Viewing with a smile of pity and indulgence the various errors of the
vulgar, they diligently practiced the ceremonies of their fathers,
devoutly frequented the temples of the gods, and sometimes
condescending to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they
concealed the sentiments of an atheist under the sacerdotal robe.
Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined to wrangle about
their respective modes of faith or of worship. It was indifferent to
them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume, and
they approached with the same inward contempt and the same external
reverence to the altars of the Lybian, the Olympian or the Capitoline
Jupiter." Upon the same subject Mosheim, in his church history, Book
I., chapter 1, says that "The wiser part of mankind, about the time of
Christ's birth, looked upon the whole system of religion as a just
object of contempt and ridicule."

In determining why such adverse sentiments were entertained towards
religion by "the wiser part of mankind," about the time referred to in
the foregoing quotations, it will be found to have been owing to the
extensive spread of the Esoteric philosophy, which taught, as
previously stated, that the gods were mythical and the scriptures
allegorical. While attainable only through initiation, it was
necessarily confined to a limited number, but, ultimately getting
beyond the control of the priests and vast numbers acquiring the
knowledge of its secrets without initiation, it became evident that it
was but a question of time when there would be no respectable element
left to sustain religion. At this juncture our attention is directed to
the University of Alexandria, which, at that time, was in a flourishing
condition. Having ceased to be an exclusively Jewish school, students
from all parts of the Roman Empire, without regard to nationality, were
attending it, and its professors were drawn from the ranks of both