They were supposed to absolve the culprit from former crimes, and restore him, a new man, to the bosom of society.

This principle is a great agent of morality, and was felt as such in the earlier era of Christianity: no corrupter is so deadly as despair; to reconcile a criminal with self-esteem is to readmit him, as it were, to virtue.
Even the fundamental error of the religion in point of doctrine, viz., its polytheism, had one redeeming consequence in the toleration which it served to maintain--the grave evils which spring up from the fierce antagonism of religious opinions, were, save in a few solitary and dubious instances, unknown to the Greeks.

And this general toleration, assisted yet more by the absence of a separate caste of priests, tended to lead to philosophy through the open and unchallenged portals of religion.

Speculations on the gods connected themselves with bold inquiries into nature.

Thought let loose in the wide space of creation--no obstacle to its wanderings--no monopoly of its commerce--achieved, after many a wild and fruitless voyage, discoveries unknown to the past--of imperishable importance to the future.