Every heathen conception of deity in which you are likely to be
interested, has three distinct characters:--
I. It has a physical character. It represents some of the great
powers or objects of nature--sun or moon, or heaven, or the winds,
or the sea. And the fables first related about each deity
represent, figuratively, the action or the natural power which it
represents; such as the rising and setting of the sun, the tides
of the sea, and so on.
II. It has an ethical character, and represents, in its history,
the moral dealings of God with man. Thus Apollo is first,
physically, the sun contending with darkness; but morally, the
power of divine life contending with corruption. Athena is,
physically, the air; morally, the breathing of the divine spirit
of wisdom. Neptune is, physically, the sea; morally, the supreme
power of agitating passion; and so on.
III. It has, at last, a personal character; and is realized in the
minds of its worshipers as a living spirit, with whom men may
speak face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.
Now it is impossible to define exactly, how far, at any period of
a national religion, these three ideas are mingled; or how far one
prevails over the other. Each inquirer usually takes up one of
these ideas, and pursues it, to the exclusion of the others; no
impartial effort seems to have been made to discern the real state
of the heathen imagination in its successive phases.
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