There was a time, no matter how remote, when there were creatures resembling the present form of man but of inferior nervous development, that had no knowledge of either God or religion.
Nor had man in those ages any more intelligence than he had acquired by experience, or was necessary for his immediate use. It improved as the exigencies of his wants arose, fresh experience leading to new observations, slowly adding to the already accumulated stock.
The intelligence of to-day would have been useless a hundred years ago, to the same race even, and of less use still two hundred years ago, and so on.
It is very doubtful whether man at first was even conscious of his own existence, any more than the higher type of brute life. This consciousness slowly dawned upon him as his intelligence increased. A child is not conscious of its own existence. It exists so long as the necessary material is contributed towards its existence, or until it has grown strong enough to contribute towards its own. It may after a while acquire intelligence sufficient to become conscious of its own existence or not. The same rule holds good among the types of man such as we find on earth at the present time.
During the early stages of man's existence, the muscular powers were exercised most, we may say almost exclusively, the special senses serving in their function as a guide for those powers, with the degree of intelligence obtained from the number of impressions received. These senses had acquired their several experiences from the necessities that from time to time were made manifest.
There are writers who make use of extraordinary expressions in regard to nature, as for example, that Nature is mighty, beautiful, wise, etc.
Nature is mighty only under certain conditions. Peculiar combinations of elements are essential. The presence or absence of the sun's heat plays always an important part.
Nature's being beautiful depends largely upon the education of the senses, the capability of discerning symmetry, harmony, color, etc., and this is acquired by comparison, taste, and habit. What strikes one eye as beautiful, may have just a contrary effect on another, or be passed with perfect indifference by a third.