abandons us. Prayers and facrifices, rites and ceremonies, well or ill performed, are the fources of his favour or enmity, and produce all the good or ill fortune, which are to be found amongst mankind. We may conclude, therefore, that in all nations, which have embraced polytheism or idolatry, the firft ideas of religion arose not from a contemplation of the works of nature, but from a concern with regard to the events of life, and from the inceffant hopes and fears, which actuate the human mind. Accordingly, we find, that all idolaters, having separated the provinces of their deities, have recourse to that invisible agent, to whose authority they are immediately subjected, and whose province it is to fuperintend that courfe of actions, in which they are, at any time, engaged. JUNO is invoked at marriages; LUCINA at births. NEPTUNE receives the prayers of feamen; and MARS of warriors. The hufbandman cultivates his field under the protection of CERES; and the merchant acknowleges the authority of MERCURY. Each natural event is supposed to be governed by fome intelligent agent; and nothing profperous or adverse can happen in life, which may not be the subject of peculiar prayers or thanksgivings *, It must neceffarily, indeed, be allowed, that, in order to carry men's attention beyond the prefent courfe of things, or ·་ Fragilis & laboriofa mortalitas in partes ifta digeffit, infirmitatis fuæ memor, ut portionibus quifquis coleret, quo maxime indigeret." PLIN. lib. ii. cap. 7. So early as HESIOD's time there were 30,000 deities. Oper. & Dier. lib. 1. ver. 250. But the task to be performed by thefe, seems fill too great for their number. The provinces of the deities were so subdivided, that there was even a God of Sneezing, See ARIST. Probl. fe&t. 33. cap. 7. The province of copulation, fuitable to the. importance and dignity of it, was divided among feveral deities. lead เ lead them into any inference concerning invifible intelligent power, they must be actuated by some paffion, which prompts their thought and reflection; some motive, which urges their first enquiry. But what paffion fhall we here have recourse to, for explaining an effect of fuch mighty confequence? Not fpeculative curiofity furely, or the pure love of truth. That motive is too refined for fuch grofs apprehenfions, and would lead men into enquiries concerning the frame of nature; a fubject too large and comprehenfive for their narrow capacities. No paffions, therefore, can be supposed to work upon fuch barbarians, but the ordinary affections of human life; the anxious concern for happiness, the dread of future mifery, the terror of death, the thirft of revenge, the appetite for food and other neceffaries. Agitated by hopes and fears of this nature, especially the latter, men fcrutinize, with a trembling curiofity, the course of future causes, and examine the various and contrary events of human life. And in this difordered fcene, with eyes still more disordered and astonished, they fee the first obfcure traces of divinity, SECT. III. The fame fubject continued. We are placed in this world, as in a great theatre, where the true springs and causes of every event, are entirely unknown to us; nor have we either fufficient wisdom to foresce, or power to prevent thofe ills, with which we are continually threatened. We hang in perpetual fufpenfe between life and death, health and fickness, plenty and want; which are diftributed among the human fpecies by fecret and unknown causes, whose operation is oft unexpected, and always unacVOL. II. countable. L11 countable. These unknown causes, then, become the conftant object of our hope and fear; and while the paffions are kept in perpetual alarm by an anxious expectation of the events, the imagination is equally employed in forming ideas of those powers, on which we have fo entire a dependence. Could men anatomise nature, according to the moft probable, at least the moft intelligible philofophy, they would find, that these caufes are nothing but the particular fabric and ftructure of the minute parts of their own bodies and of external objects; and that, by a regular and conftant machinery, all the events are produced, about which they are fo much concerned. But this philofophy exceeds the comprehenfion of the ignorant multitude, who can only conceive the unknown caufes in a general and confused manner; though their imagination, perpetually employed on the same subject, muft labour to form fome particular and distinct idea of them. The more they confider thefe causes themselves, and the uncertainty of their operation, the lefs fatisfaction do they meet with in their refearch; and, however unwilling, they must at last have abandoned fo arduous an attempt, were it not for a propenfity in human nature, which leads into a system, that gives them fome seeming fatisfaction. There is an univerfal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately confcious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, afcribe malice and good-will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us. Hence the frequency and beauty of the profopopeia in poetry, where 9 where trees, mountains and ftreams are perfonified, and the inanimate parts of nature acquire fentiment and paffion. And though these poetical figures and expreffions gain not on the belief, they may serve, at least, to prove a certain tendency in the imagination, without which they could neither be beautiful nor natural. Nor is a river-god or hama-dryad always taken for a mere poetical or imaginary perfonage; but may fometimes enter into the real creed of the ignorant vulgar; while each grove or field is represented as poffeffed of a particular genius or invisible power, which inhabits or protects it. Nay, philofophers cannot entirely exempt themselves from this natural frailty; but have oft afcribed to inanimate matter, the horror of a vacuum, fympathies, antipathies, and other affections of human nature. The abfurdity is not lefs, while we caft our eyes upwards; and transferring, as is too ufual, human paffions and infirmities to the deity, represent him as jealous and revengeful, capricious and partial, and, in short, a wicked and foolish man in every respect, but his superior power and authority. No wonder, then, that mankind, being placed in fuch an absolute ignorance of causes, and being at the fame time fo anxious concerning their future fortunes, fhould immediately acknowlege a dependence on invisible powers, poffeffed of sentiment and intelligence. The unknown causes, which continually employ their thought, appearing always in the same aspect, are all apprehended to be of the same kind or species. Nor is it long before we afcribe to them thought, and reason, and paffion, and fometimes even the limbs and figures of men, in order to bring them nearer to a refemblance with ourselves. In proportion as any man's course of life is governed by accident, we always find, that he encreases in fuperftition; as may particularly be obferved of gamefters and failors, who, though of all mankind, the least capable of serious meditation, abound moft in frivolous and fuperftitious apprehenfions. The gods, fays CORIOLANUS in DIONYSIUS*, have an influence in every affair; but above all, in war; where the event is fo uncertain. All human life, especially before the inftitution of order and good government, being fubject to fortuitous accidents; it is natural, that fuperftition should prevail every where in barbarous ages, and put men on the most earneft enquiry concerning those invifible powers, who difpofe of their happiness or misery. Ignorant of aftronomy and the anatomy of plants and animals, and too little curious to obferve the admirable adjustment of final caufes; they remain still unacquainted with a first and supreme creator, and with that infinitely perfect spirit, who alone, by his almighty will, beftowed order on the whole frame of nature. Such a magnificent idea is too big for their narrow conceptions, which can neither observe the beauty of the work, nor comprehend the grandeur of its author. They fuppofe their deities, however potent and invifible, to be nothing but a fpecies of human creatures, perhaps raised from among mankind, and retaining all human paffions and appetites, together with corporeal limbs and organs. Such limited beings, though masters of human fate, being, each of them, incapable of extending his influence every where, must be vaftly multiplied, in order to answer that variety of events, which happen over the whole face of * Lib. viii. nature, |