E-text prepared by Ron Swanson HISTORY OF RELIGION A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems by ALLAN MENZIES, D.D. Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of St. Andrews Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.--ACTS xv. 18. New York Charles Scribner's Sons 597-599 Fifth Avenue 1917 FIRST EDITION . . . _April_ 1895 SECOND EDITION . . _September_ 1895 _Reprinted_ . . . . _March_ 1897 _Reprinted_ . . . . _June_ 1900 _Reprinted_ . . . . _January_ 1902 _Reprinted_ . . . . _March_ 1903 _Reprinted_ . . . . _October_ 1905 THIRD EDITION . . . _January_ 1908 FOURTH EDITION . . _September_ 1911 _Reprinted_ . . . . _June_ 1914 _Reprinted_ . . . . _October_ 1918 PREFACE This book makes no pretence to be a guide to all the mythologies, or to all the religious practices which have prevailed in the world. It is intended to aid the student who desires to obtain a general idea of comparative religion, by exhibiting the subject as a connected and organic whole, and by indicating the leading points of view from which each of the great systems may best be understood. A certain amount of discussion is employed in order to bring clearly before the reader the great motives and ideas by which the various religions are inspired, and the movements of thought which they present. And the attempt is made to exhibit the great manifestations of human piety in their genealogical connection. The writer has ventured to deal with the religions of the Bible, each in its proper historical place, and trusts that he has not by doing so rendered any disservice either to Christian faith or to the science of religion. It is obvious that in a work claiming to be scientific, and appealing to men of every faith, all religions must be treated impartially, and that the same method must be applied to each of them. In a field of study, every part of which is being illuminated almost every year by fresh discoveries, such a sketch as the present can be merely tentative, and must soon, in many of its parts, grow antiquated and be superseded. And where so much depends on the selection of some facts out of many which might have been employed, it will no doubt appear to readers who have some acquaintance with the subject, that here and there a better choice might have been made. The writer hopes that the great difficulty will not be overlooked with which he has had to contend, of compressing a vast subject into a compendious statement without allowing its life and interest to evaporate in the process. For a fuller bibliography than is given in this volume the reader may consult the works of Dr. C. P. Tiele, and of Dr. Chantepie de la Saussaye. It will readily be believed that the writer of this volume has been indebted to many an author whom he has not named. ST. ANDREWS, 1895. PREFACE TO THE THIRD (REVISED) EDITION