statistics, and so forth, there are available in any
investigation, the easier it is to pick out a considerable number
which will fit a given theory. The other facts being neglected
or ignored, the views put forward enjoy for a
time a great vogue. Then inevitably, and at a later time,
new or neglected facts alter the outlook, and a new perspective
is established.

There is also in these matters of Science (though many
scientific men would doubtless deny this) a great deal of
"Fashion". Such has been notoriously the case in Political
Economy, Medicine, Geology, and even in such definite
studies as Physics and Chemistry. In a comparatively recent
science, like that with which we are now concerned, one
would naturally expect variations. A hundred and fifty
years ago, and since the time of Rousseau, the "Noble
Savage" was extremely popular; and he lingers still in
the story books of our children. Then the reaction from
this extreme view set in, and of late years it has been
the popular cue (largely, it must be said, among "armchair"
travelers and explorers) to represent the religious
rites and customs of primitive folk as a senseless mass
of superstitions, and the early man as quite devoid of
decent feeling and intelligence. Again, when the study of
religious origins first began in modern times to be seriously
taken up--say in the earlier part of last century--
there was a great boom in Sungods. Every divinity in
the Pantheon was an impersonation of the Sun--unless
indeed (if feminine) of the Moon. Apollo was a sungod,
of course; Hercules was a sungod; Samson was a sungod;