310 On Scriptural and profane Accounts 
regions, it is possible that they might all 
agree in deifying her ; but if they never were 
her subjects, their doing so is unaccountable. 
Again, Semiramis and Ninus may have been 
deified for their great deeds, but Ninyas, 
who began the system of effeminacy, and 
Sardanapallus, who, by indulging it, ruined 
the monarchy, for what merits were they . 
placed among the gods? ‘The difficulties to 
which we expose ourselves, by maintaining 
that the gentile deities were historical person- 
ages, is strikingly shown in what the authors 
of the Ancient Universal History say of the 
series of deities now under our consideration, 
1v. 366. “ All the kings of Assyria,” say 
they, “‘ were deified, and the Jupiter and 
other gods of mortal origin, came from the 
banks of the Euphrates, and the Tigris; 
and instead of being so ancient as mytholo- 
gists and historians make them, they began 
to be worshipped not above 900 years before 
the birth of Christ.’’ If this be true, the 
gods of Homer’s theology were his own con- 
temporaries : for he lived about 900 B. C. 
The 2d supposition, that of a coincidence 
between the name of the sovereign and the 
deity, in consequence of which their ac- 
tions have been confounded, need not detain 
us long. Were there only an instance or two 
