# The Essays of Francis Bacon/XVI Of Atheism

XVI. Of Atheism.
* ↑ The Legend. A book of miraculous stories, so called because it was appointed to be read in churches on certain days.
* ↑ The Talmud. The book of Jewish traditional or oral laws and regulations of life explanatory of the written law of the Pentateuch, together with the commentaries of the rabbins thereon. The two recensions of the Talmud, the Palestinian and the Babylonian, were composed between the ends of the 2d and 6th centuries A.D.
* ↑ Alcoran (Arabic, the book), or Koran, the Mohammedan book of faith and worship.
* ↑ Convince. To disprove; to refute. "There was never miracle wrought by God to convert an atheist, because the light of nature might have led him to confess a God." Advancement of Learning. II. vi. 1.
* ↑ Leucippus, Greek philosopher, flourished about 500 B.C. He founded the atomic school of philosophy.
* ↑ Epicurus, Greek philosopher, 342–270 B.C. Epicurus taught that pleasure is the only possible end of rational action, and that the ultimate pleasure is freedom. With Democritus, he accepted and helped to develop the theory of atoms of Leucippus.
* ↑ Four mutable elements. The four elements are earth, air, fire, and water, of which all things were thought to be made. Aristotle suggested a 'fifth being,' or 'form of existence,' for that which makes a thing what it is, its 'soul.' The Latin language translated 'fifth being' as quinta essentia, 'fifth essence'; that is, 'quintessence,' in English. "The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire; And this ethereal quintessence of heav'n Flew upward, spirited with various forms, That roll'd orbicular, and turn'd to stars Numberless." Milton. Paradise Lost. III. 715–719.
* ↑ This is the first sentence of the first verse of both the Fourteenth and the Fifty-third Psalms.
* ↑ As. That.
* ↑ That means what, that which.
* ↑ "For myself, I would not give up the poetry of religion for all the wisest results that philosophy will ever arrive at." Thomas Moore to Lord Byron, Feb. 9, 1822. Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, with Notices of his Life. Thomas Moore.
* ↑ Maketh. Make means profit.
* ↑ Consent. Agreement or unity of opinion; unanimity, consensus.
* ↑ The Latin text shows that the phrase most of all means most extraordinary of all.
* ↑ It is not profane to deny the gods of the common people; but it is profane to apply the opinions of the common people to the gods. Diogenes Laertius. X. 123.
* ↑ Confidence. Assurance, boldness, fearlessness, arising from reliance (on one's self, on circumstances, on divine support, etc.). "Alas, my lord, Your wisdom is consumed in confidence." Shakspere. Julius Caesar. ii. 2.
* ↑ Diagoras of Melos, surnamed 'the Atheist,' lived in the last half of the 5th century, B.C.
* ↑ Bion, a witty philosopher of the Cyrenaic school, born at Borysthenes; he lived for some time at the court of Antigonus (Gonatas), who was king of Macedon from 277 to 239 B.C.
* ↑ Lucian 120(?)–200(?) A.D., Greek satirist and wit. Among other works, he wrote Dialogues of the Gods, Dialogues of the Dead, and the Veracious History, a mock narrative of travel, which is the original of such books as Gulliver's Travels. Lucian's Timon, a very amusing and witty dialogue, was, probably through the Timone of Matteo Maria Boiardo, one of the sources of Shakspere's Timon of Athens.
* ↑ St. Bernard, 1091–1153, Abbot of Clairvaux, one of the most eloquent and influential men in Europe of his time.
* ↑ It cannot now be said, Like priest, like people, because the people are not like the priests, i.e., they are better. Ad Pastores in Synodo Congregatos sermo. S. The sermon of St. Bernard here quoted, entitled, Cujuscunque sit, nec inelegans est, nec lectu indignus, will be found in Jacques Paul Migne's Patrologiae Cursus Completus. S. Bernardus. Volume 3. Columns 1091–1092.
* ↑ Better, or higher, nature. P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon Liber I. Fabula I. 21.
* ↑ "If it is a dream ["the prospect of a future state"], let me enjoy it, since it makes me the happier and better man." Joseph Addison. The Spectator. No. 186.
* ↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106–43 B.C., Roman orator, philosopher, and statesman.
* ↑ We may have as good an opinion of ourselves as we will, conscript fathers, yet we do not surpass the Spaniards in number, nor the Gauls in strength, nor the Carthaginians in cunning, nor the Greeks in arts, nor finally the Italians and Latins themselves in the homely and native intelligence of this nation and land; but we do surpass all nations and peoples in piety and in religion, and in this one wisdom of recognizing that all things are ruled and governed by the power of the immortal gods. M. Tullii Ciceronis Oratio De Haruspicum Responso in P. Clodium in Senatu Habita. Caput ix. 19.