Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/183

Rh Here the psychologist and the student of institutions meet on common ground, and neither of them can afford to dispense with the help of the other. Among savage peoples religion and social organisation and medicine have not yet evolved distinct functions. Hence their manifestations cannot be studied apart: to understand one, we must understand them all. This is a truth too often neglected by writers on what is called the Science of Religion, a term justly criticised by Dr. Brinton in the opening pages of the book before us, and rejected as "a little presumptuous—or, at least, premature."

It is no wonder, therefore, that Dr. Brinton, in accepting the task of delivering the second of a series of courses of lectures, planned on similar lines to those of the Hibbert Lectures, decided upon discussing the Religions of Primitive Peoples. And it is hardly necessary to say that the six lectures here published contain many of the fruits of his long devotion to anthropological inquiry, and are most suggestive and stimulating. The subject is vast, and could only be treated in outline; but of that outline every stroke and almost every dot will repay attentive consideration.

On the threshold the author expounds his methods and definitions. But there is one definition, and that the most important of all, which we have not been able to discover in any explicit form. True, by putting together a number of his remarks we may succeed in obtaining a fairly correct notion of his idea of what religion is. Religions are indistinguishable from superstitions: "the principle at the basis of all religions and all superstitions is the same." Religion does not consist of a belief or set of beliefs; "yet a common source, a common end in view, and the closest analogy of means to that end, bind all in one, representing an indefeasible element of human nature." Religion is, therefore, universal, and always has been, in humanity. Further, it is founded upon the postulate "that conscious volition is the ultimate source of all Force"—in other words, that Mind, Will, Intelligence, is behind the sensuous, phenomenal world, and the corollary that man is in communication with this Mind. Religion arises from the subconscious or unconscious intelligence; and therefore, lastly, it is in irreconcilable conflict with science, the offspring of the conscious intelligence. From these scattered indications we shall not presume to frame a definition of religion,