THE THRESHOLD OF THE GODS. 
66 
Silva alta Jovis, lucusve Diane.” 
How shall we account for the old mytholo- 
gies, or shall we attempt to account for them 
at all? That beauty is imperishable, and that 
whatever fills the measure of logic may be 
taken as demonstrated, has somehow come to be 
accepted by wise men as true. But shall we 
receive or reject the gods of the ancients on 
the score of beauty on the one hand or of logic 
on the other? Who ever did believe in the 
gods? Were they men of feeble minds or 
debilitated physiques—a lot of degenerate 
clods without any fixedness of character? 
Was Agamemnon a fool, Homer a dunce, 
Pythagoras a ninny, or Caesar a weakling ? 
These may at first view seem questions both 
trite and uninteresting; but I purpose sketch- 
ing presently, as best I may, the outlines of a 
quiet little adventure which led me to ponder 
deeply over the proposition, Was there ever 
any foundation in fact for this belief in the 
gods? I will not say that I believe there ever 
was, nor can I own to a total disregard for 
certain rather obscure and mysterious evi- 
dences in nature of the existence of beings 
whose tenure of material bodies is as certain 
and indestructible as the bodies are shadowy, 
and whose power is somehow held, for some 
reason hard to discover, in abeyance. If 
gods ever were they now are. They may not 
be now palpable or visible or audible, but 
