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THE 
 
 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 OF RELIGION 
 
 By 
 
 GEORGE WILLIS COOKE 
 
 \\ 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 The Stratford Company, Publishers 
 
 1920 
 
Copyright 1 
 The STBATFOBD CO., Publisher* 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 The Alpine Press, Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 
 
Habitation of 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 To the memory of LUCY NASH COOKE, 1848- 
 1919, who walked by my side for forty- 
 seven years, whose religion was love, whose 
 life was fidelity, and whose ethical motive 
 was devotion to the good of others. 
 
 iii 
 
 415774 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IN this volume have been stated the final results of fifty years 
 devoted to the study of religion in its varied manifestations. 
 Accepting for many years the generally accredited interpreta- 
 tions of Christianity, I have gradually diverged from them as 
 the result of a growing interest in anthropology, ethnology, 
 psychology, and comparative religion. 
 
 These chapters were originally read to a small group of 
 persons meeting in a private parlor in Boston, under the auspices 
 of the local branch of The Free Religious Association of Amer- 
 ica. Not all which was written was read at any of these meet- 
 ings, but often many pages were omitted in order that the 
 lecture might be followed by questions and discussions. 
 
 The lectures have been carefully corrected, many pages 
 excised, many more pages added, and the whole rewritten and 
 thoroughly revised. 
 
 My friend, John Haynes Holmes, minister of the Community 
 Church in the city of New York, has read the whole of 
 the manuscript, given me the benefit of his suggestions and cor- 
 rections, and written the foreword, which states briefly and 
 pertinently that at which I have aimed in my book. 
 
 G. W. C. 
 
Contents 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Foreward ix 
 
 Introduction xv 
 
 I. The Social Transmission of Human Experience . 1 
 
 II. The Creative Genius of Social Man ... 52 
 
 III. Communal and Tribal Religion .... 109 
 
 IV. Feudal Religion 148 
 
 V. National Religion 189 
 
 VI. International Religion 229 
 
 VII. Universal Religion 291 
 
 VIII. Religion as Cosmic and Human Motive . . 337 s 
 
 Appendix to Chapter I 405 
 
 Index 411 
 
 Vll 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THE changes which took place during the nineteenth cen- 
 tury in man's understanding of the world, and of himself 
 as a denizen of this world, were undoubtedly the most remark- 
 able in the annals of human history. They were nothing short 
 of revolutionary in every department of knowledge. Old ideas 
 went, and new ideas came, with a rapidity which was bewilder- 
 ing. Scientific and philosophic dogmas, long accepted as fun- 
 damental, were suddenly seen to be little better than myths; 
 and speculations, at first regarded as phantasmal as they were 
 degrading, were demonstrated to be true with a terrible finality. 
 What was begun centuries before, in the so-called "Revival of 
 Learning", was now carried through to heights of vision and 
 depths of inquiry, which would have amazed the original inno- 
 vators of that great period. Observation, investigation and 
 experimentation ceaseless accumulation of data, and daring 
 hypothetical generalization upon the basis of this data in- 
 sistence upon facts and humble surrender to the leading of 
 facts in one word, the emancipated intellect, equipped with 
 the modern scientific methods of inquiry, suddenly "made all 
 things new." The world as it was, straightway took the place 
 of the world as men had imagined, or wanted, it to be. With 
 the result that, in the space of a single generation, so to speak, 
 the whole volume of human knowledge was written anew, with 
 indefinite extensions and marvelous transformations of material ! 
 In no one department of inquiry, perhaps, was this change 
 more remarkable certainly, in none more startling than in 
 that of religion. A score of separate influences worked more 
 
 ix 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 or less unconsciously together to shake down, as Samson the 
 temple of the Philistines, the venerated structure of what was 
 almost universally accepted as divine revelation. The higher 
 criticism of the Bible, the new investigations of church history 
 and the life of Jesus, the study of comparative religion, the 
 disclosures of archeological research, the facts of anthropology, 
 sociology, psychology, all combined to shatter every accepted 
 doctrine of the origin, development and significance of religion, 
 and to present anew the whole problem of this strange phe- 
 nomenon in the life of man. One has only to name a few of the 
 classic books of this period Wellhausen 's ' * History of Israel ' ', 
 Strauss 's "Life of Jesus", Frazer's ''Golden Bough", Tylor's 
 "Primitive Culture", Sir Henry Maine's "Ancient Law" and 
 "Early History of Institutions", Spencer's "Principles of Psy- 
 chology" and "Principles of Sociology", Max Miiller's "Sacred 
 Books of the East", Fiske's "Cosmic Philosophy" to see some- 
 thing of the range of the influences which were at work, and 
 the fundamental character of the results which they were achiev- 
 ing. Religion, as man had known it for nineteen hundred years, 
 was now become a myth. The fact, as contrasted with the myth, 
 was now being disclosed slowly, imperfectly, with infinite 
 labor and patience, much as a buried temple or tomb is disclosed 
 by the excavator's spade but with the certainty that in due 
 season the revelation would be complete. 
 
 It is only in this, our time, that the permanent significance 
 of these years of research in the field of religion is becoming 
 apparent. Data gathered in a dozen different laboratories, have 
 long been familiar. Only recently has it become possible to 
 synthesize and generalize, and thus to present, with some degree 
 of wholeness, the new picture of religion as a reality of human 
 experience. What this picture is, may be variously described. 
 But it is probable that we come nearest to the truth, and most 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 vividly set forth the nature of the change from old conceptions 
 to new, when we say that we see religion to-day as a human 
 product rather than as a divine revelation. Religion, evolved 
 from below, instead of imparted from above, is the transforma- 
 tion which modern investigation has worked. 
 
 In former days, it was believed that Christianity was a 
 direct, perfect and final inspiration from God. In the old dis- 
 pensation, Moses had received from the hands of Jehovah the 
 two tables of the law. In the new dispensation, Jesus, the only 
 begotten Son of the Father, had descended straight out of 
 heaven, to bring salvation unto men. From this standpoint, 
 Christianity was the one true religion. It stood, like Sinai in 
 the desert, a single mountain, on which man could climb to, and 
 at last meet with, God. 
 
 The discovery and sympathetic study of other great reli- 
 gions Confucianism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Mohamme- 
 danism changed all this. It was seen that these other reli- 
 gions had claims to divine origin identical with those of 
 Christianity. It was recognized that the theology and ethics 
 of these religions were not altogether dissimilar to those asso- 
 ciated with the prophets of Israel and the apostles of Christ. It 
 was as though the single mountain peak were become a range of 
 summits, each one of which touched heaven, and shone with 
 the radiance of divine splendor. 
 
 ^X^Then came the discovery that behind these great religions 
 were long periods of psychological and social development. The 
 prophets were not isolated figures, but children of their time 
 and race. The sacred literatures were not words from heaven, 
 out myth, folk-lore, legend, redolent of the soil of earth and 
 of the heart of man. These mountains, after all, did not meet 
 the sky. Climb their slopes and it was the substance of the 
 level plains from which they rose, that met your feet. Stand 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 upon their summits and you touched beneath, the granite 
 frame-work of the planet, while above, and far beyond, the 
 heavens still escaped you. The significant thing about these 
 peaks, after all, was that they were rooted in earth, and thus 
 a part of the native structure of the globe. On them, you 
 breathed a clearer air; from them, you saw a wider horizon. 
 But the revelation was from below upward, and not from above 
 _/cLownward. J[he_origins of religion, in other wjorjj^jwei^jiuman, 
 not diving 
 
 There are various lines of approach to this great truth- 
 various departments of knowledge which contribute data in 
 emonstration of the thesis. Archeology is one. The study 
 of sacred literatures, with their common background of mythol- 
 \ogy, is another. Psychology presents a fertile field of inquiry, 
 as see Starbuck's " Psychology of Religion ", and Professor 
 
 es's great work on "Varieties of Religious Experience. " 
 All these, however, must yield precedence to sociology. The 
 hidden tomb, the parchment manuscript, the confession of the 
 individual soul, are all important. But not until we study the 
 race, look upon man as a member of a group, follow step by 
 step the evolution of society, do we come to the heart of the 
 problem. Then, as if by magic, religion takes its place as a 
 product of social experience, a form of social organization, an 
 expression of social need. Sociology, as Herbert Spencer long 
 ago discovered, holds the key to the age-old mystery of God. 
 
 It is this social approach to the problem which characterizes 
 this book by George Willis Cooke. Here are presented the human 
 origins of religion in terms of the social history of the race. 
 Two factors combine to make this a work not only of intense 
 interest to the student, but of first-rate importance to the average 
 reader. 
 
 
 
 xii 
 
FOBEWOED 
 
 On the one hand, we have in this volume an exhaustive and 
 accurate presentation of the entire field of modern study of 
 religion. The sociological aspect of the problem holds first place 
 throughout, as of preeminent importance ; but other aspects are 
 not neglected. What the mind of man has accomplished in this 
 field in the last one hundred years, is surveyed and summarized. 
 We have here a rich accumulation of first-hand material, a test- 
 ing of the worth of this material as evidence by the best stand- 
 ards of modern scholarship, and a judicious and unbiased pre- 
 sentation of the conclusions to which this evidence leads us. 
 The book is the fruit of a life-time of patient and exhaustive 
 inquiry. It accomplishes to no small degree in the sociological 
 field, what James accomplished so superbly in the psychological 
 field in his "Varieties of Eeligious Experience." Furthermore, 
 it serves to correct the dangerous one-sidedness of that unique 
 masterpiece. 
 
 Secondly, this book is important for its study of what the 
 discovery of the human origins of religion is going to mean to 
 religion in the future. Here the author turns from a study 
 of the facts of yesterday to a study of the prospects of tomorrow. 
 That the result is revolutionary, is stating the truth mildly. 
 The thought of God, the function of worship and prayer, the 
 hope of immortality, the place of the church in social life all 
 these are cast, as it were, into the melting pot. And out of it, 
 is seen to come a religion- as different from that of the older 
 time as the new world which is destined to emerge out of the 
 Great War, is different from the world before the war. Chapter 
 VIII is perhaps the most important, as it is certainly the most 
 interesting, in the book. Mr. Cooke is prophet quite as much as 
 scholar, and it is not too much to surmise that, for this final 
 chapter of forecast, the rest of the book was written. 
 
 xiii 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 It has been my happy privilege to read this work in manu- 
 script, and discuss it with its author. I have been instructed and 
 inspired by this experience. It is a pleasure to take advantage 
 of the opportunity granted me by Mr. Cooke, to commend the 
 book to that wide circle of readers which it is sure to find. 
 
 JOHN HAYNES HOLMES. 
 New York City. 
 
 xiv 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 r I ^HE universality of religion is a generally accepted fact. 
 I The statement has been often made that certain bands or 
 tribes were without any religious practice or belief; but it has 
 been shown that this conclusion is a mistaken one. An ac- 
 quaintance with the language of a people, and an intimate 
 knowledge of its customs and institutions, is essential to a true 
 understanding of its religious life and practices. When such 
 knowledge has been secured, it has been discovered that the reli- 
 gionless people has not only a religion, but it may be much given 
 jto the exercise of religious rites and ceremonies. 
 
 Religion takes the widest possible range of expression, and 
 in its earlier manifestations is not to be judged by the intellec- 
 tual demands of the higher civilizations. The religion of primi- 
 tive peoples is almost invariably expressed in rituals and cults, 
 that is, in something done, and not in something believed. It 
 may be truthfully said that such peoples have no beliefs as 
 such, no purely intellectual or philosophical interpretation of 
 life and its experiences. They dance or sing or act their 
 religion; and they give it expression in festivals, ceremonials, 
 and rituals. 
 
 The religion of the primitive or undeveloped peoples is 
 emotional and not intellectual, poetical and not scientific. 
 Wherever we find such a people and its religion, whether in the 
 present or in a more or less remote past, we may discover, if 
 we give close attention to the facts presented before us, that the 
 attitude manifested is one of feeling and not one of reason. 
 Such peoples do not deal with principles but with persons, 
 not with ideas but with activities. 
 
 xv 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Since organic life and humanity have had a definite 
 beginning, it must be supposed that religion also began at some 
 remote period in the history of mankind. We do not know 
 under what conditions or at what stage in human evolution it 
 took its rise. Perhaps we may be justified in assuming that 
 religion originated with man, and that it has been in existence 
 ever since man became truly man. Indications of awe, rever- 
 ence, and other emotional attitudes toward the environing world, 
 have been attributed to animals; and it is therefore probable 
 religion began with the beginnings of human experience. This 
 means that religion had a most lowly origin and that it was at 
 first an attitude rather than a reality, an emotion finding com- 
 munal expression. 
 
 It must be recognized that all the evidence is in favor of 
 the conclusion that the earliest manifestations of religion were 
 those of a group, and not those of individuals. The child does 
 not know himself as an individual for the first two or three 
 years of his life ; and, in fact, he does not attain full conscious- 
 ness of self, with capacity to assert his right to a separate 
 intellectual existence, until he reaches the age of puberty. In 
 the same way, primitive man may be an individual from the 
 first, but the attaining of personality comes only at a com- 
 paratively late period, as one of the results of the evolution of 
 civilization. The primitive man and woman are members of a 
 group, and they live its life without recognition of an existence 
 other than it can give them. Its life is their life, its emotions 
 their emotions, its religion their religion. They have not the 
 mental capacity for separating themselves in any manner from 
 its rituals and its myths, its customs and its tabus; and they 
 have no wish to do so. In fact, they are quite incapable of 
 seeing the group life and the group religion in perspective or 
 
 xvi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 of giving them an objective interpretation. In large degree the 
 group life is coterminous with the individual life, and the 
 individual emotion is emphatically that of the group. The evi- 
 dence makes it quite certain that the individual of the primitive / 
 group recognizes himself only in his communal relations, and 
 in these relations he realizes the whole of his being. 
 
 Because man begins his life as a member of a group, and, 
 under the environing conditions of the earliest periods of his 
 existence, could have survived in no other manner, we have a 
 reason why from the first he was religious, that is, conceived of 
 the environing world emotionally. That world, be it understood, 
 was not the universe known to us; but simply and merely the 
 group to which he belonged, and its immediate environing world. 
 In that, and by means of that, all life, and all nature, were 
 known to him. The circle of the world was the circle of the 
 group. All outside the group, whether of the world that gave 
 food and shelter, and contact with plants and animals, or inside 
 of the world experienced in the relations of sex and childhood, 
 and rituals which expressed the emotional content of the group 
 life, was interpreted in terms of the group life and its demands 
 as a group. In this communal existence the primitive man 
 found the whole of his experience and the manner of his inter- 
 pretation of every phase of the world around him. 
 
 In the fact that religion began as an expression of the 
 group life, and as an emotional manifestation of its experiences, 
 we may find reason for asserting that fundamentally all religions 
 are the same, and answer to the same demands of man's nature. 
 Although it is true that the more developed religions began at 
 a period remote from the conditions under which all the primi- 
 tive religions had their origin, yet none of them but were in- 
 fluenced by those traditions or survivals which came from the 
 earliest period. All religion is essentially communal or social, 
 
 xvii 
 
J 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the expression of what belongs primarily to the community and 
 not to the individual. The emotional nature of religion gives 
 unity to all its varied manifestations. Human nature, in its 
 primary qualities, is the same wherever found, in whatever 
 religion or period; and therefore this expression of it that we 
 call religion answers everywhere to the same needs, to the same 
 sense of wonder and awe, to the same demand for the interpre- 
 tation of life and death. No beliefs or practices of the most 
 advanced religions but have their correlates in the more primi- 
 tive practices and rituals of the communal or group religions. 
 Religion, wherever manifest, answers to the same human de- 
 mands; and it reaches the responding satisfaction by quite 
 similar methods and to the same primary ends. 
 
 Any genuine study of religion, in its universal manifesta- 
 tions, demands sympathy and mental responsiveness to what is 
 best in its several expressions, whether crude or advanced. This 
 may require some degree of aloofness from all that is dogmatic 
 and authoritative in any one religion. He who regards 
 Buddhism or Christianity or Islam as final, as the one only 
 religion which is true and revealed or as having any absolute 
 value for those who^accept it, is not in a position to appreciate 
 other manifestations of religion at their true social significance. 
 It is for this reason that an attitude of unconcern about the 
 dogmatic values of any religion, as relates to individual destiny, 
 appears to be essential to a wise and just appreciation of the 
 several phases through which religion has passed from the period 
 of the earliest man to its latest manifestations in our own day. 
 No demand is made upon the individual that he shall discard 
 all religion, or that he shall turn aside from that into which 
 he was inducted in childhood; but that he shall become undog- 
 matic, appreciative of all that is human, and willing to consider 
 sympathetically whatever ritual or creed has meaning for the 
 
 xviii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 life of another community than his own. Whatever gives mean- 
 ing and purpose and joy to the life of any individual may be 
 regarded with respect, and should be studied, if studied at all, 
 with sympathy and appreciation. 
 
 The contention here set forth is, that all religions are true 
 to those who accept them as true, and to the extent to which 
 they give meaning to the life of the group or the individual. 
 Even the very crudest religions, those of the peoples the least 
 developed, show forth qualities that serve a noble human pur- 
 pose. Even such religions make men and women better and 
 \wiser in their relations to life and to one another. All religions 
 have their heroes and their saints, and the good may be found 
 wherever man exists. If any one religion developed the best life 
 in all its followers, we need not hesitate to accept it as prefer- 
 able to all others ; but when we find the highest type of conduct 
 in the most primitive groups and under the crude conditions of 
 life they present and all the way up through every religion to 
 the most developed in other respects, we may conclude that no 
 ritual or creed is final. We need but look about us to see that 
 Christianity has no monopoly of virtue in its followers, and 
 that it cannot make better men and women than are to be found 
 -developed by Buddhism and Mohammedanism. A noble life 
 must be regarded as the true test for any and every religion; 
 and noble lives are to be found throughout the world, in all 
 communities and under all religions. If we accept this test, we 
 must say that all religions are true as to the results they pro- 
 duce. It must also be said that all are false or imperfect, in 
 so far as they fail to make sure of the good life for all who 
 accept them. Even the most highly developed religions fail 
 to realize their ideals, their standards of conduct, in the lives 
 of all who receive their rituals and their creeds. 
 
 xix 
 
 C^C 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 In recognizing these defects in the more advanced religions, 
 we must not forget that all of them are shot through and through 
 with survivals from the past, even from a very remote period 
 in human history. Eeligion is a development, has had a very 
 prolonged evolution, shows everywhere the results of its con- 
 tinuous advancement or degeneracy; and that what hinders 
 its higher development, or may be properly regarded as its 
 defects is in no small measure the result of this process of growth 
 through the ages. 
 
 The religion of to-day shows on every hand the results 
 which come from the attempt to put new wine into old bottles 
 or to attach fresh rituals and beliefs to the old terms and tradi- 
 tions. An illustration of this may be found in the continued 
 use of the word "salvation" for what in no sense connects itself 
 with the origins of that term or whatever it connoted in earlier 
 ages of the history of religion. Even H. G. Wells uses this 
 word with meanings which have not the slightest connection 
 with its earlier uses. We do not now believe that men are to 
 be saved from the dungeons of a tyrannous king or the place 
 of torment of a vengeful God. We do not believe that any im- 
 pending dark and gloomy fate hangs over us from which we 
 are to escape by means of magic or the recitation of rituals or 
 the belief in cruel and awful creeds; and yet we continue to 
 use a word which in all its connotations, historically speaking, 
 means something of this kind as impending over us. Therefore 
 it is desirable that we should discard a word having these impli- 
 cations. No modernization of it can cause the obliteration of 
 the historic background of the word. 
 
 The same is true of many other religious words and 
 phrases, that we have given them meanings which deny their 
 historical origin and connections. Such a word is "sacrifice," 
 which no longer means the killing of animals or men as offer- 
 
 xx 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ings to a God capable of demanding such a price paid to appease 
 his wrath toward men, as not having in some minute detail 
 obeyed his arbitrary commands. We may recognize that our 
 sacrifices of to-day are those of the suppression of selfishness, 
 the giving freely of our substance to relieve the needs of our 
 jellows; but not thus can we escape the tragical and awful 
 history which has brought us this word and its historic signi- 
 fications through the ages. As we study that history we may 
 rightly rebel against the use of a term with such a fateful and 
 dark background of vengeance and cruelty and disregard of 
 human welfare. 
 
 When we study thoroughly such instances in the evolution 
 of religion we may query whether it is capable of correcting 
 its own defects, and of eliminating by its own initiative the 
 limitations and the vices of its past. It is doubtful if it ever 
 does this without the aid of those collective forces which we 
 describe when we use the word civilization. Religion is undoubt- 
 edly the most conservative social force known to the life of , 
 mankind, and it is always extremely reluctant to break with its 
 own history. 
 
 Such being the tendency of religion, we may rightly accept 
 an attitude of caution in regard to its dogmatisms. We may 
 hesitate in regard to every dogma which is declared to be of 
 undoubted veracity. The very claim of revelation, constantly 
 made in the name of religion, is fundamentally of a dogmatic 
 nature, intended to impose silence on all who would think freely 
 and constructively. Religion is a growth, now in process of 
 development as in the past; and, if it is to be regarded in any_ 
 sense or degree as a revelation, it must be assumed to be a 
 progressive, a constantly unfolding revelation, a continuous 
 process of advance from lower to higher forms of expression. 
 
 He who would study religion in an untrammelled spirit, 
 
 jod 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 without fear and without prejudice, must do so without the 
 slightest thought that the conclusions he reaches can determine 
 his own future destiny. It cannot be assumed that any belief 
 decides what is to be the nature of the life which will be that 
 of the individual when he passes from his present state of 
 existence. Belief in regard to subtle theological and metaphys- 
 ical problems is not vital, does not forecast the issues of life, 
 and can be in no sense fateful with regard to the determinations 
 of the future. He who hesitates to think with absolute freedom 
 on this account cannot have any opinions in regard to religion 
 which will be of fundamental importance. 
 
 / What this means is, that religion must be studied in the 
 ^scientific spirit, and with the latest and most approved scientific 
 methods. First of all we are to seek for the facts, what religion 
 has been and is; and as if we had before us a plant or a star 
 for investigation. That is, any concern as to what it may mean 
 for us personally must be absolutely barred out. When we 
 investigate a plant or a star what we are concerned with is its 
 origin, its nature, the process of its development or its relations 
 to other plants and stars. This, too, should be our attitude in 
 the study of religions. In a word, we must apply to them the 
 scientific method and purpose, that of knowing their origin, 
 the processes of their growth, and what they meant to those who- 
 accepted them. This method in the study of religions has de- 
 veloped the newest science, that of Comparative Religion, or 
 the study of all the religions of the world in relation to each 
 other, with a view to determining their common factors, that 
 in which they differ, and the stages through which each has 
 grown from its early beginnings to its latest manifestations 
 of itself. 
 
 Such a study may not promote piety or worship or a dog- 
 matic belief of any kind; but it does show us what purpose 
 
 xxii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 religion has answered to in the evolution of mankind. We shall 
 come upon much that is crude, vulgar, immoral or unmoral, 
 wanting in all mental inspiration; but also upon much that is 
 illuminating as to the nature of man, the manner in which cul- 
 ture and civilization have been produced. We will also find many 
 a suggestion as to the future of religion, and the manner in 
 which it can be purified of its crude survivals, and made a vital 
 force in the future evolution of mankind. 
 
 It is the purpose of the following pages to set forth the 
 human origin of religion, and especially those phases of it 
 which reflect and interpret the needs and the aspirations of 
 mankind. Whether religion comes to man through instinct, 
 intuition, philosophical insight, revelation or some form of 
 supernatural intervention, it must be ultimately brought within 
 the compass of the human understanding and fitted to the needs 
 of hoping and sorrowing men and women. It must be reduced 
 to practice, fitted to daily utilities, and made to conform to 
 individual and social demands. The more truly it is socialized, 
 that is, brought to act as a motive cementing together groups of 
 smaller or greater size, the more truly is it worthy of general 
 acceptance. In a word, religion finds its real sanctions in its 
 social values, in its capacity for binding men together in unify- 
 ing relations. 
 
 Religion cannot be understood apart from man and his 
 needs. JSince man has created all religions, and still retains in 
 full measure that creative capacity, religion must be studied 
 in the light of man's unfolding culture and civilization. The 
 old thinker who said that man is the measure of all things said 
 better than he knew, and far better than the succeeding ages 
 have recognized. When it was said that man was not made in 
 order that he might keep a day of rest, but the day of rest 
 came into existence for the profit of man, its purport might be 
 
 xxiii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 extended to signify that religion has its real meanings in the 
 values it confers upon humanity. Man does not exist for 
 the sake of being religious, but religion has come into existence 
 because it confers a human benefit. That benefit alone gives 
 it meaning and value. Religion has not been imposed upon 
 man from some extraneous source or thrust down upon him from 
 above. He is the meaning of it, the worth of it, and the source 
 of its inspirations and its higher values. Above all religions 
 and all gods is humanity, the creator and the sustainer of 
 them all. 
 
 XX1T 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 The Social Transmission of 
 Human Experiences 
 
 RELIGION is of social origin, and, in its beginnings, is an 
 emotional expression 4 of the relations of a group to its 
 environing world. Fundamentally and essentially, it is a mani- 
 festation of the collective life of a band of men and women 
 living together in social relations, in order that they may best 
 meet the demands for food, the perpetuation of their own exis- 
 tence as a collectivity through the birth of children, the pro- 
 tection of the group from enemies of whatever kind, and that 
 they may satisfy the claims of the collective life emotionally, 
 ethically, and esthetically. 
 
 In the study of the history of religion it is of the first im- 
 portance to recognize that it is socially, and not biologically, 
 transmitted from generation to generation. We do not inherit 
 religion from our ancestors by the process of physical or con- 
 genital heredity; but by the methods of training, education, 
 culture, and social influence. We do inherit a greater or lesser 
 predisposition in favor of religious experiences, so that we are 
 more or less attracted to them when they come to us in the 
 process of social transmission. We may have a religious 
 diathesis, to use a medical term, or, in popular phraseology, we 
 may have a religious constitution. Some persons appear not to 
 be born with such a constitution, and are to a degree indifferent 
 to the emotional and the social appeal of religion. Probably no 
 
THE 3IAL ETj ION OF RELIGION 
 
 . . < 
 one can be wholly 'mtiiffe&'tot tft*ti}0 questions suggested by the 
 
 phenomena of birth and death, by pain and disease, and by our 
 relations to the universe of which we form a part. 
 
 Undoubtedly, however, there is a wide range in the ability 
 to appreciate the appeals of religion ; and if some are seemingly 
 indifferent to these appeals, others are supersensitive to them. 
 Granted this natural or inherited attitude towards religious ex- 
 periences, the fact remains that the kind of religion accepted 
 depends almost wholly on the process of social transmission, 
 that is, on the religious environment of the individual, and on 
 the training which he receives in this respect. 
 
 Religion is not peculiar because of the fact that it is socially 
 transmitted. In this regard it shares with language, culture, 
 civilization, and all that makes up the intellectual content of 
 the mind, for all of these are socially, not congenitally, inherited. 
 We do not biologically inherit anything more than a congenital 
 capacity for industries, arts, sciences, literatures or spiritual 
 experiences. It is doubtful if we inherit anything more than a 
 predisposition to the kind of social conduct which we name 
 morality. 
 
 In order to comprehend fully the fact that religion is 
 socially and not congenitally transmitted, it is important to 
 recognize that we do not inherit a language, but only the capac- 
 ity for speech. We acquire language by a slow process of 
 learning, and by imitation of those with whom we are socially 
 connected during the period of childhood. Many persons never 
 acquire the ability to speak correctly and intelligently the 
 language of their parents and of their social group, partly 
 because they do not inherit more than a limited capacity in this 
 direction, but more especially because their social environment 
 in childhood does not afford them a standard which they can 
 follow to a full measure of language attainment. Other per- 
 
 [2] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 sons may inherit a great capacity for the acquisition of lan- 
 guages; but even for them some effort, some patient endeavor, 
 is necessary to the securing of a new language equipment. This 
 is to be recognized, that all languages are acquired, and none 
 are born with us. 
 
 It may seem the merest truism, that we acquire a language, 
 and are not born with it; and yet this fact is not always fully 
 recognized as to its social bearings. It means not merely that 
 language is the result of social transmission; but that religion, 
 culture, morality and science are of the same nature, not born 
 with us, but must be acquired. The mind in infancy has been 
 described sometimes as a blank sheet of paper, with its water- 
 marks, and with its capacity for receiving whatever we may 
 wish to write upon it. In the instance of the human mind, 
 however, the writing is produced socially, by the environing 
 conditions of our childhood and youth. 
 
 Many years ago Stanley Hall made a sociological and psy- 
 chological study of the children first entering the public schools 
 of the city of Boston. The most patent fact resulting from that 
 study was, that the amount of knowledge children of six years 
 of age had acquired depended wholly upon their social environ- 
 ment during the preceding years. Those who had been born 
 with a good heredity naturally had acquired more than those 
 born with dull minds or defective brains. Nevertheless, the 
 social environment had determined what Hall called "the con- 
 tents of the minds" of these children. If the parents were 
 educated the children had profited by that fact, but if they 
 were ignorant, and without intellectual interests, the children 
 had suffered from that limitation of the parents. If the chil- 
 dren had been confined throughout their lives to the city streets, 
 that fact appeared as to what they knew. In case they had 
 never been into the country the sights and sounds there to be 
 
 [3] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 met with formed no part of the contents of their minds. If 
 the parents had traveled or if they had spent the summers in 
 the country the breadth of the mental equipment of the chil- 
 dren's minds was correspondingly enlarged. In a word, chil- 
 dren entering upon the studies of the public schools have had 
 their minds developed in harmony with their social environ- 
 ment up to that period. 
 
 Had Hall studied the religious contents of the children's 
 minds who came under his enquiries, the same conclusions, essen- 
 tially, would have been reached. He would have found that 
 some of these children were endowed with more of religious 
 sensitiveness than others, but that none of them had an innate 
 or intuitive capacity to determine what they knew or appre- 
 ciated in regard to religion. All that had been determined by 
 their social surroundings, by the influence of their parents, and 
 by imitation of them, by contact with other persons in the 
 nursery or on the street, by their experiences in Sunday-school 
 or church, and by the whole range of their social contacts, in 
 so far as tjiese had been of a religious nature. 
 
 In order that we may fully grasp the reasons why the con- 
 tents of the mind are socially determined, it is necessary to 
 study the ultimate consequences of the congenital and social 
 transmission of the products of human experience. These two 
 processes are essentially different, though they have been often 
 regarded as of the same nature, and as giving the same results. 
 Congenital transmission is a biological process, and is largely of 
 a physical nature. Social transmission is a sociological and 
 psychological process, and may be described as that which under- 
 lies all education, culture, and civilization. 
 
 [4] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 At the basis of this divergence of the two processes of con- 
 genital and social inheritance or transmission is the law that 
 acquired characters are not inherited. That is, the child re- 
 ceives in the process of physical, congenital, germinal, organic 
 or biological heredity (all these words having essentially the 
 same meaning), what is passed on to him from his ancestors, 
 through his parents. This includes his physical organism and 
 its strength or weakness, its predisposition to disease of one kind 
 or another, or its capacity for long life and permanent good 
 health. Whether the individual is small or large, short or tall, 
 blonde or brunette, has one color of eyes or another, and other 
 physical qualities and capacities, will be determined by physical 
 inheritance. In the same way temperament is inherited, as well 
 as what we call " disposition, " a nervous diathesis or a rugged 
 constitution. 
 
 Mental qualities and capacities are inherited by the same 
 process. Congenital heredity gives an alert or a dull mind, 
 one predisposed to an orderly, sane and moral life, or one that 
 is predisposed to vice and crime. The students of heredity and 
 eugenics have made much of this tendency to the congenital 
 transmission of good or bad qualities. They insist that heredity 
 of this kind determines the individual life, that a good parent- 
 age or ancestry is fundamental to a good or a noble and wise 
 life, that no training or education can overcome the limitations 
 and drawbacks of a bad heredity, and that what we are to care 
 for most is that the coming generation shall be well-born. 
 
 "We cannot question the fact that mental predisposition and 
 capacity are determined by physical heredity. A long line of 
 capable ancestry gives large assurance that the coming genera- 
 tion will be highly endowed. Genius runs in families, and the 
 great men and women of the world have often been closely 
 linked to each other by ancestral ties. The capacities of the 
 
 [5] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 individual, and his predisposition to one form or another of 
 mental activity, that is, as to whether he shall be manual laborer, 
 artisan, artist, philosopher, scientist or saint is result, in large 
 measure, of his ancestry. 
 
 The eugenists have collected a large number of instances 
 of the inheritance of genius and talent, and of those who have 
 been cursed with a heredity of mental and physical defect. 
 In this country reference is often made to the family of the 
 Jukes, the descendants of a defective woman living in New 
 York during the eighteenth century. In the line of her de- 
 scendants were a large number of mental defectives, criminals, 
 prostitutes, and other persons who were a burden upon so- 
 ciety. This family has been compared with the Edwards fam- 
 ily, and its long line of descendants of the highest intellectual, so- 
 cial and moral endowment. Recently there has been studied 
 a New Jersey family in which there appeared the same marked 
 hereditary divergences. A young man at the time of the 
 revolution became the father of an illegitimate child by a de- 
 fective girl; and a long line of vicious, criminal and defective 
 persons has resulted, only a small proportion of the descend- 
 ants of this girl having been able to escape the results of the 
 bad heredity. This young man later married a virtuous, 
 educated and refined woman, by whom he became the ancestor 
 of a long line of the leading men and women of his state, in- 
 cluding many who have held the highest positions, and with 
 only a small number of her descendants showing vicious or 
 defective tendencies. 
 
 Such evidence seems to make it overwhelmingly true, as 
 Francis Galton wrote, that nature is far more important than 
 nurture in determining capacity and character. The eugenists 
 have therefore proposed and urged, with all possible emphasis, 
 that the utmost attention should be given to the mating of 
 
 [6] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 capable persons, with a view to the producing a generation of 
 sound and efficient men and women. They have gone even so 
 far as to propose the elimination of those not capable of pro- 
 ducing a sound offspring, either by the process of death or that 
 of desexualization. 
 
 We may now turn to the process of social heredity or the 
 transmission of the results of culture. We have already em- 
 phasized the importance of this form of inheritance in saying 
 that language, culture, civilization, religion and morality are 
 transmitted from generation to generation by a social process, 
 and not by means of congenital heredity. An illustration may 
 suggest the relations of the two, as well as the radical di- 
 vergence in the nature of the two processes. Organic or con- 
 genital heredity produces the house in which we live, and all 
 that makes it a fit place for human habitation. Its exposure, 
 its geographical and human environment, its arrangement of 
 rooms, its "modern improvements, " its artistic decorations, 
 assure its attractiveness, and make it a delightful place of 
 abode. Here we have the body, with its mental capabilities, 
 as endowed with brain and nervous organism. The house, in 
 its interior furnishings, and in its human inhabitants, of what- 
 ever nature and capacities, may be compared to the endow- 
 ments provided by social heredity. It is difficult to separate 
 the house from its inhabitants, and what they bring into it 
 that expresses their natures and their capabilities. Whether 
 it shall express an artistic, musical, intellectual or social pref- 
 erence in the family will be determined by the equipments 
 with which they provide it, and how they live as its occupants. 
 It is evident that the same house may at different times have 
 as its occupiers families of widely divergent tastes and prefer- 
 ences. But the house itself may represent biological heredity; 
 
 [7] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 its occupants and their tastes the conditions afforded by so- 
 cial heredity. 
 
 It was suggested many years ago by Weismann, in an es- 
 say on the musical sense in animals and man, that the increased 
 expression of musical ability in modern times did not imply 
 that musical talent had been developed in equal proportion. 
 It is not probable that such talent has increased for a long 
 period, but that there has been a gradual evolution of the 
 means of musical expression. The science and the art of music 
 have been slowly perfected; and it is this development of the 
 art through many generations which has enabled musicians to 
 make of it a greater artistic power than it could have been in 
 ages before it had reached the perfection it has attained in 
 modern times. What we find, therefore, is not an increase in 
 musical genius by means of hereditary transmission ; but a per- 
 fection of the art with the aid of better instruments and a more 
 fully equipped science of musical expression. Until the scale 
 had been perfected, until there had been developed the laws 
 of melody, harmony, orchestration, etc., it was impossible that 
 any large degree of perfection could be reached even by men 
 of the highest musical talent. 
 
 Weismann was evidently correct in insisting that the de- 
 velopment of any mental faculty is not necessarily connected 
 with an elevation of mental capacity in the individual. The 
 capacity of the brain need not be changed or enlarged in order 
 that there may be an increase in mental output. We can solve 
 mathematical and mechanical problems far more successfully 
 than was possible in the days of Aristotle, though the men who 
 undertake these tasks are far less mentally competent than was 
 he. Though there has been no increase in musical faculty since 
 the time of .the ancient Greeks, there has undoubtedly been a 
 great development in the art and the science of music. Accord- 
 
 [8] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ingly, Weismann rightly suggests that there is to be recognized a 
 complete distinction between music and musical talent, the 
 one depending on the gradual advance in the art of music 
 and the other on the hereditary equipment of the individual. 
 For this reason Weismann concludes that the evolution of music 
 does not depend upon any increase in the musical faculty or 
 any alteration in the inherent physical nature of man, but 
 solely upon the social power of transmitting the intellectual 
 achievements of each generation to those which follow. This 
 transmission of the results of human achievement from genera- 
 tion to generation by a social process will apply to religion as 
 well as to music; and it will equally apply to language, art, 
 science, morals, and all forms of developed human expression. 
 
 II 
 
 This capacity in man for the transmission of the results 
 of social experience from generation to generation very dis- 
 tinctly separates him from the animals. It is true that some 
 of the higher animals have this capacity in an embryonic form 
 and extent; but in the absence of language, the animals have 
 no adequate instrument for the transmission of the results of 
 animal experience. All that the animals can accomplish in 
 this direction is for each parent, and especially the mother, to 
 train her young as best she can in those methods for securing 
 food or warding off enemies, which she has found most suc- 
 cessful. It may be that she has received these habits and 
 customs from her parents, and now transmits them to her off- 
 spring. Lacking an adequate language, and therefore being 
 unable to construct traditions, myths, elaborated customs and 
 forms of social organization, the animals reach forward only 
 a very little way in the direction of social heredity and social 
 institutions. 
 
 [9] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The lower animals are guided wholly by instinct, every 
 phase of their lives being determined by congenital heredity. 
 In the higher species the brain and the nervous system have 
 become more complicated, with the result that the young are 
 born in a degree imperfect, and need some weeks or months 
 or even years in which to reach the full adult stage. During 
 this period of immaturity the young must be cared for by the 
 parents, and especially by the mother. It is at this time that 
 the young, being no longer under the complete domination of 
 instinct, can be taught something of what the parents have 
 learned, either by individual experience or as the result of 
 animal tradition, that is, what they have been taught by their 
 own parents in the period of youth. 
 
 In his Cosmic Philosophy, published in 1875, John Fiske 
 was the first person to point out the great importance of the 
 prolongation of infancy in man as a means of moral and social 
 evolution. He showed that in the animals the instincts were 
 fully organized at birth, while in man the organization of the 
 instincts, primary and secondary, are continued through the 
 early years of life. In this manner there arises the phenomena 
 of infancy, in which period the nerve-connections and correlative 
 associations necessary for self-maintenance become permanently 
 established. The growing complexity of intelligence demands 
 this prolonged period for its growth and maturing, with the 
 result that infancy becomes a most important psychological fac- 
 tor in the evolution of man. Even to a larger degree it estab- 
 lishes man's sociological development, and the growth of human 
 society. "The prolonged helplessness of the offspring must 
 keep the parents together for longer periods in successive epochs ; 
 and when at last the association is so long kept up that the older 
 children are growing mature while the younger ones still need 
 protection, the family relations begin to become permanent .... 
 
 [10] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Enduring from birth until death, these relationships acquire a 
 traditionary value which passes on from generation to genera- 
 tion, and thus there arise reciprocal necessities of behavior be- 
 tween parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and 
 sisters, in which reciprocal necessities of behavior we have dis- 
 cerned the requisite conditions for the genesis of those ego-altru- 
 istic impulses which, when further modified by the expansion of 
 the sympathetic feelings, give birth to moral sentiments.'* 
 
 In several essays of a later date Fiske elaborated this con- 
 ception in regard to the social functions of infancy, and the im- 
 maturity of the growing child and youth. Such immaturity 
 gives opportunity for the social education of the individual, for 
 the play of suggestion, and for the whole of the process of train- 
 ing and the passing on to him of some, at least, of the results of 
 human experience accumulated through the ages. This process 
 has been defined as social heredity, in contradistinction to con- 
 genital heredity. When it is desirable to emphasize the process 
 of this transmission of the products of social heredity from gen- 
 eration to generation it is sometimes called tradition, which has 
 been defined as "the handing down of knowledge, behavior, 
 modes of life, etc., from generation to generation without phys- 
 ical heredity ; applied also to that which is handed down. ' ' 
 
 We do not know precisely how it came about that man be- 
 gins life in a condition of weakness, helplessness, and immaturity 
 far greater than in the case of the most highly developed of the 
 animals. We do know, however, that this immaturity of the 
 child at birth has had the greatest consequences for the indi- 
 vidual and for the race. At birth the child is utterly helpless, 
 wholly dependent upon others, is not able to hear or see dis- 
 tinctly, can use none of its limbs to any purpose, knows nothing 
 but that it is hungry and that it may be uncomfortable. A bun- 
 dle of possibilities only, it must live, if it lives at all, dependent 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 for months and years upon the care of its mother, father, nurse, 
 and the environing society of which it becomes a part. 
 
 The brain of this child is immature, in some considerable 
 degree unorganized; and its nervous system is far from being 
 fully developed. Without the aid of other persons it will grow 
 up to become little more than an animal ; and it is not too much 
 to say that it is wholly dependent upon society as to what it may 
 become during the years of its maturing, which may be twenty 
 and may be thirty-five, before it attains to the fullness of its 
 powers. During all this period the individual is profiting in 
 many ways by the results of human experience through the ages, 
 as passed on to it in the form of training, education, contact 
 with individuals and society, and by all the processes by means 
 of which the contents of the mind are being secured. It is not 
 the intellect alone, however, that is trained and matured by 
 human contacts ; but the emotions and feelings are being organ- 
 ized, the conscience guided, and the whole of the personal exist- 
 ence brought into what it ultimately becomes. Nor are we to 
 assume that it is alone by human contacts that the individual is 
 attaining his maturity, for he may be largely influenced by 
 nature and by association with animals. 
 
 The prolonged period of human immaturity after birth 
 has the effect of making the nervous system, the brain, and the 
 mind highly plastic and receptive. To such an extent is this 
 the case that a French sociologist, Gabriel Tarde, has made 
 imitation the basic principle of both psychology and sociology. 
 The infant begins its education by imitating those about it, and 
 in this manner learns how to use its limbs, acquires habits which 
 determine its conduct, and slowly gains ability to make use of 
 speech in expressing its wants. What Tarde claimed for imita- 
 tion, however, though in no small degree resting upon a sound 
 basis of fact, has not been more recently accepted as the f ounda- 
 
 [12] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 tion of all individual and social life, as he taught in his numer- 
 ous works. Without doubt, however, the capacity of learning 
 by imitation, and especially of acquiring what society has to 
 communicate in the form of training, education, and culture, is 
 the process by which the immature child and youth come to the 
 maturity of their powers. 
 
 Recent psychologists are more inclined to emphasize sug- 
 gestion than to give such credit to imitation as was done by 
 Tarde. The conception of suggestion, according to James Mark 
 Baldwin, in his Mental Development in the Child and the Race, 
 affords "an extraordinary point of vantage for estimating the 
 development view of the origin of the social and personal sense. 
 We have in it direct evidence of the growth of the social instinct 
 by accretions from experiences of social conditions, and direct 
 evidence, further, of the lines of progress which these experiences 
 and variations have marked out." 
 
 Suggestion comes from many sources and takes many forms. 
 The whole process of the contact of the child and youth, and 
 even in no inconsiderable degree also the adult, with society is 
 one giving him suggestions, hinting to him of the manner of 
 his right thinking, his correct way of feeling and acting, the 
 conduct which ought to be his, and the nature of his religious 
 attitudes. Included in suggestion is imitation, direct teaching, 
 and all manner of emotional responses. In its most em- 
 phatic expression suggestion takes the form of a hypnotic im- 
 position of the will of society, or of some powerful individual, 
 who speaks for the social body; and the youth finds himself 
 compelled to obey. What thus results is not the mere imitation 
 of one person by another, but the overpowering mastery of the 
 individual by a social force he cannot resist. 
 
 Keeping in mind the fact that the lower animals have their 
 lives completely determined by congenital heredity in the form 
 
 [13] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of instinct; and keeping in mind the other fact that instinct 
 has only a comparatively limited control over the human indi- 
 vidual, and that he has open to him the accumulated results of 
 human experience as these have been elaborated through the 
 ages, we see not only the wide limit there is between congenital 
 heredity and social heredity, but also the vaster degree of di- 
 vergence there is between the animal and the man. It is to be 
 borne in mind that man is an animal, that he is of animal origin, 
 that he continues to inherit congenitally much that belongs to 
 the animal nature; but in many respects he has left far behind 
 his animal instincts and desires. He has somehow, in the course 
 of the ages, acquired that marvellous instrument for the develop- 
 ment of social heredity, language. With its aid he has also or- 
 ganized social and political institutions, developed arts and 
 sciences, and attained to morality and religion. 
 
 In order to make certain that we clearly comprehend the 
 difference in nature between congenital and social heredity, 
 we may turn again to compare them with each other. There 
 resulted from Darwin's publication of his Origin of Species 
 and Descent of Man, and the studies to which these works 
 gave rise, the placing of a great emphasis upon the conditions 
 and laws of biology, which led to the elaboration of the princi- 
 ples of heredity and eugenics. For some years all phases of 
 human life were interpreted from this broad conception of the 
 nature and significance of biology; and heredity became the 
 fundamental law not only of animal existence, but also of 
 sociological interpretation. The primary idea set forth from 
 this point of view was that heredity determines the life of the 
 individual, and through him of society itself. The conclusion 
 being accepted, as it was accepted by Darwin and many others, 
 that natural selection is a universal law, and that the results 
 produced by its operation are transmitted by means of con- 
 
 [14] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 genital heredity, it was assumed that all progress results from 
 the passing on to the child of the results of the parents ' ex- 
 periences, and their acquisitions of every kind. 
 
 In large degree we owe it to Weismann, as already indi- 
 cated, that this biological conception of human nature and 
 progress has been modified. His conclusion that the results of 
 individual experience and learning are not inherited congeni- 
 tally, or, as it has been termed, that acquired characters are 
 not inherited, has been gradually developed by a succession of 
 investigators, into its modification by the law of social heredity 
 or the social transmission of the results of human experience. 
 This means, in simple statement, that what the teacher obtains 
 of facility in the acquisition of knowledge or the blacksmith of 
 muscular development in the pursuit of his craft are not passed 
 on congenitally to their children. The teacher may train his 
 children to the acquisition of what he knows, and the black- 
 smith may train his children to the mastery of his craft; but 
 neither gives them anything congenitally in the way of larger 
 brain development or greater muscular power. Weismann 
 showed us that the only manner in which individual acquisi- 
 tions can be transmitted to offspring is by means of a change 
 in the germ-plasm, that is, through the modification of the 
 germ from which the individual begins his life. Such modifi- 
 cation of the germinal factors takes place only rarely or 
 through some process that acts continuously for a considerable 
 period, and appertains to a large number of individuals through 
 many generations. Something of this kind has been made 
 certain as the result of the studies in biology and heredity be- 
 gun by de Vries and Mendel. 
 
 Whatever modifications may have been made in the the- 
 ories of Weismann, it is now quite certain that individual 
 acquisitions are not fully transmitted to offspring, and that 
 
 [15] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 human progress is not exclusively the result of the passing on to 
 children of the gains made by the parents by means of the 
 congenital process of heredity. Very slowly this conclusion 
 has been reached during the last half-century; and the em- 
 phasis now placed upon social heredity has given an essen- 
 tially new conception of human nature and the processes which 
 have given us what we call civilization. 
 
 A remarkable instance of the dawnings of the new con- 
 ceptions of the nature of the social process may be seen in the 
 experiences of Thomas H. Huxley. In his Romanes lecture at 
 Oxford, in 1893, on Evolution and Ethics, Huxley showed him- 
 self much puzzled as to the results of congenital heredity and 
 natural selection as antagonizing the ethical efforts and de- 
 mands of man. The cosmic process means struggle and strife, 
 while the moral nature of man, and the demands of human 
 society, call for good-will, love and justice. Plants and animals 
 have advanced as the result of the struggle for existence and 
 the survival of the fittest ; but social progress for man demands 
 a checking of this cosmic process, and the substitution of an- 
 other, what may be called the ethical process. In place of the 
 ruthless self-assertion of the cosmic process, the ethical process 
 in man demands self-restraint, regard for the welfare of others, 
 and attention to the needs of society. "The history of civiliza- 
 tion, " Huxley proceeds to say, "details the steps by which 
 men have succeeded in building up an artificial world within 
 the cosmos/' This world, as he indicated, is that of culture 
 and civilization, and he might have added, that of morality 
 and religion. 
 
 It seems probable that Huxley was much puzzled over the 
 disparity between what he called the cosmic process and what 
 he might have called the human process ; and it is certain that 
 many of his friends and admirers thought that he had forsaken 
 
 [16] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP RELIGION 
 
 the conclusions of Darwinism and of evolution, and had re- 
 treated to the old conservative conceptions of philosophy, if 
 not of theology. However, if Huxley had lived to our own day 
 he would have found this puzzle in large degree solved by the 
 laws of social heredity, and the recognition of the processes by 
 which the whole of the results of culture and civilization are 
 transmitted from age to age. Huxley saw that there was here 
 a great problem to be solved, to which biology and heredity 
 had not given the clue. That clue, it is now evident, is to be 
 found in the law of social heredity, and the transmission of 
 acquired characters by the processes of imitation, training, 
 education, and social contact. This process is not one merely 
 of the passing on the results of individual experiences by 
 parents and teachers to the young, but that of a vast and com- 
 plicated social process by which culture and civilization have 
 been developed through the ages, and are socially transmitted 
 from generation to generation. Here we have something as 
 intimate and as insistent as the biological process of the trans- 
 mission of the results of congenital heredity. It links together 
 even more intimately the generations to each other, and it in- 
 sures to the coming generations that they shall be fitly equipped 
 with the best which humanity has acquired through all the 
 ages of its struggles and endeavors. 
 
 Ill 
 
 When we consider the ultimate results of the two forms of 
 heredity, we come upon a conclusion of much scientific and 
 philosophical importance. In congenital heredity we find the 
 basis of individuality, and in social heredity the foundations 
 of personality. What these two words represent has never 
 been very clearly defined; and they have been often, in philo- 
 
 [17] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 sophical statements, as in popular usage, confounded with each 
 other. It seems to be plain enough now that the individual 
 connotes everything implied by congenital heredity. The indi- 
 vidual organism, with its separate physical structure, its in- 
 dependent nervous system and brain, constitutes a distinct 
 physiological entity, with its own separate demands and de- 
 sires. From our present point of view it affords the matrix or 
 vehicle for the hereditary transmission of the racial qualities 
 to the next generation. Though that fact may seem to connect 
 it, as it does, most intimately with the racial process, yet in 
 order to do this, it appears to be necessary that the individual 
 shall be in himself a complete entity of the physiological or 
 biological type. 
 
 We may therefore define individuality, or that which con- 
 stitutes the individual human being, as the product of con- 
 genital heredity. Within itself it contains everything trans- 
 mitted from its ancestry to this kind of entity. The hereditary 
 process demands the intimate linking together of the genera- 
 tions, and the dependence of the individual, not merely on his 
 parents, but on a far-back ancestry, which ultimately includes 
 the whole of the population of the earth. Not the less, how- 
 ever, is there something very positive in the individual organ- 
 ism, which concerns its nature as a distinct physiological entity. 
 We conclude, therefore, that it is the process of congenital 
 heredity which elaborates the individual, and equips him with 
 all his biological qualities and capacities. 
 
 Not the less surely does the process of social heredity en- 
 dow this individual with what we call personality. In order 
 to accept this conclusion we may need to put aside many philo- 
 sophical and theological presuppositions. It assumes that the 
 person as such is the product of a great and universal social 
 process, that extends in its workings from the time of the first 
 
 [18] 
 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 human beings to our own day. The word person originally 
 means a mask, the assuming of a character on the stage, a char- 
 acter other than that of one's own being. The social process, 
 the transmission traditionally of the results of acquired char- 
 acters, is the masking of individuality by personality. What 
 the individual may be, as the result of congenital heredity, is 
 added to in the social process, and he assumes another and 
 more elaborate character. When society has adopted this 
 animal individuality into its confidences, and socialized him in 
 the whole process of his education and his civilization, he 
 comes forth no longer a physiological unit, but a member of 
 society fit to live the mental and the moral life the life of 
 taste, culture, and refinement. 
 
 Individuality is that which separates the physiological 
 entity from other individuals, and gives him an existence of 
 his own. Personality is that which unites the individual to 
 the racial life, socializes him, makes him what mankind de- 
 sires him to become as the result of its influences ; and fits him 
 to become a part of the racial continuity. Personality is there- 
 fore a social product, the elaboration upon the individual of 
 the activities of the social process, which ultimate in some 
 measure in the creation of a being adapted to live the social 
 and the moral life. What we are saying here is this : that the 
 highest type of existence known to mankind on this earth, 
 that of personality, is distinctly, and it may be said solely, the 
 product of the workings of what we know as society. We may 
 claim, if we have a preference for that conclusion, that the 
 person is the highest result of the process of social heredity. 
 A broader and more scientific conclusion, however, is that 
 culture and civilization most perfectly define what social her- 
 edity brings into existence. 
 
 [19] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 It has been claimed that personality brings man into touch 
 with the spiritual world, and gives him a like nature with that 
 of God. "Whether this be true or not, it does undoubtedly bring 
 him into the most intimate relations with the racial life, and 
 with all which is human in the past and in the present. As 
 truly, it binds his life to the future, and makes him one in 
 nature with the processes which are to determine the quality 
 and worth of the coming generations throughout all the time 
 man occupies the earth. Certainly, this is no beggarly manner 
 of defining personality or any limiting of the range of its ca- 
 pacities and its possibilities. 
 
 Defining individuality and personality in this manner 
 leads to the conclusion that they are permanent qualities in the 
 life of man, whether as a separate physiological entity or as a 
 product of the social process. In fact, this manner of conceiv- 
 ing of the nature of man and of humanity may add dignity 
 and worth to both of them. It may increase the worth of the 
 individual as a link in the hereditary process, and it may 
 greatly enlarge our conception of the social man, the man who 
 belongs to the vast social process which unfolds throughout 
 the ages. 
 
 IV 
 
 What is the social process of which mention has been made 
 more than once? What is the exact nature of social heredity, 
 and how does it operate in the production of culture and civili- 
 zation? To fully comprehend this process we must recognize 
 the fact that man began his career with none of the animal 
 equipments which enable the lower species to survive. With- 
 out weapons, without clothing and shelter, without claws and 
 teeth fitted to serve as means of securing food, he was com- 
 
 [20] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 pelled to provide substitutes for these. The first of these sub- 
 stitutes was found in social combination, in the use of the herd 
 instinct as a means of both securing food and providing de- 
 fense. It is true some of the higher animals had already shown 
 the way by combining in flocks, herds, schools or packs; and, 
 rather curiously and suggestively, it is these animals, almost 
 without exception, which have afforded man the opportunity 
 for their domestication. 
 
 The suggestion forces itself upon us, when we study man 
 from this point of view, that the herd instinct has not only 
 led to the invention of tools and weapons, to the organization 
 of social institutions, but even to the elaboration of the mind 
 itself. This may be a daring assumption; but when we study 
 intimately the higher animals with reference to the hints they 
 afford of mental processes, and when we in like manner study 
 the lower races of men, the conclusion will suggest itself, not 
 only that mental capacity grows with the socialization of a 
 species ; but that somehow mentality, what we call the mind, is 
 involved in this acquisition of capacity for social combination. 
 
 Turning again to the child as hinting at what was the pro- 
 cess at work in the nature of primitive man, we discover that 
 for the first years he is merely an individual, and that his per- 
 sonality develops with the gaining of more and wider con- 
 tacts with his fellows. It is quite certain that self -consciousness 
 is awakened, if not created, through social contact with others. 
 His mind broadens and deepens as his range of interests en- 
 larges, that is, as he comes to know more of what mankind has 
 been and done, as presented in home, school, church, society, 
 the library, the world of science and of culture. As a rule, 
 with many exceptions, his personality will unfold in propor- 
 tion as he is permitted to come into contact with, and to mas- 
 ter, the resources of the life of humanity as passed on from the 
 
 [21] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 past to the present in the form of history, social and political 
 organization, the sanctions of morality, and the elaborations 
 of knowledge and wisdom. If, from any cause, he is barred 
 from these contacts, by so much will his life be narrowed, and 
 his ignorance and mental defect show the greater. 
 
 These are some hints that the mind may be a social prod- 
 uct, that is, a product of the whole of the contacts of man, as 
 the result of congenital heredity, with what the race has ex- 
 perienced as a continuous process, not merely in its individual 
 or tribal life. This may be said, at least, that the contents of 
 the mind of the child on entering the school, and of the indi- 
 vidual throughout the whole of his life, come to him as the re- 
 sult of his membership in the race, and his profiting by what 
 it has provided for his nurturing. Apart from his racial con- 
 nections he is nothing, and can accomplish nothing that has 
 any real significance. Without the racial contacts man is 
 merely an animal, and may live only an animal existence. This 
 is such a mere truism that it seems futile to repeat it ; but it is 
 a fact often disregarded, and one which many persons appear 
 not to realize as of the most fundamental importance to the re- 
 cognition of the nature of the individual and the race, and in 
 what manner they are dependent on each other. 
 
 The individual claim to freedom must be recognized, that 
 he has a right to his own thoughts, and that in large measure 
 he determines his own conduct ; but if he assumes, on the basis 
 of his individuality, that he is independent of society, that he 
 need not accept the results of the past, that he is free to elabor- 
 ate a moral code of his own and to follow it, then he shows 
 the depths of his ignorance, and the futility of whatever think- 
 ing he may have done. 
 
 The great and eternal law of life, so far as man is con- 
 cerned, is that of co-operation, social combination, mutual aid, 
 
 [22] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 and fidelity to the higher racial needs. The law of competition 
 is not the law of natural selection, and it has never been oper- 
 ative as a basic principle in the production of man and his 
 social institutions. In the very nature of competition is as- 
 surance that back of it, and far greater than itself, is the law 
 of combination, the method of the social process. Man has 
 survived and developed through the ages because he has 
 learned to recognize his dependence on the social process and 
 the law of mutual aid. If he has struggled to any permanent 
 purpose, it has been with the intent of perfecting the processes 
 by which the social group has been enlarged, and with the aid 
 of which the mutualities of life have extended to wider and 
 wider circles of his kind. 
 
 Recognizing the fundamental importance of the laws of 
 heredity, that obedience to them must in the future become 
 one of the cardinal principles of an ethical life having the sanc- 
 /^tions of religion, it may be doubted if nature is more import- 
 \ ant than nurture, as claimed by Francis Galton. In his inter- 
 < pretation of heredity Galton was essentially an aristocrat, and 
 ( he failed to recognize the full value of opportunity, education, 
 culture, and civilization. The kind of fact Galton presented 
 in the interpretation of his theories of heredity was drawn from 
 that class of persons in society who have enjoyed all opportun- 
 ities, and have not been denied the great advantages of educa- 
 tion and social prestige. He never definitely dealt with the 
 problem as to what would have been the career of a son of a 
 great parentage, if that son had been shut out from the train- 
 ing schools, the universities, the best society, the opportunities 
 which family position gave him. Had such a man been placed 
 in the position of a manual laborer, with all his hereditary 
 capacities upon him, what would have been the outcome of his 
 life? On the other hand, we have in all democratic countries 
 
 [23] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 many instances of men with what appeared to be the most un- 
 promising heredity rising to the highest positions. The number 
 of such men and women assures us that opportunity counts for 
 much, and that it cannot be ignored in any true estimate of 
 the forces making for the development of the individual of 
 talent and genius. 
 
 The foregoing interpretation of the nature of social her- 
 edity, culture, and civilization makes it certain that no theory 
 of congenital heredity which ignores these social forces can 
 be accepted as having a genuinely scientific basis. It is for 
 this reason that the eugenists are to be mistrusted in regard 
 to much of their teachings. They have not taken into con- 
 sideration all the facts. To a large extent they are enthusiasts 
 or sectarians. They look at one class of facts and ignore all 
 else. 
 
 The contents of the mind are of as much importance as the 
 congenital structure of the mind itself. If the mind is left un- 
 trained, the best heredity serves the individual to poor pur- 
 pose. In fact, no separation can be made between heredity 
 and culture, as concerns the full measure of individual attain- 
 ment. The defective mind cannot be fully trained, and the de- 
 fective training cannot make a genius on the basis of the best 
 heredity. The claim that supermen can be produced to order 
 by the processes of eugenics may be taken with much skepti- 
 cism. The social theory on which such a claim is based is not 
 only aristocratic and autocratic, but it lacks in the scientific 
 basis which would give it validity. It may be doubted, too, if 
 the elevation of a few great minds is what the world is most in 
 need to acquire. We have had historic observation of such 
 men, and have seen little good of these super-geniuses. We 
 know that the world owes much to its Alexanders, its Caesars, 
 and its Napoleons; but we also know that its debt to them is 
 
 [24] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of evil as well as of good. We are not anxious for more of their 
 kind. We do not crave for a larger number of Bismarcks 
 and Diazes however valuable they may have been in their time 
 and place. It is the elevation of the great population, the 
 democratization of the people, the universal spread of the 
 means of genuine education, the placing of opportunities be- 
 fore every man and woman, which is most of all to be desired, 
 not the eugenic production of supermen. 
 
 The eugenic theory as often presented, and the theory of 
 the superman, parts of one whole, is but a surviving phase of 
 the old aristocratic conception of humanity, that men are not 
 able to care for themselves; but that they have need of some 
 supernatural or highly endowed person to watch over their 
 lives and to give meaning to their existence. Were such per- 
 sons always fatherly, unselfish, true protectors of the people, 
 real leaders in ways of wisdom and peace, it might be desirable 
 to have many of them; but the whole history of mankind 
 proves that they have used their superior advantages, in a great 
 majority of instances, not as friends of the people, but as their 
 masters and as autocratic lords. Such supermen are more 
 likely to be a hindrance than a help to mankind. It is not to 
 be forgotten, too, that the large majority of men and women 
 are of sound body and sane mind, that they know their own 
 needs, that they are able to control their own affairs, and that 
 they do not need any kind of superman to guide them in any 
 other spirit than that which is afforded by science and a demo- 
 cratic national life. 
 
 As has been already recognized, congenital and social 
 heredity are intimately linked to each other. While they are 
 of quite a different nature, yet in their action they cannot be 
 separated. In the same way, eugenics and culture are never 
 far from each other in their action in behalf of the individual 
 
 [25] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 or the nation. The assertion that nature is of far greater im- 
 portance than nurture cannot be accepted, for the reason that 
 they act together when worthy results are produced. All at- 
 tempts to make heredity, in the form of eugenics, the dominat- 
 ing force in social development must prove abortive. 
 
 What we are in need of is not great men, but great ideas 
 and great institutions. When we have the institutions the men 
 will match up to them. We can no longer assume that great 
 institutions are the reflections of great men, but quite the 
 contrary, that great men are made by a social life which gives 
 them great opportunities. Here again, however, we must re- 
 cognize the fact that the men and the institutions fit into each 
 other, that neither can exist without the other. If men make 
 institutions, it is not the less true that institutions produce men 
 who match with them. They are but the two sides of the same 
 shield. 
 
 The study of religion in all its phases, from that of the I 
 most primitive peoples to that of the most highly civilized, 
 makes it quite certain that in all its earlier stages it is most 
 intimately bound up with the social life. It is, in fact, impos- 
 sible to distinguish it from the social grouping, as it unfolds to 
 mefrt the needs of the primitive bands, clans or tribes. This 
 intimacy of association is so great that Durkheim, in his work 
 on Les Formes elementaires de la vie religieuse, translated as 
 The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, is of the opinion 
 that religion is at the basis of all social, political, scientific and 
 philosophical development. It comes first in the developing 
 life of primitive peoples, and all else expands from it, or re- 
 sults from it by processes of differentiation. Whether this be 
 
 [26] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 true to the full extent that Durkheim suggests or not, it is un- 
 doubtedly the fact that social growth and religious develop- 
 ment are at first not distinguishable from each other. 
 
 This unity of society and religion has led most of the 
 writers on subjects connected with the new science of Com- 
 parative Religion to assert in a quite positive manner, that 
 religion in all its earlier stages is distinctly of a social nature. 
 Such is the character of this tendency to the socialization of 
 .religion, that in the band, clan or tribe the individual has no 
 opportunity for self-assertion. There are then no heretics and/' 
 no skeptics. The life of the clan is a religious life, and religion'' 
 has no existence whatever apart from the clan life. This is 
 one reason why in all early societies the progress of religion 
 is very slow; and it is of such a nature that degeneracy may 
 appear, as well as progress. The man of superior mental 
 powers may be able to suggest new rituals or modifications of 
 old ones, provided he does this in harmony with that which is 
 the established custom and ritual of his group. He can in- 
 troduce no great innovations, for the simple reason that the 
 clan is not ready to receive them. Far more likely is it, that 
 he does not make any but the slightest suggestions as to such 
 modifications; but, if others of the more vigorous minds asso- 
 ciate with him in this process, the changes he proposes may be 
 brought into active operation. 
 
 Why religion has always been extremely conservative, 
 and especially so in all the early ages, it is very desirable that 
 we should understand in the study of the evolution of this 
 phase of human progress. It has been conservative as the re- 
 sult of its social nature and its methods of development, be- 
 cause it has never been distinctly an individual process; but 
 one that was fundamentally and intimately associated with, 
 and expressive of, the demands of man's social nature. 
 
 [27] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Some familiar historic illustrations of the manner in which 
 religion has expressed itself, as intimately associated with the 
 social developments of peoples, may help us to comprehend 
 more fully this phase of its evolution. No people of the an- 
 cient world was more progressive and mentally alert than the 
 Greeks, and yet their religion was not that of individuals, but 
 that of the city and that of its institutions. It is true that such 
 men as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were in large degree in- 
 dependent thinkers, and suggested modifications of the estab- 
 lished religion of great importance, and that they have had a 
 large influence on the subsequent ages. 
 
 Any intimate study, however, of the rites, festivals, and 
 "mysteries" of the religion of the Greek people, shows the 
 large degree to which these were customary, traditional, and 
 ritualistic. Athens had its skeptics, but few other Greek cities 
 I showed this development of individuality in any considerable 
 \ degree. Dances, songs, festivals, marches in processions, dra- 
 matic expressions of religious rituals these showed the true 
 type of the Greek religion. The great Mystery of Eleusis, 
 the celebration of the advent and adventures of the Mother 
 and the Maid, expressed the truly social character of the 
 religion of Athens, that most highly civilized and intellectual 
 of all the Greek communities. 
 
 Some interpreters of religion, in its historical develop- 
 ments, are ready to admit that the early religions are essen- 
 tially of a social nature, but they insist that the later manifesta- 
 tions of its qualities show it to be of an individual nature, and 
 not dependent on the influences of society. In large measure 
 this seems to be the position of William James in his Varieties 
 of Religious Experience. The instances he gives in that un- 
 usually interesting work are largely of individual experiences. 
 He selects the mystics, those of a highly sensitive development 
 
 [28] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 as concerns religious manifestations, as illustrative of the man- 
 ner in which religion has expressed itself, and of the processes 
 by means of which it has grown from age to age. It is a re- 
 markable fact, however, that William James, in selecting such 
 individuals as typical of religion and its growth-processes, has 
 hit upon, almost invariably those types of religious expression 
 /which are abnormal or pathological. The result was that, for 
 \ the most part, he ignored those phases of religion which lead y 
 s to assemblies of those like-minded, and that he overlooks the 
 / church and every kind of religious congregation. In only one 
 v of his lectures did he deal with the social or normal phases of 
 religious manifestation, that of the great mass of mankind in 
 all ages. 
 
 It can be truly said that William James has given us the 
 most interesting and suggestive book as yet published dealing 
 with the nature and processes of religious expression. At the 
 same time it is one of the most misleading of all modern books 
 on religion, for the simple reason that he deals almost wholly 
 with the special, the peculiar, the distinctly individual phases 
 of religion. In his second lecture he defines religion as "the 
 feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their soli- 
 tude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation 
 to whatever they may consider the divine." He regards the- 
 ologies, philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations as merely 
 secondary growths from these individual experiences, in which 
 alone does religion have its origin. In regard to the relations 
 of personal and institutional forms of religion James has this 
 to say: "Worship and sacrifice, procedures for working on 
 the dispositions of the deity, theology and ceremony and ec- 
 clesiastical organization, are the essentials of religion in the 
 institutional branch. Were we to limit our view to it, we 
 should have to define religion as an external art, the art of win- 
 
 [29] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ning the favor of the gods. In the more personal branch of 
 religion it is on the contrary the inner dispositions of man him- 
 self which forms the center of interest, his conscience, his des- 
 erts, his helplessness, his incompleteness. And although the 
 favor of the god, as forfeited or gained, is still an essential 
 feature of the story, and theology plays a vital part therein, 
 yet the acts to which this sort of religion prompts are personal 
 not ritual acts, the individual transacts the business by himself 
 alone, and the ecclesiastical organization, with its priests and 
 sacraments and other go-betweens, sinks to an altogether sec- 
 ondary place. The relation goes direct from heart to heart, 
 from soul to soul, between man and his maker. ' ' 
 
 James proceeds to inform his hearers that he proposes in 
 his lectures to ignore the institutional branch of religion al- 
 together, to say nothing of ecclesiastical organization, and to 
 consider systematic theology as little as possible. That is, he 
 proposes to confine himself to individual religion pure and 
 simple. Which means, that he ignores entirely the historical 
 phases of religion, that he feels no concern as to its evolution, 
 and that he does not connect it with culture and civilization. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that amongst the more advanced peo- 
 ples, with whom James mostly deals, the abnormal and patho- 
 logical types of religious devotees have had a very great in- 
 fluence in modifying religious rituals and beliefs, and of turn- 
 ing religion in new directions. The changes thus brought 
 about, however, have been too often in directions full of excess, 
 wild enthusiasms, and irrational beliefs. It is not from the 
 abnormal and pathological individuals, who see visions, and 
 enter into worlds not known to the ordinary man and woman, 
 that we are to gain the rational, sane, and vigorously moral 
 development the future demands. 
 
 [30] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 It is characteristic of the later and higher religious devel- 
 \ opments, such as are found in the greater religions, - - Bud- 
 dhism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism, that they have 
 Iliad individual founders. Even these religions, however, have 
 not been able to escape the phases of growth which have come 
 from the pathological. The influence of Paul on the theo- 
 logical development of Christianity has probably been greater 
 than that of any other man, and yet much time has been spent 
 in discussing the nature of his pathological defect, and the ex- 
 tent of its influence upon his religious attitude and beliefs. 
 Mohammed was also in no small degree the victim of some 
 form of abnormal mental development, which undoubtedly had 
 a large influence in shaping the character of the religion which 
 originated with him. It may be doubted if any man is quite 
 wholly sane who is willing to desert wife and child and social 
 responsibilities for the life of an ascetic, as in the instance of 
 the Buddha. 
 
 A more truly scientific conception of the relations of reli- 
 gion to the pathological than is that of William James may be 
 found in the works of Sigmund Freud, the originator and inter- 
 preter of what he calls psychoanalysis^ As a student of hyp- 
 nosis and its kindred phases of dealing with abnormal mental 
 conditions, and as a working physician, he developed a new 
 method for treating all phases of neurotic disturbance. In 
 the course of his investigations into these abnormal mental 
 conditions he also has contributed largely to the psychology 
 of the normal life of the individual and of races. In his book 
 on The Interpretation of Dreams, that on Hysteria and other 
 Psychoneuroses, that on The Psychology of Everyday Life, 
 and especially in that on Totem and Taboo he has presented a 
 new and scientific psychology. While these works do not deal 
 directly with religion in any of its forms, they throw a flood 
 
 [31] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of light on the methods of its evolution, especially with refer- 
 ence to all which is pathological and mystical in its nature. 
 Freud differs widely from James, in that he regards the ab- 
 normal phases of religious growth as not only individual in 
 their origin and nature, but as leading away from what is 
 healthy and normal. He also recognizes the mass or group 
 phases of religious evolution, and that among all primitive 
 peoples it is the group, and not the individual, who really gives 
 direction to the growth which is made. 
 
 In the concluding pages of his Totem and Taboo Freud 
 says that he bases everything upon the assumption of a psyche 
 of the mass in which psychic processes occur as in the psychic 
 life of the individual. On the succeeding page he says that 
 without the assumption of a mass psyche, or a continuity in 
 the emotional life of mankind which permits us to disregard 
 the interruptions of the psychic acts through the transgression 
 of individuals, social psychology could not exist at all. If 
 psychic processes of one generation did not continue in the 
 next, if each had to acquire its attitude towards life afresh, 
 there would be no progress in this field and almost no develop- 
 ment. 
 
 In the same work, treating of the ambivalence or twofold 
 division of the emotions, and at the very end of that essay, 
 Freud again recognizes the intimate relations of individual 
 neuroses to the conditions of the racial life, that is, the life 
 of mankind in the mass. On this subject he says: "In one 
 way the neuroses show a striking and far-reaching corres- 
 pondence with the great social productions of art, religion 
 and philosophy, while again they seem like distortions of them. 
 We may say that hysteria is a caricature of an artistic crea- 
 tion, a compulsory neurosis a caricature of a religion, and a 
 paranoic delusion a caricature of a philosophic system. In 
 
 [32] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the last analysis this deviation goes back to the fact that the 
 neuroses are social formations; they seek to accomplish by 
 private means what arose in society through collective labor. " 
 It will be seen that this is the very opposite of the method 
 followed by James, and that it asserts for the normal life of 
 man, as well as for religion, conditions which arise out of the 
 social experiences of the group. All forms of the abnormal, 
 all phases of neurotic disease, come from what is asocial, and 
 from an excessive emphasis on the demands of the individual. 
 A normal life is a social life, and no religion that is radically 
 individualistic can be in any true sense normal or sound. In 
 any true meaning of the word, religion is always a phase of 
 mass thought and action. 
 
 VI 
 
 Coming to the ordinary, normal and sane developments 
 of religion, we need have little difficulty in understanding the 
 manner in which they operate in order to make a nation of 
 Christians or of Buddhists. It cannot be supposed that all,, 
 persons in the United States become at least nominally Chris- 
 tians, all in China Buddhists, or all in Persia Mohammedans, 
 simply and solely of their own individual choice and prefer- 
 ence. Recognizing the fact that fashion, conventionality, and 
 the pressure of social demand, have a great influence in deter- 
 mining what we believe, it is not to be supposed that the great 
 majority of a vast population accept without thought the reli- 
 gious practices and beliefs of the social world around them. 
 As we have already seen, we speak English, and the people 
 
 \ of China speak Chinese, for the reason that English presents 
 itself to the child born in this country, and Chinese to the child 
 
 . born in China. The child born in this country of American 
 
 [33] 
 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 parents, who speak English, and that only, would, if carried 
 to China in infancy, and heard Chinese only, acquire Chinese 
 as readily as it now does English. The child is born with a 
 greater or lesser degree of speech-capacity, but its heredity 
 does not give it even the slightest preference for one language 
 over another. There is nothing in the nature of the Chinese 
 people which makes their language congenitally preferable 
 for them as a people; and there is nothing in the American 
 nature which makes English to be acquired more readily by 
 an American child than Chinese. The process of language 
 acquisition is wholly social, and the speech accepted by any 
 child is due solely to its culture-environment. It is impossible 
 that the infant should make a choice of the language it shall 
 acquire, and it readily accepts what is given it by those who 
 surround it in the most plastic and receptive period of its 
 life. At a later period it may acquire other languages because 
 of some definite preference ; but this cannot be true for the in- 
 fant. 
 
 What is true of language is also true of religion. We do 
 not choose our religion when we are young, but we find it all 
 about us in the life of the community which gives us our 
 earliest social environment. If that environment is Roman 
 Catholic we accept that form of religion as naturally as the 
 infant seeks its mother's breast. We have no choice as to the 
 religion we acquire ; and society and the religion see to it that 
 we do not have a choice. That may come later when we find 
 that there are other religions in the world, and when our edu- 
 cational processes fit us to appreciate some other than the one 
 of our social environment in childhood. The child, by the very 
 nature of its mentality, its imitativeness and its receptive capac- 
 ities, accepts whatever is presented to it daily and hourly. 
 
 [34] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 It can do no other, and therefore it takes what the social en- 
 vironment offers it for its acceptance. 
 
 How else could the child live, and grow, and come to man's 
 and woman's estate? In the modern world, in due time, the 
 child learns to think for itself, to form its own judgments, 
 and to select its own religion. It is true, however, that the 
 majority of men and women, even in the most highly advanced 
 of modern nations, retain throughout life the religion in which 
 they were trained in childhood and youth. It has been shown 
 by several students of the psychology of religion that the 
 greatest number of conversions take place in youth. It is then 
 the majority of persons acquire their religion, and unite with 
 the religious organization with which they have been asso- 
 ciated from childhood. Perhaps the number of religious ad- 
 venturers, who connect themselves with some other religious 
 body than that into which it may be said they were born, or 
 who withdraw from all religious associations, increases in 
 these modern days; but even with these persons it is almost 
 always some modifying study or social contact which ulti- 
 mately leads to a change of religious connections. 
 
 New religions come into the world from time to time, all 
 of which have in some form or another grown out of preceding 
 religions, as Christianity grew out of Judaism and Buddhism 
 out of Brahmanism. However great the founder of a new re- 
 ligion, he must bring it into harmony, in some degree, with 
 his environing world or it will not live. All the higher reli- 
 gions show this necessity, and indicate that no person can dis- 
 regard the social processes ever at work in human society. It 
 is a simple fact of history, that all religious prophets and 
 founders at first are rejected of men, that they are not wel- 
 comed save by the few. Mohammed found his first converts 
 in his own family, but for several years he had no other f ol- 
 
 [35] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 lowers. In the history of Islam no event is of such signifi- 
 cance as the hejira, his flight from Mecca to Medina, because 
 his tribesmen would not accept his teachings and did not be- 
 lieve in his visions. 
 
 Every new religion, every fresh development of religion, 
 must pass out of the personal stage, and become socialized, 
 before it can meet with a success that is enduring and effective. 
 Again and again this has been shown to be true in the history 
 of religion. Every existing religion offers testimony to its 
 truth. A few instances of the process by which this takes 
 place may be cited. Mithraism, which originated in Persia, 
 was the greatest of the rivals of Christianity during the earliest 
 years of its development. More than any other religion of the 
 age it threatened for a period to become the faith of the Medi- 
 terranean world in the place of Christianity. It was largely 
 accepted by the men of the Roman armies in every province 
 where they were to be found; and it had a ritual and a series 
 of ceremonials which were in many respects more impressive 
 than any Christianity could offer. Why did Mithraism dis- 
 appear and Christianity succeed? Two suggestions may be 
 made in answer to this query. Christianity, in its early stages, 
 was very distinctly a religion of the working-class, of the 
 great mass of the people within the Roman Empire. On the 
 other hand, Mithraism was especially acceptable to men of 
 virile character. Christianity, also, made a much larger appeal 
 upon women, who accepted it with eagerness, and helped large- 
 ly to win for it enduring success. On the other hand, women 
 were not admitted to the Mithraic church. 
 
 An Egyptian ruler of the fifteenth century B. C., by name 
 Khu-en-Aten, (afterwards Ikhnaton) who as a sovereign was 
 known as Amenophis IV, undertook to introduce a new type 
 of religion into that venerable land. He had become an embryo 
 
 [36] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 monotheist, and sought to induce his people to recognize that 
 there is only one great universal ruler in the universe. He 
 named the solar disk Aten-Ra, and regarded it as a symbol of 
 deity, the highest expression of the divine reality. He elabor- 
 ated this worship, blotted out from the monuments the evi- 
 dences of the old polytheistic worships and the names of the 
 old gods. While Khu-en-Aten was alive he carried all before 
 him, and his religion was universally accepted. 
 
 J. H. Breasted, in his Religion and Thought in Ancient 
 Egypt says that Aton, this new god, in his fatherly solicitude 
 for all creatures, lifts "the movement of Ikhnaton far above 
 all that had before been attained in the religion of Egypt or 
 of the whole East before this time." Referring to the state- 
 ments of this new faith, and its embodiment in hymns and 
 sayings, Breasted remarks; "all this discloses a discernment 
 of the presence of God in nature, and an appreciation of the 
 revelation of God in the visible world such as we find a thou- 
 sand years later in the Hebrew psalms, and in our own poets 
 of nature since Wordsworth. ' ' One of the assertions of faith in 
 God is in these words: "Whether he is in the sky or on earth, 
 all eyes behold him without ceasing; he fills every land with 
 his rays, and makes all men to live; with beholding who may 
 my eyes be satisfied daily, while he dawns in the house of 
 Aton and fills it with his self by his beams beauteous in love, 
 and lays them upon me in satisfying life for ever and ever." 
 
 Soon after Ikhnaton had passed to the world of his fathers, 
 his faith, and his worship of the new god, were rejected 
 throughout his empire, and the old faith and the old worship 
 were brought back in every part of the kingdom. We of to- 
 day judge that this was a very remarkable instance of a striv- 
 ing after a monotheistic faith, and that the religion of Khu-en- 
 Aten was distinctly better than that which it superseded. He 
 
 [37] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 had failed, however, to convince the Egyptian people and es- 
 pecially the priesthood of Amon of this superiority. That is, 
 he had failed to socialize his religion, had not brought it home 
 to the convictions of the people. The result was that soon 
 after he was dead all that he established was ruthlessly swept 
 away, and even his own name was removed from the monu- 
 ments he had erected in honor of the new god. This is one 
 of the most remarkable of the historical instances of a great 
 religious reform failing because it failed to convince the mass 
 of the people. The old faith came back in all its power, and 
 it is only in recent years that we have come to know of this 
 abortive attempt to create a new religion in that far-off age. 
 These historic instances illustrate the law that a religion 
 must be socialized in order to endure and become successful. 
 It must become the method of social expression of a clan, 
 tribe, city or state or it will not win its way to any large place 
 in the life of mankind. The method of socialization is that 
 which has been already suggested, namely, the giving it prestige 
 by its acceptance in childhood and youth. This cannot be at 
 first the method of its diffusion, and therefore it wins its way 
 slowly and through much tribulation. Its earliest followers 
 must accept contumely, scorn, hate, and even persecution. 
 They must also accept the fact that few minds are at any time 
 prepared to change their religion wholly, and to make the 
 sacrifices necessary to the success of the new religion they 
 adopt. Because most of those who accept the new religion 
 bring with them the remnants of their early training, and 
 because any such religion meets with the conditions, and 
 the antagonism, on every hand, of the established religions, 
 which have been in existence through many centuries, and may 
 have come out of an antique past, it follows that it will not for 
 more than a generation or two remain true to its founder. 
 
 [38] 
 
\ 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 All religious history shows us that new religions, and 
 modifications of old religions, in a short time depart from the 
 teachings of their founders. It is repeatedly asserted that 
 Christianity has never followed truly the teachings of Christ, 
 but has been modified in a great number of directions. There- 
 fore, we read of the "corruptions of Christianity;" in a word, 
 it is pointed out that the Christianity of our age, as of pre- 
 ceding ages, is not that of its founder. It may be heard, even, 
 that the religion of Christ has never been put into practice. 
 Such a statement, in so far as it is true at all, is equally true 
 of Buddhism and of Mohammedanism. The Buddhists tell us 
 of the greater and of the lesser vehicles of their sacred writ- 
 ings ; and we know from many sources that the faith of eastern 
 lands is not the faith found in the earliest Buddhist traditions. 
 Buddha found no place in his religion for a personal god ; but 
 he has been himself elevated to that position, and in the 
 Buddhism of China and Japan, as well as other countries 
 where it is accepted, gods many have been developed by this 
 godless religion. In the same way, and for the same reason, 
 a religion that spoke of Nibbana (Nirvana), a future life of 
 absorption into universal being, has developed creeds teach- 
 ing a positive personal immortality. 
 
 The fact of the first importance to be recognized, in con- 
 nection with the nature and the history of religion, is that it 
 is distinctly and inevitably social in its origin and in its 
 development. It may be accepted by the individual, and there 
 may be personal expressions of its essential qualities; but in 
 itself and in its fundamental nature religion is social, one of 
 the greatest manisfestations of the social nature of man. It 
 has its origin, therefore, in the social needs of human com- 
 munities, and it voices their demand for the unity and sover- 
 eignty of the group life. Whatever other sources religion 
 
 [39] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 may have, whether of intuition, inspiration from some super- 
 natural source, or revelation from a divine being, it remains, 
 and is essentially a product or manisfestation of the social 
 demands of human nature*. "We have no right to dogmatize 
 in regard to the extra-social sources of religion, its super- 
 * /natural origin and character, that is, as to the claimed sources 
 in intuition or revelation; but, from whatever such source 
 religion may come, if it comes from any, it must become 
 socialized before it can have any permanent and enduring 
 effect on the life of tribes and nations. 
 
 Accepting for the moment, at least, all that has been 
 claimed in regard to the divine nature and mission of Christ 
 as a Saviour of the world, there is overwhelming historical evi- 
 dence that his religion met with no large and permanent 
 success until it had secured for itself a fellowship in the life 
 of the generations immediately following his time. Crucified, 
 reviled, rejected as a heretic and busybody, his religion won 
 only after a struggle of three or four centuries, and then 
 gained political power only by means of questionable value 
 to its integrity as a reforming force in the Roman Empire. 
 
 This is perhaps only saying in another way, that in reli- 
 gion, as elsewhere, it is requisite that there shall be secured a 
 body of earnest followers in order that an institution or an 
 ideal shall win to an enduring permanence. Something more 
 than this, however, was essential to the perpetuation of Chris- 
 tianity and the failure of Mithraism. The new religion, first 
 of all, must fit into the old religious ideals to a degree which 
 insures that it will be accepted widely. Then it is necessary 
 that it shall appeal to youth, to woman, and to the great demo- 
 cratic mass of the people. In this regard, it is of great interest 
 that the early followers of Jesus were all young men, in the 
 most susceptible period of their manhood. The elders, the 
 
 [40] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Sanhedrin, the scribes, did not follow him; but youth, men of 
 the crafts, and the women who had known him, constituted 
 the earliest fellowship gathering about the new religion. So 
 it has ever been in the history of religion. All of which means, 
 that religion wins because of its social appeal, its power to cre- 
 ate a comradeship of devoted and faithful disciples, around 
 which may gather a fellowship or a church-community. 
 
 Here we have, then, the first fact to recognize in the 
 interpretation of the history of religion, that it is the vital 
 life of a community, the energizing force in a human fellow- 
 ship. However a religion may come into existence, however 
 supreme and divine its origin, it cannot win the devotion of 
 a clan, a city, or a state, until it becomes the cementing social 
 attraction within that community, binding together all its 
 members and all its interests. The real significance of any 
 religion is to be found in this ability to create social bonds, to 
 establish an ideal fellowship, to furnish the cement that will 
 hold together all antagonistic and recreant forces tending to 
 its disintegration and destruction. Through however many 
 generations and ages it may live, it will be enduring in pro- 
 portion to its ability to charm youth, and to create a fellow- 
 ship that will endure all tests and all distractions. 
 
 The purport of these statements is, that religion is depen- 
 dent on culture and civilization; and that the growth of these 
 is promoted by great universal processes inherent in the rela- 
 tions of man to the universe in which he has had his origin 
 and his evolution. Religion is not something apart from these 
 causes of man's progress through the ages, but an innermost 
 phase of his evolution. As it were, it is the inmost core of 
 civilization, the ultimate in progress. So regarding it, it may 
 be wise to set down here some hint, as to the causes of human 
 progress. To do so may justify the conception that religion 
 
 [41] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 is as wide in its manifestations as the whole range of life and 
 all its expansions through the ages. 
 
 VII 
 
 Precedent to any study of the causes of human progress 
 we must recognize (a) that men are the same in nature in 
 all ages and under all forms of society (the brain has not 
 enlarged for many thousands of years, and apparently the 
 powers of the individual mind have not increased) ; (b) that 
 progress does not consist in a radical change in the structure 
 of the mind or in the fundamental character of social trans- 
 mission; (c) that progress results from a change in the en- 
 vironment of man, either material or social, in the creating 
 of new social arts, industries, institutions, and methods of 
 culture, and in the increase of facilities for their transmission. 
 Recognizing these primary conditions some of the causes of 
 social and religious progress may be suggested in the follow- 
 ing statements : 
 
 1. Childhood, and its inventive capacities, especially in 
 the direction of the invention of new words, and in slight 
 degree the ideas which they represent, is one of these causes. 
 Children are not as yet brought under the spell of tradition 
 and social custom, and therefore they are free to exercise their 
 inventive skill in devising new plays, customs, words, and 
 habits or thought. These become fixed in the social group 
 which acts together, and may be passed on to the larger life 
 of the clan and tribe or to the later human groupings. 
 
 2. In adolescence the youth no longer conforms always 
 to the demands of tradition and custom, which he may discard 
 in a somewhat revolutionary spirit. It is well known that in 
 this period many persons revolt in one degree or another from 
 
 [42] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 what has been implicitly accepted in childhood, and break out 
 ways of their own. The group of initiates who enter the tribe 
 at the same time may bring to the tribal life fresh ways and 
 ideas at this period; and the individual may persuade his as- 
 sociates to adopt what has newly come to him as result of 
 revolutionary tendencies. 
 
 3. Women also contribute their share to making progress 
 possible, though it is not always adequately recognized. The 
 earliest division of labor, that between women and men, un- 
 doubtedly had considerable social consequences. Women in 
 early society invented the primary arts and agriculture, and 
 they gave a distinct impulse to the evolution of religion and 
 morals. Their influence as mothers in the development of the 
 family, in the creation of social sympathy, in the growth of 
 moral convictions, and in the evolution of humane purposes 
 seems to have been very considerable. 
 
 4. Of very great importance was the invention of tools 
 and weapons. The discovery of the bow and arrow, the hoe, 
 skin-dressing, spinning and weaving, pottery, the use of 
 metals and the methods of transportation represented by the 
 boat, the cart and the taming of the horse and other animals, 
 was of great effect. These inventions did not change the na- 
 ture of the individual man, and probably only slowly his 
 methods of thought and his beliefs; but they had their effect 
 in bringing about the greater amalgamation of peoples, with 
 the consequences which followed from that social cause. They 
 gave man a new environment, and one that he has slowly learned 
 to shape in accord with his intellectual and social needs. 
 
 5. Not less important, probably, was this change in man's 
 environment, both physical and spiritual. The fact that all 
 the early civilizations grew up in river valleys or in localities 
 open to the sea on all sides, indicates what influence was thus 
 
 [43] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 exerted. A change in social environment results from the 
 invention of new tools, institutions, and processes of thought, 
 thus enlarging the scope of human activities. 
 
 6. In the early phases of tribal life land and all kinds 
 of property, except individual tools, weapons and clothing, 
 belonged to the community. All economists emphasize the 
 large results which followed on the evolution of individual 
 property, by which the individual was enabled to accumulate 
 for his own advantage and that of his family, the results of 
 his labors. The less promising phase of this evolution was 
 that it gave the power of aggrandizement into the hands of 
 chiefs and kings, and that it aided greatly in dividing com- 
 munities into classes and castes, on the basis of property and 
 the power it gave, and not on the basis of individual merit. 
 
 7. Migration must be regarded as a considerable cause in 
 the liberation of the social mind from the customary and tradi- 
 tional, enabling it to see the world in a new spirit. 
 
 8. Tribal contacts had a similar effect in giving an en- 
 largement to the range of conceptions entertained, enabling 
 individuals to realize that their own traditions do not mark 
 the limits of experience, custom, and thought. It results in 
 the borrowing of customs, myths, rituals, and inventions, and 
 in the coalescence of cultures. 
 
 9. To the same effect is the passing of products of skill 
 over wide areas, and in some degree the circulation of customs, 
 myths, and rituals over extended regions. 
 
 10. War distributes more or less widely these products 
 of culture, and brings tribes and peoples into closer contact. 
 In itself it always makes for destruction, but in its throwing 
 of peoples together, and in thus enabling them to learn of the 
 customs and arts of other peoples, its influence is sometimes 
 very great, especially in the early ages of civilization. 
 
 [44] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 11. In the same way slavery, as one of the results of war 
 and conquest, serves as a means of widening contacts of peo- 
 ples, thus leading indirectly to progress. The captive carries 
 his language, his religion, his crafts, his customs to those by 
 whom he is enslaved, and in that manner traditions and cul- 
 tures are passed on to those who may in time profit by them. 
 
 12. Probably it is the capture of women which has the 
 largest influence in this direction, for they are likely to change 
 in a degree the ideas and beliefs of the men to whom they 
 are assigned as wives. Especially, if many women from the 
 same tribe are captured, they may have a considerable influ- 
 ence on the traditions of the tribe into which they are intro- 
 duced. 
 
 13. Economic causes are not to be ignored, since these 
 operate to widen the industrial activities of a people. The 
 advance in methods of transportation, trading of tribe with 
 tribe or exchange of products, commerce, and all methods of 
 systematic manufacture, are capable of greatly enlarging the 
 tribal life. They advance the interests of property, facilitate 
 a better food supply, give better habitations and clothing, and 
 serve to bring peoples into closer contact. What thus facili- 
 tates the material interests of a people, also adds to the range 
 of social customs, traditions, and religious adaptations. 
 
 14. Many of these processes of larger adaptation and so- 
 cial flexibility may be described as the results of social in- 
 vention. They are not of the nature of individual discoveries 
 or inventions, but come about as the result of the relations of 
 the tribe to its environment, and may be best described, per- 
 haps, as products of accident. Of this nature, it may be, were 
 the discovery that seeds may be placed in the soil and produce 
 a supply of vegetables, thus leading to the invention of agri- 
 culture and horticulture. Of the same nature was the domesti- 
 
 [45] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 cation of animals and the making of them serviceable to man. 
 These enlargements of the tribal life, and its industrial and 
 social opportunities, were not of the nature of deliberate in- 
 ventions on the part of individuals, but products of the con- 
 tacts of the tribe with its environment. 
 
 15. This acceptance of the process of social invention does 
 not mean that the other process of individual invention and 
 discovery is to be ignored. However, this does not appear to 
 any but the most feeble extent in early society. In clan society 
 the power of tradition and social custom are too great to per- 
 mit of any but the most limited expression of individual 
 genius. Without doubt it cannot be assumed that in the tribe 
 all individuals were equal in mental capacity or in originality 
 of mind. At a later stage, however, when the bonds of cus- 
 tom and tradition had in some degree been broken, there came 
 an opportunity for the man or woman of genius to have a 
 hearing and to get his fresh ideas recognized. A result of this 
 liberation of the individual mind was a much more rapid ad- 
 vance in progress, the origin of new institutions, and the be- 
 ginnings of science, philosophy and religious ideas. 
 
 16. Then came the ages of the great founders in culture, 
 institutions, and religions. These men were not wholly original 
 in any instance. They built on the foundations already laid. 
 To no small extent their work or what resulted from their 
 activities, was of a syncretist nature. In a word, their origi- 
 nality often consisted in bringing together older cultures from 
 perhaps widely extending regions, and giving in this way new 
 impulses and creative resources to the communities which they 
 influenced. This does not mean that personal genius is to be 
 ignored, for it is a great factor in all phases of the world's 
 progress. 
 
 [46] 
 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 17. The bringing to birth of new cultures and institutions, 
 however they may originate, facilitates mental activity and 
 broadens the outlook of men upon the world. This is seen in 
 the sometimes great rapidity with which a people advances in 
 all directions when it comes in contact with a new form of 
 civilization, as in the instance of the Japanese as the result 
 of the opening of their ports to the world. In their mental 
 capacities it is not to be supposed that any essential change 
 has taken place; but cultural contacts have awakened fresh 
 motives, incentives and energies. 
 
 18. This process may be described as one of mental re- 
 lease from the thralldom of custom and tradition, leading to 
 the rapid formation of new habits of mind and fresh concep- 
 tions of the world and human interests. The same kind of 
 liberation is taking place at the present time in India, but 
 more slowly, and on the part of individuals or groups, rather 
 than on the part of the whole population. It cannot be said, 
 however, that all the Japanese people were made free by Eu- 
 ropean contacts, but it was rather the samurai than the peo- 
 ple as a whole. This process of liberation has been described 
 as mental or psychological, a change in the attitude of the 
 mind, rather than any progress in industrial, economic, or 
 commercial interests. Breaking the bonds of custom and tradi- 
 tion, it frees the mind for rapid enlargement of social and in- 
 tellectual processes. 
 
 19. This process of liberation has been greatly facilitated 
 by the methods of science. We cannot say that man has ever 
 been wholly free from the exercise of that spirit, for even in 
 the age of magic it was present in a desire to know and to 
 control the processes of nature. It is true, however, that the 
 methods of science were of late appearance, and that it was 
 only within the limits of the greater civilizations that it found 
 
 [47] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 opportunity to manifest itself. At an early time the study of 
 the heavens began, then mathematics had a considerable devel- 
 opment, and the spirit of free inquiry into the laws of the 
 natural world had a striking expression in Greece. With 
 modern times science has come more and more to supersede all 
 other interpretations of the universe in all its phases. 
 
 20. Also in the modern world the contact of ideas the 
 wide range of culture processes has had the effect of awaken- 
 ing thought, arousing the individual mind, and stimulating 
 the untrammelled acceptance of whatever truths may come to 
 hand. 
 
 21. These tendencies also result in the growth of tolera- 
 tion and the spirit of free inquiry. At the same time there is 
 aroused a desire to test all traditions and past ideas, to in- 
 vestigate all old theories of the universe, and to be satisfied 
 with nothing that cannot be reasonably proven to have a 
 sound basis in fundamental truth. 
 
 22. The growth of the critical spirit is also of great im- 
 portance, since it leads to an attitude of suspicion of what is 
 antique and has merely a basis in tradition. The traditional 
 attitude is that of the implicit acceptance of what is handed 
 down from the past, with all its credulities, and its belief 
 in miracles and the supernatural. On the other hand, the 
 critical spirit questions these, and will not accept them until 
 they answer to the sound results of the scientific method of 
 inquiry by investigation and hypotheses. 
 
 23. Freedom of inquiry, right to think in an untrammelled 
 manner, and to express fearlessly what is thought, is one of the 
 most important of the later phases of progress. 
 
 24. A belief in progress, a confidence that man is capable 
 of going forward and is making advance, marks the modern 
 in contrast with the ancient world. Ancient thought was 
 
 [48] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP RELIGION 
 
 largely dominated by the idea that in the past man had been 
 better, nobler, and happier than in the present, and that he had 
 fallen from conditions of perfection in a golden age. Modern 
 thought, on the contrary, is characterized by the conviction 
 that man is making a more or less steady advance, that pro- 
 gress can be determined and controlled by mankind, and that 
 the true destiny of the race is to be worked out in the future. 
 
 25. One of the most highly important of all causes making 
 for progress has been the profiting by the great traditions of 
 the race in the form of education and culture. In the past 
 education has been limited to the few; now it is gradually 
 spreading to all persons of every class and condition. A great 
 step forward will be taken when it is possible for every child 
 and youth to secure a thorough training, thus profiting fully 
 by what the race has experienced, discovered and invented; 
 and is able to know and profit by history, art, science, and all 
 the causes in the past that have led to human progress. 
 
 26. The increasing size of social and political combina- 
 tions has undoubtedly had a large influence in securing that 
 mental expansion we designate as progress. The food-group 
 consisted of a score or two of persons, the tribe brought to- 
 gether a few hundreds or thousands, while the state gathered 
 to itself hundreds of thousands or millions. Mere numbers do 
 not necessarily facilitate political progress, but growth in size 
 means a greater variety of contacts, an increase in diversity of 
 occupations, a broader range of traditions, an enlarging mental 
 outlook, and a great increase in facilities for co-operation on 
 the part of individuals and groups. 
 
 27. The increase in the size of a community has meant 
 that there has been secured a more efficient measure of com- 
 bination. A large range of contacts, a more effective extension 
 of the division of labor, added facilities for exchange and for 
 
 [49] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 commerce, a deepening and enlarging spirit of loyalty and 
 patriotism, and a broader perspective view of life in all its 
 phases, have been secured by the growth in size of the political 
 group. 
 
 28. The ethical life has grown with the growth in political 
 combination. The early groups were clannish, intolerant and 
 exclusive. As the tribe has expanded into the great state 
 ethical principles and the practice of morality have become 
 less traditional, more rational, and better fitted to secure a 
 more social and juster life. In their turn, the acceptance of 
 broadening principles of justice and humanity have facilitated 
 the inner growth of states in the direction of greater stability 
 and a right regard to the welfare of all their members. 
 
 29. The destruction of the spirit of autocracy, the divine 
 rights of rulers, the theory that some individuals and classes 
 are born to rule others, the breaking of the bonds of slavery, 
 feudal control and the power of wealth, the crushing of des- 
 potism in all its forms have largely promoted the growth of 
 freedom and democracy. The rights of man, the demand for 
 individual liberty, may be often sentimental in their expression, 
 and with too little conception of what they mean; but there 
 can be no question that they afford incentives to mental ad- 
 vance, ethical probity and political synthesis. 
 
 30. Great and stimulating ideas in all the higher reaches 
 of civilization have had a large and growing power of expan- 
 sion. In the modern world democracy was an idea incapable 
 of practical application, though the attempt was many times 
 made, until it found its opportunity in the last years of the 
 eighteenth century on a narrow coastline on the western side 
 of the Atlantic. In Europe many an effort was made to imitate 
 this new form of state, but they were always ruthlessly sup- 
 pressed. After more than a century this struggling idea ap- 
 
 [50] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 pears to have conquered the world, and now democracies 
 arise on every hand. No longer are autocracy and armed 
 force capable of suppressing these demands of the people to 
 rule themselves. The growth of the democratic demand, and 
 the attempts to make the rights of the people more secure 
 and ampler, indicate the vast evolutionary power there is in 
 such an idea. The rights of women, the pleas for industrial 
 democracy, the desire for truly universal facilities for educa- 
 tion, though not welcomed by conservatives and reactionaries, 
 have in them an expanding power which insures their final 
 success. 
 
 [51] 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Creative Genius of Social Man 
 
 THE new science of Comparative Religion seeks to investi- 
 gate, in a spirit of free inquiry, all the religions of the 
 world, from the lowest to the highest. What it aims at is an 
 ample knowledge of the various phases of religious development, 
 desiring only to know the truth in regard to them. Not only 
 does it assume that religion is universal, and that all religions 
 are fundamentally the same in motive, and in their primary 
 answer to human needs ; but it regards religion, wherever mani- 
 fest, as an expression of the creative power of social man. What- 
 ever else religion may be, it is human, and it is an outgrowth 
 of human desires and aspirations. 
 
 Religion everywhere is influenced by the environing con- 
 ditions of human life. The social and political forms of organi- 
 zation have an influence in shaping its external manifestations. 
 Whether men are hunters, herdsmen, farmers, or devoted to 
 commerce or war, has a perceptible effect in giving direction to 
 the religious demands of a people. The ceremonials and the 
 rituals of hunters are not the same as those of a people who have 
 advanced to the cultivation of the soil. Tribes who live in 
 mountain regions always vary somewhat in their religion from 
 those who live on the seashore, even though they accept the same 
 historic faith. 
 
 The evidence does not justify the conclusion that religion 
 has its origin in the conditions of the physical environment or 
 that it grows wholly out of awe, fear or any similar attitude 
 
 [52] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 with reference to the phenomena of nature. We may find abun- 
 dant evidence that religion is influenced by industrial and 
 economic conditions, but it cannot be assumed that these are 
 the causing agents bringing it into existence. The great reli- 
 gions have not arisen accidentally, under any and every condi- 
 tion, in any and every region ; but only after long preparation 
 for them, and under the conditions of a comparatively high 
 civilization. This means that religions of the higher type have 
 not been solely due to individual genius or that they have had 
 their origin alone in personal initiative. 
 
 The religion of a people is to be measured by the degree of 
 its social advancement. The same religion varies greatly ac- 
 cording to the political and industrial activities of those who 
 accept it. Some of the tribes in east Central Africa have become 
 Christians, and are devoted to the faith that has come to them 
 with the aid of missionaries. It cannot be claimed that their 
 Christianity is in every particular the same as that of the most 
 advanced peoples of Europe or America. Some of the western 
 Eskimos have also been converted to Christianity, but their new 
 religion is not a duplication of that of the African tribes or that 
 of Great Britain. All the more certain is it that those peoples 
 which have retained their aboriginal religions vary in regard 
 to them with the varying conditions of their habitat, the man- 
 ner of their securing a food supply, and the stage they have 
 reached in their culture development. 
 
 What men believe in regard to God and the future life 
 will vary in large degree with reference to the forms of their 
 social institutions. In the kinship clan and tribe the gods are 
 friendly, for the most part, and are regarded as of the same 
 nature as those who worship them. Where there is an auto- 
 cratic chief the god will be accepted as of the same nature as 
 their ruler. Especially is this true where a people has developed 
 
 [53] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 a political form of institutions admitting of kingly rule and 
 power. As is the king so is the god, an autocrat if he wields 
 autocratic power, a kindly sovereign if he rules with leniency 
 and regard to the welfare of his subjects. When the king rules 
 despotically it is more certain that the god is defined as a great 
 autocrat whose will is absolute. 
 
 Such comparisons may not be pressed too far, but it is 
 probable that they are not without their suggestiveness with 
 regard to the ideas men have of the gods they worship. We 
 see this process of theological modification going on about us 
 at the present time, and it shows how intimately the ideas en- 
 tertained in any age reflect the human institutions out of which 
 they develop. The theologians of the eighteenth century insisted 
 upon the sovereignty and the supremacy of God. At the pres- 
 ent day we hear on every hand of the immanence of God. What 
 is this but a result of the changes which have taken place in 
 the political institutions of America! We have passed from 
 under the rule of an autocratic king, from social and political 
 institutions that were aristocratic and despotic to those which 
 are democratic, and based on conceptions of personal freedom. 
 Has not our religion made a like change, the political revolu- 
 tion leading to that in religion? 
 
 No attempt can be made here to follow out these sugges- 
 tions in all their details or with the presentation of the great 
 number of illustrations which might be brought forward in order 
 to sustain them. What we are to recognize is, that in all the 
 earlier ages of the world religion is intimately bound up with 
 every other phase of a people's life, whether it be a hunting 
 band, a kinship tribe, a city-state or a great feudal nation. In 
 
 [54] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 the periods of the primitive peoples, which we are now more 
 especially studying, the various phases of human development 
 are not separated from each other as they have become in mod- 
 ern times. Now we hear of art for art's sake, and in the same 
 manner of many other phases of our lives. No one in this 
 country thinks of identifying politics and religion. In the 
 primitive ages this differentiation had not yet been made, and 
 there was no distinct division between politics, art and religion. 
 It is not in any degree to exaggerate to say that religion in 
 primitive society permeates the whole of life. No phase of 
 human expression has been distinctly withdrawn from the sway 
 of religion, and religion appears on all occasions, in all the events 
 of life. 
 
 In his book on The Delphic Oracle : Its Early History, In- 
 fluence and Fall, T. Dempsey says of the relations of Greek re- 
 ligion and politics: "The history of ancient Greece shows a 
 remarkable closeness of relations between politics and religion 
 a closeness that is somewhat surprising to the modern world, 
 which so often see separation, or even overt hostility, between 
 church and state. To the mind of the Greek such hostility of 
 the state towards religion would be a piece of insolent pride and 
 folly, which was sure to call down the nemesis of heaven. For 
 the success alike of the state and the individual the good-will 
 of the gods was essential : no institution could flourish, no pro- 
 ject be successful, for which there was not the divine sanction. " 
 
 This is but another way of saying that the early religions 
 are social, and have their origin and sanctions in the life of the 
 community, whatever its distinctive form. In such a com- 
 munity there was no personal freedom, no opportunity for the 
 individual to think independently. The clan was supreme, and 
 its will was alone effective in guiding the lives of men and 
 women. Singular as it may seem, from our point of view, 
 
 [55] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 there was in such a community nothing that may be called 
 individual development, no personality expressing itself in 
 independent methods of culture. What the clan did the indi- 
 vidual followed without doubt or hesitation. The manner of 
 conduct prescribed by the clan was that unhesitatingly accepted 
 by all its members. The religion of the clan was the religion 
 of every one of its members ; and within its fellowship there was 
 no dissent, no heretics, no skeptics. 
 
 We find this sovereignty of the group or clan or community, 
 whichever we may prefer to call it, developed to such an extent 
 that in it we may find what may be regarded as a group-mind 
 or a collective soul. The ability had not yet been developed 
 for independent thinking or, it may be said, that the group so 
 far obsesses the individual that he follows unquestioningly its 
 dictation. Thinking is done by the mass, as it were, and is not 
 individualistic in its nature. Many evidences are to be found 
 favoring this conclusion, since all forms of human expression 
 within the group take on one form, are shaped to one end, have 
 one emotional type. What one thinks or believes all think and 
 believe, and what the mass holds to masters every person within 
 the group. While it is true that the germs of individual think- 
 ing are latent in any such group, there may come in time 
 manifestations of personal opinion and revolt against estab- 
 lished or group thinking; but these have as yet in no distinctive 
 form asserted themselves. 
 
 If we are not disposed to accept the idea of a group mind 
 or a collective soul we may call that which these phrases attempt 
 to express by the term collective mentality. A statement of 
 this conception of mind may be found in Daniel G. Brin ton's 
 The Basis of Social Relations, where, in his study of the ethnic 
 mind as seen in the individual and the group, he says: "The 
 closer we study the individual, the more do his alleged individ- 
 
 [56] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ualities cease, as such, and disappear in the general laws by 
 virtue of which society exists; the less baggage does he prove 
 to have which is really his own; the more do all his thoughts, 
 traits, and features turn out to be those of others; so that, 
 at last he melts into the mass, and there is nothing left which 
 he has a right to claim as his personal property. His pre- 
 tended personal mind is the reflex of the group-minds around 
 him, as his body is in every fibre and cell the repetition of his 
 species and race." 
 
 If such a statement can be made of the society of to-day, 
 with all its assertion of personal freedom and democracy, all 
 the more emphatically might it have been made of the primitive 
 group, whatever the particular form it may take. Turning to 
 that chapter of Emile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of 
 the Religious Life, (Les Formes elementaires de la vie re- 
 ligieuse,) wherein he treats of the idea of the soul, we find 
 him saying that "the individual soul is only a portion of the 
 collective soul of the group; it is the anonymous force at the 
 basis of the cult ; but incarnated in an individual whose person- 
 ality it espouses. " Again, in the chapter on the elements of 
 sacrifice, he declares that "the individual gets from society 
 the best part of himself, all that gives him a distinct character 
 and a special place among other beings, his intellectual and 
 moral culture. If we should withdraw from men their language, 
 sciences, arts and moral beliefs, they would drop to the rank of 
 animals. So the characteristic attributes of human nature come 
 from society." 
 
 The theory that there is a collective mind has been ac- 
 cepted by too many of the ablest psychologists to make it pos- 
 sible to reject it without a careful inquiry into the reasons for 
 its acceptance. The objection that there is no organism through 
 which the social mind can express itself does not carry convic- 
 
 [57] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 tion to those who recognize to the full the nature of the primi- 
 tive group, and the extent to which all its members think to 
 one purpose and in an identical manner. When we give con- 
 sideration to the nature of personality as defined in the first 
 chapter, it no longer appears impossible that the same mental 
 processes may operate in a social group, with the result of 
 bringing about what is a complete unity of thought and ac- 
 tion. It may be questioned if the very nature of the individual 
 mind, the manner in which it acquires its ideas, does not com- 
 pel us to accept the unity of the social group as regards the 
 processes of intellection, as well as the processes of emotional 
 expression. 
 
 "What we are to seek for, then, are the evidences that in 
 the primitive group there is such a degree of common or collective 
 emotion, and action, and thought, that inevitably there is the 
 most harmonious unity of purpose, justifying the theory of 
 a collective mind or common social center of activity. It is 
 certain that we do not find in such a group any distinctly in- 
 dividual aims or desires, any demand for individual action or 
 thought. The group acts as if it were one person, though its 
 members retain their individuality to the fullest extent, as de- 
 fined in the first chapter. Without doubt the individual or- 
 ganism has its separate existence and functions, that it lives 
 wholly within itself as a distinct organic entity, derived from 
 its ancestors by the process of congenital heredity. Equally 
 without doubt, it would appear, is the fact that the mind acts 
 collectively, in the sense that its contents, what makes up its 
 personality and its knowledge, its motives and its ideas, are 
 the result of there being transmitted to it, in the whole of the 
 process of training and education, such results of human ex- 
 perience as have been acquired by the group throughout its 
 whole past. 
 
 [58] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 II 
 
 Turning now to the evidence which justifies the conclu- 
 sion that the primitive group is in the largest degree a col- 
 lectivity with a life and mentality of its own, we are impressed, 
 as a result of any extended study of such groups, with the 
 fact of their creative power. This is one of the strongest evi- 
 dences in favor of the conclusion that there is a collective 
 mind. The primitive group not only has life of its own, but it 
 acts and thinks and creates in a manner distinctive from that 
 of other groups. In this respect it has many of the character- 
 istics of an individual, who elaborates his own opinions and 
 beliefs from the materials which are given him in the process 
 of his education, meaning by that word all which he acquires 
 from society in any of its manifestations. 
 
 The group creates, not only through its individuals, but 
 as a collectivity, as the result of its communal activities, emo- 
 tions, thoughts and powers of imagination. Ribot, in his work 
 on the Creative Imagination, says that the era of the primitive 
 man is for the imagination its golden age, and that it reaches 
 its full bloom in the creation of myths. He says that before 
 man attains to civilization he is a purely imaginative being, 
 and that the imagination is able to exercise its powers to the 
 largest possible extent because it does not encounter traditions 
 and restraining ideas or beliefs. The ground it occupies is 
 not already preempted by those who have gone before, and 
 the mind is therefore free to work unhindered and unrestrained. 
 Too much emphasis must not be placed on this conclusion, for 
 the absence of tradition, and established convictions of any 
 kind, result of previous human experience, forbids the training 
 and discipline of the mind, and allows of its running wild, and 
 rioting through regions hitherto unexplored. In fact, no 
 human group shows the absence of tradition. 
 
 [59] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The mind of the primitive man as we know him to-day is 
 not free, but bound in fetters of custom and ritual and social 
 routine. He accepts what his social group offers him with the 
 utmost confidence, and does not seek to modify it or only in the 
 slightest degree. Probably it can be said, however, that though 
 he is thus bound as an individual, he is freer in his group life, 
 in the sense that the collective imagination is at work in the 
 borrowing, or in the creation of, new myths or larger inter- 
 pretations of the world about him, and the realities of his own 
 inward life. Backward and stagnant as some such peoples ap- 
 pear to be, as, for instance the aborigines of Australia, there is 
 no evidence that they have not acquired the power of creation. 
 
 The creative mentality of man, working collectively, begins 
 in directions that can be regarded as quite similar to the early 
 mental activities of children. When the child, using his imag- 
 ination unrestrained by previous teachings of adults, attempts 
 to explain what he sees and hears about him, he gives to every 
 event a personal character. That is, what he observes he de- 
 scribes as the result of the actions of individuals, not as the 
 result of material or cosmic processes. When it rains, he says 
 that it is some one in the sky emptying his watering-pot. When 
 it thunders, he describes it as God beating on the floor of heaven. 
 In the same manner the primitive, being a child in mentality, 
 and having no parent or teacher to modernize his conceptions, 
 reaches essentially the same conclusions as the child of to-day 
 before he had been taught; and he personalizes all phenomena, 
 or attributes them to the action of an individual of the same 
 nature as he is himself. This personification of phenomena 
 leads to the creation of myths. A myth describes the adven- 
 tures of a superhuman being, who is the agent producing what 
 the primitive finds in himself or in the world of nature. As 
 
 [60] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 concerns the primitive man, at least, all phenomena ascribed to 
 the action of gigantic persons are of the nature of myths. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Physiological demands call for rhythmical or measured ex- 
 pression. The nature of such expression, and of its interpreta- 
 tion has been much discussed by scientists; but need not cause 
 us to pause for their consideration. It suffices our purpose to 
 recognize the fact that the earliest of the arts to which early 
 man gave his attention was that of the dance, and in connection 
 with religion to a large extent. Even in our own time and 
 country the Shakers dance to the Glory of God, and we may re- 
 call that the Hebrews worshipped their God in the same manner. 
 
 The dance secures unity of expression in the social group, 
 responds to the demand for rhythmical action, and insures a 
 pleasant excitement to the nervous system. When carried to 
 the height of its activity, it results in a species of mental intoxi- 
 cation, and may lead to a high degree of excitement, to feelings 
 of ecstacy, and to a kind of inspiration. The heightening of 
 mental action may be accepted by the primitive man as the 
 result of the presence of some spiritual being in the movement 
 of the dance, especially when it is the manifestation of the 
 group emotion, as is very nearly always the case. This spiritual 
 exaltation immediately results in the acceptance of the dance 
 as a means of securing to the members of the group the excite- 
 ment and the emotions which are distinctly religious in their 
 nature. 
 
 We have already indicated that no one manifestation of the 
 religious nature of the primitive man stands by itself. Because 
 his religion is a group religion, and all his life is under reli- 
 gious sanctions for that reason, when he dances, he also sings 
 
 [61] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 or he makes use of some kind of rhythmical noise which has the 
 effect of giving unity or harmony to the group activity in the 
 dance. The women of some of the tribes of Australia beat on 
 their opossum-skin rugs with their hands, and in that manner 
 secure for the dancers the necessary rhythm of movement. In 
 Africa the drum is used for the same purpose ; and in different 
 parts of the world a considerable variety of crude instruments 
 are brought into use. 
 
 In some instances a soloist furnishes the time-beat by means 
 of song; or it may be that a group of singers serve the same 
 purpose. At a somewhat higher stage in musical development 
 a soloist and a chorus alternate in furnishing the music for the 
 dances, especially if some degree of dramatic skill has been 
 developed in connection with them. Even before this step has 
 been taken there is a considerable advance beyond the time-beat 
 as securing harmony to the movements of the dancers ; and the 
 dances become in a degree dramatic. A number of men, it may 
 be, when they are dancing, will act out the scenes of a hunt, 
 some of them representing the animals hunted, and others the 
 hunters. Those who have witnessed these dances ascribe to 
 them great realism, and a remarkable degree of dramatic power. 
 Then again, a fight between individuals or a group of warriors 
 will take the place of the hunting scene. It may be, in some 
 instances, that love between the sexes will be the theme, though 
 this is usually in the form of a contest between two men for the 
 possession of a woman. 
 
 These dances, as thus described, may seem to be of a purely 
 secular nature, and to have no real connection with religion. 
 Very nearly all of them, however, are enacted in connection 
 with some religious festival, at the initiation of youth, or as 
 having, in themselves, the purpose to excite religious emotions. 
 At this period it is impossible to separate religion from any 
 
 [62] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 form of the daily life, the distinction has not yet been made 
 between what is natural and what is divine, and no line is 
 drawn between the sacred and the secular. All is sacred or 
 has an underlying relation to the purposes which may be de- 
 fined as religious. 
 
 At a somewhat later stage, and especially after the arts 
 of grinding grains in preparation for food or after the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil has been introduced, song appears as giving 
 rhythm and social unity to the labors of the toilers. In this 
 manner many a task is lightened, and many a dull routine 
 made less irksome, by means of social harmony secured by song. 
 This is especially true of women, whose tasks are nearly always 
 those of cultivation and the preparation of grains for food. 
 Here, again, song seems to be purely secular, as it may be ; but 
 it is more than probable that it has an underlying religious 
 reference. The earth in which the grain grows, the soil which 
 is turned over in its cultivation, even the grain itself, whether 
 it be wheat, barley or maize, is of a divine nature; and the act 
 of its cultivation is a religious one almost invariably. Even 
 the vessel the woman constructs for the purposes of her cooking, 
 and not the less the materials out of which she constructs it, 
 are divine or have the nature of spiritual entities. Religion, 
 therefore, is never absent from the toils of the primitive man 
 or woman. 
 
 The songs and the dramatic representations connected with 
 the dances, or which eventually superseded them, were invari- 
 ably improvised for the occasion. This means that they were 
 not of individual composition, but were collective in their ori- 
 gin. They related, it may be, to the events of the day, to the 
 hunt and its adventures, to the grinding of the grain or to its 
 cultivation; and as the dance went on the singers described 
 these, sometimes the leader represented a phase of the Bcenes 
 
 [63] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 enacted, which is repeated by all present or the choms gives a 
 response to the words of the leader. Whatever the manner in 
 which the scenes enacted were presented, the interpretation of 
 them, as well as the accompanying songs, were the work of a 
 collective improvisation. 
 
 It may be said, in answer to this statement, that the songs 
 came from a leader or that they were the work of some one of 
 the members of the group. To a degree this was true ; but, 
 nevertheless, it was no individual, but a collective, motive which 
 found utterance, and which held the group as in the grip of 
 one common emotion and purpose. In his book on The Begin- 
 nings of Poetry, Francis B. Gummere gives numerous illustra- 
 tions of the communal nature of all primitive art, and makes 
 it certain, that evidence from many lands can prove what he 
 calls the collective origin of song and music and poetry. These 
 arts, as he observes, are closely linked to each other in their 
 communal origination, and for the reason that the social group 
 of early man has but one common mind. This is his statement: 
 1 'The circle, the close clasp, the rhythmic consent of steps and 
 voices; here are the social foundations and the communal be- 
 ginnings of art. Then comes the improvised song, springing, 
 however, from these communal and choral conditions, and still 
 referring absolutely to present interests of the horde as a whole. 
 All poetry is communal, holding fast to the rhythm of consent 
 as to the one sure fact." This last reference is, of course, to 
 the nature of primitive poetry. 
 
 IV 
 
 Another phase of the communal life connected with reli- 
 gion is to be found in the initiations of the young into the life 
 of the tribe or other social group. Such ceremonies are to be 
 
 [64] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 found in almost every part of the world amongst primitive and 
 barbarous peoples. They are of a serious and impressive na- 
 ture, emphatically calculated to give the young a profound 
 regard for the tribal customs and traditions. As a rule, these 
 initiations were quite different for the boy and the girl. The 
 girl, at the age of puberty, was prepared for marriage and 
 motherhood, often by means of seclusion, fasting, tasks to be 
 accomplished, and duties to be acquired for the whole conduct 
 of her life. For her, as was most often the case, these ceremonies 
 were solitary, and calculated to impress her with the responsibi- 
 lities she was to assume as the mother of the new generation. 
 
 For the boys the initiation was prolonged, severe, and cru- 
 cial. It often included mutilations, rigid fasting, the heroic 
 endurance of pain, and subjection to the will of the older men, 
 who conducted these ceremonies. In many tribes there was a 
 most impressive enactment of the death of the youth, and finally 
 his resurrection to a new life as an initiated member of the 
 tribe, with full rights in its fellowship. What the boy had been 
 taught was now put aside, and the inner secrets of the tribal 
 life were made known to him. He had been taught, it may be, 
 that the turndun or bull-roarer was the voice of a god ; but now 
 he was shown its real nature, and how its distracting music 
 was actually produced. He had been taught that the gods or 
 demons, who roved through the village on certain occasions 
 were actually denizens of another world, who had come forth 
 to punish the boys, and to warn the women. Now he had the 
 secret revealed to him that these supernatural beings were men 
 in disguise, perhaps his own father or brother or neighbor. 
 
 The effect of these initiations was to teach the boy most 
 impressively, and in a manner he could never forget, the cus- 
 toms and the traditions of his tribe. If some secrets were re- 
 vealed that might seem likely to turn him from the teachings 
 
 [65] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 now given him, the effect was quite otherwise, for he became 
 as never before a tribal member, with an absolute faith in all 
 its commands, and in its requirements of whatever kind. We 
 might say that he became the slave of the traditions and cus- 
 toms of his people ; but it is also possible to say that he was now 
 for the first time born into the life of his social group, and came 
 really to live its life, to feel its emotions, and to think its 
 thoughts. 
 
 The ceremonies connected with the initiation of boys into 
 the communal life were usually of a very crude nature; but 
 they were elaborate, and they were calculated to make the 
 deepest possible impression on the mind of susceptible youth. 
 They undoubtedly served as a cement to bind together with 
 unbreakable bonds the members of the group. Being enacted 
 at an age when the mind is open to every kind of mental obses- 
 sion, and when it is most capable of receiving an indelible 
 impression, that will remain unchanged throughout life, the 
 initiation served its purpose to the fullest degree. 
 
 The initiated members of a social group became a band of 
 brothers, closely and intimately bound to each other, and made 
 as it were kinsmen by ties more effective than those of birth. 
 All the members of the social group, it is true, were of the same 
 blood, as a rule, and bound to each other by ties of consan- 
 guinity; but the initiation ceremonies gave a more enduring 
 bond of affection and fellowship to all the initiates. 
 
 When the group had progressed socially to that stage when 
 others than the consanguinous ties were those found throughout 
 its membership, because of the coming into it of those not of the 
 same blood, there developed what are known as secret societies. 
 These may exist alongside the tribal group or they may super- 
 sede it, when that form of organization has in a degree lost its 
 power to hold together its members. In all parts of the world 
 
 [66] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 such societies may be found amongst primitive peoples. The 
 members are initiated by impressive and solemn rites, and by 
 the most binding oaths. In some regions these societies serve 
 to preserve order and to enforce custom or law. In others they 
 degenerate into the means of terrorizing those not connected 
 with them or of the extortion of wealth from those who will not 
 yield it up in any other manner. 
 
 In many regions, and especially in southern and eastern 
 Asia, are to be r found communal houses, the homes of these secret 
 societies. In these the men and boys may live, and in them the 
 communal business is transacted or the festivals held. The 
 women are sometimes excluded, and sometimes they are ad- 
 mitted; but these houses are more especially the meeting-places 
 of the men of the communal fellowship. What is especially to 
 be recognized in regard to them is, that they are of a communal 
 nature, and that they serve the purposes of the collective life 
 of a group. 
 
 Perhaps as growing out of the initiations, or, it may be, 
 in some instances, developing from the secret societies, may be 
 found what are usually called mysteries. These appear widely in 
 the higher stages of savagery and in the barbarian age. They are 
 distinctly of a religious nature, with the purpose of initiating 
 those who accept them into a fellowship that is spiritual, that 
 is, into a condition of preparation that is calculated to insure 
 communion with the gods or entrance into the immortal life. 
 The most widely known of these mysteries was that of the Eleu- 
 sinia, which took place at Eleusis, twelve miles from Athens. 
 We know little of these initiations, for the reason that no one 
 dared reveal their secrets. At first confined to the tribe with 
 whom they originated, they were extended to the citizens of 
 Athens, and, finally, to all Greeks, both men and women. Based 
 on a reverence for nature, and the recognition of the earth as a 
 
 [67] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 great creative mother, as well as on the divinity of the cereals 
 on which the Greeks mainly subsisted, these nature-deities, with 
 the nature-symbolisms connected with them, came to have an 
 important influence on Greek religion. "When the Olympian 
 gods had lost their power, and their persuasive capacity to hold 
 to the faith the more cultivated Greeks, these mysteries drew 
 all hearts and minds. They gave initiation into the spiritual 
 world, and they made the worshipper certain of a continuous 
 life after death. 
 
 The mysteries, however, were by no means confined to 
 Greece or to the more highly civilized peoples of the ancient 
 world. They were to be found in Egypt, in Syria, and widely 
 elsewhere, even among the tribes of Africa and India. "Wher- 
 ever they appeared, they had a social and political significance, 
 as well as one that was profoundly religious. 
 
 Primitive religion does not consist in beliefs, but in acts, 
 that is, in rituals, ceremonies and festivals. What it teaches 
 is not in the nature of a creed, but largely relates to conduct, 
 to the enforcing of customs, and to the impressing upon the 
 young of what is to be done. To a large degree the conduct 
 inculcated is that supposed to be demanded by the gods, by the 
 ancestral spirits or by the divine heroes of the tribe. The rituals 
 present this form of conduct in the shape of dramatic presenta- 
 tions of the acts of these divine ones; and the worshipper is 
 supposed to imitate the customs thus brought before him. 
 
 These rituals are regarded as having a magical effect, in 
 that they bring the worshipper into intimate contact and sym- 
 pathy with those worshipped and giving control over them. 
 Many of the rituals act as restoratives of health, others are per- 
 formed for the express purpose of bringing an abundance of 
 animals to the hunters of the tribe, or a rapid growth of the 
 seeds which have been placed in the earth. The increase of the 
 
 [68] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 food-supply is one of the most desired of all things which appeal 
 to the primitive man, and to this end, above all else, he invokes 
 the higher powers. The early religions are abundantly occupied 
 with this interest in an adequate food-supply, and this demand 
 gives a considerable measure of interest in plants and animals, 
 which hold a large place in all of them, with few exceptions. 
 
 The next most urgent interest of the primitive man is sex, 
 the control of the relations of men and women, and the securing 
 to the tribe a provision for its continuity through the birth of 
 children. After the conditions controlling the food-supply have 
 been mastered, sex stands out very largely as an interest of the 
 primitive and the barbarian man. In many a tribe the process 
 of creation is one of generation, Father-Heaven and Mother- 
 Earth holding a very large place in many a religion of the 
 early times. 
 
 The causes of disease, the nature of death and what follows 
 after it, the processes of birth and growth, the kind of conduct 
 which will preserve the life of the tribe, the interests of the hunt 
 and of war these are always present to the primitive man as 
 determining his relations to the world of the spirits and the 
 gods. His religion seeks to control all these interests, not in 
 any manner known to a scientific age, but by the aid of magic, 
 by sacrifices, by ritual representations of what is desired, and 
 by communal appeals to the powers controlling the life of the 
 group. 
 
 This brief outline of the nature of early religion will indi- 
 cate that it is in no sense individual but social. Karely, perhaps 
 never, does the primitive man seek for what he desires of the 
 higher powers by any personal appeal or act. If he does BO, 
 some interpreters of early human life, for instance, J. G. Frazer 
 in The Golden Bough, are of the opinion that it is to be called 
 magic and not religion. Frazer says that magic is individual, 
 
 [69] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 but that religion is social. Other students are of the opinion 
 that no such distinction is to be made, that in the earliest periods 
 there is no true differentiation between magic and religion, 
 though this undoubtedly comes at a later time. Religion is 
 communal in the very nature of it, for the reason that it seeks 
 the interest, not of an individual as distinct from other indi- 
 viduals, but that which will equally benefit all the members of 
 the group. Food for one means food for all, and the appeal to 
 the creative powers is in behalf of the clan or tribe in its com- 
 munal capacity. All the land which forms the habitat of the 
 tribe belongs to the group in its tribal capacities, though indi- 
 viduals may use portions of it in behalf of their families. The 
 law is that all such land reverts to the tribe as soon as it is 
 not used for the purposes which promote the interests of the 
 family. In Australia, and in many another part of the world, 
 primitive men share and share alike with the food-supply, per- 
 haps a definite portion of each animal killed going to one or an- 
 other member of the food-group. 
 
 It may not be necessary to labor this fact, that the early 
 man lives communally, and that his religion is distinctly social 
 in its nature. We may therefore pass on to the consideration 
 of another phase of the group life, that which shows primitive 
 man to have been endowed with a creative capacity of a social 
 nature. We have been to such an extent imbued with the con- 
 viction that all thinking is individual, that it seems to be nearly 
 impossible for us to recognize the conditions of social thinking 
 and creation. The tales, legends, and myths of tribal communi- 
 ties give* no evidence of individual origin. Whence they came, 
 who originated them, never appears. No author's name attaches 
 
 [70] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 to them. In their very nature and structure they are of the 
 communal type, voicing the desires and interests of the group, 
 whether it be a hunting-band, a food-group, a communal village 
 or a tribal fellowship of kinsmen. The tales may be of recent 
 origin or they may have on them the marks of a hoary antiquity. 
 They may relate to hunting or fishing, to battles with other 
 tribes, to adventures of those who have gone down into the world 
 of the dead, to ascension into heaven and intercourse with divine 
 beings, to the coming of heroes who teach the people new 
 methods of life, to the origin of plants and the acquiring of a 
 knowledge of their cultivation or to the manner in which some 
 animal or ancestral being gave the tribe its rituals or its festi- 
 vals. 
 
 It may be at once noted that all such tales or myths relate 
 to the communal interests. If the new custom or ritual is re- 
 vealed for the first time to an individual, its purport is always 
 tribal in its nature, to the ends of the benefit of the group to 
 which it is communicated. Since dreams are always individual 
 in their nature, what is thus acquired comes through some one 
 person ; but the use made of them is to benefit the tribe by some 
 new access of power in behalf of all its members. A new secret 
 society, a ritual or festival, comes into existence in this manner; 
 but the command of the dream-spirit is that the clan or the 
 tribe shall be benefited by what is thus communicated. 
 
 Almost universally in primitive, tribal and feudal Bociety 
 appear those who recite the tales or rehearse the poems or sing 
 the songs belonging to the life of the past. To the really primi- 
 tive group the tales are legends of adventure, of contact with 
 spirits, and are of communal origin. These tales or legends 
 relate to the causes of what the primitive man wishes to under- 
 stand. Many of them are childish, grotesque or fantastic from 
 our point of view. All of them are animistic or anthropo- 
 
 [71] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 morphic, that is, are based on the conception that all events and 
 acts are those of personalities animals, men, or spirits. The 
 primitive man has no conception of material or general causes, 
 and he sees in everything beings like himself. The wind blows 
 as the act of Boreas. The earth quakes because a god is inside 
 it turning over or trying to get out of his prison The sun is a 
 divine being moving around the earth diurnally, and disap- 
 pearing at night because he goes down through the land of the 
 dead. 
 
 The legends and myths of the primitive man, therefore, 
 are adventures of beings in some way like himself. They are 
 tales of giants, of men in animal form, of men who have gone 
 into the world of the dead, of spirits who act through the powers 
 of earth, or of divine beings who control the courses of nature 
 and of human activity. Wheat grows, and gives an abundant 
 harvest, because it is a divine being or has a spirit of vegetation 
 living or manifesting itself in each spear as it grows or, it may 
 be, in the species as a whole. The tree, the moon, the Btars, 
 the earth itself, are, in their physical natures, merely the out- 
 ward manifestations of a being of a divine nature embodied in 
 them. The oak, the mistletoe, bear, and bison have qualities 
 which are more than vegetable or animal in their nature; but 
 are at once, in each and every instance, personalities or of a 
 god-like nature. Sometimes each individual has this quality 
 of divinity, but in other instances there is a power that is per- 
 sonal to a species a power that is superior or divine. 
 
 The tales, therefore, are often of beings who are super- 
 natural, possessed of magical or divine powers, and who may 
 be regarded as creators. In some instances, it is true, the tales 
 are purely secular, relating to events in the lives of men and 
 women; but more often they have a tinge of what is beyond 
 the natural acts of human beings. It is not surprising, there- 
 
 [72] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 fore, that a people who find the spiritual everywhere, who are 
 daily, if not hourly, in contact with beings who are more than 
 human, should delight to hear of the adventures of these beings. 
 They may be of animals, but these are only men in disguise, 
 and may be at any time transformed into their real nature. It 
 may be the doings of the powers of nature mountains, storms, 
 stars, sun-rise, the moon whose acts the tales recite; but these 
 are all beings who act as men act. In a word, nothing appears 
 in the world of the primitive man which is not possessed of 
 personality, which is not a projection of the desires, the emo- 
 tions, and the acts of human beings. 
 
 In studying the tales and the myths we come upon two 
 facts of importance. They may be communicated from one 
 tribe to another, and they may spread over a wide territory, 
 with the result that tribes living remotely from each other 
 may have the same tales. In other instances the process of 
 intercommunication cannot be accepted as the explanation of 
 why it is that two peoples have essentially the same tales, myths, 
 rituals or explanations of phenomena. When the tribes are on 
 distant islands or on continents too remote from each other to 
 permit of such communication from one to the other, the simi- 
 larity must be ascribed to a like psychological nature in primi- 
 tive men responding to similar conditions in their environment. 
 
 We must recognize the fact, also, that all peoples have the 
 creative gift, though they vary greatly in this respect. The 
 tales and myths of some tribes are meager and poor, while others 
 possess an astonishing creative power, taking a wide range of 
 expression. The mythology of the Chinese is crude, materialis- 
 tic, and unimaginative, while that of the Hindus is abundant, 
 highly spiritualized, and transcendant in form and nature. The 
 Chinese myths relate largely to ancestors, those of the Hindus 
 to the adventures of gods of the loftiest type. 
 
 [73] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 VI 
 
 A few illustrations from the myths of primitive peoples 
 the word primitive being used throughout in preference to 
 savage, and applies to those who are undeveloped in industries, 
 arts, and culture may aid us in comprehending what the tales 
 are like. The Caddoan tribes of the southeastern plains region 
 of the United States had a myth relating how Mother-Corn 
 came to them, and taught them how to cultivate that cereal. 
 She came as a woman, passing from tribe to tribe giving each 
 the seed of the maize, and instructing the women in its planting, 
 and tending. She also showed them how to prepare it for food, 
 how to make offerings to the stars and to the heavenly bodies, 
 as well as to the supernatural beings of the earth. When she 
 had given all these instructions, she told the women she was 
 about to depart, that she would reappear to them as the moon, 
 and that in that form she would be the guardian of the women. 
 The monthly changes in the phases of the moon would be as 
 those of the life of women, and that when they looked upon 
 the moon they would know that she was with them and watching 
 over their interests. In this manner the Caddoans came to 
 know how to cultivate corn, that it was but another phase of the 
 life of the moon, as well as that of women. Corn to them was 
 a great divine Mother, a goddess beneficent, and watchful of 
 the peoples ' interests. This personification of maize is similar 
 to what is to be found widely over the world, wherever any 
 kind of cereal is grown, at first by women, and then by men. 
 More highly elaborated myths of this type are to be found in 
 Egypt and in Greece. 
 
 The Natchez, who lived on the lower Mississippi, in Louisi- 
 ana, had a tale of a culture-hero, who came to them to teach 
 them how to govern their tribes wisely and well. He came 
 from the Sun with his wife, seemingly being regarded as a 
 
 [74] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 being of the nature of the sun itself, who was the supreme god 
 of all the peoples living in the gulf -region. This being said to 
 the Natchez that he had looked down upon them from his abode 
 in the sun, and had been moved to come to them to teach them 
 how to conduct their life as a people. He taught them to kill 
 no one except in self-defense, not to touch any woman except 
 one's own, not to take from another that which belongs to him, 
 not to lie or get drunk, not to be avaricious of wealth, but to 
 give freely for the welfare of others, and to share food with 
 those who are without it. 
 
 These were the rules the Sun-man gave for the guidance of 
 individuals, and, if they were observed, the people would be 
 able to live orderly and contented lives. 
 
 The people were so far pleased with this teaching that they 
 chose this divine being as their chief, which position he held for 
 a long time. He made the condition that the people should re- 
 move to another country; and the Natchez traditions said that 
 they had come from the westward to the land they occupied 
 when the whites first came to know them. The culture-hero 
 divided the people into castes or orders; he made rules in re- 
 gard to the intermarriage of these orders; and he ordered the 
 building of a temple and the establishment of definite rites of 
 worship of the supreme powers. When this being who had come 
 from the sun came to die, he was succeeded by his descendants 
 as the sovereigns of the Natchez, and, after him, they were 
 called Suns, and were assumed to partake of the nature, in 
 some degree, of that great luminary, ruling for the enlighten- 
 ment of the people. 
 
 One of the most interesting of all the myths of the abori- 
 gines of North America is the creation story of the Zuni of 
 New Mexico, as told in outline by Frank Hamilton Gushing, in 
 the thirteenth Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. In 
 
 [75] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 tire beginning, according to this myth, there existed the All-cov- 
 ering Father-Sky and Four-fold Containing Mother-Earth, and 
 these two lay together on the great world waters. By genera- 
 tion these great ones produced all things which are, though the 
 Earth, before she gave birth to men, and all things men can 
 desire, repulsed the Sky from her, and he went up aloft. The 
 Earth gave birth as a woman gives birth, and from her womb 
 came forth men, and all the other creatures who live with them. 
 This myth of Earth and Sky is to be found widely throughout 
 the world, as is that other myth of the Earth as a mother pro- 
 ducing in her womb all the creatures of whatever kind who live 
 on her bosom. This myth of the Zuni is worthy of comparison 
 with any that has been produced by Hindus, Egyptians, or 
 Greeks, and has some close resemblances to those of which one 
 may read in the pages of Hesiod's Theogony. 
 
 Many of the myths recite how one or another man or wo- 
 man, perhaps whose mate has gone down below in death, enters 
 the world of the non-living to find how the inhabitants there 
 order their lives, to find what is the happiness there enjoyed, 
 or, more probably, to bring back to earth a beloved one. One 
 of the greatest of these tales is that of the descent of Ishtar, 
 the great goddess of Babylonia, into the land of No-return. 
 Her search was for Tammuz, who had been cruelly slain by a 
 boar in the mountains of Lebanon. When she came to the first 
 gate of entrance to that world of the dead, she addressed its 
 guardian, who went to the queen of that land, Allatu, that per- 
 mission might be obtained for the search for her beloved. When 
 permission had been secured, the porter at the first gate, took 
 off the crown from her head. When she inquired, "Why, 
 porter, hast thou taken off the great crown of my head?" He 
 replied, "Enter, my lady, for such is the custom of Allatu. " 
 At the second gate there were removed the ornaments of her 
 
 [76] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ears, and in succession the chains about her neck, the ornaments 
 of her breast, the girdle of her waist, the bracelets of her hands, 
 the anklets of her feet, the garment covering her body, until, 
 without ornament or clothing, she appeared in the presence of 
 Allatu, the goddess of the underworld. Allatu did not welcome 
 the adventure of Ishtar or grant her request; but she ordered 
 Namtar, her messenger, to return Ishtar to the upper world, 
 and to restore to her as she passed out of the land of No-return 
 the ornaments and the clothing of which she had been deprived 
 as she entered. Accordingly Namtar sprinkled Ishtar with the 
 water of life and brought her forth. 
 He led her out through the first gate and restored to her the 
 
 garment covering the shame of her body. 
 He led her out through the second gate and restored to her the 
 
 bracelets of her hands and the anklets of her feet. 
 He led her out through the third gate and restored to her the 
 
 studded girdle of her waist. 
 He led her out through the fourth gate and restored to her the 
 
 ornaments of her breast. 
 He led her out through the fifth gate and restored to her the 
 
 chains about her neck. 
 He led her out through the sixth gate and restored to her the 
 
 ornaments of her ears. 
 He led her out through the seventh gate and restored to her the 
 
 great crown of her head. 
 
 In studying such myths as these it becomes evident that 
 those of the more advanced peoples are essentially the same as 
 those of many of the savage and barbarian races, and that their 
 only superiority is in the literary treatment which they have 
 received in their later developments. Heredotus informs us 
 that the Greek gods were invented by Hesiod and Homer, but 
 we now know this statement not to have had any foundation in 
 
 [77] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 truth. The myth of Demeter, as told in the Homeric Hymns, 
 shows us that this goddess of the ripened corn (wheat and bar- 
 ley) was essentially the same being as the Corn-Mother of the 
 Caddoans, though it had been greatly elaborated in the Eleu- 
 sinian Mysteries and by the poets. We can conceive it to have 
 been possible, if the Caddoan peoples had been left undisturbed 
 for a thousand years, that they might have developed mysteries 
 similar to those of Eleusis, and hymns similar to those attrib- 
 uted to Homer. It is not probable, but possible, that such a 
 result may have been in time worked out. 
 
 The Mountain and the Night Chants of the Navaho of New 
 Mexico, a crude and uncultured people, of Athapascan or Dene 
 origin, having come from some far northern region centuries 
 ago, may show us what is possible to a people of this type. 
 These chants or ceremonies are for the healing of the sick, and 
 had their origin in the demand for some effective method in 
 dealing with disease. These ceremonies are held in winter, 
 and consist of songs, a variety of ceremonies, paintings made 
 in painted sand to represent the gods and their acts, and prayers 
 to the divinities for health to the people and to some individual 
 who is able to meet the expense of these prolonged ceremonials. 
 In his book on North American Mythology, the tenth volume in 
 the Mythology of All Races, Hartley Burr Alexander says of 
 the Night Chant that it has a nine day period. He gives this 
 account of the ritual: "On the first day holy articles and the 
 sacred lodge are prepared; on the second, the sweat-house and 
 the first sand-painting are made, and the song of the approach 
 of the gods is sung: prayers and a second sweat-house are 
 features of the third day, while the fourth is devoted to pre- 
 parations for the vigil which occupies the fourth night, at which 
 the sacred masks of the gods are sprinkled with pollen and 
 water and a communal supper is followed by a banquet; the 
 
 [78] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 principal feature of each of the next four days is the prepara- 
 tion of an elaborate sand-painting of the gods, each picture 
 symbolizing a mythic revelation, and the touching of the affected 
 parts of the body of the sick with the colored sands from the 
 analagous parts of the divine image; the ninth day is devoted 
 to preparations for the great ceremony which marks the ninth 
 night, at which the masque of the gods is presented. It is from 
 this masque of the ninth night that the Night Chant gets its 
 name, and this is the night, too, of that prayer to the dark bird 
 (of thunder) who is the chief of pollen which is perhaps the 
 most poetic description of the genius of thunder-cloud and 
 rain in Indian literature, and which runs thus, abridged from 
 (Washington) Matthew's translation 
 
 In Tsegihi, 
 
 In the house made of dawn, 
 
 In the house made of evening twilight, 
 
 In the house made of dark cloud, 
 
 In the house made of rain and mist, of pollen, of grasshoppers, 
 
 Where the dark mist curtains the doorway, 
 
 The path to which is on the rainbow, 
 
 Where the zigzag lightning stands high on top, 
 
 Where the he-rain stands high on top, 
 
 Oh, male divinity! 
 
 With your moccasins of dark cloud, come to us, 
 
 With your leggings and shirt and head-dress of dark cloud, come to us, 
 
 With your mind enveloped in dark cloud, come to us, 
 
 With the dark thunder above you, come to us soaring, 
 
 With the shapen cloud at your feet, come to us soaring, 
 
 With the far darkness made of the dark cloud over your head, come 
 
 to us soaring, 
 With the far darkness of the rain and mist over your head, come to 
 
 us soaring. 
 
 With the zigzag lightning flung out on high over your head, 
 With the rainbow hanging high over your head, come to us soaring. 
 With the far darkness made of the dark cloud on the ends of your 
 
 wings, 
 
 [79] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 With the far darkness made of the rain and the mist on the ends of 
 
 your wings, come to us soaring, 
 With the zigzag lightning, with the rainbow hanging high on the ends 
 
 of your wings, come to us soaring. 
 With the near darkness made of the dark cloud of the rain and the 
 
 mist, come to us, 
 
 With the darkness on the earth, come to us. 
 With these I wish the foam floating on the flowing water over the 
 
 roots of the great corn. 
 I have made your sacrifice, 
 I have made a smoke for you, 
 My feet restore for me. 
 My limbs restore, my body restore, my mind restore, my voice restore 
 
 for me. 
 
 Today, take out your spell for me, 
 Today, take away your spell for me, 
 Away from me you have taken it, 
 Far away from me it is taken, 
 Far off you have done it. 
 Happily I recover, 
 Happily I become cool, 
 My eyes regain their power, my head cools, my limbs regain their 
 
 strength, I hear again. 
 Happily for me the spell is taken off, 
 Happily I walk; impervious to pain, I walk; light within, I walk; 
 
 joyous, I walk. 
 
 Abundant dark clouds I desire, 
 An abundance of vegetation I desire, 
 An abundance of pollen, abundant dew, I desire. 
 Happily my fair white corn, to the ends of the earth, come with you, 
 Happily my fair yellow corn, fair blue corn, fair corn of all kinds, 
 
 plants of all kinds, jewels of all kinds, to the ends of the 
 
 earth, come with you. 
 
 With these before you, happily may they come with you, 
 With these behind, below, above, around you, happily may they come 
 
 with you, 
 
 Thus you accomplish your tasks. 
 Happily the old men will regard you, 
 Happily the old women will regard you, 
 The young men and the young women will regard you, 
 The children will regard you, 
 The chiefs will regard you, 
 
 [80] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Happily, as they scatter in different directions, they will regard you, 
 
 Happily, as they approach their homes, they will regard you. 
 
 May their roads home be on the trail of peace, 
 
 Happily may they all return. . 
 
 In beauty I walk, 
 
 With beauty before me, I walk, 
 
 With beauty behind me, I walk, 
 
 With beauty above and about me, I walk. 
 
 It is finished in beauty, 
 
 It is finished in beauty." 
 
 Here we have a prolonged series of ceremonials, which con- 
 stitute together a prayer to the higher powers for health, pros- 
 perity, and peace. Had they been developed in Babylonia, 
 Egypt or Greece they would have been minutely studied and 
 interpreted. In fact, this chant is worthy of comparison with 
 many of the Homeric Hymns. It is not more repetitious, and 
 it has fully as much poetic beauty. Although it is cruder, less 
 perfected, this may be wholly owing to its not having passed 
 through the hands of a poet of cultivated tastes. 
 
 The chants of the Navaho, taken in connection with their 
 mythology, the story of the adventures of the Great Goddess, 
 and their lesser divinities, may be brought into juxtoposition 
 with the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Isis, and not wholly Buffer 
 in the comparison. At any rate, it is by studying the myths 
 of these more primitive peoples that we come to a comprehen- 
 sion of those of the more advanced nations of antiquity. 
 
 The myth of Osiris and Isis is one of the most important 
 of all those which come to us from the ancient world, and 
 appears to have originated in the pre-historic age. ' Evidently 
 it was developed out of very early conditions, when the valley 
 of the Nile was being reduced to a state of cultivation. It prob- 
 ably underwent in the course of ages many a transformation, 
 and grew with the growth of Egyptian civilization. The story 
 is that Osiris was a king of Egypt, that he married his sister 
 
 [81] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Isis, according to Egyptian custom, that he was slain by his 
 brother Set, who scattered the parts of his body far and wide. 
 Isis gathered together the fragments, and, with the aid of the 
 gods, Osiris was restored to life, became the father of Horus, 
 who avenged his father's death in the destruction of his uncle. 
 Osiris became the god of the under-world, and the type of 
 resurrection from the dead to immortality. Isis was perhaps 
 a goddess of fertility in plants, animals, and women. Her de- 
 votion to Horus led to her elevation to the position of the great 
 Mother-Goddess. Out of the relation of the two grew the myth 
 of the mother and the child, the forerunner of that of the Ma- 
 donna and the Christ-child. The worship of Isis spread widely 
 in the Roman world, and for a time she was revered more zeal- 
 ously than any other divinity. 
 
 VII 
 
 These glimpses at various phases in the growth of myths 
 may hint at their communal or group-nature. They did not 
 originate in the genius of individual poets, as Herodotus as- 
 sumed to be true with regard to the myths embodied in the Iliad 
 and the Odyssey. Some suggestions as to their growth may be 
 found in the history of the Rig- Veda. The thousand or more 
 hymns of the Hindu collection, the oldest work in the literature 
 of India, were originated at an early period of the presence of 
 the Aryans in the peninsula of Hindustan. They were com- 
 posed perhaps a thousand years before writing was invented, 
 were carried in the memories of the bards from whom they came, 
 and then were transmitted from one generation to another of the 
 priestly class by whom they were especially conserved. It can- 
 not be supposed that while these hymns were being retained by 
 the members of some twenty-five generations of bards and priests 
 
 [82] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 without being put into writing, that they underwent no change. 
 We know that the tales recited by primitive peoples are con- 
 stantly undergoing a process of growth, that every clever re- 
 citer of them modifies them in one degree or another. In this 
 manner they are being brought into conformity with any changes 
 in the tribal life, either through culture-growth, or as the re- 
 sult of contact with other tribes. 
 
 The same processes undoubtedly went on in India, and the 
 Vedic hymns show many evidences of this process of elaboration 
 in the mythology they present. In this way we may account 
 for the varied phases of that mythology, its ascribed supreme 
 power to several different gods, its advance from a crude poly- 
 theism to a highly refined pantheism in the most remarkable 
 of the hymns, and even to an earlier type of monotheism, or 
 what has sometimes been called henotheism. 
 
 In a later age somewhat the same processes brought the 
 Mahabharata, the great epic poem of India, into existence. 
 This most extended of all the epic poems of the world has been 
 described by Julius Eggeling as ''consisting of a heterogeneous 
 mass of legendary and didactic matter, worked into and round 
 a central heroic narrative. " Although the name of Vyasa is 
 attached to this great work, it is quite evident that it could 
 not have been produced by one person, but that it was the growth 
 of many years. Parts of it are distinctly traditional, and may 
 have been the growth of many centuries. Other parts of it, as 
 the particular portion known as the Bhagavat-gita, were pro- 
 ably the work of individual poets. In this work myth, legend, 
 folk-lore, tradition of historical events, early poetic productions, 
 were being gathered together to form a remarkable whole. It 
 has little unity, and is a rambling miscellany of poetry, some of 
 it of great beauty, but much of it crude and of the essential 
 nature of prose. 
 
 [83] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The evidence seems to indicate that the Mahabharata is 
 somewhat of the nature of an anthology, even though there runs 
 through the work a central heroic narrative. According to 
 Arthur A. Macdonell, in his work on Sanscrit Literature, this 
 epic contains archaic verses and old prose stories, artificial 
 speeches, legends about gods, kings, and sages, accounts of cos- 
 mogony and theogony; disquisitions on philosophy, law, reli- 
 gion, along with an extended epic account of a great battle. 
 As Macdonell says, the poem contains an original kernel of 
 historic truth, in a conflict between two neighboring tribes ; and 
 one of the chief characters in it also finds a place in the Rig- 
 Veda. The earliest stage of the poem goes back, probably, to 
 the tenth century B. C. Old battle-songs of the tribal conflict 
 were handed down by word of mouth, and recited or sung in 
 the popular assemblies or at the great public sacrifices. These 
 may have been brought together into a short epic narrative 
 about the fifth century B. C. In this part of the work are to be 
 found the accounts of the old heroic spirit and the descriptions 
 of tribal life. Here the chief god is Brahma, who is presented 
 almost in a monotheistic spirit. 
 
 In this age before writing, in which the poem took its first 
 form, it was recited by bards or rhapsodists, and by them 
 was gradually expanded with the incorporation of new materials. 
 Vishnu, especially as incarnated in Krishna, was developed as 
 one of the great gods, and Civa was also given a place, though 
 not one of as much importance. At a later stage the Brahmans 
 incorporated in the work that kind of didactic information which 
 was designed to impress the kings and the people with the im- 
 portance of the priestly caste. A great number of episodes, 
 many of them of considerable length, not only increased greatly 
 the bulk of the poem, but were evidently added at various 
 periods, and had no real connection with the original epic nar- 
 
 [84] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 rative. It is not improbable that the poem was in the process of 
 growth during several hundred years. The ascription of the 
 authorship to Vyasa, which name means " Arranger," can 
 mean nothing more than that some poet brought together the 
 several parts of the great poem, and arranged them in the form 
 which has been known almost since the beginning of our era. 
 
 It would appear, therefore, that the poem as we have it is 
 a growth, that some of its parts, such as the Bhagavat-gita and 
 the concluding Harivamca, were written by individual poets; 
 but that large portions of the whole work may be attributed to 
 a collective origin, that is, that they had a distinctly traditional 
 or legendary source. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact 
 that the poem was at an early time recited in the temples, and 
 in some of them daily. Even down to the present such recita- 
 tions are frequent, sometimes in temples and sometimes in fami- 
 lies. The object is to give information to those not otherwise 
 able to acquire a knowledge of the work. Such recitations, 
 however, are not confined to this poem, but include other of the 
 older works connected with tradition or with history. In this 
 manner, or one similar, the Vedas were brought to a knowledge 
 of the people. It would appear, therefore, that this practice 
 was regarded not only as desirable, but as in harmony with the 
 sacred or highly important character of such works. Such 
 practice in the early time would give the amplest opportunity 
 for the incorporation of fresh materials into the poem and into 
 other works. In this manner they grew, fortuitously, as it 
 were, and without any distinctly individual authorship. In 
 time what was in this manner incorporated with the poem came 
 to have a like value, and to be received as equally authentic in 
 its nature. Probably the sacred books grew in the same manner ; 
 and the new materials, soon acquired a sacred nature compatible 
 with the older portions. 
 
 [85] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 The Jewish sacred writings afford an illustration of the 
 manner in which early works were composed. In Genesis, 
 Judges, Kings, and others of the early books, we find a large 
 amount of folk-lore, legend, and other traditional material of 
 various kinds. Some of it was primitive poetry, some of it 
 attempts to account for the origin of the earth, man, languages 
 and the varied features of human institutions and customs. A 
 considerable body of this material is to be found in the Baby- 
 lonian legends and cosmological narratives, but reinterpreted 
 to suit the monotheistic ideas of the later Jewish beliefs. Then 
 there are legendary narratives of the migration of the Jewish 
 people to Palestine, their battles with the previous inhabitants 
 of that land, and the establishment of the monarchy, the strug- 
 gles with polytheism, the wars with the neighboring great na- 
 tions, and the subjection of the Jews to these greater powers. 
 There is no reason for doubting that much in these narratives, 
 especially in the later periods, is essentially historical, as much 
 so as any early history. 
 
 What is evident, however, is that these books are compila- 
 tions, and that their contents are results of long-continued 
 processes of growth. It is now fully recognized that the Pente- 
 teuch, and other works, were compiled out of two or more pre- 
 viously existing books or legendary narratives, some of the 
 smaller portions of which were, perhaps, not previously com- 
 mitted to writing. For more than a century it has been definitely 
 recognized that the Penteteuch embodies two quite distinct nar- 
 ratives, one of them naming God as Yahweh and the other as 
 Elohim; and these works vary from each other in many an- 
 other particular. The two were brought together at some period 
 after monotheism had been accepted, and the attempt was made 
 
 [86] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 to bring them into complete harmony with each other. A con- 
 siderable amount of other material was also made use of by the 
 compiler or compilers. At what period or by whom this com- 
 pilation was made we do not fully know; but it must have been 
 at a comparatively late era, and after Judaism had taken on a 
 definite form. The monotheistic interpretation of the world 
 and life had been then definitely accepted, and the old narratives 
 were reconstructed to fit into this new conception of the nature 
 of God and of the life of humanity. 
 
 In the second book of Kings there is an account of the 
 finding of Deuteronomy in the temple in Jerusalem, and it was 
 made the basis of a radical reformation of the old religion. It 
 may be conjectured that at this period, and in connection with 
 this reformatory movement, the reediting of the old narratives 
 took place. Some interpreters of the Jewish sacred books, how- 
 ever, are of the opinion that there we/e later and more radical 
 reconstructions, at least so far as concerns the interpretation 
 given to the history and to the theology of the Jewish people. 
 If the reform connected with the writing of Deuteronomy was 
 priestly in its source, the prophetical works, so called, owed 
 their origin to another class of men, known as the prophets, 
 who were essentially reformers. They gave a later, and a much 
 more advanced, interpretation to the historical narratives, and 
 of the relations of the Jewish nation to its God. 
 
 What the higher critics of the sacred writings of the Jews 
 suggest is, that the books brought together in these scriptures 
 were the result of more than a thousand years of growth, that 
 many, if not nearly all, of these works had no individual author- 
 ship, that the names attributed to them as their authors were 
 only traditionally so, and that the idea of their sacred character 
 was in itself the result of a long evolutionary process. 
 
 [87] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 VIII 
 
 A controversy of more than a century in duration has de- 
 veloped around the Greek epics attributed to Homer. Was there 
 a man of that name who wrote them or were they the growth 
 of many centuries of poetical expression? The tendency re- 
 cently seems to be toward the conclusion that the poet Homer is 
 of legendary origin, that we have no definite information in re- 
 gard to him, and that in reality he represents a profession or a 
 succession of bards, rather than any distinct individuality. 
 Gilbert Murray, in his lectures on The Rise of Greek Epic, 
 says that "what the Greeks of the sixth and early centuries 
 meant by 'Homer' was the whole body of heroic tradition as 
 embodied in hexameter verse." He goes on to say of the body 
 of epic verse which was described under the appellation Homer : 
 "It must really have been something more primitive and less 
 differentiated, of which the epic epos, the lists of ancestors, the 
 local chronicles, the theological, magical, and philosophical 
 writings, as well as the heroic poems, are so many specialized 
 developments. It has long been clear to students of early Greece 
 that the Iliad and Odyssey are not primitive poems. Not only 
 their art and construction, but their whole outlook on the world 
 and the gods is far removed from that of the most primitive 
 Greeks known to us. Both poems, indeed, contain a great deal 
 of extremely ancient matter; but both, as they stand, are the 
 products of a long process of development." 
 
 Since no one has more clearly and definitely stated this 
 view of the origin of these epics than has Gilbert Murray, there 
 may be summarized here his conclusions, as stated in the above 
 mentioned work, and in his book on Greek Literature. At the 
 beginning of his sixth lecture he says that the Iliad is a tradi- 
 tional book, modified by succeeding generations, and gives us a 
 mixture of earlier and later customs. While he admits that 
 
 [88] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 there can be no demonstration of that kind of origin for the 
 epic which he believes is the true one, yet he presents a con- 
 siderable body of evidence in favor of the conclusions which he 
 has reached. There is no positive proof that these poems grew 
 through several centuries, and that they are the work of a long 
 succession of epic poets or schools of such poets ; but the cumula- 
 tive evidence of all kinds gives very strong intimations that 
 such a conclusion must be accepted. This view of their origin 
 gains added emphasis from the fact that all other similar works 
 of the early period appear to have had a like origin. 
 
 In the early Greek traditions everything heroic was attri- 
 buted to Homer, with the result that several works not included 
 in the Iliad and Odyssey are credited to him, for there was a 
 Little Iliad, a Cypria, a Telegonia, and other poems or bodies 
 of legendary narrative. Aeschylus credited to Homer the whole 
 of the heroic saga, and Athenaeus says that the dramatist re- 
 joiced in the epic cycle and made whole dramas out of it. 
 Xenophanes in the sixth century credited to Homer and Hesiod 
 the epic traditions, sagas and theogonies alike. Herodotus be- 
 lieved these poets made the Greek religion, gave the gods their 
 titles, honors and crafts, and gave a description of each of them. 
 Tradition attributed to Pisistratus the collection of the Homeric 
 sagas, which were formerly sung in fragments. Such evidence 
 as this may have little value, but it tends to corroborate the 
 theory presented by Murray, that the poems grew out of the 
 developing poetic life of the early Greeks. 
 
 To the same effect is the fact that late in the sixth or early 
 seventh century the Homeric poems were recited in Athens 
 publicly in a prescribed order. "They were recited not by one 
 bard/' says Murray, "but by relays of bards, in fixed order 
 at the Panathenaea, the greatest of all the festivals of Athens, 
 recurring once in four years and lasting several days. The 
 
 [89] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 recitation formed one step in a movement on the part of Athens 
 to establish herself as head and mother-city of all the lonians. 
 So much seems historically clear. It matters little that, in at- 
 tributing the institution of this recitation to a definite founder, 
 our authorities waver between three almost contemporary names, 
 Solon, Pisistratus, Hipparchus. These festivals meant much 
 more in ancient life than any corresponding ceremony at the 
 present day. At the back of them there was a living religious 
 effort ; there was the ancient warmth of patriotic feeling towards 
 a city which formed for each man his one earthly protector 
 and his intimate home, and which, for a further claim upon 
 emotion, was never for long quite out of mortal danger. The 
 Panathenaea in especial formed the great occasion for the gather- 
 ing of all Ionian cities under the wing of the great Metropolis, 
 their champion and leader against the barbarian/' 
 
 Pindar, and tradition down to his time, knew all the Trojan 
 and Theban epic poems as those of Homer. In Ionia this body 
 of epic poetry was in the possession of the 'Homeridai' or 
 'rhapsodoi;' organized, as there is evidence for thinking, into 
 schools or guilds. Pindar tells us that these rhapsodes intro- 
 duced their recitations with a hymn to one or another god, such 
 as we find in the Homeric Hymns, which were probably pro- 
 duced in this manner. They recited, following this prologue, 
 some selected old heroic legend in their own words, and with 
 such interpretation of it as would most appeal to their hearers, 
 whoever they might be. They had no prescribed text, no au- 
 thenticated version, since writing had not as yet come into use. 
 They followed their own devices, contracting or expanding the 
 legends as they pleased or adding new materials, if such had 
 come within their reach. Murray is of the opinion that the 
 Homeric epics are full of traces of the work of the rhapsodes; 
 "they are developments from the recited saga, and where they 
 
 [90] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 fail in unity or consistency the recited saga is mostly to blame. ' ' 
 It must be recognized, also, that there is in these poems a 
 a development of social customs, which may be traced through 
 them, a considerable advance having been made from the earlier 
 to the very latest parts of the epics. This growth pertains to 
 marriage customs, to the interpretation of the nature and char- 
 acteristics of the individual gods, and also to the whole manner 
 of regarding the supernatural. 
 
 The Iliad may have begun, as did the Mahabharatta, as an 
 episode concerning two contending warriors before Troy, that 
 is, as an account of a great battle between tribes or civiliza- 
 tions. This battle narrative invited additions, incorporation 
 of other incidents, description of the combatants, the causes of 
 the struggle and a great number of other expansions, growing 
 through many centuries. The language used especially grew up 
 to meet the needs of these heroic narratives, and was highly 
 poetical, artificial, distinctly conventionalized, though it ac- 
 quired a sonorous and splendid character. This wonderful 
 mode of speech, according to Murray, was for centuries kept 
 alive to serve nothing but the needs of poetry. This also he 
 says, and it is very pertinent to our present purpose : ' ' The in- 
 tensity of imagination which makes the Iliad alive is not the 
 imagination of any one man. It means not that one man of 
 genius created a wonder and passed away. It means that genera- 
 tion after generation of poets, trained in the same schools and 
 a more or less continuous and similar life, steeped themselves to 
 the lips in the spirit of this great poetry. They lived in the 
 Epic saga and by it and for it. Great as it was, for many cen- 
 turies they continued to build it up yet greater. ' ' 
 
 How this was done Murray very definitely states in the last 
 paragraph of his seventh lecture, where he says: "The Greek 
 traditions from the very outset were made into Lays to be re- 
 
 [91] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 cited by bards for the delectation of the camp or the hall. If 
 men were not interested, it was the fault of the bard and his 
 poems. And in the very earliest times of Greece we meet with 
 that characteristic and only half praiseworthy Greek institu- 
 tion, the public competitive recitation. The poems became, in 
 the Greek phrase, epideiktika, things of display. The bards 
 who knew the traditions came to recite at the great games and 
 gatherings. Each recited his own poems i. e. those that he 
 'possessed/ not necessarily those that he had composed and 
 tried to make them more attractive than other people's. He 
 was bound, of course, not to violate history too grossly; not to 
 be pheudas, or false-speaking, above all not to be ignorant. But 
 he might, by the help of the Muses, tell his audience a great deal 
 more about the heroes than by any human means he was likely 
 to know. He could work up the known incidents till they be- 
 came more and more moving, more edifying or more pleasing. 
 An element was thus admitted which leavened the whole lump, 
 an element which, in the hands of a less wonderfully gifted 
 people, must, one would think, have led to bombast and vul- 
 garity, but which was somehow stopped when it had done its 
 maximum of good and was only just well started on its career 
 of evil ; I mean that strange mixed passion known to all artists, 
 which consists, at its highest end, in the pure love of beautiful 
 or noble creation, and, at its lower end, in conscious strain for 
 the admiration of an audience. " 
 
 We have but to assume that these epic products were grad- 
 ually gathered up into the great poems as we possess them. 
 The process may not have been precisely that of Lonnrot in the 
 production of the Kalevala; but his method may suggest what 
 process may have been followed at the earlier period. All 
 other epics seem to have come into existence in much the same 
 manner, there being no unequivocal proof in any instance that 
 
 [92] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 they were owing to the work of individual poets, such as tradi- 
 tion provided for them. This appears to have been the case 
 with the Shah Nameh, and with many another epic poem of the 
 earlier centuries. It was markedly true of the Nibelungun-lied 
 and the sagas of the Scandinavian countries. The legends which 
 appear in the Nibelungun-lied began their growth in the primi- 
 tive period of the Teutonic peoples, spread from one tribe and 
 nation to another, gradually expanded in the number and variety 
 of their incidents, were recited in halls and castles by a long 
 succession of bards, and finally took the form in which we know 
 them. Not one of these epics can be said to be exclusively the 
 work of a single poet; and this is so far true that for most of 
 them no personal name appears as the author. Even where this 
 is the case these names are as legendary as the episodes in the 
 poems themselves. 
 
 It must be recognized, of course, that the Nibelungun-lied 
 has a basis in history, as in probably the case with all the epics of 
 which we are now treating. Some of the episodes are historical, 
 the customs may be of the same character; but the incidents 
 are growths of the epic genius of the people, not of an indi- 
 vidual poet of whom we can give definite and positive informa- 
 tion. The process of development is essentially that described 
 in the instance of the growth of the Iliad. The same general 
 description will apply to the Norwegian and Icelandic sagas. 
 If the Greeks had in any degree an epic genius superior to 
 the more northern bards, which may be questioned, it does not 
 appear in their possessing any different or superior method in 
 the production of their poetic legends, now appearing as epic 
 poems. The process as to methods of creation appears to have 
 been essentially the same, and the results were not widely differ- 
 ent. In all parts of northern and western Europe similar poems 
 made their appearance, and in considerable numbers; but they 
 
 [93] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 were produced, we must believe, in the same manner and for 
 the same purposes. They were originally the work of genera- 
 tions of bards, wandering minstrels, reciters of poems in the 
 house, the castle or in the public assembly. In the later tribal, 
 and in the feudal ages, everywhere such productions were in 
 great demand for this purpose. The demand produced what was 
 required, and, wherever heroic poems were thus produced 
 they served the same essential purpose of keeping alive legends 
 and traditions in an age before writing was invented or had 
 come into active use. 
 
 IX 
 
 Turning back again to Greece, we have to consider a poeti- 
 cal development more intimately and directly connected with 
 the history of religion than was the case with most of the great 
 epic poems. We may recognize that the gods of the Iliad were 
 those of Olympus, and the religious traditions contained in it 
 were those of the migrations, that is, the coming into Greece of 
 those northern peoples who settled on the coast of Asia Minor, 
 in the Peloponnesus, and in other parts of the islands and main- 
 land. These peoples brought with them legends of an Olympian 
 pantheon, though these grew and expanded greatly after they 
 settled down in Greece. They were in the patriarchal stage of 
 social development, were warlike and heroic in their customs 
 and in their legends. The peoples they found in the country 
 were more primitive, may have come originally from northern 
 Africa, had their chief center of development in Crete, and 
 were known as Pelasgians. Although that name now has no 
 very definite meaning, and has been largely superseded by the 
 use of the words Aegean and Minoan, which mainly refer to the 
 phases of the recent archaeological discoveries, the use of that 
 word is sometimes retained. This early people or peoples was 
 
 [94] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 doubtless in the matriarchal period of development, traces of 
 which remained here and there to quite late periods in Greek 
 history and religion. 
 
 We do not know precisely in what manner the legends con- 
 nected with this early phase of Greek life and religion were 
 related to those of Babylonia, Syria, Asia Minor or Anatolia, 
 Crete and Egypt. What appears to be true is, that these coun- 
 tries of the eastern Mediterranean basin had in many respects 
 the same legends and the same religious rites. The Greeks are 
 recognized as borrowing and assimilating those of the other 
 neighboring lands, thereby considerably expanding their own 
 pantheon and their religious ceremonies and festivals. 
 
 Although the Olympic gods and rituals are usually as- 
 sumed to be those the most distinctly Greek, it must now be 
 recognized that these came in with the migrations from the 
 north. They were more distinctly feudal and aristocratic, as 
 well as patriarchal, than those of the peoples they conquered 
 or superseded in the Greek lands. The primitive religion, 
 whether we call it Pelasgian or Aegean, was more distinctly 
 agrarian and matriarchal than that of the invaders. That is, 
 these peoples had begun the cultivation of the soil, and their 
 religion circled about the need for the fertility of the land they 
 cultivated. They worshipped Father Heaven and Mother Earth, 
 and their gods were largely of the feminine type, august and 
 loving mothers. Their rituals celebrated the coming of spring, 
 when seeds could be placed in the ground, and when all green 
 things sprang out of the earth. They conceived animistically 
 this upspringing of life as a maiden, beautiful and most attrac- 
 tive, bearer of children, and yet remaining virgin. In many of 
 the legends she had with her a son, who became in some way 
 her husband also. This is myth, and is not to be assumed to 
 reflect Pelasgian custom at any primitive period. Then the 
 
 [95] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 autumn was personified as the mother of the younger goddess, 
 and her worship and festivals were connected with the harvesting 
 of the products of the gardens and fields, orchards and vineyards. 
 Since these peoples buried their dead in the earth, and since 
 the products of their cultivation sprang from the earth also, 
 the two processes were intimately connected. The cult of the 
 fields and the cult of the dead were related to each other, and 
 the fertility of the fields depended on the presence of the divine 
 mother in the world of growing things. In the myths of the 
 Sun-goddess in Japan, Ishtar in Babylonia and Syria, and of 
 Demeter in Greece, their descent into the lower world or their 
 withdrawal from the upper world, caused the cessation of all 
 fertility to fields, animals and men. The fertility of the earth 
 and that of woman were also the same essentially, and what 
 hindered the one lessened the other. 
 
 The gods and the rites of this more primitive religion do 
 not to any extent appear in the Iliad and the Odyssey. The 
 latter belonged to the Olympic cycle, and are fundamentally pa- 
 triarchal and feudal. The other cycle is agricultural, matriar- 
 chal, and primitive. The rites are those connected with mother- 
 hood and agrarian life. Since much of the intimacy resulting 
 from the burial of the dead in the earth and its cultivation for 
 the producing of plants and fruits, suggest for them a common 
 origin and influence, this agrarian religion was largely con- 
 cerned with the dead and their interests. The rites were at 
 once agricultural, to insure good crops, and, at the same time, 
 to provide for the denizens of the underworld, which was below 
 the soil, in the bosom of the earth. The Pelasgian religion 
 found the world of the dead below, the Olympian above in the 
 sky or in some far western region beyond the setting of the sun. 
 The rites connected with the dead reflected these two concep- 
 tions of the abode of the ghosts. 
 
 [96] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The Pelasgian rites and festivals were the results of the 
 combination of these two orders of experience and thought. They 
 sought the fertility of the earth, and they also aimed at pro- 
 tecting the interests of those who had passed into the world of 
 the dead. Out of this combination of interests came what is 
 known as the ' ' mysteries, " rites having these two objects more 
 or less in view in their performance. The myths resulting were 
 those growing largely out of the animistic conception of nature, 
 the personification of the perfected life of the year as a Divine 
 Mother, and the uprising of nature in the springtime as a Divine 
 Maid. The snatching of the Maid from the mother by the god 
 of the underworld, as in the myth of Demeter and Kora or Per- 
 sephone, is but a method of defining the relations of the world 
 of man's daily interests to the natural round of the seasons. 
 In some of the more eastern phases of this cult, as it is found 
 in Syria, for instance, winter appears as a youth slain when 
 the spring returns, and for the rescue of whom the mother or 
 wife goes down into the underworld to secure his return. In 
 the Greek myth, as found in the Theogony of Hesiod, Ge or 
 Gaia is the earth, the broad-bosomed one. Many of the other 
 goddesses also, in one or another degree, represent the earth, 
 as is true of Demeter, Hera, Athena, Artemis and Aphrodite. 
 The earth is often regarded as the Mother of the Gods, the All- 
 Mother, and as the primary source of the whole creation. These 
 same goddesses, however, take on other characteristics, and may 
 have another origin attributed to them. For instance, Demeter 
 is sometimes represented as the ploughed field or as the furrow 
 in that field. She is, therefore, intimately connected with the 
 processes of the cultivation of the earth, sometimes being re- 
 garded as the cereals cultivated, and especially wheat and bar- 
 ley. Since the English give the general name of corn to these 
 cereals, Demeter is sometimes known as the Corn-Mother. Per- 
 
 [97] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 sephone is the young plant as Demeter is the ripened corn. 
 Demeter, however, ranges through the whole world of cultiva- 
 tion, and she is often the personification of all vegetation and 
 fruits, and is not less intimately connected with pastoral life 
 and the domesticated animals. Kore or Persephone, although 
 connected with the upspringing plant, and with the shoot 
 bursting out of the earth, owing to her rape by Pluto or Hades, 
 is also connected with the lower world, in which she spends a 
 part of each year, that in which plant life cannot exist. 
 
 What we are most concerned with here, however, is the 
 higher phases of these myths, those which link them with the 
 Pelasgian developments of Greek religion. These were in large 
 degree superseded by the Olympian pantheon, its rituals and 
 its beliefs, during a considerable period; but, when the belief 
 in Zeus lost its power, there was a revival of the old Pelasgian 
 rituals and beliefs in a new form. It is true that the agrarian 
 festivals and rituals never wholly died out, but now they came 
 back with an added suggestiveness and with a far broader 
 meaning. The tribal social development had broken down or 
 disappeared in the course of time, and there was a demand for 
 something to take its place, which in part was afforded by the 
 guilds or orgeones. More especially, however, as connected 
 with religion, there was a large growth of the Dionysian rites 
 which provided something in the way of satisfaction to the 
 emotional nature, in its ecstacy, and its personal inspiration 
 from the god. 
 
 What became most important in this development was 
 the Eleusinian Mysteries, their impressive symbolisms, their 
 initiations into a form of life preparatory for the other world, 
 their majestic dramatic presentation of the adventures of the 
 goddesses, and their assurance of the forgiveness of sins and 
 entrance upon the higher life when death presents itself. The 
 
 [98] 
 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 basis of these mysteries was found in the old nature-worships, 
 which had been transformed, added to from foreign sources, 
 and grown into great rituals of initiation into the world of the 
 gods, and assurance that by means of them immortality was 
 made certain to all the initiated. Since an expanded exposition 
 of these cults may be found in the works of Frazer, Farnell, 
 Harrison, and many other writers on Greek religion, it is not 
 desirable to attempt any account of them here. 
 
 The mysteries, without doubt, had a considerable influ- 
 ence in the evolution of the Christian church and in the forma- 
 tion of its theology. Traces of them may be found in many parts 
 of western Europe, and even in so remote a region as Ireland. 
 As indicating the degree to which such rituals and myths may 
 survive, and the great number and degree of the transforma- 
 tions through which they may pass as they proceed in their 
 development, and in the accession of other and, related ceremo- 
 nials and legends, it may be noted that Jessie L. Weston, in her 
 paper on The Grail and the Rites of Adonis, published in Folk- 
 Lore during 1907, and more fully interpreted in her two vol- 
 umes devoted to The Legend of Perceval, published in 1906, is 
 of the opinion that the legend of the Holy Grail had its origin 
 in the customs connected with the Syrian myth of Adonis. 
 This myth interpreted the succession of the seasons, the growth 
 of plant life, and the symbolisms which grew out of these. In 
 the tenth chapter of the Perceval volume Weston says of the 
 origin of the symbolisms of the Grail: 
 
 "The incidents of the story; the dead body on the bier, 
 with its pomp of ritual accessories, the weeping women (who 
 figure persistently throughout the Grail story) ; the common- 
 feast with a mysterious vessel ; the question as to the significance 
 and use of which results in the restoration of vegetation to a 
 land waste by reason of the death of him who lies on the bier 
 
 [99] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 (whose identity is never declared) ; all suggested the rites cele- 
 brated in honor of the god of vegetation, known in different 
 lands by different names Tammuz, Osiris, Attis, Adonis. 
 
 "In these rites the death of the god, and resultant death 
 of vegetation, were mourned with solemn ritual in which wo- 
 men took a prominent part; with his restoration to life fruit- 
 fulness was restored to the earth. Not merely did the incidents 
 correspond, but also the object of those incidents; it is a par- 
 allel alike of action and intention." 
 
 As is pointed out by this interpreter of the Holy Grail, 
 much of the Grail ritual and legend turns around the eucharis- 
 tic nature of the Grail legend, that is, the eating and drinking 
 of the products of nature as containing the qualities and vir- 
 tues of the god. In this manner the worshipper takes into his 
 being the virtues and the powers of the god, and he is made 
 godlike, at least for the time. This phase of many of the older 
 cults was taken up by Christianity, and finds a striking ex- 
 pression in the Grail narratives. The slaying of the god of 
 vegetation also connects itself with the crucifixion of Christ 
 and with that which resulted therefrom. 
 
 It has been suggested by William A. Nitze, in a paper 
 appearing in the Publications of the Modern Language Associa- 
 tion for 1909, under the title of The Fisher King in the Grail 
 Romances, that the Holy Grail had its origin in the Eleusinian 
 Mysteries or in that worship of the productive powers of nature 
 symbolically presented in that dramatic representation of the 
 adventures of the goddesses. He gives a quite elaborate account 
 of the resemblances between the ancient myth and the mediaeval 
 legend. After describing the mysteries at Eleusis, as well as 
 those connected with the worship of Osiris, he carefully inter- 
 prets the Grail legends. If he does not demonstrate a survival 
 and greatly modified form of the Eleusinia, yet he makes out 
 
 [100] 
 

 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF, 
 
 a very strong case for that conclusion. The resemblances are 
 too numerous and too intimate to be ignored, and make it most 
 probable that in the Holy Grail we have a mediaeval form of 
 the much older vegetation festivals and rituals. The probabil- 
 ity is that the survival is from the mysteries of Eleusis rather 
 than from the myth of Adonis, though the two have many very 
 close connections. 
 
 "The Holy Grail,'" says Nitze, "by the mediaeval ro- 
 mancers often conceived in terms of a quest, is au fond an initia- 
 tion, the purpose of which is to ensure the life of the vegetation 
 spirit, always in danger of extinction, and to admit the 'quali- 
 fied' mortal into its mystery. I do not believe we can go far 
 wrong in insisting on both its agrarian and its mystic features. 
 For though both may be present to the same degree in the ro- 
 mances in which the ceremony has been handed down, it is at 
 present difficult to state where the one feature ceases and the 
 other begins. Like the Eleusinia, the Grail rites may have been 
 agrarian and mystic from the start." 
 
 Nitze points out that the Fisher King of the Grail legends 
 is the symbol of the creative, fructifying force in nature, es- 
 pecially associated with water or moisture. As a representative 
 of the otherworld, he is the guide to it. The Grail knight, 
 whether Perceval, Bors, Galahad, Gawain, is the initiate. He 
 must specially qualify in order to become such, and it is he who 
 is responsible for the success of the Grail service. The father 
 of the Fisher King is his double, and stands for the life-god 
 himself. As in the case of Adonis, Dionysos, and Osiris, he 
 lies dead on the bier, with a sword by his side. The Grail, 
 sometimes called the Rich Grail, is essentially the same as the 
 kiste or holy box of the mysteries, and is the receptacle for the di- 
 vine food, the wafer or the blood, through the partaking of which 
 the mortal comes into communion with the god, and a bloodbond 
 
 [101] 
 
SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 is established between them. ' ' Thus it comes naturally to possess 
 talismanic properties," says Nitze, " primarily providing food, 
 but also preserving from disease and decay, distinguishing the 
 faithful from the sinners, and even ensuring victory in battle. 
 This leads by easy stages to its identification in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, through the medium of the holy blood legend, with the 
 relic of Calvary, and thence with the cup of the Last Supper. " 
 The lance is the instrument of sacrifices, which is vicarious. 
 The lance and the sword have no direct connection with the 
 mysteries, but they have been borrowed from other western 
 legends and myths. The final conclusion at which Nitze has 
 arrived he has stated in these words: " Though the Grail cere- 
 monies and the ancient mysteries have the same leit-motiv, there 
 exists no reason for claiming any direct connection with them. 
 While the fundamental concept of the Fisher King is doubtless 
 a Mediterranean cult, it is quite possible that in the Grail ro- 
 mances it descends in direct line from the primitive Celts in 
 Gaul, Wales, and Ireland. As we have seen, the underlying 
 fact is the identification of Life and Fertility with the creative 
 power of moisture and this idea is well-nigh universal. ' ' 
 
 Whether the Grail legend descended more or less directly 
 from the Greek mysteries, or whether it had a more definite ori- 
 gin in Celtic myth, it is evident that the same ideas, the same 
 ritual motives, are to be found in the two. It is impossible, 
 however, to dismiss the conclusion that the mysteries, as ritual 
 romances and legends of initiation, were passed down through 
 the centuries, and reappeared in the legends of the Holy Grail. 
 At first the Grail legends were regarded by the Christian church 
 as pagan and heretic, and were shunned or condemned. So per- 
 sistent were they, however, that they were slowly Christianized 
 and adopted into the extra faiths of the church. They took on, 
 at last, a distinctly Christian character, and have so been inter- 
 
 [102] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 preted by all their recent expounders, including their use by 
 Richard Wagner in his music-dramas. 
 
 What stands out most emphatically in both the Mysteries 
 and the Grail legends is their slow growth, and their develop- 
 ment through many centuries. It cannot be supposed that the 
 Dionysia or the Eleusinia, in their cult or ritual form, and in 
 the form of the myths connected with them, were the products 
 of any one or any number of gifted Greeks. No one has put 
 forth such a theory, but every interpretation of them at least 
 tacitly assumes that they "grew as grows the grass," to use 
 Emerson 's word in regard to such creations, which means that 
 they were age-long social developments, the products of the 
 collective genius of the people of the Greek lands. 
 
 We cannot suppose that it was otherwise with the Grail 
 legends and romances. We know that these were interpreted by 
 one or another poet or prose narrator; but behind their works 
 appears the more important and more highly creative genius 
 of the legend itself. Although it doubtless had its inciting mo- 
 tives in the great nature-myths and mysteries of the eastern 
 Mediterranean peoples, we cannot for a moment suppose that 
 the Celtic or the Teutonic peoples were less capable of creating 
 myths and mysteries to fit their own conceptions of the world and 
 of life. If the western peoples received traditional hints and 
 stimuli from the Greeks and the others, they were quite compe- 
 tent to produce equally valuable creations, as is seen in the 
 northern sagas, the Nibelungun-lied, and many another ballad 
 or epic production. Their myths, though less highly elaborated, 
 did not attain the same poetical perfection; but this may have 
 been the result of the incoming of Christianity before their full 
 development had had an opportunity of being reached. 
 
 [103] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 X 
 
 No one has as yet made it quite clear how it is that indi- 
 vidual and communal genius succeed in working together or how 
 we are to reconcile personal and collective processes of develop- 
 ment. It is the fashion now to assume that all invention, dis- 
 covery and creation are results of individual talent or genius. 
 A study of the culture-growth of the early ages, and especially 
 those forms of it expressed in the evolution of religion, does 
 not by any means confirm this judgment. Quite the contrary, 
 it nearly compels us to accept the theory of a group mind, a 
 collective soul; and that all true creation comes from the com- 
 munal activities of mankind. 
 
 Most of the great creations of the early world, in the form 
 of myths, hymns, rituals, laws, have no personal names attached 
 to them. This may, of course, be because history had not yet 
 begun; but even after the definite beginnings of writing and 
 history, the situation is much the same. We may be referred to 
 Moses, to Homer, and to Manu; but these names are almost as 
 mythical as the stories contained in the books with which their 
 names are connected. The higher critics in regard to all early 
 literatures, not only religious, but poetical and historical, as 
 well, do not justify us in insisting on the attaching of per- 
 sonal names to the Rig- Veda, to the myths of Babylonia, Syria, 
 Egypt or Greece, or to such poetical collections as the Mahab- 
 harata, the Nibelungun-lied, and many another work of the 
 same kind. 
 
 It may be that we shall never settle satisfactorily to all 
 persons such problems as these; but we cannot doubt that there 
 was something at work in the early ages by means of which 
 myths, tales, legends, rituals, and religions, were developed on 
 the part of rude peoples, and even by those races which had ad- 
 vanced considerably in culture. We cannot question the fact 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 that the myths of Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece, were wonder- 
 ful creations. We are not disposed to question the fact that the 
 religions of India, Persia, Syria, and Arabia had in them ele- 
 ments of great advancement for the peoples by whom they were 
 created, and by whom they were received as revelations from the 
 gods. If we deny to these peoples the gifts of inspiration and 
 revelation, as the Christian theologians are in the habit of doing, 
 how shall we account for these marvellous productions? In the 
 sheer weight of mental power they manifest they must claim 
 candid consideration as human productions, and our admiration 
 for the loftiness and the greatness of the tales they tell, and the 
 morality they inculcate. It is not enough to say that they were 
 the inventions of priests, as was the custom in the eighteenth 
 century, or that they are mere delusions of the corrupted mind, 
 as is too often the case in our own day. Rejecting the theory 
 that Homer created the Greek myths, as the prodigious result 
 of his personal genius, what shall we say of those mythological 
 creations which have come to us from the world of the ancient 
 Greeks ? 
 
 The answer to this query, and to the problem as to the 
 origin of the many religious developments throughout the 
 world in all ages, that many persons have found to be most 
 satisfactory, is that expressed by the conception of a group 
 mind or a collective soul. Behind all individual genius is some- 
 thing greater, more creative, more powerful, more intimately 
 in touch with the sources of life ; and this is the collective mind. 
 We may say of all the mythologies and religions we have re- 
 ferred to, that they have grown out of the life of man in his 
 communal relations. The gods of these peoples are reflections 
 of the communities who create them, not merely of their highest 
 personal life, but of their group life. In a word, the gods of 
 the Navaho, as of the Greeks, were intimately and essentially 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 reflections of the collective life of these peoples, projected into 
 the earth or into the heavens in the form of the divine beings 
 they worshipped in ritual, and interpreted in myth. The myths 
 recited the doings of the gods, which in minute degree were 
 the doings of these peoples themselves, not, it may be, as their 
 lives were actually lived individually from day to day, but as 
 the community aspired to live, and therefore prayed to their 
 higher selves, as embodied in the rituals and the myths, that 
 they might in future be able to live out their communal 
 existence. 
 
 What may impress us in the history of religion, as in the 
 connected and interrelated developments of literature and art, 
 is the greatness and the majesty of the creative power of the 
 communal mind. It may be an extravagant conception to 
 entertain, but one may be more and more impressed, as he 
 comes into more intimate knowledge of the processes by means 
 of which culture and civilization have been gradually devel- 
 oped, with the marvellous inventiveness of man in his collective 
 capacity to create myths, religions, and poems of the highest 
 art. The really creative mind in all ages is the collective mind, 
 though it may always work in harmony with personal genius. 
 "What we are to consider is, that the creative mind is still deal- 
 ing with the problems of religion, and that greater things are 
 yet to break forth from this creative source. What it has done 
 in the past it can accomplish again in the future. It has 
 brought into existence all religions now known to us, and it 
 can create truer and nobler ones in the future. 
 
 This leads us to the conclusion that most of the religious 
 inspiration to be found in the history of mankind, and all of 
 the revelation, is of this collective nature. The Sacred Books 
 of the East, as of all other parts of the world, had their origin 
 in the period when the communal life was strong and vigorous. 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 While the epics, and many another work having its origin in 
 the creative capacities of the collective mind, cannot be re- 
 garded as being possessed of the nature of revelation, yet these 
 books often have the qualities attributed to sacred literature. 
 All works for which a sacred character has been claimed, from 
 the Navaho ritual to the New Testament of the Christians, 
 have on them this character of collective power. They are 
 profoundly emotional, are marked by an elevation of thought, 
 and speak as from a deep subconscious insight into the world 
 beyond the immediate vision of individual man. 
 
 In recent years both inspiration and revelation have been 
 referred by many thinkers to the subconscious activities of the 
 mind. This phase of human activity gains greatly in its sig- 
 nificance when it is interpreted from the collective, and not 
 merely from the individual, sources as to its origin and nature. 
 Its loftiness of expression, its sublimity of thought, its pro- 
 fundity of emotional insight, all give to such works an im- 
 pressiveness and a grandeur which bring to them the weight 
 and the worth of an assumed revelation. If they are often 
 trivial, bearing about them the marks of their early origin and 
 their crude views of nature and of human life, as well as much 
 of moral grossness, yet they have a daring assurance in regard 
 to the nature of the supernatural world, and a confident tone 
 with regard to God and immortality, which appeal with con- 
 vincing power to those who have been educated to accept their 
 sacred character. All of this, without doubt, they owe to their 
 communal origin, to the fact that they are creations of the 
 collective mind. 
 
 The question may arise as to whether, with such an origin, 
 these sacred books can be regarded as in any real sense answer- 
 ing to the conception of revelation. In the old sense the reply 
 must be in the negative ; but with the modern conception of the 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 creative power of collective man, we need not hesitate to 
 answer in the affirmitive. It is no individual judgment, no 
 personal conception of life and its greater meanings, which we 
 have in these works; but something really great and stimulat- 
 ing because of the nature of their origin. In their origin we 
 find their sanction and their worth, their capacity to invigora- 
 ate the mind and to satisfy the heart, this origin being that of 
 the social consciousness in all its breadth and might. This is 
 the real meaning of revelation, whatever the claims made by 
 tradition, or in the name of supernatural communication. Such 
 an interpretation of it may take away something of the old 
 dogmatic spirit connected with the idea of a revelation direct 
 from God; but it fits more adequately into the demands of the 
 present day, and gives a fresh meaning to the sacred books of 
 the world. It explains their puerilities, their superstitions and 
 their credulities, as well as their gross moral conceptions. 
 At the same time it explains the relations of the sacred books 
 to the developing culture and civilization of mankind. 
 
 [108] 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Communal and Tribal Religion 
 
 TWO influences were at work in the origin and early devel- 
 opments of religion. The first of these is to be found in 
 the nature of man, in the relations of the body and the mind, 
 in the functioning of what we call the objective and the sub- 
 jective. Probably from the very first man recognized in some 
 crude way this duality of his nature, that the mind functioned 
 in one manner and the body in another. He must have had 
 some dim comprehension that his own inward life was other 
 than that of nature or the world of his environment. From 
 the time that he was able to make any definite use of language 
 he must have had at least a feeble comprehension of this dou- 
 bleness of his being; but could not apprehend their ultimate 
 unity. 
 
 The other influence which worked for the creation of re- 
 ligion was the communal or gregarious nature of his life as a 
 social being. At no period since man became man has he lived 
 in other than a social world, a world bounded by the limits of 
 a food-group, it may be ; but a world in which he was one of 
 a community, a fellowship, a corporate body of friends and 
 relations. It was pertinently said by George Henry Lewes, in 
 the first volume of The Foundations of a Creed, that all at- 
 tempts to explain mind without taking the social functions 
 into account have been signal failures ; and it may be said with 
 equal truth, that any attempt to explain religion without re- 
 cognizing the social functioning of all human life is doomed 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 to miss the mark of sound reasoning on a great subject. Re- 
 ligion is one of the phases of man's sociality, a result of his 
 living invariably as a member of a human community. At 
 first he does not think his own religion, but feels it; it comes 
 to him as an emotional manifestation of the fact of his human 
 fellowship. The fellowship gives him his religion as a child, 
 impresses it upon him, makes it a primary phase of his exist- 
 ence. If we could conceive of him as living apart from a so- 
 cial fellowship, we should also be obliged to think of him as 
 without religion. 
 
 Man as having a duality of nature in the form of mind and 
 body, and man as living in a communal fellowship with his 
 kind, these two forces must explain for us the origin of reli- 
 gion, and the earliest phases of its development. However any 
 of its manifestations are given, they are invariably socialized 
 for the primitive man, for the reason that his life is a life of 
 fellowship a limited fellowship, it is true, but one that 
 creates and dominates his mental being. 
 
 The study of the most primitive of existing peoples has 
 led to the conclusion that early man must have thought of all 
 other beings and things in the world as having like nature 
 with himself. In precisely what manner he regarded his own 
 being we do not know, but we surmise that he realized in a 
 faint way that there was in him something not seen, in- 
 tangible, subtle, ethereal. These words, of course, he did not 
 know, or what they represent to us; but there came to him a 
 dim perception of what we regard them as representing. He 
 came to this conclusion as the result of his dream experiences, 
 his observations of the shadow, echo, reflection as in water, 
 
 [110] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 breath, and eye-image. All of these made him think of some- 
 thing in him which is not of the body, and of a shadowy but 
 material nature. When he dreamed he found himself in places 
 distant from where his body was resting, and he met those he 
 knew were not in his immediate vicinity, and even those who 
 had been dead for months or years. To him these experiences 
 in dreams seemed as real as those of the waking life, and he 
 could but conclude that they were of as true a nature. This 
 conclusion was confirmed by his shadow, which followed him 
 almost constantly, especially in regions where sunshine is 
 nearly uninterrupted. The echo suggested that there was 
 some one unseen in his vicinity, who could speak to him or 
 answer his call. Looking in the eyes of his companions he saw 
 there an image of a man, very small, but having all the char- 
 acteristics of a human being as known to sight. His breath, 
 too, was something on which his life seemed to depend, some- 
 thing unseen, but vital; and suggestive of the same kind of 
 being as that given in the dream-experiences. 
 
 Many of the aborigines of North America, it is well known, 
 make use of the dream in determining to which of their several 
 societies they shall belong; and these societies often originate 
 in dream experiences. The dream was announced to the tribe, 
 by means of a performance which indicated its nature; and it 
 allied the dreamer to those who had received similar dreams. 
 Very frequently the dreams related to animals, and those who 
 had dreamed of the same animal belonged to the society of 
 which this animal was the patron or guardian. The character 
 of such dreams about animals, and the character of the so- 
 cieties which resulted, have been described in a recent bulletin, 
 number 61, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, being Teton 
 Sioux Music, by Frances Densmore. 
 
 We are told by Densmore that "the obligation of a dream 
 
 [111] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 was as binding as the necessity of fulfilling a vow, and disre- 
 gard of either was said to be punished by the forces of nature, 
 usually by a stroke of lightning. ' ' The same writer informs us 
 that many of the songs were produced in dreams, and the old- 
 est songs were thus composed. "This means that they came 
 in a supposedly supernatural manner to the mind of a man 
 who was hoping for such experiences and who had established 
 the mental and physical conditions under which they were be- 
 lieved to occur. In this we have the native concept of what 
 we call 'inspiration.' The Indian isolated himself by going 
 away from the camp, while the white musician or poet locks 
 his door ; but both realize the necessity of freedom from distrac- 
 tion. A majority of the songs said to have been thus received 
 by the Indians have a rhythmic and melodic unity which is 
 not always present in songs said to have been 'made up/ ! 
 
 This account of the origin of songs and dream-societies 
 among the aborigines of America will aid us in comprehending 
 how religious ideas, institutions and rites may have come into 
 existence in other regions. The dream seems to the primitive 
 man to introduce him into another than the every-day world. 
 In it he seems to come into direct relations with the world of 
 the dead and with an order of experiences which is not only 
 other, but more real, than those of his waking moments. These 
 manifestations of the subconscious take on for him the nature 
 of revelations, in the sense that they introduce him to a world 
 of spirits which is permanent, because he comes to think it 
 subsists before his birth and after his death. 
 
 Not only does the dream greatly aid the primitive man in 
 enlarging his religious rites and beliefs ; but there can be little 
 doubt that the image affords like constructive aid. If the 
 image-shaping power of the imagination in present-day man 
 had any real counterpart in the experiences of primitive man, 
 
 [112] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 as was most probably the case, it is quite certain that it af- 
 forded a large originative source for the production of spirits, 
 heroes, and gods. The image may be regarded as the waking- 
 dream or the dream may be regarded as a series of images pro- 
 duced in sleep. In some persons the capacity for day-dreams 
 is very great, and many a scene, person, and experience seems 
 by that process to stand out as of the very nature of reality. 
 The imagination pictures another world in such realistic form 
 that it not only seems tangible, but distinctly concrete. Much 
 present-day evidence from ghost-seers, believers in the occult, 
 crystal-gazers, spiritists, and others, makes it certain that the 
 primitive man could see, as it were, fauns and dryads in the 
 woods, spirits in the dark-time of the night, and gods behind 
 the greater phenomena of nature. Not only did the animistic 
 tendency give a basis for such conceptions; but the imagin- 
 ative mind could see these beings in many a waking experience. 
 He not only believed in them because his animistic conception 
 of the world gave him a reason for their existence ; but he 
 actually saw them, even with his own eyes, as he thought. 
 
 Not only did the individual create another world in this 
 manner, that seemed to him as real as the world of tangible 
 experiences; but more especially was this gift for image-crea- 
 tion product of the collective capacity for beholding what 
 the senses do not report. Once beheld in this manner such 
 creation enters into tradition, legend or myth, and is retained 
 for many centuries. 
 
 If we take into consideration the fact that the primitive 
 man had no science, no accumulated results of observation and 
 experimentation through many thousands of years, we shall 
 recognize the inevitableness of these conclusions, at which he 
 arrived, that he had in his body a something not the same as 
 the body, but intangible and spiritual, and that this something 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 could go away and return. "When death came the something 
 was no longer in the body, which then became inert, subject 
 to decay. That something must have departed from the body, 
 and had taken its flight, as seemed to be true in dreams, to 
 some other region, though it might remain for a time about 
 its old abode. 
 
 Such experiences as these led the primitive man to think 
 that there was in him what we know as the soul, a being other 
 than the body, that could leave the body in dreams, fly away 
 from it at death, and show itself in the breath and in the 
 shadow. This soul, when it had gone away at death, became a 
 ghost, and had its place elsewhere than in the body. Even in 
 the more advanced nations of the ancient world these concep- 
 tions survived, and the soul was conceived under the form of 
 breath, as in the ruach of the Hebrews, the pneuma of the 
 Greeks, and the spirit us of the Romans. The breath was that 
 which lived in the body, and gave it animation, gave it work- 
 ing capacity, and gave it power to think and will. 
 
 II 
 
 Giving attention to the manner in which the soul acted 
 on the body, and seemed to command it, and to make it sub- 
 servient to its wishes, it was natural that the primitive man 
 should see a like force or power in the world around him. The 
 soul or breath or pneuma within him made his body move from 
 place to place, accomplish work, and dream of scenes unseen 
 to the waking eye. Whatever in the outward world moved, 
 produced results, led to change and growth, seemed to result 
 from a cause similar to that which acted in himself. Some- 
 thing in himself made him breathe, dream, act and think ; and 
 something in the world about made the wind blow, the ocean 
 
 [114] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 toss up waves and beat against the shore, trees live and grow, 
 the stars move in their courses, and all animals live and breathe 
 like men. What other inference could there be than that there 
 was a soul or spirit in all of these, and that a life was in them 
 similar to that in men? 
 
 This primitive conception of the soul in man, and of all 
 other creatures and things as being also possessed of souls, was 
 first described and named by Edward B. Tylor, in the eleventh 
 chapter of his Primitive Culture, published in 1871. He said 
 that so far as we can judge from the immense mass of ac- 
 cessible evidence, the belief in spiritual beings appears among 
 all low races with whom we have attained to thoroughly inti- 
 mate acquaintance. This belief he called Animism, which he 
 described as "the deep-lying doctrine of spiritual beings, 
 which embodies the very essence of spiritualistic as opposed 
 to materialistic philosophy. " 
 
 Although Tylor devoted seven chapters to the interpreta- 
 tion of animism, and to the tracing out of its manifestations in 
 all parts of the world, and in all ages, the substance of it he 
 described in these words: "Animism is, in fact, the ground- 
 work of the philosophy of religion, from that of savages up 
 to that of civilized men. And although it may at first sight 
 seem to afford but a bare and meager definition of a minimum 
 of religion, it will be found practically sufficient; for where 
 the root is, the branches will generally be produced. It is 
 habitually found that the theory of animism divides into two 
 great dogmas, forming parts of one consistent doctrine; first, 
 concerning souls of individual creatures, capable of continued 
 existence after the death or destruction of the body; second, 
 concerning other spirits, upward to the rank of powerful 
 deities. Spiritual beings are held to .affect or control the 
 events of the material world, and man's life here and here- 
 
 [115] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 after; and it being considered that they hold intercourse with 
 men, and receive pleasure or displeasure from human actions, 
 the belief in their existence leads naturally, and it might al- 
 most be said inevitably, sooner or later to active reverence and 
 propitiation. Thus animism, in its full development, includes 
 the belief in souls and in a future state, in controlling deities 
 and subordinate spirits, these doctrines practically resulting 
 in some kind of active worship." 
 
 This interpretation of the origin of religion, which Tylor 
 defines, in a minimum form, as the belief in spiritual beings, 
 has been very generally accepted by the students of origins. 
 Some investigators, however, think it is of too advanced a 
 nature, and that it assumes for the earliest men a degree of 
 mental development which could not have been theirs. Some 
 of these more recent inquiries, as E. E. Marett, in The 
 Threshold of Eeligion, are of the opinion that there was a 
 preanimistic type of belief, when the primitive man merely 
 thought that all things around him were animated. This con- 
 ception of animatism, or that all things and beings are alive 
 as man is alive, may be regarded as an early form of animism, 
 and not to differ from it, except as an early stage in any devel- 
 opment is ruder than the more advanced ones. This type of 
 animism has been defined by W. H. Hudson in his reminis- 
 cences of his boyhood, entitled Far Away and Long Ago, as 
 "the tendency or impulse or instinct, in which all myth orig- 
 inates, to animate all things; the projection of ourselves into 
 nature; the sense and apprehension of an intelligence like our 
 own but more powerful in all visible things. " He describes 
 certain boyhood experiences as of the nature of animism, and 
 he is of the opinion that many children pass through a period 
 of mental experiences similar to those of the primitive man. 
 He says that what he was taught in regard to religion did not 
 
 [116] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 touch his heart "as it was touched and thrilled by something 
 nearer, more intimate, in nature, not only in moonlit trees or 
 in a flower or serpent, but, in certain exquisite moments and 
 moods and in certain aspects of nature, in 'every grass' and 
 in all things, animate and inanimate. " 
 
 In his book on The Idea of the Soul, A. E. Crawley as- 
 sumes that he has proven that the doctrine of animism is false, 
 and that he has displaced it by a truer interpretation of the 
 phenomena described by Tylor. Most investigators, however, 
 hold fast to the conclusions of Tylor, and find his theory sound 
 as an interpretation of the facts. In his book on Body and 
 Mind, William McDougall claims that animism is not only 
 true, but that it may be traced through the whole of the history 
 of religion down to our own time, and that it remains, even 
 now, the truest account of the relations of the mind to the 
 physical organism. To whatever extent the definition given 
 by Tylor to animism, has been modified by subsequent investiga- 
 tions, his conclusions have stood so far uninpregnable as de- 
 fining the religion of early man, and as a sound explanation 
 of many of the phenomena presented by the history of religion 
 even to our own day. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that dreams, shadows, echoes, 
 the breath or reflections can give the whole substance of reli- 
 gion, even to the primitive man. Though animism, preceded 
 by animatism, as in large degree growing out of these phases 
 of human experience, interprets the primary nature of religion, 
 there are many other experiences which enlarge and justify 
 the animistic conception. These include all phases of exper- 
 ience which are abnormal, pathological or of an unusual nature. 
 Widely over the world stimulants and narcotics are made use 
 of to bring on conditions of ecstacy or highly exalted states of 
 the mind. Insanity, epilepsy, and the hypnotic state, are ac- 
 
 [117] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 cepted in the same manner. The insane or idiotic person is 
 regarded as possessed, not merely of some unusual power, but 
 as being the possessor of powers of a spiritual or super-natural 
 nature. Twins are looked upon as uncanny and abnormal, and 
 one or both of them, in some tribes, is made a medicine-man or 
 a priest. 
 
 Powerful agents in the development of early religions are 
 all forms of trance and the hypnotic state, hysteria, uncons- 
 ciousness, hallucinations, clairvoyance, apparitions of the dead, 
 telepathy, and the exercise of the imagination. In one or an- 
 other degree all of these manifestations are to be found among 
 primitive men, and they give sanction to the idea of the soul 
 and its powers. Children amuse themselves with finding in 
 the burning wood or coal of an open fire, images of animals 
 or persons; and they may exercise the same gift in seeing in 
 cloud or water shapes that seem to resemble one or another 
 object. Without doubt the primitive man saw such shapes 
 in the same places, and in many others. He differed from the 
 children of today, in that these shapes were to him real. What 
 he thus saw he regarded as justifying his belief in spiritual 
 beings as manifested in all the phenomena of nature. Espe- 
 cially was this gift for discovering something supernatural in 
 his environment made effective, and largely increased in its 
 certainty and impressiveness, by the communal or contagious 
 character of these experiences. It has been shown again and 
 again that large numbers of persons, whole clans or tribes, 
 will see apparitions or hear music or oral communications, 
 which have no existence save in the imagination. This power 
 of collective suggestion is one that frequently manifests itself, 
 and gives assured sanction to the beliefs on which these ex- 
 periences rest for their basis of interpretation. 
 
 [118] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 It has been shown that auto-suggestion is an effective means 
 of convincing the seer and prophet of the validity of their be- 
 liefs ; but when we find communal-suggestion at work we have 
 the force that is more powerful, perhaps, than any other in 
 leading to one or another phase of religious development. 
 Psychologists are not as yet agreed as to the nature of sub- 
 conscious mental action or how it is that it manifests itself in 
 mysticism, the feeling of divine presences, demoniac posses- 
 sion, and many another phase of religious manifestation. 
 Many means have been employed in bringing about exper- 
 iences of this nature, such as crystal-gazing or any fixture of 
 sight for prolonged periods on single objects ; fasting, solitude, 
 repetition of single chords or rhythmic expressions these, 
 and many other, aids have been employed in bringing about 
 ecstacy, rhapsody, trance, and spiritual intoxication. Most ef- 
 fective of all these aids to supernatural insight or experiences 
 is the contagion of communal action in ritual or other collect- 
 ive manifestations of religious belief. 
 
 Another of the aids to growth in spiritual attitudes of mind 
 amongst primitive peoples is nervous instability. The people 
 of Siberia are in a large measure susceptible to any form of 
 excitement, and are in a remarkable degree given to what we 
 call "superstitions." Any sudden noise or unusual sight will 
 throw them into a hypnotic state, when they lose consciousness 
 or manifest symptoms of delusion or even of a state bordering 
 on insanity. Persons thus highly susceptible become shamans 
 and deal in magic, or priests and lead the religion of a com- 
 munity. 
 
 Of a higher type is that phase of religious expression 
 growing out of the use of language, and the recognition that 
 it represents something not material, but intangible and spir- 
 itual. In many parts of the world words seem to be regarded 
 
 [119] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 as having something uncanny and mysterious about them, and 
 they are accepted as in some way related to the soul, and per- 
 haps as themselves of a spiritual nature. At least, many peo- 
 ples are not willing to reveal their names, change the name of 
 a child after initiation or refuse to give the secret name of the 
 spiritual beings they reverence or the gods they worship. It 
 is often thought that to possess the name of a person is to pos- 
 sess power over him, and to become the ruler of his destinies. 
 The curse is greatly dreaded, and it is assumed to have a 
 mystic and powerful influence over the one against whom the 
 curse is spoken. The word is often almost regarded as a de- 
 finite spiritual being in itself. The idea, as in the philosophy 
 of Plato, is thought to be something real, the most definite 
 thing there is. In higher types of religion the word of God 
 becomes as God himself. We read that in the beginning was 
 the Word, which was but God in another form. 
 
 All of these types of religious manifestation seem to grow 
 out of animism. It may be desirable, therefore, to return briefly 
 to that mode of expression of the mind in its individual and col- 
 lective activities, and inquire somewhat more specifically as 
 to its nature. Alice Fletcher, writing in the Handbook of 
 American Indians, says of the Omaha, one of the Siouan tribes, 
 that to them nothing is without life; the rock lives, so do the 
 clouds, the tree, the animal. The Omaha, she adds, "projects 
 his own consciousness upon all things, and ascribes to them 
 experiences and characteristics with which he is familiar ; there 
 is to him something in common between all creatures and all 
 natural forms, a something which brings them into existence 
 and holds them intact; this something he conceives of as akin 
 to his own conscious being. " The Omaha calls this power 
 Wakonda, and to him it implies intelligence as well as power. 
 This concept is vague, and it has in it an element of the myster- 
 
 [120] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 LOUS, the incomprehensible; and spiritual strength as well. 
 Whatever is unusual is wakonda, as well as whatever is a mani- 
 festation of mind or will. Wakonda is invisible, says Fletcher, 
 and therefore allied to the idea of spirit. Objects seen in 
 dreams or visions partake of the idea or nature of spirit, and 
 when these objects speak to man in answer to his entreaty, 
 the act is possible because of the power of wakonda, and the 
 object, be it thunder-cloud, animal, or bird, seen and heard by 
 the dreamer, may be spoken of by him as wakonda. Though 
 it is extremely difficult to define wakonda, as it is to define 
 animism, there can be no doubt that the power exerted over 
 the individual and the group is very great, and that it makes 
 for the development of religion. 
 
 On the other side of the world, in Melanesia, wakonda ap- 
 pears under the name of mana, though it has much the same 
 characteristics, and is but another phase of what Tylor called 
 animism. R. H. Codrington, in his book on The Melanesians, 
 defines mana as everything that is beyond the ordinary power of 
 man. The Melanesian mind is entirely possessed by the be- 
 lief in a supernatural power or influence, and this is what he 
 names as mana. It is, we read in the pages of Codrington, 
 ''present in the atmosphere of life, attaches itself to persons and 
 to things, and is manifested by results which can only be ascribed 
 to its operation." This power, although it is impersonal, is al- 
 ways active through persons, who direct it. It is a part of the 
 life of the soul, and it is manifested by all spirits. Some per- 
 sons are full of mana, such as kings, and those who have special 
 religious gifts. The Melanesians believe in beings who have 
 a great deal of mana, but are personal and intelligent, though 
 of a higher nature than men. These beings are of the nature of 
 spirits, but are of another character than ghosts, who are the 
 disembodied human beings who are able to return after death. 
 
 [121] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 These spirits are invoked, and their aid is sought. The ghosts 
 are also supposed to possess mana, but not to so large an extent, 
 and are therefore not regarded as in the same degree powerful. 
 
 Mana or wakonda is found in some form as accepted by 
 nearly all primitive peoples. Each language has its own name 
 for it, but the thing itself, though it varies considerably in its 
 manifestations, is fundamentally the same everywhere. The 
 Iroquois called it orenda, the Algonkins manitou, the Shoshoni 
 pokunt, the Salish sulia, and in Mexico it was called nagual. In 
 Fiji the name is kalou, among the Dyaks of Borneo semungat, 
 while the Malagasy of Madagascar called it andriamanitra. In 
 Africa the Masia called it nyai, the Bafiote of the lower Congo 
 named it lunyensu, and the Boloki of the upper Congo described 
 it as likundu. The idea embodied in these names was by no 
 means absent from the higher peoples, and the Greeks knew it 
 as teras. What was thus expressed, as has been suggested, has 
 many resemblances to the Christian idea of the Holy Ghost, 
 which has been often regarded as impersonal, and as a per- 
 vading, mysterious, and subtle communication of the life of 
 God to the believer. Such, in no small degree, was the mana 
 of the Melanesian and the manitou of the Indian of America. 
 
 In the Handbook of American Indians, Alice Fletcher 
 describes the Iroquois conception of orenda as "a fictive force, 
 principle, or magic power which was assumed by the inchoate 
 reasoning of primitive man to be inherent in every body and 
 being of nature and in every personified attribute, property, 
 or activity, belonging to each of these and conceived to be the 
 active cause or force, or dynamic energy, involved in every op- 
 eration cr phenomenon of nature, in any manner affecting or 
 controlling the welfare of man. This hypothetic principle was 
 conceived to be immaterial, occult, impersonal, mysterious in 
 mode of action, limited in function and efficiency, and not at all 
 
 [122] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 omnipotent, local and not omnipresent, and ever embodied or 
 immanent in some object, although it was believed that it could 
 be transferred, attracted, acquired, increased, suppressed, or en- 
 thralled by the orenda of occult ritualistic formulas endowed 
 with more potency/' 
 
 Such was the nature of orenda, wakonda, mana, or whatever 
 the name by which this potent force was designated. To com- 
 prehend fully the significance of this force this additional state- 
 ment by Fletcher must be taken into consideration: "As all 
 the bodies of the environment of primitive man were regarded 
 by him as endowed with life, mind, and volition, he inferred 
 that his relations with these environing objects were directly 
 dependent on the caprice of these beings. So to obtain his needs 
 man must gain the goodwill of each one of a thousand con- 
 trolling minds by prayer, sacrifice, some acceptable offering, or 
 propitiatory act, in order to influence the exercise in his behalf 
 of the orenda or magic power which he believed was controlled 
 by the particular being invoked. Thus it came that the posses- 
 sion of orenda or magic power is the distinctive characteristic 
 of all the gods, and these gods in earlier times were all the 
 bodies and beings of nature in any manner affecting the weal 
 or woe of man. So the primitive man interpreted the activities 
 of nature to be due to the struggle of one orenda against another, 
 put forth by the beings or bodies of the environment, the former 
 possessing orenda and the latter life, mind, and orenda only by 
 virtue of his own imputation of these things to lifeless objects." 
 
 It is important to recognize the universality of this con- 
 ception of mana or orenda amongst primitive peoples, and that 
 it is at the basis of the first forms of religion of which we have 
 any knowledge. This fact is stated by Franz Boas in the same 
 work, in treating of religion, when he says that the fundamental 
 concept of the religious life is "the belief in the existence of 
 
 [123] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 magic power, which may influence the life of man, and which 
 in turn may be influenced by human activity." This recog- 
 nition is all the more important because it is from this potent 
 magic force that there is developed the idea of the soul, spirit, 
 and God. The very foundations of religion, therefore, are to be 
 found in this conception of mana, in so far as it manifests itself 
 in the life and thought of primitive man. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Even with primitive man, as he presents himself to us in 
 various parts of the world to-day, religion is not confined to 
 magic, mana, or any other single and limited manifestation. It 
 takes on many forms, and one of them, known to the Melane- 
 sians as tabu or tapu (in English taboo), is intimately con- 
 nected with mana. The fundamental idea of tabu is of things 
 sacred, and also of things impure or unclean. To the primitive 
 man these two phases of tabu are nearly alike, the uncleanness 
 being intimately related to the sacredness. That which is tabu 
 is that which is forbidden ; the child being taught in its earliest 
 years that certain things and acts are an abomination, not to 
 be touched, seen or eaten. The reason for this is that these 
 objects are the abode or the manifestation of a ghost or spirit, 
 in whose name, or in reliance on whom, it is pronounced; the 
 tabu being a prohibition with a curse implied in it or expressed 
 by means of it. In Melanesia the ghost is known as tarunga, 
 but a spirit is a tindalo. The ghost may belong to animals as 
 well as man, but the spirit or tindalo is that of man and not that 
 of animals. A tindalo that is connected with superhuman power 
 and intelligence is, in one of the islands, at least, known as vui. 
 Evidently, the spirits and the vui are on the way to becoming 
 gods ; and it is from these that the higher powers are developed. 
 
 [124] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 In all these conceptions the will, or the functioning power 
 in man, that by means of which he accomplishes results and be- 
 comes a creator according to his own gifts, being regarded also 
 as belonging to all objects, plants, animals, and whatever else 
 is in man's environment, acquires for the primitive man a 
 magical, spiritual and sacred character. What is thus set apart 
 by special gifts becomes either unclean, not to be touched 
 or handled or it becomes sacred, to be propitiated, reverenced, 
 and it may be, worshipped. In defining the soul, in the Hand- 
 book of American Indians, Boas says it has been developed out 
 of the concept of the power of acting as resident in the body, 
 the concept of subjective feelings connected with imagery, and 
 the concept of objective impressions developed from memory 
 images. To these must be added the conception of will power, 
 accepted as being in some manner dissociated from the physical 
 activities of the body. When these concepts are associated with 
 the greater phenomena of nature, such as the sun, mountains, 
 the ocean or the earth itself, there appear great and powerful 
 spirits, far above man, whom we know as gods. 
 
 If a man after death, or even before, in some instances, has 
 a large measure of mana, and ability to make things or persons 
 tabu, he is regarded as sacred. In a degree he becomes a 
 god. If these same powers are found in any other being or 
 object, these, too, become gods in one or another degree, in pro- 
 portion to their mana. Every being and object possessing un 
 canny, unusual or conspicuous qualities is regarded as possessed 
 in large measure of mana, and is therefore a god. Most in- 
 terpreters of early religions find these qualities of godlikeness 
 in what is vast among the great phenomena of nature, and em- 
 phasize the god-qualities of the sun, moon, sky, ocean, mountains, 
 thunder, and similar objects. Without doubt these more majes- 
 tic and conspicuous natural phenomena are regarded as gods, 
 
 [125] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP RELIGION 
 
 even by primitive men; but the full development of such 
 appears to come later, and are not assigned their highest mani- 
 festations in the earliest periods. Really primitive man prefers 
 to see what is powerful and godlike in what is nearer and more 
 familiar. 
 
 A venerable Indian one day said to Alice Fletcher: "The 
 tree is like a human being, for it has life and grows, so we pray 
 to it and put offerings on it, that the mysterious power may 
 help us." The tree has wakonda or mana, and it can give of 
 its power to those who approach it in the right manner, that 
 suggested by this Indian. In all parts of the world trees have 
 been venerated as sacred, as being possessed of magical or sacred 
 qualities, or as being the abode of a spirit or god. In his re- 
 cently published lectures, entitled The Ascent of Olympus, 
 Rendel Harris has shown that Dionysus may have been, in his 
 beginnings, nothing else than the ivy; Apollo the apple-tree 
 and the mistletoe which grows on it, and Aphrodite to have been 
 the mandrake or love-apple. Classical students are very likely 
 to dispute these theories, but Harris gives much evidence in 
 favor of them. At any rate, it is evident that all kinds 
 of trees, plants and vegetables were regarded, in one time and 
 place or another, as possessed of mana and the gift of tabu. 
 
 Why should plants be regarded as possessed of souls, to 
 be the abode of spirits or to be in some manner the manifesta- 
 tions of godlike powers? It is because they possess mana, and 
 mana means that they serve the purposes of man. Probably 
 they are revered primarily because they furnish food, and man 
 finds himself dependent on them for the sustenance of his life. 
 Having mana, when they are eaten, that mana enters into those 
 who partake of them, and it is communicated to those who eat. 
 Here we have the primary form of all those communal sacra- 
 ments when man partakes of plants or their juices as giving 
 
 [126] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 him mana, that is, its power. Often it is thought that no such 
 access of power is secured by the ordinary partaking of vege- 
 tables, fruits or other forms of plant-life; but when these are 
 eaten or partaken of by the community in a festival especially 
 established for the purpose, not only is the individual who par- 
 takes made stronger, but the whole fellowship is brought into 
 intimate relations with the mana in the food eaten or the juices 
 drunk. 
 
 IV 
 
 The complete development of this phase of man's relations 
 to the vegetable world comes at a later stage in the progress of 
 culture ; and we may now turn aside to consider another expres- 
 sion of the same power of mana or wakonda. Strange as it may 
 seem to us of to-day, there can be little doubt that man's con- 
 tact with the animal world came into play at a very early period 
 in his history as shaping the outward manifestations of religion. 
 Reverence for and worship of animals appears in some form in 
 connection with every religion, from the lowest to the highest. 
 The only adequate study of this subject is that by Northcote W. 
 Thomas, which appears in the first volume of the Encyclopaedia 
 of Religion and Ethics. He shows that all the qualities possessed 
 by man are attributed to animals, that animals are but men 
 clothed in another form, and that there is something uncanny, 
 miraculous, magical, and even supernatural, possessed by them. 
 
 The distinction between men and animals is not recognized 
 by early peoples, evidently because they possess many of man's 
 abilities, can think, act from motives, express their desires, and 
 make use of a slyness, a cunning, a subtlety of will-power which 
 man envies and respects. Early men attribute the power of 
 speech to animals, and they assign to them a reasoning power 
 far beyond their own. When they will, the animals can cast 
 
 [127] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 off their animal form, as a snake its skin, and appear as what 
 they are, human beings in disguise. Not only may they trans- 
 form themselves into human beings, but men may assume the 
 animal form; and these races or orders may intermarry, live 
 happily with each other, and bear children partly animal and 
 partly human. Many religions, and more especially Brahman- 
 ism and Buddhism among those of the higher races, believe that 
 men may be transformed after death into animals, in order 
 that their karma, or force resulting from conduct, may be worked 
 out to its legitimate conclusions. Many primitive peoples ac- 
 cept this view of the relations of men and animals, and hold 
 that men may be born as animals and animals as men, in order 
 to work out the expiatory results required in securing moral 
 advancement and growth. In every religion of the ancient 
 world there were animal gods, as Hanuman, the monkey-god 
 of the Hindus; and Sebek, the crocodile-god of the Egyptians. 
 Even a god of the high type of Zeus appears as a horse in one 
 of his many transformations, and as other animals in the pursuit 
 of his amours or in order to disguise himself. This undoubtedly 
 means that he was either originally one or the other of these 
 animals or that he had taken over the attributes of these animal- 
 gods in the regions where his worship had been established. 
 
 Animals hold a very large place in the early mythologies. 
 They appear as bearers of the earth on their backs, as in the 
 Hindu conception of the tortoise or the elephant. These sup- 
 porting animals may cause the earth to quake when they turn 
 over or move in order to secure a more restful position. An ani- 
 mal may watch over the entrance to the other world, as in the 
 instance of Cerbebus, the three-headed dog who protects the 
 way- of entrance to the lower world of the Greeks. The animal 
 has magical powers, as we have seen; and it is this gift which 
 attaches him to witches, and makes the cat the inevitable com- 
 
 [128] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 panion of the European witch. Wherever we find the wizard 
 or the witch, we find his or her familiar, an animal into which 
 these beings may be transformed. If the animal is wounded, 
 the witch is wounded in the same manner. The werewolf is a 
 familiar object in European folk-lore, and may be found in 
 nearly every part of the world. This belief, it has been 
 assumed, has quite died out ; but here is a book on Werewolves, 
 by Elliott O'Donnell, published in London by Methuen, in 1912, 
 which assures us that such creatures really exist, and may be 
 found at the present day by those who know how to seek for 
 them. He assumes that these creatures are emanations from 
 the dead or phantasms of those who have been of a cruel, savage 
 and treacherous nature. 
 
 Again, it is in some tribes assumed that the life of a child 
 is bound up with that of some animal, that its life-index or power 
 of life, has been located in an animal, and that as the animal 
 prospers, suffers or dies, such will be the fate of the human being. 
 Some animals have a great power of fascination, and they will 
 charm birds to their destruction, and even human beings are not 
 able to resist this power in the serpent. The snake and the 
 serpent are regarded with awe everywhere, partly because of 
 their manner of movement, and partly because they are to be 
 found often about graves and cemeteries, leading to the con- 
 clusion that the dead have taken up their abode in these 
 creatures. 
 
 One of the most remarkable phases of this regard for ani- 
 mals is the acceptance of one or another of them as the creator. 
 The northern Algonkins gave this place to the Great Hare (or 
 rabbit), while the Tlingit of the northwest coast of Canada 
 attribute it to the raven. These and other peoples do not sup- 
 pose that the ordinary rabbit or raven is capable of creating 
 the world or of accomplishing any other unusual task. All the 
 
 [129] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 peoples who attribute supernatural powers to animals regard 
 the actual animal they hunt as no more than a mere type of 
 that greater animal which takes the same form, but is, as it were, 
 the comprehensive phase of all the animals of the given species. 
 This supreme or supernatural raven exists in the heavens as a 
 great and powerful being, full of magic, a supernatural force, 
 of which the ordinary animal is but a mere resemblance or mani- 
 festation. It is this great animal, this quintessence of the pow- 
 ers of all the members of the species, which is the creator, the 
 being full of magical power, a vast reservoir of orenda. 
 
 V 
 
 One other form of the reverence for and worship of ani- 
 mals must be considered. This is what is called totemism, 
 which, in some respects, is the earliest form of what has become 
 known as the doctrine of spirits, in this instance being animals, 
 and not dead ancestors. It may take the form of an animal 
 guardian for the individual, but much more widely it is that of 
 a guardian, protector or ancestor of a communal group. Andrew 
 Lang, in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, says that the totem 
 "denotes the object, generally of a natural species, animal or 
 vegetable, but occasionally rain, clouds, star, wind, which gives 
 its name to a kindred actual or supposed, among many savage 
 and barbaric races in America, Africa, Australia, Asia and the 
 isles. Each child, male or female, inherits this name, either 
 from its mother (female descent) or from its father (male 
 descent). Between each person and his or her name-giving 
 object, a certain mystic rapport is supposed to exist. " In some 
 tribes the individual is supposed to have as his first ancestor 
 this particular animal which is the totem, and some tale is 
 told of the manner in which the descent began. At the same 
 time, the whole of the group or clan taking the totem name, 
 and owing descent to the anim^^fc^ 'represents, is descended 
 
 [130] ' 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 from this totem, which is its guardian and protector, as well 
 as the source from which it originated. In some instances this 
 animal is regarded almost as a deity, though this is not often 
 the case. 
 
 In four large volumes, of a total of more than two thousand 
 pages, under the title of Totemism and Exogamy, J. G. Frazer 
 has dealt with every phase of this subject. He shows that totem- 
 ism is not universal, that it is confined to certain regions and 
 countries, and that it is not to be found in any of the higher 
 stages of civilization. Frazer finds totemism in Australia, New 
 Guinea, Melanesia, Polynesia, Indonesia, India, Africa and 
 America. Outside the aborigines of these regions totemism does 
 not exist, except in some possible survivals here and there. 
 
 Frazer 's definition of totemism is that it "is an intimate 
 relation which is supposed to exist between a group of kindred 
 people on the one side and a species of natural or artificial ob- 
 jects on the other side, which objects are called the totems of 
 the human group. To this general definition, which probably 
 applies to all purely totemic peoples, it should be added that 
 the species or thing which constitute a totem is far oftener 
 natural than artificial, and that amongst the natural species 
 which are reckoned totems the great majority are either animals 
 or plants. ' ' The origin of totemism is found in ignorance, on the 
 part of such peoples as the natives of Australia, as to the causes 
 of childbirth, it being assumed by them that the child comes to 
 the mother from some ancestral center, where the ghosts of the 
 dead are waiting to be reincarnated again in human form. 
 
 With much trepidation one may differ from an investi- 
 gator of such vast knowledge and ample resources for sociological 
 interpretation as J. G. Frazer; but the nature of totemism 
 would suggest that it has its origin in animism, and in the rev- 
 erence paid to animals b0t peoples who have any of them 
 
 [131] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 living in their immediate environment. Totemism is to be 
 found only in regions peopled by backward races; but rev- 
 erence for animals is found everywhere, on the part of primitive 
 peoples, and on the part of those the most highly civilized. It 
 seems probable, if it may not be regarded as certain, that totem- 
 ism had its origin in the animistic manner of regarding animals 
 and to a lesser degree plants, as possessing powers similar to 
 those possessed by man, and as having magical gifts far sur- 
 passing any that man possesses. 
 
 This means that totemism is merely a phase of the reverence 
 for animals ; but its special characteristics are developed when a 
 tribe reaches a stage of social organization demanding some 
 means of designating groups, clans or genres, not only for the 
 purpose of distinguishing them from each other as a flag dis- 
 tinguishes a nation ; but also for the purpose of definitely indi- 
 cating those who may marry and those who may not marry. 
 Where totemism exists it is a practically universal rule that 
 those of the same totem shall not marry, as that a bear shall not 
 unite with a bear or a fox with a fox. This rule, called that 
 of exogamy, means that a bear may marry a fox or some one of 
 another clan within the tribe. Generally, but not invariably, 
 totemism and exogamy accompany each other. Evidently, 
 therefore, the reverence for animals, and the idea of the animal 
 origin of groups, is made use of, at a certain stage of social 
 development, in order to designate those who belong to a group, 
 and those who may marry. 
 
 Frazer is of the opinion that totemism has no definite con- 
 nection with religion, and in this he is probably right. How- 
 ever, the reverence for animals, in which totemism has its origin, 
 has an intimate relation with the early forms of religion, and 
 even with those which are highly advanced. Thomas says 
 that animal worship covers facts ranging from the worship of 
 
 [132] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the real divine animal, commonly conceived as a 'god-body,' at 
 one end of the scale, to respect for the bones of a slain animal 
 or even the use of a respectable name for the living animal at the 
 other end. Certain animals are regarded as sacred, either as 
 individuals or as a total species. What particular form the 
 worship shall take, or what shall be the nature of the cult de- 
 voted to the animal or animals worshipped, is determined by 
 the nature of the society worshipping or the nature of the ani- 
 mals worshipped. Pastoral and hunting tribes reverence ani- 
 mals in ways peculiar to their social development or their man- 
 ner of securing food, that is, the character of their chief in- 
 dustry. Dangerous animals are regarded in a manner quite 
 different from those which have been domesticated, and have 
 become permanently serviceable to man. 
 
 Another phase of the reverence for animals is to be found 
 in the respect paid to them when they are killed for purposes 
 of food. The good-will of the slaughtered animals is sought, 
 and methods of propitiation are made use of to this end. Ani- 
 mals are offered in sacrifice to the dead, and not wholly used 
 for the benefit of the living. It is assumed that the dead de- 
 pend on food as when they were living, and suitable food must 
 be provided for them after they have entered the other world. 
 To this end, when the dead are buried, food is placed in the 
 grave, that the ghost may be sustained, at least for a time. Food 
 may be placed on the grave at regular intervals for the same 
 purpose. When the food is found where it was placed, it is 
 said that the ghost consumes only the aroma, the spiritual sub- 
 stance of the food, and that its material part remains. The 
 worshipper may consume this remainder, and he may eat of 
 a communal meal on the grave, sharing the food with the ghost, 
 and even with the higher powers who may desire to partake 
 of this sustenance. 
 
 [133] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 Very crude are these means of communication with the 
 dead, and these helps in providing for their wants. When a 
 man is placed in the grave, if he has been a warrior, his horse, 
 weapons, and accoutrements are buried with him, on the sup- 
 position that he will need them, and use them, in the ghostland 
 to which he goes. Assuming also that he will not wish to be 
 companionless there, and that he will especially desire the pres- 
 ence of his wife or wives, one or more of them are buried 
 with him either alive or slain, that they may accompany him 
 on his far journey. Since he is a chief tan, and will need at- 
 tendants, one or more of his slaves are required to accompany 
 him into the other world. 
 
 Here we have the primary origin of sacrifice, in the pro- 
 viding of the dead with the food and the services which they 
 will hereafter require. The continued offering of food and other 
 gifts on the grave grows from stage to stage into the providing 
 of similar services to the spirits and then to the gods. Since 
 the gods at first are either deified men or beings having the same 
 physical needs, food is brought to them regularly, and such other 
 means of sustenance as it may be thought they will require, in 
 order to the recuperation of their powers as beings of mana or 
 orenda. This is a very crude and materialistic phase of the de- 
 velopment of sacrifice, but there can be no doubt that its savage 
 beginnings are in customs as crude as these. A lowly origin 
 of this kind does not detract from the higher developments 
 which come in time; but the recognition of them enables us to 
 comprehend how customs of this nature originate. 
 
 IV 
 
 Having passed in brief review the psychological causes 
 leading to the development of religion, as well as its successive 
 stages of animatism, animism, animal reverence and worship, 
 totemism, nature-worship, mana, tabu, and sacrifice, we are now 
 
 [134] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 prepared to consider its organized forms in the attempt to con- 
 trol the forces in the environing world of man. The first of 
 these is known as shamanism, which is but another form of 
 magic, though magic definitely used for human purposes. The 
 shaman is often known as a medicine-man, and this name de- 
 scribes one of his chief functions. In the cure of disease the 
 medicine-man makes use of magic to overcome malign influences 
 working against the patient; and he employs prayer to the 
 benign spiritual powers, in order to secure a recovery of health. 
 To the same end, rituals, which develop potent orenda, are made 
 ase of frequently in the more advanced phases of the career of 
 the medicine-man. 
 
 The great center of what is known as shamanism is to be 
 found in Siberia, and it is indeed from that region the name 
 has come to us, though it is of European origin, but as applied 
 to conditions existing in the north of Asia. The most elaborate 
 account of this form of religion is to be found in the work on 
 Aboriginal Siberia, by M. A. Czaplicka, which summarizes the 
 information contained in numerous Russian volumes. This 
 author attributes shamanism in no small degree to the climatic 
 conditions existing in Siberia, with its intense cold, prolonged 
 absence of the sun, fierce snow-and wind-storms, and the hunger 
 which often results from these conditions. These conditions 
 bring on hysteria, resulting in paroxysms of nervous strain, and 
 in intense excitement and complete collapse. The peoples of 
 northern Siberia are extremely susceptible to nervous excite- 
 ment, and unusual noise, prolonged drumming, fasting, or other 
 similar cause, throwing them into conditions of hysteria or pro- 
 longed sleep. Under these circumstances they acquire their 
 magical powers, and feel a call to the magician's or shaman's 
 career. On this subject Czaplicka says, quoting two or three 
 Russian investigators: "To the believer the acceptance of the 
 
 [135] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 call means accepting several spirits, or at least one, as protectors, 
 by which means the shaman enters into communication with the 
 whole spirit world. The shamanistic call manifests itself 
 through some animal, plant, or other natural object, which the 
 person comes upon at the right time, i. e. when very young, 
 often in the critical period between childhood and maturity (or 
 else when a person more advanced in age is afflicted with mental 
 or physical troubles). Sometimes it is an inner voice, which 
 bids the person enter into intercourse with the spirits. If the 
 person is dilatory in obeying, the calling spirit soon appears in 
 some outward visible shape, and communicates the call in a 
 more explicit way." 
 
 Among the more northern tribes of Siberia shamanism is 
 largely limited in its operations to the family, any member of 
 which may exercise its functions in behalf of the family group. 
 In this region there is no special class of persons devoted to 
 this calling, and it is open to anyone to exercise it. Pro- 
 fessional shamanism is only in its infancy; but in the more 
 southerly region it has become a stated and definite profession. 
 It is in this region that the shaman is not only called, but he is 
 trained by other shamans for the exercise of his functions. The 
 shaman believes himself inspired, and he uses the drum, with its 
 monotonous beat, accompanied with song, in order to work him- 
 self into that hypnotic or ecstatic attitude of mental excitement 
 in which he is able to exercise the functions of his calling. He 
 uses many devices for impressing his audience, and for giving 
 them confidence in his powers. The medicine-man of aboriginal 
 America resorts to many tricks, sleight-of-hand performances, 
 forms of jugglery, in order to inspire confidence that he is able 
 to bring about the results he assures his hearers or patients he 
 is capable of as one inspired. 
 
 [136] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 There can be no doubt, however, that the shaman believes in 
 his wonderful gifts ; and, though he may use deception to make 
 an impression, not one whit the less is he assured that he is in 
 direct communication with the spirits, and that they give him 
 the powers he possesses. His attacks of hysteria, his periods 
 of unconsciousness, his dreams and his visions, his ability to 
 bring about auto-suggestion, and his telepathic power, it may 
 be, all combine to give him the utmost confidence in his inspira- 
 tion by the spirits. In fact, he regards himself as one in imme- 
 diate communication with the sp irit- world ; and the means to 
 this end are those which have been enumerated. 
 
 Shamanism and magic are by no means confined to Siberia, 
 but may be found in all the northern regions of Asia and Europe, 
 as has been shown by Domenico Comparetti in his work on The 
 Traditional Poetry of the Finns, and by John Abercromby in 
 The Pre- and Proto-historic Finns, both Eastern and Western, 
 with the Magic Songs of the West Finns. All the Ugro-Finnic 
 peoples are shamanists, including the Lapps, Siryanians, Voty- 
 aks, Cheremisians, Mordvinians, Voguls, Ostyaks, and others. 
 The Finns were also shamanists, and they did not wholly discard 
 this practice when they became Christians. A large degree of 
 faith in magic continues to exist in the religion of Russia. 
 
 According to Comparetti, shamanism in these northern re- 
 gions "differs from other religions in this: that, in addition to 
 prayer and sacrifice, it believes in the coercive influence which 
 man or some specially endowed men (shamans) exercise by 
 means of acts, by secret operations, or by words, over nature or 
 over the divine or demonic beings which represent and rule 
 nature. Magic, therefore, which in other religions is outside 
 religion and contrary to its spirit, being despised as superstition 
 or condemned as impiety, is in shamanism the very essence of 
 religion; what we shall call the magic word is in it no less 
 
 [137] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 legitimate, lofty and noble than are the hymn and the prayer 
 in any other religion. The shaman is more than a simple priest, 
 he is the seer, he is the medicine-man, he is wise and powerful 
 above all others and is capable of miraculous actions. With his 
 action and his word he dominates things and men and animals 
 and spirits; he cures ills or prevents them; he can propitiate 
 superior beings and obtain benefits; can ensure good luck for 
 the hunt, the fishing, the journey; can raise winds and storms 
 and clouds and fogs and tempests, and can lay them, scatter 
 them, disperse them; he can transform himself and others; he 
 can rise in spirit into the realms of air, go down into those of the 
 dead and carry off their secret. ' ' 
 
 These shamanistic powers, in one degree or another, are to 
 be found in connection with all the early phases of religion 
 and in every part of the world. They are often found in sur- 
 vival into quite advanced phases of civilization, and it is by no 
 means certain that they have wholly disappeared from those 
 religions which are the most advanced. Nor are they to be 
 found only in connection with religion and the art of healing. 
 The northern peoples of Europe, and those of other regions 
 also, saw something magical and shamaristic in song and poetry, 
 music and the dance. Their runes, their ballads, and especially 
 their epic poems, often acquired qualities which were divine. 
 Inspiration in any form or in regard to any art was of a super- 
 natural character, the result of the incoming of some god into 
 the soul of the singer, poet, or musician. The Greeks regarded 
 love in this manner, and thought of its excitements, its absorp- 
 tion in infatuation for one person, its forgetfulness for all else 
 than its own object, as manifestations of a demoniacal presence. 
 Infatuation, excitement, ecstacy, absorption in one object or 
 interest, was accepted as of this nature, and was regarded as 
 
 [138] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 proof that something divine had entered into the individual 
 showing any of these symptoms. 
 
 Conclusive proof has now been afforded for the origin of 
 the aborigines of America in the northeast of Asia, and it is 
 not therefore surprising that they have developed many of the 
 characteristic features of Siberian shamanism. This proof 
 comes in considerable measure from the investigations of Ales 
 Hrdlicka, who says of the American medicine-men and women, 
 that they make use of magic prayers, songs, exhortation, sug- 
 gestion, ceremonies, fetishes, and certain specific and mechani- 
 cal processes. He adds that these persons were regarded as 
 the possessors of supernatural powers that enabled them to 
 recognize, antagonize, or cure diseases. They might make use 
 of herbs or the sweat-bath, or the manipulation of parts, or other 
 natural curative means ; but their real power was that obtained 
 through magic, that is, the compelling of the forces of the spirit- 
 ual world to accomplish that which they desired to bring about 
 for the benefit of the sick. 
 
 The shaman, magician or medicine-man made use of magic, 
 which may be best described as mana or orenda; and he ex- 
 ercised his gifts largely for the benefit of individuals. While his 
 power was accepted by his group, and its members made use 
 of it in their behalf, he did not acquire it from his fellows or 
 through their direct sanctioning of his gifts. He was called of 
 the spirits, in a word, his power was individual, and exercised 
 for the benefit of individuals. It might also be used to injure 
 others, or only for the benefit of the individual making use of it. 
 
 Shamanism may be regarded as a development of the social 
 conditions existing before social organization had advanced to 
 the clearly defined clan and tribe. The climatic conditions in 
 Siberia made it impossible that any considerable number of 
 persons should be banded together in one group, the food-supply 
 
 [139] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 forbidding that degree of social advance. The same conditions 
 existed in the northern regions of America, among the Dene 
 and the Algonkins. These tribes were hunters, roamed over 
 considerable regions, were without any definite tribal organiza- 
 tion, and were governed by a head-man or chief. They were 
 grouped into bands rather than organized into tribes, which 
 might increase or decrease according to the popularity of a 
 chief or the opportunities for securing food. It is such peoples 
 who develop shamanism, though it may extend, through survival, 
 among much more advanced peoples. Even into medieval Eu- 
 rope it continued as a social force of no small importance, and 
 was then known as black magic if it was used for individual 
 evil purposes, and as white magic if it did not antagonize 
 religion, and was beneficently employed. 
 
 The shaman heals the sick, foretells the future, and controls 
 the spirits; but it is the priest who functions as the leader in 
 the rituals of religion. In The Golden Bough Frazer regards 
 magic or shamanism as belonging to a pre-religious period of 
 human culture, and describes the shaman as exercising his pow- 
 ers in behalf of the individual rather than the social group. 
 When the priest appears, it is after tribal organization has 
 begun to develop, and he acts in its behalf. He does not deal 
 in magic, as does the shaman; but he is especially concerned 
 with the performance of those dances, ceremonies, dramatic in- 
 terpretations of myths, which take the form of religious rituals. 
 Since these ceremonies, in tribes at all advanced beyond the 
 most primitive forms of ritual, are likely to be elaborate, and 
 of considerable extent, to include many songs, festivals, and 
 ceremonials of various kinds, he must devote much time to their 
 mastery, and become a tribal functionary, a professional inter- 
 preter of religion. 
 
 [140] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 VII 
 
 The religious rituals of primitive peoples are dramatic 
 representations of the doings of the spirits and the gods, and by 
 this means bringing them into direct contact with the people, 
 and for their benefit. As Frazer has very definitely pointed out, 
 the shaman as a rule employs his gifts for the benefit of indi- 
 viduals, but the priest recites his rituals for the aiding of the 
 clan or the tribe. Religion among primitive men is religious 
 because it functions socially, and for the reason that it serves 
 the community rather than the individual. As the priest grows 
 in importance to the group he serves, the shaman becomes of 
 less influence, and his activities become, it may be, more and 
 more hidden, occult, and evil in their nature and methods. In his 
 book on The American Indian, Clark Wissler says that there 
 takes place a differentiation of the priest from the shaman 
 wherever ritualism is highly developed. Though there is no 
 rigid demarkation between the two, yet as rituals increase in 
 importance there comes a positive separation between them, and 
 the priest grows in dignity and power. 
 
 To primitive peoples the rituals of religion are the myths 
 interpreted as in action. Some interpreters of myth have 
 claimed that all myths are the product of rituals, that is, that 
 the ritual is first developed as an interpretation of the acts of 
 spirits and gods, and that the myths are merely these actions 
 put into narrative form. It is probable that some myths orig- 
 inate in this manner, being first acted, and then narrated. Other 
 myths, not being expressed in ritualistic form, cannot originate 
 as this theory suggests. A myth is an account of the doings of 
 those beings which we have seen come into existence through 
 the action of what is called animism or the recognition of all 
 objects in nature as alive and acting their part in the great 
 drama of the world's existence. The definition given by J. N. B. 
 
 [141] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Hewitt, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, is one of the 
 most explicit, and may be cited here: " Among savage tribal 
 men a myth is primarily and essentially an account of the 
 genesis, the function, the history, and the destiny of a human- 
 ized fictitious male or female personage or being who is a per- 
 sonification of some body, principle, or phenomenon of nature, 
 or of a faculty or function of the mind, and who performs his 
 or her functions by imputed inherent orenda, or magic power, 
 and by whose being and activities the inchoate reasoning of such 
 men sought to explain the existence and the operations of the 
 bodies and the principles of nature. Such a being or personage 
 might and did personify a rock, a tree, a river, a plant, the 
 earth, the night, the storm, the summer, the winter, a star, a 
 dream, a thought, an action or a series of actions, or the ancient 
 form or prototype of an animal or bird." 
 
 When a myth was dramatized for religious purposes, acted 
 in its several details, presented by persons disguised by masks, 
 and other means of representing the spirits or gods concerned 
 in the myth, it became a ritual. Such a ritual, in order that 
 it might serve its religious purposes, was not to be regarded as 
 a dramatic performance, but as a ceremonial means of commu- 
 nication with the supernatural beings represented in it. Such 
 ceremonial had a magical power, and the representation of the 
 spirits or gods, had the effect of bringing them, as it were, into 
 the presence of the spectators, and of securing their aid for the 
 benefit of the community. The magical power of the ritual not 
 merely invoked the presence and support of the gods, but com- 
 pelled them to answer the prayers of the community as voiced 
 through the priest. The priest, indeed, was the man or woman 
 who could thus insure the beneficent presence of these super- 
 natural beings, and their being made subservient to the com- 
 munity's needs. As a result, the priest became the most im- 
 
 [142] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 portant man or woman in the tribe, and the exercise of his 
 powers through the ritual gave him a large and commanding 
 place in the tribal life. 
 
 With the growth of religion under ritualistic and priestly 
 influences symbolism became a more and more important feature 
 of it. In our own day there are many attempts to express and 
 interpret what is spiritual and supernatural by means of sym- 
 bols; but they have largely lost their significance and deeper 
 meanings for the life of our time. No effort to revive what does 
 not belong to the culture of a period can be more than tempor- 
 arily and spasmodically successful. Symbolism belongs to the 
 age of ritual, to the days of the priest, that is, to the intellectual 
 period of the higher type of animism. Then was it intimately 
 bound up with religion, and was used to interpret and explain 
 all its manifestations. The symbol not merely represented the 
 god in outward form, but made sure that he was present when 
 he was needed. This is what gives meaning to that form of 
 animism or religion known as fetishism. Any object made may 
 become a fetish, the abode of a spirit or a god. The bundle of 
 most miscellaneous articles tied up by a negro of Africa into 
 a fetish was not in itself anything more than a number of sticks 
 and other objects; but the spirit came into it and remained 
 there for the benefit and the protection of its owner, and it 
 became of great importance. Sticks and stones as such had no 
 meaning to the fetish-man, but when a powerful spirit was pres- 
 ent in his bundle or other object nothing could be more valuable 
 to him. The fetish was merely the symbol of the presence of a 
 powerful spirit. So it was with all other symbols, that they 
 represented a power of magical potence brought to the aid of 
 the worshipper. 
 
 If we study the several peoples of America, or of any other 
 continental region, we shall find that shamanism, with magic 
 
 [143] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 as its basis, presents itself amongst the most backward tribes, 
 those in the hunting stage or those inhabiting inclement and un- 
 propitious regions. As we move forward towards the more ad- 
 vanced tribes, those which are gaining a definite form of social 
 organization, we shall find religion in more definite forms, tak- 
 ing on the character of rituals and elaborated ceremonials, with 
 a priestly class for their presentation and interpretation. Myths 
 grow, and become a more and more clearly defined statement 
 of the actions of the gods, and explain, in the form of narratives 
 of the doings of the higher spiritual personages, the creation of 
 the world and of man, the origin of the rituals, the advance of 
 the different phases of culture and the advent of the culture- 
 hero himself. Sacrifices become more numerous and more effi- 
 cacious, they are developed into great systems of contact with 
 the gods, and responses to their needs. Symbolism grows, and 
 is perfected in marvelous ways. Rituals develop apace, and 
 they are regarded with a more confident faith. As yet there is 
 no creed, no dogmas, except those which find expression in the 
 symbols and the rituals. Man does not think, but he feels and 
 he acts. He has no science, but he does have symbolism and 
 ceremonial. 
 
 Here we have the roots, as it were, of religion. Primitive 
 enough, surely, but all the possibilities of it are in animism, 
 symbolism, and ritual. At the basis we find man's own recog- 
 nition of his mental powers, that he is in some sense a being 
 other than physical, and with gifts of will, creative power, ability 
 to master the world, and to make it subservient to his wishes. If 
 he sees himself reflected in a world of spirits and gods, it is that 
 he may bring these to his aid, and that he may become more a 
 man than is possible without them. 
 
 [144] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 VIII 
 
 In the preceding pages it has been suggested that the de- 
 veloping phases of religion passed in review have a positive 
 effect in controlling conduct. Tabu may be regarded as a form 
 of moral law, and exogamy is very distinctly a method regulat- 
 ing marriage and the relations of the sexes. The initiations, the 
 secret societies, the rituals, and the manner in which the spirits 
 are regarded, have a large influence on individual and social 
 conduct. In fact, in primitive society there is no differentia- 
 tion between religion and ethics. Ritual makes for morality, 
 and morality finds its origin and sanctions in religion. 
 
 This union of religion and ethics is a result of the distinctly 
 communal nature of all social development in tribal communi- 
 ties. Belief and conduct to the man of the tribe are not separated 
 as they are in modern society. Not only does morality develop 
 with religion and as a phase of it, but so also does law and 
 jurisprudence. It is true that nothing of positive law is to be 
 found in tribal society, but custom is varied and powerful, and 
 it is but another phase of religion. Custom is the practice, the 
 conduct, of the tribe, what every one of its members regards 
 and obeys because all the other members act in the same manner. 
 
 Tabu has been presented as of a religious character, as 
 defining what is sacred and what is evil in its nature. With as 
 much truth it might have been interpreted as a law defining 
 conduct, for such it is in its practical results. If it takes a 
 negative form, and defines what may not be done, because 
 sacred, or, on the other hand, unclean, it is also affirmative as 
 to what is conducive to the tribal advantage. It must be rec- 
 ognized also that totemism, clan organization, and many an- 
 other phase of tribal society, carries with it rules of conduct 
 for the clan as a clan, and also for each and every one of its 
 individual members. 
 
 [145] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 In this regard tribal society follows other ethical rules than 
 those known in modern communities. It is not the individual 
 as an individual who is required to obey ethical requirements, 
 but the clan itself. That is, the moral law of the clan is that 
 of custom, the traditional and collective manner of conduct 
 which belongs not to individuals but to the whole fellowship. 
 What one does all do, the custom for one being the custom fol- 
 lowed by every member. All act together, in the same spirit, to 
 the same ends. 
 
 This may be seen, perhaps, to best advantage in what is 
 known as the blood-feud in the higher phases of tribal life. 
 This custom requires that all the members of a clan shall be 
 responsible for the conduct of every one of its members. All 
 are held to be equally guilty for any act committed by an indi- 
 vidual of the clan. If an act of an individual member of a clan 
 has done an injury to a member of another clan, the offended 
 clan requites itself on any member of the offending clan, whether 
 the one causing the injury or not. It is not so much the indi- 
 vidual as the clan as a whole which is responsible. This law 
 is that of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The 
 offending clan is punished in exactly the same manner and 
 extent as was the nature of the crime committed. 
 
 Custom dominates in tribal society, therefore, and custom 
 has always behind it the sanction of the ancestors or the gods. 
 Custom is law in its first stages, but law intimately unified 
 with religion, which prescribes its demands. At this stage in 
 its evolution law has no separate existence, and does not know 
 itself as law. It is no more than custom, the social practice of 
 a clan or a tribe. 
 
 While the ethical life of the clan is intimately bound up 
 with religion, in the form of custom, it controls every phase 
 of the life- of the individual. In fact, there is in the clan no 
 
 [146] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 individual freedom as concerns conduct, and every departure 
 from custom is severely punished, either by beating, mutiliation 
 or death. In all the more advanced tribes something in the 
 nature of commandments or a code may be found, brief but ex- 
 plicit statements as to what is to be done or what is to be left 
 undone. These brief summaries of the laws of conduct often 
 cover many or all of the ethical demands of a primitive form 
 of society. Some of them, at least, might be very well enforced 
 in modern communities, so fundamental are they. 
 
 [147] 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Feudal Religion 
 
 ONCE again it needs to be stated that religion in the early 
 ages is not separated from the other phases of human 
 life. Differentiation from social and political conditions, from 
 industries, the arts, conduct, and other phases of development, 
 has not as yet taken place. Everything that is human is con- 
 cerned with religion, and it is intimately related to everything 
 that man experiences. The hunt is prepared for with religious 
 ceremonies, and other ceremonies follow the hunter's return. 
 It is the same when the warrior goes forth to battle, and when 
 he returns victorious or defeated. When the ground is pre- 
 pared for the seed, and when the seed is cast into it, ritual ob- 
 servances are required. The reaping of the harvest calls for 
 thanksgiving and festival, often of an elaborate character. 
 When a child is born, when it is named, when the boy or girl 
 is initiated or married, and when death comes, religion is in- 
 voked to give its sanctions. Even the most trivial events may 
 lead to some ritual observance, to a festival when the gods are 
 invoked or to a prayer for guidance. 
 
 What this means, at least in one direction, is that religion 
 is dependent for its manifestations on the industrial, social, 
 and political developments of a people. As these change the 
 religion changes to meet the new conditions. The religion of 
 a hunting band or group is other than that of a pastoral tribe 
 or an agricultural clan. The hunting band will give its atten- 
 tion chiefly to those conditions which favor the capture of the 
 
 [148] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 animals it seeks, and its rituals will be of a nature conducive 
 to that end. The agricultural clan will be chiefly concerned 
 with the growing of an abundant harvest, and it will adapt its 
 ceremonials and its rituals to bringing about that result. 
 
 In the study of early religion, therefore, it is desirable 
 that recognition should be given to occupations, to forms of 
 social organization, and to the manner in which a group de- 
 velops its customs and its laws. In the beginning it would ap- 
 pear that man is dependent for his food supply on nature, and 
 he gathers such plants and fruits as afford him subsistance. 
 Since he evidently began his career in tropical lands, he could 
 easily subsist in this manner. The gatherers also were likely 
 to become hunters, for nearly everywhere animals are found. 
 When he moved away from the tropics he became more and 
 more dependent on hunting, as he advanced into regions re- 
 mote from the abundant natural products of that region. As 
 he came into more favorable regions he became a tiller of 
 the soil, and this occupation gave him the opportunity to set- 
 tle in permanent localities, and to cease from the life of the 
 nomad. As in India, he might develop a village community 
 of tillers of the soil, with hunting and pastoral conditions 
 subsidiary thereto. The village might grow into a city, with 
 the beginning of industries, the arts and commerce. Or, the 
 development might take the form of bringing together groups 
 into a tribe, each group becoming a clan, if female descent 
 was the rule, or a gentes, if male descent prevailed. In the 
 formation of a tribe two processes appear to have been fol- 
 lowed. The one resulted when the group became too large for 
 the food-supply, and it divided into two or more groups, each 
 occupying a separate territory, but continuing as far as pos- 
 sible their old relations. This appears to have been the process 
 followed in the formation of the tribes of the Iroquois. The 
 
 [149] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 sub-groups might again divide, and in this manner from two 
 to twenty or more groups might be formed. The bond uniting 
 these groups grew to be in time that of blood-kinship, and the 
 ties this constituted. The bond of blood, kinship or hereditary 
 descent is one of the most powerful known to men, and it acted 
 very effectively in the formation of the tribe in all the phases 
 of the developing life of early communities. Such groups, 
 united by the kinship tie, grew into tribes and then, it may be, 
 into a city-state, as appears to have been the case in Greece 
 and in the northern Italy of the mediaeval era. 
 
 The other process in the formation of the tribe was that 
 of separate groups gradually coalescing for protection, and 
 for the promotion of their common interests. This was the 
 manner in which the forty or more clans of the Navaho came 
 together, from many sources, perhaps even from tribes speak- 
 ing other languages than the Dene. In India this process was 
 followed, as well as in Greece. In time the separate groups 
 might become so far welded together as to become convinced 
 of their common origin, and to insist on the blood-bond as 
 existing from the beginning. 
 
 Briefly we have explained the manner in which tribes 
 were formed, with their constituent clans or gentes. The pro- 
 cess of coalescence and unification did not stop here, however, 
 but went on to far higher expressions. When the tribe, with 
 its communal territory, came under the direction of a chief, 
 who in some degree was regarded as a representative of the 
 ancestral rulers of the community as a whole, it might come to 
 pass that he, in the name of the tribe, and as the representative 
 of its communal interests, would become the putative owner of 
 the land, all the members of the tribe becoming in some degree 
 his subjects. Under these conditions feudalism appears, with 
 its attendant domination of the chief over all other members 
 
 [150] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of the community. Under him would be subchiefs, subject to 
 his will ; and other minor officials, enforcing his commands. The 
 great mass of the tribesmen, however, would become in some 
 degree subordinate, freemen perhaps or mere serfs, bound to 
 the soil. What we have to note is, that the feudal community 
 grew out of the tribal, and that it carried forward to higher 
 issues those conditions which the tribal life began. 
 
 Feudalism, even in its higher forms, retained very much 
 of what had originated in the tribe ; and it may be regarded as 
 tribal society more perfectly organized, and reaching towards 
 that which is political. Owing to migration, frequent wars, 
 the development of the early stages of the industries and com- 
 merce, it came about that the old kinship relations were some- 
 times violently broken up, and in other instances this change 
 came about quite slowly ; but in one way or another geograph- 
 ical relations were established in place of those which origin- 
 ated in the family. War in itself had little other effect than 
 that of destruction; but one of the consequences which fol- 
 lowed from it was that the old kinship ties were disrupted, and 
 men were thrown together who were not of the same family 
 or clan, and found it necessary to live together as best they 
 could. Migration in some instances had the same effect. In 
 these and other ways it came about that communities were 
 formed on another basis than that of kinship, namely, that of 
 geographical proximity or the fact of living on the same ter- 
 ritory, and being more or less dependent on each other. At first 
 they might pretend to an origin in some putative ancestor, and 
 such could be readily devised for the occasion. 
 
 [151] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Gradually, however, it came about that territory in itself 
 became the basis of social and political union, and the ties of 
 family ancestry and clan organization were broken down. It 
 was a very slow process by which tribal was developed into 
 political society. It required hundreds of years to bring about 
 the change; and in its more pronounced phases this develop- 
 ment is known as feudalism. Found wherever the tribe has 
 given way to the state, the process has been greatly varied in 
 different parts of the world. In some regions it would seem 
 that it has been wholly the result of conquest, and the process 
 of the subjection of one tribe to another. Elsewhere it would 
 appear to have been wholly the product of migration, and the 
 gradual coalescence of peoples by the mixing process which re- 
 sulted. In other regions it may have been the result of the 
 diffusion of culture conditions, the spread of ideas, and the 
 extension of the processes making for civilization. 
 
 However feudalism was brought about, it includes several 
 marked phases, and among them the development of the chief 
 of a democratic community into an autocratic lord, with con- 
 trol over the lives and fortunes of his subjects; the ownership 
 of the land occupied by the community on the part of this 
 chief or king, and the right to portion it out to his subjects; 
 and the king as lawmaker, leader of the tribal armies, with 
 the right to determine war whenever it might please his auto- 
 cratic will to do so. One phase of this process was the de- 
 velopment of a class devoted to war almost exclusively. In 
 connection with these developments there usually followed a 
 distinctive type of social custom, a large degree of progress 
 in song and ballad and lyric, the creation of new forms of art, 
 and an added emphasis on ritual and all forms of ceremonial 
 in the domain of religion. As the chief or king became an 
 autocrat, so did the priest become the bishop or overseer of 
 
 [152] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 priests. In both the secular and the sacred fields of develop- 
 ment authority greatly increased, society was organized with 
 marked elaborateness, grades of classes were slowly estab- 
 lished, with all power in the hands of the rulers, while the 
 great body of the people were subject to the autocratic will of 
 those above them. 
 
 This phase of social and political progress did not appear 
 everywhere; and in some favored regions, such as the Greek 
 lands, this era of advancement from the tribe to the state was 
 marked by the growth of village communities and then by the 
 appearance of the city-state. Even in Greece, however, the 
 other type of feudalism appeared, as it is presented in the pages 
 of the Iliad. It is true that feudalism of the distinctive type 
 did not work itself out to the extent in which it appeared 
 in western Europe, and it did not last for as prolonged a per- 
 iod or so it would seem from the imperfect knowledge we have 
 of this stage in Greek culture. It would appear, also, that it 
 came at an earlier period, and was more quickly succeeded by 
 the growth of the city communities. 
 
 With these changes in communal and industrial organiza- 
 tion religion took on new forms, and the spirits or gods ac- 
 quired fresh attributes. Not all processes of development, 
 however, took the precise directions here indicated, and we 
 must for a time turn aside to consider other phases of social 
 and religious progress. One of these had its origin in the more 
 distinctly industrial developments of early communities. The 
 discovery or invention of the simplest arts, what Tylor has 
 called the "arts of life," such as pottery, weaving, tanning, and 
 the cultivation of the soil, led to results of the greatest im- 
 portance. 
 
 [153] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 II 
 
 Much discussion has been indulged in with regard to what 
 Bachofen called the matriarchate, and what is now generally 
 known as mother-right. To understand how this form of 
 society took its origin we must briefly review again the several 
 stages in social and industrial development. Frequently it has 
 been asserted that female descent or mother-right was the 
 earliest form of society known to humanity, and traces of it 
 have been sought for amongst all early peoples. The evidence, 
 however, does not bear out this theory, and indicates, if it 
 does not prove, that mother-right is not to be regarded as a 
 universal stage in human evolution, and that it is by no means 
 to be found in connection with all primitive communities. It 
 results from industrial conditions, and it is not likely to appear 
 until these have prepared the way. As we have already seen 
 to have been the case, man began his career as a gatherer or 
 as a hunter. Under these conditions the form of social organ- 
 ization was that of control by a headman or chief of the 
 persons gathered into a band. In this band the father was the 
 ruler of the family, and his will was law within its limits, 
 both over wife or wives and children. This form of society 
 may be described as the paternal. It is found widely in Si- 
 beria, in the northern parts of America, and in many other 
 regions where the chief means of the food-supply is hunting, 
 the keeping of reindeer or other similar occupation requiring 
 the active exertion of the energies of men. 
 
 When men were occupied as gatherers and hunters, in 
 such regions as made it possible, women became the first tillers 
 of the soil. This conclusion is now nearly universally accepted 
 by anthropologists, and by the students of the early forms of 
 the industrial life. Probably it was not by design or through 
 
 [154] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 inventive skill, that women found they could place seeds in 
 the ground, and secure a harvest near their huts or tipis. This 
 knowledge was probably the result of a happy accident, in 
 connection with the other activities of women; and it was ar- 
 rived at, probably, in several different regions. This discovery 
 or invention, whichever we may choose to call it, had results 
 of the greatest importance for the developing life of mankind ; 
 and for religion, as well. 
 
 In many parts of the world, when women began to pro- 
 duce plants, and thus to supplement the labors of men as gather- 
 ers and hunters, results followed that were of large social sig- 
 nificance. One of these was that the product of their labors 
 belonged to the women, and that they became the owners of 
 the soil, its produce, the granaries in which the results of their 
 toil were stored, and also of the houses in which they lived 
 with their husbands and children. Under these circumstances, 
 the woman asked the man to live with her and to share in her 
 labors and her possessions. She became, consequently, in 
 many tribes, the head of the family, descent being reckoned 
 through her, her children inheriting her property, and more 
 especially this was true of her daughters. The Iroquois and 
 the Zuni in North America, the Khasis of Assam, and the 
 Nayars of India, are instances of such mother-right peoples. 
 
 To what extent mother-right existed in early India, Baby- 
 lonia, Syria, Anatolia or Asia Minor, Egypt, and Greece it is 
 impossible to say with historic definiteness. Many anthro- 
 pologists believe that it did exist at an early time in all these 
 regions, and that its presence had a determining influence on 
 the development of religion. Many phases of the growth of 
 customs in these and other lands can be best explained by the 
 supposition that mother-right once existed there. We know 
 that widely in tribal society women took part in the rituals of 
 
 [155] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 religion, having the same right as men to fill the offices of 
 shaman, priest and prophet. While they were rigidly excluded 
 from the ceremonials of religion in many regions, this was 
 rarely the case where any form of mother-right had come into 
 existence. 
 
 Under the conditions of mother-right, or something kin- 
 dred to it, there appeared mother-gods or goddesses ; and these 
 were numerous and powerful in the ancient world. We have 
 already had occasion to mention Ishtar, the great mother-god- 
 dess of Babylonia and Syria. In some respects the greatest, or, 
 it may be truer to say, the best beloved of the Egyptian gods, 
 was Isis, partly because of her motherhood and her relations 
 to Horus. The Great Mother of Asia Minor was the leading 
 divinity of Lycia, Lydia, and the neighboring lands. Athena 
 was the protecting divinity of the city of Athens, and in this 
 capacity was preferred to all the other gods. 
 
 One of the reasons why most of the mother-gods may be 
 assumed to have originated in the conditions attendant upon 
 the cultivation of the soil by women, is that they were either 
 personifications of the earth or of the plants cultivated by 
 women. All the cereals and fruits of the early time were re- 
 garded as the abodes of a mother-spirit or goddess, as mother- 
 corn or mother-rice. In some regions wheat or maize or rice 
 were received as in themselves mother-divinities, and in others 
 a goddess gave origin to them, and gave them into the care of 
 the women who cultivated them. Such myths as these are not 
 likely to have originated except under conditions which made 
 them historical or descriptive of actual events. When women 
 cultivated the cereals or fruits indigenous to the several reg- 
 ions of the earth, it is natural that they should animistically 
 ascribe divine powers to those plants with which they came 
 into intimate relations, and on which their tribes were closely 
 
 [156] 
 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 dependent. Any other explanation of the origin of these god- 
 desses, with their agricultural settings, in nearly all instances, 
 seems to be quite wide of the mark as a genuine interpretation. 
 
 Another phase of this development is to be found in con- 
 nection with the animistic or anthropomorphic conception of 
 the earth as a great divinity or mother-goddess. Widely over 
 the world this interpretation of the relations of the earth to 
 the needs of man is to be found. The cereals and the fruits 
 cultivated by women grow out of the earth, therefore to the 
 primitive mind it was natural to regard the earth as a mother, 
 the nurse and nourisher of all who live. 
 
 The earth as a Divine Mother was united to the sky or 
 sun as a Divine Father. The earth gave to men an abode, the 
 food which enabled them to live, and the nurturing care of a 
 world goodly and beneficent. The sun and sky made the earth 
 fruitful with light and heat, rain and dew. Therefore they 
 stood in the relations to each other of husband and wife, and 
 to all earthly creatures in that of father and mother. In many 
 regions this relation is to be found in myth, in legend, in rit- 
 ual and in belief. Even in the highest religions may be found 
 survivals of this belief; it is frequently found in art and 
 poetry, and is not wholly absent from philosophy. 
 
 The myth-making capacity of early peoples for personi- 
 fying the earth, and the cereals which grow out of it, by no 
 means interprets every phase of the growth of goddesses in 
 the early religions. While it is true that this phase of religious 
 development is largely connected with the cultivation of the 
 soil by women, it has also its incentive in the facts resulting 
 from the relations of the sexes in courtship and marriage. 
 Such myths assume that the process of creation is a process of 
 generation, and that man owes his parentage to the intimate 
 relations of Father Heaven and Mother Earth. In the United 
 
 [157] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 States and Canada many tribes, which are not yet advanced to 
 the industrial stage of the cultivation of the soil, have the myth 
 of the two divine parents. The intimate relations of the sun 
 or sky to the earth are such that even the primitive man and 
 woman must have come to recognize them; and this would 
 naturally lead to the conception of them as the great begetters, 
 the father and mother of all who live. In the stage of advance- 
 ment when women were beginning the cultivation of the cere- 
 als, this relation would obtain added recognition and convinc- 
 ing proof. 
 
 In many of the more advanced tribes of America the wor- 
 ship of Heaven and Earth may be found, and in Mexico and 
 Peru this belief had developed to a high stage of perfection. 
 In the first volume of his History of the New World called 
 America, Edward John Payne says of the worship of the earth 
 "The motherhood of the earth was in aboriginal America no 
 mere figure of speech, but an article of positive belief. In 
 Peru it was so far a matter of universal faith that every tribe 
 could point to a place where its ancestor had actually emerged 
 from the soil. The earth, however, was qhiefly worshipped, 
 both in Peru and in Mexico, as in the Old World, as the uni- 
 versal provider of subsistence. By the Mexicans she was 
 called 'mother of the gods' (Teteoinnan) and 'our grand- 
 mother' (Tocitzin). . . . The great mother is everywhere at 
 hand. . . . For the same reason [in Peru] Pachamama was not 
 usually worshipped in temples. The world of animated things 
 is her temple : the upper world or firmament is its roof, the un- 
 derworld its foundation." 
 
 In western Africa, in Polynesia, in Indonesia, and in 
 Japan, China, and India, this worship of Heaven and Earth 
 as a wedded pair is to be found. In India they are known in 
 the earliest times as Dyaus-pitar (the Jupiter of Roman myth- 
 
 [158] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ology) and as Prithivi; and these names reappear in many of 
 the Aryan languages. Gods and men alike are born of this 
 divine pair by the process of generation. In early Greece, ac- 
 cording to Hesiod, this pair was Uranus and Gaia ; and he says 
 that all the deathless gods were born of Earth and starry 
 Heaven. In Egypt, where mother-right in large degree pre- 
 vailed to a later date than the conquest of that land by the 
 Romans, the earth was the primal male deity, Seb ; and heaven 
 was the female divinity, Nut. On the primal waters before 
 creation they were married to each other, and from them came 
 all things that are. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Heaven and Earth were regarded by many peoples as not 
 merely animistic or anthropomorphic deities, but as the prim- 
 ary principles in the universe. This may be seen finding em- 
 phatic expression in China, where they are known as Yang 
 and Yin, the fundamental types of life, the great energizing 
 principles in all existence. J. J. M. de Groot, in his lectures 
 on The Religion of the Chinese, says of these principles : 
 "The oldest and holiest books of the empire teach that the uni- 
 verse consists of two souls or breaths, called Yang and Yin, 
 the Yang representing light, warmth, productivity, and life, 
 also the heavens from which all these things emanate ; and the 
 Yin being associated with darkness, cold, death, and the 
 earth." In his lectures on The Religion of China, de Groot 
 explains that Yang is male and Yin female, and that they 
 respectively represent man and woman. 
 
 These two energies are largely of the nature of mana and 
 orenda, lacking in distinct personification, forces rather than 
 persons. According to the Li Ki, however, man is the result 
 
 [159] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of the union of Heaven and Earth ; and here it would seem that 
 they partake in considerable degree of individuality. Under 
 the influence of Taoism they became actually deified, and ap- 
 pear as gods rather than as creative principles. What is to 
 be noted, however, is that these two principles are the male 
 and female parts of the universe, that their union has given 
 origin to all which exists, that they are- never separate from 
 each other, and that they in union are at the sources of the 
 individual human being, as they are of the whole universe, in 
 all its parts. 
 
 Essentially the same animistic conception is to be found 
 in India, where purusha is the male principle and prakriti the 
 female principle. When they are personified or deified they 
 become Heaven and Earth, though they always remain the 
 primary manifestations of mind and matter. In many of the 
 Hindu philosophies it is this union of mind (or spirit) and 
 matter which constitutes the fundamental basis of the uni- 
 verse. In his History of Aryan Medical Science, Bhagvat Sinh 
 Jee says that the Hindu doctrine of creation is the result of the 
 coming together of Purusha and Prakriti, spirit and matter. 
 He adds that spirit is infinite, immortal, sentient, and bliss- 
 ful; but that matter is lifeless, though possessed of creative 
 force and properties of goodness, passion, and apathy. Some 
 Hindu philosophers are of the opinion that matter, the female 
 principle, is without energy or creative power, that its union 
 with spirit is essential to any productiveness on its part. 
 Others are of the opinion that matter is merely an illusion, 
 with no reality in itself, and that it becomes creative only 
 when in union with spirit. And yet others deny all real exist- 
 ence to spirit, and find in matter the one real power in the 
 universe. Thus it will be seen that all modern philosophies 
 found an existence in early India, and often in forms more 
 
 [160] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 logical and effective than those of their modern co-workers in 
 the fields of speculation. 
 
 Some of the Hindu thinkers, as Bhagvat Sinh Jee informs 
 us, are convinced that Prakriti or Nature (and not merely mat- 
 ter) is the cause of all things, and the one universal material 
 cause (prima matrix). A much larger number of them, how- 
 ever, assign creative power to Purusha, spirit or soul, which 
 is essentially the creative force in the world of man and of 
 nature. In the human world the origin of life comes from 
 Purusha, as the father principle, the principle which is cre- 
 ative. On the other hand the mother is Prakriti, the receptive 
 principle, that by means of which the child is nourished and 
 given its life. 
 
 In Babylonia it is probable that in the very early time 
 every god was accompanied by a goddess, who was his counter- 
 part, and in the truest sense his helpmate. In the later period 
 the goddesses declined in importance, and became the mere 
 shadows or reflections of the gods. Through many centuries 
 of the Babylonian religion a radical change went on, which 
 resulted in the concentration of all the feminine qualities in 
 Ishtar, who became in a supreme sense a mother-goddess, the 
 mate of all the other gods, or, rather, the source and origin of 
 them all. In the beginning Ishtar was a goddess of fertility, 
 the reproductive principle in supreme expression; but with 
 the development of the military spirit in that land, she became 
 a warrior, the type or symbol of war and the fighting spirit. 
 
 Whether in Babylonia as Ishtar, in Phoenicia as Astarte, 
 or by other names in the other Semitic lands, this goddess re- 
 presented primarily the great principle of fertility, reproduc- 
 tion, and the generational succession throughout the ages. The 
 individual passes, but the race continues; and it is because of 
 this principle of reproduction, the genetic form of life, personi- 
 
 [161] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 fied as a great mother, that this is true. In Syria, Arabia, the 
 Hittite land, Anatolia, Egypt and Greece this feminine princi- 
 ple of fertility had recognition as that which is primary to all 
 other energizing forces. The gods in time may become su- 
 preme, but in all the ancient world this tradition of the su- 
 premacy of the feminine principle was never wholly forgotten. 
 From time to time there was a renewed recognition of the idea 
 that motherhood is the one eternal creative force, the great 
 energizing power in the universe. 
 
 In the early religions and philosophies of Greece we find 
 this principle of sex working out in a form possibly somewhat 
 different from that expressed elsewhere. The primary concep- 
 tion of the union of two great principles reappears in all its 
 strength and universality; but they are placed in opposition 
 to each other, rather than being regarded as one in their prim- 
 ary union. Through the union of principles which act con- 
 trary to each other, are in opposition, and even antagonize each 
 other, the work of generation proceeds, and by means of the 
 processes of creation. The operation of these antagonistic 
 principles is not one of destruction, but one of creation; and 
 they therefore generate through their very antagonism the 
 whole world of things and beings known to man. In particular, 
 we can discern, says Francis Macdonald Cornford, in his From 
 Religion to Philosophy, "that the prototype of all opposition 
 or contrariety is the contrariety of sex." This appears in the 
 mythological separation of Heaven and Earth, which, though 
 they co-operate in the process of creation, are more or less 
 distinctly in opposition to each other, not only in their essen- 
 tial nature, but in their creative activities. In the very be- 
 ginning there was chaos or an undifferentiated mass, without 
 internal boundaries or limits. This primeval chaos separated 
 into two parts, which were in their fundamental nature op- 
 
 [162] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 posed to each other, and they became male and female. 
 Through the intervention of Eros, these two were united and 
 reconciled, and by birth gave origin to gods, men, and things. 
 
 This brief survey of the manner in which sex, and the 
 activities of women, were regarded in the early civilization 
 may call for some interpretation as to how they originated, 
 and why they disappeared from the higher phases of ancient 
 religion and philosophy. The active cause is to be found in 
 the creative forces establishing social institutions, and those 
 other causes at work for their gradual modification. As al- 
 ready suggested, when women were developing the primary 
 arts, agriculture, and the basic moralities of home and family 
 life, it came about that the feminine creative principle was in 
 the ascendent in all processes of cosmic and human interpreta- 
 tion. They continued to operate in behalf of women until 
 there was developed a dominating activity of men, through the 
 growth of slavery, war, and the autocratic principle. 
 
 While the industrial separation of the sexes continued, 
 largely the result of the division of labor between them, men 
 devoting themselves to hunting, the care of domesticated 
 animals, and to war; women to the primary arts, and to the 
 cultivation of the soil, which probably in large degree gave 
 origin to the idea of their opposition and antagonism, there 
 was a large measure of freedom for women, and mother-right 
 continued in active operation. When men gave to their cap- 
 tives the task of cultivation, thereby largely increasing the 
 permanent food-supply; and when war became largely the oc- 
 cupation of the superior class among men, with the result that 
 all other members of the community were brought into sub- 
 jection to them, there gradually came about a change from 
 maternal to paternal descent, the ownership of land and house 
 by men, the passing of the woman on marriage into the house- 
 
 [163] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 hold of her husband, and her being held as in his hand, to use 
 the Latin term, implying that she was in the fullest sense 
 subject to his will and authority. In China and in Rome this 
 change in the organized forms of society became in the largest 
 degree dominant and universal. In other countries it did not 
 reach the same logical subjection of the woman to the dominat- 
 ing will of the man. However, under every form of what has 
 been called patriarchalism, the woman has been regarded as 
 inferior, and as needing to be controlled. This change in the 
 status of women led to a change in the relations of the god- 
 desses to the gods; and in all patriarchal lands the goddesses 
 became subordinate to the gods, were merged in them, or 
 wholly disappeared. 
 
 We have seen that in China, India, and elsewhere, the 
 feminine principle is connected with the earth, that it is in 
 some measure regarded as inferior to the masculine principle, 
 in as much as that it is symbolized by matter, while the mas- 
 culine takes the form of mind. It being held that mind is pro- 
 ductive or creative, and that matter is receptive, and can 
 originate nothing of itself, it follows that the man is superior 
 to the woman, because his nature is supremely that of mind, 
 while hers is that of matter. This means that reproduction 
 originates in the masculine principle, and that the role of the 
 feminine is merely subordinate, in that she does no more than 
 to afford a matrix in which the child may develop. In all the 
 higher civilizations this conclusion, that the origin of the child 
 is with the father and not with the mother, finds a place, and 
 is accepted with unwavering faith. 
 
 In all the developed Greek philosophies, whether it be 
 that of Plato or that of Aristotle, we find the assertion of the 
 primary nature of form and matter. If we read closely enough, 
 we discover that this duality represents fundamentally the dis- 
 
 [164] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 tinction of sex, or that this dual distinction had its origin in 
 the relations of the masculine and the feminine. In the 
 Timaeus, Plato pertinently says: "We must conceive three 
 kinds : first, that which comes into being ; second, that in which 
 the first comes to be ; third, that from which the first is copied, 
 when it is born into existence. And we may fittingly compare 
 the recipient to the mother, the model to the father, and that 
 which springs into life between them to the offspring/' 
 Nothing can be plainer than this statement, which corresponds 
 to that which may be found in the Hindu Code of Manu, that 
 the child is the offspring of the father, and that the mother 
 merely serves as a means of its coming into being. In his work 
 on The Generation of Animals, Aristotle is even more explicit 
 in his statement that the originative cause in generation is 
 the male, and that the female is without any creative power 
 or fundamental concern in the reproductive process. 
 
 It may be doubted if female descent was universally ac- 
 cepted everywhere in any period of man's social evolution. 
 Not all primitive peoples accept it at the present time. In 
 Australia it is to be found in the eastern and southeastern 
 tribes, but not in those of the central and northern regions of 
 the continent. In those tribes where it is found there is a con- 
 siderable degree of advancement in the economic life, and in 
 social evolution, over those of the regions where it is not pres- 
 ent. Nowhere in Australia is mother-right to be found, female 
 descent not being in itself enough to create the larger social 
 force in behalf of women. 
 
 Practically the same situation is to be found in North 
 America, so far as concerns the development of both female 
 descent and mother-right. In the northern and western tribes, 
 which are in all respects the least advanced in industries and 
 in social organization, neither of these social institutions is to 
 
 [165] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 be found. Mother-right appears only in those regions where 
 the greatest progress has been made in all directions. It ap- 
 pears, therefore, that female descent and mother-right are not 
 characteristic of the lowest phases of social development, but 
 of those where agriculture has been to some degree developed 
 by women, and where the deeper meanings of sex, as a process 
 of creation and the continuity of the generations, has come to 
 some measure of recognition. 
 
 IV 
 
 The change from mother-right to father-right or to patri- 
 archalism, to use the word commonly employed, did not come 
 about suddenly or from any one cause. It may be said to have 
 had its origin in industrial or economic causes, which was 
 largely the case; but other influences were at work to give 
 sanction and force to this operative influence. Religion also 
 afforded a potent motive working in the same direction, and 
 giving a deeper and more effective sanction than any imme- 
 diately afforded by economic influences. Behind slavery, war, 
 and the control of property by men, was the potent power of 
 divine requirements enforcing the demands of industrial 
 activities. 
 
 We need not dwell upon the greater opportunities men 
 have for leading a stirring and dominating life, since they are 
 not restricted in any degree by childbirth and child-care, and 
 are always free to pursue interests outside of the more limited 
 duties of the home and its immediate concerns. In this sense 
 the anabolic or constructive capacities of men are greater than 
 those of women; but perhaps in this social sense only. This 
 may mean that men may have more of those qualities which 
 are of an individualistic nature, are more rebellious against 
 
 [166] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 mechanical limitations, more inclined to a stirring and as- 
 sertive life, and less willing than women to assent to the de- 
 mands of the immediate environment, that of the family circle 
 and its routine requirements. It may be said, therefore, that 
 man is more interprising and explorative than woman, partly 
 because he craves excitement, and partly because he is not 
 limited as she is by physiological conditions. On the other 
 hand, woman is nearer the life of the race and its demands 
 than is man, physiologically more constructive, and more will- 
 ing to abide by the great energizing forces that make for the 
 upbuilding of society. In her is to be found what is genetic 
 in a much larger degree than in man, what more truly makes 
 for the continuity of the generations, and for the unifying of 
 the race in all its more permanent interests. Her life is more 
 nearly that of the child, and therefore more assuredly prophetic 
 of the future. 
 
 In this manner we may hint at what it is which gave men 
 in the early civilizations a control of women which now seems 
 brutal and wholly unnecessary. Through whatever causes 
 this domination came about, it undoubtedly had a very large 
 effect on religion. Not less true is it that religion had a large 
 influence in bringing about this domination, and, when it was 
 once established, of giving it approval and sanction. As al- 
 ready suggested, the female gods slowly disappeared, and the 
 male gods came to occupy a much larger place than before, 
 to become the true creators, and the enforcers of morality and 
 social requirements. 
 
 In many tribes of the more advanced type, and widely in 
 the early civilizations, women were barred from the ceremonies 
 of religion. Tabu proved, in this respect, a powerful influence 
 in restricting their relations to the rituals of religion, to its 
 initiations, and its festivals. They were not wholly refused 
 
 [167] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 admission to these; but in one degree or another they were 
 shut out from them. In this respect, their position was very 
 different from that accorded them under the conditions of 
 mother-right, when they were free to exercise every religious 
 function, and when they were often the leaders in all rituals 
 and other duties connected with religion. 
 
 No other one change which the evolution of civilization 
 has brought about shows more truly than this of the relations 
 of women to religion and social conduct, to what an extent 
 religion is a reflection of the social or collective life of a people. 
 In this age of the developing freedom of women, it is often re- 
 marked that a civilization may be judged, as to its advance- 
 ment and its merits, accordingly as it gives women rights as 
 well as duties, liberty as well as morality. Religion may be 
 also tested by the same standard, not always to the credit of 
 those which most boast of their superiority in other respects. 
 
 The causes leading to the worship of ancestors are many 
 and complicated. Perhaps no one or two statements will give 
 anything more than a mere hint as to their nature. Slavery, 
 war, and property, representing the growing interests and 
 activities of men, may probably best serve to suggest what it 
 was which brought about the change from reverence for the 
 genetic principle to worship of ancestors, the change from the 
 superior rights of the mother to those of the father, the super- 
 iority of the woman in the family to that of its domination by 
 the man, and the disappearance of mother-right before the grow- 
 ing social assertion of the patriarchal principle. 
 
 Two theories in regard to the origin of the social phases of 
 religion are now contending with each other as interpretative 
 
 [168] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 motives. One of them asserts that religion first finds expression 
 in animism, the recognition of soul or spirit present in all ob- 
 jects of nature, in plants, animals, remarkable phenomena, 
 and in heavenly bodies; and that these are worshipped either 
 as superior beings to man or as gods. The other asserts that all 
 recognition of spirits and gods comes through interest in, and 
 reverence for, the dead; and the belief that they continue to 
 exist after they have passed out of this life. Not merely do 
 they survive, but they become powerful influences controlling 
 the affairs of men. 
 
 That phase of religion known as ancestor-worship was re- 
 garded by Herbert Spencer as the earliest form to appear, 
 and that out of which all succeeding religions have been devel- 
 oped. In the first volume of his Principles of Sociology he 
 interpreted this explanation of the origin of religion in much 
 detail. He maintained that animal- and nature-worship origin- 
 ate in reverence for ancestors, and that out of this tendency 
 grows all the gods, from lowest to highest. He states this be- 
 lief by saying, that " behind the supernatural beings of all 
 orders, there has in every case been a human personality." 
 Summing up his extended studies in support of this conclu- 
 sion, he says, in his chapter on the primitive theory of things : 
 11 After finding that the earliest conception of a supernatural 
 being, and one which remains common to all races, is that of a 
 ghost ; and after finding that the ways of propitiating a ghost 
 were in every case the originals of the ways of propitiating 
 deities; the question was raised whether the ghost is not the 
 type of supernatural being out of which all other types are 
 evolved. The facts named in justification of an affirmative 
 answer were of several classes. From the lips of primitive 
 peoples themselves, were quoted proofs that out of ghost- 
 worship in general, there grew up the worship of remote an- 
 
 [169] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 cestral ghosts, regarded as creators or deities. Worship of 
 deities so evolved, we found characterized ancient societies in 
 both hemispheres: co-existing in them with elaborate worship 
 of the recent dead. Evidence was given that by the highest 
 races as by the lowest, ancestor-worship, similarly practised, 
 similarly originated deities; and we saw that it even now sur- 
 vives among the highest races, though overshadowed by a more 
 developed worship. Concluding, then, that from worship of 
 the dead every other kind of worship has arisen, we proceeded 
 to examine those worships which do not externally resemble 
 it, to see whether they have traceable kinships. . . . Even 
 deification of the greater objects and powers in nature has the 
 same root. . . . Further, the hypothesis to which the ghost- 
 theory leads, initiated by anomalous occurrences, extends it- 
 self to all phenomena; so that the properties and actions of 
 surrounding things, as well as the thoughts and feelings of 
 men, are ascribed to unseen beings, who thus constitute a 
 combined mechanism of causation/' 
 
 Since Spencer published his work on Sociology in its first 
 volume, in 1876, a very considerable change in opinion has 
 taken place with reference to the origin of religion. Most 
 anthropologists, and interpreters of the comparative phases 
 of religious evolution, are of the opinion that the ghost theory 
 belongs to a comparatively advanced phase of the development 
 of religion. Instead of being primitive, it appears in many of 
 the phases interpreted by Spencer only after a considerable 
 growth in civilization, which brings the man into the ascend- 
 ency in the family, and the king in the state. However, con- 
 siderable evidence remains in favor of Spencer's contention; 
 and much of this has been brought forward by William Ridge- 
 way, in his book on The Origin of Tragedy with special re- 
 ference to the Greek Tragedies, 1910; and The Dramas and 
 
 [170] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races in special reference 
 to the Origin of Greek Tragedy, 1915. These works are de- 
 voted, as their titles indicate, to quite other than problems of 
 religious origin; but they deal, nevertheless, to no small ex- 
 tent, in what is more or less definitely religious in its character. 
 As already more than once remarked, religion in its early 
 phases treats of the whole of life, and, therefore, it is not sur- 
 prising that it has intimate connections with the origin and 
 development of tragedy. When we remark that most of the 
 great Greek tragedies are intimately related to the phases of 
 the religious life of that people, we may feel sure that nothing 
 that is human is alien to the religions of all early peoples. 
 Ridgeway says, in his first-mentioned volume, that Aeschylus, 
 Sophocles and Euripides " continued to the last to give great 
 prominence to the doctrine of ancestor-worship and the potent 
 influence exercised on human affairs by the spirits of the 
 dead." In the introduction to his second volume he says that 
 the Hindus, Greeks, and Latins found their own gods in human 
 beings deified after death. Wallis Budge, in his work on Osiris 
 and the Egyptian Resurrection, says that the idea of the 
 god-man, Osiris, was developed naturally from the cult of the 
 ancestor, who, having been a man, was supposed to be better 
 able to understand the wants of living men than the great un- 
 knowable God, whose existence was but dimly imagined. He 
 also says of Osiris that he was a typical god-man, who died 
 and rose again, is represented in the form of a mummy, or at 
 all events in the form of a dead body, which has been made 
 ready for burial. This form is a development of an ancient 
 presentment of a dead chief or ancestor, for Osiris took the 
 place of the tutelary ancestor-god who was honored and wor- 
 shipped in every village of the Sudan of any size from time 
 immemorial. 
 
 [171] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Here we have the two theories as to the origin and early 
 development of religion. One finds the spirits and the gods in 
 animals, plants and objects of nature animistieally conceived, 
 and the other finds them in the dead who are supposed to live 
 on in another life, and to have a controlling influence on human 
 affairs. A great amount of evidence has been brought forward 
 in support of both theories, neither has as yet been able to 
 overcome its rival, and to take exclusive possession of the field 
 devoted to origins. Perhaps for the present the one theory may 
 supplement the other, that of ancestor-worship being regarded 
 as of later origin and development than that based on animism. 
 Whichever theory we regard as the most helpful in securing 
 a comprehension of religious origins, there can be no doubt 
 that ancestor-worship had a great influence on the later pro- 
 gress of religion in all the early civilizations. The two coun- 
 tries in which it appeared in its complete expression were Rome 
 and China. 
 
 In Rome ancestor-worship and patria potestas expressed 
 the patriarchal conception of society in a most logical and per- 
 fected form. In the family the father had the right of manus, 
 that of directing and controlling every other member of it. 
 He held wife, children, and slaves in his hand, had the right 
 to direct their conduct in every particular. He might even 
 take the life of children and slaves, after consultation with the 
 other members of his family, it is true; but without right on 
 their part to protest. Though the wife joined with the man in 
 family worship, which could not be carried on without her aid, 
 yet she was also subject to the will of her husband, who might 
 banish her from his side whenever he chose to do so. In nearly 
 every particular this was true of the relations of husband and 
 wife in China and India. 
 
 [172] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The worship of ancestors in these lands, as in many 
 that were less advanced in civilization, led to one important 
 social demand, that the father should be succeeded by a 
 legitimate son, who would follow the father as the head of 
 the family religion. Only a son born of a pure wife, and in 
 direct paternal descent from the first father of the family, 
 could become the guide in the ancestral worship. In case there 
 was no such son, one might be adopted from some other family ; 
 but he must, by means of religious ceremonies, become as if he 
 were born into the family of which he became a member. This 
 demand for a legitimate son about whose birth there could not 
 be the slightest doubt, required of woman the most absolute 
 chastity; and even a suspicion to the contrary was enough to 
 cause her divorcement. The chastity of the father was not 
 essential, only that of the mother. 
 
 Fustel de Coulanges, in La Cite Antique, translated as 
 The Ancient City; William Edward Hearn, in The Aryan 
 Household, as well as Erwin Rohde, in his work entitled 
 Psyche, and devoted to the cult of the soul, have given us ex- 
 tended studies of ancestor-worship, as developed in India, 
 Greece and Rome. Coulanges deals more especially with the 
 religious aspects of the subject, and this is also true of Rohde. 
 Hearn gives more attention to the developments connected 
 with jurisprudence, though he shows how intimately the 
 growth of custom and law were bound up with the evolution of 
 religion. The Aryan household, but more especially so in 
 Rome, was intimately related to the interests of religion, and 
 its sanctions were those of the sacra which held it together 
 with indissoluble bonds, at least when it perfectly fulfilled its 
 functions. There could not be a family without worship of 
 the ancestral spirits of its head, and, in turn, that head, the 
 father of the household, after his death became one of the spir- 
 
 [173] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 its his son would in due time worship. In this manner the 
 family here, and the family beyond, were intimately bound to- 
 gether, the living and the dead constituting one household, one 
 family succession. In heaven and on earth there was but one 
 family, the dead being to the living as if they were alive, and 
 to the household spirits the watchful care and protection of 
 the living was of the utmost concern. In this belief that the 
 family, both present and absent as concerns the interests of 
 the living moment, was an organism, one household with no 
 real breaks in it, no vacant places at the sacred hearth, was 
 basic to the religion of all peoples who had reached the stage 
 of a developed ancestor-worship. In his first chapter Coulanges 
 says that the members of the ancient patriarchal family were 
 united by something more powerful than birth, affection, or 
 physical strength, and that this was the religion of the sacred 
 fire as symbolizing the dead ancestors and the relation to them 
 of the living. 
 
 In the presence of the fire on the hearth the family wor- 
 shipped the ancestors upon whom its members were dependent 
 for health and prosperity. The worship of ancestors, according 
 to Hearn, in his third chapter, had for its practical object the 
 proper performance of the sacra that is, of the worship 
 peculiar to the household. The machinery by which the sacra 
 were maintained was the corporate character of the household, 
 and the perpetual succession of the house-father. His further 
 interpretation of this worship is of much importance to the 
 history of religious development : "It was a worship of males 
 by males, of past fathers by present fathers. After his death, 
 not less than during his life, the Pater represented in the spirit- 
 world all those who on earth had been under his hand, and re- 
 quired that the offerings due to him should be made by his suc- 
 cessor and representative alone. Thus the house-father for the 
 
 [174] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 time being was the visible representative and head of the 
 household ; and was bound not only to administer its temporal 
 affairs; but to perform the ceremonies of its religion, and to 
 maintain the purity of its ritual/' 
 
 VI 
 
 Two other phases of ancestor-worship ought to receive re- 
 cognition. The first of these is that of the development of 
 guardian-spirits, which appears everywhere in connection with 
 the worship of the dead. We have already seen in the third 
 chapter, that animals, whether totems or not, were frequently 
 regarded as having a guardianship over those who revered 
 them, and sought their powerful protection. This respect for 
 the animal-guardians was evidently transferred to the ances- 
 tral spirits, when ancestor-worship came into vogue. The idea 
 and the need were the same, however, whether the protector 
 was an animal or a spirit. Not only did each household have 
 its guardian spirit, its lares or its penates, but each individual 
 had his Genius or her Juno. To the protecting care of these 
 spirits individuals owed their welfare and their prosperity. 
 Socrates had such a daemon, who admonished or checked him 
 when he attempted to do or say anything which would not be 
 for his advantage. The genius of other men, however, not 
 merely gave negative advice, but also that which was construc- 
 tive and affirmative. 
 
 The worship of ancestors led on, in time, to the deification 
 of living men, but rarely living women. If a father might be 
 worshipped when he was dead, it might also be desirable that 
 he should be reverenced, and even worshipped, while he was 
 living. Men of striking character, of indomitable will, who 
 held priestly or kingly positions, might during their lifetime 
 
 [175] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 have accorded to them some of the functions of a god, and re- 
 ceive some measure of worship. This tendency finally led to 
 the assumption that kings and rulers were born of divine 
 parentage, and that even while living they were gods in the 
 flesh. In many lands, as in Rome, this tendency led to the 
 deification and worship of kings and emperors. The Emperor 
 of China was in our time regarded as of direct descent from 
 the Heaven-god, and, even now, the Emperor of Japan is of 
 the ancestry of the Sun-goddess, Amaterasu. Descent from a 
 deity, however, does not necessarily imply worship of the one 
 with such an ancestry, though in many instances this result 
 followed. 
 
 It has been pointed out by J. G. Frazer, in his Lectures on 
 the Early History of Kings, second lecture, and in the first 
 part of the third edition of The Golden Bough, entitled The 
 Magic Art and The Evolution of Kings, that kingship had its 
 beginnings in magic and the conception of the relations of the 
 magician to the world of the spirits. A higher development 
 of the same tendency was that of the recognition of the priest 
 as having direct means of communication with the super- 
 natural world and its divinities. Because of this capacity on 
 the part of the priest, he was often regarded as of divine birth, 
 as actually the son of a god. Having this godlike nature, he 
 was accepted as a fit person, not merely to conduct the rituals 
 of religion, but to preside over the social and political destinies 
 of the people. Because of his gifts as a magician or a priest 
 the king was regarded as a rain-maker, as having control over 
 the vegetation cultivated by the tribe, and as the master of the 
 forces of nature. In his fifth lecture Frazer says that "most 
 of the higher savages at least possess a rudimentary notion of 
 certain supernatural beings who may fittingly be called gods, 
 though not in the full sense in which we use the word. That 
 
 [176] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 rudimentary notion represents in all probability the germ out 
 of which the civilized peoples have gradually evolved their 
 own high conceptions of divinity; and if we could trace the 
 whole course of religious development we might find that the 
 chain which links our idea of the Godhead with that of the 
 savage was one and unbroken/' 
 
 Intimately linked with the growth of the idea of the god 
 was that of the king and his powers as the representative of 
 the god or as the god himself in human manifestation. Frazer 
 has shown that the magician or medicine-man was the earliest 
 differentiation of a professional member of the tribe, that this 
 class itself produced a variety of special activities, and adds: 
 "the most powerful member of the order wins for himself a 
 position as chief and gradually develops into a sacred king, 
 his old magical functions falling more and more into the back- 
 ground and being exchanged for priestly or even divine duties, 
 in proportion as magic is slowly ousted by religion. Still later, 
 a partition is effected between the civil and the religious 
 aspect of the kingship, the temporal power being committed to 
 one man and the spiritual to another. " 
 
 Interpreting the process by which the magician develops 
 into a priest, Frazer says that "the king, starting as a magi- 
 cian, tends gradually to exchange the practice of magic for 
 the priestly functions of prayer and sacrifice. And while the 
 distinction between the human and the divine is still imper- 
 fectly drawn, it is often imagined that men may themselves 
 attain to godhead, not merely after their death, but in their 
 lifetime, through the temporary or permanent possession of 
 their whole nature by a great and powerful spirit. No class 
 of the community has benefited so much as kings by this be- 
 lief in the possible incarnation of the god in human form." 
 
 [177] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 Ancestor-worship exists today in China in a form more 
 elaborate and complete than in any other country, and in a 
 form surpassing in many of its details that of ancient Rome. 
 In the seven volumes of de Groot's The Religious System of 
 China, published in Leyden, is given a detailed account of 
 every phase of this religion, as it is there now in active opera- 
 tion. On one side it is a pure naturism, a worship of all the 
 powers of the physical universe. It is called by de Groot Uni- 
 versism, and such it is in fact; but this phase of it belongs 
 to the state, which alone is entitled to conduct the rituals by 
 means of which it finds interpretation. 
 
 The religion of the Chinese family, however, is an ancestor- 
 worship, and is kept up with great assiduity even at the pres- 
 ent time. This was the religion of Confucius, and, though he 
 did not originate it or in any essential sense add to it, his ap- 
 proval and sanction were given it. This may have served in 
 some measure to keep it very much alive to our own day. This 
 worship is justified, to the Chinese mind, because the funda- 
 mental powers of Yang and Yin find manifestation, not only 
 in every part of the universe, but also in every human being. 
 The soul in man is a part of the divine universe itself, and 
 manifests all its qualities. Therefore, the universe-worship 
 and the ancestor-worship are essentially of the same nature, 
 except that the one belongs to the state and the other to the 
 individual man, or, rather, to his family. 
 
 When the Chinaman worships his ancestors he is also, in 
 fact, worshipping the universe as it expresses itself in them. 
 The microcosm is here directly and intimately related to the 
 macrocosm; and the adoration of the father is in fact a wor- 
 ship of the primary principle of creative power manifested in 
 the universe in the form of Yang, the all-comprehensive mascu- 
 linity. Ancestor-worship in China is not merely a reverence or 
 
 [178] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 worship paid to the dead, but to the universal principle of life 
 and power found in the universe, and consequently in man him- 
 self. The truth is, says de Groot, that the dead of a family 
 are its patron divinities, worshipped and sacrificed to like all 
 other gods, with quite similar incense, spirits, food, and dain- 
 ties, quite similar genuflections and khotaos, all with the plain 
 object of obtaining their blessing. 
 
 Chinese ancestor-worship is a form of animism; and it is 
 connected with the belief that all forms of life are possessed of 
 spiritual power, and have in them some kind of spiritual es- 
 sence. The whole world is filled with spirits, and the China- 
 man might be said to be the most convinced spiritist to be 
 found in any land or time. Daemons are present everywhere, 
 some of them good, more of them bad. A large measure of the 
 ancestral religion of China consists in seeking to escape from 
 evil spirits, and the ills they bring upon man. Demoniacal 
 possession is a reality in China, and the exorcism of such 
 powers of disease and harm demands much attention and much 
 effort. Not only does the Chinaman believe in spiritual powers, 
 but he believes in far too many of them. They work him harm 
 on every hand, both day and night, and throughout every 
 phase of his existence. 
 
 There is a good side to ancestor-worship in China, as well 
 as one that is unpropitious. The bad spirits may be always 
 present, but so are the good ones; and it is through the good 
 that the evil are driven out, and made ineffective in their ef- 
 forts to cause harm. Were there nothing but evil in this wor- 
 ship it would soon disappear; but the benefits are many, ac- 
 cording to the ancestor-worshipper. He therefore continues 
 to adore the dead of his family, and to trust in their readiness 
 and their capacity to give him the aid he needs. He may be 
 sometimes deceived, and sometimes the ancestors may fail to 
 
 [179] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 afford him succor ; but for the most part they are as powerful 
 as they are beneficent, according to his way of thinking. 
 
 The Chinaman has had the opportunity to accept the 
 teachings of Lao-tsze, which has confirmed him in his reverence 
 for the dead. He has also been offered Buddhism, which he 
 has to a large extent added to his more primitive form of re- 
 ligion ; but he has not, therefore, found it necessary to discard 
 the old worship. Islam has come to him, but he has not been 
 greatly attracted to its strict and dogmatic theism. Christian- 
 ity has knocked at his door, but, as yet, he has only heard the 
 knocking, but without willingness to admit it into his house 
 of life. Something in the reverence for ancestors, the linking 
 together of the generations in a great bond of reverence and 
 worship, still wins his admiration and his faith. 
 
 VII 
 
 It has been already mentioned that feudalism appears 
 when tribal society is in the process of growth into the organ- 
 ized and developed state. The incipient stages of this process 
 may be studied among the Maori of New Zealand. It found 
 expression in Japan down to the revolution of a half-century 
 ago. In India it found its manifestation at the period when 
 the Aryans were conquering the indigenous races of that 
 peninsula, and settling down as the dominating race in the 
 northern portions of it. What it was in that region may be 
 best studied in the Mahabharata, and in the episode of it 
 known as the Bhagavat-gita. In Greece it found its interpreta- 
 tion in the epics attributed to Homer. The first stages of it 
 in western Europe claim attention in the Nibelungen-lied ; and 
 those which were later may be found defined in the codes of 
 the early peoples of that region, in the great body of lyrical 
 
 [180] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 poetry then produced, and in the various phases of chivalry, 
 perhaps also in the crusades. 
 
 Feudalism in western Europe reached its highest mani- 
 festation in many respects; and nowhere else did it develop 
 all the phases which it there presented. In that region it ap- 
 peared largely as a lordly control of the great mass of the 
 people, by men living in castles, holding all the land about 
 them, and by military organization dominating common life, 
 politics, commerce, and religion alike. The social basis for 
 this type of development may be regarded as having its founda- 
 tion in ancestor-worship, which gave sanction to the idea that 
 some men are born to rule over others by right divine. The 
 feudalism of western Europe had outgrown the more material 
 phases of that worship ; but its spiritual implications remained, 
 and they were effective in creating a class ruling as if ap- 
 pointed of God. 
 
 The divine right of kings had its beginnings in the belief 
 that rulers are the direct descendants of the gods or that the 
 gods have endowed them with superhuman qualities, in order 
 that they may fitly govern others. Other causes operated to 
 give working power to this belief. One of these was the organ- 
 ization of society for purposes of war, and the demand that all 
 men hold themselves in readiness to heed the war-call of the 
 king or the lord. Society was so organized in ranks or grades 
 as to bring about this result with least delay and in the most 
 effective manner. Another influence leading in the same direc- 
 tion was the theoretical ownership of all the land by the king, 
 who parcelled it out to his followers in proportion to their 
 ability to furnish warriors for his conquest of other states. 
 
 Under feudalism religion becomes feudalistic, with belief 
 that all rulers of church and state alike are sent of God, and 
 are free to direct the affairs of others according to their will. 
 
 [181] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 In Japan Shinto recognized this grading of the different orders 
 of society according to their spiritual rank. This appears 
 most definitely in India, where caste was not merely a social 
 institution, but also a most important phase of religion. Status 
 rules under such conditions, one is born into a certain grade in 
 society, and has no power to remove himself from it, whether 
 it be a low grade or a high one. To a large extent this was 
 true in western Europe, where feudalism .ranked society into 
 lords, freemen, and serfs as concerns labor and political duties ; 
 and into saved, probationed, and damned by birth as concerns 
 religion. 
 
 As we pass up through the several stages in the processes 
 of social and political evolution, from the primitive band or 
 group to the developed state, we may discover a movement 
 towards the modification of religion, in harmony with these in- 
 dustrial and social changes. This process of change is not 
 everywhere harmonious, and the intimacy of religion and so- 
 cial processes is not uniform in all regions. Modifying causes 
 are many, and they prevent an even march of progress through 
 all stages of this evolution. It appears, however, that as the 
 group enlarges the progress is more rapid, for that means a 
 wider connection of tribe with tribe and city with city; and 
 that there is a larger process developed of intercommunication, 
 and of the amalgamation of ritual with ritual and belief with 
 belief. The primitive band has little intimate contact with 
 other groups; but when the stage of the city-state has been 
 reached, as in Greece or northern Italy, many modifying de- 
 velopments of society and religion appear. Commerce is much 
 extended, men travel to other lands, rituals are freely bor- 
 rowed, and a synthetic process takes place, which widens all 
 phases of life, both as concern social and spiritual interests. 
 
 Early men live largely in their emotions, and in gratifying 
 
 [182] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the primary needs of existence. But as society develops, and 
 there comes a wider touch with other peoples and forms of 
 social and industrial expression, men become thinkers, and 
 speculate about causes, the origins of things, and the funda- 
 mental nature of what they see and are. Philosophy slowly ad- 
 vances to an interpretation of nature and life, crudely at first, 
 but with more and more of boldness, and with a firmer grasp 
 on realities. Since the social processes are those with which 
 men are most familiar, they naturally at first read these into 
 the world around them, and find them a measuring rod with 
 which to determine all other phases of the world they know. 
 Very slowly speculation newly interprets religion, broadens its 
 sanctions, and more clearly defines its gods. 
 
 In the advance of society from the tribal to the feudal 
 form of organization, there was a corresponding growth in 
 religion from animism to anthropomorphism. Animism grew 
 out of the industrial conditions existing in the clan and the 
 tribe, and it reflected the mental attitude of the gatherer, the 
 hunter and the early agriculturist. Not the less, it was bound 
 up with the early stages of the evolution of the arts of life, 
 those arts of a practical nature which concerned the immediate 
 needs of a primitive communal form of society. In such a 
 community everything in man's environment was of a like 
 nature with himself, and animism reflected this reading of man 
 himself into the whole of the world around him. When death 
 came to have some degree of thought expressed in its inter- 
 pretation, and it was sought to relate it to the interests of the 
 living community, then animism developed as a world of 
 ghosts and spirits impinging upon man's interests and deter- 
 mining his welfare here and hereafter. 
 
 The social advance to feudalism or to the highest stages of 
 tribal organization and rule, which slowly led on to the forma- 
 
 [183] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 tion of the state, had the effect of gradually supplementing 
 animism by anthropomorphism. The animal gods became 
 human gods. The vague mana and orenda gave way to a defin- 
 ite conception of human-like powers as working in every phase 
 of the environing world. With the appearance of ancestor- 
 worship, and the development of the chief and the king, the 
 spirits took on a human form. They ceased to find their chief 
 expression in an undefined animatism or in the form of animal- 
 beings of supernatural powers, and became fathers, that is, 
 genuine human powers residing in a world beyond that of the 
 living. In this manner animism gave way to anthropo- 
 morphism, the spirits and the gods becoming more and more 
 human in all their characteristics. 
 
 This process went on slowly, and required thousands of 
 years for its full development. It did not go before, but fol- 
 lowed, the process by which the tribe was changed into the 
 feudal form of society, first, perhaps into the city-state, and 
 then into the developed nation. This was a greatly important 
 advance for religion, which gave to the gods a definite form 
 and a truly human manifestation. In the early phase of evolu- 
 tion the god might abide in a tree, an animal, a thunder-stroke 
 or a star ; but now he became as a man, with all the properties 
 and abilities of a man. In becoming man-like he came nearer 
 to men, and his power was vastly increased. 
 
 We may rightly assume that anthropomorphism or the 
 man-like conception of the gods has never wholly superseded 
 animism or even that religious phase known as animatism. 
 Undoubtedly these early phases of religion, and of cosmogonic 
 interpretation, were more nearly universal than any that have 
 succeeded them. The law of social heredity or the working 
 principle of tradition has kept them very much alive down al- 
 most to our own day, and has by no means banished them from 
 
 [184] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the higher phases of religion and philosophy. They live on in 
 all but the more developed phases of religion, those which 
 have come most under the influence of the methods and the 
 spirit of science. No higher religion has escaped the powerful 
 influence of animism, and under Christianity the belief in 
 spirits as yet holds a dominating sway in controlling the pop- 
 ular conception of the world and life. Even about the concep- 
 tion of God lingers much of what is animistic. It has been said 
 that we never know how anthropomorphic we are, and we may 
 assert with equal truth that we never realize how animistic we 
 are, even at the present day, and in the highest phases of 
 religion. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was a great advance when the tribe grew 
 into the state, and when the vaguely defined ghost grew into 
 a definite conception of a human-like spirit. The limitation of 
 this advance was that the god was conceived of as in the form of 
 a chief or king, that is, an autocratic and dominating spiritual 
 ruler. Society ceased to be democratic, as it was in the early 
 tribe, and it became aristocratic, with the father, the chief, 
 the king or the emperor as a theocratic ruler over the society 
 with which he was mainly concerned. This was undoubtedly 
 an advance in the conception of the nature of the ruler, but it 
 was also an increase in a dominating and often vexatious 
 authority. It was no longer the group with which the indi- 
 vidual was concerned, with its spirit of democratic authority, 
 its equality of all the members on a basis of common needs and 
 mutual interests; but subjection to an autocratic ruler, with 
 power of life and death. 
 
 Every phase of this progress from animism to anthropo- 
 morphism, from a religion of ghosts to a religion of spirits, 
 from shamanism to priesthood, was a reflection of the changes 
 going on the industrial, social and mental life of the human 
 
 [185] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 community. Indeed, we must assume that the basis of this 
 change is to be found in the progress of the arts, in the chang- 
 ing sources of the food-supply of the community, and in its 
 forms of social and political organization. We might truly 
 say that it is a reflection of the progress made from a social 
 to a political form of organization; that is, from a communal 
 or tribal form of society to one that is feudal or political. 
 
 It is at this stage in the evolution of religion that myth 
 finds its highest expression, its most perfect development. 
 Myth is of the very nature of anthropomorphism, since myth 
 is the conception of the action of all world-processes as result 
 of the doings of persons. Religion always remains in the 
 mythical stage of evolution while it attributes the origin of 
 the universe, the advances of civilization and culture, the in- 
 vention of morality and the arts, to the work of personalities 
 or a personality with supernatural powers. This is the essen- 
 tial characteristic of myth, and of all religion which is of a 
 mythical origin. Only when religion sublimates its concep- 
 tion of God, rids him of his personal attributes, sees in him 
 no longer the weaknesses and the caprices of the personal, is 
 it enabled to escape from the domain of the mythical. While 
 it is mythical it is impossible for it to cast off the animistic, 
 and to escape from the thralldom of primitive traditions. 
 
 VIII 
 
 The evolution of feudal society had a very effective in- 
 fluence on morals and all ethical conceptions. It was the 
 period when the moral codes came into existence, when the 
 decalogue first took form (though in different regions, and 
 under other religions, the number of commands might be less 
 or more), and when ethical precepts took on a distinct tone 
 
 [186] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of command for the individual. The system of tabus did not 
 as yet disappear, but it was gradually replaced by such 
 ethical principles as might be applied to individual conduct. 
 Morality became more and more such as the priest and the 
 king would approve, and such as would promote the enforce- 
 ment of their authority. It became autocratic. The tabu 
 element remains in the negative form of the decalogue of the 
 Hebrews, commanding what should not be done, rather than 
 what would be most conducive to the welfare of the community 
 and the individual. 
 
 In this period of transition the blood-feud underwent a 
 change, and crimes could be compounded for by the payment 
 of money. The tribal demand that all deeds injurious to the 
 tribe should be punished by the community, all members of the 
 offending tribe being held responsible for the acts of each of 
 its members, in no inconsiderable degree remained in force. 
 Such offences, however, though dealt with by the community, 
 were subject to compensation by other processes than those of 
 exacting a tooth for a tooth. Sometimes the offender was 
 handed over to the community against which he had offended, 
 and he was adopted into it in place of the man he had slain. 
 Again, a graded system of compensation in goods or money 
 was devised, by which offences were atoned for. Another 
 method of dealing with crime was that of providing places 
 of refuge to which the criminal might escape, and would there 
 be free from molestation until his friends might compound for 
 his evil deeds. 
 
 Gradually customs grew into laws, and jurisprudence 
 found its feeble beginnings. This change indicated that the 
 individual was having recognition as being alone responsible 
 for his evil deeds, that motives as well as acts were coming to 
 have appreciation, and that tabu was developing into definite 
 
 [187] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 moral principles, enforced in a systematic manner by the com- 
 munity. Though it may appear that these changes indicate a 
 growth in mildness and sympathy in dealing with offences 
 against the community and the individual, yet the fact remains 
 that punishment was of a harsh and often of a cruel nature. 
 If the slave was sometimes treated with leniency and human- 
 ness, he was often regarded as no more than a beast, and dealt 
 with accordingly. The criminal was too often regarded as a 
 wild animal, a viper, and used in the most brutal manner. He 
 was stricken down without mercy, it might be, or he was im- 
 mured in dark and foul dungeons, fed only that he might con- 
 tinue to live and suffer, or forgotten until death brought re- 
 lease. One result of these methods of punishment by autocratic 
 authority was the conception of the torturing punishment to 
 be meted out to the offender against God in the future world. 
 Undoubtedly the ethical systems which grew up under 
 feudalism were in some respects more advanced, and socially 
 more conducive to human progress, than those which appeared 
 under the conditions of tribal society; but in other phases of 
 them they were less advanced and less humane. The growth 
 of autocratic power placed the offender and the worker, as 
 well as woman, under conditions making life less kindly, more 
 difficult to carry through with success for all who are below 
 the governing ranks in society. The development of property 
 gave power to those who possessed it, and made their lives 
 ampler and happier; but for those who did not accumulate it, 
 and they were the great majority, the ways of the world were 
 dark, and happiness often a meager shadow. 
 
 [188] 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 National Religion 
 
 IN his volume on The History of Religion, C. P. Tiele 
 speaks of the great influence of national character on re- 
 ligion; and he refers also to the difference in the character of 
 races, the nature of their home and occupations, and the his- 
 toric relations in which the various religions stand to their 
 neighbors, as having a considerable influence in modifying their 
 development. He also points out how the mingling of races, by 
 means of migration and conquest, and the transition from the 
 wandering life of hunters and fishermen to the settled tasks of 
 agriculture, and the establishment of regular states, have deeply 
 affected the evolution of religion wherever these changes have 
 come about. 
 
 Without doubt the formation of states, and the acquisition 
 of a permanent national life, have been among the most wide- 
 reaching causes influencing the modification of early religions, 
 the abandonment of animism, and the acquisition of theistic 
 beliefs. As we have seen, there has been a growth in religion 
 corresponding to the changes which have brought about the 
 evolution of the hunting band into a tribe, with organized 
 clans; and the beginnings of the arts and methods of culture. 
 A further advance was made when tribes were amalgamated to 
 form confederacies, city-states or the earlier stages of national 
 organization. The same causes which transformed the band 
 into a tribe, and the tribe into a feudal autocracy, also in time 
 brought about the enlargement of feudal into national society. 
 This process was brought about by peaceful federation and by 
 
 [189] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 conquest. The Iroquois afford an instance of the union of tribes 
 into a confederacy by the friendly agitation and solicitation of 
 Hiawatha, though he was vigorously opposed in this effort. 
 In time it was brought about by this personal influence, and 
 because it became apparent that a union of tribes would secure 
 many advantages. However, at a later time the Iroquois made 
 use of force in compelling other tribes to join their confederacy. 
 Probably the Iroquois, in the course of a few centuries, would 
 have developed a state organization had not their evolution 
 been disturbed by the coming of the whites. 
 
 In Mexico one of the most successful states in America 
 was organized as the result of conquest, though peaceful amal- 
 gamation was also a potent influence in the formation of the 
 Aztec nation. The same statement will apply to the kingdom 
 formed in Peru under the Inca influence and capacity for or- 
 ganization. Not too much emphasis, however, is to be placed 
 on individual genius in this respect, for there can be no ques- 
 tion that climatic and other similar external causes were in 
 one or another degree favorable to the development of the 
 early states. All the advanced civilizations in America originated 
 in the region extending from Mexico along the Pacific coast as 
 far south as northern Chili. The political development in this 
 narrow though much extended region was not continuous; but 
 here were all the most advanced growths, and the presence of 
 the only genuine states. In Mexico, Central America, New 
 Granada, Colombia, and Peru, tribes had been combined, poli- 
 tical power had begun, and had advanced to a considerable de- 
 gree of perfection. In Peru, especially, one of the most highly 
 organized states along communal lines had been secured. 
 
 When we consider the rudimentary industrial development 
 attained to in America, the rudeness of the tools and weapons, 
 the slight degree of advancement in the military art, and the 
 
 [190] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 almost entire absence of commerce, methods of travel and trans- 
 portation, it may be recognized that no considerable progress 
 could be made except in the localities most favorable for the 
 cultivation of the soil, on which these peoples almost entirely 
 depended. 
 
 When we turn to the eastern continent we find that similar 
 conditions led to similar results. Almost without exception the 
 early civilizations grew up along river valleys or in other most 
 favored regions as concerns climate, soil and opportunities for 
 commerce. One of the earliest of these was that which ap- 
 peared in the river valleys of China, and was to a considerable 
 degree shaped by the conditions there afforded. The Aryan 
 civilization in India began along the Indus, and then spread 
 eastward down the Ganges. Every step in its progress through 
 northern India was by means of armed conquest; and for cen- 
 turies this people was under arms in forcing back the native 
 population, and in their subjection. Another great civilization 
 grew up in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris, which 
 was not only one of the earliest, but in many respects one of 
 the most important. The other very early civilization was that 
 which appeared in the valley of the Nile, which has held a great 
 place in the world's history. Other centers of states, proceed- 
 ing from a time very remote, was that eastward of the Persian 
 gulf, and those bordering on the Mediterranean. The valley 
 of this great inland sea acted on the peoples who settled in it in 
 much the same manner as did the rivers to those of the more east- 
 ward regions. 
 
 No claim is here made that the early civilizations were the 
 results of the conditions mentioned but that these favored cli- 
 matic regions, and their advantages of location, merely afforded 
 the opportunities which aided in developing race, political or- 
 ganization, and social genius. Such opportunities led to the 
 
 [191] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 migration of the most capable races into these regions, and to 
 their being utilized in behalf of an advancing civilization. Not 
 one of the races settled in the regions mentioned appears to 
 have been indigenous to them, but were attracted to them be- 
 cause of the facilities they offered for agriculture, industries 
 and commerce. Some of them were won by conquest, some by 
 peaceful amalgamation with the original inhabitants; others ap- 
 pear to have had successive invasions, and to have developed a 
 highly mixed population, which finally led to an amalgamation 
 into a distinctly new race. 
 
 Migrations were the result of the changes in climate, 
 the failure in the productiveness of the soil, owing to the on- 
 coming of those conditions which produced the deserts of the 
 eastern continent, and the ensuing failure of the food supply. 
 Another cause, though less frequent, perhaps, was the result 
 of over-population and the consequent inadequacy of the soil 
 to produce food in sufficient quantities. Under these conditions 
 a part of the tribe or the feudal community divided off, and 
 sought unoccupied or more productive regions. The results pro- 
 duced by these processes were essentially the same. 
 
 War and conquest played a considerable part in these de- 
 velopments; but it is doubtful if they were in any degree more 
 important than the results which were produced by peaceful 
 migration, the amalgamation of peoples, the coalescence of cul- 
 tures, and the fusion of religions. The chief value of war in 
 the advancement of civilization was the bringing together of 
 races and cultures, their assimilation to each other, and the 
 mixing of religious rituals and beliefs. These results were of 
 frequent occurrence, it would appear ; and the effects were often 
 permanent and beneficial. At the same time, it is not to be 
 forgotten, that populations were ruthlessly destroyed, that 
 women were carried from their homes in great numbers, that 
 
 [192] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 they were cruelly made to serve the purposes of their captors, 
 and with little regard to their own welfare. If in this way 
 peoples were mingled and newly created, culture assimilated 
 to culture, and civilization broadened by mingling with civili- 
 zation, it can only be said that this was the worst of all possible 
 means which could be followed for the advancement of human 
 welfare. Good came, but evil followed with uncompromising 
 certainty. 
 
 It is designed here to suggest that the causes which fur- 
 thered the progress of civilization were also those which pro- 
 moted the advancement of religion. No higher religion ever 
 grew on a barren soil or under conditions where art, industry, 
 morality and civilization could not progress. The religion of 
 the tribe is that which naturally grows out of that type of 
 social organization, while feudalism produces a widely different 
 type of ritual and faith, largely because the social and political 
 forms of organization are of another variety. When the state 
 is reached we come upon still another kind of religious move- 
 ment, with rituals largely modified, and a fresh quality of moral 
 conduct. 
 
 It must not be assumed, however, that there is any sudden 
 break in development or that fundamentally the religion of the 
 state is of another type than that of the tribe. A continuous 
 advance goes on, though not without rapid movements of change 
 during shorter or longer periods, and not without times when 
 an actual degeneracy appears; but the general trend is along 
 the same lines which lead to social and political modifications. 
 "Without doubt a lower religion may be modified by a higher one, 
 even without large regard to those movements which change the 
 nature of the state; but this is assuredly not the case in the 
 early periods. What this all means is that mankind advances, 
 not in sections, but in the whole of its characteristics; and as 
 
 [193] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 a totality. When a tribe or a state is modified in one direction, 
 the ultimate outcome is a change of the whole life of the people 
 in question. 
 
 Under all the early civilizations the religion follows the 
 lead of national development. As the state is, so is the religion. 
 Social progress indicates religious advancement. Political 
 growth leads to a modification in the character of the religion. 
 Because the early states largely grew up in a considerable de- 
 gree of isolation from each other, the religions developed largely 
 in independence. Probably no state was without influence from 
 some other or wholly failed to impress itself in some degree on 
 those in its immediate vicinity. In the absence, however, of 
 means of communication and transportation, most states were 
 not in immediate touch with their neighbors, as is now the case ; 
 and they were not directly and immediately influenced by what 
 was proceeding outside their own borders. There resulted 
 religious growth largely conditioned by the inward life of the 
 state, and according to its material, ethical, and cultural 
 progress. 
 
 What has been just said will apply especially to the religious 
 progress of China. One of the most isolated of all the early 
 civilizations, it was not wholly shut off from outside influences; 
 but was comparatively little affected from outside its own bor- 
 ders before the time of the invasion of Buddhism. China was 
 to a large extent geographically isolated, because of the exten- 
 sive desert to the westward, and the mountain barriers to the 
 south and south-westward, with few avenues of transit into the 
 regions beyond. The result was that in China we find a more 
 independent development of religion than in any other part of 
 
 [194] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the world, unless it be in the instance of Mexico and Peru. 
 For this reason, it may be, the religion of China was very con- 
 servative, closely adhered to the primitive animism, nature- 
 worship, and reverence for ancestors. 
 
 Chinese traditions give us only the most limited intimations 
 as to the beginnings of the civilization which grew up in that 
 land. We infer, however, from such knowledge as we possess, 
 that the state developed from a condition of tribal society, 
 through feudalism, to a federal monarchy of the loosest possible 
 type. In the time of Confucius there were many states, and 
 these were in almost constant contention with each other. His 
 life was largely devoted to the task of reconciling these states 
 with each other, and to the bringing about such unity of the 
 people as would promote morality and the general welfare. 
 
 At first there appears to have been a tribal society, each 
 tribe having a number of clans, with exogamy, and animism, 
 reverence for animals, and worship of the powers of nature. 
 With the growth of ancestor-worship, which came with the later 
 stages of tribal society, and an advancing patriarchalism, there 
 appeared, under feudalism, a perfected type of naturism. The 
 family being the most primary and the most important of 
 Chinese social institutions, its political and its religious life 
 alike partook of the type thus created. The state became an 
 enlarged family, with gradings upward from the household, 
 through the village, the province, to the kingdom itself. The 
 political methods employed were essentially those suggested by 
 the organization and government of the family. The king or 
 emperor was only the father of the state; and as the head 
 of the family managed its affairs, so the emperor and his gov- 
 ernment managed the interests of the state. The result was 
 that the religion of China was a family religion, with Heaven 
 and Earth as the great universal parents, with the Emperor as 
 
 [195] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 their heir and representative in the human world. The worship 
 was essentially that by the family of its ancestors, conducted 
 by the head of the family, in the family mansion or in some 
 place especially connected with it. The village worship was 
 that of a group of households, probably all related to each other ; 
 but of the same essential nature. On behalf of the state the 
 Emperor led in the imperial worship of Divine Heaven; but 
 it was also of the family type, a recognition of the kinship of 
 the lowest family all the way up to the Emperor as at the head 
 of the great family of the nation, and then still higher up to the 
 one imperial family of all the dead and all the living under 
 the supremacy of Shang-ti, Father Heaven. 
 
 The Chinese religion has, perhaps owing its early isolation, 
 remained distinctly animistic and of the ancestral type. It has 
 no developed mythology, no pantheon of great gods, and, con- 
 sequently, no priesthood. The religion being throughout dis- 
 tinctly of the family type, there has been no demand that the 
 rituals and the ceremonials, as well as the prayers to Imperial 
 Heaven, should call for a distinctive class in order to their 
 administration. 
 
 If the Chinese have felt no need for a great number of 
 gods, and their religion is in no inconsiderable degree a mono- 
 theism, yet they have repaired this limitation, if such it is, by 
 the vast number of the nature- and ancestor-spirits in which 
 they believe. Nowhere has daemonism and spiritism been so 
 nearly universal. The whole world is peopled with these be- 
 ings, mostly beneficent, but also very often evil in nature and 
 intent, needing frequent propitiation and exorcism. 
 
 What we find in China we find also in Corea and Japan, 
 for these countries were a unit as to their culture, the Chinese 
 carrying at an early time their civilization into both of these 
 other lands. The Japanese having proved themselves highly 
 
 [196] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 intellectual and progressive in our day, we naturally assume 
 that they have always displayed the same qualities. The early 
 religion of this people, however, shows a paucity of those higher 
 characteristics we anticipate discovering in an alert and ad- 
 vancing people. The gods are not distinctly anthropomorphic 
 or individualized, not even to the extent we find in Polynesia 
 and America. They are nature-powers with no positive personal 
 qualities. The mythology is primitive, almost degenerate, and 
 with no large phases of action and energy displayed. In this 
 respect the Kojiki and Nihongi, the early books in which it was 
 presented, show it to have been one of the rudest and least ad- 
 vanced to be found among any people progressing toward civ- 
 ilization. As in China, the religion was largely a worship of 
 nature and of ancestors. Every natural object had its god and 
 all nature was a dwelling-place of spirits innumerable. 
 
 Advancing, however, through a prolonged feudal period 
 to statehood of an imperial type, the religion of Japan has been 
 gradually modified, and in the direction of a priestly class ad- 
 ministering the rites devoted to the family gods and to the 
 great powers of nature. Animism has not disappeared, an- 
 cestorism remains prominent and the regard for nature, as the 
 dwelling-place of powerful spirits, continues with almost un- 
 abated effectiveness. 
 
 II 
 
 Turning to Egypt, which has many characteristics similar 
 to those found in China, we may observe that religion in the 
 Nile valley has been modified in intimate connection with the 
 growth of the social and political evolution of the land. We 
 know little of the primitive conditions, but we may infer that 
 they were those of a stone-age people, with animism of the 
 usual type, probably quite similar to that found in many parts 
 of Africa at the present time. Then came tribal society, with 
 
 [197] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 its growth from primitive bands of the hunting type, its advance 
 to a form of feudalism, then the formation of two states, a 
 northern and a southern, and finally the unity of the whole of 
 the valley in one mighty empire. In the early time the valley 
 was settled by tribes along the greater part of its length, per- 
 haps in the totemic stage of development, with each tribe hav- 
 ing an animal ancestor or guardian. When the state form of 
 organization was reached the country was still divided into 
 districts, each of which was named after an animal. Probably 
 these nomes, as they were called, were the territories of the orig- 
 inal tribes. What had taken place, then, was the unification of a 
 considerable number of tribes under one general political or- 
 ganization. This process of growth from bands and tribes to 
 an empire marks also the general direction of the gradual unifi- 
 cation of the religion of the people of the Nile valley, its de- 
 velopment of larger conceptions, and of higher grades of divinity. 
 As in China, Egypt in the early period had no priestly 
 class, and the king was the head of the national worship. 
 Beginning in animism, passing up through ancestor-worship to 
 an elevated form of theism, the Egyptian people retained 
 throughout their belief in many gods. As in most other ancient 
 lands, this was owing, to no small extent, to the fact that each 
 tribe had its own divinity, and each of these was incorporated 
 into the national system when that came into existence. This 
 tendency was forwarded by the fact that Egypt was in intimate 
 relations with the Berber peoples on the west and the Arabs 
 on the east. In the period of its highest political development 
 it made war in Syria, Babylonia, and in the Hittite land. This 
 brought the people into relations with the religions of these 
 nations to the eastward and northward, and to the assimilation 
 of their rites and beliefs to a considerable extent. In time came 
 the Greek and Roman conquests; and still other religious 
 
 [198] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 changes more or less assimiliating the products of these later 
 political developments. 
 
 The Egyptians, however, were very conservative in regard 
 to all which concerned their religion, and were always reluc- 
 tant to make anything more than superficial changes in their 
 mythology and ritual. The old religion remained through all 
 the centuries of Egyptian history, and the changes made were 
 of the nature of additions rather than of assimilations. In 
 some respects more truly than any other people they venerated 
 the dead, partly because they most firmly believed in the resur- 
 rection of the body, and partly because they had attained to 
 a firm conviction that the soul is to live immortally. Great 
 monuments were erected to enshrine the mummies of the dead, 
 and in order that the proper respect might be paid them. 
 
 In however large degree the Egyptians resembled the 
 Chinese in various particulars, they greatly differed from them 
 in others. Their mythology was far richer and more elaborate, 
 and their gods were of a far more definite personal type. How- 
 ever, as in the case of the Chinese, they venerated animals, 
 and even worshipped them; and they included the great pow- 
 ers of nature as gods in their pantheon, even the Nile itself. 
 The sun-god Ea was theoretically the chief of their divinities, 
 and the other gods were largely grouped around the principle 
 of sex, including Osiris and Isis. None of the gods were infinite, 
 omnipresent or omniscient. There inhered in them all the limi- 
 tations of humanity, with its weaknesses and defects. 
 
 Naturally, the character of the country, the dependence of 
 the people on the Nile and its annual inundation of the land, 
 and the agricultural pursuits of the whole country, had a very 
 important influence on the evolution of the religion and the de- 
 velopment of its mythology. The principle of fertility, the 
 necessities of growth for plants and animals, the anxious wait- 
 
 [199] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 ing for the round of the seasons, found their intimate expres- 
 sion in many of the phases of the religious life. Light became 
 of the utmost importance, and was recognized in the worship 
 of the sun, its overcoming of darkness and the attendant evil. 
 This found expression in the corresponding idea that life is 
 able to overcome death, which plays such a great part in the 
 remarkable Book of the Dead. Ra as typifying light, and 
 warmth, and growth, overcomes the serpent Apap, the embodi- 
 ment of darkness and whatever it represents for man. 
 
 Every interest of life came under the influence of the 
 Egyptian religion. Worship was domestic as well as public; 
 and it included alike birth, marriage, and death. There were 
 lucky and unlucky days, dancing had a religious significance, 
 music played a considerable part in the religious services, magic 
 retained its part in the religion; but the festivals of sowing 
 and harvest were in many respects of the greatest importance. 
 The two ceremonies which were the most popular were those 
 of fertility, which took place in connection with planting, and 
 that celebrated at the harvest period. The first of these festi- 
 vals was connected intimately with Osiris as the god of fertility, 
 and his images or representations played a large part in its 
 symbolisms. There were other festivals, some of them con- 
 nected with the kingship, one of them coming once in thirty 
 years, and celebrating the deification of the king as Osiris. 
 
 A remarkable exemplification of the manner in which the 
 union of nomes into states affected the religion may be seen in 
 connection with the myth of Osiris. In the tribal period the 
 three personages of this myth were quite independent deities, 
 with no connection with each other whatever. Each was the 
 deity of a separate nome; but when these nomes were brought 
 together and unified in a higher political organization, the 
 three gods were amalgamated and grew into a family. In his 
 
 [200] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 article on the Egyptian Religion, in the Encylopsedia of Re- 
 ligion and Ethics, Flinders Petrie says of this process of coales- 
 cence: ''Thus the best known triad of Egypt was compounded 
 of the gods of three independent tribes, Osiris, Isis, and Horus, 
 who were linked as a family when the tribes were fused to- 
 gether." The same process undoubtedly went on in many other 
 directions, and the gods grew, and the religion developed with 
 the changes in the social and political evolution of the Egyptian 
 people. 
 
 It would be interesting to follow the Egyptian religion 
 through its several stages of growth and decay, to enumerate 
 its numerous gods and their attributes, to indicate how the 
 rituals and festivals grew as the religion unfolded, and what 
 social purposes to which they answered. To accomplish this 
 task however would require more space than it is possible to 
 assign it here, and would not directly serve the purpose had in 
 view in these chapters. In a brief way it has been intimated 
 how the Egyptian religion was in large measure the result of 
 the fortunes of the Egyptian people, and reflected their life and 
 their social ideas. This method of interpretation might be car- 
 ried much further, but space forbids any extension of the treat- 
 ment accorded it in these pages. 
 
 Ill 
 
 We may proceed to a brief survey of the Semitic religions, 
 with the same object in view, that of suggesting a close rela- 
 tionship between the religions of these peoples and their forms 
 of social and political organization. The Semites included the 
 peoples of Arabia, Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, and those of 
 Mesopotamia, together with the Chaldeans and Assyrians. The 
 Egyptians were closely related to the Semites, as also were the 
 
 [201] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Ethiopians, though in both instances there was an ethnological 
 basis in the native African tribes, with infusions from other 
 sources. 
 
 The Semitic peoples afford a good illustration of the man- 
 ner in which religions change with political evolution, since 
 they included the Arabs, who were before Mohammed in the 
 tribal stage of evolution, and were passing slowly upward to 
 the feudal stage. On the other hand, the peoples of the Euphra- 
 tes valley had reached a very high stage of industrial and politi- 
 cal development as far back as 4000 years B. C. Even then they 
 had attained to large and prosperous cities, a highly elab- 
 orated art and architecture, an advanced stage of writing and 
 literature, and to one of the most highly developed mythologies 
 and systems of worship. Regarding the beginning of Chaldean, 
 or what is usually known as Babylonian, religion, the monu- 
 ments afford us only the faintest intimations. It is probable, if 
 not certain, that the Semites in the valley of the lower Euphra- 
 tes, or in its near vicinity, followed a people of Mongolian or 
 Turanian origin. Since the Semites originated in Arabia, and 
 migrated to the great river valleys at a very early period, it 
 is by no means impossible that they were preceded by a people 
 of other race and religion. As this appears to have been the 
 case, it cannot be doubted that the Semites assimiliated the 
 culture and the religion of this people; and there are Borne 
 important reasons for believing this to have been true in a 
 period far remote, perhaps approximating 5000 B. C. This 
 people is usually known as the Sumerian. 
 
 The religion of the primitive Arabs, as probably that of 
 all the early Semites, was animistic and of the nature of sham- 
 anism, that is, largely given to magic and the propitiation of 
 spirits. In no small degree this was the character of the re- 
 ligion of the early settlers of Judea. They came from northern 
 
 [202] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Arabia into that region, gradually overcame the Canaanites, 
 with their worship of Baal and the other gods of a harsh and 
 somewhat cruel religion, probably also of Semitic origin. At 
 first this people, whom we know in their successive stages of 
 advancement as Israelites, Hebrews and Jews, were in the tribal 
 period of culture, with the usual characteristics of such peoples. 
 They were probably animists, made use of magic, worshipped 
 plants and animals, revered the powers of heaven and earth, 
 and were polytheists. When the sacred books of the Jews came 
 into their final shape, in the period two or three centuries B. C., 
 they were edited with the purpose of convincing their readers 
 that these phases of the old worship were wild aberrations of 
 certain elements in the population; but that they had no real 
 place in the beliefs of the great majority of the people. That 
 assumption we can no longer accept, for we find mythology, 
 legend, folk-lore, and witchcraft woven into the very texture 
 of the early developments of this religion. In the three volumes, 
 extending to seventeen hundred pages, of his Folk-Lore in the 
 Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and 
 Law, J. G. Frazer has most elaborately dealt with the folk- 
 lore and legendary elements in the Jewish scriptures. He deals 
 with the legends of the early ages of the world, the patriarchal 
 age, the time of the Judges and the Kings, and the origination 
 of the Law. From every part of the world he gathers illus- 
 trative materials showing that this great body of folk-lore and 
 legend is to be widely parallelled elsewhere on the part of many 
 savage and barbarous peoples. In a word, he makes it fully 
 apparent that there is nothing peculiarly Jewish in the earlier 
 books of their collection of sacred writings. 
 
 The national god, Yahweh, was of late origin or greatly 
 changed in character with the evolution of the Hebrew state. 
 At first borrowed, very probably, from another people, and 
 
 [203] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 when first taken over by the Hebrews was a god of thunder 
 or of storm, he gradually came to supersede Baal and Chemosh, 
 the gods of the preceding peoples in Palestine. In the books 
 describing the early phases of Hebrew life in Canaan, we find 
 that a prolonged struggle took place between these gods and 
 Yahweh, with the result that he became greatly victorious. It 
 may be recognized, however, that this acceptance of Yahweh 
 was only by a small class, and that the winning over of the 
 whole body of the people did not come for many centuries. 
 
 It was through the work of the prophets that Yahweh finally 
 became the national god. The early members of this class were 
 essentially polytheists, and recognized Baal, and the gods of 
 the neighboring peoples, as also existing, and as real as their 
 own. At first Yahweh was no more than a national god, the 
 exclusive divinity of the Hebrew people. Almost certainly he 
 did not become in any true sense a universal god, the one real 
 Divine Being, until after the return from captivity of those who 
 had been in exile because of their fidelity to their own divinity. 
 The contact with the religions of Persia and Babylonia, both of 
 which had theistic phases of much importance, and especially 
 the former, undoubtedly had a considerable influence in develop- 
 ing the conception of Yahweh as the one universal God. Prob- 
 ably, also, the bitter experiences of exile, and of weeping by 
 the willows of Babylon on the part of these exiles, had an effect 
 in creating a new devotion to their own god. Many an indi- 
 vidual cares little for religion until some great disappointment 
 or sorrow comes upon him ; and this may also be the experience 
 of peoples. Exile made these men believe that they had been 
 faithless to their own true god or they would not have been 
 crushed as a nation. Therefore, they returned to preach and 
 practice a more ardent loyalty to Yahweh, and to accept as 
 never before the conclusion that they belonged to the chosen 
 
 [204] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 people of this god of theirs. Tried as by fire, they came to the 
 developed faith of the Hebrew in one exclusive and jealous god, 
 the Lord of Heaven and Earth. 
 
 The claim often put forth that the Hebrews had revealed 
 to them the faith in monotheism, which they gradually came to 
 accept, might be made also of most of the other great religions 
 of the ancient world. Monotheism is not the exclusive idea of 
 any one people or religion, but may be found in one or another 
 phase of its evolution in nearly every part of the world. The 
 clans or gentes in tribal society worshipped one exclusive god 
 as their very own, and they might probably be called monothe- 
 ists, and especially since they likewise believed that this god had 
 been revealed to them. Polytheism results because, when clans 
 are federated into tribes, tribes into feudal communities, and 
 these into states, there is a constant process of coalescence of the 
 several gods, and of the rituals and worships connected with 
 them. In nearly all communities, and especially those of the 
 higher type, there is the distinct recognition of some one god 
 as superior to all the others, and as the great essential force 
 that controls the ongoings of the universe and humanity. 
 
 IV 
 
 If we turn back to the Babylonians, we shall find in an early 
 period that Marduk was the high lord over all gods and men, 
 though there were many subordinate gods reigning over various 
 phases of nature or human affairs, but subject to his will, as 
 dukes and earls are under the control of kings. What this 
 means is, that as the social and political affairs of the people 
 were reduced to order, a king placed at the head of the state, 
 and the subordinate ranks, grade after grade, made subject 
 to his final authority, so in religion order and system grew in 
 
 [205] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the same manner and to the same ends. As men obeyed the laws, 
 which grew to be more precise and specific, so did the gods 
 also obey the dictates of the great imperial sanctions and pur- 
 poses of the Supreme God, from whom emanated all order and 
 law. As men grew into a more definite and systematic con- 
 ception of ethical principles, and into a more definite accep- 
 tance of theories of conduct, so did the gods become more and 
 more ethical in their relations to one another and to the nation 
 they Berved. 
 
 The myths of the Babylonians were perhaps midway in 
 their display of creative power between those of China in their 
 paucity, and those of India and Greece in their brilliancy and 
 their elaborateness. The creation story is somewhat rude, but 
 it has for us the interest that it was at the basis of that we find 
 in the Hebrew book of Genesis. It has come now to be an ac- 
 cepted conclusion, that the Hebrews adopted their myths from 
 the Babylonians or that they were the generally wide-spread 
 and common Semitic attempts at an interpretation of the origin 
 of the universe and of man. The manner in which the Hebrews 
 reconstructed these myths, and brought them into conformity 
 with their advanced theism, undoubtedly belongs to that period 
 when all the history of this people was being reconstructed to 
 meet the demands of the more advanced beliefs of the later time. 
 We cannot to-day regard the story of creation, the origin of 
 man, the garden of beauty, the fall of man, the casting out into 
 the darkness of savagery, the flood and the rescue of one family, 
 the condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah, the talking of Abra- 
 ham with his god, the fall of the city of Jericho, the standing 
 still of the sun, and many another folk-tale of the early time, as 
 other than mythical. These legends are of essentially the same 
 nature as those which may be found in every part of the world, 
 and are to be interpreted in the same manner, as expressions of 
 
 [206] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the expanding nature of the human mind under the influence 
 of industrial, social and political phases of evolution. 
 
 Some of the myths and epics of Babylonia are of great in- 
 terest, especially that of the going down of Ishtar into the world 
 of the dead, and that of the adventures of the culture-hero 
 Gilgamish. These show the great literary power that had been 
 developed among the Chaldeans, and the nature of their con- 
 structive genius. These epics may be studied in connection with 
 the developments of the relations of Tammuz or Adonis, Aphro- 
 dite, Hyacinth, Attis and Cybele, Osiris and Isis. In such myths 
 as these we find the early Semitic religions interpreting them- 
 selves in their largest intellectual capacities. 
 
 These myths make it certain that the Semites, as well as 
 the more barbarian peoples like the Chinese, and the more ad- 
 vanced of the Aryans, regarded the gods as of both sexes; and 
 that they were bound together by ties of affection and mar- 
 riage. The love of Adonis and Ishtar was of a romantic quality, 
 and symbolized those forces of nature which gave spring and 
 winter, growth and decay, life and death. In several of these 
 myths the wife is the older of the two, and appears to be the 
 mother of her lover, as well as standing to him in the other 
 relation. The mother who marries her son, as is in several in- 
 stances the case in the Mediterranean religions, is not to be 
 assumed to mean that this was a direct interpretation of hu- 
 man relations. Mother-nature or Mother-wheat may bring forth 
 a son who symbolizes the plant which grows from the earth as 
 the result of the coming of spring and summer. For these myths 
 are interpretations of the processes of nature, of the eternal 
 round of spring and summer and winter. The upspringing 
 vegetation of spring appears as one god, that of the perfected 
 growth of summer, one of the different character, and the death 
 that comes upon all things in winter, still another. This last 
 
 [207] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 stage, however, is usually represented as the death of a god, 
 and his resurrection when the spring comes back again. 
 
 If we choose to study the several stages in the evolution 
 of the Semitic religions, from that of the primitive Arabs to that 
 of the most advanced Babylonians and Hebrews, we shall find 
 them keeping pace with the social and political evolution con- 
 stantly proceeding from century to century. Such a study must 
 convince us that, while no one of these religions may be a direct 
 creation of the social process in every phase of it, yet that the 
 two developments are intimately connected, and that it is the 
 social evolution which precedes the other. As are the laws, BO 
 are the gods. The nature of the people determines the nature 
 of the religion. The worship reflects the standards of the tribal 
 or national life. The myths are no more than the inmost life 
 of the people translated into the actions of great personalities. 
 
 The evolution of the Aryan religions proceeds in the same 
 manner as those of the Semites, and those of the other savage 
 and barbarian peoples. In all of them, even the very highest, 
 we find the presence of animism, magic, animal- and ancestor- 
 worship, a multitude of contending and brutal gods, a vast 
 world of ghosts and spirits, and developing rituals and festivals. 
 The myths of the Aryans are more elaborated, with personalities 
 more distinct and real, and expressing greater artistic and 
 epical power, than those of most other races. 
 
 The Aryans include the Persians and Hindus, Greeks, Bo- 
 mans, Slavs, Teutons, and Celts. Probably the lowest religion 
 found among these races is that of the early Slavs, which was 
 thoroughly animistic and magical, crude in the extreme, and 
 without a mythology at all developed. In the earliest period 
 
 [208] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of which we have any historic knowledge, they appear to have 
 been at about the same stage of advancement as the pre-Islamic 
 Arabs. From this stage in the evolution of religion the Aryans 
 advanced to the highly elaborated religions found in India and 
 Greece. 
 
 When we first know of them, all the Aryan religions re- 
 mained animistic, magical, in the stage of animal-worship, and 
 beset with ghosts and spirits. In some of them, it may be, 
 these phases of religious expression were in the form of sur- 
 vivals; but for none of them had they been cast aside as no 
 longer serviceable. What enabled the Aryan peoples to turn 
 away from them was not so much the higher thinking of the 
 philosophers, the Platos and the Aristotles; but that the state 
 was developing, that tribal society was being outgrown, that 
 greater communities than the city-state were coming into ex- 
 istence, that feudalism was being superseded, and that the 
 several states were coming into contact with each other, that 
 myths, religions, and philosophies were being communicated 
 from one nation to another, and that a world-unity in this direc- 
 tion was being formed, albeit a world-unity extending only a 
 little way outside the valley of the Mediterranean, reaching from 
 Persia to Kome, and including Egypt. 
 
 What the tribal religion was among the Aryans may be 
 seen in the case of the Teutons, who worshipped great nature 
 powers, had a mythology of a somewhat advanced type, believed 
 in a world where the evil were cruelly punished, and accepted 
 an animistic conception of the soul, ghosts and spirits. As with 
 most of the other Aryans they believed in human beings who 
 possessed godlike powers, and in some instances were actually 
 gods in their own nature. Charms, incantations, magical pro- 
 cesses were made use of in order to control the spirits and the 
 gods. Among the Vikings of Scandinavia the gods were of 
 
 [209] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 like nature with the men of that bold and warring race, great 
 heroes, born fighters, daring adventurers, and cruel haters of 
 those who offended them or refused to obey their commands. 
 Very human gods were these, even if, as in the instance of 
 Thor, they were nature-powers, such, as thunder, raised to 
 superhuman expression. 
 
 The religion of the Celts may have been in some degree 
 less fierce and cruel than that of the Teutons; but it included 
 all the features which may be found among the Germanic tribes, 
 and widely over the world, as we have seen elsewhere. Its basis 
 may probably be found in nature- worship, including the wor- 
 ship of animals, rivers, trees, and plants. As with all the other 
 Aryans, much of their ritual, as well as many of their festivals, 
 circled around the growth of vegetation, and the securing of 
 good crops by magical aids. In fact, with both the Teutons 
 and the Celts, magic was regarded as a most potent force, and 
 was largely employed. Witchcraft extended far down into the 
 middle ages, and has by no means been outgrown as yet. It 
 played a great part in the life of western nations for many years ; 
 and nothing in the whole history of religion was more brutal, 
 barbarous, and fearful than the persecution of witches by the 
 Christian church, when many thousands of women lost their 
 lives. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, a process went on which is often met 
 with in the history of religion, by which the old gods were 
 transformed into saints or devils by the newer and more pro- 
 gressive faith of the later time. Isis became the Virgin Mary, 
 Demeter was transformed into a male as St. Demetrius, and 
 many a Teutonic and Celtic god or goddess lived on in a fresh 
 form as a power capable of aiding the peasant or of serving the 
 ends of the church in keeping alive under the new forms the 
 old beliefs. The church canonized more than one heathen divin- 
 
 [210] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ity as a Christian saint. The witches were often no more than 
 the old goddesses modified to suit the new conceptions in regard 
 to the nature of divinities and spirits. Both the Celts and the 
 Teutons worshipped goddesses who were often quite equal to the 
 gods, and also worshipped women possessed of divine qualities 
 or born of divine parentage. These goddesses, as usual, were 
 connected with fertility, the productiveness of the earth, as 
 well as the growth of plants and animals. 
 
 The old religions of the Teutons and Celts have by no means 
 as yet disappeared from the life of to-day. They may be now 
 described as "survivals;" but they live on vitally in the life 
 of the peasants and those of little education. In the folk-lore, 
 the folk-customs, the festivals, and even in the actual beliefs 
 of great numbers of persons in all the countries of Europe, 
 these old religions are even now very much alive. On this sub- 
 ject, J. G. Frazer, in the preface to the first edition of The 
 Golden Bough, pertinently observes: "The primitive Aryan, 
 in all that regards his mental fibre and texture, is not extinct. 
 He is amongst us to this day. The great intellectual and moral 
 forces which have revolutionized the educated world have 
 scarcely affected the peasant. In his inmost beliefs he is what 
 his forefathers were in the days when the forest trees still grew 
 and squirrels played on the ground where Rome and London 
 now stand. " 
 
 Where the Aryans originated we do not positively know; 
 but it was probably not far from the Baltic sea. Wherever it 
 may have been, the Aryans were much given to migration, wan- 
 dered widely in Europe and Asia, and did not entirely refuse 
 to invade Africa. They wandered widely to such an extent that 
 it has been claimed by various investigators that the Veddahs of 
 Ceylon, the Todas of southern India, the Ainus of Japan, and 
 the Maotzi of China were of this racial origin. Nor have the 
 
 [211] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 peoples of the Pacific Islands been left wholly out of this con- 
 nection, some of them, including the Australians, presenting 
 features warranting the Aryan designation. These claims have 
 not been substantiated, and probably will never be fully justified. 
 From whatever source they originally came, one of their great 
 migrations was into central-southern Asia, and finally into 
 India. In some prehistoric period a considerable body of them 
 appeared to the eastward and northward of the Persian gulf. 
 In this region they appear to have remained for several cen- 
 turies, it may be, and then they divided, one part remaining 
 in that region as the Persians of history, and the other pass- 
 ing southward and invading India. 
 
 VI 
 
 We may justly assume that the religion of this undivided 
 body of Aryans was similar to that of the Slavs, and of the 
 Teutons and Celts as first known to us. Primarily it was 
 animism, with shamanism prominent, a worship of animals and 
 the great forces of nature, and with a gradual development of 
 a world of spirits and elemental gods. In Persia the Aryans 
 developed a worshipful regard for fire, and either accepted it 
 as a god or as a symbol of divinity. They also worshipped the 
 heavenly bodies, and came to have an occult regard for the 
 stars. In this respect they followed the leading of the Baby- 
 lonians or developed a kindred interest in the heavens and their 
 nightly display of constellations. In both regions there grew 
 up the beginnings of the science of astronomy; and men felt 
 that their destinies in all their affairs were determined in large 
 degree by the occult powers exercised by the heavens over them. 
 There appeared in Persia a reformer by the name of 
 Zarathustra, usually known as Zoroaster, who gave a quite new 
 
 [212] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 form and meaning to the old religion. In no small degree he 
 was a creator, as well as a reformer. Probably it would be 
 truer to say that around a reformer there gathered social and 
 intellectual influences which in time produced a remarkable re- 
 ligion, not wholly new, but making a quite distinct advance on 
 the old nature-religion of the Aryans. It is by no means certain 
 that such a person existed as is described under the name of 
 Zoroaster, though it is probable, if not wholly certain, that 
 such a man lived and brought about changes in the ancient 
 rituals and beliefs. 
 
 Zoroaster did not claim to have been a god, but to have 
 been commissioned to purify the old religion, and to bring it 
 into conformity with the new needs of his people. Behind this 
 claim of divine sanction to bring about required reforms we 
 may rightfully assume that there were to be found social and 
 political causes demanding modifications that would bring the 
 religion to a condition of harmony with the newer phases of the 
 national life. The people of Persia had advanced from a con- 
 geries of tribes into a nation moving forward towards a much 
 higher civilization than that of the Aryans when they migrated 
 from the northward into the territory of Persia. 
 
 The most distinctly marked phase of the religion usually 
 designated as Zoroasterianism or that of the Avesta, was its 
 dualism, the belief in two gods, one good and one evil. Whence 
 came this conception of duality running through all the affairs 
 of nature and humanity, it is not now possible to say. Many 
 students of this religion assume that it is to be found in the 
 superior moral conceptions of Zoroaster, that he saw clearly 
 the ethical distinction between the good and the evil, righteous- 
 ness and sinfulness. Without doubt, the religion of the Avesta 
 is one that places great emphasis on the contrast between right 
 conduct and sinful behavior. 
 
 [213] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The claim, however, that Zoroaster was superior to his 
 time in this respect does not appear to be fully maintained; 
 and we may question if what is attributed to him was not de- 
 veloped at a later period. Was it rather, as in Egypt, that 
 there was a recognition of the distinction between light and 
 darkness, life and death? Many of the phases of the Avestan 
 religion would appear to confirm this conjecture, though we 
 may accept the conclusion that there had arisen in Persia a 
 fresh insight in regard to ethical problems, with a greater em- 
 phasis on conduct beneficial to the state and to the individual. 
 
 Not wholly to be turned aside from, however, is the idea 
 that the Persian dualism arose in those primitive conceptions 
 we find in the Chinese Yang and Yin, the Greek Father-heaven 
 and Mother-earth, and the principle of sex as fundamental to 
 all interpretations of the origin and nature of the universe. 
 
 A great amount of evidence might be brought together in 
 favor of the suggestion that the evil side of the dualism on 
 which the Zoroastrian religion was founded had its origin in the 
 nature of the receptive or non-creative element in the universe. 
 This conclusion is more probable than that it was purely a meta- 
 physical or even an ethical consideration which was at the foun- 
 dation of this dualism. It may be that no such distinction was 
 in the mind of Zoroaster, but in those ages of growing folk- 
 conceptions it may probably be found a basic hint at the dual- 
 ism which formed a large element in this religion of the Per- 
 sian people. 
 
 Zoroaster was, if not distinctly a monotheist, at least closely 
 approaching that type of belief. His Ahura Mazda or Ormazd, 
 though opposed by Angro Mainyash or Ahriman, was finally 
 to triumph; and the whole universe was to come under his rule 
 of beneficence and righteousness. On the whole, this was one 
 of the most noble and ethical of all the Aryan religions, and 
 
 [214] 
 

 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 had a very considerable influence on the growth of the religions 
 of the Hebrews, the Greeks, and even of Christianity. 
 
 VII 
 
 Turning southward, we follow the other branch of the east- 
 ern Aryans into India. They invaded that peninsula along the 
 valley of the Indus, and then, passing eastward, entered the val- 
 ley of the Ganges. When they entered India they had not left 
 behind the tribal form of social organization, and, they have 
 never quite outgrown it, as the Chinese have not. In India 
 they retained also a large measure of the old Aryan animism, 
 a no inconsiderable measure of the methods of magic, and had 
 by no means outgrown animal- and nature- worship. 
 
 As they passed eastward in their conquest of India, they 
 were a band of warriors, always armed for war, for invasion, 
 and for the subduing of the native populations. In the epic 
 poems we find fully described this phase of the Indian life, its 
 constant readiness for war, its heroic attitude to all phases of 
 life, and its determination to allow nothing to hinder the aim 
 to bring the whole of the peninsula into subjection to their 
 arms. Even the high gods, as we read in the Bhagavat-gita, 
 were with them in their great exploit, and made it certain that 
 their aims should never permanently fail of their object. 
 
 As they moved forward to their successive conquests, these 
 Aryans developed their religion, newly conceived their gods, 
 and saw in the w r hole of nature the presence and the voice of 
 these divine beings. The heavens, the nightly sky, the sun, the 
 planets and the stars, thunder, mountains, dawn, the growing 
 world of vegetation, the earth itself, were accepted as having 
 divine powers or as being the abodes of mighty supernatural 
 beings. To these powers they danced, sang, made festival, of- 
 
 [215] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 fered incense, or performed ritual ceremonials. All of this 
 was reproduced in the Vedas, hymns written in praise of the 
 gods, which came to be sung at their services of worship. More 
 than a thousand of these hymns were composed during the 
 several centuries that the conquest of northern India was pro- 
 ceeding composed but not written for this people did not 
 as yet possess the art of recording their compositions. At a 
 later time these hymns were brought together in the collection 
 known as the Rig- Veda, the last book of which was composed 
 under the conditions following the completion of the work of 
 conquest. The hymns of the Rig- Veda were rearranged for 
 ritual and sacrificial purposes into the Yajur-Veda, together 
 with a number of hymns especially devoted to this purpose. 
 The Sama-Veda consists of the hymns arranged for chanting. 
 In the Atharva-Veda we find another, and more primitive, 
 phase of the religion of these Aryans. The hymns are here 
 edited with the intent of using them for magical purposes, as 
 charms, incantations and conjurations. 
 
 The hymns of the Rig- Veda represent or express a very 
 high type of religion, in some instances rising into a lofty the- 
 ism or a profound pantheism. In the Atharva-Veda we find a 
 religion that is almost primitive, that has advanced but a little 
 if at all above shamanism. It would be difficult to say in what 
 manner or degree it differs from the shamanism of Siberia or 
 North America. If it has advanced at all, it is in its systematiza- 
 tion, and its ability to bring a higher form of ritual to its aid. 
 We may be rightly puzzled in an attempt to comprehend how 
 a religion so far advanced as that of the Rig- Veda can bring 
 forth one as primitive and as magical as that of the Atharva- 
 Veda. Possibly, we may be inclined to believe that the magic 
 and the shamanism are much older than the more spiritual re- 
 
 [216] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ligion of the Big- Veda, though it may seem to be later in the 
 relations of the two collections. 
 
 As the hymns were gradually added to, were used as prayers 
 to the gods to whom they were addressed, and were then de- 
 veloped into rituals, they grew to have a constantly greater 
 meaning to the Aryan invaders. At last they were accepted 
 as a body of revelation, and to them were ascribed a Bacred 
 character. It is because of this growth in the conception of 
 their sacredness, perhaps, which finally, in the Atharva-Veda, 
 gave them their magical nature, their shamanistic power. As 
 the centuries passed, and the conquest had come to an end, these 
 hymns grew to have an ever enlarging significance, as embody- 
 ing the religion of this people. Having come from a period far 
 in the past, and having lost much of their meaning for the new 
 age, the hymns required explanation, and a large body of com- 
 mentary grew up about them. This is what is known as the 
 Brahmanas, which largely added to, or grew out from, the 
 Rig- Veda, the larger and in some respects more spiritual and 
 more philosophical phases of religious expansion. There fol- 
 lowed the Upanishads, the epics, and a great number of other 
 works, in which the successive stages of the Vedic religion grew 
 into that of Brahmanism and then into Hinduism. No brief 
 statement can make it wholly clear how and why these phases 
 of development succeeded each other; and the manner in which 
 they expanded out of the primitive animism with which the 
 Aryans began. Brahmanism followed Vedism when the people 
 had settled down permanently in India, became adjusted to its 
 tropical climate, especially in the central and southern regions. 
 Hinduism followed the advent of Buddhism and Jainism, and 
 the ijew adjustments they compelled the old religion to make, 
 and as resulting from the efforts for the expulsion of the 
 former. 
 
 [217] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 One of the results of the conquest of India by the Aryans 
 was the production of caste as a rigid system of social and 
 religious distinctions. The prolonged task of conquest brought 
 about the development of a compact body of warriors, who gave 
 themselves wholly to the demands of that occupation. Since the 
 constant presence of the enemy compelled the warrior class to 
 be alertly on their guard day and night, ready to meet attack 
 at any moment, and ready always to push forward their con- 
 quests, it is evident they could have no other occupation. They 
 were obliged to depend for their subsistence on a cultivating 
 class. As has been the case nearly everywhere, a warrior class 
 despises those who become cultivators, artisans, and are given 
 to any kind of mercantile pursuits. These classes were not only 
 despised, but they were in large measure excluded from the in- 
 terests which were those of the warriors. 
 
 At this stage of social development the interests of religion, 
 at least so far as concerned the warrior class, were in their own 
 control. In time, however, it became necessary that the hymns 
 should be remembered, recited, used for magical and religious 
 purposes. Gradually there grew up a priestly class devoted 
 wholly to these offices. The brahman, as the priest came to be 
 called, made a third class, and one who, in time, came to regard 
 himself as far superior to the other classes. With the conquest 
 and subjection of the native population, who were much darker 
 than the Aryans, there appeared a fourth or servant class. Here 
 we have the four original castes the Brahmans, the Kshatriya, 
 the Vaisya, and the Sudra, the priest, the warrior, the farmer 
 and merchant, and the servant. In time a great number of 
 other castes made their appearance, as these four were amal- 
 gamated, and as new occupations arose. Nowhere else in the 
 world have such rigid and exclusive distinctions been made 
 between social classes as in India, though in its essentials caste 
 
 1218] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 is to be found widely elsewhere. The distinction of caste is pri- 
 marily social, but it enters deeply into every phase of the re- 
 ligion of India, making it difficult, if not impossible at present, 
 to secure any genuine unity of the people in the acceptance of 
 one comprehensive faith. 
 
 The religion which grew out of the Vedas, and which re- 
 gards the hymns as a revelation, is known as Brahmanism. 
 Many are the gods adored or worshipped by the followers of 
 this religion; but the leading characteristic of it is that it is 
 chiefly a religion of ceremonies and observances. This state- 
 ment may be made of practically all early religions; but the 
 Aryans of India greatly elaborated their ceremonials; and in 
 the ritualistic books the most detailed accounts of them may be 
 found. Perhaps the leading features of these ceremonials were 
 those connected with sacrifice. These were of a magical char- 
 acter, and were regarded as more potent than the acts of the 
 gods themselves. According to H. Jacobi, in the article on Brah- 
 manism in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, sacrifice 
 "is not offered to a god with the view of propitiating him or 
 obtaining from him welfare on earth or bliss in heaven; these 
 rewards are directly produced by the sacrifice itself, i. e. through 
 the correct performance of complicated and interconnected 
 ceremonies which constitute the sacrifice, and which are more of 
 the nature of magic than of worship. Though in each sacrifice 
 certain gods are invoked and receive offerings, the gods them- 
 selves are but instrumental in bringing about the sacrifice or 
 in completing the course of mystical ceremonies composing it. 
 Sacrifice is regarded as possessing a mystical potency, superior 
 even to the gods, who it is sometimes stated, attained to their 
 divine rank by means of sacrifice. " 
 
 This manner of regarding sacrifice, and of its control by 
 the priest, places the brahman in a position superior to that 
 
 [219] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 even of the gods themselves. By means of the mystic potency 
 of the sacrifice, he controls the gods, and compels them to 
 serve his purpose. It naturally follows, therefore, that the 
 brahman became the leader in religion, and that Brahmanism 
 shaped itself around this dominating influence of the priest. 
 The tropical temperature of India, its enervating climate, the 
 absence of facilities of rapid transportation, led to the develop- 
 ment of industrial and political conditions which bred a spirit 
 of peace and stagnation. The peninsula was divided into many 
 small states, and a very large aboriginal population remained 
 throughout the land, against which the Aryans felt compelled 
 constantly to protect themselves. Under these circumstances 
 asceticism grew into great proportions, and many men went away 
 into the wilderness to think of god and to develop their spiritual 
 powers. All of these conditions gave the brahman a dominating 
 position in the life of the Aryan people, and shaped in large 
 degree the nature of the religion which came to be known as 
 Brahmanism. This was the religion of a people who were chiefly 
 concerned with spiritual interests, and with those things which 
 would bring them into harmony with the gods. 
 
 When the aborigines had been completely subdued, and 
 the Aryans settled down to the life of farmers, artisans, and 
 herders, they gave much of their time to speculation; and this 
 was especially true of the ascetics. Many forms of philosophy 
 were developed, no less than six leading systems being produced. 
 These ranged all the way from the most extreme idealism to 
 materialism. The nature of being,- the qualities of the soul, 
 the relations of man to the spiritual world, engaged the atten- 
 tion of these thinkers. Practically all modern forms of philo- 
 sophy were anticipated by them, and with great elaborateness 
 and subtlety. Some of the systems regarded mind or spirit as the 
 only reality, others found it in matter. Perhaps the favorite 
 
 [220] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 idea was that of one Supreme Self, of which all individual selves 
 are phases or manifestations. This conception is worked out 
 in great detail, requiring the closest attention to follow the 
 lofty but intricate speculations which gave it meaning to those 
 who accepted it. 
 
 Justice would not be done to the Aryans of India, however, 
 if we regarded them as mere dreamers and ascetics. In fact 
 they produced a comprehensive body of customs, and developed 
 to the fullest extent a code of family and community law. In 
 the Code of Manu, compiled at about the beginning of our era, 
 we find a detailed system of family conduct, connected with a 
 high morality, but mixed with many crudities and superstitions, 
 as they seem to us. This body of customs and laws, dealing 
 with the duties of householders, heads of families, students, 
 rulers; and, in fact, all the members of the community, gives 
 a remarkable picture of the life of this people in the several 
 centuries after the permanent settlement of the Aryans. More 
 elaborate works on law, such as the Yajnavalkya, Narada, Mit- 
 acshara, were also written dealing more comprehensively with 
 the duties of rulers, and with the management of states; but 
 not neglecting family and household affairs. In many respects 
 these works form the earliest treatment of the principles of 
 jurisprudence ; but always in connection with religion, and with 
 the obligations owed to the gods. All students of jurisprudence 
 feel obliged to go back to these books in order to secure an 
 intimate knowledge on which the basic principles of that science 
 historically rest. Here was the beginning of Roman, as of all 
 later, law on a comprehensive basis. 
 
 The struggles of Brahmanism with Buddhism, from the 
 sixth century B. C. onward for several centuries, led to the 
 development of Hinduism, which varied greatly from Brah- 
 manism, and in many particulars. The gods were different, and 
 
 [221] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP RELIGION 
 
 the rituals were greatly modified. Essentially, however, the 
 religion of India remained the same, even if new gods came 
 into existence. To the Hindu dharma is of chief importance, 
 and is that body of customs, laws, institutions, rites, and festi- 
 vals which shape the conduct of the Hindu. After caste, the 
 most distinguishing feature of Hinduism is the belief in trans- 
 migration or metempsychosis. The origin of this conception 
 may be found in the recognition by many primitive peoples, 
 that the child resembles its parents and others of the members 
 of its family. In Australia, west Africa, and in other regions, 
 heredity means the return of the soul of the dead to inhabit a 
 new body. The Aryans of India developed this conception into 
 a systematic interpretation of the nature of the soul, and that 
 which determines its future destiny. According to the deeds 
 of the individual was the nature of the life he lived hereafter, 
 whether he returned in an animal, a bad man, a woman, or in 
 some state superior to that of man. Hinduism came to hold to 
 the doctrine that the soul passes through an eternal round of 
 existences, which was described under the symbol of a wheel, 
 every point of the circumference of which returns again and 
 again to .the same position. It was against this theory of a con- 
 tinuous succession of existences that Buddha chiefly directed 
 his religion, and sought for a means by which the wheel might 
 be abandoned, and the succession of lives brought to an end. 
 
 Hinduism has become in some measure a missionary reli- 
 gion, is drawing into its fold many of the aboriginal tribes, 
 thus giving them a higher social position, as it invaded Indo- 
 nesia centuries ago and made its presence greatly felt. 
 
 VIII 
 
 The most highly developed, the most intellectual, and the 
 most artistic of the Aryan religions, was that of Greece. We 
 
 [222] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 cannot doubt that it began in animism, and that it passed 
 through stages of magic, fetishism, and possibly totemism. We 
 know that it worshipped animals, and many of its gods were 
 of a plant or animal origin, and that some of them, from time 
 to time, passed into animal forms. In the animistic manner, 
 it found its higher gods in the great powers of nature ; and it 
 had regard to a great world of spirits and daemons. In the 
 early periods the religion of the Greeks was mainly ritualistic, 
 and found expression largely in ceremonials, festivals, and 
 sacrifices. 
 
 The first phases of the Greek, as of most if not all other 
 religions, circles around the demand for the productiveness of 
 the earth and of those plants and animals which afford food. 
 To secure the products of fertility the first rituals appear to 
 have been developed. Since the earth was cultivated by 
 women, perhaps wholly in the beginnings of agriculture, these 
 rituals were theirs, and such as they found conducive to the 
 results desired. The Thesmophoria and other rites were of 
 this nature, all of which had a basis in the conditions of agri- 
 culture. This phase of early religion gave origin to the great 
 sowing and harvest festivals, and to the personification of the 
 forces expressing themselves in the growth of plants. To in- 
 voke the nature-powers, which would fertilize the seed placed 
 in the earth, that would bring the necessary rains to promote 
 the growth of the plants, and that would bring forth abundant 
 harvests to the farmer these were the phases of the early 
 religion which seemed most deeply to impress the people. 
 These demands led to the greatest of all the rituals, that con- 
 nected with the Mysteries enacted at Eleusis. The great pro- 
 ductive forces, in their two phases of the growing plants in 
 spring, and the maturing plants before the time of harvest or 
 
 [223] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 at that period, personified in Persephone or Cora and Demeter, 
 formed the most striking of the Greek myths. 
 
 The phase of the Greek mythology and religion which usually 
 claims attention is that found in the great pantheon of which 
 Zeus was the head. We may perhaps feel convinced that the 
 agricultural rituals represent a matriarchal period in the in- 
 dustrial and social development of the Greek peoples; but it 
 seems most probable that the gods on Olympus interpret or re- 
 sult from the later patriarchal social growth. The Olympii 
 pantheon or system of gods does reflect the conditions of 
 people who accept the father as the head of the family, and tin 
 king as an autocrat in the state. Olympus is a family, a grou] 
 of related and intermarried gods, all under the rule of th( 
 dictator Zeus, who is himself subject to that fundamental 
 of nemesis which is superior to all gods, because impersonj 
 and eternal. Even the supreme god must bow to this principle 
 of fate or of fundamental necessity, that is, of the law whi< 
 underlies and gives meaning to all existence. 
 
 The Greek race was never coordinated into a central state, 
 but remained largely under the conditions determined by thei] 
 tribal history, and were grouped into city-states, with loose con- 
 federacies of these from time to time. This failure to rea< 
 any higher phase of nationality may account, in no inconsidei 
 able measure, for the failure of the people as a whole to read 
 the monotheistic stage of religious evolution. Though the g< 
 in all the communities were much the same, there was no reli- 
 gious centrality, because there was no federation of the citie 
 into one effective nation in its political institutions. Whei 
 Sparta fought its long war against Athens, and conquered, 
 chance for a unity of the many cities came to an end; an< 
 with this failure came the last Greek opportunity for a perf ec1 
 theism. The philosophers could reason their way to a unitai 
 
 [224] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 conception of nature and life, but in the absence of a national 
 organization this became impossible for the great mass of the 
 people. 
 
 In the writings of Plato and Aristotle the philosophical 
 thinking of the ancient world reached its highest standards. 
 In the later centuries, when the Greek states had lost their 
 autonomy, and had come under the rule of the Roman empire, 
 the teachings of these men came to have a great influence; 
 but it was under another than the Greek religion that this ex- 
 tension of larger ideas found acceptance. The unification of 
 the world about the Mediterranean, brought about by Roman 
 conquest, prepared for the teachings of the neo-Platonists, the 
 Stoics, and other broadening movements of thought. 
 
 In connection with these movements it is interesting to 
 note the remarkable revival of the earlier phases of religion 
 which appeared under the influences of Macedonian and Roman 
 political developments. The Olympian religion was distinctly 
 masculine, patriarchal, autocratic, and intellectualist. With 
 the political changes there came a despair of the world as it 
 then existed, a call for some interpretation of life that would 
 satisfy the emotional nature, and that would unify human 
 interests in the spirit of brotherhood. These results could not 
 be attained by means of the state or with the aid of the 
 Olympian religion. There followed a great revival of the old 
 agricultural religions, the religions connected with the inter- 
 ests of women as to their origin. This may account for the 
 remarkable increase of interest in the Eleusinian Mysteries, 
 and in other cults bringing considerable bodies of persons into 
 fellowship with each other. Even more than this, perhaps, was 
 the demand for some assurance in regard to the future of the 
 soul. The mysteries, in a series of rituals, dramatic presenta- 
 tions, and elaborate initiations, gave the required faith in re- 
 
 [225] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 gard to the destiny which the soul might expect. At Eleusis 
 men and women alike were received into the fellowship, as 
 were slaves and foreigners. What could not be secured by 
 means of the state, what the Olympian religion failed to give, 
 was brought to the people in a manner the most impressive and 
 convincing to them. 
 
 The phase of Greek religion, as distinct from philosophy, 
 which has most impressed the modern world is that which 
 found expression in art, including the drama and poetry. For 
 many years it was assumed that Hesiod and Homer created 
 the religion they describe, but it is not in their writings that 
 we find the best interpretations of what religion was to the 
 Greek people. This may be found in the dramas of Aeschylus, 
 Sophocles and Euripides, and in various of the minor poets 
 and later writers. The great creations embodied in the myths 
 find expression in these dramas in a manner which brings the 
 religion home to us as to what the Greek believed, how he felt, 
 and what were the motives controlling his life. This cosmic 
 order of the gods and heroes, of godlike-men and of manlike- 
 gods, with their world controlled by supreme principles of 
 moral order, justice, friendship and fellowship, is one under- 
 stood by the dramatists, as it was not understood and inter- 
 preted by the philosophers. 
 
 In the plays we see the great traditions, which had grown 
 into shape through many centuries, receiving a presentation 
 that was masterful and convincing to the hearers as to the 
 true principles of life and conduct. These plays brought out 
 a supreme religious expression, presented in the most im- 
 pressive manner, and with an interpretation of the doings of 
 the heroes and gods who determined the ethical conduct of 
 men and states. 
 
 [226] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The other phase of the presentation of the Greek religion, 
 that of the artistic, supremely presented by the architect and 
 the sculptor, brought directly before every eye and mind the 
 real nature of the gods and the heroes. The best work in these 
 directions of Egypt, India, and Babylonia was crude compared 
 with that of Greece. Here was perfection of harmony and 
 beauty. Zeus here stood forth in all his majesty as the thund- 
 erer and as the law-giver. Apollo reached the very height of 
 manly beauty and dignity. Aphrodite gave the ideal of womanly 
 beauty, as Hera did that of motherly care and fidelity, and 
 Artemis that of one who loved the free and the wild. 
 
 The religion of the Greek in the early period largely found 
 expression in dances, festivals, rituals, music and dramatic 
 presentations; but that of the later time was embodied in 
 architecture, the drama, and sculpture. In the theatre, on the 
 buildings which came to greatly adorn a city like Athens, might 
 be daily heard or seen the best interpretations of the religion 
 of the better portion of the people. The old dances, rites, and 
 festivals had not been abandoned; but in the city the gods 
 were brought very close to the lives of the people, and made 
 to appear as real beings. 
 
 Yet, with the changing times, loss of political autonomy, 
 failure of the spreading life of the Greek people into new 
 colonies, there came a questioning of the old beliefs and the 
 old gods. Philosophy satisfied some, tradition pleased many 
 more; but there was a desire for new gods, and these were 
 brought from many lands. In this manner a great syncretist 
 movement was developing, with increasing acquaintance with 
 the civilizations of Babylonia, Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt, Ana- 
 tolia and Rome. The Greeks were an alert-minded people, free 
 from the conceit that nothing more was to be heard or known ; 
 and they were constantly widening the borders of their faith, 
 
 [227] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the depth of their philosophical thinking. Here in this land 
 began the work of science, and here for the first time arose the 
 spirit of free inquiry into the causes of the changing pheno- 
 mena of nature, with a search for underlying and eternal 
 principles, capable of an interpretation which would satisfy 
 the inquiring spirit of men. 
 
 [228] 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 International Religion 
 
 IN the international religion two factors are of very con- 
 siderable importance, the commingling of religious ten- 
 dencies and ideas from various national sources, and the in- 
 fluence of individual originators. The first of these develop- 
 ments is probably much the greater of the two, though it 
 usually receives but a small degree of recognition. When we 
 give attention to the fact that there can be no international 
 religion until the preceding stages of tribal, feudal and na- 
 tional developments have been passed through, though not all 
 of them may be absolutely essential, it will be recognized that 
 this phase in the history of religious evolution carries with it 
 great significance. 
 
 Until national governments have definitely made their ap- 
 pearance, and have gained a stable and independent form of 
 organization, it is impossible that there should be anything ap- 
 proaching internationalism, either for the state or for religion. 
 The king precedes the god in any really monotheistic sense of 
 the word. Recognizing the fundamental law of all religious 
 history, that the world of spirits and of the supernatural is a 
 reflection of the world of social and political and industrial 
 activities on the part of man, it follows that there can be no 
 unitary conception of the other world and of god until there 
 has been developed a state in which there is one law and one 
 ruler. In the ages when the state is growing to have a definite 
 
 [229] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 and wide-reaching influence on human affairs, it is for the first 
 time possible to conceive of divinity as having a personal and a 
 thoroughly law-giving power. 
 
 When the state had come into existence, and there had 
 begun the process of the federation of states or when they had 
 begun to have frequent intercourse with each other in the inter- 
 ests of commerce, exchange of ideas and customs, or when 
 conquest had brought scattered communities under one wide- 
 reaching national spirit, then began the process of the amalga- 
 mation of religious rites, customs, and institutions. Perhaps 
 the most distinctive phase of this process was that of the 
 growth on the part of the votaries of a religion of a desire to 
 make their rites and beliefs known for the good of the peoples 
 of other states than their own, even when conquest had not 
 taken place. In this way the religion of China spread to Corea 
 and Japan along with its laws and its institutions. It was not 
 in a missionary spirit that this process was brought about nor 
 was it with any idea that the religion of itself had a special 
 and saving merit ; but as a part of the Chinese culture, without 
 which the educational methods and the philosophical principles 
 could not be conveyed to another people. Religion and culture 
 in this instance were one and the same. 
 
 In the same manner, and in the same spirit, the religion 
 of the Aryans in India spread to the eastward, and pervaded 
 the whole of Indonesia, at least in all those regions where there 
 was a sufficient degree of enlightenment to appreciate it. In 
 this instance, it was not so much conquest as commercial pene- 
 tration, which served to propagate Brahmanism in other lands. 
 
 [230] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 In much the same manner Zoroastrianism was diffused west- 
 ward, and came in time to penetrate the Roman empire to 
 some extent. Here the process was an intellectual one, rather 
 than one of conquest or commercial activities. 
 
 We cannot study any of the more advanced regions of the 
 ancient world without coming upon the fact that, slow as were 
 the methods of transportation, and few as were the number 
 of travellers, yet there was going on a constant process of com- 
 munication from one people to another. The recent explora- 
 tions in western China indicate that the people of that region 
 were receiving one or another influence from as far west as 
 Greece, and no doubt Chinese ideas and customs were in some 
 measure reaching into western lands. This was certainly the 
 case so far as concerned Persia, with its deification of fire, 
 star-worship, dualism, and its emphasis on what became in 
 the west the Mithraic cult. To some extent, also, the teach- 
 ings of Buddhism penetrated into western lands; and it has 
 often been suggested that the birth-tales told about Gautama 
 were influential in developing those connecting themselves 
 with the birth of Jesus, especially in the apochraphal writings. 
 
 2 
 
 Perhaps no more significant instance of this influence of 
 one civilization and religion on another is to be found than in 
 that of the Jews. From the very beginning of their career, 
 even as a tribal people, they were in close touch with the sur- 
 rounding nations. The situation of their country not only 
 brought them into intimate relations with the tribes and na- 
 tions inhabiting the sea-coast, the mountain regions eastward 
 and northward; and the desert regions southward and west- 
 ward; but also the great nations which passed through their 
 
 [231] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 country or along its borders on their way to other regions. 
 The Egyptians, Babylonians, Syrians, Hittites, and later on, 
 the Greeks and Romans, penetrated their country as conquerers 
 or settlers. 
 
 The diffusion of the Jews to Babylonia, Egypt, and into 
 various parts of the Roman empire, mark different stages of their 
 career. After the time of Alexander the Jews became in large 
 numbers inhabitants of the city in Egypt built by him and 
 which was given his name. Here was in many respects the 
 chief center of Jewish culture and influence; and, soon after 
 the beginnings of Christianity, the Jews were to be found in 
 Rome in considerable numbers. Wherever they penetrated 
 they had an influence on religion, though probably not of any 
 great extent. Far more important is the fact, that this con- 
 tact with other peoples marked important and considerable 
 changes in the religion of the Hebrew people. From the Baby- 
 lonians they took the origin myths on which their religion was 
 based, from the Persians their dualism, and from the contact 
 with the Greeks no little portion of their later and more pro- 
 gressive culture and religion. 
 
 The period when Buddhism, Christianity, and Moham- 
 medanism were originating was one of the penetration of cul- 
 ture by culture, and of the wide diffusion of social contacts 
 throughout the ancient world. Had it not been for this grow- 
 ing intimacy of peoples, the increasing diffusion of the most 
 fundamental phases of their religious and cultural life, no 
 new religions would have come into existence. F. B. Jevons, 
 in his Introduction to the History of Religion, has suggested 
 that a very considerable change in religious development took 
 place at this period. Before this status or birth determined 
 the religion of a person, for he accepted without choice the 
 tribal or the national faith of his community. At this period, 
 
 [232] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Jevons remarks, in his twenty-third chapter: "we find in the 
 ancient world new rites and cults arising which differ from all 
 previous ones, first in that they were open to all men, and next 
 in that membership was voluntary and spontaneous. They were 
 not always or necessarily new religions, for in them the old 
 gods of the nation might still be worshipped, though with new 
 rites. They can scarcely be called sects even, for their mem- 
 bers were not required to give up the ordinary hereditary wor- 
 ship of the state to which they belonged. But the idea was 
 now for the first time expressed in action that a man could be- 
 long to a religious community which was distinct from the 
 state. The possibility of choice between the worship to which 
 he was born and another was now before him." 
 
 This choice as between one and another religion was di- 
 rectly the result of the diffusion of religions through contact 
 of one people with another, and through the origin of new 
 religions, and gods not hitherto known. Until such changes 
 had come about there was no opportunity for choice, for there 
 was but one religion, that of the tribe or that of the nation. 
 More than one religion within a state meant that it should 
 make no choice between them, that it should accept them all 
 as of equal importance, or that it should prefer one to the 
 others, and give that its special protection. In either event 
 the choice was open for the first time to the individual to make 
 his own preference count as regards the form of worship to 
 which he should give his adhesion. 
 
 3 
 
 In the Roman empire we well know that many religions 
 found acceptance. The religions of all the Mediterranean coun- 
 tries found reception there. Mithraism was given wide dif- 
 
 [233] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 fusion, though it originated in Persia. Isis was regarded with 
 a devotion rarely given to any other god. The Jewish faith 
 won the acceptance of a few of the more ethically inclined 
 men of the philosophical type, and who were disposed to re- 
 ceive a distinctly monotheistic religion. 
 
 There spread through all nations at this time a form of 
 religion sanctioned by the social needs of artisans of all classes. 
 The clan and tribal forms of religion had largely disappeared, 
 and their place was taken by guild or community cults. Not 
 ties of blood held these together, but occupations of craftsmen, 
 who felt the need of associating themselves in a fraternity for 
 the protection of their common interests. Each guild was a 
 church or religious association, as well as an artisan union for 
 the securing of whatever best concerned the interests of the 
 individuals belonging to it, and of the fraternity as a corpora- 
 tion. Such communities are widely to be found in China, 
 India, Greece, and Rome; and they probably existed in every 
 ancient nation. Each guild had its own god, its own form of 
 worship, and its own cult. 
 
 Of a similar nature, in many respects, were many develop- 
 ing new forms of religion widely found in all the ancient states. 
 The highest type of this kind of religion was to be found in 
 the Mysteries of Eleusis and the cult developing around Dio- 
 nysus. The state protected these cults, and to some extent 
 they were of a national character. But at the heart of them, 
 at least in their more advanced forms, despite their crude 
 origin, they became international. The worshipper was ini- 
 tiated, and was not born, into these religions. They had most 
 solemn rites, and they sought to give the worshipper admission 
 to a more spiritual conception of the world, and to insure en- 
 trance to a diviner state beyond death. Such were some of 
 the consequences of the growth of internationalism in the an- 
 
 [234] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 cient world, and of the wide diffusion of cultural and religious 
 ideas. 
 
 Throughout the whole Mediterranean region, probably ex- 
 tending as far east as Persia, and as far west as Gaul and Iberia, 
 it may be said that in no inconsiderable degree there was but 
 one religion. Over all this vast territory the same beliefs and 
 rituals were being diffused, and there was a constant process 
 of intercommunication. This at least may be said, that all the 
 nations of this region, and all their religions, were influencing 
 each other, and there was a process of amalgamation going 
 forward for several centuries. This syncretist process finally 
 culminated in the origin and diffusion of Christianity. In the 
 very nature of this revolution in Hebraism, syncretism was at 
 work, result of the contact of religions and cultures. Had this 
 process not been in active evolution Christianity would not 
 have come into existence. At first a development from Juda- 
 ism, it rapidly took on a much wider phase, and unified all the 
 faiths of the Mediterranean region. 
 
 One other phase of religious evolution must be taken into 
 consideration in connection with a study of the international 
 religions. Without doubt all advanced religions have owed 
 much to individuals of genius, and to those who have been 
 known as prophets and founders. This phase of religious 
 evolution has been undoubtedly too greatly emphasized, owing 
 to the theory that all religions result from the inspiration of 
 these men directly from God. What is the true nature of 
 genius is not usually discussed in this connection, nor is it 
 sought to discover the exact character of the inspiration and 
 revelation in which the developed religions have originated. 
 
 [235] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Genius appears to be a heightening of the emotional and 
 mental powers, and a concentration of them in some one or 
 more directions. Most men of genius focus their gifts on some 
 special faculty, and are often lacking in most or all other di- 
 rections. The man of religious genius is rarely broad-minded 
 and catholic in his ideas. If he is strong in one direction, he is 
 weak in all others. Such men appear to concentrate a strong 
 personality into a single channel of interest and expression. 
 More often than otherwise, they know nothing outside religion ; 
 and care not for science, art, law, or culture. They live with 
 God, abide in an ideal realm, are ascetics or given to miracles. 
 In large degree they are quite incapable of estimating wisely 
 and justly their own teachings or of criticizing them from the 
 basis of a large knowledge of other spiritual ideas or beliefs. 
 Therefore, they are fanatics, bigots, dogmatists, and greatly 
 credulous with regard to all that is supernatural. In fact, they 
 are rarely able to distinguish clearly between what is natural 
 and what is supernatural, subjective and objective. Their own 
 emotions, aspirations, visions, even their dreams, they regard 
 as objective phases of what takes place in the world of spirits. 
 
 Without doubt some men and women live in a world of 
 spiritual realities, penetrate to the abodes of the spirits and 
 the gods so it seems to them. The common world, the world 
 of sense impressions, and of objective realities, is to these 
 persons far from being the world of spiritual beings and es- 
 sential truths. And it is to these persons, as William James 
 has abundantly shown in his Varieties of Religious Exper- 
 ience, that religion owes its force, reality, and assurance. 
 There is always to be recognized in regard to such persons, 
 however, that they are never quite normal in the wider human 
 sense. They belong, in no small measure, to a world apart; 
 
 [236] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP EELIGION 
 
 and form a class by themselves. Reassurances in regard to 
 religion come from these persons, who keep alive the old be- 
 liefs, and kindle new ones at the torch of this inspiration of 
 theirs. 
 
 We owe much to genius in all its forms artistic, moral, 
 scientific. It penetrates through the old truths and gives them 
 fresher meanings. It quickens thought, formulates new 
 truths, brings to light fresh discoveries, and makes inventions 
 of great practical benefit. Something daring, courageous, 
 audacious, rebellious is to be found in all true genius, that is, 
 the capacity for breaking away from old leading-strings, for 
 facing realities and not conventions. Most men repeat what 
 they have been taught; but genius penetrates a step or two 
 beyond this, and finds new meanings under what has been in- 
 herited. 
 
 As has already been said, religion is of all forms of life 
 and thought the most conservative, the least able to break 
 out new paths, and to penetrate far into the wilderness beyond 
 the village or the city. Were it not for the fanatic, the man 
 of an intensely egoistical thought, who can see but from one 
 angle at a time, there would be no religions, at least in the 
 earlier ages of civilization. Therefore, we find that all new 
 religions of the higher type begin with such men, and grow 
 out of one of the old religions. No religion ever arises without 
 such connection with the past, whatever the genius of its 
 founder or whatever the claims put forth in regard to his 
 inspiration or his divinity. Whatever may have been claimed 
 for revelation in regard to any or all religions, the fact re- 
 mains that religion everywhere is the result of evolutionary 
 processes, that it has its basis in the past, and that it cannot 
 rise higher than the civilization from which it has grown. 
 
 [ 237 ] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 All religions have claimed to be revelations, even those the 
 rudest and the most primitive. This claim is fundamental to 
 the very nature of religion, and gives no superiority to one 
 over another. From the earliest times we find it claimed that 
 the tribal ritual is of a sacred nature, that it has power to con- 
 trol the spirits, and that it must not be in the least degree de- 
 parted from in its repetition. If even the slightest mistake 
 is made, if its words are not given in their proper order, or if 
 the rite itself is not presented in the orthodox, that is, the 
 prescribed manner, all must be repeated from the beginning. 
 Here we have the beginnings of things sacred, and of even 
 those books which have been regarded as divine. This demand 
 as to the sacredness of religions, its rites, ceremonials, books, 
 and persons, still remains, and dominates the interpretation 
 which is to be given them. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that religion is regarded as some- 
 thing more than the result of genius, unless we accept this 
 word in its original meaning, as the indwelling in the mind 
 of a spiritual or guardian being other than the true self. Such 
 claim cannot be allowed, and we must insist that religion must 
 come within the laws of mental activity, as to its origin and 
 nature. In the demand that we shall accept it as com- 
 municated from some other world than our own, by an order 
 of beings known only to those of religious genius, we find what 
 has not been proven, and what religious history does not 
 
 justify. 
 
 The reasons for this conclusion have been already sug- 
 gested, in saying that religious genius is of the same nature 
 as other forms of genius; and that all the more advanced reli- 
 gions have their roots in social and political conditions, that is, 
 
 [238] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 in the nature and needs of man. Whatever the claim made 
 for any religion, what it really is may be found in the con- 
 stitution of man, both as an individual and in his social nature. 
 Most of the claims made in regard to revelation, and the special 
 nature of religion, have been owing to neglect to study the con- 
 ditions determining the social and correlated activities of the 
 groups of men described as tribes, and as feudal or national 
 states. Man thinks collectively as well as individually; and 
 this collective thinking is largely accepted as of a sacred or 
 divine nature. In this collective character of emotion and 
 thought most of the sacredness lies. Beyond it most of the 
 claims made are exaggerated or result from a failure to re- 
 cognize the true nature of human mentality. 
 
 If we turn to Buddhism, the oldest of the great interna- 
 tional religions, we find that we have before us the problem 
 of a great religious personality, and also the problem of the 
 cultural origins of the religion which came into existence in 
 connection with his name. The most fundamental of these 
 problems is the last, and one without the full recognition and 
 appreciation of which Buddhism cannot be understood. In 
 his time, the sixth century B. C., the Aryans had invaded a 
 greater portion of India and established their supremacy. In 
 fact, the conquest having been completed, they had settled 
 down to a life, partly of industry and agriculture, but largely 
 devoted to questions of ritual and philosophy, and to asceti- 
 cism. In a degree they had stagnated or come to be content 
 with the conditions afforded by a rich and prosperous country 
 in a tropical climate. 
 
 The teachings of the Vedas and of the Brahmanas had 
 
 [239] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 reached a stage when they were not developing, but had be- 
 come highly specialized in the directions of ritual, magical 
 practices, and attempts to gain religious truth by means of 
 contemplation and retirement from the world. Into this world 
 was born, to a princely house in northeastern India, a son to 
 a family of the warrior or Kshatriya caste, though caste had 
 not as yet taken on its more rigid phases. This family belonged 
 to the Sakiya clan, and lived not far from Benares, in the 
 small city of Kapilavastu. He was named Siddhattha, but his 
 family name was Gautama, by which he is oftenest known. 
 The title Buddha is an officicial one, and means the enlight- 
 ened, signifying that he had attained to Buddhahood or com- 
 plete knowledge. 
 
 In a measure Buddhism was a reaction from the mosl 
 emphatic phases of Brahmanism, and especially against its 
 many gods and its extreme claims in regard to the nature of 
 the soul. On the other hand, in every phase of its earlier de- 
 velopments may be seen its relations to the older types of 
 religion in India. Gautama became an ascetic and wanderer 
 when a young man, leaving wife, child and family relations, in 
 order that he might find the true way of life. After consult- 
 ing many wise men, and after a long period of search for in- 
 ward quietness and truth, he finally attained to Buddhahood 
 during a period of contemplation under a tree. Accepting the 
 teaching of Brahmanism, that life in this human world is de- 
 termined by the wheel of existence, the round of transmigra 
 tions from one stage of being to another, he reached the con- 
 clusion that it is possible to escape from this vicious circle 
 and to attain to a condition of calm, serenity, and inward 
 peace. Having reached this condition of freedom from the 
 round of human evils, Gautama had become an Arahat, one 
 free from the wheel of rebirth and evil. This stage of enlightr 
 
 [240] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 enment having been reached, Gautama became the Buddha; 
 and might have passed on into Nirvana (now written Nibbana 
 by Indian scholars) or the state of perfect bliss, and emancipa- 
 tion from all evil and degradation. Gautama preferred to 
 turn back to the human world and its sufferings, in order that 
 he might teach others the means of escape. 
 
 The fundamental teaching of Buddhism, that on which 
 rests all its other doctrines, is that suffering is inherent in the 
 life of man, and that it is universal. This teaching is embodied 
 in the axioms known as the Four Aryan Truths, that there 
 is suffering, that it has a cause, that it can be overcome and 
 suppressed, and that this may be done by means of the "path." 
 "It is the will to life," said Gautama, as quoted in Ananda 
 Coomaraswamy's Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism, "which 
 leads from birth to birth, together with lust and desire, which 
 finds gratification here and there ; the thirst for pleasures, the 
 thirst for being, the thirst for power." To bring about the ex- 
 tinction of suffering, therefore, is the great aim of Buddhism ; 
 and to secure emancipation from desire, egotism, and the 
 insistance on self-expression. This is to be reached by the 
 eight-fold path, the path of faith or of right attitude toward 
 the sufferings incident to humanity. Rhys Davids quotes 
 from the Vinaya or Samyutta, the words of Gautama himself 
 in regard to his teachings, in this form : 
 
 There are two aims which he who has given up the world ought 
 not to follow after devotion, on the one hand, to those things whose 
 attractions depend upon the passions, a low and pagan ideal, fit only 
 for the worldly-minded, ignoble, unprofitable; and the practice on the 
 other hand of asceticisms, which is painful, ignoble, unprofitable. 
 There is a middle path discovered by [Buddha] a path which opens 
 
 [241] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the eyes, and bestows understanding, which leads to peace, to insight, 
 to the higher wisdom, to Nirvana. Verily! it is this noble right-fold 
 path. . . . 
 
 Now this is the noble truth as to suffering. Birth is attended with 
 pain, decay is painful, disease is painful, death is painful. Union 
 with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant ; 
 and any craving unsatisfied, that too is painful. In brief, the five ag- 
 gregates of clinging (that is, the conditions of individuality) are 
 painful. 
 
 Now this is the noble truth as to the origin of suffering. Verily! 
 it is the craving thirst that causes the renewal of becomings, that is 
 accompanied by sensual delights, and seeks satisfaction now here, now 
 there that is to say, the craving for the gratification of the senses, 
 or the craving for a future life, or the craving for prosperity. 
 
 Now this is the noble truth as to the passing away of pain. 
 Verily! it is the passing away so that no passion remains, the giving 
 up, the getting rid of, the being emancipated from, the harboring no 
 longer of this craving thirst. 
 
 Now this is the noble truth as to the way that leads to the passing 
 away of pain. Verily! it is this noble eightfold path, that is to say, 
 right views, right aspirations, right speech, conduct and mode of live- 
 lihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right rapture. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the teaching of this warrior turned 
 monk. For when Gautama came to organize his religion it 
 was by means of an order exclusively devoted to its interests. 
 He did not ignore the great mass of the people ; but he sought 
 to give permanence to his teachings by ordaining bodies of 
 men and women who should, for at least a part of their lives, 
 live exclusively the life of religion. In this respect Buddhism 
 greatly resembles Roman Catholicism, and also as concerns its 
 rituals and its ideals. In Siam, and in other Buddhist coun- 
 tries, boys enter the order, are educated there, serve a period 
 of apprenticeship to their religion, and then go forth again 
 to the duties of daily life in the world. The Buddhist monk 
 lives on the generosity of the people, who secure merit for the 
 future by contributing to his necessities. In the time of 
 Gautama himself, he and his disciples went forth once each 
 
 [242] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 day carrying a bowl, from which they ate when the generosity 
 of the people had given as much as was needed. In this way 
 they were wanderers from place to place, preaching the gospel 
 of emancipation from pain and evil, and devoting the rest of 
 their time to meditation and prayer. After the earliest period, 
 however, the monks and nuns were no longer wanderers, but 
 remained in their households, except when gathering food 
 from door to door. 
 
 Gautama is usually represented to have discarded belief 
 in God and in a future life. In a limited sense this is true; 
 but, on the whole, it is far from stating his exact position in 
 regard to these religious beliefs. He did discard the great 
 pantheon of animal and nature-divinities which Brahmanism 
 had accepted; but he did follow the teachings of some of the 
 more philosophical Indian teachers, in that he believed in an 
 underlying reality interpreting and giving meaning to the uni- 
 verse. In China and most other Buddhist lands, the teachings 
 of Gautama have probably been followed by regarding him as 
 a divinity or by the creation of a great number of other beings 
 who rule the universe and its several manifestations. In a 
 word, if he was, as is so often claimed, an atheist, the Buddhists 
 of to-day are very far from being of that type of thought, since 
 they believe in, and worship, a great number of divinities. 
 
 What Gautama rejected was the limited and imperfect gods, 
 the gods who were but men in another guise, with all their 
 passions and weaknesses. To what extent he believed in the 
 immanence of God or in an impersonal divinity or in a panthe- 
 ism of a philosophical type, as did many of the Brahmans, it 
 is difficult to say. At any rate, he did not teach any definite 
 opinions in regard to deity; and with reference to that belief 
 
 [243] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 he had almost nothing to say in his teachings, probably quite 
 ignoring such a being, but without asserting that he existed or 
 did not exist. 
 
 With reference to the future life Gautama's teaching was 
 far more definite, though by Christian scholars he has usually 
 been assumed to have rejected that belief also. Probably both 
 beliefs, that in God and that in immortality, had their basis, 
 so far as he was concerned, in his conception of the soul. He 
 discarded the popular notions in regard to the idea of there 
 being in man an essential nature other than the body and the 
 mind. The idea of the soul, as held in India at the period when 
 he lived, was an evolution from primitive animism; and this 
 was not acceptable to Gautama. An entity unlike all else he 
 could not accept ; but his idea was that of the continuity of the 
 results of all past experiences, the karma which has been pro- 
 duced by the round of existences through which the individual 
 has passed in the endless cycle of being. To get rid of all that 
 result of conflict with earth and its sensualities, was his de- 
 sire. This was the great emancipation. 
 
 Buddhism has no cosmology, no theory of origins as re- 
 gards the universe or humanity. Desire, lust for sensation, 
 craving for the expression of self, has made the world as we 
 know it ; and to suppress self is to secure unity with the eternal 
 nature of things, harmony with the infinite realities. This is 
 what the Buddhist calls Nirvana, which is not extinction, but 
 emancipation. It is a freeing of self from selfhood, from all 
 that clogs one's nature, from all that binds one to the round 
 of pain and suffering. Following the higher teachings of the 
 philosophical schools, the individual comes back to the great 
 Self from which he emanated; and he is, as it were, absorbed 
 into the great reality of being. In large degree this is what 
 the Christian, and especially the mystic, has often sought for 
 
 [244] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 in his conception of heaven, that lust, sin, and wrong would be 
 worn away, and the inner self made free for complete union 
 with the eternal nature of God. Many persons will regard 
 this as nothing less than annihilation or so nearly like it, that 
 they are not able to distinguish between the two. Undoubtedly, 
 however, to the devout Buddhist it means nothing of the kind. 
 Rather does it mean the sloughing off of what is limited, 
 earthly, imperfect, and the gaining, in union with what is 
 permanent, that eternal emancipation of the mind which is 
 perfect bliss. Release from worry, fret, care, sickness, pain, 
 and all individual desire, this was union with the higher Self, 
 and therefore entrance into Nirvana, that is, into quietness and 
 peace. A highly mystical idea, but one found wherever mysti- 
 cism makes its influence felt in the history of religion. 
 
 Buddhism had a great career in India, spread widely over 
 the northern states, then southward, and into Ceylon. In later 
 centuries it passed onward into all the countries of eastern 
 Asia, and notably into Siam, Tibet, China, and Japan. What 
 is most characteristic of it in all these countries is its teaching 
 of the spirit of peace and harmony. No other countries than 
 those accepting Buddhism have been so little given to war. 
 No wars of religion have ever been waged in Buddhist lands. 
 In these lands religious persecution has been almost wholly un- 
 known. This means that Buddhism has been to some degree 
 of a quietistic nature, that it has not been pushing and ener- 
 getic in the modern western sense ; and that the Buddhist lands 
 have been stagnated from the industrial and commercial point 
 of view. It means also that it has been one of the most tolerant 
 of all religions. 
 
 [245] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 After something like a thousand years in India, Bud- 
 dhism gradually disappeared from that peninsula, as a result 
 of the revival of Brahmamsm, except in the island of Ceylon, 
 where it has always remained very strong. As it spread north- 
 ward and eastward, and came into contact with the previously 
 existing religions, largely animistic and polytheistic in their 
 nature, Buddhism showed its conciliatory spirit, and readily 
 adapted itself to the old faiths of the peoples who accepted it, 
 thus largely corrupting it as regards the real teachings of 
 Gautama himself. 
 
 As in the case of all other founders of religions, a great 
 body of legend, folk-tale, and myth, grew up about Buddha. 
 The birth-legends are many in number, miracles came to be 
 attributed to him, marvellous tales were told of his early life, 
 and his birth was of a virgin nature and of wondrous import. 
 What was true in regard to his history seems to be very little, 
 but what was told of him, and his conversations with his dis- 
 ciples, forms a considerable body of literature. He wrote 
 nothing, and no part of his numerous conversations was put 
 into writing while he was alive, though he lived to the age of 
 eighty, and frequently preached to, and conversed with, his 
 disciples. After his death his sayings and his sermons were 
 remembered and put into written form. His frequent repeti- 
 tions, forming a large part of what he had to say, evidently 
 greatly facilitated this process of reducing his words to writ- 
 ing. These works are numerous, and comprise, as they now 
 exist, two groups of books, those in Pali, known as the lesser 
 vehicle or Hinayana, and those in Sanscrit, known as the 
 greater vehicle or Mahayana. The first of these is that of 
 southern Buddhism, as found in Ceylon; and is regarded as 
 giving more correctly than the other the teachings of the 
 Buddha. The Mahayana represents the new or accommodated 
 
 [246] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 type of Buddhism, that modified and adapted to the needs of 
 the more northern nations, such as the Chinese, who have 
 adulterated the teachings of Lord Buddha to harmonize with 
 their earlier forms of religion. Chinese Buddhism has been 
 drawn from many sources, not only from India, but also from 
 Persia, central Asia, perhaps from Babylonia, and even from 
 more western lands. 
 
 The remarkable resemblances between Buddhism and 
 Christianity have puzzled many persons; but they may be 
 best accounted for by that process of diffusion of cults and 
 faiths referred to at the beginning of this chapter. Recent 
 writers on Japanese and Chinese Buddhism have recognized 
 that these resemblances have not been the result of direct bor- 
 rowing, but of that process of the diffusion of religious rites 
 and beliefs which has gone on widely throughout the world, 
 and especially so in the period when the great religions were 
 in process of evolution. Lloyd, an Anglican missionary in 
 Japan, says in his Creed of Half Japan, in explaining the re- 
 semblances between the two religions, that "it is perhaps 
 enough to recognize that these thoughts were in the air." 
 Timothy Richard, a missionary in China, says in The Awak- 
 ening of Faith, that "these common doctrines of new Bud- 
 dhism and Christianity were not borrowed from one another, 
 but both came from the common source." He regards this 
 common source as Babylonia, and adds that from "this centre 
 those great life-giving inspiring truths were carried like seeds 
 into both the East and the West, where they were somewhat 
 modified under different conditions." To the same effect is 
 the statement of Reginald Fleming Johnston, in Buddhist 
 
 [247] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 China, where he says that both religions "had access to the 
 same sources of doctrinal inspiration sources which in them- 
 selves were not specifically either Christian or Buddhist." 
 "We may admit, " he says again, "the possibility that some 
 of the characteristic doctrines shared by Christianity and the 
 Mahay ana such as the efficacy of belief in divine or super- 
 human saviors incarnating themselves in man's form for the 
 world's salvation were partly drawn from sources to which 
 the builders of both religions had equally ready access. We 
 may accept the view that each of these creeds incorporated 
 certain ideas which had long fascinated the religious imagina- 
 tion of a considerable portion of south-western Asia." 
 
 Johnston has pointed out, in this work on Buddhist China, 
 some of the particulars in which Buddhism and Christianity 
 resemble each other, as the result of their dependence on the 
 same common sources for their origin. Jesus and Sakyamuni 
 were both deified, not at first, but as the result of the growth 
 of their religions, and their contact with other faiths. Bud- 
 dhism emphasized the efficacy of faith as much as has ever 
 been done by Protestant Christianity and especially in 
 China. Some of the Mahayanist sects have regarded it as all- 
 important. "Faith in Amitabha [the source of all the sub- 
 sequent Buddhas] is of itself sufficient to ensure an eventual 
 birth in his heaven, and without faith good works are of no 
 avail ; but the candidate who has virtue and good works to his 
 credit, as well as a strong faith, will be placed in a higher 
 class than one who has gained paradise through faith alone." 
 
 The repetition of the name of Amitabha, the supreme 
 Buddha, is of great efficacy in securing salvation; and in this 
 respect some of the more ignorant Christians seem to agree in 
 their frequent repetition of the names of Christ, the Virgin 
 Mary, or the saints. To the Buddhist the lotos is a symbol 
 
 [248] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 regarded in quite the same manner as the Christian does the 
 cross. The Buddhist believes that the severest punishment of 
 the sinner consists in his exclusion from the presence of Bud- 
 dha, just as some Christians maintain that the real pain of hell 
 consists in exclusion from the vision of God. The Buddha is 
 not to be judged from the historical point of view, for he is 
 above all that belongs to time; and the Christian maintains 
 that Christ was from all eternity, that he was eternally one 
 with the Father. 
 
 The Christian mystics have frequently presented the idea 
 that heaven is a condition of unity with God, in which all that 
 is selfish, merely individual, and of an earthly nature, is 
 sloughed off, and only what is of the nature of pure personality 
 is retained. The Buddhist mystic holds to the same concep- 
 tion of the future life. " Nirvana is a state of blissful tranquil- 
 lity attainable in this life (not necessarily terminable with this 
 life), and is conditioned by a passing away of all egoistic lusts 
 and cravings." The Buddhists greatly resemble the Christians 
 of the earlier types in their fondness for pilgrimages; but this 
 development has been common to all the higher religions. 
 
 In one of the Chinese sacred books Maya, the mother of 
 Sakyamuni, is called the "Holy Mother," and she is also men- 
 tioned as "the eternal Mother of all the Buddhas." However, 
 by most Buddhists, Maya is regarded as of an exceptional 
 purity and holiness, but she is not called a divinity. In China 
 she is sometimes identified with the Taoist "Queen of 
 Heaven." There has developed in China, nevertheless, a pro- 
 nounced faith in a female deity of the highest importance, 
 who is regarded by the Chinese Buddhist as superior to all 
 other divinities. This is Kuanyin, known to Europeans as the 
 "Goddess of Mercy." She is an idealization of motherhood in 
 quite the same manner as the Virgin Mary is an almost exactly 
 
 [249] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 similar idealization. "She has gained popularity because the 
 ideal is one which touches people's emotions and lessens the 
 gap between the merely human and the unapproachable di- 
 vine." This female deity is merciful, loving, motherly, tend- 
 erly caring for and consoling those who call upon her. The 
 Chinese speak of her as the "One who looks upon the world and 
 hears its cries. " "If any living creature who is in trouble or 
 in pain addresses a prayer to this pusa [divine being], and in 
 true faith calls upon her name, then will the pusa immediately 
 hearken to his cries and bring him deliverance from his woes. 
 If any living creature clings for support to the potent name 
 of Kuanyin, he may be thrown into a raging furnace, but the 
 flames will leave him unscathed ; he may be in peril from sharp 
 swords, but the steel will break in pieces ; he may be in danger 
 of death from drowning, but the blessed pusa will come to his 
 rescue and set him in a place of shallow waters. " It is quite 
 apparent that Mary and Kuanyin have many close resem- 
 blances, though the one may have derived nothing directly 
 from the other. 
 
 Although Buddhism was obliged to abandon the mainland 
 of India, and the regions of its origin and early developments, 
 many centuries ago, it has lost little of its vigor; and yet re- 
 mains the dominant religion of Siam, Burma, Tibet, China, 
 and Japan, and most of the countries of eastern Asia. When 
 westerners have come into contact with it, who are ready to 
 study, to understand, and to appreciate its merits, it has been 
 received with enthusiasm. In a number of books and espe- 
 cially in that entitled The Soul of a People, Henry Fielding- 
 Hall has written most eloquently on, and appreciatively of, 
 Buddhism as he found it in Siam. The charm of it, the gra- 
 ciousness it develops in those who truly accept it, and the in- 
 ward peace and outward harmony it cultivates, Fielding-Hall 
 
 [250] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 has described in a manner to delight a great number of readers. 
 If they have not been inclined to turn Buddhist, they have 
 certainly gained a more appreciative acquaintance with one of 
 the world's greatest religions. 
 
 II 
 
 Christianity, which comes next in historic order, was more 
 largely influenced in its formation by social and cultural con- 
 ditions than any of the other great religions. This was due 
 to the fact that it originated in the midst of wide-reaching en- 
 vironing influences, which brought it to the very focus of most 
 of the great developing conditons of the Mediterranean world. 
 As we have seen, the Jews were in touch with many parts of 
 the world about them, and through their borders passed the 
 great armies, along their shores wended much of the com- 
 merce, which the world knew in the time when Christianity 
 took its rise. Greek culture and civilization were gathered 
 about the sea of Galilee, in Jerusalem was a seat of Roman 
 government, along the Mediterranean coast were those great 
 centers of commercial activity, Tyre and Sidon, and north- 
 eastward not far distant was the civilization of Syria, which 
 was then under Roman dominion. 
 
 Probably no other great religion was less influenced by its 
 founder than was Christianity, for about him, as about the 
 Buddha, gathered legend, folk-tale, and myth. We have but 
 to read the books called the Apochrapha to realize to what an 
 extent they correspond to the similar legends which gathered 
 about the beginnings of Buddhism. If the Buddha was some- 
 times assumed to be virgin-born, and wonders attended his 
 advent into the world, they were not surpassed by those which 
 accumulated about the Christ, the anointed or heavenly en- 
 
 [251] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 dowed, as Buddha was the enlightened. Marvels, displays of 
 the supernatural and miraculous, predictions and anticipations 
 of a marvellous birth, belonged to the one as to the other. If 
 the mother of Christ was declared to be of virgin-birth, and 
 brought forth so as to be afterwards known and accepted as 
 the Mother of God, something of the same kind attended the 
 birth of Buddha. 
 
 In the ages when these founders came into the world, such 
 portents and supernatural displays were accepted as necessary 
 to give credit to any great man; and not merely those with 
 whom new religions originated. Miracles were thought to 
 insure the divine origin of the men so attested, though to-day 
 it demands a Buddha and a Christ to give sanction to the 
 miracles. Many Christians now assert that miracles cannot 
 take place, that they give no credit to religious truths, and 
 that their presentation shows a tendency far too great to- 
 wards what is superstitious, incredible, and unbelievable. No 
 truth gains in any degree by their presence, or any claim made 
 in connection with them. 
 
 An intimate study of the age and environment in which 
 Christianity arose shows that it was supersaturated with the 
 supernatural, that it was seeking for something incredible 
 and marvellous, that it was in a condition of mind fit for the 
 reception of a religion based on the miraculous and magical. 
 The old animism and fetishism had not been wholly sloughed 
 off, but were too often received as if they were worthy of the 
 most vigorous reception. Not all men were of this type, nor 
 was the whole of the civilization of the world given to the 
 ready acceptance of the miraculous or inclined to see portents 
 in the heavens, marvels in every passing phase of the sky. 
 Those who may be inclined to open Pliny's Natural History 
 will find abundant evidence in regard to the mental attitude 
 
 [252] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 of the time. In the Metamorphoses of Apuleius may be found 
 many a hint as to what was the religion of even cultivated men 
 in the Syria of the days of the advent of Christianity. It is 
 not to be forgotten that the emperors of Rome were divine men, 
 and that they were saluted as sons of god. They were wor- 
 shipped, the worst of them as well as the best. It did not seem 
 ridiculous that such men should be regarded as gods, and 
 prayed to for cures and for divine aid. Wherever there was a 
 man bold enough to claim that he was a prophet or a god, 
 from wherever he may have come, or whatever his character, 
 the crowd received him on the basis of his own assertions. The 
 records of the age tell us of many such, that they were gladly 
 welcomed, and that the bolder the claims the more honor was 
 given to the one coming forward in this manner. 
 
 It has been claimed that the Buddha described in the 
 sacred books of early Buddhism could not have lived, that the 
 stories told of him are too largely constituted of the incredible 
 to have any authentic historic basis. The same claim is made 
 in regard to Christ, and by an increasing number of the ablest 
 scholars. Undoubtedly archaeological material has been found 
 of one kind or another authenticating one or another event in 
 the early history of Christianity, that manuscripts in consider- 
 able numbers have come to light in recent years validating 
 various events ; but these cannot be taken as support for beliefs 
 that depend not on such materials as these, but on their con- 
 formity or nonconformity with reason and the nature of man. 
 
 We may accept it as probable, perhaps as certain, that 
 there appeared in Palestine, at about the time of the origin 
 of Christianity, a prophet or reformer, who claimed to answer 
 
 [253] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 to the Jewish conception of the messiah. It is by no means in- 
 credible that such an enthusiast should make the assertion that 
 he was the promised one sent of God to redeem his people, and 
 that his claim should be widely accepted. More than one such 
 reformer and claimant appeared in Jewish history; and that 
 a certain Jesus or Joshua made such claim is by no means in- 
 credible, or that he should be a peasant, a carpenter or other 
 artisan. As we have seen, this was a time in which the artisan 
 world was awakening religiously, as well as socially. Those 
 who claim that in its early developments Christianity was 
 largely an artisan movement are by no means unlikely to be 
 correct; but, on the other hand, their contention may be ac- 
 cepted as most probable. Not only the traditions in regard to 
 the occupation followed by Jesus, and the other traditions, 
 which connected the early Christians with the working-class, 
 rather than with those who were prosperous and educated, 
 would possibly point in this direction. Naturally enough, it 
 was not those trained in all the wisdom of the time, who had 
 come into closest touch with the older learning, and who were 
 connected with the higher social and political interests, who 
 would first turn for satisfaction to the new religion. Not 
 many in high social circles, came into the company of the first 
 converts ; but, rather, the poor, the manual workers, the artisan 
 class, were found in the first believing circles. Sinee Jesus ap- 
 pealed especially to the poor, to the outcast, to those broken 
 by life's conflicts and struggles, it is most likely that these 
 persons and these classes first drew towards the consolations 
 he offered. His condemnation of the rich and the prosperous 
 would give support to the same conclusion, though it is now 
 these same classes who most zealously seek the religion offered 
 in his name. 
 
 The claim is frequently made that Christianity is the 
 
 [254] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 greatest of all the religions of the world, that it is most in 
 harmony with the more advanced civilizations, and that it is 
 divinest in its nature. The old assertion was that it alone is 
 true, and that all other religions are false. Many of its advo- 
 cates and defenders to-day, however, are ready to admit that 
 there is good in the other great religions, and that they pre- 
 sent much of truth to those who accept them. Some will go 
 so far, even, as to assert that in Buddhism and Islam salvation 
 may be found, perhaps not so perfectly, but quite as surely as 
 in Christianity. 
 
 It is evident that the exclusive claim in behalf of Christian- 
 ity grows out of the spirit of sectarianism, and is defended with 
 metaphysical rather than with historical evidence. It may 
 satisfy those who are concerned to uphold that with which 
 they are familiar, and that which has traditional associations 
 with childhood and youth ; but it can be of little importance to 
 those who truly desire to find what is the truth, and who have 
 no other end in view in their investigations. 
 
 Starting forth in our quest for the facts, we soon discover 
 that Christianity, as in the instances of all other religions, has 
 its historic basis in the religions which preceded it, and in the 
 mental attitude of the age which produced it. About every 
 phase of its early history folk-lore, legend, and myth gather; 
 and they cling there with the utmost tenacity. J. G. Frazer has 
 published three big volumes on Folk-Lore in the Old Testa- 
 ment, and he has by no means exhausted the subject. As 
 many and as large volumes might be written in regard to 
 folk-lore in the New Testament, and in the history of the first 
 ! two centuries of Christianity. The Apocrapha alone would fill 
 
 [255] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 more than one of these volumes, and it ought to indicate what 
 was the mental atmosphere in which Christianity had its 
 origin. 
 
 In the introduction to the present chapter it has been in- 
 dicated to what an extent the ancient religions were influenced 
 by common traditions, legends, myths, and beliefs, which 
 spread throughout western Asia and eastern Europe. " Ideas 
 are propagated from school to school and teacher to teacher/' 
 says Percy Gardner, "less often by direct borrowing which 
 comes of admiration than by the parallel working of similar 
 forces in various minds. When ideas are in the air, as the say- 
 ing is, men catch them by a sort of infection, and often without 
 any notion whence they came." 
 
 We have seen how this process operated in the formation 
 of the new or Mahayana Buddhism, especially as it appears in 
 China. Undoubtedly the same process went on in the forma- 
 tion of Christianity, which had its basis in Judaism, but which 
 was also influenced from Babylonia, Persia, Syria, Asia Minor, 
 and Greece. Back of it had been growing for many centuries 
 throughout all Asia, and along the Mediterranean lands, those 
 rites and beliefs which finally culminated in the Christianity 
 of the fourth and fifth centuries. The sources were many, 
 working together in the background of history, rarely coming 
 out into a definite presentation; but none the less effectively 
 growing up the .religion which the modern western world re- 
 gards as the best mankind has as yet come to know. Every 
 phase of Christian rite and belief has been affected by this 
 prehistoric or this subconscious back-ground of developing 
 religious feeling and thought. 
 
 Writing of the manner in which religions in the ancient 
 world influence each other, R. F. Johnston, in his Buddhist 
 China, says that "it is now a matter of common knowledge 
 
 [256] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 that Christianity and Mithraism were in many respects amaz- 
 ingly alike; yet the best authorities assure us that at the root 
 of those two religions 'lay a common eastern origin [Persian 
 and Babylonian] rather than any borrowing/ ' To the same 
 effect is Louis Duchesne, in his Early History of the Christian 
 Church, where he says that "the religion of Mithras contained 
 elements in theology, morality, ritual, and in its doctrine 
 of the end of all things bearing a strange resemblance to 
 Christianity." Not only is this true of Mithraism, in so far 
 as we know it to-day; but in no inconsiderable measure the 
 same statements will apply to a great number of religious 
 movements and sectarian developments preceding and follow- 
 ing the beginnings of Christianity. Regarded as heresies by 
 the church, and condemned to extinction in the selective pro- 
 cesses going on in the later periods of the Roman empire, yet 
 they all testify to that teeming religious life of the period, and 
 the working together of many forces to the making of 
 Christianity. 
 
 The development of Mithraism affords an excellent il- 
 lustration of the manner in which religion was growing and 
 extending itself, in this period when Christianity was origin- 
 ating. Originating in India, modified in Persia, gaining new 
 elements in Babylonia, it passed onward into the Roman em- 
 pire, where it acquired little or nothing, but became for a time 
 the leading religion. As in the instance of early Christianity, 
 it was largely accepted by the humbler classes, and especially by 
 the soldiers in the Roman armies. Its appeal was that of a medi- 
 ator between suffering humanity and the inaccessible god of all 
 being. "The rapid advance of Mithraism," says Grant Shower- 
 man in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 
 "was due to its human qualities. Its communities were bound 
 together by a sense of close fraternal relation. Its democracy 
 
 [257] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 obliterated the distinctions between rich and poor; slave and 
 senator became subject to the same rule, eligible for the same 
 honors, partook of the same communion, and were interred in 
 the same type of sepulchre, to await the same resurrection." 
 Showerman says that the resemblances between the two reli- 
 gions were very numerous, and he proceeds to indicate what 
 they were: 
 
 "The fraternal and democratic spirit of the first com- 
 munities, and their humble origin; the identification of the 
 object of adoration with light and with the sun; the legends 
 of the shepherds with their gifts and adoration, the flood, and 
 the ark ; the representation in art of the fiery chariot, the draw- 
 ing of water from the rock; the use of bell and candle, holy 
 water and the communion; the sanctification of Sunday and 
 the 25th of December; the insistence on moral conduct, the 
 emphasis placed upon abstinence and self-control ; the doctrine 
 of heaven and hell, of primitive revelation, of the mediation 
 of the Logos emanating from the divine, the atoning sacrifice, 
 the constant warfare between good and evil and the final tri- 
 umph of the former, the immortality of the soul, the last judg- 
 ment, the resurrection of the flesh and the fiery destruction of 
 the universe are some of the resemblances which, whether 
 real or only apparent, enabled Mithraism to prolong its re- 
 sistance to Christianity. " Showerman adds that at their 
 source is a common eastern origin. 
 
 Undoubtedly there were wide differences between the two 
 religons, some of them of a fundamental nature. Looking at 
 their resemblances, however, it is evident at once that they 
 reached back into other religions, and that they came from a 
 somewhat remote past. A goodly number of them may be 
 found interpreted in Frazer's work on the Folk-Lore of the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 [258] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 In the Hibbert Lectures of 1888, on the Influence of Greek 
 Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, Edwin Hatch 
 has pointed out the large degree to which Christianity was 
 affected by Greek custom and thought. Many of the 
 higher natures in the Greek world were drawn into Christian- 
 ity by the kinship of ideas. In the western communities 
 Christianity took over the greater part of the Greek inherit- 
 ance, and it formed the basis of the later creeds. To a con- 
 siderable extent, also, Christianity was influenced by the 
 mysteries growing out of the earliest religious developments in 
 Greece. " During the earliest centuries of Christianity, " says 
 Hatch, "the mysteries, and the religious societies which were 
 akin to the mysteries, existed on an enormous scale throughout 
 the eastern part of the empire. There were elements in some 
 of them from which Christianity recoiled, and against which 
 the Christian apologists use the language of strong invective. 
 But, on the other hand, the majority of them had the same 
 aims as Christianity itself the aim of worshipping a pure 
 God, the aim of living a pure life, and the aim of cultivating 
 the spirit of brotherhood. They were part of a great religious 
 revival which distinguished the age." 
 
 Hatch points out rather conclusively, that to a very large 
 degree Christian ritual, and the manner of ecclesiastical or- 
 ganization, were influenced by the mysteries. In the origin 
 and early history of Christianity it was profoundly influenced 
 by the common religious development which had been pro- 
 ceeding in Asia for many centuries; but in its later develop- 
 ments it owed very much to Greek thought and ritual and 
 custom. 
 
 To the same effect is the statement of F. Crawford Burkitt, 
 in his book on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, in which 
 
 [259] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 he says: "The period between the eras of Alexander the Great 
 and the Emperor Constantine, those six centuries during which 
 Christianity grew up, was an age of syncretism, of the mingling 
 of religions, a period during which European civilization was 
 especially influenced by Oriental beliefs. It was the age of the 
 Mystery-religions, the religions of Isis, of Mithra, of Attis. The 
 dominant philosophies, as we are more and more coming to see, 
 were the result of the blending of Greek thought with Oriental 
 beliefs and teachings. Oriental Astrology was in itself a re- 
 ligious philosophy; it was an attempt to formulate the influ- 
 ences which to a certain degree moulded the lives of all the 
 dwellers under the roof of heaven. " 
 
 Biblical scholars have now come to emphasize the fact that 
 there was no real break between the Old and the New Testa- 
 ment, that there was at this time no period of silence, and none 
 when religion was not in an active process of growth. This is 
 proven by any genuine study of the Old Testament Apocrapha 
 and the other Jewish literature of the period, this statement 
 especially applying to the works of Philo. The change from 
 Judaism to Christianity was distinctly the result of those power- 
 ful syncretist movements which were transforming all the re- 
 ligions of the age, and acting as a ferment in the creation of 
 the new faith. In no period of the ancient world was there 
 in operation such an active process of the transfusion anc 
 amalgamation of rituals and beliefs. The Jews were greatly 
 influenced by their contact with the religions of Babylonia and 
 Persia, as they were to a lesser extent by those of Egypt, Greece 
 and Anatolia. At Tarsus, where Paul, the real founder of 
 theological Christianity, had his early training, was a focus of 
 these many culture influences from both east and west. Alex- 
 andria, as already indicated, was another center of these world- 
 
 [200] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 developing tendencies, and there Philo lived and wrote. 
 A powerful intellectual, religious and ethical ferment was in 
 operation at this period; and it unified in considerable degree 
 all the religious developments of the ancient world. It brought 
 them to a focus in Christianity, the product of several centuries 
 of growing thought and belief. This was recognized by Augus- 
 tine in the first book, thirteenth chapter, of his Retractions, 
 where he says : * ' The very same thing which is now called Chris- 
 tianity existed among the ancients, and was not absent in the 
 beginning of mankind, until Christ himself appeared in the 
 flesh, whence the true religion, which already existed, began to 
 be called Christianity." 
 
 It is not necessary to ignore in any degree Jesus and his 
 personal influence in order to reach this conclusion; but it 
 does transfer the center of gravity from a personality to great 
 social forces operating through long periods of time and over 
 wide regions of the ancient world. In order to reach this con- 
 clusion it is not essential that we should dismiss to insignificance 
 the personality of Jesus and its effective operation. Both ten- 
 dencies must be recognized, it is very evident, if we would 
 fully understand the forces at work in the production of Chris- 
 tianity. Hitherto the culture tendencies, the social develop- 
 ments, the ethical movements, and the intellectual processes have 
 been almost wholly ignored in the attempts made to explain the 
 origin of Christianity. Now we are coming to see that no merely 
 personal influence could have been great enough to produce 
 this powerful movement had it not operated in the direction 
 of those world-wide tendencies which were focussed and con- 
 centrated in the new religion. In Christianity were culminated 
 the growth-processes of a thousand years of human evolution, 
 especially in the direction of ethical and religious developments. 
 
 [261] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 3 
 
 When we consider in a scientific spirit the claims made in 
 regard to the virgin birth of Jesus, we find that they have their 
 real basis in the corresponding stories in regard to the birth 
 of various divinities, as well as the great men of the ancient 
 world. When the claim was then made that a man was of 
 superior qualities of mind, that he possessed genius, it was as- 
 serted that he had been supernaturally born. 
 
 Such a claim was not exceptional, reserved for only a few 
 of the divinest persons ; but was very commonly made, as often 
 as is now that in behalf of individual genius. In the three vol- 
 umes of The Legend of Perseus, Sidney Hartland has 
 brought together a great number of such legends and folk-tales, 
 proving beyond doubt that such births were accepted as com- 
 mon, as in a degree natural, and to be found everywhere, es- 
 pecially wherever men rose to any prominence in the several 
 walks of life. In the concluding chapter of his highly inter- 
 esting and instructive work, Hartland says: "The super- 
 natural birth we found related in various forms, not merely 
 for amusement, but as sober fact, over so large an area of the 
 world as to justify the belief that it was universal. Every 
 nation has its heroes; and in the popular mind the mightier 
 the hero, the greater the need for providing him with a worthy 
 entrance upon his mortal existence/ 7 As we have already seen, 
 the intent of animism gives warrant to the notion of super- 
 natural birth; and this idea is supported by the theory of 
 transmigration, as well as by that of the fathering or mother- 
 ing of children by divine personages. This was no casual idea 
 of the ancient world, but one of daily occurrence as an inter- 
 pretation of every form of genius and authority. 
 
 Only one conclusion could be reached by such an extended 
 
 [262] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 study as that given to the subject by Hartland, which he pre- 
 sents in this form: "If these legends be universal, if they 
 must be rejected in every case but one as the product of an in- 
 evitable tendency of human imagination, then why not in that 
 one case also? Assuredly that one case can be regarded as 
 exceptional, only if it stand upon historical evidence totally 
 different in kind from the others, and of inevitable cogency. 
 But can anyone who sits down (as it is the duty at least of 
 every educated man to do) calmly and, so far as he can, with 
 scrupulous impartiality to weigh the evidence, say that the 
 testimony of ecclesiastical tradition, or even of our Gospels, 
 is different in kind from, or of greater cogency than, that 
 which we reject, without hesitation, in the case of Sakyamuni, 
 or of Alexander the Great?" 
 
 This statement in regard to the virgin birth of Christ is 
 that of a scientific investigator into the origins of folk-customs 
 and beliefs, and into the causes developing those great funda- 
 mental ideas which lie at the bases of all religions. We may, 
 therefore, properly turn to a Biblical critic, one of the ablest 
 of our time, T. K. Cheyne, in his little book on Bible Problems. 
 He regards the birth-story as being borrowed from Babylonia, 
 and, modified or supported, from Egypt. "It arose, " he said, 
 "out of a misunderstood title which originally implied some- 
 thing very far from the thoughts of Christians, and the nar- 
 rative, to a historic and therefore reverent mind, is by no means 
 disparaged if taken to stand in some connection with the Egyp- 
 tion theory of the divine generation of kings, and the Philonian 
 belief in the divine generation of certain favored personages 
 of the Old Testament. " On a succeeding page he says that the 
 legend is a Christian transformation of a primitive story, de- 
 rived ultimately, in all probability, from Babylonia, which has 
 
 [ 263 ] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 passed through an oriental phase, a Jewish phase, and then a 
 Jewish-Christian phase. He defends this manner of interpret- 
 ing the birth-legend by saying that it was a means of express- 
 ing the ancient longings of the human heart for a redeemer of 
 men from the evils incident to a human world. When we find 
 that it was precisely for a similar reason that Buddha was as- 
 sumed to have been virgin-born, and that supernatural events 
 attended his birth, we are in a position to estimate the Christian 
 narratives correctly. 
 
 When we press our inquiries a stage further on, and dis- 
 cover that the virgin-birth leads the way to the doctrine of 
 the incarnation, and that the two are intimately related to 
 each other, we are prepared for estimating the latter belief 
 historically. What we find is, that the conception of in- 
 carnation is nearly, if not quite, as wide-spread as that of the 
 virgin-birth, and that it arose from the same or similar causes. 
 What we have already seen in previous chapters, that the gods 
 might be born into human form, and that gods might be the 
 fathers or mothers of human children, prepares us for the re- 
 cognition of the idea of incarnation as characteristic of most 
 religions, and as having no exclusive connection with Christianity. 
 
 The belief in incarnation began at a very early period, 
 and may be traced through the religions of the American 
 aborigines and those of Polynesia, up through all the higher 
 religions ; in those which are fetishistic and polytheistic, onward, 
 to those which have become distinctly monotheistic. When a 
 god assumes the form of a man or even of an animal, incarna- 
 tion has taken place; and such transformation of the higher 
 
 [264] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 into the lower is practically universal in all the more primitive 
 religions. 
 
 Turning to the eleven articles on incarnation in the En- 
 cyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, evidence enough appears 
 to convince the unprejudiced mind, that the belief in incarna- 
 tion is in no sense peculiar to Christianity; but that it was 
 introduced into that religion because it was essentially known 
 to all the religions to be found in the civilized world when 
 Christianity came into existence. The founders of Christianity 
 probably did not reason to any great extent about this belief, 
 but found it in existence, and unconsciously (perhaps we may 
 say subconsciously) accepted it as necessary to any religion in 
 that age which had meaning and purpose. That it should re- 
 main the cardinal doctrine of Christianity to our day proves 
 to what an extent even the highest religions are based in myth 
 and in the traditional. 
 
 The extraordinary conservatism of religion carries for- 
 ward such a belief as this, which roots back undoubtedly into 
 the most primitive conceptions ; and enables men of the largest 
 knowledge and powers of reasoning to cling to it with the ut- 
 most insistance on its value and its truthfulness. 
 
 In the Buddhist sacred books we may find in fullest details 
 the story of the incarnation of the Buddha. He is not soiled 
 by birth, his mother was a pure virgin, and he was therefore an 
 incarnation of a heavenly being. Many of the Christian specu- 
 lations in regard to the incarnation of Christ may be found in 
 quite similar statements regarding that of Buddha; and the 
 authenticity of the one seems to be as great as that of the 
 other, so far as history throws any light on the subject. 
 
 According to A. Wiedemann, incarnation in the religion 
 of Egypt was very common, though not distinctly in the form 
 known to Christianity. On the Egyptian theory he says: 
 
 [265] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ' ' The king was regarded as of divine origin, and even as a god. 
 In this aspect, however, he was not merely the incarnate form 
 of a particular deity, but was a new addition to the pantheon 
 one who, clothed in a human form, and born of a human mother, 
 lived as a man amongst men, and yet could associate with other 
 gods on a footing of perfect equality. " Likewise in Greece 
 and Rome persons of superior talent, and kings, whether they 
 had any talent or not, were regarded as incarnate gods. Plato, 
 when he had attained to fame, was described as the son of 
 Apollo, not merely by way of flattery or in a poetical sense, 
 but as a truth authenticated by innumerable other instances 
 of a similar origin. In the older religions of India incarnation 
 is a fundamental tenet, and widely, if not universally, accepted 
 by all classes of the population. In the Bhagavat-gita Krishna 
 appears as an incarnation of Vishnu; and in that form he sets 
 forth to much length the mystic faith which forms such a 
 striking feature of that work one of the episodes in the 
 great epic, the Mahabharatta. Krishna here appears as a 
 man, but is also the Supreme God, incarnate in manlike form. 
 In so many ways is Krishna of Christlike type, and especially 
 is there a great resemblance, in that work, at least in some 
 respects, to the teachings of Jesus, that some Christian scholars 
 have been puzzled by it, and have tried to show that Christian 
 influence had been at work in India, in order that this similar- 
 ity might be explained. Why not merely assume that similar 
 causes produce similar results in different regions? 
 
 5 
 
 The doctrine of atonement or expiation is also to be found 
 in all religions which have passed beyond the most primitive 
 phases of development. Wherever it has reached the stage of 
 
 [266] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 requiring a reconciliation between an offended god and offend- 
 ing man, the doctrine of sin is implied. This phase of it is not 
 to be found in the very early religions, at least only in an em- 
 bryonic expression. The reconciliation is rather between man 
 and man, as where one injures or takes the life of another, in 
 the instance of blood-feud. Here it is customary that the per- 
 son who injures another shall make restitution, giving as much 
 as he has taken. If a life is taken then a life must be sur- 
 rendered, but not necessarily that of the offender. The family 
 of the injured become his avengers, and under the earlier 
 forms of custom, exact to the uttermost. In time compensa- 
 tion in goods or money might be made, and reconciliation might 
 be thus effected. 
 
 The forms of sacrifice already mentioned, indicate that 
 there was an effort from a very early time to secure the favor 
 of the dead; and this led on to seeking the aid of the gods. 
 When morality had advanced to a stage where it was thought 
 that the dead might be offended by the actions of men, and 
 more especially when it was assumed that the gods would be 
 inclined to look on the deeds of men with approval or con- 
 demnation, there gradually developed from the primitive con- 
 ceptions of sacrifice, that larger one of the offering to these 
 divine personages of what would appease them, and bring 
 about a reconciliation. Here we may find the origin of the be- 
 lief in God as capable of looking with dislike upon the ^vil 
 deeds of men, and of demanding an expiation for them. 
 
 In all religions and cultures we find the idea of a culture- 
 hero, one sacrificing himself, as in the case of Prometheus, for 
 the good of mankind. In this instance, the hero combats the 
 gods in behalf of man ; but in many others he works with the 
 gods to give men advantages they could not otherwise obtain. 
 The cereals, the cults, the higher rituals, the medicines by 
 
 [267] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 which men are healed, are brought to men at the sacrifice of 
 something on the part of those higher beings who give them 
 benefits. Even such a people as the Iroquois believed in a 
 cosmic being who gave his own life that the world might come 
 into existence, that from his body might be produced plants 
 and animals, and that his life might nourish the life of man. 
 
 In most of the more advanced religions, such as the Baby- 
 lonian, Indian, and others in a like stage of evolution, the the- 
 ory of sin was that based on magic, and the power of the evil 
 thus expressed was supposed to work harm to man. In the 
 overcoming of such evils the aid of the gods or of superior 
 beings was desirable; and they gave their aid through the 
 priest and the ritual. All the processes of ritual surrender of 
 what men held to be of value, was of the nature of an atone- 
 ment ; and it was made effective by means of the aid of the di- 
 vine beings. Brahmanism sought expiation in the form of 
 penance, and this is the meaning of dharma, obedience to the 
 law of duty and right conduct, ethical as well as ceremonial. 
 
 These statements may hint at the manner in which the 
 doctrine of expiation or atonement came to have its origin. It 
 has had a very long evolution, and probably has not as yet 
 reached the culmination of its development. The idea of re- 
 conciliation, of harmonizing, of securing unity and concord 
 between human individuals, and then between these individuals 
 and the higher powers, is one that can hardly be said to have 
 had an historic origin or one that can be definitely determined. 
 In its various stages it has been with man from the very be- 
 ginning, so far as we can now see. The Christian idea of it 
 is somewhat more advanced than those which preceded it, 
 and it is itself undergoing a process of rapid change. 
 
 Two questions present themselves, when we attempt an 
 historic study of the doctrine of atonement. First, why should 
 
 [268] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 God be offended with man, and seek to punish him or need to 
 have him seek reconciliation? Secondly, why is the sin man 
 commits of a nature or extent to excite the wrath of God, and 
 make desirable man's search for reconciliation? A study of 
 these problems, thus presented, brings us to the conclusion 
 that the god or gods demanding such reconciliation are reflec- 
 tions of human kings, who make similar demands, and punish 
 severely their subjects for any offences against them, even 
 those which are quite minute. To conciliate a king requires 
 flattery, the giving of money or slaves, or the rendering of 
 some service he will value. Otherwise he will cast the offender 
 into the hell (or dungeon) deep under his palace or his castle. 
 To propitiate, to seek reconciliation, to make great sacrifices 
 for life and liberty, are naturally offered by men offending 
 such great personages. Carry this situation up to the relations 
 of men with their god, and we have a true picture of what 
 happened when men thought they had offended deity. They 
 were willing to surrender every thing in order that their sins 
 might be expiated, and that the smile of the god might be se- 
 cured again. 
 
 It was quite natural that primitive men should think that 
 sickness, loss of crops, or death of their friends, was the result 
 of their having offended a fetish, an ancestor or a god. In 
 order that they might put aside the offense, and secure favor 
 once more, they surrendered what was to them precious. In 
 the Hebrew legend Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son 
 in order that his god might no longer look upon him in anger. 
 The story marks a growth in the idea of sacrifice as a means of 
 appeasing an offended god, in that the sacrifice of human be- 
 ings, very common in all the early ages, was surrendered by 
 the god for an animal. Later on contrition and repentance 
 
 [269] 
 
I 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 took the place of the animal; and the materialistic forms of 
 sacrifice largely disappeared. 
 
 Atonement is an expiation for sin. The god is holy, when 
 ethical ideas have reached a high stage of advancement; and 
 he demands holy worshippers. If they are not holy, free from 
 sins, they offend him, and must seek to appease him. We see 
 the beginnings of this idea in tabu; and sin is an advanced 
 stage of that primitive conception. What it implies is not that 
 men neglect social duties, that they do injury to other indi- 
 viduals, that they fail to regard the great ethical results of 
 human experience or that they disregard the institutions of 
 the state; but that they fail to regard a highly metaphysical 
 demand on the part of God. Sin as theologically conceived is 
 an extreme form of tabu, not as required by a chief or a king, 
 but as insisted upon by deity. That one should seek inward 
 purity, fidelity to one's own conscience, and loyalty to the 
 highest ideal of manhood, is desirable ; but what the Christian 
 conception of sin means is an utter abnegation of self in the 
 desire to reach a state of holiness or of absolute loyalty to God. 
 
 As just indicated, such a standard is metaphysical and not 
 practical. What characterizes it is disregard for human wel- 
 fare, and an absence of the humanitarian spirit, in those who 
 most ardently demand that all persons shall attain this stand- 
 ard. Loyalty to God, if it has any meaning at all, is first of all 
 loyalty to man. Without the human fidelity the other has no 
 true ethical significance. Holiness is selfishness in disguise, 
 an attempt to disregard man in order to serve God. 
 
 Expiation, therefore, is likely to become ceremonial, a 
 form, a ritual. The more this phase of it is emphasized, the 
 less ethical does religion become, and the more routine are its 
 methods and its spirit. Nothing can truly take the place of 
 the ethical life; and the greater the emphasis on rites and 
 
 [270] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP EELIGION 
 
 ceremonies, the less is likely to be the practicality of the moral 
 conduct which results. 
 
 Regarding atonement from this point of view, it is to be 
 said of that assumed to be offered by the messiahs and christs 
 of the world, that it must be voluntary, and not official, in order 
 to have any permanent efficacy. George Eliot said that the 
 spectacle of Christ offering himself on the cross for the good 
 of others was the sublimest ideal presented to us in the whole 
 history of mankind. As an illustration of the spirit of self- 
 abnegation, of. self -surrender for the good of others, this view 
 of the story of the cross may be accepted as true and just. 
 It is doubtful, however, if it is in any degree nobler than the 
 turning back of Buddha from the attainment of Nirvana, in 
 order to aid others in finding the path to peace in the great 
 beyond. In the spirit of it, it is no greater than when a com- 
 mon man gives his life to rescue children from drowning or 
 women from a burning house. 
 
 The reason why many persons to-day are turning away 
 from the Christian conception of this sacrifice is that it makes 
 God but a kingly tyrant, and the sacrifice, at least as it is often 
 presented, bloody and brutal. The dwelling on the material- 
 istic features of the dying of Christ on the cross, whatever the 
 historical basis for the narrative, repulses thinking minds, 
 and takes from the story all its poetical beauty as a humani- 
 tarian act. 
 
 6 
 
 One other phase of Christianity must receive recognition, 
 and that is communion with God. Here again we find some- 
 thing universal, and not a sectarian phase of religious devel- 
 opment. The least civilized peoples, such as the American 
 
 [271] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 aborigines, the Fijians, and the negroes of Africa, all assume 
 that they, too, may have communion with their god. They may 
 seek it by means of magical rites, by means of fasts and con- 
 tinence, with ascetic practices, with the aid of dreams and 
 visions; but they believe they find it, and are as convinced of 
 it as is the Christian by processes known to his religion. By 
 the offering of food, by divination, by charms, by the aid of 
 amulets, the god of many peoples is sought; but the seeking 
 testifies that there is a felt want, and that there comes assur- 
 ance of response. In the higher religions ecstacy is thought 
 to indicate the presence of the god, and inspiration is believed 
 to be the gift vouchsafed to worthy devotees. The insight or 
 the intuition of prophetic minds marks, perhaps, a still higher 
 stage of the same process. In these and many other ways is 
 man brought into contact with God, and his mind thought to 
 be opened to heavenly truths. 
 
 Communion with God is also very often found in eating 
 with him, partaking of the food that has been consecrated to 
 his sustenance. Here also we have a long history, with many 
 phases, at the first crude in the extreme and purely materal- 
 istic. We have seen that food was placed on the graves of the 
 dead that they might have provision for their journey to the 
 other world. From this stage, through a great number of re- 
 finements, we advance to that where the very God himself is 
 eaten by the person who seeks communion with him. And that 
 brings in another element, which is that of the belief that the 
 individual takes into his system the virtues and the strength 
 of what belonged to the animal or the human being eaten. 
 Probably this idea lay at the basis of cannibalism, that in eating 
 the body of a strong man one becomes himself strong. In this 
 way, to partake of God, in however symbolical a manner, is 
 to become godlike. Behind all this, and within it, is the thought 
 
 [272] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 that in partaking of God physically we come to have his nature, 
 to become spiritual and holy as he is divine. It is true that 
 this rite largely loses its materialistic interpretation, and be- 
 comes spiritualized, as it were. It is accepted in a mystical 
 manner, and therefore appears to lose all or nearly all of its 
 grosser features. It never quite escapes, however, the ma- 
 terialistic origin with which it began. Refine it as we may, 
 the distinctly gross nature of its beginnings will forever cling 
 to it. 
 
 It having been stated already that animism and magic 
 survive into the higher and highest religions, it may be desir- 
 able here to indicate in what manner these appear in the 
 Christianity of the present day. (a) God is conceived of as a 
 personal will acting throughout the whole of the universe, and 
 controlling its forces according to his individual fiat. The 
 most modern conception of God is that of his immanence in 
 all nature and humanity, a life and law within all phenomena 
 of whatever kind. In many respects it is impossible to dis- 
 tinguish this from the idea of the American aborigines, that 
 there is in the world a universal spirit, a great Manitou or 
 Orenda. It is not surprising, therefore, that the first inter- 
 preters of American Indian ideas mistook this belief for that 
 of faith in a Great Spirit, very like the Christian's God. 
 
 (b) The Mass or Lord's Supper retains in large degree 
 animistic elements. The transformation of the material sub- 
 stance into spiritual power, has its close counterpart in the 
 animistic processes. Had it not been for animism, it is safe 
 to say, these rites would not have come into existence. The 
 primitive man believes that the food he places on a grave for 
 the ghost is eaten as to its spiritual substance. He believes 
 also that when he partakes of food consecrated to a god, that 
 this food becomes in him a spiritual renewal of his higher 
 
 [273] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 being. Here are the essential features of the Christian rites, 
 albeit in a crude form. Carry these up to a refined and spirit- 
 ualized interpretation, and we have the Christian rites in all 
 their significance. 
 
 (c) The Holy Ghost has been often recognized by an- 
 thropologists as having close affinities with the primitive ideas 
 of mana and manitou. The silent, subtle, pervasive, mysterious 
 action of this divine power is largely of the same impersonal 
 character. It is of close kin and positive descent from that of 
 the primitive manitou of primitive peoples in many parts of 
 the world. The third person of the Christian trinity passed 
 through several stages of development, as did the other mem- 
 bers of it. In its origin the trinity partook of the nature of a 
 family of father, mother and son, in which form it is to be 
 found in many countries, at several periods of human history, 
 and in several manifestations. The early Christians fre- 
 quently regarded the holy ghost as feminine, and as affording 
 the mother element in the triune godhead. The subtleties of 
 Greek philosophy turned the three individualities of the trin- 
 ity into abstractions rather than personalities, and in that man- 
 ner secured that there should be one in three, one person with 
 three manifestations. All these processes in creating the Chris- 
 tian God betray their affinities with the primitive phases of 
 thought as to the nature of the god. 
 
 In this connection it may not be out of place to say that 
 the reason why the chief personage in the Christian trinity 
 was recognized as male, and why the Christian world wor- 
 ships a Father as the supreme deity, is to be found in the ideas 
 in regard to generation which were everywhere accepted in 
 the ancient world. Aristotle in his Generation of Animals, 
 and in other works, said very distinctly that the origin of 
 life is from the father, who is the real causing agent in the 
 
 [274] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 production of the child. In the Code of Manu it is asserted 
 that the mother is but as the field in which the seed is sown, 
 fatherhood corresponding to the seed. In more philosophical 
 statement this is the assertion of Aristotle. The same view 
 of generation is to be found in China, in Egypt, and through- 
 out the whole ancient world where paternalism had been es- 
 tablished in the family and in social interpretations. Plato 
 voiced the same conception. It underlies the Christian, theory 
 of God, whether most conservative or most liberal. 
 
 The matriarchal conception of motherhood, however, lin- 
 gered on in the Christian manner of worshipping the feminine 
 principle in the virgin Mary as the Mother of God. Had it not 
 been for the acceptance of the Roman idea of the dominance 
 of the masculine in the family, in the state, and in religion, 
 Jt is not in the least impossible that the Mother rather than the 
 Father would have been regarded as at the head of the trinity 
 and the dominating spiritual force in the threefold deity. 
 
 It is not possible to pass by the resurrection of Christ as 
 a Christian dogma. No one can have studied it as it is presented 
 in the churches at the present time without recognizing to what 
 a great extent it has its basis in nature-symbolism, which is 
 even now largely retained in its presentation at each Easter 
 season. The awakening of nature in spring is regarded as typi- 
 cal of the arousing of man from the grave, and his ascent to 
 a higher life. When we turn back to this symbolism in the great 
 nature-religions of the world about the Mediterranean, as they 
 have already been presented in these pages, we cannot doubt 
 that the Christian conception of the resurrection of Christ had 
 its origin in these myths. Many of the details of it can be there 
 
 [275] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 duplicated, as that of the descent of Christ to the world of 
 the dead, in order to offer to them release from the thralldom 
 in which they were held. 
 
 As in the case of the other Christian dogmas mentioned, 
 this one was by no means new, but had been, and was, widely 
 accepted in the ancient world. Ancient legend is full of ac- 
 counts of the descent of the living into the other world out of 
 curiosity as to its nature and location, with the view of liber- 
 ating some one who had died or that some good might be ac- 
 complished for the denizens of that lower world. Then again, 
 ancient legend and myth have many a tale to tell of the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead to a renewal of life on the earth. One of the 
 most remarkable of these myths is that of the resurrection of 
 Osiris, and of his becoming in consequence the lord of the world 
 of the dead. In his chapter on the death and resurrection of 
 Jesus, in his work on Jesus the Christ in the Light of Psy- 
 chology, Stanley Hall deals to a considerable extent with the 
 doctrine of the resurrection in mythology, and shows rather 
 conclusively that there would have been no Christian doctrine 
 of the resurrection had not this dogma found a large place 
 in the earlier religions. In the myths of Adonis, Attis and 
 Osiris, and to these might be added many another from other 
 parts of world, the resurrection found its origin and all its 
 significance. The basis of this conception was the return of 
 vegetation to new life in the spring, symbolized under the form 
 of a young and dying god. To this may be added the wish for 
 the immortality of the dead, and for reunion with them in 
 some world of the future. With reference to the resurrection 
 of Osiris, and his becoming the lord of the dead, Stanley Hall 
 has this to say, which suggests much in regard to the presenta- 
 tion of this dogma in the pages of the New Testament : 
 
 " Orthodox Egyptian tradition says that the grief of this 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 dolorous mother [Isis] induced the sun-god Ea to send down 
 Anubis who gathered and swathed the scattered parts of the 
 body, observed all the rites over them, and fanned the clayey 
 remains with wings until at last Osiris revived and returned as 
 king both of the upper earth and among the dead. He became 
 Lord of Eternity, ruler of the lower regions, where he judges 
 and rewards all souls after death according to their merits. 
 The morality of the Egyptian Book of the Dead is very like 
 that of Jesus, and those who are acquitted live in a land of 
 indescribable fertility and beauty where men and animals are 
 young and fair, and there is eternal verdure. In Osiris 's resur- 
 rection the Egyptians see a pledge of their own immortality: 
 'As surely as Osiris lives I shall live/ Belief in resurrection is 
 suggested by the custom of embalming, which was physically 
 very like that of Osiris. Mourning for him began when the 
 Nile began to rise. Then the dams were ceremonially cut and 
 the soil became the bride of the Nile. Seed-sowing was in 
 autumn, and was sad; for planting, as among primitive people 
 to-day, suggests the burial, and is often connected with the 
 festival of the dead. Thus representatives of potentates are 
 often killed, dismembered, or burned to increase the fertility 
 of the soil, so that in Egypt special precautions were taken 
 that the bodies be not cut up and their fragments used as 
 talismans for this purpose. Osiris was originally a tree spirit, 
 and pillars solemnly erected to him were symbols of resurrec- 
 tion. Even from this so bald sketch we can glimpse the culture 
 atmosphere which pervades so much of Christianity, and can 
 see that not only in the regions which Jesus knew but perhaps 
 still more in those which Paul knew and where the church first 
 had its development, these cults were developed in both their 
 higher and lowest forms, and their influence was very per- 
 
 vasive. ' J 
 
 [277] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Stanley Hall insists that the passion and the resurrection 
 must to-day be discussed in view of a vaster background than 
 the Old Testament affords, for he sees in them the culminating 
 expression of the central theme of many cults far older than 
 they, all about the eastern Mediterranean, each of which con- 
 tributed its best elements to the Christian beliefs clustering 
 about these features in the Christ story. He goes on to show 
 that, had it not been for these older products of the folk-soul, 
 there would have been no Christian belief in the resurrection 
 from the dead. In its inmost core, in its essential character, this 
 belief of Christianity originated in these old myths, and in them 
 it finds all its assurance and all its beauty. 
 
 In his study of the resurrection, Stanley Hall has sought 
 its meaning for the Christian believers of our own day. By 
 means of a questionnaire he has tested its significance for 
 present-day Christian faith with the conclusion that it no longer 
 affords a large measure of comfort or faith for the believer in 
 immortality. There may be set down here the conclusions which 
 he reached as the result of his investigations : 
 
 " ( a ) Many think they believe in it as a literal fact be- 
 cause they have never candidly examined the nature of their 
 affirmation of it. This few can do, and still fewer do. Some 
 fear disillusion or dread the labor of reconstruction. As Al- 
 bertus Magnus and Aquinas carefully reserved certain dog- 
 mas from the sphere of philosophic thought, so this psychic 
 process is set apart as too sacred for investigation, (b) Many 
 have some degree of faith in too crude a form of it even to 
 be able to attain the full conviction they crave, and so are un- 
 happy, halting and praying for more faith when they ought 
 to reinterpret it into a form the mature modern mind demands, 
 (c) Others think they find aid to their own faith by vociferous 
 and dogmatic affirmation of some form of it, or find their own 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 belief reinforced by censuring what they deem shortages or 
 errors in the belief of others, on psychic laws akin to those which 
 make young Mormons suspected of doubt reclaimed by faith 
 by being sent on missions to preach their doctrines among here- 
 tics, and who by becoming advocates instead of judges convert 
 themselves if no others, (d) Yet others with, and surpris- 
 ingly often without, any knowledge of Kant's critique of the 
 practical reason and its postulates, hold to the conventional 
 form of belief because they think its effects on the conduct of 
 thought, life, or both, are a higher criterion or sanction than 
 any which reason can supply. The highest truth is that which 
 works supremely well, (e) Many hold to it esthetically. Art 
 has embodied it in many forms that edify and give a true 
 hedonic narcosis, and so they have grown indifferent to his- 
 torical validity. It is venerable, hallowed by association and by 
 a consensus so wide as to be itself sublime. Moreover, poetry 
 is often truer than fact, (f) Many think it essential to the 
 young, and while they feel that it is outgrown in their own ex- 
 perience deem it vital, saving truth for children and youth, 
 to the needs of which they subordinate not only their own 
 lives but their convictions, and find a pedagogic virtue in so 
 doing that they reconcile with personal standards by often 
 elaborate accommodation theories, (g) Finally, a few devout 
 souls whose private lives are consecrated to the imitation of 
 Jesus 's life, and who live for good works, distinctly and con- 
 sciously reject all forms of resurrection. Of these, some, chiefly 
 women, were shocked to first realize their unbelief and are more 
 assiduous in practicing the Christian graces as if to atone for 
 a defect, while others, more often men, have found great satis- 
 faction in their eclaircissement, but believe they can do most 
 good by conforming and working in the harness of convention- 
 ality, or perhaps think this an article of faith best left to lapse 
 
 [279] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 from the Christian consciousness quietly, as they believe it will 
 do .... But few, if indeed any, held to a belief in the 
 resurrection that would satisfy the conventional standards of 
 orthodoxy in the denomination to which they belonged. This 
 shows a wide chasm between the latter and the true facts of 
 inner religious life." 
 
 Here is evidence enough as to the mythical origin of the 
 belief in the resurrection; and it is not surprising, in view 
 of that origin, and considering the fact to which Stanley Hall 
 refers, that the New Testament report as to the resurrection 
 of Christ is by no means authentic and historic, that a very 
 large degree of skepticism exists in regard to it. It belongs to 
 another age than our own, and it now survives almost wholly 
 because of traditional causes. We believe in it, if we believe 
 at all, because men long ago found it satisfactory, and because 
 we have not dared to slough it off as no longer worthy of modern 
 thinking. 
 
 Negative as this interpretation of the origin of Christianity 
 may seem to be, its purpose is to emphasize the syncretist nature 
 of that religion, that it has its foundation in what has gone 
 before, and that it is in no inconsiderable degree a culmination 
 of the religious strivings of mankind through all the preced- 
 ing ages. In this sense, if in no other, it may be regarded as 
 the noblest and truest of all the world's religions. Without the 
 preceding religions it could not have come into existence; and 
 it is also dependent on all the social, political and philosophical 
 advancements of the preceding ages. In no inconsiderable de- 
 gree its limitations, as well as its excellences, are owing to its 
 growth out of the past life of mankind. Especially its ethical 
 ideals and its social purposes had their origin in its capacity 
 to grasp and to emphasize what was best in the earlier ages. 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Stripped of his legendary and miraculous settings, the 
 Christ may be regarded as the purest, loftiest, and most human 
 figure in the history of religion. His moral teaching, his human 
 sympathy, his fellowship with the poorest and meanest, his 
 boundless compassion, his fidelity to his own convictions even 
 to the bearing of the cross, gave him a character above that of 
 any of the gods of the ancient world. 
 
 We cannot doubt that, as Emerson said, there has been a 
 vast exaggeration of what is artificial and unbelievable that has 
 gathered about the person of Christ. Nevertheless, many a 
 thinker and reformer of the present day finds in him, when the 
 legendary has disappeared, a figure most attractive and most 
 trustworthy. Rejecting all the theological and metaphysical 
 beliefs which have been inherited from the old religions, and 
 which have been added to in the course of the Christian cen- 
 turies, we may admire the character of Christ, and we may seek 
 to conduct our lives in the spirit of his ethical teachings. Many 
 a man who accepts none of the dogmas of Christianity admires 
 and loves this gentle teacher, and believes in his boundless sym- 
 pathy with suffering and toiling men and women. Here is his 
 greatness, and the worth of his ethical precepts. 
 
 Ill 
 
 When we give our attention to Islam, the religion founded 
 by Mohammed (Muhammad), we may be more than ever con- 
 vinced that the physical, social and political environment has 
 a dominating influence in the formation of any and every re- 
 ligion. It is by no means enough to say, that the desert con- 
 ditions of Arabia, the nomadic and pastoral life of its population, 
 gave Islam its true character; but we cannot doubt that the 
 one had its effects in shaping the other. We must also take into 
 
 [281] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 consideration the fact that many Jews were living in the Arab- 
 ian cities at the time of Mohammed, the sixth century, and that 
 Christianity was known there, though in some of its more 
 perverted forms. There yet lingered in Arabia, to a very con- 
 siderable extent, the old nature-worships; and many of the 
 rites and beliefs of the older types of the early Semitic religion. 
 All of these had their influence on Mohammed, and on the man- 
 ner in which Islam came to its development during his life, 
 and for two or three centuries after his death. Islam, too, had 
 a true syncretist origin. 
 
 In a few cities like Mecca and Medina Arabian culture had 
 reached a considerable degree of advancement. We know that 
 many centuries before an advanced type of civilization had 
 appeared in the south of Arabia, but this had not been per- 
 manent. The tendency was that the desert should assert itself 
 against all advancements made into its borders, and that the 
 desert populations should migrate to more favorable regions. 
 In this manner Babylonia, Syria, Ethiopia, and to some degree 
 Egypt, had been populated from the Arab peninsula. In the 
 time of Mohammed the Arabians were tribesmen, keeping their 
 clan organization, their clannish habits and living largely the 
 life of nomads. Outside a few cities they roamed the desert, 
 bred their camels and their horses, attacked the caravans when- 
 ever opportunity offered; and lived largely the life of maraud- 
 ers and highwaymen. 
 
 Into such a world as this came Mohammed, born in Mecca 
 in the year 632, June 7. Of him it may be said that he is the 
 only great founder of a religion of whom we know the year of 
 his birth or have any definite historical evidence in regard to 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 his family, manner of life, daily pursuits, and how his religion 
 grew in his own mind. Even the life of Mohammed, however, 
 is lacking in many details, and many difficulties present them- 
 selves in regard to its more important episodes. Tradition, if 
 not folklore, gathered about his life; and we find much that 
 is obscure in his acts as in his teachings. This may be said, how- 
 ever, that his life stands out in clearer historic perpective than 
 in the instance of any other great religious founder. The im- 
 press of his mind is marked deeply on his religion; and we 
 must know him, and the conditions amidst which he lived, in 
 order to comprehend the beginnings of the Mohammedan re- 
 ligion. "No religious code extant," justly remarks Emanuel 
 Deutsch, "bears so emphatically and clearly the marks and 
 traces of one mind, from beginning to end, as the Koran." 
 Deutsch goes on to remark that it is next to impossible to 
 separate the man from his book. "True," he says, "the more 
 than twenty years which its composition occupied are em- 
 balmed in it with all their strange changes of fortune, with 
 their terrors and visions, their curses and their prayers, their 
 bulletins and their field-orders. The Koran does indeed illus- 
 trate and explain its author's life so well that hitherto every 
 biographer (and there have been many and great ones) has 
 suggested, in accordance with his own views, a different ar- 
 rangement of that book." 
 
 It is because Mohammed composed the Koran, and be- 
 cause it was extant from the very beginning of his religion, 
 that we may regard its foundations as standing forth historic- 
 ally as in the instance of no other religion. Whether Moham- 
 med could write or not is not quite certain, though it is 
 probable he could not. In that case he dictated to a scribe 
 his inspirations, visions, ecstatic thoughts, and his revelations. 
 These were thrown into a heap, and were not always carefully 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 considered or copied. In time, however, when he had become 
 a great man, these scraps of writing were brought together 
 and shaped into the Koran. No record had been kept as to 
 when each verse or sura had been composed. Consequently, 
 when the book was edited, a somewhat mechanical arrange- 
 ment was resorted to, the chronological order of composition 
 not being remembered, even by Mohammed himself. This is 
 the reason why, though the life of Mohammed is largely em- 
 bedded in the book, and though it gives the unfolding of his 
 spiritual experiences and growth in theological beliefs, no one 
 has ever been able to determine these with any definiteness. 
 Consequently, each historian arranges the suras in such order 
 as he thinks best explains the development of the biographical 
 and historical events. Here is history, as in the instance of 
 the origin of no other religion; but history confused and 
 chaotic. 
 
 Mohammed was born of an important clan in Mecca, but 
 his early life was lowly, until he married a rich widow, much 
 older than himself; and by her and an uncle he was enabled 
 to give his time and his interest to religion. An epileptic, he 
 had visions, sought out a cave where he had mighty dreams 
 of the presence of angelic beings conversing with him, gradu- 
 ally came to the idea that God was calling him to a great 
 task. When, however, he began to preach of one god, and to 
 claim to be in some way the prophet or voice of that god, he 
 was laughed at, hated, persecuted, and threatened with death. 
 His uncle, a powerful man in the tribe, who was a sceptic in 
 so far as concerned Mohammed's visions, at least, protected 
 him. At last, though he had made a number of converts, be- 
 ginning with his wife and other members of his family, he 
 advised his followers to flee to Ethiopia, where the Jews would 
 protect them. He himself went to Medina. This flight or 
 
 [284] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 hejira was the greatest event in the history of Mohammed, and 
 became the date of the beginning of the Mohammedan era. 
 
 At Medina Mohammed sought the favor of the Jews and 
 the Christians, and soon made a compact with a part, at least, 
 of the people of that city, that they should accept him as their 
 prophet, and that they should give him their support in the 
 spreading of his religion. Soon he reurned to Mecca with an 
 army, conquered that city, and brought the people to accept 
 the faith of Islam. From this time on he was king, judge, 
 leader of an army, and a conqueror, whose arms spread through 
 Arabia, and into other countries. What is most notable in 
 this successful spread of Islam is the remarkable awakening 
 it brought about in the Arabs. From being nomads and shep- 
 herds, they became in a few years the conquerors of southern 
 Asia and northern Africa, spreading into southwestern Europe. 
 Even more remarkable was the awakening of their mental 
 natures, so that from being mere herdsmen and marauders, 
 they took the lead of the world in culture, in science, and in 
 all phases of intellectual advancement. In a century or two 
 they had mastered the culture of Greece, knew Aristotle, and 
 became the leaders in all forms of philosophy and science. 
 When they broke into Europe, through Spain, it seemed more 
 than probable that they would become the intellectual and re- 
 ligious, as well as the military, leaders of mankind. More than 
 one historian gives them the credit of saving the old culture of 
 the Roman empire, and carrying it over to the period of the 
 renascence and passing it on to modern times. 
 
 When it is said that Islam is the one religion that has been 
 propogated by the sword, it is true in no inconsiderable meas- 
 
 [285] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ure; but these other facts deserve also to be remembered, and 
 given just recognition. Nor is this criticism on the part of 
 Christians wholly justified, in view of the facts connected 
 with the crusades, the persecution of the Cathari and Al- 
 bigenes, and the war lasting for a hundred years after the 
 Eeformation, which devastated and largely depopulated all 
 Germany. What Christianity has done in the way of waging 
 religious wars, and in the persecution of those who did not 
 agree with one or another set of its tenets, is by no means an 
 excuse for Mohammedanism; but those who are without fault 
 in this respect should be the ones to cast stones. 
 
 No apology should be offered, however, for the darker 
 side of the career of Mohammed, though we need not condemn 
 him in order to praise another religion, as has been the custom 
 very generally resorted to by the critics of Islam. D. S. Mar- 
 goliouth, the chief authority on Islam, says of the life of 
 Mohammed: "In order to gain his ends he recoils from no 
 expedient, and he approves of similar unscrupulousness on the 
 part of his adherents, when exercised in his interest. He 
 profits to the utmost from the chivalry of the Meccans, but 
 rarely requites it with the like. He organizes assassinations 
 and wholesale massacres. His career as tyrant of Medina is 
 that of a robber-chief, whose political economy consists in se- 
 curing and dividing plunder, the distributing of the latter 
 being at times carried out on principles which fail to satisfy 
 his followers' ideas of justice. He is himself an unbrideled 
 libertine and encourages the same passion in his followers. 
 For whatever he does he is prepared to plead the express 
 authorization of the deity." 
 
 We may suspect that this severe criticism, undoubtedly 
 based on facts, has taken on at least a tinge of sectarian pref- 
 erence, and readiness to condemn what did not match with the 
 
 [286] 
 
,,+v 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 author's accepted beliefs. Recognizing what is good and what 
 I is striking in the religion taught by Mohammed, we may reach 
 the conclusion that Islam presents us with the only unequi- 
 vocally monotheistic religion the world has known. The Jews 
 became monotheist, but after a struggle of many centuries, and 
 only at the very end of their sacred books. Christianity, with 
 all its claims as to monotheism, has retained, in its doctrine 
 of the Trinity, no inconsiderable remnant of the old poly- 
 theisms. Mohammed said that there is no God but God, and 
 that Mohammed is his prophet only. He refuses to accept 
 Jesus as in any sense the son of God. He added, It is not 
 fit that God should have a son, for he is neither begotten nor 
 begets. 
 
 3 
 
 Mohammed was an ardent believer in immortality, though 
 his paradise has in it too many sensual pleasures to make it 
 wholly attractive to men of a high ethical temper. Much of 
 the old Arabian animism and fetishism clung to his teach- 
 ing, as was natural in such an environment as his. He be- 
 lieved in a world peopled with jinns and afrits, diabolical be- 
 ings; and in angelic hosts without number. It must be said 
 of Mohammed, however, that he made less use of the miracu- 
 lous than any other great founder of a religion, though he by 
 no means discarded this supernatural element. In this respect 
 primitive Christianity was saturated with the miraculous 
 compared with what we find in the history of early Islamism. 
 In two respects, at least, the moral teaching of Moham- 
 med was sound, in that he abolished gambling and drunken- 
 ness. In respect to woman his attitude was far less advanced, 
 for he regarded her as largely a mere instrument of man's 
 
 [287] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 pleasure, and as his servant. He continued polygamy, and 
 permanently fastened it upon his religion. He did abolish infan- 
 ticide, and especially that of girls, which had been very com- 
 mon in the Arabia preceding his time. He inculcated honor 
 to parents, and he gave emphasis to the spirit of toleration. 
 
 In theology, as might be anticipated when we consider 
 the stage of culture which had been reached in the Arabia of 
 Mohammed's time, he was distinctly anthropomorphic; and 
 it has been truly said that Allah is a magnificent oriental 
 despot. The angel throng about him is that of a splendid 
 court, with its ranks one above another, and its autocratic 
 tendencies in all directions. Very distinctly materialistic is 
 the heaven and the hell of Mohammed, though not wholly 
 lacking in spiritual and ethical significance. His teachings in 
 regard to the resurrection of the body, probably taken over 
 from his religious predecessors, is most materialistic, the actual 
 body being that which survives the grave. 
 
 Two simple doctrines formed the whole substance of the 
 teaching of Mohammed that God is one, and that Moham- 
 med in his prophet. He added other doctrines to these; but 
 this was all that was essential, the whole of the creed of 
 Islam. In his Mohammed and Mohammedanism, Bosworth 
 Smith, the most apologetic of all Christian interpreters of Is- 
 lam, says of this creed: "The essence of Mohammedanism 
 is not merely the sublime belief in the unity of God, though 
 it is difficult for us to realize the tumult of the feelings and 
 the intensity of the life which must be awakened in a poly- 
 theistic people, who are also imaginatve and energetic, when, 
 on a sudden, they recognize the One in and behind the Many. 
 Mohammed started indeed with the dogmatic assertion that 
 there was but one God, the Creator of all things in heaven 
 and earth, all powerful, knowing all things, every where pres- 
 
 [288] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 ent. He reiterates this in a thousand shapes as the forefront 
 of his message ; and, sublimely confident that it need only be 
 stated to insure ultimate acceptance, he deigns not to offer 
 proof of that which, in his judgment, must prove itself." 
 
 Any attempt to follow the history of Islam would be im- 
 possible here; but it may be suggested that any fair-minded 
 survey of that history will show many bright spots. The ac- 
 cusation often made that Islam is sensuous and materialistic 
 almost exclusively, is not justified in regard to some of its 
 more ethical and spiritual developments. In the teachings of 
 the Sufis, and in their poetry, highly mystical as they are, 
 may be found many a phase of noble religious import. The 
 same is true of that more recent development, originating in 
 Persia in the last century, at first known as Babism, but now 
 as the Bahaist movement. Highly spiritual in its nature, it is 
 at the same time very positively humanitarian. 
 
 This survey of the greater religions of the world, and 
 especially those which have had individual founders, may lead 
 us to the conclusion that even these religions have grown out 
 of those which preceded them, and that none of them owes 
 its origin without qualification to a great personality. As was 
 hinted at in the second chapter, religion is in large degree an 
 organic growth, human in origin, and whose evolution is de- 
 termined by social and intellectual phases of the progress 
 of culture. No religion in its origin can go beyond the stage 
 of civilization in which it arises, and no one of them has as yet 
 jbrought to man truths he could not have himself discovered 
 by other means than those of inspiration and revelation. 
 
 As we have already seen, all religions claim to be revela- 
 tions, to have explored the heavens and to have brought back 
 to man what he could not ascertain by his unaided faculties. 
 
 [289] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP RELIGION 
 
 The aboriginal inhabitants of America, as of all the other con- 
 tinents, have made the same claim; and it appears to be as 
 valid for the savage as for the most civilized. "We have no 
 means of knowing that there is something hidden from the 
 common man which only prophet and priest can make known 
 to him. "Rather is it probably true that humanity, in its on- 
 ward march, in its great unfolding evolution, is step by step 
 finding out the secrets of God, and coming slowly to follow 
 the path which leads to the good of the race, and to a great 
 confidence in what lies beyond the present ken of man. 
 
 [290] 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Universal Religion 
 
 THE international religions have claimed to be universal, 
 or have sought to become so ; and this is more especially 
 true of Christianity. Some of the Christian churches have 
 taken the name of Catholic, and in that manner have empha- 
 sized their claim to universality. Such a claim, however, is 
 rather prophetic than historical, for no religion has ever yet 
 become in any true sense universal. Christianity, according 
 to the most recent estimates, based upon such statistics as are 
 accessible, is accorded a larger following than any other re- 
 ligion; but it does not have amongst its adherents a majority 
 of the population of the globe. It is only in anticipation of 
 what may come, therefore, that any religion can be called 
 universal; and because Christianity has been extended into 
 every part of the world alone justifies its being called catholic. 
 Buddhism is confined to eastern and southeastern Asia, 
 and has only the smallest following on any other continental 
 division of the earth. Islam extends across Asia, far into its 
 northern regions, over many of the southeastern islands, 
 and also over northern and central Africa. It has no follow- 
 ing on the western continent. Christianity is universally ac- 
 cepted in Europe, except in the southeast. It has churches 
 in southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa, reaching back 
 almost to its beginnings; and it has missions in many other 
 parts of those continents. In America it is almost universally 
 accepted; and in the Pacific islands it has made great prog- 
 
 [291] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ress, as it has in some parts of Africa. Only in the sense that 
 it has been preached in every part of the world, and zealous 
 efforts have been made for its propaganda, can it be claimed 
 as universal. Certain tribal peoples have never yet been 
 brought into the acceptance of its rites and its beliefs; and 
 it appears to represent too high a type of culture to enable it 
 to win such peoples. On the other hand, it has met with only 
 a moderate success where the civilization was of a high type, 
 as in India, China, and Japan. The religion of these lands 
 has grown out of the people's life, is in harmony with their 
 culture-development; and they resist a religion coming from 
 another type of culture, and representing another form of 
 civilization. 
 
 When we survey the whole of the history of religion, so 
 far as our sources of information will permit us to do so, and 
 consider it in all the periods of its evolution, it is apparent 
 that it has undergone many changes, and that it has been modi- 
 fied by numerous revolutions, in the form of new rites and 
 new beliefs. One of the most important of all these causes 
 of change has been the contact of one religion with another, 
 brought about by war, slavery, and migration. Probably the 
 most potent of these causes of change has been migration and 
 the contact of cultures. 
 
 As we have seen in the preceding chapters, mankind has 
 advanced from tribal through feudal to national political 
 organization; and there has then followed the grouping of 
 nations to form great empires. Religion has been profoundly 
 modified by these social and political evolutions. In its origin 
 it belonged to the food-group, then to the hunting band, fol- 
 lowing that to the tribe, and the succeeding phases of political 
 evolution. That is, in all early forms of society, the religion 
 belonged to the group, whether it was a band, a tribe or a 
 
 [292] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 nation, and did not extend beyond its limits. This develop- 
 ment may be seen more clearly in the instance of the Jews 
 than in that of any other people, for Yahweh was emphatically 
 their God, and could belong to no other people, since he had 
 chosen the people of their nation, as they believed, as his espe- 
 cially beloved and faithful adherents. In lesser degree this 
 was the conviction of each tribe and nation throughout the 
 world in regard to its own divinities, that they belonged par- 
 ticularly to those who worshipped them. Since each nation 
 had its own gods, it must follow that the people and the gods 
 were of one company or family, forming, as was often said, 
 one household or fellowship. 
 
 A process went on from a very early time by which those 
 changes were brought about that may be described by the 
 use of two words, migration and affiliation. Man is the most 
 restless and forward-pushing of all animals. All other ani- 
 mals, at least those which are feral, have a local habitation, 
 a certain range of territory, which is most highly fitted to 
 their needs, and to affording them the necessary food-supply. 
 But man has great adaptability, far more so than any other 
 animal, and has fitted himself to all climates and to all geo- 
 graphical areas. His invention of tools, implements, clothing, 
 shelters in the form of tents, huts or houses; and his ability 
 to domesticate plants and animals, and to bring himself into 
 subjection to customs and laws, as well as to add the arts and 
 sciences to his equipment, has enabled him to live in mountain 
 regions, on the steppes that seem to spread out endlessly, and 
 even in desert regions that give almost no promise of affording 
 subsistence to his life-needs. He finds himself at home in the 
 
 [293] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 burning tropics and in the freezing arctics, and in all the 
 regions that come between. 
 
 From the earliest periods man has been migratory, hunting 
 new lands, ever pushing out into new regions, seeking fresh 
 .adventures with the world in which he lives. In our own day 
 we have seen this tendency largely at work, peopling the great 
 west of our own country, subduing the wilds of Canada, and 
 finding habitation in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, 
 the islands of the far-off seas, and in many a land all around 
 the globe. So far back as we know anything of man he has 
 been the self-same seeker for new worlds to conquer, partly 
 pushed on by the spirit of adventure, and partly because of the 
 loss of fertility to regions he had inhabited for centuries, and 
 partly by the push of other peoples led on by these or similar 
 causes. 
 
 Whatever has brought peoples, at any stage of their devel- 
 opment, into close contact with each other, has had the effect of 
 modifying their religion. Internal resources, the influence of 
 original minds or the natural growth resulting from the gen- 
 eral advance of a people, have not usually been sufficient to 
 account for those changes in culture and religion, which we see 
 taking place wherever there is anything which can be de- 
 nominated as progress. Much of this advance everywhere has 
 come about by means of contact of tribe with tribe, nation 
 with nation, either as a result of war, trade, strife for the 
 possession of territory and resources or as resulting from 
 friendly affiliation by coalescence. This latter tendency has 
 had more permanent and wider results than any of the other 
 processes, though trade and commerce may be described as of 
 the same nature. 
 
 Affiliation or amalgamation comes about by several differ- 
 ent processes, one of which is the conquest of a weaker nation 
 
 [294] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 by a stronger. In that case it has often occurred in the history 
 of the past that the weaker nation has given its culture and 
 its religion to the physically stronger, thus finally conquering 
 the conquerer in all that most concerns the higher interests 
 of nations. Another process is that of the adoption of the art, 
 the traditions, the culture, and the religion of a more ad- 
 vanced people by one that is less advanced. This is not always 
 the result of conquest or pressure of material interest, but 
 may result from the readiness of the less advanced people to 
 assimilate what they had not themselves discovered or in- 
 vented. This process goes on widely in all stages of tribal 
 society and beyond it. Over considerable areas we find the 
 same customs extending, passing over tribal barriers, thus 
 preparing the way for the union of tribes into confederacies. 
 The same process goes on after the national stage has been 
 reached. In this manner the same culture, and essentially the 
 same religion, found expression in China, Corea and Japan; 
 throughout the Mongul tribes and nations of central Asia; in 
 all the region in Europe and Asia occupied by the ancient 
 Greeks; and in all the countries to which the Semites had 
 extended. 
 
 Some of the results of migration have a great meaning for 
 the history of religion. Though the Semites originated, prob- 
 ably, in Arabia, yet because of the scanty fertility of their 
 land, and its small resources even for grazing, they spread 
 out into all the neighboring more fertile lands. The result 
 was that their culture, to no small extent, spread with them, 
 into Egypt and neighboring regions in Africa, and throughout 
 all southwest Asia. An even more remarkable instance of the 
 results of migration may be seen in the spread of the Aryans. 
 Originating, as scholars are now generally agreed, in northern 
 Europe, a large body of them crossed western Asia, and ap- 
 
 [295] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 peared, perhaps 3000 years B. C. in the region of Persia. 
 After a considerable period had passed they divided, and one 
 part proceeded to the conquest of India. Another movement 
 of this same people was into the eastern coast-land of the 
 Mediterranean, and were the enemies of the Hebrews as the 
 Philistines. Yet one more small group invaded Asia Minor 
 and are known to history as the Phrygians, having settled in 
 the central mountainous region of that peninsula. The tra- 
 ditions of the Greeks tell us of several invasions by this same 
 people into the continental regions in Europe and Asia, as 
 well as the islands of the ^Bgean, which were occupied during 
 the historical period. Other movements of this race may be 
 seen in the history of the Romans, Celts and Teutons. All 
 these peoples were offshoots from the primitive Aryans; and 
 their languages, their religions, and their literatures, have 
 close affiliations with each other. One of the most remarkable 
 of historical discoveries in the eighteenth century was that of 
 the fundamental unity of these peoples, and the tracing out 
 of their language and other affinities. 
 
 What the migration of peoples has done in connection 
 with the history of religion has been to bring the otherwise 
 distinctly tribal or national religions into touch with each 
 other, thus modifying them in one degree or another. In 
 the early periods, as we have recognized more than once, 
 religion was distinctly tribal or national, shut up largely 
 within the limits of one social and political unit. The religion 
 was coterminous with the tribe or the nation, a veritable part 
 of its life, growth of its growth, and known only within its 
 limits. When such a religion was brought into intimate rela- 
 tions with another religion because of the amalgamation of 
 tribes or nations, the religion also took on wider limits and 
 grew to greater proportions. In this process all the gods 
 
 [296] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of a nation were carried over to the larger political unit, as 
 those of the tribe had been retained, along with those of other 
 tribes, to form the pantheon of the nation. It was by such a 
 process that polytheism came into existence. This may be 
 seen at work in all its phases and modifications in the history 
 of religion in Greece and Egypt. 
 
 II 
 
 An unprejudiced and unsectarian study of the origins of 
 the great religions makes it certain that they came into exis- 
 tence by the same process, that is, as the result of the contact 
 of civilizations and religions. Buddhism was evidently born 
 of the clash of religious tendencies in India in the period when 
 it came into existence. In a degree it was a protest against 
 the philosophical, ritualistic and theological developments of 
 the time, and an attempt to escape from the dogmas which 
 bound man to the eternal round of rebirth. The many philoso- 
 phies which had grown up in India testified to the tireless 
 process of speculation in which men had entangled themselves, 
 and to the need for some way to escape from dogma and from 
 the round of being. Gautama solved the problem in the only 
 way possible under the given conditions, by ignoring much 
 philosophical speculation, and by assuring himself that re- 
 birth can be escaped. If he reached his emancipation with 
 the aid of an agnostic attitude as regards the soul and God, 
 denying the existence of both in the old theological and philo- 
 sophical manner of their acceptance by his predecessors, it was 
 that way lay hope and progress. 
 
 No one to-day undertakes to interpret the origins of 
 Buddhism without an extended study of the Vedic growth 
 of religion in India, and its evolution into Brahmanism, and 
 
 [297] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 finally into Hindusism. Back of these, and essential to any 
 large perspective view of Buddhism, must be studied the Aryan 
 invasion of India, and the varied phases of the civilization 
 thus produced. In a word, Buddhism is a product of the 
 Aryan culture developed under conditions of invasion, inti- 
 mate contact with the native population in the process of 
 their conquest, the spreading of that culture over the penin- 
 sula, and the resulting growth in all the varied arts of civili- 
 zation. Its more specific features may have resulted from its 
 having had its origin in the Kshatriya or warrior class, the 
 demand that caste should no longer override all social and re- 
 ligious interests, and the wish to escape from merely meta- 
 physical speculation into a life of practical service in behalf 
 of genuine human interests. 
 
 Any study of Islam, however sympathetic it may be, must 
 take note of the conditions under which it had its origin. To 
 assume that it sprang full-born from the brow of Mohammed, 
 armed and equipped for every effort life may demand, is to 
 quite misapprehend its real significance as representing a 
 most interesting and important human movement. We cannot 
 regard Mohammed as anything more than a torch from which 
 was lighted a continental conflagration of great proportions. 
 The way for this movement had been preparing for many 
 centuries, and Mohammed did no more than give the initial 
 incentive which precipitated it at the time when he lived, 
 rather than at a somewhat later period. We cannot doubt that 
 within a century or two of his birth such a movement as he in- 
 augurated would have developed in the peninsula of Arabia, 
 had he not lived. In a word, Mohammed was not necessary 
 to a new Arabian revolution, such as had broken out at the 
 time of the origin of Judaism. Moses is but a name connected 
 with that earlier revolution; and very nearly all that we read 
 
 [298] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 of him in the Jewish literature is traditional, when it is not 
 mythological. What is historical belongs to the desert people 
 who came out of Arabia and settled in Palestine, and not to 
 the man who is assumed to have existed behind the name of 
 Moses. 
 
 Students of the early Jewish writings now generally rec- 
 ognize their legendary character, and that the patriarchs or 
 fathers of the race, as there described, represent tribes and not 
 individuals. Read in this light these narratives give an in- 
 teresting account of the migrations of the early clans, and 
 of their efforts to find a suitable habitation for their people. 
 These migrations are those of a nomadic and pastoral people 
 from the desert regions of Arabia into the richer .and more 
 variagated country of Palestine. In his lectures on The Early 
 Poetry of Israel in its Physical and Social Origins, George 
 Adam Smith says that this poetry, embedded in the early Jew- 
 ish writings, reflects many of the phases of this migration from 
 an arid to a fertile region. " According to all the traditions 
 of Israel," is Smith's remark, "the forefathers of the people 
 came up from the Arabian desert into possession of the fertile 
 lands of Syria ; and in common with the early prose narratives 
 the poetry reflects every phase in the change of physical en- 
 vironment through which such a passage necessarily brought 
 them, every stage in the economic and social developments 
 which it involved." 
 
 The primitive desert habitat, and the migration to a more 
 attractive region, left their mark on the history of this people 
 throughout their career, as recorded in their sacred writings. 
 Their customs and their institutions, the manner in which they 
 regarded civilization, and their attitude towards religion and 
 its rites, were in no small degree influenced by their early 
 history as a people of the desert. In their religion, as in their 
 
 [299] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 poetry, were reflected "the desert circumstances and shep- 
 herd life; the desert tropes and figures; the desert theoph- 
 anies; every phase of the inevitable transition to agriculture 
 on a fertile soil with its effects on the nomad's appetite and 
 imagination ; the long survival of the nomadic habits and tem- 
 pers; the purely tribal ethics and interests, the ferility of 
 the tribe, its genealogies, its pride and its hatreds, its loyalties 
 and sympathies, its relentlessness to enemies, its savage scorn 
 and exultations; and, not least, all the nomad's strange 
 silence. ' ' 
 
 It is impossible to ignore the suggestion that these early 
 experiences of the Hebrews had a large influence on the de- 
 velopment of their religion, and more especially on their con- 
 ception of God as one, and as intimately their own protector 
 and guardian. It is a most suggestive fact that the only two 
 distinctly and unequivocally monotheistic religions came out 
 of the Arabian desert, and from very nearly the same part of 
 it. While it cannot be assumed that a desert region has any- 
 thing especially religious about it or that it must tend towards 
 a monistic conception of nature and life, yet it cannot be 
 doubted that such an experience for a people as the desert af- 
 forded had a concentration of interest, an absorbing attrac- 
 tion to the central facts of life, and an unitary direction of 
 thought to single impressions of the phenomena of nature, 
 that as a whole facilitated the conception of the underlying 
 causes of the world and of life as one, and as personal in its 
 nature. No other people than these of Arabia seem to have 
 had an experience of the same limited nature or such as to 
 direct attention to the unitary character of the world known 
 to them. In all other lands where great religions originated 
 the phenomenal world appeared in far more variagated forms, 
 
 [300] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 and as suggesting a diversified cause or causes behind the ap- 
 pearances it presents. Certainly, however much or however 
 little the desert may have done for religion, we cannot but be 
 impressed with the fact that the two primitive monotheistic 
 religions came from the great desert region of Arabia. 
 
 When we compare Arabia with India, the barrenness and 
 monotony of the one with the richness and diversity of the 
 other; and then reflect that the great monotheisms originated 
 in the one region and the richest polytheisms in the other, 
 we may have cause for serious pondering on the problems thus 
 presented. It cannot be assumed, as was done by Buckle, that 
 the desert and its peculiar phenomena have led to the pro- 
 duction of a monotheistic faith; but the social conditions in- 
 duced by such a land as Arabia may favor the conception 
 of the cause of the world as one and indivisible. Arabian life 
 throughout the history of that peninsula has been tribal almost 
 wholly ; and, as we have already had occasion to recognize, 
 the tendency in the tribe is to the acceptance of a tribal chief 
 and a tribal god. Whether that god is a totem plant or animal, 
 a great ancestral founder of the tribe or a being of a powerful 
 natural manifestation in sky or earth, he is very likely to be 
 one and alone. When tribes are welded together, when some- 
 thing of the nature of a state comes into existence, in so far as 
 desert conditions permit of such a unity, the unitary concep- 
 tion first finding expression in the tribe is continued and inten- 
 sified. The god of the tribe then becomes a greater totem, a 
 more devoted guardian of his people, a more kindly and effi- 
 cient protector of their interests. What the totem was to the 
 tribe, and what the guardian ancestral father was to the patri- 
 archal family, that was Yahweh to the Hebrews and Allah 
 to the Mohammedans. Regarded in this manner, it is not quite 
 
 [301] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 surprising that the two desert peoples came to believe in one 
 god, and to regard themselves as chosen by him as his own 
 especial favorites. 
 
 Any attempt to prove that the traditional Moses was the 
 originator of monotheism, even as regards the Hebrews, is but 
 a futile speculation or the result of sectarian presuppositions. 
 The Hebrew writings themselves indicate rather definitely that 
 this belief was the result of a long-continued process of growth, 
 that it fluctuated from age to age, that it was only at first ac- 
 cepted by a few of the more zealously religious men of the 
 nation, and that it required centuries of exhortation, discus- 
 sion and protest to bring the people to its general acceptance, 
 which did not occur until many years after the exile and the 
 return. The prophets were as voices crying alone in the 
 wilderness, insisting upon the oneness of God, that Israel had 
 been chosen of him, and that he alone was real as a divine 
 being. After many centuries of their exhortations and incisive 
 protests the nation came to their way of thinking. It would 
 seem, therefore, that even to the Hebrews, called emphatically 
 the people of one God, there was no natural affinity for that 
 idea, no inevitable demand for the worship of a unique and 
 solitary divinity. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Probably it will never be possible to state in emphatic 
 terms the causes resulting in the acceptance of monotheism. 
 The originating causes lie in the background of pre-history, 
 in that far-off time when the nations were forming, when as 
 yet there was no history and no growth of definite tradition. 
 In the nature of their habitat, in the psychology of the race 
 itself, in the character of the life they came to live and the 
 
 [302] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ethical principles they accepted, and not the less in the long 
 line of heroic souls who represented a developing idea, and 
 adhered steadfastly to it, are we to look for the originating 
 causes of the faith in one God. Evidently, such causes, in their 
 diversity, their illusiveness, their subtlety, and their intimate 
 oneness with the life of the nation itself, cannot be put into 
 definite propositions. Therefore, we are not able to state how 
 or when the idea of monotheism came to the Hebrews or to 
 any other people. We must be content with saying that these 
 causes were less individual than social, that they did not spring 
 from a single brain; but were the product of ages of human 
 experience. 
 
 When we contrast the religions of Arabia with those of 
 India, we are compelled to recognize the wide variation be- 
 tween them, and that there is a divergence corresponding, in 
 no small degree, to the differences in their environment, and 
 to the character of the experiences of the two races. The 
 richness and diversity of the one environment, and the poverty 
 and sameness of the other, seem to be intimately reflected in 
 their religion and in their ethics. When we recognize that this 
 diversity is one of temperament and quality in the lives of the 
 two peoples, we have some clue to the variation in their beliefs 
 and their rituals. All the more emphatically does this con- 
 trast stand out before us, when we consider the fact that the 
 Hebrews left the desert at an early time, and migrated into a 
 rich diversified land, with a corresponding result on their 
 religion. Perhaps it was this very fact, their frequent con- 
 tact with other peoples, and their more mythological and 
 imaginative religion, which made it so very difficult for them 
 to confine their faith to the one God they had come to know 
 in the desert. In this respect it is interesting to compare the 
 history of Mohammedanism with that of the Hebrew faith. 
 
 [303] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 When Mohammed proclaimed that there is no God but Allah, 
 he asserted what the desert had taught him, and what the 
 lives of his people had made possible of proclamation and ac- 
 ceptance. The same faith in the beginning seems to have 
 been that of the Hebrews, but because of their migration away 
 from the desert, it took them a thousand years or more to ac- 
 cept this faith in confidence and assurance. 
 
 We may query why a people of such intellectual calibre as 
 the Greeks, with such a gift for philosophy and for high 
 thinking, should not have come at a very early period to the 
 acceptance of monotheism. In more than one direction they 
 seemed likely to reach a unitary conception of life and of the 
 world, and therefore to come to the belief in one God. Plato 
 and the other thinkers reached this idea theoretically; and 
 sometimes the belief in Zeus or another god, seemed leading 
 to this conception. With them, as with the Hindus and other 
 peoples, the tendency was towards the recognition of one or 
 another god as concentrating in himself all the qualities of 
 the whole pantheon. The worshipper, whatever the god to 
 whom at the moment he was offering sacrifice or prayer, re- 
 garded him as if he alone existed. In this sense all the higher 
 religions were monotheistic; and the several gods were no 
 more than attributes or qualities of the one Universal Being. 
 It was with this meaning that Brahmanism believed in the 
 Eternal Self, of whom all men and gods are but manifesta- 
 tions or intimately related as of the same nature. However, 
 in India, Babylonia, Greece, Egypt, and Rome, the diversities 
 of nature and life made too strong an appeal to the human 
 mind to allow of a concentration of attention on the unity 
 of nature and life. 
 
 Great as was the influence of the migration of peoples, 
 and of the diffusion of ideas and beliefs, the ancient religions 
 
 [304] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 grew up to an extent isolated from each other. If these two 
 causes had a great effect on the later stages of their develop- 
 ment, this was not the case in the earlier periods, when they 
 were in the process of formation. At that time they were 
 most emphatically isolated from each other and they grew 
 out of, and represented, the tribal life in its most distinctive 
 qualities and characteristics. To a very large degree this has 
 been true of the whole of the history of some nations and their 
 religions. This was true of the Chinese, the Hindus, the Baby- 
 lonians, and the Egyptians. None of these peoples were quite 
 apart from the rest of the world or developed their religions 
 in utter isolation. Even the Chinese, more truly isolated for 
 many centuries than any other people of the ancient world, 
 were by no means wholly so, though they did not come into 
 definite relations with the more western nations. 
 
 In the study of the ancient religions, as in that of social 
 and political institutions, we are compelled to recognize the 
 fundamental fact that the individual was born into his re- 
 ligion, that he had no choice as to the ritual he should use or 
 as to the religion with which he was connected ; but these were 
 determined for him by his racial inheritance and by his family 
 associations. In his Ancient Law Henry Maine stated very 
 definitely this fact, when he said that in ancient society the 
 position of the individual was determined by status. It was 
 one of the greatest of all human revolutions when the indi- 
 vidual came to have the right to choose for himself to what 
 ritual he should accord his acceptance, and to what religious 
 fraternity he should owe his alliance. As in the case of most 
 revolutions this one came about very slowly and it was only 
 when it had been fully accomplished that it was recognized 
 as having been revolutionary in its nature. 
 
 [305] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 IV 
 
 Another fact of much significance is to be recognized, if 
 we would understand the full meaning of religion as a phase 
 of the evolution of civilization. Some religions of the ancient 
 time are yet alive, and others have long since ceased to exist. 
 One of the most remarkable of all the religions in this respect 
 is Judaism, which reaches back to the prehistoric time, and yet 
 is full of vigor at the present day. No other religion has ever 
 passed through such vicissitudes, been persecuted to so great 
 an extent, and yet has thriven in spite of the ghetto and the 
 most perverse social ostracism through many centuries. In 
 a less marked degree has been the fate of the religion of Zo- 
 roaster, which still survives in India, though with greatly 
 diminished numbers. Its followers, however, rank high in 
 culture, morality, and nobility of living. 
 
 Several of the great ancient religions have ceased to exist, 
 including those of Egypt, Greece and Borne, together with those 
 of the Celts and Teutons. Other religions disappeared from 
 the knowledge of the western world, and when they came to 
 be known again the surprise was very great. For many cen- 
 turies the religion of Babylonia had almost passed out of the 
 knowledge of men, buried under the drifting sands which 
 had overwhelmed the cities where it once lived with great bril- 
 liancy. In the last century or more it has been revealed to the 
 knowledge of the world once again through the uncovering of 
 the monuments, with their cuneiform inscriptions, which re- 
 corded the history, the laws and the religious rituals and be- 
 liefs of this ancient people. Not less great was the surprise 
 when the religion of Egypt once more came to the light, and 
 all its striking characteristics, in many respects differing from 
 those of any other land, were brought to our knowledge. Much 
 
 [306] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION- OF KELIGION 
 
 that we should be glad to know escapes us as regards many 
 phases of Egyptian religion and history; but it would appear 
 jthat the great essentials have been deciphered, and the history 
 in a fairly clear outline revealed to us. 
 
 If the religions of India, China and Japan continued to 
 live, and were in some degree known for many centuries, it 
 has not been until the last century or two that our knowledge 
 of them has been in any degree extensive and intimate. Dur- 
 ing the past century their sacred books have become known to 
 the western world, and they have been translated into many of 
 the European languages. 
 
 In addition to this increased knowledge of the great 
 religions of the past, and of those which have survived to our 
 own day, we have gained a knowledge of the religions of bar- 
 barian and savage peoples in every part of the world. As yet 
 we have no intimate acquaintance with many tribes and 
 peoples on all the continents; but a vast mass of information 
 has been brought to light during the last half -century in regard 
 to the religions of the aborigines of Africa, America, Oceania, 
 Asia, and many an island around the wide world. In the re- 
 ports of travellers, missionaries, ethnologists, and other scien- 
 tific investigators, a vast body of knowledge has been 
 accumulated, which is being intimately studied, weighed, 
 assorted, and presented in systematic scientific interpretations 
 of the origin and early developments of religion in all its varied 
 phases. These studies have added greatly to our knowledge of 
 the meaning of religion as a social force, as an attempt to 
 explain the origin of the universe and man, and as a moral 
 incentive and an ethical stimulus. At the same time, it has 
 given us a larger and truer insight into the psychological 
 causes operating to give religion its widely varied develop- 
 ments. If the definitions as to the nature of religion which 
 
 [307] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 are usually given, even in works seeking to interpret religion 
 in a scientific spirit are by no means broad enough, yet it has 
 become certain that its influence in all ages has been very 
 great. 
 
 Such studies have made it known to us that the early 
 religions were not concerned with beliefs, but with rituals. 
 They did not present creeds, but ceremonials and sacrifices. 
 In this respect the earlier religions, including all those known 
 to the ancient world, were of this type, concerned with conduct 
 and not with belief. Salvation in the thought of early man was 
 not the result of what one believed about God, but what cere- 
 monials one observed and what sacrifices one offered. To no 
 small extent that remains true to-day in regard to all but a few 
 of the most developed phases of religion, even in Christian 
 lands. It is emphatically the case in India, and with what 
 there appears as the most widely spread religious develop- 
 ments. Creeds there may be, but it is ritual and ascetic 
 practices which count. 
 
 Another marked difference between early and ancient re- 
 ligions and those of our own day is to be found in their attitude 
 in regard to progress. Truly orthodox religions everywhere 
 jdo not accept the principle of progress, for they assert the con- 
 viction that the past is better than the present, that God once 
 revealed himself to the world, and that no fresh revelations are 
 to be anticipated in the present or the future. Almost with- 
 out exception the great ancient religions looked back to a hap- 
 pier past, a paradise which has disappeared, a golden age 
 which no longer exists, or to a time when God walked with 
 men in the cool of the evening or sat with them in the door of 
 their tent conversing freely. To the same import is the belief 
 that in the early time God revealed himself to men, and that 
 remnants or survivals of that primitive revelation are to be 
 
 [308] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 found underlying all that is good and beautiful in the religions 
 of savage and barbarian peoples. In a word, this conception 
 of religion is backward-looking, facing the past and not the 
 brighter time that now is or that which is to come. 
 
 On the other hand, we may find many religious develop- 
 ments which are progressive, which do not look back to the 
 past, but which face the future with hope and expectation. 
 Such religions do not believe that the truth has been exhausted 
 or that religion has as yet reached the utmost of which it is 
 capable. They believe with John Robinson that more truth is 
 yet to break forth from the revealing word of life. They also 
 agree with Emerson, that man is not yet old enough by a thou- 
 pand years to write a creed. They do not look to a paradise 
 behind, but to a nobler life for man in the future. They are 
 not much concerned about the old beliefs, but are deeply solici- 
 tous as to the most helpful truth man can acquire at the present 
 time. Those who take this attitude in regard to religion are 
 usually known as heretics ; but it is probable that they are the 
 true prophets of the coming time. 
 
 In the unfolding of the history of religion from the earli- 
 est time, we find that, on the whole, in its higher types it has 
 progressed. While it has remained too often unmoved by the 
 advances of the world about it, being more interested in retain- 
 ing the old rituals and beliefs than in serving the higher inter- 
 ests of mankind, yet there has been progress, and a progress that 
 is very great from primitive animism and polytheism to the most 
 developed manifestations of the religious spirit in our day. 
 There has often been retrogression, and some phases of the most 
 abject degeneration, yet the general tendency has been upward, 
 and toward what is more ethical and rational. Even now there 
 is frequent reversion to what is magical and superstitious, to 
 dark and forbidding beliefs, and to ceremonials which are de- 
 
 [309] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 grading and gross; but the general march is sunward; and to- 
 wards a broader acceptance of what will make for the elevation 
 of man. 
 
 What is claimed to be a new interest in relgion, about which 
 much is being written it being claimed that no one is now criti- 
 cal of its tendencies, and that there are no doubters and no skep- 
 tics means that the occult, the mystical, and the supernatural 
 have been revived in no inconsiderable degree. Credulity, su- 
 perstition, and fanaticism, if they do not by any means control 
 the religion of the day, have over it a very large dominion. Even 
 palmistry, astrology and spiritism, once thought to have forever 
 disappeared from the beliefs of modern men, have their numer- 
 ous and ardent advocates. Rationalism is condemned, science is 
 ostracized, sanity in philosophy no longer meets with approval ; 
 and these are replaced by vitalism, an exaggerated idealism, and 
 an assumption that psychic research is to give us a new faith and 
 a fresh hope. 
 
 Whatever there may be of permanent value in these ten- 
 dencies, how is it possible to conclude that they are more than 
 passing phases of the life of our time ! The history of the past 
 assures us that the occult and the mystical are only temporary 
 phases of a religion which abides through all the centuries. The 
 rationalism which is now tabued will inevitably come back in a 
 great revival, we may be assured. Religion divorced from rea- 
 son and from science cannot be other than credulous, supersti- 
 tious and fanatical. However attractive the tendency to the 
 occult may be for the moment to many persons, it has not the 
 qualities which are permanent. 
 
 It is often claimed that this passing charm of the occult is a 
 reaction against the materialism of science; but it must not be 
 forgotten that there may be a revolt against the occult and one 
 that will carry rationalism and science to heights they have never 
 
 [310] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 hitherto reached in the history of religion. Fascinating as the 
 mystical may be to those who come under its attractive influence, 
 it has never had other than a fleeting hold upon the great major- 
 ity of mankind. We have gone too far in the direction of a 
 clear-thinking view of the world to give other than a passing op- 
 portunity to the occult, whatever the name by which it may be 
 known. Its power is steadily waning, however much it may 
 seem to be in the ascendency at this moment ; and it can come in 
 our time only to a spasmodic and temporary rejuvenescence. 
 The day for these phases of religion however great their appeal 
 for the passing day cannot be other than temporary, and as a 
 mere fashion of the hour. 
 
 Great and rapid changes in the nature of religion are taking 
 place at the present time. Never before in its whole history has 
 it been at such a stage of revolutionary progress as in our own 
 day. This is in part due to the great advance, and general ac- 
 ceptance, of science; and to the wide-reaching influence of its 
 facts and its methods of investigation, which have been carried 
 over to the study of religion. Never before has it been possible 
 to regard religion as a phase of the progress of culture and civili- 
 zation, and to study it in the same spirit in which we study a 
 flower or a star, a chemical element or the processes of social gen- 
 esis. We are now able to stand away from it, to regard it, as it 
 were, in perspective, with an aloofness that permits of dissever- 
 ing ourselves from all concern as to what belief or unbelief may 
 mean with regard to our individual destiny. 
 
 One of the newest of all the sciences, that of Comparative 
 Religion, has grown up as the result of this new method in the 
 study of religion, which permits of its investigation in the whole 
 range of its evolution, and with absolute freedom. Most of the 
 works which have so far appeared in connection with this new 
 science have been marked with more or less of the sectarian 
 
 [311] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 spirit, and have felt it necessary to bow to the dictates of Chris- 
 tianity, as if the writers dare not speak their minds with abso- 
 lute freedom. However, the tendency is strongly towards re- 
 garding religion as in itself interesting, of great importance to 
 an understanding of the evolution of civilization, and as 
 demanding the strict application to it of the methods and spirit 
 of science. It does not follow that the investigator must reject 
 all religion, in order to undertake such a study in the scientific 
 spirit, or, on the other hand, that he should apologize to any of 
 the higher religions for his devotion to the demand for the truth, 
 and the whole of the truth, in regard to any and every religion, 
 past and present. 
 
 The most important of the changes which have come into the 
 religion of our day is the increase of our knowledge in regard to 
 all the religions of the past, from those of primitive man to those 
 which are the most advanced. We may now study the sacred 
 books of all the peoples which have produced works of that 
 nature, and these include the Japanese, Chinese, Hindus, Per- 
 sians, Babylonians, Arabs, Hebrews, Egyptians, and Christians. 
 Several other advanced peoples, which have no books which may 
 be called sacred, such as the Polynesians, Syrians, Greeks, Ro- 
 mans, Celts, and Teutons, as well as others, have given the world 
 rituals, sacred songs, mythologies or epical poems, which are of 
 great importance in connection with the evolution of religion. 
 All of these may now be studied, and are included in the materi- 
 als investigated by the science of Comparative Religion. The 
 very idea of comparing all this vast mass of traditional or writ- 
 ten materials, coming from every part of the world and from all 
 ages, is quite new in the history of religion ; and is giving it a 
 fresh meaning, as well as bringing us a far broader conception 
 of what it has represented in the history of mankind. 
 
 This new knowledge, which has been coming to us during 
 
 [312] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the last two centuries, and more especially during the last half- 
 century, has immensely widened the conception of religion, and 
 our outlook upon it as a phase of human culture. In one direc- 
 tion it has greatly developed the work of the Christian mission- 
 ary, made him familiar, if he has so chosen, with the nature of 
 the religion or religions he has to face in his field of labor. It 
 has prepared him for appreciating, and for apprehending, what 
 religion means to savage and semi-civilized peoples. If his field 
 of labor is in a land where exists one of the great religions of the 
 world, such as Brahmanism, Buddhism or Islam, he may go to 
 his task equipped with an intimate knowledge of its origin and 
 development, its ritual and its creed. Even if he is to labor in 
 the heart of Africa or in some remote island region, it is more 
 than probable that he may secure before he goes a large acquaint- 
 ance with the customs, folk-lore, mythology, and religion of the 
 tribe amongst whom he is to carry on his work. He may know 
 the religion of Australia, of the Andamans and of Borneo, of the 
 primitive races of North and South America, before he sets forth 
 on his work of religious propaganda. Whatever advantage 
 there may be in this knowledge, it is owing to the widely de- 
 veloped interest in all phases of religion which has characterized 
 the ethnological investigations of the last century. 
 
 There can be no question that this remarkable recent ad- 
 vance in our knowledge of the evolution and history of religion 
 has developed, and is developing, most important results, the full 
 effects of which will appear only in the future. One effect is 
 that all religions have been cast, as it were, into the melting pot, 
 and are being refined and purified; at least, this is true of all 
 the more advanced religions. Another effect is, that the cruder 
 and least developed are rapidly disintegrating and disappearing. 
 In some respects this is to be regretted, for we should be glad to 
 have more knowledge of some of them than we have as yet been 
 
 [313] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 able to secure, so rapidly are they passing out of existence, as the 
 result of their contact with the higher civilizations of the world. 
 We would give much to know the true nature, in much of their 
 details, in regard to the religions of Mexico, Central America, 
 and Peru. The fierce onslaught made upon them by Christian 
 nations has forever deprived us of any intimate acquaintance 
 with those characteristic American religions, a knowledge of 
 which would enable us more clearly to understand the civiliza- 
 tions with which they were connected, and to comprehend more 
 definitely whither the less advanced aboriginal peoples were 
 tending at the time of the discovery of America. 
 
 Now that all religions have been brought out into the open 
 field of knowledge, and all the great sacred books of the world 
 may be read and studied by whomsoever will, since the most 
 characteristic of them have been translated into English and 
 other European languages, some important results are following. 
 One result is that each of the great religions of other countries 
 has proven attractive to a greater or lesser number of persons 
 in European and American lands. The religions of India have 
 given us Theosophy, a wide reading of the works of Babin- 
 dranath Tagore, and an eager study, on the part of a consider- 
 able number of persons, of the sacred books of that country. It 
 may be that no great number of persons have been attracted to 
 Theosophy, but there can be no question that it has had an in- 
 fluence by no means insignificant on the tendencies of modern 
 religion. The conception of metempsychosis has proven attrac- 
 tive to a considerable number of persons who have not connected 
 themselves with the Theosophical movement, for the reason that 
 it gets rid of the arbitrary conceptions connected with the ortho- 
 
 [314] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 dox manner of interpreting the nature of the future life or, 
 rather, of the processes by which the destiny of the individual is 
 determined. The notion that the future brings about a sharp 
 division between the good and the bad, as determined by conven- 
 tional, ethical standards, and that the fate of the individual is 
 forever fixed by the nature of his beliefs and his ritual actions in 
 this life, has become repellent to a no inconsiderable number of 
 persons ; and some of these are attracted by what they regard 
 as the more natural conceptions of karma and methempsychosis. 
 Here the future fate of the individual, whether under Hinduism 
 or Buddhism, is determined by himself, and what he is, what he 
 makes himself to become by his deeds, and determines the kind 
 of life he shall live when he comes to his next birth. However 
 low in the scale of being he may find himself as the result of his 
 actions, he may raise himself to a higher stage at the next 
 rebirth, if he seeks to obey the conditions of the life which is 
 now his, whether that of plant, animal or man. 
 
 The results of religious contacts in the last century have 
 not been confined to western lands, but have effected India, 
 China, and most other oriental countries. Not only has Hindu- 
 ism been led to seek for reforms in its methods, as the result of 
 contact with western civilization; but there have grown up in 
 India several distinctly reform movements, all of which are 
 highly interesting and suggestive with regard to the future. 
 These include the Brahma Samaj,. with its several branches and 
 offshoots. These have sought to bring Hinduism back to its purer 
 phases of the past, to rid it of superstitions and mythologies, 
 and to give it a more distinctly ethical and a monotheistic inter- 
 pretation. The number of adherents of these movements has 
 not been large, in proportion to the whole population of India; 
 but the influences leading out from European contacts have been 
 much wider-reaching than the number of their followers would 
 
 [315] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 indicate. Evidently, there is going forward in India a revolu- 
 tionary movement as concerns religion, partly a result of mis- 
 sionary effort, but much more largely the product of intimate 
 contact with western culture and civilization. As yet the visible 
 results are not great, but they are likely to be progressive, and 
 to develop far more rapidly in the future. 
 
 One of the results of the invasion of Mohammedanism into 
 Europe, both into Spain and into the Balkan region, has been an 
 intense prejudice against it in Christian lands. The long and 
 fierce attempts to repel it, and to expel it from Europe, has 
 awakened every possible kind and degree of sectarian hatred and 
 misconception. This hatred and this jealousy have developed 
 among Christians a dislike for Islam which has been shown to- 
 wards no other religion ; and has not made it possible, until quite 
 recently, that Mohammed and the Koran should be viewed in 
 any favorable light. In spite of this distrust and this hatred, a 
 considerable number of Europeans and Americans have quite re- 
 cently been drawn to Bahaism and the teachings of Baha'u'llah. 
 Abbas Efendi, a most venerable old man, winsome in his man- 
 ner, speech and teaching, has visited this country and England, 
 leaving behind him a gracious memory. Declaring that the 
 Primal Divinity is unknowable, but that there have been and are 
 various manifestations of the prophetic spirit, the Bahais teach 
 that the Universal intelligence has spoken, and speaks, to man- 
 kind through a succession of prophets, that God has never left 
 himself without manifestations of his reality and his presence. 
 What was material in Mohammed's conceptions of the future, or 
 what has been interpreted of his teaching to mean a material hell 
 and heaven, the Bahaists reject, and assert that these are mere 
 shadows of the spiritual nature of the future life. According 
 to their teaching revelation never ends, and God is ever revealing 
 himself. The unity of nature, life and God is also in this teach- 
 
 [316] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP RELIGION 
 
 ing. What most attracts westerners to this new religion, how- 
 ever, appears to be at once its lofty spirituality and its broad 
 humanitarianism. In essence it is a progressive and a reform 
 movement, teaching that men everywhere should live together 
 harmoniously, in a brotherly spirit, and for the advancement 
 of the great common interests of mankind. Teaching a practi- 
 cal socialism, a socialism of brotherhood and mutual service, the 
 Bahaist movement seems destined to have a considerable influ- 
 ence on the future of religion, both east and west. 
 
 Other religious movements which have sprung up in recent 
 years, such as Christian Science, New Thought, Ethical Culture, 
 the Modernist development in the Roman Catholic Church, the 
 Progressive Orthodoxy of Protestantism, and the wide-spread 
 revival of mysticism, are to be regarded, in one degree or an- 
 other, as results of the broadening of our knowledge of the past 
 of religion, and of our greatly increased acquaintance with the 
 religions of the eastern lands. The sacred books of Judaism and 
 Christianity have been subjected to a most searching investiga- 
 tion, as to their origin, their historical character, the quality of 
 their ethics and their theology; and they have not come forth 
 from this ordeal as they were when the testing of them began. 
 They have been, in no small measure, placed through such studies 
 by the side of the other sacred books of the world, and subjected 
 to a critical comparison, which has led many persons to the con- 
 clusion that they can no longer be held as in their nature essen- 
 tially different from the other works of the same type. 
 
 These various tendencies of the last century have had the 
 effect of discrediting, at least in a great number of minds, what- 
 ever is ecclesiastical and orthodox. Even orthodoxy itself, in all 
 the western churches of Christendom, is no longer what it was a 
 century ago. It has moderated its claims, in some degree has 
 ceased to be dogmatic, has developed a distrust of the sovereignty 
 
 [317] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of God as a spiritual autocrat, and has grown more tolerant to- 
 wards other forms of belief than its own. Holding largely to 
 Christianity, in western countries it is to no small extent in a 
 manner no longer strict, and insistent on mere belief in meta- 
 physical creeds ; but even in the most orthodox churches there is 
 taught the immanence of God, the wide-open mercy Christ offers 
 the offender against the majesty of his teachings, and a sweet 
 reasonableness as regards what is essential to the nature of re- 
 ligion itself. 
 
 When we view the developing movements of civilization 
 throughout the world, what we must recognize is the drawing 
 together of nations as the result of the extension of means of 
 communication and transportation. Countries that were a few 
 centuries ago quite unknown to each other in any real meaning 
 of the word, have now come into intimate touch, and are largely 
 influencing each others' interests in many directions. The east 
 and the west have been brought into close relations, not merely 
 as the result of the development of commerce, but because of 
 growing intellectual affinities. Travel has brought a great num- 
 ber of persons into a genuine acquaintance with other lands ; and 
 all that is best in the arts and sciences, the literatures and cul- 
 tures of any land has become the common property of all the 
 world, and to no small extent. Japan has become to-day almost 
 as well known as England, and in many respects better known 
 than Russia. China has opened its resources of material, and its 
 other resources of intellectual, riches to western lands; and the 
 old antipathy and exclusiveness are wearing away. The fact 
 that this land of a great population has become a republic, with 
 promise that it will during this century become stable and pro- 
 gressive, marks a vast change wrought in the life of the orient. 
 India, we are told, is seething with unrest, and aspiring to follow 
 the example of Japan and China; but proves to be loyal to the 
 
 [318] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 west and to its deep-reaching influences, which are slowly modi- 
 fying the civilization of that peninsula, and in many directions. 
 If it is receiving largely from the west, it is by no means failing 
 to give to the west of the best its centuries have produced. 
 
 In the nearer lands of the east vast changes are in progress, 
 with the building of railroads, opening of canals, increase of 
 trade, and penetration of world-travellers and world-commerce. 
 Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, Greece, and all 
 the Balkan lands, as well as that vast continental area known as 
 Russia, give promise of far-reaching changes in the not remote 
 future; and of their being opened to all the progressive move- 
 ments of our time. If they have received much from the more 
 western countries, there can be no question that they are return- 
 ing as much as they have received or will do so in a century to 
 come. Russia is a land of vast possibilities, and we may not 
 doubt that it will have a great influence on the future of man- 
 kind, not only as concerns social growth and literary develop- 
 ments, but in religious evolution. After a time of what may 
 prove to be a prolonged revolutionary struggle, Russia is likely 
 to come forward, perhaps before this century ends, as one of the 
 most enlightened and progressive countries known to the world. 
 Its religion is now backward and superstitious, but it is possible 
 that in this respect the people will keep pace with their evolution 
 of a truly modern social and political life for the whole body of 
 the people under a genuinely democratic regime. 
 
 What we see taking place about us is, that religion is becom- 
 ing emancipated from its superstitions, its credulities, and its 
 orthodoxies. We are leaving behind, perhaps too slowly, but 
 very surely, the results due to the inheritance of animism, fetich- 
 ism, and polytheism; we are compelling religion to stand side 
 by side with science, and to make answer to the newest and most 
 assured knowledge man possesses. It need not follow that re- 
 
 [319] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 ligion will lose any of the deeper meanings which have made it 
 powerful in the past or that it will cease to guide the feet or to 
 cheer the hearts or to illumine the minds of men in the time to 
 come. 
 
 Men throughout the world have refused longer to accept 
 the dogma of the divine rights of kings, or they will soon come to 
 do so; and with equal certainty they will refuse to accept 
 the divine rights of sacred books or the authority of auto- 
 cratic saviors. The conception of Jesus as a Lord belongs 
 to an undemocratic age. His own preference, according to one 
 tradition, was to call himself Friend, the friend of the poor and 
 unfortunate, and the friend of mankind. Lord Christ and Lord 
 Buddha are titles belonging to the same strata of aristocratic 
 and autocratic social conditions, when men were not free, when 
 they cringed before their superiors, and when they dared not 
 speak their own minds or lead their own lives. In this age of 
 equality and freedom, when democracy is beginning to dominate 
 the world, lords of every kind are out of place, and should be 
 banished from religion as from politics and national life, from 
 the church as from the state. 
 
 The human spirit will be free, and every man and woman 
 will dwell in the house of his or her own mind, as in a castle that 
 cannot be invaded arbitrarily by any other. We shall no longer 
 permit pope or bishop to dictate to us what we shall believe, and 
 no synod or congregation can be permitted arbitrarily to instruct 
 the individual mind in regard to the great problems of destiny. 
 The day of the lord and his authority has gone by forever, as re- 
 gards political control or religious conviction. 
 
 At the present time there is a demand that the world shall 
 be won over to the interests of democracy and peace; and it is 
 proposed that a league of free nations shall be organized to pro- 
 mote these objects. It seems probable that something of this 
 
 [320] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 nature will be one of the developments of the near future, and 
 that the nations will be federated together for the promotion of 
 those interests which they have in common. Democracy has 
 made great strides forward in the last half-century, and it is 
 likely to win ail progressive nations to itself in the near future. 
 Nearly all peoples are demanding this form of government and 
 the freedom which it promotes. It is the governing and mili- 
 tary classes alone which do not favor its acceptance; but the 
 rising tide of working-class demand in all industrial countries, 
 it would seem, will soon compel the acceptance of what the great 
 mass of the people demand, that freedom, the ballot, and indus- 
 trial equality shall be secured for all; and these ends can be 
 reached only through the promotion of a genuine democracy. 
 An essential to the promotion of democracy and equality is peace 
 and the federation of the nations, in order that the interests of 
 all men and women shall be guaranteed. While it may be possible 
 that humanitarian desires, and the craving for democratic free- 
 dom, may anticipate too eagerly the advance of mankind toward 
 these results for all, yet one can hardly refrain from believing 
 that the day of freedom and democracy is at hand. Many a 
 struggle may yet be necessary to their being secured in every 
 part of the world, many a hard fought battle may come before 
 they are fully attained ; but can one doubt that they are written 
 in the destinies of mankind in the not remote future? 
 
 With the coming of democracy and peace there must also 
 come a great modification of religion, a sloughing off of those 
 creeds and principles of authority which have come to us from 
 the ages of kingship and autocracy. Even at the present day 
 a silent advance is being made in this direction, and we are wit- 
 nessing on every hand a growth of democratic ideas in connec- 
 tion with religion. It is not that religion concerns itself directly 
 with the promotion of the political aims of democracy ; but that 
 
 [321] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 freedom of thought, liberty of inquiry, the furtherance of in- 
 dividual beliefs, the demand for personal interpretations of all 
 religious principles, are coming more and more into the fore- 
 ground of the religious life. The priest and the preacher may 
 be listened to with respect, and followed in their teachings with 
 a considerable degree of confidence ; but a smaller number with 
 each generation are willing to accept them as in any way au- 
 thoritative guides in regard to what is fundamental. Even in 
 the older churches, where authority reigns in apparent suprem- 
 acy, this is coming to be true in an appreciable degree. The 
 pushing forward of democracy to the conquest of the world will, 
 in time, undoubtedly, influence the most reactionary and ultra- 
 montane of these churches, and bring them into line with the 
 world-movement. If they cannot be modified in this manner, 
 the life of the new time will sweep by them, and leave them in 
 the corners of the world to live out their little day. 
 
 The demand for democracy, industrial opportunity, peace 
 throughout the world, and the federation of the nations for the 
 advancement of economic and industrial ends, with the elimina- 
 tion of the antagonisms of nations for the promotion of exclu- 
 sively national interests on the part of individual nations or 
 small groups of nations, will inevitably in time lead to demand 
 for the unification of the ethical and religious interests of man- 
 kind. It will be seen that, if the nations are federated in behalf 
 of common industrial, economic and political interests, they 
 cannot be permitted to retain the old antagonisms growing out 
 of diverse creeds and religious ideals. This result can be brought 
 about either by bringing all peoples under one religion or by a 
 synthetic acceptance of what is common to all the advanced 
 religions. This means, that what makes for democracy and 
 peace, what promotes an ethical life, what broadens and deepens 
 and universalizes the humanitarian motive, and the things that 
 
 [322] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 make for fellowship and goodwill, are the truly essential ele- 
 ments in any and all religions. 
 
 At the present time there is a growing demand in Christian 
 lands that the antagonisms of sects shall be eliminated, and 
 that they shall federate together to promote the interests they 
 have in common. While the growth of new sects has been in 
 recent years more rapid than the affiliation of the old ones, 
 yet the developing ideal of unity is becoming more and more 
 forceful as a general aim to be sought for and promoted. At 
 the same time, as we have seen, there is an enlarging recogni- 
 tion of the universality of religion, that all religions may be 
 defined under one category, and that each religion may profit 
 by the history, the ideals, and the beliefs of all others. Per- 
 haps neither of these tendencies has as yet developed to any 
 considerable extent ; but the federation of the nations, in order 
 to promote the interests they have in common, will inevitably 
 lead to a closer intimacy of the churches of the world, by 
 whatever name they may be known, and will tend to bring 
 about a more genuine co-operation of all good men everywhere 
 for the promotion of every humanitarian work and ideal. 
 When this result is reached, it can little matter how the theo- 
 logians and the sectarians regard the work that has been ac- 
 complished. 
 
 The liberal-minded Christian should remember that there 
 is the broadest possible contrast between the Jesus of the New 
 Testament and the Christ of the creeds and the theologies. 
 The Nicene and the Athanasian, and even the Apostles' creed 
 represent nothing that is historical ; and they are very far from 
 being true to the facts of human experience. One of the re- 
 sults is that the common daily expressions of religion are 
 largely "conventional and traditional, merely repetitions of old 
 phrases, catchwords or terms that carry no present-day con- 
 
 [323] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 viction. Faith in the Lord, and in God the Father, is uttered 
 in the same manner and tone that faith in the influence of the 
 moon on crops is stated. Neither belief is likely to carry with 
 it knowledge or deep conviction. 
 
 The religion of the future must more and more develop in 
 the direction of making a better human world, a world in 
 which all persons shall find the highest measure of develop- 
 ment possible to them as individuals. Religion does by no 
 means consist in belief in ghosts or spirits or even in gods ; but 
 many of its highest expressions are purely human, and con- 
 cerned with the present-day interests of human beings, as well 
 as with the present-world destinies of mankind, not merely 
 with those of individuals. The conception of the great future 
 of humanity, the faith in large and noble reforms, etc., act as 
 religious motives, inspiring not only enthusiasm, but faith, 
 hope, courage, and steadiness of purpose. This faith has most 
 of the deeper qualities and sanctions offered by the old re- 
 ligious motives. 
 
 A higher ethicism is demanded by the new conception of 
 humanity, that the ethical motive shall be that of the nation or 
 the race rather than that of the individual. It will have very 
 nearly all the incentives of religion, an eager desire to serve 
 mankind, ancl an inspiring faith in the future of humanity 
 throughout the ages to come. In large degree the religious 
 motive will be replaced by the 'ethical. The moral life has 
 grown with social and political progress, and it is a direct 
 expansion of that progress. Since the feudal era it has been 
 more and more without the mystical and supernatural sanc- 
 tions of the older religions, but has become distinctly human, 
 concerned with social and individual welfare. It no longer 
 depends primarily on theology and metaphysics. 
 
 [324] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Religion is not science, and cannot be identified with it; 
 but it must accept what science declares ; and it must have its 
 foundations in the scientific spirit and method. Its cosmology 
 must be that of science, and its conception of human origins, 
 and the quality of human nature, must be also scientific. Its 
 morality must have a truly scientific foundation, no longer re- 
 lying merely on tradition and customs originating in a far-off 
 past, when human life was quite other than it is now. Some of 
 the directions in which science will aid in the development of 
 the future of religion may be presented here, in briefest state- 
 ment : 
 
 a. A greater recognition of the social origin and functions 
 of religion. 
 
 b. In conformity with this recognition a much greater 
 effort will be made to ameliorate human conditions. Without 
 doubt less stress will be laid on what is other-worldly, and 
 far more upon making this world of human conditions a fit 
 place for human habitation. That is, it will become more and 
 more humanitarian, and will clearly set before itself, if it is 
 wise and worthy to continue as a human force, the task of 
 helping to abolish poverty, vice, crime, and ignorance. 
 
 c. A growing unity of purpose as between the several re- 
 ligions will be one of the tendencies of the coming years. The 
 Protestant sects are likely to affiliate more closely in all prac- 
 tical efforts for human welfare, and some of them will amalga- 
 mate. The estrangement between Protestantism and Catholi- 
 cism, Roman and Greek, is likely to grow less. A profounder 
 understanding and appreciation of the other great religions of 
 the world will slowly come about, and there will be a larger 
 recognition of each other on the part of all the progressive 
 religious movements throughout the world. It will come to be 
 recognized that all religions are capable of producing good 
 
 [325] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 men and faithful citizens, and that conduct does not rest pri- 
 marily on beliefs and creeds. 
 
 d. Science will be more and more widely accepted as ex- 
 plaining the methods by which the individual and society can 
 be improved. Evolution will be practically, as well as the- 
 oretically, accepted as interpreting the origin and nature of 
 the moral life, its sanctions and methods of enforcement of 
 its dictates. Heredity and eugenics will play a large part in 
 the practical interpretation of human life, and the efforts to 
 advance the ethical interests of mankind. 
 
 e. Religion will become more rational. There will be less 
 of submission to the demands of tradition, and to those crude 
 and cruel ideas in regard to the future which have marred 
 and darkened all religion in the past. 
 
 f. Religion will become more tolerant, humane, and 
 sympathetic. It will also become more friendly towards aber- 
 rant ideas and beliefs. Belief will be seen to be of less im- 
 portance than conduct; and individual opinion will not only 
 be permitted, but welcomed. In a word, orthodoxy will be 
 less insisted upon than it has been in the past, and it may be 
 even discarded as of no importance. It will be recognized 
 that religion cannot compel by any process uniformity of be- 
 lief in the modern world; but may secure unity in the desire 
 to promote good works, a more ethical and nobler life, and a 
 wide-reaching spirit of helpfulness and purpose to uplift hu- 
 manity in so far as possible. 
 
 g. That which in the past orthodoxy has most severely 
 condemned the good life without a strict belief in the creeds 
 will become the very foundation of future religion. The 
 church has given us too many creeds, and it has asked for be- 
 liefs which will be more and more rejected by all thinking and 
 progressive persons. The past of religion proves clearly 
 
 [326] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 enough that it is not soundness of faith, but soundness of life 
 and character, which advance personal and social religion to 
 its highest expression. The individual may believe in the strict- 
 est manner possible, and to the fullest extent, and yet fail in 
 every particular to live an honest, noble, and manly life. It 
 may be anticipated that all the creeds will in time go into the 
 dustheaps of the past, and that religion will gain immensely 
 by the process of elimination. Nearly all the creeds belong 
 to the past, and to old or dead processes of thought. 
 
 h. The present demands a more social, humanitarian and 
 tolerant religion one based on conduct, desire for human 
 welfare, and combined effort to make a better world in which 
 men, women, and children will be helped to live the best life 
 possible to each and every person. This means that caste, 
 class, social barriers, dominations of wealth, and all religious 
 and social restrictions shall be abolished from human rela- 
 tions; and that all shall meet on a basis of fellowship and 
 good-will. 
 
 VI 
 
 If we look seriously at this moment at what it is in our 
 own country which truly indicates the nature of the religious 
 convictions of the American people, we shall be the better 
 prepared to believe that a great change is advancing over the 
 world in the realm of religious beliefs. Remembering that in 
 the past, when religion was a great unifying force in the lives 
 of nations and races, and it was a common ideal and motive 
 living in the life of the whole nation, we may inquire as to 
 what it is to-day which is unifying the interests and aims of 
 the American people. The various sects, however much they 
 have talked of unity and the promotion 'of their common aims, 
 have not federated, and are not working together as one uni- 
 
 [327] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 fied body for the promotion of human welfare. If their old 
 antagonisms are not as strong as formerly, yet they have not 
 come to stand together as a solid ethical force for Christianity 
 or even for the helping forward of the cause of democracy and 
 peace. On the other hand, what has unified the life of the 
 American people in an astonishing degree is patriotism. 
 Christianity has not brought about this result, and apparently 
 could not at the present time bring it about. Patriotism alone 
 has wrought the miracle, has accomplished what was appar- 
 ently impossible. 
 
 No other conclusion, therefore, can be reached than that 
 patriotism is the real unifying force to-day in the life of this, 
 as of all other progressive nations. Apparently the same force 
 operates in all European countries, with the result that there 
 has been, as here, a marvellous growth of patriotism, which is 
 leading to the greatest sacrifices on the part of millions, not 
 because the people are compelled to give of their lives and their 
 substance for the promotion of military interests; but because 
 they have voluntarily, for love of country, thrown themselves 
 into the support of what their country represents and is seek- 
 ing to accomplish. Can there be any other conclusion, there- 
 fore, than that the real religion of the world today is patriot- 
 ism? What Christianity has not been able to accomplish, the 
 unification of a nation for some great ideal aim, patriotism has 
 brought about with a minimum of effort, and in an incredibly 
 short time. 
 
 There was a time when the church stood above the state, 
 and dictated to it its policies and its lines of conduct. Now it 
 has become of distinctly lesser importance than the state, and 
 subject to it. The church continues steadily to recede in its 
 influence, but the state is as steadily increasing in its meanings 
 for mankind. In all democratic lands the church has become 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of minor significance and value, and in large degree subordi- 
 nate; but where the old autocratic rule obtains the church is 
 more fully recognized, and in proportion to the autocratic 
 rule. However, even under autocracies the people may largely 
 reject the church as an authority, and as having a right to 
 dominate individual belief and conduct. It may support the 
 aristocratic regime, as it often does; but that does not insure 
 its acceptance on the part of the mass of the people, who are 
 becoming more and more imbued with democratic ideas and 
 motives. 
 
 The thinkers of the world no longer look to the church or 
 to revelation as giving sanction to ethical principles and con- 
 duct. It is seen clearly enough that morality originates in so- 
 cial conditions, the relations of individuals to each other in 
 society, and that it is by no means essential that one or another 
 god shall guarantee the fundamental motives on which it is 
 based. Since it is on the primary ethical principles that the 
 state rests for its right to exist, it is no longer necessary that 
 the state should appeal to the church or take from it any iota 
 of its right to exist. In fact, more and more the state usurps 
 the place once occupied by the church, and makes a more ef- 
 fective appeal to the great majority of the people than it is 
 now possible for the church to present. That is the reason 
 why it is possible for the whole mass of the nation to accept 
 the claims of patriotism, love of country, and joy in the things 
 of the free spirit it represents and promotes. If the state still 
 continues to exercise some of the autocratic power once belong- 
 ing to the church in a supreme degree, we may be convinced 
 that this tendency must pass away with the growth of a 
 genuine democracy. 
 
 Love of country has become a religion, which is slowly 
 broadening out to an international conception of human re- 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 lations and obligations. We may not doubt that in time there 
 will develop a world conception, a recognition of the great fact 
 that nothing human can be alien to us. The furtherance of 
 all human interests, the bringing nation into close fellowship 
 with nation, the having regard to the welfare of all who live in 
 whatever land or of whatever color this will enter very 
 largely into the religion of the future. Love of God, if that 
 is to be retained in any degree of effectiveness, must mean love 
 of all human beings, profound regard for the interests of man- 
 kind, and desire to promote, in whatever degree possible to us 
 as individuals, the welfare of all the kinsmen of the human 
 fellowship. 
 
 As the fellowship of the church lessens, the fellowship of 
 the state increases. It seems more than probable to-day that 
 the bonds uniting individuals to the church will slowly cease 
 to have any meaning, while those uniting individuals to the 
 state will grow stronger and more effective. In the past men 
 have sought fellowship in the church, now they are seeking it 
 in the state, and finding it coming closer to them, with ties of 
 sympathy and inspiration the church can no longer provide 
 to an ever-increasing number of men and women. True it is 
 that the state fails in many a particular to serve the interests 
 of the individual and the community as it ought; but it is 
 growing in its capacity to serve and to invigorate human inter- 
 ests of all kinds. It seems most probable, therefore, that in 
 the coming time love of the church will be, as it is now, largely 
 superseded by love of country. Patriotism gives a great fel- 
 lowship, one which unites men of all opinions and degrees of 
 culture, while the church serves more and more to divide men 
 from each other. 
 
 The only hope of the church in the future is that it shall 
 put away its disintegrating motives and teachings, its creeds 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 and its antiquated beliefs, and seek fellowship with all lovers 
 of what is human and noble and beautiful, in all lands and 
 under all religions. If it cannot do that, its day of doom is 
 read out to it, and cannot be escaped. Mankind is one, and it 
 needs but one religion and one motive for human fellowship. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Christianity is to-day in the 
 melting-pot, and that it is being tried as by fire. It is being 
 questioned, tested, and searched to the very foundation of its 
 being. How it will come out from the great world-struggle 
 no one can now answer, and yet it will not be as it went in. It 
 is being tested most thoroughly, and it may come out purified 
 and refined ; but it may also lose its power over millions of men 
 and women. These are questioning what there was of defect 
 in it, that it could not prevent the great world-war; and be- 
 cause it could not, or did not, there is something ethically 
 lacking to its claims. The patent fact that all the great 
 Christian nations have been taking part in this desperate strug- 
 gle for industrial and commercial supremacy can but make 
 all independent thinkers question as to what is the real signi- 
 ficance of Christianity as a world-force capable of unifying the 
 nations, and of promoting democracy and peace. Other in- 
 fluences, apparently, are coming forward to bring about what 
 it has not secured during the nearly two thousand years of 
 existence as a world-force. 
 
 Will there come a new religion, equal to the needs of this 
 new time? Some indications may be seen that such a develop- 
 ment is even now in progress, and that it may attain to rapid 
 growth in the near future. The freer-thinking men and 
 women of all religions are coming into closer sympathy with 
 each other, are holding great world conferences to promote 
 the aims they have in common, and are endeavoring to put the 
 emphasis on what is universal or on what will promote the 
 
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THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 humanitarian development of all peoples. As yet there is no 
 close affiliation, no organizing of a sect, no effort to propa- 
 gandize for these new movements. The number of those who 
 desire as yet to promote such a unification of the world's 
 religions is not large ; but in all lands smaller or larger groups 
 are seeking to bring about the advancement of what will bring 
 good-will between, and genuine affiliation of, thinkers and 
 humanitarians throughout the world. If at present the most 
 spectacular movement toward the religious unification of the 
 world is that of Christian propaganda, with the claim that it 
 alone can save mankind for ethical fidelity and the harmony 
 of nations, we may question if it has any such significance as 
 that of the silent forces which are everywhere steadily work- 
 ing to bring the nations together, and to bring into closest 
 sympathy and fellowship those of all lands and religions who 
 are desirous that all mankind shall work together for what is 
 promotive of permanent human welfare throughout the world. 
 What political, social or religious force it shall be which 
 promotes the growth of democracy and peace cannot be of 
 great importance, so that these aims shall be genuinely ad- 
 vanced in all lands. The breaking down of the spirit of mil- 
 itary and autocratic domination over the lives and interests 
 of the great mass of the people is what it is desirable to have 
 accomplished. Any religion which seeks to hinder that ex- 
 pulsion of the lords and kings must suffer the righteous wrath 
 of the people against it, and its day must end thereby. Any 
 religion which allies itself with the people, which is ready to 
 become truly democratic, wiH have before it a great future. 
 It needs no prophet to assure us that the coming religion 
 must be one growing out of the lives of the toiling millions, 
 voicing their aspirations, assuring them hope, joy of life, and 
 confidence in regard to the future. 
 
 [332] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 It might appear that the religion which reaches back 
 through countless generations, that has gathered up sanctities 
 and ideals through thousands of years, is the one most likely 
 to command the future. This might be true, were it not that 
 all such religions carry with them many and many a survival 
 of the old days of tyranny and autocratic power. They are 
 also cumbered with credulities and superstitions which this 
 scientific age cannot tolerate, and will not believe have any 
 genuine connection with religion, at least of the kind which 
 is rational, forward-looking, and humanitarian. 
 
 Therefore, we may anticipate that, either some one of the 
 existing religions will be brought up-to-date in its beliefs and its 
 ideals, or that some new religion will come into existence. In 
 the end it cannot greatly concern us as to which of these 
 methods is followed, though we may have a conviction that 
 the second gives by far the greater outlook as to the promotion 
 of a truly ethical life for all mankind. The unification of na- 
 tions, the working together of all peoples for what will secure 
 the largest amount of human fellowship and sympathy, is what 
 we must ask of any religion to which we give our assent, and 
 our enthusiastic acceptance. That such a religion is growing, 
 that it is already well on its way above the horizon, is the con- 
 viction which we have, and which gives us utmost courage 
 and hope. 
 
 It may be that it will require centuries for the evolution 
 of the new religion, but already it is in the womb of the future. 
 We cannot doubt that it will be with man in the centuries to 
 come, and that it will give him new hope and courage. It will 
 be scientific, humanitarian, and progressive. At the same time 
 it will be profoundly ethical, and mindful above all else of 
 human conduct and character. The motives it will offer will 
 appeal alike to the individual and the collective man. 
 
 [333] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The new religion will have its basis in the past, its hope 
 in the future, its reality in the present. As we look through 
 the past we find that tribal and feudal man was deeply re- 
 ligious, that religion filled the whole of his life, that there was 
 no act of his where religion did not manifest itself. Every 
 act of the man of the clan and the tribe was intimately asso- 
 ciated with some religious purpose or act. The feudal man, 
 as in the Islam of to-day, prays often and devoutly. Five 
 times in the day he pauses in prayer, and all his fellows are 
 with him in this act. Even the man under the early forms of 
 national religion was sincerely pious, often sought communion 
 with God, never failed in the ritual requirements of his re- 
 ligion, and believed that which was incredible and hard of 
 belief. 
 
 In any city of to-day, in the management of any modern 
 state, religion has no manifestation of itself as in the early 
 life of mankind. On the streets, in the places of business, in 
 the courts, in halls of legislation, in the daily tasks of men 
 and women religion may never give manifestation of its pres- 
 ence. For an hour or two on Sunday it may come, as it were, 
 out of its hiding, and make itself really felt. In this respect 
 it is markedly different from what it was in its earlier mani- 
 festations. Then it was ever present and could not for a day 
 or an hour be escaped from in any part of life. Now one may 
 pass through many days, even many years, and see no ex- 
 pression of religion in its outward manifestations of itself. It 
 may enter deeply into the lives of individuals, and even con- 
 trol the motives of their lives; and yet it may have no power 
 to reach and influence the community as a corporate reality. 
 It is for the individual, not for the town, the city or the state. 
 In becoming individual it has lost its capacity to direct and 
 stimulate the communal or the national life. Its deeper mean- 
 
 [334] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ings are for the individual and not for the collective life. In 
 becoming distinctly individualistic it has lost its power over 
 a great number of men and women in all human communities 
 where this development has taken place. 
 
 When we study critically Christianity as it appears in 
 western lands, what must impress us most emphatically is the 
 wide disparity between the belief and the practice of the pro- 
 fessed Christian. This appears most distinctly in the national 
 phases it presents, for in becoming more and more individual- 
 istic, a means of private incentive and consolation, Christianity 
 has lost its hold on the social and political and business life of 
 modern western communities. Nothing could more amaze one 
 than to hear of or to see it brought into real manifestation in 
 any of the acts of commerce or industry. The golden rule has 
 lost most, if not all, of its meanings in the relations of those 
 who buy labor and those who sell it as a commodity. In 
 legislative halls prayer is heard at the opening of each session, 
 but religion may be silent throughout the remainder of the 
 day. Indeed, the broader ethical conceptions, and the primary 
 principles of human justice, may appear to be banished from 
 both of these acts of human beings. 
 
 If religion is to be retained by mankind, if it is to have 
 any commanding power in the future, this yawning gulf be- 
 tween profession and practice must be bridged over, and made 
 not to be. Religion must again enter into the whole of life or 
 it were better it should pass out of existence. It cannot con- 
 tinue as a pretence, as something for special days or occasions 
 or for a few devout souls. Death must come to it if it cannot 
 recover its collective power, its ethical stimulus for cities and 
 nations, its broadly human capacities. Rignano's idea that it 
 may be retained for a few individuals who have a genius for 
 prayer and worship cannot insure the future of religion. It 
 
 [335] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 must belong to the acts of every day throughout the whole na- 
 tion or it were better that it should die as Greek pantheism and 
 Roman paganism have died. A legend of the old time said that 
 Great Pan has died ; and we may query if some new legend will 
 not mournfully report, as the word is echoed over land and sea, 
 that Lord Christ has gone the way of all that is outgrown. It 
 will surely be so if religion does not advance away from the- 
 ology and metaphysics, if it does not seek above everything 
 else the good of all who live, and if it does not enter profoundly 
 and convincingly into the life of all human communities, to 
 secure brotherhood, justice as between man and man, and to 
 bring human welfare to its highest possible estate. 
 
 f336] 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Religion as Cosmic and Human Motive 
 
 RELIGION may be regarded as a process, a growth, an 
 evolution. At the same time it is a ferment, a stir of the 
 mind, a battle for what is just and right. In its older forms 
 always conservative, reactionary, and faced towards the past, 
 in its newer manifestations it is forward-looking, progressive, 
 and rebellious against what is old and effete. More and more 
 it identifies itself with the life of man, and with his aspirations 
 towards a better and happier life for all who live. 
 
 Those who think that religion has been outgrown are 
 more concerned with what it has been in the past than with 
 what it may become in the future. Because man has been a 
 savage is no reason why we should reject his childhood as the 
 path which has led to his manhood. Because he has believed 
 in magic is no reason why we should reject what is progressive 
 and humanitarian. The earth was once a fire-mist, and then a 
 great ball of flaming elements in a condition of incandescence ; 
 but it is neither of these now. Nor is it necessary to assume 
 that because religion was once cruel and degrading, it is that 
 now or will be that forever. What we are to consider is not 
 what it has been, but what it may become. Granted all the 
 superstition, fanaticism, and brutality which once belonged 
 to it, we have no right to assume that it will retain these to the 
 end of time. Granted that it still clings tenaciously to what be- > 
 longs to ignorance, mythology, and rejection of science, this 
 
 [337] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 is not proof that there is no possibility for organizing in its 
 V name what is rational, progressive, and humane. 
 
 The question presents itself, What is religion ? Many have 
 been the answers, though none of them are likely to agree 
 with each other. In the first volume of the third edition of 
 The Golden Bough (volume one of The Magic Art), J. G. 
 Frazer defines religion as "propitiation or conciliation of 
 powers superior to man which are believed to direct and con- 
 trol the course of nature and of human life. Thus defined," 
 he adds, "religion consists of two elements, a theoretical and a 
 practical, namely, a belief in powers higher than man and an 
 attempt to propitiate or please them." He proceeds to show 
 that religion means belief in superhuman beings, and that it 
 consists in governing the life by the individual in the fear or 
 the love of God. Frank G. Speck, in a recent lecture on prim- 
 itive religions, defines religion "as that which expresses in 
 life the relationship between man and the supernatural realm. ' ' 
 These definitions are from men of science, who are students 
 of the earlier forms of religion, and of the races which are the 
 most primitive in their religious development. Their defini- 
 tions, however, belong to the conventional rather than to the 
 truly scientific results of investigation. 
 
 Other definitions dispense with the supernatural, and with 
 an autocratic control of the universe by a divine being. John 
 McTaggart, for instance, in Some Dogmas of Religion, says 
 that it is "an emotion resting on a conviction of a harmony 
 between ourselves and the universe at large." Edward Caird, 
 in the first volume of his Evolution of Religion, says that "a 
 man's religion is the expression of his ultimate attitude to 
 
 [338] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the universe, the summed-up meaning and purport of his whole 
 consciousness of things. " William James expressed a similar 
 point of view in The Varieties of Religious Experience, when 
 he said that "the religious life consists of the belief that there 
 is an unseen order and that our supreme good lies in har- 
 moniously adjusting ourselves thereto. " Henry Bosanquet, 
 defining religion in Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and 
 Psychology, says that a man's religion "is that set of objects, 
 habits, and convictions, whatever it might prove to be, which 
 he would die for rather than abandon, or at least would feel 
 himself excommunicated from humanity if he did abandon. " 
 As distinctly excluding all idea of the supernatural may be 
 taken the definition of Thomas Davidson, in an article in the 
 International Journal of Ethics, on the subject of American 
 Democracy as a Religion, where he defines religion as that which 
 places us in harmony with our environment, that we may "at- 
 tain the highest possible development in knowledge, love, and 
 will." He proceeds to say that "not only is Americanism a 
 religion, but that it is the noblest of all religions, that which 
 best insures the realization of the highest manhood and woman- 
 hood, and points them to the highest goal. ' ' To much the same 
 purport is the definition of modern religion given by H. G. 
 Wells at the end of God the Invisible King, where he says: 
 "It is a process of truth, guided by the divinity in man. It 
 needs no other guidance, and no protection. It needs nothing 
 but freedom, free speech, and honest statement." On an im- 
 mediately preceding page he says again: "Religion which is 
 free, speaking freely through whom it will, subject to a per- 
 petual unlimited criticism, will be the life and driving power 
 of the whole organized world." 
 
 Here we have a wide enough variety of definitions of re- 
 ligion to fit any mind or any mood of it, all of them from mod- 
 
 [339] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ern thinkers. This variety indicates how widely divergent re- 
 ligion has come to be for the modern mind, and how many the 
 thinkers who depart from the established and inherited con- 
 ceptions of its nature. However, when we consider the real 
 significance of these definitions, and what they imply with 
 reference to the developing tendencies of modern religious 
 thought, they are far less widely apart than at first would 
 appear. When we read these words in connection with the 
 works from which they have been taken, we may not doubt that a 
 new meaning for religion is growing among men, and one that 
 faces joyously and confidently all the facts of the modern 
 world, believes that they are evolutionary and progressive, 
 and that they mean the outgrowing of all that is dark and 
 forbidding in the religion of the past. This new tendency in 
 religion is turning from the supernatural to the human, from 
 the miraculous to what is natural, and from the mere routine 
 of ritual to the service of man. 
 
 II 
 
 A very suggestive, and, indeed, a startling indication as 
 to what is now taking place in the thoughts of intelligent men 
 and women may be found in the book by James H. Leuba on 
 The Belief in God and Immortality. In the second part of 
 that work he presents a statistical study of the belief in a 
 personal God and in personal immortality in the United States. 
 By means of questionnaires he secured the opinions of nearly 
 one thousand students in the non-technical departments of 
 nine colleges of high rank, and also of the same number of 
 American scientists, sociologists, historians and psychologists. 
 As the result of these inquiries he found that 31 per cent, of 
 the men among college students conceived of God as imper- 
 
 [340] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 sonal and 11 per cent, of the women. Taking together all 
 who do not distinctly believe in a personal God the number 
 of men is 40.5 per cent, and the number of women 15.7 per 
 cent. He found also that, considered all together, as many 
 as from 40 to 50 per cent, of the young men leaving college 
 entertain an idea of God incompatible with the acceptance of 
 the Christian religion, even as interpreted by the liberal clergy. 
 
 Leuba shows that only 7 per cent, of these persons 
 hold to a thoroughly anthropomorphic idea of God, that is, 
 that he is manlike and material in his nature. Two-thirds of 
 the men and nearly half the women disclaim any mental picture 
 of God. This means that they do not conceive of God under 
 any form that can be definitely defined in concrete shape. 
 Thirty-two per cent, of the men and 17 per cent, of the 
 women are of the opinion that the non-existence of God would 
 make no difference at all in their lives. Apparently as many 
 as 43 per cent, of the men, and 22 per cent, of the women 
 think themselves morally independent of the existence of 
 God. Summing up the results of his inquiries in regard to 
 the beliefs of college students, and after giving a con- 
 siderable number of the replies he received from them, Leuba 
 concludes: "The deepest impression left by these records is 
 that, so far as religion is concerned, our students are grov- 
 elling in darkness. Christianity, as a system of belief, has 
 utterly broken down, and nothing definite, adequate, and con- 
 vincing has taken its place. Their beliefs, when they have any, 
 are superficial and amateurish in the extreme. There is no 
 generally acknowledged authority; each one believes as he 
 can, and few seem disturbed at being unable to hold the tenets 
 of the churches. This sense of freedom is the glorious side of 
 an otherwise dangerous situation." 
 
 Leuba found that, in regard to both belief in God and 
 
 [341] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 immortality, the number of believers decreased with the ad- 
 vance from the freshman to the senior years in college, so 
 that the more these men gained of knowledge and culture the 
 less likely were they to hold fast to the beliefs of their youth. 
 The number of believers in immortality, however, was greater 
 than the number of believers in God throughout the whole 
 college course. Some surprise is expressed, as the result of 
 this investigation, that as many as 35 per cent, of the juniors 
 and seniors in a Christian college were unable to believe 
 in immortality, and a considerable additional number indif- 
 ferent to it. Leuba adds: "This situation points to a very 
 profound change now taking place in the convictions of our 
 educated young people regarding a belief usually considered 
 vital to Christianity." Certainly, in view of the -fact that most 
 of the older colleges and universities were, founded distinctly 
 on a Christian basis, and with the avowed purpose of prepar- 
 ing young men for the ministry of the Christian church, and 
 that nearly all the graduates formerly entered upon that pro- 
 fession, the change is one of startling significance. Put these 
 facts by the side of the statement in his biography, that John 
 Fiske, when a stuclent at Harvard, was threatened with expul- 
 sion because he believed in and promulgated the doctrine of 
 evolution. A little later he failed to secure a professorship 
 because of his acceptance of this scientific belief. Even as 
 late as 1872 he was refused the opportunity to lecture at the 
 Lowell Institute because he did not believe in the divine revela- 
 tion of the Bible. 
 
 Leuba was also desirous of finding what were the beliefs 
 of scientific men in this country; and he selected his inquiry 
 lists with a view to securing the opinions of the leading men, 
 as well as those of lesser note. He found that the men of 
 greater knowledge and attainments were less inclined to believe 
 
 [342] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 in God and immortality than those who held lower rank. 
 Taking together the nearly one thousand men from whom he 
 received answers, he found that there were 50.6 per cent, 
 of the lesser men and only 49.4 per cent, of the greater who 
 believe in immortality. Those believing in God were 51 per 
 cent, of the lesser and 35.7 per cent, of the greater. These be- 
 longed to the first five hundred whom he investigated. In his 
 second group the numbers were 45.5 per cent, and 27.7 per 
 cent, for believers in God; and 52.8 per cent, and 35.2 per 
 cent, for believers in immortality. The number of agnostics 
 or those of indefinite opinions proved to be greater than the 
 disbelievers in regard to immortality. Among the greater 
 scientists the agnostics and doubters were 43.7 per cent., and 
 the disbelievers only 25.4 per cent. 
 
 It was found that the physicists furnished a considerably 
 larger number of believers both in God and in immortality 
 than the biologists. Among the greater biologists was found a 
 small number of believers, only 16.9 per cent, believing in 
 God and 25.4 per cent, believing in immortality. Among the 
 historians the numbers were much larger, as might have been 
 anticipated before the inquiry began. Of the sociologists, 
 hjywever, the proportion of believers in God proved to be quite 
 j/small. The greater psychologists showed only 13.2 per cent, 
 who are believers in God, and only 8.8 per cent, of believers 
 in immortality, the smallest figures secured in regard to any 
 class entering into this investigation. 
 
 Leuba regards the figures he gives in his book as actually 
 representing the beliefs of American students and scientists, 
 and that they can be trusted as giving a just estimate of the 
 attitude of these classes towards the greater beliefs of religion. 
 Among the one thousand scientists he says are included all the 
 intellectual leaders of the United States. Since they are teach- 
 
 [343] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 ers, for the most part, in the higher institutions of learning, 
 
 they may be regarded as the moral as well as the intellectual 
 
 leaders of the country. This fact may be placed alongside the 
 
 Bother fact he states, that he does not see how it is possible "to 
 
 /avoid the conclusion that disbelief in a personal God and in 
 personal immortality is directly proportional to abilities mak- 
 ing for success in the sciences in question." He more fully 
 states the conclusions of his research by saying that it "shows 
 that in every class of persons investigated the number of be- 
 lievers in God is less, and in most classes very much less than 
 the number of non-believers, and that the number of believers 
 in immortality is somewhat larger than in a personal God; 
 that among the more distinguished, unbelief is very much more 
 frequent than among the less distinguished; and finally that 
 not only the degree of ability, but also the kind of knowledge 
 possessed, is significantly related to the rejection of these 
 belief s." 
 
 The tenth chapter of his book is devoted by Leuba to the 
 consideration of the cause of the growing unbelief which he 
 has statistically investigated. He finds that cause in the in- 
 
 I dlvidualism which has been rapidly growing in modern society, 
 and in the consequent break with the traditions of the past. He 
 finds in the gain in independence among college and university 
 students, as they advance in their studies, the cause of their 
 growing skepticism. When their minds awaken they refuse 
 longer to be bound by what in youth seemed satisfactory be- 
 cause it had been taught them in childhood. The reaction of 
 
 \ all growing minds from childish conceptions naturally leads 
 to this growth of the rebellious spirit, the free spirit of in- 
 quiry, the demand for what will satisfy the intellect rather 
 than the emotional nature. The recognition also comes, that 
 the knowledge imparted by science and culture is not in 
 
 [344] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 harmony with the religious teachings received in the years be- 
 fore serious study began. 
 
 Leuba inquires why there are among college students 
 82 per cent, of women who are believers, and only 56 per 
 cent, of men. He points out that they belong to the same 
 classes, hear the same teachers, read the same books, and 
 imbibe the same knowledge. "The main cause of the dif- 
 ference,' 7 he thinks, "is to be found in the greater readiness of 
 men to break from tradition/' It may be inquired, however, 
 why men break with tradition more readily than women; and 
 the answer is to be found in what is fundamental to sex itself. 
 It cannot be assumed that the mind of woman is merely a 
 duplicate of the mind of man ; and in saying this it is not neces- 
 sary to assume, in the least degree, that the mind of woman 
 is weaker or less capable than that of man. The difference is 
 not one of capacity, but of emphasis, of temperament, of that 
 to which a woman gives the preference. Recognizing this con- 
 stitutional difference, it is possible to make it of too great im- 
 portance, and thereby to ignore the social and educational man- 
 ner in which women have been brought to look at the world 
 in quite another manner than that of men. While there is a 
 natural difference, undoubtedly, the artificial variation has 
 been assiduously cultivated, and makes up most of the manly 
 and womanly characteristics. 
 
 It may be seriously questioned whether there is any fun- 
 damental intellectual difference between men and women, as 
 such. As just now suggested, the difference is much more truly 
 artificial than natural. What is meant is, that the educational 
 processes used for women are other than those used for men. 
 The wide-reaching and long-continued barring of women from 
 all truly intellectual training has not as yc 4 - been put aside in 
 any degree approaching equality for the two sexes. If boys 
 
 [345] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 and girls, men and women, are educated side by side, yet to 
 a very large degree the trend of social influences is in favor 
 of quite another sort of intellectual attitude for women than 
 that for men. If educational processes approach in some 
 measure the same training for the two sexes, the standards 
 set up by society, and especially in as far as they have been 
 inherited from the traditions of the past, demand for women 
 another quality of life, another manner of thinking, than that 
 assigned to men as natural to them. Perhaps, it is not going 
 too far to assume that the whole of the difference between the 
 two sexes, as indicated in the above statistics, has its origin in 
 this superimposed mental attitude for women. Society has 
 not yet come to the position of liberating women to freedom of 
 thought, to entire self-direction in all their affairs, and to the 
 forming their own opinions in regard to religion. Until it has 
 done so, women will remain under the domination of the sex 
 consciousness, in religion as elsewhere. 
 
 Turning to the causes for the greater unbelief of men of 
 superior knowledge and ability, Leuba finds it in their greater 
 independence, their disposition to think more freely, and their 
 marked individuality. It is not merely greater knowledge in 
 itself, however, which makes these men more skeptical; but 
 rather it is to be attributed "to certain temperamental quali- 
 ties or energies which make it relatively easy for them to rid 
 themselves of much of the social pressure to which others 
 yield. " Such men are also likely to find about them associ- 
 ates who do not demand what is orthodox, and aid them in 
 warding off those traditional demands which compel others 
 to conform to what society regards as truth. More than all 
 else, in Leuba 's opinion, is the fact that such men "are, on the 
 whole, distinguish ^J among their colleagues for activity, ten- 
 acity, initiative, and self-reliance. Of these qualities, at least 
 
 [346] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the last two tend to resist the forces of authority and of 
 prestige, as well as to increase knowledge. " 
 
 The conclusion which Leuba reaches, in the final summing 
 up of his investigations, is one of great importance. It sug- 
 gests much in regard to the future of religion. "The situation 
 demanded by the present statistical studies," he says, "de- 
 mands a revision of public opinion regarding the prevalence 
 and the future of the two cardinal beliefs of official Christian- 
 ity; and shows the futility of the efforts of those who would 
 meet the present religious crisis by devising a more efficient 
 organization and co-operation of the churches, or more at- 
 tractive social features, or even a more complete consecration 
 of the church membership to its task. The essential problem 
 facing organized Christianity is constituted by the wide- 
 spread rejection of its two fundamental dogmas a rejection 
 apparently destined to extend parallel with the diffusion of 
 knowledge and the moral qualities that make for eminence in 
 scholarly pursuits." 
 
 Ill 
 
 Leuba 's investigations have led him to the conclusion that 
 the desire for immortality is far from being universal. Even 
 some who believe in it have no earnest wish for the continua- 
 tion of the individual life, and others distinctly prefer that 
 life should come to an end. The Buddhist doctrine of nirvana, 
 cessation of struggle and material interests, with absolute rest 
 and quiescence, is by no means unattractive to persons of west- 
 ern countries. Investigations suggested by F. C. S. Schiller, 
 and carried out by the American Society for Psychical Re- 
 search, published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychi- 
 cal Research, in 1904, volume 18, as well as discussed in Schil- 
 
 [347] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 ler's book on Humanism, fully confirm these conclusions. In 
 reply to this questionnaire, the Society received 3321 answers, 
 and of these 40 per cent, only "had never entertained a doubt, 
 or had trained themselves to regard a future life as certain, 
 and then dismissed the matter from their minds. " Many 
 persons were very decidedly of the opinion that they did not 
 believe in immortality or had no desire for a continued future 
 existence. Schiller finds, in his book on Humanism, that "it 
 is just because the religious doctrines of immortality are not 
 taken as fact that they are accepted." He goes on to say: 
 "Hence the religious doctrines with respect to the future life 
 form a part of paper currency, inconvertible with facts, which 
 suits people and circulates because of its very badness. Their 
 function is to conjure up pleasing and consoling visions when- 
 ever we are in the mood for them, to provide a brighter back- 
 ground for life than sheer extinction ; but they are not allowed 
 to grow insistent enough seriously to affect action. " 
 
 In the statistics gathered by Schiller only 22 per cent, out 
 
 of 3321 persons had a real desire for a scientific knowledge 
 
 of the future life; 23 per cent, preferred to accept the future 
 
 on a basis of faith alone, 12.9 per cent, preferred to remain in 
 
 a state of ignorance in regard to the other life, while 3.3 per 
 
 cent, were indifferent. A large number of persons, according 
 
 > to Schiller's report, express themselves to this effect: "At 
 
 //present, belief in immortality plays a very small part in my 
 
 experience or motives; I leave it indefinite, though I rather 
 
 feel it is true." 
 
 Schiller says that 1314 out of the 3321 report that they 
 find it necessary to their comfort to feel that immortality is 
 true. A majority of those answering, however, report that the 
 desire for a continued life would not add to their satisfaction 
 with life. Schiller subjected the returns from the questionnaire 
 
 [348] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 to a rigid scrutiny, and, though on the face of the returns a 
 majority, or 1706 out of 3218, were in favor of having a positive 
 knowledge in regard to the future, many showed themselves 
 negative or indifferent in regard to the subject, who answered 
 in the affirmative. Those who would like to know that there 
 is no future life were 225 in number; those who had but a 
 slight or doubtful desire, 123 ; those wishing to know but think 
 knowledge impossible, 64. This reduces the majority to a 
 minority of 1294, who have a desire to know that man is im- 
 mortal. The final result of the analysis is, that 681 out of 3218, 
 or rather over 21 per cent., "may be credited with a real desire 
 for scientific knowledge of the possibility of a future life." 
 To this statement should be added the conclusion that only 22 
 per cent., or 739 out of 3321, have a desire for "a future life 
 at all costs." Schiller adds that "it turns out that not only 
 is a real desire for the heaven of what used to be thought 
 orthodoxy decidedly rare, but that a good many actually have 
 so strong an objection to it that they assert they would prefer 
 annihilation. ' ' 
 
 The purpose of this investigation by the Society for Psy- 
 chical Research, suggested by Schiller, and the results worked 
 out by him in a lengthy report, was to ascertain what was the 
 probable proportion of the population desiring a scientific 
 knowledge in regard to a future life, such as the Society aimed 
 to secure, if possible. Schiller was of the opinion that there 
 was necessary a social demand for such knowledge or it would 
 be impossible to secure it, however zealous and laborious might 
 be the efforts of a few researchers. The traditional opinion, 
 often repeated from the pulpit and elsewhere, that there is a 
 great eagerness in regard to the future, and that this desire 
 is not only nearly universal, but one that causes much anguish, 
 appears not to be true. Schiller reports "that the returns 
 
 [349] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 show comparatively little evidence of great spiritual revolu- 
 tions, and still less of any considerable or lasting mental an- 
 guish connected with them. The apparent absence of any 
 widespread spiritual distress is certainly very striking and sur- 
 prising, though here again this might perhaps have been in- 
 ferred from the surface indications of general placidity and 
 contentment. It would seem that spiritual crisis and prolonged 
 religious excitements are the prerogative of exceptional tem- 
 peraments; ordinary persons seem to adjust themselves easily 
 and rapidly to their definitive attitude. " 
 
 Schiller recognizes that the number of answers procured 
 was too small to make the returns secure a decisive test as to 
 the extent of the desire for immortality in the general popula- 
 tion. He also recognizes that, owing to the questionnaire reach- 
 ing a large proportion of psychical researchers and spiritual- 
 ists, the figures given are in larger proportion affirmative than 
 would otherwise be the case. He is of the opinion, also, that 
 the returns do not prove that the problem of the future life 
 has always been indifferent to those who are but little or not 
 at all concerned about it at the present time. On this phase 
 of the problem he says : * * Some consideration surely is due to 
 those who would sincerely like to know, and to whom the lack 
 of knowledge causes grave distress. I have admitted, and even 
 emphasized, that at any given time they form a minority, it 
 may be a small minority. But there is also evidence to show 
 that at some time or other in their lives a large majority pass 
 through a period when the mystery of existence oppresses 
 their spirits and torments them with fears and perplexities 
 which real knowledge would almost certainly show to be 
 groundless. It is true, no doubt, that such periods of anxiety 
 seem usually to be short, and that after a few years people 
 
 [350] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 find quite comfortable beliefs which at first had seemed quite 
 unbearable. ' ' 
 
 In his eleventh chapter Leuba brings together the opinions 
 of a number of eminent men and women of our time, all of 
 whom are largely indifferent to the beliefs in God and im- 
 mortality or entirely reject them. These include Eenan, 
 George Eliot, John Addington Symonds, William McDougall, 
 and others. For instance, McDougall says in his book on 
 Body and Mind : "I can lay claim to no religious convictions ; I 
 am not aware of any strong desire for any continuance of my 
 personality after death; and I could accept with equanimity 
 a thorough-going materialism, if that seemed to me the inevit- 
 able outcome of a dispassionate and critical reflection. Never- 
 theless, I am in sympathy with the religious attitude towards 
 life ; and I should welcome the establishment of sure empirical 
 foundations for the belief that human personality is not wholly 
 destroyed by death." 
 
 Leuba cites the opinions of a large number of the men 
 and women who responded to his questions, showing that they 
 either rejected these beliefs or were of the opinion that they 
 had no direct bearing on their conduct or on their concep- 
 tions of human duty and responsibility. Some of these are of 
 ^great interest because of their frankness, their indications of 
 a disturbed mind or their desire to believe what had become 
 impossible of acceptance. 
 
 An interesting indication of the present-day trend of 
 thought and desire in regard to immortality may be found in 
 the Easter number, 1918, of the Universalist Leader, published 
 in Boston. The editor asked a number of representative peo- 
 ple who are leaders in their various fields to express for pub- 
 lication their opinions in regard to immortality. Of the nine 
 answers published, three express a very definite disbelief in 
 
 [351] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 this doctrine. For instance, John Burroughs wrote: "I see 
 no more grounds for belief that I shall live again than that my 
 dog or the grass or the trees will live again. They and we live 
 in our descendants. It is life that is immortal, and not the in- 
 dividual manifestations of it." 
 
 There can be no question but that this point of view is 
 being found satisfactory to a considerable number of thinking 
 men and women. This is the answer of Charlotte Perkins Gil- 
 man: " Personal immortality may or may not be true, I know 
 nothing about it. It is an idea which has never interested me 
 in the slightest degree. My whole hope, love, purpose and 
 work pours along the line of what I do know the continuity 
 of the human race on earth ; its boundless capacity for growth, 
 improvement and happiness; and our power to build that 
 splendid future. We shall make better progress in this world 
 when we outgrow our selfish grasping after another one." 
 
 IV 
 
 Turning back once again to James H. Leuba's book on 
 The Belief in God and Immortality, we must recognize that 
 no more important work has been published in our time. It 
 does not assert that religion is prospering, as is so often done 
 by those less well informed, and that there has been a com- 
 plete reconciliation between religion and science, that the 
 skepticisms of a half-century ago have ceased to vex believing 
 minds, or that all the great critics of religion of that time have 
 disappeared, and have no successors. These assertions seem to 
 be made for the same reason that a boy whistles when passing 
 a dark wood, in order to keep up his courage. They have been 
 repeated with such frequency, and with such persistence, that 
 many have come to believe them true. As Leuba has conclu- 
 
 [352] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 sively shown, they are not true. It might be added, that 
 in a time like ours, when the spirit of free inquiry is abroad, 
 when thinkers are searching heavens and earth for facts and 
 their laws, it is impossible that they should be true. All that 
 can be said is, that such men as Huxley, Haeckel, Matthew 
 Arnold, and their confreres, have had no immediate successors. 
 The reason for this is to be found in the situation produced 
 by the publication of Darwin's Descent of Man, and the neces- 
 sity for the interpretation and defense of the doctrine of 
 evolution. That great occasion having passed by, with the 
 general acceptance of evolution and what it implies, religiously 
 and socially, there has been no further occasion that the con- 
 troversy then developed should be prolonged. The successors 
 to Darwin, Huxley, and Haeckel have had other work than 
 to criticize the old religious traditions or to show wherein they 
 no longer fit into the needs of the present time. They have 
 been investigating vast fields of research opened up by the 
 work of Darwin and his associates, broadening the spirit and 
 the conclusions of evolution, and fitting it to meet the demands 
 of all phases of modern life. Therefore, they have not fol- 
 lowed Huxley or Haeckel, who did a highly important work 
 for their time ; but the newer time has required other methods 
 and wiser conclusions. 
 
 The investigations of Leuba and Schiller, as well as several 
 others, are highly important because they show what is the at- 
 titude of thinking men in our own day. We have here not 
 mere assertions of those who wish that what they assert may 
 be true; but facts which cannot be turned aside from with 
 mere denial. What do they signify ? In what manner are they 
 to be accepted? Evidently they are too serious to be dismissed 
 
 [353] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 with indifference or to be turned aside from because we dare 
 not face their full import. 
 
 Any large and broad-minded study of present-day reli- 
 gious tendencies must bring home to us the fact that men and 
 women are no longer accepting the old beliefs in the spirit of 
 docility and unquestioning trust, such as was characteristic of 
 those of two or three generations ago. If the secularists, free- 
 thinkers, and atheists are not now largely organized, or mak- 
 ing themselves heard with frequency, and much assertion of 
 their skepticisms, it seems that it is not because their kind has 
 disappeared from modern society. Apparently, if we are to 
 believe Leuba and Schiller, their number has greatly increased, 
 and among the better educated rather than among the more 
 ignorant members of society. What appears to be the actual 
 situation is, that these classes are so far indifferent in regard 
 to the beliefs of religion, that they do not organize or take the 
 trouble to assert or to defend their opinions. 
 
 If we turn to a book which has been widely read and much 
 discussed in recent years, Henri Bergson 's Creative Evolution, 
 we shall find a new and most suggestive interpretation of life 
 with reference to its fundamental cause. To Bergson this 
 cause is not that of an arbitrary will, a supernatural being, or 
 a God standing on the outside and projecting the universe into 
 space. He sees all life as a process, a movement, a develop- 
 ment and an evolution, with its causes in its own nature, ever 
 active, an ever unfolding process. Life, Bergson declares, 
 transcends all the categories of the old manner of thinking, and 
 is something vital, natural, ever proceeding. Nature and 
 humanity are not apart from each other or antagonistic, but 
 parts of one whole, phases of a great proceeding activity, one 
 triumphant march forward of the eternal sources of being. 
 Accordingly, individuality and society proceed together, are 
 
 [354] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 but phases of one continuing process, ever working themselves 
 out together to higher and higher conclusions. Therefore, 
 Bergson says that God "has nothing of the ready made; he is 
 unceasing life, action, freedom. Creation, so conceived, is not 
 a mystery; we experience it ourselves when we act freely." 
 Who can object to such a conception of God? If the full 
 significance of such a God were clearly placed before them, 
 probably most of Leuba's skeptics would not turn from him. 
 What they have not been able to believe in is the traditional 
 God, the deity having his origin in animism and supported by 
 mediaeval metaphysics, that is, by abstractions and anthro- 
 pomorphic interpretations of a visible concrete deity some- 
 where in the heavens. 
 
 It is interesting to place by the side of Leuba's book two 
 little volumes by Francis Younghusband, an English explorer, 
 administrator and soldier, who led the British expedition of 
 1904 into Thibet. At a later time he was struck down by a 
 motor-car, and for months lingered between life and death. 
 During his period of convalescence he had an opportunity to 
 think about the problems of religion, with the result that he 
 wrote the little book entitled Within: Thoughts During Con- 
 valescence, which appeared in 1914. The next year he pub- 
 lished Mutual Influence: A Review of Religion. What is 
 remarkable about these little books is their tenderness, their 
 deep human sympathy, their poetical elevation and gracious- 
 ness, and their highly mystical tone on the part of a soldier 
 and a man of the world. Rejecting all which is usually defined 
 under the name of religion, these books make a profoundly 
 religious impression. Their attitude is constructive, inspiring, 
 
 [355] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 and humane. The note is not one of skepticism, but one of be- 
 lief. They touch the deeper emotions, and satisfy the heart 
 as well as the mind. 
 
 As many other men have done, Younghusband found in 
 the tenderness and devotion of his wife, during his prolonged 
 convalescence, the basic influence giving shape and meaning 
 to his new religious beliefs. Projecting, as it were, this human 
 sympathy and fellowship into the universe, he found his con- 
 ception of God. In a word, his God was not that of Christian- 
 ity or any other historic religion ; but that of humanity, as in- 
 terpreted to him by the devotion of his wife. He does not ig- 
 nore the harsh and cruel phases of nature, its indifference to 
 human welfare, its readiness to sweep a city out of existence 
 as quickly as a pebble into the sea. Therefore, he finds in 
 humanity his symbol of divinity, and, indeed, his conception 
 of the only God which has any meaning. He finds that there 
 is in the universe a mighty world-spirit, of which each indi- 
 vidual is a manifestation. Loyalty to that spirit as manifested 
 in ourselves, true manliness, faith in that life working in our 
 own being and in all other men and women, this is the true 
 religion. 
 
 Mutual Influence elaborates these ideas, and gives them a 
 more adequate statement. It has that poetical quality, that 
 mystic tone, that breadth of sympathy, that humaneness, and 
 that lofty piety of the modern type, which must make it at- 
 tractive to every independent-thinking mind who in any de- 
 gree feels an interest in what is religious. Rejecting unquali- 
 fiedly an anthropomorphic God, Younghusband finds in human- 
 ity> m the march of man through the ages, in his struggles and 
 his aspirations, in his conquests over himself and over nature, 
 in his growing association of himself with his fellows in a great 
 human fellowship, that which gives a satisfying conception of 
 
 [356] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 God as ever-present in the world and as ever-ready to give the 
 individual sympathy and help. "Any individual human be- 
 ing," says Younghusband in his eleventh chapter, "may feel 
 that he is regarded and cared for by that Power which springs 
 from all individual units in the universe in their mutual in- 
 fluence upon one another. ' ' A page or two further on he says 
 again : ' * The individual may have confidence that God, as 
 herein conceived, though he be no separate person but only 
 the personification of the spirit which animates all individuals 
 as members of a whole, does, in truth, regard, care for, and 
 even love him, and is therefore something in which he may 
 place his faith and hope and trust, and love as surely as he 
 would love his country." Again, in a more explicit statement, 
 at the beginning of the concluding chapter of the book, we 
 read: The view here set forward "is that the power to which 
 any individual man is subjected is not exercised by any separ- 
 ate personal being wholly outside men, but is what results from 
 the mutual influence of all men, and of all the component 
 parts of the universe, however small they may be, upon one 
 another; and which these units are able to exert because they 
 all, whether atoms or men, are self-active individuals with 
 properties and characteristics of their own." We are assured 
 that God is not a separate person any more than France is a 
 separate person, and yet the Frenchman loves and is loyal to 
 France as something ideal, something great and inspiring, 
 something to which he can give his utmost of loyalty and devo- 
 tion. As France or any other country is not a distinctly per- 
 sonal and concrete thing, but an idea, a symbol, and a tangible 
 fact not the less, so is God, though no more personal than one 's 
 country, something that can win and hold our loyalty. We 
 can give that loyalty, not to some intangible mythical being 
 in the heavens, but to our country and to our fellow-men, 
 
 [357] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 "In this view," according to Younghusband, "things do not 
 consist of God, man, and matter, each separate and distinct 
 from the other. They form rather one single, inter-connected, 
 and intimately related whole; a whole which is in process, 
 in process of betterment, and which is animated by a spirit 
 issuing from the parts, but which in turn fashions and moulds 
 them, making and remaking the same material over and over 
 again, but itself enduring continuously and being continually 
 bettered." 
 
 It may seem to those who have been trained to accept the 
 idea of an anthropomorphic God or the God of metaphysics 
 and theology, that Younghusband is giving them nothing 
 more than a shadow for the reality, that his God cannot work 
 miracles or answer prayer or come into the world for the re- 
 demption of men. The striking fact is, that having been taught 
 all this, and having heard it from his youth up, and having had 
 great adventures, seen much of men and of the causes which 
 direct the actions of nations, he turns from it all, and under 
 conditions of the utmost distress, when he is face to face with 
 death, finds for himself what he regards as a larger and saner 
 conception of religion, and of the moving forces which control 
 the world and the actions of men. He clearly says that the 
 power he has actually found working in the affairs of men and 
 nations is not the hand of an Almighty God resident in the 
 heavens, but is an influence issuing from men themselves, from 
 the earth from which they spring, and from the whole uni- 
 verse of which the earth and men are only a part. 
 
 So far from thinking that this faith of his will make the 
 world dark and the grave forbidding, Younghusband closes 
 his second book on a note of aspiring faith and triumphant 
 conviction. They who have acquired truly this faith, he as- 
 sures his readers, will be caught up in the rush of the uni- 
 
 [358] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 versal spirit, and will be filled with a love of their kind which 
 will cause them, with something like maternal instinct, to 
 stretch far forward and sacrifice the best that they can make 
 themselves, for the good of the future it is their part to create. 
 This is the triumphant note with which he brings to an' 
 end his religious interpretation of what may be called a re- 
 ligion of humanity: "When the generality of men have ab- 
 sorbed into their minds what has long been in the minds of 
 great thinkers, that the power which so influences their lives 
 is within the world and within themselves, and that it is on 
 themselves therefore that they must rely; when this idea has 
 saturated the literature, the music, the art, the hymns, the 
 prayers of the people, and when the whole atmosphere in which 
 they are brought up is one of reliance of men on themselves, 
 of faith in the spirit within them and of pride in a destiny 
 which lies in their own keeping, then men will no longer feel 
 the need of the comfort which belief that they are shielded and 
 nurtured by some invisible God affords. They will feel erect 
 and self-supporting, and by a greater reliance on themselves 
 they will have acquired that firmness of purpose so necessary 
 for great achievements, and that strength of character without 
 which it would be impossible to bear the burden of responsibil- 
 ity which the new freedom will entail." 
 
 In Mr. Britling Sees It Through, Herbert George Wells ex- 
 pressed himself with some emphasis in regard to the nature of 
 God, declaring that, if there were any such being as the the- 
 ologians describe, he would bring the great world-war to an 
 end. He went on to say that God is finite, that he struggles as 
 men struggle, and that he is human with love and tenderness 
 
 [359] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 as men are human. If God is to be anything to men, says Mr. 
 Britling, he must be limited and defined as men are. The 
 young men, on both sides, who had lost their lives in the great 
 struggle of nations, were declared to be with God, and God 
 present tenderly with them. 
 
 The reviewers immediately said that H. G. Wells, who had 
 hitherto been indifferent to religion, had now, on account of 
 the war, been awakened to its meaning and its importance. 
 The fact is, however, that in First and Last Things: A Con- 
 fession of Faith and Rule of Life, published in 1908, six years 
 before the war began, Wells gave a concise statement of his 
 philosophical and religious beliefs. Nothing which has ap- 
 peared in God the Invisible King or any of his other later 
 books was absent from that one, at least in general outline. 
 Some of his arguments are given in greater detail, and he has 
 elaborated on some of them; but all the essentials are in that 
 earlier work. In that work, writing of belief, he says that the 
 universe must have a meaning, that it must show forth order 
 and co-ordination, and that there is in it an ultimate Tightness 
 and significance of meaning. 
 
 Wells goes on to say that he is greatly attracted by the 
 phrases in which the personal purpose of the universe is ex- 
 pressed, and is not averse to declaring his belief in God. Yet 
 he immediately remarks that we can occasionally best serve 
 the God of truth by denying him. He confesses, however, that 
 the sense of personality in the universe is very strong. He 
 adds: "If I am confessing, I do not see why I should not con- 
 fess up to the hilt. At times in the silence of the night and in 
 rare lonely moments, I come upon a sort of communion of my- 
 self and something that is not myself. It is perhaps poverty 
 of mind and language obliges me to say then this universal 
 scheme takes on the effect of a sympathetic person and my 
 
 [360] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 communion a quality of fearless worship. These moments hap- 
 pen and they are the supreme fact in my religious life to me, 
 they are the crown of my religious experiences. ' ' 
 
 It is evident, however, that Wells is not here speaking of 
 the metaphysical and theological God of the churches, but of 
 an imaginative being, an ideal of humanity, the projection of 
 the trend of the whole of human life through the ages. The 
 race flows through us, and what God means is that the species 
 lives in us, a continuous flow of a controlling and sustaining life. 
 Wells confesses that this idea may seem vague and indefinite; 
 but he adds that it is mystical, and therefore all the more sug- 
 gestive and inspiring. He believes that even he may contribute 
 to the forming of that great being, as all men have been doing 
 throughout the ages. In the world of both man and nature 
 he finds beauty, and that is the true revelation of God. There 
 is also power, and that, somehow, is one with beauty. These 
 two are in all the universe, and they give life its meaning. His 
 statement is this: " Things move to power and beauty; I say 
 that much, and I have said all that I can say." 
 
 Wells says very positively that he does not believe in im- 
 mortality, that there is no abiding of the individual apart from 
 the life of the species, and of those things which belong to all 
 men in common. His position on this subject he states in these 
 words : ' ' I am not the continuing thing. I personally am ex- 
 perimental, incidental. I feel I have to do something, a num- 
 ber of things no one else could do, and then I am finished and 
 finished altogether. Then my substance returns to the com- 
 mon lot." 
 
 These statements will make it clear that neither Mr. Brit- 
 ling Sees It Through nor God the Invisible King has anything 
 essential to add to what had been written in the earlier book. 
 Few read First and Last Things because it was a philosophical 
 
 [361] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 work, many read Mr. Britling because it was a novel of great 
 power. Many also read God the Invisible King, because fol- 
 lowing immediately after Mr. Britling, and being written in 
 a manner nearly approaching the novel, it was widely dis- 
 cussed. In the preface to God the Invisible King, Wells says 
 that he does not believe in orthodox Christianity, and that he 
 does not accept Christianity in any of its forms. He especially 
 rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, and condemns in the sever- 
 est terms the Nicene creed and those who constructed it. He 
 rejects all the creeds explicitly and frankly, does not attempt 
 to conceal his indignation at the role which has been played by 
 the Christian dogmas, and the manner in which they have 
 been through all Christian ages obscuring, perverting and 
 preventing the religious life of mankind. 
 
 Wells expresses complete agnosticism with reference to 
 God the creator, and calls this the Veiled Being, because of 
 our entire lack of any real knowledge with regard to him. 
 His belief is in God the Redeemer, who is finite, human, grow- 
 ing, and the projection of man's hopes and ideals into a great 
 constructive idea. God is not a person who can be seen and 
 handled, and he is in no sense concrete and physically real. 
 God is youth and God is love; by which Wells means to say 
 that God is at once finite and developing, something not fin- 
 ished, but advancing with the growing life of humanity. 
 
 In many places throughout his book Wells presents re- 
 ligion and God as something very real, the greatest things 
 there are. Sometimes the reader may be inclined to think he 
 has gone back to the old beliefs and the old faith, with such 
 apparent enthusiasm and conviction does he use the terms of 
 the churches. However, one need not be for more than a 
 moment deceived by this emphasis laid upon the importance 
 of the religious life, and the joy it may give the struggling 
 
 [362] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 person. In fact, he is from first to last presenting a great 
 imaginative conception of humanity as the real God, humanity 
 as growing through the ages, and coming more and more to 
 serve the interests of all its aspiring and hoping members. 
 Whoever will read page 61 of God the Invisible King under- 
 standingly, in connection with the rest of the book, will have 
 no doubt that Wells means that the true God is the human 
 species idealized. It is not merely the aggregate of the indi- 
 viduals who have lived, and do live, who are symbolized by 
 Wells under the name of God ; but the species as an advancing 
 development of the highest life known to our globe. It is the 
 species as one continuous movement, subtly knit together in all 
 its members, as it were, into one organism, one great life- 
 force forever moving, expanding, becoming more and more 
 supreme over nature and the forces that hinder its progress. 
 This is Wells' own statement of what he conceives God to be 
 as such a youth and such a being of love: "Modern religion 
 declares that though he does not exist in matter or space, he 
 exists in time just as a current of thought may do; that he 
 changes and becomes more even as a man's purpose gathers 
 itself together ; that somewhere in the dawning of mankind he 
 had a beginning, an awakening, and that as mankind grows 
 he^grows. With our eyes he looks out upon the universe he 
 invades ; with our hands he lays hands upon it. All our truth, 
 all our intentions and achievements, he gathers to himself. He 
 is the underlying human memory, the increasing human will. 
 But this, you may object, is no more than saying that God is 
 the collective mind and purpose of the human race. You may 
 declare that this is no God, but merely the sum of mankind. But 
 those who believe in the new ideas very steadfastly deny that. 
 God is, they say, not an aggregate but a synthesis. He is not 
 merely the best of all of us, but a Being in himself, composed 
 
 [363] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 of that but more than that, as a temple is more than a gather- 
 ing of stones, or a regiment is more than an accumulation of 
 men. ' ' 
 
 This God who is humanity idealized, and made into a 
 great symbol of power and beauty, Wells believes may be ac- 
 cepted as having a divine imperative, which he is called upon 
 to obey implicitly. These are his words: "I am obeying an 
 irresistible call, I am a humble and willing servant of the 
 righteousness of God." Again, in his fifth chapter he makes 
 more clear his conception of the ethical force the invisible God 
 brings to bear on all who would obey his will: ''Its implicit 
 command to all its adherents is to make plain the way to the 
 world theocracy. Its rule of life is the discovery and service 
 of the will of God, which dwells in the hearts of men, and the 
 performance of that will, not only in the private life of the 
 believer but in the acts and order of the state and nation of 
 which he is a part. I give myself to God not only because I am 
 so and so but because I am mankind. I become in a measure 
 responsible for every evil in the world of men. I become a 
 knight in God's service. I become my brother's keeper. I be- 
 come a responsible minister of my King. I take sides against 
 injustice, disorder, and against those temporal kings, emperors, 
 princes, landlords and owners, who set themselves up against 
 God's rule and worship/' 
 
 We may query why Wells should think it desirable or 
 necessary to apply theological terms to something quite dif- 
 ferent from that to which they have been applied through many 
 ages. We may think it confusing rather than illuminating to 
 call idealized humanity by the name of God. We should not 
 forget, however, that it is precisely this very process by which 
 God has been constructed in the past, and that he is essentially 
 a projection of what man is individually and collectively into 
 
 [364] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 the great spaces of the universe. The history of the unfolding 
 of religion which we have been following proves this to have 
 been the identical process through which all gods have come 
 into existence, and have their meaning for mankind. 
 
 Then, it is not to be forgotten that Wells is an artist of 
 great constructive powers, that he makes use of a vigorous 
 creative imagination, and that he has dared to think out the 
 new problems in a fearless manner, with no regard to the 
 wishes or the teachings of the theologians and the metaphysi- 
 cians. He rightly says that he speaks for many others, that he 
 is not setting forth his own private views, but the constructive 
 ideas which are surging in many minds. For these reasons he 
 has a right to speak, and his message is worthy of the most 
 serious consideration. 
 
 We may now give consideration to the religious conclu- 
 sions of Emile Durkheim, the greatest sociologist of our time, 
 who has died since these pages were written. In no small de- 
 gree he interprets and justifies the beliefs of H. G. Wells, 
 though the one may have known nothing of the writings of the 
 other. Durkheim is of the opinion that religion is the most 
 fundamental and primary fact in human life, that all other 
 phases of culture, civilization, and science have evolved out 
 of it. He finds religion beginning in the social life of man, a 
 result of his collective activities, and essentially a develop- 
 ment from his social interests. It is not a product of individual 
 genius, but of the collective insight, imaginative vigor, and 
 constructive enterprise of social man. Religion is directly a 
 manifestation of man's social interests, a product of his social 
 genius, a construction of his social creativeness. 
 
 [365] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 In the opening pages of The Elementary Forms of the Re- 
 ligious Life (Les Formes elementaires de la vie religieuse), 
 Durkheim says that religion is something eminently social. 
 He turns from all the individualistic interpretations of it, and 
 finds that they do not accord with the historical facts, either 
 those of ethnology or those of psychology. "Religious repre- 
 sentations/' he proceeds to say, "are collective representations 
 which express collective realities/' He refuses to think that 
 religious rites are derived from divine personalities. He as- 
 sures us that religion is more than the idea of gods or spirits, 
 and consequently cannot be defined exclusively in relation to 
 such beings, in this directly contradicting the definition of 
 J. G. Frazer already given. 
 
 Religion appears nowhere except as an expression of the 
 central life of a group of men and women. It is always a fam- 
 ily, a corporation or a city which celebrates a religious rite, 
 never a solitary individual. In this respect Durkheim regards 
 religion from quite another point of view than that presented 
 by William James in his Varieties. Durkheim, when he de- 
 fines religion, finds that it is the beliefs and practices which 
 unite into one single moral community all those who accept 
 them or live in accordance with their requirements. 
 
 Durkheim accepts this conception of the nature of religion 
 because he finds that it is a developmental phase of man's evolu- 
 tion as an industrial, moral, and intellectual being. The life 
 of mankind grows about a great tradition or a series of tradi- 
 tions, results of human experience, passed on from one genera- 
 tion to another, and received by all growing minds as culture, 
 intellectual training, and moral inculcation. We enter into 
 the life of the community in childhood, find it giving us the- 
 ories of life which have been elaborating through many cen- 
 turies, and initiating us into the communal interpretation of 
 
 [366] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OP RELIGION 
 
 the world into which we have arrived. We have not to think 
 our way into an explanation of life, its meanings and its duties, 
 but find these already prepared for us by those who have pre- 
 ceded us on the life march. We may in time come to doubt 
 these interpretations; but at first we accept them implicitly 
 and are not able to question their truthfulness. "We speak a 
 language, ' ' Durkheim says in his seventh chapter, which is de- 
 voted to the origin of beliefs, "that we did not make; we use 
 instruments that we did not invent; we invoke rights that we 
 did not found ; a treasury of knowledge is transmitted to each 
 generation that it did not gather itself. It is to society that 
 we owe these varied benefits of civilization, and if we do not 
 ordinarily see the source from which we get them, we at least 
 know that they are not our own work." 
 
 It is Durkheim 's conclusion that because we feel our de- 
 pendence on these products of the creative energies of man- 
 kind, and do not comprehend definitely how they came to us, 
 we attribute them to spirits or gods, and give them a religious 
 significance. These precious things, that have come to us. out 
 of the past, that have tender sanctities associated with them, 
 we regard as of a divine origin, give them symbolical mean- 
 ings, and say that they came to us from God. Durkheim is of 
 the opinion, however, that "the sacred principle is nothing 
 more nor less than society transfigured and personified." Ac- 
 cordingly, we have here a means of interpreting sacred things 
 and acts in lay and social terms. The process by which the so- 
 cial becomes the divine Durkheim interprets in these words: 
 "The individual gets from society the best part of himself, all 
 that gives him a distinct character and a special place among 
 other beings, his intellectual and moral culture. If we should 
 withdraw from men their language, sciences, arts and moral 
 beliefs, they would drop to the rank of animals. So the char- 
 
 [367] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 acteristic attributes of human nature come from society. But, 
 on the other hand, society exists and lives only in and through 
 individuals. If the idea of society were extinguished in indi- 
 vidual minds and the beliefs, traditions and aspirations of the 
 group were no longer felt and shared by the individuals, so- 
 ciety would die. We can say of it what we said of the divinity : 
 it is only in so far as it has a place in human consciousness, 
 and this place is whatever one we may give it. We now see 
 the real reason why the gods cannot do without their worship- 
 pers any more than these can do without their gods; it is be- 
 cause society, of which the gods are only a symbolical expres- 
 sion, cannot do without individuals any more than these can 
 do without society." 
 
 Durkheim arrives at the conclusion that society has 
 stamped itself indelibly upon every phase of individual life, 
 as well as on all phases of religion, culture, and civilization. 
 It is not the individual mind as individual, as possessed of ini- 
 tiative and genius, which has given origin to these great con- 
 structive results of the experiences derived from many a gener- 
 ation succeeding one another, and absorbing these products 
 of individual activity. Rather is it the corporate, the organic, 
 more properly the genetic, advance of mankind, which has 
 made humanity what it has become. This means that life has 
 grown out of life, that one phase of society has evolved out of 
 another, and that religion is something ever proceeding, as 
 much a revelation now as it ever has been or ever can become. 
 Religion, therefore, is a process of growth, and when it is not 
 that it is a cumberer of the earth. Truly, it is something that 
 is evolving, that leaves behind the old, that is forever slough- 
 ing off the outgrown. It does not so much give us new truth 
 as fresh life. What it may accomplish, if it is vital and dy- 
 namic, is to give society new incentives, which shall bring it 
 
 [368] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 into vital and forceful activity towards making a better human- 
 ity. What does not make for the glory of man, what does not 
 lift him and set him more strongly on his feet, is not essential 
 to a genuine religion. 
 
 * ' The real function of religion, ' ' is the statement of Durk- 
 heim, "is not to make us think, to enrich our knowledge, nor 
 to add to the conceptions which we owe to science others of 
 another origin and another character, but rather, it is to make 
 us act, to aid us to live. The believer who has communicated 
 with his god is not merely a man who sees new truths of which 
 the unbeliever is ignorant; but he is a man who is stronger. 
 He feels within him more force, either to endure the trials of 
 existence, or to conquer them." 
 
 Durkheim emphasizes, as perhaps no one else has ever 
 done, the constructive power of society, and that out of it 
 grows every phase of knowledge, art, science, and religion. 
 He refers all these back to it, and finds in it their interpreta- 
 tion. He may seem to give too little credit to the individual 
 genius; but when one follows through his pages that worthy 
 is not missed, and it is difficult to find a place for him, and es- 
 pecially so in the realms of religion. 
 
 Not less than in the case of Younghusband and Wells, 
 does Durkheim regard God as a projection of the collective 
 consciousness of mankind. No one can more strongly empha- 
 size the importance of religion than he has done, and he never 
 ignores the meaning and the worth of God as a constructive 
 force in nature and humanity. He makes no appeal to the 
 supernatural, the miraculous, the occult or the mystical ; though 
 he makes no attack upon any of them. Rather, he has no use 
 for them as a man of scientific habits, who is inquiring dili- 
 gently into facts, and not into surmises and theories. He 
 respects tradition, he expounds its true meaning ; but he never 
 
 [369] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION ,OF RELIGION 
 
 bows to it as to something infallibjfe. He knows the great 
 power of tradition, but he also kno^s that new traditions are 
 being created, which will in time supersede the old ones and 
 make them of no account. 
 
 An Italian biologist, Eugenio Rignano, has published sev- 
 eral important scientific works, and is the editor of Scientia, 
 the international review of scientific synthesis. In his Essays 
 in Scientific Synthesis, he has devoted one of them to religious 
 phenomena, in which he contends as strongly as does Durk- 
 heim, that in its beginnings religion is of a social origin; but 
 that in its more recent developments it has lost that character, 
 and has come to be superseded by economics and other prac- 
 tical interests. 
 
 Psychologically, according to Rignano, primitive man 
 makes for himself, at the base of all his religious conceptions, 
 an irresistible association of ideas; and the hasty generaliza- 
 tion resulting from it, at every unexpected happening in the 
 physical world in which he lives, leads to the opinion that 
 events are caused by one or more wills similar to his own. Man 
 makes use of propitiatory acts in mitigating the anger of his 
 fellowman, and he learns to apply the same method in deal- 
 ing with the wills he finds acting in nature. In time the com- 
 munity accepts the method of controlling the powers acting 
 against or for man, and a series of rites develops to this end. 
 In ancient society, Rignano assures us, religion constitutes 
 alone the whole psychic scaffolding so indispensable to the 
 solidarity of the social edifice; and it penetrates, regulates, 
 directs, and stimulates the energies of each member of the com- 
 munity at each moment of its existence. 
 
 [370] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 "Thus it is that religion, " we are told by Rignano, "raises 
 and sustains all the social institutions, which serve as dikes, 
 either to contain and canalize the course of certain series of so- 
 cial facts or relations, or to oppose an irresistible barrier to 
 anti-social acts or relations. Every social thing, i. e., that it 
 is of collective interest to fix and to preserve, becomes at the 
 same time a sacred thing, which may not be touched without 
 sin. Civil obligation and religious duty are one and the same 
 thing. " 
 
 It is shown that law is of a purely religious origin ; and of 
 the same source are those regulations which class the members 
 of society according to age, sex, celibacy or marriage, profes- 
 sion, caste, and so on. In fact, every activity of a social inter- 
 est was controlled by religion. Especially was this true of 
 all the activities which depended absolutely on their simulta- 
 neous and co-ordinated character. There was no individual 
 or collective economic fact which was not invested with a 
 sacred nature, and in that manner imposed on society for gen- 
 eral observance. The calendar, moral requirements, ceremonies 
 connected with agriculture, the psychic habits growing out of 
 primitive gregariousness, war in all its phases, the derivation 
 and sanctions of government, were all of a religious origin, and 
 the means of expressing and enforcing its rites and beliefs. 
 Rignano mentions war especially as approved by religion, and 
 as one of the most important means of its extension and em- 
 phasis. 
 
 In the modern world, however, this intimacy of religion 
 and social development has lost its meaning. With the prog- 
 ress of mankind "we see all these causes, which have contrib- 
 uted in the past to the creation and development of the reli- 
 gious organ, growing now weaker and weaker, especially in 
 the civil societies of our own time, and tending one after an- 
 
 [371] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 other to disappear, because there have been gradually formed 
 distinct organs for these functions, always useful, which re- 
 ligion alone hitherto exercised, or because the need of others 
 for these functions of religion is no longer felt." 
 
 Social institutions and law now have niuregard for religion, 
 and develop quite independently of it. jThe divine sanctions 
 which condemned anti-social acts in the past have now no 
 meaning, and have been replaced by legal processes and secular 
 punishments. / The religious bond has been replaced by the 
 economic, ami the sentiment of social solidarity succeeds to the 
 influences formerly exercised by religion. Owing to the devel- 
 opment of the new industrial and economic forces the old re- 
 ligious sanctions have ceased to function, and religion is con- 
 demned to a slow atrophy of its control of human affairs. Dogma 
 is being shaken off and faith is weakening' on every hand. "The 
 prodigious development of science in every branch of knowledge, 
 the diffusion of technical culture and of instruction in general, 
 the popularization of the conception of natural laws, immutable, 
 and regulating the various transformations of matter, all these 
 facts, which give to the mind a scientific as opposed to a religious 
 outlook, ultimately exercise a destructive influence on religious 
 beliefs, which becomes more and more efficacious, in proportion 
 as the organ destined to support and strengthen those beliefs 
 has lost from day to day its functional energy." 
 
 Not only is the religious organ in a continuous process of 
 atrophy, but the economic and scientific developments which are 
 replacing it are growing stronger with every year. The result 
 is a direct attack upon religion and its several institutions and 
 beliefs. As the workers of the world grow stronger and better 
 organized they find religion less important to them; and some 
 day they will sweep away those social and religious guarantees 
 which underlie much of what has been regarded as of primary 
 
 [372] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 importance. There is taking place, also, a moral evolution away 
 from religion; and conduct, individual and social, no longer de- 
 pends on the old sacred sanctions. Ajjollective conscience is 
 being developed, which is having a marvellous growth, and f m^ 
 makes religion no longer essential. It is this power which is 
 fighting human evils, and is destined in time to conquer them. 
 " Built up by every means of communication and transmission ^TL^ 
 of thought, by the most varied methods of the propagation of 
 ideas, by all of what we call the organs of public opinion, by 
 every kind of meeting and association adapted to elicit and to 
 express the resultant of many individual wills, by all the repre- 
 sentative systems in every department of social activity, this 
 complex apparatus of the collective conscience now allows, with 
 greater and greater facility and perfection, and in an ever-in- 
 creasing number of cases, of concerted agreement and action be- 
 tween the components of each social group or sub-group, and 
 thus between all the members of society in general. It exercises 
 in consequence an ever-increasing and decisive influence in all 
 domains of social activity, and also in the domain of morality. " 
 The conclusion of Eignano is that religion is slowly dying, 
 but that it is being replaced by what is truer, by what answers x 
 more truly to modern needs, and by what is far more effective as 
 an individual and social support. Guided by principles of purely 
 rational order, society is progressing with tranquil serenity to- 
 wards a great future. As religion loses more and more of its 
 social force, as a guide and support of human communities, in 
 its regenerated form it may become a support to individuals, 
 and especially to those of a mystical tendency. In this purely 
 individual form it may keep alight within its heart the sacred 
 torch of religion, and transmit that light from one generation 
 to another while human life endures. 
 
 [373] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 5 
 
 Another Italian, Benedetto Croce, is of the opinion that re- 
 ligion is nothing else than mythology, and that it is being super- 
 seded by philosophy. Croce 's philosophical writings have re- 
 cently attracted much attention, for he is the author of a series 
 of volumes on the philosophy of spirit, which shows that he has 
 been greatly influenced by Hegel. This system includes Logic as 
 a science of pure concept, Aesthetics as science of expression 
 and general linguistics, and a treatise on philosophy as a practi- 
 cal economic and ethic. He has also published works on what is 
 living and what is dead in the philosophy of Hegel, and one on 
 historical materialism and Marxist economy. He is also the 
 editor of a philosophical review called La Critica. 
 
 In his chapter on mythology, to be found in his Logic, 
 Croce expresses the opinion that religion is identical with myth- 
 ology, and that its basis is no more substantial. Whatever is 
 real in religion, and with a solid foundation, is identical with 
 philosophy. Therefore, he entirely discards religion as valueless, 
 and as without any substantial meaning for the thought of to- 
 day. He classes the narrative of Adam and Eve, who eat of for- 
 bidden fruit and are driven out of paradise, with the stories of 
 Phoebus, Daphne, and Prometheus, as of the same nature. The 
 Hebrew story of a God Creator is of the same character as the 
 Greek myths of Uranus and Gaea, the birth of Chronos and the 
 Titans. To be classed with these myths are those of paradise, 
 with its immortal life, the son of God who comes into the human 
 world, and the apocalyptic visions of a regenerated earth. 
 
 According to Croce mythology results from giving concepts 
 a personified form, and it is the fundamental error of religion. 
 In so far as the revelation on which religion rests is not of the 
 spirit of thought, it is nothing more than mythology, with its 
 
 [374] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 logical contradictions. Such religion has its origin and its es- 
 sence in myth, it is necessary that it should be rejected for 
 philosophy, which has its justification and its credentials in 
 the nature of thought. Philosophy is the only true religion, 
 and more and more religion takes on the philosophical form. 
 If it does not make this transition it remains as error, and 
 can be nothing else. Croce says that religion, when divorced 
 from philosophy, degenerates into blind fancy and empty 
 concepts. When religion would save itself from criticism it is 
 obliged to have resort to philosophy, and it is then called the- 
 ology. "Theology is philosophism, ' ' to use the translation of 
 Douglas Ainslie, "because it works with concepts which are 
 empty of all historical and empirical content. Myth becomes 
 dogma; the myth of the expulsion from paradise becomes the 
 dogma of original sin; the myth of the son of God becomes the 
 dogma of the incarnation and of the Trinity." 
 
 In his chapter on the consolations of philosophy, Croce as- 
 sures us that religion has no comforts which are permanent for 
 the thinking person. Philosophy has made the concepts of God 
 and immortality more exact, and it has liberated them from the 
 impurities with which they did abound. Those who have really 
 thought about them have never found true consolation in their 
 absurdities. No God outside the world, a despot ruling the uni- 
 verse, can lead to anything else than fear ; and he may be often 
 the cause of maledictions. The belief in immortality gains 
 nothing from its theological interpretations ; and these are more 
 and more called in question by those who think. 
 
 Croce recognizes four great fundamental forms of knowl- 
 edge logic, esthetics, economics, and ethics. There is no fifth, 
 and therefore religion is in no sense to be regarded as affording 
 knowledge in any form apart from these primary forms of phi- 
 losophy. Religion sometimes partakes of the nature of esthetics, 
 
 [375] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 sometimes of logic, and is, consequently a mere hybrid. As myth- 
 ology it is now art and now philosophy. However, though all 
 that is true in it is of the nature of philosophy, yet as such it 
 is never of the real nature of a philosophical system. Rather 
 is religion of the nature of art, a work of the imagination and of 
 intuition, but without verifying means for correcting its false 
 perspectives and visions. 
 
 In that volume of his philosophy devoted to esthetics, Croce 
 says, in the translation of Wildon Carr, presented in his inter- 
 pretation of that philosopher: " Where there is no knowledge 
 there is no religion, and religion is not a form of knowledge 
 distinguished from other forms, for it is sometimes an expression 
 of practical aspirations and ideals, sometimes a historical nar- 
 rative, sometimes a conceptual science, dogmatic theology. With 
 equal cogency, then, we may maintain both that religion is 
 destroyed by the progress of human knowledge and that it al- 
 ways persists in that progress. To primitive peoples, religion 
 was the whole patrimony of knowledge; to us our patrimony of 
 knowledge is our religion. Its content has changed, has ameli- 
 orated, has become refined; in the future it will contrive to 
 change, to be ameliorated, to become refined; but its form does 
 not change, that is always the same. How those who would pre- 
 serve religion as a theoretical human activity side by side with 
 art and philosophy would use it, I do not know. It is not pos- 
 sible to preserve an imperfect and inferior knowledge side by 
 side with the knowledge which goes beyond it and invalidates it. ' ' 
 
 An English interpreter of religion who has been to a con- 
 siderable extent influenced by Durkheim, as also by Bergson, 
 is Jane Ellen Harrison. Her Prolegomena to the Study of 
 
 [376] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 Greek Religion, and her Themis : A Study of the Social Origins 
 of Greek Religion, are works of the first importance, being 
 standard authorities on the subjects with which they deal. A 
 more recent, 1915, small volume of essays entitled Alpha and 
 Omega, presents some most interesting interpretations of her 
 religious experiences. Brought up in a strict low-church Ang- 
 lican family, when she went to London and became a lecturer 
 at Newnham, her early teachings quite dropped away from her, 
 and she became indifferent to church forms and beliefs. Gradu- 
 ally she found herself greatly interested in Greek art and 
 philosophy ; but at last it dawned upon her that what she really 
 cared for in her absorbing Greek studies was religion, every 
 phase of which drew and held her with its naturalness and its 
 charm. 
 
 In the essay which gives title to her book, she says that ' ' it 
 happened rather oddly that what I really was interested in was, 
 not Greek art, but Greek religion, and even Greek literature 
 held me largely for its profoundly religious content. So, gradu- 
 ally I worked and lectured more and more on Greek mythology, 
 and less and less on Greek art ; and then, again, I found it was 
 not mythology really interested and drew me, save for its poetry, 
 but ritual and religion. I was always hankering after that side 
 of things, wanting to understand it, excited about it. ... I was 
 studying a vital and tremendous impulse : a thing fraught in- 
 deed with endless peril, but great and glorious, inspiring, worth 
 all a lifetime's devotion. 
 
 "And then bit by bit I came to see that the thing I loved, 
 that beckoned to me and drew me irresistibly, was religion ; the 
 thing that hampered and thwarted and even disgusted me was 
 theology. Theology is the letter that killeth, religion the spirit 
 that maketh alive, and if the good ship Religion is to live in to- 
 
 [377] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 day's turbulent waters, we must shrink, we must throw over- 
 board the Jonah of theology.' 7 
 
 In these essays Harrison makes it quite plain that she is 
 not only a heretic and an agnostic, but also an atheist. In this 
 same essay she says in plainest terms: "To be an Atheist, to 
 renounce eikonic theology, is to me personally almost an essen- 
 tial of religious life. I say this in no spirit of paradox, but as 
 a matter of deep conviction. The god of theology is simply an 
 intellectual attempt to define the indefinable; it is not a thing 
 lived, experienced ; it almost must be a spiritual stumbling-block 
 today. ... It is not only that the particular forms of theology 
 are dead, but that the idea of theology i. e., a science of the 
 unknowable is, if not dead, at least, I venture to think, dying. 
 God and reason are contradictory terms/ 7 Then she avows her- 
 self a deeply religious Atheist, who has been largely influenced 
 by Bergson, whose philosophy she regards as having given a 
 shattering blow to theology, "because all theology is but a thinly- 
 veiled rationalism, a net of illusive clarity cast over life and its 
 realities. 77 
 
 In being a heretic Harrison feels that she is assuming an 
 almost human obligation, because the gist of it is free personal 
 choice in act, and especially in thought, and the rejection of 
 traditional faiths and customs. In tribal society heresy was im- 
 possible, and even in the time of our grandfathers it made one 
 something of a social outcast. Now it has become an intellectual 
 as well as a social duty. In taking this view of heresy, how- 
 ever, we must recognize that orthodoxy results from the action 
 of herd instincts, hence it becomes an obligation of progressive 
 persons to bring the herd instincts to the side of what is modern 
 and rational. Heresy, being the child of science, while it holds 
 fast to its mother's hand, may run with swiftness and certainty. 
 
 In her definition of religion Harrison follows Durkheim, 
 
 [378] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 her statement taking this form: " Religion is not the aspiration 
 of the individual soul after a god, or after the unknown, or after 
 the infinite; rather it is the expression, utterance, projection of 
 the emotion, the desire of a group. Now, historically this is 
 true of the genesis of religion. That I hold is established. Re- 
 ligion, in its rise, is indistinguishable from social custom, em- 
 bodying social emotion." In the course of time social combina- 
 tions have enlarged, the individual has come into a right to act 
 and think for himself; but religion largely remains a form of 
 the collective attitude of great bodies of men and women. Free- 
 dom of thought has been secured, but essentially religion fo- 
 cuses the social consciousness and aspirations. She accepts the 
 conclusion that the only real forces to-day are the group forces, 
 and these give to religion its meaning and its power. 
 
 The conclusion reached by Harrison is that man was never 
 so little theological as he is to-day, but that he was never so pro- 
 foundly religious, so passionately social, the two words having 
 essentially the same meaning for her. If we would keep religion, 
 we are told, in the essay on Alpha and Omega, we must allow 
 theology to go. It is a chief hindrance to the progress of re- 
 ligion, and its retention means that the two will die together. 
 The basis of theology is the idea of revelation, a body of super- 
 natural truth. In discarding theology, it is evident that Harri- 
 son would permit revelation to go with it, as no longer having 
 a real meaning for the thinking of to-day. ' ' It is sufficient, ' ' she 
 says in the essay on Darwinism and Religion, "to recall that 
 'revelation' included such items as the creation of the world out 
 of nothing in six days; the making of Eve from one of Adam's 
 ribs ; the temptation of a talking snake ; the confusion of tongues 
 at the tower of Babel ; the doctrine of original sin ; a scheme of 
 salvation which demanded the virgin birth, vicarious atonement, 
 and the resurrection of the material body. The scheme was un- 
 
 [379] 
 
, THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 folded in an infallible book, or, for one section of Christians, 
 guarded by the tradition of an infallible church, and on the ac- 
 ceptance or refusal of this scheme depended an eternity of weal 
 or woe. There is not one of these doctrines that has not now 
 been recast, softened down, mysticized into something more con- 
 formable with modern thinking. It is hard for the present gen- 
 eration, unless their breeding has been singularly archaic, to 
 realize that these amazing doctrines were literally held and be- 
 lieved to constitute the very essence of religion; to doubt them 
 was a moral delinquency." 
 
 The whole tenor of Harrison's interpretation of religion 
 and theology in this book would lead to the conclusion that these 
 doctrines are of a mythological nature, as much so as the Greek 
 conception of Olympus, its gods and its beliefs. If Christianity 
 has a meaning for the life of to-day it does not lie in the direc- 
 tion of these mythological conceptions, but in quite another di- 
 rection. We have discarded the myths of the Greeks, Baby- 
 lonians, and Hindus ; and it is quite time that we rejected those 
 of the Hebrews and Christians. Religion gains nothing what- 
 ever by retaining beliefs thinking men and women, as these 
 pages have shown, are coming more and more to reject. We are 
 to recognize the fact that theology is based on myth and meta- 
 physics (myth stated in abstract form) ; and that it is quite 
 time we turned away from both with scorn. What theology 
 means to Harrison she has well stated in the essay on Darwin- 
 ism and Religion, in saying that "man has provided himself 
 through the processes of his thinking with a supersensuous 
 world, the world of sense-delusion, of smoke and cloud, of dream 
 and phantom, of imagination, of name and number and image." 
 
 In the same essay we read that man worships, feels and acts ; 
 and, as the result of his feeling and action, projected into his 
 confused thinking, he develops a god. Man projects his own 
 
 [380] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 thought into universe and calls it god, bows before it and wor- v 
 ships. Gods are a part of theology, and both are necessarily 
 temporary, constantly giving place to those which are more mod- 
 ern and rational. "We know now that, all over the world, a j 
 people of peasants tilling the fields, dependent much on weather / 
 and climate and nature generally, will have as their gods vague I 
 daemones. But a people vigorous, self-reliant, practically effi- 
 cient, a people of conquerers, immigrants, colonial, whether Hel- / 
 len or Teuton, always make their gods in human shape. They J 
 believe in themselves, and they project their own images. God 
 is for them what they trust and believe in that is, their own 
 right arm. Religion is transfigured morality." Again: "Mo- 
 rality is social, due to the reaction of man on man ; it is human. 
 But religion is our reaction to the whole, the unbounded whole. ' ' 
 
 An American psychologist, who to a considerable extent 
 accepts the same positions in regard to the nature of religion as 
 those presented by Emile Durkheim, is James Mark Baldwin. 
 He has published numerous psychological works, and is the editor 
 of the Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology. In his little 
 book on Darwin and the Humanities, Baldwin says that we can- 
 not rest content with the individualistic theory of religion, the 
 view that it springs up in the individual in the form of rational 
 insight or private intuition; but, as the result of comparative 
 and anthropological studies, we must regard it as of social origin 
 always an institution of gradual evolution, embodying the 
 results of social intercourse. Always and everywhere it is a so- """} 
 cial phenomenon, and grows out of the life of the social group. 
 When the group is primitive in its character, such will be thet 
 religion, that is, communal and tribal. As the group advances \ 
 
 [381] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 in size, in affiliation of its par.ts, and in co-ordination of its 
 forces, the religion will become more integral and nobler. 
 
 Baldwin finds that God is an expression of the ideals of the 
 group and of the individual, for he says that the ideal self is 
 God. As he indicates by his interpretation of the nature of the 
 self, which is a growth from social contacts, he must regard 
 the self embodied in the nature of God as essentially social in its 
 origin and nature. "God is a construction of the imagination," 
 he observes, "beyond the concrete cases of selfhood that we 
 know ; it is an ideal set up and considered as actual. Considered 
 as a factor in experience, God is the supposed or imagined Self, 
 which is the outcome of the self-movement toward perfection - 
 the control meaning anticipated by all the partial adjustments 
 which finite selves effect to one another. As the ethical demand 
 or postulate is one of a completed social order, and its ideal is 
 one of harmonious practical relationships on a social community ; 
 so the religious demand or postulate is that of a perfect self, a 
 fully realized or complete person, in whom the opposition be- 
 tween private and public interests would be completely over- 
 
 come. ' ' 
 
 Baldwin adds that the deity shows the growth of the normal 
 social relations, and reflects their character, because he is the 
 projected personal ideal of the group. The individuals of the 
 tribe think of the deity as apart from themselves because he is 
 personal, yet he is the controlling spirit of their collectivity, 
 the voice, the oracle of the group. In a true sense the deity of 
 the tribe is the tribal spirit, and he is thought of in terms of the 
 tribal self. This holds good through all advancing stages of 
 social evolution, though, as this advances, the individual is less 
 and less subject to the arbitrary control of the collectivity. Ac- 
 cordingly, the deity becomes of a larger and more humane type, 
 and represents a finer and more ethical ideal. 
 
 [382] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 Baldwin is the author of four volumes devoted to a system 
 of genetic logic, the fourth of which he calls a Genetic Theory 
 of Reality. The second part of this work is largely devoted to 
 the problems of social growth in connection with the evolution 
 of religion. Baldwin regards God as one of the personages in 
 the social relation, and of such a nature as this relation would 
 suggest. He is not an arbitrary, autocratic being in some sphere 
 away from the interests of human beings ; but is in actual and 
 intimate connection with their interests. He probably does not, 
 as Durkheim does, regard God as humanity personified and ideal- 
 ized to represent the highest standard to which it can attain; 
 but he evidently is quite unwilling to set God in any place""or 
 time apart from the human fellowship in all its meanings. God 
 is a symbol, and while both actual and ideal, is never to be dis- 
 sociated from human interests. 
 
 "Religion of humanity, " Baldwin says, "to be a religion, 
 must mean religion of ideal humanity; but this is what religion 
 of divinity also means. For divinity is humanity idealized in 
 both its aspects, individual and social." Religion being always 
 a social ideal, it is not possible that the deity should escape from 
 that character or become something outside humanity and above 
 it. All ideals being products of the imagination, built upon 
 knowledge, but going beyond it, the ideal person, God, must also 
 be a construction of the imagination, and hence receive his 
 nature and his character. l ' God is the final and comprehensive 
 value of the life of feeling and will," is another statement of 
 Baldwin; "and as reality, this postulate gives concreteness to 
 the ideal contained in the whole series of social and moral 
 values." If the meaning of these statements is fully appre- 
 hended, Baldwin is in sympathy with Durkheim in assuming 
 that God in all his phases of development, from the lowest 
 to the highest, is a reflection of the social consciousness of one 
 
 [383] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 or another human society, the innermost expression of itself as 
 a social body, a fellowship of kindred spirits. So understood 
 God becomes the real meaning of religion, in becoming the ideal 
 of that type of society the group aspires to become, and is organ- 
 izing its forces to realize. This means that the deity and the 
 religion of a people cannot go far beyond the actual life lived 
 by its membership from day to day. 
 
 8 
 
 Roy Wood Sellars, a professor of philosophy in an Amer- 
 ican university, has published one of the most radical of books, 
 which he entitles The Next Step in Religion. At one time a 
 student in a theological seminary, he has evidently studied 
 widely the history of religion. He has given attention to a wide 
 range of other subjects for he has published books on Critical 
 Realism, The Next Step in Democracy, The Essentials of Logic, 
 and The Essentials of Philosophy. 
 
 The chief contention of Sellars is, that religion originates 
 in mythology, his second chapter being devoted to that subject. 
 He is of the opinion that theology must be superseded by science, 
 which must reconstruct for us the universe, morals, and our so- 
 cial institutions. He insists that the conflict between science and 
 religion has by no means ceased, and he devotes a chapter to 
 that subject. He claims that there is an ever-increasing number 
 of persons who believe that science and philosophy must take 
 the place of religion or give it a thorough reconstruction. The 
 battle waged in the time of Huxley and Tyndall has not ceased 
 to rage, but has shifted its points of contention. He says that 
 the new battle is being waged around psychology and philosophy. 
 Already the struggle is going on between those who defend 
 the theory of an extra-organic soul and those who prove by 
 
 [ 384 ] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 means of the laboratories of biology and psychology, that the 
 mind and body are inseparable. This contention cannot end 
 until the old conception of the soul, born of animism, has been 
 brought to its end. 
 
 On the subject of the old dualism of body and mind Sellars 
 gives forth no uncertain affirmation that a unity of conception 
 is demanded. "I am inclined, " he says in his chapter on the 
 soul, "to prophesy that psychology and physiology will reach 
 an adjustment of their principles before many years have passed, 
 and that consciousness and mind will take their places along 
 with mass and energy in the scientific view of nature. The 
 old dualism of soul and body will pass away and give place to 
 a flexible naturalism." He contends, also, that human person- 
 ality is a function of the sub-lunar life, of the physiological 
 organism, of the sky and soil, and of the restless struggle of man 
 with nature. In his opinion when the mind-body problem is 
 solved, there will go with it the last bulwark of the old super- 
 naturalism. "Man will be forced to acknowledge that he is an 
 earth-child whose drama has meaning only upon her bosom. It 
 is my firm conviction, he affirms, "that the clear realization 
 of this fact will startle men into insights and demands of far- 
 reaching import. " 
 
 In his criticism of theology Sellars is definite and explicit. 
 In treating of the evolution of Christianity he says that the 
 theology of the church fathers, councils and scholastics has in 
 our time been mellowed into a universalistic outlook and a 
 strong ethical trend. "I challenge anyone to develop a really 
 tenable system of theology, a system which is self-consistent 
 and relevant to the world as we know it. I am certain that it 
 cannot be done. As a student of ethics, my growing conviction 
 has for some time been that these traditional controversies and 
 modes of approach to human life are barren and irrelevant, be- 
 
 [385] 
 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 cause they cast absolutely no light upon human problems, so- 
 cial or personal. Modern ethics and theology have ceased to 
 have any genuine commerce. The one is in touch with the 
 sciences of biology, sociology, psychology and criminology; the 
 other, by its very nature, can gain nothing from these sciences." 
 
 Contrasting theology with science our author maintains that 
 the logic of revelation is the logic of the auto da fe; but that the 
 logic of science is tested by fact. Theology cannot bring about 
 agreement among men; but this is the very purpose and spirit 
 of science. The romantic spiritualism on which theology rests 
 must give way to that humanistic naturalism which sees clearly 
 what is man's true place in the world. It will be a great relief 
 when narrow sectarianism, cruel bigotry, and the obscurantism 
 of supernaturalism are purged from religion. 
 
 Because of its worship of the Bible Christianity has set too 
 high a value on beliefs which are doomed to destruction. The 
 Bible miracles are uncompromisingly rejected as a part of the 
 mythical and supernatural view of the world and man's rela- 
 tions to it. They lead to all sorts of superstitious beliefs, and 
 have hindered real progress toward a rational conception of 
 nature and life. The miraculous tales of the New Testament 
 have done an incalculable amount of harm, for the basis on 
 which they rest is weak. They do not fit into the world of ex- 
 perience as we know it. ''The assertion that God performs 
 miracles, like the similar assertion that he created the world, is 
 purely hypothetical and un verifiable. " 
 
 The very idea of a personal God, who works miracles, who 
 answers prayers, who directly controls the events of nature, 
 and who works on the side of man through providential agents 
 is in need of justification. In dealing with the stories of crea- 
 tion, Sellars says that "to assign to a hypothetical agent called 
 God, powers sufficient to produce what experience tells us exists 
 
 [386] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 explains nothing. The primary assumption, of course, is that 
 there must have been a creation ; but the conception of evolution 
 has attacked that assumption at its very foundation." We are 
 outgrowing the conception of personal wills acting in the uni- 
 verse, whether interpreted by polytheism or monotheism. The 
 idea of a youthful and developing god appeals to a goodly 
 number of persons now; and in many directions there is an 
 advance to an impersonal conception of the causing agent or 
 agents in all the affairs of the universe. "We are coming to ex- 
 plain by means of natural causes all the happenings in nature 
 and humanity, and we need not, therefore, appeal to a super- 
 natural agent. "All of man's ideas are human ideas, and so 
 his idea of his God and the very personality and moral outlook 
 of that God reflect the social standards which are in force around 
 the individual. If human justice is cruel, God's justice is strict 
 and unyielding." In the newer conceptions of deity God be- 
 comes a part of the universe in every respect, and the universe 
 is to be regarded as co-existent with deity. 
 
 As the idea of God has grown out of social and political 
 conditions at the several stages of its development, so has the 
 belief in immortality. The idea of another life has given a false 
 perspective to the conditions of this one. Sellars is of the opinion 
 that this belief has never been a healthy one for the human race. 
 It serves as a narcotic, and it falsifies the real issues of human 
 progress. 
 
 Sellars is appreciative of Jesus and his teachings, but he is 
 not appreciative of the theory of the messianic mission of this 
 or any other great religious person. He seems to have some 
 doubt as to the real existence of the New Testament personage, 
 and apparently attributes the origin of theological Christianity 
 to Paul. The Messiahs, Buddhas and Mahdis he finds to be prod- 
 ucts of the race imagination, and are to be interpreted from that 
 
 [387] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 point of view. Christianity was not the creation of a single 
 mind, but was the flowering of religious mythology. The deifica- 
 tion of Jesus is certain to be outgrown. What has grown up 
 about him in the way of legend and myth is to be duplicated by 
 nearly all the other higher religions. "He was not born mirac- 
 ulously, nor was he preexistent as the Word or Logos. These 
 terms do not fit into an outlook dominated by science. To call 
 him the Son of God in an exclusive sense is not warranted by 
 the facts, nor has it any clear meaning for the present age. . . . 
 Jesus was a noble and tender-hearted man with the beliefs of his 
 age. To speak of him as ideally perfect and sinless is absurd 
 just because these terms are absolutes where relatives alone 
 have meaning. Like most theological terms they cut themselves 
 loose from their necessary setting, which, in this case, is human 
 nature and society." 
 
 What is to take the place of theology, and what is to give 
 sanction to the developing religion? According to Sellars it is 
 to be found in ethics and science. Throughout his book he 
 emphasizes the importance of science and its fundamental princi- 
 ples. Its spirit and its method are to be everywhere applied in 
 the future, and nothing is to be accepted without its sanctions. 
 This is why we have here a fresh emphasis upon the ethical 
 point of view. Science shows us that the moral life in all its 
 phases and developments is of human origin, and that it needs 
 no sanctioning of theology or from the supernatural. Christian- 
 ity has given us a vicious interpretation of morality, and one 
 that must be inevitably outgrown. "And the modern thinker 
 is pretty well convinced that morality is a purely human affair 
 growing out of the instinctive tendencies which man has in- 
 herited in the course of evolution as these find themselves in 
 various situations. Moral problems are meaningless apart from 
 their setting on this earth." 
 
 [388] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 In spite of the repeated assertion that morality apart from 
 belief in God and immortality is worthless, a steadily growing 
 number of persons have reached the conclusion that no form 
 of miraculous or supernatural sanction whatever is essential as 
 the basis for the ethical life. Morality originates in human 
 relations, and its sanctions are those of social demands. Indeed, 
 so well is this now understood, that for the scholar and the 
 thinker no other reason for being moral is demanded. In this 
 sanction morality finds its supreme justification. 
 
 This review of some of the phases of the religious life of our 
 time, and of the opinions of a few of the leading thinkers of the 
 present day, will help to make it clear that the repeated asser- 
 tion is emphatically not true, that there has come about a com- 
 plete reconciliation between religion and science, and that the 
 whole trend of the time is towards the acceptance of religion in 
 its generally received interpretations. The fact is, that never 
 before was there so much of doubt in regard to the fundamental 
 beliefs of religion as there is at the present moment. Undoubt- 
 edly, there is less of outspoken criticism of the old beliefs than 
 there was a half-century ago; but there is abroad far more of 
 the spirit of free inquiry, and less of willingness to receive 
 with unquestioning loyalty the accredited beliefs of the churches. 
 There is taking place a change in the mental attitude of think- 
 ing men and women, and there is developing a mental atmos- 
 phere which makes belief in spirits and the supernatural less 
 and less congenial to thought. It is true that there has been a 
 great awakening of interest in the occult, in the subtle causes 
 of subconscious phenomena ; but this is rather materialistic than 
 spiritual, result of a craving for some tangible evidence in re- 
 
 [389] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 gard to the nature of the soul and of the life that may come 
 when this one has ended. While these two tendencies go on side 
 by side, and in a degree intertwine with each other, it is not 
 to be doubted that the profoundest movement of our time is 
 towards the elimination of the supernatural, and of all that is 
 occult and spiritualistic. What we are most deeply concerned 
 with is the future of man on this earth of ours, and how to make 
 his life finer and nobler. 
 
 What will be the attitude of this new trend of thought with 
 reference to religion? Will it discard it entirely? as seems to 
 be the tendency indicated by Leuba's investigations. On the 
 other hand, there are many hints that the old nature-worship 
 may revive, even though H. G. Wells may hold an agnostic at- 
 titude towards what he calls the Veiled Being. Eeligion has 
 grown up around two centers of influence, that drawing it to- 
 wards nature and that emphasizing its dependence on the col- 
 lective life of mankind. As we have seen in reviewing the 
 opinions of Wells, Durkheim, Kignano, Sellars, and Baldwin, 
 the tendency at the present time is towards ignoring nature, and 
 placing all the emphasis on the human side of religion. The 
 physical world is often stern, forbidding, cruel, and destructive ; 
 and it requires much idealizing of its forces to find in them 
 what is gentle, sympathetic, and responsive to the needs of 
 human beings. 
 
 The evidence collected by Leuba indicates that a large 
 majority of the persons answering his questionnaire do not be 
 lieve in a material god or one that can be seen, heard or felt. 
 The conclusion is that God is not to be found by any searching 
 through the physical universe. If we could ascend up into 
 heaven we would not find God any more fully or positively than 
 we find him here. If we could make our bed in hell he would 
 not be there more tangibly than we find him in the evils that 
 
 [390] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 beset man on the earth. If we could take the wings of the 
 morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, his hand 
 would not lead us or his right hand hold us in a manner differ- 
 ent from that which we realize each day right where we are, 
 and under the conditions now known to us in all our experiences. 
 How can we think that the darkness will cover us or the night 
 be light for us in any other degree than has always been known 
 to mankind, simply and solely because we believe in a personal 
 God? In no physical sense can the darkness hide God from us 
 or the night shine as the day or that the two must be to him 
 one and the same. Such poetry has its mighty charm and its 
 great consolation when we think in the manner of the animist 
 or the anthropomorphist. It can have no such meaning for the 
 modern student of science or for him who faces the world as 
 we know it to-day. 
 
 It is undoubtedly this truth which has made H. G. Wells 
 refuse to see God in nature as other than a Veiled Being. No 
 physical exploration of the universe would bring God nearer to 
 us in any physical or tangible form. Could we explore eternity, 
 and fly through the infinite or go forth into the absolute, what 
 evidence is there that we should come closer to God than we 
 are to him right here and now ? No senses of ours can make him 
 more real for us, and no evidences of reason or of intellectual 
 speculation, can bring him nearer or make him more responsive 
 to our prayers. 
 
 God i^^^nncrgle, an idea or an ideal, a unifying force 
 throughout the universe, an energy that is manifest behind all 
 phenomena. He is this or else he is collective man, man as the 
 spirit which binds together the ages, and gives meaning to all 
 our experiences. God as collective man is always present with 
 us, and we cannot be where he is not. We cannot escape from 
 his presence if we would, and, if we understand ourselves, we 
 
 [391] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 cannot wish to flee away from what is human in its largest pro- 
 portions and in its deepest meanings. 
 
 However unsatisfactory such a conception of God may be 
 to some persons, we may be certain that it is that towards which 
 many others are moving as making it alone possible for them 
 to believe in God at all. Unless we can join with Goethe in con- 
 ceiving of the universe as the garment of God, we cannot give 
 him a tangible form or invest him with any kind of physical 
 proportions or features. If he is to be sought for anywhere in 
 the physical universe, it must be as a principle, a law or an 
 underlying energy. 
 
 Otherwise, we must seek for God in the life of humanity. 
 If for the moment we are willing to use theological language, we 
 may say that God is incarnate in humanity, typified in its 
 humanness, symbolized in its unfolding life through the ages, 
 and embodied in every man, woman, and child. That is what, 
 in fact, God has meant to those who have most zealously believed 
 in and worshipped him. This has led all the more advanced 
 religions to conceive of God as incarnating himself in man. We 
 may differ from these older interpreters of religion in the be- 
 lief that God incarnates himself in the unfolding life of col- 
 lective humanity, and not alone in Jesus, Buddha or any other. 
 Humanity as a whole, as a procession through the centuries, as 
 giving an ideal of what is just, wise, and beautiful in conduct, 
 is what God must mean for us of to-day. Such an idea of God 
 robs it of superstition and of the supernatural, and brings him 
 directly into the world of human interests as a fact and as a 
 genuine reality. 
 
 In all ages, however, from the days of primitive animism 
 to these of the doctrine of the immanence of God in nature, the 
 minds of men have been drawn towards various phases of the 
 outward world with subtle sympathy and feelings of fellowship. 
 
 [392] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 The old world of fawns, dryads, fairies, and other similar imag- 
 inative creatures, phased a strong tendency in the classic age. 
 Even during the mediaeval period, the most spiritual minded of 
 the mystics found in nature responses to their moods of faith 
 and joy in life. Our own time has newly awakened this tend- 
 ency, as we see in the great poetry of Goethe, Wordsworth, 
 Emerson, Whitman, and many another. Many a man and 
 woman sees God in the wide world around us, in the glory of 
 sunrise, sea, flower, and star ; and in many a phase of that charm 
 and beauty and mystic glow which spreads over nature in 
 choice hours of sympathy with her. The grandeur of the uni- 
 verse, the majesty of its endless spaces, the mightiness of its 
 laws and its forces as revealed by science, will forever, we may 
 believe, bring back to man that awe, that reverence, that mystic 
 response of the heart, which appealed in one way or another 
 to the earliest men. Here is something that religion has devel- 
 oped from in some of its most important phases, and this 
 tendency is not likely to grow less through any time to come 
 for imaginative minds or for poetic natures. We may see no 
 fairies in the woods, find no supernatural powers lurking in the 
 spaces of the sky or any great gods hiding in the vastness.of the 
 universe ; but not the less will nature charm, inspire and elevate 
 us through all the times to come. The Veiled Being may for- 
 ever remain veiled, but that will not keep him from holding 
 intercourse with the poet and with the worshipping heart. 
 
 Nor is that other source of religion, the nature of man, and 
 especially man as a collective being, ever likely to lose any of 
 his power to quicken the mind and warm the heart. In all prob- 
 ability, the mythical and mystical interpretations of man's life, 
 which have found numberless expressions in religion, will 
 gradually disappear; and religion will come more and more to 
 concern itself with making the world a fit place in which men 
 
 [393] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 may live, and the life of man fit to occupy a world brought into 
 subjection to human needs. No other tasks can be greater than 
 these, and none are likely in the future to inspire men with such 
 courage and faith. And about the developing course of man's 
 evolving life may gather all courage, heroism, sacrifice, and 
 loyalty. Men will learn not to make war on each other, to co- 
 operate nation with nation for the promotion of every phase of 
 human welfare, and to advance all those interests which protect 
 the good of the individual and give strength and glory to the 
 lives of nations. 
 
 If we think that these great humanitarian tasks may be 
 only materialistic, without charm and poetry, with nothing in 
 them to inspire with great visions or invigorate with masterful 
 ideals, then we have not read aright the history of mankind. 
 The age-long wars of man with man, of nation with nation, may 
 be turned into conquests over nature, the bringing all that is 
 possible of its forces into subjection to man's needs. Here is 
 field for all the bravery men have ever had, as there is in the 
 subduing of disease, the application of the great industrial and 
 economic forces of the world to the benefit of all who live. The 
 glories of chivalry, the glamor and the pride and the charm of 
 it may be directed into these new channels, and men will go 
 forth to fight the real evils men suffer under, as they did to bat- 
 tle in the tournaments of old. The spirit of it may not be other, 
 but the effects of it will be the upbuilding of all that is 
 human, instead of the destruction of individual and nation. 
 When we turn our religion, our chivalry, our love of adventure, 
 our desire to come into intimate communion with God, and 
 all that lies subtly hidden in the deeper and mightier forces of 
 the spiritual world, we shall be ready for these fresh endeavors, 
 these attempts to serve man and to make his career on earth some- 
 thing noble and truly ethical. It may be that such a vision of 
 
 [394] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF BELIGION 
 
 what religion may do for the future of the race may not quicken 
 any heart-throbs in some persons, that it will appear to be merely 
 something humanitarian, and therefore not of a kind to inspire ; 
 but undoubtedly, nevertheless, the number of those with each 
 generation is growing greater who are ready to hear such a 
 clarion call to religion and the real salvation of the world. 
 
 VI 
 
 Too long have we listened to the metaphysicians and the 
 theologians. They have not led us to the green meadows of 
 life, but into a tangled wilderness of subtleties and abstractions. 
 All their beliefs and dogmas may well be swept away, since all 
 of them have grown out of the primitive animism in one form 
 or another of mythology or personification of the forces of nature 
 and of man. May we not courageously say to them to-day that 
 we are done with them, for they have been false leaders, who 
 have made life dark and forbidding! We are now ready for 
 art, for poetry, for music, for what brightens and glorifies life. 
 Too much have we heard of sin and banishment from God, and 
 a fallen world, and the mediating power of one or another 
 noble and gracious mind. We have come now to believe in all 
 men and women who live, the meanest as well as the greatest. 
 We are coming to see with H. G. Wells, that the world can never 
 be truly happy until all lords and kings and owners are ban- 
 ished, and all men and women are brought into the acceptance 
 of what life has to give of wisdom, opportunity, and happiness. 
 The religion which reserves the world's joy and beauty for a 
 few favored ones on earth or in heaven no longer appeals to us. 
 We see that the world is beautiful, that the music of it, the art 
 of it, the poetry of it should be for all who live. Why has not 
 religion banished the slums, harried out of the world the ghet- 
 
 [395] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 toes, made impossible the simpleton and the beggar? That it 
 has not we think to be the greatest possible criticism of its meth- 
 ods and its aspirations. No excuse that its tasks have been other, 
 that it was leading men the way to peace of soul and to heaven, 
 can save it from the condemnation it deserves because of its 
 infidelity to man, the greatest and the most dangerous of all 
 infidelities and the only one that is worthy of a moment's 
 consideration. 
 
 The metaphysicians and the theologians have made for us 
 two worlds, a world of material interests, and a world of what 
 is spiritual. The one world is that of food, clothing, houses, 
 and the affairs of industry and economic interests. The other 
 world is that of ghosts, spirits, and gods, of what belongs to the 
 soul and to the world beyond the borders of time and space. 
 These two worlds have been made antagonistic to each other, 
 the one base and the other noble, the one material and the other 
 spiritual. The one is of earth and the other of heaven ; one be- 
 longing to the present, the other to the future. 
 
 We have come more and more to think that there is no such 
 antagonism of these worlds as the theologians and the philos- 
 ophers have assumed. Our thought is that there is but one 
 world, that world-unity is the true conception. The antagonism 
 of matter and mind is not real, but artificial, a merely meta- 
 physical creation. We know body and mind only as one organ- 
 ism, never separated, never truly in opposition. The belief 
 that they are two, and not one, is product of the primitive 
 animism, the succeeding anthropomorphism, and the still later 
 succeeding metaphysics. Science knows no such distinction, 
 and gives it no true support. The life of man is one, and the 
 world is one. 
 
 We must think that there is for the modern mind no world 
 within a world, no spiritual universe within the material uni- 
 
 [396] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 verse. This, too, is result of the primitive animism, and when 
 we turn back to that we see whence the conception of a world 
 of sense and a world of ghosts or spirits has its origin. It is 
 time we eliminated from our thinking this doubleness of the 
 world we know, and declared for the unity of nature and 
 humanity, matter and mind. We have been deluding ourselves 
 with an antagonism of materialism and spiritualism or idealism. 
 We have forgotten that if man is of the earth earthy, that earth- 
 iness enables him to live as a human being, and that without it 
 his life would speedily come to an end. We have made material- 
 ism as a philosophy to mean baseness of living, absorption in 
 gross interests, devotion to self and to all that is mean; and 
 therefore we have condemned it. As a fact, philosophical ma- 
 terialism is no more gross or selfish than the highest idealism; 
 and we have made it so only by confounding interests and ideas 
 which have no true relation with each other. Speculative con- 
 ceptions as to the origin and nature of the universe have no 
 necessary relation to the ethical life of the individual or the na- 
 tion. Our theories as to the origin and nature of matter, and 
 its relations to mind, do not determine our moral conduct. 
 
 We cannot doubt that we live in a world of realities respon- 
 sive to the senses, that is, in a world of environing conditions, 
 which in large degree determine our individual lives and the 
 nature of our civilization. Within that world of concrete reality 
 man has always been inclined to accept the existence of another 
 world, a world not known to the senses. What is the true 
 nature of that world? The history we have passed in review 
 ought to have given us the clue to its origin and its nature. But 
 we have not forgotten the primitive animism, the anthropo- 
 morphism of the barbarian races, and the metaphysics of the 
 more advanced peoples. We have speculated as to the relations 
 
 [397] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EELIGION 
 
 of body and mind, matter and spirit, and we have entangled 
 ourselves in abstract theories, in speculations having no basis 
 in reality. 
 
 "What we are coming to see very slowly, but more and 
 more clearly, is that this antagonism of body and mind, matter 
 and spirit, is one created by ourselves, and has no basis in the 
 nature of the universe itself. Within the material world there 
 is another world, we may rightly admit; but that other world 
 is of man's own creation. It is the world of myth and religion, 
 art and science, literature and philosophy, morality and ethics, 
 culture and civilization. These all have been created by man as 
 the result of his nature as man, because of his humanity. From 
 the lowliest beginning with the chipping of stones and erecting 
 wind-breaks as a sort of habitation, and the gathering of food 
 from where it might be had as produced by the spontaneities of 
 nature, he has slowly and painfully, through countless centuries, 
 built up all that world of the advancing civilization and the 
 developing inner life which have made him what he is. It is 
 man's creation from its lowliest to its highest forms, and he 
 lives the life now of what we call spirituality or idealism be- 
 cause he has been making for himself within the earthly world 
 of his material habitation another world of a kind fitted to his 
 own needs. 
 
 It would be the merest dogmatism to say that it is impos- 
 sible that there should have come to man from without his own 
 life, from some other world than that in which he knows himself 
 to live, aids he could not otherwise secure in this great process 
 of building up the world of his inner development or the spir- 
 itualization of his civilization. All the claims made for such 
 an outside intervention, however, do not historically justify 
 themselves. They lead to every manner and degree of assump- 
 
 [398] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 tion, and to all the subtleties and abstractions of theology and 
 metaphysics. 
 
 We still cling to the acceptance of a double world, a universe 
 within a universe, because we are afraid otherwise, in the rejec- 
 tion of this conception, we will lose our faith in a personal conti- 
 nuity of our individual being hereafter. We have already seen, 
 however, that the old supports of that belief are falling off from 
 all thinking men and women, and that none of the evidences for 
 such continuity are truly valid for our time. As yet there is 
 no positive proof that man will live beyond the grave, and the 
 promise of the future is that science will bring us some light on 
 that problem. Unless it does so there can be no more than 
 belief in regard to immortality. Some investigators go so far 
 as to assert that we are on the very verge of such assurance; 
 but as yet they have brought us no proof that will convince all 
 inquiring minds. That way lies possibility; but we may not 
 cling stubbornly to what is merely traditional in order to assure 
 ourselves by such broken supports that individuality has be- 
 fore it the prospect of eternity as concerns its own littleness 
 within the limits of the universe. 
 
 An ever-increasing number of men and women, however, 
 will dare to think that there are problems of far greater im- 
 portance than the continuity of our individuality, which is as- 
 sured to us, surely, in the life of the race. These independent 
 minds, also, will be brave enough to believe that the universe 
 is a unity, and that the inner world, the spiritual universe, is a 
 part of man's culture and civilization, that he has created these 
 as a phase of his progressive advance through the ages, and 
 that he is ever enlarging their scope and their certainties. He 
 cannot be balked of this universe he has made for his own en- 
 largement of life, and his own inner growth in what makes for 
 justice and wisdom. 
 
 [399] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 vn 
 
 Do we wish to-day to find the most elevated, the most in- 
 spiring, the most spiritual, religion? It is on the canvas of the 
 painter, on the pages of the poet or maybe the novelist. Turn 
 with deeply averted face from the prosy preacher of traditions 
 and myths, in the shape of theology and supernatural religion, 
 if you wish to hear the words which burn and the thoughts that 
 quicken life ; and go to that great poet, the social creator, who in 
 all ages has made religion, and given joy and beauty to the heart 
 of man. In him and his kind you may find life and uplifting 
 vision; but not in the preacher, unless he too is a poet or cre- 
 ator, and one who is deeply moved by the needs and the striv- 
 ings of mankind. 
 
 We have lived in the old traditions of the past, and they 
 now cling to us and drag us downwards to death of the free- 
 moving spirit. What we have need to recognize is, that new 
 traditions are growing, that new ideals are shaping themselves 
 in the life of our time. These masterful ideas, of beauty in the 
 individual life, of a spirit of loyalty and devotion, of brother- 
 hood and fellowship throughout all the world of humanity, of 
 peace between all nations, of world-unity and a parliament of 
 man, of a religion which inspires all the strivings of man with 
 hope and courage, are coming more and more to quicken the 
 minds and hearts of the men and women of our day. Freedom 
 and opportunity for the workers of the world, freedom and op- 
 portunity for women everywhere these are motives linking 
 themselves with the newer religion now being born. Care of 
 every child coming into the world, training him to live for and 
 with his kind, is motive that touches the inmost core of any re- 
 ligion that can have meaning for the years to come. That none 
 shall be born under base and mean conditions, that none shall 
 
 [400] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 grow in ignorance or suffer needless hunger and want in a world 
 that is filled with superabundance, must be part of the coming 
 religion or men will turn from the very name of it and all that 
 it has been held to mean. 
 
 The preceding pages have revealed to us the fact that man, 
 collectively and individually, has great creative capacity. When 
 we review the history of the arts and sciences, the growth of 
 culture and civilization, the development of cities and nations, 
 we may realize what great constructive genius man possesses.^ 
 Nor can we ignore the evolution of folk-lore, legend and myth- 
 ology, the remarkable creations of every tribe and people, each 
 and all interesting and impressive, however simple and unimag- 
 inative they may seem to be. We have no hesitation in saying 
 that these mythologies, wonderful and startlingly masterful as 
 many of them are, may be regarded as mere fancies of the 
 imaginative mind. So we say of some of the myths underlying 
 the great religions of the past and the present. But the Bud- 
 dhist and the Zoroastrian retorts on us that our religion, of 
 which we boast its reasonableness and its truthfulness, is no 
 other in its origin than his own. It has in it as much of myth- 
 ology as either of the others, and its basis in myth is quite as 
 certain. Such retort of one religion against another cannot in- 
 terest the inquiring mind, for he sees plainly enough that all are 
 growths from the nature of man, and that the man who created 
 these religions under the conditions of the past can produce 
 greater ones in the time to come. Collective man has brought<^ 
 into existence every religion known to history, and what he has 
 once and again produced he can not only renew, but create greater 
 and more adequate types of religion for the future. This will be 
 one of the great tasks he will undertake in the forthcoming years. 
 In the past he has produced mythologies and religions uncon- 
 sciously or subconsciously ; but in the future he will create with a 
 
 [401] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF KELIGION 
 
 larger consciousness of what he needs and of what will be for the 
 inspiring and the glorifying of humanity. 
 
 This also we are to recognize, that man by means of his arts, 
 his sciences, his religions, his ethical systems, has created for 
 himself a spiritual world, a world of hopes and dreams and vi- 
 sions, within the material world ; and in this he dwells as in the 
 real and assured world of his desires. He wishes to escape 
 from the drudgeries and brutalities and miseries of his daily 
 life, and he passes into this other world of his ideals and his 
 spiritual aspirations, this world of his own creation, as into 
 a secure haven of peace and joy. No one man made this 
 spiritual world, no prophet or poet or artist could have brought 
 it into existence ; but all the men and women of all the ages have 
 made it to be what it is. What has been brought into existence, 
 and into an existence so real and secure that many persons 
 think it the only world that has any true meaning, is now every 
 day being modified, revised, improved, newly created, and made 
 worthier of human habitation. Therefore, we are not to despair 
 when the old religion slips from the minds of youth and of the 
 thinking men and women, for a new world is being created 
 within the old one, far more beautiful, much truer to the facts 
 of man's nature, and far better calculated to inspire and to 
 uplift. 
 
 "What man has made, man can make again. He has created 
 many a spiritual world in the past, and he can build more 
 stately mansions for the soul in the years to come. The old 
 creations were visionary, largely unreal, of the substance of 
 dreams, shot through with nightmare visions; but the newer 
 realms of the spirit will be finer, with sounder basic founda- 
 tions in human nature, and with loftier possibilities for the 
 advancing of all human interests. Religion, therefore, is not 
 passing away, but coming into its own. It may, and doubtless 
 
 402] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 will, lose the supernatural and the miraculous, its saints and 
 its prophets; but it will gain in the multitude of its faithful 
 men and women, in those who have the qualities of the hero, 
 and who can give themselves unstintedly for the service of their 
 fellows. We may welcome with joy the day of this new and 
 more beauteous religion, for it means that what belongs to 
 human welfare will grow marvelously in every part of the world, 
 and among all the races of men. 
 
 [403] 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I 
 
 Since this chapter was written there has appeared a very 
 careful interpretation of the processes of evolution, in the form 
 of the lectures of Henry Fairfield Osborn on The Origin and 
 Evolution of Life. In this work he states clearly why the 
 hypothesis of the inheritance of acquired characters is not 
 to be fully accepted at the present day. A summary of his 
 conclusions is here presented for the benefit of those who may 
 be especially interested in this subject. 
 
 What Osborn believes is the fundamental biologic law he 
 states 'in these words: "In each organism the phenomena of 
 life represent the action, reaction, and interaction of four 
 complexes of physico-chemical energy, namely, those of (1) 
 the inorganic environment, (2) the developing organism( pro- 
 toplasm and body-chromatin), (3) the germ of heredity-chro- 
 matin, (4) the life environment. Upon the resultant actions, 
 reactions, and interactions of potential and kinetic energy in 
 each organism selection is constantly operating wherever there 
 is competition with the corresponding actions, reactions, and 
 interactions of other organisms." This law, if it does not 
 wholly discard the theory of Lamarckianism does by no means 
 give it sanction. 
 
 Recent investigations are to the effect that chromatin 
 and protoplasm are the earliest elements of life, that they are 
 physico-chemically produced and that the first is possibly the 
 more ancient. Primitive chromatin and protoplasm appear 
 to co-exist, cells arising by symbiosis between the two. Chro- 
 matin is the seat of heredity, and the evolution of its energies 
 
 [405] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 is essentially the evolution of life. "It is in the inconceivable 
 physico-chemical complexity of the microscopic specks of chro- 
 mation," says Osborn, "that life presents its most marked 
 contrast to any of the phenomena observed within the life- 
 less world. " 
 
 The mutations of de Vries, which occur more frequently 
 among plants than animals, are attributable to sudden altera- 
 tions of molecular and atomic constitution in the heredity- 
 chromatin, or to the altered forms of energy supplied to the 
 chromatin during development. At the stage of the simple- 
 celled organisms it would seem that the organism-protoplasm 
 is the more sensitive to environment, while the heredity-chro- 
 matin is the more insensitive to environment, and the more 
 stable, in that it has the quality of conserving and reproducing 
 hereditary characters true to type, as in the many-celled ani- 
 mals in which the heredity-chromatin is deeply buried within 
 the tissue of the organism remote from direct environmental 
 reactions. 
 
 Osborn has this to say in regard to the operation of en- 
 vironment on the lower forms of life : ' l Changes of environ- 
 ment play so large and conspicuous a part in the selection 
 and elimination of the invertebrates that the assertion is often 
 made that environment is the cause of evolution, a statement 
 only partly consistent with our fundamental biologic law, 
 which finds that the causes of evolution lie within the four 
 complexes of action, reaction, and interaction/' 
 
 He proceeds to say that new characters arise definitely, 
 continuously, and adaptively. He regards this gradual evolu- 
 tion of adaptive form as directly contrary to Darwin's theo- 
 retic principle of the selection of chance variations. In the 
 following statement he points out why it is that the heredity 
 of acquired characters has been denied, though he refuses to 
 
 [406] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 accept that denial as found under all circumstances. "A clear 
 distinction exists between the slow, stable heredity-chromatin, 
 or germ evolution, and the unstable body cell evolution as 
 viewed by the experimental zoologist. The body is unstable 
 because it is immediately sensitive to all variations of environ- 
 ment, growth, and habit, while the chromatin alters very 
 slowly. The peculiar significance of heredity-chromatin, when 
 viewed in the long perspective of geologic time, is its stability 
 in combination with incessant plasticity and adaptability to 
 varying environmental conditions and new forms of bodily 
 action. Chromatin is far more stable than the surface of the 
 earth. " 
 
 Then the Lamarckian theory of evolution is taken up, and, 
 in accordance with the preceding statement, is defined in mod- 
 ern terms to be the cause of the genesis of new form or new 
 function that are to be sought in the body cells (soma), on 
 the assumption that the cellular actions, reactions and inter- 
 actions with each other and with the environment are in some 
 way impressed upon and heritable by the chromatin. This 
 theory, that a change in environment, habit and function 
 leads to changes in the evolutionary series Osborn does not 
 find to be fully sustained by the more recent investigations. 
 
 On the other hand, the Darwinian theory of evolution, 
 that the genesis of new form and function is to be sought in 
 the germ cells or chromatin is equally defective, in the light 
 of recent knowledge. The hypothesis that the actions, reac- 
 tions and interactions which cause certain bodily organs to 
 originate, to develop, or to degenerate, to exhibit momentum 
 or inertia in development, do not give rise to corresponding 
 sets of predispositions in the chromatin, and are thus not herit- 
 able, is also wanting in full verification. Neither theory ac- 
 cords with the recent results of investigation in palaeontology 
 
 [407] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 and experimental zoology as to the actual modes of origin 
 and development of adaptive characters. 
 
 "That there may be elements of truth in each explanation 
 is evident from the following consideration of our fundamental 
 biologic law. Adaptive characters present three phases: first, 
 the origin of character form and character function; second, 
 the more or less rapid acceleration or retardation of character 
 form or function; third, the co-ordination and co-operation of 
 character form and function. If we adopt the physico-chemical 
 theory of the origin and development of life it follows that 
 the causes of such origin, velocity (acceleration or retardation) 
 and co-operation must be somewhere within the actions, re- 
 actions, and interactions of the four physico-chemical com- 
 plexes, namely, the physical environment, the developing or- 
 ganism, the heredity-chromatin, the living environment, because 
 these are the only reservoirs of matter and energy we know of 
 in life history. " 
 
 The causes of evolution, according to Osborn, are to be 
 found, not so much in the interaction of environment and or- 
 ganism as in the physico-chemical energy resulting from the ac- 
 tions, reactions and interactions of different parts of the or- 
 ganism itself. The law according to which changes proceed 
 is unknown as yet. "The only vista which we enjoy at present 
 of a possible future explanation of the causes of character 
 origin, character velocity, and character co-operation is through 
 chemical catalysis, namely, through the hypothesis that all 
 the actions and reactions of form and of motion liberate speci- 
 fic catalytic messengers, such as ferments, enzymes, hormones, 
 chalones, and other as yet undiscovered chemical messengers, 
 which produce specific and co-operating interactions in every 
 character complex of the organism and corresponding predis- 
 position in the physico-chemical energies of the germ; in other 
 
 [408] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 words, that the accelerators, balances, and retarders of body 
 cell development also affect the germ " 
 
 "The chromatin as the potential energy of form and func- 
 tion is at once the most conservative and the most progressive 
 center of physico-chemical evolution; it records the body form 
 or past adaptations, it meets the emergencies of the present 
 through the adaptability to new conditions which it imparts 
 to the organism in its distribution throughout every living 
 cell ; it is continuously giving rise to new characters and func- 
 tions. Taking the whole history of vertebrate life, from the 
 beginning, we observe that every prolonged, old adaptive 
 phase in a similar habitat becomes impressed in the hereditary 
 characters of the chromatin. Throughout the development of 
 new adaptive phases the chromatin always retains more or 
 less potentiality of repeating the embryonic, immature, and 
 more rarely some of the mature structures of older adaptive 
 phases in the older environments. " 
 
 Osborn reaches the conclusion that palaeontology provides 
 positive disproof of the existence of an internal perfecting 
 principle or entelechy of any kind, such as has been assumed 
 to exist by some Lamarckians and vitalists. No such princi- 
 ple exists which would impel animals to evolve in a given di- 
 rection regardless of the direct, reversed, or alternating direc- 
 tions taken by the organism when seeking its life environment. 
 He also finds that there is conclusive evidence against Berg- 
 son's theory of an elan vital or internal perfecting tendency. 
 The characters assumed to be produced in this manner do not 
 spring up autonomously at any time; but they lie dormant or 
 remain rudimentary for great periods of time. They require 
 something to call them forth, to make them active. 
 
 The conclusion is also reached that Lamarckianism has 
 sought in vain for evidence of the inheritance of the effects of 
 
 [409] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
 
 such action and reaction processes as those on which its claims 
 are based. Nevertheless, there exists some kind of relation 
 between the action, reaction and interaction of the germ, or 
 of the organism and the environment. Probably this opinion 
 is capable of experimental proof or disproof, but that result 
 has not as yet been reached. "We know, for example, that 
 certain cells of the reproductive glands have a profound and 
 commanding influence on the body cells, including even the 
 brain-cell centers of thought and intelligence all this is, in 
 a sense, an out-flowing from the heredity-germ region, a cen- 
 trifugal interaction. ' ' 
 
 [410] 
 
Index 
 
 Abnormality, religion and, 31-33. 
 Acquired characters, inheritance of, 5, 
 
 404, 406, 408. 
 Agrarian rites, 96-97, 148, 155-156, 223- 
 
 225. 
 
 Agriculture, 45, 148, 155-156. 
 Amalgamation and affiliation, 193-194, 
 
 201, 294-295. 
 Amalgamation of religions, 230, 325- 
 
 326. 
 Ancestor-worship, 168-180, 195-196. 
 
 See Patriarchalism. 
 Animals, 9-10, 127-134. 
 Animal gods, 128-129. 
 Animalism, 116. 
 Animism, 116-118, 143, 179, 185, 195- 
 
 196, 273-274, 397. See Ancestor- 
 worship and Patriarchalism. 
 Anthropomorphism, 185. 
 Apocalypses, 259-260. 
 Apocrapha, Old Testament, 260. 
 Arabia, 202-203, 300-302. 
 Arabian desert, influence on religion, 
 
 299-303. 
 
 Aristotle, 164-165, 274-275. 
 Aryan religion, 173, 208-226, 230. 
 Aryans, migrations of, 295-296. 
 Atheism, 378. 
 
 Atonement or expiation, 266-271. 
 Augustine, Saint, quoted, 261. 
 Avesta, 213-214. See Zoroaster. 
 
 B 
 
 Babylonia, religion of, 161, 205-208, 
 306. 
 
 Bahaism, 289, 316-317. See Moham- 
 medanism. 
 
 Baldwin, James Mark, quoted, 13, 381- 
 384. 
 
 Bards or rhapsodists, 84, 89, 92. See 
 Recitations and Epic poems. 
 
 Bergson, Henri, quoted, 354-355. 
 
 Bhagavad-gita, 83, 85, 266. See Ma- 
 habharata. 
 
 Bible, Jewish, 86-87. See Sacred books. 
 
 Birth-tales of Buddha, 246, 252. See 
 Virgin-birth. 
 
 Blood-feud, 146, 187. 
 
 Boas, Franz, quoted, 122-123, 125. 
 
 Bosanquet, Henry, quoted, 338. 
 
 Brahman, 218-220. 
 
 Brahmanism, 218-220. 
 
 Brahma Samaj, 315. 
 
 Breasted, J. H., quoted, 37-38. 
 
 Breath, 112-114. 
 
 Brinton. Daniel G., quoted, 56. 
 
 Buddha, 222, 239-242, 246-247, 253, 
 
 271. 
 Buddhism, 39, 231, 239-251. 
 
 and Christianity, 247-250. 
 
 in Ceylon, 246. 
 
 in China, 247-248, 256-257. 
 
 conception of God, 243. 
 
 conception of future life, 244-245. 
 
 fundamental teachings of, 241-242, 
 243. 
 
 in Japan, 247. 
 
 monks of, 242-243. 
 
 Nirvana of, 244. 
 
 origin of, 239-241, 297. 
 
 in Siam, 250-251. 
 
 spread of, 245, 291. 
 Budge, Wallis, quoted, 171. 
 Burkitt, F. Crawford, quoted, 259. 
 Burroughs, John, quoted, 352. 
 
 Caddoan Tribes, 74, 78. 
 
 Caird, Edward, quoted, 338. 
 
 Caste in India, 181-182, 218-219. 
 
 Celtic religion, 210-212. 
 
 Cheyne, T. K., quoted, 263. 
 
 Chief becoming autocratic lord, 152, 154. 
 
 Childhood, social influence of, 2, 10-12, 
 
 21, 34-35, 42, 60, 110, 118, 129. 
 China, 318. 
 Chinese religion, 159-160, 164, 178, 194- 
 
 197, 230-231. 
 
 Christian church, 99-100, 102. 
 Christianity 255, 281, 291, 328, 331- 
 
 332, 834-335. 
 
 in melting-pot, 331-332, 335, 341- 
 
 342, 380, 385-387. 
 origin of, 235, 251-254, 261, 280. 
 
 See Jesus Christ. 
 City-State, 150, 153. 
 Clan, supremacy of, 55-56, 132, 145- 
 
 146, 149-150. See Tribe. 
 Collective mind, 56-58, 106-109, 239, 
 
 401-402. See Mind. 
 
 [411] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Communal houses, 67. See Communal 
 society. 
 
 Communion in eating and drinking, 272- 
 273. 
 
 Communal society, 59, 64, 104, 150, 
 153, 183. 
 
 Comparative religion, xv, 27, 52, 311- 
 312. See Religion. 
 
 Competition, 23. 
 
 Confucius, 195. 
 
 Congenital transmission, 4. See hered- 
 ity. 
 
 Co-operation, 22. 
 
 Cornford, Francis Macdonald, quoted, 
 162. 
 
 Corn-mother, 74, 78, 97-98. See Mother- 
 gods. 
 
 Cosmic and human processes, 16, 390- 
 
 393, 396-399. See Science and re- 
 ligion. 
 
 Coulanges, Fustal de, quoted, 173. 
 Creative power of group, 59-60, 106-108, 
 
 113, 367-368. See Collective mind. 
 Creeds, 323. 
 Critical spirit, 48, 352-354, 360-361, 
 
 372-373, 375, 378-380, 385-386, 388, 
 
 394, 400-402. See Science. 
 
 Croce, Benedetto, quoted, 374-376. 
 
 Culture contacts, 48-49. See Migra- 
 tion. 
 
 Culture-hero, 267-268. 
 
 Culture influence on religion, 232-233, 
 
 311. 
 
 Gushing, Frank Hamilton, quoted, 75. 
 Custom, 145, 187-188. See Ethical life. 
 Czaplicka, M. A., quoted, 135-136. 
 
 Dream societies, 112-113. 
 
 Duality of mind and body, 109-110, 
 
 398-399. See Mind. 
 Dualism, 162, 385, 398-399. 
 Duchesne, Louis, quoted, 257. 
 Durkheim, Emile, quoted, 26-27, 57, 
 
 365-370. 
 
 E 
 
 Economic causes, 45. 
 
 Education, 49. 
 
 Eggeling, Julius, quoted, 83. 
 
 Egyptian religion, 36-38, 81, 197-201, 
 266, 276-277, 306-307. 
 
 Eleusis, mystery of, 24, 67, 97-98, 103. 
 See Demeter and Kora. 
 
 Eleusinian mysteries, 223-225, 234, 
 259-260. 
 
 Eliot, Georg, 271, 351. 
 
 Emerson, quoted, 281, 309. 
 
 Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 
 quoted, 127, 219, 265. 
 
 Environment, change in, 43. See Mi- 
 gration. 
 
 Epic poems, 88-92. See Bards and 
 Recitations. 
 
 Ethical life, 50, 145-147, 329-330. Se< 
 Customs. 
 
 Eucharist, 101-102, 272-273. See Com- 
 munion, Lord's Supper and Mass. 
 
 Eugenists, 6, 24-26. 
 
 Exogamy, 131-132, 145. See Clan and 
 Tribe. 
 
 Dance, 61-63. See Song. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 14, 353. 
 
 Darwinism and religion, 379, 382. 
 
 Davidson, Thomas, quoted, 339. 
 
 Delphic oracle, 55. 
 
 Demeter, 96-97, 210. See Eleusinian 
 mysteries and Kora. 
 
 Democracy in religion, 50, 321-332. 
 
 Demonism in China, 196. 
 
 Dempsy, T., quoted, 55. 
 
 Dene or Athapascans, 78, 140, 150. 
 
 Densmore, Frances, quoted, 111-112. 
 
 Deuteronomy, 87. 
 
 Deutsch, Emanual, quoted, 283. 
 
 Dharma, 222. See Hindu religion. 
 
 Dionysus, 126, 234. 
 
 Division of labor between sexes, 163. 
 See Sex. 
 
 Dramatic form of myth, 142. See Myth. 
 
 Dramatic representations, 63. See Ritu- 
 als. 
 Dreams, 71, 111-113. 
 
 Family Religion, 195-196, 221. See An- 
 
 cestor-worship and patriarchalism. 
 Father-Heaven and Mother-Earth, 69, 
 
 76, 95, 97, 157-162, 195-196. 
 Female descent, 130, 149, 154, 165. 
 
 See Mother-right. 
 Female principle, 274-275. See Male 
 
 principle and Sex. 
 Female and male principles, 160-165, 
 
 178-179. 
 
 Fertility, 225. See Female principle. 
 Fertility of earth, soil, and women, 95, 
 
 97. 
 
 Fetish, fetishism, 143. See Animism. 
 Feudalism, 150-153, 180-181, 195. See 
 
 Tribe. 
 
 Feudalistic religion, 181-182. 
 Fielding-Hall, Henry, quoted, 250-251. 
 Finns, 137-138. 
 Fiske, John, 10-12, 342. 
 Fletcher, Alice, quoted, 120-123, 125- 
 
 126. 
 Folk-lore of Old Testament, 203, 255, 
 
 258. 
 
 [412] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Food-group, 49, 70, 109, 149. See Clan. 
 Founders of culture, 46-47. 
 Founders of religion, 229, 235, 289-290. 
 Frazer, J. G., quoted, 69, 131, 140-141, 
 
 176-177, 203, 255, 338. 
 Freedom in religion, 320-323, 378-379, 
 
 400. 
 Freud, Sigmund, quoted, 31-33. 
 
 Galton, Francis, 6, 23. 
 Gardner, Percy, quoted, 256. 
 Gautama, 240-243. See Buddhism. 
 Generation, creation by, 69. See Fer- 
 tility. 
 Genius, 5, 104-105, 175, 235-238. See 
 
 Founders. 
 
 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, quoted, 352. 
 
 God, belief in, 340-347, 355, 356-358, 
 
 361-364, 369, 375, 382-383, 391-392. 
 
 See Animism and Anthropomorphism. 
 
 Also Monotheism. 
 
 communion with, 271-375. 
 immanence of, 54. 
 Gods, origin of, 168-172, 176-177. See 
 
 Animism and Anthropomorphism 
 Greek Art, 226-268. See Harrison, 
 dramas, 226-228. 
 
 Epics, 88-92. See Bards and Reci- 
 tations. 
 
 idea of love, 138. 
 religion, 28, 84-86, 105, 162, 171, 
 
 222-228, 304, 377. 
 Guardian animals, 130-134. 
 
 spirits. 130-134. 
 Gummere, Francis, quoted, 64. 
 
 Hall, Stanley, quoted, 3, 276-280. 
 
 Harris, Rendel, quoted, 126. 
 
 Harrison, Jane Ellen, quoted, 376-381. 
 
 Hartland Sidney, quoted, 262-263. 
 
 Hatch, Edwin, quoted, 259. 
 
 Hearn, William Edward, quoted, 173. 
 
 Herd instinct, 21, 109. See Communal 
 
 society. 
 Heredity, congenital, 5-9, 14, 17-19, 23, 
 
 25 
 
 social, 7-9, 14, 20, 23-25. See 
 
 Tradition. 
 
 Herodotus on Greek gods, 77, 82, 89. 
 Hesiod, -76, 97. 
 
 Hewitt, J. N. B., quoted, 142. 
 Hinayana, lesser vehicle of Buddhism, 
 
 246. 
 Hindu religion, 160-161, 165, 222, 315. 
 
 See Brahmanism and Hinduism. 
 Holiness, 270. 
 
 Holy Ghost, 122, 274-275. 
 
 Holy Grail, 99-103. 
 
 Homer, 88-92, 104-105. 
 
 Homeric Hymns, 90. 
 
 Hrdlicka, Ales, quoted, 139. 
 
 Hudson, W. H., quoted, 116. 
 
 Humanity, collective, as God, 356-358, 
 
 361-364, 369, 379, 383-384, 392-394. 
 
 See Collective mind. 
 Humanitarianism, 327, 333, 394. 
 Human progress, 42-51, 48-49. 
 Hunting, 149, 154. 
 Huxley, Thomas H., quoted, 16-17, 353. 
 
 Ikhnaton, 36-38. 
 
 Iliad and Odyssey, 88-89. 
 
 Imagination, 59, 112-113. 
 
 Imitation, 12-13, 34, 55-56. See Sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 Immaturity of infancy, 10-12, 34-35. 
 See Childhood. 
 
 Immortality, belief in, 340-344, 347-352, 
 361, 399. 
 
 Incarnation, 244-246. 
 
 Indian philosophies, 220. See Hindu- 
 ism. 
 
 Individual choice in religion, 232-233. 
 See Individuality and Genius. 
 
 Individual freedom, 22. 
 
 Individuality, 344-345, 381, 399. 
 
 Individuality and congenital heredity, 
 17-19. 
 
 Individuality in religion, 29, 56, 113, 
 146. 
 
 Individual originators of religions, 229- 
 230. 
 
 Individuality, origin of in religion, 305. 
 
 Infancy, 10-12, 34-35. See Immaturity 
 of infancy and Childhood. 
 
 Inspiration, 106-107. See Revelation. 
 
 Invention of tools, 43. 
 
 Invention, social, 45-46. See Genius. 
 
 Ishtar, 76-77, 96, 156, 161-162, 207. 
 
 Isis, 82, 156. 200-201, 210, 234. 
 
 Islam, 281-289, 291, 298. See Moham- 
 med and Mohammedanism. 
 
 Jacobi, H., quoted, 219. 
 
 James, William, quoted, v-vi, 29-30, 236, 
 
 238, 339. 
 
 Japanese, 47, 196-197, 318. 
 Jee, Bhagavat Sinh, quoted, 160. 
 Jesus Christ, 40, 253-254, 271, 281, 320, 
 
 323-324, 336, 374, 381, 887-388. See 
 
 Christianity. 
 Jevons, F. B., quoted, 232-233. 
 
 [413] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Jews, 203-205, 206, 231-232, 235, 251, 
 293, 298-300, 306. See Semites and 
 Bible. 
 
 Johnston, Reginald Fleming, quoted, 
 247-248. 
 
 Jukes family, 6. 
 
 Kalevala, 92. See Finns and Lonnrot. 
 
 Karma, 128. See Brahmanism. 
 
 Koran, 283-284. See Mohammed and 
 
 Mohammedanism. 
 
 Khu-en-Aten, 36-38. See Ikhnaten. 
 King, 152, 176-177, 181. See Chiefs 
 
 and Magic. 
 
 as magician, 176. 
 Kings, divine right of, 181. See Patri- 
 
 archalism and Ancestor-worship. 
 Kinship bond, 145, 151. 
 Kora or Persephone, 97. See Demeter 
 
 and Eleusinian mysteries. 
 Krishna, 84, 266. 
 Kuanyin, 249-250. See Chinese religion. 
 
 Lang, Andrew, quoted, 130. 
 
 Language, how acquired, 2-3, 9, 33-34, 
 119-120. 
 
 Laws, 187-188. See Customs and Ethi- 
 cal life. 
 
 Leuba, James H., quoted, 340-347, 351, 
 352-353. 
 
 Lewes, George Henry, quoted, 109. 
 
 Life-index, 129. 
 
 Lloyd, on half Japan, quoted, 247. 
 
 Lonnrot, 92. See Finns and Kalevala. 
 
 Lord Christ and Lord Buddha, 320. 
 
 Lord's Supper, 278. See Communion 
 and Mass. 
 
 Macdonald, Arthur A., quoted, 84. 
 McDougall, William, quoted, 351. 
 McTaggart, John, quoted, 338. 
 Magic, 137-140. See Shamanism and 
 
 Witch. 
 Mahabhareta, 83-85, 266. See Bhaga- 
 
 vad-gita. 
 Mahayana, greater vehicle of Buddhism, 
 
 246, 248, 256. 
 Maine, Henry, quoted, 305. 
 Male descent, 130, 149, 154, 163. See 
 
 Patriarchalism and Ancestor-worship. 
 Man, methods of progress, 293. See 
 
 Progress. 
 
 Mana, 121-122, 125, 126. See Orenda 
 and Tabu. 
 
 Manu, code of, 221. 
 
 Manus, 163-164. 
 
 Marett, R. R., quoted, 116. 
 
 Margoliouth, D. S., quoted, 286. 
 
 Mass, 273. See Communion and Lord's 
 Supper. 
 
 Matriarchate, 154-168. See Mother- 
 right. 
 
 Matriarchal gods, 96-98. See Mother 
 gods. 
 
 Maya, mother of Buddha, 249. See 
 Buddhism. 
 
 Medicine-man, 138-139. See Shaman- 
 ism and Magic. 
 
 Melanesia, 121-123, 124. 
 
 Men and women in contrast, 167. See 
 Sex and Feminine principle. 
 
 Migration, 44, 151, 192, 293-297. 
 
 Mind as social product, 22. See Collec- 
 tive mind and Communal society. 
 
 Mind, contents of, 3-4, 22, 24. See 
 Stanley Hall. 
 
 Miracles, 252, 386. See Science and 
 religion. 
 
 Missionary motive, 230, 313. See Uni- 
 versal religion. 
 
 Mithraism, 36, 40, 231, 233, 257-258. 
 
 Mohammed, 35, 282-287, 298. 
 teachings, 287-289, 316. 
 
 Mohammedanism, 281-289, 316. 
 origin of, 281-282. 
 spread of, 285-286, 316. See Is- 
 lam and Koran. 
 
 Monotheism, origin of, 37, 205, 300-304. 
 See Anthropomorphism. 
 
 Moses, 289, 302. 
 
 Morality, 145-147, 186-188, 380. See 
 Laws and Ethical principles. 
 
 Mother and Maid, 97-98. See Kora 
 and Demeter. 
 
 Motherhood, 9. See Feminine principle 
 and Sex. 
 
 Mother of God, 207, 252, 275. 
 
 Mother-gods, 156. 
 
 Mother of the gods, 81, 97, 156. 
 
 Mother-right, 154-168. See matriar- 
 chate and Female descent. 
 
 Murray, Gilbert, quoted, 88-92. 
 
 Music, 7, 8, 9. See Dance and Song. 
 
 Mutual aid, 22-23. See Co-operation. 
 
 Mysteries, 67-68, 98-99, 100-101. See 
 Eleusinian mysteries. 
 
 Mysticism, 311. 
 
 Myth as -origin of religion, 374-375, 380, 
 384. 
 
 Myth defined, 60, 71-82, 104, 128, 141- 
 142, 186. 
 
 Natchez, Culture hero of, 74. 
 Natural selection, 23. 
 
 [414] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Nature-worship, 392-393. 
 
 Navaho, Night Chants of, 78-81, 150. 
 
 Nibelungun-lied, 93, 103. See Epic 
 
 poems. 
 
 Nirvana (Nibbana), 39. 
 Nitze, William A., quoted, 100-102. 
 
 Occult, 113, 122-124. 
 
 recent growth of, 310-311. 
 O'Donnell, Elliott, quoted, 129. 
 Olympic gods, 94, 126, 224-225. 
 Omaha tribe, 120-121. 
 Orenda, 122-123, 126. See Mana and 
 
 Tabu. 
 Osborn, Henry Fairfield, quoted, 404- 
 
 409. 
 Osiris and Isis, 81-82, 171, 200-201. 
 
 See Isis. 
 
 resurrection of, 276-278. 
 
 Paternal origin of the child, 164-165. 
 
 Paternal society, 154. 
 
 Patria Potestas, 172-173. 
 
 Patriarchalism, 94-95, 163-164, 16. 
 See Ancestor-worship. 
 
 Patriotism as religion, 327-330. 
 
 Paul, Saint, 260, 277. 
 
 Pelasgian or Aegean religion, 94-96, 97- 
 98. See Greek religion. 
 
 Persian religion, 212-214, 231. 
 
 Personality and social heredity, 19-20, 
 21. 
 
 Philo, 260-261. 
 
 Plato, 164-165, 304. 
 
 Poetry, social origin of, 64. See Epic 
 poetry. 
 
 Plants with souls, 126-127. See Totem- 
 ism. 
 
 Pneuma, 114. See Soul. 
 
 Prakriti, matter or nature, 160-161. 
 
 Priest, 141, 143, 176. 
 
 Property, 44. 
 
 Psychoanalysis, 31. 
 
 Purusha, mind or spirit, 160-161. 
 
 Petrie, Flinders, quoted, 201. 
 
 Rationalistic tendencies, 326. See 
 
 Science and religion. 
 Raven god of Tlingit, 129. 
 Recitation of epic works, 85, 89, 92. See 
 
 Bards and Epic poems. 
 Religion and science, 352-354, 380. 
 atrophy of, 370-373. 
 
 conservatism of, 27, 237, 308-310. 
 
 definition of, 1, 29, 41, 52, 109, 123, 
 
 144, 148, 172, 182, 238-239, 289, 
 
 337-340, 265-366, 370-371, 375, 
 
 379, 387. 
 
 founders of, 35-36. 
 Greek, 28. 
 
 growth of, 292, 308-310, 313-314, 
 326, 332-326, 337, 366-367, 371- 
 372, 402. 
 International defined, 229, 234-235, 
 
 318-320, 323, 325. 
 relations of to social life, 26-28, 
 39-42, 52-55, 61-62, 141-145, 
 182-183. 
 
 universality of, viii, 291-294. 
 Resurrection, 106-108, 237-238, 308. 
 
 of Christ, 275-280. 
 Revelation, 106-108, 237-238, 308. See 
 
 Inspiration. 
 
 Ribot, T. A., quoted, 59. 
 Ridgeway, William, quoted, 170-171. 
 Richard, Timothy, quoted, 247. 
 Rignano, Eugenio, quoted, 970-373. 
 Rig-veda, 82-83, 85, 216-217. See Vedas. 
 Rituals, religious, 68, 78, 81, 98, 141- 
 
 143, 144, 145. See Symbolism. 
 River valleys, 191. 
 Roman religion, 172, 233-234. 
 Russia, 319. 
 
 Sacra, 173-174. 
 
 Sacred things, 124-125, 145, 312-313, 
 317. 
 
 Sacred books, 85, 86-87, 106-107. 
 
 Sacrifice, viii-ix, 219-220, 267, 269, 
 308. 
 
 to the dead 134. 
 to the gods, 144. 
 
 Salvation, xiii, 308. 
 
 Schiller, F. C S., quoted, 347-351. 
 
 Science, methods of, 47. See Rational- 
 istic tendencies. 
 
 and religion, 307, 324-326, 372, 
 376, 388-389. 
 
 Self-consciousness, socially developed, 
 21. See Collective mind and collec- 
 tive Soul. 
 
 Sellars, Roy Wood, quoted, 384-388. 
 
 Semites, 201-208, 295. See Jews and 
 Babylonians. 
 
 Sex, 154, 166-167. See Feminine prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 control of, 69. 
 
 Shah Nameh, 93. 
 
 Shaman, 119, 135, 139-140. 
 
 Shamanism, 135-140, 143-144. See 
 Magic and Medicine-man. 
 
 Showerman, Grant, quoted, 257-258. 
 
 [415] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Siberian religion, 119, 139. See Sham- 
 anism. 
 
 Sin, theory of, 268-270. 
 Slavery, 45, 163, 168. See War. 
 Slavs, 208. See Russia. 
 Smith, George Adam, quoted, 299-300. 
 Social custom, 46-47, 49, 145, 149, 187. 
 
 See Laws and Ethical principle. 
 Social process, 4-5, 7, 15, 20, 49, 109, 
 
 149. 
 Society, nature of, 367-369, 371-372. 
 
 See social process. 
 Song 62-64, 112-123, 138. 
 Soul, 113-114, 222. See Animism and 
 
 Anthropomorphism. 
 
 collective, 57, 109, 113-144. 
 Speck Frank G., quoted, 338. 
 Spencer Herbert, quoted, 169-170. 
 Spiritual beliefs, 117-120. See Animism 
 Spiritual world, nature of, 402-403. 
 State, 153, 184, 190. See Tribe and 
 
 Feudalism. 
 
 influence of on religion, 229, 301, 
 
 193-194. 
 
 Status or birth in religion, 232-233, 305. 
 Suggestion, 13. See imitation. 
 Superman, 24-26. See Eugenics. 
 Supreme Self, 221. See Hinduism. 
 Symbolism, 143-144. 
 Syncretism in religion, 235, 247-249 
 
 251, 255-256, 260-261. 
 
 Tabu (tapu or taboo), 124-125, 145, 
 167. See Mana and Orenda. 
 
 Tammuz, 76. See Ishtar. 
 
 Tarde, Gabriel, quoted, 12-13. 
 
 Territory as social bond, 152. See 
 Blood-bond and Social Contacts. 
 
 Teutonic religion, 211-212. 
 
 Theology, 374-375, 377-378, 379-380, 
 385-386, 388, 395-396, 400. See 
 Religion. 
 
 Theosophy, 314-315. See Hinduism. 
 
 Thesmophoria, 223. See Greek religion. 
 
 Thomas, Northcote W., quoted, 127. 
 
 Toleration and free inquiry, 48. See 
 Science and religion and Rationistic 
 tendencies. 
 
 Totemism, 32, 130-131. 
 
 Tradition, 46, 49, 184. See Social 
 heredity. 
 
 Transmission, congenital, 4-7. See 
 heredity. 
 
 social, 4, 7-9. See Social heredity. 
 
 Trees, 126. See Totemism. 
 
 Tribal contacts, 44, 49, 151. See Mi- 
 gration and Amalgamation. 
 
 Tribe, formation of, 149-151. 
 Trinity, 274-275. 
 
 Tylor, Edward B., quoted, 115-117, 
 loo* 
 
 Unbelief, 341, 347. 
 
 Unclean or impure, 124, 145. 
 
 Tabu. 
 Universalist Leader, quoted, 351. 
 
 See 
 
 Vedas, 341-347. See Rig-Veda and 
 
 Aryans. 
 
 Virgin-birth. 251-252 262-264. 
 Virgin Mary, 210, 248-250, 275. See 
 
 Isis. 
 Vyasa reputed author of Mahabharata, 
 
 83, 85. 
 
 Wakonda, 120-121, 126. See Orenda 
 also Mana. 
 
 War social effects of, 44, 151-152, 163, 
 168 192. 
 
 Weismann, August quoted. 8-9, 15. 
 
 Wells, H. G., quoted, 339, 359-365, 395. 
 
 Werewolves 129. 
 
 Weston, Jessie L., quoted 99-100. 
 
 Wheel of existence 222. See Buddhism. 
 
 Wiedermann A., quoted, 265. 
 
 Wissler, Clark, quoted 141. 
 
 Witch 129, 210. See Shamanism. 
 
 Woman, head of family, 155. See 
 Mother-right, Matriarchate, and Fem- 
 inine principle. 
 
 Women 43 45, 74. 95-96. 154-159 
 162-166, 167, 173-175, 192-193, 345- 
 346. 
 
 Word, 119-120. See Language. 
 
 Yahweh, 203-205. 
 
 Yang, male principle in China, 178, 214. 
 Yin female principle in China 178. 
 Younghusband, Francis, quoted, 355- 
 
 359. 
 Youth. 12-13, 40, 42. See Infancy and 
 
 Childhood. 
 
 Z 
 
 Zeus, 98, 224. See Greek religion. 
 Zoroaster (Zarathustra) 212-214. See 
 
 Persian religion. 
 Zuni, 75-76. 
 
 [416] 
 


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