490 THE OCTAVIUS OF Him ; desiringwithoutconsiderationto obey theirancestors, choosingratherto become an additionto the errorof others, than to trustthemselves; in thatthey know nothing of what they fear. Thus avaricehas been consecratedin gold and silver; thus the form of empty statueshas been established; thus has arisenRoman superstition.And if you reconsider the ritesof these gods,how many thingsarelaughable,and how many alsopitiable! Naked peoplerun about in the raw winter; some walk bonneted,and carryaround old bucklers, or beat drums, or lead theirgods a-begging through the streets.Some fanesitispermittedto approach once a year, some itisforbiddento visitat all. There isone placewhere a man may not go, and there are some thatare sacred from women : itisa crimeneedingatonement fora slaveeven tobe presentatsome ceremonies.Some sacredplacesare crowned by a woman having one husband, some by a woman with many ; and she who can reekon up most adulteriesissought afterwith most religiouszeal. What! would not a man who makes libationsof hisown blood,and supplicates[his God] by his own wounds, be betterif he were altogetherpro fane,tlian religiousin such a way as this? And he whose shameful partsare cut off,how greatlydoes he wrong God in seekingto propitiateHim in thismanner ! since,if God wished foreunuchs,He could bring them as such intoexist ence,and would not make them so afterwards. Who does not perceivethat peopleof unsound mind, and of weak and degraded apprehension,are foolishin thesethings,and that the very multitudeof thosewho err affordsto each of them mutual patronage? Here the defenceof the general mad nessisthe multitudeof the mad people. CHAPTER XXV. Argument. — Tlienhe shows thatCa'ciliushad beenwrong in assertingthattheRomans had gained theirpower overthe wholeworld by means of the due observanceof supersti tionsof thiskind. Rather tlieRomans in tlieirorigin