SHAP. in.] WEST INDIES. 8 1 



symbolical representations only of their subordinate 

 divinities, and useful as sensible objects, to awaken 

 the memory and animate devotion, but ascribing divi- 

 nity to the material itself, and actually worshipping 

 the rude stone or block which their own hands had 

 fashioned. It may be observed, however, that an 

 equal degree of folly prevailed among people much 

 more enlightened. The Egyptians themselves, the 

 most ancient of civilized nations, worshipped various 

 kinds of animals, and representations of animals, so.me 

 of them the most noxious in nature; and even the ac- 

 complished philosophers of Greece and Rome paid di- 

 vine honours to men to whom they had themselves 

 given an apotheosis. So nearly allied, in religious re- 

 searches, is the blindness of untutored nature, to the 

 insufficiency of mere cultivated reason ! 



It has indeed been asserted (whether justly or not) 

 that cc the superstitions of paganism always wore the 

 <s appearance of pleasure, and often of virtue ;" but 

 the theology of our poor islanders bore a different as- 

 pect. By a lamentable inconsistency in the human 

 mind^ they considered the Creator of all things as 

 wholly regardless of the work of his hands ; and as 

 having transferred the government of the world to sub- 

 ordinate and malignant beings, who delighted in con- 

 verting into evil, that which HE pronounced to be 

 good. The effusions of gratitude, the warmth of af- 

 fection, the confidence of hope, formed no part of 

 their devotions. Their idols were universally hideous 



Gibbon, 



Vol. T. 



