To time eternal.
Thither cometh the mighty one
To the council of the gods,
In his strength from above;
He who thinketh for all.
He issueth judgments,
He causeth strife to cease,
And establisheth peace
To endure for ever.
This is to finish the visible universe, with its physical gods. But the immortality of the human soul is a doctrine strongly inculcated by the religion of the North. The souls of the gods, indeed, are, with two or three exceptions, to perish; and for this reason,—that they are physical gods merely,—mythologic creations to denote the powers and functions of nature. In this circumstance there is something pleasing to contemplate. The physical Alfader (Odin) has passed into annihilation; but the eternal Alfadur (Almighty God) remains to govern the world, and to reward the good whom he has admitted to Gimlè. Thus even in the darkest systems (and few are darker than the Scandinavian) sages have attempted to vindicate the ways of Providence.