CHAPTER II. Leading Conceptions of the Elementary Religion

LEADING CONCEPTIONS OF THE ELEMENTARY RELIGION

I.--Animism

Distinction of animism and naturism 48

I.--The three theses of animism: Genesis of the idea of the soul; Formation of the idea of spirits; Transformation of the cult of spirits into the cult of nature 49

II.--Criticism of the first thesis--Distinction of the idea of the soul from that of a double--Dreams do not account for the idea of the soul 55

III.--Criticism of the second thesis--Death does not explain the transformation of a soul into a spirit--The cult of the souls of the dead is not primitive 60

IV.--Criticism of the third thesis--The anthropomorphic instinct--Spencer's criticism of it; reservations on this point--Examination of the facts by which this instinct is said to be proved--Difference between a soul and the spirits of nature--Religious anthropomorphism is not primitive 65

V.--Conclusion: animism reduces religion to nothing more than a system of hallucinations 68