BABYLON AND PERSIA

l8MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.any prescription contained in the Sacred Book ismortal sin, entailing punishment in the next world,and, if expressed in acts of insubordination, here onearth, at the hands of the priests and the governmentwhich supports them.2. Such utter surrender of man's most therishedrights the right of thought and independent action,such unreasoning obedience, amounting almost tothe abolition of individual will and intellect, couldnever be demanded or obtained by mere men, eitherthe wisest or the most despotic. Man will obey hisfellow-man from choice, and as long as he thinks itto his own advantage to do so, but never admit thatsuch obedience is a paramount and indisputableduty. Every religion, therefore, that has sacredbooks, claims for them a superhuman origin : theyare the Divine Word and the Divine Law, revealedsupernaturally, imparted directly by the Deitythrough the medium of some chosen man or men,who become the prophets, teachers, and lawgiversof their people, but speak not from themselves, butin the name and, as it were, under the dictation ofthe Deity, with whom they arc supposed to havemiraculous, face-to-face intercourse. In remote an¬tiquity men were more simple-minded than they arenow, and, being devoid of all positive (/.