Page:Toleration and other essays.djvu/58

34 war for opinions. What, indeed, would this gentleman have? Would he have us enter upon a "sacred war"?

 

Among the ancient Romans you will not find, from Romulus until the days when the Christians disputed with the priests of the empire, a single man persecuted on account of his opinions. Cicero doubted everything; Lucretius denied everything;  yet they incurred not the least reproach. Indeed, license went so far that Pliny, the naturalist, began  his book by saying that there is no god, or that,  if there is, it is the sun. Cicero, speaking of the lower regions, says: "There is no old woman so  stupid as to believe in them (Non est anus tam  excors quœ credat)." Juvenal says: "Even the children do not believe (Nec pueri credunt)." They sang in the theatre at Rome: "There is nothing  after death, and death is nothing (Post mortem  nihil est, ipsaque mors nihil)." We may abhor these maxims, or, at the most, forgive a people whom  the light of the gospel had not reached; but we  must conclude that the Romans were very tolerant,  since they did not excite a single murmur.

The great principle of the Senate and people of Rome was, "Offences against the gods are the business of the gods (Deorum offensa diis curœ)." They dreamed only of conquering, governing, and civilising the world. They were our legislators and our conquerors; and Cæsar, who gave us roads, laws,  and games, never attempted to compel us to 