64 



sion as theira had little .to do with the reason and sober 

 judgment of their hearers, The imagination, and the pas- 

 sions, were to be wrought upon, for " there is something in 

 the mind of man, sublime and elevated, which prompts it to 

 overlook all obvious and familiar appearance, and to feign 

 to itself, other, and more extraordinarj." * Accordinglj^ 

 the actions of several pei-sons are attributed to one, and those 

 actions adorned with every circumstance that could make 

 them interesting, or excite to emulation ; and that the glory 

 resulting from them might never be forgotten, or their bene- 

 fits lost to mankind, the hero that achieved them is exalted 

 into the assembly of the divinities, to watch over his fa- 

 voured votaries ; to infuse into their hearts his undaunted 

 spirit, aiad to give stren^h and energy to their bodies, It 

 cannot be' doubted that to the fictions of the poets may be 

 ascribed, in a great degree, the undaunted, and' warlike spirit 

 of the first ages. 



Equally striking ai'e the effects of those fictions upon their 

 morals. The poets, ignorant of the true God, and' of the 

 Unity of the Divine perfections, divided amongst a number 

 of separate beings, what they imagined were attribu^tes of 

 deity ; -f- and in the creation of such imaginary beings, hav- 



• Kurd's DissertatioiiSi 



t The Pelasgians (according to Herodotus,) sacrificed and prayed to gods to whom 

 they gave no name, or distinguishing appellation, it was therefore the poets that iiitro. 

 ducfd th* belief of those numerous deities, and their names. 



MiTFOKD's Grecian History, vol. i. p. 88: 



