whose mysterious influence he cannot understand. The instinct of self-abasement is closely connected with man's veneration for superior powers. In contrast with them man minimises his own importance. As a result of the operation of these instincts, man gradually develops a mass of customary observance, with which he surrounds the objects of his veneration. These two instincts have contributed to the development of religion in the widest sense. In all primitive communities religious custom and observance has exercised a strongly conservative influence. Customary observance, buttressed by the sanctions of religion, has supplied the element of stability specially necessary to primitive society. These primitive religious instincts have persisted, and continue to play their part in all developed religions, though they have been moulded by the mellowing influences of such emotions as gratitude and love. Yet these two instincts form the basis of the Church.
The only other instincts whose social importance we need to consider are those of curiosity and acquisitiveness. The acquisitive instinct supplies one of the prime conditions of social progress. A people in whom this instinct is weak will make no progress. There still are in existence tribes of people who support themselves by hunting and collecting wild roots And fruits, and who have no homes and no possessions apart from what they can carry with them on their backs and in their hands. Modern civilisation depends on the fact that mankind has acquired a vast amount of possessions that are not required for the satisfaction
