MENTAL POWERS. 93 



The feeling of religious devotion is a highly complex one, con- 

 sisting of love, complete submission to an exalted and mysterious 

 superior, a strong sense of dependence," fear, reverence, gratitude, 

 hope for the future, and perhaps other elements. No being could 

 experience so complex an emotion until advanced in liis intellec- 

 tual and moral faculties to at least a moderately high level. Never- 

 theless, we see some distant approach to this state of mind in the 

 deep love of a dog for his master, associated with complete sub- 

 mission, some fear, and perhaps other feelings. The behavior 

 of a dog when returning to his master after an absence, and, as 

 I may add, of a monkey to his beloved keeper, is widely different 

 from that towards their fellows. In the latter case the transports 

 of joy appear to be somewhat less, and the sense of equality is 

 shown in every action. Professor Braubach goes so far as to 

 maintain that a dog looks on his master as on a god.™ 



The same high mental faculties which first led man to believe 

 in unseen spiritual agencies, then in fetishism, polytheism, and 

 ultimately in monotheism, would infallibly lead him, as long as 

 his reasoning powers remained poorly developed, to various 

 strange superstitions and customs. Many of these are terrilile 

 to think of — such as the sacrifipe of human beings to a blood-lov- 

 ing god; the trial of innocent persons by the ordeal of poison or 

 fire; witchcraft, &c. — yet it is well occasionally to reflect on these 

 superstitions, for they show us what an infinite debt of gratitude 

 we owe to the improvement of our reason, to science, and to our 

 accumulated knowledge. As Sir J. Lubbock™ has well observed, 

 "it is not too much to say that the horrible dread of unknown evil 

 "hangs like a thick cloud over savage life, and embitters every 

 "pleasure." These miserable and indirect consequences of our 

 highest faculties may be compared with the incidental and occa- 

 sional mistakes of the instincts of the lower animals. 



" See an able article on the 'Physical Elements of Religion,' by Mr. 

 L. Owen Pike, in 'Anthropolog. Review,' April, 1870, p. Ixiii. 



™ 'Religion, Moral, &c., fler Darwin'schen Art-Lehre,' 1869, s. 53. It 

 is said (Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay, 'Journal of Mental Science,' 1871, p. 

 43), that Bacon long ago, and the poet Burns, held the same notion. 



™ 'Prehistoric Times,' 2nd edit. p. 571. In this work (p. 571) there will 

 be found an excellent account of the many strange and capricious cus- 

 toms of savages. 



