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83 ANCIENT GREECE. [CHAP. vn.far as the external rites of religionafforded opportunities.But as the nation had no caste of priests,nor even a unitedorder of it priesthood, naturally followed, that though individual temples could in a certain degree become nationaltemples, this must depend, for the most part,on accidentalcircumstances and where;every thing was voluntary, nothing could be settled by established forms like those whichprevailed in other countries. The temples at Olympia,Delos, and Delphi, may justly be denominated nationaltemples, althoughnot in the same sense in which we callthose of the Jews and the Egyptians national but their ef;fects were perhaps only more considerable and more secure,because every thing connected with them was voluntary.The fruits of civilization came forth, and were matured, under the protectionof these sanctuaries also ; though not mthe same manner as in Egypt and Ethiopia; 1and when we2hear of national festivals, oracles, and Amphictyonic assemblies, other ideas are connected with them, than wereawakened by the temples in the countries just named. Butlet it not be forgotten,that all these fruits, of which we mustmake mention separately, ripened on one and the samebranch ;that they, therefore, closely united, could ripenonly together;that by this very means they gained a highervalue in the eyesof the nation ;and that this value must beestimated by their influence, rather than by what they werein themselves.We shall hardly be mistaken, if we consider those sanctuaries the most ancient, which were celebrated for theiroracles. Those of. Dodona and Delphi were declared to beso by the voice of the nation and both of ;them, especiallythat of Delphi, were so far superior to the rest, that they arein some measure to be esteemed as the only national oracles, 31Heeren. Ideen. etc. Th. ii,487, etc.2The Greek word for them, is Travrjyvpug.3The number of Grecian oracles, constantly increasing, became, as is wellknown, exceedingly numerous. With the exception of that of Dodona, whichwas of Egyptio-Pelasgic origin, the oracles of the Greeks were almost exclusively connected with the worship of Apollo.We know of more than fifty ofhis oracles (see Bulenger de oraculis et vatibus, in Thes. Ant. Gr. vol. vii.)of the few others, the more celebrated owed their origin to the same god "asthose of Mopsus and Trophonius, to whom he had imparted the gift of prophesying. How much of the rites of religion among the Hellenes dependedon the religion of Apollo. New lightis shed on this subject by C. M tiller'in his volume on the Dorians,i. 199.