Χρὴ γάλακτι ἀνατρέφειν αὐτά. See Ch. viii. where he also speaks of milk food; and Xenophon. de Venat. c. vii. 4. The latter recommends milk for the first year: καὶ οἷς μέλλει τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον βιώσεσθαι, ἄλλο δὲ μηδέν—αἱ γὰρ βαρεῖαι πλησμοναὶ τῶν σκυλακίων διαστρέφουσι σκέλη, σώμασι νόσους ἐμποιοῦσι, καὶ τὰ ἐντὸς ἄδικα γίγνεται.
Columella also, and the Carthaginian poet, administer milk to the young fry, and Pollux with his copyist Paullini adds thereto the blood of the game to which the hounds are to be afterwards entered;Columella De Re Rust. L. vii. c. 2. “Quod si effœta lacte deficitur, caprinum maximè conveniet præberi catulis, dum fiant mensium quatuor:”
“Probè autem despiciendum,” says the credulous physician of Eisenach, on the authority of Julius Pollux, “cui generi singulos applicare velis, ut eorum animalium, quæ venationi sunt destinata, sanguinem cum offis statim post ablactationem subministres,” &c.
“Thei hav grete nede of hur dame,” according to Duke Edmund, “in to the tyme that thei be ij monethis olde, and than thei shuld be fedde with gootis mylke or with kowes mylk and cromes of brede ymade smale and put there inne; and specially in the morowe and at nyght by cause that ye. nyght is more cold than the day and also men shuld geve hem crommes in fflesh brothe and in this wise men may norfshe hem tyl thei be of half yeere olde.”
It very rarely happens that the κύων ἀρτιτόκος is deficient in milk for six or eight weeks after the birth of her progeny;
but if the puppies do not thrive on the nutriment they derive from their dam, it is probably deficient in quantity, and should be dispensed with altogether as soon as they will lap cow’s milk sufficient for their support.
Turberville says, “the longer they tast of their dammes teat, the more they shall take of her complexion and nature.” And when weaned, “it is best,” he remarks, “to bring them up abroad with milke, bread, and all sorts of pottages, and you shall understand that to bring them up in villages of the country, is much better than to bring them up in a butcherie:” “aux villages, et non aux boucheries,” Fouilloux p. 9.
How close is the analogy “touching the acceleration of growth and stature,” in the human and canine subject! In breeding for the kennel, Lord Bacon’s observations may be turned to some account. “Excess of nourishment,” says he, “is hurtful; for it maketh the child corpulent, and growing in breadth rather than in height.” “The nature of it may not be too dry, and therefore children in dairy countries do wax more tall, than where they feed more upon bread and flesh;” “over-dry nourishment in childhood putteth back stature.” Upon which principle Albertus Magnus orders liquid food for the dog, because his temperament is dry.
It is seldom that the practical courser will differ from the advice of old Gervase Markham; but when he says, “if the house you keep be of great receite, and many servants, you shall let your cooke bring up your whelpes, and your dairy-maide your second best, and the rest you shall put forth amongst your friends or tenants, according unto the love you possesse in the country,” I am inclined to invert the merits of the respective claimants on the litter, placing la cuisinière at the bottom of the list.
See Xenophon de Venat. c. vii. 5. All the names left us by Xenophon, Arrian, and Columella, are dissyllabical.Columella de Re Rust. L. vii. c. 12. Nominibus autem non longissimis appellandi sunt, quo celeriùs quisque vocatus exaudiat; nec tamen brevioribus, quàm quæ duabus syllabis enuntientur. Oppian names his puppies, while young and tractable, νηπιάχοι:
By which Gesner supposes the names should be “oxytona.” Natalis Comes agrees with his predecessors:
The indefatigable German naturalist has alphabetically arranged all the classic names of the Greek and Roman kennels that have descended to us. We find in his canine vocabulary, those of Xenophon, Ovid, Columella, and others of ancient days; and some from Blondus (of which Gesner disapproves) of more modern use. Hyginus has a copious list of canine appellatives in his 181st fable, entitled “Diana.” And one of the most chaste poets of the fifteenth century supplies the kennel with
Εἰ δὲ μή πω ἐθέλοις σκυλακεῦσαι. Schneider is of opinion that Arrian is here cautioning the courser against running a bitch, whom it has been deemed prudent to put aside from taking the dog, and whose milk-vessels are distended towards the close of the period of gestation, as if she were actually pregnant. This interpretation is ingenious, and may be tenable; but as I find no such caution in any ancient author, and have never seen any mischief accrue from running a bitch at the time alluded to, (though her speed is certainly impaired by the constitutional plethora of the period;) and, moreover, as it magnifies a very unimportant circumstance in the physical condition of the bitch, and is, on the whole, rather a far-fetched interpretation, I have followed Blancard and Zeune in the more usual acceptation of the verb σκυλακεύειν, i. e. catulos nutrire. No man in his senses would think of coursing a brood bitch while in the state described in the text.
Καὶ παρίστανται ἤδη ἐς δρόμον. These words commence the 32nd Chapter in all the editions which I have examined; and though Schneider suggests their adaptation to the close of the present Chapter, he does not venture to change their position. Inasmuch, however, as the division into chapters is probably arbitrary, and the words in question are more appropriate here than at the commencement of the ensuing Chapter, they are here introduced.
Κύων θήλεια μὲν ὠκυτέρα ἄῥῤενος. I have already remarked that Arrian and Xenophon invariably use the feminine gender when speaking of the dogs of the chase: and so also the Grecian poets, (as the κυσὶν ταχείαις of Euripides, and σκυλάκεσσι θοαῖς of Oppian,) and in some cases the Latin, (as the “canes montivagæ” of Lucretius, “venatica canis” of Ennius, and “multâ cane” of Horace); as if bitches were more quick-scented, “more fleet of foot, or sure of fang.” Minerva, in the Ajax Flagellifer, compares Ulysses searching for the mad Ajax, to a Spartan bitch; though the verse would have admitted the masculine instead of the feminine gender, and the former would certainly have been more appropriate to the sex of the person represented. The gender is changed by the poet in a marked way:
This opinion, therefore, of the superiority of the bitch over the dog seems to have prevailed in the kennels of antiquity; and such, I believe, is still entertained by sportsmen. “It is an old received opinion,” observes the author ofMarkham’s Countrey Contentments. B. i. p. 47. Countrey Contentments, “amongst many men of the leashe, that the greyhound bitch will ever beate the greyhound dogge, by reason of her more nimblenesse, quicknesse, and agillity; and it is sometimes seene that a perfect good bitch indeed, hath much advantage of an ordinary dogge: but if the good dogge meet with the good bitch, there is then no comparison, but the dogge will be her master, inasmuch as he exceedeth her both in lengthe and strengthe, the two maine helpes in coursing; for her nimblenesse is then no helpe, sith a good dogge in the turne will loose as little ground as any bitch whatsoever.” See also The Countrey Farme, c. xxii. by Markham, ed. 1616. The earliest edition, of 1600, does not contain Markham’s additional remarks on coursing, but merely Surflet’s version of “Maison Rustique.”
Ἄῤῥην δὲ θηλείας διαπονεῖσθαι ἀμείνων. Aristotle remarks, in the Spartan tribe of dogs, that the bitches are longer-lived than the dogs, in consequence of the latter working harder than the former, διὰ τὸ πονεῖν τοὺς ἀῤῥένας μᾶλλον. “Wheresoever,” says Markham, “the course shall stand forth long, the good dogge will beat out the good bitch and make her give over.”
Αἱ θήλειαι μὲν ἀγαπητὸν, κ. τ. λ. I am not aware of any difference having been observed by coursers, in the duration of the comparative speed of the dog and bitch. It is not inability to run that disqualifies a greyhound (generally in his third year from the period of entrance) for appearance on the coursing field, but a propensity, acquired by experience, to skulk and run false:
We can rarely, if ever, say of any greyhound, after he has run two seasons, what Shallow says of Page’s fallow greyhound, whoMerry Wives of Windsor. Act i. “was out-run on Cotsale:”—“He is a good dog, and a fair dog; can there be more said? he is good, and fair.” So soon does the fleetest dog begin to make up by cunning what he wants in willingness to work.
Ἄῤῥενες δὲ καὶ ἐς δέκατον διαφυλάττουσιν. Our author is here at issue with Juliana Berners, who says of the greyhound in his ninth year,
Indeed, it is incredible, however great may have been his youthful vigour, that any dog should retain his full speed till the tenth year; a period at which all the bodily powers begin to feel the gradual approach of infirmity, at which many dogs die apparently of natural decay, and all are incapacitated for strenuous exertion. “Canes Laconici,” says Pliny, “vivunt annis denis, fœminæ duodenis, cætera genera quindecim annos, aliquando viginti.” Instances of the latter protracted period are very rare. I never knew a greyhound to reach the memorable age of the Homeric Argus—
See Ælian de Nat. Animal. Buffon Hist. Natur. and Lord Bacon Hist. Vitæ et Mortis.
Μέγα μοι δοκεῖ τὸ κτῆμα ἄῤῥην κύων τῇ ἀληθείᾳ γενναῖος. Such in the annals of British coursing was Topham’s Snowball, and such Bate Dudley’s Millar!
Καὶ οὐκ ἄνευ θεῶν τοῦ εὐμενείας, κ. τ. λ. With Schneider’s sanction, I have united the 33rd Chapter of the first and second editions of the Greek text with the 32nd of the German editor, from which chapter the former seems to have been most unnecessarily separated by Holstein, or whoever first divided the Cynegeticus into sections, affixing to each a table of contents.
In accordance with Arrian’s notion, the fabulous greyhound of the suspicious Cephalus is conceived, in the imagination of the poet, to have been bestowed on the virtuous Procris by the Goddess of the Chase, with the high character of pre-eminent speed:
Ἀρτέμιδι Ἀγροτέρᾳ. This title of the sylvan goddess is variously derived by etymologists. Scheffer (Ælian. V. H. L. ii. c. 25.) would have her ladyship so called from Agræ in Attica—χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον, the scene of her first essay in hunting on arriving from Delos.Attic. L. i. c. xix. Διαβᾶσι δὲ τὸν Εἱλισσὸν, says Pausanias, χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον, καὶ ναὸς Ἀγροτέρας ἐστὶν Ἀρτέμιδος, κ. τ. λ. But Perizonius objects to Scheffer’s derivation, and also to that ἀπὸ τῆς ἄγρας, à venatione, considering Ἀγροτέρα rather to signify rustica, in agris agens. If ἄγρα, venatio, be the root of the title, to the same may probably be referred the titular epithet by which Apollo is connected with the chase, by Pausanias in Atticis, (L. i. c. xli.) Ἀγραίος: unless the Attic Agræ would here afford a more ready solution. But the true derivation of Ἀγροτέρα is to be sought in ἀγρός. See Etymologicon Magnum.
From whatever source derived, it is sufficient for our purpose that the epithet is commonly applied to her in the character of “Dea Venatrix,” (Ovid. Met. L. ii. 454.)—“Dea sylvarum,” (Ovid. Met. L. iii. 163.)—“sævis inimica virgo—belluis,” (Hor. Od. xii. l. i. 22.)—as presiding over woods, and delighting in hunting. It is so used in the Thesmophoriazusæ of Aristophanes,
and in the Rape of Helen of Coluthus,
To coursers it must be a mighty consolation to know that, by virtue of this distinction, the goddess is ominous of good when seen by them as a night-phantom; at least so says the dream-interpreter of Ephesus, the fortune-tellingOneirocrit. L. ii. c. xxxv. Artemidorus—κυνηγοῖς μάλιστα συμφέρει διὰ τὴν Ἀγροτέραν.
The Odyssey affords the graphic outline from whence Apelles is supposed to have worked off his finished picture of the Goddess of the Chase as an active toxophilite:
The rival copy of Virgil (Æneid. L. i. 502.) will occur to the reader’s recollection; and I need not again exhibit (see c. xxii. note 2.) the elaborate and highly-embellished portrait of the Carthaginian poet, (Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 86.) Effigies in marble of the Goddess of Hunting are to be seen in almost every collection; alone, with her usual symbols of venation, or accompanied by dogs of chase, or deer—or both, as in an alto-relievo at Wilton House. Temples and altars of Diana Agrotera are mentioned by Pausanias in Atticis c. xix. and c. xli., in eliacis i. c. xv., in Achaicis c. xxvi.
For the honour of Diana, in the character of Agrotera, the shows of wild beasts in the Roman Circus and Amphitheatre were generally designed: so Claudian,
and for their support in splendid variety, the whole world was ransacked for its rarest and most savage animals:
No deity amongst the heathens was more terrible than the masculine daughter of Latona,Lucian. Deor. Dial. Juno et Latona. (ἀῤῥενικὴ πέρα τοῦ μέτρου, καὶ ὄρειος, in Juno’s taunting language,) and none less patient of affront—
The reader will call to recollection the death of the unfortunate son of Autonoë, τὸν Ἀκταίωνος ἄθλιον μόρον, (Euripid. Bacchæ,) and the desolation of the well-cultivated vineyard of Œneus (Homer. Iliad. L. ix.) at the hand of Dian,
It is supposed that the beautiful poetry of Callimachus, in which the anger and favour of the goddess are so feelingly described, (Hymn, in Dian.,) was imitated from the Psalms of David, which the poet, peradventure, had seen at the court of King Ptolemy. See the effects of her wrath, vs. 124. σχέτλιοι οἷς τύνη χαλεπὴν, κ. τ. λ.; with which are contrasted the good luck and happiness of those to whom she is propitious, vs. 129. οὓς δέ κεν εὐμειδής τε καὶ ἵλαος, κ. τ. λ. The conclusion follows, of course, that no man in his right senses should think of slighting the powerful dispenser of so much good andCallimach. H. in Dian. 260. evil—μή τις ἀτιμήσῃ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν.
The reader will find an amusing description of the worshipful Dian in the sulks at the marked insult of Œneus,
in Lucian, περὶ Θυσίων: καί μοι δοκεῖ ὁρᾷν αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ τότε μόνην, says the infidel satirist, τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν ἐν Οἰνέως πεπορευμένων, δεινὰ ποιοῦσαν, καὶ σχετλιάζουσαν οἵας ἑορτῆς ἀπολειφθήσεται.
Ἀνατιθέναι ἀπαρχὰς τῶν ἁλισκομένων τῇ Θεῷ, καὶ ἀποκαθαίρειν, κ. τ. λ.—as amended by Schneider. “Ac ne degustabant quidem novas fruges, aut vina,” says Pliny (xviii. 2.) “antequam sacerdotes primitias libassent.” And our venerable courser would have his disciples observe with strictness the same religious ceremonies of dedication, purification, &c. The ancients always purified themselves before Plaut. Aul. iii. 6. 43. sacrificing—“Ego, nisi quid me vis, eo lavatum, ut sacrificem:” and Hector tells his mother he is afraid to pour forth even a libation to Jupiter with unwashed hands,
The τοὺς κύνας καὶ τοὺς κυνηγέτας of our author answers to the “tota juventus” of Gratius, hereafter cited; and his ὡς νόμος, to the “lustralis de more sacri” of the Faliscian.
M. Le Verrier de la Conterie derives the fête of the French Chasseurs called La S. Hubert from this Celtic festival of Diana. As the latter supplanted with her images the unseen divinity of earlier adoration, she in her turn yielded the tutelage of the chase to St. Martin, St. Germain, and St. Hubert. Arrian wrote in the second century, and in the sixth we find Diana stillVénerie Normande. La S. Hubert. predominant:—“Le père Dom Martin nous assure que vers la fin du sixième siècle, les Gaulois célébroient les mystères de cette divinité avec des chants excessifs, et toutes les débauches que peuvent produire l’amour et le vin, sur une montagne des Ardennes qui est dans le Luxembourg, où ils avoient une idole de Diane fort grande et fort célèbre,” &c.
M. Fleuri (Hist. Ecclesiast. Tom. viii. l. xxxv. n. 22.) relates the destruction of Diana’s image, and the erection of the monastery and church of St. Martin on its site. But neither St. Martin, nor St. Germain, (“évêque d’Auxerre, et chasseur de grande réputation,”) were able to preserve their ascendancy against the superior claims of St. Hubert, (“évêque de Liège, plus fin et plus rusé dans l’art de la chasse,”) who subsequently received the first-fruits of the chase, ἀπαρχὰς τῶν ἁλισκομένων, and a tenth part of the game, as an annual consecration, ἐνιαύσια, from the posterity of the Celts.
The worship of Diana Venatrix extended from Celtica to the British Isles, which at an early period were peopled by a Celtic race, (see note 12. at the end of the present chapter). “Amongst other the goddes also,” saysHistorie of Scotland. Mainus. Holinshed, “whiche the Scottishmen had in most reverence, Diana was chiefe, whom they accompted as their peculiar patronesse, for that she was taken to be the goddesse of hunting, wherein consisted their chiefest exercise, pastime, and delite.” And at the same period, we find these Scoto-Celts in possession of greyhounds and hounds of chase of the highest repute, during the reign of Dorvadille.
Θησαυρὸς signifies, primarily, “theca, ubi res pretiosa deponitur;” and secondarily, “ipsa res condita.” See Martinii Lexicon Philologicum.
Ἐπὶ μὲν λαγῷ ἁλόντι δύο ὀβολὼ ἐμβάλλουσιν. The game of the modern courser was valued by the Celtic sportsmen, for Dian’s treasury, at about 2½d. of British currency. The obolus was a small Greek coin of silver, weighing about 11 grains, in ancient money worth 1½d. It was the sixth part of the drachma, which nearly answered to the Roman denarius. The double obolus, or diobolion, exactly hit the value of the hare in the Celtic scale of appreciation.
Ἐπὶ δὲ ἀλώπεκι δραχμὴν—Anglicè, ninepence for a fox. The silver drachma was equal to six oboli, consequently this crafty and destructive felon was estimated at thrice the value of the hare. The reasons of the text for the extra payment must be perfectly satisfactory to the patrons of the leash—ὅτι ἐπίβουλον τὸ χρῆμα, καὶ τοὺς λαγὼς διαφθείρει, κ. τ. λ. “Fraudulentum animal,” saysL. xii. c. ii. Isidorus, “insidiisque decipiens:” and Ælian. de Naturâ Animal. L. xiii. c. xi.Ælian, αἱροῦνται δὲ οἱ λαγῲ ὑπὸ ἀλωπέκων ἐνίοτε, οὐκ ἧττον δρόμῳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον τέχνῃ· σοφὸν γὰρ ἀπατᾷν ἀλώπηξ, καὶ δόλους οἶδεν. Xenophon, too, remarks that foxes are wont to kill not only hares, but leverets,De Venat. c. v. αὐτοὺς καὶ τὰ τέκνα: and is supported by the Cilician poet of the chase, who says of the fox—
“Foxes done grete harme,” says Duke Edmund, “in wareyns of conynges and of hares, the whiche thei ete, and take hem so gynnously and withe grete malice, and not withe rennyng.”
Ἐπὶ δὲ δορκάδι τέσσαρας δραχμάς. The tetradrachm of silver was worth four drachmas, or three shillings sterling—a high valuation of the roe-deer, an animal of chase, rather scarce in the British Isles, but at all times, I believe, abundant in France.Mayster of Game. c. v. fol. 30. De Langley calls the roe “a good litel beest, and goodly for to hunte to.”
Ὁπόταν γενέθλια ἥκη τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος. The gods of antiquity had their natal days as well as men. “Dies nobis natalitii sunt,” says Arnobius, “et potentias cœlites dies autumant habere natales.” The anniversary of Diana’s birth-day (see Ad. Turnebi Adversar. L. viii. c. xxvi.) was celebrated on the 13th of August—“Augustis redit Idibus Diana.” “Feriis suis, emeritos canes, quietosque à venatione, et immunes habere credebatur, et ipsa etiam feriari,” in the words of Pitiscus.
Pausanias in Achaicis c. xviii. describes a splendid celebration of the sylvan rites of Diana Laphria by the people of Patræ, in costliness and magnificence far surpassing these Celtic ceremonies, but in character somewhat similar. The festival of Patræ was also annual, as in Celtica.
Ἱερεῖον.
The ancient sacrifice consisted of three principal things—libation, incense, and victim; of which the latter was most important—varying according to the character of the deity to whom it was offered, and that of the persons offering. Perfection of form, as described by Ovid, was essential to acceptance at the altar.
Οἱ μὲν ὄϊν, οἱ δὲ αἶγα. So in Horace’s invitation to Phyllis to attend his banquet on Mæcenas’s natal day
The kid of the Celtic hunters is mentioned in the celebration of Diana’s rites by Gratius; see note 10.
Τῶν ἱερείων ἀπαρξάμενοι τῇ Ἀγροτέρᾳ. The first-fruits of the spoil were offered up to Diana Venatrix, (see c. xxxii. n. 8.,) as well as the purchased sacrificial victims. We are told by Plutarch that it was customary to consecrate the horns of the stag to the goddess, and to affix them to her temple; a quiver, too, with bow and arrows, and a canis venaticus, were commonly added.
See Symmach. Epist. L. v. Ep. 68. and Pitisci Lexicon Antiquitatum.
Εὐωχοῦνται αὐτοί τε καὶ οἱ κύνες.
To the hunting jubilations of our early annals (when Dian’s revels were scarce exploded) John of Salisbury alludes in hisDe Nugis Curialium L. i. c. iv. Policraticus: “Si vero clariore prædâ, cervo fortè vel apro, venantium labor effulserit, fit plausus intolerabilis, exultant venatores, caput prædæ et solemnia quædam spolia triumphantibus præferuntur, regem Cappadocum captum credas. Sic cornicines et tibicines videas victoriæ gloriam declarare.”
Τὰς κύνας δὲ καὶ στεφανοῦσιν. The custom of crowning, or decorating with roses and garlands of ribbon, greyhounds which have distinguished themselves in the coursing field, continues, I believe, at the present day. Such were the rewards bestowed on the fleet horses of the hippodrome:
See the medal of Diana Pergæa from Montfaucon Antiq. Expliq. Tom. i. p. 44. The goddess holds a spear, or hunting-pole, in her left hand, and a fillet or crown in her right hand, elevated over the head of a canis venaticus, who is wishfully looking up, as if in expectation of the reward of merit. This medal is copied by the learned Father from Beger, and derives its inscription from Perga in Pamphylia, nigh to which city, I find in Strabo,Strabon. Geograph. L. xiv. stood on an elevated site the temple of ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣ ΠΕΡΓΑΙΑ, whose rites were there annually celebrated.
Vestiges of the Celtic ceremonies of Agrotera seem to have been extant, under a peculiar modification, in London, within a period not very remote. That Dian’s worship was not confined to continental Europe, but extended, as already noticed in note 1. (sub fine) of this chapter, to the insular Britons, is an historical fact, confirmed, according to the learned and ingenious Mr. Douce,Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners, &c. Vol. i. p. 392. by the remains of such animals as were used in her sacrifices, and also by her own images found on rebuilding St. Paul’s Cathedral—on the site of which, Dr. Woodward very plausibly inferred, a Roman temple of the pagan goddess once stood. “It cannot be controverted,” continues the first-cited able antiquary, “that Diana was reverenced in this country long after the introduction of Christianity, when we find from the testimony of Richard Sporling, a monk of Westminster in 1450, and a diligent collector of ancient materials, that during the persecution of Diocletian the inhabitants of London sacrificed to Diana, whilst those of Thorney, now Westminster, were offering incense to Apollo. Sir W. Dugdale records that a commutation grant was made in the reign of Edward I. by Sir William Le Baud, to the dean and canons of St. Paul, of a doe in winter on the day of the Saint’s conversion, and of a fat buck in summer on that of his commemoration, to be offered at the high altar, and distributed among the canons. To this ceremony Erasmus has alluded in his book De Ratione Concionandi, when he describes the custom which the Londoners had of going in procession to St. Paul’s Cathedral with a deer’s head fixed upon a spear, accompanied with men blowing hunting-horns. Mr. Strype, likewise, in his Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. iii. p. 378. has preserved a notice of the custom as practised in Queen Mary’s time, with this addition, that the priest of every parish in the city, arrayed in his cope, and the bishop of London in his mitre, assisted on the occasion. Camden had likewise seen it when a boy, and had heard that the canons of the Cathedral attended in their sacred vestments, wearing garlands of flowers on their heads.”
We cannot but admire the fine feelings of piety, and conscious dependence on an over-ruling Providence, which pervade the closing chapters of the Cynegeticus.
Many splendid passages might be selected from the classical writings of Greece and Rome, demonstrative of the fact that, however darkened by mythological allusions, the most enlightened heathens supported a conviction of the affairs of this lower world being under the guidance of a Supreme Intelligence, and of man himself being utterly weak and destitute when unsupported by the aid and influence of Heaven. This feeling is strongly manifested in the works of Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Orpheus, Phocylides, and a host of others among the Greeks: and notwithstanding the mischievous attempt of the philosophy of Epicurus to eradicate from the Roman mind all sense of dependency on Heaven, (as if the Divine Essence, in relation to human conduct,Lucretii L. i. 62. “nec benè promeritis capitur, nec tangitur irâ,”) the works of Virgil, Horace, and Claudian afford splendid examples of the important truth that the natural aspirations of poetry tend to the honour of the Gods, and that when rightfully employed, the genius of man is ever directed to the advancement of religion and morality. It is unnecessary to refer to the innumerable passages illustrative of the creed of ancient philosophers, contained in their works; let it suffice that Pliny, in speaking of the unity of the Deity, gives the reason why men commonly spoke of more than one God:Hist. Natur. L. ii. c. vii. “Fragilis et laboriosa mortalitas in partes ista digessit, infirmitatis suæ memor; ut portionibus quisque coleret, quo maximè indigeret,” &c. The catalogue of subordinate deities, enumerated by our author as directing the affairs, destinies, and pursuits of mankind, merged with him in the belief of one Supreme Intelligence, of which these subaltern deities were the several attributes and manifestations, in the government of the universe and its constituent parts. According to Hermesianax,
an opinion which was general with the superior philosophers of Greece and Rome, in opposition to the polytheistic notions of their inferiors, who, while worshipping the “portiones” of Pliny, violated most grossly the unity of the Εἷς Θεὸς of philosophy;—the understandings of the former being too strong (as Sir W. Jones has remarked in the argument of his Hymn to Surya) to admit the popular belief, but their influence too weak to reform it, and establish in its place, in the public mind at large, the supreme unity of the Deity—
For further notice of this subject, the reader is referred to Maximus Tyrius, Dissert. 17., a Greek philosopher of the second century, contemporary, I believe, with Arrian.