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Show 66 THE DESCENT OF MAN. PART I. Mr. M'Lennan 52 has remarked, "Some explanation of " the phenomena of life, a man must feign for himself; " and to judge from the universality of it, the simplest " hypothesis, and the nrst to occur to men, seems to have " been that natural phenomena are ascribable to the pre" sence in animals, plants, and things, and in the forces " of nature, of such spirits prompting to action as men "are conscious they themselves possess." It is probable, as Mr. Tylor has clearly shewn, that dreams may have nrst given rise to the notion of spirits; for savages do· not readily distinguish between subjective and objective impressions. When a savage dreams, the £gures which appear before him are believed to have come from a distance and to stand over him ; or " the soul of the "dreamer goes out on its travels, and comes home with "a remembrance of what it has seen." 53 But until the above-named faculties of imagination, curiosity, reason, &c., had been fairly well developed in the mind of man, his dreams would not have led him to believe in spirits, any more than in the case of a dog. 52 The Worship of Animals and Plants, in the 'Fortnightly Review," Oct. I, 1869, p. 422. 53 Tylor, 'Early History of Mankind,' 1865, p. 6. See also the threestriking chapters on the Development of Religion, in Lubbock's 'Origin of Civilisation,' 1870. In a like manner 1\:Ir. Herbert Spencer, in his ingenious essay in the 'Fortnightly Review' (May lst, 1870, p. 535), accounts for the earliest forms of religious belief throughout the world, by man being led through dreams, shadows, and other causes, to look at himself as a double essence, corporeal and spiritual. As the spiritual b.eing is supp?sed to exist after death and to be powerful, it is propitlated by various gifts and ceremonies, and its aid invoked. He then further shews that names or nicknames given from some animal or other o'Qject to the early progenitors or founders of a tribe, are supposed after a long interval to represent the real progenitor of the tribe; and such animal or object is then naturally believed still to exist as a spirit, is held sacred, and worshipped as a god. Nevertheless I cannot but. suspect.that there is a still earlier and ruder stage, when anythingwhich mamfest~:~ power or movement is thought to be endowed with. some form of life, and with mental faculties analogous to our own. CHAP. II. MENTAL POWERS. 67 The tendency in savages to imagine that natural objects and agencies are animated by spiritual or living essences, is perhaps illustrated by a little fact which I once noticed: my dog, a full-grown and very sensible animal, was lying on the lawn during a hot and still day ; but at a little distance a slight breeze occasionally moved an open parasol, which would have been wholly disregarded by the dog, had any one stood near it. As it was, every time that the parasol slightly moved, the dog growled :fiercely and barked. He must, I think, have reasoned to himself in a rapid and unconscious manner, that movement without any apparent cause indicated the presence of some strange living agent, and no stranger had a right to be on his territory. The belief in spiritual agencies would easily pass into the belief in the existence of one or more gods. For savages would naturally attribute to spirits the same passions, the same love of vengeance or simplest form of justice, and the same affections which they themselves experienced. '.rhe Fuegians appear to be in this respect in an intermediate condition, for when the surgeon on board the " Beagle " shot some young ducklings as specimens, York Minster declared in the most solemn manner, "Oh! Mr. Bynoe, much rain, much snow, blow "much;" and this was evidently .a retributive punishment for wasting human food. So again he related how, when his brother killed a" wild man," storms long raged, much rain and snow fell. Yet we could never discover that the Fuegians believed in what we should call a God, or practised any religious rites; and J emmy Button, with justifiable pride, stoutly maintained that there was no devil in his land. This latter assertion is the more remarkable, as with savages the belief in bad spirits is far more common than the belief in good spirits. F 2 |
