endency among mankind to conceive all
beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those
qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which
they are intimately conscious.... The _unknown causes_ which
continually employ their thought, appearing always in the same
aspect, are all apprehended to be of the same kind or species. Nor
is it long before we ascribe to them thought, and reason, and
passion, and sometimes even the limbs and figures of men, in order
to bring them nearer to a resemblance with ourselves."--(IV. pp.
446-7.)

Hume asks whether polytheism really deserves the name of theism.

"Our ancestors in Europe, before the revival of letters, believed
as we do at present, that there was one supreme God, the author of
nature, whose power, though in itself uncontrollable, was yet often
exerted by the interposition of his angels and subordinate
ministers, who executed his sacred purposes. But they also
believed, that all nature was full of other invisible powers:
fairies, goblins, elves, sprights; beings stronger and mightier
than men, but much inferior to the celestial natures who surround
the throne of God. Now, suppose that any one, in these ages, had
denied the existence of God and of his angels, would not his
impiety justly have deserved the appellation of atheism, even
though he had still allowed, by some odd capricious reasoning, that
the popular stories of elves and fairies were just and well
grounded? The difference, on the one hand, between such a person
and a genuine theist, is infinitely greater than that, on the
other, between him and one that absolutely excludes all invisible
intelligent power. And it is a fallacy, merely from the casual
resemblance of names, without any conformity of meaning, to rank
such opposite opinions under the same denomination.

"To any one who considers justly of the matter, it will appear that
the gods of the polytheists are no better than the elves and
fairies of our ancestors, and merit as little as any pious worship
and veneration. These pretended religionists are really a kind of
superstitious atheists, and acknowledge no being that corresponds
to our idea of a Deity. No first principle of mind or thought; no
supreme government and administration; no divine contrivance or