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This is the reason why those divinities quite neglected the lives and
morals of the cities and nations who worshipped them, and threw no
dreadful prohibition in their way to hinder them from becoming utterly
corrupt, and to preserve them from those terrible and detestable evils
which visit not harvests and vintages, not house and possessions, not
the body which is subject to the soul, but the soul itself, the spirit
that rules the whole man If there was any such prohibition, let it be
produced, let it be proved. They will tell us that purity and probity
were inculcated upon those who were initiated in the mysteries of
religion, and that secret incitements to virtue were whispered in the
ear of the lite; but this is art idle boast. Let them shower name to
us the places which were at any time consecrated to assemblages in
which, instead of the obscene songs and licentious acting of players,
instead of the celebration of those most filthy and shameless Fugalia
(well called Fugalia, since they banish modesty and right feeling),
the people were commanded in the name of the gods to restrain avarice,
bridle impurity, and conquer ambition; where, in short, they might
learn in that school which Persius vehemently lashes them to, when he
says: "Be taught, ye abandoned creatures, and ascertain the causes
of things; what we are, and for what end we are born; what is the law
of our success in life; and by what art we may turn the goal without
making shipwreck; what limit we should put to our wealth, what we may
lawfully desire, and what uses filthy lucre serves; how much we should
bestow upon our country and our family; learn, in short, what God
meant thee to be, and what place He has ordered you to fill." Let
them name to us the places where such instructions were wont to be
communicated from the gods, and where the people who worshipped them
were accustomed to resort to hear them, as we can point to our churches
built for this purpose in every land where the Christian religion is
received.
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