How false Religious are sometimes corrected by the Civil Laws.
SIMPLICITY, superstition, or a respect for antiquity, have sometimes established mysteries or ceremonies shocking to modesty: of this the world has furnished numerous examples. Aristotle says, that in this case the law permits the fathers of families to repair to the temple to celebrate these mysteries for their wives and children. How admirable the civil law, which in spite of religion preserves the manners untainted!
Augustus excluded the youth of either sex from assisting at any nocturnal ceremony, unless accompanied by a more aged relation; and when he revived the Lupercalia, he would not allow the young men to run naked.