solute monarchy. The crown was hereditary, and generally bestowed on the eldest of the deceased king's legitimate children.

§ The kings of Persia received almost divine honours from their subjects. No one could approach the seat of majesty without prostrating himself, or remain in the presence, without holding his hands within his sleeves. Death was the consequence of violating this ceremony.

Herodotus mentions that Xerxes being once in great danger by sea, many of his attendants strove who should first leap overboard to lighten the vessel, and sacrifice themselves for the preservation of their prince.

The royal palace at Persepolis was extremely magnificent. The roofs and sides of the apartments were entirely covered with ivory, silver, gold, or amber. The throne was of fine gold and adorned with precious stones. The royal bed was also of gold, and two coffers were placed by it, both containing 8,000 talents.

The Persian monarchs, for the most part, lived only to gratify their sensual appetites. All the delicacies and rarities of the world were sought for their table. Cicero informs us, that the revenues of whole provinces were lavished on the attire of their favorite concubines, one city being compelled to supply them with ornaments for their hair, another for their necks, &c.

81. Education. The Persians are said to have paid more particular regard to the education of their children, than any other nation. A son was never admitted into the presence of his father, till he had arrived at the age of five years, lest, if he should die before that period, his parents might be too heavily afflicted by his loss.

§ At the age of five, learned masters taught the children of the better families, in learning and moral virtues, taking with them the utmost pains, and bestowing upon them the greatest care.

82. Punishments. The punishments in general were se vere, as cutting off the right hand, decapitation, pressing to death between two large stones, &c.

§ The most severe punishment known in Persia, was the inhuman one of fastening the culprit between two boats, in such a manner that he was unable to move, though his head, hands and feet were left uncovered. His face, exposed to the rays of the sun, was smeared with honey, which invited innumerable swarms of flies and wasps to torment him, while the worms that bred in his excrements devoured his bowels; and the executioners compelled him, by thrusting sharp iron instrument into his eyes, to receive nourishment for the express purpose of prolonging his excruciating agonies. One victim is recorded to have lived 17 days under this complication of torments.

83. Military Art. The Persians were all trained to military exercise, but more particularly to the use of the bow.

They never fought in the night, nor used any stratagem independent of their own valour.

§ When they designed to make war upon any nation, they had the singular custom of sending heralds to demand of them earth and water, thereby commanding them to acknowledge the king of Persia, as sovereign lord of their country.

84. Religion. Their religion was in a degree idolatrous, though less so than that of the nations around them. They professed to worship the one all-wise and omnipotent God though they held fire to be holy, and the purest symbol of the divine nature. In connexion with this, they had a superstitious regard of the sun. They honoured also other elements, as the earth, the air, and water.

The Persians are supposed to have been originally instructed in the worship of the true God by their progenitor Elam, but soon to have fallen into the heresy of Zabiism. From this they are thought to have been recovered, and to have afterwards engaged in superstitious acts of reverence to the celestial bodies.

In ancient times, they were destitute of temples, but erected altars for the preservation of their sacred fires, on the tops of mountains. At length Zoroaster persuaded them, for the sake of convenience, to build over each, a pyreum or fire-temple. This Zoroaster is supposed by some to have been a native of Persia, and a restorer of the religion of the Magi.

MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT NATIONS.

1. All the nations of antiquity, except the Jews, were heathens and idolaters. Their system of religion was called Polytheism, as acknowledging a plurality of gods. They worshipped divinities by various representations, called idols. Forsaking the service of the only living and true God, as made known at first by traditionary, and afterwards by written revelation, they paid that homage which is due to him, to those that are by nature no God.

2. Besides angels, as presiding over particular kingdoms,the heavenly bodies, men, beasts, birds, fishes, virtues, vices, diseases, and evil demons, were esteemed deities, and had temoles built for their worship.

Among the Egyptians, the principal deities were Osiris and Isis, supposed to be the sun and moon. The people however bestowed divine honours on animals, birds, insects, and even vegetables, as leeks and onions. The poet Juvenal intimates that their religious exercises were not greatly esteemed by the Romans. In fact, they exceeded all the other ancients in these absurdities, and were extremely debased by their vile superstitions.

The Babylonians and Arabians adored the heavenly bodies. They supposed that the angels resided in the stars, and governed the world under the supreme deity. Among the later Babylonians, Belus became their Jupiter, to whom a magnificen. temple was erected in Babylon.

The Canaanites and Syrians worshipped Baal, Tammuz, Magog, and Astarte. Moloch was the Saturn of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. To him, human victims, particularly children, were immolated. Baal-peor was the idol of the Moabites-his rights were detestable and cruel. Dagon was the chief god of the Philistines; his figure was compounded of a man and a fish.

In the mythology of the Scythians, the god of war was their favourite divinity, and to him were consecrated groves of oaks of extraordinary size. Horses were sacrificed, and every hundredth man taken in battle.

In the mythology of the Celts, the Druids had the direction of theological concerns. Their rites were performed in groves, and they paid superstitious reverence to the misletoe. Human victims were often offered; colossal images of wicker-work, filled with human criminals, were consumed by fire.

The Persians in their religion rejected, for the most part, the complicated popular system of polytheism. They believed in one supreme God who formed and governed all things. They, however, preserved the sacred fire, as it was called, which was kindled by consecrated sun-beams. Their rites at first were plain and simple, and their priests were called magi. These tenets of their primitive religion gradually degenerated into Zabiism, or the adoration of celestial bodies.

The mythology of the ancient Hindoos resembles, in some of its features, that of the Egyptians, Persians, and Scythians. It is a strange mixture of a few truths with many wild fables. It divides the world into ten parts, setting over each a guardian spirit. The deity Brahma is made the creating power, Vishnu is the preserver and pervader, and Narayda, the mover on the waters.

3. The multitude of gods as an object of faith, is preposterous and wicked; but the elegant forms and agreeable fictions that mythology furnishes, are admirably adapted to the purposes of poetry, statuary, and painting. The imagination revels in a region fairy and enchanting.

§ The theology of Pagan antiquity, according to Scævola and Varro, was of three sorts. The first of these may well be called fabulous, as treating of the theology and genealogy of their deities, in which they relate such things as are infinitely unworthy of the divinity, ascribing to them, thefts, murders, adulteries, and all manner of crimes.

This kind of theology is condemned by the wiser sort of heathens as trifling and scandalous. The writers of this sort of theology were Sanchoniathon the Phoenician; and Orpheus, Hesiod, Pherecydes, &c., among the Greeks.

The second kind called physic or natural, was studied and taught by the philosophers, who rejecting the multiplicity of gods introduced by the poets, brought their theology to a more natural and rational form. They supposed that there was but one supreme God, which they commonly make to be the sun, at least an emblem of him; but at too great a distance to mind the affairs of the world, and therefore devised certain demons, which they considered as mediators between the supreme God and man.

The speculations of the philosophers related to the doctrines of these demons, to their nature, their office, and regard to men. Writers of this class were Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, and the Stoics.

The third kind of theology called politic or civil, was instituted by legislators, statesmen, and politicians. The first among the Romans was Numa Pompilius. This part of the Pagan system chiefly respected their gods, temples, altars, sacrifices, and rites of worship, and was properly their idolatry, the care of which belonged to the priests. The whole was enjoined on the common people, to keep

them in obedience to the civil state.

4. In the fictions of mythology, particularly those of Greece and Rome, many things are allegorical and mystical, the true sense of which, though not accommodated to the vulgar apprehension, the refined and liberal may explain. This suggests one use to be derived from the study of the Pagan sy‹tems of religion. We learn the religious views of antiquity.

Another use of it is, that the classic authors cannot be read with advantage without a knowledge of mythology; and the classic authors, it is not to be doubted, are the best models of fine writing extant, and are necessary to improve the taste. Connected with this also is the fact, that a know ledge of mythology can alone enable us to understand and become acquainted with antique statues, medals, paintings, &c. § The gods of ancient paganism were some mundane, and others supermundane. The mundane are those who were supposed to fabricate the world, and the supermundane are those who produce essences, intellects, and souls. Hence they are distinguished into three orders. Of the mundane gods likewise, some are the causes of the existence of the world; others animate it; others again harmonize it, thus composed of different natures; and lastly, others guard and preserve it when harmoniously arranged.

Since also these orders are four, and each consists of things first, middle, and last, it is necessary that the governors of these should be twelve. Hence Jupiter, Neptune and Vulcan fabricate the world. Ceres, Juno and Diana animate it; Mercury, Venus and Apollo harmonize it; and lastly, Vesta, Minerva and Mars preside over it with a guardian power.

But the truth of this may be seen in statues as in enigmas. For Apollo in marble holds in his hands a lyre; Minerva is invested with

arms; and Venus is naked, since harmony produces beauty, and beauty is not concealed in subjects of sensible perception.

As these gods primarily possess the world, it is necessary to consider the other mundane gods as subsisting in them, as Bacchus in Jupiter, Esculapius in Apollo, and the Graces in Venus. We may also behold the spheres with which they are connected, viz. Vesta with the earth, Neptune with water, Juno with air, and Vulcan with fire. But Apollo and Diana are assumed for the sun and moon; the sphere of Saturn is attributed to Ceres; ether to Minerva; and heaven Is common to them all..

The above are a few instances of the real sense of the fictions of mythology. Many of the philosophers in these fictions concealed their better knowledge, often conveying lessons of wisdom under the veil of allegory. The genuine Pagan creed, as given by a heathen philosopher, Maximus Tyrius, is the following:

"There is one God, the king and father of all things, and many gods, sons of God, ruling together with him. This the Greek says, and the barbarian says, the inhabitant of the continent, and he that dwells near the sea; and if you even proceed to the utmost shores of the ocean, there too there are gods, rising very near to some, and setting very near to others." By the rising and setting gods he means the stars, which according to the Pagan theology, are divine animals, Co-operating with the first cause in the government of the world.

5. A survey of the heathen mythology presents little to view but absurdity, and the various forms in which human corruption is exhibited. The people at large, whatever the philosophers understood by these "phantasms and monsters," received them as literal truths, till it became dangerous to shake the faith of communities, or disturb the public religion.

§ In this state of things continued the gentile world, until the light of the gospel was sent among them. Those were times of ignorance. The people were unacquainted with the true God and the worship of him-with the Messiah and salvation by him.

The moral world at present is gloriously illuminated. The Bible has scattered the dark shades of spiritual and intellectual night. We behold" one God and one Mediator between God and men," seated upon the throne of the universe; possessed of boundless wisdom, power, purity, goodness; the Creator, the Preserver, the Ruler, and the Redeemer of his creatures; ever present in all parts of his creation, ever providing for its general happiness.