The cynical, ironical fancy of the moment insensibly passes into a religious sentiment.

In another passage he says that life is a game of which God, who is the player, shifts the pieces so as to procure the victory of good on the whole.

Or once more: Tragedies are acted on the stage; but the best and noblest of them is the imitation of the noblest life, which we affirm to be the life of our whole state.

Again, life is a chorus, as well as a sort of mystery, in which we have the Gods for playmates.

Men imagine that war is their serious pursuit, and they make war that they may return to their amusements.