have often been so strained, that men of sense are apt entirely to
reject them, and to consider them as the production merely of the
fancy and conceit of critics and commentators. But that allegory
really has place in the heathen mythology is undeniable even on the
least reflection. C/UPID\ the son of V/ENUS\; the Muses the
daughters of Memory; P/ROMETHEUS\, the wise brother, and
E/PIMETHEUS\ the foolish; H/YGIEIA\ or the goddess of health
descended from AE/SCULAPIUS\ or the god of physic: Who sees not, in
these, and in many other instances, the plain traces of allegory?
When a god is supposed to preside over any passion, event, or system
of actions, it is almost unavoidable to give him a genealogy,
attributes, and adventures, suitable to his supposed powers and
influence; and to carry on that similitude and comparison, which is
naturally so agreeable to the mind of man.

     Allegories, indeed, entirely perfect, we ought not to expect as
the productions of ignorance and superstition; there being no work
of genius that requires a nicer hand, or has been more rarely
executed with success. That  and  are the sons of
M/ARS\ is just; but why by V/ENUS\?[32] That  is the
daughter of V/ENUS\ is regular; but why by M/ARS\?[33] That 
is the brother of  is suitable; but why describe him as
enamoured of one of the Graces?[34] And since the ancient
mythologists fall into mistakes so gross and palpable, we have no
reason surely to expect such refined and long-spun allegories, as
some have endeavoured to deduce from their fictions.

     L/UCRETIUS\ was plainly seduced by the strong appearance of
allegory, which is observable in the pagan fictions. He first
addresses himself to V/ENUS\ as to that generating power, which
animates, renews, and beautifies the universe: But is soon betrayed
by the mythology into incoherencies, while he prays to that
allegorical personage to appease the furies of her lover M/ARS\; An
idea not drawn from allegory, but from the popular religion, and
which L/UCRETIUS\, as an E/PICUREAN\, could not consistently admit
of.

     The deities of the vulgar are so little superior to human
creatures, that, where men are affected with strong sentiments of
veneration or gratitude for any hero or public benefactor, nothing
can be more natural than to convert him into a god, and fill the
heavens, after this manner, with continual recruits from among
mankind. Most of the divinities of the ancient world are supposed to
have once been men, and to have been beholden for their 
to the admiration and affection of the people. The real history of
their adventures, corrupted by tradition, and elevated by the
marvellous, become a plentiful source of fable; especially in
passing through the hands of poets, allegorists, and priests, who
successively improved upon the wonder and astonishment of the
ignorant multitude.

     Painters too and sculptors came in for their share of profit in
the sacred mysteries; and furnishing men with sensible
representations of their divinities, whom they cloathed in human
figures, gave great encrease to the public devotion, and determined
its object. It was probably for want of these arts in rude and
barbarous ages, that men deified plants, animals, and even brute,
unorganized matter; and rather than be without a sensible object of
worship, affixed divinity to such ungainly forms. Could any statuary
of S/YRIA\, in early times, have formed a just figure of A/POLLO\,
the conic stone, H/ELIOGABALUS\, had never become the object of such
profound adoration, and been received as a representation of the
solar deity.[35]

     S/TILPO\ was banished by the council of A/REOPAGUS\, for
affirming that the M/INERVA\ in the citadel was no divinity; but the
workmanship of P/HIDIAS\, the sculptor.[36] What degree of reason
must we expect in the religious belief of the vulgar in other
nations; when A/THENIANS\ and A/REOPAGITES\ could entertain such
gross conceptions?

     These then are the general principles of polytheism, founded in
human nature, and little or nothing dependent on caprice and
accident. As the , which bestow happiness or misery, are, in
general, very little known and very uncertain, our anxious concern
endeavours to attain a determinate idea of them; and finds no better
expedient than to represent them as intelligent voluntary agents,
like ourselves; only somewhat superior in power and wisdom. The
limited influence of these agents, and their great proximity to
human weakness, introduce the various distribution and division of
their authority; and thereby give rise to allegory. The same
principles naturally deify mortals, superior in power, courage, or
understanding, and produce hero- worship; together with fabulous
history and mythological tradition, in all its wild and
unaccountable forms. And as an invisible spiritual intelligence is
an object too refined for vulgar apprehension, men naturally affix
it to some sensible representation; such as either the more
conspicuous parts of nature, or the statues, images, and pictures,
which a more refined age forms of its divinities.

     Almost all idolaters, of whatever age or country, concur in
these general principles and conceptions; and even the particular
characters and provinces, which they assign to their deities, are
not extremely different.[37] The G/REEK\ and R/OMAN\ travellers and
conquerors, without much difficulty, found their own deities every
where; and said, This is M/ERCURY\, that V/ENUS\; this M/ARS\, that
N/EPTUNE\; by whatever title the strange gods might be denominated.
The goddess H/ERTHA\ of our S/AXON\ ancestors seems to be no other,
according to T/ACITUS\,[38] than the <Mater Tellus> of the R/OMANS\;
and his conjecture was evidently just.