218 THE ^VORLD AT THF. ADVENT. 



the eyes of the nations for the light that was about to burst on them. — 

 The transition from lamp-light to the sun, is not quite so painful or 

 blinding, as from entire darkness to noon-day. But the truth, when ad- 

 mitted, was robbed of much of its efficacy, by a falsehood grafted upon 

 it. This was that, with the Supreme God, there were deities, inferior 

 indeed, but still of great power, each of whom had some special object 

 of care. Their favor must be secured by the riles, the ceremonies and 

 the offerings prescribed by their priests. The character of the gods 

 was at once odious and ridiculous. This led, on the part of some, to a 

 hatred of the whole popular system, and a thinly veiled contempt for all 

 its advocates. On the part of the poets, the same feelings were shown 

 in representations so ludicrous, as to prove that if they were not down- 

 right sceptics, they had less faith than fun. 



Every nation 'had deities peculiarly its own, and unshared by oth- 

 ers. Indeed the lords many and gods many so abounded, that any man 

 could have as many as he wanted. A man without a blanket could 

 have a dozen of deities — and without an obblus to buy thread to patch 

 the holes in his pallium, could invoke fifty gods to temper the winds 

 that crept through them. The monarch of the gods was a slave bound 

 by the fixed laws of destiny or fate. The power of Jupitex is illustra- 

 ted in the comparatively refined scheme of Homer, by the figure of a 

 chain fastened to his throne, with link fixed in link, of which he can 

 move the first as he pleases, but that done, his power ceases. Link 

 \vorks in link, and event produces event, far beyond his control. The 

 gods of the East difl"ered from those of the North. Though the legends 

 are so mingled as to give some general resemblance between the vari- 

 ous national idols, it is yet a delusive idea that they are identical. 



The popular idolatry of the Grecians was far more refined than that 

 of the Egyptians. It was characteristic of the national vanity of the 

 Greeks and Romans that they persisted in the assertion that their gods, 

 under some form, were worshipped by all nations. They have however 

 asserted it so stoutly and defended it so ingeniously, that the idea is 

 not yet dispelled. 



The Egyptians indeed waged wars for their gods, but not to extend 

 their power or to make subjects of other nations and compel their wor- 

 ship, but to defend them from aggression. The objects of their wor- 

 ship were haled or eaten by other nations. The sacred ibis was treated 

 like a goose. Apis was made beef of, and the holy crocodile, the levi- 

 athan, was drawn out with a hook and reached through his scales. — 

 Their religious wars then were designed for the defence of their deities. 

 They did not purpose so much to secure their worship as to save 



