The spectacle of the majestic storms which swept their plains and the lightning bolts hurled from an invisible hand, deeply impressed these untutored people.

They endeavored to appease the anger of the supreme being by the sacrifice of bulls and other animals.

They also peopled the groves, the fountains, the rivers with deities; statues were rudely chiseled, into which they supposed the spirits of their gods entered, and which they worshiped.

They deemed the supreme being himself too elevated for direct human adoration, and only ventured to approach him through gods of a secondary order.

They believed in a fallen spirit, a god of evil, who was the author of all the calamities which afflict the human race.
The polished Greeks chiseled their idols, from snow-white marble, into the most exquisite proportions of the human form.