alone. Feeling and action are more closely knit than thought and action, for our motives, impulses, hopes and fears are always more often felt than reasoned, more often willed than merely contemplated and dismissed. Our affective nature is far older and more instinctive than our intellectual nature, whence what is dictated by affection and aversion usually fascinates and sways our judgment more thoroughly than cold rational analysis and interpretation.

Some people often wonder if Religion could ever have carried her flickering torch of spiritual culture and moral enlightenment so far among the dismal grottoes of this vulgar world, had she not made Music the handmaiden of her every service and solemnity. Surely the magnificence of tracery windows, frescoed ceilings, architectural splendor, majestic domes and doorways have never inspired the soul of man any more than the genius and holy use of Song. Whether our Music takes expression in the form of the primitive choral chant, the ancient harp and dance, the classical rhapsodies and oratorios, or the modern medleys and operas and concert symphonies, we always understand its meaning and its grace. In simple melodies or complex dramas on great and solemn themes, musical expression is equally charming and significant. While, to give one recent pierastic example, to sing the Doxology, the Hallelujah Chorus, or "Aint We Got Fun" in Chinese mnemonic, Spanish toreador, or Polish mazurka style indeed affords us a bizarre variety of musical expression.

But what can surpass the simple rhythm of that deathless cradle song "Rockabye Baby" for melodic grandeur and soothing tranquillity? And where is the exalted genius who would aspire to improve on such clear echoes of the Cosmic Harmony as are sampled in Liszt's softly encouraging "Consolation in E major" or Chopin's spritely description of the life of a butterfly in his "Etude in G flat"? But even more sublime and immortal are the operas such as Wagner's "Holy Grail" or "Lohengrin", Verdi's "Don Carlos" or "La Traviata", Mozart's "William Tell" or "Magic Flute", and the oratorios such as Handel's "Messiah", Haydn's "Creation" or Mendelssohn's "Saint Paul". Here was classical mastery at its best and it is not every cabaret musician who can intelligently reproduce any one of the works mentioned, although there are many in the galleries at operatic productions today who do take at least an emotional share in the grandeur of classical expression.

(To be continued)

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Devoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, and
de Extension of the Religious Parliament Idea.

The fact is, there has not been a single tribe, no matter how rude, known in history, or visited by travellers, which has been shown to be destitute of religion in some form.

Brinton, D. G., Religions of Primitive Peoples, p. 30.

I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMITIVE LIFE

UR study of the history of religious and moral training begins at what is undoubtedly a late stage in human culture. Thousands of years of unchronicled development preceded the savagery of today. Nevertheless, a study of the question, "What place do religion and religious training occupy in the life of primitive peoples and to what extent do they represent universal experiences," may throw some light upon earlier unrecorded stages and upon the larger questions which are our fundamental consideration. Because the religion and the religious education of primitive man are inseparably interwoven with his social, moral, industrial, and intellectual conditions, it is necessary to consider these at this point, however briefly.

"Primitive', to the ethnologist, means the earliest of a given race or tribe of whom he has trusty information. It has reference to a stage of culture, rather than to time. Peoples who are in a savage or barbarous condition, with slight knowledge of the arts, lax governments, and feeble institutions, are spoken of as 'primitive', although they may be our contemporaries."

The life of primitive man is largely one of physical conflict with men, beasts, and the forces of nature. Possessing only crude weapons, he is obliged to depend chiefly upon cunning and physical 1Brinton, D. G., Religions of Primitive Peoples, p. 11.

strength for securing food and for defense. Among the beasts, he finds not only his equals, but his superiors. Only through cooperation with his own species are conquest, pleasure, and survival possible. The need of aid in caring for offspring and his social instinct demand association with his fellows. Whence it comes that the earliest social unit is some form of association. The aim of this association is the preservation of the group and the fundamental law of this group, horde, clan, phratry, or tribe is cooperation.

The actions of primitive man appear in two groups and under two different ethical aspects: (1) actions relating to the members of his own tribe; (2) actions relating to the members of other tribes. Cruelty and craft characterize his conduct toward the members of other tribes; cooperation and kindness, his conduct toward members of his own. "The strong savage does not rush into his weaker neighbor's hut and take possession. In the West Indian Islands where Columbus landed lived tribes which have been called the most gentle and benevolent of the human race.'

Filial, parental, and tribal affection, hospitality and truthfulness are virtues taught and practiced within savage tribes often with a diligence which puts to shame civilized man. "Why should I lie to you,' asked a Navajo Indian priest of Washington Matthews. 'I am ashamed before the earth; I am ashamed before the heavens; I am ashamed before the dawn; x----x; x----x. Some of these things are always looking at me x----x. Therefore, I must tell the truth. That is why I always tell the truth. I hold my word tight to my breast.'

There is no evidence to show that the mind of primitive man differs in respect to native traits, tendencies, or capacities from that of civilized man. Reasoning, inhibition, and choice (capacities which some writers have denied the savage) . . . are common to the whole of humanity. Nevertheless, the savage uses his capacity for logical thinking seldom and to a slight degree. This explains the fact that his world is, for the most part, a world of individual and unrelated objects. Each tree, each stone, each hut stands alone, dimly related, if at all, to others of its kind. Genera and species he knows

2Kropotkin, P. A., Mutual Aid, A Factor of Evolution, p. 79.

Tylor. E. B., Anthropology, An Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization, p. 406.

Matthews, W., Ethics Among the Lower Races, Journal of American Folk-lore, XII:1-9.

Thomas, W. I., Source Book in Social Origins, Part II,

pp. 155-173.