Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/209

THE FUNCTION OF RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION. 193 of view, but which nevertheless have persisted in the race in a most extraordinary manner. If, as we have already argued, the habit of restraint from individualistic reaction has been enforced often by the emphasis of the non-individualistic impulses in their most emphatic form under the abnormal conditions of hallucina- tion ; then it is not difficult to see how it might have come to be considered most important by the leaders who had once listened to these voices, or who had once seen these visions, to obtain what were thought to be " inspirations " in this hallucinatory form. More than this, those who were convinced of the value of these hallucinatory states would be naturally led to attempt to induce or even to compel others to gain these experiences. But a large proportion of these rites involve extreme suffering and great physical weakening, which in themselves must be repulsive to the barbarous man, and which evidently are an immediate source of weakness to him and to the tribe at large : furthermore, it is certain that a very small pro- portion of those who submit themselves to these initiatory tortures do in fact gain these "messages"; consequently, even if the origin of these customs can be traced to the desire to gain states of hallucination or to force them upon others, the persistence of these customs cannot be thus explained. And yet, although this be true, on the other hand it is equally true that those who participate in these rites place themselves under conditions that lead naturally to the same advantageous emphasis of the non-individualistic impulses that is given when the trance state is really reached ; and it would appear therefore that if the habits connected with attempts to produce by compulsion these hallucinatory states persisted, as they have persisted, it might be not at all because the hallucinations, gained in relatively few cases, could be of value to the average man, but because the habits of restraint and of listening, which are of so much advan- tage to the race, would thus in the main be enforced. We have here then it seems to me adequate explanation of the persistence of the barbarous initiatory rites which were found as we know amongst savage peoples of olden time and w r hich in somewhat less cruel form have come down to our time in crude forms of religious wor- ship. Here we may note another fact which appears to be of no small value as corroborative of the position above taken ; viz., the fact that the performance of these initia- 13