35^ OLYMPIC DIALOGUE. 



them all the arts of which, among thofe favage men, 

 no traces were remaining, and the want whereof had 

 degraded them to this inhuman barbarifm. Thou 

 conceive!!, friend Numa, that they would be received 

 by thefe poor wretched beings as fo many gods ; and 

 by the favours they communicated, by the arts of 

 hufbandry, of breeding cattle, and of plantation, 

 whereby they were the creators of a new earth, by the 

 civil focieties of which they were the founders, tire 

 cities of which they were the builders and lawgivers, 

 by the amiable arts of the mufes, by which they dif- 

 feminated milder manners, more refined fatisfactions, 

 and a more delicious enjoyment of life — thou com- 

 prehend eft, I fay, that by all thefe benefits they 

 rendered themfelves fo meritorious to mankind, as 

 after their death, to be revered as patron-gods by a 

 grateful pofterity (of which their afcenlion in this 

 purer element was the natural confequence). Neither 

 wilt thou find it lefs comprehenfible that thofe who 

 once got themfelves fuch fame by the many and great 

 benefits they had done to mortals, fhould likewife, 

 after their tranfit into a fuperior mode of life, frill find 

 joy in continuing to adopt the concerns of beings who 

 had received from them whatever made them men, and 

 in general to care for the prefervation of all that which 

 in a certain fenfe they were the creators. 



Numa.'] Now all is plain and clear to me at once, 

 Jupiter, which I have hitherto only feen as in a cloud. 



Jupiter.~] And now I hope it is alfo clear to thee, 

 why I faid, that I could with perfect complacency 

 allow it to happen that mankind fhould get fo far en- 

 lightened as to hold us for nothing more than what we. 



really 



