SYNONYMOUS TERMS. 99 
In order to obviate this feeming objection, it muft be re- 
membered, that a difference of opinion refpeéting the fame a@ 
in any two countries, may very naturally produce a difference 
in the interpretation of thofe words, that are expreflive of this 
act in each. Undefined terms have in this way become a fruit- 
ful fource of controverfy in matters both civil and religious; and 
even the {cience of grammar has futfered by thofe inaccuracies 
of expreffion, which it profeffes to remedy in all other fubjects. 
The religious fentiments of the Romans were by no means re- 
fined. Vows were prefented as bribes to their deities, into 
whofe ear they whifpered petitions, which they were. afhamed 
to acknowledge in the face of the world. “ Turpiflima vota 
“ diis infufurrant ; fi quis. admoverit aurem, conticefcent, et 
** quod fcire hominem nolunt deo narrant *.”” The prayer of 
fuch worfhippers, then, was a matter of traffic, not an act of 
devotion. That difinterefted benevolence, in reliance upon 
which more pious fupplicants prefent their requefts, was none 
of the attributes of a Roman deity. The humiliation of the 
devotee was in his own eyes an article of merit; and he left 
the altar on which he had laid his offering, feeling the obliga- 
tion impofed on that being to whom it was prefented. 
Many paflages in the Latin claflics confirm the truth of the 
obfervations now made. 
non tu prece pof/cis emaci, 
Que nifi fedudtis nequeas committere divis }. 
Antequam limen Capitolii tangant, alius.donum promittit, . 
fi propinguum divitem extulerit, alius fi thefaurum effoderit. 
Ipfe Senatus recti bonique preceptor, mille pondo auri Capitolio 
promittit. Omnibus diis hominibufque formofior videtur mafla 
auri, quam quicquid APpELLEs Puipiasve, Greculi delirantes 
n 2 “ fecerunt. 
* Sen. Ep. fon : + Pers. Sat. 2. 3. 
