CHAPTER XVII.
ANIMISM (continued).
Polytheism comprises a class of Great Deities, ruling the course of Nature and the life of Man — Childbirth-god — Agriculture-god — War-god — God of the Dead — First Man as Divine Ancestor — Dualism; its rudimentary and unethical nature among low races; its development through the course of culture — Good and Evil Deity — Doctrine of Divine Supremacy, distinct from, while tending towards, the doctrine of Monotheism — Idea of a Highest or Supreme Diety evolved in various forms; its place as completion of the Polytheistic system and outcome of the Animistic philosophy; its continuance and development among higher nations — General survey of Animism as a Philosophy of Religion — Recapitulation of the theory advanced as to its development through successive stages of culture; its primary phases best represented among the lower races, while survivals of these among the higher races mark the transition from savage through barbaric to civilized faiths — Transition of Animism in the History of Religion; its earlier and later stages as a Philosophy of the Universe; its later stages as the principle of a Moral Institution.
Polytheism acknowledges, beside great fetish-deities like Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon, another class of great gods whose importance lies not in visible presence, but in the performance of certain great offices in the course of Nature and the life of Man. The lower races can furnish themselves with such deities, either by giving the recognized gods special duties to perform, or by attributing these functions to beings invented in divine personality for the purpose. The creation of such divinities is however carried to a much greater extent in the complex systems of the higher polytheism. For a compact group of examples showing to what different ideas men will resort for a deity to answer a special end, let us take the deity presiding over
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