MacMillan and Co.

1913

[Preface.]
[Chapter I. The Transference of Evil.]
[§ 1. The Transference to Inanimate Objects.]
[§ 2. The Transference to Stones and Sticks.]
[§ 3. The Transference to Animals.]
[§ 4. The Transference to Men.]
[§ 5. The Transference of Evil in Europe.]
[§ 6. The Nailing of Evils.]
[Chapter II. The Omnipresence of Demons.]
[Chapter III. The Public Expulsion of Evils.]
[§ 1. The Occasional Expulsion of Evils.]
[§ 2. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils.]
[Chapter IV. Public Scapegoats.]
[§ 1. The Expulsion of Embodied Evils.]
[§ 2. The Occasional Expulsion of Evils in a Material Vehicle.]
[§ 3. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils in a Material Vehicle.]
[Chapter V. On Scapegoats in General.]
[Chapter VI. Human Scapegoats in Classical Antiquity.]
[§ 1. The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Rome.]
[§ 2. The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Greece.]
[Chapter VII. Killing the God in Mexico.]
[Chapter VIII. The Saturnalia and Kindred Festivals.]
[§ 1. The Roman Saturnalia.]
[§ 2. The King of the Bean and the Festival of Fools.]
[§ 3. The Saturnalia and Lent.]
[§ 4. Saturnalia in Ancient Greece.]
[§ 5. Saturnalia in Western Asia.]
[§ 6. Conclusion.]
[Note. The Crucifixion Of Christ.]
[Index.]
[Footnotes]

[Transcriber's Note: The above cover image was produced by the submitter at Distributed Proofreaders, and is being placed into the public domain.]

Preface.

With The Scapegoat our general discussion of the theory and practice of the Dying God is brought to a conclusion. The aspect of the subject with which we are here chiefly concerned is the use of the Dying God as a scapegoat to free his worshippers from the troubles of all sorts with which life on earth is beset. I have sought to trace this curious usage to its origin, to decompose the idea of the Divine Scapegoat into the elements out of which it appears to be compounded. If I am right, the idea resolves itself into a simple confusion between the material and the immaterial, between the real possibility of transferring a physical load to other shoulders and the supposed possibility of transferring our bodily and mental ailments to another who will bear them for us. When we survey the history of this pathetic fallacy from its crude inception in savagery to its full development in the speculative theology of civilized nations, we cannot but wonder at the singular power which the human mind possesses of transmuting the leaden dross of superstition into a glittering semblance of gold. Certainly in nothing is this alchemy of thought more conspicuous than in the process which has refined the base and foolish custom of the scapegoat into the sublime conception of a God who dies to take away the sins of the world.

Contents

Preface.