Essay on the Sacred Fire and on the Vestals

The Sacrificers original: "Sacrificateurs" — those appointed to perform ritual killings and offerings, as I have observed, neglected nothing to increase the esteem in which they were held. Although they gave themselves over to a guilty ambition, they did not cease to be useful to mankind; this result would serve to excuse them, if imposture could ever be excused. It was they who invented Medicine. Chance, and a more attentive study of Nature, made known to them different remedies; they applied themselves to the art of healing. Humans afflicted by diseases turned to their Gods to obtain relief; they always addressed themselves to their Priests, who had taken care to place themselves early on between them and the Divinity. These Priests gave them advice; they did not fail to attribute their successes to such a sacrifice, made on such an occasion, and upon such an altar. This clever precaution left them the freedom to blame the impotence of their art on the wrath of Heaven, or on the dispositions of the patient, which were not pure enough to obtain a miracle.

By slaughtering the victims and opening them, the Sacrificers examined their internal parts, and through the structure of their bodies, learned to know the mechanism of that of men; it is this which likely gave the first notions of Anatomy. They felt the importance of these observations and strove to multiply them. A superstitious man, whose imagination was vivid,

reflecting on the attention of the Sacrificer on these occasions, might have thought that he sought to penetrate a secret within the entrails of the victim—that he discovered there whether the Gods would accept this sacrifice or not, and whether the object for which it was offered was pleasing to them. This supposition is not without likelihood. This man, having had such an idea, hastened to share it with the Priest, either to seek clarification or to do himself honor for his insight. One can easily conceive that the latter seized upon this idea and took great care not to disabuse him of an opinion which could only add to the respect and veneration borne toward him. Once divination was discovered, it was easy to go further; and from error to error, it could not have taken long to arrive at magic.

CHAPTER II.

On the origin of the Cult of the Sacred Fire.

We have just seen how Idolatry was introduced; it is possible that it established itself in another manner. One is free to adopt whatever opinion one wishes on this matter; they should all be regarded as quite indifferent; most are nothing but reveries, sometimes ingenious, and I do not demand any more confidence for those which I present.