844* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



edge from them. Hence, by implication, the priest became the 

 primitive man of science ; and, led by his special experiences to 

 speculate about the causes of things, thus entered the sphere of 

 philosophy: both his science and his philosophy being pursued 

 in the service of his religion. 



Not only his higher culture but his alleged intercourse with 

 the gods, whose mouthpiece he was, made him the authority in 

 cases of dispute ; and being also, as historian, the authority con- 

 cerning past transactions and traditional usages, or laws, he ac- 

 quired in both capacities the character of judge. Moreover, when 

 the growth of legal administration brought the advocate, he, 

 though usually of lay origin, was sometimes clerical. 



Distinguished in early stages as the learned man of the tribe 

 or society, and especially distinguished as the possessor of that 

 knowledge which was thought of most value knowledge of un- 

 seen things the priest of necessity became the first teacher. 

 Transmitting traditional statements concerning ghosts and gods, 

 at first to neophytes of his class only but afterward to the cul- 

 tured classes, he presently, beyond instruction in supernatural 

 things, gave instruction in natural things ; and having been the 

 first secular teacher, has retained a large share in secular teach- 

 ing even down to our own days. 



As making a sacrifice was the original priestly act, and as the 

 building of an altar for the sacrifice was by implication a priestly 

 act, it results that the making of a shelter over the altar, which 

 in its developed form became the temple, was also a priestly act. 

 When the priest, ceasing to be himself the executant, directed the 

 artificers, he continued to be the designer ; and when he ceased to 

 be the actual designer, the master-builder or architect thereafter 

 continued to fulfill his general directions. And then the temple 

 and the palace in sundry early societies, being at once the resi- 

 dence of the apotheosized ruler and the living ruler (even now a 

 palace usually contains a small temple) and being the first kinds 

 of developed architecture, eventually gave origin to secular archi- 

 tecture. 



A rude carved or modeled image of a man placed on his 

 grave, gave origin to the sculptured representation of a god in- 

 closed in his temple. A product of priestly skill at the outset, it 

 continued in some cases to be such among early civilized peoples ; 

 and always thereafter, when executed by an artisan, conformed to 

 priestly direction. Extending presently to the representation of 

 other than divine and semi-divine personages, it eventually thus 

 passed into its secularized form. 



So was it with painting. At first used to complete the carved 

 representation of the revered or worshiped personage, and being 

 otherwise in some tribes used by the priest and his aids for ex- 



