Joseph Spence > Quotes

“The old Romans, as well as the rest of the heathens, were expert at making distinctions by names, where, according to their own notions, there was no difference in the things. The thinking part of them believed that there was one great Being, who made, preserved and actuated all things... When he thundered, they called him Jupiter; when he calmed the seas, Neptune; when he guided their counsels, it was Minerva, and when he gave them strength in battle, it was Mars. This was their first great distinction without difference... In time, as distinct acts and characters were attributed to them, and as their figures of each were multiplied and varied in different places, they came to consider each of them too in different views, and this was their second distinction without difference.”
― Joseph Spence, Polymetis, London, 1747