indeed, that there
was much truth in the view they entertained of the matter, and that
terrible consequences would almost certainly follow the discovery by
the people that for thousands of years they had been led by the
priests to worship as gods those who were no gods at all, and he saw
that the evil which would arise from a general enlightenment of the
people would outweigh any benefit that they could derive from the
discovery. The system had, as his colleagues said, worked well; and
the fact that the people worshiped as actual deities imaginary beings
who were really but the representatives of the attributes of the
infinite God, could not be said to have done them any actual harm. At
any rate, he alone and unaided could do nothing. Only with the general
consent of the higher priesthood could the circle of initiated be
widened, and any movement on his part alone would simply bring upon
himself disgrace and death. Therefore, after unburdening himself in a
council composed only of the higher initiates, he held his peace and
went on the quiet tenor of his way.

Enlightened as he was, he felt that he did no wrong to preside at
the sacrifices and take part in the services of the gods. He was
worshiping not the animal-headed idols, but the attributes which they
personified. He felt pity for the ignorant multitude who laid their
offerings upon the shrine; and yet he felt that it would shatter their
happiness instead of adding to it were they to know that the deity
they worshiped was a myth. He allowed his wife and daughter to join
with the priestesses in the service at the temple, and in his heart
acknowledged that there was much in the contention of those who argued
that the spread of the knowledge of the inner mysteries would not
conduce to the happiness of all who received it. Indeed he himself
would have shrunk from disturbing the minds of his wife and daughter
by informing them that all their pious ministrations in the temple
were offered to non-existent gods; that the sacred animals they tended
were in no way more sacred than others, save that in them were
recognized some shadow of the attributes of the unknown God.

His eldest son was, he saw, not of a disposition to be troubled with
the problems which gave him so much subject for thought and care. He
would conduct the services consciously and well. He would bear a
respectable part when, on his accession to the high-priesthood, he
became one of the councilors of th