(P.  Janet, “The Pathogenesis of Some Impulsions,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, April, 1906.) If we understand this psychological process we may realize how it is that even in the higher religions, however else they may differ, the practical value of asceticism and mortification as the necessary door to the most exalted religious state is almost universally recognized, and with complete cheerfulness.  “Asceticism and ecstacy are inseparable,” as Probst-Biraben remarks at the outset of an interesting paper on Mahommedan mysticism ("L’Extase dans le Mysticisme Musulman,” Revue Philosophique, Nov., 1906).  Asceticism is the necessary ante-chamber to spiritual perfection.

It thus happens that savage peoples largely base their often admirable enforcement of asceticism not on the practical grounds that would justify it, but on religious grounds that with the growth of intelligence fall into discredit.[71] Even, however, when the scrupulous observances of savages, whether in sexual or in non-sexual matters, are without any obviously sound basis it cannot be said that they are entirely useless if they tend to encourage self-control and the sense of reverence.[72] The would-be intelligent and practical peoples who cast aside primitive observances because they seem baseless or even ridiculous, need a still finer practical sense and still greater intelligence in order to realize that, though the reasons for the observances have been wrong, yet the observances themselves may have been necessary methods of attaining personal and social efficiency.  It constantly happens in the course of civilization that we have to revive old observances and furnish them with new reasons.

In considering the moral quality of chastity among savages, we must carefully separate that chastity which among semi-primitive peoples is exclusively imposed upon women.  This has no moral quality whatever, for it is not exercised as a useful discipline, but merely enforced in order to heighten the economic and erotic value of the women.  Many authorities believe that the regard for women as property furnishes the true reason for the widespread insistence on virginity in brides.  Thus A.B.  Ellis, speaking of the West Coast of Africa (Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, pp. 183 et seq.), says that girls of good class are betrothed as mere children, and are carefully guarded from men, while girls of lower class are seldom betrothed, and may lead any life they choose.  “In this custom of infant or child betrothals we probably find the key to that curious regard for ante-nuptial chastity found not only among the tribes of the Gold and Slave Coasts, but also among many other uncivilized peoples in different parts of the world.”  In a very different part of the world, in Northern Siberia, “the Yakuts,” Sieroshevski states (Journal Anthropological Institute, Jan.-June, 1901, p. 96), “see nothing immoral in illicit love, providing only that nobody suffers material