174 



HA RD WICKE ' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



energy, the natural though not understood result of a 

 combination of other energies which issued forth 

 spontaneously in this new form in due time. Of 

 course, such is only a conjecture, but we must rest a 

 good deal on positive probabilities rather than 

 negative, if we, as we can hardly fail to, rest on 

 positive facts rather than negative in doubts of this 

 kind. That reason grows by degrees, I think, is the 

 case, and that there is a reasoning power manifested 

 in the lower animals, which gradually rises in tone 

 till it reaches a distinctive culminating point in 

 language (articulate). 



■"■A certain writer, whose " Elements of Psychology " 

 I have read, says in it, that an educated dog acts 

 only for what it receives, and also only for preserva- 

 tion's sake. I cannot wholly agree with him, as he 

 puts all his actions down to instinct, because I believe 

 that a dog has a fair amount of reason as well as 

 instinct. Again, I believe ants have some reason, 

 although Sir John Lubbock, in his book on them, 

 would say the opposite ; owing to their small size, 

 however, and the few sounds, comparatively speak- 

 ing, they make, we cannot judge well where their 

 instinct ends or reason begins ; so I would not say 

 where in the animal scale reason first becomes 

 nascent ; but I venture to say what some put down 

 to instinct alone in some of the higher animals, viz., 

 the preservation of its kind, to be only partly that, 

 aided by reason, and allow too, that animals direct 

 both reason and instinct combined, specially towards 

 the above ; I think also there is very much of the 

 same sort of reason, though no doubt owing to the 

 higher standard of reason man has attained, it is not 

 directed mainly to the above idea in the human race. 

 Pierre Huber has partly the same opinion as this, I 

 find when looking up, and this strengthens my belief 

 in what I say still more. 



What revolutionising results Professor Garner's ex- 

 periments with apes may lead to in the theories on 

 this subject, I do not pretend to know, but they may 

 be the means of enabling us to believe more in the 

 reasoning of lower animals. The following words, 

 which they have said, indicate a primitive language ; 

 many similar meanings a Word may have, showing 

 that paucity of words is found in a primitive language. 

 " Tenakor paketa," "Good morning, stranger;" 

 "Achru," meaning fire, sun, warmth; " Kukena," 

 water, rain, cold; " Goshku," food, act of eating. 

 The three latter words are spelt phonetically. 



But a religious instinct is peculiar to man. When 

 we look round us, we are compelled to ask, how and 

 whence came at the beginning this important factor 

 into the human race ? How came the idea of a God ? 

 God means creator, and it is only in this sense that 

 the beginning of the idea of God may have come — the 

 other attributes of the name came afterwards — when 

 reason culminated to a certain point, naturally man 

 thought it must have been almost contemporary with 

 articulate language. Whence have I come ? Who 



made me ? And not having reached a high enough 

 standard of reasoning, without a knowledge of the 

 world almost in his rough state of wildness, he wa 

 forced to assign to some Unknown his creation, and 

 that unknown he thought of only as his creator — then 

 gradually followed in close pursuit the other attributes 

 belonging to the name, at first for some time only, 

 of fear, terror, and not till he had risen to a much 

 higher scale, in love. Now energy and matter are 

 seen as that god by many. Physically speaking, the 

 thought of God does not necessarily imply the exis- 

 tence of one in reality. Thus I have shown the 

 evolution of the religious instinct, and have summed is 

 up in a few words, and now let me enlarge on it a 

 little. Turning to the lowest savages, we know they 

 believe in a god, and this is just a little above the 

 lowest scale of religious instinct ; we at present on the 

 earth have passed the lowest, never to return to it, but 

 some are more advanced than others. The god of the 

 savages is one of fear, and one they have no love for ; 

 and since they know there is death, they impute it to 

 him as one of his fearful acts, not knowing why, 

 scientifically, death comes. Then God is cruel in 

 their eyes. Fear makes them worship the being, but 

 in reality morality is the basis of their religion, and 

 that is not very great ; but morality is the basis of all 

 religious instincts (excluding God), and this morality 

 rises not at once perfect, but only by degrees, as 

 reason advances, till it reaches the stage we of civilised 

 countries are at. 



All nations in their primitive condition have had 

 like ideas about God and religion. The Druids seem, 

 in very early ages, to have believed him " cruel, re- 

 warding those who managed to follow him only with 

 material comforts," and the Romans' early god or 

 gods are hard and severe ; the ^aboriginal tribes of 

 Hindoostan] had to appease their god Bura Pennu 

 with blood, but it is now submerged into the worship 

 of the god Buddha — a most ennobling deity. Many 

 more instances of a like kind could be given, and the 

 time will come when, probably, civilization will cause 

 all these gods to be put away, and prove to those 

 nations that the world was not made by them or by 

 any other god. No, it is inherited prejudice that 

 blinds ; and yet this kind of religion is losing ground, 

 and a more modified form of religion, and a more 

 harmonising one is taking its place. We must base 

 our religion on self-control — mental god — and what- 

 ever we do or do not do, must be guided by it. We 

 must live up to our ideal Ego, curbing those errors 

 which we are likely to fall into by it, and so handing 

 down to posterity a higher standard of morality for 

 religion ; for if we do not do so, we must inevitably 

 be weakened and debased, ultimately falling victims to 

 entire destruction, and a better race of mortals will take 

 our place and reign supreme till another still fitter 

 takes theirs. But for living well a short time is long 

 enough to do good to those around us, to elevate, and 

 then to leave the world bravely, knowing we have 



