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superstructure of classic mythology, whether studied in the Greek or in the Latin language, we shall still find so much of beauty and of grandeur as to excite admiration; especially if we confine ourselves to its more remarkable and interesting characteristics.

The first and most important of these characteristics is that it invests matter with mind; it beholds in the visible world only the embodying of spirit, -the dwelling-place of the unseen essence of life. In the view of the early Greeks, the world was not only instinct with life, it was the habitation of divinity. As the human body is the tabernacle of the soul, so they believed the universe, the heavenly bodies, the earth and sea, rivers and fountains, trees and flowers, mountains and valleys, to be only the haunts of superior and more ethereal natures. But they saw that the frame of man is perishable; it grows old and dies, and is no longer the habitation of the spirit. On the other hand the elements seem to be eternal; the world shows no signs of age; the rivers flow on in undiminished grandeur through countless ages. The ceaseless rolling of the immeasurable sea, the undimmed lustre of the sun, and moon, and stars, the everlasting hills, the freshness and glory of returning spring, all spoke to them of eternal duration; and they believed that the Soul, which had enshrined itself in a home, over which time has no influence, must likewise be eternal; it was more enduring and of greater power than the soul of man, which needs its habitation but a span of years, and then consigns it to decay and oblivion; it was divine in its nature; it was God. Hence, in their eyes, outward nature was invested with a dignity and grandeur, which rendered it holy, and impressed them with veneration and awe. It was the embodying of the divinity; their deep and dark groves, their fountains, the mountain tops, the firmament, the unexplored caverns of the ocean, were consecrated as the permanent habitation of their gods.

It was this trait in the classic mythology, which rendered it so highly poetical. With the Greeks, all that belonged to poetry belonged also peculiarly to religion. The same name was applied in their language to the prophet and the bard; and they hailed the fancies of the poet as revelations from their gods. Hence, as the Grecian bard sang the praises of the immortals, the lively minds of that gifted race welcomed and repeated the beautiful fictions, which added new charms to their religion. In man's connexion with the outward world, they beheld his communion with the gods. Was the fair youth drowned in the dark waters of the sea? It was the tutelary nymphs who, enamoured of his beauty, had carried him down to their blissful abodes, to enjoy with them an eternity of happiness beyond the reach of the pains and sorrows of human life. Was the lovely maiden lost to her companions, as she gathered flowers on the fields of Ætna? She was not dead; she was reigning in awful

pomp over the world of shades, by the side of her stately consort, who had braved the hated light of the upper earth to win her. The fires that blazed from the unfathomed crater of the volcano, the planets that glittered in the firmament, the golden clouds, bathed in the effulgence of the setting sun, the winds that wafted perfumes from the balmy south, or rushed in their terrors from the unknown north, the mysterious songs that echoed from the shores of Ausonia, the enchanted fruit that ripened in the garden of the Hesperides, the trees that dropped amber on the banks of the king of rivers, were all intimately connected with this poetic religion, and spoke to man of his dependence on the gods.

The effect of thus embodying divinity in the outward world was to increase very rapidly the number of deities. Every spot had its peculiar genius; each element was the habitation of a god; no portion of the varied universe was without its tutelary deity. The number of gods worshipped therefore increased till they are said to have amounted in Greece to about thirty thousand; and they became so numerous in Rome, that it was at length found necessary to dispose of them by colonization. There are two ways in which this multiplication has been viewed; the one disparaging, the other extenuating; the one regarding such an endless creation as a most disgusting feature of idolatry, and continually demonstrating how the heathen mind inclines to deviate from the worship of the true God. The other view of the matter is this,-that while such minds are at work as characterized Greece and Rome, and relative to religion, their natural tendency must be, so long as they are unenlightened by revelation, and yet able continually to discover the traces of more than mortal power in every object of the universe, to assign to each varying department a peculiar divinity; that could such minds have extended their researches still further, they undoubtedly would have found in the endless wonders which present themselves the proofs of a still greater number of deities, and have multiplied the theogony far beyond the point to which it was actually carried. This is not the whole of the favourable view; for it is imagined that such a progress in polytheism would at some period have been arrested by enlightened and reflecting worshippers perceiving its absurdities, and at once proclaiming the mystery of the universe to be alone explainable by referring everything and every phenomenon to one infinite Creator. Seeing that there was in every object and element the same all-pervading nature, would not the belief in one Omnipotent, Benevolent, and Wise Being have been discovered and universally established? And were not Socrates and Plato on the verge of disclosing the grand key-stone,-of pronouncing the word, "There is but one God?"

The latter theory, however, appears to us to be at odds not only with facts, but with principles and truths taught us by the highest

authority. The facts are, that the Greeks and Romans were continually tending towards a grosser and more licentious idolatry, so far as the multitude were concerned; while the educated and the philosophic were inclining rather to a cold scepticism than towards a simple and consoling creed. Then as to Scriptural doctrine, the fulness of time had arrived without the fulness of truth; and had not the promised Messiah appeared, or some mighty heavenly interposition occurred, the world at the present day, in all probability, would have been in a far darker condition than it exhibited when Socrates and Plato, or when Cicero flourished.

Another remarkable characteristic of the classic religion was its intimate connexion with the concerns of life. The craving and capacious minds of the Greeks and Romans inclined to regard every branch of industry, every pursuit in which body or mind is engaged, as having some relation to a deity. This characteristic is observable in the domestic worship of the ancients; especially of the Romans, at whose hearths the Penates presided, and who never abandoned the individual over whom they had peculiar charge,-who shared with him alike his prosperity and his misfortunes. For every branch of industry, as already stated, for every recreation, every enterprise, civil and military, there was some peculiar tutelary god to whom homage was offered.

Finally, the classic mythology was characterized by the ideas which it revealed, and through which it acted with vast power on the national mind both of Greece and Rome. It certainly taught the doctrine of immortal life after death; of happiness for the good, and punishment for the wicked. The belief in the soul's annihilation seems never to have been generally entertained in Greece. Homer speaks of a dim and shadowy existence which continued after the termination of the present life, though not of a nature to console and cheer by the prospect. Achilles gives a melancholy representation to Ulysses of his existence in the world of shades. But visions of a happier existence seem also to have visited the mind of the great poet. In the fourth book of the Odyssey, where Menelaus relates to Telemachus the splendid prophecy of Proteus respecting himself, we find a beautiful description of the Elysian fields.

Pindar, in his second Olympic, gives this picture of the habitation of the virtuous after death:

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But in the blessed company

Of spirits, by the gods with honour crowned,
Men who rejoiced to keep their oaths unshent,
Their days through tearless ages run.

And they that thrice above, below

This earth, with transmigrating entity

Have stood their trial, passing to and fro,
And from the unjust society,

Have kept their souls aloof and free;

They take the way which Jove did long ordain,
To Saturn's ancient tower beside the deep;
Where gales, that softly breathe,

Fresh springing from the bosom of the main,
Through islands of the blessed blow.

And flowers, like burning gold of hue,

Some on the green earth creep;

Some bourgeon on the splendid trees;

Some in cool nurturing streams their blossoms steep;
The blissful troops, of these,

For their twined wrists interwoven bracelets wreathe,
And garlands for their brow.

But besides this, there was still a higher state of being, which though attained by very few, seems to have held out hopes and encouragement to all. Those great men who, by their splendid achievements, by the good they had done to their country and to mankind, by their patience under labours, perils, and suffering, their piety and obedience to the gods, their incorruptible faith, their justice, their filial reverence, had far distinguished themselves above their fellow-men, were not merely rewarded by a life of peace and pleasure in the Elysian fields, or the islands of the Blest; but were transferred at once to the glorious mansions of Olympus, allied to the gods, and worshipped by grateful mortals.

The apotheosis of their heroes appears to have been more distinctly impressed upon the belief of the Greeks, than the after-existence of the virtuous. Death was to them the greatest of enemies; and the hope of a future life does not appear to have been sufficiently strong to deprive their last moments of terror. The great object, the prevailing wish of the Grecian hero, was to conquer death, to which he believed that his gods were not subject. The religion which held out to him the hope of allying himself to the immortals, and thus escaping the passage of the dark valley, must be regarded as reaching a point of sublimity beyond anything that paganism had previously offered.

It is further worthy of remark that the classic mythology acted upon the minds of its believers in regard to the new ideas of power which it disclosed, as well as in the hopes it held forth. It was distinguished by making known the existence of greater Power than VOL. II. (1842.) No. I.

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had before been conceived by any save those who worshipped the true God. It assigned to the universe a Master; it spoke of a superior Intelligence. Important consequences attended this doctrine and belief. It was like the revelation that mind governed matter; and this again could not but lead to an increase of capacity in the mind to which this knowledge was conveyed. When the sublime idea of Infinite Power has dawned upon the soul, it increases capacity by awakening thought. It appeals to the deepest and most intense interests of man; it speaks of his eternal nature, his powers, prospects, hopes, and destinies. Such knowledge, also, gives the proper direction to thought, leading it into paths which terminate in the Infinite, and preventing the waste of strength on subjects which are obscured by falsehood, and which can never afford satisfactory results. It directs the mind to all that is immutably true, reveals the everlasting laws of taste, and leads to the study of the intrinsically beautiful. It increases the powers, because it addresses itself to a kindred immortality; because it speaks to the profound and eternal principles of the mind, as "deep calls unto deep."

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The worship of mind therefore was established, instead of the worship of nature. Religion then began to elevate instead of to degrade the mind, as it had done before; hope was held out as a motive, instead of fear; morals began to be inculcated, and higher duties taught; and to this influence of the classic religion has been attributed in a great degree the learning, refinement, and power the Grecian nations. With superior intelligence superior power necessarily came, and a mighty progress in the arts and literature. It was also then made known that the most precious possessions of a country are its worthy children, that the best riches are freedom and its companion, intellectual culture.

The religion of Greece, then, accomplished a great work: it actually advanced mankind certain steps never again to be retraced, on the way to that degree of knowledge and refinement for which our race appear to be destined. Now, if all this be true, the study of classic mythology may not only be rendered harmless, but interesting and instructive.

In the first place, the study of this pagan system is the key to ancient art; it explains and renders interesting what would otherwise be vague, incomprehensible, mysterious. Without the knowledge of the mythology, the collections and remains of Grecian and Roman art would be devoid of meaning, and of comparatively trifling value; whereas this knowledge is equivalent to a revelation to us what was the spirit of ancient art, what the causes which called it into being, the secret of its developments, and the secret of its perfections.

Again, the classic religion not only illustrates literature as well

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