The principal theories offered may be classed as the _ethical_, the _physical_, and the _historical_, according to the different objects the framers of the myths are supposed to have had in view. Some have regarded the myths as invented by the priests and wise men of old for the improvement and government of society, as designed to give authority to laws, and maintain social order.[155] Others have regarded them as intended to be allegorical interpretations of physical phenomena--the poetic embodiment of the natural philosophy of the primitive races of men;[156] whilst others have looked upon them as historical legends, having a substratum of fact, and, when stripped of the supernatural and miraculous drapery which accompanies fable, as containing the history of primitive times.[157] Some of the latter class have imagined they could recognize in Grecian mythology traces of sacred personages, as well as profane; in fact, a dimmed image of the patriarchal traditions which are preserved in the Old Testament scriptures.[158] It is beyond our design to discuss all the various theories presented, or even to give a history of opinions entertained.[159] We are fully convinced that the hypothesis we have presented in the preceding pages, viz., _that Grecian mythology was a grand symbolic representation of the Divine as manifested in nature and providence_, is the only hypothesis which meets and harmonizes all the facts of the case. This is the theory of Plato, of Cudworth, Baumgarten, Max Müller, and many other distinguished scholars. [Footnote 155: Empedocles, Metrodorus.] [Footnote 156: Aristotle.] [Footnote 157: Hecatæus, Herodotus, some of the early Fathers, Niebuhr, J.H. Voss, Arnold.] [Footnote 158: Bochart, G.J. Vossius, Faber, Gladstone.] [Footnote 159: To the English reader who desires an extended and accurate acquaintance with the classic and patristic literature of this deeply interesting subject, we commend the careful study of Cudworth's "Intellectual System of the Universe," especially ch. iv. The style of Cudworth is perplexingly involved, and his great work is unmethodical in its arrangement and discussion. Nevertheless, the patient and persevering student will be amply rewarded for his pains. A work of more profound research into the doctrine of antiquity concerning God, and into the real import of the religious systems of the ancient world, is, probably, not extant in any language.] There are two fundamental propositions laid down by Cudworth which constitute the basis of this hypothesis. 1. _No well-authenticated instance can be furnished from among the Greek Polytheists of one who taught the existence of a multiplicity of independenty uncreated, self-existent deities; they almost universally_ _believed in the existence of_ ONE SUPREME, UNCREATED, ETERNAL GOD, "_The Maker of all things_"--"_the Father of gods and men_,"--"_the sole Monarch and Ruler of the world_."