The myths of religion, therefore, constitute active meditations of the religious consciousness on the higher realities of life, and even fables and fairy tales which we enjoy in leisurely readings cannot be considered as empty of some realistic content, because vacuous ideas cannot arise from the mind, all ideas being ultimately rooted in a vivid or faint expression of some degree or percentage of reality. This is the reason why stories with superphysical significance and epic marches of gods on earth charge our feelings, pull them out from the cave of their hibernation and cast them up into the empyrean of ecstatic appreciation, creating deeper and deeper empathies and unknown longings in the mind. The more these exploits are read or heard, the more do they thrill. Their repeated narrations, which form the festive pride of the nations where they have originated, have the power to rebuild vigorously the national spirit of countries and reinforce the love of their culture, as if epic, history and drama are the very diet of the hungering spirit of mankind. Cultures would die if their heroes were not to live before them as paragons not only of an eternal past but also of an eternal future and a glorious present.
Ideas move the world.
Thought precedes every action. Events take place first in the realms above physical phenomena and descend gradually through the layers of space-time to the earth of human history, even as outer projects are manifestations of inner contemplations and basic needs essential to human nature. Religion is a comprehensive grasp of all reality in all its forms, degrees and stages effectively bridging the gulf between man and Nature, and between Nature and God.