thority of
elders, and how sacred the memory of patriarchs--and if, then, we
remember that among divine titles are "Ancient of Days," and "Father of
Gods and men;"--we see how completely these facts harmonise with the
hypothesis, that the aboriginal god is the first man sufficiently great
to become a tradition, the earliest whose power and deeds made him
remembered; that hence antiquity unavoidably became associated with
superiority, and age with nearness in blood to "the powerful one;" that
so there naturally arose that domination of the eldest which
characterises all history, and that theory of human degeneracy which
even yet survives.

We might further dwell on the facts, that _Lord_ signifies high-born,
or, as the same root gives a word meaning heaven, possibly heaven-born;
that, before it became common, _Sir_ or _Sire_, as well as _Father_, was
the distinction of a priest; that _worship_, originally worth-ship--a
term of respect that has been used commonly, as well as to
magistrates--is also our term for the act of attributing greatness or
worth to the Deity; so that to ascribe worth-ship to a man is to worship
him. We might make much of the evidence that all early governments are
more or less distinctly theocratic; and that among ancient Eastern
nations even the commonest forms and customs appear to have been
influenced by religion. We might enforce our argument respecting the
derivation of ceremonies, by tracing out the aboriginal obeisance made
by putting dust on the head, which probably symbolises putting the head
in the dust: by affiliating the practice prevailing among certain
tribes, of doing another honour by presenting him with a portion of hair
torn from the head--an act which seems tantamount to saying, "I am your
slave;" by investigating the Oriental custom of giving to a visitor any
object he speaks of admiringly, which is pretty clearly a carrying out
of the compliment, "All I have is yours."

Without enlarging, however, on these and many minor facts, we venture to
think that the evidence already assigned is sufficient to justify our
position. Had the proofs been few or of one kind, little faith could
have been placed in the inference. But numerous as they are, alike in
the case of titles, in that of complimentary phrases, and in that of
salutes--similar and simultaneous, too, as the process of depreciation
has been in all of these; the evidences become strong by mutual
confirmation. And when we rec