530 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



it will perhaps surprise you to hear me discuss. I have said, at differ- 

 ent times, that I wished to be a man of science, that I did not wish to 

 enter here upon either philosophy or theology, and yet I am going to 

 speak of religion. I shall continue faithful to my programme. It is 

 as a naturalist that I shall take up the subject. As for morality, I 

 showed the existence of the faculty ; then I pointed out some general 

 facts, reserving the special facts for the history of races. To-day, as 

 heretofore, I shall avoid with care the dogmatic and the theologic side 

 of the discussion. 



The first fact to establish is the universality of the manifestations 

 which belong to religion. In every country, with all peoples, in all 

 races, we find the belief in beings superior to man, and influencing his 

 destiny for good or evil. Everywhere we find the belief in another 

 life succeeding to the actual life. These two notions lie at the foun- 

 dation of all religions, and whoever admits them is religious. We can 

 say, then, of man generally, that he is certainly religious. 



Objections have been made to the generality of this character. 

 Let us rapidly examine the case. 



Some authors affirm that there exist atheistic people. They have 

 cited in proof the Australians of whom I have already spoken, and the 

 Bushmen. These are mistaken assertions ; but this error may be ex- 

 plained. Three causes, acting together or separately, have contrib- 

 uted to a misunderstanding of the religious beliefs of the inferior races 

 of humanity. 



The first is the beliefs of travelers. When these travelers are mis- 

 sionaries, having an ardent faith but a narrow intelligence, they are 

 easily led not to accept, as true, religious beliefs so different from their 

 own. Often, in their eyes, these beliefs are a work of the devil ; they 

 put them aside, or do not take the trouble to discover them, and they 

 offer us, as atheistic, people who certainly are not. 



Ignorance of the language often leads to regarding a people as 

 atheistic. A traveler encounters a savage tribe ; he puts questions, 

 well or ill, often by signs alone, on the Deity, or on the soul ; the na- 

 tives do not understand, and reply by some gesture of negation, and 

 the traveler concludes that they believe neither in God nor immor- 

 tality. 



But, the great cause which has often led to the conclusion I am 

 opposing, is the disdain of Europeans for savages. Generally, the 

 European, proud of his knowledge, and overrating his superiority, 

 judges in advance their incapacity to attain to notions a little elevated. 

 He takes no great pains to discover what he believes does not exist. 

 At the first failure he thinks himself right in concluding that these 

 inferior races are incapable of attaining to the notion of God and of a 

 future life. 



Happily there are some tolerant missionaries who have studied 

 them more closely, and laymen w^ho have been able to see brothers in 



