Were one or all of
these proved to be historical personages, still the fact remains that
the primitive religious sentiment, investing them with the best
attributes of humanity, dwelling on them as its models, worshipping them
as gods, contained a kernel of truth potent to encourage moral
excellence. But if they were mythical, then this truth was of
spontaneous growth, self-developed by the growing distinctness of the
idea of God, a living witness that the religious sense, like every
other faculty, has within itself a power of endless evolution.
If we inquire the secret of the happier influence of this element in
natural worship, it is all contained in one word--its _humanity_. "The
Ideal of Morality," says the contemplative Novalis, "has no more
dangerous rival than the Ideal of the Greatest Strength, of the most
vigorous life, the Brute Ideal" (_das Thier-Ideal_).[296-1] Culture
advances in proportion as man recognizes what faculties are peculiar to
him _as man_, and devotes himself to their education.
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