OLYMPIC DIALOGUE. 357 



really are. Superftition and prieftcraft, powerfully 

 fupported by the poets, the artifts, and the mytholo- 

 gies, by degrees changed the homage they paid us, 

 and which we approved merely on account of its bene- 

 ficial influence on mankind, into a foolifh idolatry, 

 which could not and fhould not be of long duration ; 

 which was neceffarily undermined as civilization in- 

 creafed, and, as is the nature of all human things, at 

 length muft fall to the ground. How could I require 

 that any thing mould not follow, which according tQ 

 the eternal laws of neceffity, muft follow ! 



Numa.~] But thefe fanatical innovators are not con- 

 tent with purifying your antient worfhip which was 

 founded on fuch great and beneficial a6ts, — they de- 

 ftroyed, they annihilated it ! They even deprived you 

 of what was abfolutely your due ; and, fo far from re- 

 ducing the ideas of the nations concerning the gods of 

 their fathers to the ftandard of truth, they carry the 

 nonfenfe of their vicious prefumption to fuch a length, 

 as even to declare and to treat you as evil daemons 

 and infernal fpirits. 



Jupiter. ~] Reprefs thy zeal, good Numa ! muft I 

 not, while my altars are yet fmoking, be pleafed with 

 every dull and indecent tale with which the poets divert 

 their clapping audiences at my expence ? what con- 

 cerns it me what they below are pleafed to fay or think 

 of me, when once the point of time is come at which the 

 worfhip of Jupiter has ceafed to be beneficial to man- 

 kind ? Shall I force them with my thunderbolts to 

 have more refpecl: for me ? Of what confequence can 

 it be to me whether they affign me Olympus or Tar- 

 tarus for the place of my abode ? Am I not here in 



a A 3 per feci: 



