and presents nothing to view but absurdities, follies, extravagancies, licentiousness, and disorder; in a word, an hideous chaos of frantic excesses and enormous vices.

Can any thing be more admirable than these maxims of Cicero? That we ought, above all things, to be convinced that there is a supreme Being, who presides over all the events of the world, and disposes every thing as sovereign lord and arbiter: That it is to him mankind are indebted for all the good they enjoy: That he penetrates into, and is conscious of whatever passes in the most secret recesses of our hearts: That he treats the just and the impious according to their respective merits: That the true means of acquiring his favour, and of being pleasing in his sight, is not by the use of riches and magnificence in his worship, but by presenting him an heart pure and blameless, and by adoring him with an unfeigned and profound veneration.

Sentiments so sublime and religious were the result of the reflections of the few who employed themselves in the study of the heart of man, and in tracing him to the first principles of his institution, of which they still retained some happy, though imperfect ideas. But the whole system of their religion, the tendency of their public feasts and ceremonies, the soul of the Pagan

Sit hoc jam à principio persuasum civibus: dominos esse omnium rerum ac moderatores deos, eaque quæ geruntur eorum geri judicio ac numine; eosdemque optimè de genere hominum mereri; et qualis quisque sit, quid agat, quid in ne se admittat, qua mente, qua pietate religiones colat, intueri; piorumque et impiorum habere rationem. Ad divos adeunto casté. Pietatem adhibento, opes amovento. Cic. de leg 1.ii. n. 15 et 19.

theology, of which the poets were the only teachers and professors, the very examples of the gods, whose violent passions, scandalous adventures, and abominable crimes, were celebrated in their hymns or odes, and proposed in some measure to the imitation, as well as adoration of the people; these were certainly very unfit means to enlighten the minds of men, and to form them to virtue and morality.

It is remarkable, that in the greatest solemnities of the Pagan religion, and in their most sacred and reverend mysteries, far from perceiving any thing to recommend virtue, piety, or the practice of the most essential duties of ordinary life, we find the authority of laws, the imperious power of custom, the presence of magistrates, the assembly of all orders of the state, the example of fathers and mothers, all conspire to train up a whole nation from their infancy in an impure and sacrilegious worship, under the name, and in a manner under the sanction of religion itself; as we shall soon see in the sequel.

After these general reflections upon Paganism, it is time to proceed to a particular account of the religion of the Greeks. I shall reduce this subject, though infinite in itself, to four articles, which are, 1. The feasts. 2. The oracles, augurs, and divinations. 3. The games and combats. 4. The public shows, and representations of the theatre. In each of these articles, I shall treat only of what appears most worthy of the reader's curiosity, and has most relation to this history. I omit saying any thing of sacrifices, having given a sufficient idea of them elsewhere."

b Manner of teaching, &c. vol. i.

OF THE FEASTS.

An infinite number of feasts were celebrated in the several cities of Greece, and especially at Athens, of which I shall only describe three of the most famous, the Panathenea, the feasts of Bacchus, and those of Eleusis.

The Panathenea. This feast was celebrated at Athens in honour of Minerva, the tutelary goddess of that city, to which she gave her name, as well as to the feast we speak of. Its institution was ancient, and it was called at first Athenea; but after Theseus had united the several towns of Attica into one city, it took the name of Panathenea. These feasts were of two kinds, the great and the less, which were solemnized with almost the same ceremonies; the less annually, and the great upon the expiration of every fourth year.

In these feasts were exhibited racing, the gymnastic combats, and the contentions for the prizes of music and poetry. Ten commissaries, elected from the ten tribes, presided on this occasion to regulate the forms, and distribute the rewards to the victors. This festival continued several days.

The first day, in the morning, a race was run on foot, each of the runners carrying a lighted torch in his hand, which they exchanged continually with each other without interrupting their race. They started from Ceramicus, one of the suburbs of Athens, and crossed the whole city. The first that came to the goal, without having put out his torch, carried the prize. In the afternoon they ran the same course on horseback.

The gymnastic or athletic combats followed the races. The place for that exercise was upon the banks of the Ilissus, a small river, which runs through Athens, and empties itself into the sea at the Pireus. Pericles instituted the prize of music. In this dispute were sung the praises of Harmodius and Aristogiton, who delivered Athens from the tyranny of the Pisistratides; to which was afterwards added the eulogium of Thrasybulus, who expelled the thirty tyrants. These disputes were not only warm among the musicians, but much more so among the poets, and it was highly glorious to be declared victor in them. Eschylus is reported to have died with grief upon seeing the prize adjudged to Sophocles, who was much younger than himself.

These exercises were followed by a general procession, wherein a sail was carried with great pomp and ceremony, on which were curiously delineated the warlike actions of Pallas against the Titans and Giants. That sail was affixed to a vessel, which was called by the name of the goddess. The vessel, equipped with sails, and with a thousand oars, was conducted from Ceramicus to the temple of Eleusis, not by horses or beasts of draught, but by machines concealed in the bottom of it, which put the oars in motion, and made the vessel glide along.

The march was solemn and majestic. At the head of it were old men, who carried olive branches in their hands; and these were chosen for the goodness of their shape, and the vigour of their complexion.

θαλλοφόροι.

Athenian matrons, of great age, also accompanied them in the same equipage.

The grown and robust men formed the second class. They were armed at all points, and had bucklers and lances. After them came the strangers that inhabited Athens, carrying mattocks, instruments proper for tillage. Next followed the Athenian women of the same age, attended by the foreigners of their own sex, carrying vessels in their hands for the drawing of water.

The third class was composed of young persons of both sexes, and of the best families in the city. The youth wore vests, with crowns upon their heads, and sang a peculiar hymn in honour of the goddess. The maids carried baskets, in which were placed the sacred utensils proper to the ceremony, covered with veils to keep them from the sight of the spectators. The person, to whose care those sacred things were intrusted, was to have observed an exact continence for several days before he touched them, or distributed them to the Athenian virgins; or rather, as Demosthenes says, his whole life and conduct ought to have been a perfect model of virtue and purity. It was an high honour to a young woman to be chosen for so noble and august an office, and an insupportable affront to be deemed unworthy of it. We have seen that Hipparchus treated the sister of Harmodius with this indignity, which extremely incensed the conspirators against the Pisistratides. These Athenian virgins were followed by the foreign young women, who carried umbrellas and seats for them.

• Ούχι προειρημενον ημέρων αριθμον αγνουσιν μόνον, αλλά τον βιο *Real Demost. in extrema Aristocratia.