The mythical deity may please the fancy, while pantheism suits not at all the Christian sense of religion. Pan, as a deity, is supposed to preside over sylvan solitude, and is a horned and hoofed animal, half goat and half man, that poorly presents the poetical phase of the genii of forests.[1]
My sense of nature's rich glooms is, that loneness lacks but one charm to make it half divine — a friend, with whom to whisper, “Solitude is sweet.” Certain moods of mind find an indefinable pleasure in stillness, soft, silent as the storm's sudden hush; for nature's stillness is voiced with a hum of harmony, the gentle murmur of early morn, the evening's closing vespers, and lyre of bird and brooklet.
| “ | O sacred solitude! divine retreat! |
| Choice of the prudent! envy of the great! | |
| By thy pure stream, or in thy evening shade, | |
| We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid.” |
Theism is the belief in the personality and infinite mind of one supreme, holy, self-existent God, who reveals Himself supernaturally to His creation, and whose laws are not reckoned as science. In religion, it is a belief in one God, or in many gods. It is opposed to atheism and
- ↑ In Roman mythology (one of my girlhood studies), Pan stood for “universal nature proceeding from the divine Mind and providence, of which heaven, earth, sea, the eternal fire, are so many members.” Pan was the god of shepherds and hunters, leader of the nymphs, president of the mountains, patron of country life, and guardian of flocks and herds. His pipe of seven reeds denotes the celestial harmony of the seven planets; his shepherd's crook, that care and providence by which he governs the universe; his spotted skin, the stars; his goat's feet, the solidity of the earth; his man-face, the celestial world.
