Renouvier in his Esquisse d'une classification and his Dilemmes de la métaphysique pure, has set forth a general view of the history of philosophy in the form of dilemmas dealing with various subjects: the dilemma of the unconditioned or of the conditioned, of substance or of law, of the infinite or of the finite, of determinism or of freedom, of things or of persons. These dilemmas call for an exclusive option, in contradistinction from the Hegelian antinomies which call for a reconciliation, and the series of the terms which are on one and the same side, the first in the present instance,-must be rejected to afford room for the acceptance of the other series. This method of subjecting the whole of the systems to a dichotomic method may be interesting philosophically; still, it gives us no idea of historic truth. A doctrine like that of Leibniz, for instance, includes arguments which depend on the contrasted parts of the dilemmas: and while this is a striking instance, it is far from being the only one. The eclectic method, by preparing us to understand the comparing of ideas and their fusion, ideas that are at the outset heterogeneous or incongruous, is probably more favorable than this dichotomic method for studies in the history of philosophy.

By setting forth and criticizing some of the principal attempts by means of which we have tried to fix the objects and methods of the history of philosophy, it has been our sole object to show that the practice of the history of philosophy may not be so easy a matter, since an exact and definite idea of it is so slow and difficult to reach.

VICTOR DELBOS.

PARIS, FRANCE.

PRAYER.

ITS ORIGIN, MEANING AND ETHICAL SIGNIFICANCE.

T MAY be said that the time has passed when the

study of religion and of that religious feeling which is the "essential basis of conduct" could be claimed as the exclusive product of a single body of men. With the growth of the science of comparative religion, and with the great importance now attached to the study of religious phenomena by psychologists and ethnologists, it is to anthropology that one must turn if religious values are to be fully understood. What is most remarkable is the fact that while on the one hand we have many Christian churches deploring the falling off in numbers of their communicants together with the universal apathy displayed by the laity at large to all matters of a religious character, we should have on the other hand, and as a result of recent scientific investigation, a value and a significance attached to the religious instinct which promises to be pregnant with future possibilities. If it were necessary to indicate, by one fact more than another, how great this interest is, one might point to that valuable and monumental work, now in course of publication, which deals with all the main factors of religious life and culture-with its mythology and its history, its superstitions and its ethics, its philosophy and psychology," for "it is safe to say that there is no 1 Thomas Henry Huxley.

2 The Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, Edinburgh, edited by Dr. Hastings, M.A., F.R.A.I., and Dr. Selbie, M.A.

subject of modern research which concerns all classes as nearly as the study of religions.'

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Until recent years it was held for the most part that barbaric and uncivilized man possessed little of the sentiment and feeling which we associate with the term "religion." He was given credit for the practice of hideous superstitions and of rites of the most abominable kind, but it was explicitly denied that he possessed religious feeling in any higher form. Even authorities like the late Lord Avebury held that prayer itself, being to us a necessary part of religion, was quite independent of the lower forms of religion. We know now that, not only is religion a matter of vital importance in the every-day life of the savage, being interwoven with all his habits, customs and mode of thought," but that the practice of prayer itself is found to exist among some of the most savage races known to us. Even certain savage customs, barbarous and cruel as we may deem them, when traced to their fountain head are found to have arisen from the most pious motives and are carried into effect through the most earnest conditions." What adds a deep significance to the value of the religious impulse is the undoubted fact that wherever and whenever a religion has been brought into ridicule and contempt, physical and moral decrepitude have followed as a fixed and a natural consequence. Having for my part paid no inconsiderable attention for some years past, to the effect of outside or alien influences upon the character of civilized and uncivilized man in various parts of the globe, it would be a most difficult task for me to name any race or tribe whose morale has not undergone serious degeneration

3 See Committee on Publication, Brinton's Lectures on the Religions of Primitive Peoples, New York, 1897.

4

* Dr. Brinton, ibid., pp. 30-31, referring to Lubbock and H. Spencer.

5 Origin of Civilization, 6th ed., 1911, p. 402.

• See Ellis, Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, 1887, p. 9.

7 Ellis, ibid., p. 9.

when once its ancient ritual and its religion have been brought into contumely. This being granted, the paramount importance of religion may be considered to be almost beyond discussion.

Writing some years ago, the late Auguste Sabatier, formerly Dean of the faculty of Protestant theology, Paris, declared that nothing better reveals the worth and moral dignity of a religion than the kind of prayer it puts into the lips of its adherents; a truism which we shall find to be as applicable to the most primitive, as it is to the highest forms of religious development.

Many prayers have been recorded in recent years from savage races. An examination of these petitions shows that, in the great majority of cases, it is for material prosperity and gain that the savage prays. He asks that his crops may prosper, that he himself may be freed of danger, that no disease may befall his cattle or that they may not die.

Thus the Egbos, a tribe living in the depths of the bush in Southern Nigeria, pray to the sun and say:

"Sun of morning, sun of evening, let me be freed from danger to-day.' In another instance the prayer is to Obassi-a kind of ancestor god-"Obassi, everything was made by you; you made earth and heaven; without you nothing was made, everything comes from you.'

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The natives of Brass, in the Niger Delta, before eating and drinking, present a little food and liquid to the household deity, and then offer the following prayer:

"Preserve our lives, O Spirit Father who has gone before and make thy house fruitful, so that we thy children shall increase, multiply, and so grow rich and powerful."

8 Philosophy of Religion Based on Psychology and History, 1897, p. 109. P. Amaury Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, 1912, p. 21.

10 Talbot, ibid., p. 66.

11 A. G. Leonard, The Lower Niger and its Tribes, 1906, p. 292.

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Writing of the New Caledonians, Dr. J. G. Frazer says: "If only wrestling in prayer could satisfy the wants of man, few people should be better provided with all the necessities and comforts of life than the New Caledonians."12

The Todas, a pastoral tribe inhabiting the Nilgiri plateau, offer prayer continually in their daily life. Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, tells us that these prayers are in the form of supplications to invoke the aid of the gods to protect their buffaloes. "May it be well with the buffaloes, may they not suffer from disease or die, may they be kept from poisonous plants, and from wild beasts, and from injury by flood or fire, may there be water and grass in plenty.'

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To take another example from the Dark Continent, we find that the Bawenda, a Bantu tribe living in the northeastern portion of the Transvaal, offer the following appeal during their annual sacrifices at the graves of their

ancestors:

"O Modzimo, Thou art our father; we, Thy children, have congregated here, we humbly beg to inform Thee that a new year has commenced. Thou art our God; Thou art our Creator; Thou art our Keeper; we pray Thee give us food for us and our children; give us cattle; give us happiness, preserve us from illness, pestilence and war.""

While this feature, the desire for material gain, is a predominant one in all primitive ritual, it is hardly necessary for us to be reminded that it is also a dominant characteristic of all the higher religions. The great difference between the creed of the savage and the creed of the higher races is this, that while among the former it is material gain that is chiefly sought, among the latter the material

12 The Belief in Immortality, Vol. I, p. 332, 1913.

13 The Todas, 1906, p. 216.

14 Rev. E. Gottschling in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1905, Vol. 35, p. 380.