Daemons and heroes connect Divinity with man. Daemons are close to the divine nature; heroes to men. By its powerful light, Divinity also possesses whatever daemons possess peculiar to inferior beings. Heroes possess unity, identity, permanency, and virtue, only when under the condition of plurality, motion, and mixture. There are three orders of daemons. Middle order daemons preside over mankind, and the ascents and descents of souls. Daemons are much higher entities than the rational soul. They energise the soul and preside over us till we are brought before the judges of our conduct. While intellect is the governor of the soul, daemon is the inspector and guardian of mankind. He governs the whole of our life. He gives perfection to reason, measures the passions, inspires nature, connects the body, supplies things fortuitous, accomplishes the decrees of fate, and imparts the gifts of providence. In short, our daemon is the king of everything in and about us, and the pilot of the whole of our life. Hence Socrates was most perfect, being governed by such a presiding power, and conducting himself by the will of such a great leader and guardian of his life. The daemon within Socrates did not act upon Socrates externally with passivity; but the daemoniacal inspiration proceeding inwardly through his whole soul, and diffusing itself as far as to the organs of sense, became at last a voice, which was recognized more by consciousness, than by sense. The voice never exhorted, but perpetually recalled Socrates. Motivated from his great readiness to benefit those with whom he conversed, he acted naturally from within without. He needed not promptings from his guardian and benefactor. The voice of his daemon kept recalling Socrates’ consciousness inwardly in order to constrain his association with the multitude and the vulgar, so that his purity remained untainted.

Whenever there is a decline of virtue, an uprising of vice and injustice in the world, a Great Soul incarnates on earth for the establishment of righteousness, the destruction of the wicked, and the preservation of the just. The Hindu Redeemer preceded the Christian by some thousands of years; between the two, Gautama Buddha, reflected Krishna (who appears in every yuga) and projected into the night of the future his own luminous shadow, out of whose collected rays were shaped the outlines of the mythical Jesus, and from whose teachings were drawn those of the historical Christos. Krishna, Gautama, and Jesus appeared like true gods, each in his epoch, and bequeathed to humanity three great religions built on the imperishable rock of ages. If their religions are cleansed from the dross of priestly dogmas, they will be found to be identical for the primitive truths of all three rest on one foundation, the Archaic Wisdom Religion. Kapila, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, Basilides, Marcian, Ammonius and Plotinus, founded schools and sowed the germs of many a noble thought and, disappearing, left behind them the refulgence of demi-gods. As Mussulmans will not admit that their Koran is built on the substratum of the Jewish Bible, so the Christians will not confess that they owe next to everything to the Hindu religions. The most praiseworthy Christians are modified Buddhists, though probably not one of them ever heard of Prince Siddhartha. Cruelty and mercy are finite feelings. But the Supreme Deity is infinite, hence it can only be Just, and Justice must be blind. The doctrine of Vicarious Atonement is one of the most demoralizing of doctrines. Even the faintest glimmering sense of Justice revolts against such a pernicious dogma of atonement by proxy and salvation by prayer. The effects of a cause are never limited to the boundaries of the cause, nor can the results of crime be confined to the offender and his victim. The action may be instantaneous, the effects are eternal.