2 JOHN FEASEE, B.A., LL.D. 



I have said that I mean to build my argument on the 

 religious ideas and ceremonies which exist among our 

 Australian aborigines, and the resemblance of these to similar 

 institutions found among nations and tribes elsewhere. Now, 

 of all the definitions which have been thought of as distin- 

 guishing man from the rest of creation, the one that describes 

 him as the "religious animal " is perhaps the best. Some will 

 say that man is the mechanical, the social, the omnivorous, 

 and so on. The philologist will tell us that etymology declares 

 him to be the " thinker." I grant that the power of consecu- 

 tive thought is a noble gift to man, but I am ready to 

 deny that it is his noblest possession. The religious 

 instinct, however debasing the forms which it now 

 assumes, seems to me a diviner gift ; for, while it stimulates, it 

 also chastens and regulates the force and direction of thought, 

 and lays hold of and moulds man's inner nature in a way which 

 mere intellect can never approach. I am further prepared to 

 deny that religiousness is a thing of man's own invention, 

 that mere thinking will ever lead a man to acts of worship, or 

 that the progress and development of thought alone will bring 

 him to more enlightened forms of worship. The tendency, as 

 registered by history and observation, is all in the other 

 direction, towards degradation, not towards elevation ; and 

 if man were solely mental and emotional, his attitude in 

 viewing the vastness, the energy and the multitude of the 

 objects of nature around and above him would be one of 

 awe and fear, not of worship. I therefore believe the 

 manifestations of the religious sentiment among uncivilised 

 nations such as the Australian aborigines, to be like ruins of 

 an edifice, which neither they nor their ancestors ever built, 

 but yet its very stones may tell something of its origin. Now, 

 since man does not invent religious beliefs and practices for 

 himself, we may justly argue that the presence of the same 

 or similar ceremonies in nations at present widely separated 

 in place indicates a common origin. The traditions of a 

 great deluge, so similar everywhere, the folk-lore stories 

 among so many nations, all tell the same tale, a common 

 origin. And, further, it is not an unreasonable thing to say 

 that, as the human race was long ago split up into four great 

 divisions, which we now call the Aryan, the Shemite, the 

 Turanian, and the Hamite or Ethiopian, and which became 

 antagonistic and locally distinct, so the primitive religion, with 

 its beliefs and practices, would tend in four diverging direc- 

 tions, each portion, however, being homogeneous in itself, 

 although retaining some features of resemblance to its 

 brethren. Now, in speaking to yon about our aborigines, I 



