, that merit the term 'sublime,' the penitent pours
out his soul at the shrine of grace in order to be released from some
misfortune that has come over him or that is impending. Mere praise of
the gods without any ulterior motive finds no place in the Babylonian or
Assyrian ritual. The closest approach to this religious attitude may
perhaps be seen in the prayers attached by the kings to their
commemorative or dedicatory inscriptions. One feels that the rulers are
impelled to do this from a certain sense of love and devotion to their
protecting deities. Nebuchadnezzar's prayers form a conspicuous example
of the strength which pure love and attachment to the gods acquired in
Babylonia; but even in these specimens, a request of some kind--usually
for long life and prosperity--is made. The spiritualization of the
Babylonian religion has in this way most definite limitations imposed
upon it. There is a point beyond which it could not go without giving
rise to a totally changed conception of the gods and their relationship
to men. Prayer in its higher form, as the result of an irresistible
prompting of the emotions, without any other purpose than the longing to
come into closer communion with a superior Power, involves such a change
in religious conceptions, and hence is conspicuous in the Babylonian
ritual by its absence.

A request of some kind being thus the motive that lies behind the
Babylonian prayers, it follows that the means taken to ascertain the
will or intention of the gods with regard to that request formed an
essential feature of the ritual. Indeed, to ascertain the will of a
deity constituted one of the most important functions of the
priest--perhaps _the_ most important function. The prayer was of no use
unless it was answered, and the priest alone could tell whether the
answer was afforded. The efforts of the priest were accordingly directed
towards this end--the prognostication of the future. What was the
intention of the deity? Would the hoped-for deliverance from evil be
realized? Would the demon of disease leave the body? Would the
symbolical acts, burning of effigies, loosening of knots, and the like,
have the desired effect? Upon the success of the priest in performing
this function of prognostication everything depended, both for himself
and for the petitioner.

The natural and indeed necessary complement to the priest as exorciser
is the priest as the forecaster of the future. Since no one, not even