ribe; there is a difference in character as well as in
dimensions. With a view to the examination of this point it will be
found convenient to consider some of the proposed classifications of
religions, as most of these, though for different reasons, place the
religions of the early world in a different category from those known
to us historically.

The old-fashioned Classification of Religions was that of the true
and the false. This our principle forbids us to accept, since we
regard the various faiths of the world as stages in the development
of religion, and therefore all relatively true.

Another division which has done good service is that into natural and
revealed religion. By natural religion has generally been understood
such religion as human reason could attain to without supernatural
aid. But this description does not apply to any religious system that
ever prevailed largely in any country; the actual religions have all
been the work of custom and age-long tradition, not of the deliberate
operation of reason. Natural religion therefore is a term which is of
no use to us in classification; since none of the actual religions
which we have to study answers to that title. Nor is revealed
religion a term we can conveniently use in such a work as this. Many
religions claim to be the result of revelation, but few make it at
the outset of their career. The title tells us nothing about the
original character of a religion, but only that at some period in its
career the claim was made for it that its origin was supernatural. If
we grouped the revealed religions together we might find that the
members of the group had no similarity to each other beyond the
accidental circumstance that the claim of revelation had been made
for them. Besides, science cannot possibly take the revealed
character of any religion for granted, but must examine each such
faith to see if its growth cannot be accounted for without that
assumption.

The term "natural" religion has, however, other meanings than that
just mentioned, and some of these we may find to be of more service.
It is proposed to divide religions into "natural" and "positive," or
into those which have grown up and those which have been founded. The
earlier religions were not due to the personal action of outstanding
individuals (at least if they were, as surely they must have been in
part, the individuals and their struggles are unrecorded), but were
the work of unconscio