51 







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religions. The idolatrous Israelites, in imitation of their Pa 

 neighbours, planted those ilex-groves in Judea, for which they 

 were reproached by their prophets, and sacrificed to the heathen 

 deities on the shady hills of Palestine. This extended from Asia 

 to Europe : from the burr trees of the brahmins to the oaks of the 

 druids. Their deities, according to Tacitus, were not immured 

 in temples, nor represented under any kind of resemblance to the 

 human form. To do either were, in their opinion, to derogate 

 from the majesty of superior beings. Woods and groves were the 

 sacred depositaries ; and the spot being consecrated to those pious 

 uses, they gave to that sacred recess the name of the divinity that 

 fdled the place which was never profaned by the steps of man. 

 The gloom filled every mind with awe ; revered at a distance, and 

 never seen but with the eye of contemplation. 



The prophetical writings contain many allusions to Hindoo cus- 

 toms : " the3 r inflame themselves with idols under every green tree; 

 they sanctify and purity themselves in the gardens, behind one tree 

 in the midst : among the smooth stones of the stream in thy groves, 

 even on them hast thou poured out a drink-offering, and there hast 

 thou offered a meat-offering/' These smooth and shapeless stones 

 have been at all times an object of worship : it appears extraordi- 

 nary, when we consider the elegant forni of the Venus di Medici, 

 Venus Urania, or any other statue of this celebrated Grecian god- 

 dess, that when Titus visited Cyprus, the statue of the Paphian 

 Venus had no resemblance to the human form, but was a round 

 figure, broad at the base, and growing fine by degrees, until, like a 

 cone, it lessened to a point. The translator in a note on this passage 

 inTacitus, remarks thatClemens of Alexandria supposes the statuary 



VOL. II. 3 u 



