ON THE CODS OF GREECE, &C, 221 



IX. 



ON THE GODS 



OP 



GREECE, ITALY, AND INDIA, 



Written in 1784. 

 And Jince revijed by the Prefident. 



WE cannot juftly conclude, by arguments preced- 

 ing the proof of facts, that one idolatrous people 

 muft have borrowed their deities, rites, and tenets from 

 another ; fmce Gods of all fhapes and dimenfions may 

 be framed by the boundlefs powers of imagination, or 

 by the frauds and follies of men, in countries never con- 

 nected ; but when features of refemblance, too ftrong 

 to have been accidental, are obfervable in different (yi- 

 terns of polytheifm, without fancy or prejudice to color 

 them, and improve the likenefs, we can fcarce help be- 

 lieving, that fome connexion has immemorially fubfifted 

 between the feveral nations who have adopted them. It 

 is my defign, in this ElTay, to point out fuch a refem- 

 blance between the popular worfhip of the old Greeks 

 and Italians and that of the Hindus. Nor can there be 

 room to doubt of agreat fimilarity between theirftrange 

 religions and that of Egypt, China, Perfia, Phrygia^ 

 Phoenicia, Syria ; to which, perhaps, we may fafely add, 

 fome of the fouthern kingdoms, and even iflands of 

 America : while the Gothic fyflem, which prevailed in 

 the northern regions of Europe, was not merely fimilar 

 to thofe of Greece and Italy, but almoft the fame, in 

 another drefs, with an embroidery of images apparently 

 Afiatick. From all this, if it be fatisfaclonly proved, we 

 may infer a general union or affinity between the moll 



diftinguifhed 



