On the worship of Apollo at Tempe, Crete, Delos, and Delphi.

1. In turning from the history of the external affairs of the Dorians to the consideration of their intellectual existence, our first step must be to enquire into their religion; and for this purpose we will proceed to analyze and resolve it into the various worships and ceremonies of which it was composed, and to trace the origin and connexion of these usages as they successively arose.

Now it may with safety be asserted, that the principal deities of the Dorians were Apollo and Diana, since their worship is found to have predominated in all the settlements of that race; and conversely the Doric origin can be either proximately or remotely traced wherever there were any considerable institutions dedicated to the worship of Apollo; insomuch that the adoration of this god may be shewn from the most ancient testimonies of mythology to have gradually advanced with the extension of the Doric nation. Yet we are not to understand that the worship of Apollo and the Doric race were so exactly coextensive that the presence of the latter always proves either the previous or actual existence of the former. Indeed it is certain that in ancient as well as in modern times the worship of particular gods was not only propagated by migration and conquest, but that religious belief was also extended by peaceful intercourse, and, as it were, by moral contact.