Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/126

 any Contrariety. Hence the Eagerness, which most People discover in a Dispute; hence their Impatience of Opposition, even in the most speculative and indifferent Opinions.

Principle, however frivolous it may appear, seems to have been the Origin of all religious Wars and Divisions. But, as this Principle is universal in human Nature, its Effects wou'd not have been confin'd to one Age, and to one Sect of Religion, did it not there concur with other more accidental Causes, which raise it to such a Height, as to cause the highest Misery and Devastation. Most Religions of the antient World arose in the unknown Ages of Government, when Men were as yet barbarous and uninstructed, and the Prince, as well as Peasant, were dispos'd to receive, with implicite Faith, every pious Tale or Fiction that was offer'd them. The Magistrate embrac'd the Religion of the People, and entering cordially into the Care of sacred Matters, naturally acquir'd an Authority in them, and united the Ecclesiastical with the Civil Power. But the Christian Religion arising, while Principles directly opposite to it were firmly establish'd in the polite Part