ay) to a belief in an undying guardian, 'Master of Life,'
did mankind set to work to evolve a chronique scandaleuse about HIM?
And why is that chronique the elaborately absurd set of legends which we
find in all mythologies?"

In answering, or trying to answer, these questions, we cannot go behind
the beliefs of the races now most immersed in savage ignorance. About
the psychology of races yet more undeveloped we can have no historical
knowledge. Among the lowest known tribes we usually find, just as in
ancient Greece, the belief in a deathless "Father," "Master," "Maker,"
and also the crowd of humorous, obscene, fanciful myths which are in
flagrant contradiction with the religious character of that belief. That
belief is what we call rational, and even elevated. The myths, on the
other hand, are what we call irrational and debasing. We regard low
savages as very irrational and debased characters, consequently the
nature of their myths does not surprise us. Their religious conception,
however, of a "Father" or "Master of Life" seems out of keeping with
the nature of the savage mind as we understand it. Still, there the
religious conception actually is, and it seems to follow that we do not
wholly understand the savage mind, or its unknown antecedents. In
any case, there the facts are, as shall be demonstrated. However the
ancestors of Australians, or Andamanese, or Hurons arrived at their
highest religious conception, they decidedly possess it.(1) The
development of their mythical conceptions is accounted for by those
qualities of their minds which we do understand, and shall illustrate at
length. For the present, we can only say that the religious conception
uprises from the human intellect in one mood, that of earnest
contemplation and submission: while the mythical ideas uprise from
another mood, that of playful and erratic fancy. These two moods are
conspicuous even in Christianity. The former, that of earnest and
submissive contemplation, declares itself in prayers, hymns, and "the
dim religious light" of cathedrals. The second mood, that of playful
and erratic fancy, is conspicuous in the buffoonery of Miracle Plays, in
Marchen, these burlesque popular tales about our Lord and the Apostles,
and in the hideous and grotesque sculptures on sacred edifices. The two
moods are present, and in conflict, through the whole religious history
of the human race. They stand as near each other, and as far apart, as
Love and Lus