implored; to which the glory of the fuccefs is conftantly afcribed by public acts of thanksgiving, and by the oblation of the most precious of the fpoils, which they never fail to fet apart as the indifpenfable right of the divinity.

They never vary in regard to the foundation of this belief. If fome few perfons, depraved by bad philofophy, presume from time to time to rife up against this doctrine, they are immediately difclaimed by the pub-. lic voice. They continue fingular and alone, without making parties, or forming fects: the whole weight of the public authority falls upon them; a price is fet upon their heads; whilft they are univerfally regarded as execrable perfons, the bane of civil fociety, with whom it is criminal to have any kind of commerce.

So general, fo uniform, fo perpetual a confent of all the nations of the univerfe, which neither the prejudice of the paffions, the false reasoning of fome philofophers, nor the authority and example of certain princes, have ever been able to weaken or vary; can proceed only from a first principle, which fhares in the nature of man; from an inherent fenfe implanted in his heart by the author of his being; and from an original tradition as ancient as the world itself.

Such were the fource and origin of the religion of the ancients; truly worthy of man, had he been capable of perfifting in the purity and fimplicity of these firft principles: but the errors of the mind, and the vices of the heart, those fad effects of the corruption of human nature, ftrangely disfigured their original beauty. They are but faint rays, fmall fparks of light, that a general depravity does not utterly extinguish; but they are incapable of difpelling the profound darkness of a night, which prevails almoft univerfally, and prefents nothing to view but abfurdities, follies, extravagancies, licentioufnefs, and diforder; in a word, an hideous chaos of frantic exceffes and enormous vices.

Can any thing be more admirable than these maxims

of

of Cicero*? That we ought above all things to be convinced that there is a Supreme Being, who prefides over all the events of the world, and difpofes every thing as fovereign lord and arbiter: that it is to hime mankind are indebted for all the good they enjoy: that he penetrates into, and is confcious of, whatever paffes in the moft fecret receffes of our hearts: that he treats the juft and the impious according to their refpectiver merits: that the true means of acquiring his favour, and of being pleafing in his fight, is not by the use of riches and magnificence in his worship, but by prefenting him an heart pure and blamelefs, and by adoring him with an unfeigned and profound veneration.

Sentiments fo fublime and religious were the refult: of the reflections of the few who employed themfelves in the ftudy of the heart of man, and in tracing him to the first principles of his inftitution, of which they ftill retained fome happy, though imperfect ideas. But the whole fyftem of their religion, the tendency of their public feafts and ceremonies, the foul of the Pagan theology, of which the poets were the only teachers and profeffors, the very example of the gods, whose violent paflions, fcandalous adventures, and abomina.. ble crimes, were celebrated in their hymns or odes, and propofed in fome meafure to the imitation, as well as adoration of the people; these were certainly very unfit means to enlighten the minds of men, and to form them to virtue and morality.

It is remarkable, that in the greatest folemnities of the Pagan religion, and in their most facred and reverend myfteries, far from perceiving any thing to recommend virtue, piety, or the practice of the most effential duties of ordinary life; we find the authority of laws,

Sit hoc jam a principio perfuafum civibus: dominos effe omnium rerum ac moderatores deos, eaque que geruntur corum geri judicio ac numine; cofdemque optima de genere hominum mereri; &, qualis quifque fit, quid agat, quid in fe admittat, qua mente, qua pietate religiones colat, intueri; piorumque & impiorum habere rationem. Ad di vos adeunto cafie. Pietatem adhibento, opes amovento. Cic. leg, I, ii. n. 15 & 19.

وع

the

the imperious power of cuftom, the presence of magiftrates, the affembly of all orders of the ftate, the example of fathers and mothers, all confpire to train up a whole nation from their infancy in an impure and facrilegious worship, under the name, and in a manner under the fanction of religion itfelf; as we fhall foon fee in the fequel.

After these general reflections upon Paganifm, it is time to proceed to a particular account of the religion of the Greeks. I fhall reduce this fubject, though infinite in itself, to four articles, which are, 1. The feafts. 2. The oracles, augurs, and divinations. 3. The games and combats. 4. The public fhows and reprefentations of the theatre. In each of thefe articles, I fhall treat only of what appears moft worthy of the reader's curiofity, and has moft relation to this hiftory. I omit faying any thing of facrifices, having given a fufficient idea of them elsewhere.'

Of the Feafts.

An infinite number of feafts were celebrated in the feveral cities of Greece, and efpecially at Athens, of which I fhall only defcribe three of the most famous, the Panathenea, the feafts of Bacchus, and thofe of Eleufis.

The Panathenea.

This feaft was celebrated at Athens in honour of Minerva, the tutelary goddess of that city, to which the gave her name, as well as to the feaft we fpeak of. Its inftitution was ancient, and it was called at firft Athenea; but after Thefeus had united the feveral towns of Attica into one city, it took the name of Panathenea. These feafts were of two kinds, the great and the lefs, which were folemnized with almolt the fame ceremonies; the lefs annually, and the great upon the extirpation of every fourth year.

* Manner of teaching, &c. Vol. I,

In these feasts were exhibited racing, the gymnaftic combats, and the contentions for the prizes of mufic and poetry. Ten commiffaries elected from the ten tribes prefided on this occafion, to regulate the forms and diftribute the rewards to the victors. This feftival

continued feveral days.

The first day in the morning a race was run on foot, each of the runners carrying a lighted torch in his hand, which they exchanged continually with each other without interrupting their race. They ftarted from Ceramicus, one of the fuburbs of Athens, and croffed the whole city. The firft that came to the goal, without having put out his torch, carried the prize. In the afternoon they ran the fame course on horfeback.

The gymnaftic or athletic combats followed the races. The place for that exercife was upon the banks of the Iliffus, a fmall river, which runs through Athens, and empties itself into the sea at Piræus.

Pericles inftituted the prize of mufic. In this difpute were fung the praifes of Harmodius and Aristogiton, who delivered Athens from the tyranny of the Pififtratides; to which was afterwards added the Eulogium of Thrafibulus who expelled the thirty tyrants. Thefe difputes were not only warm amongst the musicians, but much more fo amongst the poets, and it was highly glorious to be declared victor in them. Æfchylus is reported to have died with grief upon feeing the prize adjudged to Sophocles, who was much younger than himself.

Thefe exercifes were followed by a general proceffion, wherein a fail was carried with great pomp and ceremony, on which were curioufly delineated the warlike actions of Pallas against the Titans and Giants. That fail was affixed to a veffel, which was called by the name of the goddess. The veffel, equipped with fails, and with a thousand oars, was conducted from Ceramicus to the temple of Eleufis, not by horfes or beafts of draught, but by machines concealed in the bottom of it,

which put the oars in motion, and made the veffel glide along.

The march was folemn and majestic. At the head of it were old men, who carried olive-branches in their hands, Jaλλoppo; and these were chofen for the goodnefs of their fhape, and the vigour of their complexion. Athenian matrons, of great age, alfo accompanied them in the fame equipage.

The grown and robuft men formed the second clafs. They were armed at all points, and had bucklers and lances. After them came the strangers who inhabited Athens, carrying mattocks, with other inftruments proper for tillage. Next followed the Athenian women of the fame age, attended by the foreigners of their own fex, carrying veffels in their hands for the drawing of

water.

The third class was compofed of the young perfons of both fexes, and of the beft families in the city. The youth wore vefts, with crowns upon their heads, and fung a peculiar hymn in honour of the goddefs., The maids carried baskets, in which were placed the facred utenfils proper to the ceremony, covered with veils to keep them from the fight of the fpectators. The perfon, to whofe care thofe facred things were intrufted, was to have observed an exact continence for feveral days before he touched them, or diftributed them to the Athenian virgins; *of rather, as Demofthenes fays, his whole life and conduct ought to have been a perfect model of virtue and purity. It was an high honour to a young woman to be chofen for fo noble and auguft an office, and an infupportable affront to be deemed unworthy of it. We have feen that Hipparchus treated the fifter of Harmodius with this indignity, which extremely incenfed the confpirators against the Pififtratides. These Athenian virgins were followed by the foreign young women, who carried umbrellas and feats for them.

· Οὐχι προειρημένον ἡμερῶν αριθμον αἰγνευειν μόνον, ἀλλὰ τὸν βίον όλον Яyyeuxéval. Demoft. in extrema Ariftocratia.

The