68

OUR RELATION TO THE DEITY.

[Part 1.

by the Gauls, in shrewdness and cunning by Carthage, in thefine arts by Greece, and in mere native talent by some of ourItalian fellow-countrymen ; but, in the single point of attention toreligion , we have exceeded other nations, and it is by the fa-vorable influence of this circumstance upon the character of thepeople, that I account for our success in acquiring the political andmilitary ascendency that we now enjoy throughout the world.” *All who are familiar with the Greek tragedies know how manyillustrations might be drawn from thence. I content myself witha single specimen from Sophocles’ GUdipus Tyrannus. TheChorus sings thus ; — line 863, &c.

u Grant me, henceforth, ye powers divine,

In virtue’s purest paths to tread;

In every word, in every deed,

May sanctity of manners ever shine,

Obedient to the laws of Jove,

The laws descended from above.”

Again,

i( Perish the impious and profane,

Who, void of reverential fear,

Nor justice nor the laws revere ;

Who leave their God, for pleasure or for gain ;

Who swell by fraud their ill-got store;

Who rob the wretched and the poor.”

But the most instructive passage to be found in all heathen anti-quity, illustrative of the moral effect of a belief in t£ a powerabove us,” is in Claudian, and must be familiar to every classi-cal scholar, f Such is a specimen of the recorded convictionsof heathen writers on this subject; and it shows, among otherthings, how much superior, in its moral tendency, heathenismis to the atheism, or even to the skepticism of our days.

I scarcely know whether it may be advisable to add anything to the preceding from Christian times and Christian authors ;but, at the risk of doing what is superfluous, I will subjoin somefew confirmations of this kind. To collect, however, the senti-ments of individuals would be an endless task, and, after all, mightnot be satisfactory. It may be more useful to resort for testi-

* Quoted by A. H. Everett, in the Senate of Massachusetts, 1831.t In Rufinum, Lib. I.; translated in the London Quarterly Review, No.LXXXV. p. 187.