When the pagan looks at the very core of the cosmos he is struck cold.

Behind the gods, who are merely despotic, sit the fates, who are deadly.

Nay, the fates are worse than deadly; they are dead.

And when rationalists say that the ancient world was more enlightened than the Christian, from their point of view they are right.

For when they say "enlightened" they mean darkened with incurable despair.