MORAL EVOLUTION 295 



III 



THE CONNECTION OF RELIGION WITH MORALITY 



If we hold that a belief in spiritual beings is the germ from Primitive 

 which religion has developed, then there is no existing tribe Rell S lon 

 that is utterly non-religious. To such rudimentary religion 

 the term animism is often applied. To primitive man every 

 living creature and even all lifeless objects with which he came 

 in contact were animated with a life and will like his own. 

 Dreams suggested this view of the world. In sleep he was 

 elsewhere : when he awoke he could remember where he had 

 been and what adventures he had had. And yet his friends 

 could assure him that he had never moved from his hut. His 

 body, therefore, was tenanted by a spiritual being. And why 

 should not all things around him have similar tenants ? 



Animism had two main developments, the belief that man had 

 a soul which survived him, and the belief that there were 

 spiritual beings which had power to control the events of the 

 material world. A full account of the subject will be found in 

 Tylor's Primitive Culture to which I refer the reader. Here I 

 wish, if possible, to give some idea of the way in which it came 

 about that religion brought within its jurisdiction all questions of 

 morality. I attempt this because of the great interest of the 

 subject, not because the importance of religion in human evolu- 

 tion cannot be understood without a knowledge of the relation 

 of religion to morality in primitive times. In whatever way it 

 may have arisen the fact of this relation in civilised communities 

 is plain enough. Nevertheless it will lend force to my argument 

 if it can be shown that the connection between the two began at 

 a very early period. Mr Jevons' Introduction to the History of 

 Religion throws much light upon the subject, and cannot fail to 

 arouse the interest of all who read it. From him I borrow a 

 number of facts ; some of his inferences I am unable to accept. 



We can hardly doubt that morality owes its origin very Taboo 

 largely to the system of Taboo. This system is universal 

 among savages ; it extends like a network over the whole of 



