at
all forgetting how considerable these were. The principal divergence was
that Christianity, by placing God in an ideal sphere beyond the confines of
this world, endeavored to rid itself of every attachment to a frequently
abject polytheism. But even if we oppose tradition, we cannot break with
the past that has formed us, nor separate ourselves from the present in
which we live. As the religious history of the empire is studied more
closely, the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and
more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. We can understand
the Christianity of the fifth century with its greatness and weaknesses,
its spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we know the
moral antecedents of the world in which it developed. The faith of the
friends of Symmachus was much farther removed from the religious ideal of
Augustus, although they would never have admitted it, than that of their
opponents in the senate. I hope that these studies will succeed in showing
how the pagan religions from the Orient aided the long continued effort of
Roman society, contented for many centuries with a rather insipid idolatry,
toward more elevated and more profound forms of worship. Possibly their
credulous mysticism deserves as much blame as is laid upon the theurgy of
neo-Platonism, which drew from the same sources of inspiration, but like
neo-Platonism it has strengthened man's feeling of eminent dignity by
asserting the divine nature of the soul. By making inner purity the main
object of earthly existence, they refined and exalted the psychic life and
gave it an almost supernatural intensity, which until then was unknown in
the ancient world. {xxv}

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

In this second edition the eight lectures forming the reading matter of
this book have suffered scarcely any change, and, excepting the chapter on
Syria, the additions are insignificant. It would have been an easy matter
to expand them, but I did not want these lectures to become erudite
dissertations, nor the ideas which are the essential part of a sketch like
the present to be overwhelmed by a multiplicity of facts. In general I have
therefore limited myself to weeding out certain errors that were
overlooked, or introduced, in the proofreading.

The notes, however, have been radically revised. I have endeavored to give
expression to the suggestions or observations communicated to me by
obliging readers; t