Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/37

Rh religion, Dr. Frazer appeals to the high authority of Hegel in support of his conclusions. On the other hand, most English psychologists reject the associationist explanation as scientifically inadequate from the standpoint of the individual consciousness, and prefer to regard both magic and religion as equally means of approach to the Divine, one not being necessarily antecedent to the other, and their use being a matter of temperament rather than of time. To use Mr. Hartland's happy phrase, both originate in "the primitive theoplasm or god-stuff." In the growth of the tribal consciousness religion gains respectability because it is taken under the patronage of the priesthood, and becomes the recognised mode of securing those objects which are vital to the welfare of the community. But it gradually shades off, by many intermediate stages, into magic, the lower and anti-social form, which thus falls into disrepute and is appropriated by the witch.

The services of psychology to folklore are already so considerable, that we may hope for even more important results when the field-worker and the arm-chair philosopher join forces. We owe to the psychologist that interpretation of material collected in India and elsewhere which has led to the theory of Pre-animism, and seems likely to rob Animism of half its kingdom. Even if, as some among us may venture to think, the original definition of Animism is wide enough to include the conception of that feeling of awe and mystery in face of the powers and potencies which lie at the back of both religion and magic, at the same time the new definition provides us with a useful method of reclassifying some phases of primitive belief.

We may reasonably expect from psychology much new light on the abnormal working of the mind of primitive man, as it is exhibited in phenomena like those of hallucination, shamanism, or lycanthropy, which require more scientific examination in the field than they have hitherto