Religion,  as  Pascal  well  said,  is  to  a  large  extent  habit.  Rites
are  born  of  the  need  to  perform  again  and  again  the  same  act,
under  the  same  circumstances  ;  a  need  which  is  the  foundation
of  custom,  and  without  which  all  life  would  be  impossible.
Moreover,  there  is  something  sacred  in  every  habit  whatsoever,
and  every  act,  whatever  it  may  be,  tends  to  become  a  habit
and  by  that  fact  to  become  respectable,  to  be  in  some  sort
self-consecrated.  Rites,  therefore,  strike  root  in  the  very
foundations  of  our  being  ;  the  need  for  rites  manifests  itself
very  early  in  the  life  of  the  child.  Children  not  only  imitate
other  people  and  themselves,  repeat  other  people  and  them-
selves, but  exact  a  scrupulous  precision  in  these  repetitions  ;


124      GENESIS  OF  RELIGIONS  IN  PRIMITIVE   SOCIETIES.
