OF THI ORIGIN OF 



POLYTHEISM, IDOLATRY, AND GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



BY RICHARD KIRWAN, ESQ. L. L D. P. R. I. A. F. R. S. *e. 



READ CeCEMBER 7tfa, 1803. 



v^URIOSITY is one af the characteristic properties of man; 

 no other animal feels its impulse any farther than respects 

 the discovery of the objects of its physical wants. Man 

 alone possesses it universally, unless confounded by the 

 multiplicity of its objects, or deterred by despair of its 

 gratification. But of all the objects that can attract human 

 attention, that of facts is the most easily comprehended ; and 

 these are so much the more interesting, as they partake more 

 of the marvellous, or more nearly relate to us. In an account 

 of the formation of the universe, the origin of our species, and 

 of our primeval ancestors, both these qualities are combined. 

 K^otliing can be imagined more sublime, more marvellous, 

 or that nujie nearly concerns us. Hence, in all ancient 

 civilized nations, some relation of these stupendous objects, ia 

 a word, some system of cosmogony, has existed ; this, adorned- 

 with all the graces of poetry, and the charms of music, toge- 

 ther with many adventitious embellishments, formed the prin- 

 cipal entertainment of the ancients. Thus Virgil in his sixth 

 eclogue represents Silenus transporting nymphs and shep- 



D Si Jiercls 



