XII 



THE GEKMAN PASSION-PLAY; A STUDY IN THE 

 EVOLUTION OF WESTEEN CHRISTIANITY l 



For my part I never feel my liberal faith more firmly rooted in me than 

 when I ponder over the miracles of the ancient creed. RENAN. 



I. Introductory 



WHILE a study of primitive human customs forces 

 us irresistibly to the conclusion that the social 

 characteristics, which men value most highly to-day, 

 have been evolved in the course of long ages from 

 very animal instincts, so a study of early religious 

 beliefs shows us the source of the most highly developed 

 religious sentiments in strangely barbarous habits and 

 superstitions. If the first study demonstrates for us that 

 morality is not the creation of moralists and teachers, 

 but that the moral feelings have been evolved in that 

 struggle of group with group which gave the victory 

 to the more stable society with the more intense gre- 

 garious instincts, so the second study leads us from 

 human sacrifice, cannibalism, and nature propitiation 



1 Extracted from notes for a course of lectures on mediaeval German litera- 

 ture delivered in 1883, and therefore containing but few references to more 

 recent publications on the religious drama. 



