242 APPENDIX. 



an excellent thing so to dissimulate piety, that 

 when we act strongly against it, in that very 

 article of wickedness the people saint us. 

 Herod would fain worship, when he means to 

 worry. 



In th' act of sin do but religion cry. 

 Says Tereus, you as holy are as I.* 



This is that which leads the world in a string, 

 that hallows the most hellish enterprizes ; for 

 the common people (which are the to ttoAu) never 

 see behind the curtain ; a handsome gloss is 

 with them as good as the text. I believe the 

 great naturalist was in the right, when he called 

 a deity a jolly invention. 'Tis ridiculous to 

 think, that God troubles himself about sublu- 

 nary things, but 'tis not fit the world should 

 know it.f Let me enjoy the temporal advan- 

 tages of religion, and let others take the eternal; 

 let me use it for a cloak or a crutch, and let 

 others expect from it a crown. 



The river in AthenaeusJ is my emblem, whose 

 upper waters were sweet and grateful, but to- 



* 



Ipso sceleris molimine Tereus 



Creditur esse pius. 



f Irridendum, agere curam rerum humanarum quicquid est 

 summum, sed credi ex usii vitae est. Plin. 1. 2. Cap, 6. 



X 43 Fons in Mileto, cujus profluens aqua dulcissima, quae 

 vero in imo salsa. 



