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| Argument: But If the World is Ruled by Providence and Governed by the Will of One God, an Ignorant Antipathy Ought Not to Carry Us Away into the Error of Agreement with It: Although Delighted with Its Own Fables, It Has Brought in Ridiculous Traditions. Nor is It Shown Less Plainly that the Worship of the Gods Has Always Been Silly and Impious, in that the Most Ancient of Men Have Venerated Their Kings, Their Illustrious Generals, and Inventors of Arts, on Account of Their Remarkable Deeds, No Otherwise Than as Gods. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
XX.—Argument: But If the World is Ruled by Providence and
Governed by the Will of One God, an Ignorant Antipathy Ought Not to
Carry Us Away into the Error of Agreement with It: Although
Delighted with Its Own Fables, It Has Brought in Ridiculous
Traditions. Nor is It Shown Less Plainly that the Worship of the
Gods Has Always Been Silly and Impious, in that the Most Ancient of Men
Have Venerated Their Kings, Their Illustrious Generals, and Inventors
of Arts, on Account of Their Remarkable Deeds, No Otherwise Than as
Gods.
“I have set forth the opinions almost of all
the philosophers whose more illustrious glory it is to have pointed out
that there is one God, although with many names; so that any one might
think either that Christians are now philosophers, or that philosophers
were then already Christians. But if the world is governed by
providence, and directed by the will of one God, antiquity of unskilled
people ought not, however delighted and charmed with its own fables, to
carry us away into the mistake of a mutual agreement, when it is
rebutted by the opinions of its own philosophers, who are supported by
the authority both of reason and of antiquity. For our ancestors
had such an easy faith in falsehoods, that they rashly believed even
other monstrosities as marvellous wonders;1779
1779 Some editors read,
“mere wonders,” apparently on conjecture only. | a
manifold Scylla, a Chimæra of many forms, and a Hydra rising again
from its auspicious wounds, and Centaurs, horses entwined with their
riders; and whatever Report was allowed1780
1780 Otherwise, “was
pleased.” | to
feign, they were entirely willing to listen to. Why should I
refer to those old wives’ fables, that men were changed from men
into birds and beasts, and from men into trees and flowers?—which
things, if they had happened at all, would happen again; and because
they cannot happen now, therefore never happened at all. In like
manner with respect to the gods too, our ancestors believed carelessly,
credulously, with untrained simplicity; while worshipping their kings
religiously, desiring to look upon them when dead in outward
forms, anxious to preserve their memories in statues,1781
1781 Four early editions
read “instantius” for “in statuis,” making the
meaning probably, “more keenly,” “more
directly.” | those things became sacred which had been
taken up merely as consolations. Thereupon, and before the world
was opened up by commerce, and before the nations confounded their
rites and customs, each particular nation venerated its Founder, or
illustrious Leader, or modest Queen braver than her sex, or the
discoverer of any sort of faculty or art, as a citizen of worthy
memory; and thus a reward was given to the deceased, and an example to
those who were to follow.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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