es not show that these Powers have the same origin.
The savage accepts agents in human life wherever he can find them--in
beings inhabiting mountains, rocks, trees, caves, springs, and in the
souls of departed men. Doubtless he thinks of the forms of these various
actors as being all of the same sort, a sublimated manlike body; but he
keeps them in different categories, and in the course of time the
tendency is for ghosts and spirits to sink out of sight and for the gods
to absorb all extrahuman activities.

+379+. The ethical power of the cults so far discussed resides in the
human association to which they give rise and the sanctions they supply
to conduct. Of these two effects the former is the more important. The
moral character of a ghost or spirit or deity never rises above that of
its circle of worshipers: its approval or disapproval is the echo of
current usage, and has special efficiency only in the accompanying power
of reward or punishment; it appeals to the hopes and fears of men. This
police function is doubtless valuable in restraining from crime and
inciting to good conduct, but it has no regenerative power. The
enlargement of human association, on the other hand, increases sympathy
and cooeperation among men, and paves the way to the cultivation of the
mutual respect and regard which is the basis of social virtue.

+380+. Among the lower cults ancestor-worship may be expected to take
the highest place, for the reason that it tends to strengthen family
unity and the solidarity of the clan, tribe, or nation; all such
knitting together of men makes for the increase of honesty and
kindliness. The data are lacking, however, for the determination of this
point. It may be said in general that the attitude toward the dead
becomes finer with advance in civilization; but before a specific moral
power in ancestor-worship can be proved, it will be necessary to have
exact details of moral ideas and conduct in all the lower tribes,
together with some information regarding the attitude of individuals
toward questions of conduct, and the motives that impel toward this or
that action. The question of ethical growth in society is a complicated
one, and the most that can be said for any element of social
constitution is that it tends to strengthen or weaken the individual's
confidence in and regard for his fellows.

+381+. The part played in religious history by the worship of the dead
is so important that some writers h