at we
must seek for the beginnings of religion in the religions of primitive
peoples, but in the last century the orthodox mind was convinced that
it possessed a complete and luminous ready-made revelation; the study of
what was held to be a mere degradation seemed idle and superfluous.

But, it may be asked, if, to the orthodox, revealed religion was
sacrosanct and savage religion a thing beneath consideration, why did
not the sceptics show a more liberal spirit, and pursue to their logical
issue the conjectures they had individually hazarded? The reason is
simple and significant. The sceptics too had not worked free from
the presupposition that the essence of religion is dogma. Their
intellectualism, expressive of the whole eighteenth century, was
probably in England strengthened by the Protestant doctrine of an
infallible Book. Hume undoubtedly confused religion with dogmatic
theology. The attention of orthodox and sceptics alike was focussed on
the truth or falsity of certain propositions. Only a few minds of rare
quality were able dimly to conceive that religion might be a necessary
step in the evolution of human thought.

It is not a little interesting to note that Darwin, who was leader and
intellectual king of his generation, was also in this matter to some
extent its child. His attitude towards religion is stated clearly, in
Chapter VIII. of the "Life and Letters". (Vol. I. page 304. For Darwin's
religious views see also "Descent of Man", 1871, Vol. I. page 65; 2nd
edition. Vol. I. page 142.) On board the "Beagle" he was simply orthodox
and was laughed at by several of the officers for quoting the Bible as
an unanswerable authority on some point of morality. By 1839 he had come
to see that the Old Testament was no more to be trusted than the sacred
books of the Hindoos. Next went the belief in miracles, and next Paley's
"argument from design" broke down before the law of natural selection;
the suffering so manifest in nature is seen to be compatible rather with
Natural Selection than with the goodness and omnipotence of God. Darwin
felt to the full all the ignorance that lay hidden under specious
phrases like "the plan of creation" and "Unity of design." Finally, he
tells us "the mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us;
and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic."

The word Agnostic is significant not only of the humility of the man
himself but also of the attitude of his age. Relig