to us as the secret force which has
converted a herd of brutes into a society of men. In general, the older
and more universal a custom, the more it is based on profound motives,
on physiological motives on those of hygiene, and on those instituted
for social protection. At one time, as in the separation of castes, a
heroic or thoughtful stock must be preserved by preventing the
mixtures by which inferior blood introduces mental debility and low
instincts.[3305] At another, as in the prohibition of spirituous
liquors, and of animal food, it is necessary to conform to the climate
prescribing a vegetable diet, or to the race-temperament for which
strong drink is pernicious.[3306]At another, as in the institution of
the right of first-born to inherit title and castle, it was important
to prepare and designate beforehand the military commander who the
tribe would obey, or the civil chieftain that would preserve the domain,
superintend its cultivation, and support the family.[3307]--If there are
valid reasons for legitimizing custom there are reasons of higher import
for the consecration of religion Consider this point, not in general
and according to a vague notion, but at the outset, at its birth, in
the texts, taking for an example one of the faiths which now rule in
society, Christianity, Hinduism, the law of Mohammed or of Buddha. At
certain critical moments in history, a few men, emerging from their
narrow and daily routine of life, are seized by some generalized
conception of the infinite universe; the august face of nature is
suddenly unveiled to them; in their sublime emotion they seem to have
detected its first cause; they have at least detected some of its
elements. Through a fortunate conjunction of circumstances these
elements are just those which their century, their people, a group of
peoples, a fragment of humanity is in a state to comprehend. Their point
of view is the only one at which the graduated multitudes below them are
able to accept. For millions of men, for hundreds of generations, only
through them is any access to divine things to be obtained. Theirs
is the unique utterance, heroic or affecting, enthusiastic or
tranquilizing; the only one which the hearts and minds around them and
after them will heed; the only one adapted to profound cravings,
to accumulated aspirations, to hereditary faculties, to a complete
intellectual and moral organism; Yonder that of Hindostan or of the
Mongolian; here that