reign religion, though that religion might be legally
recognized in their own city, for the strangers who were its votaries."
--Sur la Religion, v. 184. Du. Polyth. Rom. ii. 308. At this time, the
growing religious indifference, and the general administration of the
empire by Romans, who, being strangers, would do no more than protect,
not enlist themselves in the cause of the local superstitions, had
introduced great laxity. But intolerance was clearly the theory both of
the Greek and Roman law. The subject is more fully considered in another
place.--M.]

[Footnote 4: The rights, powers, and pretensions of the sovereign of
Olympus are very clearly described in the xvth book of the Iliad; in
the Greek original, I mean; for Mr. Pope, without perceiving it, has
improved the theology of Homer. * Note: There is a curious coincidence
between Gibbon's expressions and those of the newly-recovered "De
Republica" of Cicero, though the argument is rather the converse, lib.
i. c. 36. "Sive haec ad utilitatem vitae constitute sint a principibus
rerum publicarum, ut rex putaretur unus esse in coelo, qui nutu, ut ait
Homerus, totum Olympum converteret, idemque et rex et patos haberetur
omnium."--M.]

[Footnote 5: See, for instance, Caesar de Bell. Gall. vi. 17. Within a
century or two, the Gauls themselves applied to their gods the names of
Mercury, Mars, Apollo, &c.]

The philosophers of Greece deduced their morals from the nature of man,
rather than from that of God. They meditated, however, on the Divine
Nature, as a very curious and important speculation; and in the
profound inquiry, they displayed the strength and weakness of the human
understanding. [6] Of the four most celebrated schools, the Stoics and
the Platonists endeavored to reconcile the jaring interests of reason
and piety. They have left us the most sublime proofs of the existence
and perfections of the first cause; but, as it was impossible for them
to conceive the creation of matter, the workman in the Stoic philosophy
was not sufficiently distinguished from the work; whilst, on the
contrary, the spiritual God of Plato and his disciples resembled
an idea, rather than a substance. The opinions of the Academics and
Epicureans were of a less religious cast; but whilst the modest science
of the former induced them to doubt, the positive ignorance of the
latter urged them to deny, the providence of a Supreme Ruler. The spirit
of inquiry, prompted by emulation, and su