Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    163/226 (page 149)
    with an obfcure Muttering, and the Pythia with a Voice more than human. I fomewhat wonder that none of the Fathers have given us a particular Account of the Noife made in the Tripod, and other Particulars of the Oracle at Delphos and elfewhere ; fince Eufebius, de Praf. Evang. 1. 4. c. 1. writes thus : Many of the Prophets and Soothfayers, not only of the Antients, but even of our Time, being forced by Torments, have declared that the whole Affair of the Oracles was carried on by their Inventions; from whom alfo we know the Ways and Artifices ufed by them have been exqui- fitely laid open; and they, as Seducers and ill Men, have been put to death, according to the Laws : Which things are fo clear, that they are known to all Men. For not only fome of the Vulgar, but others of the Better Sort, and even Philofophers, who valued themfelves on the account of their Gown and Learning, own’d it : Whence fome one perhaps will not flick to fay, that neither Gods nor Devils fet up thefe Oracles, if they were the Inventions of fedu~ cing and wicked Men for filthy Lucre. Which Opi¬ nion, we know, pleated many of the Greeks, and moflly the moft celebrated Philofophers ; for the Pe- ripateticks, Cynicks, and Epicureans think fo, whom I greatly admire, for that being born and educated in moft corrupt Manners, and taught by their Parents to reverence their Gods and Oracles, they could of themfelves emerge from thofe Errors, fo that they dared alfo to write that the Oracles were not only falfe, but likewife ufelefs and detrimental to many. The faid Eufebius, in his fecond Chapter adds this : Tho the Vanity of the Oracles may be fhewn many ways, yet I have refolved not to anfwer after this way, viz,, that the Oracles were fet up wholly by the fubtle Inventions of Men; but as I have begun, not denying them to be from fome Power, becaufe the Refutation of this Point does not a little conduce to