The gods of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Jews, Greeks, Romans and Britons (including all other peoples of Western Europe), are no longer worshiped. They sank into neglect from various causes. Some fell by a natural decay; there was not enough in them to enable them to retain their hold upon their worshipers as foreign religions were introduced. Some of the peoples holding these faiths lost their distinctively national existence and their faith faded out along with their national life. Stronger races of strange peoples swept over their lands, driving them out or subduing them. The conqueror’s customs and religious worship then took the place of those of the conquered people. Another cause of the death of certain religions, and a more frequent cause, has been the coming in of a better system. In this way the Egyptian religion gave place to the Christian, and that in turn (in Egypt) to the Mohammedan. The false gods of the Greeks, Romans, Britons and other nations were forgotten in the coming of the religion of Jesus Christ. Mrs. Browning’s beautiful poem, “The Dead Pan,” is based on a tradition mentioned by Plutarch, according to which, at the hour of the Saviour’s agony a cry of “Great Pan is dead!” swept across the waves in the hearing of some sailors, and immediately the oracles ceased. She writes: “Gods of Hellas, Gods of Hellas, Can ye listen in your silence? Can your mystic voices tell us Where ye hide? In floating islands, With a wind that evermore Keeps you out of sight of shore? Pan, Pan is dead. “And that dismal cry rose slowly And sank slowly through the air, Full of spirit’s melancholy And eternity’s despair! And they heard the words it said-- PAN IS DEAD--GREAT PAN IS DEAD-- PAN, PAN IS DEAD. “’Twas the hour when One in Sion Hung for love’s sake on a cross; When His brow was chill with dying, And His soul was faint with loss; When His priestly blood dropped downward, And His kingly eyes looked throneward-- Then, Pan was dead. “By the love He stood alone in, His sole Godhead rose complete, And the false gods fell down moaning, Each from off his golden seat; All the false gods with a cry Rendered up their deity-- Pan, Pan was dead.”