as
the laws of the twelve tables; the prohibitions were afterwards renewed
at different times. Intolerance did not discontinue under the emperors;
witness the counsel of Maecenas to Augustus. This counsel is so
remarkable, that I think it right to insert it entire. "Honor the gods
yourself," says Maecenas to Augustus, "in every way according to the
usage of your ancestors, and compel others to worship them. Hate and
punish those who introduce strange gods, not only for the sake of the
gods, (he who despises them will respect no one,) but because those who
introduce new gods engage a multitude of persons in foreign laws and
customs. From hence arise unions bound by oaths and confederacies, and
associations, things dangerous to a monarchy." Dion Cass. l. ii. c. 36.
(But, though some may differ from it, see Gibbon's just observation on
this passage in Dion Cassius, ch. xvi. note 117; impugned, indeed, by M.
Guizot, note in loc.)--M.

Even the laws which the philosophers of Athens and of Rome wrote for
their imaginary republics are intolerant. Plato does not leave to his
citizens freedom of religious worship; and Cicero expressly prohibits
them from having other gods than those of the state. Lettres de quelques
Juifs a Mons. Voltaire, i. p. 226.--G.

According to M. Guizot's just remarks, religious intolerance will always
ally itself with the passions of man, however different those passions
may be. In the instances quoted above, with the Persians it was the
pride of despotism; to conquer the gods of a country was the last mark
of subjugation. With the Egyptians, it was the gross Fetichism of the
superstitious populace, and the local jealousy of neighboring towns. In
Greece, persecution was in general connected with political party;
in Rome, with the stern supremacy of the law and the interests of the
state. Gibbon has been mistaken in attributing to the tolerant spirit
of Paganism that which arose out of the peculiar circumstances of the
times. 1st. The decay of the old Polytheism, through the progress of
reason and intelligence, and the prevalence of philosophical opinions
among the higher orders.

2d. The Roman character, in which the political always predominated over
the religious party. The Romans were contented with having bowed the
world to a uniformity of subjection to their power, and cared not for
establishing the (to them) less important uniformity of religion.--M.

[Footnote 1: Dum Assyrios penes, Medosque