52 METAPHYSICS 



It is remarkable also that religious systems have arisen 

 from the individual efforts of men of ' ' light and leading," 

 who, by strength of moral character and will power, have 

 exercised an influence for good on their human environ- 

 ment to the extent that a form of religion has taken shape 

 that has become a more or less permanent institution for 

 the advancement of civilisation, with all that is implied 

 in the term and that flows from it. 



Thus in ante-diluvian times the family of the first pair 

 instituted the recognition of their dependence on God by 

 the adoption of the institution of the offering of sacrifice 

 with a more or less definite understanding of its meaning. 

 This mode of religious observance was renewed in post- 

 diluvian times, and continues to some extent to the present 

 day to exercise the religious instincts of the human race 

 in some parts of the world. 



Higher modes of religious practice have, however, 

 gradually displaced this early method, and its complete 

 substitution by moral, and self-, sacrifice has now been 

 effected amongst all the more civilised communities and 

 nationalities as well as individuals, many of whom live as 

 well as profess the tenets of a fully evolved religious 

 system with a definite "creed" and a more or less 

 elaborate "form of worship." 



