might well have been "the creation by Darwinism of
the scientific study of Religions," but that I feared to mar my tribute
to a great name by any shadow of exaggeration. Before the publication of
"The Origin of Species" and "The Descent of Man", even in the eighteenth
century, isolated thinkers, notably Hume and Herder, had conjectured
that the orthodox beliefs of their own day were developments from the
cruder superstitions of the past. These were however only particular
speculations of individual sceptics. Religion was not yet generally
regarded as a proper subject for scientific study, with facts to be
collected and theories to be deduced. A Congress of Religions such as
that recently held at Oxford would have savoured of impiety.

In the brief space allotted me I can attempt only two things; first,
and very briefly, I shall try to indicate the normal attitude towards
religion in the early part of the last century; second, and in more
detail, I shall try to make clear what is the outlook of advanced
thinkers to-day. (To be accurate I ought to add "in Europe." I advisedly
omit from consideration the whole immense field of Oriental mysticism,
because it has remained practically untouched by the influence of
Darwinism.) From this second inquiry it will, I hope, be abundantly
manifest that it is the doctrine of evolution that has made this outlook
possible and even necessary.

The ultimate and unchallenged presupposition of the old view was that
religion was a DOCTRINE, a body of supposed truths. It was in fact what
we should now call Theology, and what the ancients called Mythology.
Ritual was scarcely considered at all, and, when considered, it was held
to be a form in which beliefs, already defined and fixed as dogma,
found a natural mode of expression. This, it will be later shown, is
a profound error or rather a most misleading half-truth. Creeds,
doctrines, theology and the like are only a part, and at first the least
important part, of religion.

Further, and the fact is important, this DOGMA, thus supposed to be
the essential content of the "true" religion, was a teleological scheme
complete and unalterable, which had been revealed to man once and for
all by a highly anthropomorphic God, whose existence was assumed. The
duty of man towards this revelation was to accept its doctrines and obey
its precepts. The notion that this revelation had grown bit by bit out
of man's consciousness and that his business was t