chanical, metallic, and round. Against this
anthropomorphic materialism science lifts up its voice; for what
modern philosopher, worthy of the name, fails to distinguish
between phenomenon and fact, inert matter and active force? Says a
recent writer, "We infer that as our own master of the mint is neither
a sovereign nor a half-sovereign, so the force which coins and
recoins this ulh, or matter, must be altogether in the god-part and
none of it in the metal or paste in which it works." [126] With the
progress of man's intelligence we shall observe improvement in this
anthropomorphism, but it will still survive. As Mr. Baring-Gould
tells us: "The savage invests God with bodily attributes; in a more
civilized state man withdraws the bodily attributes, but imposes the
limitations of his own mental nature; and in his philosophic
elevation he recognises in God intelligence only, though still with
anthropomorphic conditions." [127]

Xenophanes said that if horses, oxen, and lions could paint, they
would make gods like themselves. And Ralph Waldo Emerson says:
"The gods of fable are the shining moments of great men. We run
all our vessels into one mould. Our colossal theologies of Judaism,
Christism, Buddhism, Mahometism, are the necessary and structural
action of the human mind. The student of history is like a man going
into a warehouse to buy clothes or carpets. He fancies he has a new
article. If he go to the factory, he shall find that his new stuff still
repeats the scrolls and rosettes which are found on the interior walls
of the pyramids of Thebes. Our theism is the purification of the
human mind. Man can paint, or make, or think nothing but man. He
believes that the great material elements had their origin from his
thought. And our philosophy finds one essence collected or
distributed." [128] And a devout author, whose orthodoxy
--whatever that may mean--is unquestioned, acknowledges that man
adored the unknown power in the sun, and "in the moon, which
bathes the night with its serene splendours. Under this latter form,
completed by a very simple anthropomorphism which applies to the
gods the law of the sexes, the religions of nature weighed during
long ages upon Western Asia." [129] A volume might be written
upon this subject; but we have other work in hand.

It seems to be generally admitted that no form of idolatry is older
than the worship of the moon. Lord Kames says, "It is probable that
the sun and moon wer