770 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



embody the ideas and feelings of past generations ; and, 

 religiously conformed to as they are, exhibit the rule of the 

 dead over the living. From usages of the Veddahs, the 

 Scandinavians, and the Hebrews, I there drew evidence that 

 in some cases the ghosts of the dead are appealed to for 

 guidance in special emergencies; and I gave proof that, 

 more generally, apotheosized men or gods are asked for 

 directions : instances being cited from accounts of Egyptians, 

 Peruvians, Tahitians, Tongams, Samoans, Hebrews, and sundry 

 Aryan peoples. Further, it was shown that from particular 

 commands answering special invocations, there was a transi 

 tion to general commands, passing into permanent laws: 

 there being in the bodies of laws so derived, a mingling of 

 regulations of all kinds sacred, secular, public, domestic, 

 personal Here let me add evidence reinforcing that before 

 given. 



&quot; Agriculture was inculcated as a sacred duty upon the follower of 

 Zoroaster, and he was taught that it was incumbent upon all who 

 worshipped Ahuramasda to lead a settled life. . . . Everything that 

 the Nomad was enjoined to avoid was thus inculcated, as a religious 

 duty, upon the followers of Zoroaster. . . . The principles of Zoroaster, 

 and of similar teachers, led to the federation of settled tribes, out of 

 which arose the mighty empires of antiquity.&quot; 



Evidently bodies of laws regarded as supernaturally given 

 by the traditional god of the race, originating in the way 

 shown, habitually tend to restrain the anti-social actions of 

 individuals towards one another, and to enforce concerted 

 action in the dealings of the society with other societies : in 

 both ways conducing to social cohesion, 



626. The general influence of Ecclesiastical Institutions 

 is conservative in a double sense. In several ways they main - 

 tain and strengthen social bonds, and so conserve the social 

 aggregate ; and they do this in large measure by conserving 

 beliefs, sentiments, and usages which, evolved during 

 earlier stages of the society, are shown by its survival to 

 have had an approximate fitness to the requirements, and are 



