^6 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



ancient divinities were mere fictions of ancient kings for the 

 purpose of terrifying their subjects, and to keep them in humble 

 submission. 



By means of the moral hypothesis it was stated that the ancient 

 gods were representatives of human virtues — e.g. bravery, jovial- 

 ty, honesty, faithfulness, loyalty — being exposed in the temples 

 for the purpose of inciting the spectator how to act during his 

 lifetime. 



O. Mueller fancied the Greeks and Romans to have adored the 

 geographical objects of Greece and Italy, e.g. Mt. yEtna, Olym- 

 pus, the Mediterranean sea, the fields, medical plants, and the 

 like. Hence the Egyptian divinities would have been similar 

 things. 



According to the astronomical basis the ancient gods were the 

 constellations and principal stars of the heavens, e.g. the dog-star, 

 Orion, Perseus, Andromeda, and so on. 



The philosophers guessed the ancient deities to have i-epre- 

 sented metaphysical conceptions, as sanctity, justice, power, and 

 the like. 



All these statements stand in direct opposition with the testi- 

 mony of ancient authors, as we shall now see. In advance, it is 

 to be borne in mind that all traditions concur in putting beyond 

 question that all pagan religions originated from one fountain, 

 viz. from the idolatry of the Babylonians, prior to the dispersion 

 of the nations in 27S0 B.C. (See the author's " Berichtigungen 

 der alten Geschichte," etc., p. 203.) First, in Jeremiah (li. 7) 

 we read : " Babylon had been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, 

 that made all the earth drunken : the nations have drunken 

 of her wine ; therefore the nations are mad." — The Georgian 

 Chronicle (Journal Asiat., Paris, Dec. 1833, p. 535) reports that 

 soon after the dispersion of the nations, the latter forgot their 

 Creator, whereupon they worshipped the planets. — Plutarch 

 (Is. 377) and Lutatius (Theb. iv. 316) report as follows: "The 

 deities of the Greeks and barbarians, both in the northern and 

 southern regions, ai'e the same." — Cicero (N. D. i. 30) : " Qiiot 

 hominum linguae," he says, "tot nomina deorum." — The Greeks 

 and Romans constantly paralleled their deities with those of 

 Egypt, Gallia, Germania, and the Orient. — Jeremiah (viii. 2) 

 prophesies that " the pagans will spread (the bones of the pro- 



