The-mythology-of-ancient-greece-and-italy-thomas-keightley

INTRODUCTION. 3
gion of unenlightened tribes, and even in lettered and polished
nations it still retains its hold upon the minds of the weak and
the ignorant8. An appearance so general can only be the
result of some law of the mind ; and those who have directed
their attention to the language and ideas of man, in different
stages of culture, will probably concede that there is a law
which impels the human mhid to ascribe the attribute of in
telligence to the efficient cause of natural phaenomena, par
ticularly those which are of rare occurrence. The less the
mind is expanded by culture, the more powerful is the opera
tion of this law ; and while the philosopher ascribes all effects
to one great intelligent cause, and usually views not so much
Him as the secondary unintelligent causes which He employs,
—the simpler children of nature, who cannot rise to so just and
elevated a conception, see multitude where he contemplates
unity, and numerous intelligent causes actively engaged in
producing the effects which he refers to one single mind.
Either then the true idea of One God has been resolved by
the vulgar into that of a plurality ; or the numerous deities
of the people have been by the philosopher reduced to one,
possessed of the combined powers of all ; or, which is more
probable, rather we may say is the truth, both hypotheses are
true : man commencing with the knowledge of one God, gra
dually became a polytheist ; and philosophy, slowly retracing
the steps of error, returned to the truth which had been lost.
It is utterly impossible to fix historically the date of the
rise of polytheism among any people. Supposing, for the
sake of hypothesis, a race to have been from some unassign
able cause in a state of total or partial ignorance of the Deity,
their belief in many gods may have thus commenced. They
saw around them various changes brought about by human
agency, and hence they knew the power of intelligence to
produce effects. When they beheld other and greater effects,
independent of and beyond human power, they felt them
selves, from the principle we have already stated, invincibly
impelled to ascribe their production to some unseen being,
similar but superior to man. Thus when the thunder rolled
* The belief in fairies and similar beings, for example, among the common
people in various countries. See the ' Fairy Mythology,' passim.
B 2