or myself I try never to forget the
words of Columella, with which a great German scholar began one of his
most difficult investigations: "In universa vita pretiosissimum est
intellegere quemque nescire se quod nesciat."[22]

NOTES TO LECTURE I

[1] Mommsen, _Hist. of Rome_ (_E.T._), vol. ii. p. 433.

[2] Cumont, _Les Religions orientales dans le paganisme
romain_, p. 36. Cp. Dill, _Roman Society in the Last
Century of the Western Empire_, p. 63. Gwatkin, _The
Knowledge of God_, vol. ii. p. 133.

[3] See some valuable remarks in Lord Cromer's _Modern
Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 135.

[4] Since this lecture was written this scholar has
passed away, to the great grief of his many friends; and
I refrain from mentioning his name.

[5] Ira W. Howerth, in _International Journal of
Ethics_, 1903, p. 205. I owe the reference to R.
Karsten, _The Origin of Worship_, Wasa, 1905, p. 2,
note. Cp. E. Caird, _Gifford Lectures_ ("Evolution of
Theology in the Greek Philosophers"), vol. i. p. 32.
"That which underlies all forms of religion, from the
highest to the lowest, is the idea of God as an absolute
power or principle." To this need only be added the
desire to be in right relation to it. Mr. Marett's word
"supernaturalism" seems to mean the same thing; "There
arises in the region of human thought a powerful impulse
to objectify, and even to personify, the mysterious or
supernatural something felt; and in the region of will a
corresponding impulse to render it innocuous, or, better
still, propitious, by force of constraint (_i.e._
magic), communion, or conciliation." See his _Threshold
of Religion_, p. 11. Prof. Haddon, commenting on this
(_Magic and Fetishism_, p. 93), adds that "there are
thus produced the two fundamental factors of religion,
the belief in some mysterious power, and the desire to
enter into communication with the power by means of
worship." Our succinct definition seems thus to be
adequate.

[6] _The Golden Bough_, ed. 2, vol. i. p. 62.

[7] _Liberal Protestantism_, p. 64.

[8] For _religio_ as a feeling essentially, see Wissowa,
_Religion und Kultus der Roemer_, p. 318 (henceforward to
be cited as _R.K._). For further development of the
meaning of the word in Latin literature, see the
author's paper in _Proceedings of the Congress for the