And again, in 'The Secret of Piety'--the secret 'of all the lore which
angelic bosoms swell'--we have the same pure faith:

'Whoso would careless tread one worm that crawls the sod,
That cruel man is darkly alienate from God;
But he that lives embracing all that is in _love_,
To dwell with him God bursts all bounds, below, above.'

The Greek philosophy knew nothing of all this, and the result is that
even in the atheism which sprang from the East, and in its harshest and
lowest 'tinctures,' we find a something nobler and less selfish than is
to be found in the school of Plato himself. And however this may be, the
reader will admit, in examining the six skeptics set forth by Scott,
that each is a character firmly based in historical truth; that all,
with the exception of 'Bletson,' are sketched with remarkable brevity;
and that a careful comparative analysis of the whole gives us a deeper
insight into the secret tendencies of the author's mind, and at the same
time into the springs of his genius, than the world has been wont to
take. And the study of the subject is finally interesting, since we may
learn from it that even in the works of one who is a standard poetic
authority among those who would, if possible, subject all men to
feudalism, we may learn lessons of that highest social
truth--republicanism.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 10: OVID. _Metamorphoseon_, lib. xi. v. 183.]

[Footnote 11: Haec autem erat Gnosticorum doctrina ethica, quod omnem
virtutem in prudentia sitim esse credebant, quam Ophitae per _Metem_
(Sophiam) et Serpentem exprimebant, desumpto iterum ex Evangelii
praecepto; _estote prudentes ut serpentes_,--ob innatem hujus animalis
astutiam?--VON HAMMER, _Fundgruben des Orients_, tom. vi. p. 85.]

[Footnote 12: _New Curiosities of Literature._ By GEO. SOANE, London,
1849.]

[Footnote 13: _Developpement des Abus introduits dans la Franc
Maconnerie._ Ecossois de Saint ANDRE d'Ecosse, &c., &c. Paris, 1780.]

[Footnote 14: London. Truebner &. Co., No. 60 Paternoster Row. 1861.]

[Footnote 15: 'Tota haec humanae vitae fabula, quae universitatem naturae et
generis humani historiam constituit tota prius in intellectu divino
praeconcepta fuit cum infinitis aliis.'--LEIBNITZ, _Theodicaea_, part 11,
p. 149.]

[Footnote 16: Tickner and Fields' edition of Waverley Novels, Boston,
1858.]

[Footnote 17: _The Poetry of the East._ By WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER.
Boston. Whittemore, Niles & Hall, 1856.]