ITALY, AND INDIA. 223 



berlefs divinities have been created folely by the ma- 

 gick of poetry, whofe effential bufinefs it is to perfonify 

 the moft abftraft notions, and to place a Nymph or a 

 Genius in every grove, and almoft in every flower; 

 hence Hygieia and Jafo, Health and Remedy, are the 

 poetical daughters of JEfculapius, who was either a 

 diftinguifhed phy fician, or medical Hull perfonified; and 

 hence Chloris, or verdure, is married to the Zephyr. 

 IV. The metaphors and allegories of moralifts and me- 

 taphyficians, have been alfo very fertile in deities ; of 

 which a thoufand examples might be adduced from 

 Plato, Cicero, and the inventive commentators on 

 Homer, in their pedigrees of the Gods, and their fabu- 

 lous lefTons of morality. The richeft and noblefl: ftream 

 from this abundant fountain, is the charming philosophi- 

 cal tale of Pfyche, or the Progrefs of the Soul ; than 

 which, to my tafte, a more beautiful, fublime, and well- 

 fupported allegory was never produced by the vvifdom 

 and ingenuity of man. Hence alfo the Indian Maya, 

 or, as the word is explained by fome Hindoo fcholars, 

 " the fir ft Inclination of the Godhead to diver ffy him- 

 felf" (fuch is their phrafe) " by creating Worlds," is 

 feigned to be the Mother of univerfal Nature, and of 

 all the inferior Gods ; as a Cafhmirian informed me, 

 when I afked him, why Cdma, or Love, was reprefented 

 as her Son : but the word Maya, or Delufion, has a 

 more fubtle and recondite fenfe in the Veddnta pbilo- 

 fophy, where it fignifies the fyftem of perceptions, whe- 

 ther of fecondary or primary qualities, which the Deity 

 was believed by Epicharmus, Plato, and many truly 

 pious men, to raife by his omniprefent fpirit in the 

 minds of his creatures ; but which had not, in their 

 opinion, any exiflence independent of mind. 



In drawing a parallel between the Gods of the Indian 

 and European Heathens, from whatever fource they 

 were derived, I fhall remember, that nothing is lefs fa- 

 vorable to inquiries after truth than a fyftematical fpi- 

 rit, and fhall call to mind the faying of a Hindoowriter, 



" that 



