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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: the result of the common belief that Heaven, the source of Divine
power to which we pray, is seated above us.
[24] `The Descent of Man,' vol. ii. p. 336.
A humble kneeling posture, with the hands upturned and palms joined,
appears to us, from long habit, a gesture so appropriate to devotion,
that it might be thought to be innate; but I have not met with any
evidence to this effect with the various extra-European races of mankind.
During the classical period of Roman history it does not appear, as I hear
from an excellent classic, that the hands were thus joined during prayer.
Mr. Rensleigh Wedgwood has apparently given[27] the true explanation,
though this implies that the attitude is one of slavish subjection.
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
