to be proclaimed by the inspiration and instinct of fools, madmen, and
birds. Such is the unreason to which terror can drive mankind!

(9) Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear. If
anyone desire an example, let him take Alexander, who only began
superstitiously to seek guidance from seers, when he first learnt to fear
fortune in the passes of Sysis (Curtius, v. 4); whereas after he had
conquered Darius he consulted prophets no more, till a second time
frightened by reverses. (10) When the Scythians were provoking a battle, the
Bactrians had deserted, and he himself was lying sick of his wounds, "he
once more turned to superstition, the mockery of human wisdom, and bade
Aristander, to whom he confided his credulity, inquire the issue of affairs
with sacrificed victims." (11) Very numerous examples of a like nature might
be cited, clearly showing the fact, that only while under the dominion of
fear do men fall a prey to superstition; that all the portents ever invested
with the reverence of misguided religion are mere phantoms of dejected and
fearful minds; and lastly, that prophets have most power among the people,
and are most formidable to rulers, precisely at those times when the state
is in most peril. (12) I think this is sufficiently plain to all, and will
therefore say no more on the subject.

(13) The origin of superstition above given affords us a clear reason for
the fact, that it comes to all men naturally, though some refer its rise to
a dim notion of God, universal to mankind, and also tends to show, that it
is no less inconsistent and variable than other mental hallucinations and
emotional impulses, and further that it can only be maintained by hope,
hatred, anger, and deceit; since it springs, not from reason, but solely
from the more powerful phases of emotion. (14) Furthermore, we may readily
understand how difficult it is, to maintain in the same course men prone to
every form of credulity. (15) For, as the mass of mankind remains always at