As regards the point last named (b), that body of habits of thought
which makes up the character of any individual is in some sense an
organic whole. A marked variation in a given direction at any one point
carries with it, as its correlative, a concomitant variation in the
habitual expression of life in other directions or other groups of
activities. These various habits of thought, or habitual expressions
of life, are all phases of the single life sequence of the individual;
therefore a habit formed in response to a given stimulus will
necessarily affect the character of the response made to other stimuli.
A modification of human nature at any one point is a modification of
human nature as a whole. On this ground, and perhaps to a still greater
extent on obscurer grounds that can not be discussed here, there are
these concomitant variations as between the different traits of human
nature. So, for instance, barbarian peoples with a well-developed
predatory scheme of life are commonly also possessed of a strong
prevailing animistic habit, a well-formed anthropomorphic cult, and
a lively sense of status. On the other hand, anthropomorphism and
the realizing sense of an animistic propensity in material are less
obtrusively present in the life of the peoples at the cultural stages
which precede and which follow the barbarian culture. The sense of
status is also feebler; on the whole, in peaceable communities. It is to
be remarked that a lively, but slightly specialized, animistic belief
is to be found in most if not all peoples living in the ante-predatory,
savage stage of culture. The primitive savage takes his animism less
seriously than the barbarian or the degenerate savage. With him
it eventuates in fantastic myth-making, rather than in coercive
superstition. The barbarian culture shows sportsmanship, status, and
anthropomorphism. There is commonly observable a like concomitance of
variations in the same respects in the individual temperament of men in
the civilized communities of today. Those modern representatives of
the predaceous barbarian temper that make up the sporting element are
commonly believers in luck; at least they have a strong sense of an
animistic propensity in things, by force of which they are given to
gambling. So also as regards anthropomorphism in this class. Such of
them as give in their adhesion to some creed commonly attach themselves
to one of the naively and consistently anthropomorphic creeds; there
are relatively few sporting men who seek spiritual comfort in the less
anthropomorphic cults, such as the Unitarian or the Universalist.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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