292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



indefinite host of superhuman demons or spirits, and the form of his 

 religion is determined by that fact. 



Another thing that confirmed the primitive man in the belief that 

 he was surrounded by a world of supersensuous beings was his experi- 

 ence in dreams : when he had developed far enough to remember his 

 dreams with any vividness, he always thought of them as real experi- 

 ences. The beings that visited him in his sleep were as genuine reali- 

 ties and as truly to be dealt with as any that he came in contact with 

 when awake. In fact, he finds that he can often do things in dreams 

 that he can not do when awake, and that he frequently communes with 

 beings that he has no knowledge of when awake. The Kamchatkans 

 and Eskimos, we are told, determine what they will do when awake to 

 a great extent by their dreams ; for they regard the knowledge obtained 

 in this way far superior to that gained through the senses. Lucretius, 

 however, goes too far when he asserts that " the dreams of men peopled 

 the heaven with gods." Many of the lower animals are vivid dreamers, 

 but they show no signs of having any religion. Still, dreams in all 

 ages have often been regarded with superstitious reverence, and were 

 undoubtedly an element in determining the character of the primitive 

 religion of mankind. 



It has come down to us from the Latin poet Petronius that "fear 

 first made the gods." As a complete statement of the origin of relig- 

 ion, it is contrary to the history and nature of man. The primary re- 

 ligious influence is not fear, but confidence and awe. The spirit of 

 many early religions was quite the opposite of fear. " Probably the 

 first of all public rites of worship," says a high authority, " was one of 

 joyousness, to wit, the invitation to the god to be present and to par- 

 take of the repast." Many modern students of the subject would bear 

 witness to the presence of joy and confidence in primitive religions. 



Yet it can not be denied but that fear early came to be one of their 

 most important elements. For just as with the little child, the primi- 

 tive man was often disappointed in his confidence. As his experience 

 widened and the ills of life multiplied, he began to doubt the friendly 

 character of the spirits. He soon came to the conviction that some 

 only were favorable to him. The rest were to be feared. And as fear 

 once aroused feeds upon everything within its grasp and grows with ex- 

 traordinary rapidity, the uncertainty as to what the attitude of the 

 spirits would be toward him naturally caused the primitive man to 

 spend the most of his energy in devising ways to appease their wrath. 



A slight step in advance beyond spiritism was taken when the opin- 

 ion began to prevail that all objects do not contain superhuman beings, 

 but only some of them. This stage in religion is called fetishism. The 

 term was first applied by certain early Portuguese explorers to the ob- 

 jects worshipped by the savage tribes they discovered in Senegal and 



