free-thinking speculator, would instantly have rejected such a
history, as utterly unworthy of credit. What, for instance, would the
great Hume, or any of the philosophers of his school, have said, if
they had found in the antique records of any nation, such a passage
as this? "There was a certain man of Corsica, whose name was Napoleon,
and he was one of the chief captains of the host of the French; and he
gathered together an army, and went and fought against Egypt: but when
the king of Britain heard thereof, he sent ships of war and valiant
men to fight against the French in Egypt. So they warred against them,
and prevailed, and strengthened the hands of the rulers of the land
against the French, and drave away Napoleon from before the city of
Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and the army that were in Egypt,
and fled, and returned back to France. So the French people, took
Napoleon, and made him ruler over them, and he became exceeding great,
insomuch that there was none like him of all that had ruled over
France before."

What, I say, would Hume have thought of this, especially if he had
been told that it was at this day generally credited? Would he not
have confessed that he had been mistaken in supposing there was a
peculiarly blind credulity and prejudice in favour of everything that
is accounted _sacred_;[16] for that, since even professed sceptics
swallow implicitly such a story as this, it appears there must be a
still blinder prejudice in favour of everything that is _not_
accounted sacred?

Suppose, again, we found in this history such passages as the
following: "And it came to pass after these things that Napoleon
strengthened himself, and gathered together another host instead of
that which he had lost, and went and warred against the Prussians, and