_.... Tœnara et aspero_ _Regnum sub domino, limen et obsidens_ _Custos non facili Cerberus ostio_ _Rumores vacui, verbaque inania,_ _Et par solicito fabula somnio._ Lucretius and Horace express themselves equally strongly. Cicero and Seneca used similar language in innumerable parts of their writings. The great emperor Marcus Aurelius reasons still more philosophically than those I have mentioned. "He who fears death, fears either to be deprived of all senses, or to experience other sensations. But, if you no longer retain your own senses, you will be no longer subject to any pain or grief. If you have senses of a different nature, you will be a totally different being." To this reasoning, profane philosophy had nothing to reply. Yet, agreeably to that contradiction or perverseness which distinguishes the human species, and seems to constitute the very foundation of our nature, at the very time when Cicero publicly declared that "not even an old woman was to be found who believed in such absurdities," Lucretius admitted that these ideas were powerfully impressive upon men's minds; his object, he says, is to destroy them: _.... Si certum finem esse viderent_ _Ærumnarum homines, aliqua ratione valerent_ _Religionibus atque minis obsistere vatum._ _Nunc ratio nulla est restandi, nulla facultas;_ _Æternas quoniam poenas in morte timendum._ --LUCRETIUS, i. 108. .... If it once appear That after death there's neither hope nor fear; Then might men freely triumph, then disdain The poet's tales, and scorn their fancied pain; But now we must submit, since pains we fear Eternal after death, we know not where. --CREECH. It was therefore true, that among the lowest classes of the people, some laughed at hell, and others trembled at it. Some regarded Cerberus, the Furies, and Pluto as ridiculous fables, others perpetually presented offerings to the infernal gods. It was with them just as it is now among ourselves: _Et quocumque tamen miseri venere, parentant,_ _Et nigros mactant pecudes, et Manibus divis_ _Inferias mittunt multoque in rebus acerbis_ _Acrius admittunt animos ad religionem._ --LUCRETIUS, iii. 51. Nay, more than that, where'er the wretches come They sacrifice black sheep on every tomb, To please the manes; and of all the rout, When cares and dangers press, grow most devout. --CREECH. Many philosophers who had no belief in the fables about hell, were yet desirous that the people should retain that belief. Such was Zimens of Locris. Such was the political historian Polybius. "Hell," says he, "is useless to sages, but necessary to the blind and brutal populace."