Introduction to the History of Religions Part 70

[1791] According to Diogenes Laertius, Proem, viii.

[1792] To designate the unfriendly supernatural Powers two terms meaning 'divine beings' were available, 'asuras' and 'divas' (daevas); the Hindus chose the former, the Iranians the latter. Cf. Darmesteter, _Ormazd et Ahriman_, p. 268 ff.; Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_, p. 156 ff.

[1793] Zech. iii; Job i, ii; 1 Chron. xxi, 1, contrasted with 2 Sam. xxiv, 1; Enoch xl, 7; liii, 3, etc.; Secrets of Enoch (Slavonic Enoch), xxix, 4, 5; x.x.xi, 3, 4. The word Satan means 'adversary,' and, as legal adversary, 'accuser.'

The germ of the conception is to be sought in the apparatus of spirits controlled by Yahweh, and sometimes employed by him as agents to harm men (1 Kings xxii, 19-23). The idea of an accusing spirit seems to have arisen from the necessity of explaining the misfortunes of the nation (Zech. iii); it was expanded under native and foreign influences.

[1794] 2 Cor. iv, 4.

[1795] _Koran_, vii, 10 ff.

[1796] So in the ceremonies of the pilgrimage to Mecca and in common life. The "satans" have in part coalesced with the jinn; see Lane's _Arabian Nights_, "Notes to the Introduction," note 21.

[1797] Herzog-Hauck, _Real-Encyklopadie_, s.v. "Mani u.

Manichaismus."

[1798] On a lack of unity in the world see W. James, _A Pluralistic Universe_.

[1799] -- 643.

[1800] So the Zulu Unkulunkulu, the Fiji Ndengei, the Virginia Ahone, and others.

[1801] Compare Lang's sketch of the G.o.ds of the lower races in _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, chap. xii f., and _Making of Religion_, preface and chaps. xii-xiv.

[1802] Strachey, _Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannica_ (1612), p. 98 f. and chap. vii; Winslow, _Relation_ (1624), printed in Young's _Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers_, see chap. xxiii.

[1803] Cf. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii, 324, 339.

[1804] Callaway, _The Amazulu_, p. 1 ff.

[1805] Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, Index (cf. Spencer and Gulen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 492); cf. Thomas, _Natives of Australia_, chap. xiii, and article "Australia" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

[1806] Temple, article "Andamans" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

[1807] Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, chap. vii.

[1808] Batchelor, _The Ainu_, chap. xvii; Taylor, _New Zealand_, chaps. v-vii; Rink, _Danish Greenland_, p. 204 ff.; Boas, _The Kwakiutl_, chap. vi.

[1809] The confusion incident to savage theogonic reflection is ill.u.s.trated by Zulu attempts to explain Unkulunkulu (Callaway, loc. cit.).

[1810] Lang, in the works cited in the preceding paragraph, is right in his contention that the clan G.o.d is not always derived from a spirit; but the coloring he gives to the character of this sort of G.o.d is not in accordance with known facts.

[1811] See above, -- 746 ff.

[1812] It is not probable that the recent abolition of the office of emperor (supposing the present revolutionary movement to maintain itself) will affect the essence of the existing cult.

[1813] In place of the emperor some high official personage will doubtless be deputed to conduct the national sacrifices.

[1814] De Groot, _Religious System of China_, _Religion of the Chinese_, and _Development of Religion in China_.

[1815] Prescott, _Conquest of Peru_; Spence, _Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru_.

[1816] An approach to such a system appears in the later cult of Confucius.

[1817] See -- 977.

[1818] So later, for example, in Plato, necessity appears as something limiting the deity. See below, -- 1001. Cf. Cicero, _De Fato_.

[1819] Cf. the Chinese conception of the supreme order of the world. Possibly this goes back to the general savage conception of mana.

[1820] _Metaphysics_, ix, 8; xii, 6 f.

[1821] _Timaeus_, 47 f.

[1822] Stobaeus, _Elogae_, ed. Wachs.m.u.th, lib. i, cap. i, no.

12; Pearson, _Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes_; Eng. tr. in Arnold, _Roman Stoicism_, p. 85 ff. The quotation in Acts xvii, 28, may be from Cleanthes or from Aratus. On the Graeco-Roman Stoicism and the relation between it and Christianity see Arnold, op. cit.

[1823] Apuleius, _Metamorphoses_, bk. xi; Roscher, _Lexikon_, article "Isis"; c.u.mont, _Mysteries of Mithra_; id., _Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans_, Index, s.vv. _Isis and Serapis_ and _Mithra_.

[1824] _Metaphysics_, i, 5: "The one is G.o.d."

[1825] So in Goethe, Wordsworth, and other modern poets.

[1826] In certain regions, especially in Tibet and j.a.pan, Buddhism coalesces with popular nature-cults and shamanistic systems, and loses its nontheistic character.

[1827] Cf. Satayana, "Lucretius," in his _Three Philosophical Poets_.

[1828] The great exception is the resurrection of Jesus, regarded in the New Testament and by the ma.s.s of orthodox Christians as an historical fact, and one of infinite significance for the salvation of the world.

[1829] An emotional element possessing moral force may exist in any religion; cf. below, ---- 1167, 1192, 1199.

[1830] -- 13 ff.

[1831] See above, Chapter iii.

[1832] See above, ---- 128, 131, 231 ff.

[1833] Cf. article "Charms and Amulets" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

[1834] Cf. Marett, _Threshold of Religion_, p. 77 ff.

[1835] Examples are found in J. H. King, _The Supernatural_, Index, s.v.; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, Index, s.v.; L. T.

Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_, Index, s.v.; and see the references in these works.

[1836] See above, -- 3.

[1837] Spencer, _Principles Of Sociology_, i, 280 ff.; Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, ii, 550 al.

[1838] Dorsey, _Skidi p.a.w.nee_, p. 341; article "Bantu" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, ii, 359; Rivers, _The Todas_, p. 393; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii, 392; Westermarck, op. cit., ii, 518 al.