UNITY AND CONTINUITY. 337 



antiquaries, " Batons of command." Such objects 

 might have been the horns which conjurors wore on 

 the head or attached to their rods or staffs, or which 

 formed part of the rattles or drums which were used in 

 ceremonies. All these functions constitute what has 

 been termed " shamanism " among the Mongol tribes ; 

 and it has been recently shown by Taylor that the 

 same system prevailed in Etruria, and was the origin 

 of the Eoman augury. It was in full force among 

 the Canaanites and other ancient peoples mentioned in 

 the Pentateuch ; and Balaam, as presented to us there, 

 is evidently only a superior sort of medicine-man. 



Here, again, we have an ancient and universal 

 instinct of humanity; and, however corrupted, we 

 may recognise under it a great and Divine truth that 

 of the possibility of revelation of the will of God to 

 man an instinct capable of the noblest elevation and 

 also of being the subject of the vilest corruptions and 

 impostures. It marks out man as a being from the 

 first not content to be the sport of mere inanimate 

 forces, and so rising to the conception of a divinity. 

 It shows him also as feeling in danger, sickness, 

 bereavement, and approaching death, the need of aid 

 from above, the presence of a God who could succour 

 him, the yearning that God would abide with him and 

 bless him. Let me add, that as an original and God- 

 given gift, this universal religious instinct, and its sur- 

 vival among even the most depraved peoples, explains 

 the universal adaptation of the Christian religion to 

 the wants of man. Paul perceived that the Athenians 



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