AN ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEM AS A SOCIAL BOND. 773 



towards the dead. The burial of a late parent is an occasion 

 on which the members of the family gather together and 

 become bound by a renewed sense of kinship ; on which any 

 antagonism among them is temporarily or permanently 

 extinguished ; and on which they are further united by being 

 subject in common to the deceased man s wishes, and made, 

 in so far, to act in concert. The sentiment of filial piety thus 

 manifesting itself, enlarges in its sphere when the deceased 

 man is the patriarch, or the founder of the tribe, or the 

 hero of the race. But be it in worship of a god or funeral 

 of a parent, we ever see the same three influences 

 strengthening of union, suspension of hostilities, reinforce 

 ment of transmitted commands. In both cases the process 

 of integration is in several ways furthered. 



Thus, looking at it generally, we may say that ecclesi- 

 asticism stands for the principle of social continuity. Above 

 all other agencies it is that which conduces to cohesion ; not 

 only between the coexisting parts of a nation, but also 

 between its present generation and its past generations. In 

 both ways it helps to maintain the individuality of the 

 society. Or, changing somewhat the point of view, we may 

 say that ecclesiasticism, embodying in its primitive form the 

 rule of the dead over the living, and sanctifying in its more 

 advanced forms the authority of the past over the present, 

 has for its function to preserve in force the organized prod act 

 of earlier experiences versus the modifying effects of more 

 recent experiences. Evidently this organized product of past 

 experiences is not without credentials. The life of the society 

 has, up to the time being, been maintained under it ; and 

 hence a perennial reason for resistance to deviation. If we 

 consider that habitually the chief or ruler, propitiation of 

 whose ghost originates a local cult, acquired his position 

 through successes of one or other kind, we must infer that 

 obedience to the commands emanating from him, and main 

 tenance of the usages he initiated, is, on the average of cases, 

 conducive to social prosperity so long as conditions remain 



