to send out souls, at the time of birth, into the bodies
they animated, and to cause them to return to its bosom
after death by means of a series of emissions and ab-
sorptions.

Later on, when the seat of the Most-High was placed
beyond the limits of the universe, the radiant star that
gives us light became the visible image of the supreme
power, the source of all life and all intelligence, the
intermediary between an inaccessible god and man-
kind, and the one object of special homage from the
multitude. ⁸⁸

Solar pantheism, which grew up among the Syrians
of the Hellenistic period as a result of the influence
of Chaldean astrolatry, imposed itself upon the whole
Roman world under the empire. Our very rapid sketch
of the constitution of that theological system shows
incidentally the last form assumed by the pagan idea
of God. In this matter Syria was Rome's teacher and
predecessor. The last formula reached by the religion
of the pagan Semites and in consequence by that of the
Romans, was a divinity unique, almighty, eternal, uni-
versal and ineffable, that revealed itself throughout
nature, but whose most splendid and most energetic
manifestation was the sun. To arrive at the Christian
monotheism ⁸⁹ only one final tie had to be broken,
that is to say, this supreme being residing in a distant
heaven had to be removed beyond the world. So we
see once more in this instance, how the propagation
of the Oriental cults levelled the roads for Christian-
ity and heralded its triumph. Although astrology
was always fought by the church, it had nevertheless
prepared the minds for the dogmas the church was to
proclaim.

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