Miraculous conceptions.--All antiquity is full of such conceptions and births, springing from the fabulous amours of gods with _virgins_, whereby "_sons of God_" were engendered. These fables also had their origin in physical and moral allegories; but they were subsequently found to be extremely convenient to cover the real fruits of sacerdotal intrigues and seductions, which the priests could always saddle upon some good-natured god. In all probability the virgin votaries of Vesta were instituted for no other purpose than the private _devotions_ of the priesthood* and when it happened that they were unable to conceal the natural effects of these amours, the paternity was charged upon some easy accommodating god; by which means the girl remained in spotless virginity. This opinion is the more valid from their being allowed to marry at thirty, when the priests no longer wanted _their_ services, but those of the younger girls: if they chose to remain, in the temple, however, they were
"Doomed to deck the bed they once enjoyed."
* In the highest apartment of the Temple of Belas, in Babylon, a woman was kept for the _private devotion_ of the priest whose turn it was to make astronomical observations. This was done under the pretence that the lady was visited once a year by the god Bel. History dees not inform us in regard to Bel's progeny, by these housekeepers.
By such artful intrigues, the Hindu virgin, Rohini, conceived and brought forth a "son of God," one of the Brahmin trinity. A Chinese _virgin_, impregnated by a ray of the _Sun_, became the mother of the god Foê, who always acted as the _mediator_ between his followers and another god of still greater power. Mademoiselle Creusa, in all her virgin purity, was safely delivered of another "_son of God_" as was also the virgin mother of Somonocodom, who, according to the scriptures of the Talapoins of Siam, was the god expected to _save_ the universe. Jupiter himself was fabled to have given birth to children from all parts of his body, from forehead to leg: thus Minerva sprang from his head.* The followers of Plato, two hundred and fifty years after his death, and one hundred before the Christian era, raised the story that he was born of a virgin:--Aristo, his father, was on his marriage, warned in a _dream_ by Apollo, not to have any commerce with his wife, because she was with child by him (Apollo); Aristo obeyed; and Plato was born as another "_son of God_" It was no doubt owing to the holy paternity of some priest, that Sylva Rhea, under cover of a love affair with the god Mars, had the honor to lay the foundation of the Roman religion, by producing another "_son of God_."