DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0012
2
of whatever they held to be most valuable. At the same time
that the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated returns
of summer and winter, of day and night, with' all the admirable
order of the universe, taught them to believe in the existence and
agency of such superior powers; the irregular and destructive
efforts of nature, such as lightning and tempests, inundations and
earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had pas-
sions and affections similar to their own, and only differed in
possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence.
3. In every stage of society men naturally love the marvellous;
but in the early stages, a certain portion of it is absolutely neces-
sary to make any narration sufficiently interesting to attract atten-
tion, or obtain an audience: whence the actions of gods are
intermixed with those of men in the earliest traditions or histories of
all nations; and poetical fable occupied the place of historical
truth in their accounts of the transactions of war and policy, as
well as in those of the revolutions of nature and origin of things.
Each had produced some renowned warriors, whose mighty
achievements had been assisted by the favor, or obstructed by the
anger of the gods; and each had some popular tales concerning
the means by which those gods had constructed the universe, and
the principles upon which they continued to govern it: whence the
Greeks and Romans found a Hercules in every country which they
visited, as well as in their own ; and the adventures of some such
hero supply the first materials for history, as a cosmogony or
theogony exhibits the first system of philosophy, in every
nation.
4. As the maintenance of order and subordination among men
required the authority of a supreme magistrate; the continuation
and general predominance of order and regularity in the universe
Would naturally suggest the idea of a supreme God, to whose
sovereign control all the rest were subject; and this ineffable per-
sonage the primitive Greeks appear to have called by a name
expressive of the sentiment, which the contemplation of his great
characteristic attribute naturally inspired, Zev$, Auevc, or Dens,
signifying, according to the most probable etymology, reverential
of whatever they held to be most valuable. At the same time
that the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated returns
of summer and winter, of day and night, with' all the admirable
order of the universe, taught them to believe in the existence and
agency of such superior powers; the irregular and destructive
efforts of nature, such as lightning and tempests, inundations and
earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had pas-
sions and affections similar to their own, and only differed in
possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence.
3. In every stage of society men naturally love the marvellous;
but in the early stages, a certain portion of it is absolutely neces-
sary to make any narration sufficiently interesting to attract atten-
tion, or obtain an audience: whence the actions of gods are
intermixed with those of men in the earliest traditions or histories of
all nations; and poetical fable occupied the place of historical
truth in their accounts of the transactions of war and policy, as
well as in those of the revolutions of nature and origin of things.
Each had produced some renowned warriors, whose mighty
achievements had been assisted by the favor, or obstructed by the
anger of the gods; and each had some popular tales concerning
the means by which those gods had constructed the universe, and
the principles upon which they continued to govern it: whence the
Greeks and Romans found a Hercules in every country which they
visited, as well as in their own ; and the adventures of some such
hero supply the first materials for history, as a cosmogony or
theogony exhibits the first system of philosophy, in every
nation.
4. As the maintenance of order and subordination among men
required the authority of a supreme magistrate; the continuation
and general predominance of order and regularity in the universe
Would naturally suggest the idea of a supreme God, to whose
sovereign control all the rest were subject; and this ineffable per-
sonage the primitive Greeks appear to have called by a name
expressive of the sentiment, which the contemplation of his great
characteristic attribute naturally inspired, Zev$, Auevc, or Dens,
signifying, according to the most probable etymology, reverential