e of their tutelar deity. The popular modes of religion,
that propose any visible and material objects of worship, have the
advantage of adapting and familiarizing themselves to the senses of
mankind: but this advantage is counterbalanced by the various and
inevitable accidents to which the faith of the idolater is exposed.
It is scarcely possible, that, in every disposition of mind, he should
preserve his implicit reverence for the idols, or the relics, which the
naked eye, and the profane hand, are unable to distinguish from the
most common productions of art or nature; and if, in the hour of danger,
their secret and miraculous virtue does not operate for their own
preservation, he scorns the vain apologies of his priests, and justly
derides the object, and the folly, of his superstitious attachment.
[51] After the fall of Serapis, some hopes were still entertained by
the Pagans, that the Nile would refuse his annual supply to the impious
masters of Egypt; and the extraordinary delay of the inundation seemed
to announce the displeasure of the river-god. But this delay was soon
compensated by the rapid swell of the waters. They suddenly rose to
such an unusual height, as to comfort the discontented party with the
pleasing expectation of a deluge; till the peaceful river again subsided
to the well-known and fertilizing level of sixteen cubits, or about
thirty English feet. [52]

[Footnote 43: We may choose between the date of Marcellinus (A.D. 389)
or that of Prosper, ( A.D. 391.) Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p.
310, 756) prefers the former, and Pagi the latter.]

[Footnote 44: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 441-500. The ambiguous
situation of Theophilus--a saint, as the friend of Jerom a devil, as
the enemy of Chrysostom--produces a sort of impartiality; yet, upon the
whole, the balance is justly inclined against him.]

[Footnote 4411: No doubt a temple of Osiris. St. Martin, iv 398-M.]

[Footnote 45: Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 411) has alleged
beautiful passage from Suidas, or rather from Damascius, which show the
devout and virtuous Olympius, not in the light of a warrior, but of a
prophet.]

[Footnote 46: Nos vidimus armaria librorum, quibus direptis, exinanita
ea a nostris hominibus, nostris temporibus memorant. Orosius, l. vi. c.
15, p. 421, edit. Havercamp. Though a bigot, and a controversial writer.
Orosius seems to blush.]

[Footnote 47: Eunapius, in the Lives of Antoninus and Aed