This evidence of continuity of development Dr Tylor represents as partly historical, and partly turning upon the principle of survival in culture. Thus, as among savage tribes, the soul is actually identified with the shadow or the breath, the use of such words as σκιά, πνεῦμα, umbra, anima, shade, and spirit, may be held to show the derivation of the civilised conception of the soul from the same primitive and savage idea. The primitive conception of the soul as consisting of a thin, vaporous, material substance, held its place in ancient philosophy and theology, being supported by such writers as Epicurus and Origen, and was only gradually superseded by the more modern belief of the soul’s immateriality. The elves, fairies, goblins, &c., so well known in modern folk-lore, correspond to the nature-spirits and demons of the savage religions. In these cases there has been survival with considerable change; on the other hand, the continuity of animistic thought is likewise indicated by many instances in which an idea survives with little or no modification. Such instances are to be found in many old customs, and especially among peasants, whose notions of the spiritual world are often almost savage. Thus the ancient funeral sacrifice of the warrior’s horse for him to ride into the other world, which was for the last time in Europe actually and officially done at Treves in 1781, is still kept up in form by leading the dead soldier’s horse to his grave. The piece of money is still put in the hand of the corpse at an Irish wake; and in most countries of Europe may still be seen the pathetic custom of setting out offerings of food for the spirits of the departed. Sacrifices to the deities of wells and rivers, trees and rocks, have continued almost unchanged in the rudest districts of such countries as Russia. As a historical example, the primitive theory of convulsions, delirium, madness, &c., being caused by demoniacal possession lasted on among educated people through the Middle Ages, and has only been fairly suppressed by the modern medical schools.
Proceeding on the inference of continuous development, the same writer has attempted a classification of animistic doctrines as they appear in the religious philosophy of the lower and higher culture. The doctrine of souls, as distinguished from that of other spiritual beings, is first considered. It is found possible to trace the conception of the human apparitional soul in various beliefs concerning ghosts, wraiths, doubles, &c., which survive among civilised societies long after the soul has ceased to be conceived as material or ethereal. The notion of animal-souls, largely prevalent among savage tribes, still faintly survives in our own country. The doctrine of plant-souls seems long to have formed an important element in the religious philosophies of India; and even the doctrine of object-souls, which exercises unlimited dominion in savage religions, can still be traced as influencing some of the actions, though not, perhaps, the explicit opinions, of civilised men. Closely allied, like these doctrines, to the primitive notion of the apparitional soul, is the belief in the soul’s existence after death, which appears either as a doctrine of transmigration, describing the re-birth of souls in successive bodies, or in its more general and more important form as the doctrine of a future life. The latter, as commonly held by savage races, supposes the phantom souls of the departed either to remain here as hovering ghosts, or to be transported to some distant region, there to continue a life more or less similar to the present, but with little or no trace of moral retribution: in more advanced civilisations, however, this doctrine exercises the most powerful moral influence, by distinguishing the heaven of the good from the hell of the wicked. The primary doctrine of souls is next described as leading to the development of the doctrine of other spiritual beings, from the lowest ranks of demons and elves, up to the highest deities of the Pantheon. The life and action of the body being ascribed to a soul, all other phenomena of the universe were in like manner ascribed to soul-like beings or spirits, which are thus, in fact, personified causes. So disease among the lower races is accounted for by possession by demons, who are often themselves human souls, and who enter the bodies of their victims, causing all kinds of illness, and especially those phenomena of convulsion and delirium in which the patient seems actually animated by a spirit not his own. Other events and accidents of life are in the same way accounted for among savages as the acts of the demons, good or evil, whom they believe to pervade the universe; and as these beings are, more often than not, conceived to be souls of deceased men, the consequent worship of divine Manes is the principal religion of the lower state of civilisation. The doctrine of object-souls, expanding into the general doctrine of spirits conveying influence through material objects, becomes the origin of Fetichism and idolatry. Spiritual beings, under a thousand names, are multiplied upon the earth; not only those guardian spirits and hurtful demons directly influencing the lives of men, but others, far more numerous, with varied functions to discharge in the economy of the external world. To the lower races all nature being animated nature, every brook and well, every rock and glade, is peopled by nature-spirits; while Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon, Rain and Wind and Thunder, are either themselves adored, or personified in the character of mighty nature-gods, such as Zeus, Apollo, or Poseidon,—spiritual beings who are, as it were, the great animating souls of their special phenomena. Among the lower races, also, there appears in a rudimentary form that antagonism between a good and evil deity, which forms the fundamental idea of Zoroastrism and Manichæism. Lastly, the conception of a Supreme Deity appears at a very early stage of civilisation, whether one of the great nature-deities, such as Heaven or Sun, is raised to this royal pre-eminence, or whether a being of the nature of a soul of the world, like the Great Spirit of the North American Indians, is venerated as Creator and Lord of the universe. Then, by a natural evolution, Monotheism is established.
Such, briefly sketched, is Dr Tylor’s account of the development of animism, considered as the main principle of the philosophy of religion, throughout the various grades of civilisation. Whether, having shown many popular superstitions to be undoubted survivals from an ancient state of belief, he has been equally successful in proving a like derivation for doctrines recognised by modern religion, will be questioned by many who perceive the bearing of his conclusions upon the actual validity of theological tenets. It is proper to point out that he has noted one great distinction between the lower and higher animism, which consists in the absence of any distinctly ethical element in the spiritual philosophy of the less cultured races. Only at a comparatively late stage of their development do the moral feelings become associated with animistic beliefs.
The final decay of many forms of animistic belief, much more readily than the process of their development, admits of being traced with the aid of historical evidence. Indeed, the history of each of the sciences is a record of the progressive substitution of matter for spirit and law for spontaneity; and we can still witness the process of decay in various stages; for while certain sciences—like astronomy, since the time when Kepler imagined minds in the planets have wholly exterminated the animism within their borders, there are others that have scarcely yet advanced so far—biology, for example, which is still familiar with “vital force” and final causes. Nor is the process commonly a rapid one: in many cases, as a world of illustration has been adduced to prove, a declining
