Myths which, as distinguished from the Philosophical and the Historical, I would name κατ' ἱζοχην, the Sacerdotal. By these I mean especially all the Otherworld Myths. Few things have more struck me in the study of Folk-poesy—and especially I may say in the study of Greek and Keltic Folk-poesy —than the absence of any reference to, or belief in, Hell; or the vague and very partial character of any such reference or belief In Egyptian and Chaldean Mythology, however, a prodigious development is given to this notion. The Eighteenth Century Philosophers, in theorising about the origin and development both of Religion and Mythology, may, perhaps, have made too much of the influence of Priests. But in view of such a Conflict as that in which Civilisation appears to have originated, it must have been so evidently the interest of the leisured and learned Class to develop and systematise all the germs of terrorising superstitions among the labouring and unlearned Masses that we cannot neglect this fact as a most important element in the development of Myth and Religion.
There is much more that I would desire to say; for I have scarcely even touched on many points noted in the Abstract of what I proposed to say. But I have come here much more with the desire of hearing those who may honour my suggestions with their criticisms, than of stating my own views in anything but mere general outlines. And I will, therefore, add only one or two brief remarks which may possibly prevent misunderstandings that might otherwise arise.
One cannot properly define one's position with reference to Mythology without defining it also with reference to Religion. Let me say, therefore, that such an enlarged survey of historical facts as that which I have indicated seems to me to lead to some such enlarged definition of Religion as this. Religion is, subjectively, the Social Emotion excited by the Environments of Existence, conceived in the progressive forms determined by Economic and Intellectual Conditions; and is, objectively, the Ritual Observances in which that Emotion is expressed. Thus defining Religion, it is eternal. Intellectual development, far from destroying it, will but purify and elevate religious emotion, and the forms of its expression. By no means can I agree with Professor Max Müller in his theory of an original intuition of the Infinite.
