Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Fetishism is esteemed by others the earliest conception ; though Hudson Tuttle believes “fetishism, polytheism and monotheism are but expressions of one religion, differ- ing only in degree.” Maury says, “ The religion of the savage is a superstitious naturalism, an incoherent fe- tishism.” Burton finds the negro “ believes in a ghost, but not in spirits ; in a present immaterial, not in a future.” Sir John Lubbock tells us that “ a fetish is intended to bring the Deity within the control of man.” But does not this suppose the man to have some notion of Deity } His fetish is simply “ the abode of the Deity.” This fetishism does not, as one observes, “touch the bottom of the abyss.” The Rev. J. Allanson Picton traces the progress “ from brute stolidity to fetishism, from fetishism to symbolic nature worship, from nature worship to prophetic religions.” Max Muller is, perhaps, our highest authority upon this subject, and the least positive of any. “ Mythology,” says he, “ as a whole I have always regarded as a complete period of thought, inevitable, I believe, in the development of human thought, and comprehending all and everything that at a given time can fall within the horizon of the human mind.” But, he adds, “ wherever there are traces of human life, there are traces, also, of religion.” Noting the variety of floating opinions, he writes, “ There is some truth in every one of these views ; but they become untrue by being generalised. The time has not come yet, it pro- bably never will come, when we shall be able to assert anything about the real beginning of religion in general. We know a little here, a little there ; but whatever we know of early religion, we always see that it pre-supposes vast periods of an earlier development^ Who, then, will be rash enough to pronounce a decided opinion i The philosophical and learned Rev. E. E. Jenkins, M.A., Wesleyan, comes to this conclusion: “The