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A N 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE REMAINS 
 
 OF THE • 
 
 W d R S H I P 
 
 O F 
 
 P R I A P U S, 
 
 LATELY EXISTING AT 
 
 ISERNIA, in the Kingdom o<i NAPLES : 
 
 IN TWO LETTERS; 
 
 One from Sir William Hamilton, K.B. His Majefty's Minifter at 
 the Court of Naples, to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. Prefident of 
 the Royal Society; 
 
 And the other from a Perfon refiding at Ifernia : 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A DISCOURSE ON the WORSHIP of PRIAPUS, 
 
 And its Connexion with the myftic Theology of the Ancients. 
 
 By R. P. KNIGHT, Efq. 
 
 LONDON: 
 Printed by T. Spilsburv, Sno'whilL 
 
 M.DCC.LXXXVI. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Research Library, The Getty Research Institute 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/accountofremainsOOhami 
 
,ir T r r^ iT. t ^i -} tri\ - £Z 
 
 A 
 
 E T T 
 
 FROM 
 
 E R 
 
 Sir WILLIJM HAMILTON, &c. 
 
 Naples, Dec. 30, 1781. 
 S I R, 
 
 Having laft year made a curious 
 
 difcovery, that in a Province of this Kingdom, 
 
 and not fifty miles from its Capital, a fort of 
 
 A 2 devo- 
 
[ 4 ] 
 
 devotion is ftill paid to PRIAPUS, the obfcene 
 Divinity of the Ancients (though under another 
 denomination), I thought it a circumftance worth 
 recording ; particularly, as it offers a frefh proof of 
 the {imilitudc of the Popifh and Pagan Religion, fo 
 well obferved by Do6tor Middleton, in his cele- 
 brated Letter from Rome : and therefore I mean ta 
 depofit the authentic *proofs of this affertion in the 
 British Museum, when a proper opportunity fhall 
 offer. In the mean time I fend you the following 
 account, which, I flatter myfelf, will amufe you for 
 the prefent, and may in future ferve to iiluflrate 
 thofe proofs. 
 
 I had long ago difcovered, that the Women and 
 Children of the lower clafs, at Naples, and in its 
 neighbourhood, frequently wore, as an ornament of 
 drefs, fort of Amulets, (which they imagine to be a. 
 prefervative from the mal occhii^ evil eyesy or en- 
 chantment) exa(ftly fimiiar to thofe which were worn 
 by the ancient Inhabitants of this Country for the 
 
 very 
 
 * A fpecimen of each of the Ex-voti of wax, with the original Letter 
 from IsERNiA. See the Ex-voti, Plate I. 
 
TUlte J. 
 
 Zx:Voti ofWeu: ore/'ented in (be Church at Iserni(t 1^(90. 
 
[ 5 ] 
 
 very fame purpofe, as likewife for their fuppofed 
 invigorating influence ; and all of which have evi- 
 dently a relation to the Cult of Priapus. Struck 
 with this conformity in modern and ancient fuper- 
 ftition, I made a colledion of both the ancient, 
 and modern Amulets of this fort, and placed them 
 together in the British Museum,, where they remain. 
 The modern Amulet mofl: in vogue, reprefents a 
 hand clinchedj with the point of the thumb thruft 
 betwixt the index and middle *finger ; the next is a 
 fliell ; and the third is a half- moon. Thefe Amu- 
 lets (except the fliell, which is ufually worn in its 
 natural ftate) arc mod: commonly made of lilver, but 
 fometimes of ivory, coral, amber, cryftal, or fome 
 curious gem, or pebble. We have a proof of the 
 hand above defcribed having a connexion with 
 Priapus, in a mod: elegant fmall idol of bronze of 
 that Divinity, now in the Royal Museum of Por- 
 Tici, and which was found in the ruins of Hercu- 
 laneum : it has an enormous Phallus, and, with 
 an arch look and gefture, ftretches out its right 
 
 hand 
 
 See Plate II. Fig. I. Vignette to this Letter. 
 
I 6 ] 
 
 hand in the form above mentioned*; and which 
 probably was an emblem of confummation : and as 
 a farther proof of it, the Amulet which occurs moft 
 frequently amongft thofe of the Ancients (next to that 
 which reprefents the fimple Priapus , is fuch a hand 
 united with the Phallus ; of which you may fee 
 feveral fpecimens in my colledlion in the British 
 Museum. One in particular, I recoUedl, has alfo the 
 half-moon joined to the hand and Phallus ; which 
 half -moon is fuppofed to have an allufion to the 
 female ?nenfes. The fhell, or concha ve?ieris^ is evi- 
 dently an emblem of the female part of generation. 
 It is very natural then to fuppofe, that the Amulets 
 reprefenting the Phallus alone, fo vifibly indecent, 
 may have been long out of ufe in this civilized 
 capital; but I have been allured, that it is but very 
 lately that the Priefts have put an end to the 
 wearing of fuch Amulets in Calabria, and other 
 diftant Provinces of this Kingdom. 
 
 A new road having been made laft year from this 
 Capital to the Province of Abruzzo, paffing through 
 
 the 
 
 * This elegant little Figure is engraved in the Firft Volume of the 
 Bronzes of the Herculaneum. 
 
[ 7 ] 
 
 the City of Isernia (anciently belonging to the 
 Samnites, and very populous*), a perfonofa liberal 
 education, employed in that work, chanced to be at 
 Isernia juft at the time of the celebration of the 
 Feaft of the modern Priapus, St. Cosmo ; and having 
 been ftruck with the fingularity of the ceremony,- 
 fo very fimilar to that whicli attended the ancient 
 Cult of the God of the Gardens, and knowing my 
 tafte for antiquities, told me of it. From this 
 Gentleman's report, and from what I learnt on the 
 fpot from the Governor of Isernia himfelf, having 
 gone to that City on purpofe in the month of Fe- 
 bruary laft, 1 have drawn up the following account, 
 which I have reafon to believe is ftridlly true. I 
 did intend to have been prefent at the Feaft of St. 
 Cosmo this year ; but the indecency of this ceremony 
 having probably tranfpired, from the country's ha- 
 ving been more frequented fince the new road was 
 made, orders have been given, that the Great Toef 
 of the Saint fliould no longer be expofed. The 
 
 following 
 
 * The aftual Population of Isernia, according to the Governor's 
 account, is 5156. 
 
 t See the Italian letter, printed at the end of this, from which it 
 appears the modern Priapj were fo called at Isernia. 
 
[ 8 ] 
 
 following is the account of the Fete of St. Cosmo 
 and DamianOj as it aftually was celebrated at Iser- 
 NiA, on the confines of Abruzzo, in the Kingdom 
 of Naples, fo late as in the year of our Lord 
 1780. 
 
 On the 27th of September, at Isernia, one of 
 the moft ancient cities of the Kingdom of Naples, 
 fituated in the Province called the Contado di 
 MoLisE, and adjoining to Abruzzo, an annual 
 Fait is held, which lafts three days. The fituation 
 of this Fair is on a rifing ground, between two 
 rivers, about half a mile from the town of Isernia ; 
 on the mod elevated part of which there is an ancient 
 Church, with a veftibule. The architedture is of 
 the ftyle of the lower ages ; and it is faid to have 
 been a Church and Convent belonging to the Be- 
 nedidline Monks in the time of their poverty. 
 This Church is dedicated to St. Cosmus and Da- 
 MiANUs. One of the days of the Fair, the relicks 
 of the Saints are expofed, and afterwards carried in 
 proceffion from the Cathedral of the City to this 
 Church, attended by a prodigious concourfe of 
 people. In the city, and at the fair, Ex-voti of 
 wax, reprefenting the male parts of generation, of 
 
 various 
 
[ 9 ] 
 
 various dimcnfions, fome even of the length of a 
 palm, are piiblickly offered to fale. There are alfo 
 waxen vows, that reprefent other parts of the body 
 mixed with them ; but of thofe there are few in 
 Gomparifon of the number of the Priapi. The 
 devout diftributers of thefe vows carry a bafket full 
 of them in one hand, and hold a plate in the other 
 to receive the money, crying aloud, " St. Cosmo 
 " and Damiano !" It you afk the price of one, 
 the anfwer is, ph) ci fnetti, piu meriti : " The 
 " more you give, the more's the merit." In the 
 Veftibule are two tables, at each of which one of 
 the Canons of the Church prefidcs, this crying out, 
 ^^i fi rkeve?io le Mijfe, e Lita?tie: " Here MalTes 
 *' and Litanies are received ;" and the other, ^i 
 fi riceveno li Voti : " Here the Vows are received." 
 The price of a Mafs is fifteen Neapolitan grains, 
 and of a Litany five grains. On each table is a large 
 bafon for the reception of the different offerings. 
 The Vows are chiefly prefented by the female fex ; 
 and they are feldom fuch as reprefent legs, arms, 
 8cc. but mofl: commonly the male parts of gene- 
 ration. The Perfon who was at this Fete in the year 
 1780, and who gave me this account (the authcn- 
 
 B ticity 
 
[ 10 ] 
 
 ticity of every article of which has iince been fully 
 confirmed to me by the Governor of Isernia), told 
 me alfo, that he heard a Woman fay at the time fhe 
 prefented a vow, like that which is reprefented in 
 Plate I. Fig. I. Santo Cofimo Benedetto^ cofi lo voglio : 
 *' Blefled St. Cosmo, let it be like this;" another, 
 -iS"^. Cofimo^ a te mi raccommeitdo : ^' St. Cosmo, I 
 " recommend myfelf ro you ;" and a third, *S'/. 
 Cofimo^ ti ri?igrazio : " St. Cosmo, I thank you." 
 The Vow is never prefented without being accom- 
 panied by a piece of money, and is always kiffed 
 by the devotee at the moment of prefentation. 
 
 At the great Altar in the Church, another of its 
 Canons attends to give the holy undion, with the 
 oil of St. Cosmo* ; which is prepared by the fame 
 receipt as that of the Roman Ritual, with the addi- 
 tion only of the prayer of the Holy Martyrs, St. 
 
 COSMUS 
 
 * The cure of difeafes by oil is likewife of ancient date 5 for Ter- 
 TULLiAN tells us, that a Chriftian, called Proculus, cured the Em- 
 peror Severus of a certain diftemper by the ufe of oil ; for which 
 iervice the Emperor kept Proculus, as long as he lived, in his Palace. 
 
CosMUs and Damianus. Thofe who have an infir- 
 mity in any of their members, prefent themfelves at 
 the great Altar, and uncover the member affedied 
 (not even excepting that which is mofi: frequently 
 reprefented by the Ex-votiJ ; and the reverend 
 Canon anoints it, faying, Per iniercejftonem beati 
 Cofmi^ li beret te ab o?nni malo» Amen. 
 
 The ceremony finifhes by the Canons of the 
 Church dividing the fpoils, both money and wax, 
 which muft be to a very confiderable amount, as chc 
 concourfe at this Fete is faid to be prodigiouHy 
 numerous.. 
 
 The Oil of St. Cosmo is in high repute for its 
 invigorating quality, when the loins, and parts 
 adjacent, are anointed with it. No lefs than 
 14CO flafks of that oil were either expended at 
 the Altar in undlions, or charitably difiributed 
 during this Fete in the year 1780; and as it is 
 ufual for every one, who either makes ufe of the 
 oil at the Altar, or carries off a flafk of it, to leave 
 an alms for St. Cosmo, the ceremony of the Oil 
 
 B 2 becomes 
 
[ 12 ] 
 
 becomes likevvlfe a very lucrative one to the Canons 
 
 of the Church. 
 
 I am, SIR, 
 
 with great truth and regard, 
 
 Your moft obedient humble Servant, 
 
 William Hamilto?2, 
 
 Flate m. 
 
riale W- 
 
 Jl^.3 
 
 Fig. 4- 
 
 Mgr. 
 
 L E T T E R A 
 
 Da I S E R N 1 J, 
 
 NELL'ANNO 1780. 
 
 In Isernia Citta Sannitica, oggi della 
 Provincia del Contado di Molife, ogni Anno li 
 27. Setcembre vi c una Fiera della clafle delle per- 
 
 donanze 
 
[ H I 
 
 donanze (coli dette negl' Abruzzi li gran mercati, e 
 fiere non di lifta ]: Quefta fiera fi.. fa Topra d'una Col- 
 linetta, che fla in mezzo a due fiumi ; diftante mez- 
 zo miglio da Ifernia, dove nella parte piu elevata vi e 
 un'antica Chiefa con un veflibulo, architettura de' ba^U- 
 tempi, e che fi dice efler flata Chiefa, e Moniftero 
 de P. P. Benedettini, quando erano poveri? La 
 Chiefa e dedicata ai Santi Cosmo, e Damiano, ed e 
 Grancia del Reverendiflimo Capitolo. La Fiera e 
 di 50. baracche a fabrica, ed i Canonici affittano le 
 baracche, alcune 10, altre 15, al pui 20, cariini 
 I'una ; affittano ancora per tre giorni I'ofteria fatta 
 di fabbrica docati 20 ed i comeftibili fono bene- 
 detti. Vi e un Eremita della fteffa umanita del fii 
 F. Glaud guardiano del Monte Vefuvio, cittato con 
 rifpetto dair Ab. Richard. La fiera dura tre giorni- 
 II Maeftro di fiera e il Capitolo, ma commette al 
 Governatore Regio; e quefto alza bandiera con I'im- 
 prefa dclla Citta, che e la ftefla imprefa de P. P. 
 Celeftini. Si fa una Proceflione con le Reliquie 
 dei Santi, ed efce dalla Cattedrale, e va alia Chiefa 
 fudetta J ma e poco devota. Il giorno della fefta, 
 SI per la Citta, come nella coUinetta vi e un gran 
 concorfo d'Abitatori del Motefe, Mainarde, ed altri 
 
 Monti 
 
[ 15 ] 
 
 Monti viclni, che la ftranezza delli vcftimenti delle 
 Donne, fembra, a chi non ha grocchi avvezzi ave- 
 derlcj il pui bcl ridotto di mafchcrate. Le Donne 
 della Terra del Gallo fono vere figlie dell'Ordine 
 Serafico Cappuccino, veftendo come li Zoccolanti 
 in materia, e forma. Puelle di Scanno Sembrano 
 Greche di Scio. Puelle di Carovilli Armene. Pu- 
 elle delle Pefche, e Carpinone tengono ful capo al- 
 cuni panni rofll con ricamo di filo bianco, difegno 
 ful gufto Etrufco clie a pochi paffi fembra merletto 
 d'Inghilterra. Vi e fra quefte Donne vera bellezza, 
 e diverfita grande nel veftire, anche fra due popola- 
 zioni viciniilime, ed un attaccamento particolarc di 
 certe popolazioni ad un colore, ed altre ad altro. 
 L'abito e diftinto nelle Zitelle, Maritate, Vedove, e 
 Donne di piacere ? 
 
 Nella iiera, ed in Citta vi fono molti divoti, che 
 vendono membri virili di cera di diverfe forme, e di 
 tutte le grandezze, iino ad un palmo ; e mifchiate 
 vi fono ancora gambe, braccia, e faccie ; ma poche 
 fono quefte. Quel li vendono tengono un cefto, ed 
 un piatto ; li membri rotti fono nel cefto, ed il 
 piatto ferve per raccogliere il danaro d'elemofina. 
 
 Gridano 
 
[ i6 ] 
 
 Gridano S. Cosmo e Damiano. Chi e fprattico 
 domanda, quanto un vale ? Rifpondono pm ci metti, 
 pit) nieriti. Avanti la Chiefa nel v^ftibolo del Teni- 
 pio vi fono due tavole, ciafcuna con fedia, dove pre- 
 iiede un Canonico, e fuoF eflerc uno il Primicerio,. 
 e I'altro I'Arciprete : grida uno qui ft ricevono le 
 Mejfe^ e Litanie : t'altro, qui Ji ricevono li voti ; fopra 
 delle tavole in ogn'una vi e un bacile, che ferve per 
 raccogliere li membri di cera, che mai fi prefentano 
 foli, ma con denaro, come fi e pratticato fempre in 
 tutte le prefentazioni di membri, ad eccezzione di 
 quelli deirifola di Ottaiti. Quefta divozione e tutta 
 quafi delle Donne, e fono pochiflimi quelli, o quelle 
 che prefentano gambe, e braccia, mentre tutta la gran 
 fefta s'aggira a profitto de membri della genera- 
 zione. lo ho intefo dire ad una donna. Santo Co- 
 ft?no benedettOy coji lo voglio. Altre dicevano, Santo 
 Cofuno a te mi raccomfnando : altre, Santo Cojtmo ti 
 ringrazio ; e quefto e quello offervai, e fi prattica 
 nel veftibulo, baciando ogn'una il voto che prefente. 
 
 Dentro la Chiefa nell'altare maggiore un Cano- 
 nico fa le fante unzioni con rdio di S. Cofimo. La 
 
 ricetta 
 
[ 17 ] 
 
 ricetta di queft' olio e la jftefTa del Rituale Romano, 
 con I'aggiunta dcH'orazione delli S. S. Martiri 
 Coiimo, e Damiano. Si prefentano all' Altare gl'ln- 
 fermi d'ogni male, fnudano la parte ofFefa, an- 
 che I'originale della copia di cera, ed 11 Canonico 
 ungendoli dice, Per intercejponem beati Cofmi^ liberet 
 ie ab ofn?2i malo. Amen,. 
 
 Finifce la feflfa con dividerli li Canonici la cera, 
 ed il denaro, e con ritornar gravide molte Donne fte- 
 rili maritate, a profitto della popolazione delle Pro- 
 vincie ; e fpeffo la grazia s'eftende fenza meravio-lia, 
 alle Zitelle, e Vedove, che per due notd hanno dor- 
 mitOj alcune nella Chiefa de' P. P. Zoccolanti, ed 
 altre delli Cappuccini, non eiTendoci in Ifernia Cafe 
 iocande per alloggiare tutto il numero di gente, che 
 concorre : onde li Frati, ajutando ai Preti, danno le 
 Chiefe alle Donne, ed i Portici agl' Uomini ; e cofi 
 Divifi fucoedendo gravidanze non deve dubitar si, 
 che fi a opera tutta miracolofa, e di divozione. 
 
 N O T A I. 
 
 L'olio non folo ferve per I'unzione che fa il. Cano- 
 nico, ma anche il difpenfa in piccioliiTime caraffine, 
 
 C c ferve 
 
[ i8 ] 
 
 c ferve per ungerfi li lombi a chi ha male a quefta 
 parte. In queft' anno 1780. fi fono date par divozione 
 1400. caraiinc, e 11 e confumato mezzo Stajo d'olio. 
 Chi prende una caraffina da rolemofina. 
 
 N O T A IL 
 
 Li Canonici che iiedono nel Veftibulo prendono 
 denaro d' Elemofina per Meffe, e per Litanie. Le 
 Mefiea grana 1 5. e le litanie a grana 5. 
 
 N O T A III. 
 
 Li foreftieri alloggiano non folo fra li Cappuc- 
 cini e Zoccolanti, ma anche nell' Eramo di S. Cofmo. 
 Le donne che Dormono nelle chiefe de' P. P. Sudetti 
 fono guardate dalli Guardiani, Vicarj e Padri piu di 
 merito,e quelli dell' Eremo fono in cura deU'Eremita, 
 divife anche dai Proprj Mariti, e fi fanno fpeffo mira- 
 coli fenza incomodo delli fanti. 
 
 Se non 
 
[ 19 ] 
 
 Se non le gufta, quando I'avra letta 
 Tornera bene fame una baldoria : 
 Che le daranno almen qualche diletto 
 Le Monachine quando vanno a Ictto. 
 
 Plfit, V. 
 
 M:l 
 
 m 
 
 CC2JS WfKAl£ 
 
 
 '^Ci^ 
 
 C 2 
 
I'l.lf,- \J. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 W O R 
 
 H I 
 
 O F 
 
 P R I A P U S, 
 
 IVIen, conddered colle<5lively, are at all times the 
 fame animals, employing the fame organs, and 
 endowed with the fame faculties : their paflions, 
 
 prejudices, 
 
[ 22 J 
 
 prejudices, and conceptions, will of courfe be 
 formed upon the fame internal principles, although 
 diredled to various ends, and modified in various 
 ways, by the variety of external circumftances opera- 
 ting upon them. Education and fcience may cor- 
 redl, reftrain, and extend ; but neither can annihilate 
 or create : they may turn and embellifh the cur- 
 rents ; but can neither flop nor enlarge the fprings, 
 which, continuing to flow with a perpetual and 
 equal tide, return to their ancient channelsj when 
 the caufes that perverted them are withdrawn. 
 
 The firft principles of the human mind will be 
 more diredlly brought into adlion, in proportion to 
 the earneftnefs and afl'edtion with which it con- 
 templates its objedl ; and paflion and prejudice will 
 acquire dominion over it, in proportion as its firft 
 principles are more dircdly brought into adlion. 
 On all common fubjedls, this dominion of paflion 
 and prejudice is reftrained by the evidence of fenfe 
 and perception ; but, when the mind is led to the 
 contemplation of things beyond its comprehenfion, 
 all fuch reftraints vanifh : reafon has then nothing 
 to oppofe to the phantoms of imagination, which 
 acquire terrors from their obfcurity, and dictate 
 
 uncontrolled, 
 
[ 23 ] . 
 
 uncontrolled, becaufe unknown. Such is the cafe 
 in all Religious fubjedls, which, being beyond the 
 reach of fenfe or reafon, are always embraced or 
 rejected with violence and heat. Men think they 
 know, becaufe they are fure they feel ; and are 
 firmly convinced, becaufe ftrongly agitated. Hence 
 proceed that hade and violence with which devout 
 perfons of all religions condemn the rites and doc- 
 trines of others, and the furious zeal and bigotry 
 
 with which they maintain their own ; while perhaps, ^ 
 
 if both were equally well underflood, both would 
 be found to have the fame meaning, and only to 
 differ in the modes of conveying it. 
 
 Of all the prophane rites which belonged to the 
 ancient Polytheifm, none were more furiouily 
 inveighed againft by the zealous propagators of 
 the Chriftiari faith, than the obfcene ceremonies 
 performed in the worfliip of Priapus; which 
 appeared not only contrary to the gravity and fandity 
 of religion, but fubverfive of the firft principles of 
 decency and good order in fociety. Even the form 
 itfelf, under which the God was reprefented, ap- 
 peared to them a mockery of all piety and devotion, 
 and more fit to be placed in a brothel than a temple. 
 
 But 
 
r 24 ] 
 
 But the forms and ceremonials of a religion are not 
 always to be underftood in their dire6t and obvious 
 fenfe ; but are to be confidered as fymbolical repre- 
 fentations of feme hidden meaning, which may be 
 extremely wife and iuft, though the fymbols them- 
 felvcsj to thofe who know not their true fiprniiica^ 
 tion, may appear in the higheft degree abfurd and 
 extravagant. It has often happened, that avarice and 
 fuperftition have continued thefe fymbolical repre- 
 fentations for ages after their original meaning has 
 been loft and forgotten ; when they muft of courfe 
 appear nonfenfical and ridiculous, il not impious 
 and extravagant. 
 
 & 
 
 Such is the cafe with the rite novv' under connde- 
 ration, than which nothino- can be more monftrous 
 and indecent, if confidered in its plain and obvious 
 meaning, or as a part of the Chriftian worfliip ; 
 but which will be found to be a very natural fym- 
 bol of a very natural and philofophical fyftcm of 
 religion, if confidered according to its original ufe 
 and intention. 
 
 What this was, I fliall endeavour in the following 
 flieets to explain as concifely and clearly as pofiible. 
 
 Thofe 
 
[ 25 ] 
 
 Thofe who wi{h to know how generally the fymbol, 
 and the religion which it reprefented, once prevailed, 
 will confult the great and elaborate work of Mr. 
 D'Hancarville, who, with infinite learning and 
 ingenuity, has traced its progrefs over the whole 
 earth. My endeavour will be merely to fliow, frona 
 what original principles in the human mind it was 
 firft adopted, and how it was connedted with the 
 ancient theology : matters of very curious enquiry, 
 which will ferve, better perhaps than any others, 
 to iiluftrate that truth, which ought to be prefent 
 in every man's mind when he judges of the adions 
 of others, that ht morals, as well as phyfics, there is 
 110 effeEi without an adequate cauje* If in doing 
 this, I frequently find it neceffary to differ in opinion 
 with the learned Author above mentioned, it will 
 be always with the utmoft deference and rcfpedl ; 
 as it is to him that we are indebted for the only 
 leafonable method of explaining the emblematical 
 works of the ancient artiffs. 
 
 Whatever the Greeks and Egyptians meant by the 
 fymbol in queftion,it was certainly nothing ludicrous 
 or licentious ; of which we need no other proof, 
 than its having been carried in folemn procefiion 
 
 D at 
 
[ 26 ] 
 
 at the celebration oi^ thofe myfteries in. which the 
 firft principles of their religion, the knowledge of 
 the God of Nature, the Firft, the Supreme, the 
 Intellectual*, were preferred free from the vulgar 
 fuperftitions, and communicated, under the ftrid:eft 
 oaths of fecrecy, to the iniated ; who were obliged 
 to purify themfelves, prior to their initiation, by 
 abftaining from venery, and all impure food*. 
 V/e may therefore be affured, that no impure mean- 
 ing could be conveyed by this fymbol ; but that 
 it reprefented fome fundamental principle of their 
 faith. What this was, it is difficult to obtain any 
 dired information, on account of the fecrecy under 
 which this part of their religion was guarded, 
 Plutarch tells us, that the Egyptians reprefented 
 Osiris with the organ ot generation ered:, to fhow 
 his generative and prolific power : he alfo tells us, 
 that Osiris was the fame Deity as the Bacchus of 
 the Greek mythology ; who was alfo the fame as 
 the firft-begotten Love (e^uh v^unoyovt;) of Orpheus and 
 Hesiod.* This Deity is celebrated by the ancient 
 Poets as the Creator of all things, the Father of Gods 
 
 and 
 
 Plut. de If. et Of. 
 
[ 27 ] 
 
 and Men*; and it appears, by the paflage above 
 referred to, that the organ of generation was the 
 fymbol of his great charadleriftic attribute. This 
 is perfectly coniiftent with the general pradice of 
 the Greek artifts, who (as will be made appear 
 hereafter] uniformly reprefented the attributes of 
 the Deity by the correfponding properties obferved 
 in the objecls of fight. They thus perfonified the 
 epithets and titles applied to him in the hymns 
 and litanies, and conveyed their ideas of him by 
 forms, only intelligible to the initiated, inftead of 
 founds, which were intelligible to all. The organ 
 of generation reprefented the generative or creative 
 attribute, and, in the language of Painting and 
 Sculpture, fignificd the fame as the epithet n».yyivim^, 
 in the Orphic litanies.. 
 
 This interpretation will perhaps furprife thofe 
 who have not been accuftomed to diveft their minds 
 of the prejudices of education and fafhion ; but I 
 doubt not, but it will appear juft and reafonable to 
 thofe who conlider manners and cuftoms as relative 
 
 D 2 to 
 
 * 0£PH. Jrgon. 422. 
 
[ 28 ] 
 
 to the natural caiifes which produced them, rather 
 than to the artificial opinions and prejudices of any 
 particular age or country. There is naturally no 
 impurity or licentioufnefs in the moderate and 
 regular gratification of any natural appetite ; the 
 turpitude confiding wholly in the excefs or perver- 
 fion. Neither are the organs of one fpecies of en- 
 jxjyment naturally to be confidered as fubjeds of 
 fliame and concealment more than thofe of another ; 
 every refinement of modern manners on this head 
 being derived from acquired habit, not from nature: 
 habit, indeed long eftablifhed ; for it feems to have 
 been as general in Homer's days as at prefent ; but 
 which certainly did not exift when the myftic 
 fymbols of the ancient worfhip were firft adopted. 
 As thefe fymbols were intended to exprefs abftradt 
 ideas by objeds of fight, the contrivers of them 
 naturally feledcd thofe objcdls whofe charadleriftic 
 properties feemed to have the greateft analogy with 
 the divine attributes which they wiflied to reprefent. 
 In an age, therefore, when no prejudices of artificial 
 decency exifted, what more juft and natural image 
 could they find, by which to exprefs their idea of 
 the beneficent power of the great Creator, than that 
 organ which endowed them with the power of pro- 
 creation. 
 
[ 29 ] 
 
 creation, and made them partakers, not only of the 
 felicity of the Deity, but of his great charadleriftic 
 attribute, that of multiplying his own image, com- 
 municating his blefllngs, and extending them to 
 generations yet unborn ? 
 
 In the ancient theology of Greece, preferved in 
 the Orphic Fragments, this Deity, the E^a,- Tr^uroyovo^, 
 or firft-begotten Love, is faid to have been produced, 
 together with JEther, by Time, or Eternity, (Kjovof) 
 and Neceflity, (Amym) operating upon inert matter, 
 (Xaof). He is defcribed as eternally begetting, (ccnyvnTr,;) -^ 
 the Father of Night, called in later times, the lucid 
 or fplendid, ((po^vn,-), becaufe he firft appeared in fplen- 
 dour ; of a double nature, (.J.^^w?). as poffefling the 
 general power of creation and generation, both 
 active and paflive, both male and female*. Lio-ht 
 
 is 
 
 * Orph. Argon. Ver. la. This Poem of the Argonautic Expedition 
 is not of the ancient Orpheus, but written in his name by fome Poet 
 pofteiior to Homer ; as appears by the allufion to Orpheus's defcent 
 into Hell ; a Fable invented after the Homeric times. It is however 
 of very great antiquity, as both the ftyle and manner fufficiently prove ; 
 and, I think, cannot be later than the ageof Pisistratus, to which it 
 
 has 
 
[ 30 ] 
 
 is his necefTary and primary attribute, coeternal 
 with himfelf, and with him brought forth from 
 
 inert 
 
 has been generally attributed. The pafTage here refered to is cited 
 from another Poem, which, at the time this was written, palTed for a 
 genuine worl<. of the Thracian Bard : wliether juftly ornot, matters little; 
 for its being thought fo at that time, proves it to be of the remoteft 
 antiquity. The other Orphic Poems cited in this Difcourfe, are the 
 Hymns, or Litanies, which are attributed by the early Chriftian, and 
 later Platonic Writers, to Onomacritus, a Poet of the age of Pisi- 
 STRATUS ; but which are probably of various authors : (See Brucker. . 
 Hijl. Crit. Philof. Vol.1, note 2. lib. I. c.i.) They contain however 
 nothing which proves them to be later than the Trojan times ; and if 
 Onomacritus, or any later author, had anything to do with them, it 
 feems to have been only in new-verfifying them, and changing the 
 dialeft. (Sec Gesner. Prokg. Orphica, p. 26.) Had he forged them, 
 and attempted to impofe them upon the world, as the genuine compo- 
 fitions of an ancient bard, there can be no doubt, but that he would 
 have fluffed them with antiquated words, and obfolete phrafes; which is 
 by no means the cafe, the language being pure, and worthy the age of 
 PisisTRATUs. Thefe poems are not properly hymns, for the hymns of 
 the Greeks contained the nativities and aftions of the Gods, like thofe 
 of Homer and Cali.imachus ; but thefe are compofitions of a different 
 kind, and are properly invocations or prayers ufed in the Orphic Myfte- 
 ries, and feem nearly of the fame clafs as the Pfalms of the Hebrews. 
 The reafon why they are fo feldom mentioned by any of the early writers, 
 and fo perpetually referred to by the later,, is that they belonged to the 
 myftic wt^rfliip, where every thing was kept concealed under the ftrifteft 
 oaths of fecrecy. But after the rife of Chriftianity, this facred filence 
 was broken by the Greek converts, who revealed every thing which they 
 
 thought 
 
[ 31 ] 
 
 inert matter by necellity. Hence the purity and 
 fancflity always attributed to light by the Greeks.* 
 
 He 
 
 thought would depreciate the old religion, or recommend the new ; 
 whilft the Heathen Priefts revealed whatever they thought would have a 
 contrary tendency ; and endeavoured to fhow, by publifliing the real 
 myftic creed of their r-eligion, that theprinciples of it were not fo abfurd 
 as its outward ftrudture feemed to infer; but that, when ftripped of 
 poetical allegory and vulgar fable, their theology was pure, reafonable, 
 and fublime. (Gesner. Proleg. Orphica.) The colltxflion of thefe 
 Poems now extant, being probably compiled and verfified by feveral 
 hands, with fome forged, and others interpolated and altered, muft be 
 ixad with great caution ; more efpecially the fragments prefcrved by 
 the Fathers of the Church and Ammonian Platonics ; for thefe writers 
 made no fcruple of forging any monuments of antiquity which fuited 
 their purpofes ; particularly the former, who, in addition to their natural 
 zeal, having the interefts of a confederate body to fupport, thought 
 eveiy means by which they could benefit that body, by extending the 
 lights of revelation, and gaining profelytes to the true faith, not only 
 allowable, but meritorious. (See Clementina, Horn. VII. feft. lo, 
 Recogn. Lib. I. fe<5l. 65. Origen. apud Hieronom. Apolog. i contra 
 Riif. ct Chrysostom. de Sacerdot. Lib. I. Chrysostom in particular, 
 iiot only juftifies, but warmly commends, any frauds that can be prac- 
 tifed for the advantage of the Church of Chrift.) Pausanias faysi 
 (Lib. IX.) that the Hymns of Orpheus were few and fliort; but 
 next in poetical merit to thofe of Homer, and fuperior to them in 
 fanftity, (SsoXoj^wwTEpoi). Thefe are probably the fame as the genuine 
 part of the colledlion now extant ; but they are fo intermixed, that it is 
 
 difficult 
 
 * SecSopHOCL. Oedip.Tjr, Ver. 1436. 
 
[ 32 ] 
 
 He is called the Father of Night, becaufe, by attrad- 
 ing the light to himfelf, and becoming the fountain 
 which diftributed it to the world, he produced Night, 
 
 which 
 
 difficult to fay, which are genuine, and which are not. Perhaps there is 
 no furer rule for judging, than to compare the epithets and allegories 
 with the fymbols and monograms on the Greek medals, and to make 
 their agreement the tefl of authenticity. The medals were the public 
 afts and records of the State, made under the direftion of the Magiftrates, 
 who were generally initiated into the myfteries. We may therefore be 
 aflured, that whatever theological and mythological allufions are found 
 upon them, were part of the ancient religion of Greece. It is from 
 thefe that many of the Orphic hymns and fragments are proved to 
 contain the pure theology, or myftic faith of the ancients ; which is 
 called Orphic by Pausanias, (Lib. I. c. 39) and which is fo unlike 
 the vulgar religion, or poetical mythology, that one can fcarcely 
 imagine, at firft fight, that it belonged to the fame people ; but which 
 will neverthelefs appear, upon accurate inveftigation, to be the fource 
 from whence it flowed, and the caufe of all its extravagance. 
 
 The hiftory of Orpheus himfelf is fo confufed and obfcured by 
 fable, that it is impoflible to obtain any certain information concerning 
 him. According to general tradition, he was a Thracian, and introduced 
 the myfteries, in which a more pure fyftem of religion was taught, into 
 Greece. (Brucker. Vol. I. Part 2. Lib. I. c. i.) He is alfo faid to 
 have travelled into Egypt (Diodor. Sic Lib. I. p. 80.) ; but as the 
 Egyptians pretended that all foreigners received their fciences from 
 them, at a tim« when all foreigners who entered the country were put 
 to death or enflaved, (Diodor. Sic Lib. I. p. 78, et 107.) this account 
 may be reje<5led, widi many others of the fame kind. The Egyptians 
 
 certainly 
 
[ 33 ] 
 
 which is called eternally-begotten, becaufe it had 
 eternally exifted, although mixed and loft in the 
 general mafs. He is faid to pervade the world with 
 the motion of his wings, bringing pure light; and 
 thence to be called the fplendid, the ruling Priapus, 
 and felf-illumined {ccvT»-j-yn;f), It is to be obferved, that 
 the word n^tvfro^, afterwards the name of a fubordinatc 
 deity, is here ufed as a title relating to one of his 
 attributes ; the reafons for which I fhall endeavour 
 
 E to 
 
 certainly could nor have caught Orpheus the plurality of worlds, and true 
 folar fyftem, which appear to have been the fundamental principles of 
 his philofophy and religion (Plutarch. dePlacit. PhiloJ. Lib. II. c. 13. 
 Brucker in loc. citat.). Nor could he have gained this knowledge from 
 any people, of which hiftory has preferved any memorials} for we know 
 of none among whom fcience had made fuch a progrefs, that a truth fo 
 remote from common obfervation, and fo contradictory to the evidence 
 of unimproved fenfe, would not have been rejefted, as it was by all the 
 fefts of Greek philofophy except the Pythagoreans, who rather revered 
 it as an article of faith, than underftood it as a difcovery of fcience. 
 Thrace was certainly inhabited by a civilifed nation at fome remote 
 period; for, when Philip of Macedon opened the gold mines in that 
 country, he found that they had been worked before with great expence 
 and ingenuity, by a people well verfed in mechanics, of whom no me- 
 morials whatever were then extant. Ofthefe, probably, was Orpheus, 
 as well as Thamyris, both of whofe Poems, Plato fays, could be read 
 with plcafure in his time. 
 
 t Orph. Hym. 5. 
 
[ 34 ] 
 
 explain hereafter. Wings are figuratively attributed 
 to him as being the emblems of fwiftnefs and incu- 
 bation ; by the firfl of which he pervaded matter, and 
 by the fecond frudiified the egg of Chaos. The egg 
 was carried in proceflion at the celebration of the 
 myfteries, becaufe, as Plutarch fays, it was the 
 material of generation, ('uxa T»f >-«£««?*) containing the 
 feeds and germs of life and motion, without being 
 adlually poffefled of either. For this reafon, it was a 
 very proper fymbol of Chaos, containing the ieeds 
 and materials of all things, which, however, were 
 barren and ufelefs, until the Creator frudified them 
 by the incubation of his vital fpirit, and releafed 
 them from the reftraints of inert matter, by the 
 efforts of his divine ftrength. The incubation of 
 the vital fpirit is reprefented on the colonial medals 
 of Tyre, by a ferpent wreathed round an egg ;-f- for 
 the ferpent, having the power of cafting his fkin, and 
 apparently renewing his youth, became the fymbol 
 of life and vigour, and as fuch is always made an 
 attendant on the mythological Deities presiding over 
 health.:}: It is alfo obftrved that animals of the fer- 
 pent kind retain life more pertinacioufly than any 
 
 others 
 
 * Symph. 1. 2. t See PlattXVI. Fig. i. X Macrob, Sat.J. c. 2Q. 
 
I" late XVI 
 
[ 35 ] 
 
 others except the Polypus, which is fometimes re- 
 prefented upon the Greek Medals,* probably in its 
 ftead. 1 have myfelf feen the heart of an adder con- 
 tinue its vital motions for many minutes after it has 
 been taken from the body, and even renew them, 
 after it has been cold, upon being moiftened with 
 warm water, and touched with a ftimulus. 
 
 The Creator, delivering the fruclified feeds of things 
 from the reflraints of inert matter by his divine 
 ftrength, is reprefented on innumerable Greek me- 
 dals by the Urus, or wild Bull in the a(ft of butting 
 againft the Egg of Chaos, and breaking it with his 
 horns. f It is true, that the egg is not reprefented 
 with the bull on any of thofe which I have feen ; 
 but Mr. D'Hancarvillf4 has brought examples from 
 other countries, where the fame fyftem prevailed, 
 which, as well as the general analogy of the Greek 
 
 E 2 theology, 
 
 * See GoLTZ, Tab. II. Fig. 7 & 8. 
 
 t See Plate IV, Fig. i. 6c Recherches fur les Arts, Vol. I. PI. VIII. 
 The Hebrew word Chroub, or Cherub, fignified originally, Jlrong at 
 robuji ; but is ufually employed metaphorically, figt}ifying a Bull. Sec 
 Cleric, in Exod. c. 25. 
 
 X Recherches fur les Arts^ Lib. I. 
 
[ 36 } 
 
 theology, proves that the egg muft have been under- • 
 flood, and that the attitude of the bull could have 
 no other meaning. I iliall alfo have occaiion here- 
 after to fhow by other examples, that it was no 
 uncommon pradlice, in thefe myftic monuments, to 
 make a part of a groupe reprefent the whole. It 
 was from this horned fymbol of the power of the 
 Deity, that horns were placed in the portraits of 
 kings, to fhew that their power was derived from 
 Heaven, and acknowledged no earthly fuperior. 
 The moderns have indeed changed the meanins; of 
 this fymbol, and given it a fenfe, of which, perhaps, 
 it would be difficult to find the origin, though I 
 have often wondered that it has never exercifed the. 
 fapacity of thofe learned Gentlemen who make Bri- 
 tifh antiquities the fubjefts of their laborious enqui- 
 ries. At prefent, it certainly does not bear any cha- 
 racter of dignity or power ; nor does it ever imply 
 that thofe, to whom it is attributed, have been par- 
 ticularly favoured by the generative or creative 
 powers. — But this is a fubjedl much too important 
 to be difcuffed in a digreffion ; I {hall therefore leave 
 it to thofe learned Antiquarians, who have done 
 themfelves fo much honour, and the public fo much 
 fervice, by their fuccefsful enquiries into cuftoms 
 
 of 
 
r 37 ] 
 
 of the fame kind. To their indefatigable induftry 
 and exquifite ingenuity I earneflly recommend it, 
 only obferving that this modern acceptation of the 
 fymbol is of confiderable antiquity, for it is men- 
 tioned as proverbial in the Oneirocritics of Artemi- 
 DORUs ;* and that it is not now confined to Great- 
 Britain, but prevails in moft parts of Chriftendom, 
 as the ancient acceptation of it did formerly in moft 
 parts of the world, even among that people from 
 whofe religion Chriftianity is derived ; for it is a 
 common mode of expreflion in the Old Teftament, 
 to fay that the horns of any one fhall be exalted, in 
 order to fignify that he fhall be raifed into power 
 or pre-eminence ; and when Moses defcended from 
 the mount with the fpirit of God ftill upon him, his 
 head appeared horned. f 
 
 To the head of the bull was fometimes joined the 
 organ of generation, which reprefented not only the 
 ftrength of the Creator, but the peculiar diredion 
 
 of 
 
 * Lib. I. c. 12. 
 
 t Exod. c. XXXIV. V, 35. Ed. vulgat. Other tranflators underftood 
 the exprefliDn metaphorically, and fuppofe it to mean radiated, or 
 luminous. 
 
t 3^ ] 
 
 jof it to the moft beneficial purpofe, the propagatioft 
 of fenfitive beings. Of this there is a fmall bronze 
 in the MufeumofMr. Townley, of which an engra- 
 ving is given in Plate III. Fig. I.* 
 
 Sometimes this generative attribute is reprefented 
 by the fymbol of the Goat, fuppofed to be the mofl 
 falacious of animals, and therefore adopted upon 
 the fame principles as the bull and the ferpent.f 
 The choral odes, fung in honour of the generator 
 Bacchus, v^'ere hence called T^aW"^', or fongs of the 
 goat ; a title which is now applied to the dramatic 
 dialogues anciently inferted in thefe odes, to break 
 their uniformity. On a medal, ftruck in honour of 
 Augustus, the goat terminates in the tail of a fi{h, 
 to fhow the generative power incorporated with 
 water. Under his feet is the globe of the earth, fup- 
 pofed to be fertilifed by this union ; and upon his 
 back, the cornucopia, reprefenting the refult of this 
 fertility.:}: 
 
 * See the tail-piece to Sir W. H.'s Letter. 
 
 ■f Ton ii rfayov ^iri^tuiact.v (oi AiJ/iurrioi) xaS'aTrfp x«i 7r«p« TOif EAAjiit* 
 T|T»/*rff9'«» Mywi rtv nji(«;rov, Sia to ytvuinxov jwopioy. DiODOR. Lib. L p. 78. 
 
 t Plate IX. Fig. 13. 
 
£lafe ]Z. 
 
 JTcg-.r 
 
 Mg:2 
 
 Jug.^9. 
 
[ 39 ] 
 
 Mr. D'Hancarville attributes the origin of all 
 thefe fymbols to the ambiguity of words ; the fame 
 term being employed in the primitive language to 
 iignify God and a Bull, the Univerfe and a Goat, 
 Life and a Serpent. But words are only the types 
 and fymbols of ideas, and therefore muft be pofterior 
 to them, in the fame manner as ideas are to their 
 objedls. The words of a primitive language, being 
 imitative of the ideas from which they fprung, and 
 of the objects they meant to exprefs, as far as the 
 imperfecfbions of the organs of fpeech will admit, 
 there muft neceffarily be the fame kind of analogy 
 between them, as between the ideas and objedls 
 themfelves. It is impoflible, therefore, that in fuch 
 a language any ambiguity of this, fort could exiftj 
 as it does in fecondary languages ;. the words of. 
 which, being colledled from various fources, and 
 blended together without having any natural 
 connexion , become arbitrary figns of conven- 
 tion, inftead of imitative reprefentations of ideas. 
 In this cafe it often happens, that words, fimilar ia-. 
 form, but different in meaning, have been adopted.: 
 from different fources, which, being blended together, . 
 lofe their little difference of form, and retain their 
 entire difference of meaning. Hence ambiguities; 
 
 arife*.. 
 
[ 40 ] 
 
 arife, fuch as thofe above mentioned, which could 
 not poflibly exift in an original tongue. 
 
 The Greek poets and artifls frequently give the 
 perfonification of a particular attribute for the 
 Dei'y himfelf ; hence he is called Tav^oQoa.;, Tau^wTro?, 
 T«uf on*o^?3o?, * &c. and hence the initials and mono- 
 grams of the Orphic epithets applied to the Creator, 
 are found with the bull, and other fymbols, on the 
 Greek medals, f It muft not be imagined from 
 hence, that the ancients fuppofed the Deity to 
 exift under the form of a bull, a goat, or a ferpent : 
 on the contrary, he is always defcribed in the 
 Orphic theology, as a general pervading Spirit, 
 without form, or diftind locality ot any kind ; and 
 appears, by a curious fragment preferved by Pro- 
 CLUS,:}: to have been no other than attradlion per- 
 ibnified. The felf-crcated mind (voo; «utoj.£ve5ao;) of the 
 
 eternal 
 
 * Orph. Hymn. v. et xxix. 
 
 t Numm. Vet. Pop. et Urb. Tab. XXXIX. Fig. 19 et 20. 
 They are on moft of the Medals of Marfeilles, Naples, Thurium, and 
 many other cities. 
 
 X In Tim. III. et Frag. Orphic. Ed. Gefner. 
 
[ 4x ] 
 
 eternal Father is faid to have fpread the heavy- 
 bond of love through all things (t«(j-»v mo-7r£.«ii SiTi^ov- 
 ^fp.Sp^^n Efwm). in order that they might endure for 
 ever. This eternal Father is Kpo«or, time or eternity, 
 perfonihed ; and fo taken for the unknovirn Being 
 that fills eternity and infinity. The ancient Theo- 
 logifts knew that we could form no pofitive idea of 
 infinity, whether of power, fpace, or time ; it 
 being fleeting and fugitive, and eluding the under- 
 ftanding by a continued and boundlefs progrefiion. 
 The only notion we have of it is from the addition 
 or divifion of finite things, v/hich fuggeft the idea of 
 infinite, only from a power we feel in ourfelves of 
 flill multiplying and dividing without end. The 
 Schoolmen indeed were bolder, and, by a fummary 
 mode of reafoning, in which they were very expert, 
 proved that they had as clear and adequate an idea 
 of infinity, as of any finite fubftancc whatever. 
 Infinity, faid they, is that which has no bounds.— 
 This negation, being a pofitive afl'ertion, muft be 
 founded on a pofitive idea. We have therefore a 
 pofitive idea of infinity. 
 
 The Ecleclic Jews, and their followers, the Am- 
 monian and Chriftian Platonics, who endeavoured to 
 
 F make 
 
[ 42 J 
 
 make their own philofopliy and religion conform 
 to the ancicMit theology, held infinity of fpace to 
 be only the immenfity of the divine prefence. 
 o 0£of iflsuTs TOTTO,- £(r7i* was their dogma, which is now 
 inferred into the ConfelHonal of the Greek Churchf. 
 This infinity was diftinguifhed by them from com- 
 mon fpace, as time was from eternity. Whatever is 
 eternal or infinite, faid they, muft be abfolutely 
 indivihble ; becaufe divifion is in itfelf inconfiftent 
 with infinite continuity and duration : therefore 
 fpace and time are diftindl from infinity and eternity, 
 which are void of all parts and gradations whatever. 
 Time is meafured by years, days, hours, &c. and 
 diftinguiflied by paft, prefent, and future ; but thefe, 
 being divifions, are excluded from eternity, as loca- 
 lity is from infinity, and as both are from the Being 
 who fills both ; who can therefore feel no fucceffion 
 of events, nor know any gradation of diftance ; but 
 mufl comprehend infinite duration as if it were one 
 moment, and infinite extent as if it were but a fingle 
 point:}:. Hence the Ammonian Platonics fpeak of 
 
 him 
 
 *Philo. de Leg. Alleg. Lib. I. Jo. Damasc. de Orth.Fid. 
 f MosHEiM. Nota in Sedt. xxiy. Cudw. Syji. IntelleSl. 
 X See BoETH. de ConJcL Philof. Lib. IV. Prof. 6. 
 
[ 43 I 
 
 him as concentered in his own unity, and extended 
 through all things, but participated of by none. 
 Beinof of a nature more refined and elevated than in- 
 telligence itfelf, he could not be known by fenfe, 
 perception, or reafon ; and being the caufe of all, 
 he mufl: be anterior to all, even to eternity itfelf, if 
 confidered as eternity of time, and not as the intel- 
 leftual unity, which is the Deity himfelf, by whofe 
 emanations all things exift, and to whofe proximity 
 or diftances they owe their degrees of excellence 
 or bafcnefs. Bei?ig itfelf, in its mofl: abftradl fenfe, 
 is derived from him ; for that which is the caufe 
 and beginning of all Being, cannot be a part of that 
 ^// which fprung from himfelf : therefore he is not 
 Being, nor is Being his Attj^bute ; for that which 
 has an attribute, cannot have the abftrad fimplicity of 
 pure unity. All Being is in its nature finite ; for, if 
 it was otherwife, it muft be without bounds every 
 way ; and therefore could have no gradation of proxi- 
 mity to the firft caufes, or confequent pre-eminence 
 of one part over another : for, as all diftindlions of 
 time are excluded from infinite duration, and all 
 divifions of locality from infinite extent, fo are all 
 degrees of priority from infinite progreflion. The 
 mind is and a6is in itfelf; but the abftracft unity of 
 
 F 2 the 
 
[ 44 ] 
 
 the hrfl: caufe is neither in itfelf, Ror in another ; — 
 not in itfelf, becaufe that would imply modihcarion, 
 from which abftracl fimplicity is ncceilarily exempt ; 
 nor in another, becaufe then there would be an 
 hypoftatical duality, inftead of abfolute unity. In 
 both cafes there would be a locality oi hypoftaiis, 
 inconfiftent with intelledlual infinity. As ail phy- 
 fical attributes were excluded from this metaphyseal 
 abftra<Slian, which they called their jfirft caufe, he 
 muft of courfe be deflitute of all moral ones, which 
 are only generalifed modes of action of the former. 
 Even limple abflradl truth was denied him; for 
 truth, as Proclus fays, is merely the relative to 
 falfliood ; and no relative can exift without a pofi- 
 tive or correlative. The Deity therefore who has no 
 fallhood, can have no truth, in our fenfe of the 
 word.* 
 
 As metaphyfical theology is a ftudy very generally, 
 and very defervedly negleded at prefent, I thought 
 this little fpecimen of it might be entertaining, from 
 
 its 
 
 * Proclus in Theolog. Platon^ Lib. I. et II. 
 
[ 45 ] 
 
 its novelty, to moft readers ; efpecially as it is inti- 
 mately conneded with the ancient fyftem, which I 
 have here undertaken to examine. Thofc, who vvifli 
 to know more of it, may confult Proclijs on the 
 Theology of Plato, where they will find the moft 
 exquifite ingenuity moft wantonly wafted. No per- 
 fons ever fhowed greater acutenefs or ftrength of 
 realbning than the Platonics and Scholaftics ; but 
 having' quitted common fenfe, and attempted to 
 mount into the intelledlual world, they expended 
 it all in abortive efforts, which may amufe the ima- 
 gination, but cannot fatisfy the underftanding. 
 
 The ancient Theologifts ftiowed more difcretion ; 
 for, finding that they could conceive no idea of in- 
 finity, they were content to revere the Infinite 
 Being in the moft general and cfiicient exertion of 
 his power, attraction ; whofe agency is perceptible 
 through all matter, and to which all motion may, 
 perhaps, be ultimately traced. This power, being 
 perfonified, became the fecondary Deity, to whom 
 all adoration and worfliip were direded, and who 
 is therefore frequently confidered as the fole and fu- 
 preme caufe of all things. His agency being fup- 
 pofed to extend through the whole material world, 
 
 and ■ 
 
. [ 46 ] 
 
 and to produce all the various revolutions by wKich 
 its fyftem is fuftained, his attributes vs^ere of courfe 
 extremely numerous and varied. Thefe were ex- 
 preffed by various titles and epithets in the myitic 
 hymns and litanies, which the artifts endeavoured to 
 reprefent by various forms and charaders of men 
 and animals. The great chara£l:eriftic attribute was 
 reprefented by the Organ of Generation in that ftate 
 of tension and rigidity which is neceffary to the due 
 performance of its functions. Many fmall images of 
 this kind have been found among the ruins of Hercu- 
 LANEUM and Pompeii, attached to the bracelets, which 
 the chafte and pious matrons of antiquity wore round 
 their necks and arms. In thefe, the organ of generation 
 appears alone, or only accompanied with the Wings 
 of Incubation,* in order to fhovv that the devout 
 wearer devoted herfelf wholly and folely to procrea- 
 tion, the great end for which fhe was ordained. So 
 expreflive a fymbol, being conftantly in her view, 
 muft keep her attention fixed on its natural objedt, 
 and continually remind her of the gratitude fhe owed 
 the Creator, for having taken her into his fervice, 
 
 made 
 
 * Plate II. Fig. 2. engraved from one in the Britifh Mufeum. 
 
r 47 J 
 
 made her a partaker of his moft valuable bleflings, 
 and employed her as the paflive inftrument in the 
 exertion of his moft beneficial power. 
 
 The Female Organs of Generation were revered* as 
 fymbols of the generative powers of Nature or matter, 
 as the male were of the generative powers of God. 
 They are ufually reprefented emblematically, by the 
 Shell, or Concha Veneris^ which was therefore worn 
 by devout perfons of antiquity, as it ftill continues to 
 be by pilgrims, and many of the common women of 
 Italy. The union of both was expreflcd by the hand 
 mentioned in Sir William Hamilton's Letter \\ 
 which, being a lefs explicit fymbol, has efcaped the 
 attention of the Reformers, and is ftill worn, as well 
 as the ftiell, by the women of Italy, though without 
 being underftood. It reprefented the a6l of generation, 
 v/hich was confidered as a folemn facrament, in 
 honour of the Creator, as will be more fully fhown 
 hereafter. 
 
 The' 
 
 * August, de Civ. Dei. Lib. VI. c. 9. 
 
 X See Plate II. Fig. I. from one in the Britifh Mufeumj in whicK 
 borh lymbols are united. 
 
[ 48 ] 
 
 The Male Organs of Generation are fometimes 
 found reprefented by figns of the fame fort, which 
 might properly be called the fymbols of fymbols. One 
 of the moft remarkable of thefe is a crofs, in the form 
 of the letter T,* which thus ferved as the emblem 
 of creation and generation, before the Church adopted 
 it as the fign of falvation ; a lucky coincidence of 
 ideas, which, without doubt, facilitated the recep- 
 tion of it among the Faithful. To the reprefenta- 
 tivc of the male organs was fometimes added a 
 Human Head, which gives it the exact appearance 
 of a crucifix ; as it has on a medal of Cyzicum^ pub- 
 lifhed by M. PELLERiN.f- On an ancient medal, found 
 in Cyprus, which, from theft)le of workmanfhip, 
 is certainly anterior to the Macedonian conqueft, it 
 appears with the chapelet or rofary, fuch as is now 
 ufed in the Romifli churches ;J the beads of which 
 were ufed, anciently, to reckon time,§ Their being 
 
 placed 
 
 * Recherches fur les Arts, Lib. I. c. 3. 
 
 t See Plate VIII. Fig. 2. 
 
 ■X Plate VIII. Fig. 3. from Pellerin. Similar medals are in the 
 Hunter coUeftion, and are evidently of Phoenician Work. 
 
 § Recherches fur les Arts, Lib. I. c. 3. 
 
TLateYM- 
 
 Jiel 
 
[ 49 I 
 placed in a circle, marked its progreflive continuity; 
 while their feparation from each other marked the 
 divifions, by which it is made to return on itfelf, and 
 thus produce years, months, and days. The fymbol 
 of the creative power is placed upon them, becaufe 
 thefe divifions were particularly under his influence 
 and proteftion ; the Sun being his vilible image, and 
 the centre of his power, from which his emanations 
 extended through the imiverfe. Hence the -Egyp- 
 tians, in their facred hymns, called upon Osiris, as 
 the beins: v/ho dwelt concealed in the embraces of the 
 Sun ;* and hence the great luminary itfelf is called 
 KoiTixoy.fxrk:^ (Riilcr of chc World) in the Orphic Hymns. f 
 
 This general emanation of the pervading fpirit 
 of God, by which all things are generated and main- 
 tained, is beautifully defcribed by Virgil, in the fol- 
 lowing lines : 
 
 G The 
 
 Deum namque ire per omnes 
 Terrasque, traftusque maris, coelumque profundiim. 
 Hinc pecudes, armcnta, viros, genus omne ferarum, 
 Quernque fibi tenues nafcentem arceflfcre vitas. 
 Scilicet hue reddi deinde, ac refoluta referri 
 Omnia : nee morti efie locum, fed viva volare 
 Sideris in numerum, atque alto fuccedere ccelo. j; 
 
 * Plutarch, de I/iJ. & Ofir. f See Hymn VII. 
 
 X Georgic. Lib. IV. Ver. 221. 
 
r 50 J 
 
 The Etherial Spirit is here defcribed as expanding 
 itfelf through the univerfe, and giving life and mo- 
 tion to the inhabitants of earth, water, and air, 
 by a participation of his own effence, each particle 
 of which returned to its native fource, at the difib- 
 lution of the body which it animated. Hence, not 
 only men, but all animals, and even vegetables, were 
 fuppofed to be impregnated with fome particles of 
 the divine nature infufed into them, from which 
 their various qualities and difpofitions, as well as. 
 their powers of propagation, were fuppofed to be de- 
 rived. Thefe appeared to be fo many emanations 
 of the divine attributes, operating in different modes 
 and degrees, according to the nature of the beings 
 to which they belonged. Hence, the characfteriftic 
 properties of animals and plants were not only re- 
 garded as reprefentations, but as adual emanations 
 of the Divine Power, confubftantial with his own 
 effence.* For this reafon, the fymbols were treated 
 with greater refpeft and veneration than if they had 
 been merely figns and characters of convention. 
 Plutarch fays, that mofl of the Egyptian Priefts 
 
 held 
 
 Proclus in theol. Plat. Lib, I, p. 56 & 57. 
 
[ 51 ] 
 
 the bull Apis, who was worfhipped with To much 
 ceremony, to be only an image of the fpirit of 
 Osiris.* This I take to have been the real meaning 
 of all the annual worfliip of the Egyptians, about 
 which fo much has been written, and fo little dif- 
 covered. Thofe animals or plants, in which any par- 
 ticular attribute of the Deity feemcd to predominate, 
 became the fymbols of that attribu:e, and were ac- 
 cordingly worfhipped as the images of Divine Provi- 
 dence, ading in that particular diredion. Like 
 many other cuftoms, both of ancient and modern 
 worfhip, the pradice, probably, continued long 
 after the rcafons upon which it was founded were 
 either wholly loft, or only partially preferved, in 
 vague traditions. This was the cafe in Egypt ; for, 
 though many of the Priefts knew or conjcdured the 
 origin of the worfhip of the Bull, they could give 
 no rational accoimt why the Crocodile, the Ichneu- 
 mon, and the Ibis, received ftmilar honours. The 
 fymbolical charadlers, called hieroglyphics, conti- 
 nued to be efteemed by them, as more holy and ve-: 
 nerable than the conventional reprefentations of 
 
 G 2 founds, 
 
 De If. ^ Of. 
 
 -U 
 
r 5-2 J 
 
 founds, notwithftandino; their manifeft infcriorltrr, 
 yet it docs not appear, from any accounts extant, 
 that they were able to affign any reafon for this pre- 
 ference On the contrary, St r a bo tells us, that the 
 Egyptians of his time were wholly ignorant of their 
 ancient learning and religion,* though impoftors 
 continually pretended to explain it. Their igno- 
 rance in thefe points is not to be wondered at, con- 
 fidering that the moft ancient Egyptians, of whom 
 wc have any authentic accounts, lived after the fub- 
 verfion of their monarchy, and deftrudion of their 
 temples by the Perfians, who ufed every endeavour 
 to annihilate their religion ; firft, by command of 
 Cambyses,^ and then of Ochus.| What they were, 
 before this calamity, we have no direct information ; 
 for Herodotus is the earlieft traveller, and he vifited. 
 this country when in ruins. 
 
 It is obfervable in all modern religions, that men 
 are fuperftitious in proportion as they are ignorant, 
 and that thofe, who know leaft of the principles of 
 religion, are the moft earneft and fervent in the 
 
 pra(5tice 
 
 * Lib. XVII. t Herodot. Lib. III. Strabo, Lib. XVII. 
 X Plutarch, de Ij. (s? Q/l 
 
r S3 J 
 
 pra(5tice of its exteriour rites and ceremonies. We 
 may fuppofe from analogy, that this was the cafe 
 with the Egyptians. The learned and rational 
 merely rcfpe(5lcd and revered the facred animals, 
 whilft the vulgar worfliipped and adored them. 
 The greatefl: part of the former being, as is natural 
 to fuppofe, deftroyed by the perfecution of the Per- 
 sians, this worfhip and adoration became general ; 
 different cities adopting difterent animals as their 
 tutelar Deities, in the fame manner as the Catholics 
 now put themfelves under the protection of different 
 Saints and Martyrs. Like them too, in the fer- 
 vency of their devotion for the imaginary agent, 
 they forgot the original caufe. 
 
 The cuftom of keeping facred animals as images 
 of the divine attributes, feems once to have pre- 
 vailed in Greece as well as Egypt ; for the God of 
 Health was reprefented by a living Serpent at Epi- 
 DAURUs, even in the laft flage of their religion.* In 
 general, however, they preferred wrought images^ 
 
 not 
 
 Liv. Hiji, Eptm, Lib. XI. 
 
I 54 ] 
 
 not fiom their fupcrlority in art, which they did 
 not acquire till after the time of Homer,* when their 
 theology was entirely corrupted ; but becaufe they 
 iiad thus the means of exprefUng their ideas more 
 fully, by combining feveral forms together, and 
 iliowing, not only the divine attribute, but the mode 
 and purpofe of its operation. For inftance ; the 
 celebrated bronze in the Vatican has the male 
 organs of generation placed upon the head of a Cock, 
 the emblem of the Sun, fupported by the neck and 
 {houlders of a Man. In this compoiition they re- 
 prefented the generative power of the Ef«;, the Osiris, 
 Mithras, or Bacchus, whofe center is the fun, in- 
 carnate with man. By the infcription on the 
 pedeftal, the attribute, thus perfonified, is ftyled 
 T'he Saviour of the World, (SwT»f M<ry.>i) ; a title always 
 venerable, under whatever image it be repre- 
 fented.f 
 
 The Egyptians fhowed this incarnation of the 
 
 dly ex- 
 prefUve 
 
 Deity by a lefs permanent, though equally ex- 
 
 * When Homer praifes any Work of art, he calls it the work 
 of Sidonians. 
 
 t See Plate 11. Fig. .3. 
 
[ 55 I 
 
 preflive fymbol. At Mendes a living Goat was 
 kept as the image of the generative power, to whom 
 the Women prefented themfelves naked, and had 
 the honour of being publickly enjoyed by him. 
 Herodotus faw the adl openly performed (e,-£7rJn^.w 
 ccv^farro^,) and calls it a prodigy (rfpa?). But the Egyp- 
 tians had no fuch horror of it j for it was to them a 
 reprefentation of the incarnation of the Deity, and 
 the communication of his creative fpirit to man. 
 It was one of the facraments of that ancient Church, 
 and was, without doubt, beheld with that pious 
 awe and reverence with which devout perfons always 
 contemplate the myfteries of their faith, whatever 
 they happen to be ; for, as the learned and orthodox 
 Bifhop Warburton, whofe authority it is not for 
 me to difpute, fays, from the 7iaturc of any aSiioii 
 morality canjiot arije^ 72or from its effc&s :* therefore, 
 for aught we can tell, this ceremony, however 
 fhocking it may appear to modern manners and 
 opinions, might have been intrinfically meritorious 
 at the time of its celebration, and afforded a truly 
 edifying fpetftacle to the Saints of ancient Egypt. 
 
 Indeed, 
 
 ♦ Div. Leg. Book I. c. 4v 
 
[ 56 ] 
 
 Indeed, the Greeks do not feem to have felt much 
 horror or difgufl: at the imitative reprefentation of it, 
 whatever the Hiftorian might have thought proper 
 to exprefs at the real celebration. Several fpecimens 
 oF their fculpture in this way have efcaped the fury 
 of the Reformers, and remained for the inftrudion of 
 later times. One of thefe, found among the ruins of 
 Herculaneum, and kept concealed in the Royal 
 Mufeum at Portici, is well known. Another exifts 
 in the colledion of Mr. Townlev, which I have 
 thought proper to have engraved for the benefit of the 
 learned.* It may be remarked, that in thefe monu- 
 ments the Goat is pajftve inftead of aBive ; and that 
 the human fymbol is reprefented as incarnate with 
 the divine^ inftead of the divine with the hii?nan : but 
 this is in fa6l no difference ; for the Creator, being 
 of both fexes, is reprefented indifferently of either. 
 In the other fymbol of the Bull, the fex is equally 
 varied ; the Greek Medals having fometimes a 
 Bull, and fometimes a Cow, f which, Straeo tells us, 
 
 was 
 
 * Plate VII. the tail-piece to this difcourfe. 
 
 -j- See Plate IV. Fig. i^ 2, 3. and Plate III. Fig. 4. engraved from 
 medals belonging to me. 
 

r 57 I 
 
 was employed as the fy mbol of Venus, the pailivc 
 generative power at Momemphis, in Egypt.* Both 
 the Bull and the Cow are alio worfhipped at prcfent 
 by the Hindoos, as fymbols of the male and female, 
 or generative and nutritive powers of the Deity. 
 The Cow is in almofl: all their Pagodas ; but the 
 Bull is revered with fuperior folemnity and devotion. 
 At Tanjour is a monument of their piety to him, 
 which even the inflexible perfeverance, and habitual 
 induflry of the natives of that country, could 
 fcarcely have eredled, without greater knowledge in 
 practical mechanics than they now poflefs. It is a 
 ftatue of a Bull lying down, hewn, with great ac- 
 curacy, out of a Angle piece of hard granite, which 
 has been conveyed by land from the diftance of a 
 hundred miles, although its weight, in its prefent 
 reduced ftate, mufl be at leaft a hundred tons.-f- The 
 Greeks fometimes made their Taurine Bacchus, or 
 Bull, with a human face, to exprefs both fexes, 
 which they fignified by the initial of the epithet A.(f5u«?, 
 
 H placed 
 
 * Lib. XVII. 
 
 -J- See Plate XVII. with tiie mcafuremcnrsj as made by Capt. 
 Patterson on the fpot. 
 
r 58 ] 
 
 placed uniier him.* Over him they freqiientiy put 
 the radiated afterifc, which reprcr^^nts the Sun, to 
 fhow the Deity, whofe attribute he was intended to 
 exprefs.f Hence we may perceive the reafon Vv-hy 
 the Germans, who, according to C^sar,:{: wor- 
 £hipped the Sun, carried a brazen Bull, as the image 
 of their God, when they invaded the Roman domi- 
 nions in the time of Marius ;§ and even the chofen 
 People of Providence, when they made unto them- 
 felves an image of the God who was to condud 
 them through the defert, and caft out the ungodly 
 from before them, made it in the fhape of a young ^ 
 Bull, or Calf. II 
 
 The Greeks, as they advanced in the cultivation 
 oft he imitative arts, gradually changed the animal 
 
 for 
 
 * See Plate IV. Fig. 2. from a medal of Naples in the Hunter 
 CoUeftion. 
 
 t See Plate IV. Fig. 2. and Plate XV. Fig. 6. from a medal of 
 Cales, belonging to me. 
 
 X De B. G. Lib. VI. 
 
 § Plut. r'K Mario. 
 
 ii £W.c. 32. with Patrick's Cmmmtary. 
 
[ 59 3 
 
 for the human form, preferving flill tlie original 
 charader. The Human Head was at firft added to 
 the Body of the Bull ;* but afterwards the whole 
 figure was made human, with fonie of the features, 
 and general charadler of the animal, blended with it.-f- 
 Oftentimes, however, thefe mixed figures had a 
 peculiar and proper meaning, like that of the Vatican 
 Bronze ; and were not intended as mere refinements 
 of art. Such are the Fawns and Satyrs, who repre- 
 fent the emanations of the Creator, incarnate with 
 man, afting as his angels and minifters in the work 
 of univerfal generation. In copulation with the 
 Goat, they reprefent the reciprocal incarnation of 
 man with the Deity, when incorporated with univerfal 
 matter : for the Deity, being both male and female, 
 was both adive and paflive in procreation ; firft 
 animating man by an emanation from his own eflence, 
 and then employing that emanation to reproduce, 
 in conjunction with the common produdive powers 
 of Nature^ which arc no other than his own prolific 
 fpirit transfufed through matter. 
 
 H 2 Thefe 
 
 * See the Medals of Naples, Gela, &c. Plate IV. Fig. 2. and 
 Plate IX. Fig. 8. are fpecimensi but the Coins are in all Colleflions. 
 t See Bronzi-d'Herculatio, Tom. V. Plate 5, 
 
F 60 ] 
 
 Thefe mixed beings are derived from Pan, the 
 principle of univerfal order ; of whofe perfonified 
 image they partake. Pan is addreffed in the Orphic 
 Litanies, as the firft-begotten Love, or Creator in- 
 corporated in univerfal matter^ and fo forming the 
 world.* The heaven, the earth, water, and fire, are 
 iaid to be members of him ; and he is defcribed as 
 the origin and fource of all things, (■nx.vlopvr,; yivilu^-n'avla'j)- 
 as reprefenting matter animated by the Divine Spirit. 
 Lvcsan Pan was the moft ancient and revered God of 
 the Arcadians,f the moft ancient people of Greece. 
 The epithet Lyc^an, (Au>c«»o;) is ufually derived from 
 Awo?, a Wolf; though it is impoffible to find any 
 relation which this etymology can have with the 
 Deities to which it is applied ; for the epithet Au>t«iofy 
 or Auxnof, (which is only the different pronunciation 
 of a different dialect) is occafionally applied to 
 almoft all the Gods. I have therefore no doubt, 
 but that it ought to be derived from the old word 
 Ao>co? or ^"■'"'' lig^t J from which came the Latin word 
 
 /ux. 
 
 * Hymn. x. 
 
 "i DiQux s^j^ntiq. Rom. Lib. L c, 32*^ 
 
[ 6i ] 
 
 lux.^ In this fenfe it is a very proper epithet for the 
 divine nature, of whofe eflence light was fiippofed to be. 
 I am confirmed in this conjecture by a word in the 
 Ele&ra of Sophocles, which feems hitherto to have 
 been mifunderfliood. At the opening of the play, the 
 old tutorof Orestes, entering Argos with his young 
 Pupil, points out to him the moft celebrated public 
 buildings, and amongft them the Lycsean Forum, 
 ■r»Auxoy.Tov8©£«, which thc fcholiaft and tranflators inter- 
 pret, of the Wdf-ktlUng God^ though there is no 
 reafon whatever why this epithet iliould. be applied 
 to Apollo. But, if we derive the compound from 
 Auxof, light, and £x.t£iv£.v , toextend, indead of j^tsivjiu , to kill, 
 the meaning will be perfedly juft and natural ; for 
 light-extending is ot all others the propereft epithet 
 for the Sun. Sophocles, as well as Virgil, is known 
 to have been an admirer of ancient expreflions, and 
 to have imitated Homer more than any other Attic 
 Poet ; therefore, his employing an obfolete word is 
 not to be wondered at. Taking this etymology as 
 the true one, the Lyca^an Pan of Arcadia is Pan 
 the lumi?20us j that is, the divine eflence oi light in- 
 corporated. 
 
 * Macros. ^«/.XVIL 
 
[ 62 ] 
 
 ■ corporated in univerfal matter. The Arcadians called 
 him Toi/Tn,- JAJi.'Kupiov, the Lord of Matter^ as Macrobius 
 rightly translates it.* He was hence called Sylvanus 
 by the Latins ; Sylva being, in the ancient Pelafgian 
 and iEolian Greek, from which the Latin is derived, 
 the fame as u'a>i ; for it is well known to all who have 
 compared the tw^o languages attentively, that the 
 Sigma and Van are letters, the one of v/hich was 
 partially, and the other generally omitted by the 
 Greeks, in the refinement of their pronunciation and 
 orthography, which took place after the emigration 
 of the Latian and Etrufcan Colonies. The Chorus 
 in the Ajax of Sophocles addrefs Pan by the title 
 of 'AAiTrAayHTOfj-l- probably becaufe he was worfhipped 
 on the Shores of the fea ; water being reckoned the 
 beft and mofl prolific of the fubordinate elements, J 
 upon which the fpirit of God, according to Moses, 
 or the plaftic Nature, according to the Platonics, 
 operating, produced life and motion on earth. 
 Hence the Ocean is faid by Homer to be the fource 
 
 of 
 
 * Sat. I. c. 22. t Ver. 703. 
 
 t Pindar, Olymp. I. ver. i. Diodor. Sic. Lib. I. p. 11* 
 
[ 63 ] 
 
 of all things ;* and hence the ufe of water in bap- 
 tifm, which was to regenerate, and, in a manner, 
 new create the perfon baptifed; for the foul, fup- 
 pofed by many of the primitive Chriftians to be 
 naturally mortal, was then fuppofed to become 
 immortal. f Upon the fame principle, tlie figure of 
 Pan, engraved in Plate V. Fig. I.+ is reprcfcnted 
 pouring water upon the Organ of Generation ; that 
 is, invigorating the adtive creative power by the pro- 
 lific element upon which it adled ; for water was 
 confidered as the effence of the pafiive principle, as 
 fire was of the adive ; the one being of terreflrial, and 
 the other of sthcrial origin. Hence, St.JoHN the Baptift, 
 who might have acquired fome knowledge of the an- 
 cient theology, through its reviver?, the Ecle6lic Jews, 
 fays: /, indeed^ baptifeyou i?i PFater to repe7Jta?ice ; but he 
 that Cometh after me^ who is tnore powerful than I am^ 
 Jhall baptife you m the Holy Spirit^ and ifi Fire ;§ that 
 is, I only purify and refrefh the foul, by a commu- 
 nion with the terreflrial principle of life ; but he that 
 Cometh after me, will regenerate and reftore it, by a 
 
 communion 
 
 * II, ^. ver. 246. & (p ver. 196. 
 
 f Clementina, //(?w. XII. Aknos.. adv. Ce/ites, Lib. II. 
 
 J See tail-piece to the Italian Letter. The original is among the 
 antiquities found in Herculaneum, now in the Mufeum of Portici. . 
 
 § Matth,c. 3. 
 
[ 64 ] 
 
 communion with the etherial principle*. Pan is aga-in 
 addreffed in the Salaminian Chorus of the fame 
 Tragedy of Sophocles, by the titles of Author and 
 Director of the Dances of the Gods {Qim ^opoTroi' waj) 
 as being the author and difpofer of the regular 
 motions of the univerfe, of which thefe divine 
 dances were fymbols, which are faid in the 
 fame palTage to be (c^vro^ccr,) f elf -taught to him. 
 Both the GnofTian and Nyfian dances are here 
 included, '|~ the former facred to Jupiter, and the 
 latter to Bacchus ; for Pan, being the principle of 
 univerfal order, partook of the nature of all the 
 other Gods, They were perfonifications of particular 
 modes of adingof the great all-ruling principle ; and 
 he, of his general law and pre-eftablifhed harmony 
 by which he governs the univerfe. Hence he is 
 often reprefented playing on a pipe ; mufic being 
 the natural emblem of this phylical harmony. Ac- 
 cording to Plutarch, the Jupiter Ammon of the 
 
 Africans 
 
 * It is the avowed intention of the learned and excellent work of 
 Grotius, to prove that there is nothing new in Chriftianity. What 
 I have here adduced, may ferve to confirm and illuftrate the difcoveries 
 of that great and goodnaan. See^^ Veritate Relig. Chrift. Lib. iv. c. 12. 
 
 t Ver. 708. 
 
li 65 J 
 
 Africans was the fame as the Pan of the Greeks.* 
 This explains the reafon why the Macedonian King* 
 afiumed the horns of that God ; for, though Alex- 
 ander pretended to be iiis fon, his fucceffors never 
 pretended to any fuch honour ; and yet they equally 
 afiumed the fymbols, as appears from their medals. ■f' 
 The cafe is, that Pan, or Ammon, being the univerfe, 
 and Jupiter a title of the fupreme God (as will be 
 (liown hereafter), the Horns, the emblems of his 
 power, feemed the propereft fymbols of that fupreme 
 and univerfal dominion, to which they all, as well 
 as Alexander, had the ambition to afpire. The 
 £gure of Ammon was compounded of the forms of 
 the Ram, as that of Pan was of the Goat ; the 
 reafon of which is difficult to afcertain, unlefs we 
 fuppofe that Goats were unknown in the country 
 where his worfhip arofe, and that the Ram expreffed 
 the fame attribute.:}: In a gem in the Mufeum of 
 
 I Charles 
 
 * BelJ.i^ Of. 
 
 ■\ See Plate IV. Fig. 4. engraved from one of Lysimachus, of exqui- 
 
 fite beauty, belonging to me. Antigonus put the head of Pan upon 
 his Coins, which are not uncommon. 
 
 \ Pausanias (Lib. II.) fays he knew the meaning of this fymbol, 
 but did not chufe to reveal it, it being a part of the Myftic Worfhip. 
 
r 66 ] 
 
 Charles Townley, Efq. the Head of the Greek 
 Pan is joined to that of a Ram, on the body of a 
 Cock, over whofe head is the afterifc of the Sun, and 
 below it the head of an aquatic Fowl, attached to 
 the fame body.* The Cock is the fymbol of the 
 Sun, probably from proclaiming his approach in the 
 morning ; and the aquatic Fowl is the emblem ot 
 Water; fo that this compofition, apparently fo whim- 
 fical, reprefents the Univerfe between the two great 
 prolific Elements, the one the adive, and the 
 other the pailive caufe of all things. 
 
 The Creator being both male and female, the 
 emanations of his creative fpirit, operating upon 
 univerfal matter, produced fubordinate minifters of 
 both fexes, and gave, as companions to the Fauns 
 and Satyrs, the Nymphs of the Waters, the Moun- 
 tains, and the Woods, fignifying the pafTive pro- 
 dudlive powers of each, fubdivided and diffufed. 
 Of the fame clafs are the TtviT^hxaeg^ mentioned by Pau- 
 SANIAS as companions to Venus, f who, as well as 
 
 Ceres^ 
 
 * Plate III. Fig. I. t Lib. I. 
 
 \ 
 
[ 67 ] 
 
 Ceres, Juno, Diana, Isis, 8cc. was only a per- 
 fonilication of Nature, or the paflive principle of 
 Generation, operating in various modes. Apuleius 
 invokes Isis by the names of the Eleusinian Ceres, 
 Celestial Venus, and Proserpine ; and, when 
 the Goddefs anfwers him, fhe defcribes herfelf as 
 follows : " I am," fays flie, " Nature, the Parent 
 " of Things, the Sovereign of the Elements, the Pri- 
 " mary Progeny of Time, the mofl: exalted of the 
 " Deities, the firft of the Heavenly Gods and 
 " GoddefTes, the Queen of the Shades , the Uni- 
 *' form Countenance ; who difpofe, with my nod, the 
 " luminous heights of heaven, the falubrious breezes 
 " of the fea, and the mournful filence of the dead; 
 " whofe fingle Deity the whole world venerates, in 
 *' many forms, v/ith various rites, and various 
 " names. — The Egyptians, (killed in ancient learn- 
 *' ing, worfhip me with proper ceremonies, and call 
 " me by my true name, Queen Isis."*' 
 
 According to the Egyptians, Isis copulated with' 
 her brother Osiris in the womb of their mo;her; 
 
 I 2 from 
 
 Metamorph. Lib. XI. 
 
[ 68 ] 
 
 from whence fprnng Arueris, or Orlts, the AroLLo 
 oi the Greeks.* This allegory means no more than 
 that the adtive and pafiive powers of Creation, united in 
 the womb of Night ; where they had been implanted 
 by the unknown Father, k^ovo;, or Time, and by 
 their union produced the feparation or delivery ot 
 the elements from each other ; for the name Apollo 
 is only a title derived from oc^oxw, to deliver fromr\' 
 They made the robes of Isis various in their 
 colours and complicated in their folds, becaufe the 
 paflive, or material power, appeared in various 
 fliapes and modes, as accommodating itfelf to the 
 a£live ; but the drefs of Osiris was iimple, and 
 of one luminous colour, to {how the unity of his 
 effence, and univerfality of his power ; equally the 
 iame through all things.* The luminous, or flame 
 colour, reprefented the Sun, who, in the language 
 of the Theologifts, was the fubftance of his facrcd 
 power, and the viflble image of his intellectual 
 being.* He is called, in the Orphic Litanies, the 
 chain which conneds all things together ("o <^'«viJf «p.f 
 jHTfios «VavTwi.),-f- as being the principle of attradlion ; 
 
 and 
 
 * EtuTARCH. delf.^Of. f Damm. Lex.Etym^ 
 
 t. Hymn^xlvi. 
 
[ 69 ] 
 
 and the Deliverer (auo^o,-)/* as giving liberty to the 
 innate powers of Nature, and thus fertilifing matter. 
 Thefe epithets not only exprefs the theological, but 
 alfo the phylical fyftem of the Orphic School; accord- 
 ing to which the Sun, being placed in the centre 
 of the univerfe, with the Planets moving round, 
 was, by his attradive force, the caufe of all union 
 and harmony in the whole ; and, by the emanation 
 of his beams, the caufe of all motion and activity 
 in the parts. This fyftem is alluded to by Homer 
 in the allegory of the golden Chain, by which Ju- 
 piter fufpends all things j-f- though there is every 
 reafon to believe that the Poet himfelf was ignorant 
 of its meaning, and only related it as he had heard 
 it. The Ammonian Platonics adopted the fame 
 fyftem of attradion, but changed its centre from the 
 Sun to their metaphyseal Abftra^lion or incompre- 
 henfible Unity, whofe emanations pervaded all 
 things, and held all things together.:}: 
 
 Befides 
 
 * Hymn. xlix. the Initials of this Epithet are with the Bull on a 
 medal of Naples belonging to me. The Bull has a Human Counte- 
 nance, and has therefore been called a Minotaur by Antiquarians ; 
 notwithftanding he is to be found on different medals, accompanied with 
 all the fymbols both of Bacchus and Apollo, and with the Initials of 
 moft of the Epithets to be found in the Orphic Litanies. 
 
 j- II.©. Ver. xix. 
 
 X Proclus in Theol. Plat, Lib. I. c. 21. 
 
[ JO ] 
 
 Bdides the Fauns, Satyrs, and Nymphs, the 
 incarnate emanations of the active and palllve powers 
 of the Creator, we often find in the ancient fculp- 
 tures certain Androgynous beings poffeiTed of the 
 characfteriftic organs of both fexes, which I take to 
 reprefent organifed matter in its firfl ftage ; that is, 
 immediately after it was releafed from Chaos, and 
 before it was animated by a participation of the ethe- 
 rial effence of the Creator. In a beautiful gem 
 belonging to R. Wilbraham, Efq;* one of thefe 
 Androgynous figures is reprefented fleeping, with the 
 Organs of Generation covered, and the Egg of Chaos 
 broken under it. On the other fide is Bacchus the 
 Creator, bearing a Torch, the emblem of etherial 
 fire, and extending it towards the fleeping figure ; 
 whilft one of his agents feems only to wait his per- 
 mifiion to begin the execution of that ofiice, which, 
 according to every outward and vifible fign, he ap- 
 pears able to difcharge with energy and efi^eft. The 
 Creator himfelf leans upon one of thofe figures com- 
 monly called Silmi ; but which, from their heavy 
 unwieldy forms, were probably intended as perfonifi- 
 
 cations 
 
 * See Plate V. Fig. 3. 
 
[ 71 ] 
 
 cations of brute inert matter, from which all things 
 are formed, but which, being incapable of producing 
 any thing of itfelf, is properly reprefented as the fup- 
 port of the Creative Power, though not actively in- 
 flrumental in his work. The total baldnefs of this 
 figure reprefents the exhaufted, unprodudive flate 
 of matter, when the generative powers were fcparated 
 from it ; for it was an opinion of the ancients, which 
 I remember to have met with in fome part of the 
 Works of Aristotle, to which I cannot at prefent 
 refer, that every aft of coition produced a tranfient 
 chill in the brain, by which fome of the roots of the 
 hair were loofened ; fo that baldnefs was a mark ot 
 fterility acquired by cxceflive exertion. The figures 
 of Pan have nearlv the fame forms with that which 
 I have here fuppofed to rcprcfent inert matter ; only 
 that they are compounded with thofe of the Goat, 
 the fymbol of the Creative Pov/er, by which matter 
 was frudified and regulated. To this is fometimes 
 added the Organ of Generation, of an enormous 
 magnitude, to fign-ify the application of this power to ' 
 its nobleft end, the procreation of fenfitive and 
 rational beings. This compofition forms the com- 
 mon Priapus of the Roman Pocts, who was wor- 
 fhipped among the other perfonages of the Heathen 
 
 Mythology, 
 
E 72 J 
 
 Mythology, but underflcoci by few of his ancient 
 votaries any better than by the good Women of Iser- 
 NiA. His chara£leriftic Organ is fometimes repre- 
 fented by the artifts in that ftate of tendon and 
 rigidity, which it afTumes when about to difcharge 
 its fun(flions,* and at other times in that ftate of 
 tumid languor, which immediately fucceeds the per- 
 formance, f In the latter cafe he appears loaded with 
 the productions of Nature, the refult of thofe prolific 
 efforts, which in the former cafe he appeared fo v/ell 
 qualified to exert. I have in Plate V. given a Figure 
 of him in each fituation, one taken from a bronze 
 in the Royal Mufeum of Portici, and the other from 
 one in that of Charles Townley, Efq. It may be 
 obferved, that in the former the mufcles of the face 
 are all ftrained and contradled, fo that every nerve 
 fecms to be in a ftate of tenfion ; whereas in the 
 latter the features are all dilated and fallen, the chin 
 repofed on the breaft, and the whole figure expreillvr 
 of languor and fatigue. 
 
 If 
 
 * Plate V. Fig. i. from a bronze in tJie Mufeum at Portici. 
 
 -)• Plate V. Fig. a. from a bronze in the Mufeum of C. TownleYj Efq, 
 
t 73 ] 
 
 If the explanation which I have given of thefe 
 Androgynous figures be the true one, the Fauns and 
 Satyrs, which ufually accompany them, muft repre- 
 fent abftradl emanations, and not incarnations of the 
 Creative Spirit, as when in copulation with the Goat. 
 The Creator himfelf is frequently reprefented in a 
 human form ; and it is natural that his emanations 
 fliould partake of the fame, though without having 
 any thing really human in their compofition. It 
 feems however to have been the opinion in fome 
 parts of Asia, that the Creator was really of a human 
 form. The Jewifli Legiflator fays exprcflly, that God 
 made Man in his own image, and, prior to the crea- 
 tion of Woman, created him male and female ^^ as 
 he himfelf confequently was.f Hence an ingenious 
 Author has fuppofed that thefe Androgynous figures 
 reprefented the firft individuals of the human race, 
 who, poflefling the organs of both fexes, produced 
 children of each. This feems to be the fenfe in 
 which they were reprefented by fome of the ancient 
 artifts : but I have never met with any trace of it in 
 any Greek author, except Philo the Jew ; nor have I 
 
 K ever 
 
 Genef. c. i. f Philo di Leg. Alleg. Lib. II. 
 
[ 74 ] 
 
 ever feen any monument of ancient art, in which the 
 Bacchus, or Creator in a human form, was repre- 
 fented with the generative organs of both fexes. In 
 the fymboh'cal images, the double nature is frequently 
 exprelTed by feme androgynous infedl:, fuch as the 
 Snail, which is endowed with the organs of both fexes, 
 and can copulate reciprocally with either : but when 
 the refinement of art adopted the Human Form, it 
 was reprefented by mixing the characters of the male 
 and female bodies in every part, preferving ftill the 
 diftindlive organs of the male. Hence Euripides calls 
 Bacchus ^nxv[A.o^(po;* and the Chorus of Bacchanals in the 
 fame Tragedy addrefs him by mafculine and feminine 
 epithets. fOviD alfo fays to him, 
 
 Tibij cum fine cornibus adftas. 
 
 Virgineum caput eft. J 
 
 alluding in the firfl line to his Taurine, and in the 
 fecond to his Androgynous figure. 
 
 The ancient Theologifts were, like the modern, 
 divided into feds ; but, as thefe never difturbed the 
 
 peace 
 
 * Bacch. V. 358. 
 
 •{• 11 BfOjM.t£, Bjoftif, IliSm y^^oMoi jveir* 7reTV»», V. 504, 
 
 X Metam, Lib. IV. V. i8» 
 
[ 75 ] 
 
 peace of focicly, they have been very little noticed. 
 I have followed what I conceive to be the true Orphic 
 fyftem, in the little analyfis which 1 have here endea- 
 voured to give. This was probably the true Catholic 
 Faith, though it differs confiderably from another 
 ancient fyflcm, defcribcd by Aristophanes ; * which 
 is more poetical, but lefs philofophical. According 
 to this, Chaos, Night, Erebus, and Tartarus, were 
 the primitive beings. Night, in the infinite bread of 
 Erebus, brought forth an Egg, from which fprung 
 Love, who mixed all things together; and from thence 
 fprung the Heaven, the Ocean, the Earth, and the 
 Gods. This fyftem is alluded to by the epithet noym;, 
 applied to the Creator in one of the Orphic Litanies :f 
 but this could never have been a part of the orthodox 
 faith; for the Creator is ufually reprefented as breaking 
 the Egg of Chaos, and therefore could not have 
 fprung from it. In the confufed medley of allegories 
 and traditions contained in the Theogony attributed 
 to Hesiod, Love is placed after Chaos and the Earth, 
 but anterior to every thing clfe. Thefe differences are 
 net to be wondered at ; for Aristophanes, fuppoiing 
 that he underftood the true fyftem, could not with 
 
 K 2 fafety 
 
 * Ofw^. V, 6()2. t Hymn. V. 
 
 ^ 
 
[ 76 ] 
 
 fafety have revealed it, or even mentioned it any other- 
 wife than under the ufual garb of fidion and allegory ; 
 and as for the Author of the Theogony, it is evident, 
 from the ftrange jumble of incoherent fables which 
 he has put together, that he knew very little of it. 
 The fyftem alluded to in the Orphic verfes quoted in 
 the Argonautics^ is in all probability the true one ; 
 for it is not only confident in all its parts, but contains 
 a phyfical truth, which the greatefl: of the modern 
 difcoveries has only confirmed and explained. The 
 others feem to have been only poetical corruptions of 
 it, which, extending by degrees, produced that un- 
 wieldy fyftem of poetical Mythology, which confti- 
 tuted the vulgar religion of Greece. 
 
 The Fauns and Satyrs, which accompany the An- 
 drogynous figures on the ancient fculptures, are ufually 
 reprefented as miniftering to the Creator by exerting 
 their chara^leriftic attributes upon them, as well as 
 upon the Nymphs, the pafllve agents of procreation ; 
 but what has puzzled the learned in thefe monuments, 
 and feems a contradidion to the general fyftem of 
 ancient religion, is that many of thefe groupes are in 
 attitudes which are rather adapted to the gratification 
 of difordered, and unnatural appetites, than to extend 
 
 procreation. 
 
[ n ] 
 
 procreation. But a learned Author, who has thrown 
 infinite light upon thefe fubjedis, has effectually 
 cleared them from this fufpicion, by fhowing that 
 they only took the moft convenient way to get at the 
 Female Organs of Generation, in thofe mixed beings 
 who pofTeffed both.* This is confirmed by Lucre- 
 tius, who afferts, that this attitude is better adapted 
 to the purpofes of generation than any other. -t* We 
 may therefore conclude, that inftead of reprefenting 
 them in the adl of gratifying any diforderly appetites, 
 the artifts meant to fhow their modefty in not in- 
 dulging their concupifcence, but in doing their duty 
 in the way beft adapted to anfwer the ends propofed 
 by the Creator. 
 
 On the Greek medals, where the Cow is the fym- 
 bol of the Deity, fhe is frequently reprefented licking 
 a Calf, which is flicking her.| This is probably 
 meant to fhow that the Creative Power cherifhes and 
 nourifhes, as well as generates; for, as all quadrupeds 
 
 lick 
 
 * Recherchcs fur les ylrts, Liv. I. c. 3. 
 
 t Lib. IV. V. I 260. 
 
 % See Plate IV. Fig. 3. from a medal of Dvrr.ackiuMj belonging 
 
 to me. 
 
r 7S ] 
 
 ]ick their young, to rcfrefii and invigorate them im- 
 mediately after birth, it is natural to fuppofe, accord- 
 ing to the general fyPtcm of fymbolical writing, that 
 this adion fhould be taken as ,an emblem of the 
 cffed it was thought to produce. On other medals 
 the EuU or Cow is reprefented licking itfelf ;* 
 which, upon the fame principle, muft reprefent the 
 ftrength of the Deity refreflied and invigorated by the 
 exertion of its own nutritive and plaftic power upon 
 its own being. On others again is a human head of 
 an Androgynous charader, like that of the Bacchus 
 Aipivi;, with the tongue extended over the lower lip, as 
 if to lick fomething.f This was probably the fame 
 fymbol, expreffed in a lefs explicit manner ; it being 
 the common practice of the Greek Artifts to make 
 a part of a compolition fignify the whole, of which 
 I fhall foon have occaiion to give fome inconteftable 
 examples. On a Parian medal publifhed by Goltzius, 
 the Bull licking himfelf is reprefented on one fide, 
 
 accompanied 
 
 * See Plate X. Fig. 2. from one of Gortyna in the Hunter 
 Colleftion ; and Plate III. Fig. 4. from one of Parium, belonging 
 to me. 
 
 t See Plate III. Fig. 4. and Plate X. Fig. 3. from Pellerin. 
 
{ 79 ] 
 
 accompanied by the afterifc of the Sun, and on the 
 other, the head with the tongue extended, having Ser- 
 pents, the emblems of life, for hair.* The fame 
 medal is in my Collcdion, except that the ferpents 
 are not attached to the head, but placed by it as 
 diftindt fymbols, and that the animal licking itfelf is 
 a female accompanied by the initial of the word o.-o,-, 
 inftead of the afterifc of the Sun. Antiquarians have 
 called this head a Medusa ; but, had they examined it 
 attentively on any well-preferved coin, they would 
 have found that the expreflion of the features means 
 luft, and not rage or horror. -f- The cafe is, that 
 Antiquarians have been continually led into error, 
 by feeking for explanations of the devices on the 
 Greek medals in the wild and capricious ftories of 
 Ovid's Metamorphofes, inftead ot examinin^r the ftrft 
 principles of ancient religion contained in the Orphic 
 Fragments, the writings of Plutarch, Macrobius, 
 and ApuLEius, and the Choral Odes of the Greek 
 Tragedies. Thefe principles were the lubjecfts of the 
 ancient myfteries, and it is to thefe that the fymbok. 
 
 on 
 
 * GoLTZ. Injul. Tab. XIX. Fig. 8. 
 t See Plate III. Fig. 4. 
 
[ 8o ] 
 
 on the medals always relate; for they were the public 
 ads of the States, and therefore contain the fenfe of 
 nations, and not the caprices of individuals. 
 
 As M. D'Hancarville found a complete repre- 
 fentation of the Bull breaking the Egg of Chaos in 
 the fculptures of the Japonefe, when only a part of 
 it appears on the Greek monuments ; fo we may find 
 in a curious Oriental fragment, lately brought from 
 the facred Caverns of Elephanta, near Bombay, a 
 complete reprefentation of the fymbol fo a^nigmatically 
 expreffed by the head above mentioned. Thefe Ca- 
 verns are ancient places of worfliip, hewn in the folid 
 rock with immenfe labour and difficulty. That from 
 which the fragment in queftion was brought, is 130 
 feet long by no wide, adorned with columns and 
 fculptures finifhed in a ftyle very different from that 
 of the Indian Artifts.* It is now negleded ; but 
 others of the fame kind are ftill ufed as places of 
 worfhip by the Hindoos, who can give no account 
 of the antiquity of them, which muft neceffarily be 
 very remote, for the Hindoos are a very ancient 
 
 people ; 
 
 * Archaol. Vol. VIII. p. 289. 
 
Fi<r.- 1. 
 o 
 
 I'latt 
 
 *s^^-.ij 
 
 Mg.2. 
 
 Fig. 4 
 
 J^-g-3. 
 
[ 8i ] 
 
 and yet the fculptures reprefent a race of men very 
 unlike them, or any of the prefent inhabitants of 
 India. A fpecimen of thefe was brought from the 
 Ifland of Elephanta, in the Cumberland man of 
 v/ar, and now belongs to the Mufeum of Mr. 
 TowNLEY. It contains feveral figures, in very high 
 relief ; the principal of which are a Man and Woman, 
 in an attitude which I fliall not venture to defcribe, 
 but only obferve, that the adion, which I have fup- 
 pofcd to be a fymbol of refrefhment and invigoration, 
 is mutually applied by both to their refpeclive Organs 
 of Generation,* the emblems of the adive and 
 paflive powers of procreation, which mutually cherifli 
 and invigorate each other. 
 
 The Hindoos ftill reprefent the creative powers of 
 the Deity by thefe ancient fymbols, the male and 
 female Organs of Generation ; and worfhip them with 
 the fame pious reverence as the Greeks and Egyptians 
 did.'f' Like them too they have buried the original 
 principles of their Theology under a mafs of poeticaj 
 Mythology, fo that ftw of them can give any more 
 
 L perfect 
 
 * See Plate X. Fig. i. 
 t SoNNERAT, Voyage aux Indes, T. I. p. i 80. 
 
[ 3-2 I 
 
 perfeel account of their faith, than that they mean 
 to worfhip one Fir ft Caufe, to whom the fubordinat-e. 
 Deities are merely agents, or more properly perfoni-^ 
 lied modes of action.* This is the docflrine incul- 
 cated, and very fully explained in the Bagvat Geeta ; 
 a moral and metaphysical work lately tranflated from 
 the Shanfcrit language, and faid to have been written 
 upwards of four thoufand years ago. Kreshna, or 
 the Deity become incarnate in the fhape of man, in= 
 order to inftrudl all mankind, is introduced, reveal- 
 ing to his difcipies the fundamental principles of true 
 faith, religion, and wifdom ; which are the exadr 
 counterpart of the fyftem of Emanations, fo beauti- 
 fully defcribed in the lines of Virg.il before cited. 
 We here find, though in a more myflic garb, the 
 fame one principle of life univerfally emanated and 
 expanded, and ever partially returning to be again 
 abforbed in the infinite abyfs of intelledlual being. 
 This reabforption, which is throughout recom- 
 mended as the ultimate end of human perfedlion, 
 can only be obtained by a life of inward meditation 
 and abftrad thought, too fteady to be interrupted by^ 
 
 any 
 
 NiEBUHR, Voyages, Vol, II. p. 17. 
 
[ 83 ] 
 
 any worldly incidents, or diflurbed by any tranfitory 
 affedlions, whether of mind or body. But as fuch a 
 life is not in the power of any but a Brahman, infe- 
 rior rewards, confining of gradual advancements 
 during the tranfmigrations of the foul, arc held out 
 to the foldier, the hufbandman, and mechanic, ac- 
 cordingly as they fulfill the duties of their feveral 
 ftations. Even thofe who ferve other Gods, are not 
 excluded from the benefits awarded to every moral 
 virtue ; for, as the divine Teacher fays, If they do 
 it nvith a jinn beliefs in fo doing they ijivolujitarily 
 worJJjip eve?! me. I am he isoho partaketh of all 
 'Vi-'orJJjipy and I a?n their reward.* This univerfal 
 Deity, being the caufe of all motion, is alike the 
 caufe of Creation, Prefervation, and Deftrudion ; 
 which three attributes are all expreffed in the myftic 
 fyllable 07n. To repeat this in filence, with firm 
 devotion, and immoveable attention, is the fureft 
 means of perfedlionj'f" and confequent reabforption, 
 fince it leads to the contemplation of the Deity, in 
 his three great charaderifiic attributes. 
 
 L 2 The 
 
 Bagvat Geeta, p. 8i. f Ibid. p. 74. 
 
[ 84 ] 
 
 The firfl and greateft of thefe, the creative or 
 generative attribute, feems to have been originally 
 reprefented hy the union of the male and female 
 Organs of Generation, which, under the title of 
 the Lingam, ftill occupies the central and moft in- 
 terior receffes of their temples or pagodas ; and is 
 alfo worn, attached to bracelets, round their necks 
 and arms.* In a little portable Temple brought from 
 the RoHiLLA country during the late war, and now 
 in the Britifh Mufeum, this compoiition appears 
 mounted on a pedeftal, in the midft of a fquare area, 
 funk in a block of white alabafter,-!" Round the 
 pedeftal is a Serpent, the emblem of life, with his 
 head refted upon his tail, to denote eternity, or the 
 conftant return of time upon itfelf, whilft it flows 
 through perpetual duration, in regular revolutions,, 
 and ftated periods. From under the body of the 
 ferpent fprings the Lotus or Water Lily, the Ne- 
 lum.bo of LiNN^us, which overfpreads the whole 
 of the area not occupied by the figures at the 
 corners. This plant grows in the water, and, 
 
 amongft 
 
 SoNNERAT, Voyage aux IndeSy Liv. II. p, 180. Planche LI¥. 
 t See Plate XL ^ 
 

 F,g-2 
 
 P/nteYV. 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 yWv/i.. \'rri/r7i_ ^<yM/uHJ: 
 
[ S5 ] 
 
 amongft its broad leaves, puts forth a flower, in the 
 centre of which is formed the feed-veffel, fhaped 
 like a bell or inverted cone, and pun(5liiated on the 
 top with little cavities or cells, in which the feeds 
 grow.* The orifices of thefe cells being too fmall to 
 let the feeds drop out when ripe, they fhoot forth 
 into new plants, in the places where they were 
 formed j the bulb of the veflel ferving as a matrice 
 to nourifli them, until they acquire fuch a degree of 
 magnitude as to burft it open, and releafe themfelves; 
 after which, like other aquatic weeds, they take 
 root wherever the current depofits them. This 
 plant therefore, being thus produd:ive of itfelf, 
 and vegetating from its own matrice, without being 
 foftered in the earth, was naturally adopted as the 
 fymbol of the productive power of the waters, upon 
 which the adive fpirit of the Creator operated in 
 giving life and vegetation to matter. We accordingly 
 find it employed in every part of the northern he- 
 mifphere, where the Symbolical Religion, improperly 
 called Idolatry, does or ever did prevail. The 
 facred images of the Tartars, Japonefe, and Indians, 
 
 are 
 
 * See Plate XV. Fig. 5. 
 
[ B6 ] 
 
 are almofl: all placed upon it ; of which numerous 
 inftances occur in the publications of K^mpfer, 
 Chappe D'Auteroche, and Sonnerat. The upper 
 part of the bafe of the Lingam alfo confifts of this 
 flower, blended and compofed with the female 
 Organ of Generation, which it fupports : and the 
 ancient author of the Bagvai Geeta fpeaks of the 
 Creator Brahma, as fitting upon his Lotus throne.* 
 The figures of Isis upon the Ifiac table, hold the 
 ftem of this plant, furmounted by the .feed-veffel in 
 one hand, and the crofs,f repreftnting the male 
 Organs of Generation, in the other ; thus flgnifying 
 the univerfal power, both adive and pailive, attri- 
 buted to that Goddefs. On the fame Iliac table is 
 alfo the reprefentation of an Egyptian temple, the 
 columns of which are exactly like the plant which 
 Is IS holds in her hand, except that the flem is 
 made larger, in order to give it that ftability which 
 is neceffary to fiipport a roof and entablature.]: 
 Columns and capitals of the fame kind are ftill 
 exifting, in great numbers, among the ruins of 
 
 Thebes, 
 
 * P. 91. t See Plate XV. Fig. 3. from Pignorius. 
 
 J See Plate XV. Fig. i. from Pignorius. 
 
[ 8/ ] 
 
 Thebes, in Egypt ; and more particularly upon 
 thofe very curious ones in the Ifland of PniLiE, on 
 the borders of Ethiopia, which are, probably, the 
 moft ancient monuments of art now extant; at leaft, 
 if we except the neighbouring temples of Thebes. 
 Both were certainly built when that city was the 
 feat of wealth and empire, which it was, even to a 
 proverb, during the Trojan war.* How long it had 
 then been fo, we can form no conjefture ; but that 
 it foon after declined, there can be little doubt ; for, 
 when the Greeks, in the reign of Psammeticus, 
 (generally computed to have been about 530 years 
 after the Siege of Troy) firft became perfonally ac- 
 quainted with the interior parts of that country, 
 Memphis had been for many ages its capital, and 
 Thebes was in a manner deferted. Homer makes 
 Achilles fpeak of its immenfe wealth and grandeur, 
 as a matter generally known and acknowledged ; 
 fo that it mufl: have been of long eflabliflied fame, 
 even in that remote age. We may therefore fairly 
 conclude, that the greateft part of the fuperb edi- 
 fices now remaining, were executed, or at leaft 
 
 begun, 
 
 HoM. Iliad, t. Ver.381. 
 
[ 88 ] 
 
 begun, before that time ; many of them being fuch 
 as could not have been finifhed, but in a long term 
 of years, even if we fuppofe the wealth and power 
 of the ancient Kings of Egypt to have equalled that 
 of the greateft of the Roman Emperors. The finifh- 
 ing of TrajAn's column, in three years, has been 
 juftly thought a very extraordinary effort ; for there 
 muft have been, at leaft, three hundred good 
 fculptors employed upon it : and yet, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Thebes, we find whole temples of 
 enormous magnitude, covered with figures carved 
 in the hard and brittle granite of the Libyan moun- 
 tains, inftead of the foft marbles of Paros and 
 Carrara. Travellers, who have vifited that coun- 
 try, have given us but imperfect accounts of the 
 manner in which they are finished ; but, if one may 
 judge by thofe upon the Obelifc of Rameses, now 
 lying in fragments at Rome, they are infinitely more 
 laboured than thofe of Trajan's Column. An eminent 
 Sculptor, with whom I examined that Obelifc, was 
 decidedly of opinion, that they muft have been finifhed 
 in the manner of Gems, with a graving tool ; it appear- 
 ing impoflible for a chifel to cut red granite with fo 
 much neatnefs and precifion. The age of Rameses is 
 uncertain ; but the generality of modern Chronologers 
 
 fuppofe 
 
[ 89 ] 
 
 fuppofe that he was the fame perfon as Sesostris, and 
 reigned at Thebes about 1500 years before the Chrif- 
 tian /Era, and about 300 before the Siege of Troy. 
 Their dates arc however merely conjedtural, when 
 applied to events of this remote antiquity. The Egyp- 
 tian Priefts of the Auguftan Age had a tradition, 
 which they pretended to confirm by records, written 
 in Hieroglyphics, that their Country had once poffeft 
 the dominion of all Asia and Ethiopia, v/hich their 
 King Ramses, or Rameses. had conquered** Though 
 this account may be exaggerated, there can be no 
 doubt, from the buildings ftill remaining, but that 
 they were once at the head of a great Empire ; for 
 all hiftorians agree that they abhorred navigation, 
 had no fea-porr, and never enjoyed the benefits of 
 foreign commerce, without which, PIgypt could have 
 no means of acquiring a fufficient quantity of fuper- 
 fluous wealth to ercd: fuch expenfive monuments, 
 unlefs from tributary provinces; cfpecially if all the 
 lower part of it was an uncultivated bog, as Hero- 
 dotus, with great appearance of probability, tells us 
 it anciently was. Yet Homer, who appears to have 
 
 M known 
 
 Tacit. 4nn. I ,ib. II. c. 60, 
 
[ 90 ] 
 
 known all that could be known in his age, and 
 tranfmitted to pofterity all he knew, fecms to have 
 heard nothing of their empire or conquefts. Thefe 
 were obliterated and forgotten by the rife of new Em- 
 pires ; but the renown of their ancient wealth ftill 
 continued, and aftorded a familiar objeft of coni- 
 parifon, as that of the Mogul does at this day, though 
 he is become one of the poorefl: Sovereigns in the 
 world. 
 
 But far as thefe Egyptian remains lead us into un- 
 known ages, the fymbols they contain appear not to 
 have been invented in that country, but to have been 
 copied from thofe of fome other people, ftill anterior, 
 who dwelt on the other fide of the Ervthrsan Ocean. 
 One of the moft obvious of them is the hooded Snake, 
 which is a reptile peculiar to the fouth-eaftcrn parts 
 of Asia, but which I found reprefented, with great 
 accuracy, upon the obelifc of Rameses, and have 
 alfo obferved frequently repeated on the Iliac Table, 
 and other fymbolical works of the Egyptians. It 
 is alfo diftinguifhable among the Sculptures in the 
 Sacred Caverns of the Ifland of Elephanta ;* and 
 
 appears 
 
 • NiEBUHR, Voyage^ Vol. II» 
 
[ 91 ] 
 
 appears frequently added, as a charadlerlftic rymbol, 
 to many of the Idols of the modern Hindoos, whofe 
 abfurd tales concerning its meaning are related at 
 length by M. Sonnerat ; but they arc not worth 
 repeating. Probably we fhould be able to trace the 
 connexion through many more inftances, could we 
 obtain accurate drawings of the ruins of Upper 
 Egypt. 
 
 By comparing the Columns which the Egyptians 
 formed in imitation of the Nelumbo Plant, with 
 each other, and obferving their different modes of 
 decorating them, we may difcover the origin of that 
 order of architedure which the Greeks called Co- 
 rinthian, from the place of its fuppofed invention. 
 We firft find the plain Bell, or Seed-veffel, ufed as 
 a Capital, without any further alteration than being 
 a little expanded at bottom, to give it ftability.* In 
 the next inftance, the fame Secd-vefTel is furrounded 
 by the leaves of fomc other Plant ;i' which is varied 
 
 M 2 in 
 
 * See Plate XV. Fig. S. from Ngrden. 
 t See Plate XV. Fig. 9. from Nor den. 
 
[ 92 ] 
 
 in different Capitals according to the different 
 meanings intended to be expreffed by thefe additional 
 fymbols. I he Greeks decorated it in the fame 
 manner, with the leaves of the Acanthus, and other 
 forts of foliage ; vvhilft various other fymbols of their 
 religion were introduced as ornaments on the en- 
 tablature, inftead of being carved upon the walls 
 of the cell, or fliafts of the columns. One of thefe, 
 which occurs moft frequently, is that which the 
 Architedls call the Honey-fuckle, hut which, as 
 Sir Joseph Banks (to whom I am indebted for all 
 that I have faid concerning the Lotus) clearly fliewed 
 me, muft be meant for the young fhoots of this 
 Plant, viewed horizontally, juft when they have 
 burft the Seed-veffel, and are upon the point of fall- 
 ing out of it. The ornament is varioully compofed 
 on different buildings ; it being the pra(ftice of the 
 Greeks to make vegetable, as well as animal monfters, 
 by combining different fymbolical Plants together, 
 and blending them into one ; whence they are often 
 extremely difficult to be difcovered. But the fpe- 
 cimen I have given, is fo ftrongly charad:erifed, that 
 it cannot eafily be miftaken.* It appears on many 
 
 Greek 
 
 * Plate XV. Fig. 4. from the Ionian Antiquities. Ch, II. PI, xii. 
 
r 93 J 
 
 Greek medals with the animal fymbols, and per- 
 fonificd attributes of the Deity ; which firft led me 
 to imagine that it was not a mere ornament, but 
 had fome myftic meaning, as almoft every decora- 
 tion employed upon their facred edifices indifputably 
 had. 
 
 The fquare area, over which the Lotus is fpread, 
 in the Indian monument before mentioned, was oc- 
 cafionally floated with water ; which, by means 
 of a forcing machine, was firft thrown in a fpout 
 upon the Li?igam. The pouring of water upon the 
 facred fymbols, is a mode of worfliip very much 
 pradifed by the Hindoos, particularly in their de- 
 votions to the Bull and the hiiigain. Its meaning 
 has been already explained, in the inflance of the 
 Greek figure of Pan, reprefented in the a6f of pay- 
 ing the fame kind of worfhip to the fymbol of his 
 own procreative power.* The areas of the Greek 
 temples were, in like manner, in fome inftances, 
 floated with water ; of which I fliall foon give an 
 example. We alfo find, not unfrequently, little 
 
 portable 
 
 * Sec Plate V. Fig. i. 
 
[ 94 ] 
 
 portable temples, nearly of the fame form, and 
 of Greek vvorkmanfhip ; the areas of which were 
 equally floated by means oi a fountain in the mid- 
 dle, and which, by the figures in relief that adorn 
 the fides, appear evidently to have been dedicated 
 to the fame worfliip of Priapus, or the Lingam* 
 The fquare area is likewife imprefied upon many 
 ancient Greek medals, fometimes divided into four, 
 and fometimes into a greater number of compart- 
 ments. f Antiquarians have fuppofed this to be 
 merely the impreflion of fomething put under the 
 coin, to make it receive the ftroke of the die more 
 fteadily ; but, befides that it is very ill adapted to 
 this purpofe, we find many coins which appear, 
 evidently, to have received the firoke of the 
 hammer (for ftriking with a balance is of late datej 
 on the fide marked with this fquare. But what 
 puts the queftion out of all doubt, is, that im- 
 preflions of exadly the fame kind are found upon 
 
 the 
 
 * See Plate XII. Fig. 1 2. from one in the Colledion of Mr. 
 Town LEY. 
 
 -j- See Plate XII. Fig. i. from one of Selinus, and Fig. 3. from 
 one of Syracuse, belonging to me. 
 
I-cg./. 
 
 F,g 4. 
 
 7%/, 
 
[ 95 ] 
 
 the little Talifmans, or myflic partes, taken out of 
 the Egyptian Mummies, which have no impreflion 
 whatever on the reverfe.* On a little brafs medal of 
 Syracuse, we alfo find the afterifc of the Sun placed 
 in the centre of the fquare, in the fame manner as 
 the Lingam is on the Indian monument. -f- Why 
 this quadrangular form was adopted, in preference 
 to any other, we have no means of difcovering, 
 from any known Greek or Egyptian fculptures ; but 
 from this little Indian temple, we find that the four 
 corners were adapted to four of the fubordinate 
 Deities, or perfonified modes of adtion of the great 
 univerfal Generator, reprefented by the fymbol in- 
 the middle, to which the others are reprefented as 
 paying their adorations, with gefiures of humility 
 and refpedl.:}: 
 
 What is the precife meaning of thefe four fym- 
 bolical figures, it is fcarcely pofliblc for us to dif- 
 
 cover, 
 
 * See Plate XII. Fig. 2. from one in the CoUedlion of Mr, ■ 
 
 TOWNLEY. 
 
 f See Plate XII. Fig. 3. The medal is extremely com.mcn, and 
 the quadrangular impreflion is obiervable upon a great number of the 
 more ancient Greek medals, generally with fome fymbol of the Deity 
 inthecentre. See thofe of Athens, Lyttus, Maronea, &c. 
 
 X See Plate XI. ., 
 
[ 96 ] 
 
 cover, from the Tmall fragments of the myflic learn- 
 ing of the ancients, which are now extant. That 
 they were however intended as perfonified attributes, 
 we can have no doubt ; for we are taught by the 
 venerable authority of the Bagvat Geeta, that all the 
 fubordinate Deities were fuch, or elfe canonifed Men, 
 which thefe figures evidently are not. As for the 
 mythological tales now current in India , they 
 throw the fame degree of light upon the fubje6t, 
 as Ovid's M"tamorphofcs do on the ancient Theology 
 of Greece ; that is, juft enough to bewilder and 
 perplex thofe who give up their attention to it. 
 The ancient Author before cited is deferving of more 
 credit ; but he has faid very little upon the fym- 
 bolical vvorfliip. His work, neverthelcfs, clearly 
 proves that its principles were precifely the fame as 
 thofe of the Greeks and Egyptians, among whofe 
 remains of art or literature, we may, perhaps, find 
 fome probable analogies to aid conjedlure. The 
 Elephant is, however, a new fymbol in the weft ; 
 the Greeks never having feen one of thofe animals 
 before the expedition of Alexander,* although the 
 
 ufe 
 
 * Pausan. Lib. I. c. 12. 
 
[ 97 ] 
 
 life of ivory was familiar among them even in the 
 days of Homer. Upon this Indian monument the 
 head of the Elephant is placed upon the body of a 
 Man uath four hands, two of which are held up as 
 prepared to ftrike with the inftruments they hold, 
 and the other two pointed down as in adoration of 
 the Lingam. This figure is called Gonnis and Pol- 
 LEAR by the modern Hindoos j but neither of thefe 
 names is to be found in the Geeta^ where the Deity 
 only fays, that the learned behold hwi alike in the 
 reverejjd Brahman perfeSled in knowledge^ i?i the Ox, 
 and in the Elepha?it. What peculiar attributes the 
 Elephant was meant to exprefs, the ancient Writer hafe 
 not told us ; but, as the charadleriftic properties of 
 this animal are ftrength and fagacity, we may con- 
 clude that his image was intended to reprefent ideas 
 fomewhat fimilar to thofe which the Greeks repre- 
 fented by that of Minerva, who was worfhipped as 
 the Goddefs of Force and Wifdom, of War and 
 Counfel. The Indian Gonnis is indeed male, and 
 Minerva female; but this diflerence of fexes, how-, 
 ever important it may be in phyfical, is of very little 
 confequence in metaphyfical beings, Minerva being, 
 like the other Greek deities, either male, or female, 
 
 N or 
 
[ 98 ] 
 
 both.* On the Medals of the Ptolemies, under 
 whom the Indian fymbols became familiar to the 
 Greeks through the commerce of Alexandria, we 
 find her repeatedly reprefented with the Elephant's 
 fkin upon her head, inftead of a helmet j and with a 
 countenance between male and female, fuch as the 
 artift would naturally give her, when he endeavoured 
 to blend the Greek and Indian fymbols, and mould 
 them into one.-f Minerva is faid by the Greek 
 Mythologifts to have been born without a Mother, 
 from the head of Jupiter, who was delivered of her 
 by the afTiftance of Vulcan. This, in plain lan- 
 guage, means no more than that fhe was a pure 
 emanation of the Divine Mind, operating by means 
 of the univcrfal agent Fire^ and not, like others of 
 the allegorical perfonages, fprung from any of the 
 particular operations of the Deity upon external 
 matter. Hence fhe is faid to be next in dignity to 
 her Father, and to be endowed with all his attri- 
 butes;:}: for, as wifdom is the moft exalted quality of 
 
 the 
 
 * Afo-fu >t«» .S-ijXt? ££pw?. Orph. £k A3-;iv, 
 
 ■f See Plate XII. Fig. 5. engraved from one belonging to me. 
 :j; HoR. Lib. I. Od. 12. CALtiMACH. ei? AS-»jv. 
 
I 99 ] 
 
 the mind, and the Divine Mind the perfedion of 
 vvifdom, all its attributes are the attributes of Wif- 
 dom, under whofe direclion its power is always 
 exerted. Strength and Wifdom therefore, when 
 conlidered as attributes of the Deity, are in fdS: 
 one and the fame. The Greek Minerva is ufually 
 reprefented with the fpear uplifted in her hand, in 
 the fame manner as the Indian Gonnis holds the 
 battle-axe.* Both are given to denote the deftroying 
 power equally belonging to Divine Wifdom, as the 
 creative or preferving. The flatue of Jupiter at 
 Labranda in Caria held in his hand the battle-axe-, 
 inftead of thunder ; and on the medals of Tenedos 
 and Thyatira, we find it reprefented alone as the 
 fymbol of the Deity, in the fame manner as the 
 thunder is upon a great variety of other medals. / am 
 the thunderbolt^ fays the Deity in the Bagvat Geeta;f 
 and when we find this fuppofed engine of Divine 
 vengeance upon the medals, we muft not imagine 
 that it is meant for the weapon of the Supreme God, 
 but for the fymbol of his deftroying attribute. 
 
 What 
 
 * See Plate XII. Fig. ii. from a medal of Seleucus I, belonging 
 to me. 
 
 t P. 86. 
 
[ 100 ] 
 
 what inflriiment the Gonnis holds in his other hand, 
 is not eafily 'afcertained, it being a little injured by 
 the carriage. In one of thofe pointed downwards 
 he holds the Lotus flower, to denote that he has the 
 direction of the pafliv^e powers of production ; and in 
 the other, a golden Ring or Difc, which, I fhall foori 
 fhew, was the fymbol by which many nations of the 
 Eafl: reprefented the Sun. His head is drawn into 
 a conical, or pyramidal form, and furrounded by an 
 ornament which evidently reprefents Flames ; the 
 Indians, as well as the Greeks, looking upon fire aa 
 the eflence of all adive power ; whence perpetual 
 lamps are kept burning in the Holy of Holies of all 
 the great Pagodas in India, as they were anciently in 
 the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, and many others 
 both Greek and Barbarian ;* and the incarnate God 
 in the Ba<rvat Geeta fays, I am the Fire rejiding in the 
 bodies of all things which have Ufe.-f Upon the fore- 
 head of the GoNNis is a crefcent reprefenting the 
 the Moon, whofe power over the waters of the Ocean 
 caufed htr to be regarded as the fovereign of the 
 
 great 
 
 ♦ See Plut, de Orac. defe^. 
 
[ lOI ] 
 
 great nutritive Element, and whofe nnild rays, being 
 accompanied by the refrefhing dews, and cooling 
 breezes of the night, made her naturally appear to 
 the inhabitants of hot countries as the comforter and 
 reftorer of the earth. / a^n the Moon (fays the Deity 
 in the Bagvat Gceta) lohofe nature it is to give the 
 quality of tajle and reliJJj^ oftd to cherijh the herbs and 
 plants of the field.* The light of the Sun, Moon and 
 Fire, were however all but one, and equally emana- 
 tions of the Supreme Being. Know^ fays the Deity 
 in the fame ancient dialogue, that the light which pro- 
 ceedeth from, the Sun ^ and iiluminateth the worlds and 
 the light which is in the Moo?t^ and i7t the Fire^ are 
 mine. I pervade all things i7i Nature^ and guard 
 them with my bea7ns.\ In the figure now under con- 
 fideration a kind of pre-eminence feems to be given 
 to the Moon over the Sun; proceeding probably from, 
 the Hindoos not poffeiling the true Solar Syftem, 
 which muft however have been known to the people 
 from whom they learnt to calculate eclipfes, whick. 
 they ftill continue to do, though upon principles not 
 underflood by themfelves. They now place the 
 
 earth 
 
 ^ P..113. t Ibid. 
 
[ 102 ] 
 
 earth in the centre of the univerfe, as the later Greeks 
 did, among whom we alfo find the fame preference 
 given to the Lunar fymbol; Jupiter being reprefented, 
 on a medal of Antiochus VIII. with the Crefcent upon 
 his head, and the aflerifc of the Sun in his hand.* 
 In a paiTage of the Bagvat Geeta ah-eadj cited wc 
 find the Elephant and Bull mentioned together as 
 fymbols of the fame kind ; and on a medal of Seleu- 
 cus NicATOR we find them united by the horns of 
 the one being placed on the head of the other. f 
 The later Greeks alfo fometimes employed the Ele- 
 phant as the univerfal fymbol of the Deity ; in which 
 fenfe he is reprefented on a medal of Antiochus VI. 
 bearing the Torch, the emblem of the univerfal agent 
 Fire, in his probofcis, and the Cornucopia, the refult 
 of its exertion, in his tail.:}: 
 
 On another corner of the little Indian Pagoda, is 
 a figure with four heads, all of the fame pointed 
 
 form 
 
 * Plate XII. Fig. lo. from one belonging to me. 
 
 t See Plate XII. Fig. 9. and Gesner, Num. Reg. Syr. Tab. VIII. 
 Fig. 23. 
 
 X See Plate XII. Fig. 8. and Gesner, Num. Reg. Syr. Tab. VIII. 
 Fig. I. 
 
[ 103 ] 
 
 form as that of the Gonnis. This I take to reprcfciit 
 Brahma, to whom the Hindoos attribute four 
 mouths, and fay that with them he didated the 
 four Beads, or Veads, the myftic volumes of their 
 religion.* The four Heads are turned different 
 ways, but exaftly refemble each other. The Beards 
 have been painted black, and are fharp and pointed, 
 like thofe of Goats, which the Greeks gave to Pan, 
 and his fubordinate emanations, the Fauns and 
 Satyrs. Hence I am inclined to believe, that the 
 Brahma of the Indians is the fame as the Pan of 
 the Greeks ; that is, the Creative Spirit of the 
 Deity transfufcd through matter, and ading in the 
 four elements reprefented by the four heads. The 
 Indians indeed admit of a fifth element, as the 
 Greeks did likewife ; but this is never claffed with 
 the reft, being of an setheriaj, and more exalted 
 nature, and belonging peculiarly to the Deity. 
 Sojne call it Heaven^ fame Light ^ and fo7m JEther^ 
 fays Plutarch. t The Hindoos now call it Occus^ 
 by which they feem to mean pure setherial Light 
 or Fire. 
 
 This 
 * Bagvaf Geeia, l<lote ^i . f ErApiid D£lph,. 
 
[ i°4 1 
 
 This mode of reprefenting the allegorical per- 
 fonages of Religion with many heads and limbs to 
 exprefs their various attributes, and exteniive opera- 
 tion, is now univerfal in the EafI:,* and feems 
 anciently not to have been unknown to the Greeks, 
 at leaft if we may judge by the epithets ufed by 
 Pindar and other early Poets. -f- The union of two 
 fymbolical heads is common among the fpecimcns of 
 their art now extant, as may be feen upon the medals 
 of Syracuse, Marseilles, and many other cities. 
 Upon a gem of this fort in the collecflion of Mr. 
 TowNLEY, the fame ideas which are expreffed on the 
 Indian pagoda by the diflincl figures Brahma and 
 GoNNis, arc expreffed by the united heads of Ammon 
 and Minerva. Ammon, as before obferved, was the 
 Pan of the Greeks, and Minerva is here evidently the 
 fame as the Gonnis, being reprefented after the 
 Indian manner, with the elephant's fkin on her 
 head, inftead of an helmet. $ Both thefe heads appear 
 feparate upon different medals of the Ptolemies, § 
 
 under 
 
 * See K/EMPFER, Chappe d'Auteroche, Sonnerat, &c. 
 '^ Such as iKKTo'yy.cfpa.Xo;, £xxrovT»y.x^Kvoi, iKxroy^tt^oi, &C. 
 X See Plate XII. Fig. 7. 
 § See Plate XII. Fig. 5 and 6. 
 
[ 105 ] 
 
 under one of whom this gem was probably engraved, 
 Alexandria having been for a long time the great 
 centre of religions, as well as of trade and fcience. 
 
 Next to the figure of Brahma on the Pagoda is 
 t-Iic Cow of Plenty, or the female emblem of the 
 generative or nutritive power of the Iiarth ; and at 
 the other corner, next to the Gonnis, is the figure 
 of a Woman with a head of the fame conic or pyra- 
 midal form, and upon the front of it a flame of Fire, 
 from which hangs a Crefcent.* This feems to be the 
 female perfonification of the Divine Attributes repre- 
 fented by the Gonnis or Pollear ; for the Hindoos, 
 like the Greeks, worfhip the Deity under both fexes, 
 though they do not attempt to unite both in one 
 figure. / af?i the Father and the Mother of the ivorld^ 
 fays the incarnate God in the Bagvat Geeta.f JJinongfi 
 cattle^ adds he in a fubfequent part, / am the Cow 
 Kamadhook. I am the prolific YLAyniAvt.?, the God of 
 Love. X Thefe two fentences, by being placed together, 
 fcem to imply fome relation between this God of Love^- 
 and the Cow Kamadhook ; and, were we to read the 
 
 O word s 
 
 See Plate XI. | P. 80. % P. 86. 
 
r ^06 ] 
 
 words witliout punctuation, as they arc in all ancient 
 orthography, we £hould think the Author placed the 
 God of Love amongfl: the Cattle ; which he would 
 naturally do, if it were the cuftom of his religion to 
 reprefent him by an animal fymbol. Among the 
 Egyptians, as before obferved, the Cow was the fym- 
 bol of Venus, the Goddefs of Love, and pafTive gene- 
 rative power of Nature. On the capitals of one of 
 the temples of Phil^ we ftill find the heads of this 
 Goddefs reprefented of a mixed form ; the horns and 
 ears of the Cow being joined to the beautiful features 
 of a Woman in the prime of life ;* fuch as the Greeks 
 attributed to that Venus, whom they worfhipped as 
 the Mother of the prolific God of Love, Cupid, who 
 was the perfonification of animal defire or concu- 
 pifcence, as the Orphic Love, the Father of Gods 
 and Men, was of univerfal attraction. The Greeks, 
 who reprefented the Mother under the form of a 
 beautiful Woman, naturally reprefented the Son under 
 the form of a beautiful Boy ; but a people who 
 reprefented the Mother under the form of a Cow, 
 would as naturally reprefent the Son under the form 
 
 of 
 
 * See Plate XV. Fig, 10. 
 
[ 10/ ] 
 
 of a Calf. This feems to be the cafe with the Hin- 
 doos, as well as with the Egyptians ; wherefore 
 Kandarp may be very properly placed among the 
 Cattle. 
 
 By following this analogy we may come to the 
 true meaning of a much-celebrated objed: of devo- 
 tion, recorded by another ancient Writer, of a more 
 venerable charadler. When the Ifraelites grew cla- 
 morous on account of the abfence of Moses, and 
 called upon Aaron to make them a God to go 
 before them, he fet up a golden Calf ; to which the 
 people facriiiced, and feafted ; and then rofe up (as 
 the Tranflator fays) to play : but in the original the 
 term is more fpecific, and means, in its plain dire<St 
 fenfe, that particular fort of play which requires 
 the concurrence of both fexes,* and which was 
 therefore a very proper conclufion of a facrifice to 
 Cupid, though highly difpleafing to the God who had 
 brought them out of Egypt. The Egyptian Mytho- 
 logifts, who appear to have invented this fecondary 
 Deity of Love, were probably the inventors likewife 
 
 O 3 of 
 
 * Exod, C. 32. 
 
[ io8 ] 
 
 of a Tecondary Priapus, who was the ptrfoniiication 
 of that particular generative faculty, which fprings 
 from animal defire, as the primary Priapus was of the 
 great generative principle of the Univerfe. Hence, in 
 the allegories of the Poets, this Deity is faid to be a fon 
 of Bacchus and Venus ; that is, the refult of the active 
 and paflive generative powers of Nature. The ftory of 
 his being the fon of a Grecian Conqueror, and born at 
 Lampsac_us, feems to be a corruption of this allegory.. 
 
 Of all the nations of antiquity the Ptrfians were 
 the mofl fimple and direft in the worfhip of the 
 Creator. They were the Puritans of the Heathen 
 World, and not only rejedred all images of God or 
 his Agents, but alfo temples and altars, according 
 to Hex'^odotus,* whofe authority I prefer to any 
 other, becaufe he had an opportunity of converfing 
 with them before they had adopted any foreign fuper- 
 ftitions.'f' As they worfhipped the aetherial Fire 
 without any medium of perfonification or allegory, 
 
 they 
 
 * Lib. I. 
 
 ■)■ Hyde, Anguettl, and other modern Writers, have given us the 
 operofe fuperftitions of the prefent Parfees for the fimple theifm of the 
 ancient Perfians^, 
 
[ 109 ] 
 
 they thought it unworthy of the dignity of the God, 
 to be reprefented by any definite form, or circum- 
 fcribed to any particular place. The Univerfe was 
 his temple, and the all-pervading element of Fire his 
 only fvmbol. The Greeks appear originally to have 
 held fimilar opinions ; for they were long without 
 ftatues;* and Pausanias fpeaks ofa Temple at Sicyon, 
 built by ADRASTUSji- who lived an age before the 
 Trojan war; which confifted of columns only, without 
 wall or roof, like the Celtic temples of our Northern 
 Anceftors, or the Pyraetheia of the Perfians, which 
 were circles of fliones, in the centre of which was 
 kindled the fiicred FirCjJ the fymbol of the God. 
 Homer frequently fpeaks of places of worfliip confifl:- 
 ing of an area and altar only, {niA-ao; Sc^i^ogn) which were 
 probably inclofiires like thefe of the Perfians, with an 
 altar in the centre. The temples dedicated to the 
 Creator Bacchus, which the Greek Architects ca led 
 hypcethi'al^ feem to have been anciently of the fame 
 kind ; whence probably came the title Trefmov.o; (fur- 
 
 7'ounded 
 
 * Pausan. Lib. VII. and IX. 
 
 t Lib. II. 
 
 X Strab. Lib. XV., 
 
[ uo ] 
 
 rounded ivith colu-mns) attributed to that God in 
 the Orphic Litanies.* The remains of one of thefe 
 are ftill extant at Puzzuoli near Naples, which the 
 inhabitants call the Temple of Serapis : but the orna- 
 ments of Grapes, Vafes, &c. found among the ruins, 
 prove it to have been of Bacchus. Serapis was indeed 
 the fame Deity vvorfhipped under another form, being 
 equally a perfonification of the Sun.-f- The archi- 
 tedure is of the Roman times ; but the ground plan 
 is probably that of a very ancient one, which this was 
 made to replace ; for it exadtly refembles that of a 
 Celtic temple in Zeeland, publifhed in Stukf.ley's 
 Itt7ierary.X The ranges of fquare buildings which 
 inclofe it are not properly parts of the temple, but 
 apartments of the Priefts, places for vidims and facred . 
 utenlils ; and chapels dedicated to fubordinate Deities 
 introduced by a more complicated and corrupt wor- 
 fhip, and probably unknown to the founders of the ori- 
 ginal edilice.§ The portico, which runs parallel with 
 thefe buildings, II inclofed the Temenos^ or area of 
 
 facred 
 
 * Hymn. 46. 
 
 j- DiODOR. Sic. Lib. I. Macrob. Sat. Lib. I. C. 20. 
 
 X See Plate XlII. Fig. i and 2, and Plate XII. Fig. 4. 
 
 § Plate XIII. Fig. 2. a— a. 
 
 11 Plate XIII. Fig. 2. b—b. 
 
^ 
 
 ;$0 i 
 
 \ 
 
 <x 
 
 > 
 
 •> 
 
 '^ 
 
 ~1 
 
 — \ 
 
3ti-^v^^\m'^^'.rr 
 
[ III ] 
 
 facred ground, which in the Pynetheia of the Per- 
 fians was circular, but is here quadrangular, as in 
 the Celtic Temple in Ze eland, and the Indian Pa- 
 o-oda before defcribed. In the centre was the Holy 
 of Holies, the Seat of the God, confifting of a circle 
 of columns raifed upon a bafement, without roof or 
 walls, in the middle of which was probably the facred 
 Fire, or fome other fymbol of the Deity.* The 
 fquare area in which it flood, was funk below the 
 natural level of the ground, f and, like that of the 
 little Indian Pagoda, appears to have been occa- 
 lionally floated with water, the drains and conduits 
 being ftill to be feen,| as alfo feveral fragments of 
 fculpturereprefenting waves, ferpents, and various 
 aquatic animals, which once adorned the bafement. § 
 The Bacchus ^s^wiov.cj here worfhipped, was, as we 
 learn from the Orphic Hymn above cited, the Sun 
 in his charader of Extinguifher of the Fires which 
 once pervaded the Earth. This he was fuppofed to 
 
 have 
 
 * See Plate XIII. Fig. i. «, and Fig. i,c. 
 \ See Plate XIII. Fig. i. b—b, 
 X See Plate XIII. Fig. i. c—c, 
 § See Plate XIV. Fig. 2.. 
 
[ 112 ] 
 
 have done by exhaling the waters of the Ocean, and 
 Scattering them over the land, which was thus fiip- 
 pofed to have acquired its proper temperature and 
 fertility. For this reafon the Sacred Fire, the effen-. 
 tial image of the God, was furrounded by the element 
 which was principally employed in giving efFcd: to 
 the beneficial exertions of his great attribute. 
 
 Thefe Orphic Temples were, without doubt, em- 
 blems of that fundamental principle of the myftic 
 faith of the Ancients, the Solar Syftem ; Fire, the 
 eflence of the Deity, occupying the place of the 
 Sun, and the columns furrounding it as the fubor- 
 dinate parts of the Univerfe. Remains of the wor- 
 £hip of Fire continued among the Greeks even to the 
 laft, as appears from the Sacred Fires kept in the 
 interior apartment, or Holy of Holies, of almoft all 
 their temples, and places of worfliip : and, though 
 the Ammonian Platonics, the laft profeflbrs of the 
 ancient religion, endeavoured to conceive fomething 
 beyond the reach of fenfe and perception, as the 
 efience of their Supreme God ; yet, when they wanted 
 to illuftrate and explain the modes of adlion of this 
 .metaphyfical Abftradion, who was more fubtile than 
 
 Intelligence 
 
[ 113 ] 
 
 Intelligence itfelf, they do it by images and compa- 
 rifons of Light and Fire.* 
 
 From a pafTage of Hecat^eus, preferved by Diodo- 
 Rus SicuLus, I think it is evident that Stonehengr, 
 and all the other monuments of the fame kind found 
 in the North, belonged to the fame religion, which 
 appears, at fome remote period, to have prevailed 
 over the whole Northern Hemifphere. According to 
 that ancient Hiftorian, the Hyperbof^eans i?ihabited an 
 Ijland beyo?id Gaul, as large as Sicily, 171 ivhick 
 Apollo was worJJjipped in a cii'cular Temple conjtdera- 
 hie for its Jize and riches. -^ Apollo, we know, in the 
 language of the Greeks of that age, can mean no other 
 than the Sun, which, according to C^sar, was wor- 
 fhippcd by the Germans, when they knew of no 
 other Deities except Fire and the Moon.:|: The Ifland 
 I think can be no other than Britain, which at that 
 time was only known ro the Greeks by the vague 
 
 P reports 
 
 * See Proclus /;/ 'Thecl. Flaton. Lib. I, c. 19. 
 
 DioD. Sic. Lib. II. 
 
 + De B. Gal. Lib. VI. 
 
[ iH ] 
 
 reports of Phoenician Mariners, fo uncertain and ob- 
 fcure, that Herodotus, the rnoft inquifitive and 
 credulous of Hiftorians, doubts of its exiftence.* The 
 circular Temple of the Sun being noticed in fuch 
 flight and imperfed. accounts, proves that it mufi: have 
 been fomething lingular and important ; for, if it 
 had been an inconfiderable ftrudure, it would not 
 have been mentioned at all ; and, if there had been 
 many fuch in the country, the Hiflorian would not 
 have employed the fmgular number. Stonhenge has 
 certainly been a circular Temple, nearly the fame as 
 that already defcribed of the Bacchus -m^iy.iow; at 
 PuzzuoLi, except that in the latter the nice execution^ 
 and beautiful fymmetry of the parts, are in every 
 refpecl the reverfe of the rude but majeftic fimplicity 
 cf the former ; in the original defign they differ but 
 in the form of the Area.'j" It may therefore be rea- 
 
 fonably 
 
 * Lib. III. c. 15. 
 
 -)■ See Plate XIII. Fig. 2 and 3. I have preferred Webb's Plan of 
 Stonehenge to Stukeley's and Smith's, after comparing each with the 
 ruins now exifting. They differ materially only in the Cell, which 
 Webb fuppofes to have been a Hexagon, and Stukeley a Seftion of an 
 Ellipfis. The pofition of the Altar is merely conjedural ; wherefore I 
 
 have 
 
[ 1^5 ] 
 
 fonably fiippofcd, that we have Hill the ruins of the 
 identical Temple defcribed- by Hecat.susj who, 
 being an Afiatic Greek, might have received his 
 information from fome Phoenician Merchant, who 
 had vifiCed the interior parts of Britain when trading 
 there for Tin. Macrobius mentions a Temple of 
 the fame kind and form upon Mount Zilmissus in 
 Thrace, dedicated to the Sun under the title of Bac- 
 chus Sebazius.* The large Obelifcs of ftone found 
 in many parts of the North, fuch as thofe at Rud- 
 sT0NE,-f and near Burroughbridge in Yorkshire, + 
 belong to the fame religion ; obelifcs being, as Pliny 
 obferves, facred to the Sun, whofc rays they reprefented 
 both by their form and name.§ An ancient Medal 
 of Apollonia in Illyria, belonging to the Mufeum 
 of the late Dr. Hunter, has the head of Apollo 
 
 P 2 crowned 
 
 have omitted it ; and I much doubt whether either be right in their 
 Plans of the Cell, which feems, as in other Druidical Temples, to have 
 been meant for a Circle, but incorreftly executed. 
 
 * Sat. L.ib. I. c. \%. 
 
 ■}■ Archaologia, Vol.V. 
 
 X Now called the Devil's Arrows. See Stukeley's ///«. Vol. I. 
 Tab. 90. 
 
 § Hift. Nat. Lib. xxxvi. Sec. 14. 
 
[ ii6 ] 
 
 crowned with Laurel on one fide, and on the other 
 an Obelifc terminating in a crofs, the leaft explicit 
 teprefentation of the Male Organs of Generation.* 
 This has exaftly the appearance of one of thofe 
 croffes, which were ered:ed in church-yards and crofs 
 roads for the adoration of devout perfons, when devo- 
 tion was mere prevalent than at prefent. Many of 
 thefe were undoubtedly ere61;ed before the eftablifh- 
 ment of Chriftianity, and converted, together with 
 their Worfhippers, to the true Faith. Anciently they 
 reprefs^nted the generative power of Light, the 
 elTence of God ; Jor God is Lights a77d never but 171 
 tmapproached Light dwelt from Eternity^ fays Mil- 
 ton, who in this, as well as many other inftances, has 
 followed the Ammonian Platonics, who were both 
 the reftorers and corrupters of the ancient theology. 
 They reftored it from the mafs of poetical mytho- 
 logy, under which it was buried, but refined and 
 fublimated it with abftradl metaphyfics, which foared 
 as far above human reafon as the poetical mythology 
 funk below it. From the ancient Solar Obelifcs came 
 the Spires and Pinnacles with which our Churches 
 
 are 
 
 I Plate IX. Fig. 11. and Nummi Pop. &' Urb. Tab. X. Fig. 7^ 
 
[ "7 ] 
 
 ftill decorated, fo many ages after their myftic mean- 
 ing has been forgotten. Happily for the beauty of 
 thefe edifices, it was forgotten ; otherwife the Re- 
 formers of the laft century would have deftroyed 
 them, as they did the Crofles and Images ; for they 
 might with equal propriety have been pronounced 
 heathenifh and prophane. 
 
 As the Obelifc was the fymbol of Light, fo was^ 
 the Pyramid of Fire, deemed to be eflentially the 
 fame» The Egyptians, among whom thefe forms 
 are the mofl: frequent, held that there were two 
 oppofite powers in the world, perpetually ading con- 
 trary to each other ; the one creating, and the other 
 deftroying : the former they called Osiris, and the 
 latter Typhon.* By the contention of thefe two, 
 that mixture of good and evil, which, according to 
 fome verfes of Euripides quoted by Plutarch, -[♦ 
 eonftituted the harmony of the world, was fuppofed 
 to be produced. This opinion of the neceflary mix- 
 ture of good and evil was, according to Plutarch^ 
 
 of 
 
 * Plutarch, de If. 6f Of. 
 
 \ Delf.^ Of. p. 45.5. Ed.Reilkii.. 
 
[ ii8 ] 
 
 of immemorial antiquity, derived from the oldeft 
 'Jlieolo gifts and Legiflators, not only in traditions 
 and reports, but in myfteries and fl^crinccs, both 
 Greek and Barbarian.* Fire was the efficient prin- 
 ciple of both, and, according to fome of the Egyp- 
 tians, that astherial Fir? which concentred in the 
 Sun. This opinion Plutarch controverts, faying 
 that Typhon, the evil or deftroying power, was a 
 terreftrial or material Fire, effentially different from 
 the stherial. But Plutarch here argues from his own 
 prejudices, rather than from the evidence of the cafe ; 
 for he believed in an original evil Principle coeternal 
 with the good, and a<3;ing in perpetual oppofition to 
 it; an error into which men have been led by form- 
 ing falfe notions of good and evil, and conlidering 
 them as felf-exifting inherent properties, inftead of 
 accidental modifications, variable with every circum- 
 ftance with which caufes and events are connedled. 
 This error, though adopted by individuals, never 
 formed a part either- of the Theology or Mythology 
 of Greece. Homer, in the beautiful allegory of the 
 two Cafks, makes Jupiter, the Supreme God, the 
 
 diftributor 
 
 XBelf.l^ Of. Ed. Reifkii. 
 
[ 119 ] 
 
 (liftribiitor of both good and evil.* The name of 
 Jupiter, ^f^?, was originally one of the titles or epithets 
 of the Sun, fignifying, according to its etymology, 
 aweful or terrible\ ; in which fenfe it is ufed in the 
 Orphic Litanies. I Pan, the Univerfal Subftance, is 
 called the Horned Jupiter (Zsuf oxfsao-T-,;?); and in an 
 Orpliic fragment preferred by Macrobius§ the names 
 of Jupiter and Bacchus appear to be only titles of 
 the all-creating power of the Sun. 
 
 Ay\%i Xij, Aiovufl-f, TraTfa ttovtk, 'Trcx.rt^ «;»!>", 
 
 In another fragment preferved by the fame Author, |[ 
 the name of Pluto, aj«.:, is ufed as a title of the fame 
 Deity ; who appears therefore to have prelided over 
 the dead as well as over the living, and to have been 
 the Lord of deftrudion as well as creation and pre- 
 lervation. We accordingly find that in one of the 
 Orphic Litanies now extant he is expreffly called the 
 Giver of Life, and the Deftroyer.f 
 
 The 
 
 * //. «. V. 527. § S^(. Lib. I. c. 23. 
 
 j- Damm. Lex. Etymol. \ Sat. Lib. I. c. 8. 
 
 X Hymn. X. v. 13. f Hymn. kxii. Ed. Gejn. 
 
[ 120 j 
 
 The Egyptians reprefented Typhon, the dcflroying 
 Power, under the figure of the Hippopotamus or Ri- 
 ver-Horfe, the moft fierce and deflrudive animal they 
 knew j* and the Chorus in the Bacchcc of Euripides 
 invoke their infpirer Bacchus to appear under the 
 form of a Bull, a many-headed Serpent, or flaming 
 Lion \\ which fliews that the moft bloody and de- 
 flructive, as well as the moft ufeful of animals, was 
 employed by the Greeks to reprefent fome perfonified 
 attribute of the God. M. D'Hancarville has alfo 
 obferved, that the Lion is frequently employed by the 
 .ancient Artifts as a fymbol of the Sun \% and I am 
 inclined to believe, that it was to exprefs this deftroy- 
 ing Power, no lefs requifite to preferve the harmony 
 of the Univerfe than the generating. In moft of the 
 monuments of ancient art, where the Lion is repre- 
 fented, he appears with expreftions of rage and vio- 
 lence, and often in the a61: of killing and devouring 
 fome other animal. On an ancient Sarcophagus found 
 in Sicily he is reprefented devouring a Horfe,§ and 
 
 on 
 
 * Plutarch, de IJ.iS OJ. f V, 1015. 
 
 :|; Recherches fur les Jrts. See alfo Macros. Saf. I, c. 21. 
 
 § HouEL, Voyage de la Sidle. Plate xxxvi. 
 
[ l^^ ] 
 
 on the Medals of Velia in Italy, devouring a Deer.* 
 the former, as facred to Neptune, reprefented the 
 Sea; and the latter, as facred to Diana, the produce 
 of the Earth; for Diana was the fertility of the 
 Earth perfonified, and therefore is faid to have re- 
 ceived her Nymphs or produdive Minifters from the 
 Ocean, the fource of fecundity. -f- 'J'he Lion therefore, 
 in the former inftance, appears as a fymbol of the Sun 
 exhaling the v/aters ; and in the latter, as withering 
 and putrifying the produce of the Earth. On the 
 Frieze of the Temple of Apollo Didym^eus, near 
 Miletus, are Monfters compofed of the mixt forms 
 of the Goat and Lion, refting their fore feet upon the 
 Lyre of the God, which Hands between them.§ The 
 Goat, as I have already fhewn, reprefented the crea- 
 tive Attribute, and the Lyre, Harmony and Order ; 
 therefore, if we admit that the Lion reprefented the 
 deftroying Attribute, this compolition will fignify, 
 in the fymbolical language o^ fculpture, the har- 
 
 Q^ mony 
 
 * Plate XI. Fig, 2. engraved from one belonging to me. 
 
 ^ Callimach. Hymn, ad Dian. V. 13. Genitor Nympharim Oceanus, 
 Catullus in Gell. V. 84. 
 
 § Ionian Antiquities, Vol. I, c. 3. Plate IX. 
 
[ ^22 J 
 
 mony and order of the Univerfe preferved by the 
 regular and periodical operations of the creative and 
 defiructive Powers. This is a notion to which men 
 would be naturally led by obferving the common order 
 and progreffion cf things. The fame heat of the Sun, 
 which fcorched and withered the grafs in fummer, 
 ripened the fruits in autun:in, and cloathed the Earth 
 with verdure in the fpring. In one feafon it dried up 
 the waters from the Earth, and in another returned 
 them in rain. It caufed fermentation and putrefaclion, 
 which deftroy one generation of plants and animals, 
 and produce another in conflant and regular fucceiTion. 
 This contention between the powers of Creation and 
 Def!:rucT;ion is reprefented on an ancient Medal of 
 Acanthus, in the Mufeum of the late Dr. Hunter, 
 by a combat between the Bull and Lion.* The Bull 
 alone is reprefented on other medals in exadly the 
 fame attitude and gefture as when fighting with the 
 Lion ;f whence I conclude that the Lion is there 
 underflood. On the medals of Celenderis the 
 
 Goat 
 
 * Plate IX. Fig. i. ^ Nummi vet. Pop. & Urb. Table I. Fig. i6. 
 t Plate IX. Fig. 9. from one of Aspendus in the fame CoUedion, 
 See Nmnmi Vei. Pop, ^ Urb, Tab. VIII. Fig. 20, 
 
[ 123 ] 
 
 Goat appears inftead of the Bull in exactly the fame 
 attitude of ftruggle and contention, but without the 
 Lion ;* and in a curious one of very ancient but 
 excellent workmanfhip, belonging to me, the Ivy of 
 Bacchus is placed over the back of the Goat, to 
 denote the power which he reorefents.i- 
 
 The mutual operation, which was the refult of 
 this contention, was iignified, in the Mythological 
 tales of the Poets, by the Loves of Mars and Venus, 
 the one the adive power of Deftrudion, and the 
 other the pallive pov/er of Generation. From their 
 union is faid to have fprung the Goddefs Harmony^ 
 who v/as the phyfical order of the Univerfe perfoni- 
 £ed. The fable of Ceres and Proserpine is the 
 fame allegory inverted ; Ceres being the prolific 
 power of the Earth perfonified, and hence called by 
 the Greeks Mother Eiwth, (r-i or A/i-j^hitvio.) The Latin 
 name Ceres alfo fignifying Earth, the Roman C 
 being the fame originally both in figure and power 
 as the Greek r,+ which Homer often ufes as a mere 
 
 Q^ 2 guttural 
 
 * Numrai Vet. Pop. ^ Urb. Tab. XVI. Fig. 13. 
 
 t Plate IX. Fig. 10. 
 
 X See S. C. Marcian. and the Medals of Gela and Agrigentum. 
 
[ 124 ] 
 
 guttural afpirate, and adds it arbitrarily to his words 
 to make them more folemn and fonorous.* The 
 guttural afpirates and hiffing terminations more par- 
 ticularly belonged to the ^olic dialed:, from which 
 the Latin was derived ; wherefore we need not won- 
 der, that the fame word, which by the Dorians and 
 lonians was written Ef« and e^i, fhould by the ^olians 
 be written Ts^i; or Ceres, the Greeks always accom- 
 modating their orthography to their pronunciation. 
 In an ancient Bronze at Strawberry-Hill this God- 
 defs is reprefented fitting, with a Cup in one hand, 
 and various forts of Fruits in the other ; and the Bull, 
 the emblem of the power of the Creator, in her lap.-j- 
 This compofition fhews the fru6tiiication of the Earth 
 by the defcent of the creative Spirit in the fame man- 
 ner as defcribed by Virgil. 
 
 Vere tument terrse, & genitalia femina pofcunt ; 
 Turn Pater omnipotens foecundis imbribus jether 
 Conjugis in gremium Istas defcendit, & omnes 
 Magnus alit, magno commixtus corpore, fcetus.J 
 
 iEther and Water are here introduced by the Poet 
 as the two proliiic elements, which fertilize the 
 
 Earth, 
 
 * As in the word i^Jhtto;, ufually written by him e^ij/^K/rof. 
 t See Plate VIII. Fig. i. 
 J Gecrgic. Lib. II. V. 324. 
 
[ 125 ] 
 
 Earth, according to the ancient Syftem of the Orphic 
 Philofophy, upon which the Myftic Theology was 
 founded. Proserpine, or ni^(Tt'pomc,, the Daughter of 
 Ceres, was, as her Greek name indicates, the God- 
 defs of Deftru<flIon, in which character fhe is invoked 
 by Alth.ea In the ninth Iliad: but neverthelefs we 
 often find her on the Greek medals crowned with 
 Ears of Corn, as being the Goddefs of Fertility as 
 well as Deftruclion.* She is, in fa6l, a perfonifi- 
 cation of the Heat or Fire that pervades the Earth, 
 which is at once the caufe and effecft of fertility and 
 deftrudion, for it is at once the caufe and effedt offer- 
 mentation, from which both proceed. TheLiBiTiNA, 
 or Goddefs of Death, of the Romans, was the fame as 
 the Persiphoneia of the Greeks ; and yet, as Plu- 
 tarch obferves, the moft learned of that people 
 allowed her to be the fame as Venus, the Goddefs of 
 Generation.'}- 
 
 In the Gallery at Florence is a colofTal image of 
 the Organ of Generation, mounted on the back parts 
 
 of 
 
 * Plate IV. Fig. 5. from a Medal of AgathocleSj belonging to 
 me. The fame head is upon many othcrsj of SyracusEj Metapon-. 
 TUM, &c. 
 
 t In NuMA» . 
 
[ 126 ] 
 
 of a Lion, and hung round with various animals. By 
 this is reprcfcnted the co-operation of the creating 
 and deftroying Powers, which are both blended and 
 united in one figure, becaufe both are derived from 
 one caufe. The animals hung round fhew likewife, 
 that both ad to the fame purpofe, that of replenifii- 
 ing the Earth, and peopling it with ftill riling gene- 
 rations of fenlitive beings. The Chimcera of Homer, 
 of which the Commentators have given fo many 
 whimlical interpretations, was a fymbol of the lame 
 kind, w^hich the Poet, probably, having (cen in 
 Asia, and not knowing its meaning, (vi/'hich was only 
 revealed to the Initiated) fuppofed to be a monfter, 
 that had once infefted the country. He defcribes 
 it as compofed of the forms of the Goat, the Lwr.y 
 and the Serpeni; and breathing Fh^e from its mouth.* 
 Thefe are the fymbols of the Creator, the Dejlroyer, 
 and the Preferver, united and animated by Fire, 
 the divine efftnce of all T'hree.-^- On a Gem, pub- 
 lifhed in the Memoirs of the Academy of Cortona,:}; 
 
 this 
 
 * // C- V. 223. 
 
 f For the natural properties attributed by the Ancients to Fire, vfee 
 •Plutarch, in Camillo, Plin. Uift. Nat. Lib. xxxvi. c. 68. 
 
 % Vol. IV. p. 32. See alfo Plate V. Fig. 4. copied from it. 
 
[ 127 ] 
 
 this union of the deftroying and prcfervhig Attributes 
 is reprcfented by the united forms of the Lion and 
 Serpent crowned with rays, the emblems of the caufe 
 from which both proceed. This compofition forms 
 the Chnoubis of the Egyptians. 
 
 Bacchus is frequently reprefented by the ancient 
 Artiu?, accompanied by Tigers, which appear, in 
 fome inftances, devouring Clufters of Grapes, the 
 fruit peculiarly confecrated to the God, and in others 
 drinking the Liquor prefled from them. The Author 
 of the Rechzrches fur hs Arts has in this inftance fol- 
 lowed the common accounts of the Mythologifts, and 
 aiTerted that Tigers are really fond of grapes ;* which 
 is fo far from being true, that they are incapable of 
 feeding upon them, or upon any fruit whatever, being 
 both externally and internally formed to feed upon 
 flefh only, and to procure their food by dcftroying 
 other animals. Hence I am perfuaded, that in the 
 ancient fymbols, Tigers, as well as Lions, reprefent 
 the deftroying power of the God. Sometimes his Cha- 
 riot appears drawn by them ; and then they reprefent 
 
 the 
 
 Liv. I. c. 3. 
 
[ 138 ] 
 
 t!ie powers of Deflrudlion preceding the powers of 
 Generation, and extending their operation, as putre- 
 faction proceeds, and increafes vegetation. On a 
 Medal oFMaronea, publiflied by Gesner,* a Goat 
 is coupled with the Tiger in drawing his Chariot ; by 
 which compoiition the Artift has fhewn the general 
 aBive power of the Deity, condu^^ed by his two great 
 attributes of Creation and Deftrudlion. On the Cho- 
 ragic monument of Lysicrates at Athens, Bacchus 
 is reprefented feeding a Tiger ; which fhews the 
 adtive power of Generation, feeding and cheridiing the 
 active power of Deftrudtion.-f On a beautitul Cameo 
 in the colleflion of the Duke of Marlborough, the 
 Tiger is fucking the breaft of a Nympli ; which repre- 
 fents the fame power of Deftruiftion, nourifhed by the 
 paflive power of Generation, t In the Mufeum of 
 Charles Townley, Efq; is a groupe, in m.arble, of 
 .three figures ;§ the middle one of which grows out of 
 
 a Vine, 
 
 * Tab. XLIII. Fig. 26. 
 
 ■j- Stuart's Athens, Vol. I. c. 4. Plate X. 
 
 \ See Plate XVIII. engraved merely to fhew the compofition, it nor 
 "being permitted to make an exaft drawing of it. 
 
 § See Plate XIII. 
 
[ 129 ] 
 
 a Vine, in a human form, with leaves and clufters of 
 grapes fpringing out of its body. On one lidc is the 
 Bacchus Ji?5u»i?, or Creator of both fexes, known by the 
 effeminate mold of his limbs and countenance ; and on 
 the other, a Tiger, leaping up, and devouring the 
 grapes which fpring from the body of the perfonified 
 Vine, the hands of which are employed in receiving 
 another clufter from the Bacchus. This compofition 
 reprefents the Vine between the creating and deflroy- 
 ing attributes of God ; the one giving it fruit, and the 
 other devouring it when given. The Tiger has a gar- 
 land of Ivy round his neck, to fhew that the deftroyer 
 was co-eiTential with the Creator, of whom Ivy, as well 
 as all other Ever-greens, was an emblem reprefentincr 
 his perpetual youth and viridity.* 
 
 The mutual and alternate operation of the two 
 great attributes of Creation and Deftrudion, was not 
 confined by the ancients to plants and animals, and 
 fuch tranfitory productions, but extended to the uni- 
 verfe itfelf. Fire being the eflential caufe of both, 
 they believed that the conflagration and renovation 
 
 R of 
 
 * Strabo, Lib. XV. p. 712. 
 
[ 13° ] 
 
 of the world were periodical and regular, proceeding 
 from each other by the laws of its own conftitution,. 
 implanted in it by the Creator, who was alfo the 
 Deftroyer and Renovator ;* for, as Plato fays, all 
 things arife from one, and into one are all things 
 refolved.f It muft be obferved, that, when the an- 
 cients fpeak of creation and deftruftion, they mean 
 only formation and diffolutlon ; it being iiniverfally 
 allowed, through all fyftems of religion, or fedts of 
 philofophy, x\\2iX. notJoifig could come from nothings and 
 that no power whatever could annihilate that which really 
 exijled. The bold and magnificent idea of a crea- 
 tion from nothino; was referved for the more vio;o- 
 Fous faith, and more enlightened minds, of the mo- 
 derns, | who need feek no authority to confirm their 
 belief; for, as that which is felf-evident admits of 
 
 no 
 
 * Brucker, Hift. Crit. Philqf. Vol. I. part ii. lib. i. Plutarch, de 
 Tlacit. Philof. Lib. II. c. i8. Lucretius, Lib. V. ver. 92. Cic. 
 de Nat. Dear. Lib. II. 
 
 ■{• E^ ivo; rx Travra yevKrB'a.i, xca ti; t' aurov avaXvur^ai in Ph^D. The 
 
 fame Dogma is ftill more plainly inculcated of the ancient Indian Author 
 before cited, fee Bagvat Geeta, Left. ix. 
 
 j; The word in Genefts upon which it is founded, conveyed no fuch 
 fenfe to the ancients ; for the Seventy tranflated it jtroiwo-f, which fignifies. 
 farmed, or fapioned. 
 
[ ^31 1 
 
 no proof, fo that which is in itfeU impofiibb admit'i 
 of no refutation. 
 
 The fibJe of the Serpent Pytho being deftroycd 
 by Apollo, probably arofe from an emblematical 
 composition, in which that God was reprefented as 
 the deftroyer of Life, ot which the Serpent was a 
 lynibol. PlIxMy mentions a ftatiie oi him by Praxi- 
 teles, which was much celebrated in his time, 
 called Zxv^oycTuv (the Lizard-killer.*) The Lizard, being 
 fuppofj-d to live upon the dews and moifture of the 
 cardi, is employed as the fymbol of Humidity in 
 general ; fo that the God dclfroying it, fignifies the 
 fame as the Lion devouring the Horfe. The title 
 Apollo, I am inclined to believe, meant originally 
 the Deflroyer, as well as the Deliverer ; for, as the 
 ancients fuppofcd deflru^tion to be merely diiTo- 
 lution, the power which delivered the particles of 
 matter from the bonds of attraction, and broke 
 the SifTf^ov Trff.gfi^ii Ejwrof, was in faft the Deftroyer.-f- It 
 
 R 2 is. 
 
 * Hifl. Nat. Lib. xxxiv. c. 8. Many copies of it are ftill extant. 
 WiNKELMAN lias publilhcd one from a bronze of Cardinal Albani's. 
 Monum. Antichi inedit'i, PL XL. 
 
 t The verb Aufci, from which Apollo is derived, fignifies in Homer 
 both to free, and to diflblve or deftroy. II. «, ver. 20. II. /, ver. 25. 
 Macrobius derives the title from aweXAuji**, to dejlroy ; but this word 
 is derived from 7.w. Sat. Lib. I. c. 17. 
 
[ 132 ] 
 
 is, probably, Tor this reafon, that fudden death, 
 plagues, and epidemic difeafes, are faid by the Poets 
 to be fent by this God ; who is, at the fame time, 
 defcribed as the Author of Medicine, and all the arts 
 employed to preferve life. Thefe attributes are not 
 joined merely becaufe the deftroyer and preferver 
 were effentially the fame ; but becaufe difeafe necef- 
 farily precedes cure, and is the caufe of its being in- 
 vented. The God of Health is faid to be his fon, 
 becaufe the health and vigour of one being are fup- 
 ported by the decay and dilTolution of others which 
 are appropriated to its nourifhment. The Bow and 
 Arrows are given to him as fymbols of his charadle- 
 riftic attributes, as they are to Diana, who was the 
 female perfonification of the deftrudive, as well 
 as the produdive and preferving powers. Diana is 
 hence called the triple Hecate, and reprefented by 
 three female bodies joined together. Her attributes 
 were however worfhipped feparately ; and fome na- 
 tions revered her under one charadler, and others 
 under another. Diana of Ephesus was the pro- 
 dudlive and nutritive Power, as the many Breafts and 
 other fymbols on her ftatues imply ;* whilft b^'i^'^, 
 
 the 
 
 * HiERON, Comment, in PAUt, Epji, ad E^hef, 
 
[ 133 ] 
 
 the Tauric or Scythic Diana, appears to have been the 
 deftrudive, and therefore was appeafed with human 
 facrifices, and other bloody rites.* She is repre- 
 fented fonietimes (landing on the back of a Bu]l,f 
 and fometimes in a Chariot drawn by Bulls \% whence 
 fhe is called by the Poets T««f07roAa§ and Bomv ikxrti^x.\ Both 
 compoHtions fbew the paffive power of Nature, whe- 
 ther creative or deflrudlive, fuftained and guided by 
 the general adive power of the Creator, of which 
 the Sun was the centre, and the Bull the fymbol. 
 
 It was obferved by the ancients, that the deftruc- 
 tive power of the Sun was exerted moft by day, and 
 the creative by night : for it was in the former feafon 
 that he dried up the waters, withered the herbs, and 
 produced difeafe and putrefaction ; and in the latter, 
 that he returned the exhalations in dews, tempered 
 
 with 
 
 * Pausan. Lib. III. c. i6. 
 
 f See a medal of Augustus, publifiied by Spanheim. Not. in 
 Callim. Hymn, ad Dian. Ver. 113. 
 
 X Plate VI. from a bronze in the Mufeum of C. Townley, Efq. 
 § SoPHOcLis Ajax, Ver. 172. 
 
 II Nonni Dionys. L,ib. I. the title TaujoTroAo,- was fometimes given 
 to Apollo, Eustath. Schol. in Dionys, Tti^i-nym, Ver. 609. 
 
[ 134 ] 
 •with the genial heat which he had transfufl>d into the 
 atmofphere, to reftore and replenifh the wafte of 
 the day. Hence, when they perfonified the attri- 
 butes, they revered the one as the diurnal, and the 
 other as the ?ioBurnai Sun, and in their niyftic wor- 
 ihip, as Macroeius fay.,* called the former Apollo, 
 and the latter Dion ysius or Bacchus. The mytholo- 
 gical perfonages of Castor and Pollux, who lived 
 and died alternately, were allegories of the llime 
 dogma J hence the two Afterifcs, by which they are 
 diftinguiHied on the medals of Locri, Argos, and 
 jother Cities. 
 
 The Pceans, or war-fongs, xvliich the Greeks 
 chanted at the onfet of their battlc^jf were originally 
 fung to Apollo,!: who was called T^on ; and Ma- 
 CROBius tells us,§ that in Spa'n, the Sun was wor- 
 fliipped as Mars, the God of War and Deftrudion, 
 whofe flatue they adorned vi^ith Rays, like th.^t of 
 the Greek Apollo. On a Celtiberian or Runic me- 
 dal found in Spain, of barbarous workmanfliip, is 
 
 a head 
 
 * Sat. Lib. i. c. i8. ^ Homer. //. «. V. 472. 
 
 t Thucyd. Lib. VII. § Sat. Lib. I. c. 19. 
 
F^.a. 
 
 flateXIV. 
 
 Kg./.. 
 
 
 Ftz 2. 
 
[ 135 ] 
 
 a Read furrounded by Obelifcs or Rays, which I take 
 to be of this Deity.* The hairs appear ere6t, to- 
 imitate flames, as they do on many of the Greek 
 medals ; and on the reverfe is a bearded head, with 
 a fort of pyramidal cap on, exadily refembling that 
 by which the Romans conferred freedom on their 
 flaves, and which was therefore called the Cap of 
 Liberty. f On other Celtiberian medals is a figure 
 on horfcback, carrying a fpear in his hand, and having 
 the fame fort of cap on his head, with the word 
 Helman written under him,:}: in charaders which 
 are fomethinor between the old Runic, and Pelafgian : 
 but fo near to the latter, that they are eafily under- 
 ftood.§ This figure feems to be of the fame perfon 
 
 as 
 
 * Plate IX. Fig. 12. engraved from one belonging to me. I have 
 fihce been confirmed in th!s conjecture by obferving the charafters of 
 Mars and Apollo mixt on Greek coins. On a Mamertine one belong- 
 ing to me is a head with the youthful features and Laurel Crown of 
 Apollo J but the hair is fliort, and the infcription on the exergue denotes 
 it to be Mars. See Plate XIV. Fig. 3. 
 
 f It may be feen with the Dagger on the medals of Brutus. 
 
 J See Plate IX. Fig. 6. from one belonging to me. 
 
 § The firft is a mixture of the Runic Hag/e and Greek H. The 
 fecond is the Runic Laugur, which is alfo the old Greek A, as it appears 
 on the Vafe of the Calydonian Boar in the British Museum. The 
 other three differ little from the common Greek. 
 
[ 136 ] 
 
 as is reprefented by the head with the cap on the 
 preceding Medal, who can be no other than the Angel 
 or Minifter of the Deity of Deat-h, as the name 
 implies; for Hela, orHEL, was, among the Northern 
 nations, the Goddefs of Death,* in the fame manner 
 as Persiphoneia or Brimo was among the Greeks. 
 The fame figure appears on many ancient Britiili 
 medals, and alfo on thofe of fev^eral Greek Cities, 
 particularly thofe of Gela, which have the Taurine 
 Bacchus or Creator on the reverfe.i- The head 
 which I have fuppofed to be the Celtiberian Mars, 
 or deftrudlive power of the diurnal Sun, is beardlefs 
 like the Apollo of the Greeks, and, as far as can 
 be difcovered in fuch barbarous fculpture, has the 
 fame Androgynous features % We may therefore 
 reafonably fuppofe, that, like the Greeks, the Cel- 
 tiberians perfonified the deftrud:ive attribute under 
 the different genders, accordingly as they applied it 
 to the Sun, or fubordinate elements ; and then united 
 
 them, 
 
 * EddAj Fab. xvl. D'H an c arv illEj Recherches Jur les Arts, 
 Liv. II. c. I. 
 
 -j- See Plate IX. Fig. 8. from one belonging to me, 
 
 X See Plate IX. Fig. 2. 
 
t 137 ] 
 
 them, to fignify that both vv-crc effentially the iiime. 
 The Helman therefore, who was the fame as the 
 Moif«}'»)Tnf or AiaxTUj of thc Grceks, may with equal pro- 
 priety be called the Minifter of both^ or either. The 
 Spear in his hand is not to be confidered merely as 
 the implement of Deftrudion, but as the fymbol of 
 Power and Command, which it was in Greece and 
 Italy, as well as all over the North. Hence i^^mw io^t, 
 was io govern * and venire fub hajld^ — to be fold as a 
 Jlave. The ancient Celtes and Scythians paid divine 
 honours to the Sword, the Battle-axe, and the Spear; 
 the firft of which was the fymbol by which they 
 reprefented the Supreme God : hence to fwear by 
 the Edge of the Sword was the mod facred and invio- 
 lable of oaths, f Euripides alludes to this ancient 
 religion when he calls a fword o'f x.ov J.ipor j and ^schylus 
 fliewed clearly, that it once prevailed in Greece, 
 when he makes the Heroes of the Thebaid fwear by 
 the Point of the Spear (ojuyu«-i(?'«ip^»iv.)+ Homer fome- 
 times ufes the word oc^n; to fignify the God of War, 
 
 S and 
 
 * EuRiP. Hecuba. 
 
 ■j- Mallet, Introd. a I'HiJt. de Danemarc, c. 9. 
 
 X 'EtiIiii. im ©»)€<«. V. £25' 
 
[ 138 ] 
 
 and fometimes a Weapon : and we have fufficient 
 proof of this word's being of Celtic origin in its 
 affinity with our Northern word War\ for, if we 
 write it in the ancient manner, with the Pelafgian 
 F au^ or ^olian Digamma^ F«fi.- (Wares J^ it fcarcely 
 differs at all. 
 
 Behind the bearded Head, on the firft-mentioned 
 Cekiberian medal, is an inftrvmient like a pair of 
 Fire-tongs, or Blackfmith's Pincers ;* from which 
 it feems, that the perfonage here reprefented is 
 the fame as the 'Htpa.olof or Vulcan of the Greek 
 and Roman Mythology. The fame ideas are ex- 
 prefTed fomewhat more plainly on the medals of 
 ^sERNiA in Italy, which are executed with 
 all the refinement and elegance of Grecian art.'[" 
 On one fide is Apollo, the diurnal Sun, mounting 
 in his Chariot ; and on the other, a beardlefs Head, 
 with the fame Cap on, and the fame inftrument behind 
 it ; but with the youthful features, and elegant cha- 
 rafter of countenance, ufually attributed to Mercury, 
 who, as well as Vulcan, was the God of Art and 
 
 Mechanifm ; 
 
 * Plate IX. Fig. 12. 
 
 t See Plate IX. Fig, 15. from one belonging to me. 
 
[ 139 ] 
 
 Mechanifm ; and whofe peculiar office it alfo was, to 
 condud: the fouls of the deccafed to their eternal man- 
 fions ; from whence came the epithet A.axr:^^^ applied 
 to him by Homer. He was therefore, in this refped, 
 the fame as the Helman of the Celtes and Scythians, 
 who was fuppofed to condudl the fouls of all who 
 died a violent death (which alone was accounted truly 
 happy) to the Palace of Vai.hala.* It feems that the 
 attributes of the Deity, which the Greeks reprefented 
 by the mythological perfonages of Vulcan and Mer- 
 cury, were united in the Celtic mythology. C^sar 
 tells us, that the Germans worfhipped Vulcan, or 
 Fire, with the Sun and Moon ; and I iliali foon have 
 occafion to fhew, that the Greeks held Fire to be the 
 real condudor of the dead, and emancipator of the 
 foul. The ^fernians, bordering upon the Samnites, 
 a Celtic nation, might naturally be fuppofed to have 
 adopted the notions of their neighbours, or, what is 
 more probable, preferved the religion of their an- 
 ceftors more pure than the Hellenic Greeks. Hence 
 they reprefented Vulcan, who, from the infcription 
 on the exergue of their coins, appears to have been 
 
 S 2 their 
 
 Mallet, Hiji. de Dauemarc. Introd. c. 9. 
 
[ 140 J 
 
 their tutelar God, with the charailerlftic features of 
 Mercury, who was only a different perfonification of 
 the fame. Deity. 
 
 At Lycopolis in Egypt, the deftroying power of 
 the Sun was reprefented by a Wolf; which, as 
 Macrobius fays, was worfhipped there as Apollo.* 
 The Wolf appears devouring Grapes in the ornaments 
 of the temple of Bacchus Trs^ixiono^ at Puzzuoli ;'^ and 
 on the medils of Garth a he is furrounded with 
 Rays; which plainly proves that he is there meant as a 
 fymbol of the Sun. J He is alfo reprefented on moft 
 of the coins of Argos,§ where I have already fhewn 
 that the diurnal Sun Apollo, the light-extending 
 God, was peculiarly worfhipped. We may therefore 
 conclude, that this animal is meant for one of the 
 myftic fymbols of the primitive worfliip ; and not, 
 as fome Antiquarians have fuppofed, to commemo- 
 rate the mythological tales of Danaus or Lycaon, 
 which were probably invented, like many others of 
 
 the 
 
 * Sat. Lib. I. c. 17. t Plate XIV. Fig. i. 
 
 j: Plate IX. Fig. 18, from one belonging to nne. 
 § Plate IX. Fig. 4.. from one belonging to me. . 
 
[ HI ] 
 
 the fame kind, to fatisfy the inquifitive ignorance of 
 the vulgar, from whom the meaning of the myftic 
 fymbols, the ufual devices on the medals, was 
 ftridlly concealed. In the. Celtic Mythology, the 
 fame fymbol was employed, apparently in the fame 
 fenfe ; Lok, the great deftroying Power of the uni- 
 verfe, being reprefented under the form of a Wolf.* 
 
 The Apollo Did^m^us, or double Apollo^ was 
 probably the two perfonifications, that of the de~ 
 Jlroying^ and that of the creating power, united * 
 whence we may perceive the reafon why the orna- 
 ments before defcribed fhould be upon his temple. -f 
 On the medals of Antigonus, King of Asiv\, is a 
 figure, with his hair hanging in artificial ringlets over 
 his fhoulders, like that of a woman ; and the whole 
 compofition, both of his limbs and countenance, re- 
 markable for extreme delicacy, and feminine ele- 
 gance.:!: He is fitting on the prow of a fhip, as God 
 of the. Waters J and we fhould, without hefitation, 
 
 pronounce 
 
 * Mallet, In trod, a I'HiJt. de Danemarc, 
 
 t See Ionian Antiq. Vol. I. c. 2- PI. IX. 
 
 % See Plate IX. Fig. i6. from one belonging to me^^ Similar 
 figures are on the coins of moftof the SELEuciDiE, 
 
[ 14^ ] 
 
 pronounce him to be the Bacchus Si(pw, were it not 
 for the Bow that he carries in his hand, which evi- 
 ently fhews him to be Apollo. This I take to be the 
 figure under which the refinement of art (and more 
 was never fliewn than in this Medal) reprefented the 
 Apollo Dydym^us, or union of the creative and 
 deftruftive powers of both fexes in one body. 
 
 As Fire was the primary effence of the active or 
 male powers of Creation and Generation, fo was 
 Water of the paflive or female. Appian fays, that 
 the Goddcfs worfhipped at Hierapolis in Syria was 
 calhd by fotne Venus, by others Juno, ajid by others 
 held to be the caufe which produced the beginning a^id 
 feeds of things from humidity* Plutarch defcribes 
 her nearly in the fame words j-f- and the Author of the 
 Treatife attributed to Lucian J fays, fje was Nature, 
 the Parent of things, or the Creatrefs. She was there- 
 fore the fame as Isis, who was the prolific material, 
 upon which both the creative and deftrudive Attri- 
 butes operated. § As Water was her terreftrial effence, 
 fo was the Moon her celeftial image, whofe attradive 
 
 power, 
 
 * Ih Bella Parthico, % Be Dea Syria. 
 
 t In Crajfo. § Plutarch, de If.^Qf. 
 
[ ^^2 ] 
 
 power, heaving the waters of the Ocean, naturally 
 led men to affociate them. The Moon was alfo fup- 
 pofed to return the dews which the Sun exhaled 
 from the Earth ; and hence her warmth was reckoned 
 to be moiftening, as that of the Sun was drying.* 
 The Egyptians called her the Mother of the World, 
 becaufe fhe fowed and fcattered into the air the pro- 
 lific principles, with which fhe had been impregnated 
 by the Sun.-f- Thefe principles, as well as the light 
 by which flie was illumined, being fuppofed to ema- 
 nate from the great fountain of all life and motion, 
 partook of the nature of the being from which they 
 were derived. Hence the Egyptians attributed to the 
 Moon, as well as to the Sun, the active and paflive 
 powers of Generation, :{: which were both, to ufe the 
 language of the Scholaflics, ejfejitially the fame, 
 x\iovi^ for jn ally different. This union is reprefented 
 on a medal of Demetrius the fecond Kino- of 
 Syria, § v/here the Goddefs of Hierapolis appears 
 
 with 
 
 * Calor Solis arefacit, Lumris hume5lat. Macros. Sat.Wl. c. lo, 
 
 t Plutarch, de If. &' Of. 
 
 X Ibid. 
 
 § Plate IX. Fig. 14. from Haym TeJ, Brit. p. 70. 
 
■[ 144 ] 
 
 with the Male Organs of Generation flicking out of 
 her robe, and holding the Thyrfus of Bacchus , the 
 emblem of Fire, in one hand, and the terredrial 
 Globe, reprefenting the fubordinate elements, in the 
 other. Her head is crowned with various plants, and 
 on each fide is an Afcerifc reprefenting (probably) 
 the diurnal and nofturnal Sun, in the fame manner 
 as when placed over the caps of Castor and Pol- 
 lux.* This is not the form under which flie was 
 reprefented in the Temple at Hierapolis, when the 
 Author of the account attributed to Lucian vifited 
 ;it ; which is not to be wondered at, for the figures 
 s of this univerfal Goddefs, being merely emblematical, 
 were compofed according to the attributes which the 
 Artifls meant particularly to exprefs. She is probably 
 reprefented here in the form under which fhe was 
 worfhipped in the neighbourhood of Cyzicus, where 
 fhe was called AfTsju.^ n^iaTriv),, the Priapic Diana, f In 
 the Temple at Hierapolis the adive powers imparted 
 to her by the Creator were reprefented by immenfe 
 images of the Male Organs of Generation placed on 
 each fide of the door. The-meafures of thefe muft 
 
 necefTarily 
 
 * See Plate IX. Fig. 4. f Plutarch, in Lucullo. 
 
[ H5 ] 
 
 neceffarily be corrupt in the prefent text of Lucian 5 
 but that they were of an enormous fize, we may con- 
 clude from what is related of a Man's going to the 
 top of one of them every year, and residing there 
 feven days, in order to have a more intimate commu- 
 nication with the Deity, while praying for the pro- 
 fpeiity of Syria.* AxHENiEus relates, that Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus had one of 120 cubits long, carried in 
 procelllon at Alexandria, f of which the Poet might 
 juftly have faid 
 
 horrendum protendit Mehtula contum 
 
 Quanta qiieat vaftos Thetidis fpumantis hiatus ; 
 
 Quanta queat prifcamque Rheam, magnamque Parentem 
 
 Naturam, iblidis naturam implere medullis. 
 
 Si foret immenfos, quot ad aflra volantia currunt, 
 
 Conceptura globos, & tela trilulca Tonantis, 
 
 Et vaga concuITum motura tonitrua mundum. 
 
 -to" 
 
 This was the real meaning of the enormous figures 
 at Hierapolis : — they were the Generative Organs of 
 the Creator perfonified, with v/hich he was fuppofed 
 to have impregnated the Heavens, the Earth, and 
 the Waters. Within the Temple were many fmail 
 *ftatues of Men with thefe Organs difproportionably 
 
 T larse. 
 
 LvciAN. de Dea Syria. f Deipnof. Lib. 
 
[ 146 ] 
 
 large. Thefe were the Angels or attenc^ants of the 
 Goddefs, who a6led as her Minifters of Creation in 
 peopling and fructifying the Earth. The ftatue of 
 the Goddefs herfclf was in the Sanftuary of the Tem- 
 ple; and near it was the ftatue of the Creator, whom 
 the Author calls Jupiter, as he does the Goddefs, 
 Juno ; by which he only means that they were the 
 Supreme Deities of the country where worfhipped. 
 She was borne by Lions, and He by Bulls, to fhew 
 that Nature, the paflive productive Power of matter, 
 was fuftained by anterior deftru6lion, whilft the 
 ^cherial Spirit, or a6tive productive Power, was 
 fuftained by his own ftrength only, of which the 
 Bulls were fymbols.* Between both was a third 
 Figure, with a Dove on his head, v/hich fome 
 thought to be Bacchus. f This was the Holy Spi- 
 rit, the firft-begotten Love, or plaftic Nature, (of 
 which the Dove was the image, when it really 
 deigned to defcend upon Man|) proceeding from, 
 
 and 
 
 * The atUve and fajfive Powers of Creation are called Male and 
 Female by the Anamonian Platonics. See Proclus in Theol. Platon. 
 Lib. I. c. 28. 
 
 •j- LuciAN. de Dea Syrid. 
 X Matth. c. iii, ver. 17. 
 
[ H7 ] 
 
 and confubftantial with Both ; for all Tljree were 
 but perfonifications of One. The Dove, or feme 
 Fowl like it, appears on the medals of Gortyna in 
 Crete, a(fling the fame part with Dictvnna, the Cre- 
 tan Diana, as the Swan is ufually reprefentcd acting 
 v/ith Leda.* This compolition has nearly the fame 
 fignification as that before defcribed of the Bull in 
 the lap of Ceres, Diana being equally a perfoni- 
 fication of the produ«5live power of the Earth. It 
 may fvcm extraordinary, that after this adventure 
 with the Dove, fhe fhould fl:ill remain a Virgin ; 
 but myftcries of this kind are to be found in all 
 religions. Juno is faid to have renewed her virginity 
 every year by bathing in a certain Fountain j-f- a 
 miracle which 1 believe even modern legends cannot 
 parallel. 
 
 In the Vifion of Ezekiel, God is defcribed as 
 defcending upon the combined forms of the Eagle, 
 the Bull, and the Lion,* the emblems of the iEthe- 
 
 T 2 rial, 
 
 t , 
 
 * See Plate X. Fig. 2. KaAKO-i $e rw AfrE/*(v Qsxx;; Bciitav, K^nn; oe 
 AiMTuvvau. Pal^ph. de Incred. Tab. XXXI. See alfo DiODOR, Sic, 
 Lib. V. & EuRipiD. Hippol. V. 145. 
 
 f Pausan. Lib. II. c. 38. 
 
 X EzEK. c. i. V. 10. with Lowth's Comm. 
 
[ 148 ] 
 
 riar Spirit, the Creative and DeflruAive Powers^ 
 which were all united in the true God, though hypo- 
 ftatically divided in the Syrian Trinity. Man was 
 compounded v/ith them, as reprefenting the real 
 image of God, according to the Jewifh Theology, 
 The Cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant, between 
 which God dwelt,* were alfo compounded of the 
 fame forms, -f- fo that the idea of them muft have 
 been prefent to the Prophet's mind, previous to the 
 Apparition which furnifhedhim with the defcription. 
 Even thofe on the Ark of the Covenant, though 
 made at the exprefs command of God, do not 
 appear to have been original ; for a figure exadly 
 anfwering to the defcription of them appears among 
 thofe curious. ruins exiftingat Chilminar, in Persia, 
 which have been fuppofed to be thofe of the Palace 
 of Persepolis, burnt by Alexander ; but for what 
 reafon, it is not eafy to conjedture. They do not, , 
 certainly, anfwer to any ancient defcription extant, 
 of that celebrated palace ; but, as far as we can . 
 judge of them in their prefent ftate, appear evidently 
 
 to, 
 
 * Exod. ch. XXV. ver. 22. , 
 
 t Spencer de Leg. Ritual, Vet, Hebraor, Lib. III. Diflfert. 5. 
 
C H9 J 
 
 to Have been a Temple.* But the Perfians, as before 
 obferved, had no inclofed temples or ftatues, which 
 they held in fuch abhorrence, that they tried every 
 means poflible to deftroy thofe of the Egyptians;, 
 thinking it unworthy of the majefty of the Deity 
 to have his all-pervading prefence limited to the 
 boundary of an edifice, or likened to an image of 
 ftone or metal. Yet, among the ruins at Chilminar, 
 we not only nnd many ftatues, which are evidently 
 of ideal beings, f but alfo that remarkable emblem 
 of the Deity,, which diftinguiflies almoft all the 
 Egyptian temples now extant.:{: The portals are. 
 alfo of the fame form as thofe at Thebes and Phil^; 
 and, except the hieroglyphics which diftinguifh 
 the latter, are finifhed and ornamented nearly in 
 the fame manner. Unlefs, therefore, we fuppofe 
 the Perlians to have been fo inconfiftent as to ere£t 
 temples in dired: contradidlion to the firft principles 
 
 of 
 
 * See Le Bruyn, Voyage en Perfe^ Planche cxxiii. 
 ■|- See Le Bruyn and Niebuhr. . 
 
 X See Plate XV. Fig.'i. from the Ifiac Table, and Fig 13, fronx 
 Niebuhr's Prints of Chilminar. See alfo Fig. 2. and 3. from the • 
 Ifiac Tables and the Egyptian Portals publilhed by Nor den and I 
 PococKE, on every one of which this fmgular emblem occurs. 
 
 ■r?*!,. 
 
[ I50 ] 
 
 of their own religion , and decorate them with fym- 
 bols and images, which they held to be impious and 
 abominable, we cannot fuppofe them to be the authors 
 of thefe buildings. Neither can we fuppofe the Par- 
 thians, or later Perfiansj to have been the builders of 
 them; for both the ftyle of workmanfhip in the 
 figures, and the forms of the letters in the infcrip- 
 tions, denote a much higher antiquity, as will appear 
 evidently to any one who v/ill take the trouble of 
 comparing the Drawings publifhcd by L^ Brtjyn and 
 NiEBUHR with the Coins of the Arsacd.s and Sas- 
 SANiD^. Almofl: all the fymbolical lig-..TwS drc lo be 
 found repeated upon different Phoenician coins ; but 
 the letters of the Phoenicians, which are faid to have 
 come to them from the Affyrians, are much Itfs fim- 
 ple, and evidently belong to an alphabet much fur- 
 ther advanced in improvement. Some of the figures 
 are alfo obfervable upon the Greek coins, particu- 
 larly the Bull and Lion fighting, and the myftic 
 Flower, which is the conftant device of the Rho- 
 dians. The ftyle of workmanfhip is alfo exadly the 
 fame as that of the very ancient Greek coins of Acan- 
 thus, Celendaris, and Lesbos ; the lines being 
 very ftrongly marked, and the hair expreffed by 
 round knobs. The wings likewife of the figure, 
 
 which 
 
which refembles the Jewifh Cherubim, are the fame 
 as thofe upon feveral Greek fculptures now extant , 
 fuch as the little images of Priapus attached to the 
 ancient bracelets, the compound figures of the Goat 
 and Lion upon the frieze of the Temple of Apollo 
 Dydymjeus, &c. &c.* They are likewife joined 
 to the human figure on the medals of Melita and 
 CAMARiNA,t as well as upon many ancient fculptures 
 in relief found in Persia. J The feathers in thefe 
 wings are turned upwards like thofe of an Oftrich,! 
 to which however they have no refemblance in form, 
 but feem rather like thofe of a Fowl brooding, though 
 more diftorted than any I ever obferved in Nature. 
 Whether this diftortion was meant to exprefs luft 
 or incubation, I cannot determine ; but the compo- 
 fitions, to which the wings are added, leave little 
 doubt, that it was meant for the one or the other. 
 I am inclined to believe that it was for the latter, 
 
 as 
 
 * See Le Bruyn, Planche CXXIII. Icnian AntiquitieSy Vol. I. c. j. 
 Plate IX. and the head-piece to Sir W. H.'s Letter, Fig. 2. 
 
 f See Plate XV. Fig. '11, from one of Melita, belonging to me. 
 
 j: See Le Bruyn, Planche CXXI. 
 
 § As thofe on Figures defchbed by Ezekiel were. See c. i. ver. i !•. 
 
I ^52 ] 
 
 ^as we find on the medals of Melita, a Figure with 
 four of thefe wings, who feems by his attitude to be 
 brooding over fomething.* On his head is the Cap of 
 Liberty, whilft in his right hand he holds the Hook 
 or Attracflor, and in his left the Winnow or Separator ; 
 fo that he probably reprefents the Ej^f or Generative 
 Spirit brooding over matter, and giving liberty to its 
 produdive po.vers by the exertion of his own attri- 
 butes, Attradion and Separation. On a very ancient 
 Phoenician medal brought from Asia by Mr. Pul- 
 LENGER, and publifhed very incorredtly by Mr. Swin- 
 TON in the Philofophical Tranfadions of 1760, is a 
 Difc or Ring furrounded by Wings of different forms, 
 of which fome of the feathers are diftorted in the 
 iame manner. f The fame Difc, furrounded by the 
 fame kind of Wings, inclofes the Afterifc of the Sun 
 over the Bull Apis, or Mnevis, on the Iliac Table, f 
 where it alfo appears with many of the other Egyp- 
 tian fymbols, particularly over the head^ of I sis 
 
 and 
 
 Ada 
 * See Plate XV. Fig. 11. engraved from one belonging to me. ■ 
 
 •\ Sec Plate IX. Fig. 6. engraved from the original Medal, now 
 belonging to me. 
 
 ^ See Plate XV. Fig. 2. fromPicMORius. 
 
[ 153 ] 
 
 and Osiris.* It Is alfo placed over the entrances of 
 n\o{{ of the Egyptian Temples defcribed by Pocockf. 
 and NoRDEN as well as on that reprefented on the 
 Ifiac Table, f though with feveral variations, and 
 without the Afterifc. We find it equally without the 
 Afterifc, but with little or no variation, on the ruins 
 at Chilmenar, and other fuppofed Perfian antiquities 
 in that neighbourhood: J but upon fome of the Greek 
 medals the Afterifc alone is placed over the Bull with 
 the human face,! who is then the fame as the Apis 
 or Mnevis of the I'gyptians ; that is, the image of 
 the Generative Power of the Sun, which is fignified 
 by the Afterifc on the Greek medals, and by the 
 Kneph, or winged Difk, on the Oriental monuments. 
 The Greeks however fometimes employed this latter 
 fymbol, but contrived, according to their ufual 
 pradice, to join it to the human figure, as may be 
 
 U feen 
 
 * See Plate XV. Fig. 3, from Pignorius. 
 
 f See Plate XV. Fig. i, from PrcNORius. 
 
 X See NiEBUHR and L.e Bruyn, and Plate XV. Fig. 13, from the 
 former. 
 
 § See Plate IV. Fig. 2, and Plate XV. Fig. 6, from a medal of 
 Cales, belonging to me. 
 
[ 154 ] 
 
 feen on a medal of Camarina, publilTied by Prince 
 ToRREMMUzzi.* On other medals of this City the 
 fame idea is exprelTcd, without the Difc or Afterifc, by 
 a winged figure, which appears hovering over a Swan, 
 the emblem of the Waters, to fhew the Generative 
 Power ot the Sun fru(ftifying that element, or adding 
 the aSlive to the pajftve Powers of Produdion.f On 
 the medals of Naples, a winged figure of the fame 
 kind is reprefented crowning the Taurine Bacchus 
 with a Wreath of Laurel. :|: This Antiquarians have 
 called a Vi6lory crowning the Minotaur \ but the 
 fabulous monftcr called the ?vlinotaur was never faid 
 to have been vid:orious, even by the Poets who in- 
 vented it; and whenever the Sculptors and Painters 
 reprefented it, they joined the head of a Bull to a 
 Human Body, as may be feen in the celebrated pic-, 
 ture of Theseus, publiflied among the antiquities of; 
 Herculaneum, and on the. medals of Athens, ftruck 
 about the time of Severus, when the ftyle of art 
 was tt)tally changed, and the myftlc theology ex- 
 
 tin<a. 
 
 * See Plate XVI. Fig. 2. copied from it. 
 
 ■j- See Plate XVI. Fig. 3. from one belonging to me. 
 
 X See Plate XV. Fig. 7. The coins are common in all coUedions. 
 
I i55 ] 
 
 tirtd. The winged figure, which has been called a 
 Victory, appears mounting in the Chariot of the Sun, 
 on the medals of Queen Philistis,* and, on fome 
 of thofe of Syracuse, flying before it in the place 
 where the Afterifc appears on others ol the fame 
 city.'j" I am therefore perfuaded, that thefe are only 
 different modes of reprefenting one idea, and that 
 the winged figure means the fame, when placed 
 over the Taurine Bacchus of the Greeks, as the 
 winded Difc does over the Apis or Mnevis of the 
 
 o 
 
 Egyptians. The ^Egis, or Snaky Breaft-plate, and 
 the Medusa's Head, are alfo, as Dr. Stukeley juftly 
 obferved^t Greek modes of reprefenting this winged 
 Difc joined with the Serpents, as it frequently is, 
 both in the Egyptian fculptures, and thofe of Chil- 
 MENAR in Persia. The exprefiions of rage and vio- 
 lence, which ufually charaderife the countenance of 
 the Medusa, fignify the Deftroying attribute joined 
 with the Generative, as both were equally under the 
 diredion of Minerva, or Divine Wifdom. I am in- 
 
 U 2 clined 
 
 * See Plate XVI. Fig. 4, from one belonging to me. 
 
 t See Plate XVI. Fig. 5 and 6, from coins belonging to me. 
 
 t Abury, p. 93. 
 
r ^6 ] 
 
 clined to believe, that the large Rings, to which the 
 little figures of Priapus are attached,* had alfo the 
 lame meaning as the Difc ; for, if intended merely 
 to fufpend them by, they are of an extravagant mag- 
 nitude, and would not anfwer their purpofe fo well 
 as a common loop. 
 
 On the Phoenician coin above mentioned, this 
 fymbol, the winged Difc, is placed over a figure 
 fitting, who holds in his hands an Arrow, whilft a 
 Bow, ready bent, of the ancient Scythian form, lies 
 by him.-f- On his head is a large loofe Cap, tied 
 under his chin, which I take to be the Lion's fkin, 
 worn in the fame manner as on the heads of Her- 
 cules, upon the medals of Alexander ; but the 
 work is fo fmall, though executed with extreme 
 nicety and precifion, and perfedly preferved, that 
 it is difficult to decide with certainty what it repre- 
 fents, in parts of fuch minutenefs. The Bow and 
 Arrows, we know, were the ancient arms of Her- 
 cules ; and continued fo, until the Greek Poets 
 
 thought 
 
 * See Plate II. Fig. i. and Plate III. Fig. 2. 
 t See Plate IX. Fig. 7. b. 
 X Homer's Odyjf. A. ver. 606. 
 
[ ^57 1 
 
 thought proper to give him the Club.* He was 
 particularly worfliipped at Tyre, the metropolis of 
 Phoenicia ;-t and his head appears in the ufual form, 
 on many of the coins of that people. We may 
 hence conclude that he is the perfon here repre- 
 fcnted, notwithftanding the difference in the ftyle 
 and compofition of the figure, which may be ac- 
 counted for by the difference of art. The Greeks, 
 animated by the fpirit of their ancient poets, and 
 the glowing melody of their language, were grand 
 and poetical in all their compofitions ; whilft the 
 PhcEnicians, who fpoke a harfli and untuneable 
 dialed:, were unacquainted with fine poetry, and 
 confequently with poetical ideas ; for words being 
 the types of ideas, and the figns or marks by which 
 men not only communicate them to each other, but 
 arrange and regulate them in their own minds, the 
 genius of a language goes a great way towards form- 
 ing the charailer of the people who ufe it. Poverty 
 of expreffion will produce poverty of conception ; 
 for men will never be able to form fublime ideas,. 
 
 when 
 
 * Strabo, Lib. XIV. 
 
 t Macros. Sat. Lib. I. c. 20. 
 
I ^55 ] 
 
 "when the language In which they think (for mefl. 
 always think, as well as fpeak in fome language) is 
 incapable of exprelTing them. This may be one 
 reafon why the Phoenicians never rivaled the Greeks 
 in the perfection of art, although they attained a 
 degree of excellence long before them ; for Homer, 
 whenever he has occafion to fpeak ot any fine piece 
 of art, takes care to inform us that it was the work 
 of Sidonians. He aifo mentions the Phoenician mer- 
 chants bringing toys and ornaments of drefs to fell 
 to the Greeks, and pradiiing thofe frauds which 
 merchants and factors arc apt to pradife upon igno- 
 rant people.* It is probable that their progrefs in 
 the fine arts, like that of the Dutch, (who are the 
 Phoenicians of modern hiftory) never went beyond 
 a ftridl imitation of nature ; which, compared to 
 the more elevated graces of ideal compofition, is 
 like a news-paper narrative compared with one of 
 Homer's Battles. A figure of Hercules, therefore, 
 executed by a Phoenician artift, if compared to one 
 by Phidias or Lysippus, would be like a picture of 
 MosEsor David, painted byTENiERs, orGERARoDow, 
 
 compared 
 
 * Homer. Odyjf. «, ver. 414. 
 
C ^59 ] 
 
 compared to one of the fame, painted by Kapha el 
 or Annibal Caracci. This is exadtly the difference 
 between the figures on the Medal now under confi- 
 deraiion, and thofe on the coins of Gelo or Alexan- 
 der. Of all the perfonages of the ancient mythology, 
 Hercules is perhaps the moft difficult to explain ; for 
 phyfical allegory and fabulous hiftory are fo entangled 
 m the accounts we have of him, that it is fcarcely pof- 
 fible to feparate them. He appears however, like all 
 the other Gods, to have been originally a perfonified 
 attribute of the Sun. The eleventh of the Orphic 
 Hymns* is addrefled to him as the Strength and Power 
 of the Sun; and Macrobius fays that he was thought 
 to be the Strength and Virtue of the Gods, by whicli 
 they deflroyed the Giants ; and that, according to 
 Varro. the iMars and Hercules of the Romans were 
 the fame Deitv, and worfhipped with the fame rites. "f* 
 According to Varro then, whofe authority is perhaps 
 the greateft that can be cited, Hercules was the 
 Deflroying Attribute reprefcnted in a human form, 
 inftead of that of a Lion, Tiger, or Hippopotamus., 
 Hence the terrible pifture drawn of him by Homer, 
 
 which 
 
 Ed. Gejner. f SaL Lib. I. c. 20, 
 
[ i6o ] 
 
 nvhich always appeared to me to have been taken from 
 fome fymbolical ftatue, which the Poet not undcr- 
 ftanding, fuppofcd to be of the Theban Hero, who 
 had aflunied the title of the Deity, and vvhofe fabu- 
 lous hiftory he was well acquainted with. The de- 
 fcription however applies in every particular to the 
 allegorical perfonage. His attitude, for ever hxed in 
 the a6l of letting fly h's Arrow,* wiih the figures of 
 Lions and Bears, Battles and Murders, which adorn 
 his Belt, all unite in reprefenting him as the Deflruc- 
 tive Attribute peifonified. But how happens it then 
 that he is fo frequently reprefented ftrangling the 
 Lion, the natural emblem of this power ? Is this an 
 hiflorical fable belonging to the Theban Hero, or a 
 phyfical allegory of the Deftruftive Power deftroying 
 its own force by its own exertions ? Or is the fingle 
 Attribute perfonified taken for the whole power of 
 the Deity in this, as in other inflances already men- 
 tioned ? The Orphic Hymn above cited feems to 
 favour this laft conjeAure ; for he is there addrefTed 
 both as the Devourer and Generator of all (na/xfpaj^t 
 -rrccyyivtra^). Howevcr this may be, we may fafely con- 
 clude 
 
 * Aifi CaAfcvTi soixw?. OdyJ'. A. v. 607. 
 
[ i6i ] 
 
 elude th.it the Hercules armed with the Bow 
 and Arrow, as he appears on the prefent medal, is 
 like the Apollo, the Deftroying Power of the diur- 
 nal Sun. 
 
 On the other fide of the Medal* is a figure, fome- 
 what like the Jupiter on the medals of Alexander 
 and Antiochus, fitting with a beaded Sceptre in 
 his right hand, which he refis upon the head of a 
 Bull, that projects from the fide of the Chair. Above^ 
 on his right fhoulder, is a Bird, probably a Dove, 
 the fymbol of the Holy Spirit, defcending from the 
 Sun ; but, as this part of the medal is lefs perfe6l 
 than the reft, the fpecies cannot be clearly difcovered. 
 In his left hand he holds a fiiort Staff, from the upper 
 fide of which fprings an Ear of Corn, and from the 
 lower a Bunch of Grapes, which, being the two 
 moft efteemed produ<5lions of the Earth, were the 
 natural emblems of general Fertilization. This 
 figure is therefore the Generator, as that on the other 
 fide is the Deftroyer, whilft the Sun, of whofe Attri- 
 butes both are perfonifications, is placed between 
 them. The letters on the fide of the Generator are 
 
 X quite 
 
 * See Place IX. Fig. 7. a. 
 
[ i62 ] 
 
 quite entire, and, according to the Phoenician alpha- 
 bet publiflied by Mr. Dutens, are equivalent to the 
 Roman ones, which compofe the words Baal Tlorzy 
 of which Mr. Swinton makes Baal Tii7'z, and tranf- 
 \2X^% yupiter vfTai'fus % whence he concludes that 
 this Coin was ftruck at that city. But the lirft letter 
 of the laft word is not a feth^ but a Thau^ or afpi- 
 rated T; and, as the Phoenicians had a vowcl anfwer- 
 ing to the Roman A, it is probable they would have 
 inferted it, had they intcnd-d it to be founded : but 
 we have nj reafon to believe, that ;hcy had any to 
 exprefs the U or Y, which muft therefore be com- 
 prehended in the preceding confonant whenever the 
 found is exprcir.d. Hence I c-niclude th it the word 
 here meant is Thyrz or Thurz.. th^.- Thor or Ihur of 
 the Celtes and Sarmati ns, the TJjurra of the Aily- 
 rians, the Turan of the Tyrrhenians or Etrufcan?, 
 the 'Taurine Bacchus of the Greeks, and the Deity 
 whom the Germans carried with them in the fhape 
 of a Bull, when they invaded Italy ; from whom 
 the city of Tyre, as well as Tyrrhenia, or Tus- 
 cany, probably took its name. His fymbol the Bull, 
 to which the name alludes, is reprefented on the 
 Chair or 1 hrone in which he fits ; and his Sceptre, 
 the emblem of his authority, refts upon it. The 
 other word, Baal^ was merely a title in the Phoenician 
 
 language, 
 
language Signifying God, or Lord •j^ and ufcd as an 
 epithet of the Sun, as we learn from the name 
 Baal-bec ft/je City of Baal) which the Greeks ren- 
 dered Heliopolis, (the City of the iiun). 
 
 Thus does this fingular Medal fhew the funda- 
 mental principles of the ancient Phoenician religion to 
 be the fame as thofe which appear to have prevailed 
 through all the other nations of the Northern Hemi- 
 fphere. Fragments of the fame fyftem every where 
 occur, varioufly exprefled as they were varioufly under- 
 ftood, and oftentimes merely preferred without being 
 underftood at all ; the ancient reverence being con- 
 tinued to the fymbols, when their meaning was wholly 
 forgotten. The hypoflatkal ^\v\{\ovi and effential unity 
 of the Deity is one of the moft remarkable parts of 
 this fyftem, and the farthefl: removed from common 
 fenfe and reafon ; and yet this is perfedly reafonable 
 and confiftent, if coniidered together with the reft of 
 it : for the emanations and perfonifications wer only 
 figurative abftra<ftions of particular modes of adion, 
 and exiftence, of which the primary caufe and ori- 
 ginal effence ftill continued one and the fame. 
 
 X 2 The 
 
 * Cleric. Ccmm. in 2 Reg, c. i. ver. 1, 
 
t 164 ] 
 
 The three Hypoflafes being thus only one Being, 
 each Hypoftafis is occafionally taken for all; as is the 
 cafe in the paiTage of Apuleius before cited, where 
 Isis defcribes herfelf as the Univerfal Deity. In this 
 character flie is reprefented by a fmall Bafaltine Figure, 
 of Egyptian fculpture, at Strawberry Hill, which 
 is covered over wiih fymbols of various kinds from 
 top to bottom.* That of the Bull is placed loweft, 
 to fhew that the ftrength or power of the Creator 
 is the foundation and fupport of every other attri- 
 bute. On her head are Towers to denote the barth; 
 and round her neck is hung a Crab-fiih, which, 
 from its power of fpontaneoufly detaching from its 
 body, and naturally reproducing, any limbs that are 
 hurt or mutilated, became the fy mbol of the Pro- 
 dudlive Power of the Waters ; in which fenfe it 
 appears on great numbers of ancient medals of 
 various cities. f The Nutritive Power is iignified by 
 
 her 
 
 * A Print of one exaftly the fame is publilhed by Monfaucon, 
 Antiq.expliq. Vol. I. PI. xciii. Fig. i. 
 
 f See thofe of Agrigentum, Himera, and Cyrene. On a fmall 
 
 one of the firft- mentioned city, belonging to me, a Crofs, the abbreviated 
 
 fymbol of the Male Powers of Generation, approaches the mouth of the 
 
 Crab, while the Cornucopia iflues from it (fee Plate XV. Fig. 12.): the 
 
 .fine reprefents the Caufe, and the other the Effed, of Fertilization. 
 
[ 1^5 ] 
 
 lier many Breads, and the Deftrudlive by the Lions, 
 which file bears on her arms. Other attributes are 
 expreffed by various other animal fymbols, the pre- 
 cife meaning ot which I have not fagacity fufEcient 
 to difcover. 
 
 Thisuniverfality of the Goddefs was more concifely 
 Teprefented in other figures of her, by the myftic in- 
 ftrument called a Syfirum^ which (he carried in her 
 hand. Plutarch has given an explanation of it ;* 
 which may ferve to fhcvv, that the mode here adopted 
 -of explaining the ancient fymbols is not founded 
 inerely upon conjecture and analogy, but alfo upon 
 the authority of one of the moft grave and learned 
 of the Greeks. The Curved Top, he fays, repre- 
 fented the Lunar Orbit, within which the creative 
 attributes of the Deity were exerted, in giving motion 
 to the four Elements, fignified by the four Rattles 
 below, t On the centre of the Curve was a Cat, the 
 emblem of the Moon ; who, from her influence on 
 the conftitutions of women, was fuppofed to prefide 
 
 particularly 
 
 * TielJ.U Of. 
 
 f See Plate IX. Fig. 17. engraved from one in the coUedion of 
 
 R. WiLBRAHAM, Efq. 
 
[ i66 ] 
 
 particularly over the pafTive Powers of Gencntion -^^ 
 and below, upon the bafe, a head of Isis or Kep i hus ;, 
 inftead of which, upon that which I have had en- 
 graved, as well as upon many others now extant, are 
 the Male Organs of Generation, reprefenting the 
 Active Powers of the Creator, attributed to Isis with 
 the Pafiive. The clattering noifc, and various mo- 
 tions of the Rattles being adopted as the fyrnbols of 
 the movement and mixture of the Elements, from 
 which all things are produced j the found of Metals 
 in general been me an embkm of the fame kind. 
 Hence, the ringing of Bells, and clattering of Plates 
 of Metal, were ufed in all luflrations, facrifices, &c.-f 
 The title Priapus, applied to the charaderiftic Attri- 
 bute of the Creator, and fometimes to the Creator 
 himfelf, is probably a corruption of PjiaTuo? (clamor- 
 ous or loud ;) for the b and n being both labials, 
 the change of the one for the other is common in the 
 Greek language. We ftill find many ancient images 
 of this fyrabol, with Bells attached to them,f as they 
 
 were 
 
 ♦ Cic. de Nat. Deor. Lib. II. c. 46. 
 
 f Clem. Alex. Tfcrf. p. 9. Schol. in Theocrit. Idyll, II. ver. 2^> 
 
 § Bronzi deW Eenol. Tom. VI. PL 98. 
 
[ ^67 ] 
 
 were to the facred Robe of the Hio;h Prieft of the 
 Jews, in which he adminiftercd to the Creator.* 
 The Bells in both were of a pyramidal formj-j" to 
 iliew the stherial igneous Eflence of the God. This 
 form is ftill retained in thofe ufed in our Churches, 
 as well as in the little ones rung by the ratholic 
 Priefls at the elevation of the Hoft. The ufe of 
 them was early adopted by the Chriftians, in the 
 fame fenfe as they were employed by the later Hea- 
 thens ; that is, as a charm againft evil Demons ;J 
 for, being fymbols of the adive exertions of the 
 creative attributes, they were properly oppofed to 
 the emanations of the defl:ru<5live. The Lacede- 
 monians ufed to beat a Pan or Kettle-drum at the 
 death of their King,§ to aflift in the emancipation 
 of his foul, at the diflblntion of the body. We 
 have a {imilar cuftom of tolling a Bell on fuch oc- 
 cafions ; which is very generally pracftifed, thoufrh 
 the meaning of it has been long forgotten. This 
 
 emancipation 
 
 * Exod. c. xxviii. 
 
 t Brcfizi delV Hercol. Tom. VI. Plate 98. Maimonides in Patrick's 
 CctniKentary on Exodus, c. xxviii. 
 
 J Ovid. Ftf/. Lib.V. ver. 441. Schol. in Thzockit. Idyll. II. ver. 36. 
 <§ Scbol. in Theocrit. Idyll. II. ver. 2^. 
 
f 168 T 
 
 emancipation of the Soul was fuppofed to be finally 
 performed by Fire ; which, being the vilible image 
 andadive effence of both the Creative and Deftruftive 
 Powers, was very naturally thought to be the me- 
 dium through which men pafled from the prefent 
 to a future life. The Greeks, and all the Celtic 
 nations, accordingly, burned the bodies of the 
 dead, as the Gentoos do at this day ; while the 
 Egyptians, among whom fuel was extremely fcarce, 
 placed them in pyramidal monuments , which 
 were the fymbols of Fire : hence come thofe pro- 
 digious flru6tures which ftill adorn that country. 
 The Soul, which was to be em.ancipated, was the 
 divdne emanation, the vital fpark of heavenly 
 flame, the principle of reafon and perception, 
 which was perfonified into the familiar Dzemon, or 
 Genius, fuppofed to have the diredion of each indi- 
 vidual, and to difpofe him to good or evil, wifdom 
 or folly, and all their confequences of profperity and 
 adverfity.* Hence proceeded the dodrines, fo uni- 
 formly inculcated by Homer and PiNDAR,t of all 
 
 human 
 
 * Pindar. Pyth. V. ver. 164. Sophocl. tracbin. vcr. 922. Her. 
 Lib. II. Epift. II. ver. 187. 
 
 ^£j»>'A«(r<ro» T ffuv. PiNDAR. Fyib. I. ver. 79. Paflages to the fame 
 purpofe occur in almoft every page of the Iliad and Odyjey. 
 
[ i69 ] 
 
 human actions depending immediately upon the 
 Gods ; which were adopted, with fcarcely any varia- 
 tions, by fome of the Chriftian Divines of the Apo- 
 ftolic age. In the Paftor of PIermas, and Recogni- 
 tions of Clemens, we find the Angels of Jufticc, 
 Penitence, and Sorrow, inftcad ol- the Genii or 
 Daemons, which the ancients fuppofed to direct 
 men's minds, and infpire them with thofe particular 
 fentiments. St. Paul adopted the ftill more com- 
 fortable dodlrine of Grace, which ferved full as well 
 to emancipate the confciences of the Faithful from 
 the fliackles of pradical Morality. The familiar 
 Demons, or divine Emanations, were fuppofed to 
 reiide in the Blood ; which was thought to contain 
 the principles of vital heat, and was therefore for- 
 bidden by Moses.* Homer, who feems to have 
 coUedted little fragments of the ancient Theology, 
 and introduced them here and there, amidft the 
 wild profufion of his poetical fables, reprefents the 
 Shades of the deceafed as void of perception, until 
 they had tafted of the blood of the vidims offered 
 by Ui.YSSES -jf from which their faculties were re- 
 
 Y nevved 
 
 Levit, c. xvii. ver. ii & 14. f OiiyJ". a. ver. i5'2. 
 
[ ^7^ ] 
 
 newed by a reunion with the Divine Emanation^ 
 from which they had been feparated. The Soul of 
 TiRESiAs is faid to be entire in Hell, and to pofTefs 
 alone the power of perception, becaufe with him 
 this Divine Emanation ftill remained. The Shade 
 of Hercules is defcribed among the other Ghofts, 
 though he himfelf, as the Poet fays, was then in 
 Heaven ; that is, the active principle of Thought 
 and Perception returned to its native Heaven, whilft 
 the Paflive, or merely Seniitive, remained on Earth,, 
 from whence it fprung.* The final feparation of 
 thefe two, did not take place till the body was con- 
 fumed by Fire, as appears from the Ghoft of Elpe- 
 NOR, whofe body being flill entire, he retained both, 
 and knew Ulysses before he had tailed of the 
 Blood. It was from producing this feparation, that 
 the Univerfal Bacchus, or Double Apollo, the Crea- 
 tor and Deflroyer, whofe eifence was Fire, was alfo 
 called AixviTJij, the Purifier, -t by a metaphor taken 
 from the Winnow, which purified the Corn from 
 
 the 
 
 * Thofe who wifh to fee the difference between Senfation and Per- 
 ception clearly and fully explained, may be fatisfied by reading the EJfat: 
 analytique/ur I'Ame, by Mr. Bonnet. 
 
 f Orpb. Hymn, 45, 
 
[ i7t J 
 
 the Dufl and Chaff, as Fire purified the Soul from 
 its terreftrial Pollutions. Hence this inftrument is 
 called by Virgil the Myftic Winnow of Bacchus.* 
 The Ammonian Platonics, and Gnoftic Chriflians, 
 thought that this feparation, or purification, might be 
 effeded in a degree even before death. It was for this 
 purpofe that they pradifed fuch rigid temperance, and 
 gave themfelves up to fuch intenfe ftudy ; for, by 
 fubduing and extenuating the Terreftrial Principle, 
 they hoped to give liberty and vigour to the Ce- 
 leftial, fo that it might be enabled to afcend diredlly 
 to the Intellcdlual World, pure and iinincumbered.'f* 
 The Clergy afterwards introduced Purgatory, in- 
 ftead of abftra6t meditation and ftudy ; which was 
 the ancient mode of feparation by Fire, removed 
 into an unknown country, where it was faleable to 
 all fuch of the inhabitants of this world, as had fuf- 
 ficient wealth and credulity. 
 
 It was the Celeftial or ^Etherial Principle of the 
 Human Mind, which the ancient Artifts repre- 
 
 Y 2 fen ted 
 
 * Myjiica vannus lacchi. Georg. I. ver. i66. 
 
 j- Plotin. Ennead. VI. Lib. iv. c. i6. Mosheim, Nof.yinCvDV/, 
 Syjl. Ivtell. c. V. fed. 20. 
 
[ 172 ] 
 
 fented under the fymbol of the Butterfly, which 
 may be confldered as one of the moft elegant Alle- 
 gories of their elegant Religion. This Infedl, when 
 hatched from the Egg, appears in the fhape of a 
 Grub, crawling upon the Earth, and feeding upon 
 the leaves of Plants. In this ftate, it was aptly 
 made the emblem of Man, in his earthly form, 
 in which the astherial vigour and adivity of the 
 Celeflial Soul, the dhi?jce particula me7itis^ was- 
 fuppofed to be clogged and incumbered v\'ith the 
 material body. When the Grub was changed to a 
 Chryfalis, its ftillnefs, torpor, and infenfibility feemed- 
 to prefent a natural image of Death,, or the inter- 
 mediate ftate between the ceiration of the vital 
 functions of the body, and the final releafement 
 of the foul by the fire, in which the body was- 
 confumed. The Butterfly br.eaking from the torpid 
 Chryfalis, and mounting in the air, was no lefs natural 
 an image of the celeftiai Soul burftins; from the 
 reftraints of Matter, and mixing again with its native 
 ^ther. The Greek Artifts, always ftudious of ele- 
 gance^ changed this, as well as other animal fym- 
 bols, into a human form, retaining the Wings as 
 the charaderiftic members, by which the meaning 
 might be known. The Human Body, which they 
 
 added: 
 
[ 173 J 
 
 added to them, is that of a beautiful Girl, fome- 
 times in the age of infancy, and fometimes of ap- 
 proaching maturity. So beautiful an allegory as this 
 would naturally be a favourite fubjed: of art among 
 a people whofe tafte had attained the utmoft pitch 
 of refinement. We accordingly find that it has been 
 more frequently and more varioufly repeated than 
 any other, which the Syfiem of Emanations, fo 
 \ favourable to art, could afi'ord,. 
 
 Although all men were fuppofed to partake of the 
 Divine Emanation in a degree, it was not fuppofed 
 that they all partook of it in an equal degree* 
 Thofe who fhewed fuperior abilities, and diftin- 
 guifiied themfelves by their fplendid actions, were 
 fuppofed to have a larger fhare of the Divine EfTence, 
 and were therefore adored as Gods, and honoured 
 with divine titles,, exprefiive of that particular Attri- 
 bute of the Deity, with which they feemed to be 
 moil, favoured. New perfonages were thus enrolled 
 among the Allegorical Deities ; and the perfonified 
 Attributes of the Sun were confounded with a Cre- 
 tan and ThefTalian King, an Afiatic Conqueror, and 
 a Theban Robber. Hence Pindar, who appears 
 to have been a very orthodox HeatheU; fays, that 
 
 the 
 
t 174 ] 
 
 the race of Men and Gods is one, that both breathe 
 from one Mother, and only differ in power.* 7 his 
 confufion of epithets and titles contributed, as much 
 as any thing, to raife that vafl: and extravagant fabric 
 of Poetical Mythology, which, in a manner, over- 
 whelmed the ancient 1 heology, which was too 
 pure and philofophical to continue long a popular 
 religion. The grand and exalted fyftem of a gene- 
 ral Firft Caufe, univerfally expanded, did not fuit 
 the grofs conceptions of the multitude ; who had no 
 other way of conceiving the idea of an omnipotent 
 God, but by forming an exaggerated image of their 
 own Defpot, and fuppofing his power to conlifl: in an 
 unlimited gratification of his paffions and appetites. 
 Hence the Univerfal Jupiier, the Awtful and Ve- 
 nerable, the general Principle of Life and iv otion, 
 was transformed into the God who thundered from 
 Mount Ida, and was lulled to lleep in the embraces 
 of his Wife ; and hence the God whofe fpirit moved f 
 
 upon 
 
 * Nem. V. ver. i. 
 
 -)■ So the Tranflators have rendered the cxpreffion of the Original, 
 which literally means brooding as a Fowl on its Eggs, and alludes to the 
 Symbols of the ancient Theology, which I have before obferved upon. 
 See Patrick's Commentary. 
 
[ ^IS ] 
 
 upon the face of the Waters, and impregnated them 
 witli the Powers oF Generation, became a great King 
 above all Gods, who led forth his people to fmite the 
 ungodly, and rooted out their enemies from before 
 them. 
 
 Another great means of corrupting the ancient 
 Theology, and eftabliOiing the Poetical Mythology, 
 was the pra6llce of the Artifts in reprefenting the 
 various attributes of the Creator under human forms 
 of various charadler and expreflion. Thefe figures, 
 being diftinguiflied by the titles of the Deity which 
 they were meant to reprefent, became in time to be 
 conlidered as diftindl perfonages, and worfhipped as 
 feparate fubordinate Deities. Hence the many-£haped 
 God, the n<>xuji*o^?^o-, and Uv^tofj^c^po; of the ancient Theo- 
 logifts, became divided into many Gods and God- 
 deffes, oflen defcribed by the Poets as at variance 
 with each other, and wrangling about the little 
 intrigues and paiTions of men. Hence too, as the 
 Symbols were multiplied, particular ones lofl: their 
 dignity ; and that venerable one which is the fubjecfl " 
 of this Difcourfe, became degraded from the repre- 
 fentative of the God of Nature to a fubordinate rural 
 Deity, a fuppofed fon of the Afiatic Conqueror Bac- 
 chus, 
 
I ^76 ] 
 
 CHus, ftanding among the Nymphs by a Fountain,* 
 and exprefiing the fertility of a Garden, inftead of the 
 general Creative Power of the great Adive Principle 
 of the Univerfe. His degradation did not ftop even 
 here ; for we find him, in times ftill more prophane 
 and corrupt, made a lubjfd: of raillery and infult, as 
 anfwering no better purpcfe than holding up his rubi- 
 cund fnout to frighten the birds and thieves. "f- His 
 talents were alfo perverted from their natural ends, 
 and employed in bafe and abortive efforts in con- 
 formity to the tafte of the times ; for men naturally 
 attribute their own pailions and inclinations to the 
 objeds of their adoration ; and as God made Man in 
 his own image, fo Man returns the favour, an 1 m tkes 
 God in his. Hence we find the highefl: attribute of 
 the all-pervading Spirit and fii ft -begotten Love foully 
 proftituted to promifcuous vice, and calling out, 
 H(£C cunnum^ caput hie, prcebeat tile nates. % 
 
 He continued however ftill to have his Temple, 
 Prieftefs and facred Geefe§, and offerings of the moft 
 
 exquifite 
 
 * Theocrit. Idyll. I. ver. 21. 
 
 t HoRAT. L. I. Sat. viii. Virg. Georg. iv. 
 
 J Priap. Carm. 21. 
 
 § Petron, Satyric. 
 
[ ^77 ] 
 exquifite kiQd were made to him. 
 
 Crinabitque tibi excuflis pulcherrima luiiibis 
 Hoc anno primum experta pucllaviriim. 
 
 Sometimes however they were not fo fcrupulous in the 
 feledion of their Vidlims, but fuffered frugality to 
 reftrain their devotion. 
 
 Cunn facrum fieret Deo falaci 
 Condutla eft pretio pucUa parvo.* 
 
 The Bride was ufually placed upon him immediately 
 before marriage; not, as Lactantius fays, i^f ejus 
 pudiciiiam prior Deus prcelibajje videatur^ but that 
 fhe might be rendered fruitful by her communion with 
 the Divine Nature, and capable of fulfilling the duties 
 of her flation. In an ancient Poemf we find a Lady 
 of the name of Lalage prefenting the pidlures of the 
 Elephantis to him, and gravely requefling that fhe 
 might enjoy the pleafures over which he particularly 
 prefided, in all the attitudes defcribed in that cele- 
 brated Treatife. J Whether or not fhe fuccecded, the 
 
 Z Poet 
 
 * Priap. Cartn. 34. 
 f Priap. Carm. 3. 
 
 '\. The Elephantis was written by one Phil^nis, and feems to have 
 been of the fame kind with the Puttana errante of Arretin. 
 
C ^78 ] 
 
 Pcet has not informed us ; but we may fafely con- 
 clude, that fhe did not truft wholly to Faith and 
 Prayer ; but, contrary to the ufual practice of mo- 
 dern devotees, accompanied her devotion with fuch 
 good Works as were likely to contribute to the end. 
 propofed by it. 
 
 When a Lady had ferved as the Vidim in a Sacrifice 
 to this God, file exprefTed her gratitude for the Bene-- 
 nefits received, by offering upon his altar certain 
 fmall images, reprefenting his charadteriftic attribute ; : 
 the number of vi'hich was equal to the number of Men 
 who had adted as Priefts upon the occafion.* On an 
 antique gem, in the collection of Mr. Townley, ig 
 one of tliefe fair Vidims, who appears juft returned 
 from a facrifice of this kind, and devoutly returning 
 her thanks, by offering upon an altar fome of thefe 
 images ; from the number of which, one may ob- 
 ferve that fhe has not been neglected. f This offer- 
 ing of thanks had alfo its myftic and allegorical 
 meaning ; for Fire being the energetic principle 
 and effential force of the Creator, and the fymbol 
 
 above 
 
 Priap. Carm, 34. Ed, Scioppi. -j- See Plate III. Fig. 3. 
 
[ ^19 ] 
 
 above mentioned, the vifible image of his character 
 riflic Attribute, the uniting them was uniting the 
 Material with the Efiential Caufe, from whofe joint 
 operation all things were fuppofed to proceed. 
 
 Thefe facrifices, as well as all thofe to the Deities 
 prcfiding over Generation, were performed by night : 
 hence Hippolytus, in Euripides, fays, to cxprefs 
 his love of chaftity, that he likes none of the Gods 
 revered by night.* Thefe a<5ls of devotion were in- 
 deed attended with fuch rites as.muft naturally fhock 
 the prejudices of a chafte and temperate mind, not 
 liable to be warmed by that ecftatic enthufiafm which 
 is peculiar to devout perfons, when their attention 
 is abforbed in the contemplation of the beneficent 
 Powers of the Creator, and all their faculties direcfted 
 to imitate him in the exertion of his great charac- 
 teriftic Attribute. To heighten this enthufiafm, 
 the Male and Female Saints of antiquity ufed to lie 
 promifcuoufly together in the temples, and honour 
 God by a liberal difplay and general communication 
 of his bounties. -f- Herodotus, indeed, excepts the 
 
 Z 2 Greeks 
 
 V. 613. t Herodot. L. II. 
 
[ i8o ] 
 
 Greeks and Egyptian?;, and Dionvsius of Halt- 
 cARNASsus the Romans, from this general cuftom of 
 other nations : but to the teftiniony of the former 
 we may oppofe the thoufand facred Froftitutes kept 
 at each of the Temples of Corinth and Eryx;* 
 and to that of the latter, the exprefs words of 
 Juvenal, who, though he lived an age later, 
 lived when the fame religion, and nearly the fame 
 manners, prevailed. f Diodorus Siculus a]fo tdls us, 
 that when the Roman Praetors vifited Eryx, they laid 
 afide their magifterial feverity, and honoured the 
 Goddefs by mixing with her votaries, and indulging 
 themfelves in the pleafures over which fhe prefided.j: 
 It appears too, that the a£l of Generation was a fort of 
 facrament in the Ifland of Lesbos ; for the device on 
 its medals, (which in the Greek republics had always 
 fome relation to religion) is as explicit as forms 
 can make it.§ The figures appear indeed to be myftic 
 and allegorical, the Male having evidently a mixture 
 
 of 
 
 * Strab. Lib. VIII. 
 
 f Sat. IX. ver. 24. 
 
 X Lib. IV. Ed. IVeJfel. 
 
 \ See Fxace IX. Fig. 5. from one belonging to me.. 
 
[ i8i ] 
 
 of the Goat in his beard and features, and therefore 
 probably reprefents Pan, the Generative Power of the 
 Univerfe, incorporated in univerfal matter. The 
 Female has all that breadth and fulnefs which charac- 
 terife the perfonification of the paflive Power, known 
 by the tiles of Rhea, Juno, Ceres, &c. 
 
 When there were fuch feminaries for female edu- 
 cation as thofe of Eryx and Corinth, we need not 
 wonder that the Ladies of antiquity fhould be ex- 
 tremely well inftruded in all the pradical duties of 
 their religion. The ftories told of Julia and Messa- 
 LiNA fhew us that the Roman Ladies were no ways 
 deficient ; and yet they were as remarkable for their 
 gravity and decency, as the Corinthians were for 
 their fkill and dexterity in adapting themfelves to all 
 the modes and attitudes, which the luxuriant imaizi- 
 nations of experienced Votaries have contrived for 
 performing the rites of their tutelar Goddefs.* 
 
 The reafon why thefe rites were always performed 
 by Night, was the peculiar fandity attributed to it by 
 the Ancients, becaufe dreams were then fuppofed to 
 
 dcfcend 
 
 * Philodemi Epigr, Brunk, Analeil . Vol. II. p. 85. 
 
. [ i82 ] 
 
 fccnd from heaven to inftruft and forewarn men. 
 The Nights, fays Hesiod, belong to the blefled 
 Gods ;* and the Orphic Poet calls night the fource 
 of all things, {ttxvtw ymu;) to denote that produdtive 
 power, which, as I have been told, it really poficiTes ; 
 it being obferved that plants and animals grow more 
 by night than by day. The ancients extended this 
 power much farther, and fuppofed, that not only the 
 productions of the earth, but the luminaries of hea- 
 ven, were nourifhed and fuftained by the benign in- 
 fluence of the night. Hence that beautiful apoftrophe 
 in the Eie&ra of ECtripides, o. n^ fAiXMv«, x,?v<;iuv tt(TT^av 
 
 r^o(pt, &C, 
 
 Not only the facrifices to the Generative Deities, 
 but in general all the religious rites of the Greeks, 
 were of the feftive kind. To imitate the Gods, was 
 in their opinion to feaft and rejoice, and to cultivate 
 the ufeful and elegant arts, by which we are made 
 partakers of their felicity .-f This was the cafe with 
 almoft all the nations of antiquity, except the JEgyp- 
 
 tians 
 
 * Efj/. ver. 730. t Strabo, Lib. X. 
 
 X Herodot. Lib. IL 
 
[ i83 ] 
 
 tiaiis, and their reformed imitators the Jews,* who, 
 being governed by a Hierarchy, endeavoured to 
 make it aweful and venerable to the people, by an 
 appearance of rigour and aufterity. The people 
 however fometimes broke through this reftraint, 
 and indulged themfelves in the more pleafing wor- 
 ship of their neighbours, as when they danced and 
 feafted before the Golden Calf which Aaron ere6t- 
 ed,-}- and devoted themfelves to the worfliip of 
 obfcene Idols, generally fuppofed to be of Priapus, 
 under the reign of ABijAM.-f* 
 
 The Chriftian religion, being a reformation of the 
 Jewifh, rather increafed than diminifhed the aufteritv 
 af its original. On particular occafions however it 
 equally abated its rigour, and gave way to fcftivity 
 and mirth, though always with an air of fanclity and 
 folemnity. Such were originally the feafts of the 
 Eucharift, which, as the Word expreffes, were meet- 
 ings of joy and gratulation ; though, as Divines tell 
 us, all of the fpiritual kind : but the particular man- 
 ner in which St. Augustine commands the Ladies 
 
 who 
 
 * SceSpEiJCEKde Leg. Kit. Vet. llehraor. \ Exod. c. xxxii. , 
 X Reg. c. XV. ver. ij. Ed. Cleric. 
 
[ ^84 ] 
 
 who attended them to wear clean linen,* feems to 
 infer, that perfonal as well as fpiritual matters were 
 thought worthy of attention. To thole who admi- 
 nifter the Sacrament in the modern way, it may 
 appear of little confequence whether the Woman 
 received it in clean linen or not ; but to the good 
 Bifliop, who was to adminifter the holy Kifs^ it cer- 
 tainly was of fome importance. The koly Kifs was 
 not only applied as a part of the ceremonial of the 
 Eucharift, but alfo of Prayer, at the conclufion of 
 which they welcomed each other with this natural 
 fign of Love and Benevolence. -f It was upon thefe 
 occalions that they worked themfelves up to thofe 
 fits of rapture and enthufiafm, which made them 
 eao-erly rufh upon deftrudion in the fury of their 
 zeal to obtain the crown of Martyrdom. % En- 
 thufiafm on one fiibjed naturally produces enthu- 
 fiafm on another; for the human pafiions, like the 
 firings of an inftrument, vibrate to the motions of each 
 other : hence paroxyfms of Love and Devotion have 
 oftentimes fo exadly accorded, as not to have been 
 
 diftinguiflied 
 
 * Aug. Serm. clii. f Justin Martyr. Jpolog. 
 
 X Martini Kempii de OJculis Dijfert. VIII. 
 
[ ^85 j 
 
 diftingiilfhcd by the very perfons whom they agi- 
 tated.*" This was too often the cafe in thefe meet- 
 ings of the primitive Chriftians. The feafts of Gra- 
 tulation and Love, the y.yoiirxi and nod:urnal vigils, 
 gave too flattering opportunities to the pailions and 
 appetites oi men, to continue long, what we are told 
 they were at firft, pure exercifes of devotion. The 
 fpiritual raptures and divine ecftafies encouraged on 
 thefe occafions, were often ecftafles of a very difl^e- 
 rent kind, concealed under the garb of devotion ; 
 whence the greateft irregularities enfued ; and it be- 
 came neceffary for the reputation of the Church, 
 that they fhould be fupprefTed, as they afterwards 
 were, by the decrees of feveral Councils. Their fup- 
 preilion may be confidered as the final fubverfion of 
 that part of the ancient religion, which I have here 
 undertaken to examine ; for fo long as thefe nodlur- 
 nal meetings were preferved, it certainly exifted, 
 though under other names, and in a more folemn 
 drefs. The fmall remain of it preferved at Isernia, of 
 which an account has here been given, can fcarcely 
 be deemed an exception ; for its meaning was un- 
 
 A a known 
 
 * See Troch de la Cadiere, 
 
[ i86 ] 
 
 known to thofe who celebrated it ; and the obfcurlty 
 of the place, added to the venerable names of St. 
 CosiMO and Damiano, was all that prevented it from 
 being fuppreffed long ago, as it has been lately, to 
 the great difmay of the chafte Matrons and pious 
 Monks of IsERNiA. Traces and memorials of it feem 
 however to have been preferved, in many parts of 
 Chriftendom, long after the adual celebration of its 
 rites ceafed. Hence the obfcene figures obferva- 
 ble UDon many of our Gothic Cathedrals, and parti- 
 cularly upon the ancient brafs doors of St. Peter's 
 at Rome, where there are fome groupes which rival 
 the devices on the Lefbian medals. 
 
 It is curious, in looking back through the annals 
 of fuperftition, fo degrading to the pride of man, to 
 trace the progrefs of the human minJ in different 
 ages, climates, and circumflances, uniformly adling 
 upon the fame principles, and to the fame ends. 
 The fketch here given of the corruptions of the reli- 
 gion of Greece, is an exadt counterpart of the 
 hifcory of the corruptions of Chriflianity, which 
 began in the pure Theifm of the Ecledic Jews,* 
 
 and 
 
 ♦'Compare the dotlnncs of Philo viixh thofe taught in the Gqfpel 
 of Si. JoHNj and Epjlles of St. Paul.. 
 
[ i87 ] 
 
 and by the help of Infpirations, Emanations, and 
 Canonizations, expanded itfelf, by degrees, to the 
 vaft and unwieldy fyftem vvhich now fills the Creed 
 of what is commonly called the Catholic Church. 
 In the ancient religion, however, the Emanations 
 affumed the appearance of Moral Virtues and Phy- 
 fical Attributes, inflead of miniflering Spirits and 
 guardian Angels ; and the canonizations or deifica- 
 tions were beftowed upon Heroes, Legiflators, and 
 Monarchs, inftead of Priefts, Monks, and Martyrs. 
 There is alfo this further difference, that among the 
 moderns Philofophy has improved, as Religion has 
 been corrupted ; whereas, among the ancients, Re- 
 ligion and Philofophy declined together. The true 
 Solar Syftem was taught in the Orphic School, and 
 adopted by the Pythagoreans, the next regularly- 
 eftablifhed fed:. The Stoics corrupted it a little, 
 by placing the Earth in the centre of the univerfe, 
 though they ftill allowed the Sun its fuperior mag- 
 nitude.* At length arofe the Epicureans, v/ho con- 
 founded it entirely, maintaining that the Sun was 
 only a fmall globe of fire, a few inches in diameter, 
 
 A a and 
 
 * Brucker, Hijt, Crit. Philof, P. II. Lib. II. c. 9. f. i. 
 
and the Stars little tranfitory lights, whirled aboii£ 
 in the atmofphere of the Earth.* 
 
 How ill ibever adapted the ancient lyflem of Ema- 
 nations was, to procure eternal happinefs, it was cer- 
 tainly extremely well calculated to produce temporal 
 good ; for, by the endlefs multiplication of fubordinate 
 Deities, it effe6lually excluded two of the greatefl 
 curfes that ever afflicled the human race, Dogmatical 
 Theology, and its confequent Religious Perfecution. 
 Far from fuppoling that the Gods known in their 
 own country were the only ones exifting, the Greeks 
 thouo-ht that innumerable Emanations of the Divine 
 Mind were diffufed through every part of the unir 
 verfe ; fo that new objeds of devotion prefented 
 themfelves wherever they went. Every mountain, 
 fpring, and river, had its tutelary deity, befides 
 the numbers of immortal fpirits that were fuppofed 
 to wander in the air, fcattering dreams and vifions, 
 and fuperintending the affairs of men. 
 
 Ah 
 
 * LucRET. Lib. V. ver. 565. & feq. 
 
 ■\ Hesiod. E^ya, x«i H|U.£,o, rer. 252. y,v^m, &c. are always ufed as 
 indefinites by the ancient Greek Poets. 
 
[ i89 ] 
 
 Ah adequate knowledge of thefe they never pre- 
 fumed to think attainable, but modeftly contented 
 themfelves with revering and invoking them when- 
 ever they feltj or wanted their afliftance. When a 
 fhipwrecked Mariner was caft upon an unknown 
 coaftj he immediately offered up his prayers to the 
 Gods of the country, whoever they were ; and joined 
 the inhabitants in whatever rites they thought pro- 
 per to propitiate them with.* Impious or prophane 
 rites he never imagined could exifl-, concluding, that 
 all expreflions of gratitude and fubmiillon niuft 
 be pleafing to the Gods. Atheifm was, indeed, 
 punifhedat Athens, as the obfcene ceremonies of the 
 Bacchanalians were at Rome; but both as civil crimes 
 againft the State; the one tending to weaken the 
 bands of fociety bydeftroying the fancftity of oaths, 
 and the other to fubvert that decency and gravity of 
 manners, upon which the Romans To mi'.ch prided 
 themfelves. The introduction of ftrange Gods, v/ith- 
 out permiffion from the Magiflrate, was alfo pro- 
 hibited 
 
 * See Homer. Ody£. i, ver. 445, & feq. The Greeks feem to have 
 adopted by degrees into their own Ritual all the rites praflifed in rhjs 
 neighbouring countries. 
 
[ J90 ] 
 
 hibited in both cities ; but the reftriilion extended no 
 farther than the walls, there being no other parts of 
 the Roman Empire, except Judea, in which any- 
 kind of impiety or extravagance might not have 
 been maintained with impunity, provided it was 
 maintained merely as a fpeculative opinion , and 
 not employed as an engine of Fadion, Ambition, 
 or Opprellion. The Romans even carried their 
 condefceniion fo far as to enforce the obfervance 
 of a Dogmatical Religion, where they found it be- 
 fore eftablifhed ; as appears from the conduct of 
 their Magiftrates in Judea, relative to Christ and 
 his Apoftles ; and from what Josephus has related, 
 of a Roman Soldier's being punifhed with death by 
 his Commander, for infulting the Books of Moses. 
 Upon what principle then did they a^l, when they 
 afterwards perfecuted the Chriftians with fo much 
 .rancour and cruelty ? Perhaps it may furprife per- 
 fons not ufed to the fludy of ecclefiaftical antiquities, 
 to be told (what is neverthelefs indifputably true) that 
 the Chriftians were never perfecuted on account of 
 the fpeculative opinions of individuals, but either for 
 vcivil crimes laid to their charge, or for withdrawing 
 their allegiance from the State, and joining in a fede- 
 rative union dangerous by its conftitution, and ren- 
 dered 
 
[ 191 J 
 
 dered ftill more dangerous by the intolerant prin- 
 ciples of its members, who often tumultuoully inter- 
 rupted the public worfliip, and continually railed 
 againft the national religion (with which both the 
 civil government and military difcipline of the Ro- 
 mans were infeparably conne(fled), as the certain 
 means of eternal damnation. To break this Union, 
 was the great obje6l of Roman policy during a long 
 courfe of years ; but the violent means employed 
 only tended to cement it clofer. Some of the 
 Chriftians themfelves indeed, who were add idled to 
 Platonifm, took a fafer method to difTolve it ; but 
 they wtre too few in number to fucceed. This was 
 by trying to moderate that furious zeal which gave 
 life and vigour to the confederacy, and to blend and 
 foften the unyielding temper of Religion with the 
 mild fpirit of 1 hilofophy. " We all," fiid they, 
 " agree in worfhipping one Supreme God, the Father 
 ** and Preferver of all. While we approach him 
 " with purity of mind, Uncerity of heart, and inno- 
 " cence of manners, forms and ceremonies of wor- 
 " fliip are indifferent ; and not lefs worthy of his 
 ** greatnefs, for being varied and diverlified according 
 " to the various cudoms and opinions of men. Had 
 *' it been his will that all fliould have wordiinped 
 
 " him 
 
[ ^92 J 
 
 ^ him in the fame mode, he v/ould have given to 
 ' all the fame inclinations and conceptions : but he 
 has vviftfly ordered it otherwife, that Piety and Virtue 
 might increafe by an honeft emulation of religions, 
 as induftry in trade, or adlivity in a race, from the 
 ' mutual emulation of the candidates for vt'ealth and 
 ' honour.* This was too liberal and exteniive a 
 plan, to meet the approbation of a greedy and am- 
 bitious Clergy, whofe obje6l v/as to eftablifh a Hierar- 
 chy for themfelves, rather than to procure happinefs 
 for others. It was accordingly condemned with vehe- 
 mence and fuccefs by Ambrosios, Prudentius, and 
 other orthodox leaders of the age. 
 
 It was from the ancient fyftem of Emanations, that 
 the general hofpitality which charadlerifed the man- 
 ners of the heroic ages, and which is fo beautifully 
 reprefented in the Odyjfey of Homer, in a great mea- 
 fure arofe. The poor, and the ftranger who wan- 
 dered in the ftreet, and begged at the door, were 
 fuppofed to be animated by a portion of the fame 
 Divine Spirit which fuftained the great and powerful. 
 
 They 
 
 Symmach. Ep. 10 i^ 6i. Themist. Orat ad Imferat. 
 
[ 193 ] 
 
 *Ihey are all from yupiter-^ fays Homer, and a fmall 
 gift is acceptable.*' This benevolent fentiment has 
 been compared by the Englifh Commentators to that 
 of the Jewiili Moralift, who fays, that he who giveth 
 to the poor leiideth to the Lord, ivho will repay him 
 ten-fold.\ But it is fcarcely poffible for any thing to 
 be more different : Homer promifes no other reward 
 for charity than the benevolence of the adion itfelf ; 
 but the Ifraelite holds out that, which has always 
 been the great motive for charity among his country- 
 men — ^the profped of being repaid ten-fold. They 
 are always ready to fhow their bounty upon fuch 
 incentives, if they can be perfuaded that they are 
 founded upon good fecurity. It was the opinion, 
 however, of many of the mod learned among the 
 ancients, that the principles of the Jewifh religion 
 were originally the fame as thofe of the Greek, and 
 that their God was no other than the Creator and 
 Generator Bacchus,| who, being viewed through 
 the gloomy medium of the hierarchy, appeared 
 to them a jealous and irafcible God ; and fo gave 
 
 B b a more 
 
 * OdyJ. ^. ver. 207. f See Pope's Odyjfey. % Tacit. Hijior. L,ib. v. 
 
[ 194 ] 
 
 a more auftere and unrociable form to their devotion. 
 The Golden Vine preferved in the Temple at Jeru- 
 falem,* and the Taurine forms of the Cherubs, be- 
 tween which the Deity was fuppofed to relide, were 
 fymbols fo exadly fimilar to their own, that they 
 naturally concluded them meant to exprefs the fame 
 ideas ; efpecially as there was nothing in the avowed 
 principles of the Jewifli worfhip to which they could 
 be applied. The ineffable name alfo, which, accord- 
 inor to the Mafforethic punduation, is pronounced 
 Jehovahy was anciently pronounced Jaho, !««, ori£uw,t 
 which was a title of Bacchus, the nodlurnal Sun;:}: 
 as was alfo Sabazius^ or Sahadius^% which is the fame 
 word as Sabbaoth^ one of the fcriptural titles of the 
 true God, only adapted to the pronunciation of a more 
 polifhed language. The Latin name for the Supreme 
 God belongs alfo to the fame root; iu-^aT»ij, Jupiter, 
 fignifying Father i£u'., though written after the ancient 
 
 manner, 
 
 * The Vine and Goblet of Bacchus are alfo the ufual devices upon 
 the Jewifh and Samaritan Coins, which were ftruck under the Afmonean 
 •Kings. 
 
 j- HiERON. Comm. in Pfahn. VIII. DiODOR. Sic. Lib. I. Philo- 
 Bybl. ap. Eujeb. Prep. Evang. Lib. L c. ix. 
 
 X Macrob. Sat. Lib. L c. xviii. § Ibid. 
 
[ 195 ] 
 
 manner, without the diphthong, which was not in 
 ufe for many ages after the Greek Colonies fettled in 
 Latium, and introduced the Arcadian Alphabet. We 
 find St. Paul likewife acknowledging, that the 
 Jupiter of the Poet Aratus was the God whom 
 he adored;* and Clemens of Alexandria explains 
 St. Peter's prohibition of worfhipping after the man- 
 ner of the Greeks, not to mean a prohibition of wor- 
 fhipping the fame God, but merely of the corrupt 
 mode in which he was then worfhipped.-f- 
 
 A£i. Apoji. Chap. xvii. ver. 28. 
 
 f Stromat. Lib. V. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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