on that
we have no account of man's earliest conceptions of his relations with
the world of invisible forces. There is some reason to hold, as is
remarked above,[1544] that in the lowest stage of life known to us men
were logically indifferent spectators of the world, but in general stood
in awe of phenomena, so that fear was their prevailing feeling. It may
be surmised that this feeling would engender a sense of antagonism to
such superhuman Powers as came to be conceived of, on which would
naturally follow a desire to get control of them. Yet it is impossible
to say at what stage of social development the necessity would be felt
of establishing friendly relations with the Powers. The two lines of
effort may have begun and gone on side by side, the two springing from
the same utilitarian impulse, but each independent of the other--a
coexistence that actually appears in many tribes; finally the coercive
effort tends to yield to the kindly influences of organized society.
There is no ground for calling magic a "disease of religion." The
presumption, from the general law of progress, is that, when there is a
chronological difference, the socially lower precedes the socially
higher. Religion and magic come to be mutually antagonistic, except in
cases where religious authorities adopt magical procedures, giving them
a theistic and socially useful coloring. Magic has been a natural, if
not a necessary, step in the religious organization of society.[1545]

+890+. Since religion and magic have in common the purpose to establish
relations with extrahuman Powers the dividing line between the two is in
some cases not easily fixed--the same procedure may be held to belong in
the one category or the other, according as it invokes or does not
invoke the aid of a god in friendly and submissive fashion. We may thus
be carried back to a time when a sharp distinction between the two did
not exist, as there was a time when such a distinction is not visible
between "gods" (friendly divine members of the human community) and
"demons" (unfriendly outside beings), both classes being regarded simply
as agents affecting human life. Even when some fairly good form of
organization has been reached it is often hard to say to which class a
particular figure belongs. The Hawaiian Pele (the "goddess" of the great
and dangerous volcano) is often vindictive, and then differs little or
not at all from a demon that sends sickness and death.[1546] The
Ba