204 3-SSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



once recognizes God, the soul, and immortality as 

 "postulates of the practical reason." That man is 

 a " religious animal " is as much implied in his 

 worshipping the ghosts of his ancestors as in any 

 other worship. But, of course, Mr. Spencer's con- 

 tention is that there are some tribes in which 

 religion of any kind does not exist. "All religion," 

 he says, on the authority of Schweinfurth, " in our 

 sense of the word religion " (a very important 

 limitation, by-the-bye) "is quite unknown to the 

 Bongo." Therefore not only is the religious idea 

 not innate, but the religious instinct is not universal 

 in man. 



We do not propose to discuss here the much- 

 debated question as to the existence of tribes of 

 atheists. If it could be proved, we should no 

 longer be able to point to the universality of the 

 instinct of worship as an argument in favour of a 

 real Object of worship. St. Paul no doubt asserts 

 of the Romans of his day, and by implication of 

 other Gentiles, that they were " without excuse " 

 in rejecting God ; and theologians have held that 

 there is no such thing as invincible ignorance of 

 God. If this is what Mr. Spencer means by " an 

 innate consciousness of Deity," then there would 

 seem to be a clear issue raised between him and 

 the theologians. But the question cannot be 

 settled off-hand on the basis of an uncritical con- 

 versation between savages and the casual traveller. 



