Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/203

 THE FUNCTION OF RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION. 187 instinctive. For the occasions when such guidance would be wished for must surely have been relatively very infre- quent ; and it is difficult to understand how such occasions could occur with sufficient frequency to develop the habits that were finally to become instinctive. It would be possible to explain the acquisition of such habits indeed if, there having been some exceptional re- currence of fear or perplexity to foster them, the habits themselves or their accompaniments had been intrinsically attractive ; but such they very clearly could not have been. For evidently the painfulness, the danger, the hardship con- nected with the life of the man who thus secluded himself from his fellows must have been apparent to all. What is more, the very guidance in hallucinatory form which he might occasionally gain in seclusion must have been con- joined in his mind with a very decided repulsion ; for men as we know them surely display no special wish to be startled by hallucinations; rather are they wont to dread ghostly forms and voices ; and we have every reason to believe that our savage ancestors were still more averse to these mysterious sights and sounds than the average man is to-day. This being true, evidently any habits which tended to produce these hallucinations would naturally be avoided, if in any case the connexion between habit and result were recognised. This fear of hallucinations would therefore act to prevent the acquisition by intelligent process of such habits of seclusion. It might be possible to claim that the primitive man to whom in his seclusion the hallucinatory message was given would gain power and influence, and to hold that on that account his actions would be imitated from purely indi- vidualistic motives by those who envied him this power or influence. In making such an argument, however, we would have to overlook the fact that the power and influence would not accrue in any degree until after the firm establishment of the customs under consideration, and would also fail to consider what an inconsiderable proportion of the "inspira- tions " that have come thus forcibly to men have brought to them power or honour, comfort or benefit in life. Think for a moment of the natural revolt that the savage man must have felt, if his own personal welfare in this world were alone considered, if once he realised the hardship, with little compensation, in the life of the average hermit who had felt and proclaimed himself to be an inspired prophet. More- over, it must be remembered that the man who, under the hypothesis we are considering, is supposed to choose this