222 ON THE GODS OF GREECE, 



diftinguifhed inhabitants of the primitive world, at the 

 time when they deviated, as they did too early deviate, 

 from the rational adoration of the only true God. 



There feem to have been four principal fources of all 

 mythology. I. Hiftorical or natural truth has been 

 perverted into fable by ignorance, imagination, flattery, 

 orftupidity; as a king of Crete, whofe tomb had been 

 difcovered in that ifland, was conceived to have been 

 the God of Olympus ; and Minos, a legiflator of that 

 country, to have been his fon, and to hold a fupreme 

 apellate jurifditlion over departed fouls; hence too 

 probably flowed the tail of Cadmus, as Bochart learnedly 

 traces it; hence beacons or volcanos became one-eyed 

 giants, and monfters vomiting flames; and two rocks, 

 from their appearance to mariners in certain pofitions, 

 were fuppofed to crufh all veflels attempting to pafs be- 

 tween them ; of which idle fictions many other inftances 

 might be collected from the OdyJJey, and the various 

 Argonautick poems. The lefs we fay of Julian ftars, 

 deifications of piinces or warriors, altars raifed, with 

 thofe of Apollo, to the bafeit of men, and divine titles 

 bellowed on fuch wretches as Caius Oflavianus, the 

 lefs we fhall expofe the infamy of grave fenators and 

 fine poets, or the brutal folly of the low multitude : but 

 we may be allured, that the mad apotheofis of truly 

 great men, or of little men falfely called great, has been 

 the origin of grofs idolatrous errors in every part of the 

 Pagan world. II. The next fource of them appears to 

 have been a wild admiration of the heavenly bodies, 

 and, after a time, the fyftems and calculations of aftro- 

 nomers ; hence came a confiderable portion of Egyp- 

 tian and Grecian fable; the Sabian worfhip in Arabia ; 

 the Perfian types and emblems of Mihr, or the Sun; and 

 the far extended adoration of the elements and the 

 powers of nature; and hence, perhaps, all the artificial 

 Chronology of the Chinefe and Indians, with the inven- 

 tion of demi-gods and heroes to fill the vacant niches in 

 their extravagant and imaginary periods. III. Num« 



berlefs 



