Chap. 5.] ACCOUNT Or THE WOELD. 21 



and ridelity ; or, according to the opinion of Democritus, 

 that there are only tAvo, Pimishment and Ee\Yard\ indicates 

 still greater folly. Hnman nature, Aveak and frail as it is, 

 mindl'ul of its OAvn infirmity, has made these divisions, so 

 that every one might have recourse to that which he supposed 

 himself to stand more particularly in need of-. Hence we 

 find difterent names employed by difi'erent nations ; the 

 inferior deities are arranged in classes, and diseases and 

 plagues are deified, in consequence of our anxious wish to 

 propitiate them. It was from this cause that a temple was 

 dedicated to Fever, at the public expense, on the Palatine 

 HilP, and to Orbona^, near the Temple of the Lares, and 

 that an altar was elected to Grood Fortime on the Esquiline. 

 Hence we may understand how it comes to pass that there 

 is a greater population of the Celestials than of human beings, 

 since each individual makes a separate God for himself, 

 adopting his own Juno and his own Genius ■\ And there 

 are nations who make Gods of certain animals, and even 

 certain obscene things*', which are not to be spoken of, 

 swearing by stinking meats and such like. To suppose 

 that marriages are contracted between the Gods, and that, 

 during so long a period, there should have been no issue 



1 The account which Cicero gives us of the opinions of Democritus 

 scarcely agrees with the statement in the text ; see De Nat. Deor. i. 120. 



2 " In varios divisit Deos numen \micum, quod Pliuio coelum est aut 

 mundus; ejusque singulas partes, aut, ut philosophi aiunt, attributa, sepa- 

 ratim cohiit ; " Alexandi'e m Lemau'e, i. 231. 



3 " Febrem autem ad minus nocendum, tempKs celebrant, quorum ad- 

 huc unum in Palatio . . . . " Val. Max. ii. 6 ; see also JiUan, Yar. Hist, 

 xii. 11. It is not easy to ascertain the precise meaning of the terms 

 Faniim, ^des, and Templum^ which are employed in this place by Pliny 

 and Val. Maximus. Gresner defines Fanum " area tcmpU et sohimi, 

 templum vero sedificium ; " but tliis distinction, as he informs us, is not 

 always accurately observed; there appears to be stiU less distmction 

 between ^des and Templum ; see his Thesaurus in loco, also Bailey's 

 Facciolati in loco. 



4 " Orbona est Orbitalis dea." Hardouin in Lemaii*e, i. 231. 



5 " Appositos sibi statim ab ortu custodcs credebant, quos viri Genios, 

 Junones foemin® vocabaut." Hardouin in Lemaii'c, i. 232. See Tibullus, 

 4. 6. 1, and Seneca, Epist. 110, siih init. 



^ We may suppose that our author here refers to the ]io]mlar mythology 

 of the Egyptians ; the " foetidi cibi " are mentioned by Juvenal; "Porrum 

 et csepe ncias violare ct fraiigere morsu," xv. 9 ; and Phny, in a subsequent 

 part of his work, xix. 32, remarks, " Allium cajpeque inter Deos m jure- 

 jurando habet ^gyptus." 



