STNONTMOUS TERMS, 99 



In order to obviate this feeming objection, it mull be re- 

 membered, that a difference of opinion refpecling the fame ad 

 in any two countries, may very naturally produce a difference 

 in the interpretation of thofe words, that are expreffive of this 

 act in each. Undefined terms have in this way become a fruits 

 fulfource of controverfy in matters both civil and religious; and 

 even the fcience of grammar has fuffered by thofe inaccuracies 

 of expreflion, which it profeffes to remedy in all other fubjecls. 

 The religious fentiments of the Romans were by no means re- 

 fined. Vows were prefented as bribes to their deities, into 

 whofe ear they whifpered petitions, which they were afhamed 

 to acknowledge in the face of the world. " Turpiffima vota 

 " diis infufurrant ;' fi quis admoverit aurem, conticefcent, et 

 " quod fcire hominem nolunt deo narrant*." The prayer of 

 fuch worfhippers, then, was a matter of traffic, not an act of 

 devotion. That difinterefted benevolence, in reliance upon 

 which more pious fupplicants prefent their requefts, was none 

 of the attributes of a Roman deity. The humiliation of the 

 devotee was in his own eyes an article of merit ; and he left 

 the altar on which he had laid his offering, feeling the obliga- 

 tion impofed on that being to whom it was prefented. 



Many paffages in the Latin claffics confirm the truth of the 

 obfervations now made. 



non tu prece pofcis emaci, 



Quae nifi feduclis nequeas committere divis f. 



" Antequam limen Capitolii tangant, alius donum promittit, 

 " fi propinquum divitem extulerit, alius fi thefaurum effoderit. 

 " Ipfe Senatus recti bonique preceptor, mille pondo auri Capitolio 

 ; promittit Omnibus diis hominibufque formofior videtur maffa 

 u auri, quam quicquid Apelles PmDiAsve, Grasculi delirantes 



n 2 " fecerunt- 



* SEN.Ep. 10, f Pers. Sat. 2,. 3. 



