ed fatisfaction with regard to these fublime fubjects.

The common people were never likely to pufh their researches fo far, or derive from reafoning their fyftems of religion; when philologers and mythologists, we fee, fcarcely ever difcovered fo much penetration. And even the philofophers, who discoursed of fuch topics, readily affented to the groffeft theory, and admitted the joint origin of gods and men from night and chaos; from fire, water, air, or whatever they eftablifhed to be the ruling element.

Nor was it only on their firft origin, that the gods were fuppofed dependent on the powers of nature. Throughout the whole period of their existence they were fubjected to the dominion of fate or destiny. Think of force of neceffity, fays Agrippa to the Roman people, that force, to which even the gods muft fubmit*. And the Younger Pliny †, agreeable to this way of thinking, tells us, that amidst the darkness, horror, and confufion, which enfued upon the firft eruption of Vefuvius, feveral concluded, that all nature was going to wrack, and that gods and men were perishing in one

common ruin.

It is great complaifance, indeed, if we dignify with the name of religion fuch an imperfect fyftem of theology, and put it on a level with latter fyftems, which are founded on principles more just and more fublime. For my part, I can fcarcely allow the principles even of Marcus Aurelius, Plutarch, and fome other Stoics and Academics, though much more refined than the pagan fuperftition, to be worthy of the honourable appellation of theifm. For if the mythology of the heathens refemble the ancient European system of fpiritual beings, excluding God

*Dionys. Halic. lib. vi.

+ Epift. lib. vi.

and

and angels, and leaving only fairies and fprights; the creed of these philofopers may justly be faid to exclude a deity, and to leave only angels and fairies.

Sect. V. Various Forms of Polytheism : Allegory HeroWorship.

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

Whoever learns by arguinent, the existence of invifible 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 caufe of all things. But the vulgar polytheift, fo far from admitting that idea, deifies every part of the universe, and conceives all the confpicuous productions of nature, to be themselves fo 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 propensity to believe invifible, intelligent power in nature, their propenfity is equally ftrong to reft their attention on fenfible, vifible objects; and in order to reconcile thefe oppofite inclina. tions, they are led to unite the invifible power with fome visible object.

The diftribution alfo of diftin&t provinces to the several deities is apt to caufe fome allegory, both phyfical and moral, to enter into the vulgar fyftems of polytheifin. The god of war will

naturally

naturally be reprefented as furious, cruel, and impetuous: The god of poetry as elegant, polite, and amiable: The god of merchandife, efpecially in early times, as thievifh and dreadful. The

mentators.

allegories, fuppofed in Homer and other mythologifts, I allow, have often been fo ftrained, that men of sense are apt entirely to reject them, and to confider them as the production merely of the fancy and conceit. of critics and comBut that allegory really has place in the heathen mythology is undeniable even on the leaft reflection. Cupid the fon of Venus; the Muses the daughters of Memory; Prometheus, the wife brother, and Epimetheus the foolish; Hygieia or the goddefs of health defcended from Æfculapius or the god of phyfic: Who fees not, in these, and in many other inftances, the plain traces of allegory? When a god is fuppofed to prefide over any paffion, event, or fyftem of actions, it is almost unavoidable to give him a genealogy, attributes, and adventures, fuitable to his fuppofed powers and influence; and to carry on that fimilitude and comparifon, which is naturally fo agreeable to the mind of man.

Allegories, indeed, entirely perfect, we ought not to expect as the productions 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 Mare? That Sleep is the brother of Death is fuitable; but why defcribe him as enamoured of the Graces? And fince the ancient mythologifts fall into mistakes fo grofs and palpable, we have no reafon furely to expect fuch refined and long-fpun allegories,

Hefiod. Theog. 1. 935.

+ Id. ibid. & Pluto. in vita Pelop.

Iliad. xiv. 267.

as

as fome have endeavoured to reduce from their ¿ctions.

Lucretius was plainly feduced by the strong appearance of allegory, which is obfervable in the pagan fictions. He first addreffes himself 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.

The deities of the vulgar are fo little fuperior to human creatures, that, where men are affected with ftrong 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 among mankind. Most of the divinities of the ancient world are fuppofed to have once been men, to have been beholden for their apotheofis to the admiration and affection of the people. The real history 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 priests, who fucceffively improved upon the wonder and astonishment of the ignorant multitude.

Painters too and fculptors came in for their fhare of profit in the facred myfteries; and furnishing men with fenfible representations of their divinities, whom they cloathed in human figures, gave great encreafe 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, unor

I

ganized

ganized 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 figure of Apollo, the conic stone, Heliogabalus, had never become the object of such profound adoration, and been received as a representation of the folar deity *.

Stilpo, was banished by the council of Areopagus, for affirming that the Minerva in the citadel was no divinity; but the workmanship of Phidias, the sculptor t. What degree of reason must we expect in the religious belief of the vulgar in other nations; when Athenians and Areopagites could entertain fuch grofs conceptions?

These then are the general principles of polytheism, founded in human nature, and little or nothing dependent on caprice and accident. As the causes, which beftow happiness or mifery, are, in general, very little known and very uncertair. our anxious concern endeavours to attain a determinate idea of them; and finds no better expedient than to reprefent them as intelligent voluntary agents, like ourselves; only fomewhat fuperior in power and wisdom. The limited influence of thefe agents, and their great proximity to human weakness, 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

* Herodian, lib. v. Jupiter Ammon is reprefented by Curtius as a deity of the fme kind, lib. iv. cap. 7. The Arabians and Perfinuntians adored alfo fhapeless unformed ftones as their deity. Arnob. lib. vi. So much did their folly exceed that of the Egyptians.

+ Diod. Laert. lib. ii.