It is clear from these considerations that Plutarch’s own mind is made up on the subject; but he cannot refrain from giving sympathetic consideration to so ancient, widespread, and respectable a belief as that involved in the myth of Osiris and Typhon, of Ormuzd and Ahriman; and he devotes considerable space, and displays considerable ingenuity, in connecting the Egyptian and Zoroastrian beliefs with the legends of Greek Mythology and the principles of Greek Philosophy.[369] But his object, even when he makes indulgent concessions to an opposite view, is never lost sight of, and towards the conclusion of his search for parallelisms and similarities, he expresses his aim in unmistakable and peculiarly Plutarchean language. After passing severe criticism on the impiety of those who give the names of gods to the productions of Nature, asserting that Dionysus is _Wine_, and Hephaistos _Flame_ (which, says he, is like identifying sail and cable and anchor with the pilot, the thread with the weaver, or the draught with the physician), he adds, “God is not lifeless, unintelligent, subject to man, as these things are. But it is from these blessings that we conclude that those who bestow them upon us for our use, and give us a constant and never-failing supply thereof, are gods, _not different gods among different peoples, not Barbarian gods, nor Greek gods, not gods of the south nor gods of the north; but just as the sun, the moon, the earth, the sky, and the sea are common to all, but receive different names among different peoples, so likewise are different honours assigned and different invocations addressed to the gods in different places according to the customs there established. Yet is it one Reason which admonishes, and one Providence which directs, while subordinate powers have been appointed over all things. Certain peoples make use of sacred symbols which, with greater or less clearness, direct the understanding to divine knowledge, and yet not without danger, since some in their desire to shun the swamp of Superstition have unconsciously slipped over the precipice of Atheism_.”[370] Here we have, combined in one sentence, Plutarch’s belief in the Unity of God, his acceptance of the theory of Dæmons, his recognition of the truth of foreign creeds, his desire, so frequently expressed, and so consistently acted upon, to follow the guidance of a reverent yet inquiring philosophy on a path which is equally distant from the two great moral evils which loom so large in his mental vision. Hence this tract is organically connected with the treatise on Superstition; the former aims at securing by purely intellectual and rational processes what the latter attempts by appealing to the Intellect through the medium of the Imagination.[371] CHAPTER X.