, if the nut, when
+   again at rest, points to such a quarter, the east for example,
+   that the sick man will recover; he then prays aloud to the
+   patron god of the family that he will be pleased to direct the
+   nut so that it may indicate the truth; the nut being next spun,
+   the result is attended to with confidence, at least with a full
+   conviction that it will truly declare the intentions of the gods
+   at the time (vol. ii. p. 227).
+
+Does not the action of Saul, on a famous occasion, involve exactly the
+same theological presuppositions?
+
+   Therefore Saul said unto Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, Shew the
+   right. And Jonathan and Saul were taken by lot: but the people
+   escaped. And Saul said, Cast _lots_ between me and Jonathan
+   my son. And Jonathan was taken. And Saul said to Jonathan, Tell
+   me what thou hast done.... And the people rescued Jonathan so
+   that he died not (1 Sam. xiv. 41-45).
+
+As the Israelites had great yearly feasts, so had the Polynesians; as
+the Israelites practised circumcision, so did many Polynesian people;
+as the Israelites had a complex and often arbitrary-seeming multitude
+of distinctions between clean and unclean things, and clean and unclean
+states of men, to which they attached great importance, so had the
+Polynesians their notions of ceremonial purity and their _tabu,_ an
+equally extensive and strange system of prohibitions, violation of which
+was visited by death. These doctrines of cleanness and uncleanness no
+doubt may have taken their rise in the real or fancied utility of the
+prescriptions, but it is probable that the origin of many is indicated
+in the curious habit of the Samoans to make fetishes of living animals.
+It will be recollected that these people had no "gods made with hands,"
+but they substituted animals for them.
+
+At his birth
+
+"every Samoan was supposed to be taken under the care of some tutelary
+god or _aitu_ [= Atua] as it was called. The help of perhaps half a
+dozen different gods was invoked in succession on the occasion, but the
+one who happened to be addressed just as the child was born was marked
+and declared to be the child's god for life.
+
+"These gods were supposed to appear in some _visible incarnation,_ and
+the particular thing in which his god was in the habit of appearing was,
+to the Samoan, an object of veneration. It was in fact his idol, and
+he was careful never to injure it or treat it with contempt. One, for
+instance, saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in the
+turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the lizard;
+and so on, throughout all the fish of the sea and birds and four-footed
+beasts and creeping things. In some of the shell-fish even, gods were
+supposed to be present. A man would eat freely of what was regarded as
+the incarnation of the god of another man, but the incarnation of his
+own particular god he would consider it death to injure or eat." [23]
+
+We have here that which appears to be the origin, or one of the origins,
+of food prohibitions, on the one hand, and of totemism on the other.
+When it is remembered that the old Israelites sprang from ancestors who
+are said to have resided near, or in, one of the great seats of ancient
+Babylonian civilisation, the city of Ur; that they had been, it is said
+for centuries, in close contact with the Egyptians; and that, in the
+theology of both the Babylonians and the Egyptians, there is abundant
+evidence, notwithstanding their advanced social organisation, of the
+belief in spirits, with sorcery, ancestor-worship, the deification of
+animals, and the converse animalisation of gods--it obviously needs very
+strong evidence to justify the belief that the rude tribes of Israel did
+not share the notions from which their far more civilised neighbours had
+not emancipated themselves.
+
+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 entertained 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. [24]
+
+A theological system of essentially similar character, exhibiting the
+same fundamental conceptions respecting the continued existence
+and incessant interference in human affairs of disembodied spirits,
+prevails, or formerly prevailed, among the whole of the inhabitants
+of the Polynesian and Melanesian islands, and among the people of
+Australia, notwithstanding the wide differences in physical character
+and in grade of civilisation which obtain among them. And the same
+proposition is true of the people who inhabit the riverain shores of the
+Pacific Ocean whether Dyaks, Malays, Indo-Chinese, Chinese, Japanese,
+the wild tribes of America, or the highly civilised old Mexicans and
+Peruvians. It is no less true of the Mongolic nomads of Northern Asia,
+of the Asiatic Aryans and of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, and it holds
+good among the Dravidians of the Dekhan and the negro tribes of Africa.
+No tribe of savages which has yet been discovered, has been conclusively
+proved to have so poor a theological equipment as to be devoid of a
+belief in ghosts, and in the utility of some form of witchcraft, in
+influencing those ghosts. And there is no nation, modern or ancient,
+which, even at this moment, has wholly given up the belief; and in which
+it has not, at one time or other, played a great part in practical life.
+
+This _sciotheism,_ [25] as it might be called, is found, in several
+degrees of complexity, in rough correspondence with the stages of social
+organisation, and, like these, separated by no sudden breaks.
+
+In its simplest condition, such as may be met with among the Australian
+savages, theology is a mere belief in the existence, powers, and
+disposition (usually malignant) of ghostlike entities who may be
+propitiated or scared away; but no cult can properly be said to exist.
+And, in this stage, theology is wholly independent of ethics. The moral
+code, such as is implied by public opinion, derives no sanction from the
+theological dogmas, and the influence of the spirits is supposed to be
+exerted out of mere caprice or malice.
+
+As a next stage, the fundamental fear of ghosts and the consequent
+desire to propitiate them acquire an organised ritual in simple forms of
+ancestor-worship, such as the Rev. Mr. Turner describes among the people
+of Tanna (_l.c._ p. 88); and this line of development may be followed
+out until it attains its acme in the State-theology of China and
+the Kami-theology [26] of Japan. Each of these is essentially
+ancestor-worship, the ancestors being reckoned back through family
+groups, of higher and higher order, sometimes with strict reference to
+the principle of agnation, as in old Rome; and, as in the latter, it is
+intimately bound up with the whole organisation of the State. There are
+no idols; inscribed tablets in China, and strips of paper lodged in a
+peculiar portable shrine in Japan, represent the souls of the deceased,
+or the special seats which they occupy when sacrifices are offered by
+their descendants. In Japan it is interesting to observe that a national
+Kami--Ten-zio-dai-zin--is worshipped as a sort of Jahveh by the nation
+in general, and (as Lippert has observed) it is singular that his
+special seat is a portable litter-like shrine, termed the Mikosi, in
+some sort analogous to the Israelitic ark. In China, the emperor is
+the representative of the primitive ancestors, and stands, as it were,
+between them and the supreme cosmic deities--Heaven and Earth--who are
+superadded to them, and who answer to the Tangaloa and the Maui of the
+Polynesians.
+
+Sciotheism, under the form of the deification of ancestral ghosts, in
+its most pronounced form, is therefore the chief element in the theology
+of a great moiety, possibly of more than half, of the human race. I
+think this must be taken to be a matter of fact--though various opinions
+may be held as to how this ancestor-worship came about. But on the other
+hand, it is no less a matter of fact that there are very few people
+without additional gods, who cannot, with certainty, be accounted for as
+deified ancestors.
+
+With all respect for the distinguished authorities on the other side,
+I cannot find good reasons for accepting the theory that the cosmic
+deities--who are superadded to deified ancestors even in China; who are
+found all over Polynesia, in Tangaloa and Maui, and in old Peru, in the
+Sun--are the product either of the "search after the infinite," or of
+mistakes arising out of the confusion of a great chief's name with the
+thing signified by the name. But, however this may be, I think it is
+again merely matter of fact that, among a large portion of mankind,
+ancestor-worship is more or less thrown into the background either by
+such cosmic deities, or by tribal gods of uncertain origin, who have
+been raised to eminence by the superiority in warfare, or otherwise, of
+their worshippers.
+
+Among certain nations, the polytheistic theology, thus constituted, has
+become modified by the selection of some one cosmic or tribal god, as
+the only god to whom worship is due on the part of that nation (though
+it is by no means denied that other nations have a right to worship
+other gods), and thus results a worship of one God--_monolatry,_ as
+Wellhausen calls it--which is very different from genuine monotheism.
+[27] In ancestral sciotheism, and in this _monolatry,_ the ethical
+code, often of a very high order, comes into closer relation with the
+theological creed. Morality is taken under the patronage of the god or
+gods, who reward all morally good conduct and punish all morally evil
+conduct in this world or the next. At the same time, however, they
+are conceived to be thoroughly human, and they visit any shadow of
+disrespect to themselves, shown by disobedience to their commands, or by
+delay, or carelessness, in carrying them out, as severely as any breach
+of the moral laws. Piety means minute attention to the due performance
+of all sacred rites, and covers any number of lapses in morality, just
+as cruelty, treachery, murder, and adultery did not bar David's claim to
+the title of the man after God's own heart among the Israelites; crimes
+against men may be expiated, but blasphemy against the gods is an
+unpardonable sin. Men forgive all injuries but those which touch their
+self-esteem; and they make their gods after their own likeness, in their
+own image make they them.
+
+It is in the category of monolatry that I conceive the theology of the
+old Israelites must be ranged. They were polytheists, in so far as they
+admitted the existence of other Elohim of divine rank beside Jahveh;
+they differed from ordinary polytheists, in so far as they believed
+that Jahveh was the supreme god and the one proper object of their own
+national worship. But it will doubtless be objected that I have been
+building up a fictitious Israelitic theology on the foundation of the
+recorded habits and customs of the people, when they had lapsed from
+the ordinances of their great lawgiver and prophet Moses, and that my
+conclusions may be good for the perverts to Canaanitish theology, but
+not for the true observers of the Sinaitic legislation. The answer to
+the objection is that--so far as I can form a judgment of that which is
+well ascertained in the history of Israel--there is very little ground
+for believing that we know much, either about the theological and social
+value of the influence of Moses, or about what happened during the
+wanderings in the Desert.
+
+The account of the Exodus and of the occurrences in the Sinaitic
+peninsula; in fact, all the history of Israel before the invasion of
+Canaan, is full of wonderful stories, which may be true, in so far as
+they are conceivable occurrences, but which are certainly not probable,
+and which I, for one, decline to accept until evidence, which deserves
+that name, is offered of their historical truth. Up to this time I know
+of none. [28] Furthermore, I see no answer to the argument that one
+has no right to pick out of an obviously unhistorical statement the
+assertions which happen to be probable and to discard the rest. But it
+is also certain that a primitively veracious tradition may be smothered
+under subsequent mythical additions, and that one has no right to cast
+away the former along with the latter. Thus, perhaps the fairest way of
+stating the case may be as follows.
+
+There can be no _a priori_ objection to the supposition that the
+Israelites were delivered from their Egyptian bondage by a leader called
+Moses, and that he exerted a great influence over their subsequent
+organisation in the Desert. There is no reason to doubt that, during
+their residence in the land of Goshen, the Israelites knew nothing
+of Jahveh; but, as their own prophets declare (see Ezek. xx.), were
+polytheistic idolaters, sharing in the worst practices of their
+neighbours. As to their conduct in other respects, nothing is known. But
+it may fairly be suspected that their ethics were not of a higher order
+than those of Jacob, their progenitor, in which case they might derive
+great profit from contact with Egyptian society, which held honesty and
+truthfulness in the highest esteem. Thanks to the Egyptologers, we now
+know, with all requisite certainty, the moral standard of that society
+in the time, and long before the time, of Moses. It can be determined
+from the scrolls buried with the mummified dead and from the
+inscriptions on the tombs and memorial statues of that age. For,
+though the lying of epitaphs is proverbial, so far as their subject is
+concerned, they gave an unmistakable insight into that which the writers
+and the readers of them think praiseworthy.
+
+In the famous tombs at Beni Hassan there is a record of the life of
+Prince Nakht, who served Osertasen II., a Pharaoh of the twelfth dynasty
+as governor of a province. The inscription speaks in his name: "I was
+a benevolent and kindly governor who loved his country.... Never was
+a little child distressed nor a widow ill-treated by me. I have never
+repelled a workman nor hindered a shepherd. I gave alike to the widow
+and to the married woman, and have not preferred the great to the small
+in my gifts." And we have the high authority of the late Dr. Samuel
+Birch for the statement that the inscriptions of the twelfth dynasty
+abound in injunctions of a high ethical character. "To feed the hungry,
+give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, bury the dead, loyally
+serve the king, formed the first duty of a pious man and faithful
+subject." [29] The people for whom these inscriptions embodied their
+ideal of praiseworthiness assuredly had no imperfect conception of
+either justice or mercy. But there is a document which gives still
+better evidence of the moral standard of the Egyptians. It is the "Book
+of the Dead," a sort of "Guide to Spiritland," the whole, or a part,
+of which was buried with the mummy of every well-to-do Egyptian, while
+extracts from it are found in innumerable inscriptions. Portions of this
+work are of extreme antiquity, evidence of their existence occurring
+as far back as the fifth and sixth dynasties; while the 120th chapter,
+which constitutes a sort of book by itself, and is known as the "Book of
+Redemption in the Hall of the two Truths," is frequently inscribed upon
+coffins and other monuments of the nineteenth dynasty (that under which,
+there is some reason to believe, the Israelites were oppressed and the
+Exodus took place), and it occurs, more than once, in the famous tombs
+of the kings of this and the preceding dynasty at Thebes. [30] This
+"Book of Redemption" is chiefly occupied by the so-called "negative
+confession" made to the forty-two Divine Judges, in which the soul of
+the dead denies that he has committed faults of various kinds. It
+is, therefore, obvious that the Egyptians conceived that their gods
+commanded them not to do the deeds which are here denied. The "Book
+of Redemption," in fact, implies the existence in the mind of the
+Egyptians, if not in a formal writing, of a series of ordinances,
+couched, like the majority of the ten commandments, in negative terms.
+And it is easy to prove the implied existence of a series which
+nearly answers to the "ten words." Of course a polytheistic and
+image-worshipping people, who observed a great many holy days, but no
+Sabbaths, could have nothing analogous to the first or the second and
+the fourth commandments of the Decalogue; but answering to the third, is
+"I have not blasphemed;" to the fifth, "I have not reviled the face
+of the king or my father;" to the sixth, "I have not murdered;" to the
+seventh, "I have not committed adultery;" to the eighth, "I have not
+stolen," "I have not done fraud to man;" to the ninth, "I have not
+told falsehoods in the tribunal of truth," and, further, "I have not
+calumniated the slave to his master." I find nothing exactly similar to
+the tenth commandment; but that the inward disposition of mind was held
+to be of no less importance than the outward act is to be gathered from
+the praises of kindliness already cited and the cry of "I am pure,"
+which is repeated by the soul on trial. Moreover, there is a minuteness
+of detail in the confession which shows no little delicacy of moral
+appreciation--"I have not privily done evil against mankind," "I
+have not afflicted men," "I have not withheld milk from the mouths of
+sucklings," "I have not been idle," "I have not played the hypocrite,"
+"I have not told falsehoods," "I have not corrupted woman or man," "I
+have not caused fear," "I have not multiplied words in speaking."
+
+Would that the moral sense of the nineteenth century A.D. were as far
+advanced as that of the Egyptians in the nineteenth century B.C. in this
+last particular! What incalculable benefit to mankind would flow from
+strict observance of the commandment, "Thou shalt not multiply words
+in speaking!" Nothing is more remarkable than the stress which the
+old Egyptians, here and elsewhere, lay upon this and other kinds of
+truthfulness, as compared with the absence of any such requirement in
+the Israelitic Decalogue, in which only a specific kind of untruthfulnes
+is forbidden.
+
+If, as the story runs, Moses was adopted by a princess of the royal
+house, and was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, it is
+surely incredible that he should not have been familiar from his youth
+up, with the high moral code implied in the "Book of Redemption." It
+is surely impossible that he should have been less familiar with the
+complete legal system, and with the method of administration of justice,
+which, even in his time, had enabled the Egyptian people to hold
+together, as a complex social organisation, for a period far longer than
+the duration of old Roman society, from the building of the city to
+the death of the last Caesar. Nor need we look to Moses alone for the
+influence of Egypt upon Israel. It is true that the Hebrew nomads who
+came into contact with the Egyptians of Osertasen, or of Ramses, stood
+in much the same relation to them, in point of culture, as a Germanic
+tribe did to the Romans of Tiberius, or of Marcus Antoninus; or as
+Captain Cook's Omai did to the English of George the Third. But, at the
+same time, any difficulty of communication which might have arisen out
+of this circumstance was removed by the long pre-existing intercourse
+of other Semites, of every grade of civilisation, with the Egyptians. In
+Mesopotamia and elsewhere, as in Phenicia, Semitic people had attained
+to a social organisation as advanced as that of the Egyptians; Semites
+had conquered and occupied Lower Egypt for centuries. So extensively had
+Semitic influences penetrated Egypt that the Egyptian language, during
+the period of the nineteenth dynasty, is said by Brugsch to be as full
+of Semitisms as German is of Gallicisms; while Semitic deities had
+supplanted the Egyptian gods at Heliopolis and elsewhere. On the other
+hand, the Semites, as far as Phenicia, were extensively influenced by
+Egypt.
+
+It is generally admitted [31] that Moses, Phinehas (and perhaps Aaron),
+are names of Egyptian origin, and there is excellent authority for
+the statement that the name _Abir,_ which the Israelites gave to their
+golden calf, and which is also used to signify the strong, the heavenly,
+and even God, [32] is simply the Egyptian Apis. Brugsch points out that
+the god, Tum or Tom, who was the special object of worship in the city
+of Pi-Tom, with which the Israelites were only too familiar, was called
+Ankh and the "great god," and had no image. Ankh means "He who lives,"
+"the living one," a name the resemblance of which to the "I am that I
+am" of Exodus is unmistakable, whatever may be the value of the fact.
+Every discussion of Israelitic ritual seeks and finds the explanation
+of its details in the portable sacred chests, the altars, the priestly
+dress, the breastplate, the incense, and the sacrifices depicted on the
+monuments of Egypt. But it must be remembered that these signs of the
+influence of Egypt upon Israel are not necessarily evidence that such
+influence was exerted before the Exodus. It may have come much later,
+through the close connection of the Israel of David and Solomon, first
+with Phenicia and then with Egypt.
+
+If we suppose Moses to have been a man of the stamp of Calvin, there is
+no difficulty in conceiving that he may have constructed the substance
+of the ten words, and even of the Book of the Covenant, which curiously
+resembles parts of the Book of the Dead, from the foundation of Egyptian
+ethics and theology which had filtered through to the Israelites
+in general, or had been furnished specially to himself by his early
+education; just as the great Genevese reformer built up a puritanic
+social organisation on so much as remained of the ethics and theology of
+the Roman Church, after he had trimmed them to his liking.
+
+Thus, I repeat, I see no _a priori_ objection to the assumption that
+Moses may have endeavoured to give his people a theologico-political
+organisation based on the ten commandments (though certainly not quite
+in their present form) and the Book of the Covenant, contained in our
+present book of Exodus. But whether there is such evidence as amounts to
+proof, or, I had better say, to probability, that even this much of
+the Pentateuch owes its origin to Moses is another matter. The mythical
+character of the accessories of the Sinaitic history is patent, and
+it would take a good deal more evidence than is afforded by the bare
+assertion of an unknown writer to justify the belief that the people who
+"saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the voice of the trumpet
+and the mountain smoking" (Exod. xx. 18); to whom Jahveh orders Moses to
+say, "Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
+Ye shall not make other gods with me; gods of silver and gods of gold ye
+shall not make unto you" (_ibid._ 22, 23), should, less than six weeks
+afterwards, have done the exact thing they were thus awfully forbidden
+to do. Nor is the credibility of the story increased by the statement
+that Aaron, the brother of Moses, the witness and fellow-worker of the
+miracles before Pharaoh, was their leader and the artificer of the
+idol. And yet, at the same time, Aaron was apparently so ignorant of
+wrongdoing that he made proclamation, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to
+Jahveh," and the people proceeded to offer their burnt-offerings
+and peace-offerings, as if everything in their proceedings must be
+satisfactory to the Deity with whom they had just made a solemn covenant
+to abolish image-worship. It seems to me that, on a survey of all the
+facts of the case, only a very cautious and hypothetical judgment is
+justifiable. It may be that Moses profited by the opportunities afforded
+him of access to what was best in Egyptian society to become acquainted,
+not only with its advanced ethical and legal code, but with the more or
+less pantheistic unification of the Divine to which the speculations of
+the Egyptian thinkers, like those of all polytheistic philosophers, from
+Polynesia to Greece, tend; if indeed the theology of the period of the
+nineteenth dynasty was not, as some Egyptologists think, a modification
+of an earlier, more distinctly monotheistic doctrine of a long
+antecedent age. It took only half a dozen centuries for the theology
+of Paul to become the theology of Gregory the Great; and it is possible
+that twenty centuries lay between the theology of the first worshippers
+in the sanctuary of the Sphinx and that of the priests of Ramses Maimun.
+
+It may be that the ten commandments and the Book of the Covenant are
+based upon faithful traditions of the efforts of a great leader to
+raise his followers to his own level. For myself, as a matter of pious
+opinion, I like to think so; as I like to imagine that, between Moses
+and Samuel, there may have been many a seer, many a herdsman such as him
+of Tekoah, lonely amidst the hills of Ephraim and Judah, who cherished
+and kept alive these traditions. In the present results of Biblical
+criticism, however, I can discover no justification for the common
+assumption that, between the time of Joshua and that of Rehoboam, the
+Israelites were familiar with either the Deuteronomic or the Levitical
+legislation; or that the theology of the Israelites, from the king who
+sat on the throne to the lowest of his subjects, was in any important
+respect different from that which might naturally be expected from their
+previous history and the conditions of their existence. But there is
+excellent evidence to the contrary effect. And, for my part, I see no
+reason to doubt that, like the rest of the world, the Israelites had
+passed through a period of mere ghost-worship, and had advanced through
+Ancestor-worship and Fetishism and Totemism to the theological level at
+which we find them in the books of Judges and Samuel.
+
+All the more remarkable, therefore, is the extraordinary change which is
+to be noted in the eighth century B.C. The student who is familiar with
+the theology implied, or expressed, in the books of Judges, Samuel, and
+the first book of Kings, finds himself in a new world of thought, in
+the full tide of a great reformation, when he reads Joel, Amos, Hosea,
+Isaiah, Micah, and Jeremiah.
+
+The essence of this change is the reversal of the position which, in
+primitive society, ethics holds in relation to theology. Originally,
+that which men worship is a theological hypothesis, not a moral ideal.
+The prophets, in substance, if not always in form preach the opposite
+doctrine. They are constantly striving to free the moral ideal from the
+stifling embrace of the current theology and its concomitant ritual.
+Theirs was not an intellectual criticism, argued on strictly scientific
+grounds; the image-worshippers and the believers in the efficacy of
+sacrifices and ceremonies might logically have held their own against
+anything the prophets have to say; it was an ethical criticism. From
+the height of his moral intuition--that the whole duty of man is to do
+justice and to love mercy and to bear himself as humbly as befits his
+insignificance in face of the Infinite--the prophet simply laughs at the
+idolaters of stocks and stones and the idolaters of ritual. Idols of the
+first kind, in his experience, were inseparably united with the
+practice of immorality, and they were to be ruthlessly destroyed. As for
+sacrifices and ceremonies, whatever their intrinsic value might be, they
+might be tolerated on condition of ceasing to be idols; they might even
+be praiseworthy on condition of being made to subserve the worship of
+the true Jahveh--the moral ideal.
+
+If the realm of David had remained undivided, if the Assyrian and the
+Chaldean and the Egyptian had left Israel to the ordinary course of
+development of an Oriental kingdom, it is possible that the effects of
+the reforming zeal of the prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries
+might have been effaced by the growth, according to its inevitable
+tendencies, of the theology which they combated. But the captivity made
+the fortune of the ideas which it was the privilege of these men to
+launch upon an endless career. With the abolition of the Temple-services
+for more than half a century, the priest must have lost and the scribe
+gained influence. The puritanism of a vigorous minority among the
+Babylonian Jews rooted out polytheism from all its hiding-places in the
+theology which they had inherited; they created the first consistent,
+remorseless, naked monotheism, which, so far as history records,
+appeared in the world (for Zoroastrism is practically ditheism, and
+Buddhism any-theism or no-theism); and they inseparably united therewith
+an ethical code, which, for its purity and for its efficiency as a bond
+of social life, was and is, unsurpassed. So I think we must not judge
+Ezra and Nehemiah and their followers too hardly, if they exemplified
+the usual doom of poor humanity to escape from one error only to fall
+into another; if they failed to free themselves as completely from the
+idolatry of ritual as they had from that of images and dogmas; if they
+cherished the new fetters of the Levitical legislation which they had
+fitted upon themselves and their nation, as though such bonds had the
+sanctity of the obligations of morality; and if they led succeeding
+generations to spend their best energies in building that "hedge round
+the Torah" which was meant to preserve both ethics and theology, but
+which too often had the effect of pampering the latter and starving the
+former. The world being what it was, it is to be doubted whether Israel
+would have preserved intact the pure ore of religion, which the prophets
+had extracted for the use of mankind as well as for their nation, had
+not the leaders of the nation been zealous, even to death, for the dross
+of the law in which it was embedded. The struggle of the Jews, under the
+Maccabean house, against the Seleucidae was as important for mankind as
+that of the Greeks against the Persians. And, of all the strange ironies
+of history, perhaps the strangest is that "Pharisee" is current, as
+a term of reproach, among the theological descendants of that sect of
+Nazarenes who, without the martyr spirit of those primitive Puritans,
+would never have come into existence. They, like their historical
+successors, our own Puritans, have shared the general fate of the poor
+wise men who save cities.
+
+A criticism of theology from the side of science is not thought of
+by the prophets, and is at most indicated in the books of Job and
+Ecclesiastes, in both of which the problem of vindicating the ways of
+God to man is given up, though on different grounds, as a hopeless one.
+But with the extensive introduction of Greek thought among the Jews,
+which took place, not only during the domination of the Seleucidae in
+Palestine, but in the great Judaic colony which flourished in Egypt
+under the Ptolemies, criticism, on both ethical and scientific grounds,
+took a new departure.
+
+In the hands of the Alexandrian Jews, as represented by Philo, the
+fundamental axiom of later Jewish, as of Christian monotheism, that the
+Deity is infinitely perfect and infinitely good, worked itself out into
+its logical consequence--agnostic theism. Philo will allow of no point
+of contact between God and a world in which evil exists. For him God has
+no relation to space or to time, and, as infinite, suffers no predicate
+beyond that of existence. It is therefore absurd to ascribe to Him
+mental faculties and affections comparable in the remotest degree to
+those of men; He is in no way an object of cognition; He is [Greek] and
+[Greek] [33]--without quality and incomprehensible. That is to say the
+Alexandrian Jew of the first century had anticipated the reasonings
+of Hamilton and Mansell in the nineteenth, and, for him, God is the
+Unknowable in the sense in which that term is used by Mr. Herbert
+Spencer. Moreover, Philo's definition of the Supreme Being would not be
+inconsistent with that "substantia constans infinitis attributis, quorum
+unumquodque aeternam et infinitam essentiam exprimit," given by another
+great Israelite, were it not that Spinoza's doctrine of the immanence of
+the Deity in the world puts him, at any rate formally, at the antipodes
+of theological speculation. But the conception of the essential
+incognoscibility of the Deity is the same in each case. However, Philo
+was too thorough an Israelite and too much the child of his time to be
+content with this agnostic position. With the help of the Platonic
+and Stoic philosophy, he constructed an apprehensible, if not
+comprehensible, quasi-deity out of the Logos; while other more or less
+personified divine powers, or attributes, bridged over the interval
+between God and man; between the sacred existence, too pure to be called
+by any name which implied a conceivable quality, and the gross and evil
+world of matter. In order to get over the ethical difficulties presented
+by the naive naturalism of many parts of those Scriptures, in the divine
+authority of which he firmly believed, Philo borrowed from the Stoics
+(who had been in like straits in respect of Greek mythology), that
+great Excalibur which they had forged with infinite pains and skill--the
+method of allegorical interpretation. This mighty "two-handed engine at
+the door" of the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any
+and every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken
+allegorically or, as it is otherwise said, "poetically" or, "in a
+spiritual sense," the plainest words mean whatever a pious interpreter
+desires they should mean. In Biblical phrase, Zeno (who probably had
+a strain of Semitic blood in him) was the "father of all such as
+reconcile." No doubt Philo and his followers were eminently religious
+men; but they did endless injury to the cause of religion by laying the
+foundations of a new theology, while equipping the defenders of it
+with the subtlest of all weapons of offence and defence, and with an
+inexhaustible store of sophistical arguments of the most plausible
+aspect.
+
+The question of the real bearing upon theology of the influence exerted
+by the teaching of Philo's contemporary, Jesus of Nazareth, is one upon
+which it is not germane to my present purpose to enter. I take it simply
+as an unquestionable fact that his immediate disciples, known to their
+countrymen as "Nazarenes," were regarded as, and considered themselves
+to be, perfectly orthodox Jews, belonging to the puritanic or pharisaic
+section of their people, and differing from the rest only in their
+belief that the Messiah had already come. Christianity, it is said,
+first became clearly differentiated at Antioch, and it separated
+itself from orthodox Judaism by denying the obligation of the rite
+of circumcision and of the food prohibitions, prescribed by the law.
+Henceforward theology became relatively stationary among the Jews, [34]
+and the history of its rapid progress in a new course of evolution is
+the history of the Christian Churches, orthodox and heterodox. The
+steps in this evolution are obvious. The first is the birth of a new
+theological scheme arising out of the union of elements derived from
+Greek philosophy with elements derived from Israelitic theology. In
+the fourth Gospel, the Logos, raised to a somewhat higher degree of
+personification than in the Alexandrian theosophy, is identified with
+Jesus of Nazareth. In the Epistles, especially the later of those
+attributed to Paul, the Israelitic ideas of the Messiah and of
+sacrificial atonement coalesce with one another and with the embodiment
+of the Logos in Jesus, until the apotheosis of the Son of man is almost,
+or quite, effected. The history of Christian dogma, from Justin to
+Athanasius, is a record of continual progress in the same direction,
+until the fair body of religion, revealed in almost naked purity by the
+prophets, is once more hidden under a new accumulation of dogmas and of
+ritual practices of which the primitive Nazarene knew nothing; and which
+he would probably have regarded as blasphemous if he could have been
+made to understand them.
+
+As, century after century, the ages roll on, polytheism comes back under
+the disguise of Mariolatry and the adoration of saints; image-worship
+becomes as rampant as in old Egypt; adoration of relics takes the place
+of the old fetish-worship; the virtues of the ephod pale before those of
+holy coats and handkerchiefs; shrines and calvaries make up for the
+loss of the ark and of the high places; and even the lustral fluid of
+paganism is replaced by holy water at the porches of the temples. A
+touching ceremony--the common meal originally eaten in pious memory of
+a loved teacher--becomes metamorphosed into a flesh-and-blood sacrifice,
+supposed to possess exactly that redeeming virtue which the prophets
+denied to the flesh-and-blood sacrifices of their day; while the minute
+observance of ritual is raised to a degree of punctilious refinement
+which Levitical legislators might envy. And with the growth of this
+theology, grew its inevitable concomitant, the belief in evil spirits,
+in possession, in sorcery, in charms and omens, until the Christians of
+the twelfth century after our era were sunk in more debased and brutal
+superstitions than are recorded of the Israelites in the twelfth century
+before it.
+
+The greatest men of the Middle Ages are unable to escape the infection.
+Dante's "Inferno" would be revolting if it were not so often sublime, so
+often exquisitely tender. The hideous pictures which cover a vast space
+on the south wall of the Campo Santo of Pisa convey information, as
+terrible as it is indisputable, of the theological conceptions of
+Dante's countrymen in the fourteenth century, whose eyes were addressed
+by the painters of those disgusting scenes, and whose approbation they
+knew how to win. A candid Mexican of the time of Cortez, could he
+have seen this Christian burial-place, would have taken it for an
+appropriately adorned Teocalli. The professed disciple of the God
+of justice and of mercy might there gloat over the sufferings of his
+fellowmen depicted as undergoing every extremity of atrocious and
+sanguinary torture to all eternity, for theological errors no less than
+for moral delinquencies; while, in the central figure of Satan, [35]
+occupied in champing up souls in his capacious and well-toothed jaws, to
+void them again for the purpose of undergoing fresh suffering, we have
+the counterpart of the strange Polynesian and Egyptian dogma that there
+were certain gods who employed themselves in devouring the ghostly flesh
+of the Spirits of the dead. But in justice to the Polynesians, it must
+be recollected that, after three such operations, they thought the soul
+was purified and happy. In the view of the Christian theologian the
+operation was only a preparation for new tortures continued for ever and
+aye.
+
+With the growth of civilisation in Europe, and with the revival of
+letters and of science in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the
+ethical and intellectual criticism of theology once more recommenced,
+and arrived at a temporary resting-place in the confessions of the
+various reformed Protestant sects in the sixteenth century; almost all
+of which, as soon as they were strong enough, began to persecute those
+who carried criticism beyond their own limit. But the movement was not
+arrested by these ecclesiastical barriers, as their constructors fondly
+imagined it would be; it was continued, tacitly or openly, by Galileo,
+by Hobbes, by Descartes, and especially by Spinoza, in the seventeenth
+century; by the English Freethinkers, by Rousseau, by the French
+Encyclopaedists, and by the German Rationalists, among whom Lessing
+stands out a head and shoulders taller than the rest, throughout the
+eighteenth century; by the historians, the philologers, the Biblical
+critics, the geologists, and the biologists in the nineteenth century,
+until it is obvious to all who can see that the moral sense and
+the really scientific method of seeking for truth are once more
+predominating over false science. Once more ethics and theology are
+parting company.
+
+It is my conviction that, with the spread of true scientific culture,
+whatever may be the medium, historical, philological, philosophical, or
+physical, through which that culture is conveyed, and with its necessary
+concomitant, a constant elevation of the standard of veracity, the end
+of the evolution of theology will be like its beginning--it will cease
+to have any relation to ethics. I suppose that, so long as the human
+mind exists, it will not escape its deep-seated instinct to personify
+its intellectual conceptions. The science of the present day is as
+full of this particular form of intellectual shadow-worship as is the
+nescience of ignorant ages. The difference is that the philosopher who
+is worthy of the name knows that his personified hypotheses, such as
+law, and force, and ether, and the like, are merely useful symbols,
+while the ignorant and the careless take them for adequate expressions
+of reality. So, it may be, that the majority of mankind may find the
+practice of morality made easier by the use of theological symbols. And
+unless these are converted from symbols into idols, I do not see
+that science has anything to say to the practice, except to give an
+occasional warning of its dangers. But, when such symbols are dealt with
+as real existences, I think the highest duty which is laid upon men of
+science is to show that these dogmatic idols have no greater value than
+the fabrications of men's hands, the stocks and the stones, which they
+have replaced.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Even the most sturdy believers in the popular theory that the proper
+or titular names attached to the books of the Bible are those of their
+authors will hardly be prepared to maintain that Jephthah, Gideon, and
+their colleagues wrote the book of Judges. Nor is it easily admissible
+that Samuel wrote the two books which pass under his name, one of which
+deals entirely with events which took place after his death. In fact, no
+one knows who wrote either Judges or Samuel, nor when, within the range
+of 100 years, their present form was given to these books.]
+
+[Footnote 2: My citations are taken from the Revised Version, but for Lord and
+God I have substituted Jahveh and Elohim.]
+
+[Footnote 3: I need hardly say that I depend upon authoritative Biblical critics,
+whenever a question of interpretation of the text arises. As Reuss
+appears to me to be one of the most learned, acute, and fair-minded of
+those whose works I have studied, I have made most use of the commentary
+and dissertations in his splendid French edition of the Bible. But
+I have also had recourse to the works of Dillman, Kalisch, Kuenen,
+Thenius, Tuch, and others, in cases in which another opinion seemed
+desirable.]
+
+[Footnote 4: See "Divination," by Hazoral, _Journal of Anthropology,_ Bombay,
+vol. i. No. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 5: See, for example, the message of Jephthah to the King of the
+Ammonites: "So now Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, hath dispossessed the
+Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them?
+Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh, thy Elohim, giveth thee to
+possess?" (Jud. xi. 23, 24). For Jephthah, Chemosh is obviously as real
+a personage as Jahveh.]
+
+[Footnote 6: For example: "My oblation, my food for my offerings made by fire,
+of a sweet savour to me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due
+season" (Num. xxviii. 2).]
+
+[Footnote 7: In 2 Samuel xv. 27 David says to Zadok the priest, "Art thou not a
+seer?" and Gad is called David's seer.]
+
+[Footnote 8: This would at first appear to be inconsistent with the use of the
+word "prophetess" for Deborah. But it does not follow because the writer
+of Judges applies the name to Deborah that it was used in her day.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Samuel tells the cook, "Bring the potion which I gave thee, of which
+I said to thee, Set it by thee." It was therefore Samuel's to give. "And
+the cook took up the thigh (or shoulder) and that which was upon it and
+set it before Saul." But, in the Levitical regulations, it is the thigh
+(or shoulder) which becomes the priest's own property. "And the
+right thigh (or shoulder) shall ye give unto the priest for an
+heave-offering," which is given along with the wave breast "unto Aaron
+the priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the children of
+Israel" (Lev. vii. 31-34). Reuss writes on this passage: "La cuisse
+n'est point agitee, mais simplement _prelevee_ sur ce que les convives
+mangeront."]
+
+[Footnote 10: See, for example, Elkanah's sacrifice, 1 Sam. i. 3-9.]
+
+[Footnote 11: The ghost was not supposed to be capable of devouring the gross
+material substance of the offering; but his vaporous body appropriated
+the smoke of the burnt sacrifice, the visible and odorous exhalations of
+other offerings. The blood of the victim was particularly useful because
+it was thought to be the special seat of its soul or life. A West
+African negro replied to an European sceptic: "Of course, the spirit
+cannot eat corporeal food, but he extracts its spiritual part, and, as
+we see, leaves the material part behind" (Lippert, _Seelencult,_ p. 16).]
+
+[Footnote 12: It is further well worth consideration whether indications of
+former ancestor-worship are not to be found in the singular weight
+attached to the veneration of parents in the fourth commandment. It is
+the only positive commandment, in addition to those respecting the Deity
+and that concerning the Sabbath, and the penalties for infringing it
+were of the same character. In China, a corresponding reverence for
+parents is part and parcel of ancestor-worship; so in ancient Rome and
+in Greece (where parents were even called [secondary and earthly]).
+The fifth commandment, as it stands, would be an excellent compromise
+between ancestor-worship and monotheism. The larger hereditary share
+allotted by Israelitic law to the eldest son reminds one of the
+privileges attached to primogeniture in ancient Rome, which were closely
+connected with ancestor-worship. There is a good deal to be said in
+favour of the speculation that the ark of the covenant may have been a
+relic of ancestor-worship; but that topic is too large to be dealt with
+incidentally in this place]
+
+[Footnote 13: "The Scientific Aspects of Positivism," _Fortnightly Review,_ 1869,
+republished in _Lay Sermons._]
+
+[Footnote 14: OEuvres de Bossuet, ed. 1808, t. xxxv. p. 282.]
+
+[Footnote 15: I should like further to add the expression of my indebtedness to
+two works by Herr Julius Lippert, _Der Seelencult in seinen Beziehungen
+zur alt-hebraischen Religion_ and _Die Religionen der europaischen
+Culturvolker,_ both pubished in 1881. I have found them full of valuable
+suggestions.]
+
+[Footnote 16: See among others the remarkable work of Fustel de Coulanges,
+_La Cite antique,_ in which the social importance of the old Roman
+ancestor-worship is brought out with great clearness.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Supposed to be "the finer or more aeriform part of the body,"
+standing in "the same relation to the body as the perfume and the
+more essential qualities of a flower do to the more solid substances"
+(Mariner, vol. ii. p. 127).]
+
+[Footnote 18: A kind of "clients" in the Roman sense.]
+
+[Footnote 19: It is worthy of remark that [Greek] among the Greeks, and _Deus_
+among the Romans, had the same wide signification. The _dii manes_ were
+ghosts of ancestors=Atuas of the family.]
+
+[Footnote 20: _Voyages aux iles du Grand Ocean,_ t. i. p. 482.]
+
+[Footnote 21: _Te Ika a Maui: New Zealand and its Inhabitants,_ p. 72.]
+
+[Footnote 22: Compare: "And Samuel said unto Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me?"
+(I Sam. xxviii. l5)]
+
+[Footnote 23: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia,_ p. 238.]
+
+[Footnote 24: See Lippert's excellent remarks on this subject, _Der Seelencult,_
+p. 89.]
+
+[Footnote 25: _Sciography_ has the authority of Cudworth, _Intellectual System,_
+vol. ii. p. 836. Sciomancy [Greek], which, in the sense of divination
+by ghosts, may be found in Bailey's _Dictionary_ (1751: also furnishes a
+precedent for my coinage.]
+
+[Footnote 26: "Kami" is used in the sense of Elohim; and is also, like our word
+"Lord," employed as a title of respect among men, as indeed Elohim was.]
+
+[Footnote 27: [The Assyrians thus raised Assur to a position of pre-eminence.]]
+
+[Footnote 28: I refer those who wish to know the reasons which lead me to take up
+this position to the works of Reuss and Wellhausen, [and especially to
+Stade's _Geschichte des Volkes Israel._]]
+
+[Footnote 29: Bunsen. _Egypt's Place,_ vol. v. p.129, note.]
+
+[Footnote 30: See Birch, in _Egypt's Place,_ vol. v; and Brugsch, _History of
+Egypt._]
+
+[Footnote 31: Even by Graetz, who, though a fair enough historian, cannot be
+accused of any desire to over-estimate the importance of Egyptian
+influence upon his people.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden,_ Bd. i. p. 370.]
+
+[Footnote 33: See the careful analsyis of the work of the Alexandrian philosopher
+and theologian (who, it should be remembered, was a most devout Jew,
+held in the highest esteem by his countrymen) in Siegfried's _Philo von
+Alexandrien,_ 1875. (Also Dr. J. Drummond's _Philo Judaeus,_ 1888.)]
+
+[Footnote 34: I am not unaware of the existence of many and widely divergent
+sects and schools among the Jews at all periods of their history, since
+the dispersion. But I imagine that orthodox Judaism is now pretty much
+what it was in Philo's time; while Peter and Paul, if they could return
+to life, would certainly have to learn the catechism of either the
+Roman, Greek, or Anglican Churches, if they desired to be considered
+orthodox Christians.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Dante's description of Lucifer engaged in the eternal mastication
+of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot--
+
+   "Da ogni bocca dirompea co' denti
+      Un peccatore, a guisa di maciulla,
+      Si che tre ne facea cosė dolenti.
+    A quel dinanzi il mordere era nulla,
+      Verso 'l graffiar, che tal volta la schiena
+      Rimanea della pelle tutta brulla"--
+
+is quite in harmony with the Pisan picture and perfectly Polynesian in
+conception.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of Theology: An
+Anthropological Study, by Thomas Henry Huxley
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+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Evolution of Theology: an Anthropological Study, by Thomas Henry
+      Huxley
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+    
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
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+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+    
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of Theology: An
+Anthropological Study, by Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study
+       Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
+Author: Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2008 [EBook #2634]
+Last Updated: January 22, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D.R. Thompson, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      ESSAY #8 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION"
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Thomas Henry Huxley
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+      <tbody>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+            href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2633/2633-h/2633-h.htm">Previous
+            Volume</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+      </tbody>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_FOOT"> FOOTNOTES: </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I conceive that the origin, the growth, the decline, and the fall of those
+      speculations respecting the existence, the powers, and the dispositions of
+      beings analogous to men, but more or less devoid of corporeal qualities,
+      which may be broadly included under the head of theology, are phenomena
+      the study of which legitimately falls within the province of the
+      anthropologist. And it is purely as a question of anthropology (a
+      department of biology to which, at various times, I have given a good deal
+      of attention) that I propose to treat of the evolution of theology in the
+      following pages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With theology as a code of dogmas which are to be believed, or at any rate
+      repeated, under penalty of present or future punishment, or as a
+      storehouse of anaesthetics for those who find the pains of life too hard
+      to bear, I have nothing to do; and, so far as it may be possible, I shall
+      avoid the expression of any opinion as to the objective truth or falsehood
+      of the systems of theological speculation of which I may find occasion to
+      speak. From my present point of view, theology is regarded as a natural
+      product of the operations of the human mind, under the conditions of its
+      existence, just as any other branch of science, or the arts of
+      architecture, or music, or painting are such products. Like them, theology
+      has a history. Like them also, it is to be met with in certain simple and
+      rudimentary forms; and these can be connected by a multitude of
+      gradations, which exist or have existed, among people of various ages and
+      races, with the most highly developed theologies of past and present
+      times. It is not my object to interfere, even in the slightest degree,
+      with beliefs which anybody holds sacred; or to alter the conviction of any
+      one who is of opinion that, in dealing with theology, we ought to be
+      guided by considerations different from those which would be thought
+      appropriate if the problem lay in the province of chemistry or of
+      mineralogy. And if people of these ways of thinking choose to read beyond
+      the present paragraph, the responsibility for meeting with anything they
+      may dislike rests with them and not with me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are all likely to be more familiar with the theological history of the
+      Israelites than with that of any other nation. We may therefore fitly make
+      it the first object of our studies; and it will be convenient to commence
+      with that period which lies between the invasion of Canaan and the early
+      days of the monarchy, and answers to the eleventh and twelfth centuries
+      B.C. or thereabouts. The evidence on which any conclusion as to the nature
+      of Israelitic theology in those days must be based is wholly contained in
+      the Hebrew Scriptures&mdash;an agglomeration of documents which certainly
+      belong to very different ages, but of the exact dates and authorship of
+      any one of which (except perhaps a few of the prophetical writings) there
+      is no evidence, either internal or external, so far as I can discover, of
+      such a nature as to justify more than a confession of ignorance, or, at
+      most, an approximate conclusion. In this venerable record of ancient life,
+      miscalled a book, when it is really a library comparable to a selection of
+      works from English literature between the times of Beda and those of
+      Milton, we have the stratified deposits (often confused and even with
+      their natural order inverted) left by the stream of the intellectual and
+      moral life of Israel during many centuries. And, embedded in these strata,
+      there are numerous remains of forms of thought which once lived, and
+      which, though often unfortunately mere fragments, are of priceless value
+      to the anthropologist. Our task is to rescue these from their relatively
+      unimportant surroundings, and by careful comparison with existing forms of
+      theology to make the dead world which they record live again. In other
+      words, our problem is palaeontological, and the method pursued must be the
+      same as that employed in dealing with other fossil remains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the richest of the fossiliferous strata to which I have alluded are
+      the books of Judges and Samuel. <a href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1"
+      id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> It has often been observed that
+      these writings stand out, in marked relief from those which precede and
+      follow them, in virtue of a certain archaic freshness and of a greater
+      freedom from traces of late interpolation and editorial trimming.
+      Jephthah, Gideon and Samson are men of old heroic stamp, who would look as
+      much in place in a Norse Saga as where they are; and if the varnish-brush
+      of later respectability has passed over these memoirs of the mighty men of
+      a wild age, here and there, it has not succeeded in effacing, or even in
+      seriously obscuring, the essential characteristics of the theology
+      traditionally ascribed to their epoch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is nothing that I have met with in the results of Biblical criticism
+      inconsistent with the conviction that these books give us a fairly
+      trustworthy account of Israelitic life and thought in the times which they
+      cover; and, as such, apart from the great literary merit of many of their
+      episodes, they possess the interest of being, perhaps, the oldest genuine
+      history, as apart from mere chronicles on the one hand and mere legends on
+      the other, at present accessible to us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it is often said with exultation by writers of one party, and often
+      admitted, more or less unwillingly, by their opponents, that these books
+      are untrustworthy, by reason of being full of obviously unhistoric tales.
+      And, as a notable example, the narrative of Saul's visit to the so-called
+      "witch of Endor" is often cited. As I have already intimated, I have
+      nothing to do with theological partisanship, either heterodox or orthodox,
+      nor, for my present purpose, does it matter very much whether the story is
+      historically true, or whether it merely shows what the writer believed;
+      but, looking at the matter solely from the point of view of an
+      anthropologist, I beg leave to express the opinion that the account of
+      Saul's necromantic expedition is quite consistent with probability. That
+      is to say, I see no reason whatever to doubt, firstly, that Saul made such
+      a visit; and, secondly, that he and all who were present, including the
+      wise woman of Endor herself, would have given, with entire sincerity, very
+      much the same account of the business as that which we now read in the
+      twenty-eighth chapter of the first book of Samuel; and I am further of
+      opinion that this story is one of the most important of those fossils, to
+      which I have referred, in the material which it offers for the
+      reconstruction of the theology of the time. Let us therefore study it
+      attentively&mdash;not merely as a narrative which, in the dramatic force
+      of its gruesome simplicity, is not surpassed, if it is equalled, by the
+      witch scenes in Macbeth&mdash;but as a piece of evidence bearing on an
+      important anthropological problem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are told (1 Sam. xxviii.) that Saul, encamped at Gilboa, became alarmed
+      by the strength of the Philistine army gathered at Shunem. He therefore
+      "inquired of Jahveh," but "Jahveh answered him not, neither by dreams, nor
+      by Urim, nor by prophets." <a href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2"
+      id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> Thus deserted by Jahveh, Saul, in
+      his extremity, bethought him of "those that had familiar spirits, and the
+      wizards," whom he is said, at some previous time, to have "put out of the
+      land"; but who seem, nevertheless, to have been very imperfectly banished,
+      since Saul's servants, in answer to his command to seek him a woman "that
+      hath a familiar spirit," reply without a sign of hesitation or of fear,
+      "Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor"; just as,
+      in some parts of England, a countryman might tell any one who did not look
+      like a magistrate or a policeman, where a "wise woman" was to be met with.
+      Saul goes to this woman, who, after being assured of immunity, asks, "Whom
+      shall I bring up to thee?" whereupon Saul says, "Bring me up Samuel." The
+      woman immediately sees an apparition. But to Saul nothing is visible, for
+      he asks, "What seest thou?" And the woman replies, "I see Elohim coming up
+      out of the earth." Still the spectre remains invisible to Saul, for he
+      asks, "What form is he of?" And she replies, "An old man cometh up, and he
+      is covered with a robe." So far, therefore, the wise woman unquestionably
+      plays the part of a "medium," and Saul is dependent upon her version of
+      what happens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The account continues:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with
+   his face to the ground and did obeisance. And Samuel said to
+   Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul
+   answered, I am sore distressed: for the Philistines make war
+   against me, and Elohim is departed from me and answereth me no
+   more, neither by prophets nor by dreams; therefore I have called
+   thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
+   And Samuel said, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing that
+   Jahveh is departed from thee and is become thine adversary?
+   And Jahveh hath wrought for himself, as he spake by me, and
+   Jahveh hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to
+   thy neighbour, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the
+   voice of Jahveh and didst not execute his fierce wrath upon
+   Amalek, therefore hath Jahveh done this thing unto thee this
+   day. Moreover, Jahveh will deliver Israel also with thee into
+   the hands of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy
+   sons be with me: Jahveh shall deliver the host of Israel also
+   into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway his
+   full length upon the earth and was sore afraid because of the
+   words of Samuel... (v. 14-20).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The statement that Saul "perceived" that it was Samuel is not to be taken
+      to imply that, even now, Saul actually saw the shade of the prophet, but
+      only that the woman's allusion to the prophetic mantle and to the aged
+      appearance of the spectre convinced him that it was Samuel. Reuss <a
+      href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a>
+      in fact translates the passage "Alors Saul reconnut que c'etait Samuel."
+      Nor does the dialogue between Saul and Samuel necessarily, or probably,
+      signify that Samuel spoke otherwise than by the voice of the wise woman.
+      The Septuagint does not hesitate to call her [Greek], that is to say, a
+      ventriloquist, implying that it was she who spoke&mdash;and this view of
+      the matter is in harmony with the fact that the exact sense of the Hebrew
+      words which are translated as "a woman that hath a familiar spirit" is "a
+      woman mistress of <i>Ob.</i>" <i>Ob</i> means primitively a leather
+      bottle, such as a wine skin, and is applied alike to the necromancer and
+      to the spirit evoked. Its use, in these senses, appears to have been
+      suggested by the likeness of the hollow sound emitted by a half-empty skin
+      when struck, to the sepulchral tones in which the oracles of the evoked
+      spirits were uttered by the medium. It is most probable that, in
+      accordance with the general theory of spiritual influences which obtained
+      among the old Israelites, the spirit of Samuel was conceived to pass into
+      the body of the wise woman, and to use her vocal organs to speak in his
+      own name&mdash;for I cannot discover that they drew any clear distinction
+      between possession and inspiration. <a href="#linknote-4"
+      name="linknoteref-4" id="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the story of Saul's consultation of the occult powers is to be regarded
+      as an authentic narrative, or, at any rate, as a statement which is
+      perfectly veracious so far as the intention of the narrator goes&mdash;and,
+      as I have said, I see no reason for refusing it this character&mdash;it
+      will be found, on further consideration, to throw a flood of light, both
+      directly and indirectly, on the theology of Saul's countrymen&mdash;that
+      is to say, upon their beliefs respecting the nature and ways of spiritual
+      beings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even without the confirmation of other abundant evidences to the same
+      effect, it leaves no doubt as to the existence, among them, of the
+      fundamental doctrine that man consists of a body and of a spirit, which
+      last, after the death of the body, continues to exist as a ghost. At the
+      time of Saul's visit to Endor, Samuel was dead and buried; but that his
+      spirit would be believed to continue to exist in Sheol may be concluded
+      from the well-known passage in the song attributed to Hannah, his mother:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Jahveh killeth and maketh alive;
+     He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up.
+                                  (1 Sam. ii. 6.)
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And it is obvious that this Sheol was thought to be a place underground in
+      which Samuel's spirit had been disturbed by the necromancer's summons, and
+      in which, after his return thither, he would be joined by the spirits of
+      Saul and his sons when they had met with their bodily death on the hill of
+      Gilboa. It is further to be observed that the spirit, or ghost, of the
+      dead man presents itself as the image of the man himself&mdash;it is the
+      man, not merely in his ordinary corporeal presentment (even down to the
+      prophet's mantle) but in his moral and intellectual characteristics.
+      Samuel, who had begun as Saul's friend and ended as his bitter enemy,
+      gives it to be understood that he is annoyed at Saul's presumption in
+      disturbing him; and that, in Sheol, he is as much the devoted servant of
+      Jahveh and as much empowered to speak in Jahveh's name as he was during
+      his sojourn in the upper air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears now to be universally admitted that, before the exile, the
+      Israelites had no belief in rewards and punishments after death, nor in
+      anything similar to the Christian heaven and hell; but our story proves
+      that it would be an error to suppose that they did not believe in the
+      continuance of individual existence after death by a ghostly simulacrum of
+      life. Nay, I think it would be very hard to produce conclusive evidence
+      that they disbelieved in immortality; for I am not aware that there is
+      anything to show that they thought the existence of the souls of the dead
+      in Sheol ever came to an end. But they do not seem to have conceived that
+      the condition of the souls in Sheol was in any way affected by their
+      conduct in life. If there was immortality, there was no state of
+      retribution in their theology. Samuel expects Saul and his sons to come to
+      him in Sheol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next circumstance to be remarked is that the name of <i>Elohim</i> is
+      applied to the spirit which the woman sees "coming up out of the earth,"
+      that is to say, from Sheol. The Authorised Version translates this in its
+      literal sense "gods." The Revised Version gives "god" with "gods" in the
+      margin. Reuss renders the word by "spectre," remarking in a note that it
+      is not quite exact; but that the word Elohim expresses "something divine,
+      that is to say, superhuman, commanding respect and terror" ("Histoire des
+      Israelites," p. 321). Tuch, in his commentary on Genesis, and Thenius, in
+      his commentary on Samuel, express substantially the same opinion. Dr.
+      Alexander (in Kitto's "Cyclopaedia" s. v. "God") has the following
+      instructive remarks:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   [<i>Elohim</i> is] sometimes used vaguely to describe unseen
+   powers or superhuman beings that are not properly thought of as
+   divine. Thus the witch of Endor saw "Elohim ascending out of the
+   earth" (1 Sam. xxviii. 13), meaning thereby some beings of an
+   unearthly, superhuman character. So also in Zechariah xii. 8, it
+   is said "the house of David shall be as Elohim, as the angel of
+   the Lord," where, as the transition from Elohim to the angel of
+   the Lord is a minori ad majus, we must regard the former as a
+   vague designation of supernatural powers.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Alexander speaks here of "beings"; but there is no reason to suppose
+      that the wise woman of Endor referred to anything but a solitary spectre;
+      and it is quite clear that Saul understood her in this sense, for he asks
+      "What form is HE of?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This fact, that the name of Elohim is applied to a ghost, or disembodied
+      soul, conceived as the image of the body in which it once dwelt, is of no
+      little importance. For it is well known that the same term was employed to
+      denote the gods of the heathen, who were thought to have definite
+      quasi-corporeal forms and to be as much real entities as any other Elohim.
+      <a href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5" id="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a>
+      The difference which was supposed to exist between the different Elohim
+      was one of degree, not one of kind. Elohim was, in logical terminology,
+      the genus of which ghosts, Chemosh, Dagon, Baal, and Jahveh were species.
+      The Israelite believed Jahveh to be immeasurably superior to all other
+      kinds of Elohim. The inscription on the Moabite stone shows that King Mesa
+      held Chemosh to be, as unquestionably, the superior of Jahveh. But if
+      Jahveh was thus supposed to differ only in degree from the undoubtedly
+      zoomorphic or anthropomorphic "gods of the nations," why is it to be
+      assumed that he also was not thought of as having a human shape? It is
+      possible for those who forget that the time of the great prophetic writers
+      is at least as remote from that of Saul as our day is from that of Queen
+      Elizabeth, to insist upon interpreting the gross notions current in the
+      earlier age and among the mass of the people by the refined conceptions
+      promulgated by a few select spirits centuries later. But if we take the
+      language constantly used concerning the Deity in the books of Genesis,
+      Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, or Kings, in its natural sense (and I am
+      aware of no valid reason which can be given for taking it in any other
+      sense), there cannot, to my mind, be a doubt that Jahveh was conceived by
+      those from whom the substance of these books is mainly derived, to possess
+      the appearance and the intellectual and moral attributes of a man; and,
+      indeed, of a man of just that type with which the Israelites were familiar
+      in their stronger and intellectually abler rulers and leaders. In a
+      well-known passage in Genesis (i. 27) Elohim is said to have "created man
+      in his own image, in the image of Elohim created he him." It is "man" who
+      is here said to be the image of Elohim&mdash;not man's soul alone, still
+      less his "reason," but the whole man. It is obvious that for those who
+      call a manlike ghost Elohim, there could be no difficulty in conceiving
+      any other Elohim under the same aspect. And if there could be any doubt on
+      this subject, surely it cannot stand in the face of what we find in the
+      fifth chapter, where, immediately after a repetition of the statement that
+      "Elohim created man, in the likeness of Elohim made he him," it is said
+      that Adam begat Seth "in his own likeness, after his image." Does this
+      mean that Seth resembled Adam only in a spiritual and figurative sense?
+      And if that interpretation of the third verse of the fifth chapter of
+      Genesis is absurd, why does it become reasonable in the first verse of the
+      same chapter?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But let us go further. Is not the Jahveh who "walks in the garden in the
+      cool of the day"; from whom one may hope to "hide oneself among the
+      trees"; of whom it is expressly said that "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and
+      Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel," saw the Elohim of Israel
+      (Exod. xxiv. 9-11); and that, although the seeing Jahveh was understood to
+      be a high crime and misdemeanour, worthy of death, under ordinary
+      circumstances, yet, for this once, he "laid not his hand on the nobles of
+      Israel"; "that they beheld Elohim and did eat and drink"; and that
+      afterwards Moses saw his back (Exod. xxxiii. 23)&mdash;is not this Deity
+      conceived as manlike in form? Again, is not the Jahveh who eats with
+      Abraham under the oaks at Mamre, who is pleased with the "sweet savour" of
+      Noah's sacrifice, to whom sacrifices are said to be "food" <a
+      href="#linknote-6" name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a>&mdash;is
+      not this Deity depicted as possessed of human appetites? If this were not
+      the current Israelitish idea of Jahveh even in the eighth century B.C.,
+      where is the point of Isaiah's scathing admonitions to his countrymen: "To
+      what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith Jahveh: I
+      am full of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I
+      delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats" (Isa.
+      i. 11). Or of Micah's inquiry, "Will Jahveh be pleased with thousands of
+      rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?" (vi. 7.) And in the
+      innumerable passages in which Jahveh is said to be jealous of other gods,
+      to be angry, to be appeased, and to repent; in which he is represented as
+      casting off Saul because the king does not quite literally execute a
+      command of the most ruthless severity; or as smiting Uzzah to death
+      because the unfortunate man thoughtlessly, but naturally enough, put out
+      his hand to stay the ark from falling&mdash;can any one deny that the old
+      Israelites conceived Jahveh not only in the image of a man, but in that of
+      a changeable, irritable, and, occasionally, violent man? There appears to
+      me, then, to be no reason to doubt that the notion of likeness to man,
+      which was indubitably held of the ghost Elohim, was carried out
+      consistently throughout the whole series of Elohim, and that Jahveh-Elohim
+      was thought of as a being of the same substantially human nature as the
+      rest, only immeasurably more powerful for good and for evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The absence of any real distinction between the Elohim of different ranks
+      is further clearly illustrated by the corresponding absence of any sharp
+      delimitation between the various kinds of people who serve as the media of
+      communication between them and men. The agents through whom the lower
+      Elohim are consulted are called necromancers, wizards, and diviners, and
+      are looked down upon by the prophets and priests of the higher Elohim; but
+      the "seer" <a href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a>
+      connects the two, and they are all alike in their essential characters of
+      media. The wise woman of Endor was believed by others, and, I have little
+      doubt, believed herself, to be able to "bring up" whom she would from
+      Sheol, and to be inspired, whether in virtue of actual possession by the
+      evoked Elohim, or otherwise, with a knowledge of hidden things, I am
+      unable to see that Saul's servant took any really different view of
+      Samuel's powers, though he may have believed that he obtained them by the
+      grace of the higher Elohim. For when Saul fails to find his father's
+      asses, his servant says to him&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Behold, there is in this city a man of Elohim, and he is a man
+   that is held in honour; all that he saith cometh surely to pass;
+   now let us go thither; peradventure, he can tell us concerning
+   our journey whereon we go. Then said Saul to his servant, But
+   behold if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is
+   spent in our vessels and there is not a present to bring to the
+   man of Elohim. What have we? And the servant answered Saul again
+   and said, Behold I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel
+   of silver: that will I give to the man of Elohim to tell us our
+   way. (Beforetime in Israel when a man went to inquire of Elohim,
+   then he said, Come and let us go to the Seer: for he that is now
+   called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer <a href="#linknote-8"
+      name="linknoteref-8" id="linknoteref-8">8</a>)
+   (1 Sam. ix. 6-10).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In fact, when, shortly afterwards, Saul accidentally meets Samuel, he
+      says, "Tell me, I pray thee, where the Seer's house is." Samuel answers,
+      "I am the Seer." Immediately afterwards Samuel informs Saul that the asses
+      are found, though how he obtained his knowledge of the fact is not stated.
+      It will be observed that Samuel is not spoken of here as, in any special
+      sense, a seer or prophet of Jahveh, but as a "man of Elohim"&mdash;that is
+      to say, a seer having access to the "spiritual powers," just as the wise
+      woman of Endor might have been said to be a "woman of Elohim"&mdash;and
+      the narrator's or editor's explanatory note seems to indicate that
+      "Prophet" is merely a name, introduced later than the time of Samuel, for
+      a superior kind of "Seer," or "man of Elohim." <a href="#linknote-9"
+      name="linknoteref-9" id="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another very instructive passage shows that Samuel was not only considered
+      to be diviner, seer, and prophet in one, but that he was also, to all
+      intents and purposes, priest of Jahveh&mdash;though, according to his
+      biographer, he was not a member of the tribe of Levi. At the outset of
+      their acquaintance, Samuel says to Saul, "Go up before me into the high
+      place," where, as the young maidens of the city had just before told Saul,
+      the Seer was going, "for the people will not eat till he come, because he
+      doth bless the sacrifice" (1 Sam. x. 12). The use of the word "bless" here&mdash;as
+      if Samuel were not going to sacrifice, but only to offer a blessing or
+      thanksgiving&mdash;is curious. But that Samuel really acted as priest
+      seems plain from what follows. For he not only asks Saul to share in the
+      customary sacrificial feast, but he disposes in Saul's favour of that
+      portion of the victim which the Levitical legislation, doubtless embodying
+      old customs, recognises as the priest's special property. <a
+      href="#linknote-10" name="linknoteref-10" id="linknoteref-10"><small>10</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although particular persons adopted the profession of media between men
+      and Elohim, there was no limitation of the power, in the view of ancient
+      Israel, to any special class of the population. Saul inquires of Jahveh
+      and builds him altars on his own account; and in the very remarkable story
+      told in the fourteenth chapter of the first book of Samuel (v. 37-46),
+      Saul appears to conduct the whole process of divination, although he has a
+      priest at his elbow. David seems to do the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, Elohim constantly appear in dreams&mdash;which in old Israel did
+      not mean that, as we should say, the subject of the appearance "dreamed he
+      saw the spirit"; but that he veritably saw the Elohim which, as a soul,
+      visited his soul while his body was asleep. And, in the course of the
+      history of Israel Jahveh himself thus appears to all sorts of persons,
+      non-Israelites as well as Israelites. Again, the Elohim possess, or
+      inspire, people against their will, as in the case of Saul and Saul's
+      messengers, and then these people prophesy&mdash;that is to say, "rave"&mdash;and
+      exhibit the ungoverned gestures attributed by a later age to possession by
+      malignant spirits. Apart from other evidence to be adduced by and by, the
+      history of ancient demonology and of modern revivalism does not permit me
+      to doubt that the accounts of these phenomena given in the history of Saul
+      may be perfectly historical.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the ritual practices, of which evidence is to be found in the books of
+      Judges and Samuel, the chief part is played by sacrifices, usually burnt
+      offerings. Whenever the aid of the Elohim of Israel is sought, or thanks
+      are considered due to him, an altar is built, and oxen, sheep, and goats
+      are slaughtered and offered up. Sometimes the entire victim is burnt as a
+      holocaust; more frequently only certain parts, notably the fat about the
+      kidneys, are burnt on the altar. The rest is properly cooked; and, after
+      the reservation of a part for the priest, is made the foundation of a
+      joyous banquet, in which the sacrificer, his family, and such guests as he
+      thinks fit to invite, participate. <a href="#linknote-11"
+      name="linknoteref-11" id="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a> Elohim was
+      supposed to share in the feast, and it has been already shown that that
+      which was set apart on the altar, or consumed by fire, was spoken of as
+      the food of Elohim, who was thought to be influenced by the costliness, or
+      by the pleasant smell, of the sacrifice in favour of the sacrificer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this bears out the view that, in the mind of the old Israelite, there
+      was no difference, save one of degree, between one Elohim and another. It
+      is true that there is but little direct evidence to show that the old
+      Israelites shared the widespread belief of their own, and indeed of all
+      times, that the spirits of the dead not only continue to exist, but are
+      capable of a ghostly kind of feeding and are grateful for such aliment as
+      can be assimilated by their attenuated substance, and even for clothes,
+      ornaments, and weapons. <a href="#linknote-12" name="linknoteref-12"
+      id="linknoteref-12"><small>12</small></a> That they were familiar with
+      this doctrine in the time of the captivity is suggested by the well-known
+      reference of Ezekiel (xxxii. 27) to the "mighty that are fallen of the
+      uncircumcised, which are gone down to [Sheol] hell with their weapons of
+      war, and have laid their swords under their heads." Perhaps there is a
+      still earlier allusion in the "giving of food for the dead" spoken of in
+      Deuteronomy (xxvi. 14). <a href="#linknote-13" name="linknoteref-13"
+      id="linknoteref-13"><small>13</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be remembered that the literature of the old Israelites, as it
+      lies before us, has been subjected to the revisal of strictly monotheistic
+      editors, violently opposed to all kinds of idolatry, who are not likely to
+      have selected from the materials at their disposal any obvious evidence,
+      either of the practice under discussion, or of that ancestor-worship which
+      is so closely related to it, for preservation in the permanent records of
+      their people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mysterious objects known as <i>Teraphim,</i> which are occasionally
+      mentioned in Judges, Samuel, and elsewhere, however, can hardly be
+      interpreted otherwise than as indications of the existence both of
+      ancestor-worship and of image-worship in old Israel. The teraphim were
+      certainly images of family gods, and, as such, in all probability
+      represented deceased ancestors. Laban indignantly demands of his
+      son-in-law, "Wherefore hast thou stolen my Elohim?" which Rachel, who must
+      be assumed to have worshipped Jacob's God, Jahveh, had carried off,
+      obviously because she, like her father, believed in their divinity. It is
+      not suggested that Jacob was in any way scandalised by the idolatrous
+      practices of his favourite wife, whatever he may have thought of her
+      honesty when the truth came to light; for the teraphim seem to have
+      remained in his camp, at least until he "hid" his strange gods "under the
+      oak that was by Shechem" (Gen. xxxv. 4). And indeed it is open to question
+      if he got rid of them then, for the subsequent history of Israel renders
+      it more than doubtful whether the teraphim were regarded as "strange gods"
+      even as late as the eighth century B.C.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The writer of the books of Samuel takes it quite as a matter of course
+      that Michal, daughter of one royal Jahveh worshipper and wife of the
+      servant of Jahveh <i>par excellence,</i> the pious David, should have her
+      teraphim handy, in her and David's chamber, when she dresses them up in
+      their bed into a simulation of her husband, for the purpose of deceiving
+      her father's messengers. Even one of the early prophets, Hosea, when he
+      threatens that the children of Israel shall abide many days without "ephod
+      or teraphim" (iii. 4), appears to regard both as equally proper
+      appurtenances of the suspended worship of Jahveh, and equally certain to
+      be restored when that is resumed. When we further take into consideration
+      that only in the reign of Hezekiah was the brazen serpent, preserved in
+      the temple and believed to be the work of Moses, destroyed, and the
+      practice of offering incense to it, that is, worshipping it, abolished&mdash;that
+      Jeroboam could set up "calves of gold" for Israel to worship, with
+      apparently none but a political object, and certainly with no notion of
+      creating a schism among the worshippers of Jahveh, or of repelling the men
+      of Judah from his standard&mdash;it seems obvious, either that the
+      Israelites of the tenth and eleventh centuries B.C. knew not the second
+      commandment, or that they construed it merely as part of the prohibition
+      to worship any supreme god other than Jahveh, which precedes it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In seeking for information about the teraphim, I lighted upon the
+      following passage in the valuable article on that subject by Archdeacon
+      Farrar, in Ritto's "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature," which is so much
+      to the purpose of my argument, that I venture to quote it in full:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   The main and certain results of this review are that the
+   teraphim were rude human images; that the use of them was an
+   antique Aramaic custom; that there is reason to suppose them to
+   have been images of deceased ancestors; that they were consulted
+   oracularly; that they were not confined to Jews; that their use
+   continued down to the latest period of Jewish history;
+   and lastly, that although the enlightened prophets and strictest
+   later kings regarded them as idolatrous, the priests were much
+   less averse to such images, and their cult was not considered in
+   any way repugnant to the pious worship of Elohim, nay, even to
+   the worship of him "under the awful title of Jehovah." In fact,
+   they involved <i>a monotheistic idolatry very different indeed
+   from polytheism;</i> and the tolerance of them by priests, as
+   compared with the denunciation of them by the prophets, offers a
+   close analogy to the views of the Roman Catholics respecting
+   pictures and images as compared with the views of Protestants.
+   It was against this use of idolatrous symbols and emblems in a
+   monotheistic worship that the <i>second</i> commandment was
+   directed, whereas the first is aimed against the graver sin of
+   direct polytheism. But the whole history of Israel shows how
+   utterly and how early the law must have fallen into desuetude.
+   The worship of the golden calf and of the calves at Dan and
+   Bethel, against which, so far as we know, neither Elijah nor
+   Elisha said a single word; the tolerance of high places,
+   teraphim and betylia; the offering of incense for centuries to
+   the brazen serpent destroyed by Hezekiah; the occasional
+   glimpses of the most startling irregularities sanctioned
+   apparently even in the temple worship itself, prove most
+   decisively that a pure monotheism and an independence of symbols
+   was the result of a slow and painful course of God's disciplinal
+   dealings among the noblest thinkers of a single nation, and not,
+   as is so constantly and erroneously urged, the instinct of the
+   whole Semitic race; in other words, one single branch of the
+   Semites was under God's providence <i>educated</i> into pure
+   monotheism only by centuries of misfortune and series of
+   inspired men (vol. iii. p. 986).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It appears to me that the researches of the anthropologist lead him to
+      conclusions identical in substance, if not in terms, with those here
+      enunciated as the result of a careful study of the same subject from a
+      totally different point of view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is abundant evidence in the books of Samuel and elsewhere that an
+      article of dress termed an <i>ephod</i> was supposed to have a peculiar
+      efficacy in enabling the wearer to exercise divination by means of
+      Jahveh-Elohim. Great and long continued have been the disputes as to the
+      exact nature of the ephod&mdash;whether it always means something to wear,
+      or whether it sometimes means an image. But the probabilities are that it
+      usually signifies a kind of waistcoat or broad zone, with shoulder-straps,
+      which the person who "inquired of Jahveh" put on. In 1 Samuel xxiii. 2
+      David appears to have inquired without an ephod, for Abiathar the priest
+      is said to have "come down with an ephod in his hand" only subsequently.
+      And then David asks for it before inquiring of Jahveh whether the men of
+      Keilah would betray him or not. David's action is obviously divination
+      pure and simple; and it is curious that he seems to have worn the ephod
+      himself and not to have employed Abiathar as a medium. How the answer was
+      given is not clear though the probability is that it was obtained by
+      casting lots. The <i>Urim</i> and <i>Thummim</i> seem to have been two
+      such lots of a peculiarly sacred character, which were carried in the
+      pocket of the high priest's "breastplate." This last was worn along with
+      the ephod.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the exception of one passage (1 Sam. xiv. 18) the ark is ignored in
+      the history of Saul. But in this place the Septuagint reads "ephod" for
+      ark, while in 1 Chronicles xiii. 3 David says that "we sought not unto it
+      [the ark] in the days of Saul." Nor does Samuel seem to have paid any
+      regard to the ark after its return from Philistia; though, in his
+      childhood, he is said to have slept in "the temple of Jahveh, where the
+      ark of Elohim was" (1 Sam. iii. 3), at Shiloh and there to have been the
+      seer of the earliest apparitions vouchsafed to him by Jahveh. The space
+      between the cherubim or winged images on the canopy or cover (<i>Kapporeth</i>)
+      of this holy chest was held to be the special seat of Jahveh&mdash;the
+      place selected for a temporary residence of the Supreme Elohim who had,
+      after Aaron and Phineas, Eli and his sons for priests and seers. And, when
+      the ark was carried to the camp at Eben-ezer, there can be no doubt that
+      the Israelites, no less than the Philistines, held that "Elohim is come
+      into the camp" (iv. 7), and that the one, as much as the other, conceived
+      that the Israelites had summoned to their aid a powerful ally in "these
+      (or this) mighty Elohim"&mdash;elsewhere called Jahve-Sabaoth, the Jahveh
+      of Hosts. If the "temple" at Shiloh was the pentateuchal tabernacle, as is
+      suggested by the name of "tent of meeting" given to it in 1 Samuel ii. 22,
+      it was essentially a large tent, though constituted of very expensive and
+      ornate materials; if, on the other hand, it was a different edifice, there
+      can be little doubt that this "house of Jahveh" was built on the model of
+      an ordinary house of the time. But there is not the slightest evidence
+      that, during the reign of Saul, any greater importance attached to this
+      seat of the cult of Jahveh than to others. Sanctuaries, and "high places"
+      for sacrifice, were scattered all over the country from Dan to Beersheba.
+      And, as Samuel is said to have gone up to one of these high places to
+      bless the sacrifice, it may be taken for tolerably certain that he knew
+      nothing of the Levitical laws which severely condemn the high places and
+      those who sacrifice away from the sanctuary hallowed by the presence of
+      the ark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no evidence that, during the time of the Judges and of Samuel,
+      any one occupied the position of the high priest of later days. And
+      persons who were neither priests nor Levites sacrificed and divined or
+      "inquired of Jahveh," when they pleased and where they pleased, without
+      the least indication that they, or any one else in Israel at that time,
+      knew they were doing wrong. There is no allusion to any special observance
+      of the Sabbath; and the references to circumcision are indirect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such are the chief articles of the theological creed of the old
+      Israelites, which are made known to us by the direct evidence of the
+      ancient record to which we have had recourse, and they are as remarkable
+      for that which they contain as for that which is absent from them. They
+      reveal a firm conviction that, when death takes place, a something termed
+      a soul or spirit leaves the body and continues to exist in Sheol for a
+      period of indefinite duration, even though there is no proof of any belief
+      in absolute immortality; that such spirits can return to earth to possess
+      and inspire the living; that they are, in appearance and in disposition,
+      likenesses of the men to whom they belonged, but that, as spirits, they
+      have larger powers and are freer from physical limitations; that they thus
+      form a group among a number of kinds of spiritual existences known as
+      Elohim, of whom Jahveh, the national God of Israel, is one; that,
+      consistently with this view, Jahveh was conceived as a sort of spirit,
+      human in aspect and in senses, and with many human passions, but with
+      immensely greater intelligence and power than any other Elohim, whether
+      human or divine. Further, the evidence proves that this belief was the
+      basis of the Jahveh-worship to which Samuel and his followers were
+      devoted; that there is strong reason for believing, and none for doubting,
+      that idolatry, in the shape of the worship of the family gods or teraphim,
+      was practised by sincere and devout Jahveh-worshippers; that the ark, with
+      its protective tent or tabernacle, was regarded as a specially, but by no
+      means exclusively, favoured sanctuary of Jahveh; that the ephod appears to
+      have had a particular value for those who desired to divine by the help of
+      Jahveh; and that divination by lots was practised before Jahveh. On the
+      other hand, there is not the slightest evidence of any belief in
+      retribution after death, but the contrary; ritual obligations have at
+      least as strong sanction as moral; there are clear indications that some
+      of the most stringent of the Levitical laws were unknown even to Samuel;
+      priests often appear to be superseded by laymen, even in the performance
+      of sacrifices and divination; and no line of demarcation can be drawn
+      between necromancer, wizard, seer, prophet, and priest, each of whom is
+      regarded, like all the rest, as a medium of communication between the
+      world of Elohim and that of living men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The theological system thus defined offers to the anthropologist no
+      feature which is devoid of a parallel in the known theologies of other
+      races of mankind, even of those who inhabit parts of the world most remote
+      from Palestine. And the foundation of the whole, the ghost theory, is
+      exactly that theological speculation which is the most widely spread of
+      all, and the most deeply rooted among uncivilised men. I am able to base
+      this statement, to some extent, on facts within my own knowledge. In
+      December 1848, H.M.S. <i>Rattlesnake,</i> the ship to which I then
+      belonged, was anchored off Mount Ernest, an island in Torres Straits. The
+      people were few and well disposed; and, when a friend of mine (whom I will
+      call B.) and I went ashore, we made acquaintance with an old native,
+      Paouda by name. In course of time we became quite intimate with the old
+      gentleman, partly by the rendering of mutual good offices, but chiefly
+      because Paouda believed he had discovered that B. was his father-in-law.
+      And his grounds for this singular conviction were very remarkable. We had
+      made a long stay at Cape York hard by; and, in accordance with a theory
+      which is widely spread among the Australians, that white men are the
+      reincarnated spirits of black men, B. was held to be the ghost, or <i>narki,</i>
+      of a certain Mount Ernest native, one Antarki, who had lately died, on the
+      ground of some real or fancied resemblance to the latter. Now Paouda had
+      taken to wife a daughter of Antarki's, named Domani, and as soon as B.
+      informed him that he was the ghost of Antarki, Paouda at once admitted the
+      relationship and acted upon it. For, as all the women on the island had
+      hidden away in fear of the ship, and we were anxious to see what they were
+      like, B. pleaded pathetically with Paouda that it would be very unkind not
+      to let him see his daughter and grandchildren. After a good deal of
+      hesitation and the exaction of pledges of deep secrecy, Paouda consented
+      to take B., and myself as B.'s friend, to see Domani and the three
+      daughters, by whom B. was received quite as one of the family, while I was
+      courteously welcomed on his account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This scene made an impression upon me which is not yet effaced. It left no
+      question on my mind of the sincerity of the strange ghost theory of these
+      savages, and of the influence which their belief has on their practical
+      life. I had it in my mind, as well as many a like result of subsequent
+      anthropological studies, when, in 1869, <a href="#linknote-14"
+      name="linknoteref-14" id="linknoteref-14"><small>14</small></a> I wrote as
+      follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word,
+   but none without ghosts. And the Fetishism, Ancestor-worship,
+   Hero-worship, and Demonology of primitive savages are all, I
+   believe, different manners of expression of their belief in
+   ghosts, and of the anthropomorphic interpretation of out-of-the-
+   way events which is its concomitant. Witchcraft and sorcery are
+   the practical expressions of these beliefs; and they stand in
+   the same relation to religious worship as the simple
+   anthropomorphism of children or savages does to theology.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I do not quote myself with any intention of making a claim to originality
+      in putting forth this view; for I have since discovered that the same
+      conception is virtually contained in the great "Discours sur l'Histoire
+      Universelle" of Bossuet, now more than two centuries old: <a
+      href="#linknote-15" name="linknoteref-15" id="linknoteref-15"><small>15</small></a>&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Le culte des hommes morta faisoit presque tout le fond de
+   l'idolatrie; presque tous les hommes sacrificient aux manes,
+   c'est-a-dire aux ames des morts. De si anciennes erreurs nous
+   font voir a la verite combien etoit ancienne la croyance de
+   l'immortalite de l'ame, et nous montrent qu'elle doit etre
+   rangee parmi les premieres traditions du genre humain.
+   Mais l'homme, qui gatoit tout, en avoit etrangement abuse,
+   puisqu'elle le portoit a sacrificer aux morts. On alloit meme
+   jusqu'a cet exces, de leur sacrifier des hommes vivans; ou tuoit
+   leurs esclaves, et meme leurs femmes, pour les aller servir dans
+   l'autre monde.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Among more modern writers J. G. Muller, in his excellent "Geschichte der
+      amerikanischen Urreligionen" (1855), clearly recognises "gespensterhafter
+      Geisterglaube" as the foundation of all savage and semi-civilised
+      theology, and I need do no more than mention the important developments of
+      the same view which are to be found in Mr. Tylor's "Primitive Culture,"
+      and in the writings of Mr. Herbert Spencer, especially his
+      recently-published "Ecclesiastical Institutions." <a href="#linknote-16"
+      name="linknoteref-16" id="linknoteref-16"><small>16</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a matter of fact that, whether we direct our attention to the older
+      conditions of civilised societies, in Japan, in China, in Hindostan, in
+      Greece, or in Rome, <a href="#linknote-17" name="linknoteref-17"
+      id="linknoteref-17"><small>17</small></a> we find, underlying all other
+      theological notions, the belief in ghosts, with its inevitable concomitant
+      sorcery; and a primitive cult, in the shape of a worship of ancestors,
+      which is essentially an attempt to please, or appease their ghosts. The
+      same thing is true of old Mexico and Peru, and of all the semi-civilised
+      or savage peoples who have developed a definite cult; and in those who,
+      like the natives of Australia, have not even a cult, the belief in, and
+      fear of, ghosts is as strong as anywhere else. The most clearly
+      demonstrable article of the theology of the Israelites in the eleventh and
+      twelfth centuries B.C. is therefore simply the article which is to be
+      found in all primitive theologies, namely, the belief that a man has a
+      soul which continues to exist after death for a longer or shorter time,
+      and may return, as a ghost, with a divine, or at least demonic, character,
+      to influence for good or evil (and usually for evil) the affairs of the
+      living. But the correspondence between the old Israelitic and other
+      archaic forms of theology extends to details. If, in order to avoid all
+      chance of direct communication, we direct our attention to the theology of
+      semi-civilised people, such as the Polynesian Islanders, separated by the
+      greatest possible distance, and by every conceivable physical barrier,
+      from the inhabitants of Palestine, we shall find not merely that all the
+      features of old Israelitic theology, which are revealed in the records
+      cited, are found among them; but that extant information as to the inner
+      mind of these people tends to remove many of the difficulties which those
+      who have not studied anthropology find in the Hebrew narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the best sources, if not the best source, of information on these
+      topics is Mariner's <i>Tonga Islands,</i> which tells us of the condition
+      of Cook's "Friendly Islanders" eighty years ago, before European influence
+      was sensibly felt among them. Mariner, a youth of fair education and of no
+      inconsiderable natural ability (as the work which was drawn up from the
+      materials he furnished shows), was about fifteen years of age when his
+      ship was attacked and plundered by the Tongans: he remained four years in
+      the islands, familiarised himself with the language, lived the life of the
+      people, became intimate with many of them, and had every opportunity of
+      acquainting himself with their opinions, as well as with their habits and
+      customs. He seems to have been devoid of prejudices, theological or other,
+      and the impression of strict accuracy which his statements convey has been
+      justified by all the knowledge of Polynesian life which has been
+      subsequently acquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is desirable, therefore, to pay close attention to that which Mariner
+      tells us about the theological views of these people: <a
+      href="#linknote-18" name="linknoteref-18" id="linknoteref-18"><small>18</small></a>&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   The human soul, after its separation from the body, is
+   termed a <i>hotooa</i> (a god or spirit), and is believed to
+   exist in the shape of the body; to have the same propensities as
+   during life, but to be corrected by a more enlightened
+   understanding, by which it readily distinguishes good from evil,
+   truth from falsehood, right from wrong; having the same
+   attributes as the original gods, but in a minor degree, and
+   having its dwelling for ever in the happy regions of Bolotoo,
+   holding the same rank in regard to other souls as during this
+   life; it has, however, the power of returning to Tonga to
+   inspire priests, relations, or others, or to appear in dreams to
+   those it wishes to admonish; and sometimes to the external eye
+   in the form of a ghost or apparition; but this power of
+   reappearance at Tonga particularly belongs to the souls of
+   chiefs rather than of matabooles. (vol. ii. p. 130).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The word "hotooa" is the same as that which is usually spelt "atua" by
+      Polynesian philologues, and it will be convenient to adopt this spelling.
+      Now under this head of "<i>Atuas</i> or supernatural intelligent beings"
+      the Tongans include:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "1. The original gods. 2. The souls of nobles that have all attributes in
+      common with the first but inferior in degree. 3. The souls of matabooles
+      <a href="#linknote-19" name="linknoteref-19" id="linknoteref-19"><small>19</small></a>
+      that are still inferior, and have not the power as the two first have of
+      coming back to Tonga to inspire the priest, though they are supposed to
+      have the power of appearing to their relatives. 4. The original attendants
+      or servants, as it were, of the gods, who, although they had their origin
+      and have ever since existed in Bolotoo, are still inferior to the third
+      class. 5. The <i>Atua pow</i> or mischievous gods. 6. <i>Mooi,</i> or the
+      god that supports the earth and does not belong to Bolotoo (vol. ii. pp.
+      103, 104)."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this it appears that the "Atuas" of the Polynesian are exactly
+      equivalent to the "Elohim" of the old Israelite. <a href="#linknote-20"
+      name="linknoteref-20" id="linknoteref-20"><small>20</small></a> They
+      comprise everything spiritual, from a ghost to a god, and from "the merely
+      tutelar gods to particular private families" (vol, ii. p. 104), to
+      Ta-li-y-Tooboo, who was the national god of Tonga. The Tongans had no
+      doubt that these Atuas daily and hourly influenced their destinies and
+      could, conversely, be influenced by them. Hence their "piety," the
+      incessant acts of sacrificial worship which occupied their lives, and
+      their belief in omens and charms. Moreover, the Atuas were believed to
+      visit particular persons,&mdash;their own priests in the case of the
+      higher gods, but apparently anybody in that of the lower,&mdash;and to
+      inspire them by a process which was conceived to involve the actual
+      residence of the god, for the time being, in the person inspired, who was
+      thus rendered capable of prophesying (vol. ii. p. 100). For the Tongan,
+      therefore, inspiration indubitably was possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When one of the higher gods was invoked, through his priest, by a chief
+      who wished to consult the oracle, or, in old Israelitic phraseology, to
+      "inquire of," the god, a hog was killed and cooked over night, and,
+      together with plantains, yams, and the materials for making the peculiar
+      drink <i>kava</i> (of which the Tongans were very fond), was carried next
+      day to the priest. A circle, as for an ordinary kava-drinking
+      entertainment, was then formed; but the priest, as the representative of
+      the god, took the highest place, while the chiefs sat outside the circle,
+      as an expression of humility calculated to please the god.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   As soon as they are all seated the priest is considered as
+   inspired, the god being supposed to exist within him from that
+   moment. He remains for a considerable time in silence with his
+   hands clasped before him, his eyes are cast down and he rests
+   perfectly still. During the time the victuals are being shared
+   out and the kava preparing, the matabooles sometimes begin to
+   consult him; sometimes he answers, and at other times not;
+   in either case he remains with his eyes cast down. Frequently he
+   will not utter a word till the repast is finished and the kava
+   too. When he speaks he generally begins in a low and very
+   altered tone of voice, which gradually rises to nearly its
+   natural pitch, though sometimes a little above it. All that he
+   says is supposed to be the declaration of the god, and he
+   accordingly speaks in the first person, as if he were the god.
+   All this is done generally without any apparent inward emotion
+   or outward agitation; but, on some occasions, his countenance
+   becomes fierce, and as it were inflamed, and his whole frame
+   agitated with inward feeling; he is seized with an universal
+   trembling, the perspiration breaks out on his forehead, and his
+   lips turning black are convulsed; at length tears start in
+   floods from his eyes, his breast heaves with great emotion, and
+   his utterance is choked. These symptoms gradually subside.
+   Before this paroxysm comes on, and after it is over, he often
+   eats as much as four hungry men under other circumstances could
+   devour. The fit being now gone off, he remains for some time
+   calm and then takes up a club that is placed by him for the
+   purpose, turns it over and regards it attentively; he then looks
+   up earnestly, now to the right, now to the left, and now again
+   at the club; afterwards he looks up again and about him in like
+   manner, and then again fixes his eyes on the club, and so on for
+   several times. At length he suddenly raises the club, and, after
+   a moment's pause, strikes the ground or the adjacent part of the
+   house with considerable force, immediately the god leaves him,
+   and he rises up and retires to the back of the ring among the
+   people (vol. i. pp. 100, 101).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The phenomena thus described, in language which, to any one who is
+      familiar with the manifestations of abnormal mental states among
+      ourselves, bears the stamp of fidelity, furnish a most instructive
+      commentary upon the story of the wise woman of Endor. As in the latter, we
+      have the possession by the spirit or soul (Atua, Elohim), the strange
+      voice, the speaking in the first person. Unfortunately nothing (beyond the
+      loud cry) is mentioned as to the state of the wise woman of Endor. But
+      what we learn from other sources (<i>e.g.</i> 1 Sam. x. 20-24) respecting
+      the physical concomitants of inspiration among the old Israelites has its
+      exact equivalent in this and other accounts of Polynesian prophetism. An
+      excellent authority, Moerenhout, who lived among the people of the Society
+      Islands many years and knew them well, says that, in Tahiti, the <i>role</i>
+      of the prophet had very generally passed out of the hands of the priests
+      into that of private persons who professed to represent the god, often
+      assumed his name, and in this capacity prophesied. I will not run the risk
+      of weakening the force of Moerenhout's description of the prophetic state
+      by translating it:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Un individu, dans cet etat, avait le bras gauche enveloppe d'un morceau
+      d'etoffe, signe de la presence de la Divinite. Il ne parlait que d'un ton
+      imperieux et vehement. Ses attaques, quand il allait prophetiser, etaient
+      aussi effroyables qu'imposantes. Il tremblait d'abord de tous ses membres,
+      la figure enflee, les yeux hagards, rouges et etincelants d'une expression
+      sauvage. Il gesticulait, articulait des mots vides de sens, poussait des
+      cris horribles qui faisaient tressaillir tous les assistants, et
+      s'exaltait parfois au point qu'on n'osait par l'approcher. Autour de lui,
+      le silence de la terreur et du respect.... C'est alors qu'il repondait aux
+      questions, annoncait l'avenir, le destin des batailles, la volonte des
+      dieux; et, chose etonnante! au sein de ce delire, de cet enthousiasme
+      religieux, son langage etait grave, imposant, son eloquence noble et
+      persuasive." <a href="#linknote-21" name="linknoteref-21"
+      id="linknoteref-21"><small>21</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just so Saul strips off his clothes, "prophesies" before Samuel, and lies
+      down "naked all that day and night."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both Mariner and Moerenhout refuse to have recourse to the hypothesis of
+      imposture in order to account for the inspired state of the Polynesian
+      prophets. On the contrary, they fully believe in their sincerity. Mariner
+      tells the story of a young chief, an acquaintance of his, who thought
+      himself possessed by the Atua of a dead woman who had fallen in love with
+      him, and who wished him to die that he might be near her in Bolotoo. And
+      he died accordingly. But the most valuable evidence on this head is
+      contained in what the same authority says about King Finow's son. The
+      previous king, Toogoo Ahoo, had been assassinated by Finow, and his soul,
+      become an Atua of divine rank in Bolotoo, had been pleased to visit and
+      inspire Finow's son&mdash;with what particular object does not appear.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   When this young chief returned to Hapai, Mr. Mariner, who was
+   upon a footing of great friendship with him, one day asked him
+   how he felt himself when the spirit of Toogoo Ahoo visited him;
+   he replied that he could not well describe his feelings, but the
+   best he could say of it was, that he felt himself all over in a
+   glow of heat and quite restless and uncomfortable, and did not
+   feel his own personal identity, as it were, but seemed to have a
+   mind different from his own natural mind, his thoughts wandering
+   upon strange and unusual subjects, though perfectly sensible of
+   surrounding objects. He next asked him how he knew it was the
+   spirit of Toogoo Ahoo? His answer was, 'There's a fool! How can
+   I tell you <i>how</i> I knew it! I felt and knew it was so by a
+   kind of consciousness; my <i>mind</i> told me that it was Toogoo
+   Ahoo (vol. i. pp. 104, 105).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Finow's son was evidently made for a theological disputant, and fell back
+      at once on the inexpugnable stronghold of faith when other evidence was
+      lacking. "There's a fool! I know it is true, because I know it," is the
+      exemplar and epitome of the sceptic-crushing process in other places than
+      the Tonga Islands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The island of Bolotoo, to which all the souls (of the upper classes at any
+      rate) repair after the death of the body, and from which they return at
+      will to interfere, for good or evil, with the lives of those whom they
+      have left behind, obviously answers to Sheol. In Tongan tradition, this
+      place of souls is a sort of elysium above ground and pleasant enough to
+      live in. But, in other parts of Polynesia, the corresponding locality,
+      which is called Po, has to be reached by descending into the earth, and is
+      represented dark and gloomy like Sheol. But it was not looked upon as a
+      place of rewards and punishments in any sense. Whether in Bolotoo or in
+      Po, the soul took the rank it had in the flesh; and, a shadow, lived among
+      the shadows of the friends and houses and food of its previous life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Tongan theologians recognised several hundred gods; but there was one,
+      already mentioned as their national god, whom they regarded as far greater
+      than any of the others, "as a great chief from the top of the sky down to
+      the bottom of the earth" (Mariner, vol. ii. p. 106). He was also god of
+      war, and the tutelar deity of the royal family, whoever happened to be the
+      incumbent of the royal office for the time being. He had no priest except
+      the king himself, and his visits, even to royalty, were few and far
+      between. The name of this supreme deity was Ta-li-y-Tooboo, the literal
+      meaning of which is said to be "Wait there, Tooboo," from which it would
+      appear that the peculiar characteristic of Ta-li-y-Tooboo, in the eyes of
+      his worshippers, was persistence of duration. And it is curious to notice,
+      in relation to this circumstance, that many Hebrew philologers have
+      thought the meaning of Jahveh to be best expressed by the word "Eternal."
+      It would probably be difficult to express the notion of an eternal being,
+      in a dialect so little fitted to convey abstract conceptions as Tongan,
+      better than by that of one who always "waits there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The characteristics of the gods in Tongan theology are exactly those of
+      men whose shape they are supposed to possess, only they have more
+      intelligence and greater power. The Tongan belief that, after death, the
+      human Atua more readily distinguishes good from evil, runs parallel with
+      the old Israelitic conception of Elohim expressed in Genesis, "Ye shall be
+      as Elohim, knowing good from evil." They further agreed with the old
+      Israelites, that "all rewards for virtue and punishments for vice happen
+      to men in this world only, and come immediately from the gods" (vol. ii.
+      p. 100). Moreover, they were of opinion that though the gods approve of
+      some kinds of virtue, are displeased with some kinds of vice, and, to a
+      certain extent, protect or forsake their worshippers according to their
+      moral conduct, yet neglect to pay due respect to the deities, and
+      forgetfulness to keep them in good humour, might be visited with even
+      worse consequences than moral delinquency. And those who will carefully
+      study the so-called "Mosaic code" contained in the books of Exodus,
+      Leviticus, and Numbers, will see that, though Jahveh's prohibitions of
+      certain forms of immorality are strict and sweeping, his wrath is quite as
+      strongly kindled against infractions of ritual ordinances. Accidental
+      homicide may go unpunished, and reparation may be made for wilful theft.
+      On the other hand, Nadab and Abihu, who "offered strange fire before
+      Jahveh, which he had not commanded them," were swiftly devoured by
+      Jahveh's fire; he who sacrificed anywhere except at the allotted place was
+      to be "cut off from his people"; so was he who ate blood; and the details
+      of the upholstery of the Tabernacle, of the millinery of the priests'
+      vestments, and of the cabinet work of the ark, can plead direct authority
+      from Jahveh, no less than moral commands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amongst the Tongans, the sacrifices were regarded as gifts of food and
+      drink offered to the divine Atuas, just as the articles deposited by the
+      graves of the recently dead were meant as food for Atuas of lower rank. A
+      kava root was a constant form of offering all over Polynesia. In the
+      excellent work of the Rev. George Turner, entitled <i>Nineteen Years in
+      Polynesia</i> (p. 241), I find it said of the Samoans (near neighbours of
+      the Tongans):&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   <i>The offerings</i> were principally cooked food. As in ancient
+   Greece so in Samoa, the first cup was in honour of the god.
+   It was either poured out on the ground or <i>waved</i> towards
+   the heavens, reminding us again of the Mosaic ceremonies.
+   The chiefs all drank a portion out of the same cup, according to
+   rank; and after that, the food brought as an offering was
+   divided and eaten '<i>there before the Lord.</i>'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In Tonga, when they consulted a god who had a priest, the latter, as
+      representative of the god, had the first cup; but if the god, like
+      Ta-li-y-Tooboo, had no priest, then the chief place was left vacant, and
+      was supposed to be occupied by the god himself. When the first cup of kava
+      was filled, the mataboole who acted as master of the ceremonies said,
+      "Give it to your god," and it was offered, though only as a matter of
+      form. In Tonga and Samoa there were many sacred places or <i>morais,</i>
+      with houses of the ordinary construction, but which served as temples in
+      consequence of being dedicated to various gods; and there were altars on
+      which the sacrifices were offered; nevertheless there were few or no
+      images. Mariner mentions none in Tonga, and the Samoans seem to have been
+      regarded as no better than atheists by other Polynesians because they had
+      none. It does not appear that either of these peoples had images even of
+      their family or ancestral gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Tahiti and the adjacent islands, Moerenhout (t. i. p. 471) makes the
+      very interesting observation, not only that idols were often absent, but
+      that, where they existed, the images of the gods served merely as
+      depositories for the proper representatives of the divinity. Each of these
+      was called a <i>maro aurou,</i> and was a kind of girdle artistically
+      adorned with red, yellow, blue, and black feathers&mdash;the red feathers
+      being especially important&mdash;which were consecrated and kept as sacred
+      objects within the idols. They were worn by great personages on solemn
+      occasions, and conferred upon their wearers a sacred and almost divine
+      character. There is no distinct evidence that the <i>maro aurou</i> was
+      supposed to have any special efficacy in divination, but one cannot fail
+      to see a certain parallelism between this holy girdle, which endowed its
+      wearer with a particular sanctity, and the ephod.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the Rev. R. Taylor, the New Zealanders formerly used the word
+      <i>karakia</i> (now employed for "prayer") to signify a "spell, charm, or
+      incantation," and the utterance of these karakias constituted the chief
+      part of their cult. In the south, the officiating priest had a small
+      image, "about eighteen inches long, resembling a peg with a carved head,"
+      which reminds one of the form commonly attributed to the teraphim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The priest first bandaged a fillet of red parrot feathers under the god's
+      chin, which was called his pahau or beard; this bandage was made of a
+      certain kind of sennet, which was tied on in a peculiar way. When this was
+      done it was taken possession of by the Atua, whose spirit entered it. The
+      priest then either held it in the hand and vibrated it in the air whilst
+      the powerful karakia was repeated, or he tied a piece of string (formed of
+      the centre of a flax leaf) round the neck of the image and stuck it in the
+      ground. He sat at a little distance from it, leaning against a tuahu, a
+      short stone pillar stuck in the ground in a slanting position and, holding
+      the string in his hand, he gave the god a jerk to arrest his attention,
+      lest he should be otherwise engaged, like Baal of old, either hunting,
+      fishing, or sleeping, and therefore must be awaked.... The god is supposed
+      to make use of the priest's tongue in giving a reply. Image-worship
+      appears to have been confined to one part of the island. The Atua was
+      supposed only to enter the image for the occasion. The natives declare
+      they did not worship the image itself, but only the Atua it represented,
+      and that the image was merely used as a way of approaching him." <a
+      href="#linknote-22" name="linknoteref-22" id="linknoteref-22"><small>22</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the excuse for image-worship which the more intelligent idolaters
+      make all the world over; but it is more interesting to observe that, in
+      the present case, we seem to have the equivalents of divination by
+      teraphim, with the aid of something like an ephod (which, however, is used
+      to sanctify the image and not the priest) mixed up together. Many Hebrew
+      archaeologists have supposed that the term "ephod" is sometimes used for
+      an image (particularly in the case of Gideon's ephod), and the story of
+      Micah, in the book of Judges, shows that images were, at any rate,
+      employed in close association with the ephod. If the pulling of the string
+      to call the attention of the god seems as absurd to us as it appears to
+      have done to the worthy missionary, who tells us of the practice, it
+      should be recollected that the high priest of Jahveh was ordered to wear a
+      garment fringed with golden bells.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   And it shall be upon Aaron to minister; and the sound thereof
+   shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before
+   Jahveh, and when he cometh out, that he die not (Exod.
+   xxviii. 35).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      An escape from the obvious conclusion suggested by this passage has been
+      sought in the supposition that these bells rang for the sake of the
+      worshippers, as at the elevation of the host in the Roman Catholic ritual;
+      but then why should the priest be threatened with the well-known penalty
+      for inadvisedly beholding the divinity?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In truth, the intermediate step between the Maori practice and that of the
+      old Israelites is furnished by the Kami temples in Japan. These are
+      provided with bells which the worshippers who present themselves ring, in
+      order to call the attention of the ancestor-god to their presence. Grant
+      the fundamental assumption of the essentially human character of the
+      spirit, whether Atua, Kami, or Elohim, and all these practices are equally
+      rational.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sacrifices to the gods in Tonga, and elsewhere in Polynesia, were
+      ordinarily social gatherings, in which the god, either in his own person
+      or in that of his priestly representative, was supposed to take part.
+      These sacrifices were offered on every occasion of importance, and even
+      the daily meals were prefaced by oblations and libations of food and
+      drink, exactly answering to those offered by the old Romans to their
+      manes, penates, and lares. The sacrifices had no moral significance, but
+      were the necessary result of the theory that the god was either a deified
+      ghost of an ancestor or chief, or, at any rate, a being of like nature to
+      these. If one wanted to get anything out of him, therefore, the first step
+      was to put him in good humour by gifts; and if one desired to escape his
+      wrath, which might be excited by the most trifling neglect or
+      unintentional disrespect, the great thing was to pacify him by costly
+      presents. King Finow appears to have been somewhat of a freethinker (to
+      the great horror of his subjects), and it was only his untimely death
+      which prevented him from dealing with the priest of a god, who had not
+      returned a favourable answer to his supplications, as Saul dealt with the
+      priests of the sanctuary of Jahveh at Nob. Nevertheless, Finow showed his
+      practical belief in the gods during the sickness of a daughter, to whom he
+      was fondly attached, in a fashion which has a close parallel in the
+      history of Israel.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   If the gods have any resentment against us, let the whole
+   weight of vengeance fall on my head. I fear not their vengeance
+   &mdash;but spare my child; and I earnestly entreat you, Toobo Totai
+   [the god whom he had evoked], to exert all your influence with
+   the other gods that I alone may suffer all the punishment they
+   desire to inflict (vol. i. p. 354).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      So when the king of Israel has sinned by "numbering the people," and they
+      are punished for his fault by a pestilence which slays seventy thousand
+      innocent men, David cries to Jahveh:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep,
+   what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me,
+   and against my father's house. (2 Sam. xxiv. 17).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Human sacrifices were extremely common in Polynesia; and, in Tonga, the
+      "devotion" of a child by strangling was a favourite method of averting the
+      wrath of the gods. The well-known instances of Jephthah's sacrifice of his
+      daughter and of David's giving up the seven sons of Saul to be sacrificed
+      by the Gibeonites "before Jahveh," appear to me to leave no doubt that the
+      old Israelites, even when devout worshippers of Jahveh, considered human
+      sacrifices, under certain circumstances, to be not only permissible but
+      laudable. Samuel's hewing to pieces of the miserable captive, sole
+      survivor of his nation, Agag, "before Jahveh," can hardly be viewed in any
+      other light. The life of Moses is redeemed from Jahveh, who "sought to
+      slay him," by Zipporah's symbolical sacrifice of her child, by the bloody
+      operation of circumcision. Jahveh expressly affirms that the first-born
+      males of men and beasts are devoted to him; in accordance with that claim,
+      the first-born males of the beasts are duly sacrificed; and it is only by
+      special permission that the claim to the first-born of men is waived, and
+      it is enacted that they may be redeemed (Exod. xiii. 12-15). Is it
+      possible to avoid the conclusion that immolation of their first-born sons
+      would have been incumbent on the worshippers of Jahveh, had they not been
+      thus specially excused? Can any other conclusion be drawn from the history
+      of Abraham and Isaac? Does Abraham exhibit any indication of surprise when
+      he receives the astounding order to sacrifice his son? Is there the
+      slightest evidence that there was anything in his intimate and personal
+      acquaintance with the character of the Deity, who had eaten the meat and
+      drunk the milk which Abraham set before him under the oaks of Mamre, to
+      lead him to hesitate&mdash;even to wait twelve or fourteen hours for a
+      repetition of the command? Not a whit. We are told that "Abraham rose
+      early in the morning" and led his only child to the slaughter, as if it
+      were the most ordinary business imaginable. Whether the story has any
+      historical foundation or not, it is valuable as showing that the writer of
+      it conceived Jahveh as a deity whose requirement of such a sacrifice need
+      excite neither astonishment nor suspicion of mistake on the part of his
+      devotee. Hence, when the incessant human sacrifices in Israel, during the
+      age of the kings, are put down to the influence of foreign idolatries, we
+      may fairly inquire whether editorial Bowdlerising has not prevailed over
+      historical truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An attempt to compare the ethical standards of two nations, one of which
+      has a written code, while the other has not, is beset with difficulties.
+      With all that is strange and, in many cases, repulsive to us in the social
+      arrangements and opinions respecting moral obligation among the Tongans,
+      as they are placed before us, with perfect candour, in Mariner's account,
+      there is much that indicates a strong ethical sense. They showed great
+      kindliness to one another, and faithfulness in standing by their comrades
+      in war. No people could have better observed either the third or the fifth
+      commandment; for they had a particular horror of blasphemy, and their
+      respectful tenderness towards their parents and, indeed, towards old
+      people in general, was remarkable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It cannot be said that the eighth commandment was generally observed,
+      especially where Europeans were concerned; nevertheless a well-bred Tongan
+      looked upon theft as a meanness to which he would not condescend. As to
+      the seventh commandment, any breach of it was considered scandalous in
+      women and as something to be avoided in self-respecting men; but, among
+      unmarried and widowed people, chastity was held very cheap. Nevertheless
+      the women were extremely well treated, and often showed themselves capable
+      of great devotion and entire faithfulness. In the matter of cruelty,
+      treachery, and bloodthirstiness, these islanders were neither better nor
+      worse than most peoples of antiquity. It is to the credit of the Tongans
+      that they particularly objected to slander; nor can covetousness be
+      regarded as their characteristic; for Mariner says:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   When any one is about to eat, he always shares out what he has
+   to those about him, without any hesitation, and a contrary
+   conduct would be considered exceedingly vile and selfish (vol.
+   ii p. 145).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In fact, they thought very badly of the English when Mariner told them
+      that his countrymen did not act exactly on that principle. It further
+      appears that they decidedly belonged to the school of intuitive moral
+      philosophers, and believed that virtue is its own reward; for
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Many of the chiefs, on being asked by Mr. Mariner what motives
+   they had for conducting themselves with propriety, besides the
+   fear of misfortunes in this life, replied, the agreeable and
+   happy feeling which a man experiences within himself when he
+   does any good action or conducts himself nobly and generously as
+   a man ought to do; and this question they answered as if they
+   wondered such a question should be asked. (vol. ii. p. 161).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      One may read from the beginning of the book of Judges to the end of the
+      books of Samuel without discovering 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;
+      while Deborah's jubilation over Jael's violation of the primary duty of
+      hospitality, proffered and accepted under circumstances which give a
+      peculiarly atrocious character to the murder of the guest; and her
+      witch-like gloating over the picture of the disappointment of the mother
+      of the victim&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice,
+   Why is his chariot so long in coming? (Jud. v. 28.)
+&mdash;would not have been out of place in the choral service of the most
+sanguinary god in the Polynesian pantheon.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      With respect to the cannibalism which the Tongans occasionally practised,
+      Mariner says:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Although a few young ferocious warriors chose to imitate what
+   they considered a mark of courageous fierceness in a
+   neighbouring nation, it was held in disgust by everybody else
+   (vol. ii. p. 171).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      That the moral standard of Tongan life was less elevated than that
+      indicated in the "Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi.-xxiii.) may be freely
+      admitted. But then the evidence that this Book of the Covenant, and even
+      the ten commandments as given in Exodus, were known to the Israelites of
+      the time of Samuel and Saul, is (to say the least) by no means conclusive.
+      The Deuteronomic version of the fourth commandment is hopelessly
+      discrepant from that which stands in Exodus. Would any later writer have
+      ventured to alter the commandments as given from Sinai, if he had had
+      before him that which professed to be an accurate statement of the "ten
+      words" in Exodus? And if the writer of Deuteronomy had not Exodus before
+      him, what is the value of the claim of the version of the ten commandments
+      therein contained to authenticity? From one end to the other of the books
+      of Judges and Samuel, the only "commandments of Jahveh" which are
+      specially adduced refer to the prohibition of the worship of other gods,
+      or are orders given <i>ad hoc,</i> and have nothing to do with questions
+      of morality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Polynesia, the belief in witchcraft, in the appearance of spiritual
+      beings in dreams, in possession as the cause of diseases, and in omens,
+      prevailed universally. Mariner tells a story of a woman of rank who was
+      greatly attached to King Finow, and who, for the space of six months after
+      his death, scarcely ever slept elsewhere than on his grave, which she kept
+      carefully decorated with flowers:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One day she went, with the deepest affliction, to the house of Mo-oonga
+      Toobo, the widow of the deceased chief, to communicate what had happened
+      to her at the <i>fytoca</i> [grave] during several nights, and which
+      caused her the greatest anxiety. She related that she had dreamed that the
+      late How [King] appeared to her and, with a countenance full of
+      disappointment, asked why there yet remained at Vavaoo so many
+      evil-designing persons; for he declared that, since he had been at
+      Bolotoo, his spirit had been disturbed by the evil machinations of wicked
+      men conspiring against his son; but he declared that 'the youth' should
+      not be molested nor his power shaken by the spirit of rebellion; that he
+      therefore came to her with a warning voice to prevent such disastrous
+      consequences (vol. i. p. 424)."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On inquiry it turned out that the charm of <i>tattao</i> had been
+      performed on Finow's grave, with the view of injuring his son, the
+      reigning king, and it is to be presumed that it was this sorcerer's work
+      which had "disturbed" Finow's spirit. The Rev. Richard Taylor says in the
+      work already cited: "The account given of the witch of Endor agrees most
+      remarkably with the witches of New Zealand" (p. 45).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Tongans also believed in a mode of divination (essentially similar to
+      the casting of lots) the twirling of a cocoanut.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   The object of inquiry... is chiefly whether a sick person will
+   recover; for this purpose the nut being placed on the ground, a
+   relation of the sick person determines that, if the nut, when
+   again at rest, points to such a quarter, the east for example,
+   that the sick man will recover; he then prays aloud to the
+   patron god of the family that he will be pleased to direct the
+   nut so that it may indicate the truth; the nut being next spun,
+   the result is attended to with confidence, at least with a full
+   conviction that it will truly declare the intentions of the gods
+   at the time (vol. ii. p. 227).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Does not the action of Saul, on a famous occasion, involve exactly the
+      same theological presuppositions?
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Therefore Saul said unto Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, Shew the
+   right. And Jonathan and Saul were taken by lot: but the people
+   escaped. And Saul said, Cast <i>lots</i> between me and Jonathan
+   my son. And Jonathan was taken. And Saul said to Jonathan, Tell
+   me what thou hast done.... And the people rescued Jonathan so
+   that he died not (1 Sam. xiv. 41-45).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As the Israelites had great yearly feasts, so had the Polynesians; as the
+      Israelites practised circumcision, so did many Polynesian people; as the
+      Israelites had a complex and often arbitrary-seeming multitude of
+      distinctions between clean and unclean things, and clean and unclean
+      states of men, to which they attached great importance, so had the
+      Polynesians their notions of ceremonial purity and their <i>tabu,</i> an
+      equally extensive and strange system of prohibitions, violation of which
+      was visited by death. These doctrines of cleanness and uncleanness no
+      doubt may have taken their rise in the real or fancied utility of the
+      prescriptions, but it is probable that the origin of many is indicated in
+      the curious habit of the Samoans to make fetishes of living animals. It
+      will be recollected that these people had no "gods made with hands," but
+      they substituted animals for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At his birth
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "every Samoan was supposed to be taken under the care of some tutelary god
+      or <i>aitu</i> [= Atua] as it was called. The help of perhaps half a dozen
+      different gods was invoked in succession on the occasion, but the one who
+      happened to be addressed just as the child was born was marked and
+      declared to be the child's god for life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "These gods were supposed to appear in some <i>visible incarnation,</i>
+      and the particular thing in which his god was in the habit of appearing
+      was, to the Samoan, an object of veneration. It was in fact his idol, and
+      he was careful never to injure it or treat it with contempt. One, for
+      instance, saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in the
+      turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the lizard; and
+      so on, throughout all the fish of the sea and birds and four-footed beasts
+      and creeping things. In some of the shell-fish even, gods were supposed to
+      be present. A man would eat freely of what was regarded as the incarnation
+      of the god of another man, but the incarnation of his own particular god
+      he would consider it death to injure or eat." <a href="#linknote-23"
+      name="linknoteref-23" id="linknoteref-23"><small>23</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have here that which appears to be the origin, or one of the origins,
+      of food prohibitions, on the one hand, and of totemism on the other. When
+      it is remembered that the old Israelites sprang from ancestors who are
+      said to have resided near, or in, one of the great seats of ancient
+      Babylonian civilisation, the city of Ur; that they had been, it is said
+      for centuries, in close contact with the Egyptians; and that, in the
+      theology of both the Babylonians and the Egyptians, there is abundant
+      evidence, notwithstanding their advanced social organisation, of the
+      belief in spirits, with sorcery, ancestor-worship, the deification of
+      animals, and the converse animalisation of gods&mdash;it obviously needs
+      very strong evidence to justify the belief that the rude tribes of Israel
+      did not share the notions from which their far more civilised neighbours
+      had not emancipated themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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 entertained 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. <a href="#linknote-24" name="linknoteref-24" id="linknoteref-24"><small>24</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A theological system of essentially similar character, exhibiting the same
+      fundamental conceptions respecting the continued existence and incessant
+      interference in human affairs of disembodied spirits, prevails, or
+      formerly prevailed, among the whole of the inhabitants of the Polynesian
+      and Melanesian islands, and among the people of Australia, notwithstanding
+      the wide differences in physical character and in grade of civilisation
+      which obtain among them. And the same proposition is true of the people
+      who inhabit the riverain shores of the Pacific Ocean whether Dyaks,
+      Malays, Indo-Chinese, Chinese, Japanese, the wild tribes of America, or
+      the highly civilised old Mexicans and Peruvians. It is no less true of the
+      Mongolic nomads of Northern Asia, of the Asiatic Aryans and of the Ancient
+      Greeks and Romans, and it holds good among the Dravidians of the Dekhan
+      and the negro tribes of Africa. No tribe of savages which has yet been
+      discovered, has been conclusively proved to have so poor a theological
+      equipment as to be devoid of a belief in ghosts, and in the utility of
+      some form of witchcraft, in influencing those ghosts. And there is no
+      nation, modern or ancient, which, even at this moment, has wholly given up
+      the belief; and in which it has not, at one time or other, played a great
+      part in practical life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This <i>sciotheism,</i> <a href="#linknote-25" name="linknoteref-25"
+      id="linknoteref-25"><small>25</small></a> as it might be called, is found,
+      in several degrees of complexity, in rough correspondence with the stages
+      of social organisation, and, like these, separated by no sudden breaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In its simplest condition, such as may be met with among the Australian
+      savages, theology is a mere belief in the existence, powers, and
+      disposition (usually malignant) of ghostlike entities who may be
+      propitiated or scared away; but no cult can properly be said to exist.
+      And, in this stage, theology is wholly independent of ethics. The moral
+      code, such as is implied by public opinion, derives no sanction from the
+      theological dogmas, and the influence of the spirits is supposed to be
+      exerted out of mere caprice or malice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a next stage, the fundamental fear of ghosts and the consequent desire
+      to propitiate them acquire an organised ritual in simple forms of
+      ancestor-worship, such as the Rev. Mr. Turner describes among the people
+      of Tanna (<i>l.c.</i> p. 88); and this line of development may be followed
+      out until it attains its acme in the State-theology of China and the
+      Kami-theology <a href="#linknote-26" name="linknoteref-26"
+      id="linknoteref-26"><small>26</small></a> of Japan. Each of these is
+      essentially ancestor-worship, the ancestors being reckoned back through
+      family groups, of higher and higher order, sometimes with strict reference
+      to the principle of agnation, as in old Rome; and, as in the latter, it is
+      intimately bound up with the whole organisation of the State. There are no
+      idols; inscribed tablets in China, and strips of paper lodged in a
+      peculiar portable shrine in Japan, represent the souls of the deceased, or
+      the special seats which they occupy when sacrifices are offered by their
+      descendants. In Japan it is interesting to observe that a national Kami&mdash;Ten-zio-dai-zin&mdash;is
+      worshipped as a sort of Jahveh by the nation in general, and (as Lippert
+      has observed) it is singular that his special seat is a portable
+      litter-like shrine, termed the Mikosi, in some sort analogous to the
+      Israelitic ark. In China, the emperor is the representative of the
+      primitive ancestors, and stands, as it were, between them and the supreme
+      cosmic deities&mdash;Heaven and Earth&mdash;who are superadded to them,
+      and who answer to the Tangaloa and the Maui of the Polynesians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sciotheism, under the form of the deification of ancestral ghosts, in its
+      most pronounced form, is therefore the chief element in the theology of a
+      great moiety, possibly of more than half, of the human race. I think this
+      must be taken to be a matter of fact&mdash;though various opinions may be
+      held as to how this ancestor-worship came about. But on the other hand, it
+      is no less a matter of fact that there are very few people without
+      additional gods, who cannot, with certainty, be accounted for as deified
+      ancestors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all respect for the distinguished authorities on the other side, I
+      cannot find good reasons for accepting the theory that the cosmic deities&mdash;who
+      are superadded to deified ancestors even in China; who are found all over
+      Polynesia, in Tangaloa and Maui, and in old Peru, in the Sun&mdash;are the
+      product either of the "search after the infinite," or of mistakes arising
+      out of the confusion of a great chief's name with the thing signified by
+      the name. But, however this may be, I think it is again merely matter of
+      fact that, among a large portion of mankind, ancestor-worship is more or
+      less thrown into the background either by such cosmic deities, or by
+      tribal gods of uncertain origin, who have been raised to eminence by the
+      superiority in warfare, or otherwise, of their worshippers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among certain nations, the polytheistic theology, thus constituted, has
+      become modified by the selection of some one cosmic or tribal god, as the
+      only god to whom worship is due on the part of that nation (though it is
+      by no means denied that other nations have a right to worship other gods),
+      and thus results a worship of one God&mdash;<i>monolatry,</i> as
+      Wellhausen calls it&mdash;which is very different from genuine monotheism.
+      <a href="#linknote-27" name="linknoteref-27" id="linknoteref-27"><small>27</small></a>
+      In ancestral sciotheism, and in this <i>monolatry,</i> the ethical code,
+      often of a very high order, comes into closer relation with the
+      theological creed. Morality is taken under the patronage of the god or
+      gods, who reward all morally good conduct and punish all morally evil
+      conduct in this world or the next. At the same time, however, they are
+      conceived to be thoroughly human, and they visit any shadow of disrespect
+      to themselves, shown by disobedience to their commands, or by delay, or
+      carelessness, in carrying them out, as severely as any breach of the moral
+      laws. Piety means minute attention to the due performance of all sacred
+      rites, and covers any number of lapses in morality, just as cruelty,
+      treachery, murder, and adultery did not bar David's claim to the title of
+      the man after God's own heart among the Israelites; crimes against men may
+      be expiated, but blasphemy against the gods is an unpardonable sin. Men
+      forgive all injuries but those which touch their self-esteem; and they
+      make their gods after their own likeness, in their own image make they
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is in the category of monolatry that I conceive the theology of the old
+      Israelites must be ranged. They were polytheists, in so far as they
+      admitted the existence of other Elohim of divine rank beside Jahveh; they
+      differed from ordinary polytheists, in so far as they believed that Jahveh
+      was the supreme god and the one proper object of their own national
+      worship. But it will doubtless be objected that I have been building up a
+      fictitious Israelitic theology on the foundation of the recorded habits
+      and customs of the people, when they had lapsed from the ordinances of
+      their great lawgiver and prophet Moses, and that my conclusions may be
+      good for the perverts to Canaanitish theology, but not for the true
+      observers of the Sinaitic legislation. The answer to the objection is that&mdash;so
+      far as I can form a judgment of that which is well ascertained in the
+      history of Israel&mdash;there is very little ground for believing that we
+      know much, either about the theological and social value of the influence
+      of Moses, or about what happened during the wanderings in the Desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The account of the Exodus and of the occurrences in the Sinaitic
+      peninsula; in fact, all the history of Israel before the invasion of
+      Canaan, is full of wonderful stories, which may be true, in so far as they
+      are conceivable occurrences, but which are certainly not probable, and
+      which I, for one, decline to accept until evidence, which deserves that
+      name, is offered of their historical truth. Up to this time I know of
+      none. <a href="#linknote-28" name="linknoteref-28" id="linknoteref-28"><small>28</small></a>
+      Furthermore, I see no answer to the argument that one has no right to pick
+      out of an obviously unhistorical statement the assertions which happen to
+      be probable and to discard the rest. But it is also certain that a
+      primitively veracious tradition may be smothered under subsequent mythical
+      additions, and that one has no right to cast away the former along with
+      the latter. Thus, perhaps the fairest way of stating the case may be as
+      follows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There can be no <i>a priori</i> objection to the supposition that the
+      Israelites were delivered from their Egyptian bondage by a leader called
+      Moses, and that he exerted a great influence over their subsequent
+      organisation in the Desert. There is no reason to doubt that, during their
+      residence in the land of Goshen, the Israelites knew nothing of Jahveh;
+      but, as their own prophets declare (see Ezek. xx.), were polytheistic
+      idolaters, sharing in the worst practices of their neighbours. As to their
+      conduct in other respects, nothing is known. But it may fairly be
+      suspected that their ethics were not of a higher order than those of
+      Jacob, their progenitor, in which case they might derive great profit from
+      contact with Egyptian society, which held honesty and truthfulness in the
+      highest esteem. Thanks to the Egyptologers, we now know, with all
+      requisite certainty, the moral standard of that society in the time, and
+      long before the time, of Moses. It can be determined from the scrolls
+      buried with the mummified dead and from the inscriptions on the tombs and
+      memorial statues of that age. For, though the lying of epitaphs is
+      proverbial, so far as their subject is concerned, they gave an
+      unmistakable insight into that which the writers and the readers of them
+      think praiseworthy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the famous tombs at Beni Hassan there is a record of the life of Prince
+      Nakht, who served Osertasen II., a Pharaoh of the twelfth dynasty as
+      governor of a province. The inscription speaks in his name: "I was a
+      benevolent and kindly governor who loved his country.... Never was a
+      little child distressed nor a widow ill-treated by me. I have never
+      repelled a workman nor hindered a shepherd. I gave alike to the widow and
+      to the married woman, and have not preferred the great to the small in my
+      gifts." And we have the high authority of the late Dr. Samuel Birch for
+      the statement that the inscriptions of the twelfth dynasty abound in
+      injunctions of a high ethical character. "To feed the hungry, give drink
+      to the thirsty, clothe the naked, bury the dead, loyally serve the king,
+      formed the first duty of a pious man and faithful subject." <a
+      href="#linknote-29" name="linknoteref-29" id="linknoteref-29"><small>29</small></a>
+      The people for whom these inscriptions embodied their ideal of
+      praiseworthiness assuredly had no imperfect conception of either justice
+      or mercy. But there is a document which gives still better evidence of the
+      moral standard of the Egyptians. It is the "Book of the Dead," a sort of
+      "Guide to Spiritland," the whole, or a part, of which was buried with the
+      mummy of every well-to-do Egyptian, while extracts from it are found in
+      innumerable inscriptions. Portions of this work are of extreme antiquity,
+      evidence of their existence occurring as far back as the fifth and sixth
+      dynasties; while the 120th chapter, which constitutes a sort of book by
+      itself, and is known as the "Book of Redemption in the Hall of the two
+      Truths," is frequently inscribed upon coffins and other monuments of the
+      nineteenth dynasty (that under which, there is some reason to believe, the
+      Israelites were oppressed and the Exodus took place), and it occurs, more
+      than once, in the famous tombs of the kings of this and the preceding
+      dynasty at Thebes. <a href="#linknote-30" name="linknoteref-30"
+      id="linknoteref-30"><small>30</small></a> This "Book of Redemption" is
+      chiefly occupied by the so-called "negative confession" made to the
+      forty-two Divine Judges, in which the soul of the dead denies that he has
+      committed faults of various kinds. It is, therefore, obvious that the
+      Egyptians conceived that their gods commanded them not to do the deeds
+      which are here denied. The "Book of Redemption," in fact, implies the
+      existence in the mind of the Egyptians, if not in a formal writing, of a
+      series of ordinances, couched, like the majority of the ten commandments,
+      in negative terms. And it is easy to prove the implied existence of a
+      series which nearly answers to the "ten words." Of course a polytheistic
+      and image-worshipping people, who observed a great many holy days, but no
+      Sabbaths, could have nothing analogous to the first or the second and the
+      fourth commandments of the Decalogue; but answering to the third, is "I
+      have not blasphemed;" to the fifth, "I have not reviled the face of the
+      king or my father;" to the sixth, "I have not murdered;" to the seventh,
+      "I have not committed adultery;" to the eighth, "I have not stolen," "I
+      have not done fraud to man;" to the ninth, "I have not told falsehoods in
+      the tribunal of truth," and, further, "I have not calumniated the slave to
+      his master." I find nothing exactly similar to the tenth commandment; but
+      that the inward disposition of mind was held to be of no less importance
+      than the outward act is to be gathered from the praises of kindliness
+      already cited and the cry of "I am pure," which is repeated by the soul on
+      trial. Moreover, there is a minuteness of detail in the confession which
+      shows no little delicacy of moral appreciation&mdash;"I have not privily
+      done evil against mankind," "I have not afflicted men," "I have not
+      withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings," "I have not been idle," "I
+      have not played the hypocrite," "I have not told falsehoods," "I have not
+      corrupted woman or man," "I have not caused fear," "I have not multiplied
+      words in speaking."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Would that the moral sense of the nineteenth century A.D. were as far
+      advanced as that of the Egyptians in the nineteenth century B.C. in this
+      last particular! What incalculable benefit to mankind would flow from
+      strict observance of the commandment, "Thou shalt not multiply words in
+      speaking!" Nothing is more remarkable than the stress which the old
+      Egyptians, here and elsewhere, lay upon this and other kinds of
+      truthfulness, as compared with the absence of any such requirement in the
+      Israelitic Decalogue, in which only a specific kind of untruthfulnes is
+      forbidden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If, as the story runs, Moses was adopted by a princess of the royal house,
+      and was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, it is surely
+      incredible that he should not have been familiar from his youth up, with
+      the high moral code implied in the "Book of Redemption." It is surely
+      impossible that he should have been less familiar with the complete legal
+      system, and with the method of administration of justice, which, even in
+      his time, had enabled the Egyptian people to hold together, as a complex
+      social organisation, for a period far longer than the duration of old
+      Roman society, from the building of the city to the death of the last
+      Caesar. Nor need we look to Moses alone for the influence of Egypt upon
+      Israel. It is true that the Hebrew nomads who came into contact with the
+      Egyptians of Osertasen, or of Ramses, stood in much the same relation to
+      them, in point of culture, as a Germanic tribe did to the Romans of
+      Tiberius, or of Marcus Antoninus; or as Captain Cook's Omai did to the
+      English of George the Third. But, at the same time, any difficulty of
+      communication which might have arisen out of this circumstance was removed
+      by the long pre-existing intercourse of other Semites, of every grade of
+      civilisation, with the Egyptians. In Mesopotamia and elsewhere, as in
+      Phenicia, Semitic people had attained to a social organisation as advanced
+      as that of the Egyptians; Semites had conquered and occupied Lower Egypt
+      for centuries. So extensively had Semitic influences penetrated Egypt that
+      the Egyptian language, during the period of the nineteenth dynasty, is
+      said by Brugsch to be as full of Semitisms as German is of Gallicisms;
+      while Semitic deities had supplanted the Egyptian gods at Heliopolis and
+      elsewhere. On the other hand, the Semites, as far as Phenicia, were
+      extensively influenced by Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is generally admitted <a href="#linknote-31" name="linknoteref-31"
+      id="linknoteref-31"><small>31</small></a> that Moses, Phinehas (and
+      perhaps Aaron), are names of Egyptian origin, and there is excellent
+      authority for the statement that the name <i>Abir,</i> which the
+      Israelites gave to their golden calf, and which is also used to signify
+      the strong, the heavenly, and even God, <a href="#linknote-32"
+      name="linknoteref-32" id="linknoteref-32"><small>32</small></a> is simply
+      the Egyptian Apis. Brugsch points out that the god, Tum or Tom, who was
+      the special object of worship in the city of Pi-Tom, with which the
+      Israelites were only too familiar, was called Ankh and the "great god,"
+      and had no image. Ankh means "He who lives," "the living one," a name the
+      resemblance of which to the "I am that I am" of Exodus is unmistakable,
+      whatever may be the value of the fact. Every discussion of Israelitic
+      ritual seeks and finds the explanation of its details in the portable
+      sacred chests, the altars, the priestly dress, the breastplate, the
+      incense, and the sacrifices depicted on the monuments of Egypt. But it
+      must be remembered that these signs of the influence of Egypt upon Israel
+      are not necessarily evidence that such influence was exerted before the
+      Exodus. It may have come much later, through the close connection of the
+      Israel of David and Solomon, first with Phenicia and then with Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we suppose Moses to have been a man of the stamp of Calvin, there is no
+      difficulty in conceiving that he may have constructed the substance of the
+      ten words, and even of the Book of the Covenant, which curiously resembles
+      parts of the Book of the Dead, from the foundation of Egyptian ethics and
+      theology which had filtered through to the Israelites in general, or had
+      been furnished specially to himself by his early education; just as the
+      great Genevese reformer built up a puritanic social organisation on so
+      much as remained of the ethics and theology of the Roman Church, after he
+      had trimmed them to his liking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, I repeat, I see no <i>a priori</i> objection to the assumption that
+      Moses may have endeavoured to give his people a theologico-political
+      organisation based on the ten commandments (though certainly not quite in
+      their present form) and the Book of the Covenant, contained in our present
+      book of Exodus. But whether there is such evidence as amounts to proof,
+      or, I had better say, to probability, that even this much of the
+      Pentateuch owes its origin to Moses is another matter. The mythical
+      character of the accessories of the Sinaitic history is patent, and it
+      would take a good deal more evidence than is afforded by the bare
+      assertion of an unknown writer to justify the belief that the people who
+      "saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the voice of the trumpet and
+      the mountain smoking" (Exod. xx. 18); to whom Jahveh orders Moses to say,
+      "Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall
+      not make other gods with me; gods of silver and gods of gold ye shall not
+      make unto you" (<i>ibid.</i> 22, 23), should, less than six weeks
+      afterwards, have done the exact thing they were thus awfully forbidden to
+      do. Nor is the credibility of the story increased by the statement that
+      Aaron, the brother of Moses, the witness and fellow-worker of the miracles
+      before Pharaoh, was their leader and the artificer of the idol. And yet,
+      at the same time, Aaron was apparently so ignorant of wrongdoing that he
+      made proclamation, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to Jahveh," and the people
+      proceeded to offer their burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, as if
+      everything in their proceedings must be satisfactory to the Deity with
+      whom they had just made a solemn covenant to abolish image-worship. It
+      seems to me that, on a survey of all the facts of the case, only a very
+      cautious and hypothetical judgment is justifiable. It may be that Moses
+      profited by the opportunities afforded him of access to what was best in
+      Egyptian society to become acquainted, not only with its advanced ethical
+      and legal code, but with the more or less pantheistic unification of the
+      Divine to which the speculations of the Egyptian thinkers, like those of
+      all polytheistic philosophers, from Polynesia to Greece, tend; if indeed
+      the theology of the period of the nineteenth dynasty was not, as some
+      Egyptologists think, a modification of an earlier, more distinctly
+      monotheistic doctrine of a long antecedent age. It took only half a dozen
+      centuries for the theology of Paul to become the theology of Gregory the
+      Great; and it is possible that twenty centuries lay between the theology
+      of the first worshippers in the sanctuary of the Sphinx and that of the
+      priests of Ramses Maimun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be that the ten commandments and the Book of the Covenant are based
+      upon faithful traditions of the efforts of a great leader to raise his
+      followers to his own level. For myself, as a matter of pious opinion, I
+      like to think so; as I like to imagine that, between Moses and Samuel,
+      there may have been many a seer, many a herdsman such as him of Tekoah,
+      lonely amidst the hills of Ephraim and Judah, who cherished and kept alive
+      these traditions. In the present results of Biblical criticism, however, I
+      can discover no justification for the common assumption that, between the
+      time of Joshua and that of Rehoboam, the Israelites were familiar with
+      either the Deuteronomic or the Levitical legislation; or that the theology
+      of the Israelites, from the king who sat on the throne to the lowest of
+      his subjects, was in any important respect different from that which might
+      naturally be expected from their previous history and the conditions of
+      their existence. But there is excellent evidence to the contrary effect.
+      And, for my part, I see no reason to doubt that, like the rest of the
+      world, the Israelites had passed through a period of mere ghost-worship,
+      and had advanced through Ancestor-worship and Fetishism and Totemism to
+      the theological level at which we find them in the books of Judges and
+      Samuel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the more remarkable, therefore, is the extraordinary change which is
+      to be noted in the eighth century B.C. The student who is familiar with
+      the theology implied, or expressed, in the books of Judges, Samuel, and
+      the first book of Kings, finds himself in a new world of thought, in the
+      full tide of a great reformation, when he reads Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah,
+      Micah, and Jeremiah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The essence of this change is the reversal of the position which, in
+      primitive society, ethics holds in relation to theology. Originally, that
+      which men worship is a theological hypothesis, not a moral ideal. The
+      prophets, in substance, if not always in form preach the opposite
+      doctrine. They are constantly striving to free the moral ideal from the
+      stifling embrace of the current theology and its concomitant ritual.
+      Theirs was not an intellectual criticism, argued on strictly scientific
+      grounds; the image-worshippers and the believers in the efficacy of
+      sacrifices and ceremonies might logically have held their own against
+      anything the prophets have to say; it was an ethical criticism. From the
+      height of his moral intuition&mdash;that the whole duty of man is to do
+      justice and to love mercy and to bear himself as humbly as befits his
+      insignificance in face of the Infinite&mdash;the prophet simply laughs at
+      the idolaters of stocks and stones and the idolaters of ritual. Idols of
+      the first kind, in his experience, were inseparably united with the
+      practice of immorality, and they were to be ruthlessly destroyed. As for
+      sacrifices and ceremonies, whatever their intrinsic value might be, they
+      might be tolerated on condition of ceasing to be idols; they might even be
+      praiseworthy on condition of being made to subserve the worship of the
+      true Jahveh&mdash;the moral ideal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the realm of David had remained undivided, if the Assyrian and the
+      Chaldean and the Egyptian had left Israel to the ordinary course of
+      development of an Oriental kingdom, it is possible that the effects of the
+      reforming zeal of the prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries might
+      have been effaced by the growth, according to its inevitable tendencies,
+      of the theology which they combated. But the captivity made the fortune of
+      the ideas which it was the privilege of these men to launch upon an
+      endless career. With the abolition of the Temple-services for more than
+      half a century, the priest must have lost and the scribe gained influence.
+      The puritanism of a vigorous minority among the Babylonian Jews rooted out
+      polytheism from all its hiding-places in the theology which they had
+      inherited; they created the first consistent, remorseless, naked
+      monotheism, which, so far as history records, appeared in the world (for
+      Zoroastrism is practically ditheism, and Buddhism any-theism or
+      no-theism); and they inseparably united therewith an ethical code, which,
+      for its purity and for its efficiency as a bond of social life, was and
+      is, unsurpassed. So I think we must not judge Ezra and Nehemiah and their
+      followers too hardly, if they exemplified the usual doom of poor humanity
+      to escape from one error only to fall into another; if they failed to free
+      themselves as completely from the idolatry of ritual as they had from that
+      of images and dogmas; if they cherished the new fetters of the Levitical
+      legislation which they had fitted upon themselves and their nation, as
+      though such bonds had the sanctity of the obligations of morality; and if
+      they led succeeding generations to spend their best energies in building
+      that "hedge round the Torah" which was meant to preserve both ethics and
+      theology, but which too often had the effect of pampering the latter and
+      starving the former. The world being what it was, it is to be doubted
+      whether Israel would have preserved intact the pure ore of religion, which
+      the prophets had extracted for the use of mankind as well as for their
+      nation, had not the leaders of the nation been zealous, even to death, for
+      the dross of the law in which it was embedded. The struggle of the Jews,
+      under the Maccabean house, against the Seleucidae was as important for
+      mankind as that of the Greeks against the Persians. And, of all the
+      strange ironies of history, perhaps the strangest is that "Pharisee" is
+      current, as a term of reproach, among the theological descendants of that
+      sect of Nazarenes who, without the martyr spirit of those primitive
+      Puritans, would never have come into existence. They, like their
+      historical successors, our own Puritans, have shared the general fate of
+      the poor wise men who save cities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A criticism of theology from the side of science is not thought of by the
+      prophets, and is at most indicated in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes,
+      in both of which the problem of vindicating the ways of God to man is
+      given up, though on different grounds, as a hopeless one. But with the
+      extensive introduction of Greek thought among the Jews, which took place,
+      not only during the domination of the Seleucidae in Palestine, but in the
+      great Judaic colony which flourished in Egypt under the Ptolemies,
+      criticism, on both ethical and scientific grounds, took a new departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the hands of the Alexandrian Jews, as represented by Philo, the
+      fundamental axiom of later Jewish, as of Christian monotheism, that the
+      Deity is infinitely perfect and infinitely good, worked itself out into
+      its logical consequence&mdash;agnostic theism. Philo will allow of no
+      point of contact between God and a world in which evil exists. For him God
+      has no relation to space or to time, and, as infinite, suffers no
+      predicate beyond that of existence. It is therefore absurd to ascribe to
+      Him mental faculties and affections comparable in the remotest degree to
+      those of men; He is in no way an object of cognition; He is [Greek] and
+      [Greek] <a href="#linknote-33" name="linknoteref-33" id="linknoteref-33"><small>33</small></a>&mdash;without
+      quality and incomprehensible. That is to say the Alexandrian Jew of the
+      first century had anticipated the reasonings of Hamilton and Mansell in
+      the nineteenth, and, for him, God is the Unknowable in the sense in which
+      that term is used by Mr. Herbert Spencer. Moreover, Philo's definition of
+      the Supreme Being would not be inconsistent with that "substantia constans
+      infinitis attributis, quorum unumquodque aeternam et infinitam essentiam
+      exprimit," given by another great Israelite, were it not that Spinoza's
+      doctrine of the immanence of the Deity in the world puts him, at any rate
+      formally, at the antipodes of theological speculation. But the conception
+      of the essential incognoscibility of the Deity is the same in each case.
+      However, Philo was too thorough an Israelite and too much the child of his
+      time to be content with this agnostic position. With the help of the
+      Platonic and Stoic philosophy, he constructed an apprehensible, if not
+      comprehensible, quasi-deity out of the Logos; while other more or less
+      personified divine powers, or attributes, bridged over the interval
+      between God and man; between the sacred existence, too pure to be called
+      by any name which implied a conceivable quality, and the gross and evil
+      world of matter. In order to get over the ethical difficulties presented
+      by the naive naturalism of many parts of those Scriptures, in the divine
+      authority of which he firmly believed, Philo borrowed from the Stoics (who
+      had been in like straits in respect of Greek mythology), that great
+      Excalibur which they had forged with infinite pains and skill&mdash;the
+      method of allegorical interpretation. This mighty "two-handed engine at
+      the door" of the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any and
+      every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken
+      allegorically or, as it is otherwise said, "poetically" or, "in a
+      spiritual sense," the plainest words mean whatever a pious interpreter
+      desires they should mean. In Biblical phrase, Zeno (who probably had a
+      strain of Semitic blood in him) was the "father of all such as reconcile."
+      No doubt Philo and his followers were eminently religious men; but they
+      did endless injury to the cause of religion by laying the foundations of a
+      new theology, while equipping the defenders of it with the subtlest of all
+      weapons of offence and defence, and with an inexhaustible store of
+      sophistical arguments of the most plausible aspect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question of the real bearing upon theology of the influence exerted by
+      the teaching of Philo's contemporary, Jesus of Nazareth, is one upon which
+      it is not germane to my present purpose to enter. I take it simply as an
+      unquestionable fact that his immediate disciples, known to their
+      countrymen as "Nazarenes," were regarded as, and considered themselves to
+      be, perfectly orthodox Jews, belonging to the puritanic or pharisaic
+      section of their people, and differing from the rest only in their belief
+      that the Messiah had already come. Christianity, it is said, first became
+      clearly differentiated at Antioch, and it separated itself from orthodox
+      Judaism by denying the obligation of the rite of circumcision and of the
+      food prohibitions, prescribed by the law. Henceforward theology became
+      relatively stationary among the Jews, <a href="#linknote-34"
+      name="linknoteref-34" id="linknoteref-34"><small>34</small></a> and the
+      history of its rapid progress in a new course of evolution is the history
+      of the Christian Churches, orthodox and heterodox. The steps in this
+      evolution are obvious. The first is the birth of a new theological scheme
+      arising out of the union of elements derived from Greek philosophy with
+      elements derived from Israelitic theology. In the fourth Gospel, the
+      Logos, raised to a somewhat higher degree of personification than in the
+      Alexandrian theosophy, is identified with Jesus of Nazareth. In the
+      Epistles, especially the later of those attributed to Paul, the Israelitic
+      ideas of the Messiah and of sacrificial atonement coalesce with one
+      another and with the embodiment of the Logos in Jesus, until the
+      apotheosis of the Son of man is almost, or quite, effected. The history of
+      Christian dogma, from Justin to Athanasius, is a record of continual
+      progress in the same direction, until the fair body of religion, revealed
+      in almost naked purity by the prophets, is once more hidden under a new
+      accumulation of dogmas and of ritual practices of which the primitive
+      Nazarene knew nothing; and which he would probably have regarded as
+      blasphemous if he could have been made to understand them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As, century after century, the ages roll on, polytheism comes back under
+      the disguise of Mariolatry and the adoration of saints; image-worship
+      becomes as rampant as in old Egypt; adoration of relics takes the place of
+      the old fetish-worship; the virtues of the ephod pale before those of holy
+      coats and handkerchiefs; shrines and calvaries make up for the loss of the
+      ark and of the high places; and even the lustral fluid of paganism is
+      replaced by holy water at the porches of the temples. A touching ceremony&mdash;the
+      common meal originally eaten in pious memory of a loved teacher&mdash;becomes
+      metamorphosed into a flesh-and-blood sacrifice, supposed to possess
+      exactly that redeeming virtue which the prophets denied to the
+      flesh-and-blood sacrifices of their day; while the minute observance of
+      ritual is raised to a degree of punctilious refinement which Levitical
+      legislators might envy. And with the growth of this theology, grew its
+      inevitable concomitant, the belief in evil spirits, in possession, in
+      sorcery, in charms and omens, until the Christians of the twelfth century
+      after our era were sunk in more debased and brutal superstitions than are
+      recorded of the Israelites in the twelfth century before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greatest men of the Middle Ages are unable to escape the infection.
+      Dante's "Inferno" would be revolting if it were not so often sublime, so
+      often exquisitely tender. The hideous pictures which cover a vast space on
+      the south wall of the Campo Santo of Pisa convey information, as terrible
+      as it is indisputable, of the theological conceptions of Dante's
+      countrymen in the fourteenth century, whose eyes were addressed by the
+      painters of those disgusting scenes, and whose approbation they knew how
+      to win. A candid Mexican of the time of Cortez, could he have seen this
+      Christian burial-place, would have taken it for an appropriately adorned
+      Teocalli. The professed disciple of the God of justice and of mercy might
+      there gloat over the sufferings of his fellowmen depicted as undergoing
+      every extremity of atrocious and sanguinary torture to all eternity, for
+      theological errors no less than for moral delinquencies; while, in the
+      central figure of Satan, <a href="#linknote-35" name="linknoteref-35"
+      id="linknoteref-35"><small>35</small></a> occupied in champing up souls in
+      his capacious and well-toothed jaws, to void them again for the purpose of
+      undergoing fresh suffering, we have the counterpart of the strange
+      Polynesian and Egyptian dogma that there were certain gods who employed
+      themselves in devouring the ghostly flesh of the Spirits of the dead. But
+      in justice to the Polynesians, it must be recollected that, after three
+      such operations, they thought the soul was purified and happy. In the view
+      of the Christian theologian the operation was only a preparation for new
+      tortures continued for ever and aye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the growth of civilisation in Europe, and with the revival of letters
+      and of science in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the ethical and
+      intellectual criticism of theology once more recommenced, and arrived at a
+      temporary resting-place in the confessions of the various reformed
+      Protestant sects in the sixteenth century; almost all of which, as soon as
+      they were strong enough, began to persecute those who carried criticism
+      beyond their own limit. But the movement was not arrested by these
+      ecclesiastical barriers, as their constructors fondly imagined it would
+      be; it was continued, tacitly or openly, by Galileo, by Hobbes, by
+      Descartes, and especially by Spinoza, in the seventeenth century; by the
+      English Freethinkers, by Rousseau, by the French Encyclopaedists, and by
+      the German Rationalists, among whom Lessing stands out a head and
+      shoulders taller than the rest, throughout the eighteenth century; by the
+      historians, the philologers, the Biblical critics, the geologists, and the
+      biologists in the nineteenth century, until it is obvious to all who can
+      see that the moral sense and the really scientific method of seeking for
+      truth are once more predominating over false science. Once more ethics and
+      theology are parting company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is my conviction that, with the spread of true scientific culture,
+      whatever may be the medium, historical, philological, philosophical, or
+      physical, through which that culture is conveyed, and with its necessary
+      concomitant, a constant elevation of the standard of veracity, the end of
+      the evolution of theology will be like its beginning&mdash;it will cease
+      to have any relation to ethics. I suppose that, so long as the human mind
+      exists, it will not escape its deep-seated instinct to personify its
+      intellectual conceptions. The science of the present day is as full of
+      this particular form of intellectual shadow-worship as is the nescience of
+      ignorant ages. The difference is that the philosopher who is worthy of the
+      name knows that his personified hypotheses, such as law, and force, and
+      ether, and the like, are merely useful symbols, while the ignorant and the
+      careless take them for adequate expressions of reality. So, it may be,
+      that the majority of mankind may find the practice of morality made easier
+      by the use of theological symbols. And unless these are converted from
+      symbols into idols, I do not see that science has anything to say to the
+      practice, except to give an occasional warning of its dangers. But, when
+      such symbols are dealt with as real existences, I think the highest duty
+      which is laid upon men of science is to show that these dogmatic idols
+      have no greater value than the fabrications of men's hands, the stocks and
+      the stones, which they have replaced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_FOOT" id="link2H_FOOT">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      FOOTNOTES:
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ Even the most sturdy
+      believers in the popular theory that the proper or titular names attached
+      to the books of the Bible are those of their authors will hardly be
+      prepared to maintain that Jephthah, Gideon, and their colleagues wrote the
+      book of Judges. Nor is it easily admissible that Samuel wrote the two
+      books which pass under his name, one of which deals entirely with events
+      which took place after his death. In fact, no one knows who wrote either
+      Judges or Samuel, nor when, within the range of 100 years, their present
+      form was given to these books.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ My citations are taken from
+      the Revised Version, but for Lord and God I have substituted Jahveh and
+      Elohim.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ I need hardly say that I
+      depend upon authoritative Biblical critics, whenever a question of
+      interpretation of the text arises. As Reuss appears to me to be one of the
+      most learned, acute, and fair-minded of those whose works I have studied,
+      I have made most use of the commentary and dissertations in his splendid
+      French edition of the Bible. But I have also had recourse to the works of
+      Dillman, Kalisch, Kuenen, Thenius, Tuch, and others, in cases in which
+      another opinion seemed desirable.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ See "Divination," by
+      Hazoral, <i>Journal of Anthropology,</i> Bombay, vol. i. No. 1.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ See, for example, the
+      message of Jephthah to the King of the Ammonites: "So now Jahveh, the
+      Elohim of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people
+      Israel, and shouldest thou possess them? Wilt not thou possess that which
+      Chemosh, thy Elohim, giveth thee to possess?" (Jud. xi. 23, 24). For
+      Jephthah, Chemosh is obviously as real a personage as Jahveh.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ For example: "My oblation,
+      my food for my offerings made by fire, of a sweet savour to me, shall ye
+      observe to offer unto me in their due season" (Num. xxviii. 2).]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ In 2 Samuel xv. 27 David
+      says to Zadok the priest, "Art thou not a seer?" and Gad is called David's
+      seer.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ This would at first appear
+      to be inconsistent with the use of the word "prophetess" for Deborah. But
+      it does not follow because the writer of Judges applies the name to
+      Deborah that it was used in her day.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ Samuel tells the cook,
+      "Bring the potion which I gave thee, of which I said to thee, Set it by
+      thee." It was therefore Samuel's to give. "And the cook took up the thigh
+      (or shoulder) and that which was upon it and set it before Saul." But, in
+      the Levitical regulations, it is the thigh (or shoulder) which becomes the
+      priest's own property. "And the right thigh (or shoulder) shall ye give
+      unto the priest for an heave-offering," which is given along with the wave
+      breast "unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the
+      children of Israel" (Lev. vii. 31-34). Reuss writes on this passage: "La
+      cuisse n'est point agitee, mais simplement <i>prelevee</i> sur ce que les
+      convives mangeront."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ See, for example,
+      Elkanah's sacrifice, 1 Sam. i. 3-9.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ The ghost was not
+      supposed to be capable of devouring the gross material substance of the
+      offering; but his vaporous body appropriated the smoke of the burnt
+      sacrifice, the visible and odorous exhalations of other offerings. The
+      blood of the victim was particularly useful because it was thought to be
+      the special seat of its soul or life. A West African negro replied to an
+      European sceptic: "Of course, the spirit cannot eat corporeal food, but he
+      extracts its spiritual part, and, as we see, leaves the material part
+      behind" (Lippert, <i>Seelencult,</i> p. 16).]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ It is further well worth
+      consideration whether indications of former ancestor-worship are not to be
+      found in the singular weight attached to the veneration of parents in the
+      fourth commandment. It is the only positive commandment, in addition to
+      those respecting the Deity and that concerning the Sabbath, and the
+      penalties for infringing it were of the same character. In China, a
+      corresponding reverence for parents is part and parcel of
+      ancestor-worship; so in ancient Rome and in Greece (where parents were
+      even called [secondary and earthly]). The fifth commandment, as it stands,
+      would be an excellent compromise between ancestor-worship and monotheism.
+      The larger hereditary share allotted by Israelitic law to the eldest son
+      reminds one of the privileges attached to primogeniture in ancient Rome,
+      which were closely connected with ancestor-worship. There is a good deal
+      to be said in favour of the speculation that the ark of the covenant may
+      have been a relic of ancestor-worship; but that topic is too large to be
+      dealt with incidentally in this place]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-13" id="linknote-13">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      13 (<a href="#linknoteref-13">return</a>)<br /> [ "The Scientific Aspects
+      of Positivism," <i>Fortnightly Review,</i> 1869, republished in <i>Lay
+      Sermons.</i>]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-14" id="linknote-14">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      14 (<a href="#linknoteref-14">return</a>)<br /> [ OEuvres de Bossuet, ed.
+      1808, t. xxxv. p. 282.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-15" id="linknote-15">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      15 (<a href="#linknoteref-15">return</a>)<br /> [ I should like further to
+      add the expression of my indebtedness to two works by Herr Julius Lippert,
+      <i>Der Seelencult in seinen Beziehungen zur alt-hebraischen Religion</i>
+      and <i>Die Religionen der europaischen Culturvolker,</i> both pubished in
+      1881. I have found them full of valuable suggestions.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-16" id="linknote-16">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      16 (<a href="#linknoteref-16">return</a>)<br /> [ See among others the
+      remarkable work of Fustel de Coulanges, <i>La Cite antique,</i> in which
+      the social importance of the old Roman ancestor-worship is brought out
+      with great clearness.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-17" id="linknote-17">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      17 (<a href="#linknoteref-17">return</a>)<br /> [ Supposed to be "the finer
+      or more aeriform part of the body," standing in "the same relation to the
+      body as the perfume and the more essential qualities of a flower do to the
+      more solid substances" (Mariner, vol. ii. p. 127).]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-18" id="linknote-18">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      18 (<a href="#linknoteref-18">return</a>)<br /> [ A kind of "clients" in
+      the Roman sense.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-19" id="linknote-19">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      19 (<a href="#linknoteref-19">return</a>)<br /> [ It is worthy of remark
+      that [Greek] among the Greeks, and <i>Deus</i> among the Romans, had the
+      same wide signification. The <i>dii manes</i> were ghosts of
+      ancestors=Atuas of the family.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-20" id="linknote-20">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      20 (<a href="#linknoteref-20">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Voyages aux iles du
+      Grand Ocean,</i> t. i. p. 482.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-21" id="linknote-21">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      21 (<a href="#linknoteref-21">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Te Ika a Maui: New
+      Zealand and its Inhabitants,</i> p. 72.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-22" id="linknote-22">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      22 (<a href="#linknoteref-22">return</a>)<br /> [ Compare: "And Samuel said
+      unto Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me?" (I Sam. xxviii. l5)]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-23" id="linknote-23">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      23 (<a href="#linknoteref-23">return</a>)<br /> [ Turner, <i>Nineteen Years
+      in Polynesia,</i> p. 238.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-24" id="linknote-24">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      24 (<a href="#linknoteref-24">return</a>)<br /> [ See Lippert's excellent
+      remarks on this subject, <i>Der Seelencult,</i> p. 89.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-25" id="linknote-25">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      25 (<a href="#linknoteref-25">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Sciography</i> has the
+      authority of Cudworth, <i>Intellectual System,</i> vol. ii. p. 836.
+      Sciomancy [Greek], which, in the sense of divination by ghosts, may be
+      found in Bailey's <i>Dictionary</i> (1751: also furnishes a precedent for
+      my coinage.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-26" id="linknote-26">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      26 (<a href="#linknoteref-26">return</a>)<br /> [ "Kami" is used in the
+      sense of Elohim; and is also, like our word "Lord," employed as a title of
+      respect among men, as indeed Elohim was.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-27" id="linknote-27">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      27 (<a href="#linknoteref-27">return</a>)<br /> [ [The Assyrians thus
+      raised Assur to a position of pre-eminence.]]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-28" id="linknote-28">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      28 (<a href="#linknoteref-28">return</a>)<br /> [ I refer those who wish to
+      know the reasons which lead me to take up this position to the works of
+      Reuss and Wellhausen, [and especially to Stade's <i>Geschichte des Volkes
+      Israel.</i>]]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-29" id="linknote-29">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      29 (<a href="#linknoteref-29">return</a>)<br /> [ Bunsen. <i>Egypt's Place,</i>
+      vol. v. p.129, note.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-30" id="linknote-30">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      30 (<a href="#linknoteref-30">return</a>)<br /> [ See Birch, in <i>Egypt's
+      Place,</i> vol. v; and Brugsch, <i>History of Egypt.</i>]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-31" id="linknote-31">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      31 (<a href="#linknoteref-31">return</a>)<br /> [ Even by Graetz, who,
+      though a fair enough historian, cannot be accused of any desire to
+      over-estimate the importance of Egyptian influence upon his people.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-32" id="linknote-32">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      32 (<a href="#linknoteref-32">return</a>)<br /> [ Graetz, <i>Geschichte der
+      Juden,</i> Bd. i. p. 370.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-33" id="linknote-33">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      33 (<a href="#linknoteref-33">return</a>)<br /> [ See the careful analsyis
+      of the work of the Alexandrian philosopher and theologian (who, it should
+      be remembered, was a most devout Jew, held in the highest esteem by his
+      countrymen) in Siegfried's <i>Philo von Alexandrien,</i> 1875. (Also Dr.
+      J. Drummond's <i>Philo Judaeus,</i> 1888.)]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-34" id="linknote-34">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      34 (<a href="#linknoteref-34">return</a>)<br /> [ I am not unaware of the
+      existence of many and widely divergent sects and schools among the Jews at
+      all periods of their history, since the dispersion. But I imagine that
+      orthodox Judaism is now pretty much what it was in Philo's time; while
+      Peter and Paul, if they could return to life, would certainly have to
+      learn the catechism of either the Roman, Greek, or Anglican Churches, if
+      they desired to be considered orthodox Christians.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-35" id="linknote-35">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      35 (<a href="#linknoteref-35">return</a>)<br /> [ Dante's description of
+      Lucifer engaged in the eternal mastication of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas
+      Iscariot&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   "Da ogni bocca dirompea co' denti
+      Un peccatore, a guisa di maciulla,
+      Si che tre ne facea cosė dolenti.
+    A quel dinanzi il mordere era nulla,
+      Verso 'l graffiar, che tal volta la schiena
+      Rimanea della pelle tutta brulla"&mdash;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      is quite in harmony with the Pisan picture and perfectly Polynesian in
+      conception.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of Theology: An
+Anthropological Study, by Thomas Henry Huxley
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of Theology: An
+Anthropological Study, by Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study
+       Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
+Author: Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+Posting Date: December 3, 2008 [EBook #2634]
+Release Date: May, 2001
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D.R. Thompson
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY
+
+ESSAY #8 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION"
+
+
+By Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+
+
+I conceive that the origin, the growth, the decline, and the fall
+of those speculations respecting the existence, the powers, and the
+dispositions of beings analogous to men, but more or less devoid of
+corporeal qualities, which may be broadly included under the head of
+theology, are phenomena the study of which legitimately falls within
+the province of the anthropologist. And it is purely as a question of
+anthropology (a department of biology to which, at various times, I have
+given a good deal of attention) that I propose to treat of the evolution
+of theology in the following pages.
+
+With theology as a code of dogmas which are to be believed, or at any
+rate repeated, under penalty of present or future punishment, or as a
+storehouse of anaesthetics for those who find the pains of life too
+hard to bear, I have nothing to do; and, so far as it may be possible,
+I shall avoid the expression of any opinion as to the objective truth or
+falsehood of the systems of theological speculation of which I may find
+occasion to speak. From my present point of view, theology is regarded
+as a natural product of the operations of the human mind, under the
+conditions of its existence, just as any other branch of science, or
+the arts of architecture, or music, or painting are such products. Like
+them, theology has a history. Like them also, it is to be met with in
+certain simple and rudimentary forms; and these can be connected by a
+multitude of gradations, which exist or have existed, among people of
+various ages and races, with the most highly developed theologies of
+past and present times. It is not my object to interfere, even in the
+slightest degree, with beliefs which anybody holds sacred; or to alter
+the conviction of any one who is of opinion that, in dealing with
+theology, we ought to be guided by considerations different from those
+which would be thought appropriate if the problem lay in the province
+of chemistry or of mineralogy. And if people of these ways of thinking
+choose to read beyond the present paragraph, the responsibility for
+meeting with anything they may dislike rests with them and not with me.
+
+We are all likely to be more familiar with the theological history of
+the Israelites than with that of any other nation. We may therefore
+fitly make it the first object of our studies; and it will be convenient
+to commence with that period which lies between the invasion of Canaan
+and the early days of the monarchy, and answers to the eleventh and
+twelfth centuries B.C. or thereabouts. The evidence on which any
+conclusion as to the nature of Israelitic theology in those days must be
+based is wholly contained in the Hebrew Scriptures--an agglomeration
+of documents which certainly belong to very different ages, but of the
+exact dates and authorship of any one of which (except perhaps a few
+of the prophetical writings) there is no evidence, either internal or
+external, so far as I can discover, of such a nature as to justify more
+than a confession of ignorance, or, at most, an approximate conclusion.
+In this venerable record of ancient life, miscalled a book, when it
+is really a library comparable to a selection of works from English
+literature between the times of Beda and those of Milton, we have the
+stratified deposits (often confused and even with their natural order
+inverted) left by the stream of the intellectual and moral life of
+Israel during many centuries. And, embedded in these strata, there are
+numerous remains of forms of thought which once lived, and which,
+though often unfortunately mere fragments, are of priceless value to
+the anthropologist. Our task is to rescue these from their relatively
+unimportant surroundings, and by careful comparison with existing forms
+of theology to make the dead world which they record live again. In
+other words, our problem is palaeontological, and the method pursued
+must be the same as that employed in dealing with other fossil remains.
+
+Among the richest of the fossiliferous strata to which I have alluded
+are the books of Judges and Samuel. [1] It has often been observed that
+these writings stand out, in marked relief from those which precede and
+follow them, in virtue of a certain archaic freshness and of a greater
+freedom from traces of late interpolation and editorial trimming.
+Jephthah, Gideon and Samson are men of old heroic stamp, who would
+look as much in place in a Norse Saga as where they are; and if the
+varnish-brush of later respectability has passed over these memoirs of
+the mighty men of a wild age, here and there, it has not succeeded in
+effacing, or even in seriously obscuring, the essential characteristics
+of the theology traditionally ascribed to their epoch.
+
+There is nothing that I have met with in the results of Biblical
+criticism inconsistent with the conviction that these books give us a
+fairly trustworthy account of Israelitic life and thought in the times
+which they cover; and, as such, apart from the great literary merit of
+many of their episodes, they possess the interest of being, perhaps, the
+oldest genuine history, as apart from mere chronicles on the one hand
+and mere legends on the other, at present accessible to us.
+
+But it is often said with exultation by writers of one party, and often
+admitted, more or less unwillingly, by their opponents, that these
+books are untrustworthy, by reason of being full of obviously unhistoric
+tales. And, as a notable example, the narrative of Saul's visit to the
+so-called "witch of Endor" is often cited. As I have already intimated,
+I have nothing to do with theological partisanship, either heterodox or
+orthodox, nor, for my present purpose, does it matter very much whether
+the story is historically true, or whether it merely shows what the
+writer believed; but, looking at the matter solely from the point of
+view of an anthropologist, I beg leave to express the opinion that
+the account of Saul's necromantic expedition is quite consistent with
+probability. That is to say, I see no reason whatever to doubt, firstly,
+that Saul made such a visit; and, secondly, that he and all who were
+present, including the wise woman of Endor herself, would have given,
+with entire sincerity, very much the same account of the business as
+that which we now read in the twenty-eighth chapter of the first book of
+Samuel; and I am further of opinion that this story is one of the most
+important of those fossils, to which I have referred, in the material
+which it offers for the reconstruction of the theology of the time. Let
+us therefore study it attentively--not merely as a narrative which, in
+the dramatic force of its gruesome simplicity, is not surpassed, if it
+is equalled, by the witch scenes in Macbeth--but as a piece of evidence
+bearing on an important anthropological problem.
+
+We are told (1 Sam. xxviii.) that Saul, encamped at Gilboa, became
+alarmed by the strength of the Philistine army gathered at Shunem. He
+therefore "inquired of Jahveh," but "Jahveh answered him not, neither
+by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." [2] Thus deserted by Jahveh,
+Saul, in his extremity, bethought him of "those that had familiar
+spirits, and the wizards," whom he is said, at some previous time, to
+have "put out of the land"; but who seem, nevertheless, to have been
+very imperfectly banished, since Saul's servants, in answer to his
+command to seek him a woman "that hath a familiar spirit," reply without
+a sign of hesitation or of fear, "Behold, there is a woman that hath
+a familiar spirit at Endor"; just as, in some parts of England, a
+countryman might tell any one who did not look like a magistrate or a
+policeman, where a "wise woman" was to be met with. Saul goes to this
+woman, who, after being assured of immunity, asks, "Whom shall I bring
+up to thee?" whereupon Saul says, "Bring me up Samuel." The woman
+immediately sees an apparition. But to Saul nothing is visible, for he
+asks, "What seest thou?" And the woman replies, "I see Elohim coming up
+out of the earth." Still the spectre remains invisible to Saul, for he
+asks, "What form is he of?" And she replies, "An old man cometh up,
+and he is covered with a robe." So far, therefore, the wise woman
+unquestionably plays the part of a "medium," and Saul is dependent upon
+her version of what happens.
+
+The account continues:--
+
+   And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with
+   his face to the ground and did obeisance. And Samuel said to
+   Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul
+   answered, I am sore distressed: for the Philistines make war
+   against me, and Elohim is departed from me and answereth me no
+   more, neither by prophets nor by dreams; therefore I have called
+   thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
+   And Samuel said, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing that
+   Jahveh is departed from thee and is become thine adversary?
+   And Jahveh hath wrought for himself, as he spake by me, and
+   Jahveh hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to
+   thy neighbour, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the
+   voice of Jahveh and didst not execute his fierce wrath upon
+   Amalek, therefore hath Jahveh done this thing unto thee this
+   day. Moreover, Jahveh will deliver Israel also with thee into
+   the hands of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy
+   sons be with me: Jahveh shall deliver the host of Israel also
+   into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway his
+   full length upon the earth and was sore afraid because of the
+   words of Samuel... (v. 14-20).
+
+The statement that Saul "perceived" that it was Samuel is not to be
+taken to imply that, even now, Saul actually saw the shade of the
+prophet, but only that the woman's allusion to the prophetic mantle and
+to the aged appearance of the spectre convinced him that it was Samuel.
+Reuss [3] in fact translates the passage "Alors Saul reconnut que
+c'etait Samuel." Nor does the dialogue between Saul and Samuel
+necessarily, or probably, signify that Samuel spoke otherwise than by
+the voice of the wise woman. The Septuagint does not hesitate to call
+her [Greek], that is to say, a ventriloquist, implying that it was she
+who spoke--and this view of the matter is in harmony with the fact that
+the exact sense of the Hebrew words which are translated as "a woman
+that hath a familiar spirit" is "a woman mistress of _Ob._" _Ob_ means
+primitively a leather bottle, such as a wine skin, and is applied alike
+to the necromancer and to the spirit evoked. Its use, in these senses,
+appears to have been suggested by the likeness of the hollow sound
+emitted by a half-empty skin when struck, to the sepulchral tones in
+which the oracles of the evoked spirits were uttered by the medium.
+It is most probable that, in accordance with the general theory of
+spiritual influences which obtained among the old Israelites, the spirit
+of Samuel was conceived to pass into the body of the wise woman, and
+to use her vocal organs to speak in his own name--for I cannot discover
+that they drew any clear distinction between possession and inspiration.
+[4]
+
+If the story of Saul's consultation of the occult powers is to be
+regarded as an authentic narrative, or, at any rate, as a statement
+which is perfectly veracious so far as the intention of the narrator
+goes--and, as I have said, I see no reason for refusing it this
+character--it will be found, on further consideration, to throw a
+flood of light, both directly and indirectly, on the theology of Saul's
+countrymen--that is to say, upon their beliefs respecting the nature and
+ways of spiritual beings.
+
+Even without the confirmation of other abundant evidences to the same
+effect, it leaves no doubt as to the existence, among them, of the
+fundamental doctrine that man consists of a body and of a spirit, which
+last, after the death of the body, continues to exist as a ghost. At the
+time of Saul's visit to Endor, Samuel was dead and buried; but that his
+spirit would be believed to continue to exist in Sheol may be concluded
+from the well-known passage in the song attributed to Hannah, his
+mother:--
+
+     Jahveh killeth and maketh alive;
+     He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up.
+                                  (1 Sam. ii. 6.)
+
+And it is obvious that this Sheol was thought to be a place underground
+in which Samuel's spirit had been disturbed by the necromancer's
+summons, and in which, after his return thither, he would be joined by
+the spirits of Saul and his sons when they had met with their bodily
+death on the hill of Gilboa. It is further to be observed that the
+spirit, or ghost, of the dead man presents itself as the image of
+the man himself--it is the man, not merely in his ordinary corporeal
+presentment (even down to the prophet's mantle) but in his moral and
+intellectual characteristics. Samuel, who had begun as Saul's friend and
+ended as his bitter enemy, gives it to be understood that he is annoyed
+at Saul's presumption in disturbing him; and that, in Sheol, he is as
+much the devoted servant of Jahveh and as much empowered to speak in
+Jahveh's name as he was during his sojourn in the upper air.
+
+It appears now to be universally admitted that, before the exile, the
+Israelites had no belief in rewards and punishments after death, nor in
+anything similar to the Christian heaven and hell; but our story proves
+that it would be an error to suppose that they did not believe in the
+continuance of individual existence after death by a ghostly simulacrum
+of life. Nay, I think it would be very hard to produce conclusive
+evidence that they disbelieved in immortality; for I am not aware that
+there is anything to show that they thought the existence of the souls
+of the dead in Sheol ever came to an end. But they do not seem to
+have conceived that the condition of the souls in Sheol was in any way
+affected by their conduct in life. If there was immortality, there was
+no state of retribution in their theology. Samuel expects Saul and his
+sons to come to him in Sheol.
+
+The next circumstance to be remarked is that the name of _Elohim_ is
+applied to the spirit which the woman sees "coming up out of the earth,"
+that is to say, from Sheol. The Authorised Version translates this in
+its literal sense "gods." The Revised Version gives "god" with "gods"
+in the margin. Reuss renders the word by "spectre," remarking in a
+note that it is not quite exact; but that the word Elohim expresses
+"something divine, that is to say, superhuman, commanding respect and
+terror" ("Histoire des Israelites," p. 321). Tuch, in his commentary on
+Genesis, and Thenius, in his commentary on Samuel, express substantially
+the same opinion. Dr. Alexander (in Kitto's "Cyclopaedia" s. v. "God")
+has the following instructive remarks:--
+
+   [_Elohim_ is] sometimes used vaguely to describe unseen
+   powers or superhuman beings that are not properly thought of as
+   divine. Thus the witch of Endor saw "Elohim ascending out of the
+   earth" (1 Sam. xxviii. 13), meaning thereby some beings of an
+   unearthly, superhuman character. So also in Zechariah xii. 8, it
+   is said "the house of David shall be as Elohim, as the angel of
+   the Lord," where, as the transition from Elohim to the angel of
+   the Lord is a minori ad majus, we must regard the former as a
+   vague designation of supernatural powers.
+
+Dr. Alexander speaks here of "beings"; but there is no reason to
+suppose that the wise woman of Endor referred to anything but a solitary
+spectre; and it is quite clear that Saul understood her in this sense,
+for he asks "What form is HE of?"
+
+This fact, that the name of Elohim is applied to a ghost, or disembodied
+soul, conceived as the image of the body in which it once dwelt, is
+of no little importance. For it is well known that the same term was
+employed to denote the gods of the heathen, who were thought to have
+definite quasi-corporeal forms and to be as much real entities as any
+other Elohim. [5] The difference which was supposed to exist between
+the different Elohim was one of degree, not one of kind. Elohim was, in
+logical terminology, the genus of which ghosts, Chemosh, Dagon,
+Baal, and Jahveh were species. The Israelite believed Jahveh to be
+immeasurably superior to all other kinds of Elohim. The inscription
+on the Moabite stone shows that King Mesa held Chemosh to be, as
+unquestionably, the superior of Jahveh. But if Jahveh was thus
+supposed to differ only in degree from the undoubtedly zoomorphic or
+anthropomorphic "gods of the nations," why is it to be assumed that
+he also was not thought of as having a human shape? It is possible for
+those who forget that the time of the great prophetic writers is at
+least as remote from that of Saul as our day is from that of Queen
+Elizabeth, to insist upon interpreting the gross notions current in the
+earlier age and among the mass of the people by the refined conceptions
+promulgated by a few select spirits centuries later. But if we take the
+language constantly used concerning the Deity in the books of Genesis,
+Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, or Kings, in its natural sense (and I am
+aware of no valid reason which can be given for taking it in any other
+sense), there cannot, to my mind, be a doubt that Jahveh was conceived
+by those from whom the substance of these books is mainly derived, to
+possess the appearance and the intellectual and moral attributes of a
+man; and, indeed, of a man of just that type with which the Israelites
+were familiar in their stronger and intellectually abler rulers and
+leaders. In a well-known passage in Genesis (i. 27) Elohim is said to
+have "created man in his own image, in the image of Elohim created he
+him." It is "man" who is here said to be the image of Elohim--not man's
+soul alone, still less his "reason," but the whole man. It is obvious
+that for those who call a manlike ghost Elohim, there could be no
+difficulty in conceiving any other Elohim under the same aspect. And if
+there could be any doubt on this subject, surely it cannot stand in the
+face of what we find in the fifth chapter, where, immediately after a
+repetition of the statement that "Elohim created man, in the likeness
+of Elohim made he him," it is said that Adam begat Seth "in his own
+likeness, after his image." Does this mean that Seth resembled Adam only
+in a spiritual and figurative sense? And if that interpretation of
+the third verse of the fifth chapter of Genesis is absurd, why does it
+become reasonable in the first verse of the same chapter?
+
+But let us go further. Is not the Jahveh who "walks in the garden in
+the cool of the day"; from whom one may hope to "hide oneself among the
+trees"; of whom it is expressly said that "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and
+Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel," saw the Elohim of Israel
+(Exod. xxiv. 9-11); and that, although the seeing Jahveh was understood
+to be a high crime and misdemeanour, worthy of death, under ordinary
+circumstances, yet, for this once, he "laid not his hand on the nobles
+of Israel"; "that they beheld Elohim and did eat and drink"; and that
+afterwards Moses saw his back (Exod. xxxiii. 23)--is not this Deity
+conceived as manlike in form? Again, is not the Jahveh who eats with
+Abraham under the oaks at Mamre, who is pleased with the "sweet savour"
+of Noah's sacrifice, to whom sacrifices are said to be "food" [6]--is
+not this Deity depicted as possessed of human appetites? If this were
+not the current Israelitish idea of Jahveh even in the eighth century
+B.C., where is the point of Isaiah's scathing admonitions to his
+countrymen: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto
+me? saith Jahveh: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat
+of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs,
+or of he-goats" (Isa. i. 11). Or of Micah's inquiry, "Will Jahveh be
+pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?"
+(vi. 7.) And in the innumerable passages in which Jahveh is said to be
+jealous of other gods, to be angry, to be appeased, and to repent; in
+which he is represented as casting off Saul because the king does not
+quite literally execute a command of the most ruthless severity; or as
+smiting Uzzah to death because the unfortunate man thoughtlessly, but
+naturally enough, put out his hand to stay the ark from falling--can any
+one deny that the old Israelites conceived Jahveh not only in the image
+of a man, but in that of a changeable, irritable, and, occasionally,
+violent man? There appears to me, then, to be no reason to doubt that
+the notion of likeness to man, which was indubitably held of the ghost
+Elohim, was carried out consistently throughout the whole series of
+Elohim, and that Jahveh-Elohim was thought of as a being of the same
+substantially human nature as the rest, only immeasurably more powerful
+for good and for evil.
+
+The absence of any real distinction between the Elohim of different
+ranks is further clearly illustrated by the corresponding absence of any
+sharp delimitation between the various kinds of people who serve as the
+media of communication between them and men. The agents through whom
+the lower Elohim are consulted are called necromancers, wizards, and
+diviners, and are looked down upon by the prophets and priests of the
+higher Elohim; but the "seer" [7] connects the two, and they are all
+alike in their essential characters of media. The wise woman of Endor
+was believed by others, and, I have little doubt, believed herself, to
+be able to "bring up" whom she would from Sheol, and to be inspired,
+whether in virtue of actual possession by the evoked Elohim, or
+otherwise, with a knowledge of hidden things, I am unable to see that
+Saul's servant took any really different view of Samuel's powers, though
+he may have believed that he obtained them by the grace of the higher
+Elohim. For when Saul fails to find his father's asses, his servant says
+to him--
+
+   Behold, there is in this city a man of Elohim, and he is a man
+   that is held in honour; all that he saith cometh surely to pass;
+   now let us go thither; peradventure, he can tell us concerning
+   our journey whereon we go. Then said Saul to his servant, But
+   behold if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is
+   spent in our vessels and there is not a present to bring to the
+   man of Elohim. What have we? And the servant answered Saul again
+   and said, Behold I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel
+   of silver: that will I give to the man of Elohim to tell us our
+   way. (Beforetime in Israel when a man went to inquire of Elohim,
+   then he said, Come and let us go to the Seer: for he that is now
+   called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer [8])
+   (1 Sam. ix. 6-10).
+
+In fact, when, shortly afterwards, Saul accidentally meets Samuel, he
+says, "Tell me, I pray thee, where the Seer's house is." Samuel answers,
+"I am the Seer." Immediately afterwards Samuel informs Saul that the
+asses are found, though how he obtained his knowledge of the fact is not
+stated. It will be observed that Samuel is not spoken of here as, in
+any special sense, a seer or prophet of Jahveh, but as a "man of
+Elohim"--that is to say, a seer having access to the "spiritual powers,"
+just as the wise woman of Endor might have been said to be a "woman
+of Elohim"--and the narrator's or editor's explanatory note seems to
+indicate that "Prophet" is merely a name, introduced later than the time
+of Samuel, for a superior kind of "Seer," or "man of Elohim." [9]
+
+Another very instructive passage shows that Samuel was not only
+considered to be diviner, seer, and prophet in one, but that he was
+also, to all intents and purposes, priest of Jahveh--though, according
+to his biographer, he was not a member of the tribe of Levi. At the
+outset of their acquaintance, Samuel says to Saul, "Go up before me into
+the high place," where, as the young maidens of the city had just before
+told Saul, the Seer was going, "for the people will not eat till he
+come, because he doth bless the sacrifice" (1 Sam. x. 12). The use of
+the word "bless" here--as if Samuel were not going to sacrifice, but
+only to offer a blessing or thanksgiving--is curious. But that Samuel
+really acted as priest seems plain from what follows. For he not only
+asks Saul to share in the customary sacrificial feast, but he disposes
+in Saul's favour of that portion of the victim which the Levitical
+legislation, doubtless embodying old customs, recognises as the priest's
+special property. [10]
+
+Although particular persons adopted the profession of media between men
+and Elohim, there was no limitation of the power, in the view of ancient
+Israel, to any special class of the population. Saul inquires of Jahveh
+and builds him altars on his own account; and in the very remarkable
+story told in the fourteenth chapter of the first book of Samuel
+(v. 37-46), Saul appears to conduct the whole process of divination,
+although he has a priest at his elbow. David seems to do the same.
+
+Moreover, Elohim constantly appear in dreams--which in old Israel did
+not mean that, as we should say, the subject of the appearance "dreamed
+he saw the spirit"; but that he veritably saw the Elohim which, as a
+soul, visited his soul while his body was asleep. And, in the course
+of the history of Israel Jahveh himself thus appears to all sorts
+of persons, non-Israelites as well as Israelites. Again, the Elohim
+possess, or inspire, people against their will, as in the case of Saul
+and Saul's messengers, and then these people prophesy--that is to say,
+"rave"--and exhibit the ungoverned gestures attributed by a later age to
+possession by malignant spirits. Apart from other evidence to be adduced
+by and by, the history of ancient demonology and of modern revivalism
+does not permit me to doubt that the accounts of these phenomena given
+in the history of Saul may be perfectly historical.
+
+In the ritual practices, of which evidence is to be found in the books
+of Judges and Samuel, the chief part is played by sacrifices, usually
+burnt offerings. Whenever the aid of the Elohim of Israel is sought, or
+thanks are considered due to him, an altar is built, and oxen, sheep,
+and goats are slaughtered and offered up. Sometimes the entire victim
+is burnt as a holocaust; more frequently only certain parts, notably
+the fat about the kidneys, are burnt on the altar. The rest is properly
+cooked; and, after the reservation of a part for the priest, is made the
+foundation of a joyous banquet, in which the sacrificer, his family,
+and such guests as he thinks fit to invite, participate. [11] Elohim was
+supposed to share in the feast, and it has been already shown that that
+which was set apart on the altar, or consumed by fire, was spoken of as
+the food of Elohim, who was thought to be influenced by the costliness,
+or by the pleasant smell, of the sacrifice in favour of the sacrificer.
+
+All this bears out the view that, in the mind of the old Israelite,
+there was no difference, save one of degree, between one Elohim and
+another. It is true that there is but little direct evidence to show
+that the old Israelites shared the widespread belief of their own, and
+indeed of all times, that the spirits of the dead not only continue to
+exist, but are capable of a ghostly kind of feeding and are grateful for
+such aliment as can be assimilated by their attenuated substance, and
+even for clothes, ornaments, and weapons. [12] That they were familiar
+with this doctrine in the time of the captivity is suggested by the
+well-known reference of Ezekiel (xxxii. 27) to the "mighty that are
+fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to [Sheol] hell with
+their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads."
+Perhaps there is a still earlier allusion in the "giving of food for the
+dead" spoken of in Deuteronomy (xxvi. 14). [13]
+
+It must be remembered that the literature of the old Israelites, as
+it lies before us, has been subjected to the revisal of strictly
+monotheistic editors, violently opposed to all kinds of idolatry, who
+are not likely to have selected from the materials at their disposal any
+obvious evidence, either of the practice under discussion, or of that
+ancestor-worship which is so closely related to it, for preservation in
+the permanent records of their people.
+
+The mysterious objects known as _Teraphim,_ which are occasionally
+mentioned in Judges, Samuel, and elsewhere, however, can hardly be
+interpreted otherwise than as indications of the existence both of
+ancestor-worship and of image-worship in old Israel. The teraphim
+were certainly images of family gods, and, as such, in all probability
+represented deceased ancestors. Laban indignantly demands of his
+son-in-law, "Wherefore hast thou stolen my Elohim?" which Rachel, who
+must be assumed to have worshipped Jacob's God, Jahveh, had carried off,
+obviously because she, like her father, believed in their divinity. It
+is not suggested that Jacob was in any way scandalised by the idolatrous
+practices of his favourite wife, whatever he may have thought of her
+honesty when the truth came to light; for the teraphim seem to have
+remained in his camp, at least until he "hid" his strange gods "under
+the oak that was by Shechem" (Gen. xxxv. 4). And indeed it is open
+to question if he got rid of them then, for the subsequent history of
+Israel renders it more than doubtful whether the teraphim were regarded
+as "strange gods" even as late as the eighth century B.C.
+
+The writer of the books of Samuel takes it quite as a matter of course
+that Michal, daughter of one royal Jahveh worshipper and wife of the
+servant of Jahveh _par excellence,_ the pious David, should have her
+teraphim handy, in her and David's chamber, when she dresses them up in
+their bed into a simulation of her husband, for the purpose of deceiving
+her father's messengers. Even one of the early prophets, Hosea, when
+he threatens that the children of Israel shall abide many days without
+"ephod or teraphim" (iii. 4), appears to regard both as equally proper
+appurtenances of the suspended worship of Jahveh, and equally certain
+to be restored when that is resumed. When we further take into
+consideration that only in the reign of Hezekiah was the brazen serpent,
+preserved in the temple and believed to be the work of Moses, destroyed,
+and the practice of offering incense to it, that is, worshipping it,
+abolished--that Jeroboam could set up "calves of gold" for Israel to
+worship, with apparently none but a political object, and certainly with
+no notion of creating a schism among the worshippers of Jahveh, or of
+repelling the men of Judah from his standard--it seems obvious, either
+that the Israelites of the tenth and eleventh centuries B.C. knew not
+the second commandment, or that they construed it merely as part of the
+prohibition to worship any supreme god other than Jahveh, which precedes
+it.
+
+In seeking for information about the teraphim, I lighted upon the
+following passage in the valuable article on that subject by Archdeacon
+Farrar, in Ritto's "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature," which is
+so much to the purpose of my argument, that I venture to quote it in
+full:--
+
+   The main and certain results of this review are that the
+   teraphim were rude human images; that the use of them was an
+   antique Aramaic custom; that there is reason to suppose them to
+   have been images of deceased ancestors; that they were consulted
+   oracularly; that they were not confined to Jews; that their use
+   continued down to the latest period of Jewish history;
+   and lastly, that although the enlightened prophets and strictest
+   later kings regarded them as idolatrous, the priests were much
+   less averse to such images, and their cult was not considered in
+   any way repugnant to the pious worship of Elohim, nay, even to
+   the worship of him "under the awful title of Jehovah." In fact,
+   they involved _a monotheistic idolatry very different indeed
+   from polytheism;_ and the tolerance of them by priests, as
+   compared with the denunciation of them by the prophets, offers a
+   close analogy to the views of the Roman Catholics respecting
+   pictures and images as compared with the views of Protestants.
+   It was against this use of idolatrous symbols and emblems in a
+   monotheistic worship that the _second_ commandment was
+   directed, whereas the first is aimed against the graver sin of
+   direct polytheism. But the whole history of Israel shows how
+   utterly and how early the law must have fallen into desuetude.
+   The worship of the golden calf and of the calves at Dan and
+   Bethel, against which, so far as we know, neither Elijah nor
+   Elisha said a single word; the tolerance of high places,
+   teraphim and betylia; the offering of incense for centuries to
+   the brazen serpent destroyed by Hezekiah; the occasional
+   glimpses of the most startling irregularities sanctioned
+   apparently even in the temple worship itself, prove most
+   decisively that a pure monotheism and an independence of symbols
+   was the result of a slow and painful course of God's disciplinal
+   dealings among the noblest thinkers of a single nation, and not,
+   as is so constantly and erroneously urged, the instinct of the
+   whole Semitic race; in other words, one single branch of the
+   Semites was under God's providence _educated_ into pure
+   monotheism only by centuries of misfortune and series of
+   inspired men (vol. iii. p. 986).
+
+It appears to me that the researches of the anthropologist lead him to
+conclusions identical in substance, if not in terms, with those here
+enunciated as the result of a careful study of the same subject from a
+totally different point of view.
+
+There is abundant evidence in the books of Samuel and elsewhere that
+an article of dress termed an _ephod_ was supposed to have a peculiar
+efficacy in enabling the wearer to exercise divination by means of
+Jahveh-Elohim. Great and long continued have been the disputes as to the
+exact nature of the ephod--whether it always means something to wear, or
+whether it sometimes means an image. But the probabilities are that
+it usually signifies a kind of waistcoat or broad zone, with
+shoulder-straps, which the person who "inquired of Jahveh" put on. In
+1 Samuel xxiii. 2 David appears to have inquired without an ephod, for
+Abiathar the priest is said to have "come down with an ephod in his
+hand" only subsequently. And then David asks for it before inquiring of
+Jahveh whether the men of Keilah would betray him or not. David's action
+is obviously divination pure and simple; and it is curious that he seems
+to have worn the ephod himself and not to have employed Abiathar as a
+medium. How the answer was given is not clear though the probability is
+that it was obtained by casting lots. The _Urim_ and _Thummim_ seem to
+have been two such lots of a peculiarly sacred character, which were
+carried in the pocket of the high priest's "breastplate." This last was
+worn along with the ephod.
+
+With the exception of one passage (1 Sam. xiv. 18) the ark is ignored in
+the history of Saul. But in this place the Septuagint reads "ephod" for
+ark, while in 1 Chronicles xiii. 3 David says that "we sought not unto
+it [the ark] in the days of Saul." Nor does Samuel seem to have paid
+any regard to the ark after its return from Philistia; though, in his
+childhood, he is said to have slept in "the temple of Jahveh, where the
+ark of Elohim was" (1 Sam. iii. 3), at Shiloh and there to have been the
+seer of the earliest apparitions vouchsafed to him by Jahveh. The
+space between the cherubim or winged images on the canopy or cover
+(_Kapporeth_) of this holy chest was held to be the special seat of
+Jahveh--the place selected for a temporary residence of the Supreme
+Elohim who had, after Aaron and Phineas, Eli and his sons for priests
+and seers. And, when the ark was carried to the camp at Eben-ezer, there
+can be no doubt that the Israelites, no less than the Philistines, held
+that "Elohim is come into the camp" (iv. 7), and that the one, as much
+as the other, conceived that the Israelites had summoned to their aid
+a powerful ally in "these (or this) mighty Elohim"--elsewhere called
+Jahve-Sabaoth, the Jahveh of Hosts. If the "temple" at Shiloh was
+the pentateuchal tabernacle, as is suggested by the name of "tent of
+meeting" given to it in 1 Samuel ii. 22, it was essentially a large
+tent, though constituted of very expensive and ornate materials; if, on
+the other hand, it was a different edifice, there can be little doubt
+that this "house of Jahveh" was built on the model of an ordinary house
+of the time. But there is not the slightest evidence that, during the
+reign of Saul, any greater importance attached to this seat of the cult
+of Jahveh than to others. Sanctuaries, and "high places" for sacrifice,
+were scattered all over the country from Dan to Beersheba. And, as
+Samuel is said to have gone up to one of these high places to bless the
+sacrifice, it may be taken for tolerably certain that he knew nothing of
+the Levitical laws which severely condemn the high places and those who
+sacrifice away from the sanctuary hallowed by the presence of the ark.
+
+There is no evidence that, during the time of the Judges and of Samuel,
+any one occupied the position of the high priest of later days. And
+persons who were neither priests nor Levites sacrificed and divined or
+"inquired of Jahveh," when they pleased and where they pleased, without
+the least indication that they, or any one else in Israel at that
+time, knew they were doing wrong. There is no allusion to any special
+observance of the Sabbath; and the references to circumcision are
+indirect.
+
+Such are the chief articles of the theological creed of the old
+Israelites, which are made known to us by the direct evidence of the
+ancient record to which we have had recourse, and they are as remarkable
+for that which they contain as for that which is absent from them.
+They reveal a firm conviction that, when death takes place, a something
+termed a soul or spirit leaves the body and continues to exist in Sheol
+for a period of indefinite duration, even though there is no proof of
+any belief in absolute immortality; that such spirits can return to
+earth to possess and inspire the living; that they are, in appearance
+and in disposition, likenesses of the men to whom they belonged, but
+that, as spirits, they have larger powers and are freer from physical
+limitations; that they thus form a group among a number of kinds of
+spiritual existences known as Elohim, of whom Jahveh, the national
+God of Israel, is one; that, consistently with this view, Jahveh was
+conceived as a sort of spirit, human in aspect and in senses, and with
+many human passions, but with immensely greater intelligence and power
+than any other Elohim, whether human or divine. Further, the evidence
+proves that this belief was the basis of the Jahveh-worship to which
+Samuel and his followers were devoted; that there is strong reason for
+believing, and none for doubting, that idolatry, in the shape of the
+worship of the family gods or teraphim, was practised by sincere and
+devout Jahveh-worshippers; that the ark, with its protective tent or
+tabernacle, was regarded as a specially, but by no means exclusively,
+favoured sanctuary of Jahveh; that the ephod appears to have had a
+particular value for those who desired to divine by the help of Jahveh;
+and that divination by lots was practised before Jahveh. On the other
+hand, there is not the slightest evidence of any belief in retribution
+after death, but the contrary; ritual obligations have at least as
+strong sanction as moral; there are clear indications that some of
+the most stringent of the Levitical laws were unknown even to Samuel;
+priests often appear to be superseded by laymen, even in the performance
+of sacrifices and divination; and no line of demarcation can be drawn
+between necromancer, wizard, seer, prophet, and priest, each of whom is
+regarded, like all the rest, as a medium of communication between the
+world of Elohim and that of living men.
+
+The theological system thus defined offers to the anthropologist no
+feature which is devoid of a parallel in the known theologies of other
+races of mankind, even of those who inhabit parts of the world most
+remote from Palestine. And the foundation of the whole, the ghost
+theory, is exactly that theological speculation which is the most widely
+spread of all, and the most deeply rooted among uncivilised men. I am
+able to base this statement, to some extent, on facts within my own
+knowledge. In December 1848, H.M.S. _Rattlesnake,_ the ship to which
+I then belonged, was anchored off Mount Ernest, an island in Torres
+Straits. The people were few and well disposed; and, when a friend of
+mine (whom I will call B.) and I went ashore, we made acquaintance
+with an old native, Paouda by name. In course of time we became quite
+intimate with the old gentleman, partly by the rendering of mutual good
+offices, but chiefly because Paouda believed he had discovered that B.
+was his father-in-law. And his grounds for this singular conviction were
+very remarkable. We had made a long stay at Cape York hard by; and, in
+accordance with a theory which is widely spread among the Australians,
+that white men are the reincarnated spirits of black men, B. was held to
+be the ghost, or _narki,_ of a certain Mount Ernest native, one Antarki,
+who had lately died, on the ground of some real or fancied resemblance
+to the latter. Now Paouda had taken to wife a daughter of Antarki's,
+named Domani, and as soon as B. informed him that he was the ghost of
+Antarki, Paouda at once admitted the relationship and acted upon it.
+For, as all the women on the island had hidden away in fear of the ship,
+and we were anxious to see what they were like, B. pleaded pathetically
+with Paouda that it would be very unkind not to let him see his daughter
+and grandchildren. After a good deal of hesitation and the exaction of
+pledges of deep secrecy, Paouda consented to take B., and myself as B.'s
+friend, to see Domani and the three daughters, by whom B. was received
+quite as one of the family, while I was courteously welcomed on his
+account.
+
+This scene made an impression upon me which is not yet effaced. It left
+no question on my mind of the sincerity of the strange ghost theory
+of these savages, and of the influence which their belief has on their
+practical life. I had it in my mind, as well as many a like result
+of subsequent anthropological studies, when, in 1869, [14] I wrote as
+follows:--
+
+   There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word,
+   but none without ghosts. And the Fetishism, Ancestor-worship,
+   Hero-worship, and Demonology of primitive savages are all, I
+   believe, different manners of expression of their belief in
+   ghosts, and of the anthropomorphic interpretation of out-of-the-
+   way events which is its concomitant. Witchcraft and sorcery are
+   the practical expressions of these beliefs; and they stand in
+   the same relation to religious worship as the simple
+   anthropomorphism of children or savages does to theology.
+
+I do not quote myself with any intention of making a claim to
+originality in putting forth this view; for I have since discovered that
+the same conception is virtually contained in the great "Discours sur
+l'Histoire Universelle" of Bossuet, now more than two centuries old:
+[15]--
+
+   Le culte des hommes morta faisoit presque tout le fond de
+   l'idolatrie; presque tous les hommes sacrificient aux manes,
+   c'est-a-dire aux ames des morts. De si anciennes erreurs nous
+   font voir a la verite combien etoit ancienne la croyance de
+   l'immortalite de l'ame, et nous montrent qu'elle doit etre
+   rangee parmi les premieres traditions du genre humain.
+   Mais l'homme, qui gatoit tout, en avoit etrangement abuse,
+   puisqu'elle le portoit a sacrificer aux morts. On alloit meme
+   jusqu'a cet exces, de leur sacrifier des hommes vivans; ou tuoit
+   leurs esclaves, et meme leurs femmes, pour les aller servir dans
+   l'autre monde.
+
+Among more modern writers J. G. Muller, in his excellent "Geschichte
+der amerikanischen Urreligionen" (1855), clearly recognises
+"gespensterhafter Geisterglaube" as the foundation of all savage
+and semi-civilised theology, and I need do no more than mention the
+important developments of the same view which are to be found in Mr.
+Tylor's "Primitive Culture," and in the writings of Mr. Herbert Spencer,
+especially his recently-published "Ecclesiastical Institutions." [16]
+
+It is a matter of fact that, whether we direct our attention to
+the older conditions of civilised societies, in Japan, in China, in
+Hindostan, in Greece, or in Rome, [17] we find, underlying all
+other theological notions, the belief in ghosts, with its inevitable
+concomitant sorcery; and a primitive cult, in the shape of a worship of
+ancestors, which is essentially an attempt to please, or appease their
+ghosts. The same thing is true of old Mexico and Peru, and of all the
+semi-civilised or savage peoples who have developed a definite cult; and
+in those who, like the natives of Australia, have not even a cult, the
+belief in, and fear of, ghosts is as strong as anywhere else. The most
+clearly demonstrable article of the theology of the Israelites in the
+eleventh and twelfth centuries B.C. is therefore simply the article
+which is to be found in all primitive theologies, namely, the belief
+that a man has a soul which continues to exist after death for a longer
+or shorter time, and may return, as a ghost, with a divine, or at least
+demonic, character, to influence for good or evil (and usually for
+evil) the affairs of the living. But the correspondence between the old
+Israelitic and other archaic forms of theology extends to details. If,
+in order to avoid all chance of direct communication, we direct
+our attention to the theology of semi-civilised people, such as the
+Polynesian Islanders, separated by the greatest possible distance,
+and by every conceivable physical barrier, from the inhabitants of
+Palestine, we shall find not merely that all the features of old
+Israelitic theology, which are revealed in the records cited, are found
+among them; but that extant information as to the inner mind of these
+people tends to remove many of the difficulties which those who have not
+studied anthropology find in the Hebrew narrative.
+
+One of the best sources, if not the best source, of information on these
+topics is Mariner's _Tonga Islands,_ which tells us of the condition of
+Cook's "Friendly Islanders" eighty years ago, before European influence
+was sensibly felt among them. Mariner, a youth of fair education and of
+no inconsiderable natural ability (as the work which was drawn up from
+the materials he furnished shows), was about fifteen years of age when
+his ship was attacked and plundered by the Tongans: he remained four
+years in the islands, familiarised himself with the language, lived the
+life of the people, became intimate with many of them, and had every
+opportunity of acquainting himself with their opinions, as well as with
+their habits and customs. He seems to have been devoid of prejudices,
+theological or other, and the impression of strict accuracy which his
+statements convey has been justified by all the knowledge of Polynesian
+life which has been subsequently acquired.
+
+It is desirable, therefore, to pay close attention to that which Mariner
+tells us about the theological views of these people: [18]--
+
+   The human soul, after its separation from the body, is
+   termed a _hotooa_ (a god or spirit), and is believed to
+   exist in the shape of the body; to have the same propensities as
+   during life, but to be corrected by a more enlightened
+   understanding, by which it readily distinguishes good from evil,
+   truth from falsehood, right from wrong; having the same
+   attributes as the original gods, but in a minor degree, and
+   having its dwelling for ever in the happy regions of Bolotoo,
+   holding the same rank in regard to other souls as during this
+   life; it has, however, the power of returning to Tonga to
+   inspire priests, relations, or others, or to appear in dreams to
+   those it wishes to admonish; and sometimes to the external eye
+   in the form of a ghost or apparition; but this power of
+   reappearance at Tonga particularly belongs to the souls of
+   chiefs rather than of matabooles. (vol. ii. p. 130).
+
+The word "hotooa" is the same as that which is usually spelt "atua"
+by Polynesian philologues, and it will be convenient to adopt this
+spelling. Now under this head of "_Atuas_ or supernatural intelligent
+beings" the Tongans include:--
+
+"1. The original gods. 2. The souls of nobles that have all attributes
+in common with the first but inferior in degree. 3. The souls of
+matabooles [19] that are still inferior, and have not the power as the
+two first have of coming back to Tonga to inspire the priest, though
+they are supposed to have the power of appearing to their relatives.
+4. The original attendants or servants, as it were, of the gods, who,
+although they had their origin and have ever since existed in Bolotoo,
+are still inferior to the third class. 5. The _Atua pow_ or mischievous
+gods. 6. _Mooi,_ or the god that supports the earth and does not belong
+to Bolotoo (vol. ii. pp. 103, 104)."
+
+From this it appears that the "Atuas" of the Polynesian are exactly
+equivalent to the "Elohim" of the old Israelite. [20] They comprise
+everything spiritual, from a ghost to a god, and from "the merely
+tutelar gods to particular private families" (vol, ii. p. 104), to
+Ta-li-y-Tooboo, who was the national god of Tonga. The Tongans had no
+doubt that these Atuas daily and hourly influenced their destinies
+and could, conversely, be influenced by them. Hence their "piety," the
+incessant acts of sacrificial worship which occupied their lives, and
+their belief in omens and charms. Moreover, the Atuas were believed to
+visit particular persons,--their own priests in the case of the higher
+gods, but apparently anybody in that of the lower,--and to inspire them
+by a process which was conceived to involve the actual residence of the
+god, for the time being, in the person inspired, who was thus rendered
+capable of prophesying (vol. ii. p. 100). For the Tongan, therefore,
+inspiration indubitably was possession.
+
+When one of the higher gods was invoked, through his priest, by a chief
+who wished to consult the oracle, or, in old Israelitic phraseology,
+to "inquire of," the god, a hog was killed and cooked over night, and,
+together with plantains, yams, and the materials for making the peculiar
+drink _kava_ (of which the Tongans were very fond), was carried next day
+to the priest. A circle, as for an ordinary kava-drinking entertainment,
+was then formed; but the priest, as the representative of the god,
+took the highest place, while the chiefs sat outside the circle, as an
+expression of humility calculated to please the god.
+
+
+   As soon as they are all seated the priest is considered as
+   inspired, the god being supposed to exist within him from that
+   moment. He remains for a considerable time in silence with his
+   hands clasped before him, his eyes are cast down and he rests
+   perfectly still. During the time the victuals are being shared
+   out and the kava preparing, the matabooles sometimes begin to
+   consult him; sometimes he answers, and at other times not;
+   in either case he remains with his eyes cast down. Frequently he
+   will not utter a word till the repast is finished and the kava
+   too. When he speaks he generally begins in a low and very
+   altered tone of voice, which gradually rises to nearly its
+   natural pitch, though sometimes a little above it. All that he
+   says is supposed to be the declaration of the god, and he
+   accordingly speaks in the first person, as if he were the god.
+   All this is done generally without any apparent inward emotion
+   or outward agitation; but, on some occasions, his countenance
+   becomes fierce, and as it were inflamed, and his whole frame
+   agitated with inward feeling; he is seized with an universal
+   trembling, the perspiration breaks out on his forehead, and his
+   lips turning black are convulsed; at length tears start in
+   floods from his eyes, his breast heaves with great emotion, and
+   his utterance is choked. These symptoms gradually subside.
+   Before this paroxysm comes on, and after it is over, he often
+   eats as much as four hungry men under other circumstances could
+   devour. The fit being now gone off, he remains for some time
+   calm and then takes up a club that is placed by him for the
+   purpose, turns it over and regards it attentively; he then looks
+   up earnestly, now to the right, now to the left, and now again
+   at the club; afterwards he looks up again and about him in like
+   manner, and then again fixes his eyes on the club, and so on for
+   several times. At length he suddenly raises the club, and, after
+   a moment's pause, strikes the ground or the adjacent part of the
+   house with considerable force, immediately the god leaves him,
+   and he rises up and retires to the back of the ring among the
+   people (vol. i. pp. 100, 101).
+
+The phenomena thus described, in language which, to any one who is
+familiar with the manifestations of abnormal mental states among
+ourselves, bears the stamp of fidelity, furnish a most instructive
+commentary upon the story of the wise woman of Endor. As in the latter,
+we have the possession by the spirit or soul (Atua, Elohim), the strange
+voice, the speaking in the first person. Unfortunately nothing (beyond
+the loud cry) is mentioned as to the state of the wise woman of Endor.
+But what we learn from other sources (_e.g._ 1 Sam. x. 20-24) respecting
+the physical concomitants of inspiration among the old Israelites
+has its exact equivalent in this and other accounts of Polynesian
+prophetism. An excellent authority, Moerenhout, who lived among the
+people of the Society Islands many years and knew them well, says that,
+in Tahiti, the _role_ of the prophet had very generally passed out of
+the hands of the priests into that of private persons who professed
+to represent the god, often assumed his name, and in this capacity
+prophesied. I will not run the risk of weakening the force of
+Moerenhout's description of the prophetic state by translating it:--
+
+"Un individu, dans cet etat, avait le bras gauche enveloppe d'un morceau
+d'etoffe, signe de la presence de la Divinite. Il ne parlait que d'un
+ton imperieux et vehement. Ses attaques, quand il allait prophetiser,
+etaient aussi effroyables qu'imposantes. Il tremblait d'abord de tous
+ses membres, la figure enflee, les yeux hagards, rouges et etincelants
+d'une expression sauvage. Il gesticulait, articulait des mots vides de
+sens, poussait des cris horribles qui faisaient tressaillir tous
+les assistants, et s'exaltait parfois au point qu'on n'osait par
+l'approcher. Autour de lui, le silence de la terreur et du respect....
+C'est alors qu'il repondait aux questions, annoncait l'avenir, le destin
+des batailles, la volonte des dieux; et, chose etonnante! au sein de
+ce delire, de cet enthousiasme religieux, son langage etait grave,
+imposant, son eloquence noble et persuasive." [21]
+
+Just so Saul strips off his clothes, "prophesies" before Samuel, and
+lies down "naked all that day and night."
+
+Both Mariner and Moerenhout refuse to have recourse to the hypothesis of
+imposture in order to account for the inspired state of the Polynesian
+prophets. On the contrary, they fully believe in their sincerity.
+Mariner tells the story of a young chief, an acquaintance of his, who
+thought himself possessed by the Atua of a dead woman who had fallen in
+love with him, and who wished him to die that he might be near her in
+Bolotoo. And he died accordingly. But the most valuable evidence on this
+head is contained in what the same authority says about King Finow's
+son. The previous king, Toogoo Ahoo, had been assassinated by Finow, and
+his soul, become an Atua of divine rank in Bolotoo, had been pleased
+to visit and inspire Finow's son--with what particular object does not
+appear.
+
+   When this young chief returned to Hapai, Mr. Mariner, who was
+   upon a footing of great friendship with him, one day asked him
+   how he felt himself when the spirit of Toogoo Ahoo visited him;
+   he replied that he could not well describe his feelings, but the
+   best he could say of it was, that he felt himself all over in a
+   glow of heat and quite restless and uncomfortable, and did not
+   feel his own personal identity, as it were, but seemed to have a
+   mind different from his own natural mind, his thoughts wandering
+   upon strange and unusual subjects, though perfectly sensible of
+   surrounding objects. He next asked him how he knew it was the
+   spirit of Toogoo Ahoo? His answer was, 'There's a fool! How can
+   I tell you _how_ I knew it! I felt and knew it was so by a
+   kind of consciousness; my _mind_ told me that it was Toogoo
+   Ahoo (vol. i. pp. 104, 105).
+
+Finow's son was evidently made for a theological disputant, and fell
+back at once on the inexpugnable stronghold of faith when other evidence
+was lacking. "There's a fool! I know it is true, because I know it," is
+the exemplar and epitome of the sceptic-crushing process in other places
+than the Tonga Islands.
+
+The island of Bolotoo, to which all the souls (of the upper classes at
+any rate) repair after the death of the body, and from which they return
+at will to interfere, for good or evil, with the lives of those whom
+they have left behind, obviously answers to Sheol. In Tongan tradition,
+this place of souls is a sort of elysium above ground and pleasant
+enough to live in. But, in other parts of Polynesia, the corresponding
+locality, which is called Po, has to be reached by descending into the
+earth, and is represented dark and gloomy like Sheol. But it was not
+looked upon as a place of rewards and punishments in any sense. Whether
+in Bolotoo or in Po, the soul took the rank it had in the flesh; and,
+a shadow, lived among the shadows of the friends and houses and food of
+its previous life.
+
+The Tongan theologians recognised several hundred gods; but there was
+one, already mentioned as their national god, whom they regarded as far
+greater than any of the others, "as a great chief from the top of the
+sky down to the bottom of the earth" (Mariner, vol. ii. p. 106). He
+was also god of war, and the tutelar deity of the royal family, whoever
+happened to be the incumbent of the royal office for the time being. He
+had no priest except the king himself, and his visits, even to
+royalty, were few and far between. The name of this supreme deity was
+Ta-li-y-Tooboo, the literal meaning of which is said to be "Wait there,
+Tooboo," from which it would appear that the peculiar characteristic
+of Ta-li-y-Tooboo, in the eyes of his worshippers, was persistence of
+duration. And it is curious to notice, in relation to this circumstance,
+that many Hebrew philologers have thought the meaning of Jahveh to be
+best expressed by the word "Eternal." It would probably be difficult to
+express the notion of an eternal being, in a dialect so little fitted
+to convey abstract conceptions as Tongan, better than by that of one who
+always "waits there."
+
+The characteristics of the gods in Tongan theology are exactly those
+of men whose shape they are supposed to possess, only they have more
+intelligence and greater power. The Tongan belief that, after death, the
+human Atua more readily distinguishes good from evil, runs parallel with
+the old Israelitic conception of Elohim expressed in Genesis, "Ye shall
+be as Elohim, knowing good from evil." They further agreed with the old
+Israelites, that "all rewards for virtue and punishments for vice happen
+to men in this world only, and come immediately from the gods" (vol. ii.
+p. 100). Moreover, they were of opinion that though the gods approve of
+some kinds of virtue, are displeased with some kinds of vice, and, to a
+certain extent, protect or forsake their worshippers according to
+their moral conduct, yet neglect to pay due respect to the deities, and
+forgetfulness to keep them in good humour, might be visited with even
+worse consequences than moral delinquency. And those who will carefully
+study the so-called "Mosaic code" contained in the books of Exodus,
+Leviticus, and Numbers, will see that, though Jahveh's prohibitions of
+certain forms of immorality are strict and sweeping, his wrath is quite
+as strongly kindled against infractions of ritual ordinances. Accidental
+homicide may go unpunished, and reparation may be made for wilful theft.
+On the other hand, Nadab and Abihu, who "offered strange fire before
+Jahveh, which he had not commanded them," were swiftly devoured by
+Jahveh's fire; he who sacrificed anywhere except at the allotted place
+was to be "cut off from his people"; so was he who ate blood; and the
+details of the upholstery of the Tabernacle, of the millinery of the
+priests' vestments, and of the cabinet work of the ark, can plead direct
+authority from Jahveh, no less than moral commands.
+
+Amongst the Tongans, the sacrifices were regarded as gifts of food and
+drink offered to the divine Atuas, just as the articles deposited by the
+graves of the recently dead were meant as food for Atuas of lower rank.
+A kava root was a constant form of offering all over Polynesia. In the
+excellent work of the Rev. George Turner, entitled _Nineteen Years in
+Polynesia_ (p. 241), I find it said of the Samoans (near neighbours of
+the Tongans):--
+
+   _The offerings_ were principally cooked food. As in ancient
+   Greece so in Samoa, the first cup was in honour of the god.
+   It was either poured out on the ground or _waved_ towards
+   the heavens, reminding us again of the Mosaic ceremonies.
+   The chiefs all drank a portion out of the same cup, according to
+   rank; and after that, the food brought as an offering was
+   divided and eaten '_there before the Lord._'
+
+In Tonga, when they consulted a god who had a priest, the latter, as
+representative of the god, had the first cup; but if the god, like
+Ta-li-y-Tooboo, had no priest, then the chief place was left vacant, and
+was supposed to be occupied by the god himself. When the first cup of
+kava was filled, the mataboole who acted as master of the ceremonies
+said, "Give it to your god," and it was offered, though only as a matter
+of form. In Tonga and Samoa there were many sacred places or _morais,_
+with houses of the ordinary construction, but which served as temples in
+consequence of being dedicated to various gods; and there were altars
+on which the sacrifices were offered; nevertheless there were few or
+no images. Mariner mentions none in Tonga, and the Samoans seem to have
+been regarded as no better than atheists by other Polynesians because
+they had none. It does not appear that either of these peoples had
+images even of their family or ancestral gods.
+
+In Tahiti and the adjacent islands, Moerenhout (t. i. p. 471) makes the
+very interesting observation, not only that idols were often absent,
+but that, where they existed, the images of the gods served merely as
+depositories for the proper representatives of the divinity. Each of
+these was called a _maro aurou,_ and was a kind of girdle artistically
+adorned with red, yellow, blue, and black feathers--the red feathers
+being especially important--which were consecrated and kept as sacred
+objects within the idols. They were worn by great personages on solemn
+occasions, and conferred upon their wearers a sacred and almost divine
+character. There is no distinct evidence that the _maro aurou_ was
+supposed to have any special efficacy in divination, but one cannot fail
+to see a certain parallelism between this holy girdle, which endowed its
+wearer with a particular sanctity, and the ephod.
+
+According to the Rev. R. Taylor, the New Zealanders formerly used the
+word _karakia_ (now employed for "prayer") to signify a "spell, charm,
+or incantation," and the utterance of these karakias constituted the
+chief part of their cult. In the south, the officiating priest had a
+small image, "about eighteen inches long, resembling a peg with a
+carved head," which reminds one of the form commonly attributed to the
+teraphim.
+
+"The priest first bandaged a fillet of red parrot feathers under the
+god's chin, which was called his pahau or beard; this bandage was made
+of a certain kind of sennet, which was tied on in a peculiar way. When
+this was done it was taken possession of by the Atua, whose spirit
+entered it. The priest then either held it in the hand and vibrated it
+in the air whilst the powerful karakia was repeated, or he tied a piece
+of string (formed of the centre of a flax leaf) round the neck of the
+image and stuck it in the ground. He sat at a little distance from it,
+leaning against a tuahu, a short stone pillar stuck in the ground in a
+slanting position and, holding the string in his hand, he gave the god a
+jerk to arrest his attention, lest he should be otherwise engaged, like
+Baal of old, either hunting, fishing, or sleeping, and therefore must
+be awaked.... The god is supposed to make use of the priest's tongue in
+giving a reply. Image-worship appears to have been confined to one part
+of the island. The Atua was supposed only to enter the image for the
+occasion. The natives declare they did not worship the image itself, but
+only the Atua it represented, and that the image was merely used as a
+way of approaching him." [22]
+
+This is the excuse for image-worship which the more intelligent
+idolaters make all the world over; but it is more interesting to observe
+that, in the present case, we seem to have the equivalents of divination
+by teraphim, with the aid of something like an ephod (which, however, is
+used to sanctify the image and not the priest) mixed up together. Many
+Hebrew archaeologists have supposed that the term "ephod" is sometimes
+used for an image (particularly in the case of Gideon's ephod), and the
+story of Micah, in the book of Judges, shows that images were, at any
+rate, employed in close association with the ephod. If the pulling of
+the string to call the attention of the god seems as absurd to us as
+it appears to have done to the worthy missionary, who tells us of the
+practice, it should be recollected that the high priest of Jahveh was
+ordered to wear a garment fringed with golden bells.
+
+
+   And it shall be upon Aaron to minister; and the sound thereof
+   shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before
+   Jahveh, and when he cometh out, that he die not (Exod.
+   xxviii. 35).
+
+An escape from the obvious conclusion suggested by this passage has
+been sought in the supposition that these bells rang for the sake of
+the worshippers, as at the elevation of the host in the Roman Catholic
+ritual; but then why should the priest be threatened with the well-known
+penalty for inadvisedly beholding the divinity?
+
+In truth, the intermediate step between the Maori practice and that of
+the old Israelites is furnished by the Kami temples in Japan. These are
+provided with bells which the worshippers who present themselves ring,
+in order to call the attention of the ancestor-god to their presence.
+Grant the fundamental assumption of the essentially human character of
+the spirit, whether Atua, Kami, or Elohim, and all these practices are
+equally rational.
+
+The sacrifices to the gods in Tonga, and elsewhere in Polynesia, were
+ordinarily social gatherings, in which the god, either in his own person
+or in that of his priestly representative, was supposed to take part.
+These sacrifices were offered on every occasion of importance, and even
+the daily meals were prefaced by oblations and libations of food and
+drink, exactly answering to those offered by the old Romans to their
+manes, penates, and lares. The sacrifices had no moral significance,
+but were the necessary result of the theory that the god was either a
+deified ghost of an ancestor or chief, or, at any rate, a being of like
+nature to these. If one wanted to get anything out of him, therefore,
+the first step was to put him in good humour by gifts; and if one
+desired to escape his wrath, which might be excited by the most trifling
+neglect or unintentional disrespect, the great thing was to pacify
+him by costly presents. King Finow appears to have been somewhat of a
+freethinker (to the great horror of his subjects), and it was only his
+untimely death which prevented him from dealing with the priest of a
+god, who had not returned a favourable answer to his supplications,
+as Saul dealt with the priests of the sanctuary of Jahveh at Nob.
+Nevertheless, Finow showed his practical belief in the gods during the
+sickness of a daughter, to whom he was fondly attached, in a fashion
+which has a close parallel in the history of Israel.
+
+   If the gods have any resentment against us, let the whole
+   weight of vengeance fall on my head. I fear not their vengeance
+   --but spare my child; and I earnestly entreat you, Toobo Totai
+   [the god whom he had evoked], to exert all your influence with
+   the other gods that I alone may suffer all the punishment they
+   desire to inflict (vol. i. p. 354).
+
+So when the king of Israel has sinned by "numbering the people," and
+they are punished for his fault by a pestilence which slays seventy
+thousand innocent men, David cries to Jahveh:--
+
+   Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep,
+   what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me,
+   and against my father's house. (2 Sam. xxiv. 17).
+
+Human sacrifices were extremely common in Polynesia; and, in Tonga, the
+"devotion" of a child by strangling was a favourite method of averting
+the wrath of the gods. The well-known instances of Jephthah's sacrifice
+of his daughter and of David's giving up the seven sons of Saul to be
+sacrificed by the Gibeonites "before Jahveh," appear to me to leave no
+doubt that the old Israelites, even when devout worshippers of Jahveh,
+considered human sacrifices, under certain circumstances, to be not only
+permissible but laudable. Samuel's hewing to pieces of the miserable
+captive, sole survivor of his nation, Agag, "before Jahveh," can hardly
+be viewed in any other light. The life of Moses is redeemed from Jahveh,
+who "sought to slay him," by Zipporah's symbolical sacrifice of her
+child, by the bloody operation of circumcision. Jahveh expressly affirms
+that the first-born males of men and beasts are devoted to him; in
+accordance with that claim, the first-born males of the beasts are duly
+sacrificed; and it is only by special permission that the claim to the
+first-born of men is waived, and it is enacted that they may be redeemed
+(Exod. xiii. 12-15). Is it possible to avoid the conclusion that
+immolation of their first-born sons would have been incumbent on the
+worshippers of Jahveh, had they not been thus specially excused? Can any
+other conclusion be drawn from the history of Abraham and Isaac?
+Does Abraham exhibit any indication of surprise when he receives the
+astounding order to sacrifice his son? Is there the slightest evidence
+that there was anything in his intimate and personal acquaintance with
+the character of the Deity, who had eaten the meat and drunk the milk
+which Abraham set before him under the oaks of Mamre, to lead him to
+hesitate--even to wait twelve or fourteen hours for a repetition of
+the command? Not a whit. We are told that "Abraham rose early in the
+morning" and led his only child to the slaughter, as if it were the
+most ordinary business imaginable. Whether the story has any historical
+foundation or not, it is valuable as showing that the writer of it
+conceived Jahveh as a deity whose requirement of such a sacrifice need
+excite neither astonishment nor suspicion of mistake on the part of his
+devotee. Hence, when the incessant human sacrifices in Israel,
+during the age of the kings, are put down to the influence of foreign
+idolatries, we may fairly inquire whether editorial Bowdlerising has not
+prevailed over historical truth.
+
+An attempt to compare the ethical standards of two nations, one of which
+has a written code, while the other has not, is beset with difficulties.
+With all that is strange and, in many cases, repulsive to us in the
+social arrangements and opinions respecting moral obligation among
+the Tongans, as they are placed before us, with perfect candour, in
+Mariner's account, there is much that indicates a strong ethical
+sense. They showed great kindliness to one another, and faithfulness in
+standing by their comrades in war. No people could have better observed
+either the third or the fifth commandment; for they had a particular
+horror of blasphemy, and their respectful tenderness towards their
+parents and, indeed, towards old people in general, was remarkable.
+
+It cannot be said that the eighth commandment was generally observed,
+especially where Europeans were concerned; nevertheless a well-bred
+Tongan looked upon theft as a meanness to which he would not condescend.
+As to the seventh commandment, any breach of it was considered
+scandalous in women and as something to be avoided in self-respecting
+men; but, among unmarried and widowed people, chastity was held very
+cheap. Nevertheless the women were extremely well treated, and often
+showed themselves capable of great devotion and entire faithfulness. In
+the matter of cruelty, treachery, and bloodthirstiness, these islanders
+were neither better nor worse than most peoples of antiquity. It is to
+the credit of the Tongans that they particularly objected to slander;
+nor can covetousness be regarded as their characteristic; for Mariner
+says:--
+
+   When any one is about to eat, he always shares out what he has
+   to those about him, without any hesitation, and a contrary
+   conduct would be considered exceedingly vile and selfish (vol.
+   ii p. 145).
+
+In fact, they thought very badly of the English when Mariner told them
+that his countrymen did not act exactly on that principle. It further
+appears that they decidedly belonged to the school of intuitive moral
+philosophers, and believed that virtue is its own reward; for
+
+   Many of the chiefs, on being asked by Mr. Mariner what motives
+   they had for conducting themselves with propriety, besides the
+   fear of misfortunes in this life, replied, the agreeable and
+   happy feeling which a man experiences within himself when he
+   does any good action or conducts himself nobly and generously as
+   a man ought to do; and this question they answered as if they
+   wondered such a question should be asked. (vol. ii. p. 161).
+
+One may read from the beginning of the book of Judges to the end of the
+books of Samuel without discovering 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; while Deborah's jubilation over Jael's violation of the
+primary duty of hospitality, proffered and accepted under circumstances
+which give a peculiarly atrocious character to the murder of the guest;
+and her witch-like gloating over the picture of the disappointment of
+the mother of the victim--
+
+   The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice,
+   Why is his chariot so long in coming? (Jud. v. 28.)
+--would not have been out of place in the choral service of the most
+sanguinary god in the Polynesian pantheon.
+
+With respect to the cannibalism which the Tongans occasionally
+practised, Mariner says:--
+
+   Although a few young ferocious warriors chose to imitate what
+   they considered a mark of courageous fierceness in a
+   neighbouring nation, it was held in disgust by everybody else
+   (vol. ii. p. 171).
+
+That the moral standard of Tongan life was less elevated than that
+indicated in the "Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi.-xxiii.) may be
+freely admitted. But then the evidence that this Book of the Covenant,
+and even the ten commandments as given in Exodus, were known to the
+Israelites of the time of Samuel and Saul, is (to say the least) by no
+means conclusive. The Deuteronomic version of the fourth commandment is
+hopelessly discrepant from that which stands in Exodus. Would any later
+writer have ventured to alter the commandments as given from Sinai, if
+he had had before him that which professed to be an accurate statement
+of the "ten words" in Exodus? And if the writer of Deuteronomy had not
+Exodus before him, what is the value of the claim of the version of the
+ten commandments therein contained to authenticity? From one end to
+the other of the books of Judges and Samuel, the only "commandments
+of Jahveh" which are specially adduced refer to the prohibition of the
+worship of other gods, or are orders given _ad hoc,_ and have nothing to
+do with questions of morality.
+
+In Polynesia, the belief in witchcraft, in the appearance of spiritual
+beings in dreams, in possession as the cause of diseases, and in omens,
+prevailed universally. Mariner tells a story of a woman of rank who was
+greatly attached to King Finow, and who, for the space of six months
+after his death, scarcely ever slept elsewhere than on his grave, which
+she kept carefully decorated with flowers:--
+
+"One day she went, with the deepest affliction, to the house of Mo-oonga
+Toobo, the widow of the deceased chief, to communicate what had happened
+to her at the _fytoca_ [grave] during several nights, and which caused
+her the greatest anxiety. She related that she had dreamed that the
+late How [King] appeared to her and, with a countenance full of
+disappointment, asked why there yet remained at Vavaoo so many
+evil-designing persons; for he declared that, since he had been at
+Bolotoo, his spirit had been disturbed [22] by the evil machinations of
+wicked men conspiring against his son; but he declared that 'the youth'
+should not be molested nor his power shaken by the spirit of rebellion;
+that he therefore came to her with a warning voice to prevent such
+disastrous consequences (vol. i. p. 424)."
+
+On inquiry it turned out that the charm of _tattao_ had been performed
+on Finow's grave, with the view of injuring his son, the reigning king,
+and it is to be presumed that it was this sorcerer's work which had
+"disturbed" Finow's spirit. The Rev. Richard Taylor says in the work
+already cited: "The account given of the witch of Endor agrees most
+remarkably with the witches of New Zealand" (p. 45).
+
+The Tongans also believed in a mode of divination (essentially similar
+to the casting of lots) the twirling of a cocoanut.
+
+   The object of inquiry... is chiefly whether a sick person will
+   recover; for this purpose the nut being placed on the ground, a
+   relation of the sick person determines that, if the nut, when
+   again at rest, points to such a quarter, the east for example,
+   that the sick man will recover; he then prays aloud to the
+   patron god of the family that he will be pleased to direct the
+   nut so that it may indicate the truth; the nut being next spun,
+   the result is attended to with confidence, at least with a full
+   conviction that it will truly declare the intentions of the gods
+   at the time (vol. ii. p. 227).
+
+Does not the action of Saul, on a famous occasion, involve exactly the
+same theological presuppositions?
+
+   Therefore Saul said unto Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, Shew the
+   right. And Jonathan and Saul were taken by lot: but the people
+   escaped. And Saul said, Cast _lots_ between me and Jonathan
+   my son. And Jonathan was taken. And Saul said to Jonathan, Tell
+   me what thou hast done.... And the people rescued Jonathan so
+   that he died not (1 Sam. xiv. 41-45).
+
+As the Israelites had great yearly feasts, so had the Polynesians; as
+the Israelites practised circumcision, so did many Polynesian people;
+as the Israelites had a complex and often arbitrary-seeming multitude
+of distinctions between clean and unclean things, and clean and unclean
+states of men, to which they attached great importance, so had the
+Polynesians their notions of ceremonial purity and their _tabu,_ an
+equally extensive and strange system of prohibitions, violation of which
+was visited by death. These doctrines of cleanness and uncleanness no
+doubt may have taken their rise in the real or fancied utility of the
+prescriptions, but it is probable that the origin of many is indicated
+in the curious habit of the Samoans to make fetishes of living animals.
+It will be recollected that these people had no "gods made with hands,"
+but they substituted animals for them.
+
+At his birth
+
+"every Samoan was supposed to be taken under the care of some tutelary
+god or _aitu_ [= Atua] as it was called. The help of perhaps half a
+dozen different gods was invoked in succession on the occasion, but the
+one who happened to be addressed just as the child was born was marked
+and declared to be the child's god for life.
+
+"These gods were supposed to appear in some _visible incarnation,_ and
+the particular thing in which his god was in the habit of appearing was,
+to the Samoan, an object of veneration. It was in fact his idol, and
+he was careful never to injure it or treat it with contempt. One, for
+instance, saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in the
+turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the lizard;
+and so on, throughout all the fish of the sea and birds and four-footed
+beasts and creeping things. In some of the shell-fish even, gods were
+supposed to be present. A man would eat freely of what was regarded as
+the incarnation of the god of another man, but the incarnation of his
+own particular god he would consider it death to injure or eat." [23]
+
+We have here that which appears to be the origin, or one of the origins,
+of food prohibitions, on the one hand, and of totemism on the other.
+When it is remembered that the old Israelites sprang from ancestors who
+are said to have resided near, or in, one of the great seats of ancient
+Babylonian civilisation, the city of Ur; that they had been, it is said
+for centuries, in close contact with the Egyptians; and that, in the
+theology of both the Babylonians and the Egyptians, there is abundant
+evidence, notwithstanding their advanced social organisation, of the
+belief in spirits, with sorcery, ancestor-worship, the deification of
+animals, and the converse animalisation of gods--it obviously needs very
+strong evidence to justify the belief that the rude tribes of Israel did
+not share the notions from which their far more civilised neighbours had
+not emancipated themselves.
+
+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 entertained 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. [24]
+
+A theological system of essentially similar character, exhibiting the
+same fundamental conceptions respecting the continued existence
+and incessant interference in human affairs of disembodied spirits,
+prevails, or formerly prevailed, among the whole of the inhabitants
+of the Polynesian and Melanesian islands, and among the people of
+Australia, notwithstanding the wide differences in physical character
+and in grade of civilisation which obtain among them. And the same
+proposition is true of the people who inhabit the riverain shores of the
+Pacific Ocean whether Dyaks, Malays, Indo-Chinese, Chinese, Japanese,
+the wild tribes of America, or the highly civilised old Mexicans and
+Peruvians. It is no less true of the Mongolic nomads of Northern Asia,
+of the Asiatic Aryans and of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, and it holds
+good among the Dravidians of the Dekhan and the negro tribes of Africa.
+No tribe of savages which has yet been discovered, has been conclusively
+proved to have so poor a theological equipment as to be devoid of a
+belief in ghosts, and in the utility of some form of witchcraft, in
+influencing those ghosts. And there is no nation, modern or ancient,
+which, even at this moment, has wholly given up the belief; and in which
+it has not, at one time or other, played a great part in practical life.
+
+This _sciotheism,_ [25] as it might be called, is found, in several
+degrees of complexity, in rough correspondence with the stages of social
+organisation, and, like these, separated by no sudden breaks.
+
+In its simplest condition, such as may be met with among the Australian
+savages, theology is a mere belief in the existence, powers, and
+disposition (usually malignant) of ghostlike entities who may be
+propitiated or scared away; but no cult can properly be said to exist.
+And, in this stage, theology is wholly independent of ethics. The moral
+code, such as is implied by public opinion, derives no sanction from the
+theological dogmas, and the influence of the spirits is supposed to be
+exerted out of mere caprice or malice.
+
+As a next stage, the fundamental fear of ghosts and the consequent
+desire to propitiate them acquire an organised ritual in simple forms of
+ancestor-worship, such as the Rev. Mr. Turner describes among the people
+of Tanna (_l.c._ p. 88); and this line of development may be followed
+out until it attains its acme in the State-theology of China and
+the Kami-theology [26] of Japan. Each of these is essentially
+ancestor-worship, the ancestors being reckoned back through family
+groups, of higher and higher order, sometimes with strict reference to
+the principle of agnation, as in old Rome; and, as in the latter, it is
+intimately bound up with the whole organisation of the State. There are
+no idols; inscribed tablets in China, and strips of paper lodged in a
+peculiar portable shrine in Japan, represent the souls of the deceased,
+or the special seats which they occupy when sacrifices are offered by
+their descendants. In Japan it is interesting to observe that a national
+Kami--Ten-zio-dai-zin--is worshipped as a sort of Jahveh by the nation
+in general, and (as Lippert has observed) it is singular that his
+special seat is a portable litter-like shrine, termed the Mikosi, in
+some sort analogous to the Israelitic ark. In China, the emperor is
+the representative of the primitive ancestors, and stands, as it were,
+between them and the supreme cosmic deities--Heaven and Earth--who are
+superadded to them, and who answer to the Tangaloa and the Maui of the
+Polynesians.
+
+Sciotheism, under the form of the deification of ancestral ghosts, in
+its most pronounced form, is therefore the chief element in the theology
+of a great moiety, possibly of more than half, of the human race. I
+think this must be taken to be a matter of fact--though various opinions
+may be held as to how this ancestor-worship came about. But on the other
+hand, it is no less a matter of fact that there are very few people
+without additional gods, who cannot, with certainty, be accounted for as
+deified ancestors.
+
+With all respect for the distinguished authorities on the other side,
+I cannot find good reasons for accepting the theory that the cosmic
+deities--who are superadded to deified ancestors even in China; who are
+found all over Polynesia, in Tangaloa and Maui, and in old Peru, in the
+Sun--are the product either of the "search after the infinite," or of
+mistakes arising out of the confusion of a great chief's name with the
+thing signified by the name. But, however this may be, I think it is
+again merely matter of fact that, among a large portion of mankind,
+ancestor-worship is more or less thrown into the background either by
+such cosmic deities, or by tribal gods of uncertain origin, who have
+been raised to eminence by the superiority in warfare, or otherwise, of
+their worshippers.
+
+Among certain nations, the polytheistic theology, thus constituted, has
+become modified by the selection of some one cosmic or tribal god, as
+the only god to whom worship is due on the part of that nation (though
+it is by no means denied that other nations have a right to worship
+other gods), and thus results a worship of one God--_monolatry,_ as
+Wellhausen calls it--which is very different from genuine monotheism.
+[27] In ancestral sciotheism, and in this _monolatry,_ the ethical
+code, often of a very high order, comes into closer relation with the
+theological creed. Morality is taken under the patronage of the god or
+gods, who reward all morally good conduct and punish all morally evil
+conduct in this world or the next. At the same time, however, they
+are conceived to be thoroughly human, and they visit any shadow of
+disrespect to themselves, shown by disobedience to their commands, or by
+delay, or carelessness, in carrying them out, as severely as any breach
+of the moral laws. Piety means minute attention to the due performance
+of all sacred rites, and covers any number of lapses in morality, just
+as cruelty, treachery, murder, and adultery did not bar David's claim to
+the title of the man after God's own heart among the Israelites; crimes
+against men may be expiated, but blasphemy against the gods is an
+unpardonable sin. Men forgive all injuries but those which touch their
+self-esteem; and they make their gods after their own likeness, in their
+own image make they them.
+
+It is in the category of monolatry that I conceive the theology of the
+old Israelites must be ranged. They were polytheists, in so far as they
+admitted the existence of other Elohim of divine rank beside Jahveh;
+they differed from ordinary polytheists, in so far as they believed
+that Jahveh was the supreme god and the one proper object of their own
+national worship. But it will doubtless be objected that I have been
+building up a fictitious Israelitic theology on the foundation of the
+recorded habits and customs of the people, when they had lapsed from
+the ordinances of their great lawgiver and prophet Moses, and that my
+conclusions may be good for the perverts to Canaanitish theology, but
+not for the true observers of the Sinaitic legislation. The answer to
+the objection is that--so far as I can form a judgment of that which is
+well ascertained in the history of Israel--there is very little ground
+for believing that we know much, either about the theological and social
+value of the influence of Moses, or about what happened during the
+wanderings in the Desert.
+
+The account of the Exodus and of the occurrences in the Sinaitic
+peninsula; in fact, all the history of Israel before the invasion of
+Canaan, is full of wonderful stories, which may be true, in so far as
+they are conceivable occurrences, but which are certainly not probable,
+and which I, for one, decline to accept until evidence, which deserves
+that name, is offered of their historical truth. Up to this time I know
+of none. [28] Furthermore, I see no answer to the argument that one
+has no right to pick out of an obviously unhistorical statement the
+assertions which happen to be probable and to discard the rest. But it
+is also certain that a primitively veracious tradition may be smothered
+under subsequent mythical additions, and that one has no right to cast
+away the former along with the latter. Thus, perhaps the fairest way of
+stating the case may be as follows.
+
+There can be no _a priori_ objection to the supposition that the
+Israelites were delivered from their Egyptian bondage by a leader called
+Moses, and that he exerted a great influence over their subsequent
+organisation in the Desert. There is no reason to doubt that, during
+their residence in the land of Goshen, the Israelites knew nothing
+of Jahveh; but, as their own prophets declare (see Ezek. xx.), were
+polytheistic idolaters, sharing in the worst practices of their
+neighbours. As to their conduct in other respects, nothing is known. But
+it may fairly be suspected that their ethics were not of a higher order
+than those of Jacob, their progenitor, in which case they might derive
+great profit from contact with Egyptian society, which held honesty and
+truthfulness in the highest esteem. Thanks to the Egyptologers, we now
+know, with all requisite certainty, the moral standard of that society
+in the time, and long before the time, of Moses. It can be determined
+from the scrolls buried with the mummified dead and from the
+inscriptions on the tombs and memorial statues of that age. For,
+though the lying of epitaphs is proverbial, so far as their subject is
+concerned, they gave an unmistakable insight into that which the writers
+and the readers of them think praiseworthy.
+
+In the famous tombs at Beni Hassan there is a record of the life of
+Prince Nakht, who served Osertasen II., a Pharaoh of the twelfth dynasty
+as governor of a province. The inscription speaks in his name: "I was
+a benevolent and kindly governor who loved his country.... Never was
+a little child distressed nor a widow ill-treated by me. I have never
+repelled a workman nor hindered a shepherd. I gave alike to the widow
+and to the married woman, and have not preferred the great to the small
+in my gifts." And we have the high authority of the late Dr. Samuel
+Birch for the statement that the inscriptions of the twelfth dynasty
+abound in injunctions of a high ethical character. "To feed the hungry,
+give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, bury the dead, loyally
+serve the king, formed the first duty of a pious man and faithful
+subject." [29] The people for whom these inscriptions embodied their
+ideal of praiseworthiness assuredly had no imperfect conception of
+either justice or mercy. But there is a document which gives still
+better evidence of the moral standard of the Egyptians. It is the "Book
+of the Dead," a sort of "Guide to Spiritland," the whole, or a part,
+of which was buried with the mummy of every well-to-do Egyptian, while
+extracts from it are found in innumerable inscriptions. Portions of this
+work are of extreme antiquity, evidence of their existence occurring
+as far back as the fifth and sixth dynasties; while the 120th chapter,
+which constitutes a sort of book by itself, and is known as the "Book of
+Redemption in the Hall of the two Truths," is frequently inscribed upon
+coffins and other monuments of the nineteenth dynasty (that under which,
+there is some reason to believe, the Israelites were oppressed and the
+Exodus took place), and it occurs, more than once, in the famous tombs
+of the kings of this and the preceding dynasty at Thebes. [30] This
+"Book of Redemption" is chiefly occupied by the so-called "negative
+confession" made to the forty-two Divine Judges, in which the soul of
+the dead denies that he has committed faults of various kinds. It
+is, therefore, obvious that the Egyptians conceived that their gods
+commanded them not to do the deeds which are here denied. The "Book
+of Redemption," in fact, implies the existence in the mind of the
+Egyptians, if not in a formal writing, of a series of ordinances,
+couched, like the majority of the ten commandments, in negative terms.
+And it is easy to prove the implied existence of a series which
+nearly answers to the "ten words." Of course a polytheistic and
+image-worshipping people, who observed a great many holy days, but no
+Sabbaths, could have nothing analogous to the first or the second and
+the fourth commandments of the Decalogue; but answering to the third, is
+"I have not blasphemed;" to the fifth, "I have not reviled the face
+of the king or my father;" to the sixth, "I have not murdered;" to the
+seventh, "I have not committed adultery;" to the eighth, "I have not
+stolen," "I have not done fraud to man;" to the ninth, "I have not
+told falsehoods in the tribunal of truth," and, further, "I have not
+calumniated the slave to his master." I find nothing exactly similar to
+the tenth commandment; but that the inward disposition of mind was held
+to be of no less importance than the outward act is to be gathered from
+the praises of kindliness already cited and the cry of "I am pure,"
+which is repeated by the soul on trial. Moreover, there is a minuteness
+of detail in the confession which shows no little delicacy of moral
+appreciation--"I have not privily done evil against mankind," "I
+have not afflicted men," "I have not withheld milk from the mouths of
+sucklings," "I have not been idle," "I have not played the hypocrite,"
+"I have not told falsehoods," "I have not corrupted woman or man," "I
+have not caused fear," "I have not multiplied words in speaking."
+
+Would that the moral sense of the nineteenth century A.D. were as far
+advanced as that of the Egyptians in the nineteenth century B.C. in this
+last particular! What incalculable benefit to mankind would flow from
+strict observance of the commandment, "Thou shalt not multiply words
+in speaking!" Nothing is more remarkable than the stress which the
+old Egyptians, here and elsewhere, lay upon this and other kinds of
+truthfulness, as compared with the absence of any such requirement in
+the Israelitic Decalogue, in which only a specific kind of untruthfulnes
+is forbidden.
+
+If, as the story runs, Moses was adopted by a princess of the royal
+house, and was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, it is
+surely incredible that he should not have been familiar from his youth
+up, with the high moral code implied in the "Book of Redemption." It
+is surely impossible that he should have been less familiar with the
+complete legal system, and with the method of administration of justice,
+which, even in his time, had enabled the Egyptian people to hold
+together, as a complex social organisation, for a period far longer than
+the duration of old Roman society, from the building of the city to
+the death of the last Caesar. Nor need we look to Moses alone for the
+influence of Egypt upon Israel. It is true that the Hebrew nomads who
+came into contact with the Egyptians of Osertasen, or of Ramses, stood
+in much the same relation to them, in point of culture, as a Germanic
+tribe did to the Romans of Tiberius, or of Marcus Antoninus; or as
+Captain Cook's Omai did to the English of George the Third. But, at the
+same time, any difficulty of communication which might have arisen out
+of this circumstance was removed by the long pre-existing intercourse
+of other Semites, of every grade of civilisation, with the Egyptians. In
+Mesopotamia and elsewhere, as in Phenicia, Semitic people had attained
+to a social organisation as advanced as that of the Egyptians; Semites
+had conquered and occupied Lower Egypt for centuries. So extensively had
+Semitic influences penetrated Egypt that the Egyptian language, during
+the period of the nineteenth dynasty, is said by Brugsch to be as full
+of Semitisms as German is of Gallicisms; while Semitic deities had
+supplanted the Egyptian gods at Heliopolis and elsewhere. On the other
+hand, the Semites, as far as Phenicia, were extensively influenced by
+Egypt.
+
+It is generally admitted [31] that Moses, Phinehas (and perhaps Aaron),
+are names of Egyptian origin, and there is excellent authority for
+the statement that the name _Abir,_ which the Israelites gave to their
+golden calf, and which is also used to signify the strong, the heavenly,
+and even God, [32] is simply the Egyptian Apis. Brugsch points out that
+the god, Tum or Tom, who was the special object of worship in the city
+of Pi-Tom, with which the Israelites were only too familiar, was called
+Ankh and the "great god," and had no image. Ankh means "He who lives,"
+"the living one," a name the resemblance of which to the "I am that I
+am" of Exodus is unmistakable, whatever may be the value of the fact.
+Every discussion of Israelitic ritual seeks and finds the explanation
+of its details in the portable sacred chests, the altars, the priestly
+dress, the breastplate, the incense, and the sacrifices depicted on the
+monuments of Egypt. But it must be remembered that these signs of the
+influence of Egypt upon Israel are not necessarily evidence that such
+influence was exerted before the Exodus. It may have come much later,
+through the close connection of the Israel of David and Solomon, first
+with Phenicia and then with Egypt.
+
+If we suppose Moses to have been a man of the stamp of Calvin, there is
+no difficulty in conceiving that he may have constructed the substance
+of the ten words, and even of the Book of the Covenant, which curiously
+resembles parts of the Book of the Dead, from the foundation of Egyptian
+ethics and theology which had filtered through to the Israelites
+in general, or had been furnished specially to himself by his early
+education; just as the great Genevese reformer built up a puritanic
+social organisation on so much as remained of the ethics and theology of
+the Roman Church, after he had trimmed them to his liking.
+
+Thus, I repeat, I see no _a priori_ objection to the assumption that
+Moses may have endeavoured to give his people a theologico-political
+organisation based on the ten commandments (though certainly not quite
+in their present form) and the Book of the Covenant, contained in our
+present book of Exodus. But whether there is such evidence as amounts to
+proof, or, I had better say, to probability, that even this much of
+the Pentateuch owes its origin to Moses is another matter. The mythical
+character of the accessories of the Sinaitic history is patent, and
+it would take a good deal more evidence than is afforded by the bare
+assertion of an unknown writer to justify the belief that the people who
+"saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the voice of the trumpet
+and the mountain smoking" (Exod. xx. 18); to whom Jahveh orders Moses to
+say, "Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
+Ye shall not make other gods with me; gods of silver and gods of gold ye
+shall not make unto you" (_ibid._ 22, 23), should, less than six weeks
+afterwards, have done the exact thing they were thus awfully forbidden
+to do. Nor is the credibility of the story increased by the statement
+that Aaron, the brother of Moses, the witness and fellow-worker of the
+miracles before Pharaoh, was their leader and the artificer of the
+idol. And yet, at the same time, Aaron was apparently so ignorant of
+wrongdoing that he made proclamation, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to
+Jahveh," and the people proceeded to offer their burnt-offerings
+and peace-offerings, as if everything in their proceedings must be
+satisfactory to the Deity with whom they had just made a solemn covenant
+to abolish image-worship. It seems to me that, on a survey of all the
+facts of the case, only a very cautious and hypothetical judgment is
+justifiable. It may be that Moses profited by the opportunities afforded
+him of access to what was best in Egyptian society to become acquainted,
+not only with its advanced ethical and legal code, but with the more or
+less pantheistic unification of the Divine to which the speculations of
+the Egyptian thinkers, like those of all polytheistic philosophers, from
+Polynesia to Greece, tend; if indeed the theology of the period of the
+nineteenth dynasty was not, as some Egyptologists think, a modification
+of an earlier, more distinctly monotheistic doctrine of a long
+antecedent age. It took only half a dozen centuries for the theology
+of Paul to become the theology of Gregory the Great; and it is possible
+that twenty centuries lay between the theology of the first worshippers
+in the sanctuary of the Sphinx and that of the priests of Ramses Maimun.
+
+It may be that the ten commandments and the Book of the Covenant are
+based upon faithful traditions of the efforts of a great leader to
+raise his followers to his own level. For myself, as a matter of pious
+opinion, I like to think so; as I like to imagine that, between Moses
+and Samuel, there may have been many a seer, many a herdsman such as him
+of Tekoah, lonely amidst the hills of Ephraim and Judah, who cherished
+and kept alive these traditions. In the present results of Biblical
+criticism, however, I can discover no justification for the common
+assumption that, between the time of Joshua and that of Rehoboam, the
+Israelites were familiar with either the Deuteronomic or the Levitical
+legislation; or that the theology of the Israelites, from the king who
+sat on the throne to the lowest of his subjects, was in any important
+respect different from that which might naturally be expected from their
+previous history and the conditions of their existence. But there is
+excellent evidence to the contrary effect. And, for my part, I see no
+reason to doubt that, like the rest of the world, the Israelites had
+passed through a period of mere ghost-worship, and had advanced through
+Ancestor-worship and Fetishism and Totemism to the theological level at
+which we find them in the books of Judges and Samuel.
+
+All the more remarkable, therefore, is the extraordinary change which is
+to be noted in the eighth century B.C. The student who is familiar with
+the theology implied, or expressed, in the books of Judges, Samuel, and
+the first book of Kings, finds himself in a new world of thought, in
+the full tide of a great reformation, when he reads Joel, Amos, Hosea,
+Isaiah, Micah, and Jeremiah.
+
+The essence of this change is the reversal of the position which, in
+primitive society, ethics holds in relation to theology. Originally,
+that which men worship is a theological hypothesis, not a moral ideal.
+The prophets, in substance, if not always in form preach the opposite
+doctrine. They are constantly striving to free the moral ideal from the
+stifling embrace of the current theology and its concomitant ritual.
+Theirs was not an intellectual criticism, argued on strictly scientific
+grounds; the image-worshippers and the believers in the efficacy of
+sacrifices and ceremonies might logically have held their own against
+anything the prophets have to say; it was an ethical criticism. From
+the height of his moral intuition--that the whole duty of man is to do
+justice and to love mercy and to bear himself as humbly as befits his
+insignificance in face of the Infinite--the prophet simply laughs at the
+idolaters of stocks and stones and the idolaters of ritual. Idols of the
+first kind, in his experience, were inseparably united with the
+practice of immorality, and they were to be ruthlessly destroyed. As for
+sacrifices and ceremonies, whatever their intrinsic value might be, they
+might be tolerated on condition of ceasing to be idols; they might even
+be praiseworthy on condition of being made to subserve the worship of
+the true Jahveh--the moral ideal.
+
+If the realm of David had remained undivided, if the Assyrian and the
+Chaldean and the Egyptian had left Israel to the ordinary course of
+development of an Oriental kingdom, it is possible that the effects of
+the reforming zeal of the prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries
+might have been effaced by the growth, according to its inevitable
+tendencies, of the theology which they combated. But the captivity made
+the fortune of the ideas which it was the privilege of these men to
+launch upon an endless career. With the abolition of the Temple-services
+for more than half a century, the priest must have lost and the scribe
+gained influence. The puritanism of a vigorous minority among the
+Babylonian Jews rooted out polytheism from all its hiding-places in the
+theology which they had inherited; they created the first consistent,
+remorseless, naked monotheism, which, so far as history records,
+appeared in the world (for Zoroastrism is practically ditheism, and
+Buddhism any-theism or no-theism); and they inseparably united therewith
+an ethical code, which, for its purity and for its efficiency as a bond
+of social life, was and is, unsurpassed. So I think we must not judge
+Ezra and Nehemiah and their followers too hardly, if they exemplified
+the usual doom of poor humanity to escape from one error only to fall
+into another; if they failed to free themselves as completely from the
+idolatry of ritual as they had from that of images and dogmas; if they
+cherished the new fetters of the Levitical legislation which they had
+fitted upon themselves and their nation, as though such bonds had the
+sanctity of the obligations of morality; and if they led succeeding
+generations to spend their best energies in building that "hedge round
+the Torah" which was meant to preserve both ethics and theology, but
+which too often had the effect of pampering the latter and starving the
+former. The world being what it was, it is to be doubted whether Israel
+would have preserved intact the pure ore of religion, which the prophets
+had extracted for the use of mankind as well as for their nation, had
+not the leaders of the nation been zealous, even to death, for the dross
+of the law in which it was embedded. The struggle of the Jews, under the
+Maccabean house, against the Seleucidae was as important for mankind as
+that of the Greeks against the Persians. And, of all the strange ironies
+of history, perhaps the strangest is that "Pharisee" is current, as
+a term of reproach, among the theological descendants of that sect of
+Nazarenes who, without the martyr spirit of those primitive Puritans,
+would never have come into existence. They, like their historical
+successors, our own Puritans, have shared the general fate of the poor
+wise men who save cities.
+
+A criticism of theology from the side of science is not thought of
+by the prophets, and is at most indicated in the books of Job and
+Ecclesiastes, in both of which the problem of vindicating the ways of
+God to man is given up, though on different grounds, as a hopeless one.
+But with the extensive introduction of Greek thought among the Jews,
+which took place, not only during the domination of the Seleucidae in
+Palestine, but in the great Judaic colony which flourished in Egypt
+under the Ptolemies, criticism, on both ethical and scientific grounds,
+took a new departure.
+
+In the hands of the Alexandrian Jews, as represented by Philo, the
+fundamental axiom of later Jewish, as of Christian monotheism, that the
+Deity is infinitely perfect and infinitely good, worked itself out into
+its logical consequence--agnostic theism. Philo will allow of no point
+of contact between God and a world in which evil exists. For him God has
+no relation to space or to time, and, as infinite, suffers no predicate
+beyond that of existence. It is therefore absurd to ascribe to Him
+mental faculties and affections comparable in the remotest degree to
+those of men; He is in no way an object of cognition; He is [Greek] and
+[Greek] [33]--without quality and incomprehensible. That is to say the
+Alexandrian Jew of the first century had anticipated the reasonings
+of Hamilton and Mansell in the nineteenth, and, for him, God is the
+Unknowable in the sense in which that term is used by Mr. Herbert
+Spencer. Moreover, Philo's definition of the Supreme Being would not be
+inconsistent with that "substantia constans infinitis attributis, quorum
+unumquodque aeternam et infinitam essentiam exprimit," given by another
+great Israelite, were it not that Spinoza's doctrine of the immanence of
+the Deity in the world puts him, at any rate formally, at the antipodes
+of theological speculation. But the conception of the essential
+incognoscibility of the Deity is the same in each case. However, Philo
+was too thorough an Israelite and too much the child of his time to be
+content with this agnostic position. With the help of the Platonic
+and Stoic philosophy, he constructed an apprehensible, if not
+comprehensible, quasi-deity out of the Logos; while other more or less
+personified divine powers, or attributes, bridged over the interval
+between God and man; between the sacred existence, too pure to be called
+by any name which implied a conceivable quality, and the gross and evil
+world of matter. In order to get over the ethical difficulties presented
+by the naive naturalism of many parts of those Scriptures, in the divine
+authority of which he firmly believed, Philo borrowed from the Stoics
+(who had been in like straits in respect of Greek mythology), that
+great Excalibur which they had forged with infinite pains and skill--the
+method of allegorical interpretation. This mighty "two-handed engine at
+the door" of the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any
+and every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken
+allegorically or, as it is otherwise said, "poetically" or, "in a
+spiritual sense," the plainest words mean whatever a pious interpreter
+desires they should mean. In Biblical phrase, Zeno (who probably had
+a strain of Semitic blood in him) was the "father of all such as
+reconcile." No doubt Philo and his followers were eminently religious
+men; but they did endless injury to the cause of religion by laying the
+foundations of a new theology, while equipping the defenders of it
+with the subtlest of all weapons of offence and defence, and with an
+inexhaustible store of sophistical arguments of the most plausible
+aspect.
+
+The question of the real bearing upon theology of the influence exerted
+by the teaching of Philo's contemporary, Jesus of Nazareth, is one upon
+which it is not germane to my present purpose to enter. I take it simply
+as an unquestionable fact that his immediate disciples, known to their
+countrymen as "Nazarenes," were regarded as, and considered themselves
+to be, perfectly orthodox Jews, belonging to the puritanic or pharisaic
+section of their people, and differing from the rest only in their
+belief that the Messiah had already come. Christianity, it is said,
+first became clearly differentiated at Antioch, and it separated
+itself from orthodox Judaism by denying the obligation of the rite
+of circumcision and of the food prohibitions, prescribed by the law.
+Henceforward theology became relatively stationary among the Jews, [34]
+and the history of its rapid progress in a new course of evolution is
+the history of the Christian Churches, orthodox and heterodox. The
+steps in this evolution are obvious. The first is the birth of a new
+theological scheme arising out of the union of elements derived from
+Greek philosophy with elements derived from Israelitic theology. In
+the fourth Gospel, the Logos, raised to a somewhat higher degree of
+personification than in the Alexandrian theosophy, is identified with
+Jesus of Nazareth. In the Epistles, especially the later of those
+attributed to Paul, the Israelitic ideas of the Messiah and of
+sacrificial atonement coalesce with one another and with the embodiment
+of the Logos in Jesus, until the apotheosis of the Son of man is almost,
+or quite, effected. The history of Christian dogma, from Justin to
+Athanasius, is a record of continual progress in the same direction,
+until the fair body of religion, revealed in almost naked purity by the
+prophets, is once more hidden under a new accumulation of dogmas and of
+ritual practices of which the primitive Nazarene knew nothing; and which
+he would probably have regarded as blasphemous if he could have been
+made to understand them.
+
+As, century after century, the ages roll on, polytheism comes back under
+the disguise of Mariolatry and the adoration of saints; image-worship
+becomes as rampant as in old Egypt; adoration of relics takes the place
+of the old fetish-worship; the virtues of the ephod pale before those of
+holy coats and handkerchiefs; shrines and calvaries make up for the
+loss of the ark and of the high places; and even the lustral fluid of
+paganism is replaced by holy water at the porches of the temples. A
+touching ceremony--the common meal originally eaten in pious memory of
+a loved teacher--becomes metamorphosed into a flesh-and-blood sacrifice,
+supposed to possess exactly that redeeming virtue which the prophets
+denied to the flesh-and-blood sacrifices of their day; while the minute
+observance of ritual is raised to a degree of punctilious refinement
+which Levitical legislators might envy. And with the growth of this
+theology, grew its inevitable concomitant, the belief in evil spirits,
+in possession, in sorcery, in charms and omens, until the Christians of
+the twelfth century after our era were sunk in more debased and brutal
+superstitions than are recorded of the Israelites in the twelfth century
+before it.
+
+The greatest men of the Middle Ages are unable to escape the infection.
+Dante's "Inferno" would be revolting if it were not so often sublime, so
+often exquisitely tender. The hideous pictures which cover a vast space
+on the south wall of the Campo Santo of Pisa convey information, as
+terrible as it is indisputable, of the theological conceptions of
+Dante's countrymen in the fourteenth century, whose eyes were addressed
+by the painters of those disgusting scenes, and whose approbation they
+knew how to win. A candid Mexican of the time of Cortez, could he
+have seen this Christian burial-place, would have taken it for an
+appropriately adorned Teocalli. The professed disciple of the God
+of justice and of mercy might there gloat over the sufferings of his
+fellowmen depicted as undergoing every extremity of atrocious and
+sanguinary torture to all eternity, for theological errors no less than
+for moral delinquencies; while, in the central figure of Satan, [35]
+occupied in champing up souls in his capacious and well-toothed jaws, to
+void them again for the purpose of undergoing fresh suffering, we have
+the counterpart of the strange Polynesian and Egyptian dogma that there
+were certain gods who employed themselves in devouring the ghostly flesh
+of the Spirits of the dead. But in justice to the Polynesians, it must
+be recollected that, after three such operations, they thought the soul
+was purified and happy. In the view of the Christian theologian the
+operation was only a preparation for new tortures continued for ever and
+aye.
+
+With the growth of civilisation in Europe, and with the revival of
+letters and of science in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the
+ethical and intellectual criticism of theology once more recommenced,
+and arrived at a temporary resting-place in the confessions of the
+various reformed Protestant sects in the sixteenth century; almost all
+of which, as soon as they were strong enough, began to persecute those
+who carried criticism beyond their own limit. But the movement was not
+arrested by these ecclesiastical barriers, as their constructors fondly
+imagined it would be; it was continued, tacitly or openly, by Galileo,
+by Hobbes, by Descartes, and especially by Spinoza, in the seventeenth
+century; by the English Freethinkers, by Rousseau, by the French
+Encyclopaedists, and by the German Rationalists, among whom Lessing
+stands out a head and shoulders taller than the rest, throughout the
+eighteenth century; by the historians, the philologers, the Biblical
+critics, the geologists, and the biologists in the nineteenth century,
+until it is obvious to all who can see that the moral sense and
+the really scientific method of seeking for truth are once more
+predominating over false science. Once more ethics and theology are
+parting company.
+
+It is my conviction that, with the spread of true scientific culture,
+whatever may be the medium, historical, philological, philosophical, or
+physical, through which that culture is conveyed, and with its necessary
+concomitant, a constant elevation of the standard of veracity, the end
+of the evolution of theology will be like its beginning--it will cease
+to have any relation to ethics. I suppose that, so long as the human
+mind exists, it will not escape its deep-seated instinct to personify
+its intellectual conceptions. The science of the present day is as
+full of this particular form of intellectual shadow-worship as is the
+nescience of ignorant ages. The difference is that the philosopher who
+is worthy of the name knows that his personified hypotheses, such as
+law, and force, and ether, and the like, are merely useful symbols,
+while the ignorant and the careless take them for adequate expressions
+of reality. So, it may be, that the majority of mankind may find the
+practice of morality made easier by the use of theological symbols. And
+unless these are converted from symbols into idols, I do not see
+that science has anything to say to the practice, except to give an
+occasional warning of its dangers. But, when such symbols are dealt with
+as real existences, I think the highest duty which is laid upon men of
+science is to show that these dogmatic idols have no greater value than
+the fabrications of men's hands, the stocks and the stones, which they
+have replaced.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Even the most sturdy believers in the popular theory that the proper
+or titular names attached to the books of the Bible are those of their
+authors will hardly be prepared to maintain that Jephthah, Gideon, and
+their colleagues wrote the book of Judges. Nor is it easily admissible
+that Samuel wrote the two books which pass under his name, one of which
+deals entirely with events which took place after his death. In fact, no
+one knows who wrote either Judges or Samuel, nor when, within the range
+of 100 years, their present form was given to these books.]
+
+[Footnote 2: My citations are taken from the Revised Version, but for Lord and
+God I have substituted Jahveh and Elohim.]
+
+[Footnote 3: I need hardly say that I depend upon authoritative Biblical critics,
+whenever a question of interpretation of the text arises. As Reuss
+appears to me to be one of the most learned, acute, and fair-minded of
+those whose works I have studied, I have made most use of the commentary
+and dissertations in his splendid French edition of the Bible. But
+I have also had recourse to the works of Dillman, Kalisch, Kuenen,
+Thenius, Tuch, and others, in cases in which another opinion seemed
+desirable.]
+
+[Footnote 4: See "Divination," by Hazoral, _Journal of Anthropology,_ Bombay,
+vol. i. No. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 5: See, for example, the message of Jephthah to the King of the
+Ammonites: "So now Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, hath dispossessed the
+Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them?
+Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh, thy Elohim, giveth thee to
+possess?" (Jud. xi. 23, 24). For Jephthah, Chemosh is obviously as real
+a personage as Jahveh.]
+
+[Footnote 6: For example: "My oblation, my food for my offerings made by fire,
+of a sweet savour to me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due
+season" (Num. xxviii. 2).]
+
+[Footnote 7: In 2 Samuel xv. 27 David says to Zadok the priest, "Art thou not a
+seer?" and Gad is called David's seer.]
+
+[Footnote 8: This would at first appear to be inconsistent with the use of the
+word "prophetess" for Deborah. But it does not follow because the writer
+of Judges applies the name to Deborah that it was used in her day.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Samuel tells the cook, "Bring the potion which I gave thee, of which
+I said to thee, Set it by thee." It was therefore Samuel's to give. "And
+the cook took up the thigh (or shoulder) and that which was upon it and
+set it before Saul." But, in the Levitical regulations, it is the thigh
+(or shoulder) which becomes the priest's own property. "And the
+right thigh (or shoulder) shall ye give unto the priest for an
+heave-offering," which is given along with the wave breast "unto Aaron
+the priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the children of
+Israel" (Lev. vii. 31-34). Reuss writes on this passage: "La cuisse
+n'est point agitee, mais simplement _prelevee_ sur ce que les convives
+mangeront."]
+
+[Footnote 10: See, for example, Elkanah's sacrifice, 1 Sam. i. 3-9.]
+
+[Footnote 11: The ghost was not supposed to be capable of devouring the gross
+material substance of the offering; but his vaporous body appropriated
+the smoke of the burnt sacrifice, the visible and odorous exhalations of
+other offerings. The blood of the victim was particularly useful because
+it was thought to be the special seat of its soul or life. A West
+African negro replied to an European sceptic: "Of course, the spirit
+cannot eat corporeal food, but he extracts its spiritual part, and, as
+we see, leaves the material part behind" (Lippert, _Seelencult,_ p. 16).]
+
+[Footnote 12: It is further well worth consideration whether indications of
+former ancestor-worship are not to be found in the singular weight
+attached to the veneration of parents in the fourth commandment. It is
+the only positive commandment, in addition to those respecting the Deity
+and that concerning the Sabbath, and the penalties for infringing it
+were of the same character. In China, a corresponding reverence for
+parents is part and parcel of ancestor-worship; so in ancient Rome and
+in Greece (where parents were even called [secondary and earthly]).
+The fifth commandment, as it stands, would be an excellent compromise
+between ancestor-worship and monotheism. The larger hereditary share
+allotted by Israelitic law to the eldest son reminds one of the
+privileges attached to primogeniture in ancient Rome, which were closely
+connected with ancestor-worship. There is a good deal to be said in
+favour of the speculation that the ark of the covenant may have been a
+relic of ancestor-worship; but that topic is too large to be dealt with
+incidentally in this place]
+
+[Footnote 13: "The Scientific Aspects of Positivism," _Fortnightly Review,_ 1869,
+republished in _Lay Sermons._]
+
+[Footnote 14: OEuvres de Bossuet, ed. 1808, t. xxxv. p. 282.]
+
+[Footnote 15: I should like further to add the expression of my indebtedness to
+two works by Herr Julius Lippert, _Der Seelencult in seinen Beziehungen
+zur alt-hebraischen Religion_ and _Die Religionen der europaischen
+Culturvolker,_ both pubished in 1881. I have found them full of valuable
+suggestions.]
+
+[Footnote 16: See among others the remarkable work of Fustel de Coulanges,
+_La Cite antique,_ in which the social importance of the old Roman
+ancestor-worship is brought out with great clearness.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Supposed to be "the finer or more aeriform part of the body,"
+standing in "the same relation to the body as the perfume and the
+more essential qualities of a flower do to the more solid substances"
+(Mariner, vol. ii. p. 127).]
+
+[Footnote 18: A kind of "clients" in the Roman sense.]
+
+[Footnote 19: It is worthy of remark that [Greek] among the Greeks, and _Deus_
+among the Romans, had the same wide signification. The _dii manes_ were
+ghosts of ancestors=Atuas of the family.]
+
+[Footnote 20: _Voyages aux iles du Grand Ocean,_ t. i. p. 482.]
+
+[Footnote 21: _Te Ika a Maui: New Zealand and its Inhabitants,_ p. 72.]
+
+[Footnote 22: Compare: "And Samuel said unto Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me?"
+(I Sam. xxviii. l5)]
+
+[Footnote 23: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia,_ p. 238.]
+
+[Footnote 24: See Lippert's excellent remarks on this subject, _Der Seelencult,_
+p. 89.]
+
+[Footnote 25: _Sciography_ has the authority of Cudworth, _Intellectual System,_
+vol. ii. p. 836. Sciomancy [Greek], which, in the sense of divination
+by ghosts, may be found in Bailey's _Dictionary_ (1751: also furnishes a
+precedent for my coinage.]
+
+[Footnote 26: "Kami" is used in the sense of Elohim; and is also, like our word
+"Lord," employed as a title of respect among men, as indeed Elohim was.]
+
+[Footnote 27: [The Assyrians thus raised Assur to a position of pre-eminence.]]
+
+[Footnote 28: I refer those who wish to know the reasons which lead me to take up
+this position to the works of Reuss and Wellhausen, [and especially to
+Stade's _Geschichte des Volkes Israel._]]
+
+[Footnote 29: Bunsen. _Egypt's Place,_ vol. v. p.129, note.]
+
+[Footnote 30: See Birch, in _Egypt's Place,_ vol. v; and Brugsch, _History of
+Egypt._]
+
+[Footnote 31: Even by Graetz, who, though a fair enough historian, cannot be
+accused of any desire to over-estimate the importance of Egyptian
+influence upon his people.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden,_ Bd. i. p. 370.]
+
+[Footnote 33: See the careful analsyis of the work of the Alexandrian philosopher
+and theologian (who, it should be remembered, was a most devout Jew,
+held in the highest esteem by his countrymen) in Siegfried's _Philo von
+Alexandrien,_ 1875. (Also Dr. J. Drummond's _Philo Judaeus,_ 1888.)]
+
+[Footnote 34: I am not unaware of the existence of many and widely divergent
+sects and schools among the Jews at all periods of their history, since
+the dispersion. But I imagine that orthodox Judaism is now pretty much
+what it was in Philo's time; while Peter and Paul, if they could return
+to life, would certainly have to learn the catechism of either the
+Roman, Greek, or Anglican Churches, if they desired to be considered
+orthodox Christians.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Dante's description of Lucifer engaged in the eternal mastication
+of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot--
+
+   "Da ogni bocca dirompea co' denti
+      Un peccatore, a guisa di maciulla,
+      Si che tre ne facea cosi dolenti.
+    A quel dinanzi il mordere era nulla,
+      Verso 'l graffiar, che tal volta la schiena
+      Rimanea della pelle tutta brulla"--
+
+is quite in harmony with the Pisan picture and perfectly Polynesian in
+conception.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of Theology: An
+Anthropological Study, by Thomas Henry Huxley
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+PG's The The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study
+#11 in our series by Thomas Henry Huxley
+This is Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
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+The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study
+by Thomas Henry Huxley
+This is Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
+
+
+
+I conceive that the origin, the growth, the decline, and the
+fall of those speculations respecting the existence, the powers,
+and the dispositions of beings analogous to men, but more or
+less devoid of corporeal qualities, which may be broadly
+included under the head of theology, are phenomena the study of
+which legitimately falls within the province of the
+anthropologist. And it is purely as a question of anthropology
+(a department of biology to which, at various times, I have
+given a good deal of attention) that I propose to treat of the
+evolution of theology in the following pages.
+
+With theology as a code of dogmas which are to be believed, or
+at any rate repeated, under penalty of present or future
+punishment, or as a storehouse of anaesthetics for those who
+find the pains of life too hard to bear, I have nothing to do;
+and, so far as it may be possible, I shall avoid the expression
+of any opinion as to the objective truth or falsehood of the
+systems of theological speculation of which I may find occasion
+to speak. From my present point of view, theology is regarded as
+a natural product of the operations of the human mind, under the
+conditions of its existence, just as any other branch of
+science, or the arts of architecture, or music, or painting are
+such products. Like them, theology has a history. Like them
+also, it is to be met with in certain simple and rudimentary
+forms; and these can be connected by a multitude of gradations,
+which exist or have existed, among people of various ages and
+races, with the most highly developed theologies of past and
+present times. It is not my object to interfere, even in the
+slightest degree, with beliefs which anybody holds sacred; or to
+alter the conviction of any one who is of opinion that, in
+dealing with theology, we ought to be guided by considerations
+different from those which would be thought appropriate if the
+problem lay in the province of chemistry or of mineralogy.
+And if people of these ways of thinking choose to read beyond
+the present paragraph, the responsibility for meeting with
+anything they may dislike rests with them and not with me.
+
+We are all likely to be more familiar with the theological
+history of the Israelites than with that of any other nation.
+We may therefore fitly make it the first object of our studies;
+and it will be convenient to commence with that period which
+lies between the invasion of Canaan and the early days of the
+monarchy, and answers to the eleventh and twelfth centuries B.C.
+or thereabouts. The evidence on which any conclusion as to the
+nature of Israelitic theology in those days must be based is
+wholly contained in the Hebrew Scriptures--an agglomeration of
+documents which certainly belong to very different ages, but of
+the exact dates and authorship of any one of which (except
+perhaps a few of the prophetical writings) there is no evidence,
+either internal or external, so far as I can discover, of such a
+nature as to justify more than a confession of ignorance, or, at
+most, an approximate conclusion. In this venerable record of
+ancient life, miscalled a book, when it is really a library
+comparable to a selection of works from English literature
+between the times of Beda and those of Milton, we have the
+stratified deposits (often confused and even with their natural
+order inverted) left by the stream of the intellectual and moral
+life of Israel during many centuries. And, embedded in these
+strata, there are numerous remains of forms of thought which
+once lived, and which, though often unfortunately mere
+fragments, are of priceless value to the anthropologist.
+Our task is to rescue these from their relatively unimportant
+surroundings, and by careful comparison with existing forms of
+theology to make the dead world which they record live again.
+In other words, our problem is palaeontological, and the method
+pursued must be the same as that employed in dealing with other
+fossil remains.
+
+Among the richest of the fossiliferous strata to which I have
+alluded are the books of Judges and Samuel.<1> It has often been
+observed that these writings stand out, in marked relief from
+those which precede and follow them, in virtue of a certain
+archaic freshness and of a greater freedom from traces of late
+interpolation and editorial trimming. Jephthah, Gideon and
+Samson are men of old heroic stamp, who would look as much in
+place in a Norse Saga as where they are; and if the varnish-
+brush of later respectability has passed over these memoirs of
+the mighty men of a wild age, here and there, it has not
+succeeded in effacing, or even in seriously obscuring, the
+essential characteristics of the theology traditionally ascribed
+to their epoch.
+
+There is nothing that I have met with in the results of Biblical
+criticism inconsistent with the conviction that these books give
+us a fairly trustworthy account of Israelitic life and thought
+in the times which they cover; and, as such, apart from the
+great literary merit of many of their episodes, they possess the
+interest of being, perhaps, the oldest genuine history, as apart
+from mere chronicles on the one hand and mere legends on the
+other, at present accessible to us.
+
+But it is often said with exultation by writers of one party,
+and often admitted, more or less unwillingly, by their
+opponents, that these books are untrustworthy, by reason of
+being full of obviously unhistoric tales. And, as a notable
+example, the narrative of Saul's visit to the so-called "witch
+of Endor" is often cited. As I have already intimated, I have
+nothing to do with theological partisanship, either heterodox or
+orthodox, nor, for my present purpose, does it matter very much
+whether the story is historically true, or whether it merely
+shows what the writer believed; but, looking at the matter
+solely from the point of view of an anthropologist, I beg leave
+to express the opinion that the account of Saul's necromantic
+expedition is quite consistent with probability. That is to say,
+I see no reason whatever to doubt, firstly, that Saul made such
+a visit; and, secondly, that he and all who were present,
+including the wise woman of Endor herself, would have given,
+with entire sincerity, very much the same account of the
+business as that which we now read in the twenty-eighth chapter
+of the first book of Samuel; and I am further of opinion that
+this story is one of the most important of those fossils, to
+which I have referred, in the material which it offers for the
+reconstruction of the theology of the time. Let us therefore
+study it attentively--not merely as a narrative which, in the
+dramatic force of its gruesome simplicity, is not surpassed, if
+it is equalled, by the witch scenes in Macbeth--but as a piece
+of evidence bearing on an important anthropological problem.
+
+We are told (1 Sam. xxviii.) that Saul, encamped at Gilboa,
+became alarmed by the strength of the Philistine army gathered
+at Shunem. He therefore "inquired of Jahveh," but "Jahveh
+answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor
+by prophets."<2> Thus deserted by Jahveh, Saul, in his
+extremity, bethought him of "those that had familiar spirits,
+and the wizards," whom he is said, at some previous time, to
+have "put out of the land"; but who seem, nevertheless, to have
+been very imperfectly banished, since Saul's servants, in answer
+to his command to seek him a woman "that hath a familiar
+spirit," reply without a sign of hesitation or of fear, "Behold,
+there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor"; just as,
+in some parts of England, a countryman might tell any one who
+did not look like a magistrate or a policeman, where a "wise
+woman" was to be met with. Saul goes to this woman, who, after
+being assured of immunity, asks, "Whom shall I bring up to
+thee?" whereupon Saul says, "Bring me up Samuel." The woman
+immediately sees an apparition. But to Saul nothing is visible,
+for he asks, "What seest thou?" And the woman replies, "I see
+Elohim coming up out of the earth." Still the spectre remains
+invisible to Saul, for he asks, "What form is he of?" And she
+replies, "An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a robe."
+So far, therefore, the wise woman unquestionably plays the part
+of a "medium," and Saul is dependent upon her version of
+what happens.
+
+The account continues:--
+
+<quote>And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with
+his face to the ground and did obeisance. And Samuel said to
+Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul
+answered, I am sore distressed: for the Philistines make war
+against me, and Elohim is departed from me and answereth me no
+more, neither by prophets nor by dreams; therefore I have called
+thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
+And Samuel said, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing that
+Jahveh is departed from thee and is become thine adversary?
+And Jahveh hath wrought for himself, as he spake by me, and
+Jahveh hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to
+thy neighbour, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the
+voice of Jahveh and didst not execute his fierce wrath upon
+Amalek, therefore hath Jahveh done this thing unto thee this
+day. Moreover, Jahveh will deliver Israel also with thee into
+the hands of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy
+sons be with me: Jahveh shall deliver the host of Israel also
+into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway his
+full length upon the earth and was sore afraid because of the
+words of Samuel ..." (v. 14-20).
+<end quote>
+
+The statement that Saul "perceived" that it was Samuel is not to
+be taken to imply that, even now, Saul actually saw the shade of
+the prophet, but only that the woman's allusion to the prophetic
+mantle and to the aged appearance of the spectre convinced him
+that it was Samuel. Reuss<3> in fact translates the passage
+"Alors Saul reconnut que c'etait Samuel." Nor does the dialogue
+between Saul and Samuel necessarily, or probably, signify that
+Samuel spoke otherwise than by the voice of the wise woman.
+The Septuagint does not hesitate to call her [Greek], that is to
+say, a ventriloquist, implying that it was she who spoke--and
+this view of the matter is in harmony with the fact that the
+exact sense of the Hebrew words which are translated as "a woman
+that hath a familiar spirit" is "a woman mistress of <i>Ob.</i>"
+<i>Ob</i> means primitively a leather bottle, such as a wine
+skin, and is applied alike to the necromancer and to the spirit
+evoked. Its use, in these senses, appears to have been suggested
+by the likeness of the hollow sound emitted by a half-empty skin
+when struck, to the sepulchral tones in which the oracles of the
+evoked spirits were uttered by the medium. It is most probable
+that, in accordance with the general theory of spiritual
+influences which obtained among the old Israelites, the spirit
+of Samuel was conceived to pass into the body of the wise woman,
+and to use her vocal organs to speak in his own name--for I
+cannot discover that they drew any clear distinction between
+possession and inspiration.<4>
+
+If the story of Saul's consultation of the occult powers is to
+be regarded as an authentic narrative, or, at any rate, as a
+statement which is perfectly veracious so far as the intention
+of the narrator goes--and, as I have said, I see no reason for
+refusing it this character--it will be found, on further
+consideration, to throw a flood of light, both directly and
+indirectly, on the theology of Saul's countrymen--that is to
+say, upon their beliefs respecting the nature and ways of
+spiritual beings.
+
+Even without the confirmation of other abundant evidences to the
+same effect, it leaves no doubt as to the existence, among them,
+of the fundamental doctrine that man consists of a body and of a
+spirit, which last, after the death of the body, continues to
+exist as a ghost. At the time of Saul's visit to Endor, Samuel
+was dead and buried; but that his spirit would be believed to
+continue to exist in Sheol may be concluded from the well-known
+passage in the song attributed to Hannah, his mother:--
+
+<quote>
+Jahveh killeth and maketh alive;
+He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up.
+                             (1 Sam. ii. 6.)
+<end quote>
+
+And it is obvious that this Sheol was thought to be a place
+underground in which Samuel's spirit had been disturbed by the
+necromancer's summons, and in which, after his return thither,
+he would be joined by the spirits of Saul and his sons when they
+had met with their bodily death on the hill of Gilboa. It is
+further to be observed that the spirit, or ghost, of the dead
+man presents itself as the image of the man himself--it is the
+man, not merely in his ordinary corporeal presentment (even down
+to the prophet's mantle) but in his moral and intellectual
+characteristics. Samuel, who had begun as Saul's friend and
+ended as his bitter enemy, gives it to be understood that he is
+annoyed at Saul's presumption in disturbing him; and that, in
+Sheol, he is as much the devoted servant of Jahveh and as much
+empowered to speak in Jahveh's name as he was during his sojourn
+in the upper air.
+
+It appears now to be universally admitted that, before the
+exile, the Israelites had no belief in rewards and punishments
+after death, nor in anything similar to the Christian heaven and
+hell; but our story proves that it would be an error to suppose
+that they did not believe in the continuance of individual
+existence after death by a ghostly simulacrum of life. Nay, I
+think it would be very hard to produce conclusive evidence that
+they disbelieved in immortality; for I am not aware that there
+is anything to show that they thought the existence of the souls
+of the dead in Sheol ever came to an end. But they do not seem
+to have conceived that the condition of the souls in Sheol was
+in any way affected by their conduct in life. If there was
+immortality, there was no state of retribution in their
+theology. Samuel expects Saul and his sons to come to him
+in Sheol.
+
+The next circumstance to be remarked is that the name of
+<i>Elohim</i> is applied to the spirit which the woman sees
+"coming up out of the earth," that is to say, from Sheol.
+The Authorised Version translates this in its literal sense
+"gods." The Revised Version gives "god" with "gods" in the
+margin. Reuss renders the word by "spectre," remarking in a note
+that it is not quite exact; but that the word Elohim expresses
+"something divine, that is to say, superhuman, commanding
+respect and terror" ("Histoire des Israelites," p. 321).
+Tuch, in his commentary on Genesis, and Thenius, in his
+commentary on Samuel, express substantially the same opinion.
+Dr. Alexander (in Kitto's "Cyclopaedia" s. v. "God") has the
+following instructive remarks:--
+
+<quote>
+[<i>Elohim</i> is] sometimes used vaguely to describe unseen
+powers or superhuman beings that are not properly thought of as
+divine. Thus the witch of Endor saw "Elohim ascending out of the
+earth" (1 Sam. xxviii. 13), meaning thereby some beings of an
+unearthly, superhuman character. So also in Zechariah xii. 8, it
+is said "the house of David shall be as Elohim, as the angel of
+the Lord," where, as the transition from Elohim to the angel of
+the Lord is a minori ad majus, we must regard the former as a
+vague designation of supernatural powers.
+<end quote>
+
+Dr. Alexander speaks here of "beings"; but there is no reason to
+suppose that the wise woman of Endor referred to anything but a
+solitary spectre; and it is quite clear that Saul understood her
+in this sense, for he asks "What form is HE of?"
+
+This fact, that the name of Elohim is applied to a ghost, or
+disembodied soul, conceived as the image of the body in which it
+once dwelt, is of no little importance. For it is well known
+that the same term was employed to denote the gods of the
+heathen, who were thought to have definite quasi-corporeal forms
+and to be as much real entities as any other Elohim.<5> The
+difference which was supposed to exist between the different
+Elohim was one of degree, not one of kind. Elohim was, in
+logical terminology, the genus of which ghosts, Chemosh, Dagon,
+Baal, and Jahveh were species. The Israelite believed Jahveh to
+be immeasurably superior to all other kinds of Elohim. The
+inscription on the Moabite stone shows that King Mesa held
+Chemosh to be, as unquestionably, the superior of Jahveh. But if
+Jahveh was thus supposed to differ only in degree from the
+undoubtedly zoomorphic or anthropomorphic "gods of the nations,"
+why is it to be assumed that he also was not thought of as
+having a human shape? It is possible for those who forget that
+the time of the great prophetic writers is at least as remote
+from that of Saul as our day is from that of Queen Elizabeth, to
+insist upon interpreting the gross notions current in the
+earlier age and among the mass of the people by the refined
+conceptions promulgated by a few select spirits centuries later.
+But if we take the language constantly used concerning the Deity
+in the books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, or
+Kings, in its natural sense (and I am aware of no valid reason
+which can be given for taking it in any other sense), there
+cannot, to my mind, be a doubt that Jahveh was conceived by
+those from whom the substance of these books is mainly derived,
+to possess the appearance and the intellectual and moral
+attributes of a man; and, indeed, of a man of just that type
+with which the Israelites were familiar in their stronger and
+intellectually abler rulers and leaders. In a well-known passage
+in Genesis (i. 27) Elohim is said to have "created man in his
+own image, in the image of Elohim created he him." It is "man"
+who is here said to be the image of Elohim--not man's soul
+alone, still less his "reason," but the whole man. It is obvious
+that for those who call a manlike ghost Elohim, there could be
+no difficulty in conceiving any other Elohim under the same
+aspect. And if there could be any doubt on this subject, surely
+it cannot stand in the face of what we find in the fifth
+chapter, where, immediately after a repetition of the statement
+that "Elohim created man, in the likeness of Elohim made he
+him," it is said that Adam begat Seth "in his own likeness,
+after his image." Does this mean that Seth resembled Adam only
+in a spiritual and figurative sense? And if that interpretation
+of the third verse of the fifth chapter of Genesis is absurd,
+why does it become reasonable in the first verse of the
+same chapter?
+
+But let us go further. Is not the Jahveh who "walks in the
+garden in the cool of the day"; from whom one may hope to "hide
+oneself among the trees"; of whom it is expressly said that
+"Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of
+Israel," saw the Elohim of Israel (Exod. xxiv. 9-11); and that,
+although the seeing Jahveh was understood to be a high crime and
+misdemeanour, worthy of death, under ordinary circumstances,
+yet, for this once, he "laid not his hand on the nobles of
+Israel"; "that they beheld Elohim and did eat and drink";
+and that afterwards Moses saw his back (Exod. xxxiii. 23)--is
+not this Deity conceived as manlike in form? Again, is not the
+Jahveh who eats with Abraham under the oaks at Mamre, who is
+pleased with the "sweet savour" of Noah's sacrifice, to whom
+sacrifices are said to be "food"<6>--is not this Deity depicted
+as possessed of human appetites? If this were not the current
+Israelitish idea of Jahveh even in the eighth century B.C.,
+where is the point of Isaiah's scathing admonitions to his
+countrymen: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices
+unto me? saith Jahveh: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams
+and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of
+bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats" (Isa. i. 11). Or of
+Micah's inquiry, "Will Jahveh be pleased with thousands of rams
+or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?" (vi. 7.) And in the
+innumerable passages in which Jahveh is said to be jealous of
+other gods, to be angry, to be appeased, and to repent; in which
+he is represented as casting off Saul because the king does not
+quite literally execute a command of the most ruthless severity;
+or as smiting Uzzah to death because the unfortunate man
+thoughtlessly, but naturally enough, put out his hand to stay
+the ark from falling--can any one deny that the old Israelites
+conceived Jahveh not only in the image of a man, but in that of
+a changeable, irritable, and, occasionally, violent man?
+There appears to me, then, to be no reason to doubt that the
+notion of likeness to man, which was indubitably held of the
+ghost Elohim, was carried out consistently throughout the whole
+series of Elohim, and that Jahveh-Elohim was thought of as a
+being of the same substantially human nature as the rest, only
+immeasurably more powerful for good and for evil.
+
+The absence of any real distinction between the Elohim of
+different ranks is further clearly illustrated by the
+corresponding absence of any sharp delimitation between the
+various kinds of people who serve as the media of communication
+between them and men. The agents through whom the lower Elohim
+are consulted are called necromancers, wizards, and diviners,
+and are looked down upon by the prophets and priests of the
+higher Elohim; but the "seer"<7> connects the two, and they are
+all alike in their essential characters of media. The wise woman
+of Endor was believed by others, and, I have little doubt,
+believed herself, to be able to "bring up" whom she would from
+Sheol, and to be inspired, whether in virtue of actual
+possession by the evoked Elohim, or otherwise, with a knowledge
+of hidden things, I am unable to see that Saul's servant took
+any really different view of Samuel's powers, though he may have
+believed that he obtained them by the grace of the higher
+Elohim. For when Saul fails to find his father's asses, his
+servant says to him--
+
+<quote>
+Behold, there is in this city a man of Elohim, and he is a man
+that is held in honour; all that he saith cometh surely to pass;
+now let us go thither; peradventure, he can tell us concerning
+our journey whereon we go. Then said Saul to his servant, But
+behold if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is
+spent in our vessels and there is not a present to bring to the
+man of Elohim. What have we? And the servant answered Saul again
+and said, Behold I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel
+of silver: that will I give to the man of Elohim to tell us our
+way. (Beforetime in Israel when a man went to inquire of Elohim,
+then he said, Come and let us go to the Seer: for he that is now
+called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer<8>)
+(1 Sam. ix. 6-10).
+<end quote>
+
+In fact, when, shortly afterwards, Saul accidentally meets
+Samuel, he says, "Tell me, I pray thee, where the Seer's house
+is." Samuel answers, "I am the Seer." Immediately afterwards
+Samuel informs Saul that the asses are found, though how he
+obtained his knowledge of the fact is not stated. It will be
+observed that Samuel is not spoken of here as, in any special
+sense, a seer or prophet of Jahveh, but as a "man of Elohim"--
+that is to say, a seer having access to the "spiritual powers,"
+just as the wise woman of Endor might have been said to be a
+"woman of Elohim"--and the narrator's or editor's explanatory
+note seems to indicate that "Prophet" is merely a name,
+introduced later than the time of Samuel, for a superior kind of
+"Seer," or "man of Elohim."<9>
+
+Another very instructive passage shows that Samuel was not only
+considered to be diviner, seer, and prophet in one, but that he
+was also, to all intents and purposes, priest of Jahveh--though,
+according to his biographer, he was not a member of the tribe of
+Levi. At the outset of their acquaintance, Samuel says to Saul,
+"Go up before me into the high place," where, as the young
+maidens of the city had just before told Saul, the Seer was
+going, "for the people will not eat till he come, because he
+doth bless the sacrifice" (1 Sam. x. 12). The use of the word
+"bless" here--as if Samuel were not going to sacrifice, but only
+to offer a blessing or thanksgiving--is curious. But that Samuel
+really acted as priest seems plain from what follows. For he not
+only asks Saul to share in the customary sacrificial feast, but
+he disposes in Saul's favour of that portion of the victim which
+the Levitical legislation, doubtless embodying old customs,
+recognises as the priest's special property.<10>
+
+Although particular persons adopted the profession of media
+between men and Elohim, there was no limitation of the power, in
+the view of ancient Israel, to any special class of the
+population. Saul inquires of Jahveh and builds him altars on his
+own account; and in the very remarkable story told in the
+fourteenth chapter of the first book of Samuel (v. 37-46), Saul
+appears to conduct the whole process of divination, although he
+has a priest at his elbow. David seems to do the same.
+
+Moreover, Elohim constantly appear in dreams--which in old
+Israel did not mean that, as we should say, the subject of the
+appearance "dreamed he saw the spirit"; but that he veritably
+saw the Elohim which, as a soul, visited his soul while his body
+was asleep. And, in the course of the history of Israel Jahveh
+himself thus appears to all sorts of persons, non-Israelites as
+well as Israelites. Again, the Elohim possess, or inspire,
+people against their will, as in the case of Saul and Saul's
+messengers, and then these people prophesy--that is to say,
+"rave"--and exhibit the ungoverned gestures attributed by a
+later age to possession by malignant spirits. Apart from other
+evidence to be adduced by and by, the history of ancient
+demonology and of modern revivalism does not permit me to doubt
+that the accounts of these phenomena given in the history of
+Saul may be perfectly historical.
+
+In the ritual practices, of which evidence is to be found in the
+books of Judges and Samuel, the chief part is played by
+sacrifices, usually burnt offerings. Whenever the aid of the
+Elohim of Israel is sought, or thanks are considered due to him,
+an altar is built, and oxen, sheep, and goats are slaughtered
+and offered up. Sometimes the entire victim is burnt as a
+holocaust; more frequently only certain parts, notably the fat
+about the kidneys, are burnt on the altar. The rest is properly
+cooked; and, after the reservation of a part for the priest, is
+made the foundation of a joyous banquet, in which the
+sacrificer, his family, and such guests as he thinks fit to
+invite, participate.<11> Elohim was supposed to share in the
+feast, and it has been already shown that that which was set
+apart on the altar, or consumed by fire, was spoken of as the
+food of Elohim, who was thought to be influenced by the
+costliness, or by the pleasant smell, of the sacrifice in favour
+of the sacrificer.
+
+All this bears out the view that, in the mind of the old
+Israelite, there was no difference, save one of degree, between
+one Elohim and another. It is true that there is but little
+direct evidence to show that the old Israelites shared the
+widespread belief of their own, and indeed of all times, that
+the spirits of the dead not only continue to exist, but are
+capable of a ghostly kind of feeding and are grateful for such
+aliment as can be assimilated by their attenuated substance, and
+even for clothes, ornaments, and weapons.<12> That they were
+familiar with this doctrine in the time of the captivity is
+suggested by the well-known reference of Ezekiel (xxxii. 27) to
+the "mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone
+down to [Sheol] hell with their weapons of war, and have laid
+their swords under their heads." Perhaps there is a still
+earlier allusion in the "giving of food for the dead" spoken of
+in Deuteronomy (xxvi. 14).<13>
+
+It must be remembered that the literature of the old Israelites,
+as it lies before us, has been subjected to the revisal of
+strictly monotheistic editors, violently opposed to all kinds of
+idolatry, who are not likely to have selected from the materials
+at their disposal any obvious evidence, either of the practice
+under discussion, or of that ancestor-worship which is so
+closely related to it, for preservation in the permanent records
+of their people.
+
+The mysterious objects known as <i>Teraphim,</i> which are
+occasionally mentioned in Judges, Samuel, and elsewhere,
+however, can hardly be interpreted otherwise than as indications
+of the existence both of ancestor-worship and of image-worship
+in old Israel. The teraphim were certainly images of family
+gods, and, as such, in all probability represented deceased
+ancestors. Laban indignantly demands of his son-in-law,
+"Wherefore hast thou stolen my Elohim?" which Rachel, who must
+be assumed to have worshipped Jacob's God, Jahveh, had carried
+off, obviously because she, like her father, believed in their
+divinity. It is not suggested that Jacob was in any way
+scandalised by the idolatrous practices of his favourite wife,
+whatever he may have thought of her honesty when the truth came
+to light; for the teraphim seem to have remained in his camp, at
+least until he "hid" his strange gods "under the oak that was by
+Shechem" (Gen. xxxv. 4). And indeed it is open to question if he
+got rid of them then, for the subsequent history of Israel
+renders it more than doubtful whether the teraphim were regarded
+as "strange gods" even as late as the eighth century B.C.
+
+The writer of the books of Samuel takes it quite as a matter of
+course that Michal, daughter of one royal Jahveh worshipper and
+wife of the servant of Jahveh <i>par excellence,</i> the pious
+David, should have her teraphim handy, in her and David's
+chamber, when she dresses them up in their bed into a simulation
+of her husband, for the purpose of deceiving her father's
+messengers. Even one of the early prophets, Hosea, when he
+threatens that the children of Israel shall abide many days
+without "ephod or teraphim" (iii. 4), appears to regard both as
+equally proper appurtenances of the suspended worship of Jahveh,
+and equally certain to be restored when that is resumed. When we
+further take into consideration that only in the reign of
+Hezekiah was the brazen serpent, preserved in the temple and
+believed to be the work of Moses, destroyed, and the practice of
+offering incense to it, that is, worshipping it, abolished--that
+Jeroboam could set up "calves of gold" for Israel to worship,
+with apparently none but a political object, and certainly with
+no notion of creating a schism among the worshippers of Jahveh,
+or of repelling the men of Judah from his standard--it seems
+obvious, either that the Israelites of the tenth and eleventh
+centuries B.C. knew not the second commandment, or that they
+construed it merely as part of the prohibition to worship any
+supreme god other than Jahveh, which precedes it.
+
+In seeking for information about the teraphim, I lighted upon
+the following passage in the valuable article on that subject by
+Archdeacon Farrar, in Ritto's "Cyclopaedia of Biblical
+Literature," which is so much to the purpose of my argument,
+that I venture to quote it in full:--
+
+<quote>
+The main and certain results of this review are that the
+teraphim were rude human images; that the use of them was an
+antique Aramaic custom; that there is reason to suppose them to
+have been images of deceased ancestors; that they were consulted
+oracularly; that they were not confined to Jews; that their use
+continued down to the latest period of Jewish history;
+and lastly, that although the enlightened prophets and strictest
+later kings regarded them as idolatrous, the priests were much
+less averse to such images, and their cult was not considered in
+any way repugnant to the pious worship of Elohim, nay, even to
+the worship of him "under the awful title of Jehovah." In fact,
+they involved <i>a monotheistic idolatry very different indeed
+from polytheism;</i> and the tolerance of them by priests, as
+compared with the denunciation of them by the prophets, offers a
+close analogy to the views of the Roman Catholics respecting
+pictures and images as compared with the views of Protestants.
+It was against this use of idolatrous symbols and emblems in a
+monotheistic worship that the <i>second</i> commandment was
+directed, whereas the first is aimed against the graver sin of
+direct polytheism. But the whole history of Israel shows how
+utterly and how early the law must have fallen into desuetude.
+The worship of the golden calf and of the calves at Dan and
+Bethel, against which, so far as we know, neither Elijah nor
+Elisha said a single word; the tolerance of high places,
+teraphim and betylia; the offering of incense for centuries to
+the brazen serpent destroyed by Hezekiah; the occasional
+glimpses of the most startling irregularities sanctioned
+apparently even in the temple worship itself, prove most
+decisively that a pure monotheism and an independence of symbols
+was the result of a slow and painful course of God's disciplinal
+dealings among the noblest thinkers of a single nation, and not,
+as is so constantly and erroneously urged, the instinct of the
+whole Semitic race; in other words, one single branch of the
+Semites was under God's providence <i>educated</i> into pure
+monotheism only by centuries of misfortune and series of
+inspired men (vol. iii. p. 986).
+<end quote>
+
+It appears to me that the researches of the anthropologist lead
+him to conclusions identical in substance, if not in terms, with
+those here enunciated as the result of a careful study of the
+same subject from a totally different point of view.
+
+There is abundant evidence in the books of Samuel and elsewhere
+that an article of dress termed an <i>ephod</i> was supposed to
+have a peculiar efficacy in enabling the wearer to exercise
+divination by means of Jahveh-Elohim. Great and long continued
+have been the disputes as to the exact nature of the ephod--
+whether it always means something to wear, or whether it
+sometimes means an image. But the probabilities are that it
+usually signifies a kind of waistcoat or broad zone, with
+shoulder-straps, which the person who "inquired of Jahveh" put
+on. In 1 Samuel xxiii. 2 David appears to have inquired without
+an ephod, for Abiathar the priest is said to have "come down
+with an ephod in his hand" only subsequently. And then David
+asks for it before inquiring of Jahveh whether the men of Keilah
+would betray him or not. David's action is obviously divination
+pure and simple; and it is curious that he seems to have worn
+the ephod himself and not to have employed Abiathar as a medium.
+How the answer was given is not clear though the probability is
+that it was obtained by casting lots. The <i>Urim</i> and
+<i>Thummim</i> seem to have been two such lots of a peculiarly
+sacred character, which were carried in the pocket of the high
+priest's "breastplate." This last was worn along with the ephod.
+
+With the exception of one passage (1 Sam. xiv. 18) the ark is
+ignored in the history of Saul. But in this place the Septuagint
+reads "ephod" for ark, while in 1 Chronicles xiii. 3 David says
+that "we sought not unto it [the ark] in the days of Saul."
+Nor does Samuel seem to have paid any regard to the ark after
+its return from Philistia; though, in his childhood, he is said
+to have slept in "the temple of Jahveh, where the ark of Elohim
+was" (1 Sam. iii. 3), at Shiloh and there to have been the seer
+of the earliest apparitions vouchsafed to him by Jahveh.
+The space between the cherubim or winged images on the canopy or
+cover (<i>Kapporeth</i>) of this holy chest was held to be the
+special seat of Jahveh--the place selected for a temporary
+residence of the Supreme Elohim who had, after Aaron and
+Phineas, Eli and his sons for priests and seers. And, when the
+ark was carried to the camp at Eben-ezer, there can be no doubt
+that the Israelites, no less than the Philistines, held that
+"Elohim is come into the camp" (iv. 7), and that the one, as
+much as the other, conceived that the Israelites had summoned to
+their aid a powerful ally in "these (or this) mighty Elohim"--
+elsewhere called Jahve-Sabaoth, the Jahveh of Hosts. If the
+"temple" at Shiloh was the pentateuchal tabernacle, as is
+suggested by the name of "tent of meeting" given to it in
+1 Samuel ii. 22, it was essentially a large tent, though
+constituted of very expensive and ornate materials; if, on the
+other hand, it was a different edifice, there can be little
+doubt that this "house of Jahveh" was built on the model of an
+ordinary house of the time. But there is not the slightest
+evidence that, during the reign of Saul, any greater importance
+attached to this seat of the cult of Jahveh than to others.
+Sanctuaries, and "high places" for sacrifice, were scattered all
+over the country from Dan to Beersheba. And, as Samuel is said
+to have gone up to one of these high places to bless the
+sacrifice, it may be taken for tolerably certain that he knew
+nothing of the Levitical laws which severely condemn the high
+places and those who sacrifice away from the sanctuary hallowed
+by the presence of the ark.
+
+There is no evidence that, during the time of the Judges and of
+Samuel, any one occupied the position of the high priest of
+later days. And persons who were neither priests nor Levites
+sacrificed and divined or "inquired of Jahveh," when they
+pleased and where they pleased, without the least indication
+that they, or any one else in Israel at that time, knew they
+were doing wrong. There is no allusion to any special observance
+of the Sabbath; and the references to circumcision are indirect.
+
+Such are the chief articles of the theological creed of the old
+Israelites, which are made known to us by the direct evidence of
+the ancient record to which we have had recourse, and they are
+as remarkable for that which they contain as for that which is
+absent from them. They reveal a firm conviction that, when death
+takes place, a something termed a soul or spirit leaves the body
+and continues to exist in Sheol for a period of indefinite
+duration, even though there is no proof of any belief in
+absolute immortality; that such spirits can return to earth to
+possess and inspire the living; that they are, in appearance and
+in disposition, likenesses of the men to whom they belonged, but
+that, as spirits, they have larger powers and are freer from
+physical limitations; that they thus form a group among a number
+of kinds of spiritual existences known as Elohim, of whom
+Jahveh, the national God of Israel, is one; that, consistently
+with this view, Jahveh was conceived as a sort of spirit, human
+in aspect and in senses, and with many human passions, but with
+immensely greater intelligence and power than any other Elohim,
+whether human or divine. Further, the evidence proves that this
+belief was the basis of the Jahveh-worship to which Samuel and
+his followers were devoted; that there is strong reason for
+believing, and none for doubting, that idolatry, in the shape of
+the worship of the family gods or teraphim, was practised by
+sincere and devout Jahveh-worshippers; that the ark, with its
+protective tent or tabernacle, was regarded as a specially, but
+by no means exclusively, favoured sanctuary of Jahveh; that the
+ephod appears to have had a particular value for those who
+desired to divine by the help of Jahveh; and that divination by
+lots was practised before Jahveh. On the other hand, there is
+not the slightest evidence of any belief in retribution after
+death, but the contrary; ritual obligations have at least as
+strong sanction as moral; there are clear indications that some
+of the most stringent of the Levitical laws were unknown even to
+Samuel; priests often appear to be superseded by laymen, even in
+the performance of sacrifices and divination; and no line of
+demarcation can be drawn between necromancer, wizard, seer,
+prophet, and priest, each of whom is regarded, like all the
+rest, as a medium of communication between the world of Elohim
+and that of living men.
+
+The theological system thus defined offers to the anthropologist
+no feature which is devoid of a parallel in the known theologies
+of other races of mankind, even of those who inhabit parts of
+the world most remote from Palestine. And the foundation of the
+whole, the ghost theory, is exactly that theological speculation
+which is the most widely spread of all, and the most deeply
+rooted among uncivilised men. I am able to base this statement,
+to some extent, on facts within my own knowledge. In December
+1848, H.M.S. <i>Rattlesnake,</i> the ship to which I then
+belonged, was anchored off Mount Ernest, an island in Torres
+Straits. The people were few and well disposed; and, when a
+friend of mine (whom I will call B.) and I went ashore, we made
+acquaintance with an old native, Paouda by name. In course of
+time we became quite intimate with the old gentleman, partly by
+the rendering of mutual good offices, but chiefly because Paouda
+believed he had discovered that B. was his father-in-law.
+And his grounds for this singular conviction were very
+remarkable. We had made a long stay at Cape York hard by;
+and, in accordance with a theory which is widely spread among
+the Australians, that white men are the reincarnated spirits of
+black men, B. was held to be the ghost, or <i>narki,</i> of a
+certain Mount Ernest native, one Antarki, who had lately died,
+on the ground of some real or fancied resemblance to the latter.
+Now Paouda had taken to wife a daughter of Antarki's, named
+Domani, and as soon as B. informed him that he was the ghost of
+Antarki, Paouda at once admitted the relationship and acted upon
+it. For, as all the women on the island had hidden away in fear
+of the ship, and we were anxious to see what they were like, B.
+pleaded pathetically with Paouda that it would be very unkind
+not to let him see his daughter and grandchildren. After a good
+deal of hesitation and the exaction of pledges of deep secrecy,
+Paouda consented to take B., and myself as B.'s friend, to see
+Domani and the three daughters, by whom B. was received quite as
+one of the family, while I was courteously welcomed on
+his account.
+
+This scene made an impression upon me which is not yet effaced.
+It left no question on my mind of the sincerity of the strange
+ghost theory of these savages, and of the influence which their
+belief has on their practical life. I had it in my mind, as well
+as many a like result of subsequent anthropological studies,
+when, in 1869,<14> I wrote as follows:--
+
+<quote>
+There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word,
+but none without ghosts. And the Fetishism, Ancestor-worship,
+Hero-worship, and Demonology of primitive savages are all, I
+believe, different manners of expression of their belief in
+ghosts, and of the anthropomorphic interpretation of out-of-the-
+way events which is its concomitant. Witchcraft and sorcery are
+the practical expressions of these beliefs; and they stand in
+the same relation to religious worship as the simple
+anthropomorphism of children or savages does to theology.
+<end quote>
+
+I do not quote myself with any intention of making a claim to
+originality in putting forth this view; for I have since
+discovered that the same conception is virtually contained in
+the great "Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle" of Bossuet, now
+more than two centuries old:--
+
+<quote>
+Le culte des hommes morta faisoit presque tout le fond de
+l'idolatrie; presque tous les hommes sacrificient aux manes,
+c'est-a-dire aux ames des morts. De si anciennes erreurs nous
+font voir a la verite combien etoit ancienne la croyance de
+l'immortalite de l'ame, et nous montrent qu'elle doit etre
+rangee parmi les premieres traditions du genre humain.
+Mais l'homme, qui gatoit tout, en avoit etrangement abuse,
+puisqu'elle le portoit a sacrificer aux morts. On alloit meme
+jusqu'a cet exces, de leur sacrifier des hommes vivans; ou tuoit
+leurs esclaves, et meme leurs femmes, pour les aller servir dans
+l'autre monde."<15>
+<end quote>
+
+Among more modern writers J. G. Muller, in his excellent
+"Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen" (1855), clearly
+recognises "gespensterhafter Geisterglaube" as the foundation of
+all savage and semi-civilised theology, and I need do no more
+than mention the important developments of the same view which
+are to be found in Mr. Tylor's "Primitive Culture," and in the
+writings of Mr. Herbert Spencer, especially his recently-
+published "Ecclesiastical Institutions."<16>
+
+It is a matter of fact that, whether we direct our attention to
+the older conditions of civilised societies, in Japan, in China,
+in Hindostan, in Greece, or in Rome,<17> we find, underlying all
+other theological notions, the belief in ghosts, with its
+inevitable concomitant sorcery; and a primitive cult, in the
+shape of a worship of ancestors, which is essentially an attempt
+to please, or appease their ghosts. The same thing is true of
+old Mexico and Peru, and of all the semi-civilised or savage
+peoples who have developed a definite cult; and in those who,
+like the natives of Australia, have not even a cult, the belief
+in, and fear of, ghosts is as strong as anywhere else. The most
+clearly demonstrable article of the theology of the Israelites
+in the eleventh and twelfth centuries B.C. is therefore simply
+the article which is to be found in all primitive theologies,
+namely, the belief that a man has a soul which continues to
+exist after death for a longer or shorter time, and may return,
+as a ghost, with a divine, or at least demonic, character, to
+influence for good or evil (and usually for evil) the affairs of
+the living. But the correspondence between the old Israelitic
+and other archaic forms of theology extends to details. If, in
+order to avoid all chance of direct communication, we direct our
+attention to the theology of semi-civilised people, such as the
+Polynesian Islanders, separated by the greatest possible
+distance, and by every conceivable physical barrier, from the
+inhabitants of Palestine, we shall find not merely that all the
+features of old Israelitic theology, which are revealed in the
+records cited, are found among them; but that extant information
+as to the inner mind of these people tends to remove many of the
+difficulties which those who have not studied anthropology find
+in the Hebrew narrative.
+
+One of the best sources, if not the best source, of information
+on these topics is Mariner's <i>Tonga Islands,</i> which tells
+us of the condition of Cook's "Friendly Islanders" eighty years
+ago, before European influence was sensibly felt among them.
+Mariner, a youth of fair education and of no inconsiderable
+natural ability (as the work which was drawn up from the
+materials he furnished shows), was about fifteen years of age
+when his ship was attacked and plundered by the Tongans:
+he remained four years in the islands, familiarised himself with
+the language, lived the life of the people, became intimate with
+many of them, and had every opportunity of acquainting himself
+with their opinions, as well as with their habits and customs.
+He seems to have been devoid of prejudices, theological or
+other, and the impression of strict accuracy which his
+statements convey has been justified by all the knowledge of
+Polynesian life which has been subsequently acquired.
+
+It is desirable, therefore, to pay close attention to that which
+Mariner tells us about the theological views of these people:--
+
+<quote>
+The human soul,<18> after its separation from the body, is
+termed a <i>hotooa</i> (a god or spirit), and is believed to
+exist in the shape of the body; to have the same propensities as
+during life, but to be corrected by a more enlightened
+understanding, by which it readily distinguishes good from evil,
+truth from falsehood, right from wrong; having the same
+attributes as the original gods, but in a minor degree, and
+having its dwelling for ever in the happy regions of Bolotoo,
+holding the same rank in regard to other souls as during this
+life; it has, however, the power of returning to Tonga to
+inspire priests, relations, or others, or to appear in dreams to
+those it wishes to admonish; and sometimes to the external eye
+in the form of a ghost or apparition; but this power of
+reappearance at Tonga particularly belongs to the souls of
+chiefs rather than of matabooles" (vol. ii. p. 130).
+<end quote>
+
+The word "hotooa" is the same as that which is usually spelt
+"atua" by Polynesian philologues, and it will be convenient to
+adopt this spelling. Now under this head of "<i>Atuas</i> or
+supernatural intelligent beings" the Tongans include:--
+
+<quote>
+1. The original gods. 2. The souls of nobles that have all
+attributes in common with the first but inferior in degree.
+3. The souls of matabooles<19> that are still inferior, and have
+not the power as the two first have of coming back to Tonga to
+inspire the priest, though they are supposed to have the power
+of appearing to their relatives. 4. The original attendants or
+servants, as it were, of the gods, who, although they had their
+origin and have ever since existed in Bolotoo, are still
+inferior to the third class. 5. The <i>Atua pow</i> or
+mischievous gods. 6. <i>Mooi,</i> or the god that supports the
+earth and does not belong to Bolotoo (vol. ii. pp. 103, 104).
+<end quote>
+
+From this it appears that the "Atuas" of the Polynesian are
+exactly equivalent to the "Elohim" of the old Israelite.<20>
+They comprise everything spiritual, from a ghost to a god, and
+from "the merely tutelar gods to particular private families"
+(vol, ii. p. 104), to Ta-li-y-Tooboo, who was the national god
+of Tonga. The Tongans had no doubt that these Atuas daily and
+hourly influenced their destinies and could, conversely, be
+influenced by them. Hence their "piety," the incessant acts of
+sacrificial worship which occupied their lives, and their belief
+in omens and charms. Moreover, the Atuas were believed to visit
+particular persons,--their own priests in the case of the higher
+gods, but apparently anybody in that of the lower,--and to
+inspire them by a process which was conceived to involve the
+actual residence of the god, for the time being, in the person
+inspired, who was thus rendered capable of prophesying (vol. ii.
+p. 100). For the Tongan, therefore, inspiration indubitably
+was possession.
+
+When one of the higher gods was invoked, through his priest, by
+a chief who wished to consult the oracle, or, in old Israelitic
+phraseology, to "inquire of," the god, a hog was killed and
+cooked over night, and, together with plantains, yams, and the
+materials for making the peculiar drink <i>kava</i> (of which
+the Tongans were very fond), was carried next day to the priest.
+A circle, as for an ordinary kava-drinking entertainment, was
+then formed; but the priest, as the representative of the god,
+took the highest place, while the chiefs sat outside the circle,
+as an expression of humility calculated to please the god.
+
+<quote>
+As soon as they are all seated the priest is considered as
+inspired, the god being supposed to exist within him from that
+moment. He remains for a considerable time in silence with his
+hands clasped before him, his eyes are cast down and he rests
+perfectly still. During the time the victuals are being shared
+out and the kava preparing, the matabooles sometimes begin to
+consult him; sometimes he answers, and at other times not;
+in either case he remains with his eyes cast down. Frequently he
+will not utter a word till the repast is finished and the kava
+too. When he speaks he generally begins in a low and very
+altered tone of voice, which gradually rises to nearly its
+natural pitch, though sometimes a little above it. All that he
+says is supposed to be the declaration of the god, and he
+accordingly speaks in the first person, as if he were the god.
+All this is done generally without any apparent inward emotion
+or outward agitation; but, on some occasions, his countenance
+becomes fierce, and as it were inflamed, and his whole frame
+agitated with inward feeling; he is seized with an universal
+trembling, the perspiration breaks out on his forehead, and his
+lips turning black are convulsed; at length tears start in
+floods from his eyes, his breast heaves with great emotion, and
+his utterance is choked. These symptoms gradually subside.
+Before this paroxysm comes on, and after it is over, he often
+eats as much as four hungry men under other circumstances could
+devour. The fit being now gone off, he remains for some time
+calm and then takes up a club that is placed by him for the
+purpose, turns it over and regards it attentively; he then looks
+up earnestly, now to the right, now to the left, and now again
+at the club; afterwards he looks up again and about him in like
+manner, and then again fixes his eyes on the club, and so on for
+several times. At length he suddenly raises the club, and, after
+a moment's pause, strikes the ground or the adjacent part of the
+house with considerable force, immediately the god leaves him,
+and he rises up and retires to the back of the ring among the
+people (vol. i. pp. 100, 101).
+<end quote>
+
+The phenomena thus described, in language which, to any one who
+is familiar with the manifestations of abnormal mental states
+among ourselves, bears the stamp of fidelity, furnish a most
+instructive commentary upon the story of the wise woman of
+Endor. As in the latter, we have the possession by the spirit or
+soul (Atua, Elohim), the strange voice, the speaking in the
+first person. Unfortunately nothing (beyond the loud cry) is
+mentioned as to the state of the wise woman of Endor. But what
+we learn from other sources (<i>e.g.</i> 1 Sam. x. 20-24)
+respecting the physical concomitants of inspiration among the
+old Israelites has its exact equivalent in this and other
+accounts of Polynesian prophetism. An excellent authority,
+Moerenhout, who lived among the people of the Society Islands
+many years and knew them well, says that, in Tahiti, the
+<i>role</i> of the prophet had very generally passed out of the
+hands of the priests into that of private persons who professed
+to represent the god, often assumed his name, and in this
+capacity prophesied. I will not run the risk of weakening the
+force of Moerenhout's description of the prophetic state by
+translating it:--
+
+<quote>
+Un individu, dans cet etat, avait le bras gauche enveloppe d'un
+morceau d'etoffe, signe de la presence de la Divinite. Il ne
+parlait que d'un ton imperieux et vehement. Ses attaques, quand
+il allait prophetiser, etaient aussi effroyables qu'imposantes.
+Il tremblait d'abord de tous ses membres, la figure enflee, les
+yeux hagards, rouges et etincelants d'une expression sauvage.
+Il gesticulait, articulait des mots vides de sens, poussait des
+cris horribles qui faisaient tressaillir tous les assistants, et
+s'exaltait parfois au point qu'on n'osait par l'approcher.
+Autour de lui, le silence de la terreur et du respect. ...
+C'est alors qu'il repondait aux questions, annoncait l'avenir,
+le destin des batailles, la volonte des dieux; et, chose
+etonnante! au sein de ce delire, de cet enthousiasme religieux,
+son langage etait grave, imposant, son eloquence noble et
+persuasive.<21>
+<end quote>
+
+Just so Saul strips off his clothes, "prophesies" before Samuel,
+and lies down "naked all that day and night."
+
+Both Mariner and Moerenhout refuse to have recourse to the
+hypothesis of imposture in order to account for the inspired
+state of the Polynesian prophets. On the contrary, they fully
+believe in their sincerity. Mariner tells the story of a young
+chief, an acquaintance of his, who thought himself possessed by
+the Atua of a dead woman who had fallen in love with him, and
+who wished him to die that he might be near her in Bolotoo.
+And he died accordingly. But the most valuable evidence on this
+head is contained in what the same authority says about King
+Finow's son. The previous king, Toogoo Ahoo, had been
+assassinated by Finow, and his soul, become an Atua of divine
+rank in Bolotoo, had been pleased to visit and inspire Finow's
+son--with what particular object does not appear.
+
+<quote>
+When this young chief returned to Hapai, Mr. Mariner, who was
+upon a footing of great friendship with him, one day asked him
+how he felt himself when the spirit of Toogoo Ahoo visited him;
+he replied that he could not well describe his feelings, but the
+best he could say of it was, that he felt himself all over in a
+glow of heat and quite restless and uncomfortable, and did not
+feel his own personal identity, as it were, but seemed to have a
+mind different from his own natural mind, his thoughts wandering
+upon strange and unusual subjects, though perfectly sensible of
+surrounding objects. He next asked him how he knew it was the
+spirit of Toogoo Ahoo? His answer was, 'There's a fool! How can
+I tell you <i>how</i> I knew it! I felt and knew it was so by a
+kind of consciousness; my <i>mind</i> told me that it was Toogoo
+Ahoo (vol. i. pp. 104, 105).
+<end quote>
+
+Finow's son was evidently made for a theological disputant, and
+fell back at once on the inexpugnable stronghold of faith when
+other evidence was lacking. "There's a fool! I know it is true,
+because I know it," is the exemplar and epitome of the sceptic-
+crushing process in other places than the Tonga Islands.
+
+The island of Bolotoo, to which all the souls (of the upper
+classes at any rate) repair after the death of the body, and
+from which they return at will to interfere, for good or evil,
+with the lives of those whom they have left behind, obviously
+answers to Sheol. In Tongan tradition, this place of souls is a
+sort of elysium above ground and pleasant enough to live in.
+But, in other parts of Polynesia, the corresponding locality,
+which is called Po, has to be reached by descending into the
+earth, and is represented dark and gloomy like Sheol. But it was
+not looked upon as a place of rewards and punishments in any
+sense. Whether in Bolotoo or in Po, the soul took the rank it
+had in the flesh; and, a shadow, lived among the shadows of the
+friends and houses and food of its previous life.
+
+The Tongan theologians recognised several hundred gods;
+but there was one, already mentioned as their national god, whom
+they regarded as far greater than any of the others, "as a great
+chief from the top of the sky down to the bottom of the earth"
+(Mariner, vol. ii. p. 106). He was also god of war, and the
+tutelar deity of the royal family, whoever happened to be the
+incumbent of the royal office for the time being. He had no
+priest except the king himself, and his visits, even to royalty,
+were few and far between. The name of this supreme deity was
+Ta-li-y-Tooboo, the literal meaning of which is said to be "Wait
+there, Tooboo," from which it would appear that the peculiar
+characteristic of Ta-li-y-Tooboo, in the eyes of his
+worshippers, was persistence of duration. And it is curious to
+notice, in relation to this circumstance, that many Hebrew
+philologers have thought the meaning of Jahveh to be best
+expressed by the word "Eternal." It would probably be difficult
+to express the notion of an eternal being, in a dialect so
+little fitted to convey abstract conceptions as Tongan, better
+than by that of one who always "waits there."
+
+The characteristics of the gods in Tongan theology are exactly
+those of men whose shape they are supposed to possess, only they
+have more intelligence and greater power. The Tongan belief
+that, after death, the human Atua more readily distinguishes
+good from evil, runs parallel with the old Israelitic conception
+of Elohim expressed in Genesis, "Ye shall be as Elohim, knowing
+good from evil." They further agreed with the old Israelites,
+that "all rewards for virtue and punishments for vice happen to
+men in this world only, and come immediately from the gods"
+(vol. ii. p. 100). Moreover, they were of opinion that though
+the gods approve of some kinds of virtue, are displeased with
+some kinds of vice, and, to a certain extent, protect or forsake
+their worshippers according to their moral conduct, yet neglect
+to pay due respect to the deities, and forgetfulness to keep
+them in good humour, might be visited with even worse
+consequences than moral delinquency. And those who will
+carefully study the so-called "Mosaic code" contained in the
+books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, will see that, though
+Jahveh's prohibitions of certain forms of immorality are strict
+and sweeping, his wrath is quite as strongly kindled against
+infractions of ritual ordinances. Accidental homicide may go
+unpunished, and reparation may be made for wilful theft. On the
+other hand, Nadab and Abihu, who "offered strange fire before
+Jahveh, which he had not commanded them," were swiftly devoured
+by Jahveh's fire; he who sacrificed anywhere except at the
+allotted place was to be "cut off from his people"; so was he
+who ate blood; and the details of the upholstery of the
+Tabernacle, of the millinery of the priests' vestments, and of
+the cabinet work of the ark, can plead direct authority from
+Jahveh, no less than moral commands.
+
+Amongst the Tongans, the sacrifices were regarded as gifts of
+food and drink offered to the divine Atuas, just as the articles
+deposited by the graves of the recently dead were meant as food
+for Atuas of lower rank. A kava root was a constant form of
+offering all over Polynesia. In the excellent work of the Rev.
+George Turner, entitled <i>Nineteen Years in Polynesia</i>
+(p. 241), I find it said of the Samoans (near neighbours of
+the Tongans):--
+
+<quote>
+<i>The offerings</i> were principally cooked food. As in ancient
+Greece so in Samoa, the first cup was in honour of the god.
+It was either poured out on the ground or <i>waved</i> towards
+the heavens, reminding us again of the Mosaic ceremonies.
+The chiefs all drank a portion out of the same cup, according to
+rank; and after that, the food brought as an offering was
+divided and eaten '<i>there before the Lord.</i>'
+<end quote>
+
+In Tonga, when they consulted a god who had a priest, the
+latter, as representative of the god, had the first cup; but if
+the god, like Ta-li-y-Tooboo, had no priest, then the chief
+place was left vacant, and was supposed to be occupied by the
+god himself. When the first cup of kava was filled, the
+mataboole who acted as master of the ceremonies said, "Give it
+to your god," and it was offered, though only as a matter of
+form. In Tonga and Samoa there were many sacred places or
+<i>morais,</i> with houses of the ordinary construction, but
+which served as temples in consequence of being dedicated to
+various gods; and there were altars on which the sacrifices were
+offered; nevertheless there were few or no images. Mariner
+mentions none in Tonga, and the Samoans seem to have been
+regarded as no better than atheists by other Polynesians because
+they had none. It does not appear that either of these peoples
+had images even of their family or ancestral gods.
+
+In Tahiti and the adjacent islands, Moerenhout (t. i. p. 471)
+makes the very interesting observation, not only that idols were
+often absent, but that, where they existed, the images of the
+gods served merely as depositories for the proper
+representatives of the divinity. Each of these was called a
+<i>maro aurou,</i> and was a kind of girdle artistically adorned
+with red, yellow, blue, and black feathers--the red feathers
+being especially important--which were consecrated and kept as
+sacred objects within the idols. They were worn by great
+personages on solemn occasions, and conferred upon their wearers
+a sacred and almost divine character. There is no distinct
+evidence that the <i>maro aurou</i> was supposed to have any
+special efficacy in divination, but one cannot fail to see a
+certain parallelism between this holy girdle, which endowed its
+wearer with a particular sanctity, and the ephod.
+
+According to the Rev. R. Taylor, the New Zealanders formerly
+used the word <i>karakia</i> (now employed for "prayer") to
+signify a "spell, charm, or incantation," and the utterance of
+these karakias constituted the chief part of their cult. In the
+south, the officiating priest had a small image, "about eighteen
+inches long, resembling a peg with a carved head," which reminds
+one of the form commonly attributed to the teraphim.
+
+<quote>
+The priest first bandaged a fillet of red parrot feathers under
+the god's chin, which was called his pahau or beard; this
+bandage was made of a certain kind of sennet, which was tied on
+in a peculiar way. When this was done it was taken possession of
+by the Atua, whose spirit entered it. The priest then either
+held it in the hand and vibrated it in the air whilst the
+powerful karakia was repeated, or he tied a piece of string
+(formed of the centre of a flax leaf) round the neck of the
+image and stuck it in the ground. He sat at a little distance
+from it, leaning against a tuahu, a short stone pillar stuck in
+the ground in a slanting position and, holding the string in his
+hand, he gave the god a jerk to arrest his attention, lest he
+should be otherwise engaged, like Baal of old, either hunting,
+fishing, or sleeping, and therefore must be awaked. ... The god
+is supposed to make use of the priest's tongue in giving a
+reply. Image-worship appears to have been confined to one part
+of the island. The Atua was supposed only to enter the image for
+the occasion. The natives declare they did not worship the image
+itself, but only the Atua it represented, and that the image was
+merely used as a way of approaching him.<22>
+<end quote>
+
+This is the excuse for image-worship which the more intelligent
+idolaters make all the world over; but it is more interesting to
+observe that, in the present case, we seem to have the
+equivalents of divination by teraphim, with the aid of something
+like an ephod (which, however, is used to sanctify the image and
+not the priest) mixed up together. Many Hebrew archaeologists
+have supposed that the term "ephod" is sometimes used for an
+image (particularly in the case of Gideon's ephod), and the
+story of Micah, in the book of Judges, shows that images were,
+at any rate, employed in close association with the ephod.
+If the pulling of the string to call the attention of the god
+seems as absurd to us as it appears to have done to the worthy
+missionary, who tells us of the practice, it should be
+recollected that the high priest of Jahveh was ordered to wear a
+garment fringed with golden bells.
+
+<quote>
+And it shall be upon Aaron to minister; and the sound thereof
+shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before
+Jahveh, and when he cometh out, that he die not (Exod.
+xxviii. 35).
+<end quote>
+
+
+An escape from the obvious conclusion suggested by this passage
+has been sought in the supposition that these bells rang for the
+sake of the worshippers, as at the elevation of the host in the
+Roman Catholic ritual; but then why should the priest be
+threatened with the well-known penalty for inadvisedly beholding
+the divinity?
+
+In truth, the intermediate step between the Maori practice and
+that of the old Israelites is furnished by the Kami temples in
+Japan. These are provided with bells which the worshippers who
+present themselves ring, in order to call the attention of the
+ancestor-god to their presence. Grant the fundamental assumption
+of the essentially human character of the spirit, whether Atua,
+Kami, or Elohim, and all these practices are equally rational.
+
+The sacrifices to the gods in Tonga, and elsewhere in Polynesia,
+were ordinarily social gatherings, in which the god, either in
+his own person or in that of his priestly representative, was
+supposed to take part. These sacrifices were offered on every
+occasion of importance, and even the daily meals were prefaced
+by oblations and libations of food and drink, exactly answering
+to those offered by the old Romans to their manes, penates, and
+lares. The sacrifices had no moral significance, but were the
+necessary result of the theory that the god was either a deified
+ghost of an ancestor or chief, or, at any rate, a being of like
+nature to these. If one wanted to get anything out of him,
+therefore, the first step was to put him in good humour by
+gifts; and if one desired to escape his wrath, which might be
+excited by the most trifling neglect or unintentional
+disrespect, the great thing was to pacify him by costly
+presents. King Finow appears to have been somewhat of a
+freethinker (to the great horror of his subjects), and it was
+only his untimely death which prevented him from dealing with
+the priest of a god, who had not returned a favourable answer to
+his supplications, as Saul dealt with the priests of the
+sanctuary of Jahveh at Nob. Nevertheless, Finow showed his
+practical belief in the gods during the sickness of a daughter,
+to whom he was fondly attached, in a fashion which has a close
+parallel in the history of Israel.
+
+<quote>
+"If the gods have any resentment against us, let the whole
+weight of vengeance fall on my head. I fear not their vengeance
+--but spare my child; and I earnestly entreat you, Toobo Totai 
+[the god whom he had evoked], to exert all your influence with
+the other gods that I alone may suffer all the punishment they
+desire to inflict (vol. i. p. 354).
+<end quote>
+
+So when the king of Israel has sinned by "numbering the people,"
+and they are punished for his fault by a pestilence which slays
+seventy thousand innocent men, David cries to Jahveh:--
+
+<quote>
+Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep,
+what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me,
+and against my father's house" (2 Sam. xxiv. 17).
+<end quote>
+
+Human sacrifices were extremely common in Polynesia; and, in
+Tonga, the "devotion" of a child by strangling was a favourite
+method of averting the wrath of the gods. The well-known
+instances of Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter and of David's
+giving up the seven sons of Saul to be sacrificed by the
+Gibeonites "before Jahveh," appear to me to leave no doubt that
+the old Israelites, even when devout worshippers of Jahveh,
+considered human sacrifices, under certain circumstances, to be
+not only permissible but laudable. Samuel's hewing to pieces of
+the miserable captive, sole survivor of his nation, Agag,
+"before Jahveh," can hardly be viewed in any other light.
+The life of Moses is redeemed from Jahveh, who "sought to slay
+him," by Zipporah's symbolical sacrifice of her child, by the
+bloody operation of circumcision. Jahveh expressly affirms that
+the first-born males of men and beasts are devoted to him;
+in accordance with that claim, the first-born males of the
+beasts are duly sacrificed; and it is only by special permission
+that the claim to the first-born of men is waived, and it is
+enacted that they may be redeemed (Exod. xiii. 12-15). Is it
+possible to avoid the conclusion that immolation of their first-
+born sons would have been incumbent on the worshippers of
+Jahveh, had they not been thus specially excused? Can any other
+conclusion be drawn from the history of Abraham and Isaac?
+Does Abraham exhibit any indication of surprise when he receives
+the astounding order to sacrifice his son? Is there the
+slightest evidence that there was anything in his intimate and
+personal acquaintance with the character of the Deity, who had
+eaten the meat and drunk the milk which Abraham set before him
+under the oaks of Mamre, to lead him to hesitate--even to wait
+twelve or fourteen hours for a repetition of the command? Not a
+whit. We are told that "Abraham rose early in the morning" and
+led his only child to the slaughter, as if it were the most
+ordinary business imaginable. Whether the story has any
+historical foundation or not, it is valuable as showing that the
+writer of it conceived Jahveh as a deity whose requirement of
+such a sacrifice need excite neither astonishment nor suspicion
+of mistake on the part of his devotee. Hence, when the incessant
+human sacrifices in Israel, during the age of the kings, are put
+down to the influence of foreign idolatries, we may fairly
+inquire whether editorial Bowdlerising has not prevailed over
+historical truth.
+
+An attempt to compare the ethical standards of two nations, one
+of which has a written code, while the other has not, is beset
+with difficulties. With all that is strange and, in many cases,
+repulsive to us in the social arrangements and opinions
+respecting moral obligation among the Tongans, as they are
+placed before us, with perfect candour, in Mariner's account,
+there is much that indicates a strong ethical sense. They showed
+great kindliness to one another, and faithfulness in standing by
+their comrades in war. No people could have better observed
+either the third or the fifth commandment; for they had a
+particular horror of blasphemy, and their respectful tenderness
+towards their parents and, indeed, towards old people in
+general, was remarkable.
+
+It cannot be said that the eighth commandment was generally
+observed, especially where Europeans were concerned;
+nevertheless a well-bred Tongan looked upon theft as a meanness
+to which he would not condescend. As to the seventh commandment,
+any breach of it was considered scandalous in women and as
+something to be avoided in self-respecting men; but, among
+unmarried and widowed people, chastity was held very cheap.
+Nevertheless the women were extremely well treated, and often
+showed themselves capable of great devotion and entire
+faithfulness. In the matter of cruelty, treachery, and
+bloodthirstiness, these islanders were neither better nor worse
+than most peoples of antiquity. It is to the credit of the
+Tongans that they particularly objected to slander; nor can
+covetousness be regarded as their characteristic;
+for Mariner says:--
+
+<quote>
+When any one is about to eat, he always shares out what he has
+to those about him, without any hesitation, and a contrary
+conduct would be considered exceedingly vile and selfish (vol.
+ii p. 145).
+<end quote>
+
+In fact, they thought very badly of the English when Mariner
+told them that his countrymen did not act exactly on that
+principle. It further appears that they decidedly belonged to
+the school of intuitive moral philosophers, and believed that
+virtue is its own reward; for
+
+<quote>
+Many of the chiefs, on being asked by Mr. Mariner what motives
+they had for conducting themselves with propriety, besides the
+fear of misfortunes in this life, replied, the agreeable and
+happy feeling which a man experiences within himself when he
+does any good action or conducts himself nobly and generously as
+a man ought to do; and this question they answered as if they
+wondered such a question should be asked" (vol. ii. p. 161).
+<end quote>
+
+One may read from the beginning of the book of Judges to the end
+of the books of Samuel without discovering 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;
+while Deborah's jubilation over Jael's violation of the primary
+duty of hospitality, proffered and accepted under circumstances
+which give a peculiarly atrocious character to the murder of the
+guest; and her witch-like gloating over the picture of the
+disappointment of the mother of the victim--
+
+<quote>
+The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice,
+Why is his chariot so long in coming? (Jud. v. 28.)
+<end quote>
+
+--would not have been out of place in the choral service of the
+most sanguinary god in the Polynesian pantheon.
+
+With respect to the cannibalism which the Tongans occasionally
+practised, Mariner says:--
+
+<quote>
+Although a few young ferocious warriors chose to imitate what
+they considered a mark of courageous fierceness in a
+neighbouring nation, it was held in disgust by everybody else
+(vol. ii. p. 171).
+<end quote>
+
+That the moral standard of Tongan life was less elevated than
+that indicated in the "Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi.-xxiii.)
+may be freely admitted. But then the evidence that this Book of
+the Covenant, and even the ten commandments as given in Exodus,
+were known to the Israelites of the time of Samuel and Saul, is
+(to say the least) by no means conclusive. The Deuteronomic
+version of the fourth commandment is hopelessly discrepant from
+that which stands in Exodus. Would any later writer have
+ventured to alter the commandments as given from Sinai, if he
+had had before him that which professed to be an accurate
+statement of the "ten words" in Exodus? And if the writer of
+Deuteronomy had not Exodus before him, what is the value of the
+claim of the version of the ten commandments therein contained
+to authenticity? From one end to the other of the books of
+Judges and Samuel, the only "commandments of Jahveh" which are
+specially adduced refer to the prohibition of the worship of
+other gods, or are orders given <i>ad hoc,</i> and have nothing
+to do with questions of morality.
+
+In Polynesia, the belief in witchcraft, in the appearance of
+spiritual beings in dreams, in possession as the cause of
+diseases, and in omens, prevailed universally. Mariner tells a
+story of a woman of rank who was greatly attached to King Finow,
+and who, for the space of six months after his death, scarcely
+ever slept elsewhere than on his grave, which she kept carefully
+decorated with flowers:--
+
+<quote>
+One day she went, with the deepest affliction, to the house of
+Mo-oonga Toobo, the widow of the deceased chief, to communicate
+what had happened to her at the <i>fytoca</i> [grave] during
+several nights, and which caused her the greatest anxiety.
+She related that she had dreamed that the late How [King]
+appeared to her and, with a countenance full of disappointment,
+asked why there yet remained at Vavaoo so many evil-designing
+persons; for he declared that, since he had been at Bolotoo, his
+spirit had been disturbed<22> by the evil machinations of wicked
+men conspiring against his son; but he declared that "the youth"
+should not be molested nor his power shaken by the spirit of
+rebellion; that he therefore came to her with a warning voice to
+prevent such disastrous consequences (vol. i. p. 424).
+<end quote>
+
+On inquiry it turned out that the charm of <i>tattao</i> had
+been performed on Finow's grave, with the view of injuring his
+son, the reigning king, and it is to be presumed that it was
+this sorcerer's work which had "disturbed" Finow's spirit. The
+Rev. Richard Taylor says in the work already cited: "The account
+given of the witch of Endor agrees most remarkably with the
+witches of New Zealand" (p. 45).
+
+The Tongans also believed in a mode of divination (essentially
+similar to the casting of lots) the twirling of a cocoanut.
+
+<quote>
+The object of inquiry ... is chiefly whether a sick person will
+recover; for this purpose the nut being placed on the ground, a
+relation of the sick person determines that, if the nut, when
+again at rest, points to such a quarter, the east for example,
+that the sick man will recover; he then prays aloud to the
+patron god of the family that he will be pleased to direct the
+nut so that it may indicate the truth; the nut being next spun,
+the result is attended to with confidence, at least with a full
+conviction that it will truly declare the intentions of the gods
+at the time (vol. ii. p. 227).
+<end quote>
+
+Does not the action of Saul, on a famous occasion, involve
+exactly the same theological presuppositions?
+
+<quote>
+Therefore Saul said unto Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, Shew the
+right. And Jonathan and Saul were taken by lot: but the people
+escaped. And Saul said, Cast <i>lots</i> between me and Jonathan
+my son. And Jonathan was taken. And Saul said to Jonathan, Tell
+me what thou hast done. ... And the people rescued Jonathan so
+that he died not (1 Sam. xiv. 41-45).
+<end quote>
+
+As the Israelites had great yearly feasts, so had the
+Polynesians; as the Israelites practised circumcision, so did
+many Polynesian people; as the Israelites had a complex and
+often arbitrary-seeming multitude of distinctions between clean
+and unclean things, and clean and unclean states of men, to
+which they attached great importance, so had the Polynesians
+their notions of ceremonial purity and their <i>tabu,</i> an
+equally extensive and strange system of prohibitions, violation
+of which was visited by death. These doctrines of cleanness and
+uncleanness no doubt may have taken their rise in the real or
+fancied utility of the prescriptions, but it is probable that
+the origin of many is indicated in the curious habit of the
+Samoans to make fetishes of living animals. It will be
+recollected that these people had no "gods made with hands," but
+they substituted animals for them.
+
+At his birth
+
+<quote>
+every Samoan was supposed to be taken under the care of some
+tutelary god or <i>aitu</i> [= Atua] as it was called. The help
+of perhaps half a dozen different gods was invoked in succession
+on the occasion, but the one who happened to be addressed just
+as the child was born was marked and declared to be the child's
+god for life.
+
+These gods were supposed to appear in some <i>visible
+incarnation,</i> and the particular thing in which his god was
+in the habit of appearing was, to the Samoan, an object of
+veneration. It was in fact his idol, and he was careful never to
+injure it or treat it with contempt. One, for instance, saw his
+god in the eel, another in the shark, another in the turtle,
+another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the lizard;
+and so on, throughout all the fish of the sea and birds and
+four-footed beasts and creeping things. In some of the shell-
+fish even, gods were supposed to be present. A man would eat
+freely of what was regarded as the incarnation of the god of
+another man, but the incarnation of his own particular god he
+would consider it death to injure or eat."<23>
+<end quote>
+
+We have here that which appears to be the origin, or one of the
+origins, of food prohibitions, on the one hand, and of totemism
+on the other. When it is remembered that the old Israelites
+sprang from ancestors who are said to have resided near, or in,
+one of the great seats of ancient Babylonian civilisation, the
+city of Ur; that they had been, it is said for centuries, in
+close contact with the Egyptians; and that, in the theology of
+both the Babylonians and the Egyptians, there is abundant
+evidence, notwithstanding their advanced social organisation, of
+the belief in spirits, with sorcery, ancestor-worship, the
+deification of animals, and the converse animalisation of gods--
+it obviously needs very strong evidence to justify the belief
+that the rude tribes of Israel did not share the notions from
+which their far more civilised neighbours had not
+emancipated themselves.
+
+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 entertained 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.<24>
+
+A theological system of essentially similar character,
+exhibiting the same fundamental conceptions respecting the
+continued existence and incessant interference in human affairs
+of disembodied spirits, prevails, or formerly prevailed, among
+the whole of the inhabitants of the Polynesian and Melanesian
+islands, and among the people of Australia, notwithstanding the
+wide differences in physical character and in grade of
+civilisation which obtain among them. And the same proposition
+is true of the people who inhabit the riverain shores of the
+Pacific Ocean whether Dyaks, Malays, Indo-Chinese, Chinese,
+Japanese, the wild tribes of America, or the highly civilised
+old Mexicans and Peruvians. It is no less true of the Mongolic 
+nomads of Northern Asia, of the Asiatic Aryans and of the
+Ancient Greeks and Romans, and it holds good among the
+Dravidians of the Dekhan and the negro tribes of Africa.
+No tribe of savages which has yet been discovered, has been
+conclusively proved to have so poor a theological equipment as
+to be devoid of a belief in ghosts, and in the utility of some
+form of witchcraft, in influencing those ghosts. And there is no
+nation, modern or ancient, which, even at this moment, has
+wholly given up the belief; and in which it has not, at one time
+or other, played a great part in practical life.
+
+This <i>sciotheism,</i><25> as it might be called, is found, in
+several degrees of complexity, in rough correspondence with the
+stages of social organisation, and, like these, separated by no
+sudden breaks.
+
+In its simplest condition, such as may be met with among the
+Australian savages, theology is a mere belief in the existence,
+powers, and disposition (usually malignant) of ghostlike
+entities who may be propitiated or scared away; but no cult can
+properly be said to exist. And, in this stage, theology is
+wholly independent of ethics. The moral code, such as is implied
+by public opinion, derives no sanction from the theological
+dogmas, and the influence of the spirits is supposed to be
+exerted out of mere caprice or malice.
+
+As a next stage, the fundamental fear of ghosts and the
+consequent desire to propitiate them acquire an organised ritual
+in simple forms of ancestor-worship, such as the Rev. Mr. Turner
+describes among the people of Tanna (<i>l.c.</i> p. 88); and
+this line of development may be followed out until it attains
+its acme in the State-theology of China and the Kami-
+theology<26> of Japan. Each of these is essentially ancestor-
+worship, the ancestors being reckoned back through family
+groups, of higher and higher order, sometimes with strict
+reference to the principle of agnation, as in old Rome; and, as
+in the latter, it is intimately bound up with the whole
+organisation of the State. There are no idols; inscribed tablets
+in China, and strips of paper lodged in a peculiar portable
+shrine in Japan, represent the souls of the deceased, or the
+special seats which they occupy when sacrifices are offered by
+their descendants. In Japan it is interesting to observe that a
+national Kami--Ten-zio-dai-zin--is worshipped as a sort of
+Jahveh by the nation in general, and (as Lippert has observed)
+it is singular that his special seat is a portable litter-like
+shrine, termed the Mikosi, in some sort analogous to the
+Israelitic ark. In China, the emperor is the representative of
+the primitive ancestors, and stands, as it were, between them
+and the supreme cosmic deities--Heaven and Earth--who are
+superadded to them, and who answer to the Tangaloa and the Maui
+of the Polynesians.
+
+Sciotheism, under the form of the deification of ancestral
+ghosts, in its most pronounced form, is therefore the chief
+element in the theology of a great moiety, possibly of more than
+half, of the human race. I think this must be taken to be a
+matter of fact--though various opinions may be held as to how
+this ancestor-worship came about. But on the other hand, it is
+no less a matter of fact that there are very few people without
+additional gods, who cannot, with certainty, be accounted for as
+deified ancestors.
+
+With all respect for the distinguished authorities on the other
+side, I cannot find good reasons for accepting the theory that
+the cosmic deities--who are superadded to deified ancestors even
+in China; who are found all over Polynesia, in Tangaloa and
+Maui, and in old Peru, in the Sun--are the product either of the
+"search after the infinite," or of mistakes arising out of the
+confusion of a great chief's name with the thing signified by
+the name. But, however this may be, I think it is again merely
+matter of fact that, among a large portion of mankind, ancestor-
+worship is more or less thrown into the background either by
+such cosmic deities, or by tribal gods of uncertain origin, who
+have been raised to eminence by the superiority in warfare, or
+otherwise, of their worshippers.
+
+Among certain nations, the polytheistic theology, thus
+constituted, has become modified by the selection of some one
+cosmic or tribal god, as the only god to whom worship is due on
+the part of that nation (though it is by no means denied that
+other nations have a right to worship other gods), and thus
+results a worship of one God--<i>monolatry,</i> as Wellhausen
+calls it--which is very different from genuine monotheism.<27>
+In ancestral sciotheism, and in this <i>monolatry,</i> the
+ethical code, often of a very high order, comes into closer
+relation with the theological creed. Morality is taken under the
+patronage of the god or gods, who reward all morally good
+conduct and punish all morally evil conduct in this world or the
+next. At the same time, however, they are conceived to be
+thoroughly human, and they visit any shadow of disrespect to
+themselves, shown by disobedience to their commands, or by
+delay, or carelessness, in carrying them out, as severely as any
+breach of the moral laws. Piety means minute attention to the
+due performance of all sacred rites, and covers any number of
+lapses in morality, just as cruelty, treachery, murder, and
+adultery did not bar David's claim to the title of the man after
+God's own heart among the Israelites; crimes against men may be
+expiated, but blasphemy against the gods is an unpardonable sin.
+Men forgive all injuries but those which touch their self-
+esteem; and they make their gods after their own likeness, in
+their own image make they them.
+
+It is in the category of monolatry that I conceive the theology
+of the old Israelites must be ranged. They were polytheists, in
+so far as they admitted the existence of other Elohim of divine
+rank beside Jahveh; they differed from ordinary polytheists, in
+so far as they believed that Jahveh was the supreme god and the
+one proper object of their own national worship. But it will
+doubtless be objected that I have been building up a fictitious
+Israelitic theology on the foundation of the recorded habits and
+customs of the people, when they had lapsed from the ordinances
+of their great lawgiver and prophet Moses, and that my
+conclusions may be good for the perverts to Canaanitish
+theology, but not for the true observers of the Sinaitic
+legislation. The answer to the objection is that--so far as I
+can form a judgment of that which is well ascertained in the
+history of Israel--there is very little ground for believing
+that we know much, either about the theological and social value
+of the influence of Moses, or about what happened during the
+wanderings in the Desert.
+
+The account of the Exodus and of the occurrences in the Sinaitic
+peninsula; in fact, all the history of Israel before the
+invasion of Canaan, is full of wonderful stories, which may be
+true, in so far as they are conceivable occurrences, but which
+are certainly not probable, and which I, for one, decline to
+accept until evidence, which deserves that name, is offered of
+their historical truth. Up to this time I know of none.<28>
+Furthermore, I see no answer to the argument that one has no
+right to pick out of an obviously unhistorical statement the
+assertions which happen to be probable and to discard the rest.
+But it is also certain that a primitively veracious tradition
+may be smothered under subsequent mythical additions, and that
+one has no right to cast away the former along with the latter.
+Thus, perhaps the fairest way of stating the case may be
+as follows.
+
+There can be no <i>a priori</i> objection to the supposition
+that the Israelites were delivered from their Egyptian bondage
+by a leader called Moses, and that he exerted a great influence
+over their subsequent organisation in the Desert. There is no
+reason to doubt that, during their residence in the land of
+Goshen, the Israelites knew nothing of Jahveh; but, as their own
+prophets declare (see Ezek. xx.), were polytheistic idolaters,
+sharing in the worst practices of their neighbours. As to their
+conduct in other respects, nothing is known. But it may fairly
+be suspected that their ethics were not of a higher order than
+those of Jacob, their progenitor, in which case they might
+derive great profit from contact with Egyptian society, which
+held honesty and truthfulness in the highest esteem. Thanks to
+the Egyptologers, we now know, with all requisite certainty, the
+moral standard of that society in the time, and long before the
+time, of Moses. It can be determined from the scrolls buried
+with the mummified dead and from the inscriptions on the tombs
+and memorial statues of that age. For, though the lying of
+epitaphs is proverbial, so far as their subject is concerned,
+they gave an unmistakable insight into that which the writers
+and the readers of them think praiseworthy.
+
+In the famous tombs at Beni Hassan there is a record of the life
+of Prince Nakht, who served Osertasen II., a Pharaoh of the
+twelfth dynasty as governor of a province. The inscription
+speaks in his name: "I was a benevolent and kindly governor who
+loved his country. ... Never was a little child distressed nor a
+widow ill-treated by me. I have never repelled a workman nor
+hindered a shepherd. I gave alike to the widow and to the
+married woman, and have not preferred the great to the small in
+my gifts." And we have the high authority of the late Dr. Samuel
+Birch for the statement that the inscriptions of the twelfth
+dynasty abound in injunctions of a high ethical character.
+"To feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the
+naked, bury the dead, loyally serve the king, formed the first
+duty of a pious man and faithful subject."<29> The people for
+whom these inscriptions embodied their ideal of praiseworthiness
+assuredly had no imperfect conception of either justice or
+mercy. But there is a document which gives still better evidence
+of the moral standard of the Egyptians. It is the "Book of the
+Dead," a sort of "Guide to Spiritland," the whole, or a part, of
+which was buried with the mummy of every well-to-do Egyptian,
+while extracts from it are found in innumerable inscriptions.
+Portions of this work are of extreme antiquity, evidence of
+their existence occurring as far back as the fifth and sixth
+dynasties; while the 120th chapter, which constitutes a sort of
+book by itself, and is known as the "Book of Redemption in the
+Hall of the two Truths," is frequently inscribed upon coffins
+and other monuments of the nineteenth dynasty (that under which,
+there is some reason to believe, the Israelites were oppressed
+and the Exodus took place), and it occurs, more than once, in
+the famous tombs of the kings of this and the preceding dynasty
+at Thebes.<30> This "Book of Redemption" is chiefly occupied by
+the so-called "negative confession" made to the forty-two Divine
+Judges, in which the soul of the dead denies that he has
+committed faults of various kinds. It is, therefore, obvious
+that the Egyptians conceived that their gods commanded them not
+to do the deeds which are here denied. The "Book of Redemption,"
+in fact, implies the existence in the mind of the Egyptians, if
+not in a formal writing, of a series of ordinances, couched,
+like the majority of the ten commandments, in negative terms.
+And it is easy to prove the implied existence of a series which
+nearly answers to the "ten words." Of course a polytheistic and
+image-worshipping people, who observed a great many holy days,
+but no Sabbaths, could have nothing analogous to the first or
+the second and the fourth commandments of the Decalogue;
+but answering to the third, is "I have not blasphemed;" to the
+fifth, "I have not reviled the face of the king or my father;"
+to the sixth, "I have not murdered;" to the seventh, "I have not
+committed adultery;" to the eighth, "I have not stolen," "I have
+not done fraud to man;" to the ninth, "I have not told
+falsehoods in the tribunal of truth," and, further, "I have not
+calumniated the slave to his master." I find nothing exactly
+similar to the tenth commandment; but that the inward
+disposition of mind was held to be of no less importance than
+the outward act is to be gathered from the praises of kindliness
+already cited and the cry of "I am pure," which is repeated by
+the soul on trial. Moreover, there is a minuteness of detail in
+the confession which shows no little delicacy of moral
+appreciation--"I have not privily done evil against mankind,"
+"I have not afflicted men," "I have not withheld milk from the
+mouths of sucklings," "I have not been idle," "I have not played
+the hypocrite," "I have not told falsehoods," "I have not
+corrupted woman or man," "I have not caused fear," "I have not
+multiplied words in speaking."
+
+Would that the moral sense of the nineteenth century A.D. were
+as far advanced as that of the Egyptians in the nineteenth
+century B.C. in this last particular! What incalculable benefit
+to mankind would flow from strict observance of the commandment,
+"Thou shalt not multiply words in speaking!" Nothing is more
+remarkable than the stress which the old Egyptians, here and
+elsewhere, lay upon this and other kinds of truthfulness, as
+compared with the absence of any such requirement in the
+Israelitic Decalogue, in which only a specific kind of
+untruthfulnes is forbidden.
+
+If, as the story runs, Moses was adopted by a princess of the
+royal house, and was instructed in all the wisdom of the
+Egyptians, it is surely incredible that he should not have been
+familiar from his youth up, with the high moral code implied in
+the "Book of Redemption." It is surely impossible that he should
+have been less familiar with the complete legal system, and with
+the method of administration of justice, which, even in his
+time, had enabled the Egyptian people to hold together, as a
+complex social organisation, for a period far longer than the
+duration of old Roman society, from the building of the city to
+the death of the last Caesar. Nor need we look to Moses alone
+for the influence of Egypt upon Israel. It is true that the
+Hebrew nomads who came into contact with the Egyptians of
+Osertasen, or of Ramses, stood in much the same relation to
+them, in point of culture, as a Germanic tribe did to the Romans
+of Tiberius, or of Marcus Antoninus; or as Captain Cook's Omai
+did to the English of George the Third. But, at the same time,
+any difficulty of communication which might have arisen out of
+this circumstance was removed by the long pre-existing
+intercourse of other Semites, of every grade of civilisation,
+with the Egyptians. In Mesopotamia and elsewhere, as in
+Phenicia, Semitic people had attained to a social organisation
+as advanced as that of the Egyptians; Semites had conquered and
+occupied Lower Egypt for centuries. So extensively had Semitic
+influences penetrated Egypt that the Egyptian language, during
+the period of the nineteenth dynasty, is said by Brugsch to be
+as full of Semitisms as German is of Gallicisms; while Semitic
+deities had supplanted the Egyptian gods at Heliopolis and
+elsewhere. On the other hand, the Semites, as far as Phenicia,
+were extensively influenced by Egypt.
+
+It is generally admitted<31> that Moses, Phinehas (and perhaps
+Aaron), are names of Egyptian origin, and there is excellent
+authority for the statement that the name <i>Abir,</i> which the
+Israelites gave to their golden calf, and which is also used to
+signify the strong, the heavenly, and even God,<32> is simply
+the Egyptian Apis. Brugsch points out that the god, Tum or Tom,
+who was the special object of worship in the city of Pi-Tom,
+with which the Israelites were only too familiar, was called
+Ankh and the "great god," and had no image. Ankh means "He who
+lives," "the living one," a name the resemblance of which to the
+"I am that I am" of Exodus is unmistakable, whatever may be the
+value of the fact. Every discussion of Israelitic ritual seeks
+and finds the explanation of its details in the portable sacred
+chests, the altars, the priestly dress, the breastplate, the
+incense, and the sacrifices depicted on the monuments of Egypt.
+But it must be remembered that these signs of the influence of
+Egypt upon Israel are not necessarily evidence that such
+influence was exerted before the Exodus. It may have come much
+later, through the close connection of the Israel of David and
+Solomon, first with Phenicia and then with Egypt.
+
+If we suppose Moses to have been a man of the stamp of Calvin,
+there is no difficulty in conceiving that he may have
+constructed the substance of the ten words, and even of the Book
+of the Covenant, which curiously resembles parts of the Book of
+the Dead, from the foundation of Egyptian ethics and theology
+which had filtered through to the Israelites in general, or had
+been furnished specially to himself by his early education;
+just as the great Genevese reformer built up a puritanic social
+organisation on so much as remained of the ethics and theology
+of the Roman Church, after he had trimmed them to his liking.
+
+Thus, I repeat, I see no <i>a priori</i> objection to the
+assumption that Moses may have endeavoured to give his people a
+theologico-political organisation based on the ten commandments
+(though certainly not quite in their present form) and the Book
+of the Covenant, contained in our present book of Exodus.
+But whether there is such evidence as amounts to proof, or, I
+had better say, to probability, that even this much of the
+Pentateuch owes its origin to Moses is another matter.
+The mythical character of the accessories of the Sinaitic
+history is patent, and it would take a good deal more evidence
+than is afforded by the bare assertion of an unknown writer to
+justify the belief that the people who "saw the thunderings and
+the lightnings and the voice of the trumpet and the mountain
+smoking" (Exod. xx. 18); to whom Jahveh orders Moses to say, "Ye
+yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
+Ye shall not make other gods with me; gods of silver and gods of
+gold ye shall not make unto you" (<i>ibid.</i> 22, 23), should,
+less than six weeks afterwards, have done the exact thing they
+were thus awfully forbidden to do. Nor is the credibility of the
+story increased by the statement that Aaron, the brother of
+Moses, the witness and fellow-worker of the miracles before
+Pharaoh, was their leader and the artificer of the idol.
+And yet, at the same time, Aaron was apparently so ignorant of
+wrongdoing that he made proclamation, "Tomorrow shall be a feast
+to Jahveh," and the people proceeded to offer their burnt-
+offerings and peace-offerings, as if everything in their
+proceedings must be satisfactory to the Deity with whom they had
+just made a solemn covenant to abolish image-worship. It seems
+to me that, on a survey of all the facts of the case, only a
+very cautious and hypothetical judgment is justifiable. It may
+be that Moses profited by the opportunities afforded him of
+access to what was best in Egyptian society to become
+acquainted, not only with its advanced ethical and legal code,
+but with the more or less pantheistic unification of the Divine
+to which the speculations of the Egyptian thinkers, like those
+of all polytheistic philosophers, from Polynesia to Greece,
+tend; if indeed the theology of the period of the nineteenth
+dynasty was not, as some Egyptologists think, a modification of
+an earlier, more distinctly monotheistic doctrine of a long
+antecedent age. It took only half a dozen centuries for the
+theology of Paul to become the theology of Gregory the Great;
+and it is possible that twenty centuries lay between the
+theology of the first worshippers in the sanctuary of the Sphinx
+and that of the priests of Ramses Maimun.
+
+It may be that the ten commandments and the Book of the Covenant
+are based upon faithful traditions of the efforts of a great
+leader to raise his followers to his own level. For myself, as a
+matter of pious opinion, I like to think so; as I like to
+imagine that, between Moses and Samuel, there may have been many
+a seer, many a herdsman such as him of Tekoah, lonely amidst the
+hills of Ephraim and Judah, who cherished and kept alive these
+traditions. In the present results of Biblical criticism,
+however, I can discover no justification for the common
+assumption that, between the time of Joshua and that of
+Rehoboam, the Israelites were familiar with either the
+Deuteronomic or the Levitical legislation; or that the theology
+of the Israelites, from the king who sat on the throne to the
+lowest of his subjects, was in any important respect different
+from that which might naturally be expected from their previous
+history and the conditions of their existence. But there is
+excellent evidence to the contrary effect. And, for my part, I
+see no reason to doubt that, like the rest of the world, the
+Israelites had passed through a period of mere ghost-worship,
+and had advanced through Ancestor-worship and Fetishism and
+Totemism to the theological level at which we find them in the
+books of Judges and Samuel.
+
+
+All the more remarkable, therefore, is the extraordinary change
+which is to be noted in the eighth century B.C. The student who
+is familiar with the theology implied, or expressed, in the
+books of Judges, Samuel, and the first book of Kings, finds
+himself in a new world of thought, in the full tide of a great
+reformation, when he reads Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah,
+and Jeremiah.
+
+The essence of this change is the reversal of the position
+which, in primitive society, ethics holds in relation to
+theology. Originally, that which men worship is a theological
+hypothesis, not a moral ideal. The prophets, in substance, if
+not always in form preach the opposite doctrine. They are
+constantly striving to free the moral ideal from the stifling
+embrace of the current theology and its concomitant ritual.
+Theirs was not an intellectual criticism, argued on strictly
+scientific grounds; the image-worshippers and the believers in
+the efficacy of sacrifices and ceremonies might logically have
+held their own against anything the prophets have to say; it was
+an ethical criticism. From the height of his moral intuition--
+that the whole duty of man is to do justice and to love mercy
+and to bear himself as humbly as befits his insignificance in
+face of the Infinite--the prophet simply laughs at the idolaters
+of stocks and stones and the idolaters of ritual. Idols of the
+first kind, in his experience, were inseparably united with the
+practice of immorality, and they were to be ruthlessly
+destroyed. As for sacrifices and ceremonies, whatever their
+intrinsic value might be, they might be tolerated on condition
+of ceasing to be idols; they might even be praiseworthy on
+condition of being made to subserve the worship of the true
+Jahveh--the moral ideal.
+
+If the realm of David had remained undivided, if the Assyrian
+and the Chaldean and the Egyptian had left Israel to the
+ordinary course of development of an Oriental kingdom, it is
+possible that the effects of the reforming zeal of the prophets
+of the eighth and seventh centuries might have been effaced by
+the growth, according to its inevitable tendencies, of the
+theology which they combated. But the captivity made the fortune
+of the ideas which it was the privilege of these men to launch
+upon an endless career. With the abolition of the Temple-
+services for more than half a century, the priest must have lost
+and the scribe gained influence. The puritanism of a vigorous
+minority among the Babylonian Jews rooted out polytheism from
+all its hiding-places in the theology which they had inherited;
+they created the first consistent, remorseless, naked
+monotheism, which, so far as history records, appeared in the
+world (for Zoroastrism is practically ditheism, and Buddhism
+any-theism or no-theism); and they inseparably united therewith
+an ethical code, which, for its purity and for its efficiency as
+a bond of social life, was and is, unsurpassed. So I think we
+must not judge Ezra and Nehemiah and their followers too hardly,
+if they exemplified the usual doom of poor humanity to escape
+from one error only to fall into another; if they failed to free
+themselves as completely from the idolatry of ritual as they had
+from that of images and dogmas; if they cherished the new
+fetters of the Levitical legislation which they had fitted upon
+themselves and their nation, as though such bonds had the
+sanctity of the obligations of morality; and if they led
+succeeding generations to spend their best energies in building
+that "hedge round the Torah" which was meant to preserve both
+ethics and theology, but which too often had the effect of
+pampering the latter and starving the former. The world being
+what it was, it is to be doubted whether Israel would have
+preserved intact the pure ore of religion, which the prophets
+had extracted for the use of mankind as well as for their
+nation, had not the leaders of the nation been zealous, even to
+death, for the dross of the law in which it was embedded.
+The struggle of the Jews, under the Maccabean house, against the
+Seleucidae was as important for mankind as that of the Greeks
+against the Persians. And, of all the strange ironies of
+history, perhaps the strangest is that "Pharisee" is current, as
+a term of reproach, among the theological descendants of that
+sect of Nazarenes who, without the martyr spirit of those
+primitive Puritans, would never have come into existence.
+They, like their historical successors, our own Puritans, have
+shared the general fate of the poor wise men who save cities.
+
+A criticism of theology from the side of science is not thought
+of by the prophets, and is at most indicated in the books of Job
+and Ecclesiastes, in both of which the problem of vindicating
+the ways of God to man is given up, though on different grounds,
+as a hopeless one. But with the extensive introduction of Greek
+thought among the Jews, which took place, not only during the
+domination of the Seleucidae in Palestine, but in the great
+Judaic colony which flourished in Egypt under the Ptolemies,
+criticism, on both ethical and scientific grounds, took a
+new departure.
+
+In the hands of the Alexandrian Jews, as represented by Philo,
+the fundamental axiom of later Jewish, as of Christian
+monotheism, that the Deity is infinitely perfect and infinitely
+good, worked itself out into its logical consequence--agnostic
+theism. Philo will allow of no point of contact between God and
+a world in which evil exists. For him God has no relation to
+space or to time, and, as infinite, suffers no predicate beyond
+that of existence. It is therefore absurd to ascribe to Him
+mental faculties and affections comparable in the remotest
+degree to those of men; He is in no way an object of cognition;
+He is [Greek] and [Greek]<33>--without quality and
+incomprehensible. That is to say the Alexandrian Jew of the
+first century had anticipated the reasonings of Hamilton and
+Mansell in the nineteenth, and, for him, God is the Unknowable
+in the sense in which that term is used by Mr. Herbert Spencer.
+Moreover, Philo's definition of the Supreme Being would not be
+inconsistent with that "substantia constans infinitis
+attributis, quorum unumquodque aeternam et infinitam essentiam
+exprimit," given by another great Israelite, were it not that
+Spinoza's doctrine of the immanence of the Deity in the world
+puts him, at any rate formally, at the antipodes of theological
+speculation. But the conception of the essential
+incognoscibility of the Deity is the same in each case.
+However, Philo was too thorough an Israelite and too much the
+child of his time to be content with this agnostic position.
+With the help of the Platonic and Stoic philosophy, he
+constructed an apprehensible, if not comprehensible, quasi-deity
+out of the Logos; while other more or less personified divine
+powers, or attributes, bridged over the interval between God and
+man; between the sacred existence, too pure to be called by any
+name which implied a conceivable quality, and the gross and evil
+world of matter. In order to get over the ethical difficulties
+presented by the naive naturalism of many parts of those
+Scriptures, in the divine authority of which he firmly believed,
+Philo borrowed from the Stoics (who had been in like straits in
+respect of Greek mythology), that great Excalibur which they had
+forged with infinite pains and skill--the method of allegorical
+interpretation. This mighty "two-handed engine at the door" of
+the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any and
+every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken
+allegorically or, as it is otherwise said, "poetically" or, "in
+a spiritual sense," the plainest words mean whatever a pious
+interpreter desires they should mean. In Biblical phrase, Zeno
+(who probably had a strain of Semitic blood in him) was the
+"father of all such as reconcile." No doubt Philo and his
+followers were eminently religious men; but they did endless
+injury to the cause of religion by laying the foundations of a
+new theology, while equipping the defenders of it with the
+subtlest of all weapons of offence and defence, and with an
+inexhaustible store of sophistical arguments of the most
+plausible aspect.
+
+The question of the real bearing upon theology of the influence
+exerted by the teaching of Philo's contemporary, Jesus of
+Nazareth, is one upon which it is not germane to my present
+purpose to enter. I take it simply as an unquestionable fact
+that his immediate disciples, known to their countrymen as
+"Nazarenes," were regarded as, and considered themselves to be,
+perfectly orthodox Jews, belonging to the puritanic or pharisaic
+section of their people, and differing from the rest only in
+their belief that the Messiah had already come. Christianity, it
+is said, first became clearly differentiated at Antioch, and it
+separated itself from orthodox Judaism by denying the obligation
+of the rite of circumcision and of the food prohibitions,
+prescribed by the law. Henceforward theology became relatively
+stationary among the Jews,<34> and the history of its rapid
+progress in a new course of evolution is the history of the
+Christian Churches, orthodox and heterodox. The steps in this
+evolution are obvious. The first is the birth of a new
+theological scheme arising out of the union of elements derived
+from Greek philosophy with elements derived from Israelitic
+theology. In the fourth Gospel, the Logos, raised to a somewhat
+higher degree of personification than in the Alexandrian
+theosophy, is identified with Jesus of Nazareth. In the
+Epistles, especially the later of those attributed to Paul, the
+Israelitic ideas of the Messiah and of sacrificial atonement
+coalesce with one another and with the embodiment of the Logos
+in Jesus, until the apotheosis of the Son of man is almost, or
+quite, effected. The history of Christian dogma, from Justin to
+Athanasius, is a record of continual progress in the same
+direction, until the fair body of religion, revealed in almost
+naked purity by the prophets, is once more hidden under a new
+accumulation of dogmas and of ritual practices of which the
+primitive Nazarene knew nothing; and which he would probably
+have regarded as blasphemous if he could have been made to
+understand them.
+
+As, century after century, the ages roll on, polytheism comes
+back under the disguise of Mariolatry and the adoration of
+saints; image-worship becomes as rampant as in old Egypt;
+adoration of relics takes the place of the old fetish-worship;
+the virtues of the ephod pale before those of holy coats and
+handkerchiefs; shrines and calvaries make up for the loss of the
+ark and of the high places; and even the lustral fluid of
+paganism is replaced by holy water at the porches of the
+temples. A touching ceremony--the common meal originally eaten
+in pious memory of a loved teacher--becomes metamorphosed into a
+flesh-and-blood sacrifice, supposed to possess exactly that
+redeeming virtue which the prophets denied to the flesh-and-
+blood sacrifices of their day; while the minute observance of
+ritual is raised to a degree of punctilious refinement which
+Levitical legislators might envy. And with the growth of this
+theology, grew its inevitable concomitant, the belief in evil
+spirits, in possession, in sorcery, in charms and omens, until
+the Christians of the twelfth century after our era were sunk in
+more debased and brutal superstitions than are recorded of the
+Israelites in the twelfth century before it.
+
+The greatest men of the Middle Ages are unable to escape the
+infection. Dante's "Inferno" would be revolting if it were not
+so often sublime, so often exquisitely tender. The hideous
+pictures which cover a vast space on the south wall of the Campo
+Santo of Pisa convey information, as terrible as it is
+indisputable, of the theological conceptions of Dante's
+countrymen in the fourteenth century, whose eyes were addressed
+by the painters of those disgusting scenes, and whose
+approbation they knew how to win. A candid Mexican of the time
+of Cortez, could he have seen this Christian burial-place, would
+have taken it for an appropriately adorned Teocalli.
+The professed disciple of the God of justice and of mercy might
+there gloat over the sufferings of his fellowmen depicted as
+undergoing every extremity of atrocious and sanguinary torture
+to all eternity, for theological errors no less than for moral
+delinquencies; while, in the central figure of Satan,<35>
+occupied in champing up souls in his capacious and well-toothed
+jaws, to void them again for the purpose of undergoing fresh
+suffering, we have the counterpart of the strange Polynesian and
+Egyptian dogma that there were certain gods who employed
+themselves in devouring the ghostly flesh of the Spirits of the
+dead. But in justice to the Polynesians, it must be recollected
+that, after three such operations, they thought the soul was
+purified and happy. In the view of the Christian theologian the
+operation was only a preparation for new tortures continued for
+ever and aye.
+
+With the growth of civilisation in Europe, and with the revival
+of letters and of science in the fourteenth and fifteenth
+centuries, the ethical and intellectual criticism of theology
+once more recommenced, and arrived at a temporary resting-place
+in the confessions of the various reformed Protestant sects in
+the sixteenth century; almost all of which, as soon as they were
+strong enough, began to persecute those who carried criticism
+beyond their own limit. But the movement was not arrested by
+these ecclesiastical barriers, as their constructors fondly
+imagined it would be; it was continued, tacitly or openly, by
+Galileo, by Hobbes, by Descartes, and especially by Spinoza, in
+the seventeenth century; by the English Freethinkers, by
+Rousseau, by the French Encyclopaedists, and by the German
+Rationalists, among whom Lessing stands out a head and shoulders
+taller than the rest, throughout the eighteenth century; by the
+historians, the philologers, the Biblical critics, the
+geologists, and the biologists in the nineteenth century, until
+it is obvious to all who can see that the moral sense and the
+really scientific method of seeking for truth are once more
+predominating over false science. Once more ethics and theology
+are parting company.
+
+It is my conviction that, with the spread of true scientific
+culture, whatever may be the medium, historical, philological,
+philosophical, or physical, through which that culture is
+conveyed, and with its necessary concomitant, a constant
+elevation of the standard of veracity, the end of the evolution 
+of theology will be like its beginning--it will cease to have
+any relation to ethics. I suppose that, so long as the human
+mind exists, it will not escape its deep-seated instinct to
+personify its intellectual conceptions. The science of the
+present day is as full of this particular form of intellectual
+shadow-worship as is the nescience of ignorant ages.
+The difference is that the philosopher who is worthy of the name
+knows that his personified hypotheses, such as law, and force,
+and ether, and the like, are merely useful symbols, while the
+ignorant and the careless take them for adequate expressions of
+reality. So, it may be, that the majority of mankind may find
+the practice of morality made easier by the use of theological
+symbols. And unless these are converted from symbols into idols,
+I do not see that science has anything to say to the practice,
+except to give an occasional warning of its dangers. But, when
+such symbols are dealt with as real existences, I think the
+highest duty which is laid upon men of science is to show that
+these dogmatic idols have no greater value than the fabrications
+of men's hands, the stocks and the stones, which they
+have replaced.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+(1) Even the most sturdy believers in the popular theory that
+the proper or titular names attached to the books of the Bible
+are those of their authors will hardly be prepared to maintain
+that Jephthah, Gideon, and their colleagues wrote the book of
+Judges. Nor is it easily admissible that Samuel wrote the two
+books which pass under his name, one of which deals entirely
+with events which took place after his death. In fact, no one
+knows who wrote either Judges or Samuel, nor when, within the
+range of 100 years, their present form was given to these books.
+
+(2) My citations are taken from the Revised Version, but for
+Lord and God I have substituted Jahveh and Elohim.
+
+(3) I need hardly say that I depend upon authoritative Biblical
+critics, whenever a question of interpretation of the text
+arises. As Reuss appears to me to be one of the most learned,
+acute, and fair-minded of those whose works I have studied, I
+have made most use of the commentary and dissertations in his
+splendid French edition of the Bible. But I have also had
+recourse to the works of Dillman, Kalisch, Kuenen, Thenius,
+Tuch, and others, in cases in which another opinion
+seemed desirable.
+
+(4) See "Divination," by Hazoral, <i>Journal of
+Anthropology,</i> Bombay, vol. i. No. 1.
+
+(5) See, for example, the message of Jephthah to the King of the
+Ammonites: "So now Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, hath
+dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and
+shouldest thou possess them? Wilt not thou possess that which
+Chemosh, thy Elohim, giveth thee to possess?" (Jud. xi. 23, 24).
+For Jephthah, Chemosh is obviously as real a personage
+as Jahveh.
+
+(6) For example: "My oblation, my food for my offerings made by
+fire, of a sweet savour to me, shall ye observe to offer unto me
+in their due season" (Num. xxviii. 2).
+
+(7) In 2 Samuel xv. 27 David says to Zadok the priest, "Art thou
+not a seer?" and Gad is called David's seer.
+
+(8) This would at first appear to be inconsistent with the use
+of the word "prophetess" for Deborah. But it does not follow
+because the writer of Judges applies the name to Deborah that it
+was used in her day.
+
+(9) Samuel tells the cook, "Bring the potion which I gave thee,
+of which I said to thee, Set it by thee." It was therefore
+Samuel's to give. "And the cook took up the thigh (or shoulder)
+and that which was upon it and set it before Saul." But, in the
+Levitical regulations, it is the thigh (or shoulder) which
+becomes the priest's own property. "And the right thigh (or
+shoulder) shall ye give unto the priest for an heave-offering,"
+which is given along with the wave breast "unto Aaron the priest
+and unto his sons as a due for ever from the children of Israel"
+(Lev. vii. 31-34). Reuss writes on this passage: "La cuisse
+n'est point agitee, mais simplement <i>prelevee</i> sur ce que
+les convives mangeront."
+
+(10) See, for example, Elkanah's sacrifice, 1 Sam. i. 3-9.
+
+(11) The ghost was not supposed to be capable of devouring the
+gross material substance of the offering; but his vaporous body
+appropriated the smoke of the burnt sacrifice, the visible and
+odorous exhalations of other offerings. The blood of the victim
+was particularly useful because it was thought to be the special
+seat of its soul or life. A West African negro replied to an
+European sceptic: "Of course, the spirit cannot eat corporeal
+food, but he extracts its spiritual part, and, as we see, leaves
+the material part behind" (Lippert, <i>Seelencult,</i> p. 16).
+
+(12) It is further well worth consideration whether indications
+of former ancestor-worship are not to be found in the singular
+weight attached to the veneration of parents in the fourth
+commandment. It is the only positive commandment, in addition to
+those respecting the Deity and that concerning the Sabbath, and
+the penalties for infringing it were of the same character.
+In China, a corresponding reverence for parents is part and
+parcel of ancestor-worship; so in ancient Rome and in Greece
+(where parents were even called [secondary and earthly]). The
+fifth commandment, as it stands, would be an excellent
+compromise between ancestor-worship and monotheism. The larger
+hereditary share allotted by Israelitic law to the eldest son
+reminds one of the privileges attached to primogeniture in
+ancient Rome, which were closely connected with ancestor-
+worship. There is a good deal to be said in favour of the
+speculation that the ark of the covenant may have been a relic
+of ancestor-worship; but that topic is too large to be dealt
+with incidentally in this place
+
+(13) "The Scientific Aspects of Positivism," <i>Fortnightly
+Review,</i> 1869, republished in <i>Lay Sermons.</i>
+
+(14) OEuvres de Bossuet, ed. 1808, t. xxxv. p. 282.
+
+(15) I should like further to add the expression of my
+indebtedness to two works by Herr Julius Lippert, <i>Der
+Seelencult in seinen Beziehungen zur alt-hebraischen
+Religion</i> and <i>Die Religionen der europaischen
+Culturvolker,</i> both pubished in 1881. I have found them full
+of valuable suggestions.
+
+(16) See among others the remarkable work of Fustel de
+Coulanges, <i>La Cite antique,</i> in which the social
+importance of the old Roman ancestor-worship is brought out with
+great clearness.
+
+(17) Supposed to be "the finer or more aeriform part of the
+body," standing in "the same relation to the body as the perfume
+and the more essential qualities of a flower do to the more
+solid substances" (Mariner, vol. ii. p. 127).
+
+(18) A kind of "clients" in the Roman sense.
+
+(19) It is worthy of remark that [Greek] among the Greeks, and
+<i>Deus</i> among the Romans, had the same wide signification.
+The <i>dii manes</i> were ghosts of ancestors=Atuas of
+the family.
+
+(20) <i>Voyages aux iles du Grand Ocean,</i> t. i. p. 482.
+
+(21) <i>Te Ika a Maui: New Zealand and its Inhabitants,</i>
+p. 72.
+
+(22) Compare: "And Samuel said unto Saul, Why hast thou
+disquieted me?" (I Sam. xxviii. l5)
+
+(23) Turner, <i>Nineteen Years in Polynesia,</i> p. 238.
+
+(24) See Lippert's excellent remarks on this subject, <i>Der
+Seelencult,</i> p. 89.
+
+(25) <i>Sciography</i> has the authority of Cudworth,
+<i>Intellectual System,</i> vol. ii. p. 836. Sciomancy [Greek],
+which, in the sense of divination by ghosts, may be found in
+Bailey's <i>Dictionary</i> (1751) also furnishes a precedent for
+my coinage.
+
+(26) "Kami" is used in the sense of Elohim; and is also, like
+our word "Lord," employed as a title of respect among men, as
+indeed Elohim was.
+
+(27) [The Assyrians thus raised Assur to a position of
+pre-eminence.]
+
+(28) I refer those who wish to know the reasons which lead me to
+take up this position to the works of Reuss and Wellhausen, [and
+especially to Stade's <i>Geschichte des Volkes Israel.</i>]
+
+(29) Bunsen. <i>Egypt's Place,</i> vol. v. p.129, note.
+
+(30) See Birch, in <i>Egypt's Place,</i> vol. v; and Brugsch,
+<i>History of Egypt.</i>
+
+(31) Even by Graetz, who, though a fair enough historian, cannot
+be accused of any desire to over-estimate the importance of
+Egyptian influence upon his people.
+
+(32) Graetz, <i>Geschichte der Juden,</i> Bd. i. p. 370.
+
+(33) See the careful analsyis of the work of the Alexandrian
+philosopher and theologian (who, it should be remembered, was a
+most devout Jew, held in the highest esteem by his countrymen)
+in Siegfried's <i>Philo von Alexandrien,</i> 1875. [Also Dr.
+J. Drummond's <i>Philo Judaeus,</i> 1888.]
+
+(34) I am not unaware of the existence of many and widely
+divergent sects and schools among the Jews at all periods of
+their history, since the dispersion. But I imagine that orthodox
+Judaism is now pretty much what it was in Philo's time;
+while Peter and Paul, if they could return to life, would
+certainly have to learn the catechism of either the Roman,
+Greek, or Anglican Churches, if they desired to be considered
+orthodox Christians.
+
+(35) Dante's description of Lucifer engaged in the eternal
+mastication of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot--
+   "Da ogni bocca dirompea co' denti
+      Un peccatore, a guisa di maciulla,
+      Si che tre ne facea cosė dolenti.
+    A quel dinanzi il mordere era nulla,
+      Verso 'l graffiar, che tal volta la schiena
+      Rimanea della pelle tutta brulla"--
+is quite in harmony with the Pisan picture and perfectly
+Polynesian in conception.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of PG's The The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study
+This is Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+End of "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
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