Note 80 — Chapter III

Laert. saith of the magi, that they did Deorum vacare cultui: signa statuasque reprehendere: et eorum imprimis, qui mares esse deos et fœminas dicunt, errores improbare. Signa et statuas ex disciplinæ instituto è medio tulisse: and that some thought that the Jews came from them, p. 4, 6. And Laertius himself saith to those that make Orpheus the first philosopher, Videant certe qui ita volunt, quo sit censendus nomine, qui Diis cuncta hominum vitia, et quæ rarò à turpibus quibusque et flagitiosis hominibus geruntur, ascribit, p. 4. He saith also that the said magi held, and Theopompus with them, that men should live again, and become immortal. The like he saith of many other sects. It is a thing most irrational to doubt of the being of the unseen worlds, and the more excellent inhabitants thereof; when we consider that this low and little part of God's creation is so full of inhabitants: if a microscope will show your very eyes a thousand visible creatures which you could never see without it, nor know that they had any being, will you not allow the pure intellectual sight to go much further beyond your microscope?