The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-02-17
LITERATURE.
Origin and Growth Of Religion as Seen
Through the Aryan ThsosonY
GOETHE AND SCHILLER.
A Rara Avis Among Government PubIica-
tions-Colorado Birds.


MAX MULLER ON THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION.
Professor F. Max Mullers Lectures the
Origin and Growth of Religion AS Illustrated
by the Religions Of India. Delivered in the
Chapter House. Westminster Abbey. in April,
May and June. 1875" have been published
within the present month bv Charles Scribner's
Sons. New York. Professor Muller is careful to ex-
plain that it is not the object of this elaborate dis
QUESTION to inquire to determine whether any
given religion is perfect imperfect. true false
but to investigate what religion is. and how human
beings such we are, came to have any religion at
all. Two theories have been heretofore current on
this subject according to the former Of which it has
been held that fetichism the original form OF all
religion and according to the latter of which it is
assumed that primeval revelation. made to man by
the Creator at the origin Of the race is the starting
point of all the divergent religious systems which
now exist on the face of the earth.
The frst of these theories seems to have been in
vented by President De Brosses. the friend and
respondent Of voltairo. who in the year 176O, pub
lished work. at the suggestion of Button. what
he called the worship of the Fetch Deties." A
"fetich, according to this theory anything which
savage people select for adorationa tree piece of
wood pebble an animal-and this lowest form of
religion. finding its best illustration to-day among
religion Of all the great nations Of antiquity before
they reached the higher stages Of that refined poly
theism which prevailed among the Greeks and
Romans, or of that spiritual monothesm which
the climactic attainment of the Hebrew
Professor Muller does not find it very difficult to
explode the pretensions of this theory considered
scientific explanation of the origin and progress of
religious IDEAS Stones and bones and trees. he adj
mits. are everywhere present to receive alteration
from fetch worshppers but what the philosophical
student wishes to know is Whence do these objects
derive that higher predicate which inspires the senti
ment Of alteration? eff" he says "the fetch wor
shipper brings a stone and says it is god. our
question still remains Where did he ever hear Of
God and what does he mean by such name?'
Equally gratuitous, he holds, is the theory which
undertakes to derive the religious idea from prime
val revelation supposed to have been by the
Jews alone while all other nations degenerated into
what Milton calls 1.-THE gay religions Of paganism,
'ful of pomp and gold The theory is utterly unsup-
ported by the known facts of history and approaches
the problem to be solved, not with the spirit of
scientific inquiry, but with preconceived idea
drawn from an improved assumption. For. ASSUME
ing that the Jewish religion, the religion Of Chris
tanity is lincal tradition from the prmeval reve-
lation made to man. who will undertake to show
that all the other religions the world are corrup
ions of this primal. eldest TRUTH The theory is not
broad enough for the facts it seeks to ex ain and
u, moreover superimposed upon the facts by the
constructive imagination instead of being derived
from the facts by the inductive method.
Professor Muller holds that the germ OF the re-
lgious idcA must be sought in simpler. and at the
same TIM, in deeper. analysis than this. He main
tains thai religion las is. and the universe ISL
so far from being impossible. is everywhere inevi
table, Il only suppose that Is left in the pos
session OF his and employs them on the phe-
nomena OF the actual world. In the earliest exercise
OF his senses he becomes of bounds and limits
within which he knows and beyond which lies that
vague and boundless unknown which philosophy
subsequently calls the infinite reason is evolved
from the finite. faith is evolved from what at the
very beginning of perception is infinite senses
This Infinite presses upon all men, for it begins at
all points where the cognition of the finite ends, and
therefore comes to the savage soonest of ALL though
he may have no name by which to describe it. The
more advance In knowledge the wider grows our
horizon of the known but the clearer, too becomes
that sentiment OF the infinite which floats the
savage with dim, oppressive consciousness. "The
infinite, therefore. instead of being merely late alb
stracton. is really implied" says Mr.. Miller I'm the
earliest manifestations Of our sensuous knowledge
Theology begins with anthropology."
Assuming that 1t is not only possible for man. with
his five to gain presentiment of the infinite
but that it is impossible for not gain it when
placed in the environment of nature, the learned
lecturer then proceeded to trace the actual evolution
OF religious thought, that evolution is preserved
to US In the ancient literature of India He confines
himself to the origin and growth Of religious ideas
among the ancient Aryans. not only because they
were in many respects "the most wonder
full that ever lived on earth.' but
also because their literature contains the
earliest deposits Of the religious idea still pre-
served for us in written speech. As modern history
would be incomplete without MEDIEVAL history or
mcdi@val history without Roman history, or Roman
history without Greek history we learn that the
whole history of the world would hencoforth DO in
complete without the first chapter in the life of Aryan
humanity. which has been preserved to us in vedic
literature" While Hesod gives US so-called
"theogony" which everywhere bears on its face the
traces of superf9tation aud of NEUROLOGICAL after
births. may In the veda o genuine and origi-
nal theogony the very birth and growth Of the gods
who meet US with changed visage in the classic
fablo of q later day.
Professor Muller traces the genesis Of the divine
idea through four successive strata of the vcc lit
erature-through the Sutra PERIOD 600 years b. c.;
through the Brahmana period. Goo-sOo years d. c.;
through the Mantra period. sOo1. 900 years b. c. and
down to the Kandas period reaching to an unascer-
tanned date lost in the depths Of fathomess anti
guilty. estimated by scholars TO extend to two
three thousand years'before the Christian We
shall not trace the growth Of this idea amid the OBJ
tccts. tangible, scmitangble and intangible. which
kndlcd the inspiration Of those gray forefathers
the human race who frst poured their ''adorng
wonder" into the old vedc hymns; for the review
would lead us into the vistas of reconcile scholar
shipswhich lies too remote from modern life to
be readily caught by the eye OF him who runs while
he reads. Suffice II to say that in these hymns Pro-
lessor Muller supposcs himself to SEQ clearly how.
1t the nrst contact Of mans senses with the finite
land therefore with the infinite beyond IT, there
'prang the first inevitable impulse to what VIC now
call 'rcligon"--ths impulse TO believe that there
must be something in the world besides and beyond
oil that man can touch or hear see, and which he
therefore believes to DO endowed with than hui
man energy. This impulse does not spring from
priineva revelation but having Its deep Foundation
laid In the very nature OF man A A. AN Inn which