Finding it difficult to fasten their thoughts on invisible, intangible beings, men, at the beginning, probably sought to aid their worship by selecting some object to represent the being worshiped. This object was not to be worshiped in and for itself, but, simply, as an aid to devotion, _representing_ the being worshiped. Then, gradually, the worship was transferred to the object and withdrawn from the being represented. Or, it may be that the being worshiped was supposed in some manner to dwell in the idol, and was worshiped thus. Or, it may be that meteoric stones were regarded as images of the gods sent down from the heavens. Or, it may have been in several of these ways, or in all combined. The æsthetic tastes of men would soon lead them to give a more shapely appearance to the meteoric masses of stone, and then, as these must of necessity be scarce, copies of them were sculptured. As men became more and more accustomed to these idols and less and less spiritual in their worship they would venture to give expression to their ideas of the unseen gods. Other materials were used and, as might be required by the materials, other shapes were of necessity given. At first, it would seem, that only representations of animals were attempted, then, as in the teraphim, the head of man was attached to various animal forms, as also in Dagon, the fish-god, which was a human figure, terminating in a fish. [Illustration: DAGON, THE FISH-GOD.] When this introduction of idols occurred, we cannot tell; probably, not long after the worship of nature had become established, and the worship of one God had been generally forgotten. Not very much more than one hundred and fifty years elapsed between the death of Noah and the birth of Jacob, so that in all probability idols had not long been in use when this incident of Jacob and Laban took place. Not long after this time the full human figure was used in idol representations, and in a short period a collection of idols would have represented almost every conceivable object, and being, and creature of the wild fancy of man. These were made of all manner of materials, of all shapes and sizes. The highest conceptions of art were lavished on some of these idols, and at the same time the rudest notions of the most barbarous nations were also expressed in them. The word _idol_ originally meant simply an _image_, and only in after ages was an idol regarded as itself a divine thing or being, rather than merely an image of it. [Illustration: ANCIENT SERPENT IDOL.]