From the characters of the Christian and
Mahometan religions, we ought, without any further examination, to
embrace the one and reject the other: for it is much easier to prove
that religion ought to humanise the manners of men than that any
particular religion is true.
It is a misfortune to human nature when religion is given by a
conqueror. The Mahometan religion, which speaks only by the sword, acts
still upon men with that destructive spirit with which it was founded.
The history of Sabbaco,
[3]
one of the pastoral kings of Egypt, is
very extraordinary. The tutelar god of Thebes, appearing to him in a
dream, ordered him to put to death all the priests of Egypt. He judged
that the gods were displeased at his being on the throne, since they
commanded him to commit an action contrary to their ordinary pleasure;
and therefore he retired into Ethiopia.
