theorems of astronomy
were used to establish an alleged method of divination; formulas of
incantation, supposed to subject divine powers to the magician, were
combined with chemical experiments and medical prescriptions.

This intimate union of erudition and faith continued {33} in the Latin
world. Theology became more and more a process of deification of the
principles or agents discovered by science and a worship of time regarded
as the first cause, the stars whose course determined the events of this
world, the four elements whose innumerable combinations produced the
natural phenomena, and especially the sun which preserved heat, fertility
and life. The dogmas of the mysteries of Mithra were, to a certain extent,
the religious expression of Roman physics and astronomy. In all forms of
pantheism the knowledge of nature appears to be inseparable from that of
God.[15] Art itself complied more and more with the tendency to express
erudite ideas by subtle symbolism, and it represented in allegorical
figures the relations of divine powers and cosmic forces, like the sky, the
earth, the ocean, the planets, the constellations and the winds. The
sculptors engraved on stone everything man thought and taught. In a general
way the belief prevailed that redemption and salvation depended on the
revelation of certain truths, on a knowledge of the gods, of the world and
of our person, and piety became gnosis.[16]

But, you will say, since in the classic age philosophy also claimed to lead
to morality through instruction and to acquaint man with the supreme good,
why did it yield to Oriental religions that were in reality neither
original nor innovating? Quite right, and if a powerful rationalist school,
possessed of a good critical method, had led the minds, we may believe that
it would have checked the invasion of the barbarian mysteries or at least
limited their field of action. However, as has frequently been pointed out,
even in ancient Greece the philosophic critics had very little hold on {34}
popular religion obstinately faithful to its inherited superstitious forms.
But how many second century minds shared Lucian's skepticism in regard to
the dogmatic systems! The various sects were fighting each other for ever
so long without convincing one another of their alleged error. The satirist
of Samosata enjoyed opposing their exclusive pretensions while he himself
reclined on the "soft pillow of doubt." But only intelligent minds