rliest stages
of religion it is at all events clear that its earliest form is in the
nature of a hypothesis, even though only of the semi-conscious kind that
exists when man is brought into touch with some new and overpowering
experience. Religious ideas are put forth in explanation of something.
But all explanation whether by savage or civilised man, must be in terms
of existing knowledge. No other method is possible. We must explain the
unknown in terms of the known, and our explanation will be the more
elaborate and the nearer the truth as our knowledge of the nature of the
forces are the more exact and extensive. A knowledge of the laws of
condensation and evaporation enables a modern to give an explanation of
the meaning of a shower of rain that is simply impossible to man in an
earlier stage of culture. In every case the facts are the same, and in
each case the explanation given depends upon the knowledge acquired.

Now one radical distinction between an early and a modern explanation of
the world is that whereas the former moves from within outward, the
latter moves from without inward. Uncivilised man explains the world by
himself; civilised man explains himself by the world. The savage
describes the world in terms of his own feelings and passions, the
scientist regards human qualities as resulting from the relation which
man holds to the forces around him. The process, while presenting a
radical difference in form, is yet fundamentally one in essence.
Ignorant of all that we connote by such an expression as "natural
forces," whatever explanation is offered by the savage is necessarily in
terms of the only force with which he is acquainted. But it happens that
the only forces which he then fancies he understands are those
represented by his own organisation. What he is conscious of doing is
prompted by his own will and intelligence. He hurts when he is angry, he
rewards when he is pleased, and he makes the same assumption regarding
the things around him. So far as he explains nature he vitalises it.
Vital force becomes the symbol of all force. And this result expresses a
mental law that is universally operative. The civilised mind differs
from the savage mind not because the brain functions differently in the
two cases, but solely in consequence of the wider and truer knowledge of
the causes of natural phenomena which civilised man possesses. We arrive
at different conclusions because we start from different prem