^6 The Descent of Man. Part 1. 



until advanced in his intellectual and moral faculties to at least 

 a moderately high level. Nevertheless, we see some distant 

 approach to this state of mind in the deep love of a dog for his 

 master, associated with complete submission, some fear, and 

 perhaps other feelings. The behaviour of a dog when returning 

 to his master after an absence, and, as I may add, of a monkey 

 to his beloved keeper, is widely different from that towards their 

 fellows. In the latter case the transports of joy appear to be 

 somewhat less, and the sense of equality is shewn in every action. 

 Professor Braubach goes so far as to maintain that a dog looks 

 on his master as on a god. 78 



The same high mental faculties which first led man to believe 

 in unseen spiritual agencies, then in fetishism, polytheism, and 

 ultimately in monotheism, would infallibly lead him, as long as 

 his reasoning powers remained poorly developed, to various 

 strange superstitions and customs. Many of these are terrible 

 to think of— such as the sacrifice of human beings to a blood- 

 loving god ; the trial of innocent persons by the ordeal of poison 

 or fire ; witchcraft, &c. — yet it is well occasionally to reflect on 

 these superstitions, for they shew us what an infinite debt of 

 gratitude we owe to the improvement of our reason, to science, 

 and to our accumulated knowledge. As Sir J. Lubbock 79 has well 

 observed, " it is not too much to say that the horrible dread of 

 " unknown evil hangs like a thick cloud over savage life, and 

 " embitters every pleasure." These miserable and indirect 

 consequences of our highest faculties may be compared with the 

 incidental and occasional mistakes of the instincts of the lower 

 animals. 



78 ' Religion, Moral, &c, der Dar- :9 ' Prehistoric Times,' 2nd edit, 



win'schen Art-Lehre,' 18(39, s. 53. p. 571. In this work (p. 571) 



It is said (Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay, there will be found an excellent 



'Journal of Mental Science,' 1871, account of the many strange and 



p. 43), that Bacon leng age, and the capricious customs of savages, 

 poet Burns, held the same aotion. 



