l on
some one of its six faces, shake it as much as you please. When Don
Quixote, seeking to do good absolutely at a venture, let the reins drop
on Rocinante's neck, the poor beast very naturally followed the highway;
and a man wondering what will please heaven can ultimately light on
nothing but what might please himself. It is pathetic to observe how
lowly the motives are that religion, even the highest, attributes to the
deity, and from what a hard-pressed and bitter existence they have been
drawn. To be given the best morsel, to be remembered, to be praised, to
be obeyed blindly and punctiliously--these have been thought points of
honour with the gods, for which they would dispense favours and
punishments on the most exorbitant scale. Indeed, the widespread
practice of sacrifice, like all mutilations and penances, suggests an
even meaner jealousy and malice in the gods; for the disciplinary
functions which these things may have were not aimed at in the
beginning, and would not have associated them particularly with
religion. In setting aside the fat for the gods' pleasure, in
sacrificing the first-born, in a thousand other cruel ceremonies, the
idea apparently was that an envious onlooker, lurking unseen, might
poison the whole, or revenge himself for not having enjoyed it, unless a
part--possibly sufficient for his hunger--were surrendered to him
voluntarily. This onlooker was a veritable demon, treated as a man
treats a robber to whom he yields his purse that his life may be spared.

To call the gods envious has a certain symbolic truth, in that earthly
fortunes are actually precarious; and such an observation might inspire
detachment from material things and a kind of philosophy. But what at
first inspires sacrifice is a literal envy imputed to the gods, a spirit
of vengeance and petty ill-will; so that they grudge a man even the good
things which they cannot enjoy themselves. If the god is a tyrant, the
votary will be a tax-payer surrendering his tithes to secure immunity
from further levies or from attack by other potentates. God and man will
be natural enemies, living in a sort of politic peace.

[Sidenote: Ritualistic arts.]

Sacrifices are far from having merely this sinister meaning. Once
inaugurated they suggest further ideas, and from the beginning they had
happier associations. The sacrifice was incidental to a feast, and the
plenty it was to render safe existed already. What was a bribe, offered
in t