( 111 )
it hath ever been the failing of mankind to regard these as the least essential part of religion. When they admitted that continual and immediate action of the divinity on all creatures, the Scandinavians had thence concluded that it was impossible for men to effect any change in the course of things, or to resist the destinies. The Stoics themselves did not understand this term in a more rigorous sense than the people of the North. Nothing is more common in the ancient Chronicles than to hear their warriours complaining that the destinies are inflexible, that they are unatirable and cannot be surmounted. We have seen above that they reckoned the Parcae or Goddesses of destiny to be three in number, as well as the Greeks; and like them attributed to them the determination of all events. Every man had also his own destiny, who assisted at the moment of his birth, and marked before hand the period of his days[1]. It is yet probable that they considered Odin or the supreme God, as the author and arbiter of the destinies. This
- ↑ It is this doctrine of the ancient Celtic (and northern) Mythology, which has produced all the stories of fairies, and the marvellous of modern Romances, as that of the ancient Romances, is founded on the Greek and Roman Mythology. This will appear more plainly in the sequel of this work.
