116 HOMO V. DARWIN. 



he tells us that they also dream — have not resulted in their 

 having some kind of religion ? For, be it remembered, my 

 Lord, that Mr. Darwin is now endeavouring to prove that 

 the fact of man being capable of religion does not separate 

 him by an impassable gulf from the lower animals. Is 

 there evidence, then, that any of the lower animals are 

 finding their way across the gulf, by this bridge of dreams ? 



Loj-d C. The point at present in debate, Mr. Darwin, is 

 not how religion at first originated among savages, but 

 ■whether the fact of man's capacity for religion does not 

 show him to be possessed of a nature in which the lower 

 animals do not share. The observations you have just 

 made do not bear on this point. They show, however, that 

 a belief in the supernatural is present in savages, which 

 is more than can be said of dogs and horses. They, 

 certainly, neither believe in the supernatural, nor are 

 capable of such belief. Hence, religion is with them an 

 impossibility. 



Homo. Mr. Darwin, my Lord, has told us of one ape 

 taking a first step in the formation of language, and of 

 another taking a first step in architecture ; can he find, or 

 even imagine, one taking a first step in religion ? 



Darwin. "The tendency in savages," my Lord, "to 

 imagine that natural objects and agencies are animated by 

 spiritual or living essences, is perhaps illustrated by a little 

 fact which I once noticed : My dog, a full grown and very 

 sensible animal, was lying on the lawn during a hot and 

 still day ; but at a little distance a slight breeze occasionally 

 moved an open parasol, which would have been wholly 

 disregarded by the dog had any one stood near it. As it 

 was, every time that the parasol slightly moved, the dog 

 growled fiercely and barked. He must, I think, have 

 reasoned to himself in a rapid and unconscious manner, 



