CHAPTER XI.

ANIMISM. PAGE

Religious ideas generally appear among low races of Mankind — Negative statements on this subject frequently misleading and mistaken: many cases uncertain — Minimum definition of Religion — Doctrine of Spiritual Beings, here termed Animism — Animism treated as belonging to Natural Religion — Animism divided into two sections, the philosophy of Souls, and of other Spirits — Doctrine of Souls, its prevalence and definition among the lower races — Definition of Apparitional Soul or Ghost-Soul — It is a theoretical conception of primitive Philosophy, designed to account for phenomena now classed under Biology, especially Life and Death, Health and Disease, Sleep and Dreams, Trance and Visions — Relation of Soul in name and nature to Shadow, Blood, Breath — Division or Plurality of Souls — Soul cause of Life; its restoration to body when supposed absent — Exit of Soul in Trances — Dreams and Visions: theory of exit of dreamer's or seer's own soul; theory of visits received by them from other souls — Ghost-Soul seen in Apparitions — Wraiths and Doubles — Soul has form of Body; suffers mutilation with it — Voice of Ghost — Soul treated and defined as of Material Substance; this appears to be the original doctrine — Transmission of Souls to service in future life by Funeral Sacrifice of wives, attendants, &c. — Souls of Animals — Their transmission by Funeral Sacrifice — Souls of Plants — Souls of Objects — Their transmission by Funeral Sacrifice — Relation of Doctrine of Object-Souls to Epicurean theory of Ideas — Historical development of Doctrine of Souls, from the Ethereal Soul of primitive Biology to the Immaterial Soul of modern Theology

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