,,comparative ,,religion ,,by ,j4 ,,estlin ,,carpenter ,d4,,litt4 ,,principal ,,of ,,manchester ,,college1 ,,oxford ,,new ,,york ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company ,,london ,,williams ,,and ,,norgate ,,contents ,,chap4 ,i ,,introductory ,,ii ,,the ,,panorama ,,of ,,religions ,,iii ,,religion ,,in ,,the ,,lower ,,culture ,,iv ,,spirits ,,and ,,gods ,v ,,sacred ,,acts ,,vi ,,sacred ,,products ,,vii ,,religion ,,and ,,morality ,,viii ,,problems ,,of ,,life ,,and ,,destiny ,,bibliography ,,index ,those first affections1 ,those shadowy recollections1 ,which1 be they what they may1 ,are yet the fountain light of all our day1 ,are yet a master light of all our seeing2 ,uphold us1 cherish1 and have power to make ,our noisy years seem moments in the being ,of the eternal ,silence4 ,,wordsworth4 ,to the philosopher the existence of ,god may seem to rest on a syllogism2 in the eyes of the historian it rests on the whole evolution of human thought4--,,max ,m,,ller4 #g ,,comparative ,,religion ,,chapter ,i ,,introductory ,over the chancel-arch of the church at ,south ,leigh1 a few miles west of ,oxford1 is a fresco of the ,last ,judgment and the ,resurrection1 of the type well known in medival art4 ,on the adjoining south wall stands the stately figure of the archangel ,michael4 ,in his right hand he holds a pair of scales4 ,in one scale is the figure of a soul in the attitude of prayer2 beside it is ,our ,lady carrying a rosary4 ,the other contains an ox-headed demon blowing a horn4 ,this scale rises steadily1 though another demon has climbed to the beam above to weigh it down1 and a third from hell's mouth below endeavours to drag it towards the abyss4 ,the same theme recurs in several other ,english churches2 and it is carved over the portals of many ,french cathedrals1 as at ,notre ,dame in ,paris4 ,unroll a papyrus from an ,egyptian tomb of the ,eighteenth ,dynasty before the days of ,moses1 and you will see a somewhat similar #h scene4 ,the just and merciful judge ,osiris1 lord of life and king of eternity1 sits in the ,hall of the two goddesses of ,truth4 ,hither the soul is brought for the ordeal which will determine his future bliss or woe4 ,before forty-two assessors he declares his innocence of various offences3 ,i am not a doer of what is wrong2 ,i am not a robber2 ,i am not a slayer of men2 ,i am not a niggard2 ,i am not a teller of lies2 ,i am not a monopoliser of food2 ,i am no extortioner2 ,i am not unchaste2 ,i am not the causer of others' tears4444 ,then he is led1 sometimes supported by the two goddesses of ,truth1 to the actual trial4 ,resting on an upright post is the beam of a balance4 ,it is guarded by a dog-headed ape1 symbol of ,thoth1 lord of the scales4 ,thoth has various functions in the ancient texts1 and even rises into a kind of impersonation of the principle of intelligence in the whole universe4 ,here as the computer of time and the inventor of numbers he plays the part of secretary to ,osiris4 ,in one scale is placed the heart of the deceased1 the organ of conscience4 ,in the other is sometimes a square weight1 sometimes an ostrich plume1 symbol of truth or righteousness4 ,thoth stands beside the scales1 tablet in hand1 to record the issue as the soul passes to the great award4 ,the scenes and the persons differ2 but the fundamental conception of judgment is the same1 and it is carried out by the same method4 ,is this an accidental coincidence of metaphor8 #i ,the figure of the balance was naturally suggestive for the estimate of worth1 and the ,psalmist cried in bitterness of heart-- ,surely men of low degree are vanity1 ,and men of high degree are a lie1 ,in the balances they will go up2 ,they are altogether lighter than vanity4 ,the mysterious hand wrote upon the wall of ,belshazzar's palace the strange word ,tekel1 which contained the dreadful sentence1 ,thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting4 ,to early ,indian imagination1 before the days of the ,buddha 7#ejj ,b4,c471 the ordeal of the balance was part of the outlook into the world beyond4 ,in the ancient ,persian teaching1 ,rashnu1 the angel of justice1 before the shining ,friend1 the mediator ,mithra1 presided over the weighing of the spirits at the bridge of destiny1 over which they would pass to heaven or hell4 ,is ,michael the heir of ,thoth or ,rashnu8 ,he passed into the ,christian ,church from the ,jewish ,synagogue1 where he was specially connected with the destinies of the dead4 ,he guided the souls of the just to the heavenly world1 where he led them into the mystic city1 the counterpart of ,jerusalem below2 or he stood at the gate as the angel of righteousness to decide who should be admitted4 ,so for the ,greeks ,hermes was the guardian of the spirits of the departed1 whom he conducted #aj to the judgment in the under-world4 ,in this respect1 then1 ,hermes and ,michael were akin4 ,but ,hermes also played many other parts1 and the ,greeks identified him with the ,egyptian ,thoth4 ,when the destinies of ,hector and ,achilles were weighed against each other1 ere the last mortal combat1 the vase-painter could represent ,hermes as holding the balance in the presence of ,zeus1 much as ,thoth had presided over it before ,osiris4 ,the ,etruscan artists depicted ,mercury1 the ,italian equivalent of ,hermes1 fulfilling the same function4 ,true1 the purport of the test was different4 ,but the symbol was the same2 and when ,hermes gave place to ,michael1 as ,christianity was carried to the ,west1 the scales passed from the ,hellenic to the ,jewish ,christian figure1 though they had in the one case been used to decide the allotment of fate1 and in the other were employed for judgment4 ,why they remained so long unused in ,christian symbolism is obscure4 ,the revival of intercourse with the ,east through the ,crusades may have given new force to the idea as part of the great judgment-process2 and the figure to which it was most natural to assign it was that of ,thoth-,hermes-,michael4 ,the religion of the ancient ,hindus was founded1 as every one knows1 upon the venerable hymns collected into one sacred book under the name of the ,rig ,veda4 ,these hymns1 #ajag in number1 containing over #aa #aj1jjj verses1 are now arranged in ten books1 twice the number of the divisions of the ,hebrew ,psalter4 ,like most of the ,psalms they are traditionally ascribed to different poets1 in whose families they were sung2 and their authors were regarded as ,rishis1 bards1 or sages4 ,of their real origin nothing is definitely known2 their composition probably extends over many generations1 perhaps over several centuries2 and dim suggestions of their super-earthly origin already appear in some of the latest poems4 ,they became the peculiar treasure of the priestly order2 the most laborious efforts were devised for the study and preservation of the sacred text2 the methods of pronunciation1 the rules of grammar1 the principles of metre1 the derivations of words1 were all elaborated with the utmost minuteness into different branches of ,vedic lore4 ,two other smaller ,vedas1 collections of sacrificial formul and hymns1 were very early placed beside the main work1 and a fourth collection gained similar rank much later4 ,with the development of the great schools of ,hindu philosophy1 especially after the decline of ,buddhism1 the whole question of authority as the foundation of belief and reasoning was forced to the front1 and this in due time was applied to the ,veda4 ,brahmanical speculation had been long concerned with its divine origin4 ,it sprang from one of the mysterious figures in which the ancient theologians expressed their sense of the real #ab unity of the heavenly powers1 ,prajpati1 the lord of creatures1 through the medium of ,vach1 or sacred ,speech4 ,as such it was the firstborn in the universe4 ,but as proceeding from ,prajpati it issued from the world of the an-anta1 the un-ending or infinite1 which was likewise the sphere of the a-mrita1 the im-mortal or deathless4 ,so it belonged to the realm of the eternal1 where it could be beheld1 not indeed with the eye of sense1 but with the higher discernment of the holy ,seer4 ,the philosophical schools occupied themselves accordingly with the defence of the eternity and consequent infallibility of the ,veda4 ,elaborate arguments were devised to explain the relation of words to things1 and of sound in the abstract to uttered speech or again to show how behind individuals which had their origin in time there existed species 7even of the gods7 which belonged to the timeless order transcending our experience4 ,so the conclusion was reached1 in the words of the great philosopher ankara 7,a4,d4 #ghh-hbj71 that the authority of the ,veda with regard to the matters stated by it is independent and direct2 just as the light of the sun is the direct means of our knowledge of form and colour4 ,just at this era1 by a singular coincidence1 a remarkable controversy was raging in the schools of ,mohammedan theology4 ,mohammed died in ,a4,d4 #fcb4 ,he had himself recorded nothing2 the traditions about him are not even #ac agreed whether he could read or write4 ,his oracles were taught to his disciples1 who began to note down some of them during the prophet's life2 soon after his death the formal collection of them was undertaken2 and under ,caliph ,othman 7#fea7 four copies were deposited in the cities of ,mecca1 ,cufa1 ,basra1 and ,damascus4 ,we know the work under the name of the ,koran 7,qurn reading71 one of the numerous expressions which ,mohammed was said to have coined for the revelation imparted to him from on high4 ,later generations attached the title exclusively to the utterances fixed in literary form1 and discerned in them a unity designed by the prophet2 but it seems more consonant with his view to regard each of the #aad discourses 7suras7 as a unit in itself1 and the whole as only a fragment of his teaching4 ,many passages raise a claim to specific divine origin2 others allude to the uncreated ,scripture1 umm-al-kitab1 the mother of the book4 ,on such hints was founded the remarkable doctrine that the ,koran was eternal in its essence as the word of ,god1 a necessary attribute of the ,most ,high4 ,first formulated in the middle of the eighth century 7,a4,d4 #gdg-gdh71 it roused extraordinary interest outside the theological schools4 ,it was fostered by the early ,caliphs1 for it supported their political authority1 and the emphasis which it placed on the doctrine of predestination supplied them with a potent weapon4 ,opposition #ad arose on the ground of free will2 the passages enforcing the principle of predestination were evaded by the handy method of allegorical interpretation1 and the revolt of the moral consciousness led1 as it has done elsewhere1 to rationalism4 ,public debates were held amid general excitement1 when the ,caliph ,ma'mun 7#hac-hcc7 unexpectedly espoused the rationalist cause1 and issued a decree forbidding the discussion4 ,the popular forces1 however1 were in the long run triumphant4 ,in #hdg a new ,caliph came into power1 inclined for political reasons to the higher doctrine4 ,lectures were instituted in the mosques on the attributes of ,god1 and vast audiences--the historians report twenty and even thirty thousand hearers--listened eagerly while the theologians disputed whether ,god's word could be conceived distinct from his absolute being4 ,faith in the prophet triumphed2 the exaltation of the product reacted on that of the person2 and the ,arabian shepherd could be regarded as the inerrant1 sinless1 uncreated light1 sent forth from ,deity himself1 who for his sake spread out the earth and arched the heavens1 and proclaimed the great confession ,there is no ,god but ,allah1 and ,mohammed is his prophet4 ,every great historical religion passes through numerous phases1 as it is brought into contact with different cultures1 and evokes various forms of speculative thought and inward #ae experience4 ,buddhism has been no exception to this rule4 ,it sprang up in a moral revolt against the claims of the ,brahmanical teachers1 and in the midst of the discussions of the sophists turned its back on metaphysics and sought to concentrate attention on the ,noble ,path of the good life4 ,it offered a way of deliverance from the weary round of births and deaths by the victory over ignorance and sin1 and sought to overcome selfishness by eliminating the idea that man has1 or is1 a ,self4 ,accordingly it presented its founder ,gotama 7#ejj ,b4,c471 as the man who had attained the ,truth1 who had by a long series of lives devoted to the higher righteousness acquired the insight into the causes and meaning of existence1 and imparted it to his followers with instructions to carry it forth for the welfare of their fellow-men4 ,for this end he founded a union or order2 he instituted a discipline1 and committed his teaching to a body of disciples whose successors gradually bore it into distant lands4 ,he himself passed away1 leaving no trace behind4 ,his memory was cherished with dutiful devotion4 ,pilgrimages to the scenes of his birth and ,buddhahood1 commemorative festivals and pious rites1 kept the image of the ,teacher before the mind of the believer4 ,but no prayer was offered to him2 no worship created any bond of fellowship between the departed ,gotama and the community which he had left on earth4 #af ,but in the course of several generations remarkable changes took place4 ,environed by philosophical speculations1 ,buddhism could not remain wholly unaffected by the great ideas of metaphysics4 ,while one branch1 now surviving in ,ceylon1 ,burma and ,siam1 remained faithful to the ,founder's exclusion of all such conceptions as being1 substance1 and the like1 others began to interpret the person of the ,buddha in terms of the ,absolute1 and identified him with the ,eternal and the ,self-,existent1 who from time to time for the welfare of the world took on himself the semblance of humanity1 and appeared to be born1 to attain ,enlightenment1 and die4 ,the great aim of the deliverance of all sentient beings from error1 suffering1 and guilt1 expressed itself further in the association with him of numerous other holy forms sharing the same purpose of the world's salvation4 ,among these was the ,buddha ,amitbha1 the ,buddha of ,boundless ,light1#a who had made a wondrous vow in virtue of which a blessed future of righteousness and joy in the ,western ,paradise was secured for all who put their trust in him4 ,carried into ,china1 this devotion acquired great popularity1 and centuries later it passed into ,japan4 ,there1 while ,europe was sending its warriors to win back from the ,crescent the city of the ,cross1 while ,bernard and ,francis and ,dominic were awakening new enthusiasm for the monastic #ag life1 two famous teachers1 ,honen 7#aacc-abab7 and ,shin-ran 7#aagc-abfb71 developed the doctrine of salvation by faith4 ,honen was the only son of a military chief who died of a wound inflicted by an enemy4 ,on his deathbed he enjoined the boy never to seek revenge1 and bade him become a monk for the spiritual enlightenment both of his father and his father's foe4 ,so the lad passed in due time into one of the great ,buddhist monasteries on mount ,hiei4 ,long years of laborious study followed1 till in #aage he reached the conviction that faith in ,amida#b was the true way of salvation4 ,a deep sense of human sinfulness and the belief in an ,all-,merciful ,deliverer were the essential elements of his religion4 ,three emperors became his pupils1 and his life1 compiled by imperial order after his death1 resembles that of a medival ,christian saint4 ,visions of ,amida and of the holy teachers of the past were vouchsafed to him4 ,he preached--like another ,st4 ,francis--to the serpents and the birds4 ,his person was mysteriously transfigured1 and a wondrous light filled his dwelling4 #a ,also called ,amityus1 the ,buddha of ,boundless ,life4 #b ,the ,japanese form of the ,sanskrit ,amitbha4 ,his disciple ,shin-ran carried the doctrine of his master yet a little farther4 ,filled with adoring gratitude to the ,buddha of ,boundless ,light1 who1 as the deliverer1 was also the ,buddha of ,boundless ,life1 he argued that infinite mercy and infinite wisdom must belong to him2 and these in their turn implied the #ah power to give effect to his great purpose4 ,he passed from village to village through the ,eastern provinces1 rousing enthusiasm by the hymns into which he wrought his new faith4 ,they are still sung in the temples at the present day4 ,but whereas ,honen had recognised a value in good works1 and had enjoined the duty of constant repetition of the sacred name of ,amida1 ,shin-ran insisted that all element of self-exertion must be purged away1 and faith in the merits of ,amida--the exertion of another--should alone remain4 ,some of the conceptions of ,western teaching thus present themselves in ,japan in the midst of modes of life and thought of purely ,indian origin4 ,christian theologians had debated whether faith was to be regarded as an opus or a donum1 a work or a gift1 was it something to be attained by man or was it bestowed by ,god8 ,the ,japanese answer was unhesitating4 ,faith was not earned by effort1 or achieved by merit1 it was granted out of immeasurable love4 ,the ,buddha1 we read1 confers this heart4 ,the heart which takes refuge in his heart is not produced by oneself4 ,it is produced by the command of ,buddha4 ,hence it is called the believing heart by the ,power of ,another4 ,the natural corollary was that in due course this grace would be bestowed on all4 ,the ,buddha of ,boundless ,light and ,life would overcome the darkness of ignorance and death2 and this type of ,buddhism1 now the most active and #ai influential in ,japan1 preaches the doctrine of universal salvation4 ,the student finds here a whole series of parallels to the ,evangelical interpretation of ,christianity4 ,both schemes are founded on the same essential ideas1 man's need of a deliverer1 and the attainment of salvation by no human conduct but by faith in a divine person4 ,the foregoing sketches raise many problems4 ,what are the actual features in different religions which are susceptible of comparison8 ,how can we distinguish between resemblances which are deep-seated and spring from the fundamental principles of two given faiths1 and those which are only on the surface1 and probably accidental8 ,how far can such parallels be ascribed to suggestion through historical contact1 and1 if they lie too far apart for possibilities of any form of mutual dependence1 out of what common types of experience are they derived1 what forces of thought have shaped them1 what feelings do they express8 ,the student of ,comparative ,religion seeks answers to these and similar questions4 ,a vast field of inquiry is at once opened before him4 ,it embraces practically every continent1 people1 and tribe on the face of the globe4 ,it begins in the last period of the great ice age1 when men lived in this country in the company of the elephant1 the rhinoceros1 and the mammoth1 and hunted their game through #bj ,germany1 ,belgium1 and ,france4 ,in dim recesses of the caves they painted the deer1 the bison1 the antelope and the wild boar1 under conditions which imply some kind of mysterious or holy place4 ,they buried their dead with care1 and though we can ask them no questions we may infer with much probability that they celebrated some kind of funeral meal1 and deposited implements and ornaments in the grave for the use of the departed in the world beyond4 ,in one case hundreds of shells were found buried with the skull of a little child4 ,similar usages may be traced through the slow advances of culture to the present day4 ,death is an element of universal experience2 and it is not unreasonable to suppose that if the negroid peoples of ,western ,europe had worked out some view of its meaning and consequences1 there were other things to be done or avoided out of fear or reverence for the ,unseen4 ,the first objects of comparison are thus found in the outward acts which fall more or less clearly within the sphere of religion1 the places where these are performed1 the persons who do them1 the means required for them1 the occasions to which they are attached4 ,these all belong to the external world2 they can be observed and recorded1 even though we may not be sure what they mean4 ,when they are brought together1 a series of gradations of complexity can be established1 while a common purpose may be traced through all4 #ba ,from the negro who lays his offering of grain or fruit at the foot of a tree with the simple utterance1 ,thank you1 gods1 to a great ,eucharistic celebration at ,st4 ,peter's1 a continuous line of ritual may be followed1 in which the action becomes more elaborate1 the functions and character of the officiating ministers more strictly defined1 the accessories of worship more complicated4 ,this corresponds to the enrichment and elevation of the ideas and emotions that animate the act1 as that which is at first performed as part of tribal usage and ancestral custom acquires the force of divine institution and personal duty4 ,behind the external act lies the internal world of thought and feeling4 ,the social sanction may invest the ceremony itself with so much force that the worshipper's interest may lie rather in the due performance of the rite than in the deity to whom it is addressed4 ,the element of belief may be relatively vague and indefinite4 ,but in the more highly organised religions belief also may externalise itself through hymn and prayer1 through myth and history and prophecy4 ,when a religion is strong enough to create a literature1 a fresh object of comparison is presented4 ,the utterances of poet and sage1 of lawgiver and seer1 can be set side by side4 ,their conceptions of the ,powers towards which worship is directed can be studied2 the characters and functions of the several deities can be determined4 ,this #bb is the intellectual element in religion4 ,it has often been regarded as the element of most importance1 because it seemed most readily to admit of the test of truth4 ,it finds its most formal expression in the articles of a creed1 and has sometimes been erected into the chief ground of the supreme arbitrament of heaven and hell4 ,there remains the element of feeling4 ,this also may be so entangled in tradition1 so enveloped in the pressure of surrounding influences1 that it is at first obscure and indistinct4 ,but its importance was early recognised when the origin of religion was ascribed to fear1 in the oft-quoted line of the ,roman ,satirist ,petronius ,arbiter at the court of ,nero 7who committed suicide ,a4,d4 #ff7-- ,primus in orbe deos fecit timor4 ,in the eighteenth century the genius of ,lessing 7#agbi-agha7 fastened on the feeling of the heart as the essential foundation of religion4 ,no written record1 no historical event1 could guarantee its truth2 that lay in the constitution of the human spirit in its interpretation of its experience4 ,in his famous drama of ,nathan the ,sage he applied this to the representatives of three great historical religions which were thus brought together for comparison3 the ,christian ,templar1 the ,mohammedan ,saladin1 and the ,jew ,nathan4 ,herder 7#agdd-ahjc7 endeavoured with the #bc materials then at command to trace the origin and development of religion1 starting from the primitive impressions made upon the mind by the world without1 and sought to interpret mythology as the imaginative utterance of man's consciousness of the power1 light1 and life in ,nature4 ,in the next generation ,schleiermacher 7#agfg-ahcd7 placed the essence of religion in the feeling of absolute dependence1 without attempting to define the object towards which it was directed4 ,the study of origins has passed out of the hands of the philosophers and the theologians4 ,but it cannot dispense with psychology2 and among the factors of early religious life will be found the beginnings of wonder1 reverence and awe4 ,and this element1 often cruelly twisted into false and degraded forms1 and sometimes refined in the higher types of mysticism into the loftiest spirituality1 inheres in all practice and belief4 ,what1 then1 is the basis of comparison among different faiths8 ,the student who is engaged in tracing the life-history of any one religion will naturally start from the field of investigation thus selected4 ,as he widens his outlook he will find that a number of illustrative instances force themselves upon his view4 ,the people whose institutions and ideas he is examining are members of a given ethnic group4 ,the ancient ,hebrews1 for instance1 belong on the one side to the life of the desert1 and are kin with the nomad ,arabs1 #bd on the other they are related to the authors of ,babylonian culture4 ,or in the course of events a new religion is brought by missionary impulse into a less-developed civilisation1 as when ,buddhism passed from ,china through ,corea into ,japan1 and was planted in the midst of a cruder faith4 ,widely different modes of thought are thus brought into close juxtaposition1 their relation and interaction can be examined1 and the inner forces of each compared4 ,that such inquiries must be conducted without prejudice need not now be enforced4 ,an eighteenth-century writer might lay it down that the first general division of ,religion is into ,true and ,false1 and might draw the conclusion that the chapter of ,false ,religions is by much the longest in the ,history of the religious opinions and practices of mankind4#c ,dr4 ,johnson could sententiously declare that there are two objects of curiosity1 the ,christian world and the ,mohammedan world--all the rest may be considered as barbarous4 ,a learned ,oxford scholar of the last generation could speak of the three chief false religions1 ,brahmanism1 ,buddhism1 and ,mohammedanism4 ,missionaries and travellers of an elder day1 who took some form of ,christianity as their foundation1 sometimes found the savages among whom they laboured destitute of religion because they had no ,father in heaven #be and no everlasting hell4 ,these attitudes1 it is now freely recognised1 are not scientific4 ,for purposes of comparison no single religion can be selected as a standard for the whole human race4 ,particular products may be set side by side4 ,the asceticism of ,india may be compared with that of early ,christianity4 ,the ritual of sacrifice may be studied in the book of ,leviticus or the ,hindu ,brhmanas4 ,what are sometimes called ,ethnic ,trinities may be examined in the light of ,alexandrian theology4 ,the suras of the ,koran may be read after the prophecies of ,isaiah4 ,the various phases of the ,buddhist ,order1 with its missionary zeal1 its power of adaptability to different cultures1 its readiness to accept new teaching1 may be contrasted with the wonderful cohesiveness and expansion of the ,roman ,catholic ,church4 ,the ideas of the ,hellenic mystery-religions may be found to throw light on the language of ,st4 ,paul4 ,out of the multitudinous phases of human experience all the world over innumerable resemblances will be discovered4 ,each is a fact for the student1 and must be treated on equal terms in the field of science4 ,but they will have more or less intrinsic significance in the scale of values4 ,philosophy may attempt to range them in gradations of worth1 in nobility of form1 in dignity of expression1 in moral purity1 in social effectiveness4 ,beneath infinite diversity the mystic will affirm the unity of the whole1 with the poet of the #bf ,masnavi1 ,jallu-'d-,dn of ,balkh 7,a4,d4 #abjg-abgc7-- ,because ,he that is praised is1 in fact1 only ,one1 ,in this respect all religions are only one religion4 #c ,broughton1 ,dictionary of all ,religions1 #agde4 ,the materials of comparison are1 of course1 of the most varied kind4 ,the interest of the ancient ,greeks was early roused in the diverse practices which they saw around them1 and the observations of ,herodotus concerning the ,egyptians1 the ,persians1 the ,scythians1 and many another tribe upon the fringe of barbarism1 have earned for him the modern title of the ,father of ,anthropology4 ,travellers1 missionaries1 government officers1 men of trade and men of learning1 have recorded the usages of the lower culture all over the world1 naturally with varying accuracy and penetration1 and a vast range of facts has been registered through successive stages of complexity in social and religious development4 ,many of these have their parallel in the folklore of countries where the uniformity of modern civilisation has not crushed out all traditional beliefs1 while annual customs or even village games may contain survivals of what were once important ceremonial rites4 ,the irruption of the ,arab conquerors into ,europe brought ,christianity face to face with ,mohammedanism and its sacred book4 ,in the #bg seventeenth century the ,jesuit ,fathers in ,china first made known the teachings of ,kong-fu-tse 7,philosopher ,kong7 #ejj ,b4,c4 whose name they ,latinised into ,confucius4 ,towards the end of the eighteenth century a brilliant little band of ,english scholars in ,calcutta began to reveal the astounding copiousness of the sacred literature of ,india4 ,during the expedition of ,napoleon to ,egypt in #agii the ,rosetta ,stone 7now in the ,british ,museum7 yielded the clue to the hieroglyphics which cover the walls of temple and tomb4 ,a generation later a young ,british officer1 ,lieutenant ,henry ,rawlinson1 began in #ahce to copy a triple inscription on a cliff of ,mount ,behistun1 near ,kermanshah in ,persia4 ,the work was dangerous and difficult1 but he was enabled to complete it ten years later4 ,it contained an identical record in three languages1 ,persian1 ,median1 and ,babylonio-,assyrian1 and provided the means for deciphering the cuneiform script of the tablets and cylinders soon recovered from the mounds of ,mesopotamia4 ,meanwhile the lovers of the past were at work in many other directions4 ,the ,swedish ,lonrott collected the ancient songs of the ,finnic people1 under the name of the ,kalevala4 ,other scholars brought to light the treasures of ,scandinavian mythology in the ,icelandic ,edda with its two collections of poetry and prose4 ,in ,wales and ,ireland the texts which enshrined the ,celtic faith awoke new interest4 ,the students of classical antiquity began to #bh collect inscriptions1 and it was soon realised that the spade might be no less useful in ,greece or ,asia ,minor than beside the ,nile or the ,euphrates4 ,the last century has thus accumulated an immense mass of material in literature and art4 ,there are codes of law regulating in the name of deity the practice of family and social life4 ,there are hymns of praise or of penitence1 sometimes in strange association with the spells of magic4 ,there are books of ritual and sacrifice1 of ceremonial order1 of philosophical speculation and moral precept4 ,there are rules of discipline for religious communities2 and there are pictures of judgment and delineations of the heavenly life4 ,sculpture and painting have been employed to give external form to the objects of pious reverence2 and the architecture of the sanctuary has wrought into stone the fundamental conceptions of majesty1 proportion1 and grace4 ,all this1 it is plain1 rests upon history4 ,when ,confucius visited the seat of the imperial dynasty at the court of ,chow1 he studied with deep interest the arrangements for the great sacrifices to ,heaven and ,earth2 he surveyed the ancestral temples in which the emperor offered his worship2 he inspected the ,hall of ,light whose walls bore paintings of the sovereigns from the remotest times2 and then he turned to his disciples with the remark3 ,as we use a glass to examine the forms of things1 so must we study the past to #bi understand the present4 ,comparison that confines itself solely to counting up resemblances here and there will be of small value4 ,we cannot comprehend the real meaning of a single religious rite1 a single sentence of any scripture1 apart from the context to which it belongs4 ,acts and words alike issue out of experiences that may be hundreds of years old1 and sum up generations1 it may be whole ages1 of a continuous process4 ,to trace the successive forms of these changes1 to describe the steps through which they have passed1 is like making a chart of a voyage1 and laying down the lines of continent and ocean1 island and cape4 ,or just as the races of man are sorted1 and their characteristics are enumerated without reference to the various causes which have produced their modifications1 so geography and ethnography might companion hierography1 the delineation of the ,sacred in its concrete manifestations4 ,but behind the external evolution of a given religion1 its modes of worship1 its ministers1 its doctrines1 lie more complicated questions4 ,what causes shaped these acts and moulded these beliefs8 ,what elements of race are to be discerned in them8 ,how can we account for the diversities between the religions of peoples belonging to a common stock1 like those of ,india and those of ancient ,italy8 ,what have been the effects of climate1 of the struggle with alien peoples and new environment8 ,how does the food-supply influence #cj the formation of religious ideas8 ,what contacts have been felt with other races1 and what positive loans or more impalpable influences have passed from one side to the other8 ,we1 find here in hierology1 the science of the ,sacred1 an analogue to the reasoning which accounts for the distribution of land and water1 the rise of mountain ranges and the sculpture of valleys and river-beds out of the stratification of the earth's crust1 and builds up a science of geology2 or which traces the results of migration upon peoples1 the consequences of inter-marriage with other tribes1 the disastrous issues of war1 surveys the immense variety of causes which have contributed to new developments of racial energy1 and arranges this knowledge in the science of ethnology4 ,and1 lastly1 the values of these facts must be estimated4 ,how far can they be accepted as expressing the reality of the ,unseen ,power1 and man's relation to it8 ,hierology may explain how men have developed certain practices or framed certain beliefs2 to determine their reasonableness is the task of the philosophy of religion or hierosophy4#d #d ,these three terms have been suggested by ,count ,goblet d',alviella1 of ,brussels4 ,the study of ,comparative ,religion assumes that religion is already in existence4 ,it deals with actual usages1 which it places side by side to see what light they can throw upon each other4 ,it leaves the task of #ca formulating definitions to philosophy4 ,it is not concerned with origins1 and does not project itself into the prehistoric past where conjecture takes the place of evidence4 ,an old miracle-play directed ,adam to pass across the stage going to be created4 ,whether religion first appeared in the cultus of the dead1 or only entered the field after the collapse of a reign of magic which had ceased to satisfy man's demands for help1 or was born of dread and desired to keep its gods at a distance1 only remotely affects the process of discovering and examining the resemblances of its forms1 and interpreting the forces without and within which have produced them4 ,the sphere of speculation has its own attractions1 but in this little book an attempt will be made to keep to facts4 ,three hundred years ago ,edward ,herbert1#e an ,oxford scholar who played many parts and played them well1 in deep revolt against the ecclesiastical doctrine that all the world outside the pale of the ,church was doomed to eternal damnation1 devoted himself to the study of comparative religion4 ,with the materials which the classics afforded him1 he examined the recorded facts among the ,greeks and ,romans1 the ,carthaginians and ,arabs1 the ,phrygians1 the ,persians1 the ,assyrians4 ,the whole fabric of human experience was built up1 he argued1 on certain common knowledges or notions1 which could be distinguished by #cb specific marks1 such as priority1 independence1 universality1 certainty1 necessity for man's well-being1 and immediacy4 ,here were the bases of law in relation to social order1 and of religion in relation to the ,powers above man4 ,these principles in religion were five3 7#a7 that there is one supreme ,god2 7#b7 that he ought to be worshipped2 7#c7 that virtue and piety are the chief parts of divine worship2 7#d7 that we ought to be sorry for our sins and repent of them2 7#e7 that divine goodness doth dispense rewards and punishments both in this life and after it4 ,these truths had been implanted by the ,creator in the mind of man1 and their subsequent corruption produced the idolatries of antiquity4 #e #aehc-afdh41 elder brother of ,holy ,george ,herbert4 ,the theory held its ground in various forms till its last echoes appeared in highly theologic guise in the writings of ,mr4 ,gladstone4 ,he pleaded that there must have been a true religion in the world before an untrue one began to gather and incrust upon it1 and this religion included three great doctrines--the existence of the ,triune ,deity1 the advent of a ,redeemer1 and the power of the ,evil ,one and the defeat of the rebel angels4 ,these had formed part of a primeval revelation4 ,in the ,homeric theology he traced the first in the three sons of ,kronos--,zeus1 ,hades1 and ,poseidon4 ,the second he found in ,apollo1 whose mother ,leto represented the ,woman from whom the ,redeemer should descend4 ,the rebel angels were equated with the ,titans2 #cc the power of temptation was personified in ,ate2 the rainbow of the covenant was identified with ,iris4 ,the student of to-day can hardly believe that this volume could have been published in the same year in which ,darwin and ,wallace formulated the new scientific principle of natural selection as the great agent in the formation of species1 and thus laid the foundation of the modern conception of evolution 7#aheh74 ,it is on this great idea that the whole study of the history of religion is now firmly established4 ,at the foundation of all endeavours to classify the multitudinous facts which it embraces1 lies the conviction that whatever may be the occasional instances of degeneration or decline1 the general movement of human things advances from the cruder and less complex to the more refined and developed4 ,in the range of knowledge1 in the sphere of the arts1 in the command over nature1 in the stability and expansion of the social order1 there are everywhere signs of growth1 even if isolated groups1 such as the ,australians1 the ,todas of ,india1 or the ,veddas of ,ceylon1 seem to be in the last stages of stagnation or decay4 ,religion is one phase of human culture1 it expresses man's attitude to the powers around him and the events of life4 ,its various forms repose upon the unity of the race4 ,the anthropologist is convinced that if a new tribe is discovered in some forest in central ,africa1 whether its stature be large or small1 its #cd persons will contain the same limbs as other men1 and will live by the same physical processes4 ,the sociologist expects that their social groups will approximate to other known types of human relations4 ,the philologist anticipates that behind the obscurities of their speech he will find modes of thought which he can match elsewhere4 ,the student of religions will in the same way be on the look-out for customs and usages akin to those which he already knows2 he will assume that under similar conditions experience will be moulded on similar lines1 and the streams of thought and feeling--though small causes may easily deflect their course--will tend to flow in parallel channels as they issue from minds of the same order1 and traverse corresponding scenes4 ,and just as the general theory of evolution includes the unity of bodily structure and mental faculty1 so it will vindicate what may be called the unity of the religious consciousness4 ,the old classifications based on the idea that religions consisted of a body of doctrines which must be true or false1 reached by natural reflection or imparted by supernatural revelation1 disappear before a wider view4 ,theologies may be many1 but religion is one4 ,it was after this truth that the ,vedic seers were groping when they cried1 ,men call him ,indra1 ,mitra1 ,varuna1 ,agni2 sages name variously him who is but one2 or again1 the sages in their hymns give many forms to him #ce who is but one4 ,when the ,roman ,empire had brought under one rule the multitudinous peoples of ,western ,asia1 ,north ,africa1 and ,southern and ,middle ,europe1 and new worships were carried hither and thither by priest and missionary1 soldier and merchant and slave1 the titles and attributes of the gods were freely blended and exchanged4 ,thinkers of different schools invented various modes of harmonising rival cults4 ,when ,jupiter best and greatest was surrounded by a vast crowd of lesser deities1 the philosophic mind discerned a common element running through all their worship4 ,there is one ,supreme ,god1 wrote ,maximus of ,madaura to ,augustine1 about ,a4,d4 #cij1 without natural offspring1 who is1 as it were1 the ,god and ,mighty ,father of all4 ,the powers of this ,deity1 diffused through the universe which he has made1 we worship under many names1 as we are all ignorant of his true name4 ,thus it happens that while in diverse supplications we approach separated1 as it were1 certain parts of the ,divine ,being1 we are seen in reality to be the worshippers of him in whom all these parts are one4 ,here is the prayer of a ,blackfoot chief of our generation in the great ceremonial of the ,sun-,dance1 reported by ,mr4 ,mc,clintock1#f which blends the implications of theology with the impulses and emotions of religion-- #f ,the ,old ,north ,trail1 #aiaj1 p4 #big4 ,great ,sun ,power6 ,i am praying for my people that they may be happy in the summer #cf and that they may live through the cold of winter4 ,many are sick and in want4 ,pity them and let them survive4 ,grant that they may live long and have abundance4 ,may we go through these ceremonies correctly1 as you taught our forefathers to do in the days that are past4 ,if we make mistakes1 pity us6 ,help us1 ,mother ,earth6 for we depend upon your goodness4 ,let there be rain to water the prairies1 that the grass may grow long and the berries be abundant4 ,o ,morning ,star6 when you look down upon us1 give us peace and refreshing sleep4 ,great ,spirit6 bless our children1 friends1 and visitors through a happy life4 ,may our trails lie straight and level before us4 ,let us live to be old4 ,we are all your children1 and ask these things with good hearts4 #cg ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,panorama ,,of ,,religions ,twice in the history of the world has it been possible to survey a wide panorama of religions1 and twice has the interest of travellers1 men of science1 and students of philosophy1 been attracted by the immense variety of worships and beliefs4 ,in the second century of our era the ,roman ,empire embraced an extraordinary range of nationalities within its sway4 ,in the twentieth the whole history of the human race has been thrown open to the explorer1 and an overwhelming mass of materials from every land confronts him4 ,it may be worth while to take a hasty glance at the chief groups of facts that are thus disclosed1 and make a sort of map of their relations4 ,i ,the scientific curiosity of the ancient ,greeks was early awakened1 and ,thales of ,miletus 7#fbd-edf ,b4,c471 chief of the seven wise men1 and founder of ,greek geometry and philosophy1 was believed to have studied under the priests of ,egypt1 as well as to have #ch visited ,asia and become acquainted with the ,chaldean astronomy4 ,still more extensive travel was attributed to his younger contemporary ,pythagoras1 whose varied learning was explained in late traditions by his sojourn east and west1 among the ,persian ,magi1 the ,indian ,brahmans1 and the ,druids of ,gaul4 ,the first great record of observations is contained in the ,history of ,herodotus of ,halicarnassus on the coast of ,asia ,minor4 ,born in #dhd ,b4,c41 six years after ,marathon1 and four years old when the ,greeks put ,xerxes to flight at ,salamis1 he devoted his maturity to the record of the great international struggle4 ,hither and thither he passed1 collecting information1 an eager student of human things4 ,in ,egypt he compared the gods with those of ,greece1 and attempted to distinguish two sets of elements in ,hellenic religion1 ,egyptian and ,pelasgic4 ,he left notes on the ,babylonians and the ,persians1 on the ,scythians in the vast tracts east of northern ,europe1 on the ,get south of the ,danube4 ,when the conquests of ,alexander the ,great 7#cef-cbc ,b4,c47 threw open the gates of ,asia1 a stream of travellers passed into ,persia and ,india1 whose reports were utilised by the geographers of later days4 ,the religion of ,zoroaster1 whose name was already known to ,plato1 attracted great attention4 ,at the court of ,chandragupta on the ,ganges1 at the opening of the third century ,b4,c41 ,megasthenes1 #ci the ambassador of ,seleucus 7who had succeeded to the dominions of ,alexander in ,asia71 set down brief memoranda on the usages and belief of the ,hindus among whom he resided4 ,nearer home the representatives of ,mesopotamian and ,egyptian learning commended their national cultures to their conquerors4 ,berosus1 priest of ,bel in ,babylon1 translated into ,greek a ,babylonian work on astronomy and astrology1 and compiled a history of his country from ancient documents2 while his contemporary1 ,manetho1 of ,sebennytus in the ,nile ,delta1 undertook a similar service for his native land4 ,meanwhile the great library and schools at ,alexandria had been founded4 ,hither came students from many lands2 and the ,christian fathers ,eusebius and ,epiphanius in the fourth century attributed to the librarian of the royal patron of literature1 ,ptolemy ,philadelphus 7#bhe-bdg ,b4,c471 the design of collecting the sacred books of the ,ethiopians1 ,indians1 ,persians1 ,elamites1 ,babylonians1 ,assyrians1 ,romans1 ,phnicians1 ,syrians1 and ,greeks4 ,the ,jews had settled in ,alexandria in considerable numbers2 they began to translate their ,hebrew ,scriptures into ,greek1 and little by little they planted their synagogues all round the ,eastern ,mediterranean1 and finally established their worship in ,rome4 ,the ,egyptian deities in their turn went abroad4 ,the worship of ,serapis was introduced at ,athens4 ,isis1 the sister-wife of #dj ,osiris and mother of ,horus1 goddess of many functions--among others of protecting sailors--was carried round the ,levant to ,syria1 ,asia ,minor1 ,greece1 and as far north as the ,hellespont and ,thrace4 ,westwards she was borne to ,sicily and ,south ,italy4 ,in due time she entered ,rome1 and in spite of senatorial orders five times repeated 7in the first century ,b4,c471 to tear down her altars and statues1 she secured her place1 and received homage all through the ,west from the outskirts of the ,sahara to the ,roman wall north of our own ,tyne4 ,the introduction of ,greek gods had begun centuries before4 ,as early as #dic ,b4,c41 at a time of serious famine1 a temple had been built to ,demeter1 ,dionysus1 and ,persephon2 many others followed2 resemblances among the native gods quickly led to identifications2 and new forms of worship tended to displace the old4 ,after another crisis 7#bjf ,b4,c47 the ,great ,mother1 ,cybel1 the ,phrygian goddess of ,mount ,ida1 was imported4 ,the black aerolite which was supposed to be her abode1 was presented by ,king ,attalus to the ambassadors of the ,roman senate4 ,the goddess was solemnly welcomed at the ,port of ,ostia1 and was ultimately carried by noble ,roman ladies on to the ,palatine hill4 ,the history of later days was full of notes upon religion4 ,csar interspersed them among the narratives of his campaigns in ,gaul2 ,tacitus drew on his recollections as #da an officer in active service for his description of the ,germans4 ,there was as yet no literature in ,wales or ,ireland to embody the ,celtic traditions2 and the ,scandinavian ,saga was unborn4 ,but the geographers1 like ,strabo 7first century ,a4,d471 collected a great deal of material that must have been gathered ultimately from travellers1 soldiers1 traders1 and slaves4 ,a wise and gentle philosophic ,greek1 ,plutarch of ,chronea in ,botia 7,a4,d4 #df-abj71 student at the university of ,athens1 lecturer on philosophy at ,rome1 and finally priest of ,pythian ,apollo in his native city1 is at home in many religions4 ,beside altars to the ,greek gods ,dionysus1 ,herakles1 and ,artemis1 in his own streets1 were those of the ,egyptian ,isis and ,anubis4 ,the treatise on ,isis and ,osiris 7commonly ascribed to him7 is an early essay in comparative religion4 ,in the latter half of the second century the traveller ,pausanias passes through ,greece1 describing its sacred sites1 noting its monuments1 recording mythological traditions1 and observing archaic rites4 ,in this fascinating guide-book to religious practice are survivals of ancient savagery1 still lingering at country shrines1 set down with curious unconsciousness of their significance4 ,the historical method is as yet only in its infancy4 ,but ,pausanias rightly discerned that its first business is to know the facts4 ,in ,rome1 where ritual tradition held its ground with extraordinary tenacity amid the #db decay of belief1 ,marcus ,terentius ,varro1 renowned for his wide learning 7#aaf-bh ,b4,c471 devoted sixteen books of his great treatise on ,antiquities to ,divine ,things4 ,like so many other precious works of ancient literature it has disappeared1 but its contents are partly known through its use by ,st4 ,augustine in his famous work on ,the ,city of ,god4 ,following a division of the gods by the chief pontiff ,mucius ,scvola1 he treated religion under three heads4 ,in the form presented by the poets' tales of the gods it was mythical4 ,founded by the philosophers upon nature 7physis7 it was physical4 ,as administered by priests and practised in cities it was civil4 ,it was an old notion that religion was a legal convention imposed by authority for purposes of popular control2 and ,varro does not disdain to declare it expedient that ,states should be deceived in such matters4 ,this police-notion long regulated public custom1 and tended to render the identification of deities presenting superficial resemblances all the more easy4 ,by this time the origin of the term religion had begun to excite interest1 as its meaning began slowly to change4 ,varro's contemporaries1 ,cicero 7#ajf-dc ,b4,c47 and ,lucretius 7about #ig-ec71 discussed its derivation4 ,cicero connected it with the root legere1 to string together1 to arrange2 while ,lucretius found its origin in ligare1 to bind4 ,philology gives little help when it #dc speaks with uncertain voice4 ,more important is the primitive meaning which ,mr4 ,warde ,fowler defines as the feeling of awe1 anxiety1 doubt1 or fear1 which is aroused in the mind by something that cannot be explained by a man's experience or by the natural course of cause and effect1 and which is therefore referred to the supernatural4 ,it has nothing to do at the outset with any special rites or doctrines4 ,it is not concerned with state-usage or with priestly law4 ,in its adjectival form religious days or religious places are not days or places consecrated by official practice2 they are days and places which have gathered round them man's sentiments of awe and scruple4 ,the word thus came to be applied to anything that was in some way a source or embodiment of mysterious forces4 ,the naturalist ,pliny can even say that no animal is more full of religion than the mole1 because strange medicinal powers were supposed to reside in its heart and teeth4 ,but1 on the other hand1 a new use of it passes into ,roman literature in the writings of ,cicero4 ,the feeling of awe still lies in the background1 but the word takes on a reference to the acts which it prompts1 and thus comes to denote the whole group of rites performed in honour of some divine being4 ,these make up a particular cult or worship1 ordained and sanctioned by authority or tradition4 ,religion thus comes to mean a body of religious duties1 the entire series of sacred acts in which #dd the primitive feeling is expressed4 ,roman antiquity conceived these as under the care of priesthoods1 legitimated by the ,state4 ,around them lay a fringe of superstitions1 which a hostile critic like ,lucretius could also sum up under the same term4 ,and thus in an age when philosophy was addressing itself to the whole question of man's relation to the world and its unseen ,rulers1 and a single word was wanted to describe his attitude to the varied spectacle1 religion was at hand to fill the place4 ,it covered the whole field of human experience1 and as different nations presented it in different forms1 it became possible to speak of religions in the sense of separate systems of worship and belief4 ,the champion of ,christianity naturally distinguished his religion as the true from the false2 and over against the multiformity of polytheism he set the unity of the faith of the ,church4 ,of these religions history and philosophy sought to give some account4 ,as will be seen hereafter 7,chap4 ,,vi71 ,babylon and ,egypt both claimed a divine origin for their rites1 their arts1 and laws4 ,plutarch expressly defends the idea of revelation in the cases of ,minos of ,crete1 the ,persian ,zoroaster1 ,zaleucus the shepherd legislator of the ,locrians1 ,numa of ,rome1 and others4 ,pan was in love with ,pindar1 and sculapius conversed with ,sophocles3 if such divine diversions were allowed1 how much more should these greater #de attempts for human welfare be prompted from heaven6 ,numa had been enabled through ,camena ,egeria to regulate the ceremonial law as priest-king1 and pontiffs1 augurs1 flamens1 virgins1 received their duties from him with supernatural sanctions4 ,philosophers1 on the other hand1 discussed the meaning of religion upon different lines4 ,a wide-spread view already noted presented it as a mere instrument of policy1 devised to overawe the intractable4 ,the diversity of religions seemed to support this view4 ,plato's ,athenian1 in one of his latest works1 the ,laws1 mentions the teaching of sophists who averred that the gods existed not by nature but by art1 and by the laws of ,states which are different in different places1 according to the agreement of those who make them4 ,in a fragment of a drama on ,sisyphus ascribed to ,critias1 the friend of ,alcibiades1 it was alleged that in the primeval age of disorder and violence laws might strike crimes committed in open day1 but could not touch secret sins1 hidden in the gloomy depths of conscience4 ,a sage advised that to moralise men they must be made afraid4 ,let them invent gods who could see and hear all things1 cognisant not only of all human actions but also of men's inmost thoughts and purposes4 ,they were accordingly connected with the source of the most terrifying and the most beneficent phenomena1 the sky1 home alike of thunder and lightning1 of the shining sun and fertilising #df rain1 seat of divine powers helpful and hurtful to mankind4 ,in the discussion on the ,nature of the ,gods 7by ,cicero71 ,cotta1 of the ,academic school1 inquires of his ,epicurean opponent ,velleius1 ,what think you of those who have asserted that the whole doctrine concerning the immortal gods was the invention of politicians1 whose notion was to govern that part of the community which reason could not influence1 by religion8 ,from another point of view1 however1 the practical universality of religion was again and again cited in proof of its truth4 ,antiquity was not scientific in its method of treatment1 and though it did not accept all religions as altogether equal1 it had no difficulty in regarding them as substantially homogeneous4 ,the ,egyptian worship of animals might be lashed with satiric scorn1 but the mysteries of its religion1 venerable from an immemorial past1 deserved the highest respect4 ,the process of identification of the gods of different religions was always going on as they were carried from land to land4 ,the ,apologist1 therefore1 like the ,cretan ,cleinias in ,plato's ,laws when the ,athenian stranger asked him to prove the existence of the gods1 could always appeal to two main arguments--first1 the fair order of the universe and the regularity of the seasons1 and secondly1 the common belief of all men1 both ,hellenes and barbarians4 ,this common belief1 however1 itself required explanation4 ,its value #dg really depended on its origin4 ,if that ranked no higher than the crouching impulses of fear1 it had little worth4 ,even if it was sought in the sense of dependence1 in quiet trust in a sheltering order1 or in intelligent inference based on the demand for a cause1 the question still pressed for an answer1 ,what made this possible8 ,the answer was given by the doctrine of the ,logos4 ,the term logos has played a famous part in philosophical theology4 ,it appears in our ,new ,testament at the opening of the fourth ,gospel1 ,in the beginning was the ,logos4 ,our translators render the ,greek term by the ,english ,word4 ,it is derived from the verb legein1 to speak or say4 ,logos is primarily what is said1 utterance1 or speech4 ,speech1 however1 must mean something4 ,when we look out upon the objects of the world around us--rock1 river1 tree1 horse1 star--we learn to separate them into groups1 because while some say quite different things to us1 others speak to us1 as it were1 with nearly the same meaning4 ,we recognise a common meaning in various sorts of dogs1 or in still larger classes such as the whole family of birds4 ,but in human intercourse what is said has first been thought4 ,logos thus takes on another meaning2 it is what thinking says to itself1 or what we call reason4 ,the processes of science consist in finding out these meanings or reasons1 and getting them into intelligible relations with each other4 #dh ,and when the early ,greek thinkers had reached the conception of the unity of the world1 here was a term which could be called in to express it4 ,the world must have a meaning2 it must express some thought4 ,and did not thought imply thinking8 ,the philosophy of ,heracleitus the ,obscure 7at ,ephesus1 #ejj ,b4,c47 has received in modern times widely different interpretations2 but whether or not the ,stoics were right in understanding his doctrine of the ,logos to imply the existence of a cosmic reason universally diffused1 present both in nature and man1 it is certain that such ideas appear soon afterwards in ,greek literature4 ,pindar affirms the derivation of the soul from the gods4 ,plato and ,euripides declare the intelligence of man both in nature and origin to be divine2 and ,pseudo-,epicharmus lays it down 7in the second half of the fifth century7 that there is in man understanding1 and there is also a divine ,logos2 but the understanding of man is born from the divine ,logos4 ,on this basis the ,stoics worked out the conception of a fellowship between man and ,god which explained the universality of religion4 ,its seat was in human nature4 ,every one shared in the ,generative ,reason1 the ,seminal ,word 7the ,logos spermatikos74 ,in the long course of ages1 says ,cicero1 when the time arrived for the sowing of the human race1 ,god quickened it with the gift of souls4 ,so we possess a certain kinship with the heavenly #di ,powers2 and while among all the kinds of animals ,man alone retains any idea of ,deity1 among men themselves there is no nation so savage as not to admit the necessity of believing in a ,god1 however ignorant they may be what sort of ,god they ought to believe in4 ,the part played by this doctrine in the early ,church is well known4 ,when the new faith began to attract the attention of the educated1 it was impossible that the resemblances between ,christian and ,hellenic monotheism should be ignored4 ,philosophy had reached many of the same truths1 and poets and sages bore the same witness to the unity and spirituality of ,god as the prophets and psalmists of ,israel4 ,it was easy to suggest that the ,hebrew seers had been the teachers of the ,greek2 might not ,plato1 for instance1 have learned of ,jeremiah in ,egypt8 ,on the other hand1 the pleas of chronological and literary dependence might be insufficient2 there were radical differences as well as resemblances2 the ,apologist might deride the diversities of opinion and make merry over the contradictions of the schools4 ,nevertheless ,christianity was often presented by its defenders as our philosophy4 ,the ,latin writer ,minucius ,felix 7in the second century7 is so much struck by the parallels in the higher thought that he boldly declares1 ,one might think either that ,christians are now philosophers1 or that philosophers were then already ,christian4 ,the martyr ,justin 7about #ej ,a4,d4 #aej7 incorporates such teachings into the scheme of ,providence by the aid of the ,logos4 ,for ,justin1 as for his co-believers1 the popular religion was the work of demons4 ,but philosophy had combated them in the past like the new faith4 ,if ,socrates had striven to deliver men from them1 and they had compassed his death through evil men1 it was because the ,logos condemned their doings among the ,greeks through him1 just as among the barbarians they were condemned by the ,logos in the person of ,christ4 ,the great truths of ,god and ,providence1 of the unity of the moral government of the world1 of the nature and destiny of man1 of freedom1 virtue1 and retribution1 which were to be found in the writings of the wisest of the past1 were the product of the seed of the ,logos implanted in every race of men4 ,those who had lived with the ,logos were ,christians before ,christ1 though men might have called them atheists1 like ,heracleitus and ,socrates4 ,all noble utterances in theology or legislation arose through partial discovery or contemplation of the ,logos1 and consequently ,justin could boldly claim whatever things have been rightly said among all men as the property of us ,christians4 ,the cultivated and mystical ,clement1 who became head of the catechetical school of ,alexandria towards the close of the second century1 enforced the same theme4 ,an enormous reader1 he loved to compare the #ea truths enunciated by ,greek poets and philosophers with the wisdom of the barbarians4 ,philosophy1 indeed1 was a special historical manifestation of thought along a peculiar line of development4 ,it affected a particular race1 it spread over a distinct area1 and appeared in a definite time4 ,in these respects it resembled the preparatory work of ,israel itself4 ,it was a discipline of ,providence1 so that beside the generalisation of ,st4 ,paul that the ,law had been a tutor to bring the ,jews to ,christ1 ,clement could set another1 that philosophy had played the same part for the ,greeks4 ,on the field of common speech ,clement's contemporary1 the fiery ,tertullian of ,carthage1 appealed to the worshipper who bore the garland of ,ceres on his brow1 or walked in the purple cloak of ,saturn1 or wore the white robe of ,egyptian ,isis--what did he mean by exclaiming ,may ,god repay6 or ,god shall judge between us8 ,here was a recognition of a supreme authority and power1 the testimony of a soul naturally ,christian4 ,such comparisons1 however1 had a very different side4 ,greece had long had its secret mysteries1 with their sacred initiations1 their rites of purity and enlightenment1 their promises of welfare beyond the grave4 ,when the new deities from ,asia ,minor1 from ,egypt1 ,syria1 and the further ,east1 were brought to ,italy1 the resemblances of their practice to that of the ,christian ,church excited the #eb believer's alarm1 and roused at once the charge of plagiarism4 ,there was a congregation of ,mithra at ,rome as early as #fg ,b4,c41 and towards the end of the first century of our era his mysteries began to be widely spread4 ,here was a baptism2 here was a sacrament as the neophyte took the oath on entering the warfare with evil2 here were grades of soldiership and service2 here were oblations of bread and water mingled with wine which were naturally compared with the ,lord's supper2 here were doctrines of deliverance from sin1 of judgment after death and ascent to heaven1 which brought the theology and practice of ,mithraism very close to that of the ,church4 ,so ,mithra bore the august titles of the holy and righteous ,god2 or he was the ,mediator1 author of order in nature and of victory in life between the ultimate powers of good and evil4 ,for a time the rivalry was acute1 as his worship was carried through the ,west as far as ,york and ,chester and the ,tyne4 ,but with the triumph of ,christianity in the fourth century the sounds of conflict die away4 ,the men of learning1 ,eusebius of ,csarea 7about ,a4,d4 #bfj-cdj71 ,augustine 7,a4,d4 #ced-dcj7 bishop of ,hippo1 surveyed the religions and philosophies of antiquity as conquerors4 ,the faiths of ,egypt1 ,phnicia1 ,greece1 and ,rome1 are passed in review4 ,with a broad sweep of learning ,eusebius comments on the ancient mythologies1 the oracles1 the theory of demons1 #ec the practice of human sacrifice1 the history of ,mosaism4 ,his treatise on the ,preparation for the ,gospel is the first great work on comparative religion which issued out of ,christian theology4 ,with generous recognition of what lay beyond the ,church he taught 7in the ,theophania7 that all higher culture was due to participation in the ,logos4 ,idolatry might be the work of demons2 the world might be filled with the babblings of philosophers and the follies of poets2 but the ,logos had been continuously present1 sowing in the hearts of men the rudiments of the divine laws1 of various orders of teaching1 of doctrines of every kind4 ,thus ethics1 art1 science1 and the fairest products of human thought1 were genially brought within the scope of ,revelation4 ,,ii ,the panorama of religions unrolled before the student of the present day is far vaster than that which offered itself to the thinkers of ,greece and ,rome1 and its meaning is far better understood4 ,when ,pausanias describes the daily sacrifice to a hero at ,tronis in ,phocis1 where the blood of the victim was poured down through a hole in the grave to the dead man within1 while the flesh was eaten on the spot1 he notes1 like the careful author of a guide-book1 a curious local usage1 but he does not know that it belongs to a group of #ed savage practices that may be traced all round the globe4 ,on ,mount ,lycus in ,arcadia1 he tells us1 was a spring which flowed with equal quantity in summer as in winter4 ,in time of drought the priest of ,lycan ,zeus1 after due prayer and sacrifice1 would dip an oak-branch into the surface of the spring1 and a mist-like vapour would rise and become a cloud4 ,in the midst of ,hellenic culture it was still possible1 as among the negroes of ,west ,africa or the ,indians of ,north ,america1 to make rain4 ,from continent to continent a multitude of observers have gathered an immense range of facts1 which show that amid numerous differences in detail the religions of the lower culture may all be ranked together on the basis of a common interpretation of the surrounding world4 ,philosophy suggests that man can only explain nature in terms of his own experience4 ,he is encompassed by powers that are continually acting on him1 as he to a much smaller extent can in his turn act on them4 ,by various processes of observation and reflection 7p4 #he71 he comes to the conclusion that within his body lives something which enables it to move and feel and think and will1 until at death it goes away4 ,to this mysterious something many names are given1 and for purposes of modern study they are all ranked under the term spirits4 ,this explanation is then applied to the behaviour of all kinds of objects within #ee his view2 though it does not at all follow that this was actually the first explanation4 ,the animals that are stronger and more cunning than himself1 the trees that move in the wind1 the corn that grows so mysteriously1 the bubbling spring1 even the things that he himself has made1 his weapons1 tools1 and jars1 all have their spirits1 so that the entire scene of his existence is pervaded by them4 ,to this doctrine1 with its many branches of belief and practice1 ,sir ,e4 ,b4 ,tylor1 in his classical work on ,primitive ,culture 7#ahga71 gave the name of ,animism1 and the religions founded upon it are called animistic1 or sometimes1 from the multitude of unorganised spirits which they recognise1 polydmonistic religions4 ,such religions belong to no specific ethnic group4 ,they appear either in existing practice or in the shape of occasional survivals in all of the three great racial divisions of mankind--the white or ,caucasic1 the yellow or ,mongolian1 and the black or ,negroid4 ,they are to be found under the ,equator and among the ,arctic snows4 ,they are sometimes associated with a peculiar form of social structure regulating inter-tribal relations known as totemism4 ,it was at one time supposed that this designated a stage of evolution through which all peoples had passed4 ,the totem or clan-sign1 whether animal or plant1 or more rarely an inanimate object like wind1 sun1 or star1 was supposed to have #ef become an object of worship1 and various theories were invented to explain the divisions and subdivisions of the clans1 and the selection of their special signs4 ,hence1 it was argued1 came the cultus of beast and bird and tree2 hence the altar and the idol2 hence the animal sacrifice and the sacramental meal4 ,in clever hands it supplied a universal key4 ,the extraordinary intricacy of the subject1 and the widely scattered character of the evidence1 prevent any discussion here4 ,but the most recent researches have not sustained these attempts4 ,among the ,central ,australian tribes the totems are not worshipped1 they are in no sense deities1 no prayers or sacrifices are offered to them4 ,they may be brought into the sphere of religion in some tribes as part of a social order to which a superhuman origin is ascribed 7p4 #aga74 ,but totemism cannot be established as the typical form of primitive religion any more than any other complicated system4 ,its general diffusion is questionable4 ,at the present day there are large areas over which no signs of totemic organisation are found2 and many phenomena which were formerly assumed to be proofs of totemism in the higher religions of antiquity1 in ,egypt1 ,greece1 and ,italy1 now receive other explanations4 ,the higher forms of animistic religion pass out into polytheisms of more or less dignity4 ,they do not succeed in embodying themselves in permanent literary product1 they create no #eg scriptures or sacred books4 ,they have their rude chants1 their songs for weddings and funerals1 their genealogies and tales of ancient heroes4 ,strange cosmogonies float from island to island in ,polynesia4 ,the ,finnic peoples enshrined their faith in the ballads collected under the name of the ,kalevala4 ,among the ,indians of ,north ,america speculation is sometimes highly elaborated in mythologic tradition2 and out of the fusion of nationalities in ,mexico rose a developed polytheism in which lofty religious sentiment seems strangely blended with a hideous and sanguinary ritual4 ,peru1 no less1 presented to the ,spanish conquerors bewildering and incongruous aspects4 ,in these two cultures native ,american civilisation reached its highest forms4 ,in ,mexico the apparatus of religion was very minutely organised4 ,there were immense temples1 which required large numbers of priests and servitors4 ,the capital alone is said to have contained #bjjj sacred buildings1 and the great temple had a staff of #ejjj priests4 ,there were religious orders and temple-schools2 rites of baptism and circumcision2 feasts and sacrifices and sacraments1 in which the monkish chroniclers found strange parallels to their own practice4 ,the issues of victory were disastrous4 ,with the death of the last ,aztec emperor 7#aebj7 the doom of the old gods was assured1 and the ,inquisition 7#aega7 completed what the sword of ,cortes had begun4 #eh ,in the old world ,asia has been the mother of religions1 but various fates have befallen her offspring4 ,the ancient cults of ,babylonia1 after an existence longer than the period from ,moses to the present day1 vanished from the scene4 ,the teachings of ,zoroaster were planted in ,china in ,a4,d4 #fba1 and a temple was erected at the capital1 ,changan2 but the ,persian faith could not maintain itself in such a different culture4 ,after the ,mohammedan conquest in the eighth century it was finally carried by a little band of exiles into ,india1 and is still cherished by their descendants who bear the name of ,parsees4 ,the ,jew and the ,christian have only a precarious toleration in the land which was once their home4 ,in ,india and in ,china alone is the religion of to-day linked in unbroken continuity with the distant past4 ,islam may set itself in lineal succession to the teachers of old1 and claim a place for ,mohammed in the sequence of ,abraham1 ,moses1 and ,christ4 ,but it is the youngest1 and in some respects the least original1 of the world's great faiths4 ,india has its own panorama of religions1 from the animistic practice of the tribes of the jungle and the hills1 up to the refined pantheism of the philosophical school4 ,diversities of race have been strangely intermingled1 and fifty languages make it impossible to secure any uniformity of culture4 ,there are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants who occupied the country before #ei the ,aryan ancestors of the ,hindus settled themselves upon the fertile lands4 ,they are represented to-day by the wild tribes of ,central ,india such as the ,bhils and ,gonds4 ,some ten million probably profess a religion of a well-marked animistic type4 ,but this also lies at the base of wide-spread popular belief and custom1 where the propitiation of spirits1 the cultus of ,mother ,earth1 and the veneration of village deities1 engage much more attention than the higher gods of ,hinduism4 ,the literary foundation of the religions of ,india lies in the ancient hymns of the ,rig ,veda1 sung by the immigrant ,aryans as they entered from the ,north-west and gradually established themselves in the ,ganges valley4 ,these hymns were addressed to gods of earth and air and sky2 they celebrated the glories of dawn and day2 they told of the conflict between sunshine and storm2 they praised ,agni1 the god of fire1 messenger between heaven and earth1 himself as agent of the sacrifice a kind of priest among the gods2 they commemorated the dead who passed into the upper world and adorned the sky with stars4 ,already in some of the later hymns the poet's thought endeavoured to find some principle or power that should unite these different agencies as manifestations of one ultimate reality2 and philosophic imagination at length fixed on the conception of ,brahman1 a term whose original meaning #fj seems to hover between that of sacred spell and prayer4 ,viewed in a personal aspect 7,brahma7 as a god of popular worship1 he could be described as ,lord of all1 the ,maker1 the ,creator1 ,father of all that are and are to be4#a ,but behind this sovereign ruler metaphysical abstraction placed a neuter ,brahma1 all-embracing1 the ground of all existence1 summed up in three terms--,being1 ,thought1 and ,bliss4 ,here was the ultimate ,self of the whole universe2 and to know the identity of the human self with the ,absolute1 to be able to repeat the mysterious words tat tvam asi1 that art thou1 was the aim of the forest-sages and the highest attainment of holy insight4 #a ,so in the early ,buddhist texts describing the popular religion4 ,many new forms appear in these documents4 ,meantime the social order was acquiring the first forms of caste4 ,the priests and the fighting men1 the people who settled on the lands for pasture and tillage1 and the tribes of aborigines whom they dispossessed and subdued1 formed the basis of divisions which were gradually multiplied with extraordinary complexity4 ,a religious authority was found for the whole system in the teachings of the ,veda1 and to contest its claims was to defy the power which slowly spread with subtle hold through the whole peninsula4 ,by its side arose the doctrine of the ,deed 7karma1 p4 #bag71 which explained the varied conditions of human life by the principle that #fa a man is born into the world that he has made4 ,the lot of each individual had a moral meaning3 it was the result of previous conduct1 good or ill4 ,this is the conception embodied in the word transmigration4 ,it pictures man as involved in a continuous series of births and deaths1 and religion and philosophy undertook in their several ways to secure him a favourable destiny hereafter1 or by various means of divine grace1 or strenuous self-discipline1 or pious contemplation1 to extricate him altogether from the weary round of ignorance and pain4 ,out of these elements1 a crude and ever-varying animism at the bottom1 a highly refined metaphysical pantheism at the top1 figures of incarnation and deliverance1 the cultus of the dead1 caste1 and transmigration1 the complex strands of modern ,hinduism have been woven4 ,many have been the growths upon the way4 ,the early ,buddhist texts1 representing the society of the ,middle ,country1 show already in the fifth century ,b4,c4 a surprising activity of speculation1 busily engaged in questioning every received doctrine of religion and morals4 ,some forms held their ground for a few centuries and then disappeared4 ,one religious community of that date alone survives1 viz4 the ,jains1 who still number about a million and a third4 ,buddhism1 after sending out its missionaries into ,ceylon in the south and ,china in the north1 was driven from its ancient seats1 and #fb only some #cjj1jjj hold its creed in ,india itself4 ,in ,burma1 however1 it numbers between ten and eleven million lay adherents1 and in the adjacent kingdom of ,siam it has #ac1jjj temples1 and more than #ic1jjj mendicants have taken its vows4 ,but ,hinduism still lives on with a marvellous and self-renewing power4 ,two great divine figures have been set beside the original creative ,brahma1 representatives of the forces that preserve and destroy1 ,vishnu and iva 7p4 #abh74 ,vishnu succeeded to the place of the ,buddha2 and ,hindu religion gave prominence in him to the conception of a ,divine ,person who out of love for man assumed human shape to conquer evil and establish truth4 ,the worship of iva has been carried everywhere by the ,brahmans2 if he destroys1 he also reproduces2 he1 too1 appears to bless and help1 and the ,tamil poets of ,south ,india in the early ,middle ,ages sang his praises in hymns that still feed the piety of the people4 ,again and again reforming teachers have initiated movements on behalf of spiritual religion4 ,their followers have multiplied and broken up into sects1 but still remain within the general area of the ancestral faith1 which now embraces considerably more than #bjj million souls4 ,the disciples of ,nnak 7#adfi-aech71 however1 known as ,skhs1 formed into a semi-military organisation by the ,guru ,gobind the ,lion 7#afge-agjh71 retain their religious independence1 #fc touching ,hinduism on one side and ,mohammedanism on the other4 ,they number at the present day more than two millions1 and are found almost exclusively in the ,punjab4 ,china1 like ,india1 illustrates the principle of religious continuity4 ,its earliest historic date is fixed by an eclipse in #ggf ,b4,c42 and the traditions of its dynasties stretch more than a thousand years beyond4 ,the ancient religion depicted in the books known as the ,shu and the ,sh ,kings1 which ,confucius 7#eej-dgh ,b4,c47 was supposed to have edited out of much older documents1 rested upon the solemn order of the living ,heaven and ,earth1 with multitudinous ranks of associated spirits1 and the generations of the dead4 ,this has remained the formal basis of the national religion 7p4 #ig74 ,meanwhile the ethical sayings of ,confucius acquired extraordinary ascendency4 ,they formed the chief element in the national education1 and supplied the ideals of popular culture4 ,carried into ,japan in the sixth century of our era1 they filled a gap in the old ,japanese teaching1 which we know by the name of ,shin-,to or ,spirits' way4 ,confucius himself became the object of general commemorative homage2 and annual ceremonies are still celebrated in his honour with great splendour in the ,confucian temples which adorn every city within the empire above a certain rank4#b #b ,these are at present in danger1 like other public forms of ,chinese ,state ,religion1 of being rudely abolished4 #fd ,in the popular religion demonology and magic play a constant part1 and numerous growths out of the worship of ancestors provide ever fresh additions to the higher ranks of spirits4 ,these are regulated by decrees of the ,board of ,rites1 one of the most ancient religious institutions in ,china4 ,the spirit of a departed governor1 perhaps two centuries ago1 is believed to have appeared in time of flood1 and by his beneficent influence dangers have been averted4 ,memorials are sent up to ,peking by the local authorities1 and after repeated manifestations divine honours are awarded4 ,beneath these august personages are the spirits which preside over the trades and professions1 over the parts of a house--the door1 the bed1 or the kitchen range--over the breeding of domestic animals1 and a large variety of occupations1 to say nothing of medicine and disease1 the limbs of the body1 and the stars4 ,they are analogous to the ,kami1 the equivalent powers in ,japan 7p4 #ia72 and they are not without parallel in religions further west4 ,half a century before ,confucius1 in #fjd1 was born another sage1 known in history as ,lao ,tsze4 ,fragments of his teaching are embodied in a small book of aphorisms1 concerned with the doctrine of the ,tao1 the way1 the path1 or course4 ,in nature this corresponded to the ordered round of the seasons1 and the regularities which we call laws4 ,in man it might be seen in the line of right #fe conduct1 and the inner principles which pointed to it4 ,on this conception1 which was much older than ,lao ,tsze himself1 a kind of metaphysical mysticism was reared by later disciples1 not without affinities with some aspects of the ,brahmanical philosophy4 ,they have been explained by suggestions of travel and contact which more careful study cannot justify4 ,the religion of the ,tao 7whence the name ,taoism7 could never have been popular had it not become strangely entangled with alchemy and transformed under the influence of its later rival1 ,buddhism1 from which it derived much both in ritual1 in ethics1 and in doctrine4 ,the statements about the appearance of ,buddhist teachers and ,buddhist books in ,china before our era have been much disputed3 the first trustworthy record relates that in the year ,a4,d4 #fe1 a deputation of eighteen persons was sent to ,khotan to make inquiries1 and they returned two years later with books and images and a teacher4 ,a second teacher arrived shortly after1 a temple was built at the imperial capital1 ,lo-,yang1 and the laborious work of translation was begun4 ,a stream of missionaries1 ,hindus1 ,parthians1 ,huns1 slowly flowed into the ,flowery ,land1 moved1 says the chronicler1 by the desire to convert the world4 ,after a while the ,chinese students sought the holy places in ,india1 and learned ,sanskrit at the great ,buddhist university at ,nalanda1 near ,buddha #ff ,gaya4 ,vast collections of sacred literature were gathered4 ,the first ,chinese catalogue1 dated ,a4,d4 #ebj1 enumerates #b1bac distinct works4 ,twelve successive revisions were made under imperial order1 and to the last1 in #agcg1 the ,emperor himself1 following the example of some of his predecessors1 contributed a preface4 ,opposed again and again by the ,confucian literati1 its temples destroyed1 its religious houses suppressed1 its monks and nuns driven back into the world1 ,buddhism has still lived on4 ,it has created impressive devotions1 and generated numerous sects4 ,it has spread through ,corea1 ,mongolia1 and ,japan2 on the west it is planted in ,tibet4 ,it has exercised immense influence on ,chinese culture2 architecture1 art and letters being all deeply indebted to it4 ,in numerical estimates of different religions common in the last century ,buddhism always headed the list1 for the whole population of ,china--vaguely reckoned at #djj1jjj1jjj--was included in its fold4 ,such estimates are no longer trustworthy4#c ,the ancestral cultus of the dead under the shelter of ,confucianism1 the rites of ,taoist and of ,buddhist priests1 are strangely blended4 ,the incidents of life from birth to death are never completed without help from one or other of the two faiths once rivals1 and now #fg so curiously intertwined4 ,as early as the sixth century a famous ,buddhist scholar ,fu ,hhi was asked by the ,emperor ,wu-ti if he was a ,buddhist1 and he pointed to his ,taoist cap4 ,are you a ,taoist8 he showed his ,confucian shoes4 ,are you a ,confucian8 he wore a ,buddhist scarf4 ,when the ,abb ,hue made his famous journey two generations ago1 he observed that when strangers met1 politeness required that each should ask his neighbour1 ,to what sublime religion do you belong8 ,the first might be a ,confucian1 the second a ,taoist1 the third a disciple of the ,buddha4 ,each would then begin to commend the religion not his own1 and they would conclude by saying1 ,religions are many1 reason is one1 we are all brothers4 ,it was the maxim of ,lu ,shun ,yang 7a distinguished ,buddhist7 centuries ago that the teaching of the sects is not different4 ,the large-hearted man regards them as embodying the same truths4 ,the narrow-minded man observes only their differences4 #c ,the latest official estimate1 ,february #aiaa1 based on a reckoning of families1 gives #cab1djj1eij for the total ,chinese people4 ,yet another great religion1 the latest born among the higher faiths of the world1 has established itself in both ,india and ,china4 ,the first ,mohammedan invasion of ,india took place in ,a4,d4 #ffd4 ,the followers of the prophet are now reckoned at more than #ff millions4 ,in #fbh ,mohammed himself sent his uncle to ,china with presents to the ,emperor4 ,he travelled by sea to ,canton1 where the first mosque was afterwards built4 #fh ,good observers number the ,mohammedans in ,china to-day at #cj millions1 mostly in the north and west2 and it is supposed that there are about as many more in the ,malay ,archipelago4 ,in ,africa1 especially among the negroes of the west1 their numbers have increased enormously in the last century1 and some two-fifths of the multitudinous peoples of the ,dark ,continent1 #hj millions out of #bjj1 are believed to live in the obedience of ,islam4 ,islam1 resignation or submission to the will of ,god1 was the name given to his religion by the prophet himself1 who died in ,a4,d4 #fcb4 ,but in the hands of his first followers submission was no passive virtue4 ,tradition ascribed to him the idea of addressing all known sovereigns1 and promising them safety if they accepted the faith4 ,his successors1 therefore1 conceived that the fulfilment of ,allah's will demanded a resolute effort to make known the new revelation4 ,a fierce burst of missionary effort carried the ,moslem armies far and wide4 ,in the year of ,mohammed's death they attacked ,persia and ,syria2 a few years later they invaded ,egypt4 ,within the first century they had entered ,india1 and had swept through north ,africa into ,spain4 ,but they had twice been obliged to retreat from ,constantinople1 and in #gcb they were defeated on the ,loire by ,charles ,martel near ,tours1 and forced to retire behind the ,pyrenees4 ,with the same astonishing energy they #fi created centres of culture from ,baghdad to ,cordova4 ,through ,syriac versions of ,aristotle's works ,arabian teachers carried ,greek philosophy into ,western ,europe when the light of ancient learning had grown dim4 ,the contact with new thought stimulated theological discussion1 and the ,moslem had to justify himself against the ,christian1 the ,zoroastrian1 the ,manichan and the ,buddhist4 ,above the simple ritual demands of the prophet1 the recital of the creed--,there is no god but ,god 7,allah71 ,mohammed is the apostle of ,god--the observance of prayer five times daily1 the annual fast in the month of ,ramadhn1 the bestowal of alms1 and the pilgrimage to ,mecca1 arose the debates of the schools and the divisions of sects4 ,the nature of the divine attributes1 and their relation to the being or essence of the ,deity1 the problems of predestination and free will1 of reason and revelation1 excited eager interest4 ,beside the ,koran vast numbers of traditions concerning religious life and practice were gradually put in circulation1 and in the third century after ,mohammed's death they were reduced to writing in six great collections4 ,to these sources of truth and rules of conduct the jurists and theologians added two others3 agreement or universal consent1 where beliefs and practices are generally received though not specially sanctioned by the ,koran or tradition2 and analogy1 by which a doctrine or usage may be accepted as valid because #gj of its resemblance to something legitimated by revelation4 ,like the higher religions of ,india1 like ,judaism in its long and chequered career whether in ,palestine or in the ,dispersion1 like the universal religions of ,buddhism and ,christianity1 ,mohammedanism has known how to accommodate itself to very different levels of culture4 ,in the ,arabian deserts much of the earlier animism still remains4 ,it is not rudely expelled either at the present day as ,islam advances through ,africa4 ,other impulses have worked in different directions4 ,there are religious orders and mendicant ascetics4 ,there are mystical schools of refined spirituality1 to which the influences of ,neo-platonism1 of ,christianity1 and ,buddhism1 have all contributed4 ,sfiism 7as this type of thought is called7 was fed from various sources1 and has assumed different forms in different countries1 but its best-known literary products came from the great poets of ,persia4 ,from that subtle race issues the most remarkable movement which modern ,mohammedanism has produced4 ,in #ahdd a young man not twenty-five years of age1 named ,ali ,mohammed1 of ,shiraz1 appeared under the title of the ,bab or ,gate4 ,disciples gathered round him1 and the movement was not checked by his arrest1 his imprisonment for nearly six years1 and his final execution in #ahej4 ,thirteen years later one of his disciples named ,bah-ullah1 ,splendour of ,god1 announced #ga himself as ,he whom ,god shall manifest1 whose advent the ,bab had foretold4 ,exiled to ,acre1 he died in #ahib1 and was succeeded in the leadership by his son ,abbas ,efendi4 ,the new faith declared that there was no finality in revelation1 and while recognising the ,koran as a product of past revelation1 claimed to embody a new manifestation of the divine ,unity4 ,carried to ,chicago in #ahic by a ,bb merchant1 it succeeded in establishing itself in the ,united ,states2 and its missionaries are winning new adherents in ,india4 ,it1 too1 claims to be a universal teaching2 it has already its noble army of martyrs and its holy books2 has ,persia1 in the midst of her miseries1 given birth to a religion which will go round the world8 #gb ,,chapter ,,iii ,,religion ,,in ,,the ,,lower ,,culture ,religion presents itself in its most obvious form as a mode of activity4 ,it is seen in some kind of behaviour2 it prompts a particular sort of conduct4 ,behind the customs and rites which are its visible sign lie certain thoughts and feelings1 often dim1 indistinct1 obscure4 ,in the totality of its beliefs1 emotions1 and institutions1 it is as much the product of the human spirit as poetry1 or art1 science1 morals1 and law4 ,it will therefore always bear some kind of relation to the general circumstances of the social development to which it belongs4 ,the interpretation of the surrounding scene which is implied in its intellectual outlook will vary with the elements of the scene itself4 ,but the limits of variation are much smaller than might be expected4 ,the questions why and how may be answered very differently under the ,equator and within the ,arctic zone1 but they are the same questions1 and spring from common impulses of thought4 ,moreover1 while race1 climate1 and economic conditions may all vary1 it happens to all men to be born #gc and to die4 ,the family must be maintained1 children must be reared1 food must be procured1 the tribal group must preserve its stability and1 if possible1 increase4 ,there are universal elements in human life all over the globe2 and the manifestations of religion founded upon them exhibit in consequence marked resemblances from land to land4 ,religion always implies some kind of want4 ,the young husband wants male children1 the hunter game1 the warrior victory1 the diviner the knowledge of secrets1 the saint holiness4 ,the wants may be crude or refined1 the satisfaction of a physical appetite1 protection against some anticipated danger1 the realisation of an exalted spiritual fellowship4 ,but religion suggests that there is some ,power capable of satisfying these wants1 and undertakes to provide the means for setting man in proper relations with it4 ,all round him are the objects and forces of the visible world4 ,he learns by degrees that some help him to gratify his desires1 and others hinder them4 ,there are many things that he cannot understand1 and some of which he dimly feels that he must not presume to try3 he is only conscious towards them of a strange wonder and awe2 they are uncanny2 he cannot bring them into his experience2 he must not meddle with them1 he must keep away4 ,but other things are more kindly1 and fulfil his hopes4 ,out of such vague consciousness he gradually frames a working method4 ,some sort #gd of theory is at length established after many trials1 concerning what must be done to obtain what he seeks4 ,the line of his action is determined in part by the ideas and expectations which have slowly emerged out of his endeavours to get into fruitful connection with the powers by which he is encompassed4 ,this is the element of belief1 which lies behind religion proper1 and supplies the soil in which religious feeling and action germinate and grow4 ,what1 then1 is the kind of belief which1 in the sphere of the lower culture1 makes religion possible8 ,it is plain at once that no records remain of what is still sometimes called primitive religion4 ,even tribes that seem to be living in the ,stone ,age have as long a past behind them as any ,european of light and leading4 ,whatever the beliefs may be that belong to any given stage of social culture1 they are not new inventions1 they depend on immemorial tradition4 ,and they are not1 as now cherished1 the results of individual research or reflection4 ,they are held in common by all the members of the tribe1 so that they have a kind of collective force4 ,no doubt in the long process of their formation and transmission modifications may have been introduced1 as some elder1 shrewder than his fellows1 gave new emphasis to some leading idea1 or suggested the adoption of some fresh action4 ,trace them back into the dim realm of conjecture1 and some mind #ge a little more observant or ready than his comrades must have started the first explanation1 some will a little more adventurous must have made the first experiments in conduct4 ,thoughts do not issue from a collective consciousness2 they bear the stamp of personality1 they are not begotten by abstractions1 and every fresh development starts from a single brain4 ,but the uniformity of experience within the group gives enormous weight to the wisdom of the past2 and constitutes a sanction which only some grave shock can change or overthrow4 ,with religion is constantly associated1 both in historical record and in the lower forms of present-day practice1 another kind of activity known as ,magic4 ,the relation between them has been variously interpreted4 ,the modern anthropologist1 ,dr4 ,frazer1 finds himself in unexpected agreement with the philosopher ,hegel in supposing that magic was the first to appear upon the scene4 ,it is represented as a kind of primitive science1 founded on certain elementary axioms1 such as that like produces like1 or that things once in contact with each other will continue to act upon each other when the contact is broken4 ,the ,central ,australian performs elaborate ceremonies to stimulate the multiplication of the totem which provides the supply of food for his tribe4 ,suppose it is the witchetty grub4 ,a kind of pantomime is performed representing the emergence of the #gf fully-developed insect out of the chrysalis1 typified by a long1 narrow structure made of boughs4 ,the totem men sit inside and chant rude songs1 and then crawl out singing of the insect coming forth4 ,one of the commonest illustrations is the attempt to compass the death of an enemy by injuring or destroying an image or figure supposed to correspond to him4 ,such images were made in ancient ,babylonia1 ,egypt1 ,greece1 and ,rome4 ,one ,north ,american ,indian will draw a figure of his adversary in the sand1 or in ashes1 and prick it with a sharp stick4 ,another will make a wooden image1 and insert a needle into the head or the heart4 ,clay is used for the purpose by the ,african ,matabele1 wax in ,arabia1 the guelder rose in ,japan1 materials of all kinds in ,india4 ,in ,scotland the corp chre1 as it was called1 was a clay body1 which was stuck full of pins1 nails1 and broken bits of glass1 and set in a running stream with its head to the current2 a modern specimen from ,inverness-shire may be seen in the ,pitt ,rivers ,museum in ,oxford4 ,is all this really as ,dr4 ,frazer supposes1 prior to the birth of religion1 and does man only turn to the propitiation of superior powers when he cannot get what he wants through magic8 ,of that process no evidence can be offered4 ,the essence of magic lies in some kind of compulsion or constraint4 ,through the proper spell1 or through the will of the magician1 #gg a control is exerted which produces the desired result4 ,the power which is thus claimed implies an attitude wholly unlike that of religion4 ,into that attitude there enter elements of wonder and submission in the presence of energies which man cannot master1 though he desires to get them on his side4 ,but no observer was at hand to watch the first processes of feeling and thought which the interaction of man and his environment produced4 ,the crudest forms of religion which we actually know1 meet us in tribes which have possessed them from an unknown past4 ,here religion has a social character binding the members of a group together1 and tending to maintain certain uniformities of conduct and character4 ,over against it stands the antisocial character of magic1 at any rate when directed against individuals4 ,along this line it is urged that magic and religion have both issued out of common conditions4 ,in the world around all sorts of events are continually happening4 ,man1 in the midst of them1 moves to and fro impulsively among various objects and agencies4 ,out of these arise various reactions for self-maintenance1 for protection and defence4 ,certain acts tend to establish themselves as successful2 they make for security and welfare4 ,at first man's efforts have no definite direction2 but some are found effective1 others are futile1 and attention is concentrated on those that produce satisfactory results4 ,after #gh many trials certain beliefs1 certain processes1 certain persons1 gradually stand out above the rest1 and through them relations of advantage are established with the environing powers4 ,in such experiences lie the roots of both religion and magic4 ,in their earliest forms they may be as difficult to discriminate as the simplest types of animal and vegetable life4 ,if it be asked what distinguishes them outwardly1 when both are transmitted by tradition1 both rest upon custom1 it may be answered that religion is concerned with what tends to the stability of the community4 ,its interests are those of the group4 ,it supplies the bond of united action for clan or tribe or people4 ,it is pre-eminently social2 it expresses itself in ceremonies1 feasts1 and rites in which all can join1 or in commands which all can obey4 ,even the ,australians1 so poor in elements of worship1 have tribal laws which have been imparted to them from on high 7,chap4 ,,vii74 ,over against the community stands the individual1 object of all kinds of jealousies and enmities4 ,all sorts of antisocial arts may be practised for his destruction4 ,the pointing-stick of ,australia provides a common magical weapon4 ,it is carried away into a lonely spot in the bush1 and the intending user plants it in the ground1 crouches down over it1 and mutters a curse against the object of his hatred3 ,may your heart be rent asunder1 may your backbone be split open6 ,then #gi one evening1 as the men sit round the campfire in the dark1 he creeps up stealthily behind his enemy1 stoops down with his back to the camp1 points the stick over his shoulder1 and mutters the curse again4 ,a little while after1 unless saved by a more powerful magic1 the victim sickens and dies4 ,of course magic may also be used for the benefit of the individual1 and the practice of exorcism for the cure of diseases caused through possession by evil spirits long found shelter in some branches of the ,christian ,church4 ,the kinship between ,magic and ,religion is clearly marked when the priest takes the place of the devil-dancer or the medicine man4 ,yet they are on different planes2 religion is prescribed and official1 and demands specific services2 magic falls into the background1 it becomes a secret1 perhaps a forbidden1 art4 ,nevertheless1 between religion and antisocial magic lies a large group of rites1 essentially magical in character1 like the ,north ,american ,indian rain-dances or the totem-ceremonies of the ,arunta in ,central ,australia1 designed for the general welfare4 ,even in much higher cultures the spell frequently mingles with the prayer1 and ceremonies of sacrifice carry with them elements of compulsion or constraint4 ,what traces1 then1 do the phases of religion in the lower culture exhibit of a view of the world and its powers out of which these diverging lines of practice might emerge8 #hj ,in widely different regions of the globe the forces that operate in unexpected ways1 or play through things beyond man's reach1 or appear in natural objects of striking character--an animal1 a tree--are summed up in some general term of mystery and awe4 ,such is the ,melanesian term mana1 first noted by ,bishop ,codrington1 common to a large group of languages4 ,it implies some supersensual power or influence2 it is not itself personal1 though it may dwell in persons as in things4 ,it is known by the results which reveal its working4 ,you find a stone of an unusual shape2 it may resemble some familiar object like a fruit2 you lay it at the root of the corresponding tree1 or you bury it in a yam-patch2 an abundant crop follows2 clearly1 the stone has mana4 ,it lives in the song-words of a spell2 it secures success in fighting1 perhaps through the tooth of some fierce and powerful animal2 it imparts speed to the canoe1 brings fish into the net1 enables the arrow to inflict a mortal wound4 ,but the word has a yet wider range1 in the sense of power1 might1 influence4 ,by it a parent can bring a curse on a disobedient child1 a man who possesses it can work miracles2 it even denotes the divinity of the gods4 ,and so mysterious is the whole range of the inner life1 that mana covers thought1 desire1 feeling1 and affection2 and in ,hawaian it reaches out to spirit1 energy of character1 majesty4 ,here is an immense reserve of potency pervading #ha the world1 on which man may draw for good or ill4 ,among the ,north ,american ,indians similar conceptions may be traced4 ,the ,algonquin manitou represents a subtle property believed to exist everywhere in nature1 though some persons and objects possess more of it than others4 ,among the ,sioux the sun1 the moon1 the stars1 thunder1 wind1 are all wakanda4 ,so are certain trees and animals1 the cedar1 the snake1 the grey elephant2 and mystery-places like a particular lake in ,north ,dakota1 or some peculiar rocks on the ,yellowstone ,river4 ,the term carries with it power and sacredness2 it belongs to what is ancient1 grand1 and animate4 ,the ,iroquoian tribes designate this mysterious force orenda4 ,it expresses an incalculable energy1 manifested in rocks and streams and tides2 in plants and trees1 in animals and man2 it belongs to the earth and its mountains2 it breathes in the winds and is heard in the thunder2 the clouds move by it1 day and night follow each other through it2 it dwells in sun1 moon1 and stars4 ,the shy bird or quadruped which it is difficult to snare or kill1 possesses it2 so does the skilful hunter2 it gives victory in intertribal games of skill1 and is the secret force of endurance or speed of foot4 ,the prophet or the soothsayer discloses the future by its aid2 and whatever is believed to have been instrumental in accomplishing some purpose or obtaining some good1 finds in orenda the source of its effectiveness4 #hb ,not dissimilar is the conception of mulungu among the ,yaos1 east of ,lake ,nyassa4 ,the term is wide-spread through the eastern group of ,bantu tongues1 and is said to have the meaning of ,old ,one or ,great ,one2 and in this sense it has been employed as equivalent to ,god4 ,but we are expressly told that in its native use and form it does not imply personality4 ,etymologically it ranks with the leg1 arm1 heart1 head1 of the human frame4 ,yet it denotes rather a state or property inhering in something1 like life or health in the body1 than any single object4 ,it indicates a kind of supernormal energy1 displayed in actual experience1 but not to be detected by any physical sense4 ,it is the agent of wonder and mystery2 the rainbow is mulungu2 and it sums up at once the creative energy which made the earth and animals and man1 and the powers which operate in human life4 ,at the foot of a tree in the village courtyard1 where men sit and talk1 a small offering of flour or beer is placed on any distinctive occasion in the communal life2 at a meal1 or on a journey at cross roads1 a little flour is set aside4 ,it is for ,mulungu2 sometimes dimly conceived as a spirit within2 sometimes regarded as a universal agency in nature and affairs1 impalpable1 impersonal2 sometimes rising into distinctness as ,god4 ,such terms are1 of course1 generalisations from many separate experiences4 ,out of this sense of mystery grow more definite ideas4 #hc ,the dark and solemn forest1 the rushing river1 the precipitous rock1 the lofty cloud-crowned mountain1 the winds and storms1 all manifest a common power2#a it lives in the snake or the bull1 in the tiger or the bear4 ,this may be conceived in a highly complex and abstract form4 ,thus the ,zuis of ,mexico1 we are told1 suppose the sun and moon1 the stars1 the sky1 the earth and sea1 with all their various changes1 and all inanimate objects1 as well as plants1 animals1 and men1 to belong to one great system of all-conscious and interrelated life4 ,one term includes them all3 hi1 being or life4 ,with the prefix 1 all1 the whole field of nature is summed up as hi1 life or the ,beings4 ,this comprehensive term includes the objects of sensible experience regarded as personal existences1 and supersensual beings who are known as ,finishers or ,makers of the paths of life1 the most exalted of all being designated the ,holder of the paths of our lives4 ,so in ,annam life is regarded as a universal phenomenon4 ,it belongs not only to men and animals and plants1 but to stones and stars1 to earth1 fire1 and wind4 ,but it is seen in groups and kinds rather than individuals1 and the limits of its forms are not sharply drawn2 it can pass through many transformations1 and possesses indefinite possibilities of change4 #hd ,such conceptions have a long history behind them4 #a ,m4 ,durkheim has recently applied conceptions of the mana order to the explanation of totemism4 ,the poets of the ancient ,vedic hymns beheld everything around them full of energy4 ,the names by which they designated what they saw all denoted action or agency4 ,the swift flow of the stream gained it the title of the runner2 as it cut away the banks or furrowed its course deep between the rocks1 it was the plougher2 when it nourished the fields it was the mother2 when it marked off one territory from another it was the defender or protector4 ,so the seers addressed their invocations to the dawn or the sun1 to the winds and the fire1 to the river or the mountain1 to the earth-mother or the sky-father1 as living powers1 capable of responding to the prayers of their worshippers4 ,similar energy dwelt in the horse or the cow1 the bird of omen and the guardian dog4 ,it was even shared by ritual implements such as the stones by which the sacred soma-juice was squeezed out1 or by the products of human handiwork1 the war-car1 the weapon1 the drum1 and the peaceful plough4 ,at the present day the ,batak in the north-west of ,sumatra interpret the world about them in terms of a soul-stuff or life-power called tondi4 ,a vast reservoir of this exists in the world above1 and flows down upon men and animals and plants4 ,the biggest animal1 like the tiger1 the most important of plants1 like rice 7chief source of food71 have most #he tondi1 but it is not confined to living things2 the smith attributes it to his iron1 the fisherman to his boat1 the tiller of the ground to his hoe1 the householder to his hearth and home4 ,but a further analysis is beginning4 ,what is the relation of a man's tondi to himself8 ,when he dies1 it passes into some fresh organism4 ,but the rest of him1 his shadow1 his double1 or his self1 becomes a begu4 ,in life1 it is the body that thinks and feels1 that fears and hopes and wills1 though the presence of the tondi supplies the needful energy4 ,but the tondi also has the functions of consciousness1 for it can go away in dreams and meet the begus of parents and ancestors4 ,and the apprehension that it may depart begets reverence and even offerings to the tondi1 rather than to distant gods for whom man can feel neither fear nor love4 ,we touch here another root of religious belief1 which produces growths so wide-spreading that some interpreters bring the whole range of objects of worship within their shade4 ,how1 after all1 does man explain himself to himself8 ,at first he does not think about thinking4 ,such words as he uses are vague and elastic1 like the ,polynesian mana1 which covers a multitude of facts without and within4 ,only through long dim processes does any idea corresponding to our conception of personality come into his consciousness4 ,he is as confused about the objects round him as he is about himself4 #hf ,yet he has some sort of initiative4 ,whence comes it8 ,little by little a variety of experiences force on him the belief that beside the body and its limbs he possesses something which he cannot ordinarily see1 but which is essential to his activity4 ,he falls asleep1 and lies still upon the ground2 he wakes1 full of remembrance of adventure1 the localities which he has visited1 the animals that he has hunted1 the dead kinsmen whom he has met4 ,the ,australians explain their dreams by the supposition that the yambo1 the mrup1 or the boolabong1 can quit the body and return4 ,i asked one of the ,kurnai 7of ,gippsland71 relates ,mr4 ,howitt1 whether he really thought his yambo could go out during sleep4 ,it must be so1 was the answer1 for when ,i sleep1 ,i go to distant places1 ,i see distant people1 ,i even see and speak with those that are dead4 ,the great apostle of the ,east in the sixteenth century1 the devoted ,francis ,xavier1 wrote home from ,india to the ,society of ,jesus in ,europe-- ,i find that the arguments which are to convince these ignorant people must be by no means subtle1 such as those which are found in the books of learned schoolmen1 but such as their minds can understand4 ,they asked me again and again how the soul of a dying person goes out of the body1 how it was1 whether it was as happens to us in dreams1 when we seem to be conversing with our #hg friends and acquaintances4 ,ah1 how often this happens to me1 dearest brethren1 when ,i dream of you6 ,was this because the soul then leaves the body8 ,this explanation is found all round the globe4 ,many other experiences confirm the impression of some kind of dual existence4 ,the shadow or shade which follows a man repeats his movements1 and appears as a sort of double4 ,it is even widely believed in the face of the simplest evidence that a dead body casts no shadow 7of course1 as it lies upon the ground the shadow may almost disappear74 ,your reflection in river1 pool1 or lake1 actually reproduces your colour as well as your form3 beware lest a crocodile seizes it and drags you in4 ,from ancient times down to ,shelley and ,walt ,whitman1 poetry has designated ,sleep and ,death as brothers2 in death that which was temporarily absent in sleep has gone away for good4 ,it may have rushed out with the blood from a gaping wound2 it may have quietly departed with the last faint breath4 ,so it may be summoned back1 as in ,chinese custom1 on the housetop1 in the garden or the field4 ,ghostly sounds may be heard in the forest1 among the rocks1 borne along the wind2 the clairvoyant may discern dimly strange faces1 vanished forms2 the dead can sometimes make themselves seen in their old haunts2 #hh the world is full of unexpected indications of presences beyond our sense4 ,such presences are grouped1 for the modern student1 under the general title spirits4 ,but the explanations which lead to these beliefs are not concerned with human beings only4 ,animals share in the incidents of life and death2 plants1 even1 grow and blossom and decay2 and animals1 plants1 and inanimate objects of all sorts may be seen in dreams4 ,hence the analysis which is applied to man can be readily extended2 and another world is called into existence1 strangely blended with this1 a realm of immaterial counterparts and impalpable forces4 ,a ,fiji native1 placed before a mirror1 recognising himself and object after object1 whispered softly1 ,now ,i can see into the world of spirits4 ,with the help of this elementary philosophy a vast machinery of causation is always at hand for explaining untoward events4 ,the ,tshi-speaking negro on the ,west ,coast of ,africa has inside him a kind of life-power named kra4 ,it existed long before his birth1 for it served in the same capacity a whole series of predecessors2 and it will continue its career after his death1 when the man himself becomes a srahman or ghost4 ,the adjoining ,ga-speaking tribes modify the kra into two kla1 one male and one female1 the first of a bad disposition1 the second good1 who give advice and prompt to actions according #hi to their respective characters4 ,yet a third inmate dwells in the neighbouring ,yoruba-speaking folk1 one in the head1 one in the stomach1 and one in the great toe4 ,offerings are made to the first by rubbing fowl's blood and palm oil on the forehead4 ,the second needs none1 for it shares whatever the stomach receives4 ,the third is propitiated as an agent of locomotion before starting on a journey4 ,but the curious theme of the plurality of souls must not beguile us4 ,meantime the original kra is set behind all the activities of nature1 and extended to the whole sphere of material objects4 ,each town or village or district has its own local spirits1 rulers of river and valley1 rock and forest and hill4 ,sometimes they take human shape1 and colour1 white or black1 for transformations of all kinds are always possible4 ,they are not all of equal rank2 the broad lake1 the mountain1 the sea where the surf breaks heavily and the frail craft are upset--the lightning1 the storm1 and the earthquake--the leopard1 the crocodile1 the shark1 and the devastating smallpox--such are among the dreaded manifestations of these dangerous and mysterious powers4 ,but the actual dead must not be forgotten2 they must be provided with ghostly counterparts of food and weapons and utensils1 with cloth and gold-dust1 just as a departed chief must be accompanied into the next life by the wives and slaves who adorned his household state in this4 #ij ,the ritual of the dead belongs1 as we have seen 7p4 #bj71 to the earliest-known activities of ,european man4 ,it is found in some form or other in every country under the sun4 ,sometimes it is prompted by fear1 and has for its object to keep the dead imprisoned in the grave1 or to prevent their spirits from returning to their old haunts 7p4 #bbh74 ,sometimes it is warmed by affection1 as the departed are recalled to the homes where they were loved4 ,in ancient ,egypt it was developed with the utmost elaboration1 and created a literature describing a kind of pilgrim's progress through the scenes of the next world 7p4 #bcg72 while in ,greece and ,rome the cultus of the dead acquired1 as in ,india and ,china1 immense social significance4 ,the question that arises in the study of religion in the lower culture is concerned with the probable connection between the two groups of spirits1 which may be broadly distinguished as spirits of nature and spirits of the dead4 ,that the latter are constantly propitiated in various forms is well known4 ,they are to be found everywhere1 lurking in the trees1 flying through the air1 sojourning in caves1 haunting the promontories on the rivers or hidden in the forest-depths4 ,with them lie the causes of disease and madness2 they are malevolent and hurtful1 as well as kindly and good4 ,what differences are to be discerned between them and the powers of nature8 ,are we to suppose1 with some #ia students1 that all the higher forms of religion have been developed out of the worship of the dead1 and that for gods we must everywhere read originally ghosts8 ,consider1 for example1 the ancient religion of ,japan1 which we know by an adaptation of two ,chinese words as ,shin-,to1 the spirits' way1 or in its native form kami-no-michi4#b ,who are the kami1 or spirits8 ,the title of religion has sometimes been denied to their cultus on the ground that it contains no set of dogmas1 no sacred book1 and no moral code4 ,greece and ,rome might1 on the same plea1 be described as having no religion4 ,the term kami has for its root-idea the significance of that which is above4 ,it may be applied in the widest range of relations from the hair which is on the top of the head to the government which rules the people4 ,the kami are1 as it were1 the highnesses2 the word is used of big things by land and sea1 great rivers1 mighty mountains1 roaring winds and rolling thunder2 then of rocks and trees1 of animals like the tiger and the wolf1 of metals1 and so of innumerable objects in earth and sky4 ,it is not always clear whether these were originally conceived as themselves living1 or whether they had been resolved into material body and controlling spirit4 ,the #ib functions of the kami1 however1 are extended and distributed by a kind of fission2 the kami of food split into the produce of trees and the parent of grasses2 they preside over guilds and crafts1 the weavers1 the potters1 the carpenters1 the swordsmen1 the boatbuilders2 they guide the operations of agriculture2 they superintend the household1 and watch over the kitchen range1 the saucepan1 the ricepot1 the well1 the pond1 the garden1 and the scarecrow4 #b ,chinese culture has probably exerted considerable influence on the exponents of the ,shinto revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries4 ,very different aspects are reflected in the ancient chronicles4 ,but in this vast assembly are included also the spirits of the dead4 ,they likewise become kami of varying rank and power4 ,some dwell in temples built in their honour2 some hover near their tombs2 some are kindly1 and some malevolent4 ,they mingle in the immense multiplicity of agencies which makes every event in the universe1 in the language of the ,shinto writer ,motowori 7#agcj-ahja71 the act of the ,kami4 ,they direct the changing seasons1 the wind and the rain2 and the good and bad fortunes of individuals1 families1 and ,states1 are due to them4 ,from birth to death the entire life of man is encompassed and guided by the ,kami4 ,hence came the duty of worship on which ,hirata 7#aggf-ahdc7 lays great stress4 ,the heaven-descended ,ninigi1 progenitor of the imperial line1 was taught by his divine forefathers that everything in the world depends on the spirits of the kami of heaven and earth1 and therefore the worship of the kami is a #ic matter of primary importance4 ,the kami who do harm are to be appeased1 so that they may not punish those who have offended them2 and all the kami are to be worshipped so that they may be induced to increase their favours4 ,accordingly ,hirata's morning prayer before the kami-dana1 the wooden shelf fixed against the wall in a ,shinto home about six feet from the floor1 bearing a small model of a temple or august spirit-house1 ran thus-- ,reverently adoring the great ,god of the two palaces of ,is 7the ,sun-goddess7 in the first place1 the #hjj myriads of celestial kami1 the #hjj myriads of ancestral kami1 all the #aejj myriads to whom are consecrated the great and small temples in all provinces1 all islands and all places in the great land of #h islands1 the #aejj myriads of kami whom they cause to serve them4444 ,i pray with awe that they will deign to correct the unwitting faults which1 heard and seen by them1 ,i have committed1 and1 blessing and favouring me according to the powers which they severally wield1 cause me to follow the divine example1 and to perform good works in the way4 ,here1 the spirits of the dead are blended with those of nature1 without any definite attempt to assign them to different ranks or functions4 ,among the dead themselves there are such distinctions1 which do not1 however1 concern us here2 there are spirits of crookedness1 #id and there are spirits of the clans and of the imperial line4 ,but above the multitudinous groups of nameless kami1 whether once human or attached to the physical scene1 rise certain great powers which it seems very difficult to identify with departed ghosts4 ,the earliest traditions of the divine evolution in the ancient chronicles contain no hint pointing in that direction2 and the comparison of the ,japanese deities of earth1 fire1 wind1 sea1 and similar great elemental forces elsewhere1 is not favourable to their derivation from the hosts of the dead4 ,the student of the hymns to ,fire in the ,rig-,veda 7,agni ,latin ignis7 cannot fail to notice the emphasis laid upon the birth of the god out of the wood1 as the fire-drill kindles the first sparks1 and the flame leaps forth4 ,here is something quick-moving1 vital2 the fire is the god2 he may rise into cosmic significance as a pervading energy sustaining the whole world2 but he never loses his physical character1 any more than the solid earth or the encompassing sky4 ,these are again and again the chief co-ordinating powers of the higher animism4 ,their separation out of the primeval mass of obscure and indiscriminate chaos has been the theme of myth from ,egypt to ,new ,zealand2 just as their bridal has served to express the union and co-operation of the forces of nature all around the world4 ,of this the ancient ,chinese religion1 still the #ie formal basis of the national worship as performed by the ,emperor1 supplies perhaps the best example4 ,the cultus of the dead is practised in every home1 and around the incidents of life and death have gathered various ,buddhist and ,taoist rites4 ,moreover1 a rampant demonology environs the entire field of existence2 but this disordered multitude of noxious spirits has no recognition in the imperial homage4 ,from immemorial generations the ,chinese practice made religion a department of the ,state1 and the venerable book of the ,rites of the great dynasty of ,chow requires the ,grand ,superior of ,sacrifices to superintend the worship due to three orders of ,shin or spirits1 celestial1 terrestrial1 and human4 ,under the sovereignty of the sky the first includes the spirits of the sun1 moon1 stars1 clouds1 wind1 rain1 thunder1 and the changes of the atmosphere4 ,in the sphere of earth are reckoned the spirits of the mountains1 rivers1 plains1 seas1 lakes1 woods1 fields1 and grains4 ,taken together ,heaven and ,earth thus include all the energies of the universe4 ,the world1 as we see it1 is1 indeed1 full of opposing powers1 one group 7yang7 representing light and warmth and life1 the contrary 7yin7 manifesting themselves in cold and darkness and death4#c ,but these are both encompassed by #if the ,path or ,tao1 the daily course of the universe1 the abiding guarantee of justice in the distribution of good and evil in the human lot4 ,heaven and earth are thus regarded as themselves active or living2 they constantly maintain the order of nature for the welfare of man4 ,in the ancient ,odes 7which ,confucius was supposed to have edited7 heaven is called great and wide and blue4 ,this is plainly the visible firmament2 it is addressed as parent1 and sky and earth together are father and mother of the world4 ,they are not spirits1 but are themselves animate4 ,why1 laments ,dr4 ,edkins of his ,chinese hearers1 they have been often asked1 should you speak of these things which are dead matter1 fashioned from nothing by the hand of ,god1 as living beings8 ,and why not8 they have replied4 ,the sky pours down rain and sunshine1 the earth produces corn and grass1 we see them in perpetual movement1 and we therefore say they are living4 #c ,the sky is the home of the yang2 the yin are referred to the earth2 in curious contrast to its powers of production and nourishment4 ,the ,chinese genius was ethical rather than metaphysical4 ,it was not concerned with the ,infinite1 the ,eternal1 and the ,absolute4 ,but it was deeply impressed with the moral aspects of the sky1 its universality1 its comprehensive embrace of all objects and powers beneath its far-stretching dome1 its all-seeing view1 its inflexible impartiality4 ,its decrees are steadfast1 and proceeded from its sovereign sway2 and in this capacity it bore the #ig august title of ,shang ,t1 ,supreme ,ruler4 ,the scholastic philosophers of a later day analysed ,heaven in this capacity into the actual sky and its controlling personality1 and ,shang ,t became the ,moral ,governor of the ,universe1 the equivalent of the western ,god4 ,beneath the sky lay the earth1 receptive of the energies descending upon it from on high2 ,heaven and ,earth1 ,father and ,mother1 are conjoined in common speech4 ,together they guided the changes of the year1 in steadfast tread along the annual round4 ,folded in their wide compass were the ,shin1 charged with the regulation of the elemental powers4 ,under ,heaven's control were the ,shin of sun and moon1 planets1 stars1 meteors1 comets2 of clouds and winds1 thunder and rain2 of the seasons1 months1 and days4 ,those of the earth were organised in territorial divisions1 representing the dominions of the vassal princes down to the district areas4 ,the higher were graded according to the political rank of the several provinces2 beneath them were reckoned the spirits of the mountains1 forests1 seas1 rivers1 and grains4 ,the privileges of worship granted to the various officials were part of the ,state order1 and helped to maintain political and civic stability4 ,the imperial sacrifices to ,heaven and ,earth were performed at the winter and the summer solstices4 ,the great altar to ,heaven #ih stands in a large park in the southern division of ,peking1 a vast marble structure in three stages1 the lowest being #baj feet across4 ,it is the largest altar in the world4 ,its white colour symbolises the light principle of the ,yang4 ,the upper stage1 ninety feet in diameter1 has for its centre a round blue jade stone1 the symbol of the vault above4 ,here is placed the tablet to ,heaven1 inscribed ,throne of ,sovereign ,heaven1 and associated with it are tablets to deceased emperors as well as to the ,sun and ,moon1 the seven stars of the ,great ,bear1 the five ,planets1 the twenty-eight ,constellations1 and the ,stars4 ,on the second stage1 beneath the richly carved balustrade above1 are the tablets to the ,clouds and ,rain1 to ,wind and ,thunder4 ,at the corresponding altar to the ,earth on the north side of the city1 square in shape1 and dark-yellow in hue1 the imperial worship at the summer solstice embraces also the five lofty ,mountains1 the three ,hills of ,perpetual ,peace1 the four ,seas1 the five celebrated ,mountains1 and the four great ,rivers4#d #d ,it is stated by the ,north ,china ,herald for ,july #ac1 that the present ,chinese ,government proposes to convert the ,temple of ,heaven into a model farm1 and the ,temple of ,earth into a horse-breeding establishment4 ,splendid processions of princes and dignitaries1 musicians and singers1 accompany the ,emperor to the great ceremonial4 ,the recent ,manchu sovereigns employed the prayers of the ,ming dynasty which preceded them3 here #ii are one or two stanzas of a psalm in which the ,emperor ,kia-tsing in the sixteenth century announced to ,shang ,t that he would be addressed as dwelling in the sovereign heavens3-- ,o ,t1 when thou hadst separated the ,yin and the ,yang 7i4e4 the earth and the sky71 thy creative work proceeded4 ,thou didst produce the sun and moon and the five planets1 and pure and beautiful was their light4 ,the vault of heaven was spread out like a curtain1 and the square earth supported all upon it1 and all things were happy4 ,i thy servant venture reverently to thank thee1 and while ,i worship1 present the notice to thee1 calling thee ,sovereign4 99 99 99 99 99 ,all the numerous tribes of animated beings are indebted to thy favour for their beginning4 ,men and things are all emparadised in thy love1 ,o ,t4 ,all living things are indebted to thy goodness1 but who knows from whom his blessings come to him4 ,it is thou alone1 ,o ,lord1 who art the true parent of all things4 ,here the ancient view of the living sky has given place under the influences of #ajj philosophy to a creative monotheism4 ,no image is made of ,shang ,t4 ,as he stands at the head of the manifold ranks of the ,shin1 he represents the last word of animism in providing an intellectual form for religion4 #aja ,,chapter ,,iv ,,spirits ,,and ,,gods ,religion in the lower culture takes many forms1 but1 speaking broadly1 they rest upon a common interpretation of the world4 ,man sees around him all kinds of motion and change4 ,he finds in everything that happens some energy or power2 and the only kind of power which he knows is that which he himself exerts4 ,as long as he is alive he can run and fight1 he can throw the spear or guide the canoe2 death comes to the comrade by his side1 and all is still4 ,so in wind and stream1 in beast and tree1 in the stones that fall upon the mountain side1 in the stars that march across the nightly sky1 he sees a like power2 they1 too1 have some sort of life4 ,life as an abstract idea1 a potency or principle1 is but rarely grasped4 ,but its manifestations early attract notice1 and can be roughly explained4 ,they are due to something inside the living body1 which can pass in and out1 and can finally leave it altogether4 ,here is an immense store of causality provided1 to account for all the incidents of each day's experience4 ,modern language calls #ajb such agents spirits1 and recognises in their multitude two mingled groups1 both active3 the spirits of the dead on the one hand1 and those of natural objects1 the bubbling well1 the gloomy forest1 the raging storm1 upon the other4 ,sometimes these are merged under a common term1 like the ,japanese kami1 sometimes they are separately named4 ,they bear different characters of good and evil1 as they are ready to help or hurt2 and the same spirit may be now kindly and now hostile1 without fixity of disposition or purpose4 ,to such spirits the ancient ,babylonians gave the name of zi4 ,literally1 we are told1 the word signified life2 it was indicated in their picture-writing by a flowering plant2 the great gods1 and even heaven and earth themselves1 all had their zi4 ,the ,egyptians1 in like manner1 ascribed to every object1 to human beings1 and to gods1 a double or ka4 ,the word seems to be identical with that for food2 it was another way of indicating that all visible things1 the peoples of the earth1 the dwellers in the realms above and below1 shared a common life4 ,the history of religion is concerned with the process by which the great gods rise into clear view above the host of spirits filling the common scene2 with the modes in which the forces of the world may be grouped under their control2 with the manifold combinations which finally enable one supreme power to #ajc absorb all the rest1 so that a god of the sky1 like the ,greek ,zeus1 may become a god of rain and sunshine and atmospheric change1 of earth and sea1 and of the nether world2 and may thus be presented as the sole and universal energy1 not only of all outward things but also of the inner world of thought4 ,of this immense development language1 archology1 literature1 the dedications of worship1 the testimonies of the ancient students of their still more ancient past in ritual and belief1 contain the scattered witness1 which the student of to-day laboriously gathers and interprets4 ,it is the humbler object of a little manual of ,comparative ,religion to set some of the principal issues of such historic evolution side by side1 and show how similar reactions of the mind of man upon the field of his experience have wrought like results4 ,as the inquirer casts his eye over the manifold varieties of the world's faiths1 he sees that they are always conditioned by the stage of social culture out of which they emerge4 ,the hunter who lives by the chase1 and must range over large areas for means of support2 the pastoral herdsman who has acquired the art of breeding cattle and sheep1 and slowly moves from one set of feeding-grounds to another2 the agriculturist who has learned to rely on the co-operation of earth and sky in the annual round1--have each their own way of expressing their view of the ,powers on which they depend4 #ajd ,little by little they are arranged in groups4 ,the ,celts1 for instance1 coming to river after river in their onward march1 employed the same name again and again1 ,deuona1 divine 7still surviving in this country in different forms1 ,devon1 ,dee1 etc471 as though all rivers belonged to one power4 ,they were the givers of life and health and plenty1 to whom costly sacrifices must be made4 ,so they might bear the title ,mother1 and were akin to the powers of fertility living in the soil1 the ,mothers 7,matres or ,matron71 cognate with the ,mothers who fulfil similar functions in modern ,india4 ,the adjacent ,teutonic peoples filled forest and field with wood-sprites and elves1 dwellers in the air and the sunlight4 ,the springs1 the streams1 and the lakes1 were the home of the water-sprites or nixes2 in the fall of the mighty torrent1 among the rocks on the mountain heights1 in the fury of the storm or the severity of the frost1 was the strength of the giants4 ,yet further east and north the ,finnic races looked out on a land of forest and waters1 of mists and winds4 ,the spirits were ranged beneath rulers who were figured in human form4 ,the huntsman prayed with vow and sacrifice to the aged ,tapio1 god of the woods and the wild animals4 ,kekri watched over the increase of the herd1 while ,hillervo protected them on the summer pastures4 ,the grains and herbs--of less importance to tribes #aje only imperfectly agricultural--were ascribed to the care of ,pellervoinen1 who falls into the background and receives but little veneration4 ,water1 once worshipped as a living element 7vesi71 is gradually supplanted by a water-god 7,ahto7 who rules over the spirits of lakes and rivers1 wells and springs4 ,mother-earth still designates in the oldest poetry the living energy of the ground1 though she afterwards becomes the lady of the earth and consort of the lord of the sky4 ,the sky1 ,jumala1 was first of all conceived as itself living2 ,jumala's weather was like ,zeus's shower to an ancient ,greek4 ,and then1 under the name ,ukko1 the sky becomes a personal ruler1 with clouds and rain1 thunder and hail1 beneath his sway2 who can be addressed as-- ,ukko1 thou of gods the highest1 ,ukko1 thou our ,heavenly ,father4 ,many causes contribute to the enlargement and stability of such conceptions4 ,tribes of limited local range and a meagre past without traditions may conceive the world around them on a feeble scale4 ,but migration helps to enlarge the outlook4 ,local powers cannot accompany tribes upon the march4 ,either they must be left behind and drop out of remembrance1 or they must be identified with new scenes and adapted to fresh environments4 ,when the horizon moves ever further forwards with each advance1 earth and sky loom vaster #ajf before the imagination1 and sun and moon1 the companion of each day or the protector of each night1 gain a more stately predominance4 ,the ancestors of the ,hindus1 the ,greeks1 the ,romans1 the ,teutons1 carried with them the worship of the sky-god under a common name1 derived from the root div1 to shine 7,dyaus ,zeus ,jovis old ,high ,german ,tiu1 as in ,tuesday74 ,other names gathered around the person in the actual firmament1 such as the ,sanskrit ,varuna 7still recognised by some scholars as identical with the ,greek ,ouranos1 heaven71 loftiest of all the ,vedic gods4 ,the ,aryan immigrants are already organised under kings1 and ,varuna sits enthroned in sovereignty4 ,his palace is supported by a thousand pillars1 and a thousand doors provide open access for his worshippers4 ,but he is in some sense omnipresent1 and one of the ancient poets sang-- ,if a man stands or walks or hides1 if he goes to lie down or to get up1 what two people sitting together whisper1 ,king ,varuna knows it1 he is there as the third4 ,this earth1 too1 belongs to ,varuna1 the king1 and this wide sky with its ends far apart4 ,the two seas 7sky and ocean7 are ,varuna's loins2 he is also contained in this small drop of water4 ,he who should flee far beyond the sky1 even he would not be rid of ,varuna1 the king4 #ajg ,the supreme power of the universe is here conceived under a political image4 ,conceptions of government and social order supply another line of advance1 parallel with the forces of nature4 ,on the ,african ,gold ,coast1 after eighteen years' observation1 ,cruickshank ranged the objects of worship in three ranks3 7#a7 the stone1 the tree1 the river1 the snake1 the alligator1 the bundle of rags1 which constituted the private fetish of the individual2 7#b7 the greater family deity whose aid was sought by all alike1 sometimes in a singular act of communion which involved the swallowing of the god 7p4 #add72 and 7#c7 the deity of the whole town1 to whom the entire people had recourse in times of calamity and suffering4 ,the conception of the deity of a tribe or nation may be greatly developed under the influence of victory4 ,war becomes a struggle between rival gods4 ,jephthah the ,gileadite1 after recounting the triumphs of ,israel to the hostile ,ammonite king1 states the case with the most naked simplicity3 ,yahweh1 ,israel's god1 hath dispossessed the ,amorites from before his people ,israel1 and shouldest thou possess them8 ,wilt thou not possess that which ,chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess8 ,so whomsoever ,yahweh our god hath dispossessed from before us1 them will we possess 7,judges xi4 #bc1 #bd74 ,the land of ,canaan was the gift of ,israel's ,god1 but at first his power was limited by its boundaries3 to be driven from the country was to be #ajh alienated from the right to offer him worship or receive from him protection4 ,in the famous battle with the ,hittites1 celebrated by the court-poet of ,rameses the ,great 7#acjj-abcd ,b4,c471 the king1 endangered by the flight of his troops1 appeals to the great god ,amen1 a form of the solar deity ,r1 with confidence of help1 ,amen shall bring to nought the ignorers of ,god3 and the answer comes1 ,i am with thee1 ,i am thy father1 my hand is with thee1 ,i am more excellent for thee than hundreds of thousands united in one4 ,success thus enhanced the glory of the victor's gods4 ,like the ,incas of ,peru in later days1 the ,assyrian sovereigns confirmed their power by bringing the deities of tributary peoples in a captive train to their own capital3 and the ,hebrew prophet opens his description of the fall of ,babylon by depicting the images of the great gods ,bel and ,nebo as packed for deportation on the transport-animals of the conqueror4 ,other causes further tended to give distinction to the personality of deities1 and define their spheres4 ,a promiscuous horde of spirits has no family relationships4 ,a god may have a pedigree2 a consort is at his side2 and the mysterious divine power reappears in a son4 ,instead of the political analogy of a sovereign and his attendants1 the family conception expresses itself in a divine father1 mother and child4 ,thus the ,ibani of ,southern ,nigeria recognised ,adum as the father of all #aji gods except ,tamuno the creator1 espoused to ,okoba the principal goddess1 and mother of ,eberebo1 represented as a boy1 to whom children were dedicated4 ,the ,egyptian triad1 ,osiris1 ,isis and ,horus1 is well known2 and the divine mother with the babe upon her lap passed into the ,christian ,church in the form of the ,virgin ,mary and her infant son4 ,the divisions of the universe suggested another grouping4 ,the ,vedic poets arranged their deities in three zones3 the sky above1 the intervening atmosphere1 and the earth beneath4 ,babylonian cosmology placed ,anu in the heaven1 ,bel on the earth1 and ,ea in the great deep1 and these three became the symbols of the order of nature1 and the divine embodiments of physical law4 ,homer already divides the world between the sky-god ,zeus1 ,poseidon of earth and sea1 and ,hades of the nether realm3 and ,rome has its triads1 like ,jupiter1 ,mars1 and ,quirinus1 or again ,jupiter1 ,juno1 and ,minerva4 ,whatever be the origin of the number three in this connection1 it reproduces itself with strange reiteration in both hemispheres4 ,other groups are suggested by the sun and moon and the five planets1 and appear in sets of seven4 ,egyptian summaries recognised gods in the sky1 on earth1 and in the water2 and the theologians of different sanctuaries loved to arrange them in systems of nine1 or three times three4 ,out of this vast and motley multitude emerge certain leading types in correspondence #aaj with certain modes of human thought1 with certain hopes and fears arising out of the changes of the human lot4 ,curiosity begins to ask questions about the scene around4 ,the child1 when it has grasped some simple view of the world1 will inquire who made it2 and to the usual answer will by and by rejoin ,and who made ,god8 ,elementary speculation does not advance so far3 it is content to rest if necessary in darkness and the void1 provided there is a power which can light the sun1 and set man on his feet4 ,but the intellectual range of thought even in the lower culture is much wider than might have been anticipated2 while the higher religions contain abundant survivals of the cruder imagination which simply loves a tale4 ,sometimes the creative power 7especially on the ,american continent7 is figured as a marvellous animal1 a wondrous raven1 a bird-serpent1 a great hare1 a mighty beaver4 ,or the dome of sky suggests an original world-egg1 which has been divided to make heaven and earth4 ,even the ,australians1 whose characteristics are variously interpreted as indications of extreme backwardness or of long decline1 show figures which belong to what ,mr4 ,andrew ,lang designated the ,high ,gods of ,low ,races4 ,among the ,narrinyeri in the west ,nurrundere was said to have made all things on the earth2 the ,wiimbaio told how ,nurelli had made the whole country with the rivers1 trees1 and animals4 ,among the #aaa ,western ,bantu on the ,african continent ,nzambi 7a name with many variants over a large area7 is described as ,maker and ,father4 ,our forefathers told us that name4 ,njambi is the ,one-who-made-us4 ,he is our ,father1 he made these trees1 that mountain1 this river1 these goats and chickens1 and us people4 ,that is the simple ,african version of the ever-and-beyond4 ,but as with so many of the chief gods1 not only on the dark continent1 but elsewhere1 he is regarded as a non-interfering and therefore negligible deity4 ,sometimes speculation takes a higher flight4 ,the ,zuis of ,mexico have remained in possession of ancient traditions1 uninfluenced by any imported ,christianity4 ,after many years' residence among them ,mr4 ,cushing was able to gather their ideas of the origin of the world4 ,awona-wilona was the ,maker and ,container of all1 the ,all-,father-,father4 ,through the great space of the ages there was nothing else whatever1 only black darkness everywhere4 ,then in the beginning of the new-made ,awona-wilona conceived within himself1 and thought outward in space1 whereby mists of increase1 steams potent of growth1 were evolved and uplifted4 ,thus by means of his innate knowledge the ,all-,container made himself in the person and form of the sun4 ,with his appearance came the brightening of the spaces with light1 and with the brightening of the spaces the great #aab mist-clouds were thickened together and fell4 ,thereby was evolved water in water1 yea and the world-holding sea4 ,and then came the production of the ,fourfold-,containing ,mother-,earth and the ,all-,covering ,father-,sky4 ,with a yet bolder leap of imagination did a ,polynesian poet picture the great process4 ,from island to island between ,hawaii and ,new ,zealand is a high god known as ,taaroa1 ,tangaloa1 ,tangaroa1 and ,kanaroa4 ,the ,samoans said that he existed in space and wished for some place to dwell in1 so he made the heavens2 and then wished to have a place under the heavens1 so he made the earth4 ,tahitian mythology declared 7the versions of priests and wise men differed7 that he was born of night or darkness4 ,then he embraced a rock1 the imagined foundation of all things1 which brought forth earth and sea2 the heavens were created with sun1 moon1 and stars1 clouds1 wind1 and rain1 and the dry land appeared below4 ,the whole process was summed up in a hymn-- ,he was3 ,taaroa was his name4 ,he abode in the void2 no earth1 no sea1 no sky4 ,taaroa calls1 but nought answers1 ,then1 alone existing1 he became the universe4 ,the relations of these creative ,powers to man are conceived very differently4 ,the #aac ,maker of the world may be continually interested in it1 and may continue to administer the processes which he has begun4 ,the ,akkra negro looks up to the living sky1 ,nyongmo1 as the author of all things1 who is benevolently active day by day3 ,we see every day1 said a fetish-man1 how the grass1 the corn1 and the trees1 spring forth through the rain and sunshine sent by ,nyongmo ,nyongmo ne ',nyongmo rains'1 how should he not be the creator8 ,so he is invoked with prayer and rite4 ,the great ,babylonian god1 ,marduk1 son of ,ea 7god of wisdom and spells71 alone succeeds in overcoming the might of ,tiamat 7the ,hebrew tehm or deep71 the primeval chaos with her hideous brood of monsters1 and out of her carcass makes the firmament of heaven4 ,he arranges the stations of the stars1 he founds the earth1 and places man upon it4 ,his word is established1 cries the poet1 his command is unchangeable3 wide is his heart1 broad is his compassion4 ,a conqueror so splendid could not relinquish his energy1 or rest on his achievements3 he must remain on the throne of the world to direct and support its ways4 ,here is a prayer of ,nebuchadrezzar to this lofty deity-- ,o eternal ruler1 lord of all being1 grant that the name of the king thou lovest1 whose name thou hast proclaimed1 may flourish as seems pleasing to thee4 ,lead him in the right #aad way4 ,i am the prince that obeys thee1 the creature of thy hand4 ,thou hast created me1 and hast entrusted to me dominion over mankind4 ,according to thy mercy1 ,o lord1 which thou bestowest upon all1 may thy supreme rule be merciful6 ,the worship of thy divinity implant within my heart4 ,grant me what seems good to thee1 for thou art he that hast fashioned my life4 ,on the other hand1 the ,high ,gods of ,low ,races often seem to fade away and become inactive1 or at least are out of relations to man4 ,olorun1 lord of the sky among the ,african ,egbas1 also bore the title of ,eleda1 the ,creator4 ,but he was too remote and exalted to be the object of human worship1 and no prayer was offered to him4 ,among the southern ,arunta of central ,australia1 reports ,mr4 ,strehlow1 ,altjira is believed to live in the sky4 ,he is like a strong man save that he has emu feet4 ,he created the heavenly bodies1 sun1 moon1 and stars4 ,when rain-clouds come up1 it is ,altjira walking through the sky4 ,altjira shows himself to man in the lightning1 the thunder is his voice4 ,but though thus animate1 he is no object of worship4 ,altjira is a good god2 he never punishes man2 therefore the blacks do not fear him1 and render him neither prayer nor sacrifice4 ,in ,indian theology the reason for the discontinuance of homage was thus frankly stated by one of the poets #aae of the great epic1 the ,mahbhrata2 ,men worship iva the destroyer because they fear him2 ,vishnu the preserver1 because they hope from him2 but who worships ,brahman the creator8 ,his work is done4#a #a ,hopkins1 ,india1 ,old and ,new1 p4 #aac4 ,prof4 ,hopkins adds that in ,india to-day there are thousands of temples to iva and ,vishnu1 but only two to ,brahman4 ,if the deity who has provided the scene of existence thus recedes into the background1 it is otherwise with the powers which maintain and foster life4 ,among the impulses which drive man to action is the need of food2 and the sources of its supply are among the earliest objects of his regard4 ,a large group of agencies thus gradually wins recognition1 out of which emerge lofty forms endowed with functions far transcending the simple energies at first ascribed to them4 ,even the rude tribes of ,australia1 possessing no definite worship1 perform pantomimic ceremonies of a magical kind1 designed to stimulate the food supply4 ,the men of the plum-tree totem will pretend to knock down plums and eat them2 in the initiation ceremony of the eagle-hawks two representatives will imitate the flapping of wings and the movements of attack1 and one will finally wrench a piece of meat out of the other's mouth4 ,at a higher stage of animism the ,indians of ,british ,north ,america pray to the spirit of the wild raspberry4 ,when the young shoots are six or eight inches high above the ground1 a small bundle is #aaf picked by the wife or daughters of the chief and cooked in a new pot4 ,the settlement assembles in a great circle1 with the presiding chief and the medicine-man in the midst4 ,all close their eyes1 except certain assisting elders1 while the chief offers a silent prayer that the spirit of the plants will be propitious to them1 and grant them a good supply of suckers4 ,here the whole class of plants is already conceived as under the control of a single power4 ,in ruder stages the hunter will address his petitions to the individual bear1 before whose massive stature he feels a certain awe1 entreating him not to be angry or fight1 but to take pity on him4 ,pastoral peoples will employ domesticated animals in sacrifice1 while the products of the field occupy a second place2 the cow may become sacred1 and the daily work of the dairy may rise1 as among the ,todas1 to the rank of religious ritual4 ,some element of mysterious energy will even lie in the weapons of the chase1 in the net or the canoe1 and may be found still lingering in the implements of agriculture1 such as the plough4 ,among settled communities which live by tillage the succession of the crops from year to year acquires immense importance4 ,earth and sky1 the sun1 the rain1 and time itself in the background1 are all contributory powers1 but attention is fastened upon the spirit of the grains4 ,the ,iroquois look on the spirits of corn1 of squashes1 and of beans1 as three #aag sisters1 who are known collectively as ,our ,life or ,our ,supporters4 ,in central ,america each class of food-plants had its corresponding spirit1 which presided over its germination1 nourishment1 and growth4 ,this was called the mama or mother of the plant3 in ,peru there was a cocoa-mother1 a potato-mother1 a maize-mother2 just as in ,india the cotton-spirit is worshipped as cotton-mother4 ,a maize-mother1 made of the finest stalks1 was renewed at each harvest1 that the seed might preserve its vitality4 ,the figure1 richly clothed1 was ceremoniously installed1 and watched for three nights4 ,sacrifice was solemnly offered1 and the interpreter inquired1 ,maize-mother1 canst thou live till next year8 ,if the spirit answered affirmatively1 the figure remained for a twelvemonth2 if no reply was vouchsafed1 it was taken away and burnt1 and a fresh one was consecrated4 ,in ,mexico maize was a much more important food than in ,peru1 and the maize-deity acquired in consequence a much higher rank4 ,she became a great harvest goddess4 ,temple and altar were dedicated to her2 spring and summer festivals were celebrated in her honour2 and a youthful victim was slain1 whose vitality might enter the soil1 and recruit her exhausted energies4 ,the ceremonies connected with the cultus of the rice-spirit in the ,east ,indies still perpetuate in living faith beliefs once vital #aah in the peasantry of ,europe1 and surviving to this day 7as ,mannhardt and ,frazer have shown7 in many a usage of the harvest-field4 ,out of this group of ideas arise divine forms which express mysteries of life and time4 ,what is it that guides the circle of the year8 ,what power brings forth the blade out of the ground1 and clothes the woods with verdure8 ,as the months follow their constant course1 are not the seasons the organs of some sacred force1 lovely figures as ,greek poets taught1 born of ,zeus and ,themis 7holy law72 or angels of the ,most ,high1 ruling over heat and cold1 summer and winter1 spring and autumn1 as the later ,israel conceived the continuance of ,god's creative work8 ,and when the fields are bare and the leaves fall1 have not the energies of vegetation suffered an arrest1 to come to life again when the great quickening of the spring returns8 ,so while here and there dim speculations 7as in ,india or ,persia or the ,orphic hymns of ,greece7 hover round ,time1 the generator of all things1 and the recurring periodicity of the ,year1 more concrete imagination conceives the processes of the growth1 decay1 and revival of vegetation under the symbols of the life1 the death1 and resurrection of the deities of corn and tree4 ,to such a group belong different forms in ,egypt1 ,syria and ,greece1 whose precise origin cannot always be traced amid the bewildering variety of functions which they came to fulfil4 ,but they all illustrate the same general theme4 #aai ,in the ritual of their worship similar motives and symbols may be traced2 and the incidents of their life-course were presented in a sort of sacred drama which reproduced the central mystery4 ,such were ,osiris in ,egypt1 ,adonis 7as the ,greeks called the ,syrian form of the ancient ,babylonian ,tammuz71 ,attis of ,phrygia in ,asia ,minor1 and in ,greece the ,thracian ,dionysus1 and the divine pair ,demeter and her daughter ,persephon blended with the figure of ,kor the ,maid4 ,the worship of ,osiris early spread throughout ,egypt1 and its various phases have given rise to many interpretations of his origin and nature4 ,recent studies have converged upon the view that he was primarily a vegetation deity4 ,in the festival of sowing1 small images of the god formed out of sand or vegetable earth and corn1 with yellow faces and green cheek-bones1 were solemnly buried1 those of the preceding year being removed4 ,on the temple wall of his chamber at ,phil stalks of corn were depicted springing from his dead body1 while a priest poured water on them from a pitcher4 ,this was the mystery of him who springs from the returning waters4 ,the annual inundation brought quickening to the seed1 and in the silence and darkness of the earth it died to live4 ,of this process ,osiris became the type for thousands of years4 ,already in the earliest days of the ,egyptian monarchy he is presented as the divine-human king1 benevolent1 wise1 #abj just4 ,to him in later times the arts and laws of civilised life could be traced back2 he was the founder of the social order and the worship of the gods4 ,but the jealousy of his brother ,set brought about his death4 ,the ancient texts do not explicitly state what followed4 ,but his body was cut to pieces and his limbs were scattered1 until his son ,horus effected their reunion4 ,restored to life1 he ascended to the skies1 and became ,chief of the ,powers1 so that he could be addressed as the ,great ,god4 ,there by his resurrection he became the pledge of immortality4 ,each man who died looked to him for the gift of life4 ,mystically identified with him1 the deceased bore the god's name and was thus admitted into fellowship with him4 ,over his body the ceremonies once performed upon ,osiris were repeated1 the same formul were recited1 with the conviction that as surely as ,osiris lives1 so shall he live also4 ,but magic was early checked by morals1 and by the sixth dynasty ,osiris had also become the august and impartial judge 7p4 #h74 ,such might be the splendid evolution of a deity of the grains4 ,but food was not1 of course1 the only need4 ,the family as well as each individual must be maintained4 ,mysterious powers wrought through sex4 ,strange energies pulsed in processes of quickening1 and these1 too1 were interpreted in terms of divine agency4 ,they found their parallels in the operations of nature 7like the ,yang and #aba ,yin of ancient ,china71 and begot new series of heavenly forms4 ,the greater gods all had their consorts4 ,birth must be placed under divine protection1 just as the organ of generation might itself be sacred4 ,the ,babylonian looked to the spouse of ,marduk1 creator of all things1 to whom as ,zr-pantum1 seed-creatress1 the processes of generation were especially referred4 ,or with ceremony and incantation the child was set beneath the care of ,ishtar1 queen of ,nineveh1 and goddess of the planet ,venus4 ,the ,greek prayed to ,hera1 ,artemis1 or ,eileithyia2 and all round the world superhuman powers1 for good or ill1 gathered round the infant life1 whose aid must be sought1 or whose hurt averted4 ,dread agencies of disease1 like fever1 smallpox1 or cholera1 were in like manner personalised4 ,demonic forces cut short the tale of years4 ,from the equator to the arctic zone ,death is ascribed in the lowest culture to witchcraft4 ,strange stories were told of his intrusion into the world1 commonly through man's transgression of some divine command4 ,and gradually the other world must be ruled like this2 the multitudes of the dead need a sovereign like the living2 and after the fashion of ,osiris the ,indian ,yama1 first to spy out the path to the unseen realm1 becomes the ,king of ,righteousness before whom all must in due time give their account 7p4 #bdd74 ,such deities1 however1 represent much more than the physical life4 ,they have a social #abb character1 and have become the expression of organised morality4 ,on this field another group of divine powers comes into view1 symbols of order in the home or the city1 charged with the maintenance of the family or the ,state4 ,round the hearth-fire gathers a peculiar sanctity4 ,there is the common centre of domestic interests2 there1 too1 the agent by which gifts are conveyed to the spirits of the dead4 ,there1 then1 was a sacred force1 dwelling in the hearth itself1 and animating the fire that burned upon it4 ,the ,greek ,hestia seems originally to have been not the goddess who made the hearth holy1 nor the sacrificial fire which it sustained1 but the mysterious energy in the actual stones upholding the consecrated flame4 ,all kinds of associations were attached to it2 and though her personality remained somewhat dim and indistinct1 and carven forms of her were rare1 and her worship was never sacerdotalised like that of the ,latin ,vesta1 she nevertheless had the first place in sacrifice and prayer4 ,she was worshipped in the city council-hall4 ,athenian colonists carried her sacred fire across the seas4 ,the poets provided her with a pedigree1 and made her sister of ,god most high1 and of ,hera the partner of his throne4 ,the sculptor placed her statue at ,athens beside that of ,peace4 ,the family deity expanded into an emblem of the unity of government and race4 ,but the primitive character of the ancient hearth-power still clung to her4 #abc ,she never rose into the lofty functions of guide and protector of moral order like the great city-gods ,zeus1 ,athena1 or ,apollo4 ,in ,rome numerous powers were recognised in early days as guardians of the home and the farm-lands4 ,vesta had her seat upon the hearth1 which was the centre of the family worship1 and afterwards became the object of an important city-cult4 ,the store-chamber behind was the dwelling-place of the ,penates1 and with its contents no impure person might meddle4 ,where farm met farm stood the chapel of the local ,lares1 and there whole households assembled1 masters and slaves together1 in annual rejoicings and good fellowship4 ,brought into the home1 the ,lar became the symbol of the family life1 and the ancestral pieties gathered round him4 ,more vague and elastic was the conception of the ,genius1 a kind of spiritual double who watched over the fortunes of the head of the home1 and through the marriage-bed provided for the continuity of descent4 ,this protecting power could take many forms with continually expanding jurisdiction4 ,the city1 the colony1 the province1 the land of ,britain1 ,rome1 the ,emperor himself1 were thus placed under divine care1 or rather were viewed as in some way the organs of superhuman power4 ,in the energy which built up states and brought peoples into order lived something that was creative and divine4 ,from distant times in many forms of society #abd it was felt that there was something mysterious in sovereignty4 ,the king 7once connected with the priest7 was hedged round with some sort of divinity which expressed itself in language amazing to the modern mind4 ,in the ancient monarchies of ,egypt and ,babylon the royal deity was the fundamental assumption of government1 and it was represented upon the monuments beside the ,nile with startling realism4 ,in later days the ,greek title ,theos 7god7 was boldly assumed by the sovereigns of ,egypt and ,syria4 ,it was conferred1 with the associated epithet ,sotr 7,saviour or ,preserver71 as early as #cjg ,b4,c41 on ,demetrius and his father ,antigonus1 who liberated ,athens from the tyranny of ,cassander4 ,on the ,rosetta stone 7in the ,british ,museum7 ,ptolemy ,v1 #bje ,b4,c41 claims the same dignity1 and is described as eternal-lived1 and the living image of ,zeus4 ,ephesus designated ,julius ,csar as ,god manifest and the common ,saviour of human life4 ,this is something more than the extravagance of court-scribes1 or the fawning adulation of oriental dependents4 ,in the worship paid to the ,roman ,emperor many feelings and associations were involved4 ,the power which had brought peace1 law1 order1 into the midst of a multitude of nations and languages1 and subdued to itself the jarring wills of men1 seemed something more than human4 ,when ,tertullian of ,carthage coined the strange word ,romanity1 he summed up the infinite #abe variety of energies which spread one culture from the ,persian ,gulf to the ,atlantic1 from the cataracts of the ,nile to the sources of the ,tyne4 ,of this mysterious force the ,emperor was the symbol4 ,so ,augustus was saluted throughout the ,east as ,son of ,god1 and in inscriptions recently discovered in ,asia ,minor1 and referred by the historian ,mommsen to the year #aa or #i ,b4,c41 we read the startling words3 the birthday of the ,god is become the beginning of glad tidings 7evangelia#b7 through him to the world4 ,he is described as the ,saviour of the whole human race2 he is the beginning of life and the end of sorrow that ever man was born4 ,an inscription at ,phil on the ,nile equated him with the greatest of ,greek deities1 for he is star of all ,greece who has arisen as great ,saviour ,zeus4 #b ,the word which designates our ,gospels4 ,this is the most highly developed form of the doctrine of the divine king1 which the ,far ,east has retained for the sovereigns of ,china and ,japan to our own day4 ,the language and practice of ,roman imperialism called forth the impassioned resistance of the early ,christians1 and the clash of opposing religions is nowhere portrayed with more desperate intensity than in the ,book of ,revelation at the close of our ,new ,testament1 where ,rome and her false worship are identified with the power of the ,opposer or ,stn1 and are hurled with all their trappings of wealth and luxury into the abyss4 #abf ,the conception of a god as saviour or deliverer is founded on incidents in personal or national experience1 when some unexpected event opens a way of escape from pressing danger4 ,when the ,gauls were advancing against ,rome in #chh ,b4,c41 a strange voice of warning was heard in the street4 ,it was neglected1 but when they had been repelled1 ,camillus erected an altar and temple to the mysterious ,speaker1 ,aius ,locutius1 whose prophetic energy was thus manifested4 ,in the second ,punic war1 when the ,carthaginian general1 ,hannibal1 was marching against the city in #baa ,b4,c41 he suddenly changed his course near the ,capena gate4 ,again the might of an unknown deity was displayed1 and the grateful ,romans raised a shrine to him under the name of ,tutanus ,rediculus1 the god who protects and turns back4 ,it might be the attack of an enemy1 it might be the imminence of shipwreck1 it might be a desolating plague1 or any one of the vicissitudes of fortune1 the distresses and anxieties of the soul or of the ,state1 in the power which brought rescue or health or peace to body or mind1 or life hereafter in a better world1 the grateful believer recognised the energy of some superhuman being4 ,just as the making of the world required a creative hand1 just as the arts and laws of social life were the product of some divine initiative 7p4 #aga71 just as the higher virtues belonged to a band of spiritual forces which had a kind of individuality of their own1 #abg so the shaping of affairs bore witness to the interest and intervention of wills above those of man4 ,all through the countries of the ,eastern ,mediterranean the greater deities1 such as ,apollo1 ,artemis1 ,athena1 sculapius1 ,dionysus1 ,isis1 ,zeus1 bore the title of ,deliverer4 ,and in the mysteries which drew so many worshippers to their rites in the first centuries of our era1 this deliverance took the form of salvation from sin1 and carried with it the promise of re-birth into eternal life4 ,similar conceptions are seen in ,india4 ,the founder of ,buddhism1 ,gotama of the ,skyan clan1 was believed to have attained the ,enlightenment which enabled him to discern the whole secret of existence4 ,after a long series of preparatory labours in previous lives he had appeared as a man in his last birth1 to lift off from the world the veils of ignorance and sin4 ,he had himself repudiated all ontological conceptions2 he had explained the human being without the hypothesis of a soul or self1 and the world without the ideas of substance or ,god4 ,but in due time the rejected metaphysics insisted on recognition2 and some three hundred years or more after his death a new interpretation of his person arose4 ,under the stress of pious affection1 the influence of philosophical ,brahmanism1 and the need of permanent spiritual help1 he was conceived as a manifestation of the ,infinite and ,eternal1 who for the sake of suffering humanity from time to time #abh condescended to seem to be born and die1 that in the likeness of a man he might impart the saving truth4 ,so he was presented as the ,self-,existent1 the ,father of the world1 the ,protector of all creatures1 the ,healer of men's sicknesses and sins4 ,over against this great figure ,brahmanism placed another1 that of ,vishnu1 with his series of descents1 in which the ,buddha was formally incorporated as the ninth4 ,the most famous of these were the heroes ,rama and ,krishna2 and ,krishna became the subject of the best-known book of ,indian devotion1 the ,bhagavad-,gita or the ,divine ,lay1 which has been sometimes supposed to show traces of the influence of the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john4 ,here was a religion founded on the idea of divine grace or favour on the one part1 and adoring love and devotion on the other4 ,krishna1 also1 taught a way of deliverance from the evils of human passion and attachment to the world2 and ,vishnu came to be the embodiment of divine beneficence1 at once the power which maintained the universe and revealed himself from time to time to man4 ,vishnu was an ancient ,vedic deity connected with the sun2 and by his side ,hindu theology set another god of venerable antiquity1 once fierce and destructive1 but now known under the name of iva1 the auspicious4 ,the great epic entitled the ,mahbhrata does not conceal their rivalry2 but with the facility of identification #abi characteristic of ,indian thought1 either deity could be interpreted as a form of the other4 iva became the representative of the energies of dissolution and reproduction2 and his worship begot in the hearts of the medival poets an ardent piety1 while in other aspects it degenerated into physical passion on the one side and extreme asceticism on the other4 ,but in association with ,brahma1 ,vishnu and iva constituted the ,trimurti1 or triple form1 embracing the principles of the creation1 preservation1 destruction1 and renewal of the world4 ,symbolised1 like the ,christian ,trinity1 by three heads growing on one stem1#c these lofty figures were the personal manifestations of the ,universal ,spirit1 the ,sole ,existence1 the ultimate ,being1 ,intelligence1 and ,bliss4 #c ,some of the ,celtic deities are three-faced1 or three-headed4 ,by various paths was the goal of monotheism approached1 but popular practice perpetually clung to lower worships1 and philosophy could often accommodate them with ingenious justifications4 ,a bold and decisive judgment like that of the ,egyptian ,akhnaton might fix on one of the great powers of nature--the sun--as the most suitable emblem of ,deity to be adored1 and forbid all other cults4 ,or the various groups and ranks of divine beings might be addressed in a kind of collective totality1 like the all-gods of the ,vedic hymns4 ,at ,olympia #acj there was a common altar for all the gods2 and a frequent dedication of ,roman altars in later days consecrated them to ,jupiter ,greatest and ,best1 and the ,other ,immortal ,gods4 ,if reflection was sufficiently advanced to coin abstract terms for deity1 like the ,babylonian 'ilth1 or the ,vedic asuratva or devatva1 some poet might apprehend the ultimate unity1 and lay it down that the great asuratva of the devas is one4 ,both ,india and ,greece reached the conception of a unity of energy in diversity of operation2 the ,one with many names was the theme of the ancient ,hindu seers long before schylus in almost identical words proclaimed ,one form with many names4 ,the great sky-god ,zeus1 whose personality could be almost completely detached from the visible firmament1 brought the whole world under his sway1 and from the fifth century before ,christ ,greek poetry abounded in lofty monotheistic language which the early ,christian apologists freely quoted in their own defence4 ,a philosophic sovereign like ,nezahuatl1 lord of ,tezcuco1 might build a temple to the ,unknown ,god1 the ,cause of ,causes1 where no idol should be reared for worship1 nor any sacrifice of blood be offered4 ,but other motives were more often at work4 ,conquest led to the identification of the deities of the victor and the vanquished2 and the importance of military triumph enhanced the majesty of the successful god4 ,in his great inscription #aca on ,mount ,behistun ,darius celebrated the grandeur of ,ahura ,mazda1 ,lord ,all-,wise1 in language resembling that of a ,hebrew psalm1 ,a great ,god is ,ahura ,mazda1 the greatest of the gods4 ,under the ,roman ,empire the principle of delegated authority could be invoked to explain the unity of the ,godhead above inferior agencies2 in the heavenly order there was but one sovereign1 though there were many functionaries4 ,even ,israel had its hierarchy of ministering spirits1 and the ,synagogue found it necessary to forbid pious ,jews to pray to ,michael or to ,gabriel4 ,when the unity of the moral order was combined with the unity of creative might1 the transition to monotheism was even more complete4 ,it could1 indeed1 be deferred4 ,in the ancient poems of the great religious reformer whom the ,greeks called ,zoroaster1 ,ahura ,mazda is the supremely ,good4 ,beside him are the ,immortal ,holy ,ones1 ,holy ,spirit1 ,good ,mind1 ,righteous ,order1 and the rest4 ,true1 in the oppositions of light and darkness1 heat and cold1 health and sickness1 plenty and want1 life and death1 he is for a time hampered by the enmity of the ,lie2 but the power of evil would be finally destroyed1 and the sovereignty of ,ahura established for ever 7p4 #bdg74 ,from another point of view the divine purpose of deliverance must be conceived upon an equally world-wide scale4 ,one type of ,indian ,buddhism looked to ,avalokitevara #acb 7,chinese ,kwanyin1 ,japanese ,kwannon71 who made the famous vow not to enter into final peace until all beings--even the worst of demons in the lowest hell--should know the saving truth and be converted4 ,and in the ,far ,east rises the figure of the ,buddha of ,infinite ,light1 who is also the ,buddha of ,infinite ,life1 whose grace will avail for universal redemption 7p4 #ah74 ,the motive of creation falls away4 ,the world is the scene of the moral forces set in motion under the mysterious power of the ,deed4 ,no praise rises to ,amida for the wonders of the universe or the blessings of life4 ,but to no other may worship be offered4 ,here is a monotheism where love reigns supreme1 and it is content to trust that ,infinite ,mercy will achieve its end4 #acc ,,chapter ,v ,,sacred ,,acts ,one morning1 ,plato tells us1 as ,socrates was in the ,porch of the ,king ,archon1 he met ,euthyphro1 a learned ,athenian soothsayer1 on his way to accuse his father of impiety for having caused the death of a slave4 ,socrates1 who was also expecting an accusation against himself1 engaged him in a conversation1 as his manner was1 on the nature of impiety1 and its opposite1 piety4 ,the talk leads ,euthyphro to maintain that piety or holiness consists in learning how to please the gods in word and deed1 by prayers and sacrifices4 ,then1 inquires ,socrates1 sacrifice is giving to the gods1 and prayer is asking of the gods8 and ,euthyphro is driven to assent to the conclusion that piety is an art which gods and men have of doing business with one another4 ,it was a satirical description of the popular ,greek view4 ,but the argument of ,socrates really corresponds to world-wide practice4 ,however dim and confused the elements of belief may be1 every tribe has some rites and ceremonies which express the desire to get the ,powers #acd which encompass it upon its side4 ,and when this desire1 after many ineffectual trials1 has succeeded in establishing suitable methods of approach1 the endeavours which produce the result tend to become fixed2 they are cherished from generation to generation2 they form solemn customs which must be maintained with strict inviolate order1 even though their original meaning may have been long forgotten4 ,belief may fluctuate in a kind of fluid medium of imagination1 but action cannot have this indeterminate and elastic character4 ,action is the mode through which feeling obtains expression1 while it helps at the same time to intensify the emotion which calls it forth4 ,the rite must be done or omitted2 it cannot trail off into shadow and vagueness4 ,and it gathers the whole weight of tribal sanction around it2 so that even the simplest elements of common usage are moulded under the powerful pressure of the weight of ages4 ,the active side of religion may be considered under two aspects4 ,there is1 on the one hand1 the effort to enter into helpful relations with the energies which pervade nature and operate on man4 ,such efforts spring from manifold emotions of hope and fear1 of affection and reverence4 ,they seek to inaugurate such relations2 to maintain them through the vicissitudes of experience1 the phases of life1 the sequences of time2 and to renew them when they have suffered sudden #ace shock or gradual decay4 ,by such action the original emotion is reawakened when it has declined1 and is raised to greater vividness and higher tension4 ,it may be summed up in the term worship1 including sacrifice and prayer1 often associated with a wide range of acts cognate in purpose1 as well as with manifold varieties of sacred persons and sacred products 7,chap4 ,,vi74 ,and1 secondly1 apart from public or private acts of homage1 thanksgiving1 submission1 propitiation1 addressed specifically to the higher ,powers1 there are modes of behaviour which are believed to be pleasing or displeasing to them4 ,some things may be done1 and others may not4 ,certain acts1 or words1 or even thoughts1 are forbidden2 others are enjoined4 ,the sphere of daily conduct is thus brought into connection with what is above4 ,act1 said the ,japanese teacher of ,shinto1 ,hirata1 in the last century1 so that you shall not be ashamed before the ,kami 7p4 #ic74 ,it was a universal rule4 ,morality is thus placed under the guardianship of religion 7,chap4 ,,vii74 ,at the funeral of ,lord ,palmerston 7#ahfe71 the chief mourner was observed to drop several diamond and gold rings upon the coffin as it was lowered into the grave4 ,a little child1 seeing a steam-tram advance with irresistible might along the road1 offered it her bun4 ,it may be surprising to meet with a piece #acf of the primitive ritual of the dead in the midst of a sophisticated and conventional society2 but when strong feeling is excited something must be done to give it relief1 and in parting with his rings the donor found the outlet for his emotion as irrationally as the child before the monster which excited at once her wonder and her impulse of goodwill4 ,out of such impulses of self-expression1 it may be suggested1 arises the largest class of sacrifices1 when gifts are made in doing various kinds of business with the gods4 ,in its widest use the word covers an extensive range of purposes1 and begets a large variety of questions4 ,on whose behalf is the offering made1 a single individual1 or some social group1 his family or clan1 a secret society1 a tribe1 a nation8 ,what persons are required for the due performance of the rite1 the head of the family1 the village magistrate1 the fetish man1 the priest8 ,a complicated ,vedic sacrifice needed the co-operation of various orders of priests4 ,what objects are effected by it1 a house or city-gate to be protected1 a river to be crossed1 a battle to be won1 a covenant or contract to be sealed8 ,to what powers does the worshipper address himself1 in gratitude1 homage1 or submission1 seeking renewal of favour1 or purging himself of some sin1 or desiring actual fellowship with his god8 ,behind these external features lie more difficult problems in connection especially with animal sacrifices1 concerned #acg with the victim's qualities1 and the appropriation of them by the deity or the worshipper2 with the peculiar sanctity of blood1 and the mysterious properties which it can impart2 with the notion of the transmission of the life of which it was the vehicle2 and the whole set of indefinite influences capable of propagation by contact1 like the clean and the unclean1 the common and the holy4 ,and why1 when the victim was offered1 was the god supposed to be satisfied with bones and entrails and a modest piece of meat1 all wrapped in fat8 ,greek wonder at so strange a practice could find no better answer than the tale of how ,prometheus once cheated the gods of their share1 and men had ever since followed his example4 ,these questions belong to the obscure realm of beginnings1 in which various answers are possible4 ,all that can be attempted here is to offer a few illustrations of the different motives that seem to lie behind different forms of rite4 ,offerings to the dead pass through a long series of stages1 from the simple provision for the wants of the dead man in the grave up to his proper equipment with all that is due to his rank and state in the next life1 or the maintenance of the ties of guardianship and protection over unborn generations4 ,the earliest human remains imply some dim belief that the grave was the dead man's dwelling 7p4 #bj71 and there he must be supplied with the requisites for some kind of continued #ach existence4 ,all over the world1 food1 weapons1 ornaments1 utensils1 are found deposited in barrow and tomb2 and this practice culminates in the complicated arrangements of an ,egyptian sepulchre1 where the wealthy landowner constructed an enduring home for his double1 and filled it with representations and objects which could be magically converted to his entertainment after death4 ,when the dead man passes into another world1 and enters a land resembling that which he has left 7,chap4 ,,viii71 he may need wives and slaves appropriate to his rank4 ,from ancient ,japan and still more ancient ,china all round the globe to ,mexico are traces of such ritual murder4 ,the widow's self-devotion was exalted in ,india to religious duty1 and cases still occasionally occur when 7in spite of the ,british ,government7 she seeks to mount the pyre and immolate herself beside her husband's corpse4 ,in ,west ,africa the ghastly tale of the ,grand ,customs of ,dahomey in the last century is well known2 and it is supposed that thousands of lives are still annually sacrificed in the ,dark ,continent to this belief4 ,other personal needs must be supplied1 and on the ,gold ,coast in the last century an observer saw fine clothes and gold buried with the chief2 and a flask of rum1 his pipe and tobacco1 were laid ready to his hand4 ,moreover1 goods of all kinds can be made over by fire2 and in the funeral rites of a ,chinese family a paper house with paper #aci furniture and large quantities of paper money may be burned for the endowment of a departed member in his next life4 ,or the offering may be made for the cherishing of the dead in their former home4 ,the simplest and the most common sacrificial act in ,melanesia1 ,bishop ,codrington tells us1 is that of throwing a small portion of food to the dead4 ,it may be nothing more than a bit of yam or a morsel of betel-nut2 it is not for food1 but for remembrance and affection4 ,but sometimes it is for actual nourishment4 ,the dead in ancient ,india who had none to render to them the needful sustenance1 wandered as dismal ghosts round their former dwellings1 or haunted the cross roads1 compelled to feed themselves on the garbage of the streets4 ,the funeral meals1 continued at intervals1 were celebrated for the purpose of providing the departed with new forms1 and converting them into the higher rank of ,fathers4 ,in many lands1 from ,europe to ,japan and ,central ,america1 an annual feast for the dead has been maintained in various modes both in classic antiquity and in modern usage2 and the ancient practice still survives in strangely altered fashion in the cakes and confectionery carried on ,all ,souls' ,day to the graves in the great ,parisian cemetery of ,pre ,lachaise4 ,such acts of recognition and fellowship pass through very different stages4 ,they begin with a desire for self-identification with the #adj mysterious power which helps or hurts2 as the power is conceived on a greater and more personal scale they turn into tribute and homage4 ,the ,west ,african negro passing a big rock or an unusually large tree will add a stone or bit of wood or tuft of grass to the little heap of such trifles at its foot2 it is for the ,ombwiri1 or spirit of the place4 ,after the harvest on the plateau of ,lake ,tanganyika1 pilgrimages are made to the mountain of ,fwambo-,liamba2 at the top is a sort of altar of small stones1 and there scraps of calico1 bits of wood1 flowers1 beads1 are laid in honour of a vague ,high ,god called ,lesa4 ,the nature of such gifts may be traced through all gradations of economic advance1 just as the mode of conveying it passes through various phases from the coarse to the refined4 ,the pastoral nomad brings the firstling of his flocks2 the more advanced agriculturist adds the produce of the ground4 ,the immigrant ,hebrew under ,canaanite tuition adopted the festivals of harvest and vintage1 and with firstlings and tithes wrought his husbandry into his religion when he went to the sanctuary to see ,yahweh's face4 ,the daily sacrifice in the great temple of ,marduk at ,babylon under ,nebuchadrezzar was an epitome of the whole tillage of the land2 the choicest fruits1 the finest produce of the meadow1 honey1 cream1 oil1 wine of different vintages1 must be served4 ,in the early ritual of an ,egyptian temple1 when the daily toilet of the god had #ada been performed and he had been duly robed1 painted1 and oiled1 his table was spread with bread1 goose1 beef1 wine1 and water1 and decorated with the flowers needed to adorn a meal4 ,in many cases such offerings carried with them the additional purpose of actually increasing the vigour of the god4 ,dim notions of promoting the divine vitality hovered in the background4 ,the physical effect might be reached by divers modes4 ,food was at first conveyed by actual contact2 it might be smeared upon the idol's mouth4 ,offerings to earth spirits were buried in the ground4 ,water deities received them when they were thrown into the well1 the river1 or the lake4 ,even in ,greece ,poseidon's horses were driven into the sea1 just as the horses of the defeated ,mallius were offered by the ,gallic victors to the ,rhine4 ,indian realism provided the ,fathers who assembled for the rice-ball sacrifice with water and tufts of wool to cleanse themselves after the meal4 ,in more refined usage fire conveyed the essence of the food to the upper airs4 ,at ,noah's sacrifice on the subsidence of the flood ,yahweh smelt the sweet savour1 and in the corresponding ,babylonian narrative the gods1 drawn by the scent1 gathered together around the offerer like flies4 ,the ,american ,osages invited the ,great ,spirit1 ,fire1 and ,earth1 to smoke with them at the beginning of a new enterprise4 ,the ,sioux lighted the pipe of peace and offered it #adb to the sun1 with the invocation1 ,smoke1 ,o ,sun4 ,many and various are the ideals which have gathered round the offering1 as magic and religion have strangely blended4 ,the sacred tree1 whether among the ,celts of the ,west or the ,syrians of the ,east1 is hung with rags of clothing1 sometimes doubtless with the same motive which prompts similar gifts at the tomb of a ,mohammedan saint1 for the transference of diseases from the sick4 ,the highest value was reached among the ancient ,irish1 as among the ,semites1 in the sacrifice of the first-born2 and the long tale of human victims indicates man's passionate desire to secure in divers forms supernatural aid4 ,they have been slain in crises of national danger by plague or war1 in atonement for sin1#a or in thanksgiving for victory4 ,they have been immured in the foundations of houses or cities that their spirits might remain as guardians of the gates4 ,they have been done to death in the seasons of the agricultural year that their lives might fertilise the soil and quicken the grain4 ,they have been forced to yield their entrails to the diviner that the secrets of the future might be unveiled4 #a ,the sacrifices of purification and atonement are briefly considered in ,chapter ,,vii4 ,brahmanical speculation carried the ideas of sympathetic magic in association with sacrifice to their highest pitch4 ,the ,vedic hymns early formulated the idea of reciprocal #adc obligation in the crudest terms3 ,dehi me1 dadmi te--,give to me1 ,i give to thee4 ,but this simple relation was superseded in the priestly ceremonial by elaborate parallels between the daily order of the ritual and the daily order of the skies4 ,the earthly sacrifices were the counterparts of those offered by celestial priests4 ,the ,fathers accomplished the rising of the sun2 and when the heavenly process was imitated in the world below1 the kindling of the sacred fire came to be regarded as the actual instrument for stimulating and maintaining the activities above4 ,from a yet higher point of view the whole world had issued from the mysterious sacrifice of a cosmic ,man 7described in one of the latest hymns of the ,rig-,veda71 out of whose person the visible universe1 the ,veda1 and the human race in four castes1 had been created4 ,in the ,brahmanical theology his place was taken by ,prajpati1 the ,lord of ,creatures1 who underwent repeated offering in every sacrifice4 ,and just as the primeval sacrifice effected the generation of the world1 so every fresh oblation was a miniature reproduction of the cosmic event4 ,the ,lord who had been dismembered must be reconstituted that he might offer himself anew2 and thus sacrifice was blended with the course of ,time and the period of the ,year1 and the perpetual dissolution and renewal of the life that animated the mighty frame of earth and heaven4 ,in that upper world1 moreover1 the sacrificer1 #add through mystical identification with ,prajpati1 was enabled to prepare a new body for the celestial abode1 and out of the altar-ground below to generate his future divine self in the world above4 ,along other lines the conception of fellowship with ,deity may be realised through a common act4 ,above the personal fetish of a ,gold ,coast negro to which he made offerings of rum and palm-wine1 oil1 corn1 sheep1 goats1 stood the patron god of the family4 ,before a separation which would prevent them from ever again worshipping together1 they engaged in a strange kind of communion4 ,the fetish-priest pounded up some sacred substance and mixed it with water1 which was then drunk by the whole family in turn4 ,during the rite the priest enjoined all present in the name of the deity to abstain from some particular kind of food1 fish1 beef1 fowl1 milk1 or other article of diet4 ,none of the company tasted it again4 ,they were united by the deity within them2 and obedience to his command bound them1 however far apart1 in common worship4 ,sometimes the worshipper sat at the table of the god1 who was in some sense present at the meal celebrated in his honour4 ,in the usage of ancient ,israel the householder shared with his family1 kinsmen1 neighbours1 and guests1 in the sacred feast before ,yahweh4 ,how far the belief in ,yahweh's presence was actually cherished by the participants cannot #ade be definitely affirmed2 it does not appear1 for instance1 in the ,babylonian ritual4 ,but a corresponding idea may certainly be traced in ,greece and ,rome4 ,from the early cult of the sacred stone or pillar as the abode of deity1 some kind of divine power inhered in the altar and the image2 and when the members of the clan feasted together on solemn occasions1 the clan-god was present with his worshippers4 ,the ,greek ritual sometimes provided a place for the table-companions or parasites1 at sacred banquets1 such as were held in the temples of ,apollo at ,acharn or ,delos4 ,an inscription at ,magnesia describes a festival of twelve gods1 whose images1 adorned with festal array1 were carried into the marketplace1 and arranged on three cushions under a canopy4 ,when sacrifices had been offered1 the priests and people partook of a common meal with the gods4 ,the old ,latins and other ,italians believed the deities of the house to be present at their meals4 ,the ,penates1 ,mr4 ,warde ,fowler tells us1 were the spirits of the foods4 ,rome celebrated its solemn feast of ,jove in the ,capitoline temple every ,september on full-moon day1 when ,jupiter1 with his face painted red1 ,juno1 and ,minerva1 were present in their statues to share the meal with the magistrates and ,senate of the city4 ,to lay a couch for the god 7as we might say to lay a table7 was a common phrase4 ,recently discovered papyri1 illustrating so #adf many aspects of daily life in the ,eastern ,mediterranean1 show that such hospitalities were of frequent occurrence1 alike in temples and in private houses4 ,among the precious remains from ,oxyrhynchus are such notes as this3 ,antonius son of ,ptolemus invites you to dine with him at the table of our ,lord ,sarapis in the house of ,claudius ,sarapion on the #afth at #i o'clock4 ,but the worshipper might not only eat with the god1 he might more rarely1 and under special circumstances1 even eat him4 ,a more intimate union was thus effected4 ,when the altar imparted its sanctity to the victim laid upon it1 the holy food distributed to the worshipper had some kind of divine presence in it1 and virtue passed through the meat into the eater4 ,the late ,prof4 ,robertson ,smith1 in his famous lectures on the ,religion of the ,semites1 endeavoured to show that sacrifice originally consisted in slaying the animal of the totem-group1 of which members of the totem-kin partook so that they received into their own persons the divine power incarnated in the totem animal4 ,further research has failed to confirm this view2 but a similar conception has been illustrated from another side4 ,the agricultural usages of which ,dr4 ,frazer has collected so many examples1 show how out of the last sheaf1 which had become the home of the corn-spirit1 the grain was baked in human form as its embodiment1 and solemnly eaten4 ,in the ,east ,indian archipelago1 on #adg the island of ,buro1 the approaching rice-harvest was welcomed by a tribal meeting when each man brought some first-fruits from the fields1 and the meal of inauguration was known as eating the soul of the rice4 ,twice a year was the great ,mexican deity ,huitzilopochtli presented in the form of dough images to his worshippers1 and with elaborate ceremonies was consumed4 ,tezcatlipoca1 in like manner1 chief god of the ,aztecs1 represented by a handsome and noble captive wearing the divine emblems1 was slain on the great altar2 the body of the victim was respectfully carried down into the court below1 divided into small pieces1 and distributed among priests and nobles as blessed food4 ,it is strange to find such savagery associated with prayers of exalted fervour and devotion4 ,but ecstasy is roused by various means1 and is not affronted at the most brutal rites4 ,there were incidents in the ,orphic cult of the ,thracian ,dionysus grouped under the name of the ,omophagy 7literally raw-eating7 of like character4 ,in frenzied excitement the devotees flung themselves on bull or goat1 rent it asunder1 and devoured the bleeding flesh4 ,such was the condition of securing the actual entry of the god into the believer's person1 so that he became entheos1 with the god inside him4 ,words have strange histories1 and few now remember1 when they describe the welcome of a monarch by acclaiming crowds1 or the excitement roused by a #adh great orator1 what was the earlier meaning of enthusiasm4 ,in the art which gods and men have of doing business with each other1 ,socrates associated sacrifice with prayer 7p4 #acc74 ,the association is world-wide1 and here religion reaches its utmost inwardness4 ,the feeling which expresses itself in action will also prompt gesture and speech2 rude rhythms mould words into chant and song2 and even without a definite object of address some utterance breathes a desire4 ,may it be well with the buffaloes1 may they not suffer from disease and die 444 may there be water and grass in plenty4 ,so runs the dairy-ritual of the ,indian ,todas1 without the direct invocation of any gods4 ,but there is no element here of compulsion or constraint4 ,the distinction between prayer and spell is clear2 the attitude is religious1 not magical4 ,on the other hand1 sacrifices are sometimes offered to a ,high ,god1 as by the ,dinkas of the ,bahr-el-,ghazal in ,central ,africa to ,deng-deet1 who is described as ,ruler of the universe1 ,creator of mankind1 the actual ,father of human beings2 but1 adds ,captain ,cummins1 imagine it does not occur to them to pray4 ,others1 by contrast1 make morning and evening prayer part of their daily practice2 the ,nandi of ,east ,africa concludes his devotions 7addressed to ,asista1 the ordinary word for the sun73 ,i have prayed to thee1 thou #adi sleepest and thou goest1 ,i have prayed to thee1 do not say ',i am tired4' ,sometimes prayer is offered only to the powers of mischief4 ,the ,lepchas of the ,himalayas told ,dr4 ,hooker that they did not pray to the good spirits4 ,why should we8 ,they do us no harm2 the evil spirits that dwell in every grove and rock and mountain1 to them we must pray1 for they hurt us4 ,to the ,australian it may seem foolishness to address ,baiame from day to day3 he knows1 why weary him by repetitions1 disturbing his rest after his earthly labours8 ,but the impulse of prayer does not always take articulate form1 any more than it always seeks a personal object2 and after long residence among the ,euahlayi in ,south ,east ,australia ,mrs4 ,langloh ,parker pleaded that the man who invoked aid in his hour of danger1 or the woman who crooned over her babe an incantation to keep him honest and true1 shared1 however dimly1 the same spirit of devotion which elsewhere prompts elaborate litanies4 ,it is with a pious reserve that the ,khonds of ,orissa pray3 ,we are ignorant of what it is good for us to ask for4 ,you know what is good for us2 give it to us4 ,prayer in the lower culture is rarely individualised4 ,it is almost always a social act4 ,common prayers for food or rain1 for protection against danger1 the removal of pestilence1 victory over enemies1 represent the wants of all4 ,the group may be the family1 as in the evening worship of the #aej ,samoan householder1 who pours a little of his cup of ava on the ground1 and prays for health1 productive plantations1 and plenty of fruit4 ,on the ,lower ,niger ,major ,leonard found worship offered daily before an image or emblem believed to contain the spirits of more immediate ancestors3 ,preserve our lives1 ,o ,spirit ,father1 who hast gone before1 and make thy house fruitful1 so that we thy children shall increase and multiply and so grow rich and powerful4 ,such prayers may be traced through many expanding phases up to the higher petitions which seek to place the civic and moral life under the guidance of the heroic dead4 ,the element of bargain or contract which ,socrates so sarcastically emphasised1 here drops away4 ,to what god or what hero shall we pray1 inquired the people of ,corcyra1 weary of internal strife1 at the oracle of ,dodona1 in order to obtain concord1 and to govern our city fairly and well8 ,chinese statecraft well understood the significance of such worship as a social bond4 ,the ancient author of the ,l ,ch1 or ,book of ,rites1 laid it down that the prayers of the principal in the sacrifice to the spirits1 and the benedictions of the representatives of the departed1 are carefully framed4 ,the object of all ceremonies is to bring down the spirits from above1 even their ancestors2 serving also to rectify the relations between ruler and minister1 to maintain the generous feeling between father #aea and son1 and the harmony between elder and younger brother1 to adjust the relations between high and low1 and to give their proper places to husband and wife4 ,the whole may be said to secure the blessing of ,heaven4 ,attention is thus concentrated upon common sentiments and universal relationships1 and prayer acquires a deeper ethical meaning4 ,it then comes to rest upon devout experience1 which seeks to interpret life in relation to the permanent forces of justice which are believed to rule the world4 ,the hymns of ,egypt celebrate in lofty terms the majesty and beneficence of the gods1 and the psalmists of the ,nile sang of the divine love encompassing all lands1 setting every man in his place1 and amid diversities of colour and speech supplying all human needs4 ,the ,babylonian poets addressed ,shamash or ,sin1 sun or moon1 as the symbols of the universal order of nature1 the witnesses of thought and deed over the wide earth1 the rulers on whom man could place unchanging reliance4 ,the ,vedic singer found a similar figure of moral sovereignty in ,varuna 7p4 #ajf74 ,out of the depths of her distress ,hecuba 7in the ,trojan ,women7 appeals to the mysterious ,power whom she can still glorify in her anguish3 ,thou deep base of the world1 and thou high throne above the world1 whoe'er thou art1 unknown and hard of surmise1 chain of things to be1 or reason of our reason1 ,god1 to thee ,i lift my praise1 seeing the silent road #aeb that bringeth justice ere the end be trod to all that breathes and dies4 ,with a yet firmer confidence could the ,peruvian in the sixteenth century record this prayer to the ,world-animating ,spirit3 ,o ,pchacmac1 thou who hast existed from the beginning1 and shalt exist unto the end1 who createst man by saying ,let man be1 who defendest us from evil1 and preservest our life and health1 art thou in the sky or in the earth1 in the clouds or in the depths8 ,hear the voice of him who implores thee1 and grant him his petitions4 ,give us life everlasting2 preserve us1 and accept this our sacrifice4 ,two or three thousand years before1 the pious ,egyptian had been bidden to enter quietly into the sanctuary of ,god1 to whom clamour is abhorrent4 ,pray to him with a longing heart in which all thy words are hidden1 so will he grant thy request1 and hear that which thou sayest and accept thy offering4 ,dear was this silent worship to the higher teachers4 ,a hymn to ,thoth 7p4 #h7 addresses him as ,thou sweet spring for the thirsty in the desert1 adding1 ,it is closed for those who speak there1 it is open for those who keep silence there4 ,when the silent man cometh1 he findeth the spring4 ,petitions such as these1 rooted in ethical sentiment1 demand as their moral condition purity of heart and concentration of thought4 ,the prophets of all ages have protested against formalism and insincerity4 ,the ,japanese #aec god of learning1 ,temmangu1 was once a distinguished statesman4 ,but he fell into unmerited disgrace 7,a4,d4 #ija71 and was banished4 ,posthumously vindicated1 he was promoted to the rank of deity1 and declared through his oracle1 ,all ye who come before me hoping to attain the accomplishment of your desires1 pray with hearts pure from falsehood1 clean within and without1 reflecting the truth like a mirror4 ,the disposition of prayer must be that of life also4 ,it was with reference to similar slander to that from which ,temmangu had suffered1 that ,pindar cried1 ,never be this mind in me1 ,o ,father ,zeus1 but to the paths of simplicity let me cleave throughout my life1 that when dead ,i may set upon my children a name that shall be of no ill repute4 ,and ,socrates prays1 as he and ,phdrus rise from the shade of the plane-tree where they have been talking1 ,beloved ,pan1 and all ye other gods that haunt this place1 give me beauty in the inward soul1 and may the outward and the inward man be at one3 to which ,phdrus adds1 ,ask the same for me1 for friends should have all things in common4 ,the need of righteousness begets penitence and confession4 ,a ,buddhist liturgy issued in ,china in #adab with a preface by the ,emperor ,yung ,loh of the ,ming dynasty1 after the opening invocations1 proceeded thus3 ,we and all men from the very first1 by reason of the grievous sins we have committed in #aed thought1 word1 and deed1 have lived in ignorance of all the ,buddhas1 and of any way of escape from the consequences of our conduct4 ,we have followed only the course of this evil world1 nor have we known aught of ,supreme ,wisdom1 and even now1 though enlightened as to our duty1 yet with others we still commit heavy sins1 which prevent us from advancing in true knowledge4 ,therefore in the presence of ,kwan ,yin the ,chinese form of ,avalokitevara1 p4 #aca1 and the ,buddhas of the ten regions1 we would humble ourselves1 and repent of our sins4444 ,for the sake of all sentient creatures in whatever capacity they be1 would that all obstacles may be removed1 we confess our sins and repent4 ,a higher note is sounded here than in the famous penitential psalms of ancient ,babylon1 where the poet1 smitten with various distresses1 laments the unknown sins which have roused the anger of his god1 and passes into fierce incantations against the demonic powers which are the instruments of the divine wrath4 ,here prayer makes a close alliance with magic3 and its formul are always in danger of this degeneration4 ,in the old ,italian ritual of a guild at ,iguvium the exact titles of the deity must be rehearsed1 and the proper words recited4 ,the slightest slip invalidated the entire rite1 and the officiating priest was required to repeat the whole over again4 ,to this rigid adhesion to consecrated #aee forms we owe the preservation of antique liturgical expressions left stranded in priestly usage4 ,such phrases acquired a semi-magical power4 ,the ,honover 7,ahuna ,vairya71 or most sacred verse of the ancient ,persian scriptures1 became a charm against evil in the fight with ,ahriman and his hosts4 ,passages from the ,koran are used by ,mohammedans as amulets against danger4 ,the ,buddhist formula ,om mani padme hum is a protection from mischievous influences1 like the ,lord's ,prayer in the ,middle ,ages2 and the prayer-wheels and prayer-mills of ,mongolia1 in endeavouring to enlist the aid of ,nature1 and harness wind and water in the service of religion1 have only turned devotion into a mechanical device4 ,in the long story of ,indian religion many notes are struck in the wide range of human want1 of divine grace1 and adoring faith4 ,the ,vedic poets speak with full hearts of the simple joys of earth2 the happiness of home with its passionate desires for children and long life2 the pleasures of wealth in horses and chariots and cows4 ,rescue from poverty or danger1 victory over the godless enemy1 influence in the assembly and superiority in debate1 these are the gifts which are sought with the utmost directness of speech3 ,if ,i1 ,o ,indra1 were like thee1 the single sovereign of all wealth1 my worshipper should be rich in kine4 ,but other tones are not wanting3 ,aditi1 ,mitra1 ,varuna1 forgive us1 however #aef we have sinned against you3 ,before this ,varuna 7p4 #ajf7 may we be sinless1 him who shows mercy even to the sinner4 ,with the development of ,brahmanical speculation prayer rises to more abstract ideas3 ,lead me from darkness to light1 from falsehood to truth1 from death to the deathless4 ,the association of prayer and magic is seen in the fact that the very term brahma has the double meaning of prayer and spell1 something like the ,greek euch or the ,hebrew bless1 which could imply a curse as well as a prayer4 ,but in its higher sense it gave birth to the ,lord of ,prayer1 ,brahmanaspati1 a kind of house-priest of the gods1 a heavenly personification of the priesthood on earth1 in whom resided the power of influencing events by prayer and incantation4 ,nay1 just as the hymns came to be regarded as originally existing in the realm of the infinite and the undying 7p4 #ab71 so prayer was said to have been born of yore in heaven4 ,and thus the ,lord of ,prayer acquires a more lofty character as its generator and inspirer2 he is even called the ,father of the gods2 and the very universe depends upon him1 for he holds asunder the ends of the earth4 ,in the shining company of deities1 moreover1 stand ,sacred ,speech1 and ,devotion1 and ,lovely ,praise1 and ,holy ,thought1 with others of the goodly fellowship of ,prayer1 to attest its power1 and approve its worth4 ,the subsequent devotion of ,india aspires #aeg by different paths to reach communion with the ,infinite ,spirit or ,universal ,self4 ,the supreme reality is presented in the triple aspects of ,being1 ,thought1 and ,bliss 7saccidnanda74 ,to know him alone as the ,self of all selves1 is the goal rather of meditation than of prayer4 ,existence1 understanding1 and joy1 these are the ultimates of all experience1 and he who has attained them prays no more3 ,seeking for emancipation ,i go for refuge to that ,god who is the guiding light to the understanding of all souls4 ,this is the note of much of the later mystical piety of ,hinduism4 ,it speaks in the language both of religion and of philosophy4 ,in the first1 the believer looks to his heavenly ,lord with adoring faith 7p4 #abh7 and lowly love 7bhakti71 and feels the inflowing of divine favour or grace 7prasda74 ,the long line of medival poets transmitted from generation to generation passionate impulses of devotion which expressed themselves again and again in legend and song4 ,search in thy heart1 pleaded the weaver ,kabir in the fifteenth century1 search in thy heart of hearts1 there is ,god's place of abode4 ,not1 however1 without conditions3 ,unless you have a forgiving spirit1 you will not see ,god4 ,he might describe himself in his humility as the worst of men2 that only made the marvel of divine grace more wonderful3 ,i am thy son2 ,thou art my ,father2 we both live in the same place4 #aeh ,on the philosophical side a modern manual of ,hindu practice endeavours to combine religion and metaphysics4 ,ere the believer rises from bed in the morning he should confess his unworthiness3 ,o ,lord of the universe1 ,o ,all-,consciousness1 presiding ,deity of all1 ,vishnu1 at thy bidding1 and to please thee alone1 ,i rise this morning1 and enter on the discharge of my daily duties4 ,i know what is righteous1 yet ,i feel no attraction for it2 ,i know what is not righteous1 yet ,i have no repulsion from it4 ,o ,lord of the senses1 ,o ,thou seated in the heart1 may ,i do thy commands as ordered by thee in my conscience4 ,but in order to remind him of his divine origin1 in this age of sordid interests and low ideals1 he is enjoined also to look upon himself as the reflected image of ,god1 the ,eternal1 the ,all-,knowing1 the ,all-,glad1 and to recite the ancient verse1 ,i am divine and not anything else1 ,i am indeed ,brahma above all sorrows1 my form is ,being1 ,intelligence1 and ,bliss1 and eternally free is my nature4 ,the duties of offering and prayer may be performed from day to day1 or they may be reserved for special occasions of enterprise1 danger1 and thanksgiving4 ,they mark the incidents of the week1 the month1 the year2 there are sabbaths1 new moons1 seed-time and harvest1 and new year festivals4 ,this periodicity affects the whole community together4 ,but there are also personal events1 marking #aei successive stages in each individual career1 which must be placed under the shelter of religion1 and do not all occur at the same time4 ,from his entry into the world to his departure from it each person passes at certain crises out of one condition into another1 and the transition requires the protection of the powers above4 ,birth1 the attainment of adolescence1 marriage1 death1 are the chief occasions marked by what ,m4 van ,gennep has called rites of passage4 ,they are all connected with mysteries of life4 ,for life1 in the lower culture1 is exposed perpetually to dangers of all kinds4 ,demonic influences continually threaten it2 strange pollutions beset it2 the blood in which it is often located has about it something weird1 uncanny1 sometimes unclean4 ,so there are preliminary rites for bringing in the soul of the child as yet unborn from its home in the ground1 among the flowers and trees1 or in wells and lakes and running streams4 ,among tribes which regard the mother as unclean before birth1 the uncleanness is transmitted to the child1 and ceremonies of purification must be performed for both4 ,the child must be guarded against the evil eye1 perils of infection of various kinds1 or the attacks of hostile demons4 ,the ritual of cleansing must be scrupulously performed4 ,when ,apollo and the future ,buddha were born1 divine beings received them2 ,apollo was washed in fair water1 and wondrous #afj streams1 warm and cold1 descended from the sky for the ,indian babe4 ,sometimes there is such haste to place the infant under divine care that it is borne away at once to the temple1 as ,turner noticed among the ,nanumangans of ,hudson's island1 that its first breathings1 when only a few seconds old1 may take place in the presence of the god1 and his blessing be invoked on the essentials of its life4 ,around the cradle friendly influences must be secured1 the child must be duly incorporated into the circle of the cosmic powers and of human life4 ,he is laid upon the ground for contact with the supporting earth1 and presented to the great vivifier1 the sun1 or held over the fire4 ,out of the bath grew a rite of immersion designed to solemnise his admission into the guild of mankind1 and wash away the strange element of evil which seemed to inhere in human nature4 ,in ,peru this was exorcised by the priest1 who bade it enter the water1 which was then buried in the ground4 ,the ,aztec ritual of baptism1 according to the native writer ,sahagun1 began3 ,o child1 receive the water of the lord of the world which is our life4 ,it is to wash and purify4 ,may these drops remove the sin which was given to thee before the creation of the world1 since all of us are under its power4 ,this was a real act of regeneration1 for the priest concluded3 ,now he liveth anew1 and is born anew1 now he is #afa purified and cleansed1 now our ,mother the water again bringeth him into the world4 ,after purification comes the ceremony of giving the name1 fittingly performed in the temple1 as in ,greece1 ,rome1 or ,mexico4 ,elements of personality inhere so strangely in names1 that this rite also acquires great significance4 ,perhaps the name of some ancestor is chosen1 who may thus endow the child with some of his qualities1 or at least be invoked for protection and aid4 ,divine powers have watched over his birth 7p4 #aba72 others may decide his destiny1 like the three ,greek fateful goddesses ,klotho1 ,lachesis1 and ,atropos1 or the venerable ,scandinavian ,norns4 ,or the aid of the stars must be invoked1 and a horoscope must be prepared by the astrologer4 ,sometimes a special guardian power may be chosen for the infant1 sometimes the choice is reserved for him at a later stage4 ,or he may be dedicated from the outset to some hallowed service1 as the child ,samuel was given to ,yahweh4 ,more important even than the rites of birth and infancy are those of the attainment of adolescence1 when the youth is admitted to the privileges of manhood and instructed in the secrets of the tribe4 ,all round the world the lower culture has its ceremonies of initiation1 which have sometimes survived in more refined forms in more highly organised societies4 ,they involve seclusion from the common life1 for no woman must be cognisant #afb of what takes place1 severe bodily trials to test the youth's power of endurance--fasts1 scourging1 loss of front teeth1 tattooing 7so that his status may be recognisable at once7 and other forms of personal scarification and pain1 under which the feeble sink1 and the happiest are those who die1 escaping the humiliations of the weakling's lot4 ,long abstinence in lonely places begets strange dreams and visions1 and raises nervous excitability to its highest pitch4 ,strange forms appear with hideous faces and mysterious trappings2 appalling sounds are heard2 and it is only when the hours of terror are past that the initiated learns that the awful figures were his own kinsmen in masks and disguises1 and the ,australian is told that what he took to be the signal of ,daramulun's advent was produced by the whirling of the bull-roarer4 ,in the midst of these pantomimic incidents the novice dies to rise again4 ,perhaps he is buried in the fetish-house2 or he passes through the bath into his new condition2 or he is vivified by the sprinkling of blood4 ,but he awakes to a fresh life4 ,he must be utterly forgetful of the old2 he must even sometimes feign ignorance of his parents' home and names4 ,the elders then impart to him the customs and traditions of the tribe4 ,he learns the rules of conduct1 and duties of reverence and obedience to the aged1 who are thus1 in tribes without formal government1 placed under the protection of religion4 ,the #afc strain of prolonged excitement and attention fixes precept and counsel indelibly upon his memory1 and he knows that the penalty of betrayal will be death4 ,the ancient ,indian ritual was more refined4 ,the three upper castes1 the ,brahman1 the noble1 and the cultivator of the land1 belonged to the twice-born4 ,only to these was the study of the ,veda permitted4 ,when the youth was led to his teacher to be invested with the sacred thread1 the symbol of his dignity1 blessings were uttered and holy water was sprinkled on him4 ,then for the first time was he permitted to repeat the sacred verse 7known as the ,gyatr1 ,rig ,veda1 iii4 #fb1 #aj71 ,let us meditate on that excellent glory of the divine ,vivifier1 may he enlighten our understandings1 which is still recited daily by millions of devout ,hindus4 ,one of the later books of the ,zoroastrian faith lays down that it is necessary for all those of the good religion to celebrate the ritual and become navazd1 newly born1 or born again4 ,the ceremony began with a purification which lasted nine nights1 and included sprinkling with water2 the candidate for the priesthood must be of the age of fifteen2 he must confess his sins1 endure the scourge2 and might then be regarded as regenerate4 ,within the whole group of initiates secret societies were often formed1 bound together by special vows1 and using the instrumentality of religion4 ,observers in ,west ,africa and #afd elsewhere 7they are also common in ,polynesia and ,melanesia7 have differed widely as to their value1 some denouncing them for their intolerable tyranny1 others finding them useful agents of police4 ,they are the forerunners of more purely religious associations such as may be seen in the mysteries of ,greece4 ,here1 too1 were ceremonies of initiation1 here were pantomimic representations of divine events1 secrets of communion with deity1 and promises of life beyond the grave4 ,most famous1 of course1 were the mysteries of ,eleusis1 in charge of the great family of the ,eumolpids4 ,already in the ,homeric hymn to ,demeter1 before the days of ,jeremiah and ,ezekiel1 all ,greece had been bidden to come to ,eleusis1 and receive initiation into the rites of the ,lady ,mother and the ,maid4 ,there were preliminaries of purification1 which a ,christian apologist like ,clement of ,alexandria could compare with the baptism of the ,church4 ,cleansed from the stain of sin1 the candidate was required to be devout and holy4 ,what was the precise nature of the revelation which he was permitted to see is uncertain4 ,the passion-drama of the mother's loss of her daughter1 her search and recovery1 may have grown out of some seasonal vegetation ceremonies4 ,but they had taken on higher meanings4 ,the secret might not be divulged in detail2 there is1 however1 a large amount of testimony that ideas of death and re-birth or resurrection #afe played a great part in this1 as in other mystery-religions2 the ,homeric hymn to ,demeter holds out intimations of immortality2 and by some kind of communion with the deity the salvation of the believer was assured4 ,the rites of the ,phrygian ,sabazius touch the processes of the lower culture at more than one point4 ,in his great oration on the ,crown 7#cae ,b4,c47 ,demosthenes twits his opponent schines in such terms as these3 ,you assisted your mother in the initiations1 you read aloud the books 7the ritual prayers71 and took part in the rest of the plot4 ,you put on 7or1 you robed the candidates in7 fawn-skins2 you sprinkled them with water from the bowl2 you purified and rubbed them with clay and bran1 then you raised them from their purification1 and bade them say1 ',i have fled the bad1 and found the better4' ,on the gold ,orphic tablets discovered in ,south ,italy and ,crete occur strange phrases3 ,i1 a kid1 fell into the milk1 ,o blessed and happy one1 thou hast put off thy mortality and hast become divine1 which are interpreted with great probability as references to a ritual of milk-baptism in which the initiate was born again4 ,that idea was certain expressed in the mysteries of ,isis1 which were widely spread in the ,eastern ,mediterranean 7p4 #dj74 ,here1 too1 was a solemn kind of death and re-birth2 here1 too1 lustrations of the purest water1 the priestly declaration of the pardon of the #aff gods1 the mystic revelation of the ,goddess1 herself identified with all deities in turn2 and here1 after the vision1 the assurance of a blessed life to come4 ,the candidate for initiation into the rites of ,mithra must mount slowly through seven stages4 ,the details of the ritual of the successive grades are unknown2 but in accordance with ancient ,iranian practice repeated ablutions were imposed till the cleansing waters had washed away all stains of guilt4 ,the ,mithraic sacraments so closely resembled ,christian usage that they were vehemently denounced by ,church writers as a ,satanic parody4 ,they were certainly supposed to secure happiness in the world to come4 ,the believer who had passed through the blood-bath of the slaughtered bull was said to be re-born for ever4 ,associated with sacrifice and prayer1 and partaking at once of the characters of magic and mystery1 is the sacred dance4 ,rhythmic movement of body and limbs readily becomes the expression of strong feeling2 and the feeling in its turn may be reawakened by the solemn renewal of the action4 ,when it imitates the motions of the warrior or the huntsman it comes to possess a magical value1 and the women who remain at home will dance all day while their husbands are engaged in battle or the chase4 ,does it not quicken their courage or enhance their skill8 ,the child in an elementary school now learns #afg his action-songs1 and sows the grain and reaps the harvest4 ,he does not1 however1 suppose that he is promoting nature's work4 ,but the women whose social progress has advanced to agriculture1 instead of imitating the gambols of the wolf or bear1 will celebrate the operations of the fields to stimulate their effectiveness1 and at a later stage still will go forth into the vineyards with timbrel and song4 ,there are dances for courtship and marriage1 dances in initiations and mysteries1 dances even for the funeral4 ,there are solemn preparations1 as in the snake-dance of the secret order of the ,snakes among the ,moquis of ,arizona1 when the members must not only wash the snakes1 but themselves as well and everything about them 7in the same water71 and fast for one day4 ,then any one who has been bitten will be healed1 and when the pipe is lit1 the clouds from it will rise and form rain-clouds1 and the rain will fall upon the altar and the sacred things4 ,or the dance will serve for the reunion of the tribe1 and becomes a great social as well as a religious institution4 ,the ,sun-dance of the ,blackfoot ,indians 7p4 #ce7 is the supreme expression of their religion1 and their great annual religious gathering4 ,it must originate in a woman's vow for the recovery of the sick1 and the ceremonies are spread over a considerable time4 ,some come for enjoyment1 some to fast and pray4 ,some must discharge their vows for the healing of sick kinsfolk2 others pay the price of deliverance #afh from peril by the infliction of self-torture in the sun-lodge4 ,the vow1 the fast1 and all the varied forms of asceticism which ,eastern religions have so abundantly produced1 all involve common elements of sacrifice and self-subjection4 ,the vow1 indeed1 has in part the nature of a contract4 ,it is not magic1 it is a bargain4 ,there is no constraint1 the deity may avail himself of what is offered1 or may not4 ,if ,yahweh will go with me1 says ,jacob1 and provide me food to eat and clothes to wear1 he shall be my god and get his tithe4 ,but the vow involves the surrender of something otherwise desirable4 ,it is the same with the ascetic1 who gives up food1 or clothing1 or sleep1 or the bath1 or speech1 or a fixed home2 who sits between four fires under a blazing sun2 who lacerates his back with the scourge or his flesh with knives2 who holds a flower-pot in his hand till the fingers grow round it immovably2 who hangs himself up by hooks in his bare back1 or loads himself from neck to feet with chains4 ,men may fast religiously to overcome bodily desire2 or to prepare the higher insight for strange openings of vision4 ,the continually stuffed body1 say the ,amazulu1 cannot see secret things4 ,lacordaire bade the brethren of his ,order scourge him that he might humble himself1 and taste the pain of his ,redeemer4 ,but the extremer forms of asceticism 7especially as a life-long practice7 are always based on the idea that they are in #afi themselves meritorious2 they produce desert and desert leads to reward4 ,they are a mode of establishing a claim on the future bounty of heaven2 they are1 after all1 only another form of doing business with the gods4 #agj ,,chapter ,,vi ,,sacred ,,products ,in the intimate connection of religion with life all primitive interests are placed under its sanction4 ,a large portion of time is occupied with its ceremonials4 ,the fortunes of the tribe are bound up with it4 ,to the bounty of its powers they owe abundant food and safety or success in war4 ,beneath its protection the newly born enter the world1 and to its care the elders are committed when they die4 ,its holy persons rule in their midst2 its holy places are all round about them2 its sacred objects are in their homes4 ,it is not surprising1 therefore1 that all the higher possessions of the tribe1 its arts and crafts1 its traditions1 its customs and laws1 its stories of the gods and their dealings with each other or with man1 should be ascribed to the same origin4 ,where individuality is hampered at every turn by time-honoured conventions1 and personal initiative is imperfectly developed and timidly confined within the narrowest limits1 all higher intellectual products1 command over nature1 inventions1 poetry and song1 the usages of #aga the social order1 and the rituals for serving the gods1 carry with them a secret force1 a mysterious authority1 which passes the bounds of human wisdom1 and has been imparted from some higher source4 ,each man is dimly conscious that his single wit could not have compassed these things2 he does not observe the long processes and imperceptible stages of advance2 he accepts the theory offered to him by those who should know best1 and looks back to the days when kindly powers took in hand the instruction of men4 ,thus at the present day many of the ,australian tribes whose condition has probably changed little since the date of the oldest civilisations of antiquity1 regard their scanty institutions as ordained by beings above4 ,ask the ,narrinyeri why they adhere to any custom1 the answer is that ,nurrundere commanded it4 ,baiame and ,bunjil laid down the marriage laws for their respective tribes2 ,bunjil1 moreover1 taught the ,kulin the arts of life2 and ,daramulun gave the ,yuin laws which the old people handed down from generation to generation4 ,the elaborate cultures of ,babylonia and ,egypt claimed similar origins4 ,in the vast prehistoric period before the ,flood the people round the lower ,euphrates had lived without rule or order1 like the beasts of the field1 till a wondrous ,fish-,man1 whom the ,greek historian called ,cannes1 appeared out of the ,persian ,gulf with wisdom from the sea4 ,he #agb taught them arts and laws1 and wrote concerning the generation of mankind1 their different ways of life1 and their civil polity4 ,it was no other than ,ea1 god of the encircling ,deep1 the source of all4 ,historic inscriptions told of his books1 which may have included ancient oracles1 and which certainly laid down the duties of a king4 ,so the famous code of ,hammurabi 7about #aiej ,b4,c471 recently discovered at ,susa 7#aija71 was handed to him1 as the tablet shows1 by the great ,sun-god1 ,shamash4 ,the ,egyptian priests1 perhaps as late as the great ,nineteenth ,dynasty1 before the days of ,moses1 threw into definite shape the vague traditions of immemorial antiquity1 when men had lived devouring one another1 ignorant how to till the ground4 ,osiris 7p4 #aai7 taught the art of tillage1 the use of the plough and hoe1 how to grow wheat and barley1 and the culture of the vine2 and ,isis added the domestic arts of making bread and weaving linen4 ,osiris1 moreover1 appointed the offerings to the gods1 regulated the ceremonies1 composed the texts and melodies of the hymns4 ,and among his successors was ,thoth of ,hermopolis 7p4 #h71 who introduced astronomy and divination1 medicine1 arithmetic1 and geometry1 and whose books1 embracing a kind of religious encyclopdia1 were known to the ,christian teacher1 ,clement of ,alexandria1 in the second century of our era4 #agc ,so ,zeus gave laws to ,minos in ,crete1 and ,apollo revealed the ,spartan constitution to ,lycurgus2 ,numa1 the traditional founder of the ,roman ceremonial law1 received instruction from the nymph ,egeria4 ,the shepherd slave1 ,zaleucus 7whom ,eusebius placed about #ffj ,b4,c471 taught the ,locrians what ,athena had first taught him1 and prefaced his laws by enjoining them to revere the gods as the real causes of all things fair and good in life1 and keep their hearts pure from all evil1 inasmuch as the gods do not take pleasure in the sacrifices of the wicked1 but in the righteous and fair conduct of the good4 ,from the ,new ,world come a series of similar figures4 ,mr4 ,curtin claims to show that the vast area of the ,american continent is pervaded by one system of thought incalculably old4 ,in the central group of the most sacred personages is the ,earth with ,sky and ,sun conceived sometimes as identical sometimes as distinct4 ,the ,earth-maiden on whom the ,sun has gazed1 becomes a mother1 and gives birth to a great hero4 ,he bestows on men all gifts that support existence1 and it is through him that the race lives and prospers4 ,to the ,algonkins he was ,michabo or ,manibozho1 the ,great ,light1 who imparted vision1 author of wisdom1 arts1 and institutions4 ,among the ,toltecs at ,tulla he was ,quetzalcoatl1 virgin-born1 founder of civilisation1 who organised worship without human or animal sacrifices1 and endured no #agd war4 ,the ,miztecs called him ,votan1 prince and legislator of his people1 representative of a higher wisdom1 so that he rose to be the mediator between earth and heaven4 ,in the plains of ,begota the white-bearded ,bohica appeared to the ,mozca ,indians1 taught them how to sow and build1 formed them into communities1 contrived an outlet for the waters of their great lake1 and1 having settled the government and the ritual1 retired into ascetic penance for two thousand years4 ,out of the depths of ,lake ,titicaca in ,peru there rose one day the son and daughter of the sun and moon1 ,manco ,capac and ,mama ,ogllo1 sent by their father in compassion for men's wretched plight4 ,they taught the ignorant folk agriculture1 the chief trades1 the art of building cities1 aqueducts1 and roads1 and ,mama ,ogllo showed the women how to spin and weave4 ,then when all was in order1 and overseers were appointed to see that each one did his duty1 they went back to the skies4 ,these stories all belong to the class known as myths4 ,they are not accounts of what actually happened1 they are the work of religious imagination operating on a particular group of facts1 and endeavouring to explain them4 ,the scope of mythology1 whatever may be its particular origins1 is of the widest compass4 ,it embraces the whole field of nature and life4 ,it first came into modern view through the study of classical antiquity #age in ,greece and ,rome4 ,the discovery of ,sanskrit and the investigation of its literature1 especially of the ,vedic hymns1 concentrated the attention of scholars for a time1 pre-eminently under the genius of ,max ,mller1 on the relations of myth to language1 and the resolution of various deities of ,india and ,greece into the phenomena of dawn and sunshine1 of the thunderstorm or the moon4 ,but it was gradually found necessary to abandon one after another of the philological identifications which had at one time been proposed with confidence4 ,new aspects of mythology demanded consideration4 ,it was not only concerned with the incidents and powers of nature1 or with the various relations of the gods4 ,it appeared also in the field of ritual4 ,it often contained antique secrets of the meaning of religious performance4 ,it was the key to the dramatised representations of the sacred dance1 the ceremonials on which depended the welfare of the tribe4 ,and in proportion as action acquired a larger psychological recognition in shaping the character of religion1 and belief receded into the background1 the significance of the development of myths was changed4 ,as religion1 however1 became more self-conscious1 the intellectual element in it gained more force and energy1 and the thinkers of the priestly schools endeavoured to bring the claims of different deities into some sort of order1 and regulate the hierarchy of heaven4 #agf ,but they were often confronted with ancient elements of savagery which could be imperfectly harmonised with the more refined ideas of a progressive culture4 ,thus already in ,homer1 ,zeus1 as supreme ,god1 bears one significant epithet2 he is mtieta1 full of mtis or counsel4 ,the word is of doubtful derivation1 but with the strong tendency of ,greek imagination to turn abstract ideas into persons1 ,mtis is presented by ,hesiod 7next in literary succession to ,homer7 as the daughter of ,ocean1 the ,hellenic equivalent of the ,babylonian ,deep1 source of all being even for the gods4 ,greek thought was not yet ripe for the ontological conception of wisdom or intelligence as inherent in the divine nature1 so the union of ,thought with ,zeus is represented mythologically as a marriage1 and ,mtis becomes the bride of the great king of gods and men4 ,the result is conceived in truly savage fashion4 ,in order to possess her in the most intimate manner1 and embody her in his own person1 ,zeus suddenly swallows her4 ,mythology1 of course1 has to provide a reason2 she would bear a son who would overthrow him4 ,the poet 7or perhaps his editor71 desirous of correcting this brutal selfishness1 suggests a further plea2 the goddess should be his perpetual monitor1 and warn him inwardly of good and evil4 ,the myth is being directly moralised4 ,whatever1 therefore1 may be the origins of myth1 whether in connection with tribal #agg tradition1 in the interpretation of the incidents of nature--as when a ,siberian described to ,baron von ,wrangell the occultation of one of ,jupiter's moons by saying that the blue star had swallowed another very small star and soon after vomited it up again--or in endeavours to picture the characters and relations of the gods1 the beginnings of the world1 the birth of man1 the entry of evil1 sin1 and death1 or the condition of those who have already passed away1 the myth becomes the reflex of the culture in the midst of which it rises4 ,it is the depository of human experience1 of man's criticism of his own life4 ,and in its representations of a distant age when gods visibly consorted with men1 and deigned to instruct them in the conditions of social welfare1 mythology is the direct product of religion4 ,when the gods have withdrawn from human fellowship1 and no longer choose their brides from the dwellers upon earth1 or even vouchsafe to appear among them in various forms for temporary help or promise of blessing1 the communications from heaven do not cease altogether4 ,the ,vedic poet might challenge the existence of ,indra1 the fool might say in his heart1 ,there is no ,god2 but the ,powers above never left themselves without a witness4 ,the negro going out of his hut one morning strikes his foot against a peculiarly shaped stone4 ,art thou there8 he inquires1 and recognises the presence of a guardian and #agh helper4 ,the ,samoan watches the behaviour of a spinning cocoa-nut1 or the flight of a bird to right or left4 ,the ,central ,asiatic notes the cracks on a tortoise's shell1 much as a modern palmist traces the lines in a human hand4 ,the liver is selected as the special seat of the prophetic faculty1 and ,babylonian and ,etruscan developed a common diagnosis of its marks4 ,the ,celt divined by the water of wells1 or the smoke and flames of ascending fires1 and slew his prisoners that the secrets of destiny might be discovered in their entrails4 ,china and ,rome made divination the basis of elaborate state systems4 ,rome produced a literature of ,augury1 with books of regulations and minutes of procedure1 while ,plato commended it as the art of fellowship between gods and men1 and the philosophy of the ,stoics justified it on the ground of a providential harmony between nature and man1 so that divine guidance was vouchsafed to human need4 ,did not clouds and stars move by ,heaven's great ordinance8 ,the lot took the responsibility of decision out of the hands of man1 and vested it in the presiding deity4 ,there is always a mystery in chance1 which could be interpreted as the will of ,god4 ,the oath implied that the heavenly ,powers could be at any moment summoned to attest man's veracity2 and the vow must be fulfilled1 though it might cost ,jephthah the sacrifice of his daughter4 ,perjury and broken vows were early recognised #agi among the gravest of crimes4 ,the ordeal was in like manner the inquisition of a divine judge4 ,when the ,adum draught was administered to an accused ,ashanti upon the ,gold ,coast1 the god condescended to enter with it2 he looked around for the signs of guilt1 and if he found none he returned with the nauseous mixture to the light of day4 ,it was a procedure analogous to the ancient rite embedded in the ,levitical ,law as the test of a wife's faithlessness 7cp4 ,num4 v4 #aa sqq474 ,another mystery lay in dreams1 which have been connected with supersensual powers all the world over4 ,to the savage who cannot analyse his experience the dream-world is as real as that of his waking hours4 ,the dreams that follow fasts1 whether compulsory through deficient food1 or voluntary through preparation for some solemn event1 possess peculiar vividness2 and1 when attention has been fixed upon some expected crisis1 readily acquire a prophetic significance4 ,divine forms are seen1 and strange intimations are conveyed from another world4 ,the dream verses of the ,icelander brought tidings from those who had been lost at sea4 ,to sleep upon the grave of a dead kinsman1 still more of a hero or a seer1 was the means of receiving communications from the wisdom of the dead4 ,did not philosophy teach that in sleep the mind is less hampered by its physical environment1 and attains truth more nearly2 #ahj and what condition was so suitable1 therefore1 for the beneficent revelation of a god8 ,in ,greece1 accordingly1 the practice of sleeping at the tombs of heroes or in the temples of gods was regularly organised4 ,the sanctuaries of sculapius1 of which more than two hundred can be traced round the ,eastern ,mediterranean and in ,italy1 were specially frequented by patients who resorted thither for medical treatment and the advice of the god4 ,the sufferer must pass through the preliminary discipline of the bath1 and to his purifications must add the due offering of a sheep4 ,the victim's fleece was carried into the holy precincts1 and on it the sick man lay down for the night4 ,in the visions of the dark hours the god appeared1 and prescribed the mode of cure1 or even condescended to operate himself4 ,an inscription at ,epidaurus records that the stiffened fingers of a patient were straightened out and restored for use by the god's own grasp4 ,was it surprising that sculapius should become the object of increasing reverence1 and in the second century of our era should be enthroned in the highest as ,saviour 7or ,preserver7 of the universe8 ,under other conditions the visitation of the god expresses itself in poetic form4 ,among the ruder peoples whose songs are of the simplest--perhaps the most childish--kind1 the faculty of rhythmic utterance seems superhuman4 ,words1 lines1 stanzas1 follow #aha each other with a spontaneity which seems out of the reach of ordinary effort4 ,the chants of worship have been again and again carried back to divine authorship in a distant past4 ,the marriage of speech with music is no art of man4 ,so the ,finnic hero1 ,winaminen1 conceived by the wind1 and born 7after seven hundred years in the womb7 by the maiden ,dmatar1 added to his gifts of fertility and fire the invention of the harp1 and the teaching of wisdom1 poetry1 and music to man4 ,odin was the god of wisdom and poetry for ,scandinavia1 god also of the holy draught1 which1 like the ,indian ,soma1 gave inspiration4 ,the poet brewed ,odin's mead1 bore ,odin's cup2 and in old ,teutonic speech was godh-mlugr1 god-inspired4 ,hermes passed in ,greece as the inventor of the lyre1 which he gave to ,apollo1 chief among the deities who declared to man the unerring counsel of ,zeus2 and ,homer already counts singer and song as alike divine4 ,the lovely forms of the ,muses1 daughters of ,zeus and ,memory1 or with an alternative mother in ,harmony1 were endowed with functions of song and prophecy1 and between them and the historic poets stood a group1 half mythical1 half human1 whose names were attached to actual hymns and poems4 ,such were ,orpheus1 ,musseus1 ,eumolpus1 ,thamyris1 and ,linos4 ,the verses ascribed to them tended to acquire an authoritative character2 they were cited as a rule or norm for conduct2 #ahb they were on the way to become a ,scripture4 ,homer and ,hesiod were employed in the same way2 and ,plato denounces the mendicant prophets who went to rich men's doors offering to make atonements1 and quoting ,homer and ,hesiod as religious guides4 ,nevertheless1 though he proposed to banish from his ideal ,state the poets who said unworthy things of the gods1 he elsewhere formulates the highest claim for poetry as a supernatural product4 ,the poets are only the interpreters of the gods by whom they are severally possessed2 ,god takes away the minds of the poets2 ,god himself is the speaker1 through them he is conversing with us4 ,it is the lament of the ,bantus of ,south ,africa that since the white man came the springs of music and song have ceased to flow3 ,the spirits are angry with their children1 and do not teach them any more4 ,another mode of converse between deity and man was found in the oracle4 ,widespread was the belief that through certain chosen persons or in certain peculiar spots the gods deigned to communicate with those who sought their aid4 ,such agencies were peculiarly numerous in the ,hellenic world1 and the oracle at ,delphi acquired supreme importance4 ,as early as the eighth century ,b4,c41 in the days of ,amos and ,isaiah1 it is rising into prominence as an authority that may take the leading place in ,greek religion4 ,at one time it almost seemed as if it might succeed #ahc in co-ordinating the separate and often opposing forces of the ,city ,states1 and blend them into national unity4 ,if that hope was ever cherished by its guardians1 they failed to realise it4 ,the higher minds discerned in it capacities which were never fulfilled4 ,they saw it give counsel to rival powers1 promote enterprise1 and support plans of colonisation4 ,they knew that it exercised a far-reaching moral authority2 it compelled reverence for oaths1 and secured respect for the lives of women1 suppliants1 and slaves2 and again and again in true prophetic spirit it subordinated ritual to ethical demands4 ,with the widest outlook over human affairs1 ,plato proposes to establish the midpoint of religious legislation in ,delphi at ,apollo's shrine3 ,he is the god who sits in the centre1 on the navel of the earth1 and he is the interpreter of religion to all mankind4 ,it is the note of universalism3 had not ,jeremiah proclaimed two centuries before on behalf of ,yahweh at ,jerusalem3 ,my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations8 ,when the ,israelites had renewed their temple in the days of ,darius1 and the scribes were beginning to busy themselves with the remains of their national literature1 ,greek writers also interested themselves in the collection of the utterances of the past4 ,about #ejj ,b4,c4 ,onomacritus gathered together the oracles of ,musus4 ,it was the first instance of what became a frequent practice #ahd in later days2 one of ,plato's disciples1 ,heracleides of ,pontus1 undertook a similar task2 so did ,chrysippus the ,stoic4 ,a special literature was thus begotten4 ,the circumstances which called for the successive oracles were duly narrated2 and had ,delphi maintained its early position1 here would have lain the nucleus of a ,scripture1 which might have developed into a permanent record of revelation4 ,italy1 in like manner1 had its libri fatales1 its sacred books of destiny4 ,there were ,etruscan oracles under the name of the nymph ,begoe or ,vegone2 there were the ,marcian ,songs1 said to have been adopted as genuine by the ,roman ,senate in #bac ,b4,c4 ,the ancient city of ,veii had its books2 ,tibur 7,tivoli7 the lots of the nymph ,albunea4 ,most famous of all were the ,sibylline books1 brought 7according to later tradition7 from ,cum to ,rome1 perhaps in the last days of the monarchy1 or a little later 7about #ejj ,b4,c471 and placed in the ,temple of ,jupiter on the ,capitol under the charge of two special guardians4 ,these were afterwards increased to ten1 and in the year #ea ,b4,c4 to fifteen4 ,the office remained till the books were destroyed in ,a4,d4 #djj1 when ,christianity had been finally established as the imperial religion4 ,what they contained is doubtful2 how they were consulted is not known4 ,their aid was sought after prodigies1 pestilence1 or disaster had awakened general alarm2 but their actual #ahe words were not made public4 ,nevertheless they supplied the basis for important religious innovations4 ,the introduction of ,greek deities by their sanction profoundly affected ,roman religious ideas1 and left deep marks on literature and art4 ,in the year #hc ,b4,c4 the temple which contained the books was burned4 ,the greatest anxiety was displayed for their restoration4 ,envoys were sent to ,sicily1 ,greece1 and ,asia ,minor to collect fresh verses2 they were deposited in a new temple1 and prophecies were founded on them in the last days of the ,republic4 ,but it was believed that spurious verses had got into circulation1 and ,augustus ordered a rigid examination4 ,some two thousand volumes1 it is alleged1 were destroyed2 those which were admitted as genuine were removed to a temple of ,apollo which ,augustus had himself dedicated on the ,palatine hill4 ,here are the characteristics of a ,canon4 ,the books are kept under special charge in a temple4 ,their authority suffices to modify old cults and introduce new4 ,when they perish1 they must be restored4 ,the false must be separated from the true1 the genuine eliminated from the spurious4 ,the ,amoral element in them seems to have been entirely subordinated to the ritual2 but they were believed to express in seasons of difficulty and danger the demands of the gods4 ,the transition to what are formally called ,sacred ,books leaves a considerable #ahf literature upon the boundary4 ,the collection of the ancient national ,finnic songs1 made with so much patience by the ,swedish ,lonrott1 under the name of the ,kalevala1 presents no claim to inspiration1 but it is the poetical expression of the national religion4 ,in the literature of the ,eddas1 the ,volospa 7p4 #bdh7 is a product of the prophetic spirit4 ,after ,herodotus remarked that ,homer and ,hesiod made the gods of the ,greeks1 the ,homeric poems acquired more and more authority1 until by the usage of centuries they gained a semi-canonical position4 ,lectures were given upon their sacred text1 and the most extravagant methods of interpretation were employed to reconcile them with the world-view of philosophy4 ,the ancient ,egyptian accepted the ,book of the ,dead as his guide to the next world4 ,chapters of it were inscribed on the walls of his tomb1 engraved on his coffin1 or laid inside it with his mummy4 ,it contained the charms needful for the preservation of his soul on its journey to the land of the ,west4 ,its authors were unknown1 but it contained the secrets of the life to come4 ,the ,bibles of ,humanity1 as the foundation-books of the great religions have been called1 belong to one continent4 ,asia has been the mother of them all4 ,the oldest takes shape in ,india in the ,vedic hymns2 and the immense literatures of ,brahmanism1 early and later ,buddhism1 and the ,hinduism which #ahg finally drove ,buddhism off the field1 follow in due course4 ,cognate in language with the immigrant ,aryans1 the ancient ,persians preserved1 amid many losses1 some of the compositions of their prophet ,zarathustra1 mingled with religious documents of later date1 known to modern students by the name ,zend ,avesta4 ,palestine produces ,judaism1 with its collection of national literature embracing law1 history1 prophecy1 poetry1 and wisdom4 ,judaism gives birth to ,christianity1 which sets its ,new ,testament beside the ,old2 and ,judaism and ,christianity lie behind ,mohammed and the ,koran1 where the person and the book blend in the closest union4 ,in the ,far ,east ,chinese culture reposes on the so-called ,classics1 the five ,king and the four ,shu1 which had a chequered history till they finally acquired their position as fountains of knowledge and models of composition4 ,the ancient odes of the ,sh ,king1 the traditions of rulers and the counsels of statesmen in the ,shu ,king1 the collections of the teaching of ,confucius and ,mencius1 and the remaining works which need not be mentioned here1 raise none of the claims which have been preferred for the ,indian ,veda1 or the ,christian ,bible4 ,nor does the singular little book of aphorisms ascribed to ,lao-,tsze1 which serves as the starting-point for ,taoism 7p4 #fg74 ,the ,shintoist of ,japan finds the earliest records of his religion in the national chronicles known as the ,kojiki and the ,nihongi2 and the #ahh modern believer1 who has been offered an infallible ,bible1 responds with a profession of faith in the practical inerrancy of his own traditional books4 ,some smaller communities claim a passing word4 ,the ,jains 7p4 #fa71 once the rivals of the ,buddhists1 possess a sacred literature only less copious4 ,group after group appears in medival ,india singing the hymns of its founder1 such as the ,kabir-panthis1 till the poet ,tulsi-,das 7born #aecb7 embodies in his version of the ancient ,rmyana the essence of ,hindu religion for some ninety millions from ,bengal to the ,punjab4 ,the ,sikhs 7p4 #fb7 stay themselves upon the words of their holy teachers in the di-,granth4 ,the followers of ,mani in the third century of our era1 who threatened the progress of the ,christian ,church1 and spread all the way from ,carthage to ,middle ,asia1 possessed a gospel and epistles of their ,prophet1 portions of which were brought to ,berlin a few years ago from ,chinese ,turkestan4 ,the ,druzes of the ,lebanon1 whose origin goes back to the ,caliph ,hakim at ,cairo in the eleventh century ,a4,d41 treasure the documents of the faith in #aaa treatises and epistles1 starting from ,hakim's vizier1 ,hamza4 ,and the hapless prophet of ,persia1 who designated himself the ,bab 7p4 #gj71 composed in the ,beyyan 7among numerous other works7 an exposition of the ,truth for his disciples4 ,for such small communities a sacred literature is in fact a necessity4 #ahi ,without it they have no adequate cohesion4 ,it is at least one of the conditions of permanent resistance to the forces of decay4 ,around the ,scriptures of the greater religions devout reverence has gathered with ardent faith4 ,the ,hindu term ,veda 7meaning literally knowledge7 has a narrower and a wider sense4 ,in its limited application it denotes the four collections of hymns1 of ritual formul1 and sacrificial songs1 of which the ,rig-,veda is the most important 7p4 #aj74 ,their history must be inferred from their contents2 of the circumstances of their formation there is no external evidence1 save that the early ,buddhist texts show that the fourth or ,atharva-,veda had not acquired canonical value in the days of the ,teacher ,gotama4 ,but the term ,veda is also extended to include a mass of ceremonial compositions known as ,brhmanas1 attached to one or other of the ancient collections1 and handed down in different religious schools4 ,these are all included more or less definitely in what a ,western theologian might term ,revelation4 ,they are technically designated as ruti or hearing2 they form the matter of the sacred teaching transmitted orally1 which must be reserved for a special order and not imparted to the world outside4 ,the books of household law1 on the other hand1 prescribing the domestic ceremonies for birth1 marriage1 and death1 regulating caste-privileges1 and laying down rules for #aij the conduct of life1 were open to all4 ,but just as the ,rig-,veda was exalted into a reproduction on earth of what existed eternally in heaven1 so endeavours were made to convert the legal works current in particular schools into sacred codes of divine origin4 ,one was boldly ascribed to ,vishnu1 who communicated it to the goddess of the earth4 ,another1 most famous of all1 was attached to ,manu1 the eponymous hero of the human race4 ,father ,manu he is called in the ,rig-,veda1 and as the sire of mankind he was the founder of social and moral order4 ,first king1 and ,rishi 7or seer7 privileged to behold the sacred texts1 he was the inventor of rites and author of the maxims of law4 ,and yet higher dignity belonged to him1 for he sprang from the ,self-,existent and could thus be identified with ,brahma himself2 and as ,prajpati 7p4 #adc7 he took part in the creation of the world4 ,in due course poetry and philosophy had their turn4 ,the immense epic known as the ,mahbhrata1 where tradition and myth and imaginative speculation are blended in rich confusion1 was put in the scales by the gods against the four ,vedas1 and its sanctity outweighed them all4 ,the ,buddhist ,scriptures were early grouped in three divisions under the title of the ,three ,baskets4 ,the teachings of the ,supremely ,enlightened were of course absolutely true1 and his rules for the members of his ,order were of compelling authority4 ,it was assumed #aia that they were recited correctly at an assembly held immediately after his decease4 ,the ,buddha-,word thus became the infallible standard of faith and practice4 ,there are traces of provision to meet difficulties in case different elders should believe themselves to possess varying traditions of the ,buddha's commands3 but not even the enormous expansion of the ,scriptures of the ,great ,vehicle1 as preserved in ,china and ,japan1 shook the faith of the disciple in the authentic character of their doctrine4 ,the higher teaching belonged to the later years of the ,buddha's life1 and was transmitted by special channels4 ,it is much as if ,gnosticism had established itself in the ,christian ,church of the second century1 and had formed its literature into a ,canon beside our ,new ,testament4 ,nepal1 according to the testimony of ,bryan ,hodgson1 raised its sacred books into objects of worship4 ,chinese respect was satisfied when they were issued from time to time 7p4 #ff7 with a preface by the imperial ,son of ,heaven4 ,the oldest portion of the sacred literature collected under the name of the ,zend ,avesta consists of five hymns 7called ,gathas71 ascribed to ,zarathustra himself4 ,they bear many marks of high antiquity1 and they acquired a peculiar sanctity1 so that the later sacrificial hymns already regard them as objects of homage to which worship should be offered4 ,above the actual ,scriptures rose a radiant figure1 in which the conception of revelation #aib was impersonated4 ,iranian thought was markedly idealist2 each earthly object had its spiritual type1 its antecedent or counterpart in the heavenly realm4 ,the religion and law of ,zarathustra had their representative in ,daena1 who is already celebrated with pious praise in the ,avesta4 ,sacrifice is offered to her as she dwells in the ,heavenly ,house1 the ,abode of ,song4 ,thence ,zarathustra summons her1 beseeching her fellowship--she is associated with ,cista1 religious knowledge--and he asks of her mystic powers and righteousness in thought and speech and deed4 ,later teaching declared her to be produced by ,vohu ,mano1 the ,good ,mind of ,ahura ,mazda himself 7p4 #aca74 ,as the actual utterance of the ,lord ,omniscient1 the sacred ,law might also be called his mthra penta or ,holy ,word4 ,jewish theology was not altogether deficient in similar conceptions4 ,corresponding to the ,torah or ,law imparted to ,moses1 was a heavenly ,torah1 infinitely richer in content4 ,it formed one of a mysterious group of seven ,realities which existed1 like the ,throne of ,glory1 ,eden1 and ,gehenna1 before the making of the earth and sky4 ,it was a kind of epitome of all possible cosmic relations1 so that as an architect frames his plan for a city1 ,god looked into the ,torah when he would create the world4 ,christian theology has never employed this imagery to express its conception of ,revelation4 ,but it lies at the back of the curious language of the ,koran concerning the ,mother #aic of the ,book 7p4 #ac74 ,mohammedan theologians reckoned no less than ten ways in which the ,prophet received his revelations4 ,sometimes the divine inspiration came in a dream1 sometimes like the noise of a bell through which he recognised the words which ,gabriel wished him to understand4 ,other books had been given previously to ,moses1 to ,david1 to ,jesus1 and each nation would be summoned to its own book at the judgment4 ,the believer in ,islam recognised in the ,mother of the ,book the pre-existent or ,eternal ,word1 which ,god from time to time sent down to his ,prophet4 ,it had definite size and aspect for ,arab imagination4 ,the commentator ,jallain described it as existing in the air above the seventh heaven4 ,there angel guardians defended it from theft by ,satan or the change of any of its contents4 ,it was as long as from heaven to earth1 and as broad as from east to west2 and its consistency was of one white pearl4 ,was it surprising that ,mohammedan faith should support the utterance of the pious ,cdi ,iyd 7who died in ,morocco1 ,a4,d4 #aadi73 ,the ,koran1 as it lies between the two covers is ,god's own word1 which he imparted by way of inspiration to the ,prophet4 ,therefore is it in every way inimitable1 and no man can produce anything like it8 ,christian theology has refrained from these physical emblems4 ,but it was possible for a scholar of unquestioned learning to declare #aid in the pulpit of the ,university of ,oxford barely half a century ago 7#ahfa7 that the ,bible is none other than the voice of him that sitteth upon the throne4 ,every book of it1 every chapter of it1 every verse of it1 every word of it1 every syllable of it 7where are we to stop871 every letter of it1 is the direct utterance of the ,most ,high 444 faultless1 unerring1 supreme4 #aie ,,chapter ,,vii ,,religion ,,and ,,morality ,the expression of religion in action produces the offering and the prayer3 by sacrifice and devotion1 with thanksgiving and requests1 do men approach their gods4 ,but there is another way of entering into fruitful obedience to them4 ,certain kinds of conduct may be acceptable to them1 and others not4 ,are these concerned only with ceremonial acts1 or do they include the behaviour of men to each other8 ,how far does religion promote or regulate what we call morality8 ,what are their relations1 and how do they affect one another8 ,this question has been discussed in innumerable treatises2 attention can only be invited to it here from the point of view of the historical comparison of religions1 without reference to philosophical definitions4 ,every one admits a connection of some sort1 for good or for evil1 at some period in their respective development4 ,they may not have started hand in hand4 ,their alliance may be disbanded1 and morality may claim total independence4 ,but at some time on the journey they have marched together4 #aif ,the difficulty of the inquiry arises in part from the variety of views as to the scope and essence of both morality and religion4 ,where do they begin1 and in what do they consist8 ,the philosopher may demand a complete recognition of the freedom of the will1 and the independent activity of the conscience1 and savages who have no such words are set down as destitute of morality1 just as those who have no ,heavenly ,father and no devil1 no heaven and no hell1 are described as without religion4 ,it is obviously impossible to expect to find everywhere our categories of right and wrong2 yet even ,lord ,avebury lent his high authority to the statement that there are many savages almost entirely without moral feeling largely on the ground of the absence of ideas of sin1 remorse1 and repentance4 ,mr4 ,huxley in the same way declared it obvious that the lower religions are entirely unethical4 ,on the other hand1 the idealist strenuously affirms the intimacy of the connection4 ,we are assured that the historical beginning of all morality is to be found in religion2 or that in the earliest period of human history1 religion and morality were necessary correlates of each other2 or that all moral commandments have originally the character of religious commandments4 ,and the student of comparative religion like the late ,prof4 ,robertson ,smith cautiously affirms that in ancient society all morality1 as morality was then understood1 was consecrated and enforced by religious #aig motives and sanctions4 ,the words which we have italicised contain exactly the limitation which is ignored by the philosopher who requires that the gods shall be patterns of conduct1 and administrators of an ethical world-order4 ,plainly the question is settled in different ways according to different standards of what religion and morality mean4 ,if we are content to begin low enough down1 we may see reason to believe that in that stage of thought in which religion1 magic1 and custom are so strangely intertwined1 morality is also not wanting4 ,even the ,fijian1 who called some of his gods by hideous names1 such as the ,rioter1 the ,brain-eater1 the ,murderer1 regarded theft1 adultery1 and such offences1 as serious4 ,the difficulty of broad general statements lies in the imperfection of our knowledge4 ,again and again closer observation has revealed quite unexpected secrets4 ,whole ranges of belief1 feeling1 action1 formerly concealed from observation1 have been brought to light4 ,thus about twenty years ago ,major ,ellis1 writing of the ,ewe1 ,tshi1 and ,yoruba peoples on the ,gold ,coast1 laid it down that religion at the stage of growth at which we find it among these three groups of tribes1 has no connection with morals1 or the relations of men to one another4 ,but the ,german missionary1 ,jakob ,spieth1 now tells us 7#aiaa7 that among the ,ewe-speaking folk not only does ,mother ,earth punish with death those who have sworn #aih falsely1 but ,mawu1 ,god1 who knows the thoughts and hearts of men1 who is the giver of everything good upon the earth--very patient and never angry--will not allow one brother to deceive another1 or suffer the king to judge unrighteously1 or permit one to burn another's house down4 ,morality here is more than rudimentary2 the justice of man is put under the guardianship of ,god1 who requires truth in the inward parts4 ,another ,west ,african observer1 ,major ,leonard1 on the ,lower ,niger1 describes religion as intermingled with the whole social system of the tribes under his view4 ,it supplies the principle on which their law is dispensed and morality adjudicated4 ,the entire organisation of their common life is so interwoven with it that they cannot get away from it4 ,like the ,hindus1 they eat religiously1 drink religiously1 bathe religiously1 dress religiously1 and sin religiously4 ,the beginnings of morality can no more be discovered historically than the beginnings of religion4 ,language1 in various nations1 implies that it springs out of custom4 ,the foundation of practical ethics1 whatever may be the ultimate interpretation of such terms as duty and conscience in more advanced cultures1 lies in social usage4 ,when any custom is established with sufficient strength to serve as a rule demanding observance1 so that its breach evokes some feeling1 the seed of morals is already germinating4 ,no group however small1 no society however crude1 can cohere #aii without some such customs4 ,they may be formed in various ways2 they are strengthened by habitual repetition2 they acquire the sanction of the past1 they are usually referred1 when men have begun to ask how they came into being--just as they ask about their own origin--to some great ,first ,man1 or some superhuman personality in the realm above 7p4 #aga74 ,but always there are some things allowable1 and others forbidden3 some things may 7or even must7 be done1 others may not4 ,when custom has gained this power1 it carries with it an element of control4 ,impulse must not be inconsiderately indulged1 it must be governed4 ,private interests must be subordinated to a rule1 and conduct conformed to a standard of behaviour4 ,in the ruder culture1 where the supply of food is of urgent importance1 such rules gather around the produce of the chase or of the ground4 ,among the ,australian ,kurnai1 for example1 all game caught by the men1 all roots or fruits collected by the women1 must be shared with others according to definite arrangements4 ,methodic distribution is obligatory1 and self-denial in sharing and eating is thus impressed upon the young4 ,moreover certain varieties of food are strictly forbidden to women1 children1 and boys before initiation4 ,prohibitions of this kind1 extending over many branches of conduct1 are found all over the world4 ,they are often designated by a #bjj term in use in ,polynesia1 taboo 7tabu or tapu74 ,their origin has been much disputed1 owing to the extraordinary complexity of the circumstances with which they are concerned4 ,taboo contains emphatically an element of mystery4 ,it comes out of a vague dim background1 and implies that some strange power will be set in perilous operation if a certain thing is done4 ,such a power1 obscure1 indefinite1 not personalised1 but mightier than men1 has been recognised at the base of religion under another term1 the ,melanesian mana 7p4 #hj74 ,taboo has been accordingly described as a negative mana4 ,it is a prohibition against calling the weird uncanny force into the open1 where it may do unexpected hurt4 ,the objects and actions placed under such taboos are various2 and it is for the anthropologist and the psychologist1 if they can1 to discover their origin and application in each particular case4 ,they involve ideas of purity and defilement1 the holy and the common1 the clean and the unclean4 ,they gather in particular round blood1 which rouses in some animals as in many human beings an instinctive aversion and disgust1 and yet is at the same time sacred as a seat of life4 ,they enter at the great crises of existence1 birth and death2 the mother1 and perhaps also the new-born child1 are unclean1 and must be purified2 the corpse defiles whoever touches it4 ,they attend the sexual processes1 which are the occasion of releasing dangerous #bja energies4 ,so they affect people as well as things4 ,the king is charged with this mysterious force1 and is hedged round with taboos lest it should suddenly burst forth against the intruder on his sanctity4 ,the chief1 the priest1 possess it in less degree4 ,and it is transmitted to what belongs to them4 ,their weapons1 their food and1 above all1 their persons1 are sacred4 ,the oft-quoted story of the ,maori may still be repeated here3 it is not the only case of the kind4 ,strong and stalwart1 he found some food beside the path1 and ate it4 ,he learned shortly afterwards that it was the remains of the king's meal4 ,he had violated a royal taboo4 ,the secret power had him in its grasp3 he was speedily seized with cramp in the stomach1 and in a few hours died4 ,ritual religions are full of survivals of such taboos4 ,o ,maker of the material world1 inquires ,zarathustra of ,ahura ,mazda1 can he be clean again who has eaten of the carcass of a dog1 or the corpse of a man8 ,in ancient ,israel various foods were forbidden by religious law2 the priest might not touch a dead body2 when a murder had been committed and the murderer could not be found1 the elders of the city must solemnly purify the ground which unpunished bloodshed had defiled4 ,early ,roman religion contained many such prohibitions2 from certain sacrifices women and strangers and fettered criminals must withdraw2 there are traces of taboo on #bjb iron and shoe-leather1 on burial grounds and spots where thunder-bolts were supposed to have fallen1 and on certain days1 especially those connected with the cult of the dead4 ,such taboos still play a great part in savage society1 and exert no little moral force in preserving honesty and order4 ,in ,samoa1 observed ,turner1 objects placed under taboo are perfectly safe2 they are in no danger of theft4 ,primitive morality is thus brought under the sanction of religion4 ,all over the world1 as we have seen 7p4 #afa71 the young receive a very severe training in preparation for their entry into the full privileges and duties of the tribe4 ,they are then instructed in the traditional rules of conduct1 the proper abstinences1 the right behaviour of the sexes4 ,such ceremonies are recognised as of great importance in communities of the simplest form without political control1 for it is through them that the social ties of tribal kinship gain coherence and strength4 ,various observers have testified to the consideration displayed in ,australia1 for instance1 towards the aged1 the sick1 and the infirm4 ,the blind are often carefully tended1 and the best fed4 ,as a matter of fact1 says ,mr4 ,marett1 the earlier and more democratic types of primitive society1 uncontaminated by our civilisation1 do not present many features to which the modern conscience can take exception2 but display rather the edifying spectacle of religious #bjc brotherhoods encouraging themselves by mystical communion to common effort4 ,in ,west ,africa ,miss ,kingsley noted the close connection in negro communities between religion and life4 ,to get through day or night a man must be right in the religious point of view2 he must be on working terms with the great world of spirits round him4 ,in spite of much make-believe the secret societies in which the men are enlisted under solemn oaths1 are recognised as important moral agencies4 ,the ,ukuku1 recently described by ,dr4 ,nassau1 could settle tribal quarrels1 and proclaim or enforce peace1 when no individual chief or king could end the strife4 ,such organisations regulate marriage laws1 the duties of parents and children1 the privileges of eldership1 the recognition of age and worth4 ,the entry into them lies through the rites of religion4 ,i have studied these societies1 wrote ,miss ,kingsley2 ,i am in possession of fairly complete knowledge of three of them4 ,i know men acquainted with ten other societies1 and their information is practically the same as my own1 viz4 that those rites consist in a series of oath-takings as you pass from grade to grade 444 ,each grade gives him a certain amount of instruction in the native law4 ,each grade gives him a certain function in carrying out the law4 ,and finally1 when he has passed through all the grades1 which few men do1 when he has sworn the greatest oath #bjd of all1 when he knows all the society's heart's secret1 that secret is ',i am ,i1' the one ,word4 ,the teaching of that ,word is law1 order1 justice1 morality4 ,why the one ,word teaches it1 the man does not know4 ,but he knows two things3 one that there is a law-god1 and the other that1 so says the wisdom of our ancestors1 his will must be worked or evil will come4 ,so in his generation he works to keep the young people straight4 ,taboos may be violated unconsciously1 and tribal laws may be transgressed sometimes intentionally1 sometimes by accident4 ,the resulting guilt must be removed1 if the offender or the community is not to incur the wrath of the affronted ,powers4 ,sin1 like holiness1 has this peculiar property that it can be communicated by contact4 ,savage morality does not always rise above the confusion between the physical and the mental4 ,evil qualities such as uncleanness can be transferred from persons to things1 just as from things to persons4 ,pains and diseases can be extracted from the sufferer1 and magically sent into animals or objects which can be driven away or destroyed2 and moral evil can be similarly removed4 ,when an ,atkhan of the ,aleutian ,islands had committed a serious offence and desired to unburden himself1 he chose a time when the sun was clear1 picked up certain weeds1 and carried them about his person4 ,after they were thus sufficiently impregnated by contact #bje with him1 he laid them down1 called the sun to witness1 cast his sins upon them1 and threw them into the fire4 ,the consuming flame burned away his guilt4 ,the ,peruvian made his confession to the sun1 and then bathed in an adjoining river4 ,there he rid himself of his iniquity1 saying ,o thou river1 receive the sins ,i have this day confessed to the sun1 carry them down to the sea1 and let them never more appear4 ,the oldest and the most recent rituals repeat the same idea in various forms4 ,in one of the ,vedic ceremonials of sacrifice1 the sacrificer and his wife towards the close bathed and washed each other's backs4 ,then having wrapped themselves in fresh garments1 they stepped forth1 and we read3 ,even as a snake casts its skin1 so does he cast away all his sin4 ,there is in him not so much sin as there is in a toothless child4 ,water was likewise employed in ,babylonia1 where the incantation ran1 ,i have washed my hands1 ,i have cleansed my body with pure spring water which is in the town of ,eridu4 ,all evil1 all that is not good1 in my body1 my flesh1 my limbs1 begone6 ,or1 ,by the wisdom of thy holy name let the sin and the ban which were created for man's misery be removed1 destroyed1 and driven away4 ,like physical evil such as disease1 so moral evil might be attributed to the action of spirits1 and periodic ceremonies might be performed for purging the community by driving them #bjf out4 ,sometimes the sins were buried in the ground2 sometimes they were thrown into the river2 sometimes they were concentrated on a person or an animal2 or were magically expelled under the sanction of religion into some object which could be destroyed4 ,in the annual celebration of the ,thargelia at ,athens1 in the month of ,may1 under the solemn sanction of ,apollo1 two purifying men were led through the streets to be whipped with rods1 and then driven over the border of the state1 bearing the people's sins4 ,the ,levitical ritual 7,lev4 xvi7 incorporated at a late date a solemn ceremony on the tenth day of the first month of the ancient religious year 7in ,september71 when an act of atonement was performed for the whole nation4 ,two goats were brought into the sanctuary1 and lots were cast upon them4 ,one was dedicated to ,yahweh1 over the other the high priest confessed the iniquities of the children of ,israel2 and by the laying on of hands he transferred them to the head of the doomed animal1 which was then led forth into the wilderness for a mysterious power of evil1 ,azazel4 ,as the temporary adjuncts of so much guilt1 the high priest and the goat-leader were required to purify themselves afterwards by bathing2 the high priest must change his robes1 and the goat-leader wash his clothes4 ,so in modern times in ,nigeria the town sins are annually laid on some unhappy slave-girl1 perhaps selected some time before4 ,as she #bjg is led through the street the householders come forth and discharge the year's accumulated evil on her2 then she is dragged to the river1 bound1 and left to drown4 ,japan is satisfied without a life4 ,the ancient ritual of purification shows that in the early centuries of the national history a public ceremony was occasionally performed4 ,in the revival of ,shinto usage which marked the late reign1 it was re-enacted by imperial decree in #ahgb for half-yearly celebration on ,june #cj and ,december #ca1 at all ,shinto shrines4 ,four or five days before these dates the believer was enjoined to procure from his priest a piece of white paper cut in the shape of a garment4 ,on this he was to write his name and sex1 with the year and month of his birth2 then he must rub it over his body1 and finally breathe on it4 ,his sins would thus be transferred to the paper robe1 which was to be taken back to the priest4 ,offerings of food and purifying ceremonies would complete the believer's release4 ,the paper garments with their load of guilt were then to be packed in cases which were to be put in boats1 rowed out to sea1 and committed to the deep4 ,there they would be carried to the great ,sea ,plain by the ,maiden of ,descent-into-the-,current1 who would convey them to the ,maiden of the ,swift ,opening1 dwelling in the ,eight ,hundred ,meetings of the ,brine of the ,eight ,brine ,currents4 ,she would swallow them down with a gurgling sound1 and the #bjh ,lord of the ,breath-blowing ,place would finally blow them away into the ,root-,country1 the bottom apparently of the under-world6 ,the relation of morality to religion tends to become more definite along different lines of thought1 which are constantly intertwined1 and of which three are only isolated here for the purpose of the briefest possible illustration of the forms in which they have appeared historically4 ,in the first place1 the world may be regarded as a scene in which rival powers of help and hurt are engaged in constant conflict2 and the physical dualism thus exhibited may be reproduced in the sphere of morals as a contest between powers of good and evil4 ,secondly1 the course of nature may be viewed as a world-order1 where seasonal uniformities are the manifestation of a permanent principle of harmony which is the guide of human conduct1 and the vicissitudes of daily or annual experience are interpreted as the judgments of heaven on man's doings1 national or personal4 ,and thirdly1 the development of the individual conscience may surmount the confusion which ranks ritual offences along with moral transgressions1 and the ethical life may be set wholly free from ceremonial bondage1 and carried up into the realm of spirit4 ,the lower culture all over the world ascribes disease or accident1 madness1 calamity1 and death1 to the agency of hostile powers lying #bji in wait for man1 and breaking in on his security4 ,the violences of the elements1 the hurricane1 the flood1 the earthquake1 the volcanic eruption1 are in the same way the work of giants towering in might above the common herd of the demons of air1 water1 or earth4 ,the spirits of the evil dead1 especially of powerful magic-men1 ,shamans1 and the like1 of malicious character1 are potent for sickness and disaster4 ,but in their unorganised ranks there is no controlling or directing force4 ,here and there some figure or group emerges into prominence4 ,at the head of the demonic hosts of ,babylonian mythology is a band of seven ruling spirits1 perhaps the windy counterparts of the sun and moon and the five planets4 ,in ,egyptian story ,set 7or by his ,greek name ,typhon7 is the evil opposite of the good ,osiris whom he does to death2 or it is the sun himself who is attacked in his nightly journey by the serpent ,apap with his monstrous crew4 ,scandinavian mythology was full of these conflicts4 ,the oppositions of light and darkness1 storm and calm1 warmth and cold1 were felt with unusual vehemence4 ,over the motley multitude of powers infesting forest and field1 the wind and the water1 rose the giants of mountain and cataract1 the furious blast1 the curdling frost4 ,the giants of the frost were evil powers1 like the wolf ,fenris1 and the serpent ,nidhogg1 who lay beneath one of the roots of the mighty cosmic tree 7in ,niflheim1 #baj a second being among the frost-giants1 and a third among the gods71 for ever gnawing till the great world's end4 ,above them rose the dread goddess ,hel1 the hollow1 once1 apparently1 the name of the grave1 and then of the power that ruled the gloomy underworld1 the abode of those who had not fallen upon the battle-field4 ,she1 in her turn1 was subordinated to ,loki1 once reckoned among the gods1 capricious and tricky1 who becomes the father of ,hel1 the wolf ,fenris1 and the ,midgard snake1 and leads the forces of evil for the destruction of the world4 ,he compasses the death of ,balder the fair1 ,odin perishes by the wolf1 and ,thor by the serpent2 though god and wolf and serpent in their turn sink in common ruin4 ,but the powers engaged in the strife are all superhuman2 man has no share in the warfare1 save when the warriors pass at death into the abode of the gods1 and take their place beside them in the final conflict4 ,loki is no ,devil1 he does not tempt1 or interfere with the children of earth2 he does not affect their present conduct or future destiny4 ,the oppositions of light and darkness belong to every zone all round the world1 and were perhaps most strongly felt among the ,indo-,iranian branches of the great ,aryan family4 ,the name deva in ancient ,indian mythology denotes the shining powers of the upper world1 the radiant dwellers in the sky4 ,in contrast with it stands another1 the #baa asura1 once a title of high honour1 for it clung even to ,varuna1 but later degraded to the designation of demonic beings1 who appear again and again in contest with the devas for the precious drink of immortality4 ,so the realm of darkness is the realm of evil4 ,into the pit of darkness are the wicked thrust3 and when right and wrong are presented under the forms of truth and falsehood1 and untruth is identified with gloom1 the poet reached the natural symbolism--,light is heaven1 they say1 and darkness hell4 ,it was1 however1 among the cognate ,iranian people that this antithesis acquired the greatest force1 under the influence of the prophet ,zarathustra4 ,by a curious historic-religious process which cannot here be traced1 the terms of the opposing forces were reversed4 ,ahura 7 asura7 remained the name of the ,supreme ,power1 with the addition of the term ,mazda1 all-knowing1 and the daevas 7 devas7 became the evil multitude4 ,in the oldest part of the ,zend ,avesta ,ahura appears as the sole ,creator1 the ,god of light and purity and truth1 who dwells on high in the ,abode of ,song4 ,beside him is his ,good ,mind1 and the ,holy 7or beneficent1 gracious7 ,spirit4 ,but opposed to him in the realm of darkness beneath is the ,lie 7drug71 with its correlates the ,bad ,mind and the ,evil ,spirit 7,ara ,mainyu1 not yet a proper name74 ,the world between is the scene of continuous struggle1 and in this conflict man is called to take his #bab part4 ,ritual purity1 appropriate sacrifice1 and personal righteousness in thought1 word1 and deed1 are his weapons in the fight4 ,by these he helps to establish the sovereignty of ,ahura1 and to curtail the power of the ,lie4 ,the earliest representations offer no account of the origin of the ,drug any more than of ,ahura himself4 ,but later speculation1 impressed with the contrasting elements of human life1 began to ascribe to him1 too1 under the name of ,ahriman 7,ara ,mainyu71 creative power2 all noxious animals and plants were due to him2 plague and disease came from his hands2 all agencies of cold1 darkness1 and destruction were his work2 he was the daeva of daevas1 ,lord of death1 and author of temptation4 ,and finally1 in the long process of thought the two powers of good and evil had both issued from a still higher unity1 ,zervan ,akarana1 ,time without bound4 ,but long ere this the ,persian character had responded to ,zarathustra's teaching of warfare against the ,lie2 and ,herodotus bears testimony to their repute for loyalty to truth4 ,for from the earliest days the dualism of ,zarathustra bound together morality and religion in the closest alliance4 ,how the great demand for the ultimate victory of good was to be justified will be seen hereafter 7p4 #bdg74 ,a second group of figures embodying the same idea of the connection of morality with religion is found in the various impersonations #bac of the ,order of ,nature and its correlate in ,law in the world without and the heart within4 ,the speculations of the early ,greek philosophers in their attempts to reach an ultimate ,unity behind all the diversities of appearance familiarised the higher minds with the idea of the harmony of the cosmos4 ,law1 sang ,pindar1 is king of all1 both mortals and immortals4 ,and this sovereign order is represented mythologically by ,themis1 whom ,hesiod exalts to be the daughter of ,heaven and ,earth1 and bride of ,zeus4 ,pindar pictured her as borne in a golden car from the primeval ,ocean1 the source of all1 up to the sacred height of ,olympus1 to be the consort of ,zeus the ,preserver4 ,but though she is thus the spouse of the sovereign of the sky1 she is in another aspect identified with ,earth1 scene of fixed rules both in nature and social life1 for with the cultus of the earth were associated not only the operations of agriculture1 but the rites and duties of marriage1 and the maintenance of the family4 ,so ,themis is the mother of the seasons in the annual round1 and the sequences of blossom and fruit are her work2 but among her daughters are also ,fair ,order1 ,justice1 and ,peace1 and the world and the ,state thus reflect obedience to a universal ,law4 ,behind ,greece lay ,egypt1 where tradition said that ,thales1 first of ,greeks to philosophise1 had studied4 ,when the soul of the dead man was brought to the test of the balance 7p4 #h71 #bad he was supported by the goddesses of ,mat or ,truth4 ,derived from the root m1 to stretch out1 this name covered the ideas of rectitude or right1 and ,mat was the splendid impersonation of order1 law1 justice1 truth1 in both the physical and moral spheres4 ,she is the daughter--or even the eye--of the ,sun-god ,r4 ,but she is conceived in still more exalted fashion as the sovereign of all realms1 and is elevated above all relationships4 ,she is ,lady of heaven1 and ,queen of earth1 and even ,lady of the ,land of the ,west1 the mysterious dwellings of the dead4 ,in one aspect she serves each of the great gods as her lord and master2 in another she knows no lord or master4 ,so it is by her that the gods live2 she is1 as it were1 the law of their being2 alike for sun and moon1 for days and hours1 in the visible world1 and for the divine king at the head of his people4 ,she is solemnly offered by the sovereign to his god1 and the deity responds by laying her in the heart of his worshipper1 to manifest her everlastingly before the gods4 ,through the court-phrases gleams the solemn idea that sovereignty on earth is no law to itself2 it must follow the ordinances of heaven4 ,chinese insight early reached a similar thought4 ,before the days of ,confucius or his elder contemporary ,lao-,tsze1 the wiser observers had noted the uniformity of ,nature's ways4 ,were not ,heaven and ,earth the nourishers of all things8 ,did not ,heaven pour #bae down all kinds of influences upon the docile and receptive ,earth8 ,heaven was all-observing1 steadfast1 impartial2 and its sincerity1 seen in the regular movements of the sun and moon1 or the succession of the seasons1 becomes for the moralist the groundwork of the social order4 ,this daily course is called ,heaven's way or path1 the ,tao 7the highway as distinguished from by-tracks71 which with unvarying energy maintains the scene of our existence1 and provides the norm or pattern for our conduct4 ,in the hands of ,lao-,tsze this became the symbol of a great philosophical conception4 ,behind the visible path which all could see lay the hidden ,tao1 untrodden and enduring4 ,here was the eternal source of all things1 for ever streaming forth in orderly succession1 but never vaunting itself or inviting attention by outbursts of display4 ,it was the type for man to follow2 the sage1 like ,heaven1 must have no personal ends2 he must act1 like the great exemplar1 without meddling interference1 leaving his nature to fulfil itself2 let him renounce ambition and cultivate humility2 only one who has forgotten himself can become identified with ,heaven4 ,can you--so ,lao-,tsze was said to have asked an inquirer six hundred years before ,jesus taught in ,galilee--,can you become a little child8 ,the ,vedic seers were hardly less impressed with the sense of an orderly control in contemplating the energies around them4 ,four #baf words are used to denote the institutes or ordinances1 the fixed norms or standards1 the solemn laws1 and the steadfast path1 according to which the rivers flow1 the dawn comes forth after the night1 the sun traverses the sky1 and even the storm winds begin to blow4 ,of these the last named1 the ,rita 7with its ,zend equivalent ,asha71 the ordered course along which all things move1 presents the least abstract1 the most mythical form4 ,for here is that which exists before heaven and earth2 they are born of it1 or even in it1 and its domain is the wide space4 ,from it1 likewise1 the gods proceed1 and the lofty pair1 ,mitra and ,varuna1 with ,aditi and her train1 are its protectors4 ,but through the mystical identity of the order of nature and the order of sacrifice 7p4 #adc71 the cultus--whether on earth or in heaven--is also its sphere4 ,agni1 the sacrificial fire1 the dear house-priest1 is ,rita-born1 and by its aid carries the offerings to heaven4 ,such1 also1 is the sacred drink1 the ,soma1 which is borne in the ,rita's car1 and follows its ways4 ,and the heavenly sacrificers1 the ,fathers in the radiant world above1 have grown according to the ,rita1 for they know and faithfully obey the law4 ,thus it becomes the supreme expression of morality1 and is practically equivalent with satya1 true 7literally1 that which is71 or good4 ,heaven and ,earth are satya1 veracious1 they can be trusted2 they are ritvan1 faithful to the ,path1 steadfast in the ,order4 ,not less so is the #bag godly man2 he1 too1 is ritvan 7,zend ashavan71 the same word being used to denote divine holiness and human piety4 ,and thus the life of gods and men1 the order of nature1 the ritual of worship1 and daily duty1 were all bound together in one principle4 ,rita1 however1 did not establish itself as a permanent conception in ,indian theology4 ,its place was taken by another idea1 which still sways the thought and rules the lives of hundreds of millions of believers in ,india and the ,far ,east1 ,karma1 or the doctrine of the ,deed4 ,it is well known that this doctrine does not appear in the ,vedic hymns4 ,it is first discussed as a great mystery in the forest-sessions where teachers and students met together1 where kings could still instruct ,brahmans1 and women might speak in debate4 ,in the ,brahmana of a ,hundred ,paths it is summed up in a maxim which was first formulated in connection with ceremonial obligation1 but came to have a much wider application3 ,a man is born into the world that he has made2 to which the ,law-books added the warning3 ,the ,deed does not perish4 ,man is for ever making his own world4 ,each act1 each word1 even each thought1 adds something to the spiritual fabric which he is perpetually producing4 ,he cannot escape the results of his own conduct4 ,the values for good or evil mount up from hour to hour1 and their issues must be fulfilled4 ,when this #bah conception was carried through the universe1 the whole sphere of animated existence was placed under its sway4 ,the life of any single person upon earth was only an incident in a chain of lives1 stretching into the distant past as well as into the immeasurable future4 ,his condition hereafter would be determined by what he had done before he entered the state that would match his deed4 ,then his condition here was also determined by what he had wrought in a previous lot4 ,his personal qualities1 his health and sickness1 his caste and rank1 his wealth or poverty1 all precisely matched some elements in the moral product of his past4 ,these were1 of course1 never all precisely of one kind4 ,they were of mingled good and evil1 and each of these would in course of time have its appropriate consequence of joy and pain4 ,for every shade of guilt there was a fitting punishment1 exactly adjusted in severity and duration1 either in degradation and suffering upon earth1 or in some one of numerous hells below4 ,and similarly all good was sure of its reward1 as happiness and prosperity awaited it here1 or were allotted in still richer measure for their due periods in the heavens that rose tier above tier beyond the sky4 ,the doctrine of ,transmigration has appeared in various forms1 in very different cultures4 ,but nowhere has it swayed whole civilisations as it has done in the ,east4 ,it has expressed for innumerable multitudes the #bai essential bond of morals and religion4 ,there were not wanting1 indeed1 teachers who criticised and rejected it when ,gotama the ,buddha passed to and fro five hundred years before our era4 ,but while he repudiated the authority of the ,vedas1 the ceremonies of sacrifice1 the claims of the ,brahmans1 and the immortality of the gods1 he retained the doctrine of ,karma at the very core of the system of ethical culture which he offered as the way out of the weary circle of re-birth4 ,the whole meaning of the universe1 its cosmic periods of dissolution and evolution1 was still moral2 and the scene of our existence came once more into being that the unexhausted potencies of countless products of the ,deed from the lowest hell to the topmost heaven might realise their suspended energy4 ,and when ,buddhism became a religion through the interpretation of the person of its founder in terms of the ,absolute and ,eternal1 this law of the phenomenal world of space and time remained beyond even his power to set aside or change4 ,the ethical element necessarily varies in richness of content and intensity of feeling in different religions4 ,in the classifications which have been from time to time proposed1 attention has often been fixed upon its presence as the marked characteristic of a group4 ,thus ,prof4 ,tiele1 of ,leiden1 proposed to treat the higher religions of ,revelation under two heads3 7#a7 religions embodying a sacred #bbj law1 and forming national communities1 including ,taoism1 ,confucianism1 ,brahmanism1 ,jainism1 ,mazdaism1 ,mosaism1 ,judaism1 and 7#b7 universalistic communions1 ,buddhism1 ,christianity1 and to some extent ,islam4 ,another writer forms a class of ,morality-,religions above the savage ,nature-,religions1 and reckons in it the religions of ,mexico and ,peru1 the earliest ,babylonian 7often called ,akkadian71 ,egyptian1 ,chinese1 ,hindu1 ,persian1 ,german1 ,roman1 ,greek4 ,all such classifications are exposed to many difficulties1 but they at least bear witness to the significance of the place which is occupied by morality in modern estimates of the worth of great historic faiths4 ,the aspects of any particular development are so manifold1 that any attempt to establish a scale of rank at once lays itself open to criticism4 ,where1 for example1 is ,greece in ,prof4 ,tiele's scheme8 ,it is thrown back into the group of half-ethical anthropomorphic polytheisms4 ,but in the hands of poets and philosophers1 the really shaping powers of ,hellenic culture1 polytheism was left far behind1 and on the third of the questions suggested above in considering the relations of morality and religion 7p4 #bjh7--their attitude to ritual obligation--,greek official teaching sometimes reached the loftiest heights4 ,for not only did philosophical and religious communities like the ,pythagoreans enunciate such maxims as these3 ,purity of soul is the #bba only divine service1 or ,god has no place on earth more akin to his nature than the pure soul1 but the oracle of ,delphi itself was supposed to have affirmed the worthlessness of ceremonial cleansing without corresponding holiness of heart4 ,dr4 ,farnell translates two utterances ascribed to the ,pythia as follows3 ,o stranger1 if holy of soul1 enter the shrine of the holy ,god1 having but touched the lustral water3 lustration is an easy matter for the good2 but all ocean with its streams cannot cleanse the evil man2 and again3 ,the temples of the gods are open to all good men1 nor is there any need of purification2 no stain can ever cleave to virtue4 ,but depart1 whosoever is baneful at heart2 for thy soul will never be washed by the cleansing of the body4 ,over the sanctuary of sculapius at ,epidaurus1 where so many sufferers thronged for cure 7p4 #ahj71 ran the inscription quoted by ,porphyry-- ,into an odorous temple he who goes ,should pure and holy be2 but to be wise ,in what makes holiness is to be pure4 ,the religion of ,zarathustra1 on the other hand1 did not maintain its primitive elevation4 ,the prophet's ,gths 7p4 #aia7 summoned the believer to live in the fellowship of the ,good ,mind and in obedience to the ,most ,excellent ,order 7,asha vahista71 and the later ,avesta seems sometimes to repeat their high demand3 #bbb ,purity is for man1 next to life1 the greatest good2 that purity that is procured by the law of ,mazda to him who cleanses his own self with good thoughts1 words1 and deeds4 ,it is the utterance of ,ahura himself4 ,but purity may be interpreted in very different ways3 the lad who walks about over fifteen years of age without the sacred girdle and sacred shirt1 has no forgiveness1 for he has power to destroy the world of the holy spirit2 while1 on the other hand1 to pull down the scaffold on which corpses had been deposited 7the ,persians employed neither burial nor cremation7 was to destroy a centre of impure contagion1 and secure pardon for all sins4 ,when ,moses established the administration of justice at the sanctuary of ,yahweh1 he planted a powerful ethical influence in the heart of the religion of ,israel4 ,no reader of the ,old ,testament needs to be reminded of the prophetic rebukes of a monarch's crimes4 ,nathan and ,david1 ,elijah and ,ahab1 have become universal types4 ,the history of ,hebrew ethics shows how the conception of morality gradually passed from the regulation of external conduct into the inner sphere of thought2 and the offender was no longer regarded merely as a member of a tribe or nation on which punishment might alight collectively2 he stood in an immediate relation to his ,god4 ,primitive imagination could rest content with supposing that sin had first entered the world through the #bbc subtlety of a talking snake4 ,later thought found such a solution inadequate to enlarged moral experience4 ,in the figure of the ,adversary or the ,opposer1 the ,stn1 first traceable in ,israel's literature after the ,captivity1 ,judaism admitted a moral dualism analogous to the opposition between ,ahura ,mazda and ,ara ,mainyu4 ,the ,stn had1 indeed1 no creative power1 though hordes of demons were under his sway in the abyss1 and were sent forth to do the desolating work of madness and disease4 ,but he was the head of a realm of evil over against the sovereignty of ,god2 and the intensity of the moral consciousness of sin was reflected in the mythologic form of his warfare against the hosts of heaven4 ,along a quite different line of thought1 which may possibly have been stimulated from the ,greek side1 the humanists of later ,israel endeavoured to bring nature and social life under one common conception of divine ,wisdom4 ,the earlier prophecy had regarded the physical world as plastic in ,yahweh's hands1 so that its events--such as drought or flood1 the locust and the blight1 could be made the immediate instruments of ,israel's discipline4 ,a wider culture brought new ideas4 ,there were statutes and ordinances for the cosmic powers just as there were for communities of man4 ,the universe was the product of the divine thought1 and the same agency was seen in the structure and #bbd organisation of human societies4 ,the order of the visible scene was due to the presence and control of ,wisdom1 which from the first had sat as a kind of assessor by ,yahweh's side4 ,the moral order was no less her work2 she gave the sanction to all authority and rule2 ,by me kings reign1 cries the poet in her name1 and princes decree justice2 and the men of humble heart know that their piety1 the fear of the ,lord1 is her gift1 and links them in joyous fellowship with the stars on high4 ,that ,mosaism started with a vigorous moral conception of the divine demands1 however limited might be its early scope1 is generally recognised4 ,the gradual settlement of the immigrant tribes in the land of ,canaan1 the appropriation of ,canaanite sanctuaries1 and the adoption of their festivals and ritual1 brought new influences which threatened the ancient simplicity4 ,the voices of ,hebrew prophecy rang out at ,jerusalem ere ,greek thought had begun to move4 ,it was a singular result in ,israel's history that the great truths of the unity and spirituality and holiness of ,god1 which prophecy had won out of impassioned experience1 were confided for their preservation to a code of ,priestly ,law which raised the elements of ritual and sacerdotal caste to their highest significance in the nation's life4 ,but the law which declared sacrifice to be legitimate only on one altar1 made room for a new development of ,israel's religion4 ,if #bbe the ancient faith was to be maintained by a race that spread from ,babylon to ,rome1 it must adapt its worship to new conditions4 ,there could be but one temple2 but a meeting-house could be built anywhere2 and the ,synagogue thus became the birthplace of the congregations of the ,christian ,church4 #bbf ,,chapter ,,viii ,,problems ,,of ,,life ,,and ,,destiny ,if a man die1 shall he live again8 ,the question is as old as the ,book of ,job1 but the affirmative answer is much older4 ,the earliest human remains in ,europe imply some provision for the dead1 and it did not occur to the peoples of the lower culture all over the world to doubt the reality of some kind of continued existence4 ,did not the living still see them in their dreams 7p4 #hf78 ,but this life might be conceived in an infinite variety ol forms4 ,where was it passed8 under what conditions8 what would be its privileges and its requirements8 how long would it last8 ,to these and a hundred other questions no uniform answers have been returned2 and numerous as are the stories of visits to the other world1 there is little agreement as to its place1 its scenery1 its occupations1 its society1 its government1 its duties1 its punishments1 or its rewards4 ,yet no field of human imagination reflects more clearly the stage of social and moral development which creates it4 ,into his pictures of the future man has persistently woven his #bbg criticism of the present4 ,but the tenacity of usage and convention in everything affecting the dead has sometimes detained belief at a much lower level than the general progress of ethical feeling might otherwise have suggested4 ,religious thought does not always move forwards with equal speed over all the relations and possibilities of life4 ,the logic of the treatment of the dead is full of gaps and inconsistencies4 ,the same people will perform rites which rest upon quite different theories2 customs have run together in strange incoherence4 ,this may be sometimes due to the necessity for making provision for different elements in the person which were united while on earth4 ,the wealthy ,egyptian required an elaborate home in the tomb for his double or ka1 while his ba started on its perilous journey through the mysterious regions of the world of the dead4 ,from the ethical point of view1 however1 which chiefly concerns the student of comparative religion1 the doctrine of the next life falls into two main divisions1 as ,burton and ,tylor pointed out more than a generation ago--theories of continuance1 and theories of retribution4 ,they are connected by many intermediate stages of transition1 and they range all the way from the crudest conceptions of prolonged existence in the grave1 up to exalted solemnities of judgment1 of doom1 and of the fellowship of heaven4 ,when a man dies1 where will his spirit dwell8 #bbh ,perhaps it will pass into some animal1 a bear1 a walrus1 or a beautiful bird4 ,perhaps it will haunt his old home4 ,in that case it were well that he should not die where he has lived2 let him be carried into the open air as death approaches1 or laid in the loneliness of the woods4 ,the ,eskimo of ,greenland build a small snow hut1 the entrance of which is closed as death approaches that the inmate may pass away alone4 ,dr4 ,franz ,boas relates that a young girl once sent for him from such a lodging a few hours before her end1 to ask for some tobacco and bread1 that she might take them to her mother who had died only a few weeks before4 ,or the connection between the dead man and his former dwelling may be severed by burning down the hut and forsaking the locality1 even though 7as among the ,sakais of the ,malay peninsula7 the coming crop of tapioca or sugar-cane should be lost by departure4 ,or strong measures may be taken with the corpse by thrashing it to hasten the ejection of the soul2 the walls of the death-chamber may be beaten with sticks to drive it away2 or a professional functionary may be invoked with his broom to sweep it out4 ,and when the body has been carried forth1 precautions must be taken to prevent the spirit from finding its way back1 and barriers erected against its return4 ,only occasionally1 as in ancient ,athens1 was burial permitted in the house1 where the venerated dead could still protect and bless those whom they loved4 #bbi ,the tomb was sometimes constructed to resemble the home and admit the members of the family together4 ,under the cliffs of ,orvieto is an ,etruscan city of the dead1 where the stone houses 7usually with two rooms7 stand side by side in streets4 ,the prehistoric gravemounds of ,scandinavia have disclosed sepulchral burial chambers1 entered by a gallery or passage1 divided by large slabs of granite into alcoves or stalls1 round which the dead were seated4 ,just so does the ,eskimo of the present day arrange his dwelling4 ,those who had lived in caves and left their dead there1 retained the usage long after they had learned to construct tents or build houses for themselves4 ,the chief was carried to the hills1 as the barrows on our own moors show1 or to the mountain top1 where his spirit blended perhaps with the spirit of the place and lent an additional awe to the heights2 or to secure him from disturbance1 as the ,spanish observers noted in ,columbia 7,s4 ,america71 a river was diverted from its course1 his grave was made in its bed1 and the waters1 restored to their former channel1 kept the secret safe4 ,the dream experience only provides the world of the dead with scenery and occupations resembling those of common life1 with more rapidity of change and mysterious ease of transformation4 ,but when tribes have migrated from one locality to another1--and in the vast reaches of prehistoric time such movements were incessant though #bcj slow--the various forces of association in memory1 dreaming1 and tradition1 would connect the dead with the places of the past4 ,sometimes the course of travel might have lain through mountain passes1 or across a river1 or from beyond the sea4 ,a journey1 or a voyage was thus suggested--,samoans said of a chief that he had sailed2 to reach the abode of the dead might need days of travel2 so shoes as well as food 7p4 #ach7 must be provided1 and the fires1 first kindled for the warmth of the dweller in the grave below1 were continued to light him on his way4 ,on solar analogies1 such as may be found in both hemispheres1 the homes of the departed were often assigned to the ,east or ,west4 ,the brotherhood of sleep and death has always been recognised1 and we still call our graveyards cemeteries1 or sleeping-places4 ,the ancient ,israelite said of his dead that he slept with his fathers4 ,earth burial suggested a locality beneath the ground1 vast and gloomy like some huge cave4 ,the ,mesopotamian thought of it as a city1 ringed with seven walls2 and even the ,hebrew who pictured the underworld1 ,sheol1 as a gigantic pit1 sometimes imagined it to be approached through gates4 ,there lay the nerveless feeble forms of the mighty ones of earth4 ,the separate nations had their several stations allotted to them1 where ghostly warriors lay dark and silent with their ghostly swords around the ghostly thrones of ghostly kings4 #bca ,the entry of a new comer from ,babylon awoke a ghostly wonder1 and ghostly voices greeted him from the dead4 ,it is a strange contrast with the pageantry of the skies1 where various races1 from the ,australians to the ,hindus and the ,greeks have seen their forefathers looking down on them as stars4 ,so inveterate is this belief that it was found necessary to obtain a certificate from the ,astronomer ,royal to refute the rumour that on the night on which ,browning died a new star appeared in the constellation of ,orion4 ,the ,milky ,way could thus be interpreted as the path of ,souls1 and the ,aurora ,borealis resolved into the ,dance of the ,dead4 ,the transfer of souls through death from one kind of life to another does not necessarily involve any moral change4 ,the relations of earth are resumed in the new scene4 ,the ancient ,celts who placed letters to their friends on the pyre of a dead relative1 or even expected to receive in the next world the repayment of loans in this1 conceived existence hereafter on the same plane as the present1 like the modern ,chinaman who celebrates the wedding of his spirit-son with the spirit-daughter of a suitable friend1 and thus brings peace to a tormented house4 ,the spirit-land of ,ibo on the lower ,niger had its rivers and forests1 its hills1 and towns1 and roads1 below the ground like those above1 only more gloomy4 ,in ,tuonela1 the land of the dead1 ,finnic imagination pictured rivers of black water1 #bcb with boisterous waterfalls and dangerous whirlpools1 forests full of wild beasts1 and fields of grain which provided the death-worm with his teeth2 but it is still homely enough for ,wainamoinen to find the daughter of its ruler1 ,tuoni1 god of death1 busy with her washing4 ,the dead of the ,mordvinians1 a group of ,ural-,altaic origin in the heart of ,russia1 are believed to marry and beget children as on earth4 ,such conceptions naturally resulted in a continuity of occupation1 rank1 and service4 ,the ,spanish historian1 ,herrera1 relates that in ,mexico every great man had a priest or chaplain to perform the ceremonies of his house1 and when he died the chaplain was called to serve him in the same manner1 and so were his master of the household1 his cup-bearer1 his dwarf1 the deformed people he kept1 and the brothers that had served him1 for they looked upon it as a piece of grandeur to be served by them1 and said they were going to keep house in the other world4 ,yet in ,mexico1 as will be seen immediately1 the differentiation of the future lot had already begun4 ,the chief is usually sure of admission into high society in the next world4 ,the ,maori paradise was a paradise of the aristocracy2 heroes and men of lofty lineage went to the skies4 ,but common souls1 in passing from one division to another of the ,new ,zealand ,hades1 lost a little of their vitality each time1 until at last they died outright4 ,polynesian fancy #bcc sometimes mingled the seen and the unseen in strange juxtaposition4 ,the ,fijian route to the world beyond1 ,mbulu1 lay through a real town with ordinary inhabitants4 ,but it had also an invisible portion1 where dwelt the family of ,samuyalo who held inquest on departed spirits4 ,if this trial was surmounted1 a second judgment awaited them at the hands of ,ndengei1 by which they were assigned to one or other of the divisions of the underworld4 ,a great chief who had destroyed many towns and slain many in war1 passed to ,mburotu1 where amid pleasant glades the occupants lived in families and planted and fought4 ,but bachelors1 those who had killed no enemy1 or would not have their ears bored1 women who refused to be tatooed1 and generally those who had not lived so as to please the gods1 were doomed to various forms of penal suffering and degradation4 ,courage and daring are of immense social importance1 and are among the most important elements in primitive virtue4 ,strength1 valour1 skill in war and hunting1 lift men into leadership1 and the pre-eminence won here is retained hereafter4 ,but these qualities are not limited to chiefs4 ,the happy land of the ,greenlanders1 ,torngarsuk1 received the valiant workers1 men who had taken many whales and seals1 borne much hardship1 and been drowned at sea1 and women who had died in childbirth4 ,a mild and unwarlike tribe in ,guatemala might be persuaded that to die by any #bcd other than a natural death was to forfeit all hope of life hereafter1 the bodies of the slain being left to the vultures and wild beasts4 ,on the other hand1 the ,nicaraguan ,aztecs declared that the shades of those who died in their beds went downwards till they came to nought2 while those who fell in battle for their country passed to the ,east1 to the rising of the sun4 ,such was the destiny1 also1 of the ,mexican warriors1 who daily climbed to the zenith by the sun's side with shouts of joy1 and there resigned their charge to the celestial women1 who had given their lives in childbed4 ,merchants1 too1 were in the procession1 who had faced risk and peril and died upon their journeys4 ,but this privilege tasted only four years1 when they became birds of beautiful plumage in the celestial gardens4 ,in the far ,east1 in the abode of ,tlaloc1 god of waters1 were those who had died by lightning or at sea1 sufferers from various diseases1 and children who had been sacrificed to the water-deities4 ,these last1 after a happy time1 were born again2 the rest passed in due course to the underworld of ,mictlan in the far north1 a most obscure land1 where light cometh not1 and whence none can ever return4 ,there the rich were still rich1 and the slaves still slaves4 ,but their term was short4 ,mictlan had nine divisions1 and at the end of the fourth year the spirit reached the ninth and ceased to be4 #bce ,this curious distribution has little moral significance1 save for its recognition of valour1 as in the ,teutonic welcome of the warrior into ,valhalla1 or of social service1 as in the case of those who give their lives for the community1 the merchant like the ,greenland whaler1 or the mothers who did not survive their labour4 ,but the beginnings of ethical discrimination sometimes present themselves in very much more simply organised communities4 ,a rude social justice expresses itself in the belief of the ,kaupuis of ,assam that a murdered man shall have his murderer for his slave in the next life4 ,the ,chippeways predict that the souls of the wicked will be pursued by phantoms of the persons they have injured2 and horses and dogs which have been ill-treated will torment their tormentors4 ,murder1 theft1 lying1 adultery1 draw down a singular chastisement in the ,banks ,islands4 ,the spirits of the dead assemble on the road to ,panoi1 when each fresh comer is torn to pieces and put together again4 ,then the injured man has his chance4 ,he seizes a part of the dismembered soul1 so that it cannot be reconstructed1 or at least suffers permanent mutilation4 ,no judge presides over the process1 no law regulates it2 punishment is still a private affair4 ,but the entry into the new life is not unconditional4 ,the ,american ,choctaws conceived their dead to journey to the east1 till they reached the summit of a hill4 ,there a long pine-trunk1 #bcf smooth and slippery1 stretched over the river of death below to the next hill-top4 ,the just passed over safely and entered paradise1 the wicked fell off into the stream beneath4 ,it was a self-acting test1 which needed not the prior ordeal of the ,avestan balance under ,mithra and ,rashnu at the ,chinvat bridge 7p4 #i74 ,sometimes a new religious motive is more or less plainly apparent4 ,even the rude ,fijian award depended in some way on the satisfaction of the gods4 ,the ,tonga ,islanders were more explicit2 neglect of the gods and failure to present due offerings would involve penalties hereafter4 ,the sun-worshipping people of ,achalaque in ,florida placed men of good life and pious service and charity to the poor in the sky as stars1 while the wicked languished in misery among mountain precipices and wild beasts4 ,two centuries ago ,bosnian heard some of the negroes on the ,guinea coast tell of a river in the heart of the land where they would be asked by the divine judge if they had duly kept the holy days1 abstained from forbidden meats1 and maintained their oaths inviolate1 and those who could not answer rightly would be drowned4 ,such anticipations really introduce a fresh principle4 ,above the tribal morality1 the custom of the clan1 rises an obligation of no obvious and immediate use2 even ritual practice1 the observance of special seasons1 or of proper taboos1 the offering of prescribed #bcg sacrifice1 may create new standards of order in conformity with a higher will4 ,they supply the groundwork on which the prophet may build the temple of the ideal4 ,the ancient ,semitic cultures formulated no general doctrine of immortality in the higher sense of the word4 ,faint traces of a hope of resurrection appear here and there in ,babylonian texts2 but there is no judgment beyond the grave2 the chastisements of the gods arrive in this life2 and it is only occasionally that the fellowship of heaven becomes the privilege of the great4 ,in ,israel the higher prophecy from ,amos onward interprets ,yahweh's day as a day of doom instead of victory2 but the divine judgment would alight on the whole people1 and would be realised in no future life but in some overwhelming national catastrophe4 ,in ,egypt the destiny of the dead was already individualised4 ,around it gathered the solemnities of the ,osirian judgment-seat 7p4 #h72 the ritual and the ethical demands of the forty-two assessors show the moral tests advancing through the ceremonial4 ,the believer who passed safely through the ordeal of the balance and was duly fortified with the proper spells1 was mystically identified with ,osiris as the justified1 and different texts present different types of future bliss4 ,he might find a home in the fields of ,ialu1 where numerous servants answered to his call1 and he feasted on the magic corn4 ,or a fresh form might be #bch provided for him1 when he was washed with pure water at the meshken or place of new birth4 ,mysterious transformations assimilated him with various gods2 or he was admitted on to the sun-bark among the worshippers of ,r1 and fed on his words4 ,but the guilty souls were subjected to unspeakable torments2 there were magistrates to measure the duration of those appointed for extinction1 and at the allotted time they were destroyed4 ,egypt1 thought ,herodotus1 had been the teacher of immortality to ,greece4 ,the statement is at least interesting as a sign that in the traveller's view the ,hellenic faith of his day possessed some analogies with the ,egyptian4 ,the ethical element in it1 at any rate1 was gaining more and more force4 ,in ,homer ,hades1 who is after all another form of ,zeus in the underworld1 is sovereign1 but not judge1 of the nether realm4 ,the ,erinnyes1 who are originally ghosts of the dead1 inflict their punishments mostly in the life of earth2 only for broken oaths is penalty imposed below2 and ,tartarus1 in the lowest deep1 is reserved for the giant ,titans who had challenged the majesty of heaven4 ,in the stony asphodel meadow ,achilles is but a shade among the rest2 if ,menelaus is admitted to the ,elysian plain1 it is no superior valour but aristocratic connection which wins him his place4 ,rare is the allusion to a judgment2 the tribunal of ,minos1 son of #bci ,zeus1 may be the moralising addition of some later bard4 ,but in the fifth century ,b4,c4 fresh influences are at work4 ,pythagoras has founded his communities1 half philosophical1 half religious4 ,the higher thought has become markedly monotheistic1 and ,orphism with its rude sacrament 7p4 #adg7 has helped to develop conceptions of fellowship with deity which made new hopes for the future possible4 ,so ,pindar1 nearest of kin among ,greek poets to the prophetio voices of ,israel1 emphasises the retributive government of ,god4 ,man may be nothing more than a dream of a shadow1 nevertheless he is not too insignificant to escape the dooms of heaven upon his guilt1 and if there is requital for evil there are also happy islands for the blest4 ,the ethical leaven is already powerfully at work4 ,the language of ,cebes and ,simmias in ,plato's dialogue of the ,phdo shows1 however1 that the belief was by no means universal2 and the beautiful sepulchral reliefs at ,athens give no hint of that august tribunal of ,minos1 ,rhadamanthus and acus1 which ,plato pictures as engaged in judging souls4 ,but the great mysteries of ,eleusis certainly fostered the hope of immortality4 ,the conviction grew stronger that the initiated would have a happier lot in the life to come1 so that ,diogenes sarcastically inquired whether an initiated robber would be better off than an uninitiated honest man4 ,the inscriptions of #bdj the last centuries before our era show nothing like the consensus of feeling in an ,egyptian cemetery or a modern ,english graveyard4 ,the soul is piously committed to the ether1 or1 if there be rewards in the realm below1 is confided to ,persephon2 or it is reverently placed among the stars1 in the councils of the immortals1 or in the home of the gods4 ,such were the popular conventions4 ,philosophical speculation gathered round the idea of transmigration1 or pleaded for at least a continuance of consciousness till the great conflagration which should end the world2 while ,orphic religion held out the hope that the soul1 entangled in this earthly scene1 might after long discipline rise once more to its home with ,god4 ,the theories of continuance all assume that the world will go upon its usual way4 ,generation will follow generation in this life1 but the lower culture does not ask what will happen in the next4 ,it cannot take big time-surveys1 like the ,egyptian millions of years or the ,hebrew ages of ages4 ,the future will be like the present1 as the present has been like the past4 ,imagination can conceive a beginning1 it does not at first advance to an end4 ,but the development of astronomy in ,babylonia1 with the discovery of regular periodicities in ,nature1 seems to have suggested the idea of a great ,world-,year1 an immense period beginning with creation1 which would be brought to an end by some #bda great catastrophe such as flood or fire4 ,the flood had already taken place4 ,traditions of it floated to ,india and ,greece2 they were incorporated in ancient ,hebrew story4 ,after another immense revolution of time would there be a similar close8 ,there is some evidence that this was part of ,babylonian teaching in the days of ,berosus1 in the middle of the third century ,b4,c4 7p4 #ci71 but it has not yet been discovered in the ancient cuneiform texts4 ,the next agency of dissolution would be heat4 ,it was part of early ,buddhist speculation1 and lodged itself in ,indian thought2 and from the days of ,pythagoras1 in the sixth century ,b4,c41 it formed part of the ,greek philosophical outlook in different schools towards the last things4 ,when the next periodic destruction took place1 what would happen8 ,according to one answer the restoration of all things would set in1 and the entire cycle would be repeated over again4 ,eudemus1 a pupil of ,aristotle1 is said to have observed in one of his lectures that if the ,pythagoreans were to be trusted1 his audience would have the privilege of hearing him again3 ,you will be sitting there in the same way1 and ,i shall be telling you my story1 holding my little stick1 and everything else will go on the same4 ,this mechanical reproduction of a whole previous age down to its minutest details did not1 however1 really engage the higher ,greek thought4 ,that was chiefly occupied with the #bdb abiding contrast between that which is and that which appears2 how could the ultimate ,unity present itself in such infinite diversity8 what was the relation of the world of change and succession to the enduring substance that lay behind8 ,in such questions man and his destiny had but a small share4 ,pindar might sing how ,god accomplisheth all ends according to his wish2 ,god who overtaketh the winged eagle and outstrippeth the dolphin of the sea1 and layeth low many a mortal in his haughtiness1 while to others he giveth glory unspeakable3 if any man expect that in doing ought he shall be unseen of ,god1 he erreth4 ,the tragedians might wrestle with dark problems of crime and fate2 and poetry and philosophy might agree in presenting the world as the scene of a divine thought1 the manifestation of a divine energy4 ,regularities1 fixities1 invariable successions1 pointed to a definite order1 divinely maintained4 ,but to what did it lead8 ,what place was there in it for man8 ,his future might be moralised2 the unethical ,hades of ,homer might be replaced by the judgment-scenes of ,plato2 but no world-process is suggested for the elimination of evil or the fulfilment of any divine end4 ,plato might throw out the hint that ,delphi should become the interpreter of religion to all mankind2 the mysteries might be opened to slave as well as freeman1 and might even admit those who were not of ,hellenic race2 but there were no prophet's #bdc glimpses of a purpose leading to some all-embracing goal4 ,zeus orders all as he wills4 ,individuals are punished1 but the misdeeds1 like the sufferings or sorrows of man1 are lost in the harmonious majesty of the ,whole4 ,indian thought1 as has been already indicated1 worked out a complete identification of life with the moral order by means of the doctrine of the ,deed 7p4 #bag74 ,the scheme of transmigration took up the earlier ideas of the elder thinkers4 ,the ,vedic poets had told of the land of ,yama1 who was sometimes presented as the first man to die and enter the heavenly world4 ,in one hymn he is associated with ,varuna in the highest heaven1 where the pious live from age to age1 and are sometimes identified with the sun's rays or the stars4 ,there kindred were gathered1 and warriors and poets received their reward1 and the devout realised the object of their prayers2 and ,yama sat under a tree of goodly leaves1 drinking with the gods the life-giving soma-juice1 father and master of the house1 tending the heavenly sires4 ,deep below was the dark pit for those who would not sacrifice to ,indra1 or persecuted his worshippers4 ,there were fiends of various kinds to torment the wicked1 the untruthful1 or the seducer4 ,but there are no traces of any specific judgment1 with definite awards of heaven and hell4 ,in the later scheme of life founded on the conception of ,karma such a tribunal might seem unnecessary3 the product of the past works #bdd out its own result4 ,but as ,buddhist folklore shows1 popular theology required the pronouncement of a judge1 and ,yama took his place as ,lord of hell and ,king of ,righteousness4 ,by what channels the doctrine of successive world-ages entered ,hindu religion cannot be definitely determined4 ,early ,buddhist teaching assumes it as familiar1 though it is not included in the prior ,brahmanical literature2 and minutely describes the great conflagration which will consume the universe through the heat engendered by the appearance of seven suns4 ,karma1 however1 could not be destroyed4 ,no fire could burn it1 nor could the other agencies of dissolution1 like water or wind1 drown or disperse it4 ,it must proceed unerringly to its results4 ,these might be for a time suspended1 they could not be frustrated for ever4 ,their energies lay latent1 waiting their opportunity4 ,so a new world would arise to provide the means and the field for their operation1 and from age to age1 through seasons of dissolution and restoration1 with intervals of incalculable time1 the endless process would fulfil its round4 ,this would be no literal repetition4 ,the history of a new world-age would be quite fresh1 for the potencies of ,karma were of infinite variety1 and were for ever being re-shaped1 cancelled1 or extended by the action of the new personalities--divine1 human1 demonic--7reincarnation might also take place in animal or plant7--in #bde which they were embodied4 ,but the immense series led to nothing4 ,buddhist imagination filled the universe with worlds1 each with its own systems of heaven and hell1 and projected ons upon ons into immeasurable time1 but the sequence pointed to no goal1 for what could arrest the inexorable succession8 ,was there any escape from its law8 ,to that question different answers were returned by different teachers4 ,the forest-sages had already pleaded for the recognition of the identity of the self within the heart with the ,universal ,self 7p4 #fj74 ,there was the path by which the phenomenal scene could be transcended1 and the soul brought into its true fellowship with the ,infinite ,being1 ,intelligence1 and ,joy4 ,but inasmuch as this deliverance was only realised by a few1 and could not be self-wrought1 it must be the result of a divine election2 they only could attain it whom the ,self chose as his own4 ,with its repudiation of all ontological ideas of soul1 or substance1 or universal ,self1 early ,buddhism threw the whole task of achieving emancipation on the individual1 who must himself win the higher insight and discipline his character with no aid but that of the ,teacher and his example4 ,the passion for the salvation of the world might generate an unexampled missionary activity1 transcending all bounds of caste and race4 ,it might express itself in singularly #bdf comprehensive vows such as these1 which were carried from ,china to ,japan in the seventh century ,a4,d41 and are still part of ,buddhist devotion3 ,there are beings without limit1 let me take the vow to take them all unto the further shore3 there are depravities without number1 let me take the vow to extinguish them all3 there are truths without end1 let me take the vow to know them all3 there is the way of ,buddha without comparison1 let me make the vow to accomplish it4 ,but only the wisdom of ,amida1 ,all-,merciful and ,all-,potent 7p4 #ag71 could avail to harmonise the issues of ,karma with the operations of grace1 and carry the world-process to the goal of universal salvation4 ,the theologians and philosophers of ,india might devise various methods for the believer's escape from the round of re-births2 but on the ecclesiastical side they never surmounted the practical limitation of nationality1 or sought to address themselves to the world at large2 while the mystics who more easily passed the bounds of race usually lacked the aggressive energy which demanded the conquest and suppression of evil and the assurance of the victory of good4 ,it was reserved for the ,persian thinkers1 led by ,zarathustra1 to work out a scheme for the ultimate overthrow of the power of the ,lie 7p4 #baa74 ,egyptian theology had impersonated the forces of evil in ,set4 ,there were the constant oppositions of darkness #bdg and light1 of sickness and health1 of the desert against fertility1 of drought against the ,nile1 of foreign lands against ,egypt4 ,mythically1 the antagonism between ,set and his brother ,osiris was continued by ,isis' son ,horus4 ,it was renewed again and again1 and ,set was for ever defeated1 yet always returned afresh to the strife4 ,but no demand was raised for his elimination4 ,osiris had passed into the land of ,amenti1 where ,set could trouble him no more4 ,and apparently the later identification of the deceased with ,osiris meant that for him1 too1 the powers of death and evil were overcome4 ,but this did not affect ,set's activity in the existing scene1 where the strife continued over the survivors day by day4 ,the insight of the ,iranian prophet could not admit this division of spheres1 and demanded not only new heavens1 but also a new earth1 where evil should have no more power1 and the ,righteous ,order1 the ,good ,mind1 the ,bounteous ,spirit1 and the rest of the ,immortals1 should be the unchallenged ministers of ,ahura's rule4 ,the history of the world1 accordingly1 was ultimately arranged in four periods of three thousand years each4 ,the life of ,zarathustra closed the third4 ,at the end of the fourth the great era of the ,frasho-kereti1 the entry into a new age and a new scene1 would arrive4 ,it would be preceded at the close of each millennial series by the advent of a deliverer1 wondrously born of ,zarathustra's seed4 ,during #bdh the third of these1 the last of the whole twelve1 the ancient serpent would be loosed to ravage ,ahura ,mazda's good creation4 ,but the ,saoshyant or ,saviour1 the greatest of the three successors of the prophet1 would bring about the general resurrection4 ,from the ,home of ,song and from the hells of evil thought and word and deed the spirits of the dead would resume their bodies4 ,families would be reunited in preparation for the last purifying pain4 ,for a mighty conflagration would take place2 the mountains would be dissolved with fervent heat1 and the whole multitude of the human race would be overflowed by the molten metal for three days4 ,the righteous would pass through it like a bath of milk2 the evil would be purged of the last impulses to sin4 ,saoshyant and his helpers would dispense the drink of immortality1 and the final conflict with the powers of evil would begin4 ,ara ,mainyu1 the great ,serpent1 with all their satellites and the multitude of the demonic hosts1 should be finally driven into hell and consumed in the cleansing flame2 and hell itself should be brought back for the enlargement of the world4 ,the ,iranian ,apocalypse is not the only presentation of conflict and victory in the widespread ,indo-,germanic group4 ,the ,old ,teutonic religion produced its ,volospa1 the seer's high song of creation and the overthrow of evil4 ,here is in brief the story of the #bdi great world-drama1 the degeneracy of man1 the conflicts of the gods4 ,the universe slowly surges to its end2 there are portents in the sky1 disorders on the earth1 till the whole frame of things dissolves and all goes up in flame4 ,but a new vision dawns3 ,i behold earth rise again with its evergreen forests out of the deep2 the fields shall yield unsown2 all evil shall be amended2 ,balder shall come back4 ,i see a hall1 brighter than the sun1 shingled with gold1 standing on ,gem-lea4 ,the righteous shall dwell therein and live in bliss for ever4 ,the ,powerful ,one comes to hold high judgment1 the ,mighty ,one from above who rules over all1 and the dark dragon who flies over the earth with corpses on his wings is driven from the scene and slinks away4 ,there are possibly ,christian touches here and there1 but the substantial independence of the poet seems assured4 ,above the theories of world-continuance and world-cycles must be ranked those of a world-goal1 which imply more or less clearly the conception of a world-purpose4 ,the supreme expression of this in religious literature is found in the ,christian ,bible4 ,the prophecy of ,zarathustra belonged to the same high ethical order as that of ,israel4 ,how much the ,apocalyptic hopes of the later ,judaism were stimulated by contact with ,persian thought cannot be precisely defined3 the estimates of careful scholars differ4 ,but there is no doubt whatever of the dependence #bej of ,christianity upon ,jewish ,messianic expectation4 ,the title of its founder1 ,christ1 is the ,greek equivalent of the ,jewish term ,messiah1 or ,anointed4 ,its pictures of human destiny1 of resurrection1 of judgment1 of one world where the righteous shine like the sun1 and another full of fire that is not quenched1 are pictures drawn by ,jewish hands4 ,its promises of the ,advent of the ,son of ,man in clouds of glory from the sky1 who shall summon the nations to his great assize1 are couched in the language of earlier ,jewish books4 ,for one religion builds upon another1 and must use the speech of its country and its time4 ,its forms must1 therefore1 necessarily change from age to age1 as the advance of knowledge and the widening of experience suggest new problems and call for fresh solutions4 ,but it will always embody man's highest thought concerning the mysteries that surround him1 and will express his finest attitude to life4 ,its beliefs may be gradually modified2 its specific institutions may lose their power2 but history shows it to be among the most permanent of social forces1 and the most effective agent for the slow elevation of the race4 #bea ,,bibliography ,out of the immense literature produced since ,max ,mller's ,essay on ,comparative ,mythology 7#ahef7 only a small number of the most important books can be here named1 and the list is limited to works in ,english4 ,superior figures attached to titles indicate the edition4 ,transcriber's note3 the superscripted edition numbers have been replaced with the edition in brackets4 ,,general ,,introduction4--,tylor1 ,primitive ,culture 7#dth ed47 7#b vols4 #aijc72 ,max ,mller1 ,introd4 to the ,science of ,religion 7#ahgc71 ,hibbert ,lectures 7#ahgh71 ,gifford ,lectures 7#d vols4 #ahhi-ic72 ,w4 ,robertson ,smith1 ,lectures on the ,religion of the ,semites 7#bnd ed47 7#aijb72 ,j4 ,g4 ,frazer1 ,the ,golden ,bough 7#crd editioin7 7now in course of publication72 ,a4 ,lang1 ,myth1 ,ritual and ,religion 7#bnd ed47 7#b vols4 #ahii71 ,the ,making of ,religion 7#bnd ed47 7#aijj71 ,magic and ,religion 7#aija72 ,goblet d',alviella1 ,origin and ,growth of the ,conception of ,god 7,hibbert ,lectures1 #ahib72 ,tiele1 ,elements of the ,science of ,religion 7#b vols4 #ahig72 ,f4 ,b4 ,jevons1 ,introduction to the ,history of ,religion 7#bnd ed47 7#aijb72 ,crawley1 ,the ,mystic ,rose 7#aijb71 ,the ,tree of ,life 7#aije72 ,farnell1 ,the ,evolution of ,religion 7#aije72 ,westermaarck1 ,the ,origin and ,development of the ,moral ,ideas 7#aijf71 #b vols42 ,hobhouse1 ,morals in ,evolution 7#aijf71 #b vols42 ,marett1 ,the ,threshold of ,religion 7#aiji74 ,,religion ,,in ,,the ,,lower ,,culture4--,ratzel1 ,the ,history of ,mankind1 tr4 ,butler 7#ahif71 #c vols42 ,turner1 ,samoa 7#ahhd72 ,codrington1 ,melanesians 7#ahia72 ,a4 ,b4 ,ellis1 ,ewe-speaking ,peoples 7#ahij72 ,yoruba-speaking ,peoples 7#ahid72 ,tshi-speaking ,peoples 7#ahig72 ,crooke1 ,popular ,religion and ,folk-lore of ,northern ,india 7#b vols4 #ahif72 ,miss ,m4 ,h4 ,kingsley1 ,travels in ,west ,africa 7#ahih71 ,west ,african ,studies 7#ahii72 ,spencer and ,gillen1 ,native ,tribes of ,central ,australia 7#ahii71 ,northern ,tribes of ,central ,australia 7#aijd72 ,howitt1 ,native ,tribes of ,south-eastern ,australia 7#aijd72 ,dennett1 ,at the ,back of the ,black ,man's ,mind 7#aijf72 ,roscoe1 ,the ,baganda1 their ,customs and ,beliefs 7#aiaa72 ,brinton1 ,myths of the ,new ,world 7#bnd ed47 7#ahgh72 ,mc,clintock1 ,the ,old ,north ,trail 7#aiaj72 ,reports of the ,bureau of ,ethnology1 ,smithsonian ,institution1 ,washington4 #beb ,for the higher religions a few of the best ,english introductions are here named1 in addition to the copious collection of materials in the ,sacred ,books of the ,east 7#ej vols474 ,,babylonia3 ,sayce1 ,hibbert ,lectures 7#ahhg71 ,religions of ,ancient ,egypt and ,babylonia 7#aijb72 ,jastrow1 ,religion of ,babylonia and ,assyria 7#ahih71 ,american ,lectures4 ,,celts3 ,rhys1 ,hibbert ,lectures 7#ahhf72 ,macculloch1 ,the ,religion of the ,ancient ,celts 7#aiaa74 ,,china3 ,legge1 ,chinese ,classics 7#bnd ed47 7#ahic71 #e vols4 7in #h parts72 de ,groot1 ,the ,religious ,system of ,china 7#ahib-aiaj71 #f vols43 already published1 ,the ,religion of the ,chinese 7#aiaj74 ,,christianity 7primitive73 ,wernle1 ,beginnings of ,christianity 7#aijc71 #b vols42 ,pfleiderer1 ,primitive ,christianity 7#aijf71 #d vols4 ,fuller bibliography in ,encycl4 ,brit41 7#aath ed47 by ,g4 ,w4 ,knox4 ,,egypt3 ,renouf1 ,hibbert ,lectures 7#ahgi72 ,maspero1 ,the ,dawn of ,civilisation 7#ahid72 ,sayce1 ,religions of ,ancient ,egypt and ,babylonia 7#aijb72 ,erman1 ,handbook of ,egyptian ,religion 7#aijg72 ,budge1 ,osiris and the ,egyptian ,resurrection 7#aiaa71 #b vols4 ,,greece3 ,farnell1 ,cults of the ,greek ,states 7#ahif-aiji71 #e vols41 ,greece and ,babylon 7#aiaa71 ,higher ,aspects of ,greek ,religion 7#aiab72 ,miss ,j4 ,e4 ,harrison1 ,prolegomena to the ,study of ,greek ,religion 7#aijc71 ,themis 7#aiab72 ,sir ,w4 ,m4 ,ramsay1 in ,hastings' ,dict4 of the ,bible1 extra vol4 7#aijd71 ,religion of ,greece and ,asia ,minor4 ,,india3 ,barth1 ,religions of ,india 7#ahhb72 ,hopkins1 ,religions of ,india 7#ahie74 ,,vedic3 ,macdonell1 ,vedic ,mythology 7#ahig7 in ,bhler's ,grundriss2 ,bloomfield1 ,religion of the ,veda 7#aiji74 ,for ,,buddhism1 see ,mrs4 ,rhys ,davids' vol4 in this series4 ,,hinduism3 ,monieu ,williams1 ,religious ,thought and ,life in ,india 7#ahhc74 ,,israel3 ,kuenen1 ,religion of ,israel 7#ahgd71 #c vols42 ,montefiore1 ,hibbert ,lectures 7#ahib72 ,kautzsch1 in ,hastings' ,dict4 of the ,bible1 extra vol4 7#aijd71 ,religion of ,israel4 ,kent1 ,hist4 of the ,hebrew ,people1 #b vols4 7#ahij-g72 ,hist4 of the ,jewish ,people 7#ahii72 ,addis1 ,hebrew ,religion 7#aijf72 ,marti1 ,religion of the ,old ,testament 7#aijg74 ,,jains3 ,jacobi in ,sacred ,books of the ,east1 vols4 xxii 7#ahhd7 and xlv 7#ahie72 ,bhler1 ,on the ,indian ,sect of the ,jainas 7#aijd74 ,,japan3 ,the ,nihongi1 tr4 ,aston 7#ahif71 #b vols42 ,aston1 ,shinto 7#aije72 papers in the ,transactions of the ,asiatic ,society of ,japan2 ,griffis1 ,the ,religions of ,japan 7#dth ed47 7#aijd1 ,new ,york72 ,knox1 ,development of ,religion in ,japan 7#aijg72 ,tada ,kanai1 ,the ,praises of ,amida1 tr4 ,lloyd 7#aijg1 ,tokyo74 #bec ,,mexico ,,and ,,peru3 ,reville1 ,hibbert ,lectures 7#ahhd72 ,payne1 ,history of the ,new ,world called ,america 7#ahib71 #b vols4 ,,mohammedanism3 see ,prof4 ,margoliouth's vol4 in this series4 ,,persia3 ,jackson1 ,zoroaster1 the ,prophet of ancient ,iran 7#ahii72 ,sanjana1 ,zarathushtra and ,zarathushtrianism in the ,avesta 7#aijf1 ,leipzig72 ,moulton1 ,early ,religious ,poetry of ,persia 7#aiaa74 ,,rome3 ,w4 ,warde ,fowler1 ,the ,roman ,festivals1 #ahii1 ,the ,religious ,experience of the ,roman ,people 7#aiaa72 ,glover1 ,studies in ,virgil1 #aijd2 ,dill1 ,roman ,society from ,nero to ,marcus ,aurelius 7#aijd72 ,carter1 ,the ,religion of ,numa 7#aijf71 ,the ,religious ,life of ,ancient ,rome 7#aiab72 ,cumont1 ,oriental ,religions in ,roman ,paganism 7#aiaa71 ,astrology and ,religion among the ,greeks and ,romans 7#aiab74 ,,sikhs3 ,macauliffe1 ,the ,sikh ,religion 7#aiji71 #f vols4 ,,teutons3 ,vigfusson and ,powell1 ,corpus ,poeticum ,boreale 7#ahhc71 #b vols42 ,grimm1 tr4 ,stallybrass1 ,teutonic ,mythology 7#aijj71 #d vols42 ,chantepie de la ,saussaye1 ,religion of the ,teutons 7#aijb74 ,small popular volumes in the series on ,non-,christian ,religious ,systems 7,soc4 for ,promoting ,christian ,knowledge71 and more recently in ,constable's series1 ,religions ,ancient and ,modern4 ,valuable articles in ,hastings' ,encyclopdia of ,religion and ,ethics1 and in ,encyclopdia ,britannica4 #bec ,,index di-,granth1 the1 #ahh ,aditi1 #aee ,adonis1 #aai schylus1 #acj sculapius1 #dd1 #abg1 #ahj1 #bba ,africa1 #aaa1 #aac f41 #adj1 #adh1 #afc1 #ahb1 #bjc ,agni1 #cd1 #id ,ahriman 7,ara ,mainyu71 #aee1 #bab1 #bdh ,ahura ,mazda1 #aca1 #baa f41 #bdh ,aius ,locutius1 #abf ,akhnaton1 #abi ,all-gods1 the1 #abi ,american ,indians1 ,north1 #eg1 #ha1 #aaj1 #agc1 #bce ,amida 7,amitbha71 #af ff41 #acb1 #bdf ,animism1 #ee1 #ei ,annam1 #hc ,apollo1 #abc1 #abg1 #ade1 #aei1 #agc1 #aha1 #ahc ,artemis1 #abg ,asceticism1 #afh ,asha1 #baf1 #bba ,asista1 #adh ,athena1 #abc1 #abg1 #agc ,athens1 #bbh ,attis1 #aai ,augury1 #agh ,augustine1 ,st41 #ce1 #db1 #eb ,augustus1 #abe ,australia1 #cc1 #ge1 #gh f41 #hf1 #aaj1 #aad f41 #adi1 #afb1 #aga1 #aii1 #bjb ,avalokitevara1 #aca1 #aed ,awona-wilona1 #aaa ,bab1 the1 #gj1 #ahh ,babylonia1 #ci1 #eh1 #ajb1 #aji1 #ade1 #aea1 #aga1 #agh1 #bje1 #bji1 #bcg1 #bdj ,baiame1 #adi1 #aga ,balder1 #baj1 #bdi ,baptism1 rites of1 #afj ,berosus1 #ci1 #bda ,bhagavad-,gt1 the1 #abh ,bhakti1 #aeg ,bible1 the1 #aid ,birth1 deities and rites of1 #aba1 #aei ,blackfoot ,indians1 the1 #ce1 #afg ,book of the ,dead1 the1 #ahf ,brahma1 #fj1 #aef ,brahm1 #fj1 #fb1 #abi1 #aeh ,brhmanas1 the1 #ahi1 #bag ,brahmanaspati1 #aef ,brahmanical sacrifice1 #adc ,brahmanism1 #bd1 #abh ,buddha1 the future1 #aei4 ,cp4 ,gotama ,buddhism1 #ae1 #bd1 #fa1 #fe1 #aca1 #aec1 #aee1 #bai1 #bda1 #bdd f4 ,buddhist ,scriptures1 #aij ,bjunjil1 #aga ,celts1 the1 #bg1 #da1 #ajd1 #adb1 #bca ,chemosh1 #ajg ,china1 #eh1 #fc1 #fe1 #fh1 #hg1 #ij1 #ie1 #abe1 #aej1 #agh1 #bad1 #bca ,chinese ,classics1 #ahg ,christianity1 #ahg1 #bbe1 #bej ,chrysippus1 #ahd ,cicero1 #db1 #df iva1 #fb1 #abh f4 ,classification of religions1 #bbj ,clement of ,alexandria1 #ej f4 ,confucius1 #bg f41 #fc1 #if ,corea1 #ff ,creation-myths1 #aaj ,cybel1 #dj ,dahomey1 #ach ,dance1 the sacred1 #aff ,daramulun1 #afb1 #aga ,dead1 cultus of the1 #bj1 #ij1 #acg ff4 ,death1 #aba ,delphi1 #ahb1 #bba1 #bdb ,demeter1 #dj1 #aai1 #afd ,deng-deet1 #adh ,dionysos1 #dj1 #aai1 #abg1 #adg ,divination1 #agh ,dreams1 #hf1 #agi1 #bbi ,druzes1 the1 #ahh ,ea1 #aac1 #agb ,earth1 mother1 #ei1 #ie1 #ig1 #agc ,eating the god1 #adf ,edda1 the1 #bg1 #ahf ,egypt1 #g1 #ci1 #df1 #ajb1 #aji1 #aac1 #abd1 #abi1 #aea f41 #aga f41 #bji1 #bac1 #bbg1 #bcg f41 #bdf ,eleusinian ,mysteries1 #afd1 #bci ,entheos1 #adg ,erinnyes1 the1 #bch ,eskimo1 the1 #bbh f41 #bcc ,etruscans1 the1 #agh1 #bbi ,euahlayi1 the1 #adi ,euripides1 #dh1 #aea ,eusebius1 #ci1 #eb ,fijians1 the1 #aig1 #bcc ,finnic peoples1 the1 #ajd1 #bca ,first-borns sacrificed1 #adb ,florida1 #bcf ,food-deities1 #aae ff4 ,gabriel1 #aca ,gths1 the1 #aia1 #bba ,genius1 the1 #abc ,gold ,coast negroes1 #ajg1 #ach1 #add1 #aig ,gotama1 #ae1 #abg1 #bai ,greece1 #cg1 #ij1 #aba f41 #ade1 #afa ,hades1 #bch ,hammurabi1 #agb ,heaven and ,earth1 #fc1 #id ff41 #bac ff4 ,hebrews1 the1 #adj4 ,see ,israel4 ,heracleides1 #ahd ,heracleitus1 #dh1 #ej ,herbert1 ,lord1 #ca ,hermes1 #i f41 #aha ,herodotus1 #bf1 #ch1 #bch ,hesiod1 #ahb1 #ahf1 #bac ,hestia1 #abb ,hierography1 ,hierology1 ,hierosophy1 #bi f4 ,hinduism1 #fb ,hirata1 #ib f41 #ace ,homer1 #aha f41 #ahf1 #bch1 #bdb ,homeric ,hymn1 #afd ,huitzilopochtli1 #adg ,incubation1 #ahj ,india1 #eh1 #ij1 #abg1 #aci1 #ada ,indra1 #cd1 #aee1 #agg ,initiation ceremonies1 #afa ff4 ,irish sacrificed first-borns1 #adb ,isis1 #ci ff41 #ea1 #aji1 #abg1 #afe ,islam4 ,see ,mohammedanism4 ,israel1 #bja1 #bbb1 #bcj1 #bcg1 #bdi ,jacob1 #afh ,jains1 the1 #fa1 #ahh ,japan1 #fc1 #ff1 #ia1 #abe1 #ace1 #ach f41 #aeb1 #bdf ,jephthah1 #ajg ,jeremiah1 #ahb ,jews1 the1 #ci1 #eh4 ,see ,israel4 ,judaism1 #ahg1 #bbc1 #bdi ,judgment after death1 #g ff41 #bcc ff4 ,jumala1 #aje ,juno1 #ade ,jupiter1 #ce1 #aji1 #acj1 #ade ,justin the ,martyr1 #di ,kabir1 #aeg1 #ahh ,kalevala1 the1 #bg1 #eg1 #ahf ,kami1 the1 #fd1 #ia ff41 #ace ,karma1 #fj1 #bag1 #bai1 #bdc ff4 ,kings1 as divine1 #abd ,koran1 the1 #ac1 #fi1 #aee1 #ahg1 #aib f4 ,krishna1 #abh ,kwan-yin1 #acb1 #aed ,lao-,tsze1 #fd1 #bad f4 ,lares1 the1 #abc ,lesa1 #adj ,lessing1 #bb ,l ,ch1 the1 #aej ,life after ,death1 #bbf ff4 ,life1 in the universe1 #hc ,logos1 the1 #dg f41 #ej1 #ec ,loki1 #baj ,lot1 the1 #agh ,lucretius1 #db1 #dd ,lycurgus1 #agc ,mat1 #bad ,magic1 #ge ff41 #abj1 #adb1 #adh1 #aed ,mahbhrata1 the1 #aij ,mama ,ogllo1 #agd ,mana1 #hj1 #he1 #bjj ,manco ,capac1 #agd ,manetho1 #ci ,manitou1 #ha ,manu1 #aij ,marcian ,songs1 #ahd ,marduk1 #aac1 #adj ,mawu1 #aih ,melanesia1 #aci1 #afd ,messiah1 the1 #bej ,mtis1 #agf ,mexico1 #eg1 #aag1 #adg1 #afa1 #bcb1 #bcd ,michabo1 #agc ,michael1 #g1 #i f41 #aca ,migration1 #bbi ,minerva1 #aji1 #ade ,minos1 #dd1 #agc ,minucius ,felix1 #di ,mithra1 #i1 #eb1 #aff1 #bcf ,mitra1 #cd1 #aee ,mohammed1 #ab f41 #fg f41 #ahg1 #aic ,mohammedanism1 #bd1 #bf1 #eh1 #fc1 #fg1 #aee ,morality1 #ace1 #aie ff4 ,moses1 #bbb ,mothers1 #ajd ,motowori1 #ib ,mulungu1 #hb ,musus1 #aha1 #ahc ,muses1 the1 #aha ,mysteries1 #ea1 #afd ff41 #bci ,mythology1 #agd ff4 ,nnak1 #fb ,new ,zealand1 #bcb ,nezahuatl1 #acj ,niger1 tribes of ,lower1 #aej1 #aih1 #bca ,noah's sacrifice1 #ada ,norns1 the1 #afa ,numa1 #dd f41 #agc ,nurrundere1 #aga ,nyongmo1 #aac ,oannes1 #aga ,odin1 #aha1 #baj ,omophagy1 #adg ,onomacritus1 #ahc ,oracles1 #ahb ff4 ,ordeals1 #agi ,orenda1 #ha ,orpheus1 #aha ,orphism1 #adg1 #afe1 #bci f4 ,osiris1 #h1 #aji1 #aai1 #agb1 #bji1 #bcg1 #bdg ,pchacmac1 #aeb ,pan1 #dd1 #aec ,parasites1 #ade ,parsees1 the1 #eh ,pausanias1 #da1 #ec ,penates1 #abc1 #ade ,persephon1 #dj1 #aai1 #bdj ,peru1 #eg1 #ajh1 #aag1 #agd ,petronius ,arbiter1 #bb ,pindar1 #dd1 #dh1 #aec1 #bac1 #bci1 #bdb ,plato1 #ch1 #de f41 #dh f41 #acc1 #agh1 #ahb1 #bci1 #bdb ,plutarch1 #da1 #dd ,polydmonistic religions1 #ee ,polynesia1 #aab1 #afd ,prajpati1 #ab1 #adc f4 ,prayer1 #ce1 #acc1 #adh ff4 ,prometheus1 #acg ,pythagoras1 #ch ,pythagoreans1 #bbj1 #bci f4 ,quetzalcoatl1 #agc ,rain-making1 #ed ,rameses1 #ajh ,rashnu1 #i1 #bcf ,religio1 #db ,rig ,veda1 #aj f41 #ei4 ,see ,veda4 ,rita1 #baf ,rites of passage1 #aei ,roman emperor1 #abd ,rome1 #da1 #eb1 #ij1 #aji1 #abc1 #aca1 #ade1 #afa1 #agh1 #bja ,sabazius1 #afe ,sacred ,books1 #ahe ff4 ,sacrifice1 #acc1 #acf ff4 ,samuel1 #afa ,saoshyant1 #bdh ,sarapis1 #ci1 #adf ,stn1 the1 #bbc ,scandinavia1 #bji1 #bbi ,scape-goat1 in ,israel1 #bjf ,schleiermacher1 #bc ,scriptures1 #ahi ff4 ,self1 doctrine of the1 #he ff4 ,self1 the ,universal1 #fj1 #bde ,semites1 the1 #adb ,set1 #bji ,shamash1 #aea1 #agb ,shang ,t1 #ig1 #ajj ,sheol1 #bcj ,shin1 the1 #ie1 #ajj ,shinto1 #fc1 #ia1 #ace1 #ahg1 #bjg ,sibylline books1 #ahd ,skhs1 the1 #fb1 #ahh ,sin1 communicable and removable1 #bjd ff4 ,sin 7moon-god71 #aea ,snake-dance1 #afg ,socrates1 #ej1 #acc1 #aec ,sophocles1 #dd ,sotr 7saviour1 etc471 #abd f41 #abg ,spirits1 #ed1 #ajb ,stars1 the dead as1 #bca1 #bdj1 #bdc ,stoics1 the1 #agh ,sfiism1 #gj ,sun-dance1 #cd1 #afg ,syrians1 the1 #adb ,taaroa1 #aab ,taboo1 #bjj ff4 ,tammuz1 #aai ,tao1 the1 #bae ,taoism1 #fe1 #fg1 #ahg ,tertullian1 #ea1 #abd ,tezcatlipoca1 #adg ,thales1 #cg1 #bac ,thargelia1 the1 #bjf ,themis1 #aah1 #bac ,thor1 #baj ,thoth1 #h1 #aeb ,tibet1 #ff ,time1 #adc ,todas1 the1 #cc1 #adh ,totemism1 #ee ,transmigration1 #fa1 #bah ,triads1 #aji ,trimurti1 #abi ,truth1 goddesses of1 #h ,tutanus ,rediculus1 #abf ,ukko1 #aje ,universal ,religions1 #gj ,valhalla1 #bce ,varro1 #db ,varuna1 #cd1 #ajf1 #aea1 #aee f41 #baa1 #bdc ,veda1 the1 #acf1 #adb1 #aea1 #aee1 #afc1 #agg1 #ahi1 #bje1 #bae1 #bdc ,vegetation-gods1 #aah ff4 ,vesta1 #abb f4 ,vishnu1 #fb1 #abh f41 #aeh1 #aij ,volospa1 the1 #ahf1 #bdh ,votan1 #agd ,vows1 #afh ,winaminen1 #aha1 #bcb ,wakanda1 #ha ,world-year1 #bdj ,xavier1 ,francis1 #hf ,yahweh1 #ajg1 #add1 #afa1 #afh1 #bbb ,yama1 #aba1 #bdc f4 ,yang and ,yin1 #ie1 #abj f4 ,zaleucus1 #dd1 #agc ,zarathustra 7,zoroaster71 #ch1 #dd1 #eh1 #aca1 #afc1 #ahg1 #bja1 #bba1 #bdf f4 ,zend ,avesta1 the1 #ahg1 #aia f41 #baa ,zeus1 #ajc1 #ajf1 #aji1 #abg1 #aec1 #agc1 #agf1 #aha1 #bac1 #bch1 #bdc ,zi 7,babylonian71 #ajb ,zuis1 the1 #hc1 #aaa 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,home ,,university ,,library ,,of ,,modern ,,knowledge #afmo cloth1 #ej cents net1 by mail #ef cents ,,philosophy ,,and ,,religion ,just ,published ,,problems ,,of ,,philosophy 444 ,by ,,bertrand ,,russell ,,buddhism 444 ,by ,,mrs4 ,,rhys ,,davids ,,english ,,sects 444 ,by ,w4 ,b4 ,,selbie ,,the ,,making ,,of ,,the ,,new ,,testament 444 ,by ,b4 ,w4 ,,bacon ,,ethics 444 ,by ,g4 ,e4 ,,moore ,,missions 444 ,by ,,mrs4 ,,creighton ,future ,issues ,,the ,,old ,,testament 444 ,by ,,george ,,moore ,,between ,,the ,,old ,,and ,,new ,,testaments 444 ,by ,r4 ,h4 ,,charles ,,comparative ,,religion 444 ,by ,j4 ,,estlin ,,carpenter ,a ,,history ,,of ,,freedom ,,of ,,thought 444 ,by ,j4 ,b4 ,,bury