Yet Perhaps No Sacrifice Is Wholly Useless

In Primitive Society, Where Uniformity Of Occupation Is The Rule, And The Distribution Of The Community Into Various Classes Of Workers Has Hardly Begun, Every Man Is More Or Less His Own Magician; He Practices Charms And Incantations For His Own Good And The Injury Of His Enemies.

The Question Whether Our Conscious Personality Survives After Death Has Been Answered By Almost All Races Of Men In The Affirmative.

For When A Nation Becomes Civilized, If It Does Not Drop Human Sacrifices Altogether, It At Least Selects As Victims Only Such Wretches As Would Be Put To Death At Any Rate. Thus The Killing Of A God May Sometimes Come To Be Confounded With The Execution Of A Criminal.

The Old Notion That The Savage Is The Freest Of Mankind Is The Reverse Of The Truth. He Is A Slave, Not Indeed To A Visible Master, But To The Past, To The Spirits Of His Dead Forefathers, Who Haunt His Steps From Birth To Death, And Rule Him With A Rod Of Iron.

Even The Recognition Of An Individual Whom We See Every Day Is Only Possible As The Result Of An Abstract Idea Of Him Formed By Generalization From His Appearances In The Past.