§2' LIBERTY OP REASONING 



allow them without compunction to deceive the weak, 

 who fo readily wifh to be deceived, and are ever 

 difpofed, not only to give up their little fcrap of reafon, 

 but even to let their five fenfes be muffled and mafked 

 whenever they are in expectation of feeing and hearing 

 fomething fupernatural. The fo much extolled and 

 falfely famed wifdom of the segyptian priefls, confifted, 

 for the moil part, in the forenamecl prieftly arts. 



What is termed the philofophy of Zoroafter, and in 

 general all that comes under the denomination of the 

 oriental philofophy, was in like manner favourable to 

 ft, and was juft as unworthy of that name as the cabbala 

 of the jews. 



When at length the true philofophy inflnuated itfelf 

 among the Greeks, fuperftition indeed declined among 

 the more liberal part of the nation, in proportion as 

 illumination increafed ; but, as I obferved before, lince 

 the popular religion, once introduced, formed, in each, 

 of their republics, a part of the conftitution, the phi- 

 lofophers were obliged to take great heed that they 

 came into no dangerous colliiion with the priefTs, by 

 which the latter might run the hazard of not always re- 

 taining poffeffion of the moll lucrative branch of their 

 trade, and the people dependent upon them not be 

 kept in that dread of daemons (A^o/^/xoy/a, as the 

 Greeks very juflly termed fuperftition), and encouraged 

 in their propeniity to liflen to every fpecies of vilionar^ 

 impofture. 



The well -known philofophical feels and orders gra- 

 dually fprung up among the Greeks. Some of theim 

 as the Pythagoreans, the Platonifts, and the Stoics, 

 held maxims that very well comported with the prevail- 

 7 ing 



