laid down by Mr. Lang he was “a confessed ghost-god.” And I see no reason why the same tribes should not hold at the same time that he was on earth and died, and that he is living an anthropomorphic being in the sky. Similar beliefs coexisting about Zeus do not disturb Mr. Lang; nor need these. And perhaps they are reconcilable after all.[1]
Moreover, beliefs, though inconsistent in our judgment, are equally to be taken into consideration in estimating the conception formed by the savage of his god. One of my complaints of Mr. Lang’s method is, that he has fixed his eyes too exclusively on one set of beliefs, turning away from the other as mere myths. Scientific investigation of the position of savage belief in the history of religion must take into account all the factors, giving due weight to them all. To assume that “the mythical element is secondary or aberrant,” whether Darwin’s view or not, is to assume the very question at issue. It is notoriously easy to prove anything by such a method. Mr. Lang is far too “sportsmanlike” (to adopt his phrase) for such a process, when it is once pointed out to him. And indeed the admissions that what he calls “the religion represents one human mood, while the myth represents another, both moods dating from savagery,” and that “of the same ‘moral, relatively Supreme Being, or Creator,’ man has simultaneously quite contradictory conceptions,” involve a recognition of the justice of the criticism.[2]
- ↑ In the passage on Daramulun (supra, p. 16) Mr. Lang speaks of Bunjil and Baiame as “translated.” “Translated” is a large word to apply to Baiame. As applied to Bunjil, who was blown off the earth by an infuriated jay, it recalls the translation of Bottom.
- ↑ Mr. Lang alleges that we have historical proof of the possibility of degradation in the case of “the conception of God, in Christianity given pure, and then degraded in Märchen” (p. 45). Anything like a discussion of this subject would occupy much space, and would hardly be suitable for these pages. I think, however, I am relieved from it by the fact that between him and myself there is no dispute as to the priorities of ghost-worship and god-worship, properly so called, to which he applies it . But I may say that as at present advised, I cannot admit that the peasant populations of modern Europe,
