(2) It fails to recognize the volitional side of human nature. "With a man's will-power dormant, undeveloped, unknown, all attempt at really training and moulding the character is foolish because impossible. Man sometimes attempts it; God never does. He calls into activity first of all a man's will. He seeks to know what a man's own free choice is. Then he knows what course to follow in his schooling of the soul."[1] (3) It fails to recognize the rational side of human nature. (4) It is at variance with our concrete experience of life. In our daily experience we think, feel and will for action. (5) It is sickly feminine and appeals to neurotics. There are some general facts in connection with the philosophy of religion which are often overlooked in the study of the Negro religion. Two stages may be noticed in the history of the religious development of peoples, the primitive and the rational. The primitive stage is poetical and imaginative, in fact religion is then in its barbaric state. In its rational stage we see the religious man under a developed rule of conduct. He still feels but his feelings are controlled by reason. There is nothing new in the religion of the Negro. He is by no means a peculiar man from a religious standpoint. The physical contortions and gyrations noticed in his Christian worship are as old as the history of religion itself, if not older than it. In his worship we may see things which are found in the heathen rites of the native African, in the Bacchanalia of the Greeks, among the Sali or dancing priests of the Romans, and among the Corybantes. The same effect which is produced on the feelings of the Negro has been produced on the feelings of the American Indian, as well as on the ancient bards of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Germany. Lord Macaulay, describing the Puritan, says: "In his devotional retirement he prayed with convulsions, and groans, and tears. He was half maddened by glorious or terrible illusions. He heard the lyres of angels or the tempting whispers of friends. He caught a gleam of the Beautific Vision, or woke screaming from dreams of everlasting fire." In the girlhood days of the late Elizabeth Cady Stanton her sensitive mind was nearly overbalanced, and she suffered terribly from the too vivid description of future punishment by the emotional Finney. The imagery of the Book of Revelation has a peculiar effect on the feelings of the Negro. Its mysticism acts like a spell over him. Says Macaulay, "The Greek Rhapsodists, according to Plato, could not recite Homer without almost falling into convulsions." The Mohawk hardly feels the scalping knife while he shouts his death song. The Dijazerti in the region of the Sahara believe that communication with Allah is only possible in a state of trance, and accordingly they work themselves into a religious frenzy, while the ignorant among them repeat the name of Allah many thousand times till they fall into a state of unconsciousness.