All these were once gods of the highest eminence. Many of them are mentioned with fear and trembling in the Old Testament. They ranked, five or six thousand years ago, with Jahveh himself; the worst of them stood far higher than Thor. Yet they have all gone down the chute, and with them the following:
| Bile | Gwydion |
| Lêr | Manawyddan |
| Arianrod | Nuada Argetlam |
| Morrigu | Tagd |
| Govannon | Goibniu |
| Gunfled | Odin |
| Sokk-mimi | Llaw Gyffes |
| Memetona | Lleu |
| Dagda | Ogma |
| Kerridwen | Mider |
| Pwyll | Rigantona |
| Ogyrvan | Marzin |
| Dea Dia | Mars |
| Ceros | Jupiter |
| Vaticanus | Cunina |
| Edulia | Potina |
| Adeona | Statilinus |
| Iuno Lucina | Diana of Ephesus |
| Saturn | Robigus |
| Furrina | Pluto |
| Vediovis | Ops |
| Consus | Meditrina |
| Cronos | Vesta |
| Enki | Tilmun |
| Engurra | Zer-panitu |
| Belus | Merodach |
| Dimmer | U-ki |
| Mu-ul-lil | Dauke |
| Ubargisi | Gasan-abzu |
| Ubilulu | Elum |
| Gasan-lil | U-Tin-dir ki |
| U-dimmer-an-kia | Marduk |
| Enurestu | Nin-lil-la |
| U-sab-sib | Nin |
| U-Mersi | Persephone |
| Tammuz | Istar |
| Venus | Lagas |
| Bau | U-urugal |
| Mulu-hursang | Sirtumu |
| Anu | Ea |
| Beltis | Nirig |
| Nusku | Nebo |
| Ni-zu | Samas |
| Sahi | Ma-banba-anna |
| Aa | En-Mersi |
| Allatu | Amurru |
| Sin | Assur |
| AbilAddu | Aku |
| Apsu | Beltu |
| Dagan | Dumu-zi-abzu |
| Elali | Kuski-banda |
| Isum | Kaawanu |
| Mami | Nin-azu |
| Nin-man | Lugal-Amarada |
| Zaraqu | Qarradu |
| Suqamunu | Ura-gala |
| Zagaga | Ueras |
You may think I spoof. That I invent the names. I do not. Ask the rector to lend you any good treatise on comparative religion: you will find them all listed. They were gods of the highest standing and dignity—gods of civilized peoples—worshipped and believed in by millions. All were theoretically omnipotent, omniscient and immortal. And all are dead.
[XIII. EDUCATION]
I
Next to the clerk in holy orders, the fellow with the worst job in the world is the schoolmaster. Both are underpaid, both fall steadily in authority and dignity, and both wear out their hearts trying to perform the impossible. How much the world asks of them, and how little they can actually deliver! The clergyman’s business is to save the human race from hell: if he saves one-eighth of one per cent., even within the limits of his narrow flock, he does magnificently. The school-master’s is to spread the enlightenment, to make the great masses of the plain people intelligent—and intelligence is precisely the thing that the great masses of the plain people are congenitally and eternally incapable of.