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
me too much. They seem to be the most civil and humane, but I
may be mistaken. Every people have gods to suit their
circumstances; the Society Islanders had a god called Toahitu,
"in shape like a dog; he saved such as were in danger of falling
from rocks and trees." I think that we can do without him, as we
have not much climbing to do. Among them a man could make
himself a god out of a piece of wood in a few minutes, which
would frighten him out of his wits.
I fancy that some indefatigable spinster of the old school, who
had the supreme felicity to be born in "days that tried men's
souls," hearing this, may say with Nestor, another of the old
school, "But you are younger than I. For time was when I
conversed with greater men than you. For not at any time have I
seen such men, nor shall see them, as Perithous, and Dryas, and
," that is probably Washington, sole "Shepherd of
the People." And when Apollo has now six times rolled westward,
or seemed to roll, and now for the seventh time shows his face in
the east, eyes wellnigh glazed, long glassed, which have
fluctuated only between lamb's wool and worsted, explore
ceaselessly some good sermon book.
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