brought against Aristotle for impiety in deifying Hermias, the prince of Mysia, shows that he was not regarded as atheistic. As a matter of fact with all the changes in religious thought which the centuries brought in Greece, sacred customs and practices remained but little altered down to the end of antiquity. Theology has small interest for the common man. He must depend for his assurance on the performance of those acts which immemorial custom has sanctioned as the proper means of securing the favor of the gods, rather than on the speculations of some theologian or on his own poor reflections. Sacrifice and prayer before the sacred statue or symbol, community worship at the great festivals, private devotion at the shrine within the home, rites of riddance and appeasing, the promise and payment of vows, remained the practices of the mass of men for many centuries after the prophet of Nazareth delivered his message—indeed Christianity took over many of these things and has kept them to the present day. Then too we must remember that the civic character of the common Greek religion had a higher side, for it strengthened the bond of family and of city-state; and through the great festivals at Olympia, Delphi, and Nemea it helped to form a dim concept of a Greek nation. Thus it elevated men’s notions of responsibility to the social units, both small and great. Furthermore, apart from the civic and national sides of Greek religion, the general religious thought of the mass was gradually ennobled with the passage of the centuries; in spite of the survival into later antiquity of certain rude and primitive elements, religion became more moral and more spiritual, as we have already seen was the case with the Eleusinian Mysteries. Plato and Aristotle in the very nature of the case could have little influence on the many in their day; but when their thoughts had been transmuted into terms which the common man could comprehend and express in living, philosophy became for the many a guide of life. FOOTNOTES: [190] It is sometimes said that Plato does not identify the Idea of the Good with God, but I cannot interpret the following passages save as I have done above: _Phil._ 22 C; _Tim._ 28 A-29 E; 37 A; 92 C. [191] _Phaedrus_, 245; cf. _Laws_, 10, 894 B ff., 12, 966 E. [192] _Phaedo_, 72 ff. [193] _Meno_, 81 ff. [194] _Phaedo_, 86 ff. [195] _Phaedo_, 105. [196] _Rep._ IV, 427 ff., esp. 440 E-441 A; VI, 504; VIII, 550; IX, 580-581; cf. _Timaeus_, 69-72. [197] 246 f. [198] 69 ff. [199] _Rep._ VI, 484 ff. [200] _Theaet._ 176. [201] X, 613. [202] _Phaedo_, 82 f. [203] _Phaedo_, 66 E ff. [204] 399 f. [205] 492 E-493 A. [206] _Phaedo_, 63 ff. [207] _Rep._ X, 614 ff.; cf. _Phaedrus_, 248 f. [208] _Theaet._ 176. [209] _Statesman_ 272 ff.; _Tim._ 42 ff. [210] _Tim._ 49 E-52 B; cf. Aristot. _Phys._ 1, 9, 192 a, 3 ff.; 4, 2, 209 b, 11 ff. [211] _Crat._ 389 f. [212] _Theaet._ 176. [213] _Tim._ 29 E ff.; _Statesman_, 272 B ff.