n is honored in a thousand different ways
by mortals who are thus in accord in spite of their discord."[20]

However, this ineffable God, who comprehensively embraces everything,
manifests himself especially in {208} the resplendent brightness of the
ethereal sky.[21] He reveals his power in water and in fire, in the earth,
the sea and the blowing of the winds; but his purest, most radiant and most
active epiphany is in the stars whose revolutions determine every event and
all our actions. Above all he manifests himself in the sun, the motive
power of the celestial spheres, the inexhaustible seat of light and life,
the creator of all intelligence on earth. Certain philosophers like the
senator Praetextatus, one of the _dramatis personae_ of Macrobius,
confounded all the ancient divinities of paganism with the sun in a
thorough-going syncretism.[22]

Just as a superficial observation might lead to the belief that the
theology of the last pagans had reverted to its origin, so at first sight
the transformation of the ritual might appear like a return to savagery.
With the adoption of the Oriental mysteries barbarous, cruel and obscene
practices were undoubtedly spread, as for instance the masquerading in the
guise of animals in the Mithraic initiations, the bloody dances of the
_galli_ of the Great Mother and the mutilations of the Syrian priests.
Nature worship was originally as "amoral" as nature itself. But an ethereal
spiritualism ideally transfigured the coarseness of those primitive
customs. Just as the doctrine had become completely impregnated with
philosophy and erudition, so the liturgy had become saturated with ethical
ideas.

The taurobolium, a disgusting shower-bath of lukewarm blood, had become a
means of obtaining a new and eternal life; the ritualistic ablutions were
no longer external and material acts, but were supposed to cleanse the soul
of its impurities and to restore its original innocence; the sacred repasts
{209} imparted an intimate virtue to the soul and furnished sustenance to
the spiritual life. While efforts were made to maintain the continuity of
tradition, its content had slowly been transformed. The most shocking and
licentious fables were metamorphosed into edifying narratives by convenient
and subtle interpretations which were a joy to the learned mythographers.
Paganism had become a school of morality, the priest a doctor and director
of the conscience.[23]

The purity and holiness im