[ 38 ] 



tailed in the pafTage relating to them. " But from whence 

 " (fays he) each of the Gods had his exiflence, or whether 

 " they have all been from eternity, or tinder what forms, 

 " are matters unknown until yefterday, as I may fay ; for 

 " Hefiod and Homer, who lived four hundred years before me, 

 " and no niorc, &c." From this we may not unreafonably 

 infer that Herodotus attributes to the bards in queftion, not 

 only the mere theogony, Ceremonial worfhip, firnames, functions 

 and figures of the Gods, but the invefligation and elucidation 

 of that great and effential point in divinity, whether their 

 exiftence had been from all eternity ; a queftion indeed of the 

 highefb importance, efpecially in a religion where the received 

 opinion limited tlie exiftence of the Gods, by afligning to each 

 of them fathers and mothers, but which I do not recolleefl: to 

 have been difcufTed or elucidated in any writings of thefe 

 bards that have come down to us, though I doubt not that 

 fuch elucidation may by inference be drawn from fundry 

 paflages in thefe poems. May we however allow ourfelves to 

 fuppofe that our hiftorian had feen fome philofophical poems 

 of Hefiod or Homer wherein this great fubjedl was treated, 

 but which are now buried in oblivion ? The facfl, though 

 unlikely, is by no means impoflible, as many of their works 

 are known to have -been loft:, and the bare pofiibility that 

 fuch treatifes may have exifted is a matter of much curio- 

 fity. 



These ImperfecH: and loofe hints I have thrown out merely 

 to fhew that the opinion of Herodotus may be reconciled to 



the 



