is most of all,1 you shall have of them that will suffer for atheism, and not recant; whereas if they did truly think that there were no such thing as God, why should they trouble themselves? Epicurus is charged that he did but dissemble for his credit's sake, when he affirmed there were blessed natures, but such as enjoyed themselves without having respect to the government of the world. Wherein they say he did temporize; though in secret he thought there was no God. But certainly he is traduced; for his words are noble and divine: Non Deos vulgi negare profanum; sed vulgi opiniones Diis applicare profanum.2 Plato could have said no more. And although he had the confidence3 to deny the administration, he had not the power to deny the nature. The Indians of the west have names for their particular gods, though they have no name for God as if the heathens should have had the names Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, &c., but not the word Deus; which shews that even those barbarous people have the notion, though they have not the latitude and extent of it. So that against atheists the very savages take part with the very subtlest philosophers. The contemplative atheist is rare: a Diagoras, 1 The Latin text shows that the phrase most of all means most extraordinary of all. 2 It is not profane to deny the gods of the common people; but it is profane to apply the opinions of the common people to the gods. Diogenes Laertius. X. 123. 3 Confidence. Assurance, boldness, fearlessness, arising from reliance (on one's self, on circumstances, on divine support, etc.). "Alas, my lord, Your wisdom is consumed in confidence." Shakspere. Julius Caesar. ii. 2. Diagoras of Melos, surnamed 'the Atheist,' lived in the last half of the 5th century, B.C. 1 a Bion, a Lucian2 perhaps, and some others; and yet they seem to be more than they are; for that all that impugn a received religion or superstition are by the adverse part branded with the name of atheists. But the great atheists indeed are hypocrites; which are ever handling holy things, but without feeling; so as they must needs be cauterized in the end. The causes of atheism are; divisions in religion, if they be many; for any one main division addeth zeal to both sides; but many divisions introduce atheism. Another is, scandal of priests; when it is come to that which St. Bernard saith,3 Non est jam dicere, ut populus sic sacerdos; quia nec sic populus ut sacerdos. A third is, custom of profane scoffing in holy matters; which doth by little and little deface the reverence of religion. And lastly, learned times, specially with peace and prosperity; for troubles and adversities do more bow men's minds to religion. They that deny a God destroy man's nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and, if he be not of kin to 1 Bion, a witty philosopher of the Cyrenaic school, born at Borysthenes; he lived for some time at the court of Antigonus (Gonatas), who was king of Macedon from 277 to 239 B.C. 2 Lucian 120(?)-200 (?) A.D., Greek satirist and wit. Among other works, he wrote Dialogues of the Gods, Dialogues of the Dead, and the Veracious History, a mock narrative of travel, which is the original of such books as Gulliver's Travels. Lucian's Timon, a very amusing and witty dialogue, was, probably through the Timone of Matteo Maria Boiardo, one of the sources of Shakspere's Timon of Athens. 3 St. Bernard, 1091-1153, Abbot of Clairvaux, one of the most eloquent and influential men in Europe of his time. It cannot now be said, Like priest, like people, because the people are not like the priests, i.e., they are better. Ad Pastores in Synodo Congregatos sermo. 8. The sermon of St. Bernard here quoted, entitled, Cujuscunque sit, nec inelegans est, nec lectu indignus, will be found in Jacques Paul Migne's Patrologiae Cursus Completus. S. Bernardus. Volume 3. Columns 1091-1092. God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. It destroys likewise magnanimity, and the raising of human nature; for take an example of a dog, and mark what a generosity and courage he will put on when he finds himself maintained by a man; who to him is instead of a God, or melior natura;1 which courage is manifestly such as that creature, without that confidence of a better nature than his own, could never attain. So man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon divine protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith which human nature in itself could not obtain. Therefore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it depriveth human nature of the means to exalt itself above human frailty.2 As it is in particular persons, so it is in nations. Never was there such a state for magnanimity as Rome. Of this state hear what Cicero saith: Quam volumus licet patres conscripti, nos amemus, tamen nec numero Hispanos, nec robore Gallos, nec calliditate Pœnos, nec artibus Græcos, nec denique hoc ipso hujus gentis et terræ domestico nativoque sensu Italos ipsos et Latinos; sed pietate ac religione, atque hac una sapientia, quod Deorum immortalium numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus, omnes gentes nationesque superavimus.4 1 Better, or higher, nature. P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon Liber I. Fabula I. 21. 2 "If it is a dream ["the prospect of a future state'], let me enjoy it, since it makes me the happier and better man.' Joseph Addison. The Spectator. No. 186. 3 Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C., Roman orator, philosopher, and statesman. We may have as good an opinion of ourselves as we will, conscript fathers, yet we do not surpass the Spaniards in number, nor the Gauls in strength, nor the Carthaginians in cunning, nor the Greeks in arts, nor finally the Italians and Latins themselves in XVII. OF SUPERSTITION.1 IT were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely: and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch2 saith well to that purpose: Surely (saith he) I had rather a great deal men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born; 3 as the poets speak of Saturn. And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety,5 to laws, to reputation, all which may the homely and native intelligence of this nation and land; but we do surpass all nations and peoples in piety and in religion, and in this one wisdom of recognizing that all things are ruled and governed by the power of the immortal gods. M. Tullii Ciceronis Oratio De Haruspicum Responso in P. Clodium in Senatu Habita. Caput ix. 19. 1 This Essay is omitted in the Italian translation. S. 2 Plutarch, born about 46 A.D., Greek historian, author of fortysix 'Parallel Lives' of Greeks and Romans. An excellent translation, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans was made from the French of Amyot, by Thomas North, in Bacon's youth, 1579. North's Plutarch was Shakspere's store-house of classical knowledge. 3 The quotation is from 'Plutarch's Morals,' Of Superstition or Indiscreet Devotion. 10. Plutarch's Miscellanies and Essays. Vol. I. Edited by W. W. Goodwin. With an Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was Saturn has been identified with the Greek Cronos. the youngest of the Titans, children of Sky (Uranus) and Earth (Gaea). Sky and Earth foretold to Cronos that he would be deposed by one of his own children, so he swallowed them one after another as soon as they were born. Cronos was confounded with Chronos, Time, and the myth then comes to explain the tendency of time to destroy whatever it has brought into existence. Natural piety. Morality. be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.1 Therefore atheism did never perturb2 states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil 3 times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order. It was gravely said by some of the prelates in the council of Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen bare great sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs, to 5 1 "Sickness and sorrows come and go, but a superstitious soule hath no rest." Robert Burton. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Partition 3. Section 4. Member 1. Subsection 3. 2 Perturb. To disturb greatly; to unsettle; to confuse. "What folk ben ye that at myn hom comynge Chaucer. The Knightes Tale. ll. 47-48. 3 Civil. Tranquil, well-governed, orderly. "the round-uproared world Should have shook lions into civil streets, The Council of Trent, summoned to meet at Trent in the Austrian Tyrol, March 15, 1545, was the parting of the ways between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. 5 Eccentric. A circle not having the same centre as another. A little circle whose centre is on the circumference of • Epicycle. a greater circle. 7 Engine. Artifice, contrivance, device. "Nor did he scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent Milton. Paradise Lost. I. 749-751. |