APPENDIX, N°I. 457 
The enemies of Christianity long ago endea- 
voured to vilify and blaspheme its rites, by 
pointing out a resemblance between the history 
of our Saviour's death and resurrection, and 
the annual lamentations for Adonis, followed by 
the joy expressed for his supposed resuscitation*. 
But the fable of Adonis, although afterwards 
the foundation of detestable and degrading su- 
perstition, originally typified nothing more than 
the vicissitudes of winter and summer ^ — the 
seeminof death and revival of Nature ; whence a 
doubtful hope was occasionally excited of the 
soul's existence in a future state. This expecta- 
tion so naturally results from the contemplation 
of such phaenomena, that traces of it may be 
discerned among the most barbarous nations ^ 
Some glimmering, therefore, of a brighter light, 
which was afterwards fully manifested in the 
upon this extraordinary coincidence between a Pagan symbol and the 
instrument of our Saviour's death, many of the Gentiks were con- 
verted to Christianity. See Riiffinus, lib. ii. c. 29. Sozomen. Hist. 
Eccles. Ub.xW. c. 15. 
(4) Julius Firmicus de Errore Profan. Relig. &c. 
{5) Macrob. Saturn. lib,\. cap. 21. L. Bat. 1670. 
(6) Beattie enables his Minstrel to derive a hope of the soul's im- 
mortality, from observing the vicissitude of the Seasons : — 
" Shall I be left abandon'd in the dust, 
When Fate, relenting, lets the flower revive?" 
Minst. xxvii. p. I6. Edin. 1 807. 
