CHAP. 10. 2. SUPERSTITIONS, &c. 311 



tification, afforded by metaphysical language, 

 for the freer communication of ideas. Thus 

 the early philosophers having personified the 

 combined powers of the atmosphere into Jupi- 

 ter, he was, by subsequent generations, really 

 believed in, and considered as an existing deity. 

 So Horace descanting on the power of a clear 

 cold night to freeze the fallen snow, observes : . 



" positas ut glaciet nives 



Puro numine Juppiter." 



This passage affords an example of the most 

 genuine and physical sense in which the being 

 of Jove is brought into notice. A similar view 

 may be taken of the origin of other deities. 

 Venus, or the procreative power;* Mars, or 

 the belligerent ; Vesta, or the spirit of fire f 



* In the Dedication of Lucretius' Philosophical Poem De 

 Hcrum Natura : 



" Aeneidum genetrix hominum, divuinque voluptas 

 Alma Venus," &c. Lib. i. 



The Persian worship is entirely that of the Elements. 

 " In the 30th year of Sapor II. the Magians accused the 

 Christians to the King with loud complaints, saying, ' No 

 longer are we able to worship the Sun, nor the Air, nor the 

 Water, nor the Earth, for the Christians despise and insult 

 them.' " Butler's Lives, xi. 465. 



t Nee tu aliud Vestam quam vivam intellige flammam. 



