powers as habitually well pleased and favourable, and so were driven to look on the anger of the gods as much more frequent and permanent than their fathers had supposed, and to give to atoning rites a stated and important place in ritual, which went far to change the whole attitude characteristic of early worship, and substitute for the old joyous confidence a painful and scrupulous anxiety in all approach to the gods. Among the Semites the Arabs furnish an example of the general decay of religion,