rOINTS OF VIEW 161 



more towards the unseen supernatural powers. In- 

 deed, the natural did hardly exist ; the supernatural 

 was all in all. The gods played the leading part in 

 their histories ; they really play no part at all in ours. 

 Once a year our chief magistrate issues his formal 

 Thanksgiving Proclamation, and the people through- 

 out the length and breadth of the land fall to and 

 gorge themselves with roast turkey ; this is our reli- 

 gious rite as a nation. With the ancient pagan peo- 

 ples, religious motives entered into every act. Eenan 

 does not exaggerate when he says that the " religion 

 of the ancients was the spinal marrow of the nation 

 itself." At Platsea both the Greeks and the Persians 

 refrained for ten days from making the attack, be- 

 cause the oracles and the victims were unfavorable. 

 The armies had their diviners, upon whose word the 

 generals waited. Not military considerations, but 

 religious omens determined them when to strike. 

 No expedition was undertaken without consulting 

 the oracles, and no action fought without offering 

 sacrifice. All through the Middle Ages see whai 

 a part religion, or what we now call superstition, 

 played in the world ! 



With the ancient peoples religion bore no essential 

 relation to morality ; the most dark and revolting 

 crimes were committed in the name of the gods. 

 The great change in the modern world is that there 

 is no religion without morality. This is the law for 

 individuals. Nations are probably as immoral to-day 

 as ever they were, just as selfish and revengeful. 



The intellectual point of view is bound to prevail 



