DISCOVEEY OF GOD. 433 



became itself a sacred pledge : men could at all times 

 confide in one another ; and foreign tribes met freely 

 together beneath the shelter of this useful superstition 

 which yet survives in our courts of law. In those days, 

 however, the oath required no law of perjury to 

 sustain its terrors : as Xenophon wrote, " He who 

 breaks an oath defies the gods ;" and it was believed 

 that the gods never failed sooner or later to take 

 their revenge. 



The priests in order to increase their power, studied 

 the properties of plants, the movements of the stars ; 

 they cultivated music and the imitative arts ; reserving 

 their knowledge to their own caste, they soon sur- 

 passed in mental capacity the people whom they ruled. 

 And being more intelligent, they became also more 

 moral, for the conscience is an organ of the mind ; it 

 is strengthened and refined by the education of the 

 intellect. They learnt from nature that there is unity 

 in all her parts ; hence they believed that one God or 

 man-like being had made the heavens and the earth. 

 At first this God was a despotic tithe-taker like them- 

 selves ; but as their own minds became more noble, 

 and more pure ; as they began to feel towards the 

 people a sentiment of paternity and love, so God, the 

 reflected image of their minds, rose into a majestic 

 and benignant being, and this idea reacted on their 

 minds, as the imagination of the artist is inspired by 

 the masterpiece which he himself has wrought. And, 

 as the Venus of Milo and the Apollo Belvedere have 

 been endowed by man with a beauty more exquisite 

 than can be found on earth ; a beauty that may well 

 be termed divine ; so the God who is worshipped by 

 elevated minds, is a mental form endowed with power, 

 love, and virtue in perfection. The Venus and the 

 2 E 



