it found in possession of the soil, and it always adopts
what it can of the old system. We should expect then that the great
religions of the world should exhibit features which do not belong to
their own structure, but which they inherited, with or against their
will, from their uncivilised predecessors. And that is the case, as
we shall see afterwards, with all the great religions. They are all
full of survivals of the savage state. The old religious associations
cling to the face of a land and refuse to be uprooted, whatever
changes take place among the gods above. Superstitious practices
continue among a race long after a truth has been preached there with
which they are entirely inconsistent. Stories are long told about the
gods, quite out of keeping with their character in the theology of
the new faith, pointing to a time when not so much was expected of a
god. In Mr. Lang's _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, the reader will find
an admirable collection of material showing how the popular elements
of an old religion survive in a new one in which they are quite out
of place. There is none of the great religions to which this does not
apply.

Now, if it be the case that each of the great religions has been
built upon a primitive religion formerly occupying the same ground,
it might appear that we must, in order to understand any of the great
religions, study first, in each case, the savage system which it
superseded. It would be a serious prospect for the student if he had
to make a separate study of a set of savage beliefs as an approach to
each of the ten or twelve great religions. But this, as we shall see
afterwards, is not the case. There is a great family likeness in the
religions of savages, and we may even allow ourselves to speak not of
the religions but of the religion of early races. In the next chapter
an attempt will be made to describe that religion; but we may say
here that there are some features which are generally, though by no
means always found in it, and that these features may be regarded for
practical purposes as the religion of the primitive world, which
everywhere was the forerunner of the great systems. This is the
jungle, as it were, overspreading all the early world, out of which
like giant trees the great religions arose, and from which they
derived and still derive a nourishment they cannot disown. Indeed, we
may go much farther. In some of their leading doctrines, the great
religions show