s a more humane and settled
government of the world is introduced by Zeus and Wodan. Traces of this
construction of the universe are to be found also among the Maoris, the
Hawaiians, and other peoples of a like grade.[1169]

+687+. In the original form of these myths there is no moral element
beyond the fact that the settlement of the cosmic powers was necessary
in order to the establishment of good social life. Individual wicked
deities do not appear at this stage, but the way is prepared for them by
the picture of cosmic struggle in which powers friendly and unfriendly
to men are opposed to one another. A similar conception is found in the
figures of the Fates, who are the embodiment of the course of events in
the world--the immovable, remorseless, absolute fortune of men, good and
bad--a picture of life as it has presented itself, doubtless, to men in
all periods of history. Out of this came the abstract conception of
Fate, the impersonal power that controls all things.

+688+. The deeper conception of a conflict between the moral good and
the moral evil in life belongs to the latest period in religious
history. Here the determining fact is the control of the world by the
high gods, who have their adversaries, but in general prove victors. At
the foundation of this scheme of the world lies the conception of order,
which is particularly defined in the Vedic _arta_ and the Avestan
_asha_[1170]--the regulation of the world in accordance with human
interests, in which the ethical element becomes more and more prominent
as human society is more and more formed on an ethical basis.

+689+. Ethical dualism is most fully embodied in the Persian conception
of two gods, good and bad, with the understanding that the good god,
Ahura Mazda, exercises a certain restraint on the bad god, Angro Mainyu,
who is finally to be crushed.[1171] This optimistic point of view, which
has no doubt existed in germinal shape among all peoples, appears also
in the modified dualism of the Old Testament and the late Jewish and
Christian schemes. The Old Testament Satan is originally a divine being,
one of the "sons of the Elohim" (that is, he belongs to the Elohim, or
divine, class); his function is that of inspector of human conduct,
prosecutor-general, with a natural tendency to disparage men and demand
their punishment. As a member of Yahweh's court and council he makes
regular reports to his divine lord and pleads cases before the divine
cour