ours to bite us, and we try to crush him; and that, finally, he is condemned for his evil conduct to crawl upon his belly and to eat the dust of the earth. It is true that earth forms no part of the serpent's food; but all antiquity believed it."
He then takes a review of the creeds and customs of the most ancient nations known to history. One of these nations he distinguishes by special approval, another by special blame. In describing the Chinese, he admires the antiquity of their civilisation, which goes back four thousand years; their annals, which record facts of history and nature instead of the fables which form the early chronicles of other nations; the paternal system by which their vast and populous empire is governed; the absence of imposture in their religion; their freedom from the fanaticism which inspires religious assassinations and religious wars; their industry and skill in manufactures; their superiority in certain branches of learning over all the other peoples of Asia; their success in cultivating morals and laws; and, what was perhaps in his eyes their greatest merit, the fact that they had never been priest-ridden.
On the other hand, the Jewish nation excites in him special antipathy. He enumerates, with horror, the chief examples of that ruthless slaughter of their enemies which was part of their policy:—
"It is not to be wondered at," he says, "that the neighbouring nations united against the Jews, who in the mind of unenlightened people could only pass for execrable brigands, and not for the sacred instruments of divine vengeance and of the future safety of the human race."
After saying that they have never had a country of their own since the time of Vespasian, he remarks:—
"In following the historical thread of the petty Jewish
