ORIGIN OF PEIESTS. 431 



been killed by the gods; it was therefore believed 

 that those who lived to a good old age were special 

 favourites of the divine beings. Many people asked 

 them by what means they had obtained the good 

 graces of the gods. With savages nothing is done 

 gratis ; the old men were paid for their advice ; and 

 in course of time the oracle system was established. 

 The old men consulted the gods : they at first advised, 

 they next commanded what gifts should be offered on 

 the altar. They collected taxes, they issued orders 

 on the divine behalf. In the city of Federated 

 Families the priests formed a sect entirely apart : 

 they belonged not to this house, or to that house, 

 but to all : it was to their interest that the families 

 should be at peace ; that a national religion should 

 be established ; that the household gods or ancestral 

 ghosts should be degraded, that the despotism 

 of the hearth should be destroyed. They acted 

 as peacemakers and arbitrators of disputes. They 

 united the tribes in the national sacrifice, and the 

 solemn dance. They preached the power and grandeur 

 of the gods. They became the tutors of the people ; 

 they rendered splendid service to mankind. We are 

 accustomed to look only at the dark side of those 

 ancient faiths ; their frivolous and sanguinary laws ; 

 their abominable offerings, their grotesque rites. Yet 

 even the pure and lofty religions of Confucius and 

 Zoroaster ; of Moses, and Jesus, and Mahomet ; of the 

 Brahmins and the Buddhists, have not done so much 

 for man as those barbarous religions of the early days. 

 They established a tyranny, and tyranny was useful in 

 the childhood of mankind. The chiefs could only 

 enact those laws which were indispensable for the 

 life of the community. But the priests were supposed 



