But doubtless these interpretations of a refined theology were not primitive.

Man has never, in the possession of a clear idea, amused himself by clothing it in symbols: it is oftener after long reflections, and from the impossibility felt by the human mind of resigning itself to the absurd, that we seek ideas under the ancient mystic images whose meaning is lost.

Moreover, it is not from Egypt that the faith of humanity has come.

The elements which, in the religion of a Christian, passing through a thousand transformations, came from Egypt and Syria, are exterior forms of little consequence, or dross of which the most purified worships always retain some portion.

The grand defect of the religions of which we speak was their essentially superstitious character.