ABSTRACT
The non-verifiable convictions respecting that which is beyond the field of human experience we shall call belief, and the control of conduct by means of such convictions we shall term control by belief. The elementary supernatural sanctions are founded on the belief that there is a supernatural being who follows the doings of men, and that he intervenes in this life to punish the bad and to reward the good. The crude belief that sees in every event of life some inmixture of the gods, and interprets every stroke of fortune in the light of past behavior, is soon in need of the plausible explanations of quickwitted priests. Nothing but belief could make temporary banishment from the communion table or excommunication a dreaded penalty. Strong emphasis on belief and great stress on the non-social virtues mark the decay of the moral element in a system of belief.
