ell as a means of individual culture.

_Spirit Worship_.--The recognition of the continued journey of the
spirit after death was in itself an altruistic practice. Much of the
worship of the controlling spirit was conducted to secure especial
favor to the departed soul. The burial service in early religious
practice became a central idea in permanent religious rites. Perhaps
the earliest phase of religious belief arises out of the idea that the
spirit or soul of man has control over the body. It gives rise to the
notion of spirit and the idea of continued existence. Considering the
universe as material existence, according to primitive belief, it is
the working of the superior spirit over the physical elements that
gives rise to natural phenomena.

One of the early stages of religious progress is to attempt to form a
meeting-place with the spirit. This desire is seen in the lowest
tribes and in the highest civilization of to-day. When Cabrillo came
to the coast of southern California he found natives that had never
before come in contact with civilized people. He describes a rude
temple made by driving stakes in the ground in a circular form, and
partitioning the enclosure by similar rows of stakes. At the centre
was a rude platform, on which were placed the feathers of certain birds
pleasing to the spirit. The natives came to this temple occasionally,
and, circling around it, went through many antics of worship. This
represents the primitive idea of location in worship. Not different in
its fundamental conception from the rude altar of stones built by
Abraham at Bethel, the Greek altar, or the mighty columns of St.
Peter's, it was the simple meeting-place of man and the spirit. For
all of these represent location in worship, and just as the modern
worshipper enters the church or cathedral to meet God, so did the
primitive savage fix locations for the meeting of the spirit.

Man finally attempted to control the spirit for his own advantage. A
rude form of religion was reached, found in {117} certain stages of the
development of all religions, in which man sought to manipulate or
exorcise the spirits who existed in the air or were located in trees,
stones, and other material forms. Out of this came a genuine worship
of the powerful, and supplication for help and support. Seeking aid
and favor became the fundamental ideas in religious worship. Simple in
the beginning, it sought to appease the wrath of th