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OF WORLDLY FEAR.
TALE XXII.
OF WORLDLY FEAR.
Augustine tells us, that when the Egyptians formerly deified Isis and Serapis, they proceeded in this manner. First, they made a law, that whosoever declared them to be mortal, or so much as expressed a doubt relative to their birth, should be put to an ignominious death. Then they erected two images; and that the aforesaid law should be strictly observed, they placed near them, in every temple dedicated to their honour, another of diminutive form, having a fore-finger laid upon its lips,—to indicate that silence was indispensably required of those who entered their temples. In this way they endeavoured to repress the promulgation of truth.
