How, then, could they escape the inference that among other beneficent beings, the heroes of antiquity in particular deserve religious honours, seeing that in these benefactors of mankind, whom legend commemorates, the Divine Spirit did not show Himself under the lower form of a ἕξις, as in the elements, nor yet as simple φύσις, as in plants, but as a rational soul? Such deified men had, according to the Stoic view—which, on this point, agrees with the well-known theory of Euemerus—greatly helped to swell the number of the popular Gods; nor had the Stoics themselves any objection to their worship. [911] Add to this the personification of human qualities and states of mind, [912] and it will be seen what ample opportunity the Stoics had for recognising everywhere in nature and in the world of man divine agencies and powers, and, consequently, Gods in the wider sense of the term. [913] When once it is allowed that the name of God may be diverted from the Being to whom it properly belongs and applied, in a derivative sense, to what is impersonal and a mere manifestation of divine power, the door is opened to everything; and, with such concessions, the Stoic system could graft into itself even exceptional forms of polytheism. [(4) Doctrine of demons.] With the worship of heroes is also connected the doctrine of demons. [914] The soul, according to the Stoic view already set forth, is of divine origin, a part of and emanation from God. Or, distinguishing more accurately in the soul one part from the rest, divinity belongs to reason only, as the governing part. Now, since reason alone protects man from evil and conducts him to happiness—this, too, was the popular belief—reason may be described as the guardian spirit, or demon, in man. Not only by the younger members of the Stoic School, by Posidonius, Seneca, Epictetus, and Antoninus, are the popular notions of demons, as by Plato aforetime, [915] explained in this sense, [916] but the same method is pursued by Chrysippus, who made εὐδαιμονία, or happiness, consist in a harmony of the demon in man (which, in this case, can only be his own will and understanding) with the will of God. [917] Little were the Stoics aware that, by such explanations, they were attributing to popular notions a meaning wholly foreign to them. But it does not therefore follow that they shared the popular belief in guardian spirits. [918] Their system, however, left room for believing that, besides the human soul and the spirits of the stars, other rational souls might exist, having a definite work to perform in the world, subject to the law of general necessity, and knit into the chain of cause and effect. Nay, more, such beings might seem to them necessary for the completeness of the universe. [919] What reason have we, then, to express doubt, when we are told that the Stoics believed in the existence of demons, playing a part in man and caring for him? [920] Is there anything extraordinary, from the Stoic platform, in