THE MAKING OF RELIGION

We may illustrate this by an anecdote:

‘The Northern Indians call the Aurora Borealis “Edthin,” that is “Deer.” Their ideas in this respect are founded on a principle one would not imagine. Experience has shown them that when a hairy deer-skin is briskly stroked with the hand on a dark night, it will emit many sparks of electrical fire.’

So says Hearne in his Journey, published in 1795 (p. 346). Samuel Hearne (1745–1792) was an English explorer, fur-trader, and naturalist known for his travels across northern Canada.

This observation of the Indigenous people original: "Red Men" is a kind of parable representing a part of the meaning of the following treatise. The Indians, making a hasty inference from a trivial phenomenon, arrived unaware at a probably correct conclusion that was long unknown to civilized science. They connected the Aurora Borealis with electricity, supposing that multitudes of deer in the sky rubbed the sparks out of each other! Meanwhile, even in the last century, a puzzled populace spoke of the phenomenon as ‘Lord Derwentwater’s Lights.’ James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, was a Jacobite leader executed in 1716. The brilliant aurora that occurred shortly after his death was popularly linked to him in Northern English folklore. The cosmic pomp and splendor shone to welcome the loyal Derwentwater into heaven, after he had given his life for his exiled king.

Now, my purpose in the earlier portion of this essay is to suggest that certain phenomena of human nature—apparently as trivial as the sparks rubbed out of a deer’s hide on a dark night—may indicate, and may be allied to, a force or forces which, like the Aurora Borealis, may shine from one end of the heavens to the other, strangely illuminating the darkness of our destiny. Science has ignored such phenomena, just as it so long ignored the sparks from the stroked deer-skin and the attractive power of rubbed amber. These trivial things were not known to be allied to the lightning, or to indicate a force which man could tame and use. But just as the Indians, by a rapid, careless inference, attributed the Aurora Borealis to electric in-