But in process of time this polytheistic system became pre-eminently unsatisfactory to the thoughtful men whom Greece produced in such numbers.  The tendency towards monotheism which is usually associated with the name of Plato is hinted at in the writings of other philosophers who were his predecessors.  The effect of this revolution was to recognize one Supreme Being, the First Cause, and to subordinate to him all the other deities of the ancient and popular theology—­to co-ordinate them, in fact, with the older class of daemons; the first step in the descent to the lowest category of all.

21.  The history of the neo-Platonic belief is one of elaboration upon these ideas.  The conception of the Supreme Being was complicated in a manner closely resembling the idea of the Christian Trinity, and all the subordinate daemons were classified into good and evil geniuses.  Thus, a theoretically monotheistic system was established, with a tremendous hierarchy of inferior spirits, who frequently bore the names of the ancient gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, strikingly resembling that of Roman Catholicism.  The subordinate daemons were not at first recognized as entitled to any religious rites; but in the course of time, by the inevitable operation of the first principle just enunciated, a form of theurgy sprang up with the object of attracting the kindly help and patronage of the good spirits, and was tolerated; and attempts were made to hold intercourse with the evil spirits, which were, as far as possible suppressed and discountenanced.

22.  The history of the operation of this principle upon the Jewish religion is very similar, and extremely interesting.  Although they do not seem to have ever had any system of ancestor-worship, as the Greeks had, yet the Jews appear originally to have recognized the deities of their neighbours as existing spirits, but inferior in power to the God of Israel.  “All the gods of the nations are idols” are words that entirely fail to convey the idea of the Psalmist; for the word translated “idols” is Elohim, the very term usually employed to designate Jehovah; and the true sense of the passage therefore is:  “All the gods of the nations are gods, but Jehovah made the heavens."[1] In another place we read that “The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods."[2] As, however, the Jews gradually became acquainted with the barbarous rites with which their neighbours did honour to their gods, the foreigners seem to have fallen more and more in estimation, until they came to be classed as evil spirits.  To this process such names as Beelzebub, Moloch, Ashtaroth, and Belial bear witness; Beelzebub, “the prince of the devils” of later time, being one of the gods of the hostile Philistines.

[Footnote 1:  Psalm xcvi. 5 (xcv.  Sept.).]

[Footnote 2:  Psalm xcv. 3 (xciv.  Sept.).  Maury, p. 98.]

23.  The introduction of Christianity made no difference in this respect.  Paul says to the believers at Corinth, “that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils ([Greek:  daimonia]), and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils;"[1] and the Septuagint renders the word Elohim in the ninety-fifth Psalm by this [Greek:  daimonia], which as the Christians had already a distinct term for good spirits, came to be applied to evil ones only.