45 8 Life and Immortality. 



for the future and other elements enter into its composition. 

 No being could experience so complex an emotion unless 

 his intellectual and moral faculties had attained a moderately 

 high level. Some approach to this high state of mind is 

 visible in the profound love of a dog for his master, for it is 

 associated with complete submission, some fear, reverence, 

 gratitude and perhaps other feelings. A dog's behavior 

 towards his master, after a long absence, is widely different 

 from that which he shows towards his fellows, for his trans- 

 ports of joy in the latter case are less intense, and his every 

 action savors of a mere sense of equality. But upon his 

 master, as Prof. Braubach goes so far as to maintain, he 

 looks as on a god. 



These high mental faculties, which first led man to believe 

 in unseen spiritual agencies, and subsequently in fetishism, 

 polytheism and monotheism, would infallibly lead him, as 

 long as his reasoning powers remained at a very low level, 

 to various strange supersititions and customs, many of which, 

 such as the sacrifice of human beings to a blood-loving god 

 and the trial of innocent persons by the ordeal of poison or 

 fire, are too terrible to contemplate. It is well, however, to 

 reflect occasionally on these superstitions, for they show us 

 what an infinite debt of gratitude we owe to improved reason, 

 science and accumulated knowledge. How much better is 

 the life of civilized man than that of the savage, for as Lub- 

 bock has well remarked, " it is not too much to say that the 

 horrible dread of unknown evil hangs like a thick cloud 

 over savage life, and embitters every pleasure." 



From the opinions advanced, it is evident that the belief 

 in God has been the ultimate outcome of belief in unseen 

 spiritual agencies. There has been a gradual leading up 

 through fetishism and polytheism to monotheism. If relig- 

 ion implies belief in unseen agencies, as well as belief in a 

 personal agency in the universe strong enough to influence 

 conduct in any degree, then it is obvious that there has 

 been a progressive advancement in religious thought, each 



