^hap. III. Mental Powers. 95 



the faculties of imagination, curiosity, reason, &c, had been 

 fairly well developed in the mind of man, his dreams would not 

 have led him to believe in spirits, any more than iu the case of 

 a dog. 



The tendency in savages to imagine that natural objects and 

 agencies are animated by spiritual or living essences, is perhaps 

 illustrated by a little fact which I once noticed : my dog, a full- 

 grown and very sensible animal, was lying on the lawn during a 

 hot and still day ; but at a little distance a slight breeze occa- 

 sionally moved an open parasol, which would have been wholly 

 disregarded by the dog, had any one stood near it. As it was, 

 every time that the parasol slightly moved, the dog growled 

 fiercely and barked. He must, I think, have reasoned to himself 

 in a rapid and unconscious manner, that movement without any 

 apparent cause indicated the presence of some strange living 

 agent, and that no stranger had a right to be on his territory. 



The belief in spiritual agencies would easily pass into the 

 belief in the existence of one or more gods. For savages would 

 naturally attribute to spirits the same passions, the same love of 

 vengeance or simplest form of justice, and the same affections 

 which they themselves feel. The Fuegians appear to be in this 

 respect in an intermediate condition, for when the surgeon on board 

 the "Beagle" shot some young ducklings as specimens, York 

 Minster declared in the most solemn manner, " Oh, Mr. Bynoe, 

 " much rain, much sdow, blow much ;" and this was evidently 

 a retributive punishment for wasting human food. So again he 

 related how, when his brother killed a " wuld man," storms long 

 raged, much rain and snow fell. Yet we could never discover 

 that the Fuegians believed in what we should call a God, or 

 practised any religious rites ; and Jemmy Button, with justifiable 

 pride, stoutly maintained that there was no devil in his land. 

 This latter assertion is the more remarkable, as with savages the 

 belief in bad spirits is far more common than that in good 

 ones. 



The feeling of religious devotion is a highly complex one, 

 consisting of love, complete submission to an exalted and 

 mysterious superior, a strong sense of dependence, 77 fear, 

 reverence, gratitude, hope for the future, and perhaps other 

 elements. No being could experience so complex an emotion 



anything which manifests power or 77 See an able article on the 



movement is thought to be endowed 'Physical Elements of Religion,' by 



with some form of life, and with Mr. L. Owen Pike, in ' Anthropo'og, 



mental faculties analogous to our Review,' April, 1870, p. lxiii. 

 own. 



