The growing knowledge about the stars, like all higher insight, became among primitive peoples the private possession of their leaders, was by these kept a secret and made a part of the venerable realm of religion. We find that a majority of these old peoples rendered worship to the stars, believing them to govern the fates of human beings. This may indeed seem highly remarkable, as our everyday experience is that the stellar bodies, with the exception of the Sun, exert no perceptible influence on organic nature, and such conclusion is emphatically confirmed by the systematic collection of all our experiences which we call modern science. The Sun, as stated, is the exception as it reigns over the entire nature, the living as well as the lifeless, by virtue of the heat and light which abundantly flow from this autocrat of our planetary system. Perhaps the Moon also plays some small active part as it seems somewhat to affect the barometric pressure, the magnetic and particularly the electric conditions of the atmosphere, which, in turn, appear to influence several life processes. On the other hand we cannot point to any influence upon nature traceable to the other stellar bodies. Obviously, primitive man devoted his thoughts only to such conditions as affected his interests in a beneficial or detrimental way. On the assumption that these conditions were governed by spirits who resembled man and who in particular were endowed with will, our ancestors endeavoured by sacrifice and exorcism to move the spirits they feared to discontinue their harmful activity. Some such spirits dwelt in beasts of prey and in other noxious animals, such as poisonous snakes; others caused earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, snowstorms, lightning ravages, fires, floods, heat, drought, etc. Against these calamities religious exercises formed a protection. Religion sprang mainly from fear of spirits. Later on thank offerings and hymns were bestowed upon benevolent objects and phenomena in nature. It is evident that this primitive, simple religion is of far greater age than star-worship. The latter presupposes a comparatively high degree of culture. The stars were of no benefit to man until it became necessary to measure time intervals comprising a greater number of days than might be counted on one’s fingers. How this growth in all probability took place we shall endeavour to explain in the following. Fairly certain it is that star-worship did not grow out of man’s admiration for the sublime drama which at dawn of morning commences at the eastern horizon, and proceeds in the course of a day over the firmament in order to close before night just beyond the western expanses, neither was it founded on man’s gratitude toward the torch-bearers of night for their incessant battle against gloomy clouds and all the other spirits of darkness.