68 THE IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS 



the idea that the offering of sacrifices could please 

 such a being as a true and living God. 



Porphyry says, " We ought then, having been 

 united and made like to God, to offer our own con- 

 duct as a holy sacrifice to Him, the same being also 

 a hymn and our salvation in passionless excellence 

 of soul." 



It is claimed that the reason it spread so ex- 

 tensively was that the priests who shared with 

 the gods and received the best portion of the meat, 

 were instrumental in urging it on. The early his- 

 tory of sacrifices as practiced by all nations shows 

 that they consisted of fruits, grain, and oil. The 

 sacrifice of living human beings and lower animals 

 was the outgrowth of a depraved cannibal nature 

 and the notion that it was surrounded with greater 

 mystical signification than other sacrifices. These 

 sacrifices were offered to all kinds of imaginary 

 gods and idols with the absurd notion that such 

 gods demanded the life of some innocent being. 

 Hence we find that each deity demanded a par- 

 ticular kind of victim. 



One god was known as the " man-eater," another 

 as the "goat-eater," others as the "ram-eater," 

 the " eater of raw flesh," etc. The Persians had 



