Advocating then, as we deliberately do, the historical interpretation, we have yet to account for the extraordinary powers attributed to mere mortals; for the extraordinary difference of their religion; for the still more extraordinary doctrines of that religion, as contained in the Eddas. The subject is not without its difficulties; but probably they may be removed by a few natural reflections. That Odin and his twelve pontiff-chiefs found, on their arrival in the north, some kind of religious worship established, nobody will deny. What were the doctrines of that religion? Here conjecture only can guide us: we have no written, no traditionary, monuments of that antecedent worship. We read only that the Aser—the Scythian bands from Asia—had to contend with the native authorities; but that having in so great a degree the superiority of wisdom, they compelled the natives to receive their spiritual, no less than their temporal, yoke. Their arms, no doubt, effected more than their arguments; but to suppose that they could extirpate the dominant faith—if indeed there were not several established modes of worship in different provinces of the north—would be very irrational in itself, and irreconcilable with all the known facts of history. Pagan conquerors have always been disposed to respect the gods of other people. Every region was believed to have its own peculiar deities; and to honour _them_ was necessary, if that region were to be either permanently or prosperously held. On the other hand, the natives themselves would, in a superstitious age, be sufficiently disposed to respect the gods of their victors; for human prosperity was always regarded as the work of heaven. If they still retained their own, they would not refuse homage to the more powerful stranger gods whose shrines were now transported among them, and whom they must, by degrees, consider as their own tutelary divinities. Hence the union of the two religions; not indeed wholly, but certainly in a very considerable degree. Their gods would be joined; so would such dogmas as were not absolutely irreconcilable with one another; and in a few, a very few, generations, both would be received by priest and people as if they had always been identical and indissoluble. That this _has_ been the case in other countries, we know from authentic history. It was so with the Greeks; it was so with the Romans; it has been so since their conquests with several Asiatic nations. And reason tells us that this must always be the natural progress of events.