At the outset of his work the author repels an accusation which is commonly levelled at the comparative study of primitive religions—that it reduces the highest forms of religious thought to the level of the lowest, and that it is in reality an evidence of a systematic hostility to all religions; “if we admit that the crude cults of the Australian tribes can help us to understand Christianity, for example, is that not supposing that this latter religion proceeds from the same mentality as the..
