30 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



elevated to the rank of divinities. This doclrine 

 was adopted by all the pagan world. The 

 apotheofis, after they had creeled temples and 

 altars to the new gods, was celebrated with much 

 folemnity. In the lail ceremony, an eagle was 

 fixed on the catafalk, or funeral pile, on which 

 was placed the image of the hero, and when the 

 pile began to burn, the eagle was let loofe, who, 

 mounting into the air with the flames, feemed to 

 carry the foul of the departed hero up to hea- 

 ven. 



XVIL Mythology informs us alfo, who thofe 

 perfons were that antiquity regarded as the chil- 

 dren of the gods, fuch as Thefeus, Hippolytus, 

 Paris, &c. what the pagans believed, with 

 regard to the nature of their Genii and Demons, 

 of their Dryades, Hamadryades,Nymphs,Tritons, 

 Sirens, Fawns, Silvans, Centaurs, and other 

 fubaltern divinities ; and in this manner it ex- 

 plains all the fyftems of the pofitive religion of 

 the Greeks and Romans. They who are defir- 

 ous Of extending their knowledge of paganifm 

 ftill further, of knowing the dogmas of each 

 particular people, what were their gods, and 

 the various manners in which they were worfhip- 

 ped, fuch as Apis, Ifis, Ofiris, &c. the adoration 

 of crocodiles and onions, &c. among the Egyp- 

 tians, muft ftudy the different thcogonies of 

 thefe people, and notwithflanding all the infor- 

 mations which ancient and modern authors af- 

 ford, this ftudy is yet boundlefs, and attended 



with 



