t 
elude the 1 
DHMON. 
without dot 0 ae well acquainted with the Grecian objects of 
worfhip. This hiftorian informs us (1. i, c. 131.) that the 
reafon why the Perfang did not ees emples, altars, and 
e gods (which the Greeks \ were known to o do) 
ad ie in his opinion, their not believi ving as the Greeks did, 
that the gods are of the race of m he flatues of the 
ods,- in buman form, fays our suthor, were a 
wae 
e public 
the admini ftrati on of the a WS 
was thought to be committed. And as th 
d-votion, Herodotus might jultly fay, in general terms, 
that the Greeks believed their gods were of human origin. 
And as Herodctus is ae {pe ae of the principal objets 
of Grecian werfhip, or of ee whom the title of gods 
eminently belonged, w ne had ionples chapels, images, 
and altars, igen in their honour: he muf therefore in- 
ce, and confequently af- 
firm, that they were dead men fe women deified. 3. That 
the gods of the greater nations were deified mortais is a 
oom aaale efi ablifhed by the * Sacred Hiftory of Euhe- 
us effina.”? Jiuhemerus relates, aie in one of 
his voyages, undertaken ve order of Ca 
Macedoria, ye came to ani called Panchaia, and there 
y name 
na fragment preferved by E Eufebius. 
C. ee a Wefkkl. Eufeb ang. |. i. c. 2 
Cicero de Nat. Deor. Li. c. 42.) The defign of this 
Hiftory”? was to thew, that the gods were to be 
ps as mortal men, ‘This hiftory has ae Lelpuenl iy 
by the moft refpe€table writers of antiquity : tranfla- 
‘ted into Latino, and approved by Ennius, Cicero, Diodo- 
rous Siculus, Eufebius, St. ees Latantius, Minucius 
af he worfhipped any gads who interefted them{elves in the 
affairs of ba uals though they were only fuch as had been 
ar, in ndeed, was the deification of men from im- 
emerus was not ranked 
among the atheiits merely for ig that an worfhippe 
by the people as gods had once bee rge againft 
Suhemerus was his believing, ea ‘there were no gods, or 
are of man : 
“~_—-~ 
a 
a) 
a < 
FN) 
ia 
* 
might be founded is reje 
the popular gods, juft as Socrates, fora fimilar reafon, w 
cceemed an atheilt; and acc ly S Empiricus in- 
forms us (Adv. Phyficos, 1. ix 7.) that he rep 
fented their pretended deification as the mere effect of the 
pride licy of princes and great men, in order to pro- 
cure a higher veneration for their perfons, and ready 
fubmiffio 2on to their authority. Moreover, inate grounds 
the charge of atheifm againt him, not 1 his afferting 
that the gods had been men, but upon i santas Ga 
they were nothing more than men long fince dead. To 
, 
this purpofe Clemens Alexandrinus (Cohort. ad , Gentes, 
) fa ys; th att 
of other men concerning the gods;” that is, tl cleail 
faw they were not real divinities. ! ap! 
jection, it ts faid, a the hiflory of Euhemerns, is tha 
which Piutarch has urged, viz. i“ t no one befides this 
hiftorian had ever feen the ifland of Pancha The e 
ence of this ifland, howe ver, has been sckrowledged, by 
others, as Pomponin 3 Mela, pisces iculus de 
lemy Euergetes. U pon th e whole 
Qo 
forealing ee reer the wo 
were, without any reafon, eee to ccrane 
gods after death. Befides, from a : pete enumeration of 
the feveral Grecian deities, and an mination eir re= 
aaa liftory, and of the Cas on mearee afcribed 
aie it is inferred that the origin of each of them was 
one his was the cafe with refpe@- to eae and of 
Coane as to the ye gods and goddeffes, who were of the 
fame mae: and o om he was chief. In eee to the 
Grecks, it is conc! ne d, that however they might acknow- 
ledge the natural geds, yet the dead men and women, whom 
they deified, were tl 
women wh 10 
s the Romans derived their 
ece, Beypt, and the Eaft, it is natural 
to imagine that there fhould be a conformity between their 
objects of worfhip, and thofe of the other nations, in whic 
dead men and women were deified. fi 
om 
nicia. 
try he had left, and among his own defcendants in Italy, 
gods of human origin were worfhipped, and reprefented by 
a images. mong other laws refpecting religion, 
Numa ordained the following : ** Let all honour the ancient 
gods of heaven, and thofe whofe merits have carried them 
thither: fuch as Hercules, Bacchus, /Efcu malar Caftor, 
Ae and Quirinus. (Cicero de Legibus, 1. ii, c. 8.) 
be a 
dded in ee fnics who are 
r the ancient gods of heav 
ie 12 Tables, were no other than the lear 12 fuperior 
8 
gods of the Romans: 
Juno, Vefta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, 
Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo. 
And thefe were the fame with the 12 fuperior gods of the 
Greeks, who were no other than deified men and wom 
Varro, the moft learned of all the Romans, aflerted as St. 
Auguttine informs us, that ee would be at a lofs to find, oe 
2 
