Starting with the firmest belief in the old traditional view, his own researches by degrees opened his eyes to the truth, now universally recognized, that the catacombs were exclusively the work of the Christians, and were constructed for the interment of the dead.
When he first read that instrument he was very much opposed to the consolidated government which it provided, but was induced to befriend it by resolutions which were passed at a mass meeting of Boston mechanics or "tradesmen" - his own firmest supporters - and by the suggestion that its ratification should be accompanied by a recommendation of amendments designed chiefly to supply the omission of a bill of rights.
In especial he vindicates the propriety of resistance to kingly oppression or misrule, upholds the existence of an hereditary nobility interested in their country's good as the firmest barrier against such oppression, and maintains the authority of parliaments.
Caesar-worship as an organized cult developed spontaneously in many provincial towns during the reign of Augustus, and was fostered by him and his successors as a means of promoting in these centres of vigour and prosperity a strong loyalty to Rome and the emperor, which was one of the firmest supports of the latter's power.
But, be this as it may," the doctrine of karma is certainly one of the firmest beliefs of all classes of Hindus, and the fear that a man shall reap as he has sown is an appreciable element in the average morality.
