Page:Four Dissertations - David Hume (1757).djvu/106

 Page 88 acknowledges as frankly, as any divine would at present, the common incredulity of his age; but then he condemns it as severely. And who can imagine, that a national superstition, which could delude so great a man, would not also impose on the generality of the people?

Stoics bestowed many magnificent and even impious epithets on their sage; that he alone was rich, free, a king, and equal to the immortal gods. They forgot to add, that he was not inferior in prudence and understanding to an old woman. For surely nothing can be more pitiful than the sentiments, which that sect entertained with regard to all popular superstitions; while they very seriously agree with the common augurs, that, when a raven croaks from the left, it is a good omen; but a bad one, when a rook makes a noise from the same quarter. Panætius was the only Stoic, amongst the Greeks, who so much as doubted with regard to auguries and divinations. Marcus Antoninus tells us, that he himself had received many admonitions from the gods in his sleep. It is true; Epictetus forbids us to regard the