CHAP. II.
-----ing in the Roman empire, were alike instructed, in every school, to reject and to despise the religion of the multitude. How, indeed, was it possible, that a philosopher should accept, as divine truths, the idle tales of the poets, and the incoherent traditions of antiquity; or, that he should adore as gods, those imperfect beings whom he must have despised as men! Against such unworthy adversaries, Cicero condescended to employ the arms of reason and eloquence; but the satire of Lucian was a much more adequate, as well as more efficacious weapon. We may be well assured, that a writer, conversant with the world, would never have ventured to expose the gods of his country to pubHc ridicule, had they not already been the objects of secret contempt among the polished and enlightened orders of society[1].
Notwithstanding the fashionable irreligion which prevailed in the age of the Antonines, both the interests of the priests and the credulity of the people were sufficiently respected. In their writings and conversation, the philosophers of antiquity asserted the independent dignity of reason ; but they resigned their actions to the commands of law and of custom. Viewing, with a smile of pity and indulgence, the various errors of the vulgar, they diligently practised the ceremonies of their fathers, devoutly frequented the temples of the gods ; and sometimes condescending to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they concealed the sentiments of an atheist under the sacerdotal robes. Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined to wrangle about their respective modes of faith or of worship. It was indifferent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume; and they approached, with the same inward contempt and the same external reverence, the altars of the Libyan, the Olympian, or the capitoline Jupiter[2].
- ↑ I do not pretend to assert, that in this irreligious age the natural terrors of superstition, dreams, omens, apparitions, etc. had lost their efficacy.
- ↑ Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, and Plutarch, always inculcated a decent reverence for the religion of their own country and of mankind. The devotion of Epicuius was assiduous and exemplary. Diogen. Laert.x. 10.
