Page:Apollonius of Tyana - the pagan Christ of the third century.pdf/50

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APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.
45

gious veneration of the world, but it is the wise philosopher who leads all but a Divine life in the midst of his fellow-men, and who teaches them how to raise themselves to the same high level which he himself has reached. But how true it is that religion is never quite false to the principle on which it is founded! Not only does Apollonius attach an inherent efficiacy to outward rites, but even in his reformed Paganism we can see at once the error and the fundamental delusion which have given birth to every system of polytheism—viz., the confusion of the natural with the spiritual, of the visible phenomenon with the unseen reality which more or less to bear some analogy to that phenomenon. It is not easy to say with certainty whether Apollonius really worships the sun itself, or whether he look upon it as the highest manifestation of God. One thing, however, is certain—viz., that he explains the superior wisdom of the Brahmins by the circumstance that, living as they do on an exceedingly high mountain, and thus being able to breathe the pure ether, they possess all