Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/67

 THE EELIGIOUS INSTINCT. 51 How can any one who has followed our train of thought fail to be impressed with the fact, which forces itself upon my own mind, that these habits of occasional seclusion and of hourly restraint are the most emphatic expressions of our religious experience. The very word "religion " was held by Cicero and others to have come into use because of its relation to habits of reflexion and restraint, and although it is not probable that we can correctly trace the word to so direct an origin (for it was probably used in less de- veloped form before men realised the meaning of this re- straint) still Cicero's derivation is important as showing how long ago the connexion between religious expression and restraint was noted. 1 The leading seems so clear that I shall without further introduction ask the reader to consider with me the evidence that leads me to believe that religious activities are the ex- pression of a true instinct, which we may speak of as the religious instinct : and that the function of this religious instinct in the development of our race is to bring about the subordination of the individual variant influences and the emphasis of the social influences within us ; and at the same time to strengthen the established order of instinct efficiency within us. III. 15. But here, I imagine, some reader may ask what warrant we have for the first of the statements just made ; what reason is there to believe that our religious activities are the expression of an instinct. It will be well, therefore, to consider this point with some care before we proceed further with our argument. If an appeal to common sense be of any value, we do not need to look far for an affirmation of the instinctive nature of religion. I find by questioning that intelligent people very generally answer " Yes " if asked whether they consider religion to be instinctive ; and the use of the term instinct- 1 It is interesting also in this connexion to call to the reader's at- tention a point made in Mr. Beare's article in MIND (N. S., 18, p. 229), where he shows that the yv>0i creavroc which was the foundation of religion as Socrates conceived it, had been long before his day taught as a precept by his religious predecessors. Over the temple entrance at Delphi Mr. Beare tells us " this piece of counsel, know thyself, stood con- spicuously engraven " : and it was at the first interpreted ethically. " Heraclitus, the earliest Greek philosopher whose remains contain any allusion to it," gave it this interpretation : "It behoves all men to know themselves and ( ? thereby) to exercise self-control ".