THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



with the hereditary moraUty of the race or state. Thus 

 we get the inevitable conflict between reason and tra- 

 dition, or science and rehgion, which continues in our 

 own day. Sometimes in the course of it a "new fash- 

 ion" is substituted for some sacred tradition, a transi- 

 tory custom that succeeds in imposing itself by its 

 novelty or curiosity; and when this has contrived to 

 win general acceptance, or has gained the support of 

 Church or state to some extent, it is regarded in much 

 the same light as the older morality. 



The lowest races of the present time (for instance, 

 the pithecoid pygmies, the Veddahs of Ceylon, the Ak- 

 kas of -Central Africa) are very little higher than their 

 primate ancestors in mental development. This is also 

 true of their habits of life and morals. As their ideas 

 are for the most part concrete and sensual, their power 

 of forming abstract concepts is very little developed; 

 they have hardly any religious ideas to speak of. But 

 with the middle savages we begin to find the craving to 

 know the causes of things and the idea of spirits that are 

 concealed behind the phenomena of sense. Dread of 

 these leads to worship, fetichism, and animism, the be- 

 ginning of religion. Even at this early stage of worship 

 we find certain customs associated with the cult to 

 which a symbolical or mysterious meaning is given. 

 These ceremonies lead on in the higher races to the 

 great religious festivities, which the Greeks called "mys- 

 teries." Sensual images of various kinds are mixed up 

 in them with supersensual ideas and superstitions. The 

 festivals, processions, dances, hymns, and sacrifices of 

 all sorts that form part of the cult are more or less con- 

 cerned with the mysterious, and are therefore considered 

 "holy." They are often made the pretext of sensual 

 gratifications, which end in gross immorality and orgies. 



From the older pagan and Jewish religious usages 

 were afterwards developed in the Christian Church those 



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