rom old age and death, the immortals of old
Homer. The Syrian priests diffused the idea of a god without beginning and
without end through the Roman world, and thus contributed, along lines
parallel with the Jewish proselytism, to lend the authority of dogma to
what had previously been only a metaphysical theory.

The Baals were universal as well as eternal, and their power became
limitless in regard to space as it had been in regard to time. These two
principles were correlative. The title of "_mar'olam_" which the Baals bore
occasionally may be translated by "Lord of the universe," or by "Lord of
eternity," and efforts certainly have been made to claim the twofold
quality for them.[80] Peopled with divine constellations and traversed by
planets assimilated to the inhabitants of Olympus, the heavens determined
the destinies of the {131} entire human race by their movements, and the
whole earth was subject to the changes produced by their revolutions.[81]
Consequently the old _Ba'al [vs]amin_ was necessarily transformed into a
universal power. Of course, even under the Caesars there existed in Syria
traces of a period when the local god was the fetich of a clan and could be
worshiped by the members of that clan only, a period when strangers were
admitted to his altars only after a ceremony of initiation, as brothers, or
at least as guests and clients.[82] But from the period when our knowledge
of the history of the great divinities of Heliopolis or Hierapolis begins,
these divinities were regarded as common to all Syrians, and crowds of
pilgrims came from distant countries to obtain grace in the holy cities. As
protectors of the entire human race the Baals gained proselytes in the
Occident, and their temples witnessed gatherings of devotees of every race
and nationality. In this respect the Baals were distinctly different from
Jehovah.

The essence of paganism implies that the nature of a divinity broadens as
the number of its votaries increases. Everybody credits it with some new
quality, and its character becomes more complex. As it gains in power it
also has a tendency to dominate its companion gods and to concentrate their
functions in itself. To escape this threatening absorption, these gods must
be of a very sharply defined personality and of a very original character.
The vague Semitic deities, however, were devoid of a well-defined
individuality. We fail to find among them a well organized society of
immortals,