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cannot agree about the contest in the Troad after many consultations; so, by the express command of the Thunderer, they, like iis poor mortias, leave ii as an open question, and agree todisser. Thus, in tho fifth book of tho Iliad, to whicli thoro hasbeen at ready allusion, they absolutely sot against each other,
talis their fides, inspire their partisans, backins hero against hero, and a chanc mediey it proves lThough nothing can be more improbabio than that this mythology Was the Vision os poetic imagination, though Wedisbolisve that Homer and Hesiod could have originaled it, yet wo thinii that we seo in it marks of a modisied continuation. This was not the sirst thought. This is not the original system. It has grown out of much that is antecedent. The form and
Consistence are Superinduced Upon an ancient substance. Andhistory assures iis that there is a greatly earlier date, and pre-Vious theory, of polytheism : polytheism more simple and ele
i ess revolting. It is obviolis that the records of the most distant times avoid the violent imaginings of the classic ages : and that in the Epicurean period of the classic ages, the learned resortedio a more cautious PhraSeology. There Was an advised and measured mode of speaking Whicli reVeal S a consciolis necessitysor circumspection and Subdued Statemenis. I can eastly under- stand that a man in modern times Who does not Wish to commithimself to a certain belle -to an moWal os a morat characterand a morai goVernment on the part of the Great First Causo, will Dol himself relieved by such generat Words as almightypower and eternat fine88 and right. He esca pes censure forscepticism ; and yet never can be called to a rechoning for oneten te substantive opinion. So it may have been feti, by sonae ancient, a happy thought, an adroit eXpedient, When instead ofa homage to any particular deity, he spolie of a Numen; and in appealing for a vindication of any cause and right, hoinvoked a Nemesis and a Themis. These are generalities, withwhicli the credulous thought they fully agreed, and lo Whichtho suspicious could not openly objeci. Αnd it must be remem-bered that, When a great antagonist system had weli nigh sub-
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verted heathenism, the philosophers, who stili adherod to it, never ventured to defend that forni of it Which was classicaland poetic, but that earlier pretension Which Was mystic and symbolicat. This Was the last plank of tho wrech to Whichthey clung l All besides,-the most ornamental and exquisite partS,-they abandoned as corruptions. The more intelligent, theresere, adopted a lablo Whiel, served to connect the poetic ceconomy of the gods With an earlier and more philosophic theory. Ιt Was suppossed that during the invasion and assauIt of the Celestiat abodo by tho Gianis, some of them haVing sasty heads, and others a hundrodhands, aving already heaped Ossa ori Pelion,-tho affrighted deitios flod into Egypt. As that famotis land Was the principalreservoir of tradition and fource of lino Jedge, as it could boast so superior an antiquity to Greece,-this Was a happy conjunction os interesis. The modern could then represent that thodisserenco botween ii and the ancient Was rather verbal than real. Both systems became fraternised, consciolis that theymust stand or tali together. The latior also found the necessity
against those of Rome. And thetice arose one of the mosi potnted characteristics of the Pagan hypothesis. It is generalty denominated, the inter- communi ty. It may be ea situ explained. The gods Wore localand provinciat in their tutelage. This country Was sacred toone, that to another. But men could not rema in always in thoplace of their nativity: the Ends both of education and com merce demanded travet. But What Was the devotee to do whonlio sentored the land of another divine patron 8 Μust he preservo his Dalty or transfor it 8 Alust he practise the rites of thocountry in Which he s ourned Θ The presiding poWers Wore certainly restricted. They Were called IndigeteS, Θεοι πάρωοι. The knot Was cui by this explanation, Whicli is a resinementupon ali the liberalism ever recorded, one wa8 a8 9OOd a8 another. This is a great truth. For Were the greater number
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sound any more at large Upon the earth, the dignus vindico nodus ' would infallibly be tho hangman's noose. A sori ofpass, or letter of license, Was theresere virtualty carried by allWho traversed disserent countries. There Was a boundi ess toleration, Save When Some of the priestesses had drank the libation instoad os strewing it on the stirine. It was carried so far, that at Rome there Was the nobi est os ali her temples thus consecrated to the Whole company of the supernais. The Pantheon stili exisis, and is a monumental Volacher of the necessarygood-Will, or perhaps good underStanding, between disserent tutelaries and priesthoods. There Was a compulsory arrest Uponali compotition l This was a litile relaxed When a religion Wastransported Dom one country to another, Whicli in after timo occurred. Hiit, though this Was not much rotishod in tho sirstitistance by the predominant order, the principi e of inter communi ty lese no alternative. The state speedily adopted all. Athons was hospitable in a most munificent degree, entertainedgods known and unknown, HWays kept a niche vacant for theneXt neW-comer, untii it greW into a proveri, that it Was easterto sind a god than a maia. But While this Was a very fast steptoWards a system os consolidation, there Were incongruities in
history to be reconciled, and incredibilities in popular bolios tobo explained. When the Theogony of the poet, and even of
the grave annalist, Was adduced, there Seemed a necessity sor an
illiterat mos ning. The nuptials of the colestials did not woli consist With the celibacy and vestali sui they imposed on their
ment that tho Cretans persisted io AhoW their Ida on whosesides Iupiter Was trained, and more disagreeably took money of the virtuosi Who came to visit his tomb. Birili, marriage, and death, are very natural to us; but scarcely agree With independetice, spiritualism, and immortality. All this Wastherofore to bo mysticatly accounted for. The birth of a godWas his si si acknowle ment in any country. The marriage Was the superaddition of one Worship to another. Tlis deathWas the with awment of a particular idol or rite, their distase
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Something Was, hoWeVer, needed to satisfy the more philosophic enquirer. And the eXpedient Was early embraced to estu-blisti a system os substitutes, or doubie imagos. I have found , in my enquiries, nothing more probable than the origination ofidolatry in the more marked appearances und bodies of nature. The Worship of the sun , and Inoon, and conStellation, WaS Proba-bly iis nascent fortia. But this Was too large and too indefinito for the multitude. There Was Wanted something of a more
personat figure, Whicli a temple might shelter, and to whicli a multitudo might bend. The anthropomorphite idolatry Was too likely to lead away the mind Dom the celestial phenomena, undthereiapon animais Were used instead. The Buli represented the Sun, hecause the Strong curis of iis forehead Were supposed toresemble the out-beamings of that orb. The Cat Was the remembrance of the Inoon, because the contraction and dilatation of the pupilla os iis eye Were deemed analogous to the increase and wane of that satellite. The Dog Was devoted to Syrius hecause, at iis particular appearance in the heaVenS, that creature Was
In addition to these intentionat emblems, astronomy hadtest sonio mighty relics. This could only be the science of the w, and the heirs seldom equali ed the renoWned ancestors. Μuch of tho Newtonian rules Was known to the Egyptians, and is a restoration of their learning. Scienco, like higher truthitself, had degeneraled in later times. The pyrami is ure most true to the meridian. The most rationes solution of the sphinxis that it denotod the godiacat sigias of Leo and Virgo when thesian Was apparently paSSing DOm the one to the other. Μany of the symbols, in the ordinary tables and pillars, Seem to refer tothe computed times of Νile's inundation and recession. The mostam using fictions contain astronomic truth. There is a Well-known tale of the cruel ban that Was luid on Rhea: threehundred and siXty days Were closed against her. But Μercvry,
the Egyptian Thoth, obviated this dissiculty by playing at dice
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with the Μoon, and winning Dom her the SeVenty-second partos ea ch day. He then made up of these stahes sive da s, whichiis addod to the three hundred and siXty,- constituting the Proper Solar year. As the Scarabaeus pushes iis nidus backward with iis Dei, while it stili looks directly forWard, it Wasd00med a typo of the sun in iis real progress Dom West toeast, though iis apparent motion is hom east to west. And it may be observed that there Was a Strong tendency in ali mythology to convert public benefactors into Stars. Saturn becameone. The planeis stili Leep their course With ait their polythe- istic names and adjuncis. The comet Whicli appeared at thotime of the games instituted by Augustus in celebration os Caesar is called by Virgil Dionaei Caesaris astrum :' and by Ηorace, ερ Iulium Sidus. 'Tho choico which was leti to the inquisitive and educated, lay between two systems. The sirst was Pantheism. This assumod that the Deity Was universalty dissu sed,-not only an anima mundi, but that eVery thing, every element of things, was divino. It is evident that we should not only, is this weretrue, do as Juvenal describes his scepties, intrepidi quaecunque altaria tangunt, ' or as Alalebranche Speculates, see all
The second, there re, obtained sis more favour. It was that whicli attributed to Nature certain energieS, Permanently regenerative principieS. Wo cannot fati to contrast the correct sentiments on morais Entertained by these personS With the very crude notions theypossessed os a First Cause. Beautiful were their sigments of the fair and becoming, the εο καλον, and το πρεπον. The distinction they made proved a refinement of morat sensibili ty. Thismay be simpli sed by selecting three Greek Words expressive os obligation, Xρη, Δει, Oφειλει. The sirst implies the utility, thesecond the bin ling necessity, the third the equit te due, of
the morat act. Eut the divine nature is not a subject withinhuman compass; and, theresere, We snd that the most sagaciousminds satio 1 to acquire the satisfactory information. Νow this
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Power of Νature Was very early adumbrated in the mythologiesto Which Greece Was so great a deblor. The primitivo deitisswere Ouranus and VeSta,-Signifying a conjunction and combustion os the olemental sire in the more raresed region of theair. Therico resulted Saturn and Ops. Ops is the earth, beyondali doubt: perhaps as the Source of wealth : probably there Was an adjective of this form, and we have stili tho privativsone, inops. Vesta is the goddess of flamo: and lienes her firρ-worship. But Wo learn Dom Ovid's fixit, book of Fastorum, - Tellus Vostaque numen idem est.' The earili is represented by other names, Rhea, Berecynthia. Cybele and Isis a re additional appellations. These do not denote the mere map of the Wortii, but a property it possesses of reproducing in ali iis kinds and species. This is the vis vivisca. Ceres is biit onemore specimen. Occasionalty the moon is intended, but as a part of the mundane system, governed by the Sun. To preVent confusion, I slaali for the future cali this power, Isis. She is
is ΔημηJερ. When Athens, there re, in her Dantic admirationos Dometrius changed the feast os Bacchus, called Dionysia,
into Demetria,-there Was a reserve in the saltery, at least insoland , and Isis might be as much honoured as Bacchus was
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grief she suffered, μελας ον, near the fountain Callichorus, that sho found refuge in the house of Celeus, Ling of Eleusis,- that she purissed his son Demaphon in the fire, showing heridentity Willi Vesta,-that she sent another son, TriptolemuS, toteach the nations useful inventions, - and that her Proserpine Was compelled to pay her mollier long ViSiis eVery year, Somesay of four monilis, others of SiX. Ait this, however, carries Usbach to Egypt. Ceres Was not a name known in that country, and yet Was the favourite name during the most classic periodin Greece. Wo have to think theresere of Isis in hor days of earthly royalty, the bride of Osiris, or of Serapis, Which seemsto have been his later name. Tacitus, in his History, the fourthbook, gives an account of Serapis, as is froin the Egyptianpriesis them selves, Whicli is by no means probabie or Consistent. Though thero is much to disprovo the idea that Anubis Wasoriginalty considered the fame Willi Osiris, yet in the fartherperiods of the Isiac Worshil', he was the god of her temples. He Was termed Canicula Cynocephalus, hecause the heliacat rising of Sirius hegan tho year and coincided with tho hi hostsweli of thse Nile. Osiris might represent the suta, and Anubis
the dog-star, or Sothis, - both, theresore, Were emblems ostieat,-and might be ea stly converted With one another. Tohelp iis in this remotu speculation We must sX the literat, and then s00k the figurative, narration.
Osiris and Isis Were king and queen of Egypt. Typhon
was his brother : Thoth or Μercvry his minister. He seems toliave possessed a mind as benevolent as it Was capaciotas. Heosten visited other countries to leach them to SoW Corn, to culti- vute their vines, and to ascend the gradual steps of civiligation. Ηe goeS under many names, one of Whicli certainly identisios him with Iacchus or Bacchus. Tho Egyptians called the ivySacred to Bacchus, χενοςιρις. During one of theSe eXCurSions orprogresses, Typhon rebelled. It d 8 not Very clearly appear What part this viZier, afterWariis called Trismegistus, took in the insurrection, but the name Would Warrant iis to conclude that he three times took ossice, so When he could serve Osiris no more, patriotism impelled him to kim hands under Typhon.
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the great refource. Typhon is the burning sun drying up est, and then by a strange change of character is the sea sWallowingup the Nile.-Osiris is the principie of good: Typhon is thegenius os evit. This second solution is biit a mythos of tho Ianichean doctrine. A third uitriddling is, that Osiris is thohighest portion of the solit, that Whicli thinks and aspires toexcellence: and that Typhon is the grosser animal pari. There Was alWays in Egypt a strong attachment to thedouble doctrine. The priesis Were the depositaries of ali knowledge, Whicli they doled out With a niggard hand. This Wascalled exoterio, and esoterio: the more public and the more intimate revelation. Pythagoras constantly employed it, though heboasted philosophy, and founded a school. He et oined on his discipies the strictest silenco for years, spolie to them hom a concealment into whicli they could not pry preScribed a courseos initiation, and enounced his opinions in sortiis the most trite Unless they contained a hidden redeeming sense. Surely these
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Os tho Eleusinian mysteries or cryphia, We have Some SCRt- tered intelligorice in the ancient authors, but nothing so fuli and authentic as in the Aletamorphosis of Apuleius. It is, in iis conclusion, the tale of one, by name Lucius, Who had been transformed into an ass. I imagine that this does not imply somuch morat degradation as ignorance. For this animal was notdeemed unctem. It was an offering to Bacchus. And it was commonly employed to bear the sacred furniture of tho Isiactemples. But it lineW nothing, of course, concerning the impori of iis burthen. Ιt hecame a proverbial expression, Asinus mysteria portat. ' So Lucius Would compare his Want anilunsusceptibility of ali religiolis information. In the opening of the eleventh book, the poor beast having escaped to the inorenear the temple, e Ι 8hali Use the personat pronoun to moidambiguity) aWAes in the early watch of the night with suddensear amidst the clear shining of the fuit mo . Hoping that his
dire missortunes may noW haVe an end, he resol Ves to pray to that orb, after seven immersions os his head in the sea, whicli Pythagoras had ordained as the religious number. GaZing onher, he adores her as the queen of heaven, Whether Ceres, then inhabiting that country,-or Venus, then Worshipped in thesea-encircled Paphos,-or the sister of Phoebus, Latona Diana, -or ProSerpina, otherWise Hecate, With three faces,-callingupon her to give pause and peace' to his sufferings, and torestore his human form. Sinhing once more to fleep, a divine face rises besore him oui the sea, most bland and adorabie. Isis