course of many thousands of years, attained to the conception of one
Supreme Being. There was at first a faith in gods,--Polytheism, and much
later a faith in God--Monotheism.

Now, let is [tr. note: sic] be observed that this is the only _possible_
view from the standpoint of Evolution. Remember that this doctrine is
not only conceived as bearing on the development of the animal kingdom.
The principle is assumed to operate in the development of the earth, of
man, of society, of government, of manufactures, of language, of
literature, science, art, and religion. According to the theory, there
must have been progress from a crude form of spirit-worship to a
worship of gods, and thence to a worship of one God. But what are the
facts? Has religion so developed? It has not.

_Not only has history failed to show a single form of belief which has
advanced in the manner demonstrated, but every religion, no matter how
pure and exalted, has gone through a process of degeneration, of
devolution_.

The founders of the comparative study (or Science) of Religion, and the
greatest authorities in its various departments, are practically
unanimous in their opinion, that all pagan systems of mythology and
religion contain remnants of a more exalted form of belief, of a higher,
clearer knowledge of the Divinity, which gradually became dimmed and
corrupted.

From Max Mueller's Lecture on the _Vedas_ (the ancient hymns of India)
we quote the following: As a result "to which a comparative study of
religion is sure to lead, we shall learn that religions in their most
ancient form, or in the minds of their authors, are generally free from
many of the blemishes that attach to them in later times."

Le Page Renouf expresses his entire agreement with the "matured
judgment" of Emmanuel Rouge: "The first characteristic of the Egyptian
religion is the Unity of God most energetically expressed: God, One,
Sole and Only--no others with Him.... the Only Being .... The belief in
the Unity of the Supreme God and in His attributes as Creator and
Lawgiver of man, whom He has endowed with an immortal soul, .... _these
are the primitive notions,_ enchased in the midst of mythological
superfetations accumulated in the centuries." Franz Lenormant reached
the same conclusion. Elsewhere, Renouf says: "It is incontestably true,
that the sublimer portions of the Egyptian religions are not the
comparatively late result of a process of development. The sublimer