Religion did not exist for the saving of souls but for the preservation and welfare of society, and in all that was necessary to this end every man had to take his part, or break with the domestic and political… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
The god, it would appear, was frequently thought of as the physical progenitor or first father of his people. — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
Thus a man was born into a fixed relation to certain gods as surely as he was born into a relation to his fellow-men;… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
In all the antique religions, mythology takes the place of dogma; that is, the sacred lore of priests and people... and these stories afford… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
It is only in times of social dissolution, as in the last age of the small Semitic states, when men and their gods were… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
In better times the religion of the tribe or state has nothing in common with the private and foreign superstitions or magical rites that… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
This being so, it follows that mythology ought not to take the prominent place that is too often assigned to it in the scientific… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
But, strictly speaking, this mythology was no essential part of ancient religion, for it had no sacred sanction and no binding force on the… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
The god can no more exist without his people than the nation without its god. — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
Even the highest forms of sacrificial worship present much that is repulsive to modern ideas, and in particular it requires an effort to reconcile… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
Belief in a certain series of myths was neither obligatory as a part of the true religion, nor was it supposed that, by believing,… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
We are so accustomed to think of religion as a thing between individual men and God that we can hardly enter into the idea… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
But if it not be true, the myth itself requires to be explained, and every principle of philosophy and common sense demand that the… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
This, it may be said, is no more than a hypothesis... only of that force of precedent which in all times has been so… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
The myths connected with individual sanctuaries and ceremonies were merely part of the apparatus of the worship; they served to excite the fancy and… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
This, it may be said, is no more than a hypothesis, but it satisfies the conditions of a legitimate hypothesis, by postulating the operation… — William Robertson Smith Copy Share Image
