Note 25 — INTRODUCTION

It is important to notice here that Herbert Spencer advances many cogent arguments and produces much convincing evidence to show that, in cases where the difference between the distinguished neighbour or neighbours, strange visitor or visitors, conqueror or conquerors of a given race, and that race, is sufficiently great to make the former appear very much more exalted than the latter, the superior are immediately deified, or regarded as gods by the inferior race. See Principles of Sociology, 3rd ed., vol. i., pp. 396–398:—“The immigrant member of a superior race,” says Spencer, “becomes a god among an inferior race.... It is said by Bushmen, ‘Those white men are children of God; they know everything.’ The East African exclaims: ‘Truly ye are gods,’ and Europeans are thus spoken of in the Congo.... When Thompson and Moffat wished to see a religious ceremony peculiar to the Bechuana women, the women said: ‘These are gods, let them walk in....’ When the Spaniards went to Mexico the Mexicans exclaimed that their god Quetzalcoatl had come back with his companions.” There is a good deal more evidence on these pages which I omit. “With such evidence before us,” says Herbert Spencer (p. 400), “what shall we think about the ‘gods and men’ who figure in the legends of higher races?... We shall conclude that these ‘gods and men’ were simply conquering and conquered races: all mythological interpretations notwithstanding.” I must remind the reader here that all conquest is not “bloody” conquest. For instance, it is said that the Incas of Peru conquered without the sword. This is also said of the Chinese invasion of the territory now called the Middle Kingdom.