Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 644

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Defense of an Essay, &c.

Nov.

have never regarded their gods as purely spiritual,—incorporeal, im- material beings. Spiritual beings they were, but not uncompounded : they had bodies as well as spirits, so that there was no absurdity in their making corporeal images of them. If the Greeks esteemed their gods as pure spirits, how could Demetrius have any controversy with Paul for asserting that "They be no gods that are inade with hands.” The gods of Homer are certainly corporeal beings—not mere imma- terial spirits. They ride in chariots, fight in armor, and are wounded in conflict with mortal men; e. g. when Minerva mounted the car as the charioteer of Diomed,

"The groaning axle bent beneath the loud,

So great a Hero, and so great a God."

Diomed and Mars fight: the poet thus describes their encounter:—

"Now, rushing fierce, in equal arms appear,

The daring Greek, the dreadful god of War. Full at the chief, above his courser's head, From Mars's arm th' enormous weapon filed: Pallas opposed her hand, and caused to glance Far from the car, the strong immortal lance; Then threw the force of Tideus' warlike souf; The javelin hiss'd; the goddess urged it on; Where the broad cincture girt his armor round

It pierced the God; his groin received the wound. Mars bellows with the pain, &c.'

To speak of the images of such gods as these appears natural and appropriate; but I can not see what propriety there would be in per- sons making "wooden images of spirits,”—of incorporeal, immaterial beings. Until therefore Dr. M. brings us an instance of some people making stone or wooden images, and worshiping them under the nanie of spirits, we must conclude from the fact that the Chinese make im- ages of their shin and worship them, that they do regard them as gods; and that, because of this worship, they are to be accounted polytheists, and not polypneumatists.

In answer to all that we have urged above to show that shin is the absolute, appellative name of the Chinese gods, instances are produc. ed in which the word can not be rendered god; where, for instance, the human spirit—that of a living man—is called shin; and as the word in this case can not be rendered a god, the inference is drawn that it can not in any instance have this meaning. Dr. L. says,

"If it

* According to the views of the American Missionary, Homer here seems to use the word og very unclassically; but if the Iliad is to be put aside, what Greek book shall we consider entitled to rank among the Grock classics?