Toward this end, though unseen and unacknowledged, were all religions of primitive peoples unconsciously directing and impelling the human mind. Long has been the path, many the false routes followed, far away is still the goal; but ever firmer in faith, and clearer in purpose, man will in due time and fit season be established in this, the last and innermost mystery of his religious nature.
[1] “Religion,” observes Professor Toy, “must be treated as a product of human thought, as a branch of Sociology, subject to all the laws that control general human progress.”—_Judaism and Christianity_, p. 1.
[2] Rev. John M. Neale, _History of the Holy Eastern Church_, vol. i., p. 37.
[3] Granger, _The Worship of the Romans_, p. vii.
[4] A. H. Post, _Grundriss der ethnologischen Jurisprudenz_, Bd. i., s. 4.
[6] _Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie_, Bd. xi., s. 124.
[7] J. J. Honegger, _Allgemeine Culturgeschichte_, Bd. i., s. 332. “Similar conceptions,” observes Professor Bastian, “repeat themselves, under fixed laws, in localities wide apart, in ages far remote.”—_Grundzüge der Ethnologie_, p. 73.
[8] E. M. Curr, _The Australian Race_, vol. i., p. 50.
[9] W. P. Clark, U. S. A., _Indian Sign Language_, p. 241.
[10] This subject is fully discussed by Flügel, _Zeit. für. Völkerpsychologie_, Bd. xi.; by Prof. James Sully in his _Studies of Childhood_; and by Dr. Friedmann, _Centralblatt für Anthropologie_, Bd. i. The last mentioned argues that the mind of the savage has more points of resemblance to the insane than to the child mind. The higher emotional susceptibility of savages can be illustrated by abundant examples.
[11] _Ethnography and Philology of the United States Exploring Expedition_, p. 108.
[12] The case was not exceptional. Among several tribes it was an established custom for a mother to kill and eat her first child, as it was believed to strengthen her for later births. See examples in _Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie_, Bd. xiv., pp. 460, _sq._
[13] Palmer in _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, vol. xiii., pp. 294, 399.
[14] Professor Sayce believes that the Sumerian of ancient Babylonia was genderless; and that the local gods were first endowed with sex on being adopted by the Semites.—_Hibbert Lectures_, p. 176.