DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS. 291 



that in addition to his aesthetic satisfaction, he un- 

 consciously imagines that the spirit of the dead man 

 is infused into the image and is able to enjoy the 

 admiration of the observers. 



The worship of images in all times and places 

 is essentially founded on this belief in the incar- 

 nation of spirits and the ninncn of fetishes. There 

 is indeed no real difference between the superstitious 

 adoration of a savage, addressed to his fetish, and 

 the worship of images in many religions of modern 

 civilization. Although people of culture, and the 

 scholastic theory of religions, may distinguish indirect 

 and respectful veneration from direct worship, yet it 

 cannot be denied that the majority of the faithful 

 directly adore the image. The general belief in relics, 

 consisting of bones, hair, clothes, etc., is plainly an 

 evolution of the amulets and gris-gris of savages. 

 This fetishtic and idolatrous sentiment has by a 

 gradual and necessary development been infused even 

 into speech and writing, for written forms have been 

 hung on plants as fetishes and idols, or placed in the 

 temples as the symbol of perpetual prayer, and the 

 Buddhists even erect prayer-mills. We have analogous 

 instances among ourselves, when texts of Scripture or 

 the words of some saint are rolled up into a kind of 

 amulet and worn round the neck. The same sentiment 

 is shown in the costly offering of lamps kept constantly 

 burning before images as the means of obtaining help 

 and favour ; and in the visits made to a given number 



