Current Literature [pp. 382-391]

384 CURRENT LJTERA TURE. [APRIL
ing modern educated thought, by treating it ceremonies, which are full of expression as
as an original product of low culture, grad- to the inmost powers of religion, "whose
ually adapted by ages of evolution and se- outward expression and practical result they
lection to answer more or less sufficiently the are." These investigations are made rather
requirements of modern civilization." from an ethnographic than a theological
In the single chapter devoted to the art of point of view, and the author has taken
counting, Mr. Tylor contends that there ex- pains to avoid, as far as possible, entering
ists valid evidence to prove that a child into direct controversial argument. He
learning to count upon its fingers does in a thinks, however, that "the time may soon
way reproduce a process of the mental histo- come when it will be thought as unreasonary of the human race; that, in fact, men ble for a scientific student of theology not to
counted upon their fingers before they found have a competent acquaintance with tke
words for the numbers they thus expressed; principles of the religions of the lower races
that in this department of culture, word-lan- as for a physiologist to look with the conguage not only followed gesture - language, tempt of fifty years ago on evidence derived
but grew out of it, as proved by existing from the lower forms of life, deeming the
methods of counting by fives and tens, and structure of mere invertebrate creatures matby the fact that in many languages the word ter unworthy of his philosophic study."
for five or ten is the same as that for hand, We can not too highly commend the disor two hands, the word for foot or feet carry. passionate and honest manner in which Mr.
ing up the reckoning to fifteen or twenty. Tylor prosecutes his great inquiry, his paThe facts adduced in this connection seem tient accumulation and full presentation of
quite conclusive. facts, his succinct and clear style, enlivened
The author's examination of mythology is by an occasional quiet wit, and his thoroughcarried through three chapters of his first vol. ly scientific motive and method. We may
ume, and is made, for the most part, from a sum up nearly in his own words the object
special point of view, on evidence collected and result of his inquiry. It takes cogni.
for the purpose of tracing the relation be- zance principally, and only partial cogni.
tween the myths of savage tribes and their zance, of knowledge, art, and custom, the
analogues among more civilized nations. He vast range of physical, political, social, and
thinks the issue of this inquiry goes far to ethical considerations being left nearly unprove that "the earliest myth - maker arose touched. "Its standard of reckoning prog.
and flourished among savage hordes, setting ress and decline is not that of ideal good and
on f9ot an art which his more cultured suc- evil, but of movement along a measured line,
cessors would carry on, until its results came from grade to grade of actual savagery, bar.
to be fossilized in superstition, mistaken for barism, and civilization." The thesis which
history, shaped and draped in poetry, or cast he "ventures to sustain, within limits, is simaside as lying folly." The final chapter of ply this: that the savage state in some measthe first volume, and nearly the whole of the ure represents an early condition of mankind,
second volume, are devoted to a systematic out of which the higher culture has gradual.
and profoundly interesting examination of ly been developed or evolved, by processes
the development of Animism, or the doctrine still in regular operation as of old, the result
of souls and other spiritual beings in general. showing, that, on the whole, progress has
He brings together a great mass of admira. prevailed over relapse."
bly condensed and correlated evidence, from
all regions of the world, displaying the nat. THE ANCiENT Civv. By Forstel de Coulan.
ure and meaning of this important element ges. Translated from the latest French
of the philosophy of religion, and traces its edition by Willard Small. Boston: Lee
transmission, expansion, restriction, modifi. & Shepard.
cation, along the course of history into the This is a study on the religion, laws, and
midst of our modern thought. The work institutions of Greece and Rome, from a
concludes with a similar attempt to trace the fresh, if not quite original, point of view.
development of certain prominent rites and The author, insisting upon the necessity of