of transmission from antiquity. Instead of
this they simply pretend that the significance of such acts is obvious.
Stripped of the glamour which religious emotion and sophistry have woven
around them, such pretended explanations become transparent subterfuges,
none the less real because the apologists are quite innocent of any
conscious intention to deceive either themselves or their disciples. It
should be sufficient for them that such ritual acts have been handed
down by tradition as right and proper things to do. But in response to
the instinctive impulse of all human beings, the mind seeks for reasons
in justification of actions of which the real inspiration is unknown.

It is a common fallacy to suppose that men's actions are inspired mainly
by reason. The most elementary investigation of the psychology of
everyday life is sufficient to reveal the truth that man is not, as a
rule, the pre-eminently rational creature he is commonly supposed to
be.[8] He is impelled to most of his acts by his instincts, the
circumstances of his personal experience, and the conventions of the
society in which he has grown up. But once he has acted or decided upon
a course of procedure he is ready with excuses in explanation and
attempted justification of his motives. In most cases these are not the
real reasons, for few human beings attempt to analyse their motives or
in fact are competent without help to understand their own feelings and
the real significance of their actions. There is implanted in man the
instinct to interpret for his own satisfaction his feelings and
sensations, i.e. the meaning of his experience. But of necessity this is
mostly of the nature of rationalizing, i.e. providing satisfying
interpretations of thoughts and decisions the real meaning of which
is hidden.

Now it must be patent that the nature of this process of rationalization
will depend largely upon the mental make-up of the individual--of the
body of knowledge and traditions with which his mind has become stored
in the course of his personal experience. The influences to which he has
been exposed, daily and hourly, from the time of his birth onward,
provide the specific determinants of most of his beliefs and views.
Consciously and unconsciously he imbibes certain definite ideas, not
merely of religion, morals, and politics, but of what is the correct and
what is the incorrect attitude to assume in most of the circumstances of
his daily life. These for