ON t O U R S 1 N <; . 



161 



This Celtic custom I follow with my fellow-sportsinen/ and x\xiv 

 declare no human undertaking to have a prosperous issue injunctions to 



the observance 



of religious 



rices. 



this additiun, that the priest of every parish in the city, arrayed in his cope, and the 

 bishop of London in his mitre, assisted on the occasion. Camden had likewise seen 

 it when a boy, and had heard that the canons of the Cathedral attended in their 

 sacred vestments, wearing garlands of flowers on their heads." 



1. We cannot but admire the fine feelings of piety, and conscious dependence on 

 iin over-ruling Providence, which pervade the closing cliRpters of the Cynegeticus. 



Many splendid passages might be selected from the classical writings of Greece 

 and Rome, demonstrative of the fact that, however darkened by mythological allu- 

 sions, the most enlightened heathens supported a conviction of the affairs of this 

 lower world being under the guidance of a Supreme Intelligence, and of man himself 

 being utterly weak and destitute when unsupported h.y the aid and influence of 

 Heaven. This feeling is strongly manifested in the works of Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, 

 Orpheus, Phocylides, and a host of others among the Greeks : and notwithstanding 

 the mischievous attempt of tiie philosophy of Epicurus to eradicate from the Roman 

 mind all sense of dependency on Heaven, (as if the Divine Essence, in relation to 

 hunma conduct, " nee bene promeritis cajntur, nee tangitur ira,") the works of 

 Virgil, Horace, and Claudian afford splendid examples of the important truth that 

 the natural aspirations of poetry tend to the honour of the Gods, and that when right- 

 fully employed, the genius of man is ever directed to the advancement of religion 

 and morality. It is unnecessary to refer to the innumerable passages illustrative of 

 the creed of ancient philosophers, contained in their works ; let it sufHce that Pliny, 

 in speaking of the unity of the Deity, gives the reason why men commonly spoke of 

 more than one God : " Fragilis et laboriosa mortalitas in partes ista digessit, inllr- 

 mitatis sure memor ; ut portionibus quisque coleret, quo maxime indigeret," &(?. 

 The catalogue of subordinate deities, enumerated by our author as directing the 

 affairs, destinies, and pursuits of mankind, merged with him in the belief of one 

 Supreme Intelligence, of which these subaltern deities were the several attributes 

 and manifestations, in the government of the universe and its constituent parts. 

 According to Hermesianax, 



TlKovTOou, nep(Ti(()6i>r], Ay\fx,i)rt]p, Kvirpis,''Epciir€S, 

 Tpirctives, NTjpei/s, T-qdvs, Kal Kvavoxu'iTTis, 

 'Epfxris T,"li(pai(TT6s re KXvrhs, Uav, Zeis re, «:ai"Hp77, 

 "ApTffiis, r]S' 'EKUfpyos 'AndWooi', ds 9e6s icrri : 



an opinion which was general with the superior philosojihers of Greece and Rome, in 

 opposition to the polytheistic notions of their inferiors, who, while worshipping the 

 " porliones" of Pliny, violated most grossly the unity of the ETs ®(hs of {)hllosophy ; 



X 



Lucretii 

 L. I. ()2. 



Hist. Natur. 

 L. II. c. vn. 



