Nature-worship--Ancestor-worship--Fetish-worship--A supreme being--Which gods were first worshipped?--Fetish-gods came first--Spirits, human or quasi-human, came first--Theories of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Tylor--Animism--The minor nature-worship came first--Theories of Mr. M. Mueller and of Ed. von Hartmann--The great nature-powers came first--Both nature-worship and the worship of spirits are sources of early religion--Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29-50 CHAPTER IV EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--BELIEF Growth of the great gods--Polytheism--Kathenotheism--The minor nature-worship--The worship of animals--Trees, wells, stones--The state after death--Growth of the great religions out of these beliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51-65 CHAPTER V EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--PRACTICES Sacrifice--Prayer--Sacred places, objects, persons--Magic-- Character of early religion--Early religion and morality . . 66-78 CHAPTER VI NATIONAL RELIGION Classifications of religions--Rise of national religion--It affords a new social bond--And a better God--Example--The Inca religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79-90 PART II ISOLATED NATIONAL RELIGIONS CHAPTER VII BABYLON AND ASSYRIA People and literature--Worship of spirits--Worship of animals--The great Gods--Mythology--The state religion . . . 91-105 CHAPTER VIII CHINA History of China--The literature of the religion--The state religion of ancient China--Heaven--The spirits--Ancestors-- Confucius--His life--His doctrine--Taoism--Buddhism in China 106-125 CHAPTER IX THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT History and literature--1. Animal worship--Theories accounting for it--2. The great Gods--They also are local-- Mythology--Dynasties of gods--Ra--Osiris--Ptah--Was the earliest religion monotheistic?--Syncretism--Pantheism-- Worship--3. The doctrine of the other life--Treatment of the dead--The spirit in the under-world--_The Book of the Dead_-- Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126-157 PART III THE SEMITIC GROUP CHAPTER X THE SEMITIC RELIGION Home of the Semites--Character of the race--Their early religious ideas--Difference between Semitic and Aryan religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159-169 CHAPTER XI CANAANITES AND PHENICIANS The Religion of the Canaanites--The Phenicians--Their gods-- Astral deities of Phenicia--Influence of Phenician art . . . 170-178 CHAPTER XII ISRAEL