Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/208

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of Plutarch's ethical teachings, show how strongly it is his practice to emphasize a note of cheerful and open courage in worship as an essential part of religious belief. But it is in the well-known essay "on Superstition" that he most thoroughly expounds this aspect of his philosophy, and no endeavour to understand Plutarch's mental attitude in face of a problem which always affects humanity would be successful without a careful analysis of that treatise. The "De Iside et Osiride" attempts to safeguard the mind from the attacks of Superstition on the side of the Intellect, as the "De Superstitione" does on the side of the Imagination, and the two tracts have therefore an organic connexion which renders it necessary to treat them together as expounding different aspects of the same question.

  • [Footnote: stumbling-block to the uninitiated, and could make them an aid to

a loftier moral life.]