The World Cannot Live At The Level

The Old Notion That The Savage Is The Freest Of Mankind Is The Reverse Of The Truth. He Is A Slave, Not Indeed To A Visible Master, But To The Past, To The Spirits Of His Dead Forefathers, Who Haunt His Steps From Birth To Death, And Rule Him With A Rod Of Iron.

The Moral World Is As Little Exempt As The Physical World From The Law Of Ceaseless Change, Of Perpetual Flux.

Yet Perhaps No Sacrifice Is Wholly Useless Which Proves There Are Men Who Prefer Honour To Life.

With The Advance Of Knowledge, Therefore, Prayer And Sacrifice Assume The Leading Place In Religious Ritual; And Magic; Which Once Ranked With Them As A Legitimate Equal, Is Gradually Relegated To The Background And Sinks To The Level Of A Black Art.

The Athenians Regularly Maintained A Number Of Degraded And Useless Beings At The Public Expense; And When Any Calamity, Such As Plague, Drought, Or Famine, Befell The City, They Sacrificed Two Of These Outcast Scapegoats.