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natural consequencesORIGINAL SOURCES OF CULTUKE, 27of this belief are certain rites of worship invocations, sacrifices, and ; offerings. All this is soconnected with the feelings of man, that it springs fromwithin him, and exists independent of all research or knowledge.And this is the religion of the people. But so soonas the intelligent spiritof man was somewhat awakened, ahigher principle was separated (though in very differentways) from this simple faith and that remained in;the possession of a small circle of priests, of the initiated, of theenlightened. If the religion of the people reposed only onbelief and indistinct conceptions, certain doctrines, on thecontrary, belonged to those higher circles, although theywere often represented by images, and exhibited to thesenses by outward ceremonies. These two kinds of religioncommonly remained distinct from each other; and thedifference was the most clearlymarked in such nations ashad a caste of priests.But still there were some points, inwhich they both were united. Even a caste of priests, withwhatever secrecy they guarded their doctrines, could influence the people only by means of external forms. Butthe less the order of priests is separated by a nice line ofdivision from the mass of the people, the more faint becomesthe distinction between the religion of the people and thedoctrine of the priests.How far the two differed from eachother, and remained different, must ever be an object oflearned inquiry ;to have confounded them, has been one ofthe chief sources of error with regard to the religion of theancients.Amongthe Greeks there never was a distinct caste ofpriests, nor even, as we shall hereafter observe, a separateorder of priesthood. And yet, beside the popular religion,they had a religion of the in .tiatod ;and their mysteries werealmost as ancient as the faith of the people. Each of thesemust be considered by itself, before we can. draw any generalconclusion respectingthe influence of religion on theircharacter.The popular religionof the Greeks rested on a belief incertain superhuman beings, and in the influence exercisedby them over the destinies of mortals ;on the fear ofoffending them, resulting from this belief; and on the custorn of worshipping them. Yet according to the account of