human
First Principles, when treating of
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Laws in General, argues elaborately on the order in which the sense of law, or a recognition of
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which the term implies, was gradually developed in the human intellect. After showing that there are several derivative principles, some earlier arrived at than others from the relative frequency of the occurring phenomena and their immediate influence upon, or of
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to, the aboriginal savage, he has some observations very pertinent to the present question. He says:--
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The solidification of water at a low temperature is a phenomenon that is simple, concrete, and of much personal concern. But it is neither so frequent as those which we saw are earliest generalised, nor is the _presence of the antecedent so uniformly conspicuous_. Though in all but tropical climates, mid-winter displays the relation between cold and freezing with tolerable constancy; yet, during the spring and autumn, the occasional appearance of ice in the mornings has not very manifest connection with the coldness of the weather. Sensation being so inaccurate a measure, it is not possible for the savage to experience the definite relation between a temperature of 32° and the congealing of water; and hence the long-continued conception of _personal_ agency. Similarly, but still more clearly, with the winds, the absence of regularity, and the inconspicuousness of the antecedents, allowing the mythological explanation to survive for a great period.
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The collective appellation of the Vedic gods is Dêvas, and this name has passed into most of the Indo-European languages; for corresponding to the Sanscrit _dêva_ is the Latin _deus_, Greek _theós_, Lithuanian _déwas_, Lettish _dews_, Old Prussian _deiws_, Irish _dia_, Welsh _duw_, Cornish _duy_. Amongst the German races the word _dêva_ survives only in the Norse plural _tìvar_, gods; and amongst those of the Sclave stock the Servians alone preserve a trace of it in the word _diw_, giant. The daêvas of the Medes and Persians were in early times degraded from the rank of gods to that of demons by a religious revolution, just as the heathen gods of the Germans were declared by the Christian missionaries to be devils; and the modern Persian _div_, and Armenian _dev_, mean an evil spirit. Dêva is derived from _div_, heaven (properly 'the shining'), and means the heavenly being.
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Wild Wales. He says:--
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How is it that the Sanscrit _devila_ stands for what is wise and virtuous, and the English devil for all that is desperate and wicked? A similar answer is given to this question by the fate which the Teutonic gods of Western Europe underwent on the final triumph of Christianity. Dasent says:--
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They were cast down from honour, but not from power. They lost their genial kindly influence as the protectors of men and the origin of all things good; but their existence was tolerated; they became powerful for ill, and degenerated into malignant demons.
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British History, states that King Locrin divorced his queen Guendolœna, and married a beautiful captive named Estrildis. On the death of the king, the divorced queen commanded
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Estrildis and her daughter Sabre to be thrown into the river now called the Severn, and published an edict through all Britain that the river should bear the damsel's name, hoping by this to perpetuate her memory, and by that the infamy of her husband. So that to this day the river is called in the British tongue Sabren, which by the corruption of the name is, in another language, Sabrina.