Whether in politics, or science, or philosophy, or literature, or in estimating their fellow-creatures, the Greeks offer a remarkable example of the determination to see men and things in the world around them as they really are; their instinctive critical faculty made them _realists_. Nothing must be taken for granted, all things must be tested by the light of reason; only so can the reality of things be ascertained. “The critical faculty, the reason—in one light it appears as the _sense of proportion_; the sense of proportion in politics, ‘common sense,’ balance of judgement; the sense of proportion in behaviour, which distinguishes what is seemly for the occasion and the person concerned; the sense of proportion in art, which eliminates the redundant and keeps each detail in its due subordination to the whole. How prominent this aspect of the critical faculty was with the Greeks their language itself shows; _reason_ and _proportion_ are expressed by a common word. ‘The Hellenes,’ Polybius says, ‘differ mainly in this respect from other men, that they keep to _what is due_ in each case.’”[12] Important as it is to gain some little insight into Hellenism in its secular aspect so that one may realize to some extent the nature of the influence which it had upon the world, it is still more important for our present purpose to consider it from the religious point of view. To this we must now devote some little attention. II. HELLENISM IN ITS RELIGIOUS ASPECT It has already been pointed out that the Hellenistic Movement coincided with an epoch which was in many respects one of dissolution; this is distinctly the case in the domain of religion. The history of religion offers numerous examples of the fact that there arrive certain periods in which, for one reason or another, the traditional form of faith ceases to exercise its power over large sections of the people. One of two things then follows: either religion gives place to scepticism, or else the old belief is adapted to the altered spiritual and intellectual conditions which have supervened. Among the Greeks of this period we find both processes at work, though a downright atheistic position is the exception. Indeed, one of the most interesting and significant facts in this connexion is that the philosophy of the Hellenistic period, in spite of its critical attitude towards religious beliefs, very soon developed into theology. That is sufficient to show that, while there was a tendency in certain circles to pour scorn on religion, the Hellenistic period was very far from being one of irreligion.