We have seen that the first worship of the world was of one God. We have watched the world in its processes of changing as the nations were separated from each other. We have found that not long after the settlement of the nations in their new lands the worship of many gods appeared, and with this worship, or soon after it began, the worship of idols appeared also. The number of gods and their idols multiplied rapidly, until they numbered hundreds of millions. There were gods of every name and shape; gods of heaven, earth, and hell; gods of occupations and employments; gods of every living creature, and of many inanimate things. Where did they come from? Where and when did that great change occur, when man ceased to worship one God and began to multiply his gods and idols? How did it come about? What influences produced the change? Why was the world permitted to wander so far from the truth? All these, and a hundred kindred questions come to us at this time. Can we answer any of them? The sources of information are not very numerous. The course of ages has destroyed, or at least altered, many of the early records. It is like those old manuscripts from which some economical scribe has rubbed out all the writing originally there, to make way for his own work. Can these faded palimpsests be restored? We must look down beneath these uppermost records, beneath the traditions, legends and sacred writings of later ages, and we can then discover, but faintly traceable it is true, but still worthy of trust, some dim outlines of the introductions of Polytheism. In the last fifty years, wonderful treasures of information have been brought to light, and scholars skilled in Eastern learning have been raised up to aid in bringing this information more fully to the Western world. English, German and American students have given us the sacred books of Hindus, Parsees and other peoples, and the story of their work is intensely interesting. [Illustration: ANCIENT SERPENT IDOL.] SOURCES OF INFORMATION.