nec dum finitus Orestes_; we are of the same humours
and inclinations as our predecessors were; you shall find us all alike,
much at one, we and our sons, _Et nati natorum, et qui nascuntur ab illis_.
And so shall our posterity continue to the last. But to speak of times
present.

If Democritus were alive now, and should but see the superstition of our
age, our [269]religious madness, as [270]Meteran calls it, _Religiosam
insaniam_, so many professed Christians, yet so few imitators of Christ; so
much talk of religion, so much science, so little conscience; so much
knowledge, so many preachers, so little practice; such variety of sects,
such have and hold of all sides, [271]--_obvia signis Signa_, &c., such
absurd and ridiculous traditions and ceremonies: If he should meet a [272]
Capuchin, a Franciscan, a Pharisaical Jesuit, a man-serpent, a
shave-crowned Monk in his robes, a begging Friar, or, see their
three-crowned Sovereign Lord the Pope, poor Peter's successor, _servus
servorum Dei_, to depose kings with his foot, to tread on emperors' necks,
make them stand barefoot and barelegged at his gates, hold his bridle and
stirrup, &c. (O that Peter and Paul were alive to see this!) If he should
observe a [273]prince creep so devoutly to kiss his toe, and those red-cap
cardinals, poor parish priests of old, now princes' companions; what would
he say? _Coelum ipsum petitur stultitia_. Had he met some of our devout
pilgrims going barefoot to Jerusalem, our lady of Lauretto, Rome, S. Iago,
S. Thomas' Shrine, to creep to those counterfeit and maggot-eaten relics;
had he been present at a mass, and seen such kissing of paxes, crucifixes,
cringes, duckings, their several attires and ceremonies, pictures of
saints, [274]indulgences, pardons, vigils, fasting, feasts, crossing,
knocking, kneeling at Ave-Marias, bells, with many such; _--jucunda rudi
spectacula plebi_,[275] praying in gibberish, and mumbling of beads. Had he
heard an old woman say her prayers in Latin, their sprinkling of holy
water, and going a procession,

[276] ------"incedunt monachorum agmina mille;
Quid momerem vexilla, cruces, idolaque culta," &c.

Their breviaries, bulls, hallowed beans, exorcisms, pictures, curious
crosses, fables, and baubles. Had he read the Golden Legend, the Turks'
Alcoran, or Jews' Talmud, the Rabbins' Comments, what would he have
thought? How dost thou think he might have been affected? Had he more
particularly examined a