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nothing oVen os a man except the mere resemblance But noone considere theso things; for men aro imbuad With this persuasion, and thela minia havo thoroughly imbibed tho deco
objecta whicli ars sensetes' rational Mings adoro irrationalobjecti, thoso Who are alive adoro inanimais objecta, thoas sprung hom heaven adors earthly objecta. It delictis me, thereiore, as though standing on a tosty Watch-ωwer, Domwhicli ali may hear, to procliam aloud that sving of Persius: μο Quis bent down to the earin, and destituis of heavenly
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tio must necessarib dio who has subjectedy himself and his fovi to the dead. CHAP. III.-That Cicero and other men os learning erred in notturning away the peopis from error. But What does it mail thus to address the Vulgar and ignorant, When We See that leamed and prudent men, thoughthey underetand the vani of these ceremontes, neverthelessthrough some perverseness persist in the Worship of those very objecti Which they condemn Cicero mas weli a are that thodeities Whicli men morshipped mere falso. For When he had spolien many things Whicli tended to tho overthrow of religiousceremontes, he said noverthelem that theso matters ought not tobo discussed by the vulgar, test such discussion should extinguishthe system os religion Which Was publicly received. What can Fou do respecting him, Who, When he perceives himselfio be in error, of his oWn accord dashes himself against thosiones, stat ali the peopte may stumble ' or tears out his omves, stat ali may bo blindΤ who neithor doserves meli ofothers, whom ho suffers to be in error, nor of himself, sinceho inclines to tho errore os othera, and mahes no uso of the benest of his o- Wisdom, go as to caro out in action the
Mjudicavit,' adj ged, made overi CL Bor. Ep. i. 18: Et, si quid abeat, Italia adjudicat armis. η Fili up and complete tho ouiline Which he has conceived.
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THE DIVINE INSTITUTES 79 spirit. But truly you fear the prison os Socrates,y and on that
under the nosce of the Ves,' is not man, but the receptacle of
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accuses those men as hvmbio and abjeci, Who, in opposition totho design of their nature, prostrato themselves to tho Worahi p
yet certainly the greatest difference betneen men and the beasis constits in religion. But this laiter class, in proportion to their superior Wisdom, in that they underatood the error os falso religion, rendered themselves so much tho more soolisti, betausothey did not imagine that somo religion was true. And thus, bocause it is easter to judge of the affairs of othera than of theirown, While they see the doWnsali os othera, they havo not o served what was besors their own Dei. On either fide is found
λ Lucretiua, de rerum Natura, Vi. M. Lucretius, v. 1197.
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not in possession os that Whicli is true. But this consideration may perhaps have influenced them, that ii there mere any trus religion, it Would exert itself andassert iis authority, and not permit the existenco Ol anythingopposed to it. For they mers unable to sae at all, on What account, or by Whom, and in What manner truo religion was depressed, Whicli partahes of a divino myste and a heavenlysecret. And no man can knowρ this by any means, uniess heis taught. The sum of the matter is this : Tho uniearned and tho Dolisti esteem false religions as true, because they neitherknow the trus nor underatand the false. But the more sag
cious, hecause they am ignorant of the true, Etther persist in thosa religions Whicli thsy know to bs false, that they may appear to possess something; or Worship nothing at ali, thatthey may not tali into error, Whereas this Very thing partahes largely of error, under the figure os a man to imitato tho liis ot catile. To underetand that whicli is salse is truly tho partos .isdom, but os human wisdom. Beyond this step mancannot proceed, and thus many of the philosophers have taken a V religious institutions, as I havs potnted oui; but in know
Odor quidam sapientiae. η Rom. i. 22: Professing themselves to bo viae, they bocame laola. Tho a sue inachea the same, Rom. i. 19-21. Divini saeramenti. 1 Cor. ii. 7 : Wo speis tho Minoin os God in
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CHAP. IV.-η images, and the Ornamenta os temples, and the eon
De Natura Deorum, lib. i. Horati 1 Sem. 8. 1. Tho Mod of tho fig-tres is proverbially used in denoto that Whita ia orinlisa and contem No.
' Tho Georgies, vesta are muta more elaborately finiised than the oster oris of Virgil
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scythe, preservo them.' Therelam thv adoro mortat things,as made is mortals. For they may be brohen, or burni, orbo destro d. For thv aro osten apt to bo brohen to pieces, When housos fiat through age, and when, consumed by flagration, they Waste aWay to ashes; and in many instances
to proieci themseruest What perversi , in have recourect tollis guardianship of those Which, When injured, are themselvesunmenged, unless Vengeanco is exacted by their Worshippersi Where, then, is truth mers no violance can be applied toreligion; Where there appears to be nothing Which can beinjured; Where no sacrilego can bo committed. But Whateuer is subjected to the ves and to the hands, that, in truth, becauso it is perishable, is inconsistent With tho Wholo subject os immortali . It is in vian, therelare, that men set
thought it superfluous that that should bo rectaned among religious offerings which was not an instrument of sanctitri butos avarice. For theso are the things whicli it is bellar to offeras a gist to the god Whom you mould rightly Worship: mittenta ' and ths divino law of tho conscience, and thε sacred -
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cesses of tho mind, and tho brotat imbued mitti nobioness.' A noble and wiso sentiment. But he ridiculousty added this: that them is this Did in the temples, as them are dolis' pr sented in Venus by tho virgin; whicli perhaps hs may havo despised on account of their smaliness. For hs did not seothat tho very images and statues of tho gods, Wrought in goldand ivory by the hand of Polycletus, Euphranor, and Phidias, mere nothing more than largo dolis, not dedicated by Virgins, to Whose sporta some indulgencs may be granted, but is beardedmen. There ro Seneca deserved ly laughs at the folly even ofold men. Wε are not, lis says, bys tWico as is commonlysaid), but ars alWays M. But them is this differenes, that When men) We havs greater subjects of spori. Theresoremen offer to these dolis, Which are os largo siete, and adornedas though for the stage, both persumes, and incense, and odours: they sacrifice to these costly and fallened Victims, hich have a monili,' but ono that is not sultabis for eating; to theso they bring robes and costly garmenis, though theyhava no need os clothing; to these they dedicato gold and silver, of Whicli they Who receivε them aro as destituto μ as theywho have given them. And not without reason did Dionysius, res despot of Sicily, hen aster a victory he had hecome master of Greece,' despise, and ptunder and ieer at such gods, sor he folloKed up his sacrilegious acts by jesting Words. For When lis had talion Oss agoiden robe frem the statuo of the Olympian Jupiter, he ordered that a Woollen garment should bo placed ii pon him, saying that
Persius, Sat. ii. 73. Pupae, dolia or imagis mora by giris, M bullae ' mere by boys. Onarriving at maturity, they dedicated theae imagoa to Venus. Ses Jalin anote oti tho passage hom Persius. . rio allusion is to the proverb that old ago is second childhood.' An allusion to Ps. cxv. 5 : They have mouina, but they spe not.' Quae tam non habent qui accipiunt, quin qui illa donarenti' Theseuselem images can mahe no use of the tremures.' Justin relates that Gmcia Magna, a pari es Italy, vas subdued by Dionysius. Cicero ava that he salied in Peloponnesus, and enterin thotemple of the Olympian Jupiter.
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succession in his son. In his case, thereiore, becauso men coulduot punish his sacrilegious deeds, it Was befitting that the godsshould be their own avengere. But is any humbis person inalthos committed any auch crime, there ars at hand for his punishment the wourge, fire, the rata' the crom, and Whatevertorium men can invent in their anger and rage. But when
Why did thv not punish so many and such great aeta ot sacrulege in Dionysius, Who insulted the goia openly, and not in secret ' Why did they not repet this sacrilegious man, possessed
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of tho gods, and tho ornamenta of tho temples' It is idie tofollo up each particular instance: I Would fain mino mentionos one, in Which tho accuser, With ait the forco of eloquenc-inshori, With every essori of voice and of body-lamented about
Ceres of Catina, or of Henna: the ono of Whom Was of Auch great sancti , that it Was uniaWsul for men to enter the secret recesses of her temple; the other Was of such great antiqui , that ali accounts relato that the goddesa herseli first discoveredgrain in tho soli os Henna, and that her virgin dangliter Wascarried aWay from tho samo place. Lastly, in the times of tho Gracchi, When the state mas disturbed both is seditions and by portenti, on ita being discovered in tho Sibyllino predictions that tho most ancient Ceres ought to bo appeased, ambassadora mere sent to Henna. This Ceres, then, Etther thomost holy one, Whom it mas uniaWful for men to behoid eventor the sine of adoration, or tho most ancient one, Whom thesenato and people of Rome had appeased Mith sacrifices and infra, Was carried a V With impunity by Caius Verres from her secret and ancient rscesses, his robber claves having beensent in. The same orator), in truth, When he affirmed that he had been enueated by the Sicilians to underlaho the causa es the province, made uso of theso words: μ That thv hadno not even any gods in their cities to whom thv might be- talis themselves, since Verres had talien away the most sacredimages from their most venerabis stirines.' Aa though, in truth, it Verres had taen thom aWay from the cities and shrines, he had also talion them hom heaven. From which itappears that those gods have nothing in them more than themateries of whicli they ars made. And not Without reason