are given.]

Aristotle continued the work of undermining polytheism. He defines God
as "the Eternal Reason"--the Supreme Mind. "He is the immovable cause of
all movement in the universe, the all-perfect principle. This principle
or essence pervades all things. It eternally possesses perfect
happiness, and its happiness consists in energy. This primeval mover is
immaterial, for its essence is energy--it is pure thought, thought
thinking itself--the thought of thought."[885] Polytheism is thus swept
away from the higher regions of the intelligence. "For several to
command," says he, "is not good, there should be but one chief. A
tradition, handed down from the remotest antiguity, and transmitted
under the veil of fable, says that all the stars are gods, and that the
Divinity embraces the whole of nature. And round this idea other
mythical statements have been agglomerated, with a view to influencing
the vulgar, and for political and moral expediency; as for instance,
they feigned that these gods have human shape, and are like certain of
the animals; and other stories of the kind are added on. Now, if any one
will separate from all this the first point alone, namely, that they
thought the first and deepest grounds of existence to be Divine, he may
consider it a divine utterance."[886] The popular polytheism, then, was
but a perverted fragment of a deeper and purer "Theology." This passage
is a sort of obituary of polytheism. The ancient glory of paganism had
passed away. Philosophy had exploded the old theology. Man had learned
enough to make him renounce the ancient religion, but not enough to
found a new faith that could satisfy both the intellect and the heart.
"Wherefore we are not to be surprised that the grand philosophic period
should be followed by one of incredulity and moral collapse,
inaugurating the long and universal _decadence_ which was, perhaps, as
necessary to the work of preparation, as was the period of religious and
philosophic development."

[Footnote 885: "Metaphysics," bk. xii.]

[Footnote 886: "Metaphysics," bk. xi. ch. viii. Sec. 19.]

The preparatory office of Greek philosophy in the region of speculative
thought is seen--

2. _In the development of the Theistic argument in a logical
form._--Every form of the theistic proof which is now employed by
writers on natural theology to demonstrate the being of God was
apprehended, and logically presented, by one or other of the ancient
philosopher