esius,
execrates the sacrilegious rapine of Theophilus. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles.
tom. xiii. p. 453) quotes an epistle of Isidore of Pelusium, which
reproaches the primate with the idolatrous worship of gold, the auri
sacra fames.]

[Footnote 4711: An English traveller, Mr. Wilkinson, has discovered the
secret of the vocal Memnon. There was a cavity in which a person was
concealed, and struck a stone, which gave a ringing sound like brass.
The Arabs, who stood below when Mr. Wilkinson performed the miracle,
described sound just as the author of the epigram.--M.]

[Footnote 48: Rufinus names the priest of Saturn, who, in the character
of the god, familiarly conversed with many pious ladies of quality,
till he betrayed himself, in a moment of transport, when he could not
disguise the tone of his voice. The authentic and impartial narrative
of Aeschines, (see Bayle, Dictionnaire Critique, Scamandre,) and the
adventure of Mudus, (Joseph. Antiquitat. Judaic. l. xviii. c. 3, p. 877
edit. Havercamp,) may prove that such amorous frauds have been practised
with success.]

[Footnote 49: See the images of Serapis, in Montfaucon, (tom. ii. p.
297:) but the description of Macrobius (Saturnal. l. i. c. 20) is much
more picturesque and satisfactory.]

[Footnote 50:

Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda
Majestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent
In sua credebant redituras membra secures.

(Lucan. iii. 429.) "Is it true," (said Augustus to a veteran of Italy,
at whose house he supped) "that the man who gave the first blow to the
golden statue of Anaitis, was instantly deprived of his eyes, and of his
life?"--"I was that man, (replied the clear-sighted veteran,) and you
now sup on one of the legs of the goddess." (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii.
24)]

[Footnote 51: The history of the reformation affords frequent examples
of the sudden change from superstition to contempt.]

[Footnote 52: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 20. I have supplied the measure. The
same standard, of the inundation, and consequently of the cubit, has
uniformly subsisted since the time of Herodotus. See Freret, in the
Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344-353. Greaves's
Miscellaneous Works, vol. i. p. 233. The Egyptian cubit is about
twenty-two inches of the English measure. * Note: Compare Wilkinson's
Thebes and Egypt, p. 313.--M.]

The temples of the Roman empire were deserted, or destroyed; but the
ingenious superstition of the Pagans