which is usually associated
with the name of Plato is hinted at in the writings of other
philosophers who were his predecessors. The effect of this revolution
was to recognize one Supreme Being, the First Cause, and to subordinate
to him all the other deities of the ancient and popular theology--to
co-ordinate them, in fact, with the older class of daemons; the first
step in the descent to the lowest category of all.

21. The history of the neo-Platonic belief is one of elaboration upon
these ideas. The conception of the Supreme Being was complicated in a
manner closely resembling the idea of the Christian Trinity, and all the
subordinate daemons were classified into good and evil geniuses. Thus, a
theoretically monotheistic system was established, with a tremendous
hierarchy of inferior spirits, who frequently bore the names of the
ancient gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, strikingly
resembling that of Roman Catholicism. The subordinate daemons were not
at first recognized as entitled to any religious rites; but in the
course of time, by the inevitable operation of the first principle just
enunciated, a form of theurgy sprang up with the object of attracting
the kindly help and patronage of the good spirits, and was tolerated;
and attempts were made to hold intercourse with the evil spirits, which
were, as far as possible suppressed and discountenanced.

22. The history of the operation of this principle upon the Jewish
religion is very similar, and extremely interesting. Although they do
not seem to have ever had any system of ancestor-worship, as the Greeks
had, yet the Jews appear originally to have recognized the deities of
their neighbours as existing spirits, but inferior in power to the God
of Israel. "All the gods of the nations are idols" are words that
entirely fail to convey the idea of the Psalmist; for the word
translated "idols" is _Elohim_, the very term usually employed to
designate Jehovah; and the true sense of the passage therefore is: "All
the gods of the nations are gods, but Jehovah made the heavens."[1] In
another place we read that "The Lord is a great God, and a great King
above all gods."[2] As, however, the Jews gradually became acquainted
with the barbarous rites with which their neighbours did honour to their
gods, the foreigners seem to have fallen more and more in estimation,
until they came to be classed as evil spirits. To this process such
names as Beelzebub, Moloch, Ash