NATURAL HISTORY OF RELIGION.
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Almost all idolaters, of whatever age or country, concur in these general principles and conceptions; and even the particular characters and provinces, which they assign to their deities are not extremely different[1]. The Greek and Roman travellers and conquerors, without much difficulty, found their own deities every where; and said, this is Mercury, that Venus; this Mars, that Neptune; by whatever titles the strange gods may be denominated. The goddess Hertha of our Saxon ancestors seems to be no other, according to Tacitus[2], than the Mater Tellus of the Romans; and his conjecture was evidently just.
VI. THE
