From these extraordinary examples of abstract thought in savages, our
author goes on to say that his theory of 'the perception of the Infinite'
as the origin of religion was received 'with a storm of unfounded
obloquy' (i. 292). I myself criticised the Hibbert Lectures, in Mind;
{116} on reading the essay over, I find no obloquy and no storm. I find,
however, that I deny, what our author says that I assert, the
primitiveness of contemporary savages.
In that essay, which, of course, our author had no reason to read, much
was said about fetishism, a topic discussed by Mr. Max Muller in his
Hibbert Lectures. Fetishism is, as he says, an ill word, and has caused
much confusion.