HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF MYTH AND SCIENCE. 183 



favoured, or opposed by special and peculiar gods. 

 Olympus had a history, since the acts of the gods 

 took place in time and were coincident with the history 

 of nations, so that every event in heaven corresponded 

 with one on earth ; the idea of divine justice was 

 exemplified in that of men, and both were perfected 

 together. Among pagans of the Aryan race there was 

 a perpetual and repeated alliance between men and 

 gods made in the image of man. This action of the 

 gods both for good and evil became in its turn the rule 

 of life for the ignorant multitude, and they acted in 

 conformity with the supposed will and actions of the 

 gods; the divine will was, however, nothing but an 

 a priori religious conception of an idol representing 

 the forces of nature or some moral or religious idea. 

 The moral perfection of nations, as time went on, also 

 perfected the supreme justice of Olympus, and the 

 moral worth of the gods increased as men became 

 better. So that it was not the original theological 

 idea, but man himself, who made heaven more perfect, 

 and the gods morally better and more just. 



" The explicit power of mental reasoning and of 

 science was added to this spontaneous evolution of the 

 religious idea, so far as the improved morality of the 

 race perfected the heavenly justice which was its own 

 creation. The pagan Olympus was gradually sim- 

 plified by sages and philosophers ; the illicit passions 

 of the gods were set aside, and it was transformed into 

 a providential government of individuals and of society, 

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