METAPHYSICS 253 



for virtue, why be virtuous at all, as long as you do not 

 violate the laws of the land? 



" If by ' religious truth' be meant the doctrine of the 

 existence of God and of human immortality, we think it 

 would be difficult to show that there is any general ' need ' 

 to believe in these things " (Mr. Balfour s Apologetics, 

 p. 28). 



It is easy to say this ; but the whole history of man 

 belies it. I will contrast two writers on this point. No 

 one will gainsay that Prof. E. B. Tylor's authority is 

 practically final : " The assertion that non-religious tribes 

 have been known in actual existence, though in theory 

 possible, and perhaps in fact true, does not at present 

 rest on that sufficient proof which for an exceptional 

 state of things we are entitled to demand. The evidence 

 given is often mistaken, and never conclusive." ^ 



On the other hand, Haeckel, to support his monistic 

 views, boldly asserts : " It has been absolutely proved by 

 modern comparative ethnology that many uncivilised 

 races of the earliest and most primitive stage had no 

 notion either of immortality or of God "? He mentions 

 "the Veddahs of Ceylon," "several of the earliest groups 

 of the nearly related Dravidas," " the Indian Seelongs," 

 "some native Australian races," " several of the primitive 

 branches of the American race in the interior of Brazil, 

 on the upper Amazon, etc., have no knowledge either of 

 gods or immortality". I have no means of verifying or 

 disproving this ; but am inclined to trust Tylor rather 

 than Haeckel, 



It is admitted that the senses are developed by Evolu- 

 tion. The eye came from a pigment spot. The ear from a 

 feeble perception of aerial vibrations, etc. The author 



'^Primitive Culture. ^ The Riddle of the Universe, p. 196. 



