IT seems well-nigh impossible for humanity completely to lose sight of the fundamental facts of being, even though the conditions under which they are viewed be such as to render the impression confused and, to a considerable extent, unintelligible.
The universality and persistency of the sacrificial instinct in the race consciousness would seem to indicate that it is related in some profound way to the problem of human existence, and has a significance of which the crude, clumsy forms and symbols of material sacrifices afford but a feeble suggestion. In the more rudimentary stages of social development, an innate instinct of fear, or awe of the supersensible, has led to the offering of gifts, and even human flesh, in order to placate the jealousy or wrath of unseen powers supposed to exercise a controlling influence over the destinies of men. In progress of time, as religious sentiments became more refined, the type of sacrifice symbolized by barbarous rites and codes gave place to the truer ideal of self-sacrifice.
The unfolding visions of advancing civilization are evoking by degrees a spirit of devotion to the public weal, as manifested in the awakening "public conscience" and constantly multiplying forms of altruistic endeavor. It is coming to be more and more generally acknowledged, in practical ways, that our legitimate obligations to God and to our fellows involve an order of sacrifice which leads to the subordination of merely personal considerations to higher ends. The sacrificial instinct is likewise manifested, in a more negative and limited way, in the disciplinary restraints of an austere asceticism, whereby struggling mortal sense seeks to effect its escape from the bondage of lower conditions into a freer atmosphere.
