RICE. 129 



who did not always originate in the art of 

 the sculptor or the craft of the priest ; for 

 before the ancients were blessed with a know- 

 ledge of the true God, no worship could be 

 more reasonable, or devotion more justifiable, 

 than that which their gratitude paid to the 

 memory of those departed mortals who had 

 given them the art of raising the comforts of 

 life, or left them equitable laws to secure the 

 possession of them. To commemorate the 

 acts of these wise artists or able legislators, 

 feasts of thanksgiving were established, and 

 temples of glory erected : — 



** These rites, these altars, and this feast, O King, 

 From no vain fears or superstition spring, 

 Or blind devotion, or from blinder chance, 

 Or heady zeal, or brutal ignorance : 

 But, saved from danger, with a grateful sense 

 The labours of a god we recompense." — Virgil. 



The mortals whom they had deified, were 

 next represented emblematically, to perpe- 

 tuate the remembrance of their services ; 

 time and change of country corrupted this 

 inoffensive worship into superstition ; the 

 victim of ignorance, and the tool of power, 

 transformed their religion from simplicity to 

 folly and vice, until the Almighty made it 

 known that He alone who made the heavens 



VOL. II. K 



