Small Minds Cannot Grasp Great Ideas; To

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.

For When A Nation Becomes Civilized, If It Does Not Drop Human Sacrifices Altogether, It At Least Selects As Victims Only Such Wretches As Would Be Put To Death At Any Rate. Thus The Killing Of A God May Sometimes Come To Be Confounded With The Execution Of A Criminal.

The Custom Of Burning A Beneficent God Is Too Foreign To Later Modes Of Thought To Escape Misinterpretation.

Even The Recognition Of An Individual Whom We See Every Day Is Only Possible As The Result Of An Abstract Idea Of Him Formed By Generalization From His Appearances In The Past.

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.