dependence on a supreme
moral being who, when attempts were made by savages to describe the
modus of his working, became involved in the fancies of mythology. How
this belief in such a being arose we have no evidence to prove. We make
no hint at a sensus numinis, or direct revelation.

While offering no hypothesis of the origin of belief in a moral creator
we may present a suggestion. Mr. Darwin says about early man: "The same
high mental faculties which first led man to believe in unseen spiritual
agencies, then in fetichism, polytheism and ultimately monotheism, would
infallibly lead him, so long as his reasoning powers remained poorly
developed, to various strange superstitions and customs".(1) Now,
accepting Mr. Darwin's theory that early man had "high mental
faculties," the conception of a Maker of things does not seem beyond his
grasp. Man himself made plenty of things, and could probably conceive of
a being who made the world and the objects in it. "Certainly there must
be some Being who made all these things. He must be very good too," said
an Eskimo to a missionary.(2) The goodness is inferred by the Eskimo
from his own contentment with "the things which are made".(3)

(1) Darwin, Descent of Man, i. p. 66.

(2) Cranz, i. 199.

(3) Romans, i. 19.

Another example of barbaric man "seeking after God" may be adduced.

What the Greenlander said is corroborated by what a Kaffir said.
Kaffir religion is mainly animistic, ancestral spirits receive food and
sacrifice--there is but an evanescent tradition of a "Lord in Heaven".
Thus a very respectable Kaffir said to M. Arbrousset, "your tidings
(Christianity) are what I want; and I was seeking before I knew you....
I asked myself sorrowful questions. 'Who has touched the stars with his
hands?... Who makes the waters flow?... Who can have given earth the
wisdom and power to produce corn?' Then I buried my face in my hands."

"This," says Sir John Lubbock, "was, however, an exceptional case. As
a general rule savages do not set themselves to think out such
questions."(1)

(1) Origin of Civilisation, p. 201.

As a common fact, if savages never ask the question, at all events,
somehow, they have the answer ready made. "Mangarrah, or Baiame, Puluga,
or Dendid, or Ahone, or Ahonawilona, or Atahocan, or Taaroa, or Tui
Laga, was the maker." Therefore savages who know that leave the question
alone, or add mythical accretions. But their ancestors must have asked