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No man can imagine these things can be Gods in
themselves. And therefore nothing can be a God to men
that is either without soul or under their power. But yet
by means of these things we come to think them Gods that
use them themselves and bestow them upon us, and that
render them perpetual and continual. And those are not
some in one country and others in another, nor some Grecians and others barbarians, nor some southern and others
northern; but as the sun, moon, land, and sea are common
to all men, but yet have different names in different nations,
so that one discourse that orders these things, and that one
forecast that administers them, and those subordinate
powers that are set over every nation in particular, have
assigned them by the laws of several countries several
kinds of honors and appellations. And those that have
[p. 125]
been consecrated to their service make use, some of them
of darker, and others again of clearer symbols, thereby
guiding the understanding to the knowledge of things divine, not without much danger and hazard. For some not
being able to reach their true meaning, have slid into downright superstition; and others again, while they would fly
the quagmire of superstition, have fallen unwittingly upon
the precipice of atheism.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 4.
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