II THE ARREST OF ENQUIRY 61 



feasts at which they were held to be both the eaters 

 and the eaten. Middleton, himself a clergyman, 

 shows perplexity when watching the elevation of the 

 host at mass. He lacked that knowledge of the 

 origin of sacramental rites which study of barbaric 

 customs has since supplied. In Mr. Frazer's Golden 

 Bough) the ' central idea ' of which is ' the conception 

 of the slain god,' he shows at what an early stage in 

 his speculations man formulated the conception of 

 deity incarnated in himself, or in plant or animal, 

 and as afterwards slain, both the incarnation and the 

 death being for the benefit of mankind. The god 

 is his own sacrifice, and in perhaps the most striking 

 form, as insisted upon by Mr. Frazer, he is, as corn- 

 spirit, killed in the person of his representative ; the 

 passage in this mode of incarnation to the custom 

 of eating bread sacramentally being obvious. The 

 fundamental idea of this sacramental act, as the mass 

 of examples collected by Mr. Frazer further goes to 

 show, is that by eating a thing its physical and 

 mental qualities are acquired. * So the barbaric mind 

 reasons, and extends the notion to all beings. To 

 quote Mr. Frazer : ' By eating the body of the god 

 he shares in the god's attributes and powers. And 

 when the god is a corn-god, the corn is his proper 

 body ; when he is a vine-god, the juice of the grape 

 is his blood ; and so by eating the bread and drink- 

 ing the wine the worshipper partakes of the real 

 body and blood of his god. Thus the drinking of 

 wine in the rites of a vine-god like Dionysus is 

 not an act of revelry ; it is a solemn sacrament.' 

 It is, perhaps, needless to point out that the same 

 explanation applies to the rites attaching to Demeter, 



