[Sidenote: Fear created the gods.]That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject. Torecognise an external power it is requisite that we should find the inner stream and tendency of life somehowchecked or disturbed; if all went well and acceptably, we should attribute divinity only to ourselves. Theexternal is therefore evil rather than good to early apprehension--a sentiment which still survives in respectto matter; for it takes reflection to conceive that external forces form a necessary environment, creating aswell as limiting us, and offering us as many opportunities as rebuffs. The first things which a man learns todistinguish and respect are things with a will of their own, things which resist his casual demands; and so thefirst sentiment with which he confronts reality is a certain animosity, which becomes cruelty toward the weakand fear and fawning before the powerful. Toward men and animals and the docile parts of nature thesesentiments soon become defined accurately, representing the exact degree of friendliness or use which wediscover in these beings; and it is in practical terms, expressing this relation to our interests, that we definetheir characters. Much remains over, however, which we cannot easily define, indomitable, ambiguousregions of nature and consciousness which we know not how to face; yet we cannot ignore them, since it isthence that comes what is most momentous in our fortunes--luck, disease, tempest, death, victory. Thencecome also certain mysterious visitations to the inner mind--dreams, apparitions, warnings. To perceive thesethings is not always easy, nor is it easy to interpret them, while the great changes in nature which, perhaps,they forebode may indeed be watched but cannot be met intelligently, much less prevented. The feeling withwhich primitive man walks the earth must accordingly be, for the most part, apprehension; and what he meets,beyond the well-conned ways of his tribe and habitat, can be nothing but formidable spirits.[Sidenote: Need also contributed.]Impotence, however, has a more positive side. If the lightning and thunder, startling us in our peace, suddenlyreveal unwelcome powers before which we must tremble, hunger, on the contrary, will torment us withfloating ideas, intermittent impulses to act, suggesting things which would be wholly delightful if only wecould find them, but which it becomes intolerable to remain without. In this case our fear, if we still choose tocall it so, would be lest our cravings should remain unsatisfied, or rather fear has given place to need; werecognise our dependence on external powers not because they threaten but because they forsake us.
