'^ Those therefore^ who think diat dimgs of this kind [i. e. fabulous stories of the GocU as if thej were men] are but so many commemorations of the actions and disasters of kinp and tyrants, who through transcendency in virtue or power, inscribed the title of divinity on their renown, and after- wards fell into great calamities and misfortunes, these employ the most easy method indeed of eluding the story, and not badly transfer things of evil report, from the Gods to men; and iktj are assisted in so doing by the narrations themselves. For the Egyptians relate, that Hermes was as to his body, widi one arm longer than the other; that Typhon was in his complexion red; but Orus white, and Osiris blacky as if they had been by nature men. Farther s^l, they also call Osiris a commander, and Canopus a pilot, firom whom they say the star of that.name was denottii<- niited. The ship likewise, which the Greeks call Argo^ being the image of the ark of Osiris, and which therefore in honour of it is become a constellation, they make to ride not for from Orion and the Dog; of which they consider the one as saered to Orus, but the other to Isis« '' I fear, however, that this [accordmg to the proverb] would be to move things immoveable, and to declare war, not only, as Simonides says, against a great length of time, but also against many nations and families of mankind who are under the influence of divine inspiration through piety to these Gods; and would not in any respect fall short of transferring from heaven to earth, such great and venerable names, a:^d of thereby shaking and dissolving that worship and belief, which has been implanted in almost all men from their very birth, would be opening great doors to the tribe of atheists, who convert divine into human concerns; and would likewise afford a large license to the impostures of Euemerus of Messina, who devised certain memoirs of an incredible and fictitious mythology,' and thereby spread every kind of atheism through the globe, by inscribing all the received Gods, without any discrimination, by the names of generals, naval-captains, and kings, t»ho lived in remote periods of time. He further adds, that they are recorded in golden characters^ in a certain country called Panchoa, at which neither any Barbarian or Grecian ever arrived, except Euemerus alone, who, as it seems, sailed to the Panchoans and Tripbyllians, that neither have,* nor ever had a being. And though the great actions of Semiramis are celebrated by the Assyrians, and those of Sesostris in Egypt; and though the Phrygians even to the present time, call ' Both Amobius therefore and Minucius Felix were Tery unfortunate in quoting this impostor to prove that the Gods of the ancients had formerly been men. Vid. Arnob. lib. 4. Ad versus Gentcs, ct Minucii Fehcia Octavo, p. 350. 8vo. Parisiis, 1605.
iNtma]>vc'tio]i. xux »U gplendid and admirabla actioiis Maiic, because a certain person named Mains mho Mras one of their ancient kings, whom some caH Masdes, was a brave and powerful man; and fardier stMl, though Cyrus among the Persians, and Alexander among die Macedonians, proceeded in their irio* lories, almost as far as to the boundaries of the earth, yet they only retain the name of good kiafs, Mid are remembered as such, [and not as Gods.]
<^ But if certain persons, inflated by ostentation, as Plato says, having their soul at one and llie same time inflamed with youth and ignorance, have insolently assumed the appellation of Gods, aiid had temples erected in their honour, yet this opinion of them flourished but for a diort time, and afterwards they were charged with vanity and arrogance, in conjunction with impiety and lawless conduct; and thus.
Like smoke they flew away with swifl»pac'd fate.
And being dragged from temples and altars like fugitive slaves, they have now nothing left them, but their monuments and tombs. Hence Antigonus the elder said to one Hermodotus, who had celebrated him in his poems as the oflfspring of the sun and a God, * he who empties my close-stOoI-pan knows no such thing of me.' Very properly also, did Lysippus the sculptor blame Apelles the painter, for drawing the picture of Alexander with a thunder*bolt in his hand, whereas be had represented him with a spear, the glory of which, as bemg true and proper, no time would lake away.*' In another part of the same work also, he admirably reprobates the impiety of making the Gods to be things inanimate, which was very common with Latin writers of the Augustan age, and of the ages that accompanied the decline and fidl of the Roman empire. But what he says on this sub- ject is as follows: ** In the second place, which is of still greater consequence, men should be careful, and very much afraid, lest before they are aware, they tear in pieces and dissolve divine natures, into blasts of wind, streams of water, seminations, earings of land, accidents of the earth, aud mutations of the seasons, as those do who make Bacchus to be wine, and Vulcan flame. Cleanthes also some- where says, that Persephone or Proserpine is the spirit or air that pasie$ through (^tpo/btryoy) the fruits of the earth, and is then ilain, (^ovtuofityoy.) And a certain poet say^ of reapers, Then when the youth the limbs of Ceres cut.
XXX INTRODUCTION.
For these men'do not in tny lespect differ from those who conceive At uak, thectUes, and the nnchor of a ship, to bo the pilot, the yam and the web to be the weaver, and the bowl,' or the mead, or die ptisan, to. be the^ physician. But they aIso produce dire and athebtical opinions, bj . giYbg die names of Gods to natures and things deprived' of senso and soul, and that are necessarily destroyed by men, who are in want of and use them. For it is not possible to conceive that these things are Gods; since, neither can any thing be a God to men, which is deprived of soul, or is aul^ect to human power. From these things however, we are led to conceive those beings (o be Gods, Who both use them and impart them to us, and supply them perpetually and without ceasing. Nor do we conceive that the Gods viho bestow these^ are different in different countries, nor that some of them are peculiar to the Barbarians, but -others to the Grecians, nor that some are southern, and others northern; but as the sun and moon, the heavens, the land, and the sea, are common to all men, yet are differently denominated by different nations; ao the one reason that adorns these things, and the one providence that administers them, and the ministrant powers that preside over all nations^ have different appellations and honours assigned them according to law by different countries. Of those also that have been consecrated to their service, some employ obscure, but others clearer symbols, not without danger thus conducting our intellectual concep- tions to the apprehension of divuie natures. For some, deviating from the true meaning of these symbols, have entirely slipt into superstition; and others again flying from superstition as a quag* mire, have unaware faUen upon atheism as on a precipice. Hence, in order to avoid these dangers, it is especially necessary that resuming the reasoning of Philosophy as our guide to mystic knowr ledge, we should conceive piously of every thing that is said or done in religion; lest that, as Theodorus said, while he extended his arguments with his right hand, some of his auditors received them with their left, so we should fall into dangerous errors, by receiving what the laws have well instituted about sacrifices and festivals in a manner different from their original intention.*' The Emperor Julian, as well as Plutarch appears to have been perfectly aware of this confusion in the religion of the Heathens arising from the deification of men, and in the fragments of his treatise against the Christians, preserved by Cyril, he speaks of it as follows: '* If any one wishes to consider the truth respecting you [Christians.] he will find that your impiety is composed of the Judaic audacity, and tfte indolence and confution of the Heathens, For deriving from both, not that which is most beautiful, but the worst, you have fabricated a web of evils. With die Hebrewb ndeed, there are accurate and venerable laws pertaining to religion, and innumerable precepts which requires most holy life and deliberate choice. But when the Jewish legislator forbids the serving all the Gods, and enjoins the worship of one alone, whose portion is Jacob, and Inrael thcline of bis iiilidpitaii€€/^ind^«K>toi)lj says Xhk, but i^o omits to add; I tbthk, jon thall not revile die Gods^ the detestable wickedness and audacity of those in afiter times/ wishing tb take'* away all religious reverence ffom the multitude^ thought that not to worship should be followed by ' blaspheming the Gods*.- This you have alone thence derived; but there is no siniilttudb^ in any ^ Chiug else between you and them. Htfdce^ from the innovation of the Hebrews, you have seized- ^ blasphemy towards the venerable Gods; but from our religion you have tasl ande reverence io every nature more excellent than fnan, and the love of paternal tnstitutei*' *^ So great an apprehension indeed^ says Dr. St\1Hngfleet/ had the Heathens of ihc necessity of appropriate acts of divine worship, that some of them have chosen to die, rather than to give them to what they did not believe to be God. We have a remarkable story to this purpose in Arrian and Curtius* concerning Callisthenes. Alexander arriving at that degree of vanity, as to desire to have divine worship given him, and the matter being started out of design among the courtiers, either by Anaxarchus, as Arrian, or Cleo the Sicilian, as Curtius says; and the way of doing it proposed, viz. by incense and prostration; Callisdienes vehemently opposed it, as that which would confound the difference of human and divine worship, which had been preserved inviolable ' among them. The worship of the Gods had been kept up in temples, with altars, and images, and sacrifices, and hymns, and prostrations, and such like; but it is by no means fitting, says he,ybi* ia to confound these things, either by lifting up men to the honours of the Gods, or depressing the Gods to the honours of men. For neither would Alexander suffer any man to usurp his royal dig- nity by the votes of men; how much more justly may the Gods disdain for any man to take their honours to himself. And it appears by Plutarch,' that the Greeks thought it a mean and base * thing for any of them, when sent on an embassy to the kings of Persia, to prostrate themselves ' before them, because this was only allowed among them in divine adoration. Therefore, says he, ' when Pelopidas and Ismenias were sent to Attaxerxes, Pelopidas did nothing unworthy, but •Ismenias let fall his ring to the ground, and stooping for that was thought to make his adoration; which was altogether as good a shift as tlie Jesuits advising the crucifix to be held b the Mandarins' hands while they made their adorations in the Heathen temples in China.
*' Conon* also refused to make his adoration, as a disgrace to his city; and Isocratcs' accuses ■ Answer to Catholics no Idolaters Lond. 1676. p. 211. ^ Arrian. de Exped. Alex. 1. 4. et Curt. lib. 8. 3 Vit. Artaxerx. iElian. Var. hist. lib. 1. c. «1.
* Jiistin. lib. 6.
* Panegyr.
XXWl INTRODUCTION.
the Persians for doing it, becauu herein they shewed, that they detpised the Gods rather than meny hy prostituting their honours to their princes. Herodotus^ mentions Sperchius and BiilU, who could not with the greatest violence be brought to give adoration to Xerxes, because it was against the lam of their country to give divine honour to men.^ And Valerius Maximus* says, the Athe^ nians put Timagoras to death for doing it; so strong an apprehension had possessed tfiem, that the manner of worship which they used to their Gods, should be preserved sacred and inviolable/' The philosopher Sallust also in his treatise On the Gods and the World says, *' It is not unreasona- ble to suppose that impiety is a species of punishment, and that those who have had a knowledge of the Gods, and yet despised them, will in another life be deprived of this knowledge. And it is requisite to make the punishment of those who have honoured their kings as Gods to consist in being expelled from the Gods."'
When the ineffable transcendency of the first God^ which was considered as the grand principle in the Heathen theology j^ by its most ancient promulgators Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato, was forgotten, this oblivion was doubtless the principal cause of dead men being deified by the Pagans. Had they properly directed their attention to this tranrcendency they would have perceived it to be so immense as to surpass eternity, infinity, self-subsistence, and even essence itself, and that these in reality belong to those venerable natures which are as it were first unfolded into light from the unfathomable depths of that truly mystic unknown, about which all knowledge is refunded into ignorance. JFor as Simplicius justly observes, '' It is requisite that he who ascends to the princi- ple of things should investigate whether it is possible diere can be any thing better than the sup- posed principle; and if something more excellent is found, the same enquiry should again be made respecting that, till we arrive at the highest conceptions, than which we have no longer any more venerable. Nor should we stop in our ascent till we find this to be the case. For there is no occasion to fear that our progression will be through an unsubstantial void, by conceiving something about the first principles which is greater and more transcendent than their nature. For it is not possible for our conceptions to take such a mighty leap as to equal, and much less to pass beyond the dignity of the first principles of things." He adds, '' This therefore is one and the best extension [of the soul] to [the highest] God, and is as much as possible irreprehensible; viz. to kpow firmly, that by ascnbing to hiui the most venerable excellencies we can conceive, and the most holy and primary names and things, we ascribe nothing to him which is suitable to his dignity.
S KoM %9>M9to»( h ul^i iivai flidf isv tt/x oiviixoc. Tot/( ytt^ ytorra; 0f oi/f, xm xavaf pfm^'At m;, tvXoytv n tri^ ^tm xai th^ yvwrnv; rTi/i9^lA», MM* T«v( utvwun fiariXiaf wg Stwg ri^fi^ayraf, i^ rnv iiitfif avrwy mtno^a* rwt Bun ixfrcnm Cap. 18* I NT ROD UCT ION. XXXUl It is sufficient howeveo to procure our pardon [for die attemptj that we can attribute to him QOthing superior.'" If it is not possible therefore to form any ideas equal to the dignity of the immediate progeny of the ineffable, t. e. of the first principles of things, how much less can our conceptions reach that thrice unknown darkness, in the reverential language of the Egyptians,* which is even beyond these i Had the Heathens dierefore considered as they ought this trans- cendency of the supreme God, they would never have presumed to equalize the human with the divine nature, and consequently would never have worshipped men as Gods. Their theology, however, is not to be accused as the cause of this impiety, but their forgetfulness of the sub- limest of its dogmas, and the confusion with which this oblivion was necessarily attended.
In the last place, I wish to adduce a few respectable testimonies to prove that statues were not considered nor worshipped by any of the intelligent Heathens as Gods, but as the resemblances of the Gods, as auxiliaries to the recollection of a divine nature, and the means of procuring its assist- ance and favour. For this purpose, I shall first present the reader with what the philosopher Sallust says concerning sacrifices and the honours which were paid to the divinities, in his golden treatise On the Gods and the World. '< The honours, says he, which we pay to the Gods are per- formed for the sake of our advantage; and since the providence of the Gods is every where extended, a certain habitude or fitness'is all that is requisite in order to receive their beneficent communications. But all habitude b produced through imitation and similitude. Hence temples imitate the heaveils, but altars the earth; statues resemble life, and on this account they are similar to animals; prayers imitate that which is intellectual; but characters superior ineffable powers; herbs and stones resemble matter; and animals which are sacrificed the irrational life of our souls. But from all these nothing happens to the Gods beyond what they already posKess; for what accession can be made to a divine nature? But a conjunction with our souls and the Gods is by these means produced.
^^ I think however, it will be proper to add a few things concerning sacrifices. And in the first « Ktu xf^ rot tri ra( fx^ wfafimnnm {nrM, u lt/v«rtr iiww ti xfurrw, mc v%97t9u€nc «px*»f "f' '^9*^ »*»^» *** mmv {nritff tmi ar *tf r^( mM^ruraf tmMf tX^w^iy, nn wxiri atfM9nf«tf tx*l^^' *'*' h^ ffma-mt rwv ajmfiaeif, Ov^t yaf n/Xaf^rtot fxn uttifAfiarmfjuTtf fjnt^ofa tiw imi vwt^^fovra rag Wfmraf f^^t "f < •t/rwv iwoowrf^. Ov yof ^vmrev niXiJcet/rey vi|li|fAa m^nc^mi rmt q/uuTf^ mouts, vf wm^mSntm rif «{mi rm nfmrwf o^anr, w Kryt tuu wircfrniMM* ^i« yaf avrn nff 9»0t mpeivactf fiarnf wu »t hnafv axrmsrt, K«i wy tnooufjkif aymBwf ra «t|uivfram,Na» aywrtira^ tun ir^aiTtt/fya, km •ir«/uum, nm %f»yfjtara »vrift atmrt^raf iiiifut fi9^u»{f eri f^nia taari$t$nmfArf mfm^ o^i it nixif Uf avyyn/fAnfp to f«i|#iv fx><v nutnn vmtfrtf^t, SimpHc. in £piet» * Of the first priDciple, says Damascius (in M. S. *if i fXT') the Egyptians said noUiing, but celebrated it as a darkness beyond all intellectual conception, a thrice unknown darkness, vfmmofx*' •fVf*;fnKm^f, #»•»•; wtf «»#•?
Proc* Vol. L e XUIV INTRODUCTION.
place, since we possess every thing from the Gods, and it is but just to offer the first fruits of gifts to die giveni; hence^ of our possessions we offer the first fruits dirough consecrated gifts; of our bodies through ornaments; and of our life through sacrifices. Besides^ without sacriBces, prayers are words only; but accompanied with sacrifices they become animated words; the words indeed <;orroborating life, but life animating the words. Add too, that the felicity of ever) thing is its proper perfection; but the proper perfection of every thing consists in a conjunction with its cause. And on this account we pray that we may be conjoined with the Gods. Since therefore life pri- marily subsists in the Gods, and there is also a certain human life, but the latter desires to be united to the former, a medium is required; for natures much distant from each other cannot be conjoined without a medium. And it is necessary that the medium should be similar to the con- nected natures. Life therefore must necessarily be the medium of life;~ and hence men of the present day that are happy, and all the ancients^ have sacrificed animals. And this indeed not rashly, but in a manner accommodated to every God, with many other ceremonies respecting the cultivation of divinity.'"
In the next place, the elegant Maximus Tyrius admirably observes concerning the wor^ip of statues* as follows: '' It appears to me that as external discourse has no need, in order to its com- position, of certain Phoenician, or Ionian, or Attic, or Assyrian, or Egyptian characters, but human imbecility devised these marks, in which inserting its dulness, it recovers from them its memory; in like manner a divine nature has no need of statues or altars; but human nature being very imbe- cile, and as nnuch distant from divinity as earth from heaven, devised these symbols, in which it inserted the names and the renown of the Gods. Those, therefore, whose memory is robust, and who are able, by directly extending their soul to heaven^ to meet with divinity, have, perhaps,^ no need of statues. Tliis race is, however, rare among men, and in a whole nation you will not find one who recollects divinity, and who is not in want of this kind of assistance, which resembles that devised by writing masters for boys, who give them obscure marks as copies; by writing over ■ See chap. 15 and 16, of my translatioD of this excellent work.
^ See Vol. 9 of my translation of his Dissertations, Dissertat. 38, the title of which is, '' Whether statues should be dedicated to the Gods.''
3 The philosopher Isidorus was a man of this description, as we are informed by Damascius in the extracts from his life preserved b> Photius. For he says of him: own ra •y»xuaT» 'Kfovxxnm t9$xwfy «xx» i|^*i «:' aw^vt tws 9wu( «*fAiTOf, mw nfvur^fAtfovs owx n o^t/roif, aXX* a auvw r^ amoffnrw^ o, t» won i«ti mg ««wiXowf ayywa-iai* 9u>s out •** avnvg iiro TOtourwf otto; j ifwri inin/) ttmoffnvf x«i vovr^* nen rig h aXKoc n myywavcg luu o tft^t; xot riiw npn fa/miy, itf-o^iv m ir»p«* tfiync* (i**** ^» aivnam, nat nntren yt ovin |uaXXov poJiey. L e. *' He was not willing to adore statues, but approached to the Oods themselves, who are inwardly concealed not in adyta, but in the occult itself, whatever it may be of ail- perfect ignorance. How therefore to them being such did he approach? Through vehement love, this also being occult And what else indeed, could conduct him to them than a love which is also unknown? What my meaning is those who have experienced this love know; but it is impossible to reveal it by words, and it is no less difficult to understand what it is*'' INTRODUCTION. XXZ¥ INTRODUCTION. XXZ¥ which^ their hand being guided by that of the master, they become^ through memory, accustomed (o the art. It appears to me dierefore, that legislators devised these statues for men, as if for a certain kind of boys, as tokens of the honour which should be paid to divinity, and a certain manu- duction as it were and path to reminiscence.
*^ Of statues however, there is neither one law, nor one mode, nor one art, nor one matter. For the Greeks think it fit to honour the Gods from things the most beautiful in the earth, from a pure matter, the human form, and accurate art: and their opinion is not irrational who fashion statues in 'die human resemblance. For if the human soul is most near and most similar to divinity, it is not reasonable to suppose that divinity would invest that which is most similar to himself with a most deformed body, but rather with one which would be an easy vehicle to immortal souls, light, and adapted to motion. For tiiis «lone, of all the bodies on the earth, raises its summit on high, is magnificent, superb, and full of symmetry, neither astonishing through its magnitude, nor terrible through its strength, nor moved with difficulty through its weight, nor slippery through its smooth- ness, nor repercussive through its hardness, nor groveling through its coldness, nor precipitate through its heat, nor inclined to swim through its laxity, nor feeding on raw flesh through its fero- city, nor on grass through its imbecility; but is harmonically composed for its proper works, and is dreadful to timid animals, but mild to such as are brave. It is also adapted to walk by nature, but winged by reason, capable of swimming by art, feeds on com and fruits, and cultivates tha earth, is of a good colour, stands firm, has a pleasing countenance, and a graceful beard. In the resemblance of such a body, the Greeks think fit to honour the Gods.''
He then observes, '^ that with respect to die Barbarians^ all of them in like manner admit the subsistence of divinity, but diflferent nations among these adopt di£ferent symbols." After which he adds, '^ O many and all-various statues! of which some are feishioiied by art, and others are embraced through indigence: some are honoured through utility, and others are venerated through the astonishment which they excite; some are conndered as divine through their magnitude, and others are celebrated for their beauty | There is not indeed any race of men, neither Barbarian nor Grecian, neither maritime nor continental, neither livmg a pastoral life, nor dwelling in cities, which can endure to be without some symbols of the honour of the Gods. How, therefore, shall any one discuss the question whether it is proper that statues of die Gods should be fabricated or not i For if we were to give laws to other men recently sprung from the earth, and dwelling beyond our boundaries and our air, or who were fashioned by a certain Prometheus, ignorant of life, and law, puad reason, it might perhaps demand consideration, whether this race should be permitted to adore these spontaneous statues alone, which are not fashioned from ivory or gold, and which are neither IXXVl INTRODUCTION.
IXXVl INTRODUCTION.
oaks nor cedars^ nor rivers, nor birds, but the rising sun^ the splendid moon, the variegated heav^, the earth itself and the air, all fire and all water; or shall we constrain these men also to the neces- sity of honouring wood, or stones or images? If, however, this is the common law of all men, let us make no innovations, let us admit the conceptions concerning the Gods, and preserve their sym- bols as well as their names.
" For divinity indeed, the father and fabricator of all things, is more ancioit than the sun and the heavens, more excellent than time and eternity, and every flowing nature, and is a legislator with- out law, ineffable by voice, and invisible by the eyes. Not being able, however, to comprehend his essence, we apply for assistance to words and names, to animals, and figures of gold and ivory and silver, to plants and rivers, to the summits of mountains, and to streams of water; desiring indeed to understand his nature, but through imbecility calling him by thenanies of such things as appear to us to be beautiful. And in thus acting, we are affected in the same manner as lovers, who are delighted with surveying the images of the objects of their love, and with recollecting the lyre, the dart, and the seat of these, the circus in which they ran, and every thing in short, which excites the memory of the beloved object. What then remains for me to investigate and determine respecting statues? only to admit the subsistence of deity. But if the art of Phidias excites the Greeks to the recollection of divinity, honour to animals the Egyptians, a river others, and fire others, I do not