Rules of conduct, many of which have a ritual origin, played a great part in the lives of savages and primitive peoples. It is forbidden to eat out of the chief's dish, or to seethe the kid in its mother's milk; it is commanded to offer sacrifices to the gods, which, at a certain stage of development, are thought most acceptable if they are humans. Other moral rules, such as the adverse opinion of murder and theft, have a more obvious social utility, and survive the decay of the primitive theo-systems with which they were natively associated. But as men grow more reflective there is a tendency to lay less stress on rules and more on states of mind. This comes from two sources - philosophy and spirituality. We are all familiar with passages in the prophets and the gospels, in which purity of heart is set above meticulous observance of the Law. What we value is a state of mind, out of which, as we hold, right conduct must ensue; rules seem to us outside, and inadept to circumstance.