into existence WITH omens; the immense
majority possessing the superior military advantage, the small minority
destitute of it would have been crushed out and destroyed. But, on the
contrary, all over the world religions with omens once existed, in most
they still exist; all savages have them, and deep in the most ancient
civilisations we find the plainest traces of them. Unquestionably
therefore the pre-historic religion was like that of savages--viz., in
this that it largely consisted in the watching of omens and in the
worship of lucky beasts and things, which are a sort of embodied and
permanent omens.

It may indeed be objected--an analogous objection was taken as to the
ascertained moral deficiencies of pre-historic mankind--that if this
religion of omens was so pernicious and so likely to ruin a race, no
race would ever have acquired it. But it is only likely to ruin a race
contending with another race otherwise equal. The fancied discovery of
these omens--not an extravagant thing in an early age, as I have tried
to show, not a whit then to be distinguished as improbable from the
discovery of healing herbs or springs which pre-historic men also did
discover--the discovery of omens was an act of reason as far as it
went. And if in reason the omen-finding race were superior to the races
in conflict with them, the omen-finding race would win, and we may
conjecture that omen-finding races were thus superior since they won
and prevailed in every latitude and in every zone.

In all particulars therefore we would keep to our formula, and say that
pre-historic man was substantially a savage like present savages, in
morals, intellectual attainments, and in religion; but that he differed
in this from our present savages, that he had not had time to ingrain
his nature so deeply with bad habits, and to impress bad beliefs so
unalterably on his mind as they have. They have had ages to fix the
stain on them selves, but primitive man was younger and had no such
time.

I have elaborated the evidence for this conclusion at what may seem
needless and tedious length, but I have done so on account of its
importance. If we accept it, and if we are sure of it, it will help us
to many most important conclusions. Some of these I have dwelt upon in
previous papers, but I will set them down again.

First, it will in part explain to us what the world was about, so to
speak, before history. It was making, so to say, the intellectual
c