Religious Ceremonies

be regarded, but also as an explanation and necessary supplement to the Bibles with plates original: "Bijbels met platen"; referring to the popular 18th-century "Illustrated Bibles" containing many engravings which are in so many hands. Thus, just as the Holy Scripture contains the internal and essential nature of the true Religion, this work, by contrast, sets before our eyes everything that the false Religions possess that is ridiculous and reprehensible, both in their worship and in their religious customs. This is to say nothing of the many excellent historical treatises—both ecclesiastical and secular—upon which this work can shed much light by placing before the reader’s eyes that which the Historian original: "Historieschrijver" reports only with words. This claim is especially well-founded with respect to another very excellent work, which the learned Englishman Thomas Broughton Thomas Broughton (1704–1774) was an English clergyman and encyclopedist whose "Historical Dictionary" was a standard reference for comparative religion in the 1700s published in two folio volumes under the title: AN HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF ALL (*) RELIGIONS etc., and which has also appeared in French. That magnificent work could only be considered very imperfect as long as it is not clarified by illustrations, because it is impossible, even for the best writer in the world, to present external ceremonies as vividly as is done through the art of the engraver engraver [Dutch: "plaatsnijder"]: A skilled artist who carves designs into copper or wood plates to produce printed illustrations..

This is a Dutch translation of a famous sentiment by the Roman poet Horace: "Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, quam quae sunt oculis subiecta fidelibus."

(*) Historical dictionary of all Religions.