also, it is to be met with in certain simple and rudimentary
forms; and these can be connected by a multitude of gradations,
which exist or have existed, among people of various ages and
races, with the most highly developed theologies of past and
present times. It is not my object to interfere, even in the
slightest degree, with beliefs which anybody holds sacred; or to
alter the conviction of any one who is of opinion that, in
dealing with theology, we ought to be guided by considerations
different from those which would be thought appropriate if the
problem lay in the province of chemistry or of mineralogy.
And if people of these ways of thinking choose to read beyond
the present paragraph, the responsibility for meeting with
anything they may dislike rests with them and not with me.

We are all likely to be more familiar with the theological
history of the Israelites than with that of any other nation.
We may therefore fitly make it the first object of our studies;
and it will be convenient to commence with that period which
lies between the invasion of Canaan and the early days of the
monarchy, and answers to the eleventh and twelfth centuries B.C.
or thereabouts. The evidence on which any conclusion as to the
nature of Israelitic theology in those days must be based is
wholly contained in the Hebrew Scriptures--an agglomeration of
documents which certainly belong to very different ages, but of
the exact dates and authorship of any one of which (except
perhaps a few of the prophetical writings) there is no evidence,
either internal or external, so far as I can discover, of such a
nature as to justify more than a confession of ignorance, or, at
most, an approximate conclusion. In this venerable record of
ancient life, miscalled a book, when it is really a library