164 



occurring on a grander scale, could not fail to impress them with 

 astonishment and awe. When they saw the lightning flash, and 

 heard the thunder peal quickly following — the earth it may be in 

 some cases quaking at the same time beneath their feet — how 

 perplexed they must have been to divine the cause of such 

 portentous occuiTences. They must have felt they were in the 

 hands and at the mercy of some unseen being, some superhuman 

 power beyond their control, and that not merely their field works 

 were liable to suffer damage, but that their own lives were in 

 jeopardy. In this state of ignorance and alarm we can hai-dly 

 wonder at their attributing the events they witnessed to personal 

 agents like themselves, to spirits, which had the will and the power 

 to do them good or to do them harm, and whom it was necessary 

 therefore to win over, if they could, to their side by prayers and 

 offerings, in order that they and their concerns might be respected. 



In this way there arose, as we are aware, a complete " deification 

 of nature," the supposed influence of the gods being in time 

 extended to all human affairs, and the number of these gods 

 continually increasing as civilization advanced, with its concuiTcnt 

 increasing wants and transactions, until it ended in nothing being 

 done or attempted, without first consulting the pai'ticular deity 

 who had the control and management of the matter in hand. 



To follow up this subject in all its details would be to give the 

 whole history of astrolatrj- and auguiy as practised by the ancients, 

 and would be foreign to our present purpose. It will suffice to 

 mention, in illustration of weather topics, that Gi'eece had its 

 Zeus, and Rome its Jupiter, each being " pre-eminently the god of 

 the weather," that the Greeks had their festivals of the weather, 

 Zeus Meilichios being feted at Athens in February, the time of the 

 approach of milder weather after the rigours of the winter, " Zeus 

 of the storms " having the hke honours paid to it in November, 

 " to testify joy for the autumn weather, or to implore a favom^able 

 season." * 



With the Romans " thunder and lightning played an important 

 part in their system of augury." They had their Fulguratores, 

 whose office it was to note the character of the lightning, the 

 * See Dollinger ; Jew and Gentile, I., 235, and II., 39. 



