is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be. The
geologists tell us that it took one hundred years to prove that
fossils are organic, and one hundred and fifty more, to prove
that they are not to be referred to the Noachian deluge. I am
not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal
divinities of Greece, rather than to my country's God. Jehovah,
though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute
and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not
so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not
exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a
god of the Greeks. I should fear the infinite power and
inflexible justice of the almighty mortal, hardly as yet
apotheosized, so wholly masculine, with no Sister Juno, no
Apollo, no Venus, nor Minerva, to intercede for me, phyle'ousa' te, k_edome'n_e te>. The Grecian are youthful and
erring and fallen gods, with the vices of men, but in many
important respects essentially of the divine race. In my
Pantheon, Pan still reigns in his pristine glory, with his ruddy
face, his flowing beard, and his shaggy body, his pipe and his
crook, his nymph Echo, and his chosen daughter Iambe; for the
great god Pan is not dead, as was rumored. No god ever dies.
Perhaps of all the gods of New England and of ancient Greece, I
am most constant at his shrine.

It seems to me that the god that is commonly worshipped in
civilized countries is not at all divine, though he bears a
divine name, but is the overwhelming authority and respectability
of mankind combined. Men reverence one another, not yet God. If
I thought that I could speak with discrimination and impartiality
of the nations of Christendom, I should praise them, but it tasks