Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/690

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VI. GODS, DEMONS AND HEROES.


The notions which I have ascribed to the ancient Aryans and, among them, to the earliest Celts, may be termed cosmogonic or theogonic, but no word, however convenient, must be allowed to obscure the probable fact that at one time they formed part and parcel of their ordinary beliefs. For what may seem to one generation of men a mere matter of mythology, is frequently found to have belonged to the serious theology of a previous one; and, conversely, those whom sentiment prevents from placing the starting point of the Aryan family on a low level, must forego the full enjoyment of the luxury of contemplating its prolonged rise, such as it is faithfully registered in the archæological record of speech and myth, of rudely made tools, and other material remains of Aryan handiwork. Science proudly and justly makes much of evolution in its more visible aspects; but even more absorbing is the interest attaching to its subtler workings in the world of intellect and morals. In our Aryan branch of the human family we have found traces of them carried out on the lines of the ideas of religion and morality which found favour from time to time in the eyes of our ancestors, from the grey dawn of their pre-history onwards to our own era. It remains for ever true that the proper study of mankind is man; and even early man is not beneath contempt, especially when he proves to have had within him the makings of a great race, with its highest notions of duty and right, and all else that is noblest in the human soul.