There is as good proof of the Heathen Mythology as of the Christian Religion.

2ly. that they [do] not contradict one another.

Con[clusion]. If a man believes in one he must believe in both.

Examination of the proofs of the Xtian religion--the Bible & its authors. The twelve stones that existed in the time of the writer prove the miraculous passage of the river Jordan. [Footnote: Josh. iv. 8.--These notes are not Shelley's.] The immoveability of the Island of Delos proves the accouchement of Latona [Footnote: Theogn. 5 foll.; Homer's Hymn to Apollo, i. 25.]--the Bible of the Greek religion consists in Homer, Hesiod & the Fragments of Orpheus &c.--All that came afterwards to be considered apocryphal--Ovid = Josephus--of each of these writers we may believe just what we cho[o]se.

To seek in these Poets for the creed & proofs of mythology which are as follows--Examination of these--1st with regard to proof--2 in contradiction or conformity to the Bible--various apparitions of God in that Book [--] Jupiter considered by himself--his attributes-- disposition [--] acts--whether as God revealed himself as the Almighty to the Patriarchs & as Jehovah to the Jews he did not reveal himself as Jupiter to the Greeks--the possibility of various revelations--that he revealed himself to Cyrus. [Footnote: Probably Xenophon, Cyrop. VIII. vii. 2.]

The inferior deities--the sons of God & the Angels--the difficulty of Jupiter's children explained away--the imagination of the poets--of the prophets--whether the circumstance of the sons of God living with women [Footnote: Gen. vi.] being related in one sentence makes it more probable than the details of Greek--Various messages of the Angels--of the deities--Abraham, Lot or Tobit. Raphael [--]Mercury to Priam [Footnote: Iliad, xxiv.]--Calypso & Ulysses--the angel wd then play the better part of the two whereas he now plays the worse. The ass of Balaam--Oracles--Prophets. The revelation of God as Jupiter to the Greeks---a more successful revelation than that as Jehovah to the Jews--Power, wisdom, beauty, & obedience of the Greeks--greater & of longer continuance--than those of the Jews. Jehovah's promises worse kept than Jupiter's--the Jews or Prophets had not a more consistent or decided notion concerning after life & the Judgements of God than the Greeks [--] Angels disappear at one time in the Bible & afterwards appear again. The revelation to the Greeks more complete than to the Jews--prophesies of Christ by the heathens more incontrovertible than those of the Jews. The coming of X. a confirmation of both religions. The cessation of oracles a proof of this. The Xtians better off than any but the Jews as blind as the Heathens--Much more conformable to an idea of [the] goodness of God that he should have revealed himself to the Greeks than that he left them in ignorance. Vergil & Ovid not truth of the heathen Mythology, but the interpretation of a heathen-- as Milton's Paradise Lost is the interpretation of a Christian religion of the Bible. The interpretation of the mythology of Vergil & the interpretation of the Bible by Milton compared--whether one is more inconsistent than the other--In what they are contradictory. Prometheus desmotes quoted by Paul [Footnote: Shelley may refer to the proverbial phrase 'to kick against the pricks' (Acts xxvi. 14), which, however, is found in Pindar and Euripides as well as in Aeschylus (Prom. 323).] [--] all religion false except that which is revealed-- revelation depends upon a certain degree of civilization--writing necessary--no oral tradition to be a part of faith--the worship of the Sun no revelation--Having lost the books [of] the Egyptians we have no knowledge of their peculiar revelations. If the revelation of God to the Jews on Mt Sinai had been more peculiar & impressive than some of those to the Greeks they wd not immediately after have worshiped a calf--A latitude in revelation--How to judge of prophets--the proof [of] the Jewish Prophets being prophets.

The only public revelation that Jehovah ever made of himself was on Mt Sinai--Every other depended upon the testimony of a very few & usually of a single individual--We will first therefore consider the revelation of Mount Sinai. Taking the fact plainly it happened thus.