Page:The Earliest Lives of Dante (Smith 1901).djvu/53



The earliest people in the earliest ages, though they were rude and uncultivated, were eager to know the truth through study, the which desire is still, as we see, natural to every one. Perceiving that the heavens were moved without cessation by a fixed law, and that things on the earth had a certain plan, with diverse actions at different times, they thought there must be something whence all these had proceeded, and which as a higher force, subject to none other, ordered all the rest.

After diligent study of the matter, they imagined that this power—to which they gave the name of divinity, or deity—ought to be venerated by every kind of worship, by every honor, and by more than human service. They therefore built, out of reverence to this supreme power, spacious and surpassing edifices. These they thought should be distinguished in name, since they were different in form, from those which men inhabited, and so they called them temples. Similarly they appointed various ministers, who should be sacred and sequestered from all worldly care, revered above other men for their wisdom, age, and manner of life. These were to occupy themselves solely with divine services, and thus were called priests (sacerdoti). Moreover, in representation of this imagined Divine Essence, they made magnificent statues of various forms, and, for its services, vessels of gold, marble tables, and purple vestments, together with such accessories as might be appropriate for the sacrifices which they established.