. The deeper inquiry as to what in the mind of man gave birth
to religion in any of its forms, what spirit breathed and is ever
breathing life into these dry bones, this, the final and highest
question of all, has had but passing or prejudiced attention. To its
investigation this book is devoted.
The analysis of the religious sentiment I offer is an inductive one,
whose outlines were furnished by a preliminary study of the religions of
the native race of America, a field selected as most favorable by reason
of the simplicity of many of its cults, and the absence of theories
respecting them. This study was embodied in "The Myths of the New World;
a Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America"
(second edition, N. Y. 1876).
The results thus obtained I have in the present work expanded by
including in the survey the historic religions of the Old World, and
submitted the whole for solution to the Laws of Mind, regarded as
physiological elements of growth, and to the Laws of Thought, these, as
formal only, being held as nowise a development of those. This latter
position, which is not conceded by the reigning school of psychology, I
have taken pains to explain and defend as far as consistent with the
plan of this treatise; but I am well aware that to say all that can be
said in proof of it, would take much more space than here allowed.
The main questions I have had before me in writing this volume have an
interest beyond those which mere science propounds. What led men to
imagine gods at all? What still prompts enlightened nations to worship?
Is prayer of any avail, or of none? Is faith the last ground of
adoration, or is reason? Is religion a transient phase of development,
or is it the chief end of man? What is its warrant of continuance? If it
overlive this day of crumbling theologies, whence will come its
reprieve?
To such inquiries as these, answers satisfactory to thinking men of this
time can, I believe, be given only by an inductive study of religions,
supported by a sound psychology, and conducted in a spirit which
acknowledges as possibly rightful, the reverence which every system
claims. Those I propose, inadequate though they may be, can at any rate
pretend to be the result of honest labor.
PHILADELPHIA, _January, 1876_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
THE BEARING OF THE LAWS OF MIND ON RELIGION
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