potitur.
Lucilius.

All the common departments of the Deities are to be set aside, as
inconsistent and idle. Pollux will be found a judge; Ceres, a law-giver;
Bacchus, the God of the year; Neptune, a physician; and AEsculapius, the God
of thunder: and this not merely from the poets; but from the best
mythologists of the Grecians, from those who wrote professedly upon the
subject.

I have observed before, that the Grecians in foreign words often changed
the Nu final to Sigma. For Keren, they wrote [Greek: Keras]; for Cohen,
[Greek: Koes]; for Athon, [Greek: Athos]; for Boun, [Greek: Bous]; for
Sain, [Greek: Sais].

People, of old, were styled the children of the God whom they worshipped:
hence they were, at last, thought to have been his real offspring; and he
was looked up to as the true parent. On the contrary, Priests were
represented as foster-fathers to the Deity before whom they ministered; and
Priestesses were styled [Greek: tithenai], or nurses.

Colonies always went out under the patronage and title of some Deity. This
conducting-God was in after-times supposed to have been the real leader.

Sometimes the whole merit of a transaction was imputed to this Deity
solely; who was represented under the character of Perseus, Dionusus, or
Hercules. Hence, instead of one person, we must put a people; and the
history will be found consonant to the truth.

As the Grecians made themselves principals in many great occurrences which
were of another country, we must look abroad for the original, both of
their rites and mythology; and apply to the nations from whence they were
derived. Their original history was foreign, and ingrafted upon the history
of the country where they settled. This is of great consequence, and
repeatedly to be considered.

One great mistake frequently prevails among people who deal in these
researches, which must be carefully avoided. We should never make use of a
language which is modern, or comparatively modern, to deduce the etymology
of antient and primitive terms. Pezron applies to the modern Teutonic,
which he styles the Celtic, and says, was the language of Jupiter. But who
was Jupiter, and what has the modern Celtic to do with the history of Egypt
or Chaldea? There was an interval of two thousand years between the times
of which he treats and any history of the Celtae: and there is still an
interval, not very much inferior to the former, before we arrive at the aera
of