he Past in the Present.

The empire builders of old who enriched themselves with the spoils of
war and the tribute of subject States, not only satisfied personal
ambition and afforded protection for industrious traders and workers,
but also incidentally promoted culture and endowed research. When a
conqueror returned to his capital laden with treasure, he made
generous gifts to the temples. He believed that his successes were
rewards for his piety, that his battles were won for him by his god or
goddess of war. It was necessary, therefore, that he should continue
to find favour in the eyes of the deity who had been proved to be more
powerful than the god of his enemies. Besides, he had to make
provision during his absence on long campaigns, or while absorbed in
administrative work, for the constant performance of religious rites,
so that the various deities of water, earth, weather, and corn might
be sustained or propitiated with sacrificial offerings, or held in
magical control by the performance of ceremonial rites. Consequently
an endowed priesthood became a necessity in all powerful and
well-organized states.

Thus came into existence in Babylonia, as elsewhere, as a result of
the accumulation of wealth, a leisured official class, whose duties
tended to promote intellectual activity, although they were primarily
directed to perpetuate gross superstitious practices. Culture was
really a by-product of temple activities; it flowed forth like pure
gold from furnaces of thought which were walled up by the crude ores
of magic and immemorial tradition.

No doubt in ancient Babylonia, as in Europe during the Middle Ages,
the men of refinement and intellect among the upper classes were
attracted to the temples, while the more robust types preferred the
outdoor life, and especially the life of the soldier.[302] The
permanent triumphs of Babylonian civilization were achieved either by
the priests, or in consequence of the influence they exercised. They
were the grammarians and the scribes, the mathematicians and the
philosophers of that ancient country, the teachers of the young, and
the patrons of the arts and crafts. It was because the temples were
centres of intellectual activity that the Sumerian language remained
the language of culture for long centuries after it ceased to be the
everyday speech of the people.

Reference has already been made to the growth of art, and the
probability that all the arts had their or