498 Darwinism and the Study of Religions 



when was religion revealed or what was the revelation, but how 

 did religious phenomena arise and develop. For an answer to this 

 we turn with new and reverent eyes to study "the heathen in his 

 blindness" and the child "born in sin." We still indeed send out 

 missionaries to convert the heathen, but here at least in Cambridge 

 before they start they attend lectures on anthropology and com- 

 parative religion. The "decadence" theory is dead and should be 

 buried. 



The study of primitive religions then has been made possible and 

 even inevitable by the theory of Evolution. We have now to ask 

 what new facts and theories have resulted from that study. This 

 brings us to our second point, the advanced outlook on religion 

 to-day. 



The view I am about to state is no mere personal opinion of my 

 own. To my present standpoint I have been led by the investi- 

 gations of such masters as Drs Wundt, Lehmann, Preuss, Bergsen, 

 Beck and in our own country Drs Tylor and Frazer\ 



Religion always contains two factors. First, a theoretical factor, 

 what a man thinks about the unseen — his theology, or, if we prefer so 

 to call it, his mythology. Second, what he does in relation to this 

 unseen — his ritual. These factors rarely if ever occur in complete 

 separation ; they are blended in very varying proportions. Religion 

 we have seen was in the last century regarded mainly in its theoretical 

 aspect as a doctrine. Greek religion for example meant to most 

 educated persons Greek mythology. Yet even a cursory examination 

 shows that neither Greek nor Roman had any creed or dogma, any 

 hard and fast formulation of belief. In the Greek Mysteries^ only 

 we find what we should call a Conjiteor ; and this is not a confession 

 of faith, but an avowal of rites performed. When the religion of 

 primitive peoples came to be examined it was speedily seen that 

 though vague beliefs necessarily abound, definite creeds are practi- 

 cally non-existent. Ritual is dominant and imperative. 



This predominance and priority of ritual over definite creed was 

 first forced upon our notice by the study of savages, but it promptly 

 and happily joined hands with modern psychology. Popular belief 

 says, I think, therefore I act ; modern scientific psychology says, 



1 I can only name here the books that have specially influenced my own views. They 

 are W. Wundt, Volkerpsychologie, Leipzig, 1900. P. Beck, "Die Nachahmung," Leipzig, 

 1904, and "Erkenntnisstheorie des primitiven Denkens" in Zeitschri/t f. Pliilos. U7id 

 Philos. Kritik, 1903, p. 172, and 1904, p. 9. Henri Bergson, L'Evolution Creatrice and 

 Mature et Memoire, 1908. K. Th. Preuss, various articles published in the Globus (see 

 p. 507, note 1), and in the Archiv f. lieligiomwisseiuchaft, and for the subject of magic, 

 MM. Hubert et Manss, " Tht^orie g6n6rale do la Magie," in U Annie Sociologique, vn. 



' See my Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 155, Cambridge, 1903. 



