THE RELIGIOUS IDEA. 673 



Is not a man superior in sense to an ox? Has he not a 

 mind to direct his actions ? 



Commoro. Some men are not so clever as an ox. Men must sow 

 corn to obtain food, but the ox and wild animals can procure it 

 without sowing. 1 



1 Do you not know that there is a spirit within you more than 

 flesh ? Do you not dream and wander in thought to distant 

 places in your sleep ? Nevertheless, your body rests in one spot. 

 How do you account for this ? 



Commoro, laughing. Well, how do you account for it ? It is a 

 thing I cannot understand ; it occurs to me every night. 

 * # # 



* Have you no idea of the existence of spirits superior to either 

 man or beast? Have you no fear of evil except from bodily 

 causes 1 



Commoro. I am afraid of elephants and other animals when in the 

 jungle at night, but of nothing else. 3 



Then you believe in nothing ; neither in a good nor evil 

 spirit ! And you believe that when you die it will be the end of 

 body and spirit ; that you are like other animals ; and that 

 there is no distinction between man and beast ; both disappear, 

 and end at death ? 



Commoro. Of course they do. n 



And then in response to Baker s repetition of St. Paul s 

 argument derived from the decaying seed, which our funeral 

 service emphasizes, Commoro said : 



&quot;* Exactly so ; that I understand. But the original grain does not 

 rise again ; it rots like the dead man, and is ended ; the fruit 

 produced is not the same grain that we buried, but the production 

 of that grain : so it is with man, I die, and decay, and am 

 ended ; but my children grow up like the fruit of the grain. 

 Some men have no children, and some grains perish without 

 fruit ; then all are ended. 5 &quot; 



Clearly, then, religious ideas have not that supernatural 

 origin commonly alleged ; and we are taught, by implication, 

 that they have a natural origin. How do they originate ? 



584. In the first volume of this work, nearly a score- 

 chapters are devoted to an account of primitive ideas at 

 large ; and especially ideas concerning the natures and actions 

 of supernatural agents. Instead of referring the reader back 



