and soul, such as binds each atom of matter
to every other; a connection which increases as we descend from the
above-ground level of full consciousness, through ever lower strata of
subconsciousness, to those hidden depths of unconscious operation from
which the most unintelligibly intelligent effects of the soul
proceed--as though, in the darkness, it were taught by God, and guided
blindfold by the hand of its Maker. In other words, the individuation of
souls is conceived to be somewhat like that of the separate branches of
the same tree which, traced downwards, run into a common root, from
whence they are differenced by every hour of their growth, yet not
disconnected, as though each several consciousness sprang from some
unconscious psychic basis common to all, wherein, like forgotten
memories, the experiences of all are buried, at a depth far beyond the
reach of all normal powers of reminiscence, yet through which terminus
of converging souls thoughts can, in our intenser moments, pass from
mind to mind,--reverberated as it were from the base, and thence caught
by the one consciousness altogether resonant to that particular
vibration. How far such an interpretation may favour pantheism, or
imperil personality, or involve a doctrine of "pre-existence," or of
innate ideas, is not for us here to discuss. If we are to judge it
fairly, it must be simply as a provisional working-hypothesis
explanatory of certain observations, and apart from all other
psychological theories with which it may seem in conflict. Truth will in
the end adjust itself with truth, but nothing is to be hoped from forced
and premature adjustments.

Mr. Lang's second and principal contention is that even if we allow the
animistic account of the belief in spirits, in no sense can we admit
that process by which belief in God is supposed to be a later
development of the belief in spirits, as though inequality among spirits
had given rise to aristocracy, and aristocracy to monarchy.

By God here we understand: "a primal eternal Being, author of all
things, the father and the friend of man, the invisible omniscient
guardian of morality," a definition which, while it fixes the high-water
mark of monotheism, yet only states with formidable distinctness what,
according to Mr. Lang, is found confusedly in the apprehension of the
rudest savages. There are two senses in which we can understand an
evolution of this idea of God; first, as Mr. Tylor understands