(from πολύς and σπέρμα, seed), in Botany, is applied to such plants as have more than four seeds succeeding each flower, without any certain order or number.
**POLYSYLLABLE,** in Grammar, a word consisting of more than three syllables: for when a word consists of one, two, or three syllables, it is called a monosyllable, a disyllable, and trisyllable.
**POLYSYNDETON.** See Oratory, No 97.
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**POLYTHEISM,**
The doctrine of a plurality of gods or invisible powers superior to man.
"That there exist beings, one or many, powerful above the human race, is a proposition (says Lord Kames*) universally admitted as true in all ages and among all nations. I boldly call it universal, notwithstanding what is reported of some gross savages; for reports that contradict what is acknowledged to be general among men, require more able vouchers than a few illiterate voyagers. Among many savage tribes, there are no words but for objects of external sense: is it surprising that such people are incapable of expressing their religious perceptions, or any perception of internal sense? The conviction that men have of superior powers, in every country where there are words to express it, is so well vouched, that in fair reasoning it ought to be taken for granted among the few tribes where language is deficient."
These are judicious observations, of which every man will admit the force who has not some favourite system to build upon the unstable foundation which his Lordship overturns. Taking it for granted, then, that our conviction of superior powers has long been universal, the important question is, From what cause it proceeds? The same ingenious author shows, with great strength of reasoning, that the operations of nature and the government of this world, which to us loudly proclaim the existence of a Deity, are not sufficient to account for the universal belief of superior beings among savage tribes. He is therefore of opinion, that this universality of conviction can spring only from the image of Deity stamped upon the mind of every human being, the ignorant equally with the learned. "Nothing less (he says) is sufficient: and the original impression which we have of Deity, must proceed (he thinks) from an internal sense, which may be termed the sense of Deity."
We have elsewhere expressed our opinion of that philosophy which accounts for every phenomenon in human nature, by attributing it to a particular instinct (see Instinct); but to this instinct or sense of Deity, considered as complete evidence, many objections, more than usually powerful, force themselves upon us. All nations, except the Jews, were once polytheists and idolaters. If therefore his Lordship's hypothesis be admitted,