THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. n 



Fully to exhibit this objective difficulty, and to show more clearly 

 still how important it is to take as our data for sociological conclu- 

 sions, not the brief sequences, but the sequences that extend over 

 centuries or are traceable throughout civilization, let us draw a lesson 

 from a trait which all regulative agencies in all nations have displayed. 



The original meaning of human sacrifices, which is otherwise tol- 

 erably clear, becomes quite clear on finding that where cannibalism is 

 still rampant, and where the largest consumers of human flesh are the 

 chiefs, these chiefs, undergoing apotheosis when they die, are believed 

 thereafter to feed on the souls of the departed the souls being regarded 

 as duplicates equally material with the bodies they belong to. And, 

 should any doubt remain, it must be dissipated by the accounts we 

 have of the ancient Mexicans, whose priests, when war had not lately 

 furnished a victim, complained to the king that the god was hungry ; 

 and who, when a victim was sacrificed, offered his heart to the idol 

 (bathing its lips with his blood, and even putting portions of the heart 

 into its mouth), and then cooked and ate the rest of the body them- 

 selves. Here the fact of significance to which attention is drawn, and 

 which various civilizations show us, is that the sacrificing of prisoners 

 or others, once a general usage among cannibal ancestry, continues as 

 an ecclesiastical usage long after having died out in the ordinary life 

 of a society. Two facts, closely allied with this fact, have like general 

 implications. Cutting implements of stone remain in use for sacrificial 

 purposes when implements of bronze, and even of iron, are used for all 

 other purposes. Further, the primitive method of obtaining fire, by the 

 friction of pieces of wood, survives in religious ceremonies ages after 

 its abandonment in the household ; and even now, among the Hindoos, 

 the flame for the altar is kindled by the " fire-drill." These are strik- 

 ing instances of the pertinacity with which the oldest part of the regu- 

 lative organization maintains its original traits in the teeth of influences 

 that modify things around it. 



The like holds in respect of the language, spoken and written, which 

 it employs. Among the Egyptians the most ancient form of hiero- 

 glyphics was retained for sacred records, when more developed forms 

 were adopted for other purposes. The continued use of Hebrew for 

 religious services among the Jews, and the continued use of Latin for 

 the Roman Catholic service, show us how strong this tendency is, 

 apart from the particular creed. Among ourselves, too, a less domi- 

 nant ecclesiasticism exhibits a kindred trait. The English of the Bible 

 is of an older style than the English of the date at which the transla- 

 tion was made ; and in the church service various words retain obso- 

 lete meanings, and others are pronounced in obsolete ways. Even the 

 typography, with its illuminated letters of the rubric, shows traces of 

 the same tendency ; while Puseyites and ritualists, aiming to reenforce 

 ecclesiasticism, betray a decided leaning toward archaic print, as well 

 as archaic ornaments. In the sesthetic direction, indeed, their move- 



