Chap. II. MENTAL POWERS. 65 



" typical differences between savages and brutes." But 

 not only can we perceive how it is that man is capri- 

 cious, but the lower animals are, as we shall hereafter 

 see, capricious in their affections, aversions, and sense 

 of beauty. There is also good reason to suspect that 

 they love novelty, for its own sake. 



Belief in God — Religion. — There is no evidence that 

 man was aboriginally endowed with the ennobling 

 belief in the existence of an Omnipotent God. On the 

 contrary there is ample evidence, derived not from hasty 

 travellers, but from men who have long resided with 

 savages, that numerous races have existed and still 

 exist, who have no idea of one or more gods, and who 

 have no words in their languages to express such an 

 idea. 51 The question is of course wholly distinct from 

 that higher one, whether there exists a Creator and 

 Ruler of the universe ; and this has been answered in 

 the affirmative bv the highest intellects that have ever 

 lived. 



If, however, we include under the term " religion " the 

 belief in unseen or spiritual agencies, the case is wholly 

 different; for this belief seems to be almost universal 

 with the less civilised races. Nor is it difficult to 

 comprehend how it arose. As soon as the important 

 faculties of the imagination, wonder, and curiosity, 

 together with some power of reasoning, had become 

 partially developed, man would naturally have craved 

 to understand what was passing around him, and 

 have vaguely speculated on his own existence. As 



51 See an excellent article on this subject by the Eev. F W. Farrar, 

 in the ' Anthropological Review,' Aug. 1864, p. ccxvii. For further 

 facts see Sir J. Lubbock, ' Prehistoric Times,' 2nd edit. 1869, p. 564 ; 

 and especially the chapters on Religion in his ' Origin of Civilisation.' 

 1870. 



VOL. I. F 



