266 ON THE GODS OF GREECE, 



thought to be propitiated by the lefs bloody ceremonies 

 at the end of autumn, when the feftivals of Call and 

 LacJIimi'diTt folerrmized nearly at the fame time. Now, 

 if it be afked, how the Goddefs of Death came to be 

 united with the mild Patronefs of Abundance, I muft 

 propofe another queftion. How came Proferpine to be 

 reprefented in the European fyftem as the daughter of 

 Ceres ? Perhaps, both questions may be anfwered by 

 the proportion of natural philofophers, that " the ap- 

 " parent definition of a fubftance is the production 

 6i of it in a different form." The wild mufick of Call's 

 priefts at one of her feftivals, brought inftantly to my 

 recolleftion the Scythian meafures of Diana's adorers 

 in the fplendid opera of Iphigenia in Tauris, which 

 Gluck exhibited at Paris with lefs genius, indeed, 

 than art, but with every advantage that an orcheltra 

 could fupply. 



That we may not difmifs this affemblage of European 

 and Afiatick Divinities with a fubjeel fo horrid as the 

 altars of Hecate and Call, let us conclude with two re- 

 marks, which properly, indeed, belong to the Indian 

 Philofophv, with which we are not at prefent con- 

 cerned. Firft ; Elyfium (not the place, but the blifs 

 enjoyed there, in which fenfe Milton ufes the word) 

 cannot but appear, as defcribed by the poets, a very 

 tedious and infipid kind of enjoyment : It is, however, 

 more exalted than the temporary Elyfium in the court 

 of Indra, where the pleafures, as in Muhammed's para- 

 dife, are wholly fenfual; but the Mucti, or Elyfian hap- 

 pinefs of the Vedanta School, is far more fublime; for 

 thev reprefent it as a total abforption, though not fuch 

 as to deftroy confeioufnefs in the Divine Effence ; but, 

 for the reafon before fuggefted, I fay no more of this 

 idea of beatitude, and forbear touching on the doc- 

 trine of tranfmigration, and the fimilarity of the Ve- 

 danta to the Sicilian, Italick 7 and old Academick 

 Schools. 



Secondly ; 



