432 INVENTION OF THE OATH. 



to utter the commands of Invisible Beings whose 

 strange tempers could clearly be read in the violent 

 outbreaks and changing aspects of the sky. The more 

 irrational the laws of the priests appeared, the more 

 evident it was that they were not of man. Terror 

 generated piety : wild savages were tamed into 

 obedience ; they became the slaves of the unseen ; 

 they humbled themselves before the priests, and im- 

 plicitly followed their commands that they might 

 escape sickness, calamity, and sudden death ; their 

 minds were subjected to a useful discipline ; they 

 acquired the habit of self-denial, which like all habits 

 can become a pleasure to the mind, and can be trans- 

 mitted as a tendency or instinct from generation to 

 generation. They were ordered to abstain from cer- 

 tain kinds of food ; to abstain from fishing and working 

 in the fields on days sacred to the gods of the waters 

 and the earth : they were taught to give with generosity 

 not only in fear, but also in thanksgiving. Even the 

 human sacrifices which they made were sometimes acts 

 of filial piety and of tender love. They gave up the 

 slaves whom they valued most to attend their fathers 

 in the Under-world ; or sent their souls as presents 

 to the Gods. But the chief benefit which religion 

 ever conferred upon mankind, whether in ancient or 

 in modern times, was undoubtedly the oath. The 

 priests taught that if a promise was made in the name 

 of the gods, and that promise was broken, the gods 

 would kill those who took their name in vain. Such 

 is the true meaning of the third commandment. Before 

 that time treaties of peace and contracts of every kind 

 in which mutual confidence was required could only be 

 effected by the interchange of hostages. But now by 

 means of this purely theological device a verbal form 



