[204]. For the Gauls, cf. Strabo, iv. 198; the Thracians, vii. 300; the Carthaginians, Verg. Aen. i. 525.
[205]. The question of the Molech sacrifices in Palestine is too uncertain and complicated to be treated here in full. Doubtless some Jews at various times sacrificed to Molech; but some Jews in Greek times sacrificed to heathen gods, or, at any rate, adored them while still professing Judaism, and throughout the Middle Ages individual Jews indulged in superstitious practices severely reprobated by the rabbis. The passage in Jeremiah (xxxii. 35) does not necessarily imply that those who took part in these rites deemed themselves to be worshiping Jehovah.
[206]. Reinach, Textes, p. 121.
[207]. Sat. xv. 78-81 and 93 seq.
[208]. Sat. xiv. 103.
[209]. It is a curious and instructive fact that Chinese have charged Christian missionaries with precisely this same crime, i.e. of kidnapping and killing children as part of their religious ceremonies.
Chapter XIV
THE PHILOSOPHIC OPPOSITION
[210]. Cf. the whole Lucianic dialogue on Images, 459-484, and Zeus Tragoedus, 654 seq.
[211]. Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, i. 23, 63. Athenag. Supp. xii.
[212]. Josephus, Contra Ap. ii. 37.