is to be found of the fact that during numberless ages of human
existence the Supreme Creator was worshipped as female.

One has only to study the Greek character to anticipate the manner in
which any subject pertaining to women would be treated by that arrogant
and conceited race; and, as until recently most of our information
concerning the past has come through Greek sources, the distorted and
one-sided view taken of human events, and the contempt with which the
feminine half of society has been regarded, are in no wise surprising.
We must bear in mind the fact, however, that the Greeks were but the
degenerate descendants of the highly civilized peoples whom they were
pleased to term "barbarians," and that they knew less of the origin and
character of the gods which they worshipped, and which they had borrowed
from other countries, than is known of them at the present time.

About 600 years B.C., we may believe that mankind had sunk to the lowest
depth of human degradation, since which time humanity has been slowly
retracting its course; not, however, with any degree of continuity or
regularity, nor without lapses, during which for hundreds of years the
current seemed to roll backward. Indeed when we review the history of
the intervening ages, and note the extent to which passion, prejudice,
and superstition have been in the ascendancy over reason and judgment,
we may truly say: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's
teeth have been set on edge."

CHAPTER XII. AN ATTEMPT TO PURIFY THE SENSUALIZED FAITHS.

It has been said of the Persians that in their zeal to purify the
sensualized faiths which everywhere prevailed they manifested a decided
"repugnance to the worship of images, beasts, or symbols, while they
sought to establish the worship of the only true creative force, or
God--Holy Fire."

From the facts to be gleaned concerning this people during the seventh
and eighth centuries B.C., it is quite probable that they still had a
faint knowledge of a former age of intellectual and moral greatness,
and that it was their object, at that time, to return to the purer
principles which characterized it. That their efforts were subsequently
copied by surrounding nations is shown in the facts connected with their
history.

Soon leading Syrians and Jews began to learn from their Eastern neighbor
that the worship of images could scarcely be acceptable to a god which
they were beginning to invest wit