sitical development and of
accidental origin. He does not tell us what the original religion of
mankind was. The work in which he deals most directly with this
question[5] is concerned chiefly with the Indian faith, the early
stages of which he regards as the most typical instance of the growth
of religion generally. He does not, however, tell us definitely out
of what earlier kind of religion that of the Aryans grew, which India
best teaches us to know, or what religion they had before they
developed that of the Vedic hymns. We may infer, however, what his
view on this point is from the very interesting sketch he draws of
the psychological advance man could make, in selecting objects of
reverence, from one class of things to another (p. 179, _sqq._).
First, there are tangible objects, which, however, Mr. Max Mueller
denies that mankind as a whole ever did worship; such things as
stones, shells, and bones. Then second, semi-tangible objects; such
as trees, mountains, rivers, the sea, the earth, which supply the
material for what may be called _semi-deities_. And third, intangible
objects, such as the sky, the stars, the sun, the dawn, the moon; in
these are to be seen the germs of _deities_. At each of these stages
man is seeking not for something finite but for the infinite; from
the first he has a presentiment of something far beyond; he grasps
successive objects of worship not for themselves but for what they
seem to tell of, though it is not there, and this sense of the
infinite, even in poor and inadequate beliefs, is the germ of
religion in him. When he rises after his long journey to fix his
regards on the great powers of nature, he apprehends in them
something great and transcendent. He applies to them great titles; he
calls them _devas_, shining ones; _asuras_, living ones; and, at
length, _amartas_, immortal ones. At first these were no more than
descriptive titles, applied to the great visible phenomena of nature
as a class. They expressed the admiration and wonder the young mind
of man felt itself compelled to pay to these magnificent beings. But
by giving them these names he was led instinctively to regard them as
persons; he ascribed to them human attributes and dramatic actions,
so that they became definite, transcendent, living personalities. In
these, more than in any former objects of his adoration, his craving
for the infinite was satisfied. Thus the ancient Aryan advanced,
"from the visible to the in