on of ritualistic forms
and institutions, were more closely akin to the Aryan Persians than to
any Semitic community, and borrowed freely from them. The resemblance
between the two cults, however, was confined to these two points; in
other respects they were very different.

+948+. The linguistic identity of the Indo-European peoples does not
carry with it theologic identity. The theistic scheme of India is more
nearly allied, in the disposition to grant equality of significance to
all gods, to the Egyptian and Semitic than to the Persian and the Greek,
yet the tone and color of the Hindu deities do not resemble the tone and
color of the Egyptian and Babylonian divinities.

Even between Greece and Rome the religious differences are great. Greece
stands alone in its artistic creation of divine forms. Rome rather
resembles the Hebrews in its sobriety of theistic creations, and
particularly is like the Chinese in the purpose to make religion
subservient to the interests of the family and the State; Roman
religion, like Chinese, might be described as a body of public and
private ceremonies to which gods were attached.[1732] The Roman gods,
however, are much more definite figures than the Chinese; the latter are
either unimportant folk-gods or powers of nature.

+949+. The contrast between Mexico, with its considerable number of
departmental gods, some of them savage, and Peru, whose
quasi-monotheistic system is relatively mild, is striking. But the
origin of these two peoples (who perhaps are made up of different sets
of tribes) is involved in obscurity, and it is uncertain whether or not
we should expect a greater resemblance between their cults.

+950+. The differentiation in the theistic scheme of the Teutons,
especially the Scandinavians, is noteworthy. Several of their deities,
particularly Wodan (Odin), Thor, and Loki, are well-developed persons,
and these and some others do not differ materially in character from the
earlier corresponding Hindu and Greek gods. A comparison between the
Teutonic figures and the Celtic and Slavic would be pertinent if we knew
more of the character of these last; but the information about them is
slight.[1733]

+951+. The extent of the anthropomorphization of gods in any system may
be measured by the richness and refinement of its mythology. When the
gods live apart from men, being conceived of mainly as transcendent
Powers, or when they are not fully developed men, there is little