ate man, is a portion
of that God? That is to say, the dead statue controls Mars, and Mars is a
subordinate god representing the infinite God, and is, therefore, a part
of that God. Augustin adds, Not the Pantheon and all the temples
consecrated to the inferior gods, nor even the temples consecrated to the
twelve greater gods prevented "Deus Optimus Maximus," God most good, most
great, from being acknowledged throughout the empire. Voltaire says, "In
spite of all the follies of the people who venerated secondary and
ridiculous gods, and in spite of the Epicurians, who in reality
acknowledged none, it is verified that in all times the magistrates and
wise adored one sovereign God." Secondary gods were _myths_, counterfeits,
sustaining the _relation_ of counterfeits. The ancients attributed their
own passions to the "Master God," and had subordinate gods representing
passions. They also had a god for each part of His dominion; and these
gods they called members of the true God, and claimed to worship Him, by
worshiping all the members or gods. Mars was the god of war; Bacchus was
the god of drunkenness. They had a god for this and a god for that. The
ancient pagans seemed to think that infinite divisibility belonged to the
"true God," for they distinguished between passions, and divided up the
universe among the gods until they had it crammed full of subordinate and
ridiculous gods, each one a member of Jehovah, and each member a part of
the great mythical system.

Now, in order to establish the proposition that our religion is of
mythical origin, it is necessary to show, first, that the Bible was
written this side of or during the age of myths, and, having done this, it
is necessary to show that the Hebrew people were a mythical people;
neither of which can be accomplished. It will not be amiss to present in
this connection a statement given by Justin to the Greeks. He says: "Of
all your teachers, whether sages, poets, historians, philosophers, or
law-givers, by far the oldest, as the Greek historians show us, was
Moses.... For in the times of Ogyges and Inachus, whom some of your poets
have supposed to have been earth-born--that is, to have sprung from the
soil, and hence one of the oldest inhabitants--_the aborigines_, Moses is
mentioned as the leader and ruler of the Jewish nation." He is mentioned
as a very ancient and time-honored prince in the Athenian, Attic and
Grecian histories. Polemon, in his first book of Hell