292 DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION 



tures and fences and gates, of rain and sunshine, of 

 sheep, and of a master whose voice is to be obeyed. 

 What the dog may do is partly determined by what it 

 finds in its world of animate and inanimate things. Al- 

 though the animal's ''conception" of such things must 

 be far simpler than a human being's, nevertheless its 

 life is lived in reaction to all of its surroundings as they 

 are presented to its cerebral apparatus by the proper 

 organs. So in the human case, conduct is directly af- 

 fected by the living and lifeless objects of a total human 

 situation, the only difference being that reflective con- 

 sciousness and reasoned interpretation have their share 

 in determining the assumed attitude in ways that seem 

 to have no counterparts as such in the mental lives of 

 lower animals. But whether or not the similarity be- 

 tween human religion and lower organic reaction be 

 admitted, — and the admission is one that greatly facili- 

 tates an understanding of evolution in this field, — the 

 general resemblance of all religions in fimdamental 

 character at least must be accepted. 



Another general feature of religious systems is their 

 complexity. The essential elements of all of them are 

 few indeed, as we shall see at a later point; they are 

 beliefs regarding ultimate powers, human responsibil- 

 ity to such powers, and future existence. These have 

 taken one specific form or another in various lines of 

 racial evolution, but aside from their own changes they 

 have gathered about them many other articles of creed 

 relating to other departments of thought and life. Ethi- 

 cal rules of conduct are so added, as in the Hebrew 

 religion where the idea of Jehovah involves God the 

 Ruler and Judge who imposes and administers the laws 



