THE DESCENT OR ORIGIN OF MAN 133 



able, as with savages tlie belief in bad spirits is far more 

 common than that in good ones. 



The feeling of religious devotion is a highly complex 

 one, consisting 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 dxperience so complex an 

 emotion until a'dvanced in his intellectual and moral facul- 

 ties to at least a moderately high level. Nevertheless, 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 behav- 

 ior 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 toward their fellows. In the lat- 

 ter case the transports of joy appear to be somewhat less, 

 and the sense of equality is shown in every action. Prof. 

 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 fetichism, 

 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 terrible to think of — such as the sacrifice 

 of human beings to a blood-loving god; the trial of innocent 

 persons by the ordeal of poison or fire ; witchcraft, etc. — ^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 accumu- 

 lated knowledge. As Sir J. Lubbock" has well observed, 



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

 Owen Pike, in "Anthropolog. Review," April, ISTO, p. Ixiii. ' 



'* "Religion, Moral, etc., der 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," 2d edit., p. 571. In this work (p. 571) there will 

 be found an excellent account of the many strange and capricious customs of 



