but from a concern with regard to the events of life, and from the incessant hopes and fears, which actuate the human mind. Accordingly, we find, that all idolaters, having separated the provinces of their deities, have recourse to that invisible agent, to whose authority they are immediately subjected, and whose province it is to superintend that course of actions, in which they are, at any time, engaged. Juno is invoked at marriages; Lucina at births. Neptune receives the prayers of seamen; and Mars of warriors. The husbandman cultivates his field under the protection of Ceres; and the merchant acknowledges the authority of Mercury. Each natural event is supposed to be governed by some intelligent agent; and nothing prosperous or adverse can happen in life, which may not be the subject of peculiar prayers or thanksgivings[1].
- ↑ Fragilis & laboriosa mortalitas in partes ista digessit, infirmitatis suæ memor, ut portionibus quisquis coleret, quo maxime indigeret. Plin. lib. ii. cap. 7. So early as Hesiod's time there were 30,000 deities. Oper. & Dier. lib. i. ver. 250. But the task to be performed by these, seems still too great for their number. The provinces of the deities were so subdivided, that there was even a God of Sneezing. See Arist. Probl. Sect. 33. cap. 7. The province of copulation, suitably to the importance and dignity of it, was divided among several deities.
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