When therefore you hear the tales which the
Egyptians relate about the Gods, such as their wanderings,
discerptions, and such like disasters that befell them, you
are still to remember that none of these things have been
really so acted and done as they are told. For they do not
call the dog Hermes properly, but only attribute the warding, vigilancy, and philosophic acuteness of that animal,
which by knowing or not knowing distinguishes between
its friend and its foe (as Plato speaks), to the most knowing
and ingenious of the Gods. Nor do they believe that the
sun springs up a little boy from the top of the lotus, but
[p. 74]
they thus set forth his rising to insinuate the kindling of
his rays by means of humids. Besides, that most savage
and horrible king of the Persians named Ochus, who,
when he had massacred abundance of people, afterwards
slaughtered the Apis, and feasted upon him, both himself
and his retinue, they called the Sword; and they call him
so to this very day in their table of kings, hereby not
denoting properly his person, but resembling by this instrument of murder the severity and mischievousness of his
disposition. When therefore you thus hear the stories of
the Gods from such as interpret them with consistency to
piety and philosophy, and observe and practise those rites
that are by law established, and are persuaded in your
mind that you cannot possibly either offer or perform a
more agreeable thing to the Gods than the entertaining of
a right notion of them, you will then avoid superstition as a
no less evil than atheism itself.
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