Yet Perhaps No Sacrifice Is Wholly Useless

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.

The Consideration Of Human Suffering Is Not One Which Enters Into The Calculations Of Primitive Man.

In Course Of Time The Slow Advance Of Knowledge, Which Has Dispelled So Many Cherished Illusions, Convinced At Least The More Thoughtful Portion Of Mankind That The Alterations Of Summer And Winter, Of Spring And Autumn, Were Not Merely The Result Of Their Own Magical Rites, But That Some Deeper Cause, Some Mightier Power, Was At Work Behind The Shifting Scenes Of Nature.

Man Has Created Gods In His Own Likeness And Being Himself Mortal He Has Naturally Supposed His Creatures To Be In The Same Sad Predicament.

For There Are Strong Grounds For Thinking That, In The Evolution Of Thought, Magic Has Preceded Religion.