Upon purity waits beauty, not in the forms desired by
sensuous passion, but in garlands of flowers and in delicate scents. The
wine is unstinted, yet tempered with sparkling water. But, lest the
plentifulness of bread and honey and cheese upon the lordly table should
eclipse the highest sanctions of human joy, an altar prominent in the
festive scene is heaped with offerings of flowers. Then the first note
of music is the praise of God, a praise taking form in blameless poetic
myths and holy thoughts. In such a feast the minds of the guests are
kindled with a desire to be capable of doing right. "There is no harm in
drinking with reasonable moderation[10]; and we may honour the guest
who, warmed by wine, talks of such noble deeds and instances of virtue
as his memory may suggest. But let him not tell of Titan battles, or
those of the giants or centaurs, the fictions of bygone days, nor yet of
factious quarrels, nor gossip, that can serve no good end. Rather let
us ever keep a good conscience towards the gods."[11]
[Sidenote: Empedocles, Middle of Fifth Century B.C.]
[Sidenote: Not Properly a Pantheist]
Having given so much space to an ancient who seems to me specially
interesting as a prophet of the ultimate apotheosis of earthly
religions, I must be content to indicate, in a very few lines, the
course of the Pantheistic tradition among the Greeks after his day. The
arithmetical mysticism of Pythagoras has no bearing upon our subject.
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