"None among mortals hath ever lifted up my veil," so saith the Isis that you adore; but to the wise that veil hath been removed, and we have stood face to face with the solemn loveliness of Nature.

The priests then were the benefactors, the civilizers of mankind; true, they were also cheats, impostors if you will.

But think you, young man, that if they had not deceived their kind they could have served them?
The ignorant and servile vulgar must be blinded to attain to their proper good; they would not believe a maxim--they revere an oracle.

The Emperor of Rome sways the vast and various tribes of earth, and harmonizes the conflicting and disunited elements; thence come peace, order, law, the blessings of life.

Think you it is the man, the emperor, that thus sways ?--no, it is the pomp, the awe, the majesty that surround him--these are his impostures, his delusions; our oracles and our divinations, our rites and our ceremonies, are the means of our sovereignty and the engines of our power.