RELIGIONS.
We have already adverted to the intimate connection which has widely existed between the religious sentiment and the growth of arts (above, p.
132) and forms of government (p. 137). These were but subordinate indi cations of its all-embracing activity in moulding the lines and shaping the destinies of individuals and nations. A general review of the directions of this part of man's nature, though necessarily brief and incomplete, will illustrate how indispensable its attentive study becomes to the eth nologist.
IX:fi nition and Sources of Religion. ethnologic science the word relig ion must be understood in a much wider sense than in ordinary language. Usually it is confined to divine worship as conducted by civilized nations, and is placed in contrast to superstition or idolatry. But all forms of superstition, even the grossest, are expressions of the religious sentiment of man, and in a scientific study of the subject must be included quite as much as Christianity itself. A misunderstanding on this point has led many writers, notably Sir John Lubbock and those of his school, into serious error in the discussion of primitive society. Because they did not find religious manifestations, such as they were accustomed to see, among low tribes, they have denied that these possessed any religion.
Although there are reasons, heretofore stated (see p. 131), to believe that man in the earliest Stone Age had no religion, and though no satisfactory signs of it have been detected among animals, it may be considered as established that nowhere on the globe have tribes been discovered devoid of a comparatively extensive mythology and religious cult. A recent German writer, Gustav Roskoff, in a work on The Religions of the Rudest Peoples, has conclusively disproved all the assertions to the contrary by Lubbock and others.
Psychology and we ask the psychological origin of this sentiment which we see is thus universal to the race, we are urged by the general verdict of the analysts of human nature to accept the opinion of the Roman poet who attributed it to fear: " Piimus in orbe dens fecit timor." But only a superficial student of the subject, such as the dilettante noble who was the reputed author of that line (Petronius Arbiter), would stop here. The emotion of fear is exceedingly prominent in the lower ani mals and yet in no instance has it led them to the performance of acts which can be deemed religious. Something else, therefore, something peculiarly human, is demanded to explain the notion of things divine.
is found in the idea of Causality—in the instinctive belief that there is an Order in the universe, producing effects by causes, even if the cause is no more than the caprice of a tyrant, for that caprice is itself the effect of a motive, and falls along with everything else under the dominion of Law. The most rigid demonstrations of science have in their last analysis no other support than this instinctive, unproved, and improvable belief in order and cause (Bain); and we need not attempt, therefore, to go farther in search of the foundation of religious faith.
But the bare assumption of Cause, sufficient for science, does not sat isfy the religious sentiment, and could never have inspired its creations. These demand the further postulate that the order in things shall be one controlled by intelligence—intelligence not alien in kind, however much in degree, to that of man himself. This gave him his gods, and without this assumption the heavens would never have opened to his dreams. What grounds lie has for this assumption does not concern us here; we have only to do with its results.
Character of Primitive to fear as the immediate emotional prompter of religious expressions, we find it, as we might an ticipate, a marked characteristic of the lowest forms of faiths. They are frequently little beyond abject terrorisms. There may be an acknowledg ment of the existence of beneficent deities, hut these are not the objects of adoration; they would at least not hurt man, and he could dispense with their aid; but the malignant gods must be placated by assiduous attentions. So the Texas Indians informed the early explorer Joutel that there was a good god, but that they worshipped him not, as lie let them alone; hut the beings who injured them they had to appease. Travellers generally speak of the rites of savages as directed rather to allay the anger or cajole the malevolence of their gods than to thank them for favors con ferred. This is strengthened by the general doctrine among such tribes that all misfortunes are the effects of resentment. In many American languages there is no word corresponding with " to die;" it is always " to be killed." Sickness and death are not looked upon as events in the course of nature, but as punishments, inflicted by an animate agent. Hence the grounds of fear are greatly increased.