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OF FABLE.

some over the fruits of the earth, and others over rivers; some over war, others over peace, and so of all the rest; of gods, whose power and ministry were limited to certain countries, and certain people, but were all subject to the authority of a supreme God.

Another principle of religion, generally engraven in the minds of all people, also made way for the multiplicity of the pagan divinities, and that is a constant persuasion that divine providence presides over all human events both great and small; and that no one, without exception, escapes its vigilance. and care. [c] But men, astonished at the immense number of particulars, to which it was requisite the Deity should descend, thought to ease him of the trouble, by giving every" god his peculiar' and personal function. Singulis rebus propria disponentes officia numinum.

The care of the whole country would have been too much business for a single god; the lands were committed to one, the mountains to another, the hills to a third, and the vallies to a fourth. St. Augustine reckons up a dozen different divinities, all employed about a stalk of corn; every one of which, according to his particular function, takes a peculiar care of it at different times, from the moment the seed has been thrown into the earth, till the corn arrives at maturity.

[d] Besides this multitude of inferior gods designed for these mean functions, there are others, says St. Augustine, that are more [e] considerable, and of an higher rank, as having evidently a more noble share in the government of the world.

But, [f] adds the father, they are these very important and renowned gods, which fable has most disgraced and disparaged, by attributing to them the most

[c] S. Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. iv. c. 8.

[d] Ibid. lib. vii. c. 2. Illam quasi plebejam numinum multitudinem minutis opusculis destinatam. [e] Numina selecta dicuntur.

strantur in mundo.

[ƒ] Illam infimam turbam ipsa ignobilitas texit ne obrueretur opprobriis... Vix selectorum quispiam, qui non in se notam contumeliæ insignis acceperit. Lib. vii.

shameful crimes and most detestable disorders, mu ders, adulteries and incests. Whereas in the cas of those inferior gods, their obscurity and meannes has secured their honour by leaving them in oblivion And this has besides been a fruitful source of fi tions, with which the corruption of man's heart ha supplied Fable, in order to palliate and excuse th most frightful irregularities by the example of th gods themselves.

There was no species of infamy which was not a thorised, and even consecrated by the worship pa to certain gods. [g] Upon the festival of the moth of the gods, they sung such songs that the mother a comedian would have blushed at; and Scipio N sica, who was chosen by the senate as the fittest ma in the republic with whom to lodge her statue, wou have been grieved to have had his own mother a go dess at such a rate, or that she had held the pla of Cybele.

[h] The philosophers blamed all these impure c remonies, but with fear, in faint terms, and only wit in the limits of their own schools. However religio among their disciples, they followed the people in t temples and theatres, where these abominations to place; and [] Seneca, in a work which we have lo where he rails with great force at these sacrilegious perstitions, declares notwithstanding that a wise n will externally conform to them, in compliance to laws of the state, though he knows well that suc worship can never please the gods, but must only p voke them. Quæ omnia sapiens servabit tanqu legibus jussa, non tanquam diis grata.

I do not here propose to point out all the sour from whence Fable has taken its rise, but only to s some of the most common; and in this number may place the sense of admiration or gratitude, w inclined men to annex the idea of divinity to w

[g] S. Aug, de Civit. Dei, lib. ii,

C. 4, 5.

[b] Etsi non liberè prædicando, saltem utcumque in disputationibus

mussitando, talia se improbar
tati sunt. Lib. vi. c. 1.
[i] Lib. vi. c. 20.

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ever made an impression on their imagination, nearly affected them, or seemed to procure them any advantage, such as the sun, moon or stars; the fathers with regard to their children, and children with respect to their fathers; the persons who had either invented, or carried any useful arts to perfection; the heroes who had distinguished themselves in war by extraordinary valour, or purged the land of robbers and disturbers of the public tranquillity; and lastly, all those, who, by any virtue, or glorious action, seemed superior to the generality of mankind.. And it is very visible, without my observing it, that profane, as well as sacred history, has given occasion to all those demi-gods and heroes which Fable has placed in heaven, by joining frequently under one and the same head and name, such actions as were very distinct, both as to time, place, and persons.

ARTICLE II.

OF THE USEFULNESS OF FABLE.

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WHAT I have already observed concerning the origin of Fables, which owe their birth to fiction, error and falshood, to the alteration of historical facts, and the corruption of man's heart, may give reason to ask, whether it is proper to instruct Christian children in all the foolish inventions, absurd and idle dreams, with which paganism has filled the books of antiquity?

This study, when applied to with all the precaution and wisdom which religion demands and inspires, may be very useful to youth.

First, it teaches them what they owe to Jesus Christ, their redeemer, who has delivered them from the power of darkness, to bring them into the adniizable light of the gospel. Before him, what were even the wisest and best of men, those celebrated philosophers, those great politicians, those famous legislators of

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the best governed and wisest nations of the world Fable informs us, they were blind worshippers of th devil, who bent their knees before gold, silver, an marble; who offered incense to statues that were dea and dumb; who acknowledged, as gods, animals reptiles and plants; who were not ashamed to ador an adulterous Mars, a prostituted Venus, and an in cestuous Juno, a Jupiter polluted with all manner crimes, and for that reason most worthy of the fir place among the gods. (in ore nd£t to guboloRZ

What great impurities, what monstrous abomina tions, were admitted into their ceremonies, their se lemnities and mysteries? The temples of their go were schools of licentiousness, their pictures invit tions to sin, their groves places of prostitution, their s crifices a frightful mixture of superstition and cruelt

In this condition were all mankind, except the pe ple of the Jews, for near four thousand years. In th state were our fathers, and we should have likewi been, if the light of the gospel had not dispersed o darkness. Every story in fabulous history, every c cumstance of the lives of the gods should fill us once with confusion, admiration and gratitude, a seem to cry out to us aloud, in the words of St. Paul the Ephesians, [k] Remember, and forget it not, th being sprung from Gentiles, ye were strangers fr the covenants of promise, having no hope, and wi out God in the world.

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A second advantage of Fable is, that in discove ing to us the absurd ceremonies and impious maxi of paganism, it ought to inspire us with new resp for the august majesty of the Christian religion, a the sanctity of its morals. We learn from ecclesias cal history, that an holy [7] bishop, in order to era cate entirely all dispositions to idolatry out of minds of the faithful, brought to light, and publi exposed all that was found in the inside of a tem [*] Eph. ii. v. 11, 12. andria. Theod. v. č. 22. Ruf [] Theophilus bishop of Alex- c. 23, 24, Soc. v. c16

sible person, and it is this use that the holy fathers and all the apologists of Christianity have made of it

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It is impossible to understand the books which have been written upon this subject, without having some knowledge of fabulous history St. Augustine's great work, intitled, De Civitate Dei, which has done so much honour to the church, is, at the same time, both a proof of what I lay down, and a perfect model of the manner how we ought to sanctify profane studies. The same may be said of the other fathers, who have gone upon the same plan from the beginning of Christianity, Theophilus of Antioch, Tatian, Arnobius, Lactantius, Theodoret, Eusebius of Cæsarea, and especially St. Clement of Alexandria, whose Stronata are not to be understood by any one: that is not versed in this part of ancient learning. Whereas the knowledge of Fable makes the understanding of them extremely easy, which we ought to look upon as no small advantage.

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It is also very useful (and particularly to youth, for whom I write,) for the understanding both of Greek, Latin, French and English authors, in reading of which they must be often at a stand, without some acquaintance with Fable. I do not speak only of the poets, to whom we know it is a kind of natural language; it is also frequently made use of by orators, and sometimes, by an happy application, supplies them with very lively and eloquent turns: such, for nstance, amongst a great many others, is the followng passage in Tully's oration concerning Mithridates king of Pontus. [m] The orator takes notice that his prince, flying before the Romans, after the loss of a battle, found means to escape out of the hands of his covetous conquerors, by scattering upon the

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