The Hellenic View Of Beauty

But if the Greek view of beauty bo foiind to havt; boen Panthèistlc oiily, and that in tlic Theistic sense - so tbat the Attic citizen really thougat the olivos ot' hij Acadome hadsomething of an uiiKiiownGod in them, or manifestcd God to liim - then it is no use trying to appeal to his lito as godless, or to bis art as irreligioua, He did not know God, but ho ccrtainly sought a f ter biin. He was, no doubt, ratlier Buper8titiou8, as St. Paul told hini, and as had been remarked of him in anothor tone by Thucydidea four tinndred years before. Ilis Deisidaamouia sonictiines did him inore liana than good ; but lic did, aftel1 his fashion, beliove in God, and foei after him as manifestad by natural things. 11e thought nyniphs livcd in the streams, and Oryads in the oak.-s, and tbat Athene was somowhere about Athens, chiefly in the Parthenon. But he thought Athene was "bis goddess" in good earnest, and tbat she miht be one rnanifestation of the one theion: and, moreover, that the nymphs and dryada would know, it' he polluted tlie land by tnurdcr or other evil deeds, beneath their oaks, or by their slreams. Buperstition was pre vale ut amonx the Athenians; the mumeries of reugious rites, the false prophesies of their gods, influenced by the learned priesta leadiag the runt, as wituesa Lhc address : "Thon Paul stoocl in the tnidat of Mars Hill and saiil, Ve men of Athens, I perceive tliat in all things ye are too superBtitious." llo believed in a Theion ui Divinity, and in a kind of tratchÑll pólice ot' spirits and local iierooa dead and jgone beLue, wlo wunld not havo their land pollated by liis .sin. And for a timo, oud in a tneasure, he rulod hiinselt accordiiigly. Ln the Perioleau, or Fueidian agc, ilio Athonlan soklier, geaman and legislator was about the last ,porson in the world to look to aa an cxampio of jSaturo's happy Agnosticisiu." As our Oothic ancestors built churches tor niovlern iuiklels to criticiso, or couLoinplate as deiiuded ot LUeir associa,ioi]j and tlioir revurcucu ; so Pheidlai and Ictiuius, who ccruiinly believud very nuion inoro in God tiian the uiodaeu rouaiaSAiicii, üoquoatued in the l'.irLiicnon, lo m.iko tue most ol' it, not ii8 uu ai'ijumeut lor Gri'eeic thoisni, lt lias tlain aud agiuu beuu poiuted out nuV sy niatiiuucuily til. i'aul deals witli lus Avoojjaitio audioiioe. Hu a idrüSSUí thüiU iliuotil as onu of thein,s Ivüs, uuly iie UiM tuis special ines■ ,v.,i i, lie kiio.vrf, ui.'y all so deairu and lou to ücai" "Wiioinye Lgnoiaiuiv vYoi-sliip liim declare 1 uuio you."-