Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Transcriber’s Note A number of typographical errors have been maintained in this version of this book. They have been marked with a [TN-#], which refers to a description in the complete list found at the end of the text. The following less common character is used. If it doesn't display properly, please try changing your font. √ square root sign _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ THE MYTHS OF THE NEW WORLD: A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America. _Second edition, revised._ Large 12mo, $2.50. THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT: Its Source and Aim. A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion. Large 12mo, $2.50. THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT ITS SOURCE AND AIM _A CONTRIBUTION TO THE SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION._ BY DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D. _Member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Philological Society, etc.; author of “The Myths of the New World,” etc._ [Colophon] NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1876. COPYRIGHT, BY HENRY HOLT 1876. JOHN F. TROW & SON, PRINTERS, 205-213 EAST 12TH ST., NEW YORK. PREFACE Mythology, since it began to receive a scientific handling at all, has been treated as a subordinate branch of history or of ethnology. The “science of religion,” as we know it in the works of Burnouf, Müller, and others, is a comparison of systems of worship in their historic development. The deeper inquiry as to what in the mind of man gave birth to religion in any of its forms, what spirit breathed and is ever breathing life into these dry bones, this, the final and highest question of all, has had but passing or prejudiced attention. To its investigation this book is devoted. The analysis of the religious sentiment I offer is an inductive one, whose outlines were furnished by a preliminary study of the religions of the native race of America, a field selected as most favorable by reason of the simplicity of many of its cults, and the absence of theories respecting them. This study was embodied in “The Myths of the New World; a Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America” (second edition, N. Y. 1876).