and seeks illustration in a variety of details. The idea
has been repeated under different aspects; sometimes,
possibly, it has been repeated too often; but different aspects
in such a case do help, as in a stereoscope, to give
solidity to the thing seen. Though the worship of Sun-gods
and divine figures in the sky came comparatively late
in religious evolution, 1 have put this subject early in
the book (chapters ii and iii), partly because (as I have
already explained) it was the phase first studied in modern
times, and therefore is the one most familiar to present-
day readers, and partly because its astronomical data
give great definiteness and "proveability" to it, in rebuttal
to the common accusation that the whole study of religious
origins is too vague and uncertain to have much value.
Going backwards in Time, the two next chapters (iv and v)
deal with Totem-sacraments and Magic, perhaps the earliest
forms of religion. And these four lead on (in chapters vi
to xi) to the consideration of rites and creeds common to
Paganism and Christianity. XII and xiii deal especially
with the evolution of Christianity itself; xiv and xv explain
the inner Meaning of the whole process from the beginning;
and xvi and xvii look to the Future.

The appendix on the doctrines of the Upanishads may,
I hope, serve to give an idea, intimate even though inadequate,
of the third Stage--that which follows on the
stage of self-consciousness; and to portray the mental attitudes
which are characteristic of that stage. Here in this
third stage, it would seem, one comes upon the real FACTS of
the inner life--in contradistinction to the fancies and figments