70 A BOOK OF MORTALS 



like a horrible nightmare, destructive of rest and peace, 

 no matter under what shelter we sleep ; no matter 

 what cloak we have adopted as a covering to the naked 

 truth. 



There is but one redeeming touch of justice or pity in 

 the tale ; that which secures to the scapegoat an uninhabited 

 land where man can do him no more harm ! 



And yet the tale is a true transcript of the attitude of 

 the mass of humanity towards the beasts that perish. Man 

 burdens them with his wants, his work, his will, and when 

 he has laid all three on them to the uttermost, leaves them 

 in the wilderness to die without help or hope in this world 

 or the next. 



Only the other day a bishop voiced this attitude by 

 scouting the possibility of a future life for beasts, on the 

 ground that immortality was a reward, and neither rewards 

 nor punishments were deserved by creatures " towards 

 whom man's true relation is dominion moderated by a wise 

 and generous compassion, since his destiny is to control, 

 to utilise, to outlast them." 



Brave words ; though with a nethermost Hell before the 

 imagination one scarcely sees why immortality per se 

 should be counted an unmixed blessing. 



To return, however, to the World-idea underlying the 

 scapegoat story. It is one which is to be found amongst 

 the legends of most races. Many savage peoples still pile 

 the burden of their sin on some animate or inanimate object 

 within their power, and then set it adrift on the four 

 elements, floating on the water, consuming in the fire, 

 flying in the air, or rotting in the earth ; anywhere save in 

 the conscience of man himself. 



