ORIGIN OF MAN 217 



forth to the four winds, and poured out a libation on an 

 altar built on the peak of the mountain, an offering of 

 herbs in sevens, with reed, pine and simgar. The gods 

 gathered at the smell, yea, the gods gathered at the 

 savour, like flies they gathered at the sacrifice." ^ 



Mr, Herbert Spencer accepted the theory that traces 

 religion to the worship of ancestors,'-^ the deities being 

 the spirits of ancestors. 



Dr. Morris Jastrow ^ observes that this theory implies 

 that " the personification of the powers of Nature likewise 

 rests upon ancestral worship, for the dead having powers 

 denied to the living, their spirits may choose a tree or a 

 stone as an abiding place, and even the large heavenly 

 bodies are conceived as remote ancestors of the living, 

 under the influence of a primitive theory of emanation ". 



Dr. Jastrow observes, however, that : " Apart from the 

 unsatisfactory character of any attempt to derive Nature- 

 worship from ancestor-worship, there is no reason why 

 one should be dependent upon the other.'^ 



The story of the flood would, however, seem to show 

 something of the sort ; for while a sacrifice of roast meat 

 would imply the presence of a once human being, who 

 alone could appreciate it ; yet the gods are supposed to 

 be aloft and come down to enjoy it, and in the Biblical 

 account the Deity has power " to set the bow in the 

 heavens " as being an Omnipotent Celestial God. 



Man's automatism includes his emotions, grief, fear, 

 joy, love, and others are spontaneously excited by 

 approjDriate causes, and form no part of his volition ; 

 though this may be brought into play to control them to 



' Chaldean Flood Story, in The Composition of the Book of Genesis, 

 by E. T. Fripp, p. igo. 



^See Principles of Sociology , chaps, viii. to xvii. 



^The Study of Religion, p. 184. *0p. cit., p. 186. 



