RELIGION. The etymology of the word religion is doubtful: and the thing itself is difficult to define in such a way as to include all varieties. E. B. Tylor defines it simply and briefly as being " a belief in spiritual beings." To S. Reinach it means " a sum of scruples which impede the free exercise of our faculties "; to Feuerbach " it is a desire which manifests itself in prayer, sacrifice, and faith." According to Max Miller, " religion is a faculty of the mind which enables a mau to grasp the infinite independently of sense and reason." According to A.
" Religion is the definition of man's life by the connection of the human with that mysterious spirit, the power of which over the universe and himself he recognises and with which he feels himself united." According to Goblet d'Alviella. " religion is a certain method by which man realises his relation to the super human and mysterious powers upon whom he regards himself as dependent." Marie-Jean Guyau defines re ligion as follows: " Religion is a universal socio morphism. The religious sense is the sense of dependence in relation to wills which primitive man places in the universe." A more comprehensive definition is that given by Jean Reonac. " Religion is essentially a principle of life, the feeling of a living relation between the human individual and the powers or power of which the universe is the manifestation. What characterises each religion is its way of looking upon this relation and its method of applying it." W. Warde Fowler approves the defini tion of an American writer : " Religion is the effective desire to be in right relation to the Power manifesting itself in the universe." He thinks that this definition at any rate suits very well the early Roman religious ideas. " The Power manifesting itself in the uni
verse ' may he taken as including all the workings of nature, which even now we most imperfectly understand. and which primitive man so little understood that he misinterpreted them in a hundred different ways. The effective desire to be in right relations with these mysterious powers, so that they might not interfere with his material well-being—with his flocks and herds. with his crops, too, if be were in the agricultural stage, with his dwelling and his laud, or with his city if he had got so far in social development—this is what we may call the religious instinct, the origin of what the Romans called reliqio." Perhaps one of the best definitions of religion is that of J. G. Frazer. " By religion I under stand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life." What Tolstoy under stands to be true religion he defines as follows. " True religion is the establishment by man of such a relation to the Infinite life around him, as, while connecting his life with this Infinitude and directing his conduct, is also in ag•eement with his reason and with human know ledge (What is Rcligio-n? 1902). W. Trotter (Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, 191G) rightly emphasises the fact that religious feeling is " a character inherent in the very structure of the human mind, and is the expression of a need which must he recognised by the biologist as neither superficial not transitory."