The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-01-30

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only thing left for him would be to
do the best he could. He therefor
helped himself by an elaborate sys-
tenn of sacrifice, prayer and divin-
alton, the object of which was to
discover. and if possible, affect the
Divine purposes.
The Greek believed firmly in
divination or the art of dlvining the
future by signs. The flight of wind,
phenomena of the heavens, events
encountered on the road. or b e
speech of passers-by, all indicated
to him probable events. The follow
ing passage is from Aristophanes
where he ridicules his contempories
in there readiness to see everything
in an omen:
On us you depend. and to US you repair.
For consel and aid. when marriage is made.
Unluc<y OF lucky. whatever has struck ye.
An OK or an ass. that may happen to pass.
voice in the street. or a slave that you meet.
A name a word by chance overheard.
You deem it an omen. and call it a Bird.
Aristophanes Is of course jesting,
but Aeschylus mentions it as one of
the benifits conferred by Prone
theous on mankind and puts in on a
level with several different arts.
So we see that it was thing to be
taken seriously.
If the Greek was not satisfied by
this method Of procedure, he could
| visit one of the oracles and consult
the diety about his most trivial and
personal affairs. Some of the ques-
tions put to the Oracle at Dodona
have been preserved to US: Who
stole my cushions and pillow" asked
one beraved householder; another
wants to know whether sheep farm
ing would prove a good investment.
From the foregoing it seems that the
God was not above being consulted
even on the meanest affairs, and his
easy accessibility compensated for
his probable caprice. This super
stition was not confined alone to in
dividuals but was fully recognized
by the State. At the time of the
Persian invasion, and the most criti-
cal moment of the history of Greece
the Lacedaemonians came to late -to
take part in the battle of Mara.
thon. because they thought it would
be unlucky to start until the moon
was full. All this gives us some
idea of the sort of relation in which
the Greek conceived himself to stand
to the Gods, it is a relation externa
, and mechanical.
The whole relation between mar
and the Gods is of the nature of I
contract" If you do your part, II
do mine; if not, not, "that is the ton,
on either side. The conception il
legal, not moral or spiritual, it ha
: nothing to do with what we call sill
and conscience.
, The Greek was not unfamilia
q with the conception of Heaven an(
He'll, but the idea did not dominat,
or obsess his mind. He may bav'
8 had times of terror, but these time
l could easily be relieved by the per
! formance of some atoning ceremony
AS we have before said the Greel
was made at home in the world b.
his religion. Such being the cas-
9 he would devote the whole of hi
g time to the art of living unhamper
ed by any scruples and doubts abou
: the nature of life. Life after dealt
did not concern him, only in vagu
way, he believed in successive re
t lncarnations, such as is instanced il
r in the case of most the Gods. Th
; beauty and freedom which charac
terized the Greeks was the result O
: a pcetical view of the world. whicl
= only anticipated in imagination a
e ideal that was not realized in fact o
9 thought.