EDUCATION: GREEK INFLUENCE 59 related nature of man a bond of union for all man- kind without distinction of nation or rank ; and from this conviction derived the motive to a new virtue which put the crown on all the rest—brotherly love of men, “humanity” (the word humanitas was first used by the Stoics in this sense). This morality based itself upon a religious interpretation of the world: in the latter, as in the former, the pagan Naturalism was spiritualised and moralised ; the gods of the national polytheism lost their significance and were conceived partly as symbols for the powers of Nature, and partly as servant-gods, something in the nature of the Biblical angels. These, however, did not interfere with the sole administration of the one supreme God, the author and ruler of the world. In the character of this Supreme Ruler the naturalistic and anthropopathic traits of mythological tradition were eliminated; He was thought of as perfect Intelligence and Goodness, His administration of the world as a wise providence, caring for us with a fatherly solicitude, and wisely ordering evil to our best interests as a factor in our education. To this world-ruling intelligence, man, as an_ intelligent being, feels himself closely related; nay more, he is conscious of the presence of God within him as a holy spirit, a warning and watching conscience, a motive power to good, to victory over the world. Finally, this religious experience is also a guarantee of the hope that the God-related soul, after its separation from the earthly body, shall find in the heavenly world of light the perfect freedom and peace and repose for which here below it could only strive. This hope of the hereafter was borrowed by