Robertson Smith’s theory of the evolution of religion is in effect a form of the pre-formation theory, and is liable to the same difficulties as dog the theory of pre-formation in all its applications.  On the theory, if we cut open a seed we should find within it the plant pre-formed; if we analyse totemism, the seed from which, in Robertson Smith’s view, all other forms of religion have grown in orderly succession one after the other, we find in it religion in all its stages pre-formed.  In fact, however, if we cut open an acorn we do not find a miniature oak-tree inside.  The presumption, therefore, is that neither in totemism, if we dissect it, shall we find religion pre-formed.  Indeed, there is the possibility that totemism, on dissection, will be found to have no such content—­that the hope or expectation of finding anything in it is as vain, is as much doomed to disappointment, as is the expectation of the child who cuts open his drum, thinking to find inside it something which produces the sound.

It was, however, not on a priori grounds like these that Sir James Frazer was led eventually to combat and deny the existence, ’in the heart of Australia, amongst the most primitive savages known to us’ of ‘that totem sacrament which’, in 1899 he declared, ’Robertson Smith, with the intuition of genius’ had divined years before it was actually observed.  It was by the evidence of new facts, discovered by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, that Sir James Frazer was compelled to abandon Robertson Smith’s theory of the evolution of religion.  Robertson Smith had seen, or had thought he saw, amongst the Australians sacramental rites and the worship of totem gods.  Sir James Frazer is now compelled by the evidence of the facts to hold that in what he calls ’pure totemism’, i.e., in totemism as we find it in Australia, ’there is nothing that can properly be described as worship of the totems.  Sacrifices are not presented to them, nor prayers offered, nor temples built, nor priests appointed to minister to them.  In a word, totems pure and simple are never gods, but merely species of natural objects, united by certain intimate and mystic ties to groups of men.’  It seems, therefore, according to Frazer, that in totemism, when dissected, there is no religion, just as in the child’s drum, when cut open, there is—­nothing.  Yet, we may reflect, on the battle-field from a drum proceeds a great and glorious sound, inspiring men to noble deeds.  Whereas ex nihilo nil fit:  from nothing naturally nothing comes.  If, however, something does come, it is not from nothing that it comes.  Amongst the most primitive savages known to us, men are united to their totems, as Frazer admits, by ‘certain intimate and mystic ties’.