The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-06-20
Especial Dispatch 70 The CAM

lSpec1dt DtspotS
NEW YORK, June ia recent
work in French. entitled, La Religion
des Primitifs" Cor "The Religion Of
Primitive Man"), by Mgr. lie Roy
Eveque d'Alinda, superior general of
the Fathers OF the Holy Ghost, and
published in Paris. will be found Of
absorbing interest to students of this
branch of human knowledge.
The writer has had an experience
of 20 years in and among the real
primitives. and an intimate knowledge.
supplied by his brother missionaries.
or self acquired, of the Bantu tongues.
His conclusions then deserve consulta-
tion.
He begins his work with a protest
against the methods of certain pres
ent day writer's on this subject. He
declares that they have picked and
chosen, as 1T were. out of rubbish
heap nothing but the filth. With firm
convictions that fetichism, totemism.
ancestor worship and the rest were
the origins of all religious concep-
lions, these writer's, without one glance
at the purer or more elevated relig-
ious ideas of savages, or at most dis
missing them as the creations Of
fond missioparys Imagination, or due
to alien influences, as Mohammedanism
or even Christianity, have in reality
but traced the growth of superstition
and magic.
Mgr. d'Alinda's observations. inter-
rogations and. above all. philosophical
Notwithstanding to a reviewer
in the London Tablet-prove incontest-
ably that among these nations there
was a universal soul hunger. after
God, and that primitive ideas, when
left to themselves, tend to magic and
superstition. Consequently the pig
mics, supposed by so many to be
utterly devoid of religious ideas, have
much purer. though less rich. re-
ligion than the more intellectually
gifted Greeks and Romans.
The author runs through all the
data given by students of all the
known primitive religions and con-
cludes: Everywhere religion; every
where the family as the support Of
religion; everywhere magic as the cor
ruption of religion" His conclusions.
opposed at every step by rationalistic
and materialistic theories based on
conscious or unconscious subversion of
fact, perforce fight their way to the
fore.
The authors position challenges at
tention. 1t is so rare. his experience
so thorough, his knowledge of the
language so comprehensive, his wit
nesses so numerous and trustworthy.
Moreover he has all the lucidity and
vigor and cleanness of thought and ex-
n Of vx-ffh
terry of his subject and an extensive
knowledge of our English philosophers.
which make his work not only direct
and Straightforward, with a frank
recognition of all difficulties. but
scientific and erudite. This book will
be a revelation to students not IA
miIiar with the depth of knowledge
and thoroughness of discussion TO be
found among present day Catholic
scholars on scientific questions of the
day.
Father Edmund P. Young, S. J. to
whose memory statue was recently
unveiled at Santa Clara college, had
been, before his arrival at that place,
a professor in the Georgetown uni
versity near Washington. 1t was
while at the latter place that he first
conceived his idea of literary con-
gress among debating societies. an
idea which has revolutionized the man
agement of debating societies through
out the country. Harvard university
was the first to copy Father Young $
plan, and Yale soon followed suit.
At Santa Clara the Philalethic So
ciety formed the upper house or SEN
ate. and the Philistorian society
formed the lower branch or house of
the new organization.
In this literary congress Santa
Clara, under the guidance of Father