The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it
concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections
of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious,
part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which
prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the
people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally
false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus
toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even
religious concord.
Of the people.
The superstition of the people was not embittered by any
mixture of theological rancour; nor was it confined by the
chains of any speculative system. The devout polytheist,
though fondly attached to his national rites, admitted with
implicit faith the different religions of the earth.
(3) Fear,
gratitude, and curiosity, a dream or an omen, a singular
disorder, or a distant journey, perpetually disposed him to
multiply the articles of his belief, and to enlarge the list
of his protectors. The thin texture of the Pagan mythology
was interwoven with various but not discordant materials. As
soon as it was allowed that sages and heroes, who had lived,
or who had died for the benefit of their country, were
exalted to a state of power and immortality, it was
universally confessed that they deserved if not the
adoration, at least the reverence of all mankind. The
deities of a thousand groves and a thousand streams
possessed, in peace, their local and respective influence;
nor could the Roman who deprecated the wrath of the Tiber,
deride the Egyptian who presented his offering to the
beneficent genius of the Nile. The visible powers of Nature,
the planets, and the elements, were the same throughout the
universe. The invisible governors of the moral world were
inevitably cast in a similar mould of fiction and allegory.
Every virtue, and even vice, acquired its divine
representative; every art and profession its patron, whose
attributes, in the most distant ages and countries, were
uniformly derived from the character of their peculiar
votaries. A republic of gods of such opposite tempers and
interest required, in every system, the moderating hand of a
supreme magistrate, who, by the progress of knowledge and
flattery, was gradually invested with the sublime
perfections of an Eternal Parent, and an Omnipotent Monarch.
(4) Such was the mild spirit of antiquity, that the nations
were less attentive to the difference than to the
resemblance of their religious worship. The Greek, the
Roman, and the Barbarian, as they met before their
respective altars, easily persuaded themselves, that under
various names, and with various ceremonies, they adored the
same deities. The elegant mythology of Homer gave a
beautiful, and almost a regular form, to the polytheism of
the ancient world.
(5)
Of philosophers.
The philosophers of Greece deduced their morals from the
nature of man, rather than from that of God. They meditated,
however, on the Divine Nature, as a very curious and
important speculation; and in the profound inquiry, they
displayed the strength and weakness of the human
understanding
(6). Of the four most celebrated schools, the
Stoics and the Platonists endeavoured to reconcile the
jarring interests of reason and piety. They have left us the
most sublime proofs of the existence and perfections of the
first cause; but, as it was impossible for them to conceive
the creation of matter, the workman in the Stoic philosophy
was not sufficiently distinguished from the work; whilst, on
the contrary, the spiritual God of Plato and his disciples
resembled an idea rather than a substance. The opinions of
the Academics and Epicureans were of a less religious cast;
but whilst the modest science of the former induced them to
doubt, the positive ignorance of the latter urged them to
deny, the providence of a Supreme Ruler. The spirit of
inquiry, prompted by emulation, and supported by freedom,
had divided the public teachers of philosophy into a variety
of contending sects; but the ingenuous youth who, from every
part, resorted to Athens, and the other seats of learning in
the Roman empire, were alike instructed in every school to
reject and to despise the religion of the multitude. How,
indeed, was it possible, that a philosopher should accept,
as divine truths, the idle tales of the poets, and the
incoherent traditions of antiquity; or, that he should
adore, as gods, those imperfect beings whom he must have
despised, as men ! Against such unworthy adversaries, Cicero
condescended to employ the arms of reason and eloquence; but
the satire of Lucian was a much more adequate, as well as
more efficacious weapon. We may be well assured, that a
writer conversant with the world would never have ventured
to expose the gods of his country to public ridicule, had
they not already been the objects of secret contempt among
the polished and enlightened orders of society.
(7)
Notwithstanding the fashionable irreligion which prevailed
in the age of the Antonines, both the interests of the
priests and the credulity of the people were sufficiently
respected. In their writings and conversation, the
philosophers of antiquity asserted the independent dignity
of reason; but they resigned their actions to the commands
of law and of custom. Viewing, with a smile of pity and
indulgence, the various errors of the vulgar, they
diligently practised the ceremonies of their fathers,
devoutly frequented the temples of the gods; and sometimes
condescending to act a part on the theatre of superstition,
they concealed the sentiments of an Atheist under the
sacerdotal robes. Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely
inclined to wrangle about their respective modes of faith,
or of worship. It was indifferent to them what shape the
folly of the multitude might choose to assume; and they
approached, with the same inward contempt, and the same
external reverence, the altars of the Libyan, the Olympian,
or the Capitoline Jupiter.
(8)
Of the magistrate.
