diff --git a/data/tlg0007/tlg080/tlg0007.tlg080.perseus-eng4.xml b/data/tlg0007/tlg080/tlg0007.tlg080.perseus-eng4.xml new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bc9046888 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/tlg0007/tlg080/tlg0007.tlg080.perseus-eng4.xml @@ -0,0 +1,775 @@ + + + + + + + Of Superstition, or Indiscreet Devotion + Plutarch + William W. Goodwin + William Baxter + Perseus Project, Tufts University + Gregory Crane + + Prepared under the supervision of + Lisa Cerrato + Rashmi Singhal + Bridget Almas + + The National Endowment for the Humanities + + + Trustees of Tufts University + Medford, MA + Perseus Project + 2010-12-13 + + + + + Plutarch + Plutarch's Morals. + + Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by + William W. Goodwin, PH. D. + + + Boston + Little, Brown, and Company + Cambridge + Press Of John Wilson and son + 1874 + + 1 + + The Internet Archive + + + + +

The following text is encoded in accordance with EpiDoc standards and with the CTS/CITE Architecture

+ + +

This pointer pattern extracts sections

 + + + + + + English + Greek + + + + tagging + CTS and Epidoc conversion + + + + +
+ Of superstition or indiscreet devotion. + +
+

Our great ignorance of the Divine Beings most naturally runs in two streams; whereof the one in harsh and coarse + tempers, as in dry and stubborn soils, produces atheism, + and the other in the more tender and flexible, as in moist + and yielding grounds, produces superstition. Indeed, every + wrong judgment, in matters of this nature especially, is + a great unhappiness to us; but it is here attended with a + passion, or disorder of the mind, of a worse consequence + than itself. For every such passion is, as it were, an error + inflamed. And as a dislocation is the more painful when + it is attended with a bruise, so are the perversions of our + understandings, when attended with passion. Is a man of + opinion that atoms and a void were the first origins of + things? It is indeed a mistaken conceit, but makes no + ulcer, no shooting, no searching pain. But is a man of + opinion that wealth is his last good? This error contains + in it a canker; it preys upon a man's spirits, it transports + him, it suffers him not to sleep, it makes him horn-mad, it + carries him over headlong precipices, strangles him, and + makes him unable to speak his mind. Are there some + again, that take virtue and vice for substantial bodies? + This may be sottish conceit indeed, but yet it bespeaks + neither lamentations nor groans. But such opinions and + conceits as these,— + + + + Poor virtue! thou wast but a name, and mere jest, + And I, choust fool, did practise thee in earnest, + + + + + and for thee have I quitted injustice, the way to wealth, and + excess, the parent of all true pleasure,—these are the + thoughts that call at once for our pity and indignation; for + they will engender swarms of diseases, like fly-blows and + vermin, in our minds.

+
+
+

To return then to our subject, atheism, which is + a false persuasion that there are no blessed and incorruptible beings, tends yet, by its disbelief of a Divinity, to bring + men to a sort of unconcernedness and indifferency of temper; + for the design of those that deny a God is to ease themselves + of his fear. But superstition appears by its appellation + to be a distempered opinion and conceit, productive of + such mean and abject apprehensions as debase and break + a man's spirit, while he thinks there are divine powers indeed, but withal sour and vindictive ones. So that the + atheist is not at all, and the superstitious is perversely, affected + with the thoughts of God; ignorance depriving the one of + the sense of his goodness, and superadding to the other a + persuasion of his cruelty. Atheism then is but false reasoning single, but superstition is a disorder of the mind produced by this false reasoning.

+
+
+

Every distemper of our minds is truly base and ignoble; yet some passions are accompanied with a sort of levity, + that makes men appear gay, prompt, and erect; but none, + we may say, are wholly destitute of force for action. But + the common charge upon all sorts of passions is, that they + excite and urge the reason, forcing it by their violent stings. + Fear alone, being equally destitute of reason and audacity, + renders our whole irrational part stupid, distracted, and unserviceable. Therefore it is called δεῖμα because it binds, + and τάρβος because it distracts the mind.Plutarch derives δεῖμα from δέω + to bind, and τύρβος from ταράσσω to distract or + confuse. (G.) But of all fears, + none so dozes and confounds as that of superstition. He + fears not the sea that never goes to sea; nor a battle, that + + + + follows not the camp; nor robbers, that stirs not abroad; + nor malicious informers, that is a poor man; nor emulation, + that leads a private life; nor earthquakes, that dwells in + Gaul; nor thunderbolts, that dwells in Ethiopia: but he + that dreads divine powers dreads every thing, the land, the + sea, the air, the sky, the dark, the light, a sound, a silence, + a dream. Even slaves forget their masters in their sleep; + sleep lightens the irons of the fettered; their angry sores, + mortified gangrenes, and pinching pains allow them some + intermission at night. + + + + Dear sleep, sweet easer of my irksome grief, + Pleasant thou art! how welcome thy relief! + + Eurip. Orestes, 211. + + + + Superstition will not permit a man to say this. That + alone will give no truce at night, nor suffer the poor soul + so much as to breathe or look up, or respite her sour and + dismal thoughts of God a moment; but raises in the sleep + of the superstitious, as in the place of the damned, certain + prodigious forms and ghastly spectres, and perpetually + tortures the unhappy soul, chasing her out of sleep into + dreams, lashed and tormented by her own self, as by some + other, and charged by herself with dire and portentous + injunctions. Neither have they, when awake, enough sense + to slight and smile at all this, or to be pleased with the + thought that nothing of all that terrified them was real; + but they still fear an empty shadow, that could never mean + them any ill, and cheat themselves afresh at noonday, and + keep a bustle, and are at expense upon the next fortuneteller or vagrant that shall but tell them:— + + + + If in a dream hobgoblin thou hast seen, + Or felt'st the rambling guards o' th' Fairy Queen, + + + send for some old witch who can purify thee, go dip thyself in the sea, and then sit down upon the bare ground the + rest of the day. + + + + O that our Greeks should found such barbarous rites, + + Eurip. Troad. 759. + + + + + + as tumbling in mire, rolling themselves in dunghills, keeping of Sabbaths, monstrous prostrations, long and obstinate + sittings in a place, and vile and abject adorations, and all + for vain superstition! They that were careful to preserve + good singing used to direct the practisers of that science to + sing with their mouths in their true and proper postures. + Should not we then admonish those that would address + themselves to the heavenly powers to do that also with a + true and natural mouth, lest, while we are so solicitous that + the tongue of a sacrifice be pure and right, we distort and + abuse our own with silly and canting language, and thereby expose the dignity of our divine and ancient piety to + contempt and raillery? It was not unpleasantly said somewhere by the comedian to those that adorned their beds with + the needless ornaments of silver and gold: Since the Gods + have given us nothing gratis except sleep, why will you + make that so costly? It might as well be said to the + superstitious bigot: Since the Gods have bestowed sleep on + us, to the intent we may take some rest and forget our + sorrows, why will you needs make it a continual irksome + tormentor, when you know your poor soul hath ne'er + another sleep to betake herself to? Heraclitus saith: They + who are awake have a world in common amongst them; but + they that are asleep are retired each to his own private + world. But the frightful visionary hath ne'er a world at + all, either in common with others or in private to himself; + for neither can he use his reason when awake, nor be free + from his fears when asleep; but he hath his reason always + asleep, and his fears always awake; nor hath he either an + hiding-place or refuge.

+
+
+

Polycrates was formidable at Samos, and so was + Periander at Corinth; but no man ever feared either of + them that had made his escape to an equal and free + government. But he that dreads the divine government, + as a sort of inexorable and implacable tyranny, whither + + + + can he remove? Whither can he fly? What land, what + sea can he find where God is not? Wretched and miserable man! in what corner of the world canst thou so hide + thyself, as to think thou hast now escaped him? Slaves + are allowed by the laws, when they despair of obtaining + their freedom, to demand a second sale, in hopes of kinder + masters. But superstition allows of no change of Gods; + nor could he indeed find a God he would not fear, that + dreads his own and his ancestors' guardians, that quivers at + his preservers and benign patrons, and that trembles and + shakes at those of whom we ask wealth, plenty, concord, + peace, and direction to the best words and actions. Slaves + again account it their misfortune to become such, and can + say,— + + + + Both man and wife in direful slavery, + And with ill masters too! Fate's worst decree! + + + But how much less tolerable, think you, is their condition, + that can never possibly run away, escape, or desert? A + slave may fly to an altar, and many temples afford sanctuary + to thieves; and they that are pursued by an enemy think + themselves safe if they can catch hold on a statue or a + shrine. But the superstitious fears, quivers, and dreads + most of all there, where others when fearfullest take + greatest courage. Never hale a superstitious man from + the altar. It is his place of torment; he is there chastised. In one word, death itself, the end of life, puts no + period to this vain and foolish dread; but it transcends + those limits, and extends its fears beyond the grave, adding + to it the imagination of immortal ills; and after respite from + past sorrows, it fancies it shall next enter upon never-ending ones. I know not what gates of hell open themselves + from beneath, rivers of fire together with Stygian torrents + present themselves to view; a gloomy darkness appears + full of ghastly spectres and horrid shapes, with dreadful + aspects and doleful groans, together with judges and tormentors, + + + + pits and caverns, full of millions of miseries and + woes. Thus does wretched superstition bring inevitably + upon itself by its fancies even those calamities which it has + once escaped.

+
+
+

Atheism is attended with none of this. True indeed, + the ignorance is very lamentable and sad. For to be blind + or to see amiss in matters of this consequence cannot but + be a fatal unhappiness to the mind, it being then deprived + of the fairest and brightest of its many eyes, the knowledge + of God. Yet this opinion (as hath been said) is not necessarily accompanied with any disordering, ulcerous, frightful, + or slavish passion. Plato thinks the Gods never gave men + music, the science of melody and harmony, for mere + delectation or to tickle the ear, but in order that the + confusion and disorder in the periods and harmonies of + the soul, which often for want of the Muses and of grace + break forth into extravagance through intemperance and + license, might be sweetly recalled, and artfully wound up + to their former consent and agreement. + + + + No animal accurst by Jove + Music's sweet charms can ever love, + + Pindar, Pyth. I. 25. + + + + saith Pindar. For all such will rave and grow outrageous + straight. Of this we have an instance in tigers, which + (as they say), if they hear but a tabor beat near them, will + rage immediately and run stark mad, and in fine tear + themselves in pieces. They certainly suffer the less + inconvenience of the two, who either through defect of + hearing or utter deafness are wholly insensible of music, + and therefore unmoved by it. It was a great misfortune + indeed to Tiresias, that he wanted sight to see his friends + and children; but a far greater to Athamas and Agave, to + see them in the shape of lions and bucks. And it had + been happier for Hercules, when he was distracted, if he + could have neither seen nor known his children, than to + + + + have used like the worst of enemies those he so tenderly + loved.

+
+
+

Well then, is not this the very case of the atheist, + compared with the superstitious? The former sees not + the Gods at all, the latter believes that he really sees them; + the former wholly overlooks them, but the latter mistakes + their benignity for terror, their paternal affection for + tyranny, their providence for cruelty, and their frank simplicity for savageness and brutality.

+

Again, the workman in copper, stone, and wax can persuade such that the Gods are in human shape; for so they + make them, so they draw them, and so they worship them. + But they will not hear either philosophers or statesmen + that describe the majesty of the Divinity as accompanied + by goodness, magnanimity, benignity, and beneficence. + The one therefore hath neither a sense nor belief of that + divine good he might participate of; and the other dreads + and fears it. In a word, atheism is an absolute insensibility to God (or want of passion), which does not + recognize goodness; while superstition is a blind heap + of passions, which imagine the good to be evil. They are + afraid of their Gods, and yet run to them; they fawn upon + them, and reproach them; they invoke them, and accuse + them. It is the common destiny of humanity not to enjoy + uninterrupted felicity. + + + + Nor pains, nor age, nor labor they e'er bore, + Nor visited rough Acheron's hoarse shore, + + + saith Pindar of the Gods; but human passions and affairs + are liable to a strange multiplicity of uncertain accidents + and contingencies.

+
+
+

Consider well the atheist, and observe his behavior + first in things not under the disposal of his will. If he be + otherwise a man of good temper, he is silent under his + present circumstances, and is providing himself with either + remedies or palliatives for his misfortunes. But if he be a + + + + fretful and impatient man, his whole complaint is against + Fortune. He cries out, that nothing is managed here + below either after the rules of a strict justice or the orderly + course of a providence, and that all human affairs are hurried and driven without either premeditation or distinction. + This is not the demeanor of the superstitious; if the least + thing do but happen amiss to him, he sits him down + plunged in sorrow, and raises himself a vast tempest of + intolerable and incurable passions, and presents his fancy + with nothing but terrors, fears, surmises, and distractions, + until he hath overwhelmed himself with groans and fears. + He blames neither man, nor Fortune, nor the times, nor + himself; but charges all upon God, from whom he fancies + a whole deluge of vengeance to be pouring down upon + him; and, as if he were not only unfortunate but in open + hostility with Heaven, he imagines that he is punished by + God and is now making satisfaction for his past crimes, + and saith that his sufferings are all just and owing to himself. Again, when the atheist falls sick, he reckons up + and calls to his remembrance his several surfeits and + debauches, his irregular course of living, excessive labors, + or unaccustomed changes of air or climate. Likewise, + when he miscarries in any public administration, and either + falls into popular disgrace or comes to be ill presented to + his prince, he searches for the causes in himself and those + about him, and asks, + + + + Where have I erred? What have I done amiss? + What should be done by me that undone is? + + Pythagoras, Carmen Aur. 41. + + + + But the fanciful superstitionist accounts every little distemper in his body or decay in his estate, the death of his + children, and crosses and disappointments in matters relating to the public, as the immediate strokes of God and + the incursions of some vindictive daemon. And therefore + he dares not attempt to remove or relieve his disasters, or + + + + to use the least remedy or to oppose himself to them, for fear + he should seem to struggle with God and to make resistance under correction. If he be sick, he thrusts away the + physician; if he be in any grief, he shuts out the philosopher that would comfort and advise him. Let me alone, + saith he, to pay for my sins: I am a cursed and vile offender, and detestable both to God and angels. Now suppose + a man unpersuaded of a Divinity in never so great sorrow + and trouble, you may yet possibly wipe away his tears, cut + his hair, and force away his mourning; but how will you + come at this superstitious penitentiary, either to speak to + him or to bring him any relief? He sits him down without doors in sackcloth, or wrapped up in foul and nasty + rags; yea, many times rolls himself naked in mire, repeating over I know not what sins and transgressions of his + own; as, how he did eat this thing and drink the other + thing, or went some way prohibited by his Genius. But + suppose he be now at his best, and laboring under only a + mild attack of superstition; you shall even then find him + sitting down in the midst of his house all becharmed and + bespelled, with a parcel of old women about him, tugging + all they can light on, and hanging it upon him as (to use + an expression of Bion's) upon some nail or peg.

+
+
+

It is reported of Teribazus that, being seized by the + Persians, he drew out his scimitar, and being a very stout + person, defended himself bravely; but when they cried + out and told him he was apprehended by the king's order, he + immediately put up his sword, and presented his hands to + be bound. Is not this the very case of the superstitious? + Others can oppose their misfortunes, repel their troubles, + and furnish themselves with retreats, or means of avoiding + the stroke of things not under the disposal of their wills; + but the superstitious person, without anybody's speaking + to him,—but merely upon his own saying to himself, This + thou undergoest, vile wretch, by the direction of Providence, + + + + and by Heaven's just appointment,—immediately casts + away all hope, surrenders himself up, and shuns and + affronts his friends that would relieve him. Thus do these + sottish fears oftentimes convert tolerable evils into fatal and + insupportable ones. The ancient Midas (as the story goes + of him), being much troubled and disquieted by certain + dreams, grew so melancholy thereupon, that he made himself away by drinking bull's blood. Aristodemus, king of + Messenia, when a war broke out betwixt the Lacedaemonians and the Messenians, upon some dogs howling like + wolves, and grass coming up about his ancestors' domestic + altar, and his divines presaging ill upon it, fell into such a + fit of sullenness and despair that he slew himself. And + perhaps it had been better if the Athenian general, Nicias, + had been eased of his folly the same way that Midas and + Aristodemus were, than for him to sit still for fear of a + lunar eclipse, while he was invested by an enemy, and so + be himself made a prisoner, together with an army of forty + thousand men (that were all either slain or taken), and die + ingloriously. There was nothing formidable in the interposition of the earth betwixt the sun and the moon, neither + was there any thing dreadful in the shadow's meeting the + moon at the proper time: no, the dreadfulness lay here, + that the darkness of ignorance should blind and befool + a man's reason at a time when he had most occasion to + use it. + + + + Glaucus, behold! + The sea with billows deep begins to roll; + The seas begin in azure rods to lie; + A teeming cloud of pitch hangs on the sky + Right o'er Gyre rocks; there is a tempest nigh; + + Archilochus, Frag. 56. + + + + which as soon as the pilot sees, he falls to his prayers and + invokes his tutelar daemons, but neglects not in the mean + time to hold to the rudder and let down the mainyard; + and so, + + + + + + By gathering in his sails, with mighty pain, + Escapes the hell-pits of the raging main. + +

+

HesiodHesiod, Works and Days, 463. directs his husbandman, before he either + plough or sow, to pray to the infernal Jove and the venerable Ceres, but with his hand upon the plough-tail. Homer + acquaints us how Ajax, being to engage in a single combat + with Hector, bade the Grecians pray to the Gods for him; + and while they were at their devotions, he was putting on + his armor. Likewise, after Agamemnon had thus prepared + his soldiers for the fight,— + + + + Each make his spear to glitter as the sun, + Each see his warlike target well hung on,— + + + he then prayed,— + + + + Grant me, great Jove, to throw down Priam's roof. + + See Il. VII. 193; II. 382, 414. + + +

+

For God is the brave man's hope, and not the coward's + excuse. The Jews indeed once sat on their tails,—it being forsooth their Sabbath day,—and suffered their enemies + to rear their scaling-ladders and make themselves masters + of their walls, and so lay still until they were caught + like so many trout in the drag-net of their own superstition.See Maccabees, I. 2, 27–38, cited by Wyttenbach. (G.) +

+
+
+

Such then is the behavior of superstition in times of + adversity, and in things out of the power of man's will. + Nor doth it a jot excel atheism in the more agreeable and + pleasurable part of our lives. Now what we esteem the + most agreeable things in human life are our holidays, + temple-feasts, initiatings, processionings, with our public + prayers and solemn devotions. Mark we now the atheist's + behavior here. 'Tis true, he laughs at all that is done, + with a frantic and sardonic laughter, and now and then + whispers to a confidant of his, The devil is in these people + sure, that can imagine God can be taken with these fooleries: + + + + but this is the worst of his disasters. But now the + superstitious man would fain be pleasant and gay, but cannot for his heart. The whole town is filled with odors of + incense and perfumes, and at the same time a mixture of + hymns and sighs fills his poor soul.Sophocles, Oed. Tyr. 4. He looks pale with + a garland on his head, he sacrifices and fears, prays with a + faltering tongue, and offers incense with a trembling hand. + In a word, he utterly baffles that saying, of Pythagoras, + that we are then best when we come near the Gods. For + the superstitious person is then in his worst and most pitiful condition, when he approaches the shrines and temples + of the Gods.

+
+
+

So that I cannot but wonder at those that charge + atheism with impiety, and in the mean time acquit superstition. Anaxagoras was indicted of blasphemy for having + affirmed the sun to be a red-hot stone; yet the Cimmerians + were never much blamed for denying his being. What? + Is he that holds there is no God guilty of impiety, and is + not he that describes him as the superstitious do much + more guilty? I, for my own part, had much rather + people should say of me, that there neither is nor ever + was such a man as Plutarch, than they should say: + Plutarch is an unsteady, fickle, froward, vindictive, + and touchy fellow; if you invite others to sup with you, + and chance to leave out Plutarch, or if some business + falls out that you cannot wait at his door with the morning salute, or if when you meet with him you don't + speak to him, he'll fasten upon you somewhere with his + teeth and bite the part through, or catch one of your + children and cane him, or turn his beast into your corn + and spoil your crop. When Timotheus the musician + was one day singing at Athens an hymn to Diana, in + which among other things was this,— + + + + Mad, raving, tearing, foaming Deity,— + + + + + Cinesias, the lyric poet, stood up from the midst of the + spectators, and spoke aloud: I wish thee with all my heart + such a Goddess to thy daughter, Timotheus. Such like, + nay worse, are the conceits of the superstitious about this + Goddess Diana:— + + + + Thou dost on the bed-clothes jump, + And there liest like a lump. + Thou dost tantalize the bride, + When love's charms by thee are tied. + Thou look'st grim and full of dread, + When thou walk'st to find the dead. + Thou down chairs and tables rumbl'st, + When with Oberon thou tumbl'st. I leave Mr. Baxter's conjectural version of this corrupt passage, instead of inserting another equally conjectural. As to the original Greek, hardly a word can be made out with certainty. (G). + + +

+

Nor have they any milder sentiments of Apollo, Juno, or + Venus; for they are equally scared with them all. Alas! + what could poor Niobe ever say that could be so reflecting + upon the honor of Latona, as that which superstition + makes fools believe of her? Niobe, it seems, had given + her some hard words, for which she fairly shot her + + + + Six daughters, and six sons full in their prime; + + Il. XXIV. 604. + + + + so impatient was she, and insatiate with the calamities of + another. Now if the Goddess was really thus choleric + and vindictive and so highly incensed with bad language, + and if she had not the wisdom to smile at human frailty + and ignorance, but suffered herself to be thus transported + with passion, I much marvel she did not shoot them too + that told this cruel story of her, and charged her both in + speech and writing with so much spleen and rancor. We + oft accuse Queen Hecuba of barbarous and savage bitterness, for having once said in Homer,— + + + + Would God I had his liver 'twixt my teeth; + + Il. XXIV. 212. + + + + yet the superstitious believe, if a man taste of a minnow or + + + + bleak, the Syrian Goddess will eat his shins through, fill + his body with sores, and dissolve his liver.

+
+
+

Is it a sin then to speak amiss of the Gods, and is + it not to think amiss of them? And is not thinking the + cause of speaking ill? For the only reason of our dislike + to detraction is that we look upon it as a token of ill-will + to us; and we therefore take those for our enemies that + misrepresent us, because we look upon them as untrusty. + and disaffected. You see then what the superstitious + think of the divinity, while they fancy the Gods such + heady, faithless, fickle, revengeful, cruel, and fretful things. + The consequence of which is that the superstitious person + must needs both fear and hate them at once. And indeed, + how can he otherwise choose, while he thinks the greatest + calamities he either doth now or must hereafter undergo + are wholly owing to them? Now he that both hates and + fears the Gods must of necessity be their enemy. And if + he trembles, fears, prostrates, sacrifices, and sits perpetually + in their temples, that is no marvel at all. For the very + worst of tyrants are complimented and attended, yea, have + statues of gold erected to them, by those who in private + hate them and wag their heads. Hermolaus waited on + Alexander, and Pausanias was of Philip's guard, and so + was Chaerea of Caligula's; yet every one of these said, I + warrant you, in his heart as he went along,— + + + + Had I a power as my will is good,. + Know this, bold tyrant, I would have thy blood. + + Il. XXII. 20. + + +

+

The atheist believes there are no Gods; the superstitious + would have none, but is a believer against his will, and + would be an infidel if he durst. He would be as glad to + ease himself of the burthen of his fear, as Tantalus would + be to slip his head from under the great stone that hangs + over him, and would bless the condition of the atheist as + + + + absolute freedom, compared with his own. The atheist + now has nothing to do with superstition; while the superstitious is an atheist in his heart, but is too much a coward + to think as he is inclined.

+
+
+

Moreover, atheism hath no hand at all in causing + superstition; but superstition not only gave atheism its + first birth, but serves it ever since by giving it its best + apology for existing, which, although it be neither a good + nor a fair one, is yet the most specious and colorable. For + men were not at first made atheists by any fault they found + in the heavens or stars, or in the seasons of the year, or in + those revolutions or motions of the sun about the earth + that make the day and night; nor yet by observing any + mistake or disorder either in the breeding of animals or + the production of fruits. No, it was the uncouth actions + and ridiculous and senseless passions of superstition, her + canting words, her foolish gestures, her charms, her magic, + her freakish processions, her taborings, her foul expiations, + her vile methods of purgation, and her barbarous and inhuman penances, and bemirings at the temples,—it was + these, I say, that gave occasion to many to affirm, it would + be far happier there were no Gods at all than for them + to be pleased and delighted with such fantastic toys, and to + thus abuse their votaries, and to be incensed and pacified + with trifles.

+
+
+

Had it not been much better for the so much famed + Gauls and Scythians to have neither thought nor imagined + nor heard any thing of their Gods, than to have believed + them such as would be pleased with the blood of human + sacrifices, and would account such for the most complete + and meritorious of expiations? How much better had it + been for the Carthaginians to have had either a Critias or + a Diagoras for their first lawmaker, that so they might + have believed in neither God nor spirits, than to make such + offerings to Saturn as they made?—not such as Empedocles + + + + speaks of, where he thus touches the sacrifices of + beasts:— + + + + The sire lifts up his dear beloved son, + Who first some other form and shape did take; + He doth him slay and sacrifice anon, + And therewith vows and foolish prayers doth make. + + + But they knowingly and wittingly themselves devoted their + own children; and they that had none of their own + bought of some poor people, and then sacrificed them like + lambs or pigeons, the poor mother standing by the while + without either a sigh or tear; and if by chance she fetched + a sigh or let fall a tear, she lost the price of her child, + but it was nevertheless sacrificed. All the places round + the image were in the mean time filled with the noise of + hautboys and tabors, to drown the poor infants' crying. + Suppose we now the Typhons and Giants should depose + the Gods and make themselves masters of mankind, what + sort of sacrifices, think you, would they expect? Or what + other expiations would they require? The queen of King + Xerxes, Amestris, buried twelve men alive, as a sacrifice to + Pluto to prolong her own life; and yet Plato saith, This + God is called in Greek Hades, because he is placid, wise, + and wealthy, and retains the souls of men by persuasion + and oratory. That great naturalist Xenophanes, seeing + the Egyptians beating their breasts and lamenting at the + solemn times of their devotions, gave them this pertinent + and seasonable admonition: If they are Gods (said he), + don't cry for them; and if they are men, don't sacrifice to + them.

+
+
+

There is certainly no infirmity belonging to us that + contains such a multiplicity of errors and fond passions, or + that consists of such incongruous and incoherent opinions, + as this of superstition doth. It behooves us therefore to + do our utmost to escape it; but withal, we must see + we do it safely and prudently, and not rashly and inconsiderately, + + + + as people run from the incursions of robbers + or from fire, and fall into bewildered and untrodden + paths full of pits and precipices. For so some, while + they would avoid superstition, leap over the golden + mean of true piety into the harsh and coarse extreme + of atheism.

+
+
+ + +