236 Evolution of Tlieolor/i/. 



forms of the understanding. The period Avhich has elapsed 

 since Greek philosophy was given to the world, as compared 

 with the period antecedent to those philosophies, during 

 which, by the slow evolution of the generalizing faculty, 

 they were rendered possible, make Plato and Aristotle 

 writers of but yesterday. And indeed, even when the dis- 

 ciplined mind of the present seeks to catechise the words 

 ''law," "principle," they escape all analysis, and we can 

 only say, as the last word, that, like certain inorganic ele- 

 ments, they are undecomposable. Small wonder it is, there- 

 fore, if, for \;ncounted centuries, primitive man should have 

 failed to rise to the point of intellectual advantage required 

 for a mastery of the laws of matter and of mind, seeing that, 

 when once grasped, they are, in their very nature, inexplica- 

 ble in and of themselves. When, by some fortunate con- 

 currence of favoring circumstances, primitive man first put 

 this fact with that other fact, and, in a tentative way, began 

 his first experiments in comparison of resemblances and 

 differences, and, in a rude fashion, to select, classify and 

 arrange, under the inspiration of some vague conception of 

 an all-comprehftisive law, the future of knowledge was 

 secure, Science was made possible, the Universe was to 

 become revealed as Mind, Order and Beauty ; and the Twi- 

 light of the Gods of fear, malice, mischief, and superstition, 

 if to be long delayed, had been irrevocably decreed. 



Applying now what Ave have oV)served above as to the 

 mental attitude of primeval races to the question imme- 

 diately under discussion, it follows that they recognize gods, 

 but not God; powers, but no Power. They individualize 

 only. The varied phenomena of Nature are forced upon 

 the attention and experience of primitive man in aspects 

 both beneficial and injurious. The latter he makes, intui- 

 tively, an object of concern. The beneficent aspects pass 

 mostly unregarded, and are accepted as matters of course. 

 That which causes pain, or arouses fear, incites him to the 

 earliest acts of religious devotion, viz., propitiation and 

 sacrifice. All primal religious instincts have their root in 

 the sentiment of fear, which dominates the savage of to-day 

 as well, and centuries of culture and progress have but par- 

 tially succeeded in replacing it by higher ideals. Primitive 

 man, knowing himself to possess certain mental and bodily 

 powers, involuntarily attributes unusual, or unexpected 

 appearances and changes in objects animate and inanimate 



