214 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



subjective and objective impressions. When a savage 

 dreams, the figures which appear before him are believed 

 to have come from a distance, and to stand over him ; or 

 "the soul of the dreamer goes out on its travels, and 

 comes home with a remembrance of what it has seen." 

 But, until the faculties of imagination, curiosity, reason, 

 etc., had been fairly well developed in the mind of man, 

 his dreams would not have led him to believe in spirits, 

 any more than in the case of a dog. 



The tendency in savages to imagine that natural ob- 

 jects 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 ani- 

 mal, was lying on the lawn during a hot and still day ; 

 but at a little distance a slight breeze occasionally moved 

 an open parasol, which would have been wholly disre- 

 garded 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 sav- 

 ages would naturally attribute to spirits the same pas- 

 sions, 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 snow, blow much"; 

 and this was evidently a retributive punishment for 



