82 Science Religion and Reality 



becomes a spirit. The only specialisation in religion — that is, 

 early spiritualistic mediumism — is not a profession but a personal 

 gift. One more difference between magic and religion is the 

 play of black and white in witchcraft, while religion in its primitive 

 stages has but little of the contrast between good and evil, between 

 the beneficent and malevolent powers. This is due also to the 

 practical character of magic, which aims at direct quantitative 

 results, while early religion, though essentially moral, has to deal 

 with fateful, irremediable happenings and supernatural forces and 

 beings, so that the undoing of things done by man does not enter 

 into it. The maxim that fear first made gods in the universe is 

 certainly not true in the light of anthropology. 



In order to grasp the difference between religion and magic 

 and to gain a clear vision of the three-cornered constellation of 

 magic, re igion, and science, let us briefly realise the cultural 

 function of each. The function of primitive knowledge and its 

 value have been assessed already and indeed are not difficult to 

 grasp. By acquainting man with his surroundings, by allowing 

 him to use the forces of nature, science, primitive knowledge, 

 bestows on man an immense biological advantage, setting him far 

 above all the rest of creation. The function of religion and its 

 value we have learned to understand in the survey of savage creeds 

 and cults given above. We have shown there that religious faith 

 establishes, fixes, and enhances all valuable mental attitudes, such 

 as reverence for tradition, harmony with environment, courage 

 and confidence in the struggle with difficulties and at the prospect 

 of death. This belief, embodied and maintained by cult and 

 ceremonial, has an immense biological value, and so reveals to 

 primitive man truth in the wider, pragmatic sense of the word. 



What is the cultural function of magic ? We have seen that 

 all the instincts and emotions, all practical activities, lead man into 

 impasses where gaps in his knowledge and the limitations of his 

 early power of observation and reason betray him at a crucial 

 moment. Human organism reacts to this in spontaneous out- 

 bursts, in which rudimentary modes of behaviour and rudimentary 

 beliefs in their efficiency are engendered. Magic fixes upon these 

 beliefs and rudimentary rites and standardises them into permanent 

 traditional forms. Thus magic supplies primitive man with a 

 number of ready-made ritual acts and beliefs, with a definite 

 mental and practical technique which serves to bridge over the 



