224 



was preserved for a length of time among the 

 nations most advanced in civilization. The 

 paintings found in the tombs of the kings at 

 Thebes leave no doubt, that these sacrifices were 

 habitual among the Egyptians*. We have 

 already observed, that formerly in India the 

 goddess Cali required human victims, as Saturn 

 exacted them at Carthage. At Rome, after the 

 battle of Cannae, two Gauls, a male and female, 

 were buried alive ; and the Emperor Claudius 

 was obliged, to forbid by an express decree the 

 sacrifice of men in the Roman empire -f\ But 

 still more, in times less remote, what savage 

 effects of religious intolerance do we not our- 

 selves see amid the civilization of the human 

 race, at the period of a general melioration of 

 characters and manners? Whatever be the 

 difference among nations in the progress of their 

 intellectual culture, fanaticism and interest still 

 hold their fatal sway. Posterity will scarcely 

 conceive, that in polished Europe, under the in- 

 fluence of a religion, which, from the nature of 

 its principles, favours liberty, and proclaims the 



* Voyage de Denon, p. 298, pi. 124, No. 2. Decade 

 Egyptienne, torn. 3, p. 110. 



t Sueton., c. 25, (ed. Wolf., vol. 1, p. 48). Plin. Hist. 

 Nat. lib. 31, c. 1 ; lib. 8, c. 22. Tertullian. Apologet. 

 adversus Gentes, c. 9 (ed. Palmer, 1684, p. 41). Lactant. 

 Div. Instit. lib. I, c. 21. 



