characteristic phenomenon. These aspirations, among persons of a higher position who are troubled by no worldly care, assume the shape of philosophy, and, among the oppressed classes, that of religion.

Philosophy is the result of methodical ways of thinking already developed in the communal society. Its appointed task, whilst the society is flourishing, is, in the first place, to precisely define, systematize, and idealize the conceptions and their application to public concerns within a perfect communal state-organism; and, in the second place, to discuss and reconcile the difference which subsisted between the ordinary and popular view of the religious myths and rites of the communal society and between their symbolical theories, harmonizing with the reasonings of science and corresponding with a higher standard of moral sentiment. But just as the development of the communal state cannot remain stationary within the limits of the principle of its own society, so can neither the progress of philosophy stand still at this particular period and be alone content with the accomplishment of the above-mentioned tasks.

When, therefore, the world-empires arose, philosophy also began to busy itself anew with the explanation of the universe, yet now no longer with that ingenuous and primitive conception and endeavour from which it originally sprang, when, in laying particular stress upon external phenomena, it considered its duty accomplished, if it succeeded in accounting for them by some particular propositions and fictions. Philosophy now proceeds with the decided consciousness that its true vocation requires it to present a picture of all observable phenomena, both spiritual and material, and to show these to be the consequences of that uniform and higher law, which is, at the same time, also the rule of conduct and of moral perfection in individuals. Hence, that sublime notion of nature, which pervades the Stoical as well as the Epicurean systems, and hence also a tendency to invest moral judgment with an excessive importance, a tendency which

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presses more and more to the front during the later periods of advancing philosophy, and owing to which the speculative element in the philosophical systems shows a growing disposition to appreciate the importance of the relation between the visible world and the world which can be only conceived, and the significance of its effects upon the individual. This chain of thought leads again to a religious conception of the forces manifesting themselves in nature and in the human spirit, and ruling the universe; it leads to their recognition as the attributes and emanations of the Deity, which constitute the distinctive doctrine of later Stoicism, and which, being applied to the individual, led up to the religious ideal of the philosophers, the germs of which can already be found in Plato, and fully developed in the cogitations of Marcus Aurelius.

Yet, since every ideal pertaining to philosophy is unavoidably aristocatic, and since there are, in comparison to the mass of mankind, necessarily but few philosophers, those elect of nature and culture, and, further, since to soar above the world and to remain indifferent to worldly goods on mere theoretical grounds, and without any ulterior hope, can from the nature of things be but the privilege of the cultured, philosophy could, for these reasons, never extend beyond certain narrow limits. It remained, therefore, the sole property of the educated and privileged classes; and although it was the first and spotless herald of universal brotherhood and philanthropy, it affected the masses and the subsequent destinies of mankind but indirectly; partly, through rules of conduct suggested in practical life; then, though in a slight measure, through the example of its followers, and most of all, through its influence upon the subject matter of other, purely religious doctrines; yet it could never furnish a principle for the formation of an independent society, although it counted amongst its supporters some of the most enlightened and powerful men of the age.

§ 91. If, therefore, philosophy, the refuge of the enlightened and prominent classes of the conquering and

predatory society, proved but ill-adapted for the diffusion of a new life, and if, in consequence of soaring above the level of the conceptions of the people and above the circumstances of its life, it could not become the central interest and bond of organization of a new society, it was natural that men should look about for a substitute suitable for furthering a fresh development.

Thus, that other and twin view of life, the roots of which had struck much more deeply into the various layers of the people, and reached down into the soil from which its remotest traditions and most unalterable sentiments had sprung, presented itself in order to take the place of philosophy. This was religion; faith in a world beyond, trust clinging to the superhuman, hope founded upon future life; these common boons, accessible to the lowest and the most unfortunate, alone remained as factors swaying the convictions, and as ties fitted to enlist ready and voluntary co-operation, and in themselves capable of uniting the masses broken up into individuals. But religion could only serve the purpose of a leading interest of a society, if it appeared in a form in which its chief importance was no longer due to the external ceremonials surrounding Divine worship, but in a form wherein its entire essence was pervaded by a moral tenour attractive to the spiritual disposition of individuals, penetrating inward life, regenerating the old nature of the believers, and kindling an irresistible enthusiasm in their breasts, and one wherein it found its embodiment in the notions of faith, hope, and love. These had, in sooth, not always been the pivotal notions of religion, and could only become so within the wide sphere of a conquering society.

Religion, in the consanguineous society, was at first the result of fear, afterwards the consequence of a cowering spirit of blind submission to tradition, and, finally, a symbol of seclusion and exclusiveness. It first sprang in the forms of Animism and Fetishism, from the fancied power of the departed, and from the experience of the transcendent power of natural agencies surrounding man, and was sub

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sequently developed by a sense of wonder and respect for the unusual and exceptional, embracing the more striking phenomena of nature, especially those of the heavens. and seasons, even if of daily occurrence. The conviction of the worldly usefulness of religion, its assimilation with things traditional, and hence its attachment to all the agencies of the proper sphere of a society as against foreign enemies, and, finally, the feelings of devotion developing in parallel lines with the ties of consanguinity, indelibly endeared it to the hearts. Its topics continued to be the worship of the spirits of the departed, as well as of those haunting all nature, and of the external objects connected with them; the placation of mysterious powers and their employment to the advantage of man by means of external rites; and, finally, the homage paid inwardly and by outward acts to the progenitors of the patriarchal sphere, figuring now as its preservers and patrons, and raised to the rank of divinities or of a higher class of superhuman beings. The influence of religion was nevertheless also productive of a moral result, already felt in the consanguineous society; namely, the gaining ground of the idea of the universal accountability of those inevitably adhering to it, not so much from faith, as from the fact of belonging to the same sphere of consanguinity. Primitive religion is not, as a general rule, the result of individual conviction; it is a motive influence just as tangible and as inseparable from social life, as any tradition, any familiar agency, or any accepted earthly authority. But it is for this very reason marked by all the attributes peculiar to the consanguineous sphere in regard to its members; and, just as a perfect solidarity must prevail among the individual members of the ruling sphere of kinship as towards the members of any hostile society, even so does this community and collective responsibility assert itself in the relation of its members to the superhuman powers. Thus, an offence committed by any member of the society draws down the wrath of the Deity upon the whole of the society, whilst the appeasing of the Divine wrath procured by any

appropriate act of placation has the effect of wiping out the sins of every one of its members.

In the early stages of a society founded on local contiguity, religion retains this its feature, but it becomes consciously polytheistic through the co-ordination of the divinities of the various kinships forming the component parts of the society, and through a grouping of the transmundane powers corresponding with the order of the tribal and of the communal state. In addition to this, as man's rule over nature increases in extent, religious conceptions are remodelled and rendered consciously anthropomorphous after the pattern of human attributes, and the various forces and phenomena of nature undergo a mythical personification or deification, until, finally, the attributes of the gods are conceived as corresponding with idealized human characteristics. At a later period, when the society itself establishes its rules with fixed purposes, Divine rule is no longer casually revealed by scattered capricious manifestations alone, but becomes the source and sustaining spirit of the laws of causal necessity now beginning to be recognized, whilst familiarity with abstract ideas and with their domain identifies the supernatural powers with notions of a general character, and with conceptions which present themselves at first as fatal forces existing before the Deity side by side with, or above it, and, subsequently, as embodied in the essence of the gods, as asserting themselves in their attributes, and as symbolized in the religious fables concerning them. Hence, parallel with the division of the society of local contiguity into two classes, namely, into the aristocratic and democratic elements respectively, follows the double meaning with which the religious propositions are invested the ordinary literal one for the masses, and the figurative and mystical one for the prominent and enlightenéd. Poetry steps in, and, weaving the two explanations into one web, renders the moral meaning of the loftier explanation accessible, whilst respecting the outward shape of the inferior one. Philosophy proceeds from the former alone, and erects it into