but a
_mental_ connection. It is the bond of Creative Thought and Will giving
to organic forces a foreseen direction towards the working out of a
grand plan. See Agassiz, "Contributions to Natural History," vol. i. pp.
9, 10; Duke of Argyll, "Reign of Law," ch. v.]

We shall now endeavor to trace this process of gradual preparation for
Christianity in the Greek mind--

(i.) _In the field of_ THEISTIC _conceptions_.

(ii.) _In the department of_ ETHICAL _ideas and principles_.

(iii.) _In the region of_ RELIGIOUS _sentiment_.

In the field of theistic conception the propaedeutic office of Grecian
philosophy is seen--

I. _In the release of the popular mind from Polytheistic notion, and the
purifying and spiritualizing of the Theistic idea_.

The idea of a Supreme Power, a living Personality, energizing in nature,
and presiding over the affairs of men, is not the product of philosophy.
It is the immanent, spontaneous thought of humanity. It has, therefore,
existed in all ages, and revealed itself in all minds, even when it has
not been presented to the understanding as a definite conception, and
expressed by human language in a logical form. It is the thought which
instinctively arises in the opening reason of childhood, as the dim and
shadowy consciousness of a living mind behind all the movement and
change of the universe. Then comes the period of doubt, of anxious
questioning, and independent inquiry. The youth seeks to account to
himself for this peculiar sentiment. He turns his earnest gaze towards
nature, and through this living vesture of the infinite he seeks to
catch some glimpses of the living Soul. In some fact appreciable to
sense, in some phenomenon he can see, or hear, or touch, he would fain
grasp the cause and reason of all that is. But in this field of inquiry
and by this method he finds only a "receding God," who falls back as he
approaches, and is ever still beyond; and he sinks down in exhaustion
and feebleness, the victim of doubt, perhaps despair. Still the
sentiment of the Divine remains, a living force, in the centre of his
moral being. He turns his scrutinizing gaze within, and by
self-reflection seeks for some rational ground for his instinctive
faith. There he finds some convictions he can not doubt, some ideas he
can not call in question, some thoughts he is compelled to think, some
necessary and universal principles which in their natural and logical
development ally him to an unseen w