196 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



even tolerable purity any high standard of 

 spiritual faith. A thousand tendencies from 

 within, and from without, are perpetually at 

 work to undermine, or to transform it. And 

 then the awful correlations of Human Thought 

 render it not only probable but inevitable that 

 the first departures from the knowledge and 

 the love of Truth, must end in wider and 

 wider divergence from it. The infinite subtlety 

 and ingenuity of Imagination will, when it 

 is ignorant and corrupt amply account for 

 the origin and growth of even the most 

 degraded superstitions. This is a subject too 

 extensive to be pursued here; but it could 

 be shown that even among the South Sea 

 Islanders, and other tribes who have been 

 driven farthest from the original settlements 



