MYTHOLOGY. 
476 
were with one foul; we (hould then find it impoffble to 
account for the phenomenon in queftion on any other 
principle than that of common origination. This mode 
ofreafoning is precifely the fame as that which is ufed in 
tracing the defcent of nations. Things, in themfelves 
not arbitrary, prove nothing whatfoever; and tribes may 
be alike hunters and fifliers and bowmen, though they 
have fprung from very different anceftors. But things, 
in themfelves altogether arbitrary, are acknowledged to 
form the bafis of a reafonable argument; and, if tribes 
are found to (peak dialefts of the fame language, and to 
be attached throughout to the fame whimfical cuftoms, 
which are not deducible from the nature of things, but 
from pure caprice merely; J'uch points of coincidence are 
commonly and rationally thought to furnifli a moral de- 
anonftration of the common origin of thofe tribes. 
Now this is precifely the argument which will be af¬ 
forded by a comparative furvey of the different fyftems of 
pagan idolatry, both ancient and modern. Not only the 
fame gods are adored ; but they are adored alfo in the 
very fame manner, and have the very fame arbitrary no¬ 
tions attached to them. There is likewife a grand leading 
idea, to fay nothing of various other minor ideas, which 
pervades the whole theology of the gentiles; and this 
idea is altogether of an arbitrary nature. Hence the in¬ 
evitable conclufion is, that the reputed various fyftems of 
paganifm are in reality but one fyftem : that they have all 
originated from a common fource; that they were not 
independently invented J’ubJ’equent to the arrival of each 
body of colonifts in any particular country; but that they 
were l'everally brought by thofe colonifts, ready fajhionecl, 
from fome univerfal centrical point. Such being the con¬ 
clufion, it will obvioufly follow, that the whole human 
race muft once have been affembled in fome centrical 
region, and muft there have formed a fingle great com¬ 
munity ; that they fell into idolatry while thus affembled ; 
and that, when they afterwards broke afunder into dif¬ 
ferent fmaller communities, they all equally carried with 
them into the lands which they occupied the peculiar 
and arbitrary mode of worfhip which was firft jointly ex¬ 
cogitated. 
But this conclufion, to which we are irrefiftibly led by 
the force of entirely-unconnefted mafles of evidence, is 
exactly that which Holy Scripture requires us to expeft: 
and the fame divine book likewife pofitively declares to 
be faCl, what an inveftigation like the prefent actually 
finds to be the cafe; namely, that the idolatry of the whole 
‘world was derived from a common centre. We are taught, 
that, after the deluge, the whole race of mankind afl’em- 
bled together under one head in the plains of Shinar ; that 
they there erefted a vaft pyramidal temple; that, in this 
enterprife, they were under the rule of Nimrod and the 
adventurous children of Cuftt; that they were thence 
rniraculoufly fcattered into every part of the world; and 
that Babylon, the centrical point of their congrefs, was 
the parent of all the (lightly-varied modes of idolatry, 
which they of the difperfion carried with them into the 
feveral countries that they planted. Thus does paganifm, 
in all regions of the globe, bear an involuntary teltimony 
to the (trift truth of the infpired*hiftory. We have a 
phenomenon which can only be accounted for by the 
fuppofition of a particular fa ft; and the reality of this 
neceffary faft is pofitively declared in the Pentateuch. 
As idolatry then originated prior to the difperfion 
from Babel, it is obvious, that thofe theories, which dif- 
cover the worthies of the Hebrew polity in the gods of 
the Gentiles, which make the Pagans fervile copyifts 
from the Ifraelites, and which, in their zeal for promot¬ 
ing the fuppofed honour of Moles, will not even leave to 
Rome its own founder;—it is obvious, to lay nothing of 
their utter intrinfical improbability, that fuch theories as 
thofe which have been advocated by Huet and Gale, and 
others of the fame fchool, are but the bafelefs fabric of a 
mere vifion. Idolatry was regularly organifed long before 
the birth either of Mofes or even Jacob; and, fo far from 
its principal objeft being the Hebrew' legifiator, the chofen 
people found it already eftabliflied in Paleftine when they 
emerged from the wildernefs. 
But the conclufion, to which we have been brought, 
not only confutes the idle humour of transforming Mofes 
and Jofhua and Sampfon into the great gods of the gen¬ 
tiles : it likewife (huts out all thofe perfons, who flourifli- 
ed after the difperfion, from being at leaft the generally- 
received deities of paganifm; and, as tliefe are far con- 
fpicuous above any accidentally and partially canonized 
mortals, fo with thefe only are we at prefent concerned. 
This exaftly accords, both with the explicit teftimony of 
the gentiles themfelves, and with the legendary tales in¬ 
variably attached to the worfliipped divinities. They tell 
us, that the hero-gods were their deified anceftors; that 
they flouriflifed during an early period, deferibed as an 
age of gold; and that this golden age immediately fol¬ 
lowed both the creation of the world and its renovation 
fubfequent to the deluge. Hence, according to their 
own account, the immortals, whom they worfliipped, 
were the two firft races of men : and with this explicit 
declaration the charafter of their gods will be found to 
agree, though in a manner fo peculiar that it ought par¬ 
ticularly to be noticed. 
This peculiarity however has almoft, if not entirely, 
been overlooked by thofe who have hitherto treated of 
the prefent fubjeft; and the confequence has been, that, 
while fome have pronounced the great father of paganifm 
to be Adam, and others to be Noah, neither of them have 
in abfolute ftriftnefs been right in their opinion. The 
true key to ancient idolatry is a very Angular opinion, 
which, with more or lefs diftinftnefs, may be traced in 
almoft every part of the globe. This is the doftrine of 
an endlefs fuccefion of perfectly-fmilar worlds; in which all 
the fame aftors re-appear, and in which all the fame events 
re-occur. During an intermediate period of chaotic con- 
fufion, the Great Father floats upon the furface of a fea 
without land, either inclofed within an egg, or upborne 
by a (hip, or reclining upon a bed or a navicular leaf, or a 
ferpent coiled in the form of a boat. At this time he is 
varioufly deferibed as being dead, or afleep, or wrapt in a 
ftate of profound meditation; and the vehicle, wdiich fup- 
ports him, is reprefented as being a form of his confort, the 
Great Mother. Thus he remains during a whole year of 
the gods; but at the end of it he awakes or revives, and 
refumes his aftive powers; he caufes the waters to retire 
from oft’ the furface of the earth; and then both he and 
his navicular confort fly away in the (hape of tw'o doves. 
His firft habitation, at the commencement of a new world, 
is a lofty mountain, the blifsful abode of the gods. From 
its fummit pour four rivers in different direftions; and 
the tree of immortality blooms in the midft of amaran¬ 
thine groves. Here the Great Father is faid to triplicate 
himfelf, or (as the phrafe is literally explained) to become 
the parent of the three fons. One of them flays his brother 
at a facrifice: but that brother is reftored to life; and 
from this triad the whole world is peopled. The begin¬ 
ning of the new' epoch is an age of gold : but, corruption 
creeping in, it is fucceeded by other ages of inferior dig¬ 
nity, until at length the mundane fyftem, which had thus 
originated, draws to an end. All things are then ab- 
forbed into the elfence of the Great Father: he himfelf 
dies, or drops into a profound deep; and, chaos again 
commencing, he is compelled by a monftrous enemy, who 
(we are affured) is merely a perfonification of the ocean, 
to enter into the liyne vehicle which he had occupied at 
the dole of a former world. This, as we have feen, is no 
other than his metaraorphofed confort: and, as he is faid 
to be dead during the time that he is fupported by it on 
the furface of the waters; it is deferibed as his floating 
coffin, or as an infernal (hip, and his entrance into it is 
deemed a defcent into Hades, or the grave. He now 
again floats on the waves of an univerfal inundation: 
and, when it retires, he again appears tranfmigratively on 
the fummit of the Elyfian mountain, again becomes the 
parent 
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