ection with evil but on their expectation that, though he is now
fallen from his high angelic estate, he is ultimately to be restored to
his original dignity.[1184]

+694+. Thus, it cannot be said that a demon has ever developed into a
god. The malefic Powers of savages have generally been absorbed by
higher beings or have otherwise disappeared. Some gods, such as the
Hebrew Satan and certain Greek deities, have been degraded to the
demonic class. In some cases, particularly in the Zoroastrian system, a
being who is the consolidation of all malign supernatural activities has
been credited with all-but divine power and authority.[1185] But the two
classes remain distinct--the true "god" is a friendly member of a human
society, and when he is angry may be placated; the true "demon" is
essentially hostile to men and must be thwarted and expelled.[1186]

+695+. _Gods of abstractions._ Gods of abstractions, found in certain
theistic systems, are to be distinguished on the one hand from deities
that are simply personalizations of physical objects (such as Vesta and
Agni) and on the other hand from poetical personifications, such as that
of Wisdom in the Jewish books of Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, and the
Wisdom of Solomon, and from concrete figures like the Logos of Philo and
the Fourth Gospel. Though these abstract forms appear to be relatively
late (posterior to the formation of the greater gods), the meagerness of
our data makes it difficult to describe their genesis and the
conceptions of their character by the peoples among whom they arise.
Some facts known to us, however, may help us to understand in part the
process by which they came into existence.

+696+. We have already considered the tendency in human communities to
particularize the divine objects of worship and to personalize external
objects; everywhere, it would appear, there is a disposition to assign a
particular divine control to every fact that is specially connected with
human interests. We have to note, further, the tendency to concretize,
as, for example, in many cases in which evil, physical or moral, is
regarded as a concrete thing that may be removed bodily from the
community.[1187] This sort of conception we may suppose to be connected
with early psychological theory, according to which anything that
affects man is credited with manlike form and power. The facility with
which the abstract and the concrete may be identified is illustrated by
such mod