his misgiving led to a tradition which, even should it be unfounded
in history, had some truth in itself, that there was in Peru an
earlier worship, that of an invisible Deity, the Creator of the world,
Pachacamac. In Greece, also, there are signs of a similar craving
after the "Unknown God." A supreme God was wanted, and Zeus, the
stripling of Creta, was raised to that rank. He became God above all
gods--[Greek: hapanton kyrios] as Pindar calls him. Yet more was
wanted than a mere Zeus; and thus a supreme Fate or Spell was imagined
before which all the gods, and even Zeus, had to bow. And even this
Fate was not allowed to remain supreme, and there was something in the
destinies of man which was called [Greek: hypermoron], or "beyond
Fate." The most awful solution, however, of the problem belongs to
Teutonic mythology. Here, also, some heroes were introduced; but their
death was only the beginning of the final catastrophe. "All gods must
die." Such is the last word of that religion which had grown up in the
forests of Germany, and found a last refuge among the glaciers and
volcanoes of Iceland. The death of Sigurd, the descendant of Odin,
could not avert the death of Balder, the son of Odin; and the death of
Balder was soon to be followed by the death of Odin himself, and of
all the immortal gods.

All this was inevitable, and Prometheus, the man of forethought, could
safely predict the fall of Zeus. The struggles by which reason and
faith overthrow tradition and superstition vary in different countries
and at different times; but the final victory is always on their side.
In India the same antagonism manifested itself, but what there seemed
a victory of reason threatened to become the destruction of all
religious faith. At first there was hardly a struggle. On the
primitive mythological stratum of thought two new formations
arose,--the Brahmanical philosophy and the Brahmanical ceremonial; the
one opening the widest avenues of philosophical thought, the other
fencing all religious feeling within the narrowest barriers. Both
derived their authority from the same source. Both professed to carry
out the meaning and purpose of the Veda. Thus we see on the one side,
the growth of a numerous and powerful priesthood, and the
establishment of a ceremonial which embraced every moment of a man's
life from his birth to his death. There was no event which might have
moved the heart to a spontaneous outpouring of praise or thanksgi