ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



13 



But the departure of the spirit from the body could not, and 

 would not be, in his eyes the death of the spirit ; rather 

 would it be emancipation of the spirit. It would set the spirit 

 free from restrictions which had curbed and confined its 

 activity. Primitive man then would let his imagination run 

 riot upon the incorporeal life of the spirit. He would ascribe to 

 it fresh powers, faculties, emotions, experiences ; nor would it be 

 a matter of surprise to him, especially if his view of spiritual 

 existence were still more or less sensuous, that the spirit should 

 at certain times and under certain conditions present itself 

 objectively to human eyes in the hours of waking as well as of 

 sleep. The belief in spirits is almost an axiom of primitive 

 thought. " Materialism," it has been well said,* " is one of the 

 latest products of the human mind; spiritualism one of the 

 earliest." 



So far, I have argued that religion, being the conscious 

 expression of the relation existing between the human spirit, 

 and a spiritual power or powers outside itself, striking its roots 

 down in man's apprehension of the essential dualism which 

 characterises his own nature. It is now time to inquire 

 what is the witness of ethnography and anthropology to the 

 theory that has been put forward as to the supposed absence 

 of the spirit from the body under certain conditions of human 

 Hfe. 



Let me begin with the phenomenon of sleep. " It is a common 

 rule with primitive people, " says Mr. Frazer,! " not to waken a 

 sleeper, because his soul is away and might not have time to 

 get back ; so if the man was awakened without his soul, he 

 would fall sick. If it is absolutely necessary to waken a 

 sleeper, it must be done very gradually, to allow the soul time 

 to return." He gives, as other anthropologists have given, much 

 interesting evidence of this superstition. 



The dread of being suddenly awakened, or of suddenly 

 awakening anyljody out of sleep, has been recorded as character- 



Lord Avebury, Ongin of Civilization, cli. 2, p. 295. 

 t Golden Bough, vol. i, cli. 2, p. 127. 



