conviction which affects his thoughts and actions daily and
at every turn; it guides his fortunes as an individual and
controls his behaviour as a member of a community, by incul-
cating a respect for the rights of others and enforcing a
submission to the public authorities. With him the fear of
ghosts and spirits is a bulwark of morality and a bond
of society; for he firmly believes in their unseen presence
everywhere and in the punishments which they can inflict on
wrongdoers. His whole theory of causation differs funda-
mentally from ours and necessarily begets a fundamental differ-
ence of practice. Where we see natural forces and material
substances, the Melanesian sees ghosts and spirits. A great
gulf divides his conception of the world from ours; and
it may be doubted whether education will ever enable him
to pass the gulf and to think and act like us. The products
of an evolution which has extended over many ages cannot
be forced like mushrooms in a summer day; it is vain to
pluck the fruit of the tree of knowledge before it is ripe.

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