UNIVERSAL HISTORY-THE ANCIENT WORLD.

every Greek was free-could act as his own priest. The introduction, therefore, of a class of priests was merely a matter of preference and division of labor. It was rather in connection with certain sacred places, seats of the gods, oracles, etc., that the services of a regular priesthood seemed to be demanded. In the great temples, also, groups of priests were a necessity of the service; but they gathered about the shrine, not by hereditary right or by appointment of a superior hierarchy, but simply by that natural selection which, working among men, sends some to one vocation and some to another. The rank and rights of citizenship were no more sacrificed by the assumption of priestly duties than by the doctor in treating a patient or the lawyer in pleading a cause.

There is no doubt, however, that the priests, having once assumed the sacred office, acquired thereby a certain dignity and honor. They were respected and venerated by all classes. The popular imagination associated them with the holy rites which they celebrated, with the solemn temple where they lived, and even with the high gods whom they served. They thus acquired a great reputation for sanctity, and a consequent influence over the minds of the people. Nor was their reputation less distinguished for the learning which they claimed by tradition and oracular response. They were well acquainted with the old unwritten laws and venerated customs of the Greeks, and thus became a conservative force in the state-a force not without a salutary influence on the distracting and revolutionary tendencies of such a people.

Among the Greeks the belief in prophecy was very general; and here again freedom had her way, for any one might be a prophet. The gods did not respect people. The voice of the deity might be heard by any one as well as by a priest. If the latter was more frequently in communion with the supernal powers, it was only because he dwelt near some shrine or sacred haunt which the god delighted to frequent. The signs by which in earth or sea or sky the deities made known their will were not of private interpretation; and so the many rather than the few heard and recognized the voices from on high.

But in the case of the oracles the divine responses were delivered by the priests. The inquiries of those who would learn the mysteries of the future and of fate were borne to the inner place by priestly hands and submitted to the god for answer. Such was the usage of Dodona, in Epirus, the most ancient oracle of Zeus. In the rustling of the oak leaves were heard the breathings of that great Immortal who was held to be the first among the powers of heaven; but the noise in the oaks was unintelligible save to the sacred persons who were by holy life and residence in the groves acquainted with the meaning of the mysterious messages. Such also was the method of obtaining responses at the still more famous shrine of the prophetic Apollo, at Delphi. This oracle was the most celebrated in Greece, perhaps in the world. In the classical age the greatest intellects recognized the validity of the Delphic responses, and the weightiest affairs of state hung breathless until the answer was delivered.

The spot chosen by Apollo for his favorite haunt was a wild ravine at the foot of Parnassus. The scene was grand and solitary. Only the murmur of a brook broke the impressive silence. On either hand rose vertical walls of rock. Here in this gorge the god of light and poesy and song had slain the Python, the great dragon of darkness and barbarism. The Gastalian fountain sprang from the spot, and the Muses made it their home. Here from a cleft in the rock issued that intoxicating vapor which benumbed the senses of man and brought him into communion with the deity. The tongue of the intoxicated became the oracle of the god. Around the sacred spot holy men gathered to muse and pray. Here houses were built. Here a shrine was erected for the deity. Here rose the holy city of Delphi, whose fame as the seat of divine inspiration spread first throughout all Greece and then to the ends of the civilized world.

He who would inquire of Apollo came bringing gifts. Something precious must be brought in recompense for prophecy.