THE ORIGIN
OP ALL
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.
OF THE GOD-UNIVERSE AND HIS WORSHIP.
https://archive.org/details/originallreligi00dupugoogThe word God seems intended to express the idea of a power universal and eternally active, which gives impulse to the movements of all Nature, following the laws of a harmony alike constant and wonderful, and developing itself in various forms, which organized matter can take, which blends itself with and animates everything and which seems to constitute One, and only to belong to itself, in its infinite variety of modifications. Such is the vital force, which comprehends in itself the Universe, or that systematic combination of all the bodies, which one eternal chain binds amongst themselves and which a perpetual movement rolls majestically through the bosom of space and Time without end. When man began to reason upon the causes of his existence and preservation, also upon those of the multiplied effects, which are born and die around him, where else but in this vast and admirable Whole could he have placed at first that sovereignly powerful cause, which brings forth everything, and in the bosom of which all reenters, in
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order to issue again by a succession of new generations and under different forms. This power being that of the World itself, it was therefore the World, which was considered as God, or as the supreme and universal cause of all the effects produced by it, of which mankind forms a part. This is that great God, the first or rather the only God, who has manifested himself to man through the veil of the matter which he animates and which forms the immensity of the Deity. This is also the sense of that sublime inscription of the temple of Sals : I am all that has been, all that is, and all that shall be, and no mortal has lifted yet the mil,that covers me.
Although this God was everywhere and was all, which bears a character of grandeur and perpetuity in this eternal World, yet did man prefer to look for him in those elevated regions, where that mighty and radiant luminary seems to travel through space, overflowing the Universe with the waves of its light, and through which the most beautiful as well as the most bene- ficient action of the Deity is enacted on Earth. It would seem as if the Almighty had established his throne above that splendid azure vault, sown with brilliant lights, that from the summit of the heavens he held the reins of the World, that he directed the movements of its vast body, and contemplated himself in forms as varied as they are admirable, wherein he modifies himself incessantly. “ The World, says Pliny, or ivhat “ we otherwise call Heaven, which comprises in its immensity the “ idhole creation, is an eternal, an infinite God, which has never been “ created, and which shall never come to an end. To look for some- “ thing else beyond it, is useless labor for man, and out of his reach. “ Behold that truly sacred Being, eternal and immense, which “ eludes within itself everything ; it is All in or rather itself is “ All. It is the work of Nature, and itself is Nature.”
Thus spoke the greatest philosopher as well as the wisest of ancient naturalists. He believed that the World and Heaven ought to be called the supreme cause and God. According
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to his theory, the World is eternally working within itself and upon itself, it is at the same time the maker and the work. It is the universal cause of all the effects, which it contains. Nothing exists outside of it, it is ail that has been, all that is, and all that shall be, in other words : Nature itself or God,
because by the name of God we 'mean the eternal infinite and sacred Being, which as cause, contains within itself all that is produced. This is the character, which Pliny attributes to the World, which he calls the great God, beyond whom we shall seek in vain for another.
This doctrine is traced up to the highest antiquity with the Egyptians and the East Indians. The former had their great Pan, who combined in himself all the characters of universal Nature, and who was originally merely a symbolical expression of her fruitful power.
The latter have their God Vishnu, whom they confound frequently with the World, although they make of him sometimes only a fraction of that treble force, of which the universal power is composed. They say, that the Universe is nothing else but the form of Vishnu ; that he carries it within his bosom ; that all that has been, all that is, and all that shall be, is in him ; that he is the beginning and the end of all things ; that he is All, that he is a Being alone and supreme, who shows himself right before our eyes, in a thousand forms. He is an infinite Being, adds the Bagawadam, inseparable from the Universe, which essentially is one with him, because say the Indians, Vishnu is All, and All is in him ; which is entirely a similar expression as the one used by Pliny, in order to characterize the God-Universe, or the World, the supreme cause of all the effects produced.
In the opinion of the Brahmins, as well as that of Pliny, the great-maker or the great Demiurgos is not separated or distinguished from his work. The World is not a machine foreign to the Divinity, which is created and moved by it and outside 3
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of it; it is the developement of the divine substance ; it is one of the forms under which God shows himself before our eyes. The essence of the "World is one and indivisible with that of Bramah, who organizes it. He, who sees the World, sees God, so far as men can see him ; as he, who sees the body of a man and his movements, sees man, so much as can be seen of him, altho’ the principle of his movements, of his life and of his mind, remain concealed under the envelope, which the hand touches and the eyes perceives. It is the same with the sacred body of the Deity or of the God-Universe. Nothing exists but in him and through him ; outside of him all is nonentity or abstraction. His power is that of the Divinity itself. His movements are those of the great Being, principle of all the others ; and his wonderful order is the organization of his visible substance and of that portion of himself, which God shows to man. In this magnificent spectacle, which the Deity presents to us of itself, were conceived the first ideas of God and the supreme cause ; on him were fixed the eyes of all those, who have investigated the source of life of all creatures. The first men worshipped the various members of this sacred body of the World, and not feeble mortals, who are carried away in the current of the torrent of ages. And where is indeed the man, who could have maintained the parallel, which might have been drawn between him and Nature ?
If it is alleged, that it is to Force, to which altars were first erected, where is that mortal, whose strength could have been compared to that immeasurable, incalculable one, which is scattered all over the World and developed under so many forms and through so many different degrees, producing such wonderful effects ; which holds the Sun in equilibrium in the centre of the*planetary system ; which propels the planets, and yet retains them in their orbits; which unchains the winds, heaves up the seas or calms the storm; which darts the lightning, displaces and overthrows mountains by volcanic erup
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tions, and holds the whole Universe in eternal activity ? Can it be believed, that the admiration, which this force even to this day produces on our minds, did not equally affect the first mortals, who contemplated in silence the spectacle of the World, and who tried to divine the almighty cause, which set so many different springs in motion ? Instead of supposing that the son of Alcmena had replaced the God-Universe and brought him into oblivion, is it not more simple to assume, that man, not being able to paint or represent the power of Nature, except by images as feeble as himself, endeavored to find in that of the lion or in that of a robust man the figurative expression, with which he designed to awaken the idea of the force of the World ? It was not the man or Hercules, who had raised himself to the rank of the Deity, it was the Deity which waslowered and abased to the level of man, who lacked the means to paint or represent it. Therefore, it was not the apotheosis of man, but rather the degradation of the Deity by symbols and images, which has seemed to displace all in the worship rendered to the supreme cause and its parts, and in the feasts designed to celebrate its greatest operations. If it is to the gratitude of mankind for benefits received, that the institution of religious ceremonies and the most august mysteries of antiquity, must be attributed, can it be believed, that mortals, whether Ceres or Bacchus, had higher merits in the eyes of men, than that Earth, which from its fruitful bosom brings forth the crops and fruits, which Heaven feeds with its waters, and which the Sun warms and matures with its fire ? that Nature, showering upon us its bountiful treasures, should have been forgotten, and that only some mortals should have been remembered, who had given instructions how to use it? To suppose such a thing, would be to acknowledge our ignorance of the power, which Nature always exercised over man, whose attention is ceaselessly claimed by her, on account of his absolute dependence on her, and of his wants. True it is, that
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sometimes audacious mortals wanted to contend with the veritable gods for their incense and to share it with them, but such an extorted worship lasted only so long, as flattery and fear had an interest in its continuation. Domitian was nothing but a monster under Trajan. Augustus himself was soon forgotten, but Jupiter remained master of the Capitol. Old Saturn was always held in veneration amongst the ancient communities of Italy, where he was worshipped as the G od of time, the same as Janus, or the Genius who opens to him the course of the seasons. Pomona and Flora preserved their altars, and the various constellations continued to be the heralds of the feasts of the sacred calendar, because they were those of Nature.
The reason, why the worship of man has always met with obstacles in its establishment and maintenance amongst its equals, is to be found in man himself, when compared with the great Being, which we call the Universe. In man all is weakness, while in the Universe all is grand, all is strength, all is power. Man is born, grows and dies, and scarcely shares for an instant the eternal duration of the "World, of which he occupies such an infinitesimal point. Being the issue of dust, he very soon returns to it entirely, while Nature alone remains with its formations and its power, and from the remains of mortal beings is reconstructing new ones. It knows no old age, nor alteration of its strength. Our fathers did not see it come into existence, nor shall our great grand children see it come to an end. When we shall descend into the grave, we shall leave it behind just as young, as when we first sprung into life from its bosom. The farthest posterity shall see the Sun rise as brilliant, as we see it now, and as our fathers saw it. To be born to grow, to get old and to die, express ideas, which do not belong to universal Nature, they being only the attributes of mankind and of the other effects produced by the former, “The Universe, says Ocellus of Lucania, when con-
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“sidered in its totality, gives ns no indication whatsoever,
“ which would betray an origin or portend a destruction, no- “body has seen it spring into existence, nor grow or improve, “it is always the same in the same manner, always uniform “ and like itself.” Thus spoke one of the oldest philosophers, whose writings have come down to us, and since then our observations have made no additions to our knowledge. The Universe seems to us the same, as it appeared to him. Is not this character of perpetuity belonging to the Deity, or to the supreme cause ? What would then God be, if he was not all that, which to us seems to be Nature and the internal power which moves it ? Shall we search beyond this World for that eternal uncreated Being, of which there is no proof of existence ? Is it in the class of produced effects, that we shall place that immense cause, beyond which we see nothing but phantoms, the creatures of our own imagination ? I know, that the mind of man, whose reveries are uncontrollable, has gone beyond that, which the eye perceives, and has overleaped the barrier, which Nature has placed before its sanctuary. It has substituted for the cause it saw in action, an other cause, which it did not see, as beyond and superior to it, without in the least troubling itself about the means to prove its reality. Man asked, who had made the World, just as if it had been proved, that the World had been made ; nor did he at all enquire, who had made this God, foreign to the World, entirely convinced, that one could exist, without having been made ; all of which the philosophers have really thought of the World, or of the universal and visible cause. Because man is only an effect, he wanted also the World to be one, and in the delirium of his metaphysics, he imagined an abstract Being called God, separated from the World and from the cause of the World, placed above the immense sphere, which circumscribes the System of the Universe, and it was only himself alone the guarantee of the existence of this new cause ; and thus did
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[Chap. I.
man create God. But this audacious conjecture is not his first step. The ascendancy, which the visible cause exercises over him is too strong for conceiving the idea of shaking it off so soon. He believed for a long while in the evidence of his own eyes, before he indulged in the illusions of his own imagination, and lost himself in the unknown regions of an invisible World. He saw God, or the great cause in the Universe, before he searched for him beyond it, and he circumscribed his Worship to the sphere of the World, which he saw, before he imagined a God in a World, which he did not see. This abuse of the mind, this refinement of metaphysics is of a very recent date in the history of religious opinions, and may be considered as an exception of the universal religion, which had for its object the visible Nature, and the active and spiritual force, which seems to spread through all its parts, as it may be easily ascertained by the testimony of historians, and by the political and religious monuments of the ancients.
CHAPTER 11
EVIDENCES OE HISTORY AND OF POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS.
OF THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE WORSHIP OF NATURE.
Henceforth we shall not be satisfied with mere arguments, in order to prove that the Universe and its members, considered as so many parts of the great cause or of the Great Being, must have attracted the attention and the homage of mortals. We shall be able to demonstrate by facts, and by a summary of the religious history of all nations, that that, •which ought to' have come to pass, has really happened, and that all men of all countries, since the highest antiquity, have had no other Gods, but those of Nature, in other words, the World and it most active and most luminous parts, Heaven, Earth, the Sun and the Moon, the Planets, the fixed Stars, the Elements and in general all, which bears a character of cause and perpetuity in Nature. To portray and to praise in songs the World and its operations, was in olden times the same, as portraying and glorifying the Deity.
In whatever direction we may look on the ancient as well as on the new continent, Nature and its principal agents have had everywhere their altars. Its august body and its sacred members were the object of veneration of all nations. “ Chsere- mon ” and the wisest priests of Egypt believed with Pliny, that nothing but the World and the visible cause should be admitted, and 'they supported their opinion by that of the oldest Egyptians/’ who, they Say, “ did only acknowledge as Gods, “ the Sun, the Moon, the Planets, the Stars composing the Zodi- “ ac, and all those decades which by their rising and setting mark “ the divisions of the signs, their subdivisions into decans, the “ horoscope and the stars which preside there, and which are
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“ called ttie mighty rulers of Heaven. They aver, that the “ Egyptians—who looked upon the Sun as a great God, archi- “ tect and moderator of the Universe—explained not only the “ fable of Osiris, but also all their religious fables generally “ by the Stars and by the action of their movements, by their “ apparition and by their disappearance, by the phases of the “ Moon, by the increase or the diminution of its light, by the “ progressive march of the Sun, by the divisions of the Heavens “ and of time into two great parts, one of which was assigned “ to the Day, and the other to the Night ; by the Nile and “finally by the action of physical causes. Those are—they “say'—the Gods, sovereign arbiters of destiny, which our “ fathers have honored by sacrifices and to which they have erected images.” Indeed, we have shown in our larger work, that even the animals, which were consecrated in the temples of Egypt and honored by worship, represented the various functions of the great cause and had reference to Heaven, to the Sun and the Moon, and to the different constellations, as it has been well observed by Lucian. For instance, that beautiful star Sirius, or the dog star, was worshipped under the name of Anubis, and under the form of a sacred dog was fed in the temples. The hawk represented the Sun, the bird. Ibis, the Moon, and astronomy was the soul of the whole religious system of the Egyptians. They ascribed the government of the World to the Sun and the Moon, which were worshipped under the name of Osiris and Isis, as the two primary and eternal Divinities, from which depended all that great work of generation and vegetation in this sublunary World. In honor of that luminary, which dispenses the light, they built the city of the Sun or Heliopolis, and a temple in which they placed the statue of that God. It was gilded and represented a young beardless man, whose arm was raised and who held in one hand a whip, in the attitude of a charioteer. In his left hand was the lightning and a bundle of ears of corn.
Chap. 27.] 25
They represented thus the power and at the same time the beneficence of that God, who darts the lightning and makes the crops grow and ripen.
The river Nile, which in its periodical overflow fertilizes the fields of Egypt with its mud, was also honored as a God, or as one of the beneficent causes of Nature. It had its altars and temples at Nilopolis or at the city of the Nile. Near the cataracts, above Elepbantis, there was a college of priests, appointed for its worship. The most magnificent feasts were given in its honor, principally at the moment, when it commences to overflow the plain, which was thereby fertilized every year. They carried its statue around the fields with great ceremonies ; afterwards the people went to the theatre and assisted at public feasts ; they celebrated dances and chanted hymns similar to those, with which they addressed. Jupiter, whose functions devolved on the soil of Egypt upon the Nile. All the other active parts of Nature received the respectful homage of the Egyptians. There was an inscription on an ancient column in honor of the immortal Gods, and the Gods which are mentioned there, are the Breath or the Air, Heaven, Earth, the Sun and the Moon, Night and Day.
Finally, in the Egyptian system, the World was looked upon as a great Divinity, composed of the assemblage of a multitude of Gods or partial causes, which represented only the several members of that great body, called the World or the God "Universe.
The Phoenicians, who with the Egyptians, have mostly influenced the religion of other nations, and have spread over the globe their theogonies, attributed Divinity to the Sun and Moon and the Stars, and regarded them as the only causes of the production and destruction of all beings. The sun was their great Divinity under the name of Hercules.
The Ethiopians, the fathers of the Egyptians, living in a burning climate, worshipped nevertheless the divinity of the Sun, 4
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[Chap.
but above all that of the Moon, which presided over the nights, the sweet coolness of which, made them forget the heat of the day. All the Africans offered sacrifices to these great Divinities. It was in Ethiopia, where the famous table of the Sun was found. Those Ethiopians, who lived above Meroe, acknowledged eternal Gods of an incorruptible nature, according to Diodorus, such as the Sun and the Moon, and all the Universe or the World. The same as the Incas of Peru, they called themselves the children of the Sun, which they regarded as their first progenitor : Persina was the priestess of the Moon, and the King her consort was priest of the Sun.
The Troglodytes £iad a fountain, dedicated to the Star of Day. In the neighborhood of the temple of Ammon, there was a rock, sacred to the south-wind, and a fountain of the Sun.
The Blemmyes, situated on the confines of Egypt and Ethiopia, immolated human victims to the Sun. The rock of Bagia and the island of Nasala, situated beyond the territory of the Ichthyophagi, were dedicated to the same luminary. No man dared to approach the island, and frightful stories'deterred the most daring mortals to put a profane foot on it.
There was also a rock in ancient Cyrenaica, on which no one dared to lay a hand, without committing a crime, because it was dedicated to the east wind.
The divinities, which were invoked as witnesses in the treaty of the Carthaginians with Philip, the son of Demetrius, were the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the Rivers, the Prairies, and the Water. Massinissa, in thanking the Gods on the arrival of Scipio in his empire, addresses himself to the Sun.
The natives of the island of Socotora and the Hottentots preserve to this day the ancient veneration, which the Africans had always for the Moon, which they regard as the principle of sublunary vegetation; they applied to her, when they wanted rain, sunshine or good crops. She is to them a kind
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and beneficent Divinity, such as was Isis with the Egyptians.
All the Africans, who inhabit the coast of Angola and of Congo, worship the Sun and the Moon. The natives of the island of Tenerif worshipped them also, as well as the planets and other stars, on the arrival of the Spaniards.
The Moon was the great Divinity of the Arabs. The Sara- zens gave her the epithet of Gabar or the Great; her Cresceiit adorns to this day the religious monuments of the Turks. Her elevation under the sign of the Bull, constituted one of tlie principal feasts of the Saracens and of the sab can Arabs. Each Arab tribe was under the invocation of a constellation, The tribe Hamiaz was consecrated to the Sun; the tribeCemah to the Moon; the tribe Miza was under the protection of the Star Aldebaran; the tribe Tai under that of Canopus; the tribe Ka’is under that of Sirius; the tribes Lachamus and Idamus worshipped the planet Jupiter; the tribe Asad that of Mercury, and so forth the others. Each one worshipped one of the celestial bodies as its tutelar genius. Atra, a city in Arabia, was consecrated to the Sun and was in possession of rich offerings, which had been deposited in her temple. The ancient Arabs gave sometimes to their children the title of servants to the Sun.
The Caabah of the Arabs was before the time of Mahomet, a temple dedicated to the Moon. The black stone which the Musulmans kiss with so much devotion to this day, is, as it is pretended, an ancient statue of Saturmus. T^he walls of the great mosque of Kufah, built on the foundation of an ancient Pyrea or temple of the fire, are filled with figures of planets artistically engraved. The ancient worship of the Arabs was the Sabismus, a religion universally spread all over the Orient. Heaven and the Stars were the first objects thereof.
This religion was that of the ancient Chaldeans, and the Orientals pretend that their Ibrahim or Abraham was brought up in that doctrine. There is still to be seen at Hella, over
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the ruins of the ancient Babylon, a mosque called^Mesehed Eschams, or the mosque of the Sun. It was in this city, that the ancient temple of Bel or the Sun, the great Divinity of the Babylonians, existed, it is the same God, to whom the Persians erected temples and consecrated images under the name of Mithras. They worshipped also the Heavens under the name of Jupiter, the Moon and Venus, Eire, Earth, Air or the Wind, Water, and they acknowledge no other Gods since the remotest antiquity. In reading the sacred books of the ancient Persians, which are contained in the collection of the books of Zend, we find on every page invocations addressed to Mithras to the Moon, to the stars, to the elements, to mountains, to trees and to all parts of Nature. The fire Ether, which circulates in the whole Universe and of which the Sun is the most apparent centre, was represented in the Pyreas or fire temples by the sacred fire, which was kept burning by the Magi.
Each planet, which contains a portion of it, had its Pyrea or particular temple, where incense was burned in its honor; people went to the chapel of the Sun, in order to worship that luminary and to celebrate its feast, to that of Mars and Jupiter &c. to adore Mars and Jupiter and so of the other planets. Darius, King of the Persians, invoked the Sun, Mars and the eternal Fire, before giving battle to Alexander. Above his tent there was an image of this luminary, enclosed in crystal, reflecting far off its rays. Amongst the ruins of Persepolis, there may be seen the figure of. a King, kneeling before the image of the Sun; near it, is the sacred fire preserved by the Magi, and which Perseus, as they say, had formerly brought down from Heaven to the Earth.
The Parsees, or the descendants of Zoroaster, still address their prayers to the Sun, the Moon and the Stars, and principally to the Eire, as the most subtle and the purest of all the elements. They preserved this fire especially in Aderbighian, where the great Pyrea or fire temple of the Persians was, and
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at Asaae^in-dho country of the Parthians. The Guebres, established at Surat, preserve carefully in a temple, remarkable for its simplicity, the sacred fire, with the worship of which their fathers had been intrusted by Zoroaster. Niebuhr has seen one of these hearths, where as they pretend, the fire was preserved for over two hundred years, without ever having been extinguished.
Yalarsaces built a temple at Armavir in the ancient Phasiah on the shores of the Araxes and consecrated there a statue to the Sun and the Moon, Divinities, which were worshipped formerly by the Iberians? the Albanians and the Colchians. The latter planet was principally worshipped in all that part of Asia, in Armenia and Capadocia, also the God , which the Moon engendered by its revolution. All Asia minor, Phrygia, Jonia were covered with temples, dedicated to these two great flambeaux of Nature. The Moon, under the name of Diana, had a magnificent temple at Ephesus. The God Month had also his own near Laodicea1 and in Phrygia; the Sun was worshipped at Thymbra in Troas, under, the name of Apollo.
The island of Rhodes was consecrated to the Sun, to which a collossal statue was erected, known by the name of the Colossus of Rhodes.
The Turks in the North of Asia, established near the Caucasus, held the Eire in great veneration, also Water and Earth, which they celebrated in their sacred hymns.
The Abasges or Abascians, inhabiting the extreme end of the Black Sea, worshipped still in the time of Justinian, woods and forests, and their principal Divinities were trees.
All those Scythian nations, which led a nomatic life in those immense countries in the North of Europe and of Asia, had for their principal Divinity the Earth, from which they drew their nourishment, for themselves and their herds; they made h<er the wife of Jupiter or of Heaven, by the rain of which, she is fe-
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cundated. The Tartars, established at the East of Imaiis, worship the Sun, the Light, the Eire, the* Earth, and they offer to those Divinities the premices of their food, chiefly in the morning.
The ancient Massagetes had for their sole Divinity the Sun, to which they immolated horses.
The Derbices, a people of Hyrcania, worshipped the Earth.
All the Tartars in general have the greatest veneration for the Sun, which they regard as the father of the Moon, which borrows its light from it. They make libations in honor of the Elements, and principally of Eire and Water.
The Yotiacs of the government of Orenburg adore the Divinity of the Earth, which they call Mon-Kalzin; the G-od of the Water, which they call Yu-Imnar, they adore also the Sun, as the seat of their great Divinity.
The Tartar mountaineers of the territory of Udiusk (Oudi- usk) worship Heaven and the Sun.
The Moskanians sacrificed to a Supreme Being, which they called Schkai, being the name, which they give to Heaven. When they made their prayers, they turned towards the East, like ail the nations of Tchudic origin.
The Tchuvaches counted the Sun and the Moon amongst the number of their Divinities; they sacrificed to the Sun at the commencement of spring, at their seed time and to the Moon on each renewal.
The Tunguses worship the Sun and make it their principal Divinity; they represent it under the emblem of Eire.
The Huns worshipped Heaven and Earth, and their leader took the title of Tanjau or the son of Heaven.
The Chinese, located at the eastern confines of Asia, worship Heaven under the name of the great , and his name signifies according to some, the spirit of Heaven, and according to others the material Heaven. This is the TJranus of the Phoenicians, of the Atlantes and of the Greeks. The supreme
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Being is denoted in the Chu-King, by the name of Tien or Heaven and of Chang-Tien, the supreme Heaven. The Chinese say of this Heaven, that it penetrates all and comprises all.
In China there are temples of the Sun and the Moon and of the North stars. Thait-T9urn may be seen to go to Miac, in order to offer a burnt offering to Heaven and Earth. Similar sacrifices are made also to the mountain and river Gods.
Augustha makes libations to the august Heaven and to the queen Earth.
The Chinese erected a temple to the Great Being, the effect of the union of Heaven, Earth and the Elements, a being which answers to our World and which they call Tay-Kai: it is at the epoch of the two solstices, when the Chinese are worshipping Heaven.
The Japanese adore the stars and they suppose, that they are animated by Spirits or by Gods. They have their temple of the splendor of the Sun, and they celebrate the feast of the Moon on the seventh of September. The people passes the night in rejoicings at the light of that luminary.
The inhabitants of the land of Yeyo worship Heaven.
It is not yet 900 years ago, that the inhabitants of the island of Formosa acknowledged no other Gods but the Sun and the Moon, which they regarded as two Divinities, or supreme causes, an idea absolutely similar to that, which the Egyptians and the Phoenicians had of these two luminaries.
The Aracanese have built a temple to the Light, in the island of Munay, known by the name of temple of the atoms of the Sun.
The inhabitants of Tunquin worshipped seven heavenly idols, which represent the seven planets, and five terrestrial ones, consecrated to the elements. The Sun and the Moon have their worshippers in the island of Ceylon, the Taprobane of the Ancients; the other planets are also worshipped there. The two first mentioned luminaries are the only Divinities of
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the natives of the island of the Sunatra; the same Gods are revered in the islands of Java, of Celebes and of Sonde, also at the Moluccas and the Philippine islands.
The Talapoins, or the religionists of Siam profess the greatest veneration for all the elements and for all parts of the sacred body of Nature.
The Hindoos have a superstitious veneration for the water of the river Ganges; they believe in its divinity, as the Egyptians believed in that of the Nile. The Sun has been one of the great Divinities of the East Indians, if we may believe Clement of Alexandria. The Indians and even the spiritualists worship the twTo great luminaries of Nature, the Sun and the Moon, which they call the two eyes of the Divinity. They celebrate every year on the 9fch of January a feast in honor of the Sun. They admit five elements, to which they have erected five pagods.
The seven planets are adored to this day under various names in the kingdom of Nepal; tney sacrifice to them every day.
Lucian avers, that the Indians, when worshipping the Sun, turn their faces towards the East, and that amidst of a profound silence, they executed a kind of a dance in imitation of the movements of that luminary. In one of their temples they had the God of Light represented, as mounted on a chariot drawn by four horses.
The ancient Indians had also their sacred fire, which they drew from the rays of the Sun on the summit of a very high mountain, which they regarded as the central point of India. The Brahmins preserve up to this day on the mountain Ti- runamaly a fire, which they hold in the greatest veneration. At sunrise they go to draw water from a pond, and they throw some of it towards that luminary as a testimonial of their respect and gratitude for having again reappeared and dissipated the darkness of night. On the altar of the Sun* they lighted
Chap. II.1
the flambeaux, which they had to carry before Phaotes, their newly made King, whom they desired to receive.
The author of the Bagawadam acknowledges, that several Indian tribes address t*heir prayers to the fixed stars and to the planets. Thus, the worship of the Sun, the Stars and the Elements formed the basis of the religion of the whole of Asia, in other words, of countries peopled by the greatest, the oldest and wisest of nations, by those, which influenced the religion of the nations of the West and in general those of Europe. So, that when we look on this last portion of the old World, we find the sabismus and the worship of the Sun, the Moon and the Stars equally extended, although often disguised under other names and under other forms so skillfully drawn up, that they were sometimes not recognized even by their own worshippers.
The ancient Greeks, if we may believe Plato, had no other Gods but those which the Barbarians of that time worshipped, when that philosopher lived, and those Gods were the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, Heaven and Earth.
Epicharmis, a disciple of Pythagoras, speaks of the Sun and? and Moon and the Stars, the Earth, Water and Eire as Gods. Orpheus considered the Sun as the greatest of all the Gods, and ascending before daybreak an elevated place, he awaited there the reappearance of that luminary, in order to render homage to it. Agamemnon, according to Homer, sacrificed to the Sun and to the Earth.
The chorus in the Oedipus of Sophocles, invokes the Sun as the first of all the God’s and as their Chief.
The Earth was worshipped in the island of Cos; it had a temple at Athens and at Sparta, also its altar and oracle at Olympia. That of Delphi was originally consecrated to it. In reading Pausanias, to whom we owe a description of Greece and of her religious monuments, we find everywhere traces of the worship of Nature; there are altars, temples and statues 5
34
consecrated to the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, to the Pleiads, the celestial Charioteer, the Goat, the Bear or Callisto, to the Night, Rivers, &c.
There were to be seen in Laconia sdven columns erected in honor of the seven planets. The Sun had its statue, and the Moon its sacred fountain at Thalma, in the same country.
The people of Megalopolis sacrificed to the wind Boreas, and had a sacred grove planted in his honor.
The Macedonians worshipped Estia or the Eire, and addressed their prayers to Bedy or to the element of Water; Alexander, King of Macedonia, sacrificed to the Sun, the Moon and to the Earth.
The oracle of Dodona required in all its answers, a sacrifice to the river Acheloiis; Homer gives the epithet of sacred to the waters of Alpheus; Nestor and the Pylians sacrificed a bull to that river. Achilles let his hair grow in honor of Sperchius, he invokes also the wind Boreas and Zephyr.
The rivers reputed sacred and divine, as much on account of the perpetuity of their course, as because they kept up vegetation, watered plants and beasts, and because Water is one of the first principals of Nature, and one of the most powerful agents of the universal power of the Great Being.
In Thessaly they fed sacred ravens in honor of the Sun. The same bird is found on the monuments of Mithras in Persia.
The temples of ancient Byzantium were consecrated to the Sun, the Moon and to Venus. Those three luminaries, also Areturus or the beautiful star of the herdsman Bootes, and the twelve signs of the zodiac had their idols there. Rome and Italy preserved also a great many monuments of the worship of Nature and of her principal agents. T'atius, when he came to Rome to share the scepter of Romulus, erected temples to the Sun, the Moon and Saturnus, to the Light and to the Fire. The eternal fire or Vesta was the most ancient object of
Chap. II.] THE ORIGIN OR ALL RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. 35
worship of the Romans; virgins were intrusted with its preservation in the temple of that Goddess, like the Magi in Asia in their Pyreas; because it was the same worship as that of the Persians. It was, as Jornandes says, an image of the eternal fires, which shine in the Heavens.
Every one knows the famous temples of Tellusorof the Earth, in which very often the meetings of the Senate were held. The Earth took the name of mother, and was regarded as a Divinity with the Manes.*
A fountain was discovered in Latium, called the fountain of the Sun, in the vicinity of which two altars had been erected, on which iEneas, on his arrival in Italy, had offered a sacrifice. Romulus instituted the games of the circus, in honor of that Luminary, which measures the year in its career, and the four elements, which it modifies by its mighty action. Aurelia- nus erected at Rome the temple of the Star of Day, which he enriched with gold and precious stones. Augustus before him imported from Egypt the images of the Sun and the Moon, which adorned his triumph over Antonius and Cleopatra.
The Moon had its temple on the Monte Aventino.
If we pass over into Sicily, we see three oxen consecrated to the Sun. That island itself was called the island of the Sun. The oxen which were eaten by the companions of Ulysses, when they arrived there, were consecrated to that luminary.
The inhabitents of Assora worshipped the river Chrysas, which ran along their walls, and which supplied them with water. They had erected to it a temple and a statue. At Engyum the mother Goddesses were worshipped, which were the same Divinities as were adored at Creta, in other words, the great and the little Bear.
In Spain, the people of the province of Boetiea had built a temple in honor of the morning star and the twilight. The Accitanians had erected a statue by the name of Mars to the
* Gods of the lower World,
36
[ Chap.
Sun, the radiant head of which expressed the nature of that Divinity. This same God was worshipped at Cadiz under the name of Hercules since the highest antiquity.
All the nations of the North of Europe, known under the general denomination of the Celtic nations, rendered religious worship to Eire, Water, Air, Earth, to the Sun, the Moon and the Stars, to the vault of Heaven, to the Trees, Eivers, Fountains, &c.
Julius Csesar. the conqueror of the Gauls, affirms, that the ancient Germans worshipped only the visible cause and its principal agents, the Gods only, of which they could see and feel the influence, the Sun the Moon, the Fire or Yulcan, the Earth under the name of Hertha.
A temple was found in the province of Narbone in ancient Gaul, erected to the wind Circius, which purifies the air. There was also a temple of the Sun at Toulouse., In the district of the Gevaudanthere was a lake called Helanus, to which re
ligious honors were rendered.
Charlemain in his capitulars, forbid the old custom of placing- lighted candles near the trees and fountains, for the purpose of a superstitious worship.
Canute, King of England, prohibited in his realm the worship of the Sun, the Moon and the Fire of the running Water, of Fountains and Forests, &c.
The Francs, who entered Italy under the leadership of Theo- dibert, immolated the women and children of the Goths, and made an offering of them to the river Po, as the first fruits of the war. Also the Alemanni, according to Agathias, sacrificed horses to the rivers; and the Trojans to the Scamander, by throwing these animals alive into its waves.
The natives of the island of Thule, and all the Scandinavians placed their Divinities in the Firmament, in the Earth, in the Sea, into running Water, &c.
It will be seen from this abridged statement of the religious
Chap. ZZi] . 37
history of the ancient continent, that there is not a point in the three parts of the ancient World, where the worship of Nature and of her principal agents may not be found estab- lishe .l, and that civilized nations, as well as those that were not, have all acknowledged the power or dominion of the universal visible cause, or of the World and its most active parts over man.
If we pass over to America, a new scene is presented to us there everywhere, as mu<?h in the physical, as in the moral and political order. Everything is new, plants, quadrupeds, trees, fruits, reptiles, birds, customs and habits. Religion alone is still the same as in the old World, it is always the Sun, the Moon, Heaven, the Stars, Earth and the Elements which are worshipped there.
The Incas of Peru called themselves the sons of the Sun; they erected temples and altars to that luminary and instituted feasts in its honor; it was looked upon, the same as in Egypt and Phoenicia, as the fountain of all the blessings of Nature. In this worship, the Moon had also its share, as she was regarded as the mother of all sublunary productions, and was honored as the wife and sister of the Sun. Venus, the most brilliant planet after the Sun, had also its altars there, like the meteors, lightning, thunder, and chiefly the beautiful Iris or the rainbow. Virgins, like the Vestals at Rome, had charge of the perpetual maintainanee of the sacred fire.
The same worship was established at Mexico with all the splendour, which an intelligent people can give to its religion. The Mexicans contemplated the Heavens and gave it the name of Creator and of Admirable; there was not the least apparent part of the Universe, which was not worshipped by' them, and had its altars.
The natives of the Isthmus of Panama and of all that country, known by the name of Terra believe in a God in
Heaven, and that God was the Sun, the husband of the Moon;
38
. [ Chap.
they worshipped these two luminaries, as the two supreme causes, which govern the World. It was the same with the natives of Brazil, of the Caribbee islands, of Florida, and with the Indians of the coast of Cumana, of Yirginia, of Canada and of Hudson’s bay.
The Iroquois call Heaven Garon; the Hurons, ,
and both worship it as the great spirit, the good Lord, the father of life, they also give to the Sun the title of the Supreme Being.
The savages of North-America never make a treaty, without taking the Sun as a witness and as a guarantee, the same as was done by Agamemnon in Homer and by the Carthaginians in Polybius. They make their allies smoke the calumet, or the pipe of peace, and they blow the smoke towards that luminary. According to the traditions of the Pawnees, savages living on the shores of the Missouri, they received the calumet from the Sun.
The natives of Cayenne worshipped also the Sun, the Heavens and the Stars. In one word, everywhere in America, where traces of worship were discovered, it was observed, that it had for object some of the parts of the great All, or the World.
The worship of Nature must therefore be considered as the primitive and universal religion of the two hemispheres. To these evidences, which are drawn from the history of the nations of the two continents, are added others, which are taken from their religious and political monuments, from the divisions and distributions of the sacred and of the social order, from their feasts, from their hymns and from their religious cantos and from the opinions of their philosophers.
From the time, when men ceased to assemble on the summit of high mountains, in order to contemplate and to worship Heaven, the Sun, the Moon and the other Stars, which were the first Divinities, and that they gathered in temples, they
Chap. IT.] .
39
wanted to find again within those narrow precincts the images of their Gods and a regular representation of that astonishing Whole, known by the name of World or the great All, which they worshipped.
Thus the famous labyrinth of Egypt represented the twelve houses of the Sun, to which it was consecrated by twelve palaces, which communicated with each other, and which formed the mass of the temple of that luminary, which engenders the year and the seasons in circulating in the twelve signs of the Zodiac. In the temple of Heliopolis or of the city of the Sun, were found twelve columns covered with symbols, relative to the twelve signs and the Elements.
Those enormous masses of stone, consecrated to the Star of Day, had a pyramidal configuration, as the most appropriate to represent the solar rays and the form under -which the flame ascends.
The statue of Apollo Agyeus was a columu which ended in a point, and Apollo was the Sun.
The care of modeling the figures of the images and statues of the Gods of Egypt was not left to common artists. The priests gave the. designs, and it was upon spheres, or in other words, after the inspection of the Heavens, and its astronomical images, that they determined upon the forms. Thus we find, that in all religions the numbers seven and , of which the former applies to the seven planets and the other to that of the twelve signs, are sacred numbers, which are reproduced in all kind and sorts of forms. For instance, such are the twelve great Gods, the twelve apostles, the twelve sons of Jacob or the twelve tribes; the twelve altars of Janus; the twelve labors of Hercules or of the Sun; the twelve shields of Mars; the twelve brothers Arvaux; the twelve Gods Gonsentes; the twelve governors in theManichean system; the adeetyas of the East Indians; the twelve asses of the Scandinavians; the city of the twelve gates in the Apocalypse; the twelve wards of the
40 . [ Chap. 11.
city, of which Plato conceived the plan; the four tribes of Athens, subdivided into three “fratries ” according to the division made by Cecrops; the twelve sacred cushions, on which the Creator sits in the cosmogony of the Japanese; the twelve precious stones of the rational or the ornament worn by the high- priest of the Jews, ranged three and three, as the seasons; the twelve cantons of the Etruscan league and their twelve “ lucu- mons” or chiefs of the canton; the confederation of the twelve cities of Jonia; that of the twelve cities of Eolia; the twelve Tcheu, into which Chun divided China; the twelve regions into which the natives of Corea divided the World; the twelve officers, whose duty it is to draw the sarcophagus in the obsequies of the King of Tunquin; the twelve led-horses; the twelve elephants, &c., which were conducted in that ceremony.
It was the same case with the number For instance
the candlestick with seven branches, which represented the planetary system in the temple of Jerusalem; the seven enclosures of the temple; those of the city of Ecbatana likewise of the number of seven and dyed in the colors that were assigned to the planets; the seven doors of the cave of Mithras or the Sun; the seven stories of the tower of Babylon, surmounted by the eight, which represented Heaven, and which served as a temple to Jupiter, the seven gates of Thebes, each of which had the name of a planet; the flute of seven pipes put into the hands of the God Pan, who represented the great * All or Nature; the lyre of seven strings, touched by Apollo, or by the G-od of the Sun; the book of Fate, composed of seven books; the seven prophetic rings of the Brahmins, on each of which the name of a planet was engraved; the seven stones consecrated to the same planets in Laconia, the division into seven casts adopted by the Egyptians and by the Indians since the highest antiquity; the seven idols, which the Bonzes carry every year with great ceremony into seven different temples; the seven mystic vowels, which formed the sacred formula, ut-
Chap. II.) . 41
tered in tlie temples of the planets; the seven Pyreas or altars of the monument of Mithras; the seven or great
spirits invoked by the Persians; the seven archangels of the Chaldeans and of the Jews; the seven ringing towers of ancient Byzantium; the week of every nation, or the period of the seven days, each one being consecrated to a planet; the period of seven times seven years of the Jews; the seven sacraments of the Christians, &c. We find chiefly in that astrological and cabalistical book, known by the name of the Apocalypse of John the number twelve and seven repeated on every page. The first one is repeated fourteen times, and the second twenty-four times.
The number three hundred and sixty, which is that of the days of the year, without including the epagonienes or was also described by the 360 Gods, which the theology of Orpheus admitted; by the 360 cups of water of the Nile, which the Egyptian priests poured out, one each day, into a sacred cask in the city of Achante; by the 360 Eons or guostic Genii; by the 360 idols placed in the palace of the Dairi of Japan; by the 360 small statues surrounding that of Hobal or of the God Sun, Bel, worshipped by the ancient Arabs; by the 360 chapels built around the splended mosque of Balk, erected by the exertions of the chief of the family of the Barmecides; by the 360 Genii, who take possession of the soul after death, according to the doctrine of the Christians of St. John; by the 360 temples built on the mountain of Lowham in China; by the wall of 360 stales, with which Semiramis surrounded the city of Belus or of the Sun, the famous Babylon. All these monuments give us a description of the same division of the World, and of the circle divided into degrees, which the Sun travels over. Finally the division of the zodiac into twenty- seven parts, which signify the stations of the Moon, and into thirty-six, which is that of the , were in like manner the
object of the political and religious distributions.
6 ’
42
.
[Chap.
Not only the divisions of Heaven, but the constellations themselves were represented in the temples, and their images were consecrated amongst the monuments of worship and on the medals of the cities. The beautiful star of the Capricorn, which is placed in the heavens in the constellation of the charioteer, had its statue in gilded bronze in the public square of the Phliassians. The Charioteer himself had his temples, his statues, his tomb, his mysteries in Greece, and was worshipped under the name of Myrtillus, Hippolytus, Spherocus, Cillas, Erechtheus, &c.
The statues and the tombs of the Atlantides, or of the Pleiads, Sterope, Phoedra, &c., were also to be seen there.
Near Argos the hill or mount was shown, which covered the head of the famous Medusa, the type of which is in the heavens at the feet of Perseus.
The Moon or the Diana of Ephesus, wore on her breast the figure of the Cancer, which is one of the twelve signs and is the abode of that planet. The celestial Bear, worshipped by the name of Calisto, and the Herdsman (Bootes) under that of A.rcas, had their tombs in Arcadia, near the Altars of the Sun.
The same herdsman Bootes had his statue in ancient Byzantium, also Orion, the famous Nimbrod (Nimrod) of the Assyrians: the last mentioned had his tomb at Tanagra in Bceotia.
The Syrians had the image of the Fishes, one of the celestial signs, consecrated in their temple.
The constellation of Nesra or the Eagle, of Aiyuk or the Capricorn, of Yagutho or the Pleiads, and of Suwaha or Al- hauvraha, the Serpentarius, had their statues with the ancient Sabeans. These names may still be found in the commentary of Hyde on XJlug-Beigh.
The religious system of the Egyptians was entirely sketched upon the Heavens, if we believe Lucian, and as it is easy to demonstrate.
In general it may be said, that the whole starred Heaven
Chap. //.] 43
had come down on the soil of Greece and Egypt, in order to be painted there and to be embodied in the images of the Gods, be they living or inanimate.
Most of these cities were built under the inspection and under the protection of a celestial sign. Their horoscope was drawn; hence the impression of the images of the constellations on their medals. Those of Antiochia on the Orontes represent the Ram with the crescent of the Moon; those of Ma- mertina that of the Bull; that of the Kings of Comagena the type of the Scorpion; those of Zeugma and of Anazarba that of the Capricorn. Almost all the celestial signs are found on the medals of Antoninus; the star Hesperus was the public seal of the Locrians, of the Ozoles and of the Opuntians.
It is also remarkable, that the ancient feasts are connected with the great epochs of Nature and with the eclestial system. Everywhere are to be found the solsticial and equinoctial festivals. The winter solstice is above all distinguished; it is then, that the Sun begins to rise again, and to take anew its route towards our climes; and that of the solstice of spring, when it brings back the long days to our hemisphere with the active and genial heat, which sets vegetation again in motion, which develops all the germs and ripens all the products of the Earth. Christmas and Easter of the Christians, those worshippers of the Sun under the name of Christ, which was substituted for that of Mithras, whatever the allusion, which ignorance and bad faith may try to make itself,—are yet an existing proof amongst us. All nations have had their feasts of Ember-week or of the four seasons. They may be found even with the Chinese. One of their most ancient emperors, Fohi, established sacrifices, the celebration of which were fixed at the two equinoxes and at the two solstices. Four pavilions were erected to the Moons of the four Seasons.
The ancient Chinese, says Confucius, established a solemn sacrifice in honor of Chang-Ty, at the time of the winter sol
44 . [ Gimp.
stice. because it was then, that the Sun, after having passed through the twelve palaces, recommences again its career, in order to distribute anew the blessings of its light.
They instituted a second sacrifice in the season of spring, as a particular thansgiving day, of the gifts to mankind by means of the Earth. These two sacrifices could only be offered by the emperor of China, the son of Heaven.
The Greeks and the Homans did the same thing, for about the same reasons.
The Persians have their Neuruz or feasts of the Sun in its transit across the Ram, or of the sign of the equinox of spring, and the Jews have their feast of the passage under the Lamb. The Neuruz is one of the greatest festivities of Persia. The Persians celebrated formerly the entrance of'the Sun into each sign with the noise of musical instruments.
The ancient Egyptians walked the sacred cow seven times around the temple at the winter solstice. At the equinox of spring they celebrated the happy epoch, when the eclestial Eire warmed Nature again every year. That festival of the Fire and the triumphant light, of which our sacred Fire on holy Saturday, and our paschal wax taper are still the true image, existed in the city of the Sun in Assyria, under the name of the feast of the Pyres.
The feasts which were celebrated by the ancient Sabeans in honor of the planets, were fixed under the sign of their elevation, sometimes under that of their abode, as that of Saturnus of the ancient Romans was established in December under the Capricorne, the abode of that planet. All the feasts of the ancient calendar of the pontifs are connected with the rising and setting of some constellation or some star, as we can ascertain, by reading the fastes (or Calendars) cf Ovid.
It is chiefly in the games of the Circus, instituted in honor of the God, who dispenses the light, that the religious genius of the Romans and the connection of their feasts with Nature,
Chap. //.] THE ORIGON OF ALL RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.
45
are manifested. The Sun, the Moon, the Planets, the Elements, the Universe and its most conspicuous parts, all was represented by emblems, which were analogous to their nature. The Sun had its horses, which on the race course or Hippo - drom, imitated the career of that luminary in the Heavens.
The Olympic fields were represented by a vast amphitheatre or arena, which was consecrated to the Sun. In the midst of it there stood the temple of that God which was surmounted by his image. The East and the West, as the limits of the course of the Sun were traced and marked by boundaries, and placed towards the remotest part of the circus.
The races took place from East to West, until seven rounds were made, on account of the seven planets.
The Sun and the Moon had their chariots, the same as Jupiter and Venus; the charioteers were dressed in clothes, the color of which was analogous to the hue of the different elements. The chariot of the Sun was drasvn by four horses, and that of the Moon by two.
The Zodiac was represented in the circus by twelve gates; there was also traced the movement of the circumpolar stars or of the two Bears.
Everything was personified in those feasts; the Sea or Neptune, the Earth or Ceres, and so on the other elements. They were represented by actors, contending for the prizes.
These contests were instituted, they say, in order to illustrate the harmony of the Universe, of Heaven, of the Earth and of the Sea.
The institution of these games was attributed to Romulus by the Romans, and I believe that they were an imitation of the races of the hippodrom of the Arcadians and of the games of Elis.
The phases of the Moon were also the object of feasts and chiefly of the neomenia or the new light, with which this planet is invested at the commencement of each month, because the
46 . [ Gliap. II.
God Month had his temples, his statues and his mysteries.
The whole ceremonial of the procession of Isis, described in Apuleius, has reference to Nature and delineates its various parts.
The sacred hymns of the Ancients had the same object, if we may judge by those which have come down to us, and which are attributed to Orpheus, but whosoever may be their author, it is evident, that he only sings Nature.
Chun, one of the most ancient Emperors of China, ordered a great number of hymns to be composed, which were addressed to Heaven, to the Sun, to the Moon, the Stars, &c. The same is the case with almost all the prayers of the Persians, which are contained in the book of Zend. The poetical songs of the ancient authors, from whom we have the theog'onies, such as
Orpheus, Linus, Hesiod, &c., have reference to Nature and its agents. Sing, says Hesiod to the Muses,—sing the immortal Gods, children of the Earth and of the starred Heaven, Gods, which were born from the womb of Night and nourished by the Ocean; the brilliant Stars, the immense vault of the Heavens, and the Gods which were born of it, the Sea, the Rivers, &c.
The songs of lopas, in the banquet given by Dido to the Trojans, contain the sublime lessons of the sage Atlas, on the course of the Moon and of the Sun, on the origin of the human race, of the animals, &c. In the pastorals of Virgil, old Silenus sings the chaos and the organization of the World. Orpheus does the same in the Argonahtics of Appollonius; the cosmogony of Sanchoniaton or that of the Phoenicians hides under the veil of allegory the great secrets of Nature, which were taught to the neophytes. The. philosophers, the successors of the poets, who had proceeded them in the career of philosophy, deified all parts of the Universe, and searched for the Gods only in the members of that great God, or in that great All, called the World; so much had the idea of its D*
Chap. II.]
47
vinity struck all those, who wanted to reason on the causes of our organization and of our destiny.
Pythagoras thought, that the celestial bodies were immor_ tal and divine; that the Sun, the Moon and all the Stars were as many Gods, which contained superabundant heat, which is the principle of life.He placed the substance of the Divinity in the Fire Ether, of which the Sun is the principal center.
Parmenides imagined a crown of light, which enveloped the World, and he also made of it the substance of the Divinity, of which the Stars participated the Nature. Alcmeon of Croton made the Gods reside in the Sun, the Moon and in the Stars. Anthistenes acknowledges only one Divinity, namely Nature. Plato attributes Divinity to the World, to Heaven, the Stars and to the Earth. Xenocrates admitted eight great Gods, the Heaven of the fixed Stars and the seven Planets. Heraclid of Pontus professed the same doctrine. Teophras- tus gives the title of first causes to the Stars and to the celestial signs. Zeno called God also the Ether, the Stars, Time and its parts. Cleanthes admitted the dogma of the Divinity of the Universe and chiefly of the Fire Ether, which envelopes and penetrates the spheres. The entire Divinity, according to this philosopher, was distributed in the Stars, the depositaries of as many portions of that divine Fire. Diogenes, the Babylonian, traces the whole mythology back to Nature or to physiology. Chrysipps recognizes tke World as God. He made the divine substance reside in the Fire Ether, in the Sun, the Moon, the Stars and finally in Nature and its principal parts
Anaximander regarded the Stars as so many Gods; Anaximenes gave that name to Ether and Air; Zeno gave it to the World in general and to Heaven in particular.
We shall no further proceed in our researches about the dogmas of the ancient philosophers in order to prove, that they agree with the most ancient poets, with the theologians, who composed the first theogonies, with the legislators, who
