Page:Four Dissertations - David Hume (1757).djvu/46

 letchers, he would be highly pleased with the rehearsal of his former feats of activity and vigour, and that no topic was so proper, upon which to flatter his pride and vanity.

Lacedemonians, says Xenophon, always, during war, put up their petitions very early in the morning, in order to be beforehand with their enemies, and by being the first solicitors, pre-engage the gods in their favour. We may gather from Seneca, that it was usual for the votaries in the temples, to make interest with the beadles or sextons, in order to have a seat near the image of the deity, that they might be the best heard in their prayers and applications to him. The Tyrians, when besieged by Alexander, threw chains on the statue of Hercules, to prevent that deity from deserting to the enemy. Augustus, having twice lost his fleet by storms, forbad Neptune to be carried in procession along with the other gods; and fancied, that he had sufficiently revenged himself by that expedient. After Germanicus's death, the people were so enraged at their gods, that they stoned