his knowledge of nature. As a
rule, one or the other of these two methods of criticism tends to
predominate, in accordance with the genius of the race or period. Thus,
the evolution of Greek religion is determined mainly by the development
of science. Xenophanes attacks the religion of his times on the ground
of its crude anthropomorphism. "Mortals," he says, "think that the gods
are born as they are, and have perception like theirs, and voice and
form." But this naive opinion Xenophanes corrects because it is not
consistent with the new enlightenment concerning the _arche_, or first
principle of nature. "And he [God] abideth ever in the same place,
moving not at all; nor doth it befit him to go about, now hither, now
thither." [5]

In a later age Lucretius criticised the whole system of Greek religion in
terms of the atomistic and mechanical cosmology of Epicurus:

For verily not by design did the first-beginnings of things station
themselves each in its right place guided by keen intelligence, nor did
they bargain sooth to say what motions each should assume; but because
many in number and shifting about in many ways throughout the universe
they are driven and {227} tormented by blows during infinite time past,
after trying motions and unions of every kind at length they fall into
arrangements such as those out of which this our sum of things has been
formed.[6]

In the light of such principles Lucretius demonstrates the absurdity of
hoping or fearing anything from a world beyond or a life to come. In
this case, as in the case above, the religion of enlightenment does not
differ essentially from the religion of the average man in its conception
of the interests at stake, but only in its conception of the methods of
worship or forms of imagery which it is reasonable to employ in view of
the actual nature of the environment.

If, on the other hand, we turn to the early development of the Hebrew
religion, we find that it is corrected to meet the demands not of
cosmological but of ethical enlightenment. No question arises as to the
existence or power of God, but only as to what he requires of those who
serve him. The prophets represent the moral genius of the race, its
acute discernment of the causes of social integrity or decay. "And when
ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye
make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash
you, make you clean; p