The Ruins, Chapter 19: riassunto

Cosa succede

1. The narrator surveys the assembled nations, comparing their clothing, bodies, customs, and environments.
2. The legislator urges equality under nature and reason, drawing cheers before religious leaders stir competing claims to exclusive truth.
3. He proposes public judgment of religious arguments, and the groups arrange themselves behind separate standards.
4. The Genius describes religious systems, stressing internal divisions, mutual hostility, and contradictions between teachings and conduct.
5. The legislator asks for tolerance and evidence, but the competing groups all claim divine revelation and miracles.
6. With no living witnesses available, the groups appeal to conflicting writings and the deaths of their martyrs.

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