"THE RISE OF PERSON ALI'TT 67 



their Olympian council. The result was the glorious and 

 scandalous Olympian religion. In the end the religion of 

 the ancient mysteries proved to have more vitality and ade- 

 quacy. It survived in the writings of poets and philosophers, 

 while the Olympian religion waned. 



Greek civilization was undoubtedly a blend of Achaean and 

 ancient autocthonous Pelasgic elements; and it is uncertain 

 which contribution was the larger. Is it mere coincidence 

 that the city-state called Pelasgic Athens always maintain- 

 ing the cult of a goddess Athena, struggling toward democracy, 

 a city unsung and hardly named by Homer, was the chief seat 

 and center of the highest, finest and best thought and life 

 of Greece? 



A very similar conquest on a much larger scale was being 

 carried on in Northern Europe by the Celts resembling the 

 Achseans in temper and spirit as if they were twin-brothers. 

 They seem tor have swarmed out still earlier and in greater 

 numbers. Before the close of the Neolithic period we find 

 signs of their culture in the Rhine valley. During the Bronze 

 Age they seem to have overwhelmed England and northern 

 France. They conquered Bohemia and parts of southern Ger- 

 many and went down into northern Italy. In the early Iron 

 Age they raided still farther, but were pushed back finally 

 by the Romans in the south and the Teutons in the north 

 and ground between the upper and the nether mill-stones. 



The story of the dawn of history seems to be mainly a 

 chronicle of similar migrations, raids, invasions and conquests: 

 every new invader crowding the preceding ruling race down 

 into the mass of common people. This results in new blends 

 and variations which were later to express themselves in na- 

 tional characteristics. But the process was slow, and the sub- 

 jected people were usually left for a long time unchanged in 

 their deeper character by the new super-imposed stratum.^ 



In every case there resulted a ruling class and a subject, 

 half-enslaved or peasant mass holding obstinately to their be- 

 liefs, customs and Mores over against those of their con- 



2 82. 83. 40, 



