many beings, superior to themselves but far from perfect. The arguments of natural religion may form a convincing proof of such an omnipotent and benevolent Deity, but this is not a consideration which could have had much influence on men when they formed their first rude notions of religion. We do not find these philosophical opinions among such savage tribes as we are acquainted with. Moreover, if this philosophical monotheism had existed originally, why was it suffered to die out? The same rationality which discovered it should have more than sufficed to keep it alive.
Not to reason must we look, then, to explain the origin of religion. Not the contemplation of a perfect and unitary nature, but the hopes and fears attending the varying and shifting events of human life were the sources from which sprang the original religion. The course of life, especially among savage and barbarous tribes, is at the mercy of a great number of ills and blessings which are distributed among mankind by the operation of unknown and uncontrollable causes. Life and death, health and sickness, plenty and want, success and failure, follow the acts of men at the behest of powers which the ignorant savage can neither understand nor direct. A propensity of human nature drives him on, however, to attempt an explanation which will give him at least partial satisfaction. A natural tendency leads him to conceive all beings like himself, and accordingly the unknown causes which make or mar his life are conceived to have the thought, reason, and passions of men, and sometimes even their limbs and bodies. Thus there arise a great number of deities, very limited in their powers, and possessing not only the weaknesses but even the vices of men. The gods of polytheism are in all respects like men, but gifted with only a little more power and reason.
Theism took its rise from polytheism, but again its origin is to be ascribed not to reason but to the passions. Ask any ignorant person even at the present time, says Hume, his reasons for believing in a Supreme Being, and his answer will be not the regularity and perfection of the universe, but the accidents and catastrophes of life,—sudden death, drouth, flood, and famine.
