True philosophy and divine truth are convertible terms. A religion which dreads the light cannot be a religion based on either truth or philosophy--hence, it must be false. The ancient Mysteries were mysteries to the profane only, whom the hierophant never sought nor would accept as proselytes; to the initiates the Mysteries became explained as soon as the final veil was withdrawn. No mind like that of Pythagoras or Plato would have contented itself with an unfathomable and incomprehensible mystery, like that of the Christian dogma. There can be but one truth, for two small truths on the same subject can but constitute one great error. Among thousands of exoteric or popular conflicting religions which have been propagated since the days when the first men were enabled to interchange their ideas, not a nation, not a people, nor the most abject tribe, but after their own fashion has believed in an Unseen God, the First Cause of unerring and immutable laws, and in the immortality of our spirit. No creed, no false philosophy, no religious exaggerations, could ever destroy that feeling. It must, therefore, be based upon an absolute truth. On the other hand, every one of the numberless religions and religious sects views the Deity after its own fashion; and, fathering on the unknown its own speculations, it enforces these purely human outgrowths of overheated imagination on the ignorant masses, and calls them “revelation.” As the dogmas of every religion and sect often differ radically, they cannot be _true_. And if untrue, what are they? “The greatest curse to a nation,” remarks Dr. Inman, “is not _a bad religion_, but a form of faith which prevents manly inquiry. I know of no nation of old that was priest-ridden which did not fall under the swords of those who did not care for hierarchs.... The greatest danger is to be feared from those ecclesiastics who wink at vice, and encourage it as a means whereby they can gain power over their votaries. So long as every man does to other men as he would that they should do to him, and _allows no one to interfere between him and his Maker_, all will go well with the world.”[178] CHAPTER III. “KING.--Let us from point to point this story know.” --_All’s Well That Ends Well._--Act v., Scene 3. “He is the One, self-proceeding; and from Him all things proceed. And in them He Himself exerts His activity; no mortal BEHOLDS HIM, but HE beholds all!”--_Orphic Hymn._ “And Athens, O Athena, is thy own! Great Goddess hear! and on my darkened mind Pour thy pure light in measure unconfined; That sacred light, O all-proceeding Queen, Which beams eternal from thy face serene. My soul, while wand’ring on the earth, inspire With thy own blessed and impulsive fire!” --PROCLUS; TAYLOR: _To Minerva_.