SPENCER'S ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 217 



just the opposite viz. that the highest religion 

 finds its explanation in ghost-worship, and ghosts 

 have no reality. Now, we are told that there was 

 a germ of truth even in the primitive conception, 

 and its later developments are not less real, but 

 more real than the earlier forms, because they 

 approximate more closely to the worship of the 

 Unknowable. In other words, according to Mr. 

 Spencer, the worship of the Unknowable is implicit 

 in ghost -worship, and is its ground and under- 

 lying truth, though, of course, it is hot present 

 to consciousness. Surely the theologian may be 

 allowed to assert the same of "the innate con- 

 sciousness of God." At all events, he cannot be 

 refuted by the cross-examination of a savage. 



