Note 260-1 — Chapter VII · THE MOMENTA OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT.

The seemingly heartless reply he made to one of his disciples, who asked permission to perform the funeral rites at his father’s grave: “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead,” is an obvious condemnation of one of the most widespread superstitions of the ancient world. So, according to an ingenious suggestion of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was the fifth commandment of Moses: “Ne parentum seriem tanquam primam aliquam causam suspicerent homines, et proinde cultum aliquem Divinum illis deferrent, qualem ex honore parentum sperare liceat benedictionem, docuit.” De Veritate, p. 231.