Hew Morrison Collection > Adhamh agus Eubh, no Craobh Sheanachais nan Gàël

182 HISTORY OF THE
confused allegory ? The truth seems to be, that
previously to the erection of the tower, men
appear to have apostatized from the patriarchal
worship. About this time a further deviation from
the truth appears to have taken place ; and, upon
the first and more simple corruption, men engrafted
a more elaborate and more gross system. Of this
hypothesis, the following from Epiphanius is sin-
gularly corroborative, viz.,
" The parents of all the heresies, and the prototypes from
which theìj derive their ìiames, and from which all other
heresies originated, are those four primary ones. The first is
Barbarism, (Ab-Aurism?) which prevailed, without a rival,
from the days of Adam, through ten generations, to the time
of Noah The second is Scuthism, (Esh- Cùism ?)
which prevailed from the days of Noah, and thence down-
wards to the building of the Tower of Babylon, and for
a few years subsequent to that time, that is, the daj's of
Phalec and Rogua. (Eph-El, and Ro-Og?) But the nations
which incHne upon the borders of Europe, continued addicted
to the Scythic heresy, and the customs of the Scythians, to
the age of Thera ; and afterwards, of this sect also were
the Thracians. (Tau-Aur-Esh ?) The third is Helenism,
(Ele-ism, or Swanism?) which originated* in the days of
Seruch, with the introduction of idolatry The fol-
lowers of this began with the use of jjainting, mahing like-
nesses ofthose whotn ihej formerlì/ honoured, either kings or
chiefs The Egyptians, and Babylonians, and Phry-
gians, and Phcenicians, were the first jjropagators of this
superstition of mahing images, and of the mysteries, from
whom it was transferred to the Greeks, from the time of
Cecrops downwards. The fourth was the worship of Cronus,
Rhea, Zeus, and Apollo."