these phenomena do not appear; Man worships, feels dependence and accountability, religious fear or hope, and gives signs of these spiritual emotions all the world over. No nation with fire and garments has been found so savage that they have not attained this; none so refined as to outgrow it. The widest observation, therefore, as well as a philosophical deduction from the nature of Man, warrants the conclusion that this sentiment is universal.[1]
But at first glance there are some apparent exceptions to this rule. A few persons from time to time arise and claim the name of Atheist. But even these admit they feel this religious tendency; they acknowledge a sense of dependence, which they refer, not to the sound action of a natural element in their constitution, but to a disease thereof, to the influence of culture, or the instruction of their nurses, and count it an obstinate disease of their mind, or else a prejudice early imbibed and not easily removed.[2] Even if some one could be found who denied that he ever felt any religious emotion whatever, however feebly—this would prove nothing against the universality of its existence, and no more against the general rule of its manifestation, than the rare fact of a child born with a single arm proves against the general rule, that Man by nature has two arms.[3]
Again, travellers tell us some nations with considerable civilization have no God, no priests, no worship, and therefore give no sign of the existence of the religious element in them. Admitting they state a fact, we are not to conclude the religious element is wanting in the savages; only that they, like infants, have not attained the proper stage, when we could discover signs of its action. But
- ↑ Empirical observation alone would not teach the universality of this element, unless it were detected in each man, for a generalization can never go beyond the facts it embraces; but observation, so far as it goes, confirms the abstract conclusion which we reach independent of observation.
- ↑ See Hume's Natural History of Religion, Introduction. Essays; Lond. 1822, Vol. II, p. 379.
- ↑ One of the most remarkable Atheists of the present day is M. Comte, author of the valuable and sometimes profound work Cours de Philosophie positive; Paris, 1830—42, 6 vols. 8vo. He glories in the name, but in many places gives evidence of the religious element existing in him in no small power. See Cudworth's Intellectual System, &c., Ch. IV. § 1—5. Some one says “No man is a consistent Atheist—if such be possible—who admits the existence of any general law.”
