, and an imitation of the god
Apis; as well as those which were afterwards set up by Jeroboam (who had
resided a considerable time in Egypt) in the two extremities of the
kingdom of Israel.

The Egyptians, not contented with offering incense to animals, carried
their folly to such an excess, as to ascribe a divinity to the pulse and
roots of their gardens. For this they are ingeniously reproached by the
satirist:

Who has not heard where Egypt's realms are nam'd,
What monster-gods her frantic sons have fram'd?
Here Ibis gorg'd with well-grown serpents, there
The Crocodile commands religious fear:
Where Memnon's statue magic strings inspire
With vocal sounds, that emulate the lyre;
And Thebes, such, Fate, are thy disastrous turns!
Now prostrate o'er her pompous ruins mourns;
A monkey-god, prodigious to be told!
Strikes the beholder's eye with burnish'd gold:
To godship here blue Triton's scaly herd,
The river-progeny is there preferr'd:
Through towns Diana's power neglected lies,
Where to her dogs aspiring temples rise:
And should you leeks or onions eat, no time
Would expiate the sacrilegious crime
Religious nations sure, and blest abodes,
Where ev'ry orchard is o'errun with gods.(351)

It is astonishing to see a nation, which boasted its superiority above all
others with regard to wisdom and learning, thus blindly abandon itself to
the most gross and ridiculous superstitions. Indeed, to read of animals
and vile insects, honoured with religious worship, placed in temples, and
maintained with great care, and at an extravagant expense;(352) to read,
that those who murdered them were punished with death; and that these
animals were embalmed, and solemnly deposited in tombs assigned them by
the public; to hear that this extravagance was carried to such lengths, as
that leeks and onions were acknowledged as deities; were invoked in
necessity, and depended upon for succour and protection; are absurdities
which we, at this distance of time, can scarce believe; and yet they have
the evidence of all antiquity. "You enter," says Lucian,(353) "into a
magnificent temple, every part of which glitters with gold and silver. You
there look attentively for a god, and are cheated with a stork, an ape, or
a cat;" "a just emblem," adds that author, "of too many palaces, the
masters of which are far from being the brightest ornaments of them."

Several reas