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mination of theifm. For if the mythology of the heathens refemble the antient EUROPEAN fyftem of fpiritual beings, excluding God and angels, and leaving only fairies and sprights; the creed of these philofophers may justly be faid to exclude a deity, and to leave only angels

and fairies.

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SECT, V. Various Forms of Polytheism: Allegory, Hero Worship.

But it is chiefly our prefent bufinefs to confider the grofs polytheism and idolatry of the vulgar, and to trace all its various appearances, in the principles of human nature, whence they are derived.

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Whoever learns, by argument, the existence of invis fible intelligent power, muft reason from the admirable contrivance of natural objects, and must suppose the world to be the workmanship of that divine being, the original cause of all things. But the vulgar polytheist, so far from admitting that idea, deifies every part of the univerfe, and conceives all the confpicuous productions of nature, to be themselves so many real divinities. The fun, moon, and stars, are all gods according to his fyftem: Fountains are inhabited by nymphs, and trees by hamadryads: Even monkies, dogs, cats, and other animals often become facred in his eyes, and ftrike him with a religious veneration. And thus, however ftrong men's propenfity to believe invifible, intelligent power in nature, their propenfity is equally strong to rest their attention on fenfible, vifible objects; and in order to reconcile thefe oppofite inclinations, they are led to unite the invifible power with fome visible object.

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The diftribution alfo of diftin&t provinces to the feveral deities is apt to cause some allegory, both phyfical

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and moral, to enter into the vulgar fyftems of polytheifm. The god of war will naturally be reprefented as furious, cruel, and impetuous: The god of poetry as elegant, polite, and amiable: The god of merchandise, especially in early times, as thievifh and deceitful. The allegories, supposed in HOMER and other mythologifts, I allow, have been often fo ftrained, that men of fenfe are apt entirely to reject them, and to confider them as the production merely of the fancy and conceit of critics and commentators. But that allegory really has place in the heathen mythology is undeniable even on the leaft reflection. CUPID the fon of VENUS; the Mufes the daughters of Memory; PROMETHEUS, the wife brother, and EPIMETHEUS the foolifh; HYGIEIA or the goddess of health descended from ESCULAPIUS or the god of phyfic: Who fees not, in these, and in many other instances, the plain traces of allegory? When a god is fuppofed to prefide over any paffion, event, or fyftem of actions, it is almoft unavoidable to give him a genealogy, attributes, and adventures, fuitable to his fuppofed powers and influence; and to carry on that fimilitude and comparison, which is naturally fo agreeable to the mind of man.

Allegories, indeed, entirely perfect, we ought not to expect as the products of ignorance and fuperftition; there being no work of genius, that requires a nicer hand, or has been more rarely executed with fuccefs." That Fear and Terror are the fons of MARS is juft; but why by VENUS*? That Harmony is the daughter of VENUS is regular; but why by MARS? That Sleep is the brother of Death is fuitable; but why defcribe him as enamoured of one of the Graces ? And fince the antient mythologists fall into mistakes fo gross and obvious,

HESIOD, Theog. 1. 935..
ILIAD XIV. 267.

Ic. ibid, & PLUT, in vita PELOPEANA

Jord 32 swUDA we have no reason furely to expect fuch refined and longfpun allegories, as fome have endeavoured to deduce from their fictions f.

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The deities of the vulgar are fo little fuperior to hu man creatures, that where men are affected with fentiments of veneration or gratitude for any hero or public benefactor, nothing can be more natural than to convert him into a god, and fill the heavens, after this manner, with continual recruits from amongft mankind, Most of the divinities of the antient world are fupposed to have once been men, and to have been beholden for their apotheofts to the admiration and affection of the people. And the real hiftory of their adventures, corrupted by tradition, and elevated by the marvellous, became a plentiful fource of fable; efpecially in paffing through the hands of poets, allegorifts, and priefts, who fucceffively improved upon the wonder and aftonishment of the ignorant multitude.

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Painters too and fculptors came in for their fhare of profit in the facred mysteries; and furnishing men with fenfible representations of their divinities, whom they cloathed in human figures, gave great encrease to the public devotion, and determined its object. It was probably for want of thefe arts in rude and barbarous ages, that men deified plants, animals, and even brute, unorganized matter; and rather than be without a fenfible object of worship, affixed divinity to fuch ungainly forms. Could any ftatuary of SYRIA, in early times, have formed a juft

LUCRETIUS was plainly feduced by the ftrong appearance of allegory, which is obfervable in the pagan fictions. He first addreffes him felf to VENUS as to that generating power, which animates, renews and beautifies the univerfe: But is foon betrayed by the mythology into incoherencies, while he prays to that allegorical perfonage to appease the furies of her lover MARS: An idea not drawn from allegory, but from the popular religion, and which LUCRETIUS, as an EPICUREAN, could not confiftently admit of

figure of APOLLO, the conic ftone, HELIOGABAlus, had never become the object of fuch profound adoration, and been received as a reprefentation of the folar

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STILPO was banifhed by the council of AREOPAGUS, for affirming that the MINERVA in the citadel was no divinity; but the workmanship of PHIDIAS, the fculptort. What degree of reafon might we expect in the religious belief of the vulgar in other nations'; when ATHENIANS and AREOPAGITES could entertain fuch grofs conceptions?

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Thefe then are the general principles of polytheism, founded in human nature, and little or nothing dependent on caprice and accident. As the causes, which beflow on us happiness or misery, are, in general, very little known and very uncertain, our anxious concern endeavours to attain a determinate idea of them; and finds no better expedient than to represent them as intelligent, voluntary agents, like ourselves; only fomewhat fuperior in power and wifdom. The limited influence of thefe agents, and their great proximity to human weaknefs, introduce the various diftribution and divifion of their authority; and thereby give rife to allegory. The fame principles naturally deify mortals, fuperior in power, courage, or understanding, and produce hero-worship; together with fabulous hiftory and mythological tradition, in all its wild and unaccountable forms. And as an 'invifible fpiritual intelligence is an object too refined for vulgar apprehenfion, men naturally affix it to fome fenfible representation; fuch as either the more confpicuous

+ HERODIAN. lib. v. JUPITER AMMON is reprefented by CURTIUS as a deity of the fame kind, lib. iv. cap. 7. The ARABIANS and PESSINUNTIANS adored alfo fhapeless unformed ftones as their deity. Arnos. lib. vi. So much did their folly exceed that of the EGYPTIANS.

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parts of nature, or the ftatues, images, and pictures, which a more refined age forms of its divinities.nechen. Almost all idolaters, of whatever age or country, concur in these general principles and conceptions; and even the particular characters and provinces, which they affign to their deities, are not extremely different. The GREEK and ROMAN travellers and conquerors, without much difficulty, found their own deities every where; and faid, This is MERCURY, that VENUS; this MARS, that NEPTUNE; by whatever titles the ftrange gods might be denominated. The goddess HERTHA of our SAXON ancestors feems to be no other, according to TACITUS t, than the Mater Tellus of the ROMANS; and his conjecture was evidently just.

SECT. VI. Origin of Theifm from Polytheifm.

The doctrine of one fupreme deity, the author of nature, is very antient, has fpread itself over great and populous nations, and among them has been embraced by all ranks and conditions of perfons: But whoever thinks that it has owed its fuccefs to the prevalent force of those invincible reafons, on which it is undoubtedly founded, would fhow himself little acquainted with the ignorance and ftupidity of the people, and their incurable prejudices in favour of their particular fuperftitions. Even at this day, and in EUROPE, afk any of the vulgar, why he believes in an omnipotent creator of the world; he will never mention the beauty of final caufes, of which he is wholly ignorant: He will not hold out his hand, and bid you contemplate the fuppleness and variety of joints in his fingers, their bending all one way, the

* See CASAR of the religion of the GAUrs, De bello Gallico, lib. vi. † De moribus GERM.

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