Page:Voltaire (Hamley).djvu/126

 "We will examine, by-and-by, how the Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians the ideas of hell, and the apotheosis of the dead; how they believed, like other peoples, in a second life, without suspecting the spirituality of the soul. On the contrary, they could not imagine how an incorporeal being could feel good or ill. And I know not if Plato is not the first who has spoken of a purely spiritual being. That is, perhaps, one of the greatest efforts of the human intellect. Yet the spirituality of Plato is still strongly contested; and the greater part of the fathers of the Church, Platonists as they are, consider the soul as corporeal.

"When, after a great number of ages, some societies were established, it is probable that there was some sort of religion, of rude worship. Men, then solely occupied with the care of sustaining life, could not rise to the Author of life; they could not discern that concert of all parts of the universe, those means, and those innumerable ends which speak to wise men of an Eternal Architect. The knowledge of a God who designs, rewards, and avenges is the fruit of cultivated reason."

He goes on to show how local tutelary deities arose:—

"To know how all these worships, or superstitions, were established, it seems to me that we must follow the march of the human intellect when left to itself. A village inhabited by those who are almost savages, sees the fruits that fed it perish; an inundation destroys some of the huts; the lightning burns others. Who has done them this evil? It cannot be their neighbours, for all suffer alike. It is then some secret power; this has injured them, and this must therefore be appeased. And how? by serving it, as we serve those we wish to please,—by making it little presents. There is a serpent in the neighbourhood—it may very likely be this serpent. Milk is therefore placed near his cave; he thenceforward becomes sacred; his aid is invoked when there is war with a neighbouring village, which, on its side, has chosen another protector. Other small populations find themselves