though the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and feeble
as to be compatible with the existence of almost any general view
respecting the mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the
first, there were certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind,
presented a constancy of occurrence, and suggested that a fixed order
ruled, at any rate, among them. I doubt if the grossest of Fetish
worshippers ever imagined that a stone must have a god within it to make
it fall, or that a fruit had a god within it to make it taste sweet.
With regard to such matters as these, it is hardly questionable that
mankind from the first took strictly positive and scientific views.

But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which present
themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken himself as the
standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of the world; nor
could he well avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused
will has a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he
naturally enough ascribed other and greater events to other and greater
volitions, and came to look upon the world and all that therein is, as
the product of the volitions of persons like himself, but stronger, and
capable of being appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed or
irritated. Through such conceptions of the plan and working of the
universe all mankind have passed, or are passing. And we may now
consider, what has been the effect of the improvement of natural
knowledge on the views of men who have reached this stage, and who have
begun to cultivate natural knowledge with no desire but that of
"increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate."

For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of view,
more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, than that
they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for