Alexander Charles Oughter Lonie

“ Spiritual philosophy has influenced every province of human thought ; and the history of animism, once clearly traced, would record the development, not of religion only, but of philosophy, science, and literature. ”

“ A theory that represents, not only the extravagances of mythology and super stition, but indeed all that we call spiritual, nay, all that we name divine, as but the fruit of a natural anthropomorphic tendency, much more appropriate to savage than to civilised life, is, it is manifest, in thorough inconsistency with many widely accepted doctrines of philosophy and theology. ”

“ It is difficult to realise how exceedingly slow and gradual must have been that growth of positive science and its methods of verification, which has allowed a fanciful and little regulated philosophy to take root so firmly and cast its branches so far. Yet only by a great and connected development does it seem possible that animism could be so matured and extended. ”

“ From the appearance of men seen in dreams and visions, it was not less cogently argued that every man has also a phantom likeness of his body, separable from it so as to appear to others at any distance, and continuing to exist and appear after the bodily death of its proper owner. ”

“ Accordingly, the definition of the soul in primitive religion would, as in the lower existing religions it actually does, combine these leading qualities in the conception of an "apparition al soul," which is a thin, unsubstantial human image, the cause of life and thought in the individual it animates, capable of quitting his body for a time or altogether, and so leaving him insensible or dead, and when thus absent from the body appearing to other persons asleep or awake. ”

“ The latter, as commonly held by savage races, supposes the phantom souls of the departed either to remain here as hovering ghosts, or to be transported to some distant region, there to continue a life more or less similar to the present, but with little or no trace of moral retribution: in more advanced civilisations, however, this doctrine exercises the most powerful moral influence, by distinguishing the heaven of the good from the hell of the wicked. ”

“ If these arguments then be allowed, metaphysics is no decaying animism, but rather a science in the act of struggling free from animism ; and animism itself, though often passing in its decay through a phase misnamed metaphysical, is quite improperly represented as under going any transformation into metaphysics. ”

“ The primitive conception of the soul as consisting of a thin, vaporous, material substance, held its place in ancient philosophy and theology, being supported by such writers as Epicurus and Origen, and was only gradually superseded by the more modern belief of the soul’s immateriality. The elves, fairies, goblins, &c., so well known in modern folk-lore, correspond to the nature-spirits and demons of the savage religions. ”

“ From the sight of life and death it was, he conceives, naturally inferred that every man has a life, or vital principle, the departure of which from his body causes death, this idea being confirmed by apparent temporary departures, such as swoons and sleep. ”

“ Thus, as among savage tribes, the soul is actually identified with the shadow or the breath, the use of such words as σκιά, πνεῦμα, umbra, anima, shade, and spirit, may be held to show the derivation of the civilised conception of the soul from the same primitive and savage idea. ”

“ The primary doctrine of souls is next described as leading to the development of the doctrine of other spiritual beings, from the lowest ranks of demons and elves, up to the highest deities of the Pantheon. The life and action of the body being ascribed to a soul, all other phenomena of the universe were in like manner ascribed to soul-like beings or spirits, which are thus, in fact, personified causes. ”

“ The facts by which the Positivist seeks to prove that animism, as one inadequate explanation of nature, grows into metaphysics, another system of explanation almost equally unsatisfactory, the metaphysician rather regards as proving that metaphysics, a legitimate science, grows out of primitive animism by precisely the same process as other sciences. ”

“ From this conception, then, animism may reasonably be supposed to have had its origin, especially as other animistic doctrines exhibit such a distinct affinity and relationship to this of the apparitional soul, as almost amounts to a proof of direct derivation from it. The hypothesis being correct, it would, for instance, follow that the lower animals ought to be considered as having souls similar to human souls, inasmuch as they have life, and their phantoms are likewise seen. ”

“ Other events and accidents of life are in the same way accounted for among savages as the acts of the demons, good or evil, whom they believe to pervade the universe; and as these beings are, more often than not, conceived to be souls of deceased men, the consequent worship of divine Manes is the principal religion of the lower state of civilisation. The doctrine of object-souls, expanding into the general doctrine of spirits conveying influence through material objects, becomes the origin of Fetichism and idolatry. Spiritual beings, under a thousand names, are multiplied upon the earth ”

“ So disease among the lower races is accounted for by possession by demons, who are often themselves human souls, and who enter the bodies of their victims, causing all kinds of illness, and especially those phenomena of convulsion and delirium in which the patient seems actually animated by a spirit not his own. ”

“ The discovery in savage or other religions, of dialectical ideas mythically expressed and explained, only confirms him in the belief that there does exist a class of phenomena which it is the business of the science of metaphysics to investigate, since even mythical explanations are seldom formed, unless in the presence of some real problem calling for solution ”

“ Moreover, though inert objects, such as clothes or weapons, have not life, yet their phantoms appear to men in dreams, and thus they must be considered as having something of the nature of souls, separable from their grosser part, and surviving its destruction. Now, in fact, both these ideas are recognised in the religions of the lower races. ”

“ It is found possible to trace the conception of the human apparitional soul in various beliefs concerning ghosts, wraiths, doubles, &c., which survive among civilised societies long after the soul has ceased to be conceived as material or ethereal. ”

“ Closely allied, like these doctrines, to the primitive notion of the apparitional soul, is the belief in the soul’s existence after death, which appears either as a doctrine of transmigration, describing the re-birth of souls in successive bodies, or in its more general and more important form as the doctrine of a future life. ”

“ Of the origin of animism perhaps no perfect account has yet been given, It can hardly be said to be obvious why, in uncultured races or individuals, there should arise that invariable tendency to represent natural forces as conscious and anthropomorphic. ”

“ The notion of animal-souls, largely prevalent among savage tribes, still faintly survives in our own country. The doctrine of plant-souls seems long to have formed an important element in the religious philosophies of India; and even the doctrine of object-souls, which exercises unlimited dominion in savage religions, can still be traced as influencing some of the actions, though not, perhaps, the explicit opinions, of civilised men. ”

“ According to the well-known doctrine of Comte, which, having since his time been expounded and illustrated by several of his followers, would now appear to be accepted by many even of those who do not profess themselves positivists, animism passes into positive science through metaphysics. ”

“ In accordance with this view, animism may be described as the distinctive philosophy of primitive culture. It is manifestly the outcome and development of that earliest analogical reasoning, which concludes external objects to be animated with a life essentially similar to our own ”

“ Whether, having shown many popular superstitions to be undoubted survivals from an ancient state of belief, he has been equally successful in proving a like derivation for doctrines recognised by modern religion, will be questioned by many who perceive the bearing of his conclusions upon the actual validity of theological tenets. ”

“ The piece of money is still put in the hand of the corpse at an Irish wake; and in most countries of Europe may still be seen the pathetic custom of setting out offerings of food for the spirits of the departed. Sacrifices to the deities of wells and rivers, trees and rocks, have continued almost unchanged in the rudest districts of such countries as Russia. ”

“ It is proper to point out that he has noted one great distinction between the lower and higher animism, which consists in the absence of any distinctly ethical element in the spiritual philosophy of the less cultured races. Only at a comparatively late stage of their development do the moral feelings become associated with animistic beliefs. ”

“ Regarding many, at least, of the varied forms of animistic belief, there is already sufficient evidence to make it probable that they have arisen by one continuous process of evolution, extending through the lower to the higher civilisation. This evidence of continuity of development Dr Tylor represents as partly historical, and partly turning upon the principle of survival in culture. ”

“ Such instances are to be found in many old customs, and especially among peasants, whose notions of the spiritual world are often almost savage. Thus the ancient funeral sacrifice of the warrior’s horse for him to ride into the other world, which was for the last time in Europe actually and officially done at Treves in 1781, is still kept up in form by leading the dead soldier’s horse to his grave. ”