he essence of the Pagan
theology, of which the poets were the only teachers and professors, the
very example of the gods, whose violent passions, scandalous adventures,
and abominable crimes, were celebrated in their hymns or odes, and
proposed in some measure to the imitation, as well as adoration, of the
people; these were certainly very unfit means to enlighten the minds of
men, and to form them to virtue and morality.

It is remarkable, that in the greatest solemnities of the Pagan religion,
and in their most sacred and venerable mysteries, far from perceiving any
thing which can recommend virtue, piety, or the practice of the most
essential duties of ordinary life, we find the authority of laws, the
imperious power of custom, the presence of magistrates, the assembly of
all orders of the state, the example of fathers and mothers, all conspire
to train up a whole nation from their infancy in an impure and
sacrilegious worship, under the name, and in a manner under the sanction,
of religion itself; as we shall soon see in the sequel.

After these general reflections upon Paganism, it is time to proceed to a
particular account of the religion of the Greeks. I shall reduce this
subject, though infinite in itself, to four articles, which are, 1. The
feasts. 2. The oracles, auguries, and divinations. 3. The games and
combats. 4. The public shows and representations of the theatre. In each
of these articles, I shall treat only of what appears most worthy of the
reader's curiosity, and has most relation to this history. I omit saying
any thing of sacrifices, having given a sufficient idea of them
elsewhere.(53)

Of the Feasts.

An infinite number of feasts were celebrated in the several cities of
Greece, and especially at Athens, of which I shall describe only three of
the most famous, the Panathenea, the feasts of Bacchus, and those of
Eleusis.

The Panathenea.

This feast was celebrated at Athens in honour of Minerva, the tutelary
goddess of that city, to which she gave her name,(54) as well as to the
feast of which we are speaking. Its institution was ancient, and it was
called at first the Athenea; but after Theseus had united the several
towns of Attica into one city, it took the name of Panathenea. These
feasts were of two kinds, the great and the less, which were solemnized
with almost the same ceremonies; the less annually, and the great upon the
expiration of every fourth year.

In these feasts