SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE RELIGIONS. 303 



rather a gloomy unconnected belief in spectres and spirits, des- 

 troying all faith in the natural course of phenomena. Even 

 these religions have been considered as stages of development, 

 which is, however, not confirmed by experience. Wuttke 1 

 ^nates the deification of natural objects as the first stage 

 of natural religion, manifesting itself in the worship of the 

 elements, plants, animals; the second stage is Fetishism; the 

 third demon-worship, Schamanism. All this is much too arti- 

 ficial, an idle logical scheme with which the facts do not cor- 

 respond. The belief in spirits among the Negroes, which 

 is usually designated Fetishism, though in many respects differ- 

 ing from that of the Australian and American, is not essentially 

 distinct. The principle, the whole conception of nature, the 

 relation of man to the spiritual world, is pretty much the same ; 

 and we are astonished at this uniformity among nations so dis- 

 tant an uniformity tending to show that in this respect in 

 what constitutes the kernel of mental life they all belong to 

 the same species. 



In order to complete this general description of the psychical 

 life of primitive nations, we must consider their sense of the 

 beautiful. The great difference in taste is so universally ac- 

 knowledged, that we may expect but little that is generally 

 applicable, since individuality, mode of life, surrounding nature, 



which does not necessarily prove that the traditions relate only to one great 

 flood. There is certainly a charm in giving a symbolical signification to the 

 traditions of uncultured peoples, and thus rendering them rational and in- 

 teresting; but it is, in most cases, a futile undertaking, for the following 

 reasons : 1. We know but a few fragments of these traditions. 2. The 

 legends are so variable among uncultured peoples, that scarcely two indivi- 

 duals relate them alike. Some of these are evidently invented by individuals 

 whose object, perhaps, is to acquire some influence. 3. A close examination 

 of the religious opinions of uncultured peoples forbids us, in most cases, to 

 ascribe a cosmogonic meaning to their insipid traditions. 4. It is as psycholo- 

 gically impossible that there should exist a tradition of the primitive history 

 of mankind, as that an individual should recollect his own birth, or the first 

 events of his life. 5. As regards the agreement of certain legends, they 

 may possibly point to some early connexion of the respective peoples, 

 but nothing as to common descent (we may, for instance, ask whether 

 immigrants, say Buddhists, had once come from Asia to Mexico ? but not 

 whether the old Mexicans originated in East India or China?). Many of the 

 traditions have only an apparent resemblance ; and others may be explained 

 from the circumstance that mankind were, in many regions, as regards the 

 natural forces, placed in the same conditions, and led to the invention of 

 similar traditions. 



1 " Gesch. des Heidenthums/' i, p. 50. 



