tulate; and, setting out with this
postulate, we have to ask how primitive men came so generally, if not
universally, to believe themselves the progeny of animals or plants or
inanimate bodies. There is, I believe, a satisfactory answer.

* * * * *

The proposition with which Mr. McLennan sets out, that totem-worship
preceded the worship of anthropomorphic gods, is one to which I can
yield but a qualified assent. It is true in a sense, but not wholly
true. If the words "gods" and "worship" carry with them their ordinary
definite meanings, the statement is true; but if their meanings are
widened so as to comprehend those earliest vague notions out of which
the definite ideas of gods and worship are evolved, I think it is not
true. The rudimentary form of all religion is the propitiation of dead
ancestors, who are supposed to be still existing, and to be capable of
working good or evil to their descendants. As a preparation for dealing
hereafter with the principles of sociology, I have, for some years past,
directed much attention to the modes of thought current in the simpler
human societies; and evidence of many kinds, furnished by all
varieties of uncivilized men, has forced on me a conclusion harmonizing
with that lately expressed in this Review by Prof. Huxley--namely, that
the savage, conceiving a corpse to be deserted by the active personality
who dwelt in it, conceives this active personality to be still existing,
and that his feelings and ideas concerning it form the basis of his
superstitions. Everywhere we find expressed Or implied the belief that
each person is double; and that when he dies, his other self, whether
remaining near at hand or gone far away, may return, and continues
capable of injuring his enemies and aiding his friends.[29]

But how out of the desire to propitiate this second personality of a
deceased man (the words "ghost" and "spirit" are somewhat misleading,
since the savage believes that the second personality reappears in a
form equally tangible with the first), does there grow up the worship of
animals, plants, and inanimate objects? Very simply. Savages habitually
distinguish individuals by names that are either directly suggestive of
some personal trait or fact of personal history, or else express an
observed community of character with some well-known object. Such a
genesis of individual names, before surnames have arisen, is inevitable;
and how easily