This, it may be said, is no more than a hypothesis... only of that force of precedent which in all times has been so strong to keep alive religious forms of which the original meaning is lost.

William Robertson Smith FRSE (8 November 1846 – 31 March 1894) was a Scottish orientalist Old Testament scholar professor of divinity and minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was an editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Biblica. He is also known for his book Religion of the Semites which is considered a foundational text in the comparative study of religion.