Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/27

 Presidential Address. 15

vocation never enter into a magical ceremony ? and does that of necessary consequence never enter into a religious observance ? With regard to the first question, Mr. Frazer himself quotes cases where in magic an attempt is made to win the favour of spirits by prayer and sacrifice, but he re- gards these as exceptional, and exhibiting magic tinged and alloyed with religion.

Every devout believerin any religion necessarilythinks his own religion the absolutely true one, and probably considers himself bound to the logical conclusion that every other religion is false. How far that may be so is not for us to inquire. For the purpose of tracing out the development of religion we place all religions on the same plane. For the sake of illustration, we may have to refer to the religion of the civilised world with which we are most familiar. We shall do so with all respectful reverence, but with perfect freedom. Perhaps, after all, the blessed Sir Thomas More was right when he asked, " An varium ac multiplicem expetens cultum, Deus aliud inspiret alii?" "Whether the different forms of religion may not all come from God, who may inspire men in a different manner, and be pleased with this variety?" That, however, is not a question for us.

Acting on this principle of taking the most familiar

illustrations, I would ask whether the idea of constraint and

coercion, which is part of Mr. Frazer's definition of magic,

is absent from the narrative of Jacob wrestling with the

angel or from the words —

"God's hands or bound or open are As Moses or Elijah prays."

In other words, whether, if the definition suggested by Mr. Frazer is adopted as generally correct, both magic and religion are not parts of one great province of man's mental operations, which interact on each other, and must be viewed as a whole.

Mr. Frazer speaks of the principle of make-believe as " so