e cult. The emotional elements play a large part in some
cases, in the fanatical creeds of the Dervish and Mahdist and in the
"revivals" under nearer observation. In Greek cosmology and worship,
aesthetics figured to a large degree. Temperamental and other
psychological characteristics have profound effects upon religions, which
we may illustrate by such extreme examples as the austerities of New
England and Scotch Presbyterianism and the contrasted liberties of the
natural religions of tropical races. But all of these accessory elements
belong to other well-defined departments, some of which have already been
considered, and among the materials of their proper divisions they find
their interpretation and historical explanation in evolution. It is with
the basic elements themselves that we are now concerned.

Only within recent years have systematic attempts been made to classify
religions on the basis of impersonal objective study. Throughout all times
men have instinctively set up their own religion as the only true one,
besides which all others are designated simply as false--a very natural
distinction, but one which is too naive for science, as well as one that
takes into account subjective or personal values which are not to be
considered in an objective comparison and analysis. The linguistic basis
was first employed by Mueller, with the result that religions were placed
in the category of evolutionary accompaniments of the other mental
possessions and of the physical qualities of genetically connected
peoples. Thus the nations of Europe that branched out in all directions
from very nearly the same sources possessed common linguistic characters
and somewhat similar creeds. The Sanskrit-speaking races were the original
Brahmins and Buddhists. Ancestor worship is an accompaniment of the
peculiar languages spoken by eastern Mongolian peoples. And although the
correlation specified is by no means invariable, because a race of one
stock can readily accept the religion of a neighbor or of a conqueror, yet
much is gained through the introduction of the idea of evolutionary
relationships.

A more logical classification frankly adopts the genetic method and
clearly recognizes the direct effects of cultural and intellectual
attainments upon the way a religious system becomes formulated. In such an
arrangement, similar to that of Jastrow, religions can be classed as those
of savagery, of barbarism, of advanced culture, and o