Vain and impotent are all attempts to identify that religion of Achaian warriors with the religion of oriental priests.

It was indeed symbolical--but of the character of its believers; typical--but of the restless, yet poetical, daring, yet graceful temperament, which afterward conducted to great achievements and imperishable arts: the coming events of glory cast their shadows before, in fable.
XX.

There now opens to us a far more important inquiry than that into the origin and form of the religion of the Greeks; namely, the influences of that religion itself upon their character--their morals -- their social and intellectual tendencies.
The more we can approach the Deity to ourselves--the more we can invest him with human attributes--the more we can connect him with the affairs and sympathies of earth, the greater will be his influence upon our conduct--the more fondly we shall contemplate his attributes, the more timidly we shall shrink from his vigilance, the more anxiously we shall strive for his approval.

When Epicurus allowed the gods to exist, but imagined them wholly indifferent to the concerns of men, contemplating only their own happiness, and regardless alike of our virtues or our crimes;--with that doctrine he robbed man of the divinity, as effectually as if he had denied his existence.

The fear of the gods could not be before the eyes of votaries who believed that the gods were utterly careless of their conduct; and not only the awful control of religion was removed from their passions, but the more beautiful part of its influence, resulting not from terror but from hope, was equally blasted and destroyed: For if the fear of the divine power serves to restrain the less noble natures, so, on the other hand, with such as are more elevated and generous, there is no pleasure like the belief that we are regarded with approbation and love by a Being of ineffable majesty and goodness--who compassionates our misfortunes--who rewards our struggles with ourselves.