These well-known legends, which arose within what--as compared with
any previous time--was an exceedingly enlightened period, and which
were steadfastly believed by a vast multitude of Jews and
Christians for ages, are but single examples among scores which
show how inevitably such traditions regarding sacred books are
developed in the earlier stages of civilization, when men explain
everything by miracle and nothing by law.[[290]]
As the second of these laws governing the evolution of sacred
literature may be mentioned that which we have constantly seen so
effective in the growth of theological ideas--that to which Comte
gave the name of the _Law of Wills and Causes_. Obedient to this,
man attributes to the Supreme Being a physical, intellectual, and
moral structure like his own; hence it is that the votary of each
of the great world religions ascribes to its sacred books what he
considers absolute perfection: he imagines them to be what he
himself would give the world, were he himself infinitely good,
wise, and powerful.
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