UNIVERSAL RELIGION.

...a religious homage rendered to his divinity (1). Likewise, John Chrysostom, to prove that rivers were anciently adored, cites the still-existing example of the Egyptians: "They sacrifice," he says (2), "to the Nile at the moment when it is about to overflow. This is not a homage they render to the divinity out of admiration for his work; this honor relates to the Nile itself, which they regard as a God." Heliodorus, who gave us the description of this festival—which he calls the greatest in Egypt and fixes at the approach of the summer solstice—explaining the cause of these pompous ceremonies, tells us (3) "that at this time the Nile receives a greater increase, and that this river is regarded as a God, and even the greatest of the Gods of Egypt. It rivals the sky, whose functions it fulfills for them and whose path it imitates. Its waters take the place of those which the sky and the clouds pour into other countries to water them." After so many testimonies, we can no longer doubt that the Nile was honored as a God by the Egyptians. They saw in it one of the most active parts of the universal cause, and one of the most abundant sources of the benevolence of Nature or the Divinity. The other elements were no less revered among them, for the very reason that they entered into the composition of the universal cause and formed its substance in some way. Plutarch (4) speaks to us of an Egyptian ceremony in which they formed a figure with earth and water to indicate, in an enigmatic manner, the nature of two of their great divinities. One could also read, on an ancient column, an inscription engraved in honor of the

(1) The same. Nicetas.
(2) Jablonski. Book 4, chapter 1, section 16. From Chrysostom in his Homilies.
(3) Heliodorus. Book 9, page 429.
(4) On Isis and Osiris original: "De Isid", page 366.

immortal Gods (5); and the Gods named there are the Breath or the Air, the Sky, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the Night, and the Day. Finally, the result of the entire Egyptian doctrine—from which Orpheus borrowed his theological principles—was "to regard," says Eusebius (6), "the world as a great divinity, composed of the assembly of a multitude of Gods, who were nothing other than the parts of the world itself; for they have," he says, "counted among the number of the Gods each of the parts of the Universe (7)." Based on this, we shall conclude with this scholar, with Chaeremon, and with the crowd of other scholars mentioned by Porphyry in his letter to Anebo (8), that Egyptian worship originally related entirely to the visible universal cause and its parts. We conclude that even the secret doctrine of the priests admitted no other Gods than the stars that shine in the firmament, whether planets or fixed stars, and the natural agents, such as the Nile and the four elements. Originally, it did not admit an incorporeal demiurge a non-physical creator or world-builder, nor a demiurgic intelligence, nor intellectual Gods, nor invisible and incorporeal powers separate from the world. It recognized as the leader and moderator of the world only this visible sun. It recognized as Gods only the stars, which are the causes and agents of the organization of all bodies. All these are entirely subject to the imperious action of fatality destiny or the fixed laws of nature, which depends on the stars and results from their respective positions and their movements. "This opinion," adds this scholar, "still exists today among them."

We believe we have sufficiently proven that Egypt, like Phoenicia, Syria, and Arabia, had directed all its worship toward Nature and toward the sensible agents

(5) Theon of Smyrna. On Music original: "De Musicâ". Chapter 47.
(6) Eusebius. Preparation for the Gospel original: "Præp. Ev.". Book 3, chapter 9.
(7) Eusebius. Preparation for the Gospel. Book 3, chapter 4.
(8) Above, page 9.

of the visible and universal cause. This is a point from which we shall depart to cast our gaze upon the rest of the world, to whom these first peoples seem to have communicated their religious ideas, just as they communicated letters, sciences, and arts. The emigrations and long journeys of the Arabs across the continent, the voyages of the Phoenicians to all the islands and coasts of the known world, and the high reputation for science and wisdom of the Egyptians, joined to their ancient conquests: all this leads us to believe that these peoples, more than any others, influenced the religious opinion of the rest of the Universe.

Ancient Religion in Europe.

Greece, civilized by Egyptian colonies, will be the first to fix our gaze. The Greeks, from the highest antiquity, says Plato (1), "seem to have had no other Gods than those whom the barbarians foreigners or non-Greeks still adore today; and these Gods are the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, and the earth." It is known that by barbarians the Greeks meant everyone who was not Greek (2), and especially the Scythians, the Asians, and even the Egyptians, the Persians, and the Indians. This means they practiced the Universal Religion (3). This same philosopher, in another part of his works, believes that one should award worship to the stars, and attributes divinity to them (4). He believes it is just to honor the visible sky, as being for us the source of the greatest goods. Epicharmus (5), a disciple of Pythagoras,

(1) Plato. In Cratylus. page 397.
(2) Sextus Empiricus. Against the Mathematicians original: "adv. Math.". Book 10, page 441.
(3) Eusebius. Preparation for the Gospel. Book 13, chapter 19, page 207.
(4) Plato. In Epinomis. page 977.
(5) Stobaeus. page 226.
(6) Eratosthenes. chapter 24.
(7) Greek Poets original: "Poet. Græci". page 508, etc.

said that the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, water, and fire were Gods. Orpheus regarded the sun as the greatest of the Gods (6), and honored it under the name of Apollo. Often he rose at night and, climbing to a high place, awaited the appearance of this star to pay it homage. Likewise, all the hymns attributed to Orpheus (7), which contain the oldest theology of the Greeks, are addressed to Nature in general, and in particular to the sun, the moon, the sky, the Ether, the stars, the day, the night, the dawn, the seasons, the earth, the ocean, fire, and the winds. The same poet, in the prayer he addresses to Musaeus (8), invokes first the sky, the earth, the sun, and the stars, and then the spirits spread through all parts of Nature. Palamedes advises the Greeks to address their prayers to the sun at its rising (9), and to sacrifice a young white horse to it that has not yet been subjected to the bridle. We will soon see the Massagetae making a similar sacrifice to the sun. Agamemnon, in the Iliad, takes the sun as witness and guarantor of his treaty with the Trojans (10); he also invokes the rivers and mountains. There was in Athens the temple of the Earth, and that of the Sun under the name of Apollo-Pythian (11). A festival and games were held in his honor. In Greece, festivals were celebrated in honor of Jupiter-Ammalo, or Hammel, the name of the celestial Ram, the Ammon of the Egyptians (12). The Rhodians had erected a colossal statue to the Sun-God and held festivals and gymnastic contests in his honor (13). A leaf or a crown

(8) Ibid. page 501.
(9) Philostratus. On Heroes original: "Heroic.", regarding Palamedes. page 683.
(10) Iliad. Book 3, verse 277.
(11) Thucydides. Book 2.
(12) Hesychius, under the word Ammon original: "Αμμων". Diodorus Siculus. Book 5, chapters 56 and 57.
(13) Aristides the Rhetorician. To the Rhodians, and the Scholia ancient commentaries on Pindar's Olympian Odes. Ode 7.