182 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



for the same reason as the Christian dogma of the 

 Word made man. 



" Let us see what new principles, what higher 

 morality and civilization were added by the diffusion 

 of Christianity to those principles which were the 

 spontaneous product of the race. We must first con- 

 sider what part the pagan gods, as they were regarded 

 by educated men, played in the history of the Euro- 

 pean race, with respect to the individual and to the 

 commonwealth. The pagan Olympus, considered as 

 a whole, and without reference to the various forms 

 which it assumed in different peoples, was not essen- 

 tially distinct from human society. Although the 

 gods formed a higher order of immortal beings, they 

 were mixed up with men in a thousand ways in 

 practical life, and conformed to the ways of humanity ; 

 they were constantly occupied in doing good or ill to 

 mortals ; they were warmly interested in the disputes 

 of men, taking part in the conflicts of persons, cities, 

 and peoples ; special divinities watched over men 

 from the cradle to the grave, and they were loved 

 or hated by the gods by reason of their family and 

 race. In short, the heavenly and earthly communities 

 were so intermixed that the gods were only superior 

 and immortal men. 



" The people were accustomed to consider their 

 deities as ever present, distinct from, and yet insepar- 

 ably joined with them ; so that the individual, the 

 country, the tribes, were ever governed, guarded, 



