After him,
the Church, which was born to protest against Hellenism, translated its
dogmas into the language of Greek thought and finally crystallized them
in the philosophy of Aristotle."
Whether a plaything of the gods or a cog in the wheels of the universe
this was the problem which life offered to the thinking Greek; and in
undertaking its solution, he set in motion the forces that have made
our modern civilization. That the problem remains unsolved is nothing
in comparison with the supreme fact that in wrestling with it, and in
studying the laws of the machine, man is learning to control the
small section of it with which he is specially concerned. The veil of
thaumaturgy which shrouded the Orient, while not removed, was rent in
twain, and for the first time in history, man had a clear vision of the
world about him--"had gazed on Nature's naked loveliness" ("Adonais")
unabashed and unaffrighted by the supernatural powers about him. Not
that the Greek got rid of his gods--far from it!--but he made them so
like himself, and lived on terms of such familiarity with them that they
inspired no terror.(2)
(2) "They made deities in their own image, in the likeness
of an image of corruptible man.
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