perceived motion,--whether it was displayed in the revolution of the planets, the falling tree, or the rippling stream,--there they associated life and motion. And, soon learning that these adjuncts of nature possessed a power and force superior to that with which they themselves were endowed, their feelings of awe and veneration were thereby excited; and to the highest degree their deep in-wrought devotional feelings first found an outlet by bowing in humble acknowledgment to the superior greatness of the shining orbs wheeling in such majestic grandeur along the deep blue sky, and "bidding defiance to all below." This is believed to have been the first form, the first practical manifestation, of religious worship, and the first form or phase of idolatry now denominated Fetichism. POLYTHEISM.--THIS WORD IS FROM _POLUS_, "MANY," AND _THEOS_, "God;" and hence is used to denote a belief in many or several Gods, which comprehends the second form and stage of idolatry! We have spoken of the early recognition by the primitive inhabitants of the earth of the motion of the heavenly bodies as giving rise to the belief that they possessed self-constituted life and volition. But, progressing a step farther, their attention was turned to motion where there was no visible agent to produce it,--action without a visible actor. The thunder rolled and reverberated along the great archway of heaven, the winds whistled and moaned through the thick foliage of the trees, and rushed along the valleys, oft-times with such violence as to overturn their rude tenements, and prostrate the towering oak at their feet. Yet nothing could be seen of the agent which produced these direful effects. No being, no agent, no cause adequate for their production, was visible. Hence they very naturally concluded that they were produced by invisible beings who could wing their way through space without being seen. This assumed discovery soon gave rise to the thought that the stars might be moved by these beings, instead of possessing, as they had previously been supposed to do, an inherent power of motion of their own. And these prime movers of the planets they concluded to be Gods, or moving spirits. Thus originated the notion of a plurality of Gods, each planet having a separate ruling Deity. And the sun--being greatly superior to, transcending in magnitude, light, power, and influence, all the other luminaries, with their qualities all combined--was, with the most childlike naturalness, supposed to be ruled by the chief of the Gods, "the Lord of lords and King of kings." It was he who, every morning throwing open the magnificent portals of the Orient,--the huge golden gates of the eastern horizon,--slowly lifted aloft his stupendous body of light to dispel the deep dark gloom which fur many hours had been spread like a pall over universal nature.