As this matter allows of poetical ornaments, the poets have vied with each other in endeavoring to adorn their pages with them, not that they were convinced there was any truth in what they said; they were the first to laugh at it when an opportunity presented itself, as well as the gravest and wisest men of antiquity. But neither princes nor priests took much pains to undeceive the people, or to destroy their prejudices on those subjects. The Pagan religion allowed them, nay, authorized them, and part of its practices were founded on similar superstitions.
Footnotes:
[[168]] Plin. lib. iii. c. 2.
[[169]] Philost. Vit. Apollon.
[[170]] Lactant. lib. vi. Divin. Instit. c. 13.
[[171]] Aug. ad Simplic.
[[172]] Tertull. de Animâ, c. 57.
[[173]] Lucan. Pharsal. lib. vi. 450, et seq.
[[174]]
"Cessavere vices rerum, dilataque longa,
Hæsit nocte dies; legi non paruit æther;
Torpuit et præceps audito carmine mundus;
Et tonat ignaro cœlum Jove."
[[175]]
"Cantat et e curro tentat deducere Lunam
Et faceret, si non æra repulsa sonent."
Tibull. lib. i. Eleg. ix. 21.