2. _The Greek Polytheists taught a plurality of_"GENERATED DEITIES," _who owe their existence to the power and will of the Supreme God, who are by Him invested with delegated powers, and who, as the agents of his universal providence, preside over different departments of the created universe_. The evidence presented by Cudworth in support of his theses is so varied and so voluminous, that it defies all attempts at condensation. His volumes exhibit an extent of reading, of patient research, and of varied learning, which is truly amazing. The discussion of these propositions involves, in fact, nothing less than a complete and exhaustive survey of the entire field of ancient literature, a careful study of the Greek and Latin poets, of the Oriental, Greek, and Alexandrian philosophers, and a review of the statements and criticisms of Rabbinical and Patristic writers in regard to the religions of the pagan world. An adequate conception of the varied and weighty evidence which is collected by our author from these fields, in support of his views, could only be conveyed by transcribing to our pages the larger portion of his memorable _fourth_ chapter. But inasmuch as Grecian polytheism is, in fact, the culmination of all the mythological systems of the ancient world, the fully-developed flower and ripened fruit of the cosmical and theological conceptions of the childhood-condition of humanity, we propose to epitomize the results of his inquiry as to the _theological_, opinions of the Greeks, supplying additional confirmation of his views from other sources. And first, he proves most conclusively that Orpheus, Homer, and Hesiod,[160] who are usually designated "the theologians" of Greece, but who were in fact the depravers and corrupters of pagan theology, do not teach the existence of a multitude of _unmade, self-existent, and independent deities_. Even they believed in the existence of _one_ uncreated and eternal mind, _one Supreme God_, anterior and superior to all the gods of their mythology. They had some intuition, some apperception of the _Divine_, even before they had attached to it a sacred name. The gods of their mythology had all, save one, a temporal origin; they were generated of Chaos and Night, by an active principle called _Love_. "One might suspect," says Aristotle, that Hesiod, and if there be any other who made _love_ or _desire_ a principle of things, aimed at these very things (viz., the designation of the efficient cause of the world); for Parmenides, describing the generation of the universe, says: 'First of all the gods planned he _love_;' and further, Hesiod: 'First of all was Chaos, afterwards Earth, With her spacious bosom, And _Love_, who is pre-eminent among all the immortals;'