ÉPINOMIS.

are not visible to us, and although they are near us, we do not perceive them. Let us say that, belonging to a species endowed with penetration and memory, they possess prodigious intelligence, that they read to the bottom of our thoughts, and that their inclination for the good is as strong as their aversion for the wicked, being by nature susceptible to grief. God alone, who unites in Himself all the perfection of divinity, is exempt from any sentiment of joy or sadness; His share is supreme wisdom and intelligence. The whole universe being thus filled with animals, the gods placed at the most remote extremities communicate with each other through these intermediate animals that move, with the greatest agility, now toward the earth, now toward the highest part of the heaven. Water is the element of the fifth species of animals that can be placed with reason in the rank of demi-gods. Sometimes they show themselves to us, other times they hide; we barely know them, and the obscure view we have of them is always accompanied by surprise.

The existence of these five species of animals being certain, in whatever manner they have made themselves known to us—whether in dreams during sleep, by voices and predictions heard in a state of health or sickness, or by apparitions at the moment of death—and whether this belief is founded on general or particular opinions, which have given birth to a great number of religious institutions in various places and will give birth to more in the future, it is the duty of a legislator, if he has any prudence at all, to never undertake to innovate in this matter or to introduce into the state any cult that would not have a certain foundation. He must not, moreover, turn his