PA'GANISM, the religion of the hea then world, in which the Deity is rep resented under various forms, and by all kinds of images or idols ; it is therefore called idolatry or image worship. The theology of the pagans was of three sorts, fabulous, natural, and political or civil. The first treats of the genealogy, worship, and attributes of their deities, who were for the most part the offspring of the imagination of poets, painters. a-nd stat naries. The natural theology of the pagans was studied and taught by the philosophers, who rejected the multiplici ty of gods introduced by the poets, and brought their theology to a more rational form. The political or civil theology of the pagans was instituted by legislators, statesmen, and politicians to keep the people in subjection to the civil power. This chiefly related to their temples, al tars, sacrifices, and rites of worship. In its origin paganism, as system, was simple. A few great divinities were placed in heaven to guide the affairs of the visible and invisible worlds. By de grees each great planet, each law of na ture, each region :mud city, nay each river, fountain, wood, tree, mineral, had its tu telary divinity. The laws of nature were often inexplicable ; what more obvious than to infer that each was subject to is su perior power d As the ideas of men became more precise and refined, gods were placed over human faculties and passions : thus the understanding and the will, love and revenge, were the offspring of certain dei ties. Mere abstractions were similarly personified ; until the empire of reason, of sentiment, and of morals, was as touch pervaded as earth, air, and ocean with these visionary beings. In all countries we find instances of deificatinn of individu als. Thus he who daring life, proved himself a benefactor to his countrymen, who taught them useful arts, or freed them from some impending evil, would be regarded with affectionate admiration by his contemporaries ; and time, which so constantly increases every object, would convert is great exploit, a shining virtue, into IL divine effort. But it nut
'infrequently happened that men were often deified Inc brute strength, unac companied by those elevated mental qual ities which form the noblest distinction of the hero. It may, however, be observ ed, that in such c ices men were always reverenced for the quality most wanted in a state. If a district were infested by will beasts or by predatory savages, a Hercules arose to free it. If a country required laws, a Minos established them. If the culture of the grape was unknown, a Bacchus appeared to teach it. Such ben efactors, it was believed, deserved, as they certainly obtained, the peculiar fa vor of heaven—rewards which tar trans. cended those bestowed on other men. In most eases, however, each was held to be a divinity, or at least the offspring of one. As the generation of the gods was a re ceived tenet, and their union with mortals of constant occurrence, imagination had little difficulty in the filiation of a ben cfactor. Most nation; were eager to proclaim a gad as their founder ; rind when one laid claim to the honor, the ex ample was speedily followed by others with equil appearance of justice. Hence the pro•ligious number of divinities ; heaven and hell, the earth and the plan ets. air and ocean, the whole frame of na ture, every part of the universe, visible an I invisible, even the realms of imagina tion, being pervaded by them ; and hence idolatry became a complicated system, endless in its forms of worship as in its objects.