f civilization. Among
the first named, notably those of Polynesian and African tribes, beliefs
in diversified ghosts and spirits bulk largely, and every moving thing, be
it a river or a cloud or a tree or animal, is held to be animated by an
invisible conscious genius; the spirits reside in everything, as well as
in the great unknown beyond. Above these in the scale are the religions of
so-called primitive cults, more elaborate and formalized in the ancient
beliefs of Egypt and Assyria, but still below those of advanced culture,
which make up a third group. The fourth class includes the religions which
tend to be coextensive with life, and which enjoin the higher harmony of
practical and theoretical conceptions. Taking Christianity as an example,
the contrast with the beliefs of savagery brings out clearly the nature of
progressive development. Here religious thought is no longer esoteric,
confined to a chosen sect like the Levites among the Hebrews or the shaman
and medicine-man among the American Indians; nor is religious observance
restricted to the innermost shrine of the tabernacle or sacred dwelling,
accessible to few or only one. It comes to be regarded as something in
which each and every individual can participate, and a personal possession
that has a direct part in determining all forms of human life and action.
This is another way of saying that the more highly evolved religions owe
their character to the greatly varied and abundant intellectual elements
which are built into them. And this is why religion in the highest form,
more clearly than in the lowest forms, is to be spoken of as an outlook
upon the world which is determined by the total intellectual equipment of
the individual man who thinks about the universe and directs his course of
action by what he finds.

* * * * *

We come now to a closer concrete study of the basic elements of religion;
that is, of those beliefs that are invariably present, in one form or
another, in every system of piety and worship, and that constitute the
innermost framework beneath the secondary creeds added to them. Following
Mallock and others, we may distinguish three such elemental conceptions.
These are, first, the belief in the existence of a supernatural being or
beings, endowed with intelligence like, but superior to, our own; second,
the idea of human responsibility to this or these powers; and, third, the
belief in immortality as an