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edge the divine power ? answered wisely : " But first show 

 me where those are painted that were shipwrecked, after having 

 thus paid their vows."' And the case is the same, in the similar 

 superstitions of astrological predictions, dreams, omens, etc. 

 Again, the mind, being of itself an equal and uniform substance, 

 presupposes a greater unanimity and uniformity in the nature 

 of things than there really is, as may be observed in astronom- 

 ical mathematicians, who, rejecting spiral lines, assert that the 

 heavenly bodies move in perfect circles, whence our thoughts 

 are continually drawing parallels, and supposing relations in 

 many things that are truly different and singular. Hence the 

 chemists have fantastically imagined their four principles cor- 

 responding to the heavens, air, earth, and water ; dreaming that 

 the series of existences formed a kind of square battalion, and 

 that each element contained species of beings corresponding 

 to each other, and possessing, as it were, parallel properties/ 

 And, again, men make themselves, as it were, the mirror and 

 rule of nature. It is incredible what a number of idols have 

 been introduced into philosophy by the reduction of natural 

 operations to a correspondence with human actions , that is, by 

 imagining nature acts as man does, which is not much better 

 than the heresy of the anthropomorphites, that sprung up in 

 the cells and solitude of ignorant monks ;g or the opinion of 

 Epicurus, who attributed a human figure to the gods. Velleius 

 the Epicurean need not, therefore, have asked why God should 

 have adorned the heavens with stars and lights, as master of the 

 works? For, if the Grand Architect had acted a human part, 

 he would have ranged the stars into some beautiful and elegant 

 order, as we see in the vaulted roofs of palaces ; whereas, we 

 scarce find among such an infinite multitude of stars any figure 

 either square, triangular, or rectilinear; so great a difference 

 is there betwixt the spirit of man, and the spirit of the universe. 

 The idols of the den have their origin from the peculiar 

 nature, both of mind and body, in each person ; as also from 

 education, custom, and the accidents of particular persons. It 

 is a beautiful emblem, that of Plato's den ; * for, to drop the 

 exquisite subtilty of the parable, if any one should be educated 

 from his infancy in a dark cave till he were of full age, and 

 should then of a sudden be brought into broad daylight, and 

 behold this apparatus of the heavens and of things, no doubt 

 but many strange and absurd fancies would arise in his mind ; 



