Six Dissertations Upon Different Subjects

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1809 edition. Excerpt: ... DISSERTATION VI. ON THE STATE OF THE DEAD, AS DESCRIBED BY HOMER AND VIRGIL...... I. i L HERODOTUS saith" of Homer and Hesiod, that they were the first who made a Theogony for the Greeks, that is, .who collected and drew it tip into a kind of system: Oinoi Ys: !ri 01 T.oivj r&vrig S oyovirp "eaajjt/, xocl Ioictl B;o7ri Tocg iTrouvvixg dovTC-g, Kxi Tiudg T xal tzyjug oisKovTSi, %ou n osu uvrwv cryu.!vctvng. 'Illi fuere qui Gracis Theogoniam fecerunt, deisque et cognomina dederunt, honoresque et artificia separaverunt, et figuras eorum designaverunt/ ii. 53. To suppose Homer to have been the author of the Theology and Mythology contained in his poems, would be as unreasonable as to imagine that he first taught the Greeks to read and to write. As he lived in no barbarous age or country, but when the Greek language was polished and copious, if he had been the first inventor and spreader of the fables which ascribe such wild inconsistency, weakness, folly, misery, and wickednessa to the Gods, his works would hardly have been received by his contemporaries with favour and applause. We find that in the following ages, when wise men began to reason more upon these subjects, they censured Homer's theology, as highly injurious to the Gods, if it were understood in the literal sense. But when Homer wrote he had sufficient excuse and authority for the fables which he delivered; and he introduced into his poems, by way of machinery, and with some decorations, theological legends contrived in more rude and ignorant times, and sanctified by hoary age and venerable tradition. Tradition had preserved some memory of the things which the Gods had done and had suffered when thev were men. I do not believe, ' says Iphigenia, that Diana delights in human...