ed them very unequal to so arduous a task. 1. The general
system of their mythology was unsupported by any solid proofs; and the
wisest among the Pagans had already disclaimed its usurped authority. 2.
The description of the infernal regions had been abandoned to the fancy
of painters and of poets, who peopled them with so many phantoms and
monsters, who dispensed their rewards and punishments with so little
equity, that a solemn truth, the most congenial to the human heart, was
opposed and disgraced by the absurd mixture of the wildest fictions. 3.
The doctrine of a future state was scarcely considered among the devout
polytheists of Greece and Rome as a fundamental article of faith. The
providence of the gods, as it related to public communities rather than
to private individuals, was principally displayed on the visible theatre
of the present world. The petitions which were offered on the altars
of Jupiter or Apollo, expressed the anxiety of their worshippers for
temporal happiness, and their ignorance or indifference concerning a
future life. The important truth of the of the immortality of the soul
was inculcated with more diligence, as well as success, in India, in
Assyria, in Egypt, and in Gaul; and since we cannot attribute such a
difference to the superior knowledge of the barbarians, we must ascribe
it to the influence of an established priesthood, which employed the
motives of virtue as the instrument of ambition.

We might naturally expect that a principle so essential to religion,
would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the chosen people
of Palestine, and that it might safely have been intrusted to the
hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is incumbent on us to adore the
mysterious dispensations of Providence, when we discover that the
doctrine of the immortality of the soul is omitted in the law of Moses
it is darkly insinuated by the prophets; and during the long period
which clasped between the Egyptian and the Babylonian servitudes, the
hopes as well as fears of the Jews appear to have been confined within
the narrow compass of the present life. After Cyrus had permitted the
exiled nation to return into the promised land, and after Ezra had
restored the ancient records of their religion, two celebrated sects,
the Sadducees and the Pharisees, insensibly arose at Jerusalem. The
former, selected from the more opulent and distinguished ranks of
society, were strictly attached to the literal sense of t