* The rights of Man.

* The social contract.

Once adopted, their practical results unfolded themselves naturally.
In three years these dogmas installed the crocodile on the purple
carpet insides the sanctuary behind the golden veil. He was selected
for the place on account of the energy of his jaws and the capacity of
his stomach; he became a god through his qualities as a destructive
brute and man-eater. -- Comprehending this, the rites which
consecrate him and the pomp which surrounds him need not give us any
further concern. -- We can observe him, like any ordinary animal, and
study his various attitudes, as he lies in wait for his prey, springs
upon it, tears it to pieces, swallows it, and digests it. I have
studied the details of his structure, the play of his organs, his
habits, his mode of living, his instincts, his faculties, and his
appetites. -- Specimens abounded. I have handled thousands of them,
and have dissected hundreds of every species and variety, always
preserving the most valuable and characteristic examples, but for lack
of room I have been compelled to let many of them go because my
collections was too large. Those that I was able to bring back with
me will be found here, and, among others, about twenty individuals of
different dimensions, which -- a difficult undertaking -- I have kept
alive with great pains. At all events, they are intact and perfect,
and particularly the three largest. These seem to me, of their kind,
truly remarkable, and those in which the divinity of the day might
well incarnate himself. - Authentic and rather well kept cookbooks
inform us about the cost of the cult: We can more or less estimate how
much the sacred crocodiles consumed in ten years; we know their bills