314 THE AESTHETICS OF 



the temple, served as medicament, and the sacrifice which 

 the Priest conducted, gave to the mortal trust in the 

 assistance of the immortal gods. And what has developed 

 in the course of time from this simple condition of Nature? 

 The whole complex co-ordination of our ecclesiastical pro- 

 fession and the cure of souls, on the one hand, and on the 

 other, medicine and surgery, with the numerous branches 

 sent out from them, the whole of the Natural Sciences with 

 their separate disciplines ; Pharmaceutists and Druggists 

 are the successors of the Priest of ^Esculapius ; the Jardins 

 des Plant es, Zoological Gardens and Botanical establish- 

 ments, all the tracts of land in which busily trading Man 

 cultivates officinal herbs, are all developments of those 

 gardens of the temples. Many hundreds of men now 

 co-operate with all their mental and bodily powers, to 

 attain better, more definitely, and in a more highly de- 

 veloped condition, what that simple Priest of ^Esculapius, if 

 indeed with somewhat smaller results, united in his own 

 person. Therefore we must allow that, if not the work of 

 God, yet certainly Man's work begins with the imperfect 

 and progresses to the perfect; that in human ways and 

 doings the condition least developed is actually the least 

 perfect. At the same time we also find in human de- 

 velopment such a separation of distinct elements, which, 

 originally, combined and undistinguishable, lie mingled as it 

 were in a chaos. But we will here only look at one con- 

 dition, and seek to make it clear, namely, the position 

 which Mankind occupies as opposed to Nature. 



In the beginning of development we always find an in- 

 timate and complete blending of Physics and Religious 

 institutions, and every original expression of the devout 

 feelings of mankind is a worship of Nature. Thus the 

 Egyptian worship of Isis and Osiris, not to mention the 



