144 REPORT — 1869. 



admirably dealt with by Mr. Tylor in a lecture at the Royal Institution. The use 

 of flint for sacrificial pur]30ses long after the introduction of metal, seemed to me a 

 good case of what Mr. Tylor has aptly called " Survival." So also is the method 

 of obtaining fire. The Brahman will not use ordinary fire for sacred purposes, he 

 does not even obtain a fresh spark from flint and steel, but reverts, or rather 

 continues the old way of obtaining it by friction with a wooden drill, one Brahman 

 pulling the thong backwards and forwards while another watches to catch the 

 sacred spark. 



I also referred to the non-existence of religion among certain savage races, and as 

 the Duke correctly observes, I argued that this was probably their primitive condi- 

 tion, because it is difficult to believe that a people which had once possessed a 

 religion would ever entirely lose it *. 



This argument filled the Duke with " astonishment." Surely, he says, "if there 

 is one fact more certain than another in respect to the nature of Man, it is that he 

 is capable of losing religous knowledge, of ceasing to believe in religious truth, and 

 of falling away from religious duty. If by ' religion ' is meant the existence merely 

 of some impressions of powers invisible and supernatm-al, even this, we know, can 

 not only be lost, but be scornfully disavowed by men who are highly civilized." 



Yet in the very same page, with that curious tendency to self-contradiction, of 

 which I have already given several instances, the Duke goes on to say "the most 

 cruel and savage customs in the world are the direct effect of its 'religions.' 

 And if men could drop religions when they would, or if they could even form the 

 wish to get rid of those which sit like a nightmare on their life, there would be 

 many more nations without a ' religion ' than there are found to be. But religions 

 can neither be put on nor cast oft' like garments, according to their utility, or ac- 

 cording to their beauty, or according to their power of comforting." 



With this I entirely agree. Man can no more voluntarily abandon or change 

 the articles of his religious creed than he can make one hair black or white, or add 

 one cubit to his stature. I do not deny that there may be exceptional cases of 

 intellectual men entirely devoid of religion ; but if the Duke means to say that 

 men who are highly civilized habitually or frequently lose and scornfully disavow 

 religion, I can only say that I should adopt such an opinion with difficulty and 

 regret. There is, so far as I know, no evidence on record which would justify such 

 an opinion, and as far as my private experience goes, I at least have met with no 

 such tendency. 



It is indeed true that from the times of Socrates down to those of Luther, and 

 perhaps later, men in advance of their age have disavowed particular religions, and 

 particular myths; but the Duke of Argyll would, I am sure, not confuse a desire for 

 reformation 'with the scornful disavowal of religion as a whole. Some philosophers 

 may object to prayers for rain, but thej' are foremost in denouncing the folly of 

 witchcraft ; they may regard matter as aboriginal, but they would never suppose 

 with the Redskin that land was created while water existed from the beginning ; 

 nor would any one now suppose with the South-Sea Islanders that the Peerage 

 were immortal, but not Commoners. If, indeed, there is " one fact more certain 

 than another in respect to the nature of man," I should have considered it to be 

 the gradual diffusion of religious light, and of nobler conceptions as to the nature 

 of God. 



The lowest savages have no idea of a Deity at all. Those slightly more ad- 

 vanced regard him as an enemy to be dreaded, but who may be resisted with a 

 fair prospect of success ; who may be cheated by the cunning and defied by the 

 strong. Thus the natives of the Nicobar islands endeavour to terrify their deity by 

 scarecrows, and the Negro beats his fetish if his prayers are not granted. As 

 tribes advance in ci^-ilization, their deities advance in dignity, but their power is 

 still limited ; one governs the sea, another the land ; one reigns over the plains, 

 another among the mountains. The most powerful are vindictive, cruel, and un- 

 just. They require humiliating ceremonies and bloody sacrifices. But few races 

 have arrived at the conception of an omnipotent and beneficent deity. 



Perhaps the lowest form of religion may be considered to be that presented by 



* It is hardly necessary to explain to anyone that I did not intend to question the 

 possibility of a change in, but a total loss of religion. 



