ety to discover some trace of religion in savages, have
themselves inadvertently suggested the beliefs which they triumphantly
record. The Pygmies of Africa, the Negritos of Oceanica, and various
debased tribes elsewhere, may possibly be quite destitute of native
religious conceptions, at least of a higher grade than those which move
the horse and dog to a dread of the unseen. It should be borne in mind
that these tribes have for thousands of years been in some degree of
contact with more developed races and subject to educative influences,
and the crude religious conceptions which some travellers attribute to
them may well have been derived, not original.

Investigation in this field certainly gives us abundant warrant to
believe that primitive man, on whose mind no influences of education
could act, was destitute of religion, and that man's conception of the
unseen arose gradually, as one important phase of the development of his
intellect. Any attempt to trace the stages of this religious development
is far beyond our purpose, even if we were capable of doing it. It must
suffice to say that man everywhere, when he emerges into history as a
semicivilized being, is abundantly supplied with mythological and other
religious conceptions which indicate a long preceding evolution in this
field of thought.

For extended ages the realm of the unseen has been acting upon the mind
of man; filling him with dread of malevolent and reverence for
beneficent powers, inspiring him to acts of worship, peopling his
imagined heavens with imagined deities, and giving rise to an
extraordinary variety of deific tales and mythological ideas. The
literature of this subject would fill a library in itself, and is almost
abundant enough to supply one with reading for a lifetime. Yet it is
largely, if not wholly, ideal; it is in great part based on false
conceptions and misdirected imaginings; it rarely adduces evidence, and
such evidence as is offered is always questionable; in short, scientific
investigation and the critical pursuit of facts have taken no part in
the development of religious systems, and a deep cloud of doubt envelops
them all.

It is by no means our purpose to seek to throw discredit on any of the
great religions of the world. To say that they have been products of
evolution is not to invalidate them. Much that is true and solid has
arisen through evolution. To say that they lack scientific evidence is
not to question thei