Chapter XI: Scientific and Ethical Elements in Religious Systems (1)

+1154+. It is remarked above[2103] that the sphere of religion is wholly distinct from that of science (including philosophy and art) and from that of constructive ethics (the determination of rules of conduct), while it is true that the three, being coexistent and original departments of human nature, must influence one another, and must tend to coalesce and be fused into a unitary conception of life. This process goes on in different degrees in different times and places, sometimes one department of thought getting the upper hand and sometimes another, but we cannot suppose that it ever ceases entirely. The relation between religion and its two companions may become clear from a brief survey of the facts given by historical records, this term being used to include all trustworthy sources of information.

THE SCIENTIFIC ELEMENT

+1155+. Man is bound by his constitution to inquire into the nature of things, to seek for the facts of the world, including the human soul. This search is made by both religion and science, but their procedures are somewhat different. Religion demands only the fact of an ultimate moral ground of the world; science observes all phenomena and endeavors to connect and organize them by a thread of natural causation or invariable sequence; religion looks behind phenomena to what it regards as its source. This source is reached by some process of reasoning, either by acceptance, on grounds held to be satisfactory, of a divine revelation, or by inference from the facts of the world (as the presence of design or of moral order); but, when it is reached, all other facts of science are treated as irrelevant. If, then, science confines itself to the observation of sequences, the relation between the two cannot be one of permanent hostility, since their material is not the same. They clash when an old nonreligious belief, adopted by religion, is confronted by an antagonistic scientific discovery; the first result is a protest, but the mind demands harmony, and religion always ends by accepting a well-attested scientific conclusion,[2104] and bringing it into harmony with its fundamental beliefs.

+1156+. Certain phases in the relations between religion and science may be distinguished, but an earlier or cruder phase may continue to exist alongside of a later and higher one. There is first the time when science based on a recognition of natural laws does not exist. The existing science is then one of imagination, the fanciful application of crude observations to the explanation of all phenomena. The _verae causae_ are supernatural agencies--science and religion are one. Explanations of phenomena take the form of what we call myths, what the people of the time regard as true histories. There is no place for the conception of miracle; the supernatural agents are all-powerful, one thing is no harder than another, nothing is strange or inexplicable. There is a crude conception of the unity of God and the world.

+1157+. The period of the rise and decline of the great national religions and the rise of monotheistic cults (along with which may be included Confucianism and Buddhism) is characterized by a great development of philosophy (in China, India, and Greece) and a beginning of scientific research properly so called (especially in astronomy, physics, medicine, and chemistry, in Greece and by the Moslems of Persia). There is a revolt against the older conception of unity. Deities are highly personalized, stand outside of the world, and intervene in human affairs at crises. It is the age of miracles--supernatural Powers, by reason of their intimate social relations with their respective communities, are expected to come to their aid in all important matters, and, for most persons, there is no difficulty in holding that they are able to change the course of nature, which is not regarded as being absolutely fixed. In certain philosophical circles, however, this view is rejected, and nature, with its laws, is conceived of as a separate and independent existence, accompanied or not by gods. Science begins to define the nature of deities, and to limit the sphere of their practical activities--this is a precursor of the fall of the old divinities. The old myths are retained, but they are purified, humanized, and allegorized, and in some cases applied, to new persons and events, according to changes in religious construction.

+1158+. The next phase is the recognition by science of the absolute domination of natural law in the world of phenomena. Religion, when it accepts this view, holds fast to the belief in the ultimate personal moral Force, and conceives of this Force as working and expressing and manifesting itself only in phenomena in accordance with natural law--that is, this law is regarded as the expression of the divine will. Science is thus given liberty to investigate phenomena to the fullest extent, and religion is freed from the incumbrance of physical, psychological, and metaphysical theories; the spheres of the two are sharply defined and kept separate. Such a conception is held to differ from "naturalism" or "materialism" in that it recognizes a Power distinct from matter--to differ from what has been called "humanism" (which makes man the sole power in the world), or from positivism (which regards man as the only worthy object of worship), in that it ascribes to the will and activity of divine spirit the high position of humanity as the center and explanation of the life of the world--to differ from pantheism in that for it God is a personal being who enters into relations with a free humanity--and to differ from agnosticism in that it holds that God may be known from his works.

+1159+. Whatever difficulties may attach to this conception are regarded by its adherents as not insuperable. In all religious systems except Buddhism and Positivism the personality of the ultimate ground of the world is looked on as a necessary datum. In the view under consideration it is held that God exists for the world in which he expresses himself, as the world exists for him, its source and end. The world, with all its parts and incidents, is conceived of as a sacred thing, consecrated to God, and ever striving to realize him in itself, and itself in him. Under the guidance of exacter scientific thought the old crude idea of the unity of the divine and the world is thus transformed into the idea of a unity of will and work. In this conception there is no place for myths, and no need is felt for miracles: histories of the external world and of human society are held to rest on observation of facts, and generally the possibility of miracles is not denied, but they are regarded as unnecessary and improbable--they are thought unnecessary because the conception of the divine character and the religious life are not supposed to be dependent on them, and they are thought improbable because they are held to be not supported by experience. This is the attitude of those persons who accept the conclusions of science; there is, however, great difference of opinion in the religious world on this point.[2105]

+1160+. Certain scientific and philosophical positions discard religion as a department of human life. When it is held that man knows nothing and can know nothing but phenomena, or when, if something is assumed behind phenomena, it is regarded as too vague to enter into personal relations with men, religion as a force in life becomes impossible. In these cases the two conceptions must stand side by side as enemies till one or the other is proved, to the satisfaction of men, to be untenable. Meanwhile it appears that one result of scientific investigations has been to delimitate religion by making it clear that, while it belongs as an influence to all life, it cannot include scientific theories as a part of its content--a result that cannot be otherwise than favorable to its development.

THE ETHICAL ELEMENT

+1161+. Conduct has always been associated with religion. Supernatural Powers have been regarded as members of the tribe or other society, divine headmen part of whose function it is to see that the existing customs are observed, these customs being ethical as well as ritual. Even in such low tribes as the Fuegians and the Australians the anger of some Power is supposed to follow violation of law. Instructions to initiates often include moral relations.[2106] The connection of morals with religion in the more advanced peoples is close. In this regard a distinction is to be made between the creation and the adoption and treatment of ethical ideals.

+1162+. Ethical codes are never created by religion but are always adopted by it from current usages and ideas.[2107] Rules respecting the protection of life, property, and the family are found everywhere--they arise out of natural social relations, even the simplest, and grow in definiteness and refinement with the advance of society, so that things at one period lawful, and accepted by religious authorities, are at a later period prohibited.[2108] Kindness to one's fellows is common in the lowest tribes, and in higher civilizations is formulated as a golden rule (Confucius, Book of Tobit, New Testament, and virtually the Egyptian Ptahhotep, the Old Testament Book of Proverbs, Buddha). Truthfulness, fidelity, and justice have been generally recognized as things to be approved--roughly defined and aimed at in rude communities, more exactly defined and more clearly held up as ideals in higher communities. All these virtues are taken up more or less definitely into religious codes.

+1163+. Less praiseworthy customs and ideas also have been indorsed by religious law. Where sexual license prevails it is made a feature in religious ritual and other ceremonies after it has become a part of social usage and law. It is true that it is generally at first naïve, and, being not illegal, is not a violation of rights and not immoral in the sense in which a refined age regards it.[2109] But it tends, even among savages, to become socially bad, and, when it survives into times of higher standards, is a corrupting influence. In this bad form it was sanctioned by religious authorities in Canaan (even at one time among the Hebrews),[2110] Greece, and Syria, and exists to-day in India as an accompaniment of religious worship. The records of religious cruelty are familiar. Wholesale slaughter, persecution, torture have been abundantly practiced in the name of religion.[2111] Many social institutions (such as slavery and polygamy) countenanced by a given age have been adopted in the religious codes of the age. These examples illustrate the fact that religion does not undertake to fix the details of ethical conduct--its rôle is something different. This statement applies to the institution of taboo, as is remarked above[2112]--its ritual rules are not moral, and its moral rules are adopted from social usage. It was influential in the organization of society, but not in the way of adding anything to the moral code. In modern economic and other social questions that have an ethical side the details are left to science; religion contents itself with insisting on moral principles as having divine authority, and these principles, as moral, are already recognized by society.

+1164+. Discrepancy between codes and conduct has always existed--few religious persons live up to the standards that they regard as authoritative. This failure concerns not the sincerity of the religious society in setting up its standard, but the conditions regulating actual conduct.

A natural consequence of the coexistence of religion and ethics in human life has been that each has influenced the other. Advance in the purity and clearness of social ethical ideals has had the effect of modifying not only religious codes but also religious dogmas. The old belief (founded on the conception of social solidarity) that a family, tribe, or nation was punished by the deity for the sin of one of its members vanished before the recognition of individual responsibility. The doctrines of eternal punishment and vicarious expiatory suffering are now rejected by some religious bodies and circles as unjust. When they are maintained, it is on the ground that they are not unjust--the appeal is to an ethical principle. Apart from the fact of maintenance or rejection, the tendency is to try all doctrines by moral standards. If they are rejected and yet stand, or seem to stand, in sacred books, then either the statements of the books are interpreted in accordance with the moral standards, or the ethical authority of the books is set aside.

+1165+. The influence of religion on ethics has been in the way not of modifying codes but of enforcing existing ideas and customs and giving an impulse to moral life. It has commonly furnished supernatural sanctions--rewards and punishments in this life or in the other. How far this conception has been effective in restraining men from actual ill-doing, in furthering good conduct, and in developing inward loyalty to the right, may be a question. To answer this question would require such a collection of facts as has never been made and perhaps cannot be made. We can see that the belief in divine rewards and punishments has sometimes been a real power, sometimes seems to have no effect. The character of the sanctions varies with the growth of refinement, advancing from the crude savage and later ideas of physical pains and pleasures to the conception of moral degradation or salvation. The recognition of rewards and punishments for one's self as incentives to good living is not regarded as immoral if they are not made the chief motive--the prevailing view is that it is legitimate to look for results of action, that, however, devotion to right must always be independent of results that affect only the actor. Whatever the general effect of belief in supernatural sanctions, it must be concluded that the existence of morality in the world is not dependent on this belief. The common social motives for practicing justice and kindness are so strong and so persistent that these virtues must always retain a certain supremacy apart from men's religious creeds. The term 'supernatural' is used above in the more usual sense of 'opposed to natural,' but, according to one religious point of view, all things are the direct work of God, so that there is no difference between 'natural' and 'supernatural,' and the real sanctions of morality are all the conditions of life, external and internal.[2113]

+1166+. The most important elements that religion (though only in its highest form) has introduced into ethics are a grandiose conception of the basis and nature of the moral life, and a tone of tenderness in the attitude toward the deity and toward men. The moral code it regards as the will of God, conscience as the voice of God, morality as obedience to God, all activity as a coworking with God. Nobility is given to the good life by making it a part of the eternal divine purpose of the world. The conception of human life as an essential factor in the constitution and history of the world is common to religion and philosophy, but religion adds the warmth of personal relation with the divine head of the world. Into the philosophical and ethical view of the unity of humanity religion infuses reverence and affection for the individual as being not merely one of the component parts of the mass but a creature of God, the object of his loving care, capable of redemption and union with God. Here again, while there is no addition to the content of the ethical code, there is added intensity of feeling, which may be a spur to action.

+1167+. In the sphere of religion, as in all spheres of human activity, ideas and tendencies are embodied in human personalities by whom they are defined, illustrated, and enforced--not only in founders of religious systems and other great leaders of thought, but in lesser everyday persons who commend religion, each to his limited circle, by purity of life. The special ethical figures contributed to history by religion are those of the martyr and the saint. The martyr is one who bears witness passively to what he regards as truth at the cost of his life; he thus differs from the hero, who is a man of action. The martyr spirit is found elsewhere than in religious history, but it is in this latter that it has played its special ethical rôle--divergencies from established faiths always excite peculiarly sharp hostility. When it is pure loyalty to convictions of truth, it is an ethical force of great moment--a permanent inspiration.[2114] It is less valuable when it springs from the hope of personal advantage, when a controlling consideration is the belief that one goes directly from the stake (as Moslem warriors believed they went from death in battle) to celestial happiness. There arose at times (for example, in the Decian and Diocletian persecutions of the third century, and in Cordova in the ninth century, when there was no persecution) a fanatical desire for the honors of martyrdom that had to be checked by the Church leaders.

+1168+. The saint is related to the virtuous man as holiness to virtue. The difference between them is one not of ethical practice but of motive and sentiment--holiness is virtue consecrated to the deity. The saint, like the martyr, is often an ethical power. When the title is given officially as an ecclesiastical honor, it may or may not carry with it moral excellence. In Brahmanism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam saintship has sometimes been contaminated with physical and ritual ideas and practices, and so far ceases to have ethical value.[2115]

+1169+. The evil influence of the religious point of view on ethical life has been of the general nature already referred to:[2116] embalming and sanctifying outgrown and injurious social institutions; substituting form for spirit; encouraging asceticism; drawing sharp lines of demarcation between men on the basis of religious opinions, and so far creating an antisocial spirit.

+1170+. The development of the sense of obligation to do right (conscience) is due to so many different influences that it is hard to say exactly what part any one of these has taken in the process. But obviously religion has been an important factor in the result so far reached. By its distinct connection of the favor of the deity with conduct it has tended to fix attention on the latter and to strengthen the feeling that righteousness is the sovereign thing. Though such regard for right-doing is at first mainly egoistic, it easily becomes an ideal, reverenced for its own sake, and more powerful because it is identified with a person and colored by the sentiments of gratitude and love that religion calls forth. Religion, especially in the earlier forms of society, though not only in them, has been a pedagogue to lead men to the acknowledgment of the supremacy of the moral law. It differs from other such guides in the tone of mingled humility and enthusiasm that it gives to this fealty.

+1171+. As to the existence of moral evil in the world, religion can only regard it as the work of supernatural Powers. In the savage period the question does not come up--moral evil is taken as a part of the nature of things and is not curiously inquired into. In later times it is ascribed to some malevolent spirit or deity who is either independent of the supreme deity (as in certain half-civilized tribes) or is tolerated by him (Angro Mainyu, Satan), or to a subordinate employed by him (lies put into the mouths of prophets by a deity),[2117] or to a quite separate divine Power, not necessarily malevolent (as in some philosophical theories). Religion may adopt some philosophical explanation--as that evil is only failure to reach the good, or only the lower step to which we look back from a greater height, or an inevitable accompaniment of a scheme of life characterized by struggle and intended to recognize the freedom of the will and to develop moral autonomy--but, from its own resources it can only say that it is a thing inexplicable by man, belonging to a divine plan that the devout soul accepts as right because God has ordained it.

+1172+. The theory of man's native incapacity to do right (total depravity), held by some religious bodies, is antimoral since it denies human freedom. The attempt to modify it by the supposition of divine impartation of moral power is inadequate unless such power is held to be given to every person, and this amounts to an indirect affirmation of freedom and denial of moral impotency. The theory is, however, practically innocuous, being rejected or ignored by the universal consciousness of freedom.

+1173+. To the questions, raised by philosophy, whether the world is essentially good or bad and whether life is worth living, theistic religion gives a simple answer: a perfect God implies a perfect universe; this answer is germinal and confused in early religion, and is definitely stated only in the higher systems. The great theistic sacred books, Jewish, Christian, Mazdean, and Moslem, all teach that though there are present limitations and sufferings, there is to be a happy issue for the faithful out of all distresses, and the Buddhistic view, though nontheistic, is essentially the same as this; as for other persons, they are sometimes included in a final restoration, when moral evil is to disappear, sometimes are excluded from the happy outcome, but in both cases the scheme of the world is regarded as good. Leaving out of view the question as to the exact interpretation of the facts of life, this optimism is ethically useful as giving cheerfulness and enthusiasm to moral life, with power of enduring ills through the conviction of the ultimate triumph of the right. It may pass into a stolid dogmatic ignoring or denial of the existence of evil, and then tends to become inhuman and therefore ethically bad.[2118] It is, however, commonly saved from such an unfortunate result by common sense and the instinct of sympathy. And it is so general a conception and its goal is so remote that it cannot be a strong and permanent moral force for most persons--immediate experiences are as a rule more powerful than remote expectations. But, so far as it is a living faith, religious optimism is in the main a healthy ethical factor in life.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] That is, phenomena regarded as special acts of a
superhuman Power; in the larger conception of religion all
phenomena are at once natural and divine acts.

[2] In early religion they are usually ghosts, beasts,
plants, or inanimate objects; rarely living men. Cf.
Marett's remarks on pre-animistic religion in his _Threshold
of Religion_.

[3] Appeal to the Powers carries with it a certain sense of
oneness with them, in which we may reasonably recognise the
germ of the idea of union with God, which is the highest
form of religion. This idea is not consciously held by the
savage--it takes shape only in highly developed thought
(Plato, the New Testament, Christian and other mysticism).
If the impulse to religion be thought to be love of life (so
Leuba, in the _Monist_, July, 1901), this is substantially
desire for safety and happiness.

[4] Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 170.

[5] Gen. xxviii, 20-22; Hos. ii; Ezek. xxxvi; and the
Psalter passim.

[6] The classic expression of this view is given by Statius
(_Th._ 3, 661): _primus in orbe deos fecit timor_. Cf. L.
Marillier, in _International Monthly_, ii (1900), 362 ff.

[7] For numerous examples of the belief in supernatural
birth see E. S. Hartland, _Primitive Paternity_.

[8] Modern civilised nations, after victories in war,
commonly assume that God has thus pronounced in favor of the
justice and right of their side, and sing Te Deums.

[9] This vagueness reappears in some systems of late
philosophic speculation. On the question whether a sense of
the divine exists anterior to conscious experience cf.
Marett, _Threshold of Religion_.

[10] This is only a particular application of the general
assumption that all human powers exist in germ in the lowest
human forms. Discussions of the sense of the infinite are
found in the _Gifford Lectures_ of F. Max Müller and Tiele,
and in Jastrow's _Study of Religion_. But early man thinks
only of the particular objects with which he comes into
contact; the later belief in an Infinite is a product of
experience and reflection.

[11] Cf. _Année sociologique_, iii (1898-1899), 205 ff.

[12] On the Fuegians cf. R. Fitzroy, in _Voyages of the
Adventure and the Beagle_, ii (1831-1836), 179 ff.; on the
African Pygmies, A. de Quatrefages, _The Pygmies_ (Eng. tr.,
1895), p. 124 ff.; W. Schmidt, _Pygmäenvölker_, p. 231 ff.;
on Ceylon, T. H. Parker, _Ancient Ceylon_, iv; and on the
Guaranis and Tapuyas (Botocudos) of Brazil, Waitz-Gerland,
_Anthropologie_, iii, 418, and the references in Hastings,
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, ii, 837 f. The
Fuegians are said to stand in awe of a "black man" who, they
believe, lives in the forest and punishes bad actions. On
the people of New Guinea see C. G. Seligmann, _The
Melanesians of British New Guinea_, chaps. 16, 25, 48, 55.

[13] Such relations exist between men and the vague force
variously called mana, manitu, wakonda; but the conception
of this force is scientific rather than religious, though it
is brought into connection with religious ideas and usages.

[14] The evidence is summed up in G. d'Alviella's _Hibbert
Lectures_. Cf. Brinton, _Religion of Primitive Peoples_, p.
30 ff.

[15] The question whether the religious sense exists in the
lower animals is discussed by Darwin, _Descent of Man_
(1871), p. 65 ff., 101 f., and others. The question is
similar to that respecting conscience; in both cases there
is in beasts a germ that appears never to grow beyond a
certain point. On the genesis of the moral sense see
(besides the works of Aristotle, Spinoza, Kant, and their
successors) G. H. Palmer, _The Field of Ethics_; L. T.
Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_; E. Westermarck, _Origin and
Development of the Moral Ideas_. In regard to religious
feeling we observe in certain animals, especially in the
domesticated dog, an attitude of dependence and devotion
toward the master as a superior Power that is similar to the
attitude of man toward a deity, only with more affection and
self-surrender. But in the animal, so far as we can judge,
the intellectual and ethical conceptions do not come to
their full rights--there is no idea of a Power possessing
moral qualities and controlling all phenomena. The beast,
therefore, is not religious in the proper sense of the term.
But between the beast and the first man the difference may
have been not great.

[16] The Central Australians, however, have an elaborate
marriage law with the simplest political organization and
the minimum of religion.

[17] Cf. L. M. Keasbey, in _International Monthly_, i
(1900), 355 ff.; I. King, _The Development of Religion_,
Introduction.

[18] _Cf._ Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, chap. xi f.

[19] Beasts, plants, and what we call inanimate objects,
also are held, in early stages of civilization, to have
souls--a natural inference from the belief that these last
are alive and that all things have a nature like that of
man.

[20] So Semitic _nafs_ 'soul,' _ruh_ 'spirit'; Sanskrit
_diman_ 'soul,' 'self'; Greek _psyche_, _pneuma_; Latin
_anima_, _spiritus_; possibly English _ghost_ (properly
_gost_ 'spirit'); and so in many low tribes. See Tylor,
_Primitive Culture_, i, 432 f.; O. Schrader, in Hastings,
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, ii, 15.

[21] The expression 'to receive the last breath' (_Æneid_,
iv, 684 f.), used by us to represent the last pious duty
paid to a dying man, was thus originally understood in a
strictly literal sense.

[22] So the Delaware Indians (Brinton, _The Lenâpé_, p. 67).

[23] Cf. the name 'shade' (Greeks, Redmen, and others) for
the denizens of the Underworld.

[24] Photographs are now looked on by some half-civilized
peoples with suspicion and fear as separate personalities
that may be operated on by magical methods. A similar
feeling exists in regard to the name of a man or a god--it
is held to be somehow identical with the person, and for
this reason is often concealed from outsiders.

[25] Cf. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii, 402; Fraser,
_Golden Bough_, 1st ed., i, 178 f.; article "Blood" in
Hastings, _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_.

[26] So in the Old Testament, in the later ritual codes:
Deut. xii, 23; Lev. xvii, 14; Gen. ix, 4; and so Ps. lxxii,
14; cf. Koran, xcvi, 2 (man created of blood).

[27] _Iliad_, xiv, 518; xvii, 86; cf. W. R. Smith, _Religion
of the Semites_, 2d ed., p. 40 n. (Arabic expression: "Life
flows on the spear-point").

[28] R. B. Dixon, _The Northern Maidu_, p. 259.

[29] So friendly (fraternal) compacts between individuals
are sealed by exchange of blood, whereby the parties to the
covenant become one; many examples are given in H. C.
Trumbull's _Blood-Covenant_, 2d ed.

[30] In many languages (Semitic, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin,
English, German, etc.) the word for 'soul' is used in the
sense of 'person' or 'self.' But the conception of "life"
was in early times broader than that of "person" or that of
"soul."

[31] An incorporeal or immaterial soul has never been
conceivable.

[32] For old-German examples see Saussaye, _Religion of the
Teutons_, p. 297; for Guiana, E. F. im Thurn, in _Journal of
the Anthropological Institute_, xi, 368; compare the belief
in the hidden soul, spoken of below, and article "Animals"
in Hastings, _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_.

[33] So the bush-soul or beast-soul among the
E[´w]e-speaking peoples of West Africa (A. B. Ellis, _The
E[´w]e-speaking Peoples_, p. 103) and in Calabar (Kingsley,
_West African Studies_). Spirits (Castrén, _Finnische
Mythologie_, p. 186) and demons (as in witchcraft trials)
sometimes take the form of beasts. For American Indian
examples see Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 294.

[34] See the Egyptian representations of the soul as bird
(Ohnefalsch-Richter, _Kypros, the Bible and Homer_, pl. cvi,
2; cix, 4, etc.); Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 183,
compare p. 109. Other examples are given by H. Spencer,
_Principles of Sociology_, i, 355 ff.; N. W. Thomas, in
Hastings, _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, i, 488. On
_siren_ and _ker_ as forms of the soul see Miss Harrison,
_Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, pp. 139,
197-217. Cf. Hadrian's address to the soul:

Animula vagula blandula
Hospes comesque corporis
Quae nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula rigida nudula
Nec ut soles dabis jocos?

[35] The body is spoken of as the person, for example, in
_Iliad_, i. 4; Ps. xvi, 9.

[36] Hence various means of preserving the body by
mummification, and the fear of mutilation.

[37] On the cult of skulls in the Torres Straits and Borneo
see Haddon, _Head-hunters_, chap. xxiv.

[38] J. H. Bernan, _British Guiana_, p. 134.

[39] See Old Testament passim, and lexicons of the various
Semitic languages.

[40] An elaborate account of the loci of qualities is given
by Plato in the _Timæus_, 69 ff.

[41] On the importance attached to the liver as the seat of
life see Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice
in Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 149 ff.

[42] Diels, _Fragmente der Vorsokratiker_, 2d ed., i, 101
f., quoted in Hastings, _Encyclopædia of Religion and
Ethics_, article "Brain and Mind."

[43] _Phædo_, 96 B; _Timæus_, 44.

[44] _Tusc. Disp._ i, 9, 19; cf. Plautus, _Aulul._ ii, 1,
30.

[45] Arabic _dima[^g]_ appears to mean 'marrow,' but how
early it was employed for 'brain' is uncertain.

[46] Waitz, _Anthropologie_, iii, 225; cf. Roger Williams,
_Languages of America_, p. 86.

[47] _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, iv (the
Karens).

[48] Cranz, _Greenland_ (Eng. tr.) i, 184.

[49] Examples in Frazer, _Golden Bough_, chap. ii.

[50] § 25.

[51] For folk-tales of the hidden 'external' soul see
Frazer, _Golden Bough_, 2d ed., iii, 389 ff.

[52] The coyote (in _Navaho Legends_, by W. Matthews, p. 91)
kept his vital soul in the tip of his nose and in the end of
his tail.

[53] _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xviii, 310.

[54] Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 124. Andrew Lang (in _Anthropological Essays
presented to E. B. Tylor_) holds that this Australian view
comes not from ignorance but from the desire to assign a
worthy origin to man in distinction from the lower animals.
Some tribes in North Queensland think that the latter have
not souls, and are born by sexual union, but the human soul,
they say, can come only from a spiritual being. Decision on
this question must await further information.

[55] Spencer and Gillen, loc. cit.

[56] _Journal of American Folklore_, xvii, 4.

[57] Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 530 (the child is the
returned soul of an ancestor).

[58] Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 154 (a spirit child
enters a woman); cf. _Journal of the American Oriental
Society_, viii, 297 (the Nusairi), and Lyde, in Curtiss,
_Primitive Semitic Religion To-day_, p. 115; Hartland,
_Primitive Paternity_, i, 50, and chap. 3 passim.

[59] A. B. Ellis, _The E[´w]e-speaking Peoples_, p. 15; _The
Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 18.

[60] For the belief that the soul of the child comes from
the shades see _Journal of American Folklore_, xiv, 83.
Further, Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, chap. xii; Lang, in
article cited above; Frazer, _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 96.

[61] Possibly a survival of the theory is to be recognized
in the custom, prevalent among some peoples, of naming a
male child after his grandfather; examples are given in
Gray, _Hebrew Proper Names_, p. 2 f. All such theories
appear to rest on a dim conception of the vital solidarity
of the tribe or clan--the vital force is held to be
transmissible; cf. the idea of _mana_, a force inherent in
things.

[62] Gen. ii, 7; cf. Ezek. xxxvii, 10.

[63] _Timæus_, 34 f.

[64] _De Sen._ 21, 77; _Tusc. Disp._ v, 13, 38.

[65] The term 'sacred' in early thought has no ethical
significance; it involves only the idea that an object is
imbued with some superhuman quality, and is therefore
dangerous and not to be touched.

[66] On modes of burial, see article "Funérailles" in _La
Grande Encyclopédie_. Other considerations, however
(hygienic, for example), may have had influence on the
treatment of corpses.

[67] In the Talmud the books of the Sacred Scriptures are
said to "defile the hands," that is, they are taboo
(_Yadaim_, Mishna, 3, 5).

[68] The lower animals also are sometimes credited with more
than one soul: so the bear among the Sioux (Charlevoix,
_Nouvelle France_, vi, 28; Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of
the United States_, iii, 229).

[69] Williams, _Fiji_, i, 241; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_,
i, 434, cf. Brinton, _Lenâpé_, p. 69; Cross, in _Journal of
the American Oriental Society_, iv, 310 (Karens); W. Ellis,
_Madagascar_, i, 393; A. B. Ellis, _The E[´w]e-speaking
Peoples_, p. 114, and _The Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 149
ff.; Kingsley, _West African Studies_, p. 200 ff.; Skeat,
_Malay Magic_, p. 50.

[70] _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, iv, 310.

[71] Cf. Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 530.

[72] See below, § 46 ff.

[73] See Maspero (1897), _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 108 f.;
W. M. Müller in _Encyclopædia Biblica_, article "Egypt";
Petrie, _Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt_, pp. 30
ff., 48 ff.; Breasted, _History of Egypt_, p. 63 f.; Erman,
_Handbook of Egyptian Religion_, pp. 86 f., 108; Wiedemann,
_Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 234 ff.

[74] R. H. Charles in his _Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish, and
Christian_, p. 153, holds that the Hebrews made a
distinction between soul and spirit (the former being
"living" only when the latter is present), and that the
recognition of this distinction is necessary for the
understanding of the Old Testament conception of
immortality. His discussion is valuable if not convincing.

[75] 1 Kings xxii, 21 f.

[76] For the New Testament usage see 1 Cor. vi, 17; 2 Cor.
iv, 21; xii, 18; Luke ix, 53 (in some MSS.); Rev. xix, 10;
John vi, 63. Cf. Grimm, _Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament_, ed. J. H. Thayer, s. vv. _pneuma_ and _psyche_.

[77] Cf. Rohde, _Psyche_, 3d ed., i, 45 n.; ii, 141, n. 2.

[78] In philosophical thought the two are sometimes
distinguished: the _anima_ is the principle of life, and the
_animus_ of thinking mind (Lucretius, iii, 94-141).

[79] A curious resemblance to the cult of the 'genius' is
found in the E[´w]e (Dahomi) custom of consecrating a man's
birthday to his "indwelling spirit" (A. B. Ellis, _The
E[´w]e-speaking Peoples_, 105). Compare Horace's designation
of the genius as 'naturae deus humanae' (_Ep._ ii, 2, 188),
and Servius on Verg., _Georg._ i, 302.

[80] So in Plato and Aristotle, and in Brahmanism.

[81] The evidence for this belief is found in hundreds of
books that record observations of savage ideas, and it is
unnecessary to cite particular examples.

[82] Ellis, _The E[´w]e-speaking Peoples_, p. 108. Cf.
Hinde, _The Last of the Masai_, p. 99.

[83] D. Macdonald, _Africana_, i, 58 f.

[84] _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, x, 283; cf.
Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 277.

[85] Rink, _Tales of the Eskimo_, p. 36.

[86] See above, § 41.

[87] Thomas Williams, _Fiji_, i, 244. Cf. W. Ellis,
_Polynesian Researches_, i, 303.

[88] Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, p. 160.

[89] _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix, 118 f.

[90] Jarves, _History of the Sandwich Islands_, p. 42. Cf.
Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, 2d ed., ii, 22 f., and
Codrington, _The Melanesians_ p. 256 ff.

[91] Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 530 f.

[92] Kingsley, _Travels_, p. 444.

[93] _Polynesian Researches_, p. 218.

[94] Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, pp. 112, 185.

[95] _Tailtiriya Brahmana_, 3, 11, 8, 5; _Çatapatha
Brahmana_, 12, 9, 3, 12. Cf. Bloomfield, _Religion of the
Veda_, p. 253.

[96] The same remark holds of later conceptions of the
departed soul and of deities.

[97] Mariner, _Tonga_, pp. 328, 343. Gods also die, as in
the Egyptian religious creed (Maspero, _Dawn of
Civilization_, p. 111), in Greek myths and folk-beliefs (the
grave of Zeus, etc.), and in the Norse myth of the combat of
the gods with the giants.

[98] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, chap.
xxv.

[99] 1 Sam. xxvii, 11 f.; Ezek. xxxii, 17 f.; Isa. xiv, 9 f.
Eccl. iii, 19 f., ix, 5, 6, 10, which are sometimes cited in
support of the opposite opinion, belong not to the Jewish
popular belief, but to a late academic system which is
colored by Greek skeptical philosophy. All other late Jewish
books (Apocrypha, New Testament, Talmud) assume the
continued existence of the soul in the other world.

[100] See above, § 43.

[101] Hopkins, _Religions of India_, pp. 130, 143 ff., 396;
Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. 111 ff.; Spiegel, _Eranische
Alterthiunskunde_, ii, 161 ff.; Wiedemann, _Egyptian
Doctrine of Immortality_; De Groot, _Religion of the
Chinese_, chap. iii.

[102] On the Homeric usage see Rohde, _Psyche_, as cited
above, § 43.

[103] Several early Christian writers (Tatian, _Address to
the Greeks_, 13; Justin, _Trypho_, cap. vi) held that souls
are naturally mortal, but these views did not affect the
general Christian position.

[104] Such as Ezek. xviii, 4. This view appears in
_Clementine Homilies_, vii, 1.

[105] Cf. W. R. Alger, _Critical History of the Doctrine of
a Future Life_; Harvard Ingersoll Lectures on "The
Immortality of Man."

[106] Cf. H. Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i, chap.
xv; article "Blest, abode of the," in Hastings,
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_.

[107] Cf. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, chap. xii f.

[108] Cf. Hartland, _Primitive Paternity_, i, 254, and chap.
iii.

[109] In _Primitive Culture_, chap. xii.

[110] In _La survivance de l'âme_, passim.

[111] See also the discussion of the subject in Alger, op.
cit. (in § 53), p. 62 f. This work contains a bibliography
of the future state (by Ezra Abbot) substantially complete
up to the year 1862.

[112] Cf. Saussaye, _Religion of the Teutons_, p. 295 f.

[113] M. Kingsley, _Studies_, p. 122; _Travels_, p. 445.

[114] Haddon, _Head-hunters_, p. 179 ff.

[115] Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
Australia_, Index, s.v. _Alcheringa_; id., _Northern Tribes
of Central Australia_, p. 271.

[116] A. B. Ellis, _Yoruba_, p. 128.

[117] Cf. especially the Central Australian conception.

[118] It is involved in all monistic systems. It appears
also to be silently made in the Old Testament: the lower
animals, like man, are vivified by the "breath of God" (Ps.
civ, 29, 30; cf. Gen. ii, 7; vii, 22), and are destroyed in
the flood because of the wickedness of man (Gen. vi, 5-7);
cf. also Rom. viii, 22.

[119] So in the Upanishads (but not in the poetic Veda); see
Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 227; Bloomfield, _Religion
of the Veda_, p. 257. Tylor (_Primitive Culture_, ii, 18)
points out that in this conception we have a suggestion of
the theory of development in organic life.

[120] So the Central Australians (Spencer and Gillen,
_Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 514), the
Californian Maidu (Dixon, _The Northern Maidu_, p. 246). Cf.
the cases in which precautions are taken against a ghost's
entering its old earthly abode.

[121] _Rig-Veda_, 15.

[122] Spencer and Gillen, loc. cit. and p. 516 f.

[123] Probably the Greek _ker_ ([Greek: kêr]) and the
Teutonic 'nightmare,' French _cauchemar_ (_mara_, an
incubus, or succuba), belong in this class of malefic
ghosts.

[124] See below, § 92.

[125] Steinmetz, _Ethnologische Studien zur ersten
Entwicklung der Strafe_, i, 141 ff.

[126] For West Africa see above, § 43, n. 2; for the Norse
_fylgja_ ('follower') cf. Saussaye, _Religion of the
Teutons_, p. 292 ff.

[127] § 38, n. 2.

[128] A transitional stage is marked by the theory, in a
polypsychic system, that one soul remains near the body
while another goes to the distant land.

[129] So, perhaps, among the eastern Polynesians (W. Ellis,
_Polynesian Researches_, i, 303) and the Navahos (Matthews,
_Navaho Legends_, p. 38).

[130] Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, chap. iii, 183 ff.;
Teit, _Thompson River Indians_, p. 85; Rink, _Tales of the
Eskimo_, p. 40.

[131] _Odyssey_, xi (by the encircling Okeanos); Williams,
_Fiji_, p. 192; Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 288
f.; Saussaye, _Religion of the Teutons_, p. 290; _Rig-Veda_,
x, 63, 10; ix, 41, 2.

[132] Breasted, _History of Egypt_, p. 65; Charon; Saussaye,
op. cit., p. 290; Rohde, _Psyche_, 3d ed., i, 306. For the
story given by Procopius (_De Bell. Goth._ iv, 20) see
Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii, 64 f.

[133] Saussaye, op. cit., p. 291.

[134] _Rig-Veda_, x, 154, 4, 5; Lister in _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xxi, 51 (moon). Cf. Breasted,
_History of Egypt_, p. 64; Hopkins, _Religions of India_,
pp. 129, 206; Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 284 ff.;
Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, i, 288 ff.; Saussaye,
op. cit., p. 291; Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i, 232
f.

[135] Matthews, _Navaho Legends_, p. 185 f.; Teit, _Thompson
River Indians_, p. 78.

[136] Turner, _Samoa_, p. 257; Lawes (on New Guinea), in
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, viii, 371;
Callaway, _Zulu Nursery Tales_, p. 316; Matthews, _Navaho
Legends_, p. 215; Rink, _Tales of the Eskimo_, p. 37; Sir G.
S. Robertson, _The Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush_, p. 380 f.

[137] _Æneid_, vi.

[138] _Odyssey_, xi, 489; Isa. xxxviii, 10 ff.; Prov. iii,
16, etc.

[139] 1 Sam. xxviii, 14; Ezek. xxxii, 19-32; Isa. xiv, 9-15;
xxxviii, 18. For the early Babylonian conception of the
Underworld see the _Descent of Ishtar_ (in Jastrow,
_Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, chap. xxv); S. H.
Langdon, "Babylonian Eschatology," in _Essays in Modern
Theology and Related Subjects_ (the C. A. Briggs Memorial).

[140] Breasted, _History of Egypt_, p. 175.

[141] Cf. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii, 83 ff.

[142] Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
Australia_; Callaway, _Amazulus_, pp. 12, 151 f.; W. Ellis,
_Madagascar_, i, 393 (cf. J. Sibree, _Madagascar_, p. 312);
A. B. Ellis, _The E[´w]e_, p. 107 f., and _The Tshi_, p. 156
ff.; M. Kingsley, _Travels_, pp. 461, 480; R. B. Dixon, _The
Shasta_, p. 469.

[143] Williams, _Fiji_, p. 194.

[144] Ezek. xxxii, 23, 27; Isa. xiv, 15.

[145] Jastrow, op. cit., p. 601; Ezek. xxxii.

[146] _Iliad_, xxiii, 71.

[147] Jastrow, op. cit., p. 602; _Iliad_, i, 3 ff.; 2 Sam.
xxi, 10; Prov. xxx, 17.

[148] Hence special desire for sons, who were the natural
persons to perform funeral rites for fathers.

[149] So also Plato, _Gorgias_, 80 (524).

[150] Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 110.

[151] Marillier, _La survivance de l'âme_.

[152] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, chap. ix.

[153] Marillier, op. cit.

[154] Smith, _Virginia_, p. 36.

[155] Will and Spinden, _The Mandans_ (_Papers of the
Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology_,
Harvard University), p. 133.

[156] So among the Betsileos and the Zulus (Marillier, op.
cit.)

[157] So in Madagascar. Cf. Ezek. xxxii, 18 ff.; Isa. xiv, 4
ff.

[158] _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, iv, 312 f.

[159] S. St. John, _The Far East_, 2d ed., i, 182 f.; cf.,
i, 184.

[160] Marillier, op. cit. Here suicide appears to be
regarded as a heroic act, and the women in question perish
in doing a service to the tribe.

[161] Dixon, _The Northern Maidu_, p. 261; Westermarck,
_Moral Ideas_, Index, s.v. _Future Life_; Hobhouse, _Morals
in Evolution_, ii, 271 ff.; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii,
83 ff.

[162] Castrén, _Finnische Mythologie_, p. 126; Turner,
_Samoa_, p. 259; Lawes, "New Guinea," in _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, viii, 370; Rochas, _Nouvelle
Calédonie_ (_Bulletin de la Société d'anthropologie_, 1860),
p. 280; Lister, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xxi, 51; Dixon, op. cit., p. 262; Müller, _Amerikanische
Urreligionen_, p. 289 (Brazil).

[163] See Westermarck, loc. cit.

[164] Hawkins, _Creek Country_, p. 80.

[165] For details on this point see L. Marillier, _La
survivance de l'âme_.

[166] Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 193 f.

[167] _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1842, p. 172,
and 1852, p. 211; Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 530 f.

[168] Sepulchral inscriptions of Tabnit and Eshmunazar, and
the inscriptions of Antipatros (_Corpus Inscriptionum
Semiticarum_, vol. i, part i, p. 9 ff.; Lidzbarski,
_Handbuch der nordsemitischen Epigraphik_, part ii, pl. iv,
1, 2; part i, p. 117; Rawlinson, _Phoenicia_, p. 394 f.).

[169] Breasted, _Egypt_, p. 173 ff.; Bloomfield, _Religion
of the Veda_, p. 252; Hopkins, _Religions of India_, pp.
336, 380, 443; _Texts of Taoism_, ed. J. Legge, ii, 6 f. (in
_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. 40); Legge, _Religions of
China_, p. 82; De Groot, _Religion of the Chinese_, pp. 6,
25, 54, 70 ff., 117; Spiegel, _Eranische Alterthumskunde_,
ii, 158 ff.; Plato, _Republic_, 614 (story of Er); Book of
Enoch passim.

[170] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, chap. xv; Will and
Spinden, _The Mandans_, p. 133; Dixon, _The Northern Maidu_,
p. 261; _Rig-Veda_, i, 356; vii, 104. Cf. article "Blest,
abode of the" in Hastings, _Encyclopædia of Religion and
Ethics_.

[171] Tartarus is as far below Hades as the earth is below
the sky (_Iliad_, viii, 16).

[172] Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 379 ff.

[173] Wiedemann, _Egyptian Doctrine of Immortality_, p. 50
f.; Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 183 ff.; Breasted,
_History of Egypt_, pp. 64, 173 ff. Different conceptions,
however, appear in different stages of eschatological
thought. Probably the older view was that all the dead
descended to the Underworld. According to another view, the
good ascended to heaven and accompanied the sun on his daily
voyage over the heavenly ocean.

[174] _Revue archéologique_, 1903, and Reinach, _Orpheus_
(Eng. tr.), p. 88 f.

[175] _Gorgias_, 523-526; _Republic_, x, 614; _Laws_, x, 904
f.; _Phædo_, 113 f.

[176] Isa. lxv, 17-21; lxvi, 24; Enoch, x, 12-22.

[177] Enoch, xxii.

[178] Enoch, civ, 6; xcix, 11.

[179] _Secrets of Enoch_, chaps. vii-x. For the third heaven
cf. 2 Cor. xii, 2-4. Varro also (quoted in Augustine, _De
Civ. Dei_, vii, 6) assigned the souls of the dead to a
celestial space beneath the abode of the gods.

[180] Matt. xxv, 46; 1 Thess. iv, 17; 2 Pet. ii, 4; iii, 13;
Rev. xx, 15; xxi, 1; 2 Cor. xii, 2-4.

[181] See, for example, the _Revelation of the Monk of
Evesham_, Eng. tr. by V. Paget (New York, 1909).

[182] _Republic_, x, 614.

[183] Herzog-Hauck, _Real-Encyklopädie_, Index, s.v.
_Fegfeuer_; _Jewish Encyclopedia_, article "Purgatory."

[184] American Indians (H. C. Yarrow, _Introduction to the
Study of Mortuary Customs among the North American Indians_,
p. 5 ff.); Egypt (Wilkinson, _The Ancient Egyptians_, chap.
x); see article "Funérailles" in _La Grande Encyclopédie_.
Grant Allen, in _The Evolution of the Idea of God_, chap.
iii, connects the idea of bodily resurrection with the
custom of inhumation and the idea of immortality with
cremation, but this view is not borne out by known facts.

[185] Frazer, _Golden Bough_, 2nd ed., i, 262, 278.

[186] The doctrine of reincarnation in India followed on
that of Hades, and stood in a certain opposition to it. Cf.
Hopkins, _Religions of India_, pp. 204 ff., 530 n. 3;
Bloomfield, _Religion of the Veda_, pp. 211, 252 ff.

[187] _Zoroastrian Studies_, p. 236. Prexaspes says that "if
the dead rise again" Smerdis maybe the son of Cyrus. He may
mean that this is not probable. Smerdis, he would in that
case say, is certainly dead, and this pretender can be the
son of Cyrus only in case the dead come to life.

[188] Diogenes Laertius in Müller, _Fragmenta Historicorum
Gracorum_, i, 289; cf. Plutarch, _Isis and Osiris_, 47, and
Herodotus, i, 131-140. See Spiegel, _Eranische
Alterthumskunde_, ii 158 ff.

[189] Occasional reincarnation in human form is found
elsewhere. The Mazdeans made it universal.

[190] There is no certain or probable reference to it in the
Old Testament before this. Ezek. xxxvii, 1-14, is obviously
a figurative prediction of national (not individual)
resuscitation, and the obscure passage Isa. xxvi, 19 seems
to refer to the reëstablishment of the nation, and in any
case is not earlier than the fourth century B.C. and may be
later.

[191] Dan. xii; 2 Macc. vii, 14; Enoch, xci, 10; xxii.

[192] 1 Cor. xv, 23; Rom. vi, 4; viii, 11; John vi, 54.

[193] Acts xxiv, 15; John v, 28 f.

[194] Apokatastasis (Col. i, 20; cf. Rom. xi, 32).

[195] Cf. Steinmetz, _Ethnologische Studien zur ersten
Entwicklung der Strase_.

[196] Westermarck, _Moral Ideas_, ii, 234, 245 f.

[197] See below, on necromancy, § 927.

[198] See § 360 ff. (ancestor-worship) and § 350 ff.
(divinization of deceased persons).

[199] In Egypt there grew up also an elaborate system of
charms for the protection of the dead against hostile
animals, especially serpents,--a body of magical texts that
finally took the form of the "Book of the Dead" (Breasted,
_History of Egypt_, pp. 69, 175; Steindorff, _Religion of
the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 153 ff.).

[200] _Çatapatha Brahmana_, xii, 9, 3, 12. Cf. W. Ellis,
_Polynesian Researches_, i, 193 f.

[201] Breasted, op. cit., p. 249.

[202] 1 Cor. xv, 29.

[203] 2 Macc. xii, 40 ff. Possibly the custom came to the
Jews from Egypt. For later Jewish ideas on this point see
_Jewish Encyclopedia_, article "Kaddish."

[204] Smith and Cheetham, _Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities_, article "Canon of the Liturgy"; Hughes,
_Dictionary of Islam_, article "Prayers for the Dead."

[205] On savage logic cf. Jevons, _Introduction to the
History of Religion_, chap. iv.

[206] See § 18 ff.

[207] See § 635 ff.

[208] As to the efficiency of such tradition, compare the
way in which mechanical processes are transmitted by older
workmen to younger, always with the possibility of gradual
improvement. In literary activity, also, tradition plays a
great part; a young people must serve an apprenticeship
before it can produce works of merit.

[209] Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i, sec. 35;
Westermarck, _Human Marriage_, p. 43 ff.; Pridham, _Ceylon_,
i, 454 (Veddas); _United States Exploring Expedition_, i,
124 (Fuegians); Fison and Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, p.
278 (Australian Grounditch); Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen
Süd-Afrikas_, p. 328 (Bushmen); Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes
of the United States_, i, 207 (North American Snake tribes);
Rivet, in _The American Anthropologist_, 1909 ("The Jivaros
of Ecuador").

[210] Cf. I. King, _The Development of Religion_, p. 66 ff.

[211] Even in higher forms of religion, as the Vedic,
sacrifice and other ceremonies are supposed to have a
magical power over the gods.

[212] This is a part of the belief in the mysterious energy
(_mana_) potentially resident in all things.

[213] See, for example, the bird dances described by Haddon
(_Head-hunters_, p. 358); compare W. Matthews, _Navaho
Legends_, p. 83 al. Dances are now often given for the
amusement of the public. Clowns often form a feature of such
ceremonies; see Matthews, _Navaho Legends_, p. 230; R. B.
Dixon, _The Northern Maidu_ (_Bulletin of American Museum of
Natural History_, xvii, part iii, p. 315 ff.).

[214] Howitt, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xvi, 327 ff.

[215] Miss Fletcher, _Indian Ceremonies_, p. 263 n.

[216] Miss Kingsley, _Studies_, p. 126.

[217] E. F. im Thurn, _Indians of Guiana_, vii, iv, 5.

[218] E. F. im Thurn, op. cit., vi.

[219] Of the same simple festive nature as dances are the
plays or sports that are not infrequent among savages and
half-civilized tribes. In the Areoi dramatic performances
priests are ridiculed (W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, p.
187).

[220] Miss Fletcher, "Emblematic Use of the Tree in the
Dakotan Group" (in _Proceedings of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science_, 1896).

[221] So among the hill tribes of North Arracan (_Journal of
the Anthropological Institute_, ii, 239) and the North
American Indians (Featherman, _Races of Mankind_, division
iii, part i, p. 37 etc.). Such dances are performed by the
Tshi women in the absence of the men (A. B. Ellis, _The
Tshi_, p. 226).

[222] See below, § 903, on imitative magic.

[223] Riedel, in _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xvii.

[224] Haddon, _Head-hunters_, p. 139.