The Veil of Isis 0r The Mysteries of the Druids

the 2 first pages...

I know that they can boast of many devout disciples-of many enterprising missionariesof
many conscientious priests. I know that they are not now more foolish and bigoted
than the members of the Protestant churches, as in former times the murderers of St.
Bartholomew were no worse than the cruel Calvin, nor Bloody Mary than James the
First. In those days a remnant of the horrible custom of human sacrifice was preserved
by all alike. They martyred those of the same religion as themselves but not of the same
sect, burning them, drowning them, tearing them limb from limb like the Pagans of old,
as offerings to a kind and gracious God.

It is true that the Roman Catholics were the most ruthless in barbarity and the most
ingenious in torture, but it was because they possessed the most power.

The simplicity of men, and the cunning of their priests has destroyed or corrupted all
the religions of the world.

These priests taught the people to sacrifice the choicest herbs and flowers. They taught
them formulas of prayer, and bade them make so many obeisances to the sun, and to
worship those flowers which opened their leaves when he rose, and which closed them
as he set.

They composed a language of symbols which was perhaps necessary, since letters had
not been invented, but which perplexed the people and perverted them from the
worship of the one God.
The simplicity of men, and the cunning of their priests has destroyed or corrupted all
the religions of the world.
These priests taught the people to sacrifice the choicest herbs and flowers. They taught
them formulas of prayer, and bade them make so many obeisances to the sun, and to
worship those flowers which opened their leaves when he rose, and which closed them
as he set.
They composed a language of symbols which was perhaps necessary, since letters had
not been invented, but which perplexed the people and perverted them from the
worship of the one God.

Men multiplied God into a thousand names, and created Him always in their own
image. Him, too, whom they had once deemed unworthy of any temple less noble than
the floor of the earth and the vast dome of the sky, they worshipped in caves, and then
in temples which were made of the trunks of trees rudely sculptured, and ranged in
rows to imitate groves, and with other trunks placed upon them traversely.