them, and, though they were God's offspring, worshipped idols of
wood and stone, and fell at last into sin and shame, and then, of
course, into cowardice and slavery, till they perished out of that
beautiful land which God had given them for so many years.

For, like all nations who have left anything behind them, beside
mere mounds of earth, they believed at first in the One True God
who made all heaven and earth. But after a while, like all other
nations, they began to worship other gods, or rather angels and
spirits, who (so they fancied) lived about their land. Zeus, the
Father of gods and men (who was some dim remembrance of the blessed
true God), and Hera his wife, and Phoebus Apollo the Sun-god, and
Pallas Athene who taught men wisdom and useful arts, and Aphrodite
the Queen of Beauty, and Poseidon the Ruler of the Sea, and
Hephaistos the King of the Fire, who taught men to work in metals.
And they honoured the Gods of the Rivers, and the Nymph-maids, who
they fancied lived in the caves, and the fountains, and the glens
of the forest, and all beautiful wild places. And they honoured
the Erinnues, the dreadful sisters, who, they thought, haunted
guilty men until their sins were purged away. And many other
dreams they had, which parted the One God into many; and they said,
too, that these gods did things which would be a shame and sin for
any man to do. And when their philosophers arose, and told them
that God was One, they would not listen, but loved their idols, and
their wicked idol feasts, till they all came to ruin. But we will
talk of such sad things no more.

But, at the time of which this little book speaks, they had not
fallen as low as that. They worshipped no idols, as far as I can
find; and they still believed in the last six of the ten