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 WHAT IS RELIGION ? 299

always and everywhere the same. They consist in takinjo;- advantage of man at times when he is most sus- ceptible to sugg^estion (during childhood^ and at impor- tant occurrences of life : deaths, births, or marriages), and then acting on him by means of art : architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and dramatic performances, and, while he is in a condition of receptivity (com- parable to that produced on individuals by semi- hypnotization), instilling into him whatever the suggestors wish.

This process may be observed in all ancient religions : in the lofty religion of Brahmanism degenerating into gross idolatry of multitudinous images in various temples, accompanied by singing and the smoke of incense ; in the ancient Hebrew religion preached by the prophets, changing into a worship of God in a gorgeous temple with ostentatious songs and proces- sions ; in the lofty religion of Buddhism, transforming itself — with its monasteries and images of Buddhaand in- numerable ostentatious rites — into impenetrable Lama- ism ; and in Taoism with its sorcery and incantations.

Always, in all religious teachings when tliey began to be perverted, their guardians, having brought men into a state in which their reason acted but feebly, employed every effort to suggest, and instil into men, whatever they wished them to believe. And in all religions it was found necessary to suggest the same three things, which serve as a basis for all the perversions to which a degenerating religion is exposed. First, it is suggested that there are men of a particular kind, who alone can act as intermediaries between man and God (or the Gods) ; secondly, that miracles have been, and are, per- formed, proving and confirming the truth of what is told by these intermediaries between man and God ; and thirdly, that there are certain words — repeated verbally, or written in books — wliich express the un- alterable will of God (or of the Gods), and which are therefore sacred and infallible. And as soon as, under the influence of hypnotism, these propositions are accepted, then also all that the intermediaries between