174 PRISON AND PALACE. 



lized nations, the gods are supposed to punish most 

 severely. But the civilized gods also require that 

 men shall act justly to one another. They are still 

 despots, for they order men to flatter them, and to 

 give them money. But they are not mere selfish 

 despots : they will reward those who do good, they 

 will punish those who do evil to their fellow-men. 



That vice should be sometimes triumphant, and 

 virtue sometimes in distress, creates no difficulty to 

 the savage mind. If a good man meets with mis- 

 fortune, it is supposed that he is being punished 

 for the sins of an ancestor or a relation. In a certain 

 stage of barbarism, society is composed not of indivi- 

 duals, but of families. If a murder is committed, the 

 avengers of blood kill the first man they meet belong- 

 ing to the guilty clan. If the life cannot be obtained 

 in that generation, the feud passes on, for the family 

 never dies. It is considered just and proper that chil- 

 dren should be punished for the sins of their fathers, 

 unto the third and fourth generation. 



In a higher state of society, this family system dis- 

 appears ; individualism becomes established. And as 

 soon as this point is reached, the human mind takes 

 a vast stride. It is discovered that the moral govern- 

 ment of this world is defective, and it is supposed 

 that poetical justice will be administered in the next. 

 The doctrine of rewards and punishments in a future 

 state comes into vogue. The world of ghosts is now 

 divided into two compartments. One is the abode of 

 malignant spirits, the kingdom of darkness and of 

 pain, to which are condemned the blasphemers and 

 the rebels, the murderers and the thieves. The other 

 is the habitation of the gods, the kingdom of joy and 

 light, to which angels welcome the obedient and the 



