in the same case. But, having no object which fixes their fear or their adoration, they call the being whom they suspect of having worked them ill by the general title of Master, Lord, Chief, Ruler."
Tribes or nations next acknowledge, and even naturalise, each other's gods. Then, but after a long interval, came the apotheosis of great men: the supposed son of a god became himself a god.
"One might write volumes on this subject, but all would reduce themselves to two sentences: it is, that the mass of the human race has been, and long will be, senseless and imbecile; and perhaps the most senseless of all have been they who have wished to find sense in these absurd fables, and to place reason in folly.
"Nature being everywhere the same, men have of necessity adopted the same truths and errors in those matters which are the objects of the senses, and which most strike the imagination. All have attributed the noise and effects of thunder to the power of a superior being inhabiting the air. Peoples bordering on the sea, finding high tides inundating their lands at the full of the moon, have thereupon believed that the moon was the cause of all that happened at the periods of its different phases.
"Amongst animals, the serpent appeared to them to be endowed with superior intelligence, because, seeing him cast his skin, they believed that he renewed his youth. By thus changing his skin he could maintain himself in perpetual youth—therefore he was immortal. Thus he became in Egypt and Greece the symbol of immortality. Large serpents living near fountains prevented the timid from approaching; very soon they were supposed to guard treasures. Thus a serpent guarded the apples of the Hesperides; another watched over the Golden Fleece."
Next came the distinction between malignant and tutelary powers; and then of expiation:—
