The immortalities erected by Egyptian or Grecian philosophy were no purer, in moral conception and attributes, than the mythological fantasies of the North American Indians.

In them all, human nature was to have the old play of its passions and appetites; in some of them, a wider sweep and sway.

There was not one in the whole set of Grecian deities half so moral and pure, in sentiment and conduct, as Socrates; nor were Jupiter and his subordinate celestials better than the average kings and courts of Greece.

Out of the hay, wood, and stubble of sheer fancy the human mind was left to raise these fantastic structures.

They exercised and entertained the imagination, but brought no light nor strength to the soul; no superior nor additional motives to shape the conduct of life.