Transcriber's Notes Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. The many variations in the transcriptions from the Chinese have been standardised on the basis of the most frequent occurrence. Variations in hyphenation and accents have also been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged. In the quotation: "If then this man says, 'Try to make friends with an old woman and inquire of her; if then this girl does 'not' make friends with an old woman, and inquire of her, and this old woman brings Baga, or Shaêta, or Ghnâna, or Fraçpâta, or any of the vegetable purgatives, saying, 'Try to kill this child;' if then the girl does try to kill the child, then the girl, the man, and the old woman are equally criminal." the 'not' destroys the sense of the passage and has been removed. Italics are indicated thus _italics_ and superscripts thus ^character. Footnotes are placed at the end of the book. AN ANALYSIS OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. BY VISCOUNT AMBERLEY. "_Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you Free._" From the late London Edition. Complete. D. M. BENNETT: LIBERAL AND SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING HOUSE. 141 EIGHTH STREET, NEW YORK. 1877. AMERICAN PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. The appearance, a few months ago, of THE ANALYSIS OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF caused not a little excitement in England, and its introduction into our country had much the same effect here. While many were more or less shocked by the Viscount's boldness of language in examining the sources of the religious creeds of the world, and at the freedom with which he removed the sacred mask from many antique myths and superstitions, the thoughtful and the enquiring were furnished with a fund of material for new thought, and largely-increased facilities for investigating and comparing the creeds and dogmas which have made up the ruling religious faiths of mankind.