Page:Four Dissertations - David Hume (1757).djvu/59

 all idolaters, of whatever age or country, concur in these general principles and conceptions; and even the particular characters and provinces, which they assign to their deities are not extremely different. The Greek and Roman travellers and conquerors, without much difficulty, found their own deities every where; and said, this is Mercury, that Venus; this Mars, that Neptune; by whatever titles the strange gods may be denominated. The goddess Hertha of our Saxon ancestors seems to be no other, according to Tacitus, than the Mater Tellus of the Romans; and his conjecture was evidently just.