h a purpose; they are too high also to be
convenient candelabra.[559] It seems more probable that they were
developments from sacred stones (such as the Canaanite massebas), which
originally represented the deity, came to be conventional attachments to
temples, and then were treated in accordance with architectural
principles. They would be placed in pairs, one pillar on each side of
the temple door, for the sake of symmetry, and dignity would be sought
by giving them a considerable height.[560] They might also be utilized,
when they were not too high, as stands for lamps or cressets, but this
would be a secondary use. The obelisks that stood in front of Egyptian
temples, likewise, were probably sacred monuments reared in honor of
deities.[561]

+300+. Images of gods and other extrahuman beings arise through the
natural human impulse to represent familiar objects of thought. Very
rude tribes have stone or wood carvings of spirits and gods, good and
bad. These images are generally in human shape, because all Powers are
thought of as anthropomorphic. Sometimes, as Reville suggests, a root,
or branch of a tree, bearing some resemblance to the human face or
figure, may have led to the making of an image; but the general natural
artistic tendency is sufficient to account for the fact.[562]

+301+. The character assigned to images varies with stages of culture.
In low communities they are themselves divine--the gods have entered
into them and they are not thought of as different from their divine
indwellers. In such cases they are sometimes chained to prevent their
getting away; if they are obstinate, not listening to prayers, they are
cuffed, scourged, or reviled.[563] This conception lingers still among
the peasants of Southern Europe, who treat a saint (a rechristened old
god) as if he were a man to be won by threats or cajolements. In a more
refined age the image becomes simply a symbol, a visible representation
serving to fix the attention and recall divine things. Different races
also differ in the extent of their demand for such representations of
deity.

+302+. Stones and rocks, like other natural objects, are starting-points
for folk-stories and myths. All over the world they lie on the ground or
rise in the shape of hills, and, being mysterious, require explanation.
The explanations given, and handed down from generation to generation,
are always connected with superhuman or with extraordinary persons,
ancestors,