42 On the Theogony. 



very greatly increased by the frequent interchange of superstitions, bor- 

 rowed by one nation from another. 



To this also we may add, that even the very foundation of the original 

 system of physical allegory involves in itself one very pregnant source 

 of confusion. For either universal nature may, by a pure pantheism, 

 be represented as a single divine being, as in the "Jupiter est quod- 

 cunque vides j" or the different operations of nature may be personified 

 as so many distinct deities : and though we might have fancied a priori, 

 that different nations would originally have adopted and consistently 

 adhered to one or other of these opposite systems, yet I believe in point of 

 fact that we shall find in every known instance, that both of them have 

 been blended together and confounded. All these sources of confusion 

 appear to have acted long before the age of Hesiod ; so that, although we 

 shall perpetually be struck by very obvious traces of an original foundation 

 of physical allegory, yet we shall find all the details throughout, blended 

 into the most incongruous and inextricable mixture of metaphysical ab- 

 stractions, physical powers, moral qualities, and fabulous adventures; defy- 

 ing any ingenuity to succeed in the attempt, which has sometimes been 

 very unprofitably made, to interpret them into any uniform and consistent 

 system of allegory. 



The pernicious moral effects, necessarily resulting from a system of 

 which a physical pantheism thus formed the very foundation, cannot be 

 more correctly or forcibly described, than in the words of Dr. Prichard. 

 (Egypt. Myth. p. 269.) "We lose sight of all abstract ideas of creation 

 or emanation. We contemplate the material universe as an infinite frame, 

 endued with a living nature, of which intellectual or moral attributes form 

 no part ; while the merely animal or sensual powers are every where cele- 

 brated, and exhibited in all the various forms which the luxuriance of a 

 corrupt imagination could develope. Destruction, death, and all its terrors, 

 every where stalk forth in the most appalling shapes. Lust and wanton 

 revelry exhibit in all directions the most obscene and sensual emblems." 



Such was every ethnical mythological system in its very foundation, 

 and, in moral character at least, the superstructure was ever consistent : a 

 fear of the gods, as the avengers of perjury, will be found almost the only 

 redeeming point ; and this the immediate interests of society always led 

 even the rudest legislators to maintain. The natural moral effects of sys- 

 tems so perverted have been forcibly represented by an apostle, in terms 

 which need not now be repeated : the description is indeed disgusting, but 

 those acquainted with the history of those times well know, that it is in no 

 point exaggerated.* 



* See Rom. i. 21 to end. A remarkable illustration of the impure and demoralising 

 tendency of these superstitions, may be found in the seventh book of Aristotle's tre- 

 atise on Politics, c. 17. The philosopher is there treating of the care to be applied 

 to the preservation of the morals of youth, for which reason he says, the magistrate 



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