human Consciousness itself--its growth, namely, through
the three great stages of its unfoldment. These stages
are (1) that of the simple or animal consciousness, (2) that
of SELF-consciousness, and (3) that of a third stage of
consciousness which has not as yet been effectively named, but
whose indications and precursive signs we here and there
perceive in the rites and prophecies and mysteries of
the early religions, and in the poetry and art and literature
generally of the later civilizations. Though I do not
expect or wish to catch Nature and History in the careful
net of a phrase, yet I think that in the sequence from
the above-mentioned first stage to the second, and then
again in the sequence from the second to the third,
there will be found a helpful explanation of the rites and
aspirations of human religion. It is this idea, illustrated
by details of ceremonial and so forth, which forms the main
thesis of the present book. In this sequence of growth,
Christianity enters as an episode, but no more than an episode.
It does not amount to a disruption or dislocation of evolution.
If it did, or if it stood as an unique or unclassifiable
phenomenon (as some of its votaries contend), this would
seem to be a misfortune--as it would obviously rob us of
at any rate one promise of progress in the future. And
the promise of something better than Paganism and better
than Christianity is very precious. It is surely time
that it should be fulfilled.

The tracing, therefore, of the part that human self-
consciousness has played, psychologically, in the evolution
of religion, runs like a thread through the following chapters,