The matter of their sacrifices has always had a near affinity to the different methods of living, that obtained in different ages; though the best and choicest of every kind is with great care selected for these religious uses. Of both which practices a very easy and obvious account may be given; for men have been generally so partial in their own favour, as to imagine, that the gods would be best pleased with such things as give most pleasure to themselves; and those besides, who are concerned in this act of worship, have always a certain portion of the offering assigned to them, and share with the gods in the entertainment. For the same reason perhaps it is, that cups are always to be presented full, it being esteemed irreverent to allot any thing for the gods, that is not perfect in its kind; though wine was for a long time excluded from their sacrificial feasts, through a conceit, which the multitude had entertained, of its profaneness, on account of the vine's having sprung from the blood of the Titans. At Sparta indeed, where they are less nice in what they eat, they are less scrupulous in what they offer.

At what time living creatures came to be slain, as proper offerings to the gods, is not a settled point; as it is far from being a satisfactory one, why they were slain at all. But the true cause and date of this usuage, as well as I can learn from conversation, or written memorials, seem to be, that they began to be in use as sacrifices soon after they were in esteem as food. The connection between these things I have hinted at above. The labouring ox was indeed for some time spared at Athens; but importunate appetite at last prevailed, and the delicacy of his flesh was an overmatch for every consideration of use or gratitude; though a strange custom, which yet prevails here, seems to shew, that the Athenians are in some doubt as to the lawfulness of this practice; for the person who has killed the victim immediately retires, and leaves the axe behind him, to be

proceeded

proceeded against in a judicial way, as been most concerned in, and answerable for the guilt of the action.

The Athenians offer sacrifices in return for benefits received, as well as in expectation of receiving them. As to the kind of these offerings, each deity has his favourite and consecrated animal. Their reasons for such appropriations are sometimes intelligible; but they run generally into infinite subtilty and refinement. Some regard is likewise had to the circumstances of the offerer, and the solemnity of the occasion; from the pomp of the hecatomb, used commonly to distinguish the inauguration of kings, or triumphant return of conquerors, to the beggar's cheap and humble acknowledgment by only kissing his right hand. But I have sometimes smiled at the expensive and ostentatious gratitude of one of our Grecian philosophers, who sacrificed a hundred head of cattle to the gods, for the extraordinary assistance he had received in the discovery of a geometrical proposition.

How much more agreeable to good sense and the nature of things was the original plainness and simplicity of Athens in her religious worship, than after all her boasted advances in arts and politeness! How much more conformable to that religion, over which thou presidest with so great faithfulness and dignity! which teaches us, that whatever or whenever we eat, we should offer up a small part of it to the supreme Being, out of a dutiful sense of his bounty, and supplicate his forgiveness for the liberty we take in applying his creatures to our own support and preservation.

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LETTER CLXX.

SMERDIS to CLEANDER.

THE HE Greeks, CLEANDER, are in our armies, and our fleets. They traffick in all our provinces, and the court itself is not free from them. I think I find now and then a Persian tinctured by their conversation. In discourse with a friend, who is not the strictest observer of our religion and laws, I was amazed to hear him say, he thought himself under obligation to be virtuous, though the blessed OROMASDES had promised no reward to virtue. I declare to thee, the sentiment was so new to me, that I did not know, whether to commend the disinterestedness that appeared in it, or condemn the self-sufficiency of it, and the neglect it discovered of the bounty of OROmasdes.

"The great rule (said he) of right and wrong is obvious to all; every society supposes its members acquainted with it, and builds "its laws thereupon. He who will deny, that actions are distinguish"able into honest, brave, generous, and their contraries, abjures "his reason; the use of which is no other than to enable him to distinguish things as they are in nature; and the man who would strip himself naked, and bask in the sunshine for coolness, or lie "down upon a pointed rock for ease, acts as wisely and properly as he "who would count it the same to give an hungry person bread or a "stone; or to inflict stripes upon the innocent and the guilty. "rule is easy and undeniable; to follow it, is to act our proper part; "to neglect it, is to deny our nature, and the nature of all things:

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The

"it

"it is a rule which OROMASDES has not made for the government "of our actions, but pursued it in his own. Before creation, he "comprehended in his view the exact image of all things, though "not yet in being; matter, with all its variety of forms, relations, "and effects; animal appetites, and rational powers. In this vast " idea of innumerable parts, he perceived some fit for ends which "others were not; that infinite use and beauty would result from the "coalescence of these, and the separation of those. As an ingenious "artist, in contriving a curious machine, examines and rejects the "imperfect schemes that occur to him, till he can collect from amongst them the true model to work upon. Thus the Almighty "Artificer submitted to work, according to the relations which "" things must bear one to another : universal nature was copied from "a model in the divine mind, in which we can observe no blemish, "because order was there preferred to confusion, and truth to in" consistency.

"After creation commenced the moral economy of the Deity, "which, according to the same rule of truth, will find an exact

recompence for the virtuous, and a suitable vengeance for the "wicked. But why? is it not because this is treating human "actions condignly; and the divine wisdom cannot misapply its "rewards? The truly wise man then looks upon actions in the "same light with God; he considers virtue as distinguished in na"ture from vice, and thinks it amiable enough to be followed "for its own sake, and if the Almighty recompence such a con"duct, he accepts that bounty with thankfulness, which was no "motive to his actions. To follow a reward, and to follow virtue, "are to him things widely different; the pursuit of this is ever ho"nourable, and founded in reason; the other is no more than self" interest

"interest and cunning, the basest motives for the guidance of a rea"sonable creature."

"My friend, (said I,) I confess it is the cursed AHRIMAN alone, the "author of misrule, who would confound truth and falsehood, light " and darkness; who would make his sway universal, by dissolving "the ties of virtue, which unite all the parts of the kingdom of OROMASDES. He indeed observes this rule of truth through all "his works; for his wisdom exhibits it to his view, and approves "it, and nothing can divert him from acting according to it. But

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surely you would not, without any farther inducements, prescribe "the same rule to man, who would find such difficulty in the observance, and a bias so frequently to decline from it. And should we suppose, that the virtuous man, at the hazard of all his interests, pursues it throughout; will not this extraordinary paradox be the "result, that the virtuous man excels his Creator; since he governs "his actions by the same common rule, but with greater danger and "disinterestedness? A deduction so clear, and at the same time so "absurd, is sufficient to convince us, that our arguings are some"where false.

"To say the truth, happiness so nearly touches every being, that "it must be its first concern. Let that be secured, (as in the Supreme Being it is beyond all possibility of change,) and then it "will be at liberty to observe the beauty and force of this law; " which I cannot but approve in its own nature, but should be as "ridiculous to pursue to my own misery, as a poor man to squander

away, out of an affected generosity, the small means necessary " for his own preservation. Disinterestedness is madness in a crea"ture, who has constant intimations of his misery and weakness; "and, unless self-preservation could be reconciled with the rule of "virtue,

VOL. II.

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