311 
What ground does the general fondness of dogs for a bone 
afford us for inferring that this fondness is innate in the dog ? 
Or, again, How does a characteristic propensity assist in deter- 
mining character ? which is an absurd inquiry. Again, Mill 
seems strangely enough to think *' r that the appearances in 
nature of a contriving Intelligence," which form a portion of 
objective evidence, interfere in some mysterious way with 
man's innate ideas on the matter, though how does not appear ; 
the simple fact being that the intuitions of the mind are har- 
moniously answered, and thereby confirmed by external ac- 
tuality. Passing on to consider the almost universal belief in 
Deity “ among barbarous tribes," and having put forward the 
very doubtful proposition that “ the ignorant in civilized 
countries take their opinions from the educated," he very 
briefly constructs the imaginary history of the past necessarily 
adopted by Evolutionists, according to which mankind started 
with a stock in trade “ of primitive ignorance " and “ Fetich- 
ism of the grossest kind," which poor materials, by some 
stupendous miracle, have yielded the present state of 
things. 
Having thus assumed that the savage has no innate belief 
in Deity, he adroitly presents “ the Intuitionist " with a 
dilemma, the whole force of which however is solely founded 
upon the previous assumption. He puts the argument thus : — 
Some men believe in a Deity, but others (primitive savages) 
do not, and therefore there is no “ general consent " in the 
case ; so that “ it is needless to dwell upon the difficulty of the 
hypothesis of a natural belief not common to all human beings, 
an instinct not universal." It is quite needless, for the facts 
of the case present no such contradiction, raise no such 
dilemma. The Turanian (to use a term now familiar, but yet 
much objected to, and perhaps abused by some writers), as 
well as the Aryan or the Semite, worshipped God ; and, not 
liking to retain Him in his mind, fell into idolatry or the 
worship of the visible. The divine King became Molekh, the 
Heavenly Father a degenerate Jupiter; but Molekh and 
Jupiter, like dark and lurid clouds, merely for a time and in a 
measure shrouded the one only and eternal Heaven. 
We may consider with advantage Mr. Herbert Spencer s 
reasonings in the opening chapter of his First Principles in 
support of the proposition that belief “ gains in strength 
according to the number of its adherents." In fine, the force 
and importance of the argument from general consent can 
hardly be over-estimated, especially when considered in con- 
nection with the actual result of investigation into archaic 
religious opinion. 
