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the tribes, and is not the mere partisan of any; like the king, he is
above tribal jealousies, and is interested in checking the violence
of all, and securing justice to all. He may be appealed to by those
who have suffered violence and who have no earthly helper; and thus
he tends to become an ideal of justice and fatherly kindness, and to
reflect in the world above the sentiments springing up in the world
below, in favour of the repression of violence and the administration
of even-handed justice.

In these directions the religion of the nation tends to rise above
that of the tribe. The tribal worships may continue almost as they
were, the tribal gods may still be worshipped, the tribal jealousies
and conflicts still be carried on in spite of the new union, and all
the superstitions of early religion may long survive; yet a new
religious force has appeared which will in time produce a complete
new system. The true principle of classification, therefore, must be
drawn from the difference between tribal and national religion, as
this is the most vital difference, and that from which all the others
which we mentioned may be derived.

The transition thus sketched took place at widely different periods
in different parts of the world; it began early and has taken place
even in modern times, while very many tribes in various parts of the
globe have not yet arrived at it. It is a transition of which it is
manifestly impossible to exhibit the detail; in most cases the detail
is not known, and it were a profitless task to trace how primitive
religions met, united or remained apart, and how their crossings in
one case led to a national religion, and in many others led to no
such result. Much, no doubt, is to be found on such points in special
works, and much still remains to be discovered. Various instances of
the formation of national religions will meet us in our subsequent
chapters.

The Inca Religion.--We give, however, at this point an example of the
transition we have described, drawn from a quarter remote from the
great movements of history, and in which the facts are plain and
uncontested. Of the two great civilised communities of the New World,
discovered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, Mexico presents
a worship compounded of many elements, which, along with high and
lofty morality and great magnificence of ritual, yet retains an
extraordinary amount of cruelty and savage horror. In Peru, however,
we