common with us than sacrilege: But was it ever heard, that an Egyptian violated the temple of a cat, an ibis, or a crocodile? There is no torture, an Egyptian would not undergo, says the same author in another place[1], rather than injure an ibis, an aspic, a cat, a dog, or a crocodile. Thus it is strictly true, what Dryden observes
"Stock, stone, or other homely pedigree,
"In his defence his servants are as bold,
"As if he had been born of beaten gold."
Absalom and Achitophel.
Nay, the baser the materials are, of which the divinity is composed, the greater devotion is he likely to excite in the breasts of his deluded votaries. They exult in their shame, and make a merit with their deity, in braving, for his sake, all the ridicule and contumely of his enemies. Ten thousand Croises inlist themselves under the holy banners, and even openly triumph in those parts of their religion, which their adversaries regard as the most reproachful.
There occurs, I own, a difficulty in the Egyptian system of theology; as indeed, few
- ↑ Tusc. Quæst. lib. v.
systems
