AVERY. 121 
Whether these ideas are a survival from a primitive revelation, are echoes 
of Christian teaching, or have come to human thought in the following way 
must be determined by the evidence in each case, and, in the present state 
of our knowledge, should not be settled too dogmatically. I like to think 
that the Divine Spirit acting in connection with the “law written in their 
hearts” has wrought a work in the souls of some devout heathen, thus 
preserving a witness for God and preparing the way for the prompt 
reception of the Gospel of His Son. That these glimpses of truth have 
been clouded with error, and that heathen systems as a whole are powerless — 
to raise men to a high moral level I fully recognise. To me Christianity is 
not one step higher, simply, in an ascending scale of religious development ; 
the best that Paganism has done for the enlightenment of the race is to the 
smallest blessings derived through Christianity as the feeble flicker of a 
rushlight compared with the splendour of the noon-day sun. 
THE AUTHOR'S REPLY 
ON THE DISCUSSION, KETC. 
The printed account of the discussion on my recent paper has just reached 
me, and has greatly interested me. I am grateful for the kind words of 
appreciation expressed by nearly all the speakers, and the more so as I am 
fully aware of the difficulty of treating the subject in a wholly satisfactory 
manner. In regard to the introductory sentences which proved stumbling- 
blocks to some, I think my former letter and the remarks of Mr. Griffith 
make all the explanation necessary. Mr. Griffith caught my idea exactly, 
and illustrated it just as I should have done. I confess that as I read 
my language again I hardly see why it should have been misconstrued at 
all. There were several points brought up in the discussion upon which I 
should be glad to explain my views at length, but it would hardly be worth 
while to do so at the present time. I will simply add, in reply to the very 
interesting remarks of General Haig: 1. The paper was designed solely 
to discover and systematically arrange the facts regarding the religious 
beliefs and practises of these tribes ; and not to set forth any theory of 
their origin, or to compare them with Christianity. I hold that for a Jong 
time to come the chief task of the student of religions (of course I am not 
talking of the missionary) will be to ascertain what the heathen world 
actually believes and practices; when this shall have been done and the facts 
are all in hand, it will be time enough to see what we can make of 
them. 2. I was quite awake to the subtle penetration of Hindu and 
Mohammedan ideas into the secluded homes of the non-Aryan tribes, 
and sought to unmask them wherever they occurred. This it is not always 
easy to do, and requires a broad survey of the whole field. A comparison 
of the beliefs of tribes widely separated, and differently related to the 
higher civilization will often help to separate what is indigenous from what 
is borrowed. 
VOL. XIX. K : 
