BEAUTY OF THE GREEK RELIGION.

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children love to read stories; for when they read of "a little girl with a Red Riding Hood, who carried her grand-mamma a custard, and was then eaten up by a wolf, that put on her grandmamma's clothes, and got into her bed," they read what they very well understand: it is all as clear as the day: but, if you set them down to a book of moral philosophy or political science, to Locke on Human Understanding, or Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, they can make nothing of it; the words that occur are all abstractions.

"Men are but children of a larger growth:" they never entirely lose the qualities that distinguish them in early life: they have more patience than children; their understandings are improved by books of moral philosophy or political science; but their passions and feelings are most powerfully affected by tales, histories and poetry; it is this love of having things actually presented before them, that leads people to plays, processions, and galleries of pictures.

Let us see what we were talking about: one cause of the agreeable nature of the Grecian religion is, that it personifies abstractions:" Fate, Destiny, Fury, Comedy, Tragedy, History, are abstractions to us, but were real persons with them: in fact, not only the inferior Gods stood for abstract qualities or events, but many of the superior Gods also: Mars was War, Minerva Wisdom, Venus Beauty, &c.: it is in this sense that Homer introduces Minerva, that is, Wisdom or Prudence, as coming to check Achil les, when he was on the point of drawing his

a Iliad, a. 194.

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BEAUTY OF THE GREEK RELIGION.

sword in a fit of rage at the council-table of the Greeks.

The language of the Greeks was the language of poetry every thing with them was alive: a man could not walk out in the fields, without being in the presence of the Naiads, the Dryads, and the Fauns: he could not sit by his hearth, without feeling himself protected by his Houshold Gods: he could not be married, but Hymen marshalled him to the ceremony with his torch and saffron robe: he could not die, but the Fates cut the thread of his life which themselves had spun: a nation could not go to war, but Mars and Bellona led them on to the fight.

The religion of the Greeks is perished and gone away for ever: we have a religion of the sublimest wisdom and the most elevated morality in the room of these fables: yet it is agreeable to know them, for they are at least full of beauty; and without this knowledge we shall never understand the finest writers in the world.

CHAP. III.

OF ALLEGORY.-HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF THE GODS OF THE GREEKS.

THERE are two things the consideration of which is necessary to the understanding the religion of the Greeks.

The first of these is allegory, that is, the personifying, or giving visible forms to, abstract ideas: a great part of the Grecian religion is of the nature of allegory: thus, when Homer introduces Minerva as checking the sudden rage of Achilles, he may very well be understood as meaning that the Wisdom or Prudence of Achil les's own mind on second thoughts produced this effect.

Allegory cannot be better understood than by an example: I will therefore present you here with one of the prettiest allegories in the world, the Vision of Mirza, an Eastern sage, written by Addison.

the

On the fifth day of the moon, which according to the custom of my forefathers I always kept holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdad, in order to pass rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one thought to another, Surely, said I, man is but a shadow, and life a dream. Whilst I was thus musing, I cast my eyes towards the summit of a rock that was not far from me, where I discovered one

in the habit of a shepherd, with a little musical instrument in his hand. As I looked upon him he applied it to his lips and began to play upon it. The sound of it was exceeding sweet, and wrought into a variety of tunes that were inexpressibly melodious, and altogether different from any thing I had ever heard: My heart melted away in secret raptures.

I had been often told that the rock before me was the haunt of a genius; and that several had been entertained with music, who had passed by it, but never heard that the musician had before made himself visible. When he had raised my thoughts by those transporting airs which he played, to taste the pleasures of his conversation, as I looked upon him like one astonished, he beckoned to me, and by the waving of his hand, directed me to approach the place where he sat. I drew near with that reverence which is due to a superior nature; and as my heart was entirely subdued by the captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand, Mirza, said he, I have heard thee in thy soliloquies; follow me.

He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top of it, Cast thy eyes eastward, said he, and tell me what thou seest. I see, said I, a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it. The valley that thou seest, said he, is the vale of misery, and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of eternity. What is the reason, said I, that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other? What thou seest, said he, is that portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consummation. Examine now, said he, this sea that is thus bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it. I see

a bridge, said I, standing in the midst of the tide. The bridge thou seest, said he, is human life, consider it attentively. Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of threescore and ten entire arches, with several broken arches which, added to those that were entire, made up the number about an hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand arches: but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it: but tell me further, said he, what thou discoverest on it. I see multitudes of people passing over it, said I, and a black cloud hanging on each end of it. As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge, into the great tide that flowed underneath it; and upon further examination, perceived there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide and immediately disappeared. These hidden pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke the cloud but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together towards the end of the arches that were entire.

There were indeed some persons, but their number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a walk.

I passed some time in the contemplation of this wonderful structure, and the great variety of objects which it presented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at every thing that stood by them to save themselves. Some were looking up towards the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and in the midst of a speculation stumbled and fell out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles that glittered in their eyes and danced before them; but often when they thought themselves within the reach of them