In the preceding observations man appears as the victim of his own delusions--as the magician unable to exercise the spirits which he has himself called into being. We shall now see him the dupe of preconcerted imposture--the slave of his own ignorance--the prostrate vassal of power and superstition. I have already stated that the monarchs and priests of ancient times carried on a systematic plan of imposing upon their subjects--a mode of government which was in perfect accordance with their religious belief: but it will scarcely be believed that the same delusions were practised after the establishment of Christianity, and that even the Catholic sanctuary was often the seat of these unhallowed machinations. Nor was it merely the low and cunning priest who thus sought to extort money and respect from the most ignorant of his flock: bishops and pontiffs themselves wielded the magician’s wand over the diadem of kings and emperors, and, by the pretended exhibition of supernatural power, made the mightiest potentates of Europe tremble upon their thrones. It was the light of science alone which dispelled this moral and intellectual darkness, and it is entirely in consequence of its wide diffusion that we live in times when sovereigns seek to reign only through the affections of their people, and when the minister of religion asks no other reverence but that which is inspired by the sanctity of his office and the purity of his character. It was fortunate for the human race that the scanty knowledge of former ages afforded so few elements of deception. What a tremendous engine would have been worked against our species by the varied and powerful machinery of modern science! Man would still have worn the shackles which it forged, and his noble spirit would still have groaned beneath its fatal pressure.