ruth of them.

But I cite those authors as witnesses of the opinions of nations; and
I count it not a small thing in the extreme license of opinions, which
at this day predominates in the world, amongst those even who make a
profession of Christianity, to be able to show that the ancient Greeks
and Romans thought that souls were immortal, that they subsisted after
the death of the body, and that there was another life, in which they
received the reward of their good actions, or the chastisement of
their crimes.

Those sentiments which we read in the poets, are also repeated in the
fathers of the church, and the pagan and Christian historians; but as
they did not pretend to think them weighty, nor to approve them in
repeating them, it must not be imputed to me either, that I have any
intention of authorizing. For instance, what I have related of the
manes, or lares; of the evocation of souls after the death of the
body; of the avidity of these souls to suck the blood of the immolated
animals, of the shape of the soul separated from the body, of the
inquietude of souls which have no rest until their bodies are under
ground; of those superstitious statues of wax which are devoted and
consecrated under the name of certain persons whom the magicians
pretended to kill by burning and stabbing their effigies of wax; of
the transportation of wizards and witches through the air, and of
their assemblies of the Sabbath; all those things are related both in
the works of the philosophers and pagan historians, as well as in the
poets.

I know the value of one and the other, and I esteem them as they
deserve; but I think that in treating this matter, it is important to
make known to our readers the ancient superstitions, the vulgar or
common opinions, and the prejudices of nations, to be able to refute
them, and bring back the figures to truths, by freeing them from what
poesy had added for the embellishment of the poem, and the amusement
of the reader.

Moreover, I generally repeat this kind of thing, only when it is
apropos of certain facts avowed by historians, and by other grave and
rational authors; and sometimes rather as an ornament of the
discourse, or to enliven the matter, than to derive thence certain
proofs and consequences necessary for the dogma, or to certify the
facts and give weight to my recital.

I know how little we must depend on what Lucian says on this subject;
he only speaks of it to make game of it. Phil