4 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. 
This religion of Nature is seen at its best as devel- 
oped by the highly spiritual Greeks under the clear 
skies of their sunny land, in the worship of the cloud- 
compelling Zeus, the lightning Hephestus, the wind- 
ruling AZolus, the wise Athena, and the myriad other 
impersonations which, by a blending of physics and 
poetry, evolved a mythology the richness and beauty of 
which will be an inexhaustible source of delight through 
all time. The outdoor life of those ancient Greeks has 
reacted and is still reacting upon our own literature with 
a power we scarcely realize. 
The old Norse myths concerning Thor and Balder 
and Freya and many another show us the forms under 
which our ancestors, dwellers by the North Sea twenty 
centuries ago and more, worshipped the powers of 
Nature. This very day was once Thor’s day, dedicated 
to his worship; yesterday was Woden’s day; to-morrow 
will be Freya’s day; and these names, slightly modified 
‘by lapse of years, are historic landmarks of great signifi- 
cance in the religious development of the Germanic 
stock. On English soil druids once performed their 
religious rites in the depths of the oak groves; now 
Christian priests in noble cathedrals, the pillars of which 
are imitations of the oak boles, and the naves are imita- 
tions of the forest aisles, worship in spirit and in truth. 
But the condition in which the myth is developed 
can exist in only a certain stage, generally an early one, 
in the culture of mankind. “As the Isis veil is lifted by 
