If the preceding observations be correct, it would fol low, that we must look to other nations, and ascend to a more remote antiquity than the ftbulous annals of GI eece, for the origin of thtn ..iperstition, which, under many modifications, appears ta have prevailed almost universally throughout the world. Accordittgly, Mr. Bryant, of whose theory we are now giving a concise exposition, has expended a great deal of labour, ingenu ity, and learning, in ail attempt to plove that the ancient mythology was founded upon an union of the wol ship of the heavenly host with the connuemorative rites of the deluge.
We mai reasonably suppose, says this learned writer, that the particulars of this extraordinary event (the de luge) would be gratefully commemorated by the patri arch himself, and transmitted to every branch of his family ; that they AVM made the subject of domestic converse, where the history was often renewed, and ever attended with a reverential awe and horror ; especially in those who had been witnesses to the calamity, and had experienced the hand of Providence in their favour. In process of time, when there was a falling off from the truth, we might further expect that a person of so high a character as Noah, so particularly distinguished by the Deity, could not fail of being reverenced by his posterity; and when idolati y prevailed, that lie would be one of the first among the sons of men to whom divine honours would be paid. Lastly, we might conclude, that these memorials would be interwoven in the mythology of the gentile world ; and that there would be continual allusions to'those ancient occurrences in the rites and mysteries, as they were practised by the nations of the earth. Accordingly, Mr. Bryant endeavouts to prove, that the history of the deluge was religiously preserved in the first ages; that every circumstance attending it is to be met with among the historians and mythologists of different countries; and that traces ol it are to he parti cularly found in the sacred rites of Egypt and of Greece.
It would lead us into far too wide a field, were we to follow this learned and ingenious author throughout the whole of the illustrations Ile has given of his theory. NVe must, therefore, refer our readers to the work itself. In the mean time, we shall only observe, that he attempts to trace the otigin ol the Pagan tnythology to the wor ship of Ham, or Amon, the son of Noah ; and resolves the (Wei ent titles of the Deity into various attributes of the diluvian patriarch. The theory is illostrated by
some curious obse ations on the woi ship of the sun, the moon, the ark, the serpent, Ike.
NVe have already observed, that the Greeks most pro bably derived their mytholog-y front Egypt and the East; the Romans, on the other hand, derived theirs, in a great measure, from the Greeks. It is natural to suppose that many changes must have taken place in the course or those transmissions, and that much confusion should have been created by the multiplicity of Names and. of attributes. Cicero, in his treatise, De Xatura Deorunt, has a curious pissage upon this subject. Quanquant, says he, quern potissimum Herculem colanzus. sczre velinz: Nitres enint nobis tradunt ii qui interiores scrutantur et recondleas /items r-Intiquissinzum Jo-ve natum. sed item Jove untiquissimo : nam Joves quoque plures priscis Grxeorunz literis invenzmus. Ex eo igitur et Lysito est is Hercules, quenz coneertasse cunz ..4polline de tripode accepimus. Alter traditur Xilo flatus. 4-Egyptius ; quern aiunt Phrygias literus conscripsisse Tertius est ex Idais Dactylis, cui vtlerias afferunt Quartus Jovisest. et ..ds terzx Lutonx trrroris. quern Tyrii maxinte volunt ; cujus Carthaginem filiunz ftrunt. Quintus in India. qui 13elus dicitur. Sextris hic ea: illcumena qzzenz Jupiter genuit ; sed tertius Jupiter : quouiatn, ut docebo, plures fovea accepimus. So Far Cicer,:.; but Varro mentions no less than Forty of this name, who were all reputed Deities. On the other hand, we find that the same Deity was worshipped by various nations under different names. To give one example, Alacrobius informs us that the sun was worshipped under the names of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Horus, and Liber; and Ausonius says, that Bac chus, Osiris, Phattax, Dionusus, Liber, ancl Mertens, were one and the same deity.
" Ogygia me Itacchum vocat ; Osirin .Egyptus plata ; .511llsi Pbanacem nonduant ; Dionason Indi e.ristimant ; Romana sacra Liberum ; Arabia gens Adoneum." It would appear, in short, that the whole mythology of the ancients was originally derived from one common superstition, diversified, no doubt, by the genius and fancy of different nations, in some more gross, in others more refined, but proceeding from a gradual corruption of the true religion, and an intermixture of the fabulous with the true.