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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
that he may not send him to regions of pain and suffering, and may give him choice things here and hereafter. But analysis reveals the elements of fear and begging to lie at the root of this form of devotion. It differs from the ancestor-worship of the savage only in this that the object of worship in its case happens to be an omnipotent power, instead of a dead and powerless ancestor. Hence, when we ridicule the ancestor-worshipper for his low form of faith, we ought, in justice, to find fault with him not for his emotion of devotion, i.e., fear plus begging, since that is also implied in the so-called civilised idea of worship, but for his ignorance in imagining that a dead ancestor can be of any use to him. But what does our so-called civilized worship mean if not devotion to our notion of a primary supreme power, personilied and conceived after the manner of earthly kings ? Far from leading us to understand tbe nature of the great Ideal, which is beyond its reach, farther still from making us whole and holy, which is our real destiny, and farthest froin enabling us to realize our own Godhood, it only tends towards demoralization by exciting unholy dread of a mythological monster* of unreason
* Cf. “In my opinion it is not the quantity, but the quality, of persons among whom the attributes of divinity are distributed, which is the serious matter. If the divino might is associatod with no higher ethical attributes than those which obtain among ordinary men; if the divine intelligence is supposed to be so imperfect that it cannot foresee the consequences of its own contrivances; if the supernal powers can become furiously angry with the creatures of their omnipoteuco and, in their senseless wrath, destroy the innocent along with the guilty; or if they can show themselves to be as easily placated by presents and gross flattery as any oriental or occidental despot; if, in short, they are only stronger than mortal
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