Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/96

 be admitted that he applies no definite rules of criticism, constructs no scientifically exact system of analysis, propounds no infallible dogmas. His canon is the general taste and good sense of the educated man; a canon which, vague as it may seem, is based upon an intelligent knowledge of the practical needs of life, and produces results which are applicable in a remarkable degree to the satisfaction of such needs. As provisional illustrations of Plutarch's method in the three spheres of Philosophy, Mythology, and National Custom, we may note the discussion on the nature of God in the "De E apud Delphos," the criticism of the great national poets of Greece in the "Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat," and the remarks in the "De Iside et Osiride" concerning certain religious practices in the worship of these two Egyptian deities.

In the first-named tract the ostensible subjects of discussion are the nature and attributes of Apollo; but it soon becomes quite clear that the argument is concerned with the nature of Deity itself rather than with the functions of the traditional god. "We constantly hear theologians asserting and repeating in verse and in prose that the nature of God is eternal and incorruptible, but that this nature, by the operation of an intelligent and inevitable law, effects certain changes in its own form. At one time God reduces all nature to uniformity by changing His substance to fire; and, again, in a great variety of ways, under many forms, enters into the phenomenal world. Philosophers,*