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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1 (of 10), by 
+François-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1 (of 10)
+       From "The Works of Voltaire - A Contemporary Version"
+
+Author: François-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
+
+Commentator: John Morley
+             Tobias Smollett
+             H.G. Leigh
+
+Translator: William F. Fleming
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2011 [EBook #35621]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & Marc D'Hooghe
+at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously
+made available by the Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY
+
+VOLUME I
+
+By
+
+VOLTAIRE
+
+
+
+
+EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION
+
+THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE
+
+A CONTEMPORARY VERSION
+
+
+  With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized
+     New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an
+           Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh
+
+
+A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY
+
+BY
+
+THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY
+
+FORTY-THREE VOLUMES
+
+
+  One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions
+      of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures,
+                  and curious fac-similes
+
+
+VOLUME V
+
+E.R. DuMONT
+
+PARIS--LONDON--NEW YORK--CHICAGO
+
+1901
+
+
+
+
+_The WORKS of VOLTAIRE_
+
+     _"Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundred
+     years apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say it
+     with a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED.
+     Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the
+     sweetness of the present civilization."_
+
+                                                    _VICTOR HUGO._
+
+
+
+LIST OF PLATES--VOL. I
+
+
+
+VOLTAIRE AT THE AGE OF THIRTY _Frontispiece_
+
+MAHOMET
+
+LOUIS AND MDLLE. DE LA VALLIÈRE
+
+ANCIENT GREECE
+
+
+A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY.
+
+
+_The_ DICTIONNAIRE PHILOSOPHIQUE _is Voltaire's principal essay in
+philosophy, though not a sustained work. The miscellaneous articles he
+contributed to Diderot's_ ENCYCLOPÉDIE _which compose this Dictionary
+embody a mass of scholarly research, criticism, and speculation, lit up
+with pungent sallies at the formal and tyrannous ecclesiasticism of the
+period and the bases of belief on which it stood._
+
+_These short studies reflect every phase of Voltaire's sparkling genius.
+Though some of the views enunciated in them are now universally held,
+and others have become obsolete through extended knowledge, they were
+startlingly new when Voltaire, at peril of freedom and reputation,
+spread them before the people of all civilized nations, who read them
+still with their first charm of style and substance._
+
+                                                 OLIVER H.G. LEIGH
+
+
+[Illustration: Voltaire at the age of thirty]
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+        VOLTAIRE
+
+A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY.
+
+         VOL. I
+
+   A, B, C--APPARITION
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A.
+
+
+The letter A has been accounted sacred in almost every nation, because
+it was the first letter. The Egyptians added this to their numberless
+superstitions; hence it was that the Greeks of Alexandria called it
+_hier'alpha_; and, as omega was the last of the letters, these words
+_alpha_ and _omega_ signified the beginning and the end of all things.
+This was the origin of the cabalistic art, and of more than one
+mysterious folly.
+
+The letters served as ciphers, and to express musical notes. Judge what
+an infinity of useful knowledge must thus have been produced. A, b, c,
+d, e, f, g, were the seven heavens; the harmony of the celestial spheres
+was composed of the seven first letters; and an acrostic accounted for
+everything among the ever venerable Ancients.
+
+
+
+
+A, B, C, OR ALPHABET.
+
+
+Why has not the alphabet a name in any European language? _Alphabet_
+signifies nothing more than _A_, _B_, and _A_, _B_, signifies nothing,
+or but indicates two sounds, which two sounds have no relation to each
+other. _Beta_ is not formed from _alpha_; one is first, the other is
+second, and no one knows why.
+
+How can it have happened that terms are still wanting to express the
+portal of all the sciences? The knowledge of numbers, the art of
+numeration, is not called the _one-two_; yet the first rudiment of the
+art of expressing our thoughts has not in all Europe obtained a proper
+designation.
+
+The alphabet is the first part of grammar; perhaps those who are
+acquainted with Arabic, of which I have not the slightest notion, can
+inform me whether that language, which is said to contain no fewer than
+eighty words to express a _horse_, has _one_ which signifies the
+_alphabet_.
+
+I protest that I know no more of Chinese than of Arabic, but I have
+read, in a small Chinese vocabulary, that this nation has always had two
+words to express the catalogue or list of the characters of its
+language: one is _ko-tou_, the other _hai-pien_; we have neither
+_ko-tou_ nor _hai-pien_ in our Occidental tongues. The Greeks, who were
+no more adroit than ourselves, also said _alphabet_. Seneca, the
+philosopher, used the Greek phrase to designate an old man who, like me,
+asks questions on grammar, calling him _Skedon analphabetos_. Now the
+Greeks had this same alphabet from the Phoenicians--from that people
+called _the letter nation_ by the Hebrews themselves, when the latter,
+at so late a period, went to settle in their neighborhood.
+
+It may well be supposed that the Phoenicians, by communicating their
+characters to the Greeks, rendered them a great service in delivering
+them from the embarrassment occasioned by the Egyptian mode of writing
+taught them by Cecrops. The Phoenicians, in the capacity of merchants,
+sought to make everything easy of comprehension; while the Egyptians, in
+their capacity of interpreters of the gods, strove to make everything
+difficult.
+
+I can imagine I hear a Phoenician merchant landed in Achaia saying to
+a Greek correspondent: "Our characters are not only easy to write, and
+communicate the thoughts as well as the sound of the voice; they also
+express our respective debts. My _aleph_, which you choose to pronounce
+_alpha_, stands for an ounce of silver, _beta_ for two ounces, _tau_ for
+a hundred, _sigma_ for two hundred. I owe you two hundred ounces; I pay
+you a _tau_, and still owe you another _tau_; thus we shall soon make
+our reckoning."
+
+It was most probably by mutual traffic which administered to their
+wants, that society was first established among men; and it is necessary
+that those between whom commerce is carried on should understand one
+another.
+
+The Egyptians did not apply themselves to commerce until a very late
+period; they had a horror of the sea; it was their _Typhon_. The
+Tyrians, on the contrary, were navigators from time immemorial; they
+brought together those nations which Nature had separated, and repaired
+those calamities into which the revolutions of the world frequently
+plunged a large portion of mankind. The Greeks, in their turn, carried
+to other nations their commerce and their convenient alphabet, which
+latter was altered a little, as the Greeks had altered that of the
+Tyrians. When their merchants, who were afterwards made demi-gods, went
+to Colchis to establish a trade in sheepskins--whence we have the fable
+of _the golden fleece_--they communicated their letters to the people of
+the country, who still retain them with some alteration. They have not
+adopted the alphabet of the Turks, to whom they are at present subject,
+but whose yoke, thanks to the Empress of Russia, I hope they will throw
+off.
+
+It is very likely (I do not say it is certain--God forbid!) that neither
+Tyre nor Egypt, nor any other country situated near the Mediterranean
+Sea, communicated its alphabet to the nations of Eastern Asia. If, for
+example, the Tyrians, or the Chaldæans, who dwelt near the Euphrates,
+had communicated their method to the Chinese, some traces of it would
+have remained; we should have had the signs of the twenty-two,
+twenty-three, or twenty-four letters, whereas they have a sign for each
+word in their language; and the number of their words, we are told, is
+eighty thousand. This method has nothing in common with that of Tyre; it
+is seventy-nine thousand nine hundred and seventy-six times more learned
+and more embarrassing than our own. Besides this prodigious difference,
+they write from the top to the bottom of the page; while the Tyrians
+and the Chaldæans wrote from right to left, and the Greeks, like
+ourselves, wrote from left to right.
+
+Examine the Tartar, the Hindoo, the Siamese, the Japanese characters;
+you will not find the least resemblance to the Greek or the Phoenician
+alphabet.
+
+Yet all these nations, and not these alone, but even the Hottentots and
+Kaffirs, pronounce the vowels and consonants as we do, because the
+larynx in them is essentially the same as in us--just as the throat of
+the rudest boor is made like that of the finest opera-singer, the
+difference, which makes of one a rough, discordant, insupportable bass,
+and of the other a voice sweeter than the nightingale's, being
+imperceptible to the most acute anatomist; or, as the brain of a fool is
+for all the world like the brain of a great genius.
+
+When we said that the Tyrian merchants taught the Greeks their A, B, C,
+we did not pretend that they also taught them to speak. It is probable
+that the Athenians already expressed themselves in a better manner than
+the people of Lower Syria; their throats were more flexible, and their
+words were a more happy assemblage of vowels, consonants, and
+diphthongs. The language of the Phoenician people was rude and gross,
+consisting of such words as _Shasiroth_, _Ashtaroth_, _Shabaoth_,
+_Chotiket_, _Thopheth_, etc.--enough to terrify a songstress from the
+opera of Naples. Suppose that the Romans of the present day had retained
+the ancient Etrurian alphabet, and some Dutch traders brought them that
+which they now use; the Romans would do very well to receive their
+characters, but it is not at all likely that they would speak the
+Batavian language. Just so would the people of Athens deal with the
+sailors of Capthor, who had come from Tyre or Baireuth; they would adopt
+their alphabet as being better than that of Misraim or Egypt, but would
+reject their speech.
+
+Philosophically speaking, and setting aside all inferences to be drawn
+from the Holy Scriptures, which certainly are not here the subject of
+discussion, is not _the primitive language_ a truly laughable chimera?
+
+What would be thought of a man who should seek to discover what had been
+the primitive cry of all animals; and how it happens that, after a
+series of ages, sheep bleat, cats mew, doves coo, linnets whistle? They
+understand one another perfectly in their respective idioms, and much
+better than we do. Every species has its language; that of the Esquimaux
+was never that of Peru; there has no more been a _primitive language_ or
+a _primitive alphabet_ than there have been _primitive oaks_ or
+_primitive grass_.
+
+Several rabbis assert that the Samaritan was the original tongue; other
+persons say that it was that of Lower Brittany. We may surely, without
+offending either the people of Brittany or those of Samaria, admit _no_
+original tongue.
+
+May we not, also, without offending any one, suppose that the alphabet
+originated in cries and exclamations? Infants of themselves articulate
+one sound when an object catches their attention, another when they
+laugh, and a third when they are whipped, which they ought not to be.
+
+As for the two little boys whom the Egyptian king _Psammeticus_--which,
+by the by, is not an Egyptian word--brought up, in order to know what
+was the primitive language, it seems hardly possible that they should
+both have cried _bee bee_ when they wanted their breakfast.
+
+From exclamations formed by vowels as natural to children as croaking is
+to frogs, the transition to a complete alphabet is not so great as it
+may be thought. A mother must always have said to her child the
+equivalent of _come_, _go_, _take_, _leave_, _hush!_ etc. These words
+represent nothing; they describe nothing; but a gesture makes them
+intelligible.
+
+From these shapeless rudiments we have, it is true, an immense distance
+to travel before we arrive at syntax. It is almost terrifying to
+contemplate that from the simple word _come_, we have arrived at such
+sentences as the following: _Mother, I should have come with pleasure,
+and should have obeyed your commands, which are ever dear to me, if I
+had not, when running towards you, fallen backwards, which caused a
+thorn to run into my left leg._
+
+It appears to my astonished imagination that it must have required ages
+to adjust this sentence, and ages more to put it into language. Here we
+might tell, or endeavor to tell, the reader how such words are
+expressed and pronounced in every language of the earth, as _father_,
+_mother_, _land_, _water_, _day_, _night_, _eating_, _drinking_, etc.,
+but we must, as much as possible, avoid appearing ridiculous.
+
+The alphabetical characters, denoting at once the names of things, their
+number, and the dates of events, the ideas of men, soon became mysteries
+even to those who had invented the signs. The Chaldæans, the Syrians,
+and the Egyptians attributed something divine to the combination of the
+letters and the manner of pronouncing them. They believed that names had
+a force--a virtue--independently of the things which they represented;
+they went so far as to pretend that the word which signified _power_ was
+_powerful_ in itself; that which expressed an _angel_ was _angelic_, and
+that which gave the idea of _God_ was _divine_. The science of numbers
+naturally became a part of necromancy, and no magical operation could be
+performed without the letters of the alphabet.
+
+Thus the clue to all knowledge led to every error. The magi of every
+country used it to conduct themselves into the labyrinth which they had
+constructed, and which the rest of mankind were not permitted to enter.
+The manner of pronouncing vowels and consonants became the most profound
+of mysteries, and often the most terrible. There was, among the Syrians
+and Egyptians, a manner of pronouncing Jehovah which would cause a man
+to fall dead.
+
+St. Clement of Alexandria relates that Moses killed a king of Egypt on
+the spot by sounding this name in his ear, after which he brought him
+to life again by pronouncing the same word. St. Clement is very exact;
+he cites the author, the learned _Artapanus_. Who can impeach the
+testimony of _Artapanus_?
+
+Nothing tended more to retard the progress of the human mind that this
+profound science of error which sprung up among the Asiatics with the
+origin of truth. The universe was brutalized by the very art that should
+have enlightened it. Of this we have great examples in Origen, Clement
+of Alexandria, Tertullian, etc.
+
+Origen, in particular, expressly says: "If, when invoking God, or
+swearing by him, you call him _the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob_ you
+will, by these words, do things the nature and force of which are such
+that the evil spirits submit to those who pronounce them; but if you
+call him by another name as _God of the roaring sea_, etc., no effort
+will be produced. The name of _Israel_ rendered in Greek will work
+nothing; but pronounce it in Hebrew with the other words required, and
+you will effect the conjuration."
+
+The same Origen had these remarkable words: "There are names which are
+powerful from their own nature. Such are those used by the sages of
+Egypt, the magi of Persia, and the Brahmins of India. What is called
+_magic_ is not a vain and chimerical art, as the Stoics and Epicureans
+pretend. The name _Sabaoth_ and _Adonai_ were _not_ made for created
+beings, but belong to a mysterious theology which has reference to the
+creator; hence the virtue of these names when they are arranged and
+pronounced according to rule," etc.
+
+It was by pronouncing letters according to the magical method, that the
+moon was made to descend to the earth. Virgil must be pardoned for
+having faith in this nonsense, and speaking of it seriously in his
+eighth eclogue:
+
+          _Carmina de coelo possunt de duecere lunam._
+     Pale Phoebe, drawn by verse, from heaven descends.
+                                         --DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.
+
+In short, the alphabet was the origin, of all man's knowledge, and of
+all his errors.
+
+
+
+
+ABBÉ.
+
+
+The word _abbé_, let it be remembered, signifies father. If you become
+one you render a service to the state; you doubtless perform the best
+work that a man can perform; you give birth to a thinking being: in this
+action there is something divine. But if you are only _Monsieur l'Abbé_
+because you have had your head shaved, wear a small collar, and a short
+cloak, and are waiting for a fat benefice, you do not deserve the name
+of _abbé_.
+
+The ancient monks gave this name to the superior whom they elected; the
+_abbé_ was their spiritual father. What different things do the same
+words signify at different times! The spiritual _abbé_ was once a poor
+man at the head of others equally poor: but the poor spiritual fathers
+have since had incomes of two hundred or four hundred thousand livres,
+and there are poor spiritual fathers in Germany who have regiments of
+guards.
+
+A poor man, making a vow of poverty, and in consequence becoming a
+sovereign? Truly, this is intolerable. The laws exclaim against such an
+abuse; religion is indignant at it, and the really poor, who want food
+and clothing, appeal to heaven against _Monsieur l'Abbé_.
+
+But I hear the _abbés_ of Italy, Germany, Flanders, and Burgundy ask:
+"Why are not we to accumulate wealth and honors? Why are we not to
+become princes? The bishops are, who were originally poor, like us; they
+have enriched and elevated themselves; one of them has become superior
+even to kings; let us imitate them as far as we are able."
+
+Gentlemen, you are right. Invade the land; it belongs to him whose
+strength or skill obtains possession of it. You have made ample use of
+the times of ignorance, superstition, and infatuation, to strip us of
+our inheritances, and trample us under your feet, that you might fatten
+on the substance of the unfortunate. Tremble, for fear that the day of
+reason will arrive!
+
+
+
+
+ABBEY--ABBOT.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+An abbey is a religious community, governed by an abbot or an abbess.
+
+The word _abbot_--_abbas_ in Latin and Greek, _abba_ in Chaldee and
+Syriac--came from the Hebrew _ab_, meaning _father_. The Jewish doctors
+took this title through pride; therefore Jesus said to his disciples:
+"Call no one your father upon the earth, for one is your Father who is
+in heaven."
+
+Although St. Jerome was much enraged against the monks of his time, who,
+in spite of our Lord's command, gave or received the title of _abbot_,
+the Sixth Council of Paris decided that if abbots are spiritual fathers
+and beget spiritual sons for the Lord, it is with reason that they are
+called abbots.
+
+According to this decree, if any one deserved this appellation it
+belonged most assuredly to St. Benedict, who, in the year 528, founded
+on Mount Cassino, in the kingdom of Naples, that society so eminent for
+wisdom and discretion, and so grave in its speech and in its style.
+These are the terms used by Pope St. Gregory, who does not fail to
+mention the singular privilege which it pleased God to grant to this
+holy founder--that all Benedictines who die on Mount Cassino are saved.
+It is not, then, surprising that these monks reckon sixteen thousand
+canonized saints of their order. The Benedictine sisters even assert
+that they are warned of their approaching dissolution by some nocturnal
+noise, which they call _the knocks of St. Benedict_.
+
+It may well be supposed that this holy abbot did not forget himself when
+begging the salvation of his disciples. Accordingly, on the 21st of
+March, 543, the eve of Passion Sunday, which was the day of his death,
+two monks--one of them in the monastery, the other at a distance from
+it--had the same vision. They saw a long road covered with carpets, and
+lighted by an infinite number of torches, extending eastward from the
+monastery to heaven. A venerable personage appeared, and asked them for
+whom this road was made. They said they did not know. "It is that,"
+rejoined he, "by which Benedict, the well-beloved of God, has ascended
+into heaven."
+
+An order in which salvation was so well secured soon extended itself
+into other states, whose sovereigns allowed themselves to be persuaded
+that, to be sure of a place in Paradise, it was only necessary to make
+themselves a friend in it, and that by donations to the churches they
+might atone for the most crying injustices and the most enormous crimes.
+
+Confining ourselves to France, we read in the "Exploits of King
+Dagobert" (_Gestes du Roi Dagobert_), the founder of the abbey of St.
+Denis, near Paris, that this prince, after death, was condemned by the
+judgment of God, and that a hermit named John, who dwelt on the coast of
+Italy, saw his soul chained in a boat and beaten by devils, who were
+taking him towards Sicily to throw him into the fiery mouth of Etna; but
+all at once St. Denis appeared on a luminous globe, preceded by thunder
+and lightning, and, having put the evil spirits to flight, and rescued
+the poor soul from the clutches of the most cruel, bore it to heaven in
+triumph.
+
+Charles Martel, on the contrary, was damned--body and soul--for having
+rewarded his captains by giving them abbeys. These, though laymen, bore
+the title of _abbot_, as married women have since borne that of
+_abbess_, and had convents of females. A holy bishop of Lyons, named
+Eucher, being at prayer, had the following vision: He thought he was led
+by an angel into hell, where he saw Charles Martel, who, the angel
+informed him, had been condemned to everlasting flames by the saints
+whose churches he had despoiled. St. Eucher wrote an account of this
+revelation to Boniface, bishop of Mayence, and to Fulrad, grand chaplain
+to Pepin-le-bref, praying them to open the tomb of Charles Martel and
+see if his body were there. The tomb was opened. The interior of it bore
+marks of fire, but nothing was found in it except a great serpent, which
+issued forth with a cloud of offensive smoke.
+
+Boniface was so kind as to write to Pepin-le-bref and to Carloman all
+these particulars relative to the damnation of their father; and when,
+in 858, Louis of Germany seized some ecclesiastical property, the
+bishops of the assembly of Créci reminded him, in a letter, of all the
+particulars of this terrible story, adding that they had them from aged
+men, on whose word they could rely, and who had been eye-witnesses of
+the whole.
+
+St. Bernard, first abbot of Clairvaux, in 1115 had likewise had it
+revealed to him that all who received the monastic habit from his hand
+should be saved. Nevertheless, Pope Urban II., having, in a bull dated
+1092, given to the abbey of Mount Cassino the title of _chief of all
+monasteries_, because from that spot the venerable religion of the
+monastic order had flowed from the bosom of Benedict as from a celestial
+spring, the Emperor Lothario continued this prerogative by a charter of
+the year 1137, which gave to the monastery of Mount Cassino the
+pre-eminence in power and glory over all the monasteries which were or
+might be founded throughout the world, and called upon all the abbots
+and monks in Christendom to honor and reverence it.
+
+Paschal II., in a bull of the year 1113, addressed to the abbot of Mount
+Cassino, expresses himself thus: "We decree that you, as likewise all
+your successors, shall, as being superior to all abbots, be allowed to
+sit in every assembly of bishops or princes; and that in all judgments
+you shall give your opinion before any other of your order." The abbot
+of Cluni having also dared to call himself _the abbot of abbots_, the
+pope's chancellor decided, in a council held at Rome in 1112, that this
+distinction belonged to the abbot of Mount Cassino. He of Cluni
+contented himself with the title of _cardinal abbot_, which he
+afterwards obtained from Calixtus II., and which the abbot of _The
+Trinity_ of Vendôme and some others have since assumed.
+
+Pope John XX., in 1326 granted to the abbot of Mount Cassino the title
+of bishop, and he continued to discharge the episcopal functions until
+1367; but Urban V., having then thought proper to deprive him of that
+dignity, he now simply entitles himself _Patriarch of the Holy
+Religion, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Mount Cassino, Chancellor and
+Grand Chaplain of the Holy Roman Empire, Abbot of Abbots, Chief of the
+Benedictine Hierarchy, Chancellor Collateral of the Kingdom of Sicily,
+Count and Governor of the Campagna and of the maritime province, Prince
+of Peace._
+
+He lives, with a part of his officers, at San-Germano, a little town at
+the foot of Mount Cassino, in a spacious house, where all passengers,
+from the pope down to the meanest beggar, are received, lodged, fed, and
+treated according to their rank. The abbot each day visits all his
+guests, who sometimes amount to three hundred. In 1538, St. Ignatius
+shared his hospitality, but he was lodged in a house on Mount Cassino,
+six hundred paces west of the abbey. There he composed his celebrated
+Institute--whence a Dominican, in a work entitled, "The Turtle-Dove of
+the Soul," says: "Ignatius dwelt for twelve months on this mountain of
+contemplation, and, like another Moses, framed those second tables of
+religious laws which are inferior in nothing to the first."
+
+Truly, this founder of the Jesuits was not received by the Benedictines
+with that complaisance which St. Benedict, on his arrival at Mount
+Cassino, had found in St. Martin the hermit, who gave up to him the
+place in his possession, and retired to Mount Marsica, near Carniola. On
+the contrary, the Benedictine Ambrose Cajeta, in a voluminous work
+written for the purpose, has endeavored to trace the origin of the
+Jesuits to the order of St. Benedict.
+
+The laxity of manners which has always prevailed in the world, even
+among the clergy, induced St. Basil, so early as the fourth century, to
+adopt the idea of assembling in one community the solitaries who had
+fled into deserts to follow the law; but, as will be elsewhere seen,
+even the _regulars_ have not always been regular.
+
+As for the secular clergy, let us see what St. Cyprian says of them,
+even from the third century: "Many bishops, instead of exhorting and
+setting an example to others, neglected the affairs of God, busied
+themselves with temporal concerns, quitted their pulpits, abandoned
+their flocks, and travelled in other provinces, in order to attend fairs
+and enrich themselves by traffic; they succored not their brethren who
+were dying of hunger; they sought only to amass heaps of money, to gain
+possession of lands by unjust artifices, and to make immense profits by
+usury."
+
+Charlemagne, in a digest of what he intended to propose to the
+parliament of 811, thus expresses himself: "We wish to know the duties
+of ecclesiastics, in order that we may not ask of them what they are not
+permitted to give, and that they may not demand of us what we ought not
+to grant. We beg of them to explain to us clearly what they call
+_quitting the world_, and by what those who quit it may be distinguished
+from those who remain in it; if it is only by their not bearing arms,
+and not being married in public; if that man has quitted the world who
+continues to add to his possessions by means of every sort, preaching
+Paradise and threatening with damnation; employing the name of God or of
+some saint to persuade the simple to strip themselves of their property,
+thus entailing want upon their lawful heirs, who therefore think
+themselves justified in committing theft and pillage; if to quit the
+world is to carry the passion of covetousness to such a length as to
+bribe false witnesses in order to obtain what belongs to another, and to
+seek out judges who are cruel, interested, and without the fear of God."
+
+To conclude: We may judge of the morals of the regular clergy from a
+harangue delivered in 1493, in which the Abbé Tritême said to his
+brethren: "You abbés, who are ignorant and hostile to the knowledge of
+salvation; who pass your days in shameless pleasures, in drinking and
+gaming; who fix your affections on the things of this life; what answer
+will you make to God and to your founder, St. Benedict?"
+
+The same abbé nevertheless asserted that one-third of all the property
+of Christians belonged of right to the order of St. Benedict, and that
+if they had it not, it was because they had been robbed of it. "They are
+so poor at present," added he, "that their revenues do not amount to
+more than a hundred millions of louis d'ors." Tritême does not tell us
+to whom the other two-thirds belong, but as in his time there were only
+fifteen thousand abbeys of Benedictines, besides the small convents of
+the same order, while in the seventeenth century their number had
+increased to thirty-seven thousand, it is clear, by the rule of
+proportion, that this holy order ought now to possess five-sixths of the
+property in Christendom, but for the fatal progress of heresy during the
+latter ages.
+
+In addition to all other misfortunes, since the Concordat was signed, in
+1515, between Leo X. and Francis I., the king of France nominating to
+nearly all the abbeys in his kingdom, most of them have been given to
+seculars with shaven crowns. It was in consequence of this custom being
+but little known in England that Dr. Gregory said pleasantly to the Abbé
+Gallois, whom he took for a Benedictine: "The good father imagines that
+we have returned to those fabulous times when a monk was permitted to
+say what he pleased."
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+Those who fly from the world are wise; those who devote themselves to
+God are to be respected. Perhaps time has corrupted so holy an
+institution.
+
+To the Jewish therapeuts succeeded the Egyptian monks--_idiotoi_,
+_monoi_--_idiot_--then signifying only solitary. They soon formed
+themselves into bodies and became the opposite of solitaries. Each
+society of monks elected its superior; for, in the early ages of the
+church, everything was done by the plurality of voices. Men sought to
+regain the primitive liberty of human nature by escaping through piety
+from the tumult and slavery inseparably attendant on great empires.
+Every society of monks chose its _father_--its _abba_--its _abbot_,
+although it is said in the gospel, "call no man your father."
+
+Neither abbots nor monks were priests in the early ages; they went in
+troops to hear mass at the nearest village; their numbers, in time,
+became considerable. It is said that there were upwards of fifty
+thousand monks in Egypt.
+
+St. Basil, who was first a monk and afterwards Bishop of Cæsarea and
+Cappadocia, composed a code for all the monks of the fourth century.
+This rule of St. Basil's was received in the East and in the West; no
+monks were known but those of St. Basil; they were rich, took part in
+all public affairs, and contributed to the revolutions of empires.
+
+No order but this was known until, in the sixth century, St. Benedict
+established a new power on Mount Cassino. St. Gregory the Great assures
+us, in his Dialogues, that God granted him a special privilege, by which
+all the Benedictines who should die on Mount Cassino were to be saved.
+Consequently, Pope Urban II., in a bull of the year 1092, declared the
+abbot of Mount Cassino chief of all the abbeys in the world. Paschal II.
+gave him the title of _Abbot of Abbots, Patriarch of the Holy Religion,
+Chancellor Collateral of the Kingdom of Sicily, Count and Governor of
+the Campagna, Prince of Peace, etc._ All these titles would avail but
+little were they not supported by immense riches.
+
+Not long ago I received a letter from one of my German correspondents,
+which began with these words: "The abbots, princes of Kempten, Elvengen,
+Eudestet, Musbach, Berghsgaden, Vissemburg, Prum, Stablo, and Corvey,
+and the other abbots who are not princes, enjoy together a revenue of
+about nine hundred thousand florins, or two millions and fifty thousand
+French livres of the present currency. Whence I conclude that Jesus
+Christ's circumstances were not quite so easy as theirs." I replied:
+"Sir, you must confess that the French are more pious than the Germans,
+in the proportion of 4 16-41 to unity; for our consistorial benefices
+alone, that is, those which pay annats to the Pope, produce a revenue of
+nine millions; and two millions fifty thousand livres are to nine
+millions as 1 is to 4 16-41. Whence I conclude that your abbots are not
+sufficiently rich, and that they ought to have ten times more. I have
+the honor to be," etc. He answered me by the following short letter:
+"Dear Sir, I do not understand you. You doubtless feel, with me, that
+nine millions of your money are rather too much for those who have made
+a vow of poverty; yet you wish that they had ninety. I beg you will
+explain this enigma." I had the honor of immediately replying: "Dear
+Sir, there was once a young man to whom it was proposed to marry a woman
+of sixty, who would leave him all her property. He answered that she
+was not old enough." The German understood my enigma.
+
+The reader must be informed that, in 1575, it was proposed in a council
+of Henry III., King of France, to erect all the abbeys of monks into
+secular commendams, and to give them to the officers of his court and
+his army; but this monarch, happening afterwards to be excommunicated
+and assassinated, the project was of course not carried into effect.
+
+In 1750 Count d'Argenson, the minister of war, wished to raise pensions
+from the benefices for chevaliers of the military order of St. Louis.
+Nothing could be more simple, more just, more useful; but his efforts
+were fruitless. Yet the Princess of Conti had had an abbey under Louis
+XIV., and even before his reign seculars possessed benefices. The Duke
+de Sulli had an abbey, although he was a Huguenot.
+
+The father of Hugh Capet was rich only by his abbeys, and was called
+_Hugh the Abbot_. Abbeys were given to queens, to furnish them with
+pin-money. Ogine, mother of Louis d'Outremer, left her son because he
+had taken from her the abbey of St. Mary of Laon, and given it to his
+wife, Gerberge.
+
+Thus we have examples of everything. Each one strives to make customs,
+innovations, laws--whether old or new, abrogated, revived, or
+mitigated--charters, whether real or supposed--the past, the present and
+the future, alike subservient to the grand end of obtaining the good
+things of this world; yet it is always for the greater glory of God.
+
+
+
+
+ABLE--ABILITY.
+
+
+ABLE.--An adjective term, which, like almost all others, has different
+acceptations as it is differently employed.
+
+In general it signifies more than _capable_, more than _well-informed_,
+whether applied to an artist, a general, a man of learning, or a judge.
+A man may have read all that has been written on war, and may have seen
+it, without being _able_ to conduct a war. He may be _capable_ of
+commanding, but to acquire the name of an _able_ general he must command
+more than once with success. A judge may know all the laws, without
+being _able_ to apply them. A learned man may not be _able_ either to
+write or to teach. An _able_ man, then, is _he who makes a great use of
+what he knows_. A _capable_ man _can_ do a thing; an _able_ one _does_
+it. This word cannot be applied to efforts of pure genius. We do not say
+an _able_ poet, an _able_ orator; or, if we sometimes say so of an
+orator, it is when he has ably, dexterously treated a thorny subject.
+
+Bossuet, for example, having, in his funeral oration over the great
+Condé, to treat of his civil wars, says that there is a penitence as
+glorious as innocence itself. He manages this point _ably_. Of the rest
+he speaks with _grandeur_.
+
+We say, an _able_ historian, meaning one who has drawn his materials
+from good sources, compared different relations, and judged soundly of
+them; one, in short, who has taken great pains. If he has, moreover,
+the gift of narrating with suitable eloquence, he is more than _able_,
+he is a _great_ historian, like Titus, Livius, de Thou, etc.
+
+The word _able_ is applicable to those arts which exercise at once the
+mind and the hand, as painting and sculpture. We say of a painter of
+sculptor, _he is an able artist_, because these arts require a long
+novitiate; whereas a man becomes a poet nearly all at once, like Virgil
+or Ovid, or may even be an orator with very little study, as several
+preachers have been.
+
+Why do we, nevertheless, say, an _able_ preacher? It is because more
+attention is then paid to art than to eloquence, which is no great
+eulogium. We do not say of the sublime Bossuet, _he was an able maker of
+funeral orations_. A mere player of an instrument is _able_; a composer
+must be more than able; he must have genius. The workman executes
+_cleverly_ what the man of taste has designed _ably_.
+
+An _able_ man in public affairs is well-informed, prudent and active; if
+he wants either of these qualifications he is not _able_.
+
+The term, _an able courtier_, implies blame rather than praise, since it
+too often means _an able flatterer_. It may also be used to designate
+simply a clever man, who is neither very good nor very wicked. The fox
+who, when questioned by the lion respecting the odor of his palace,
+replied that he had taken cold, was an _able_ courtier; the fox who, to
+revenge himself on the wolf, recommended to the old lion the skin of a
+wolf newly flayed, to keep his majesty warm, was something more than
+_able_.
+
+We shall not here discuss those points of our subject which belong more
+particularly to morality, as the danger of wishing to be _too able_, the
+risks which an _able_ woman runs when she wishes to govern the affairs
+of her household without advice, etc. We are afraid of swelling this
+dictionary with useless declamations. They who preside over this great
+and important work must treat at length those articles relating to the
+arts and sciences which interest the public, while those to whom they
+intrust little articles of literature must have the merit of being
+brief.
+
+ABILITY.--This word is to _capacity_ what _able_ is to
+_capable_--_ability_ in a science, in an art, in conduct.
+
+We express an acquired quality by saying, _he has ability_; in action,
+by saying, _he conducts that affair with ability_.
+
+ABLY has the same acceptations; he works, he plays, he teaches _ably_.
+He has _ably_ surmounted that difficulty.
+
+
+
+
+ABRAHAM.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+We must say nothing of what is divine in Abraham, since the Scriptures
+have said all. We must not even touch, except with a respectful hand,
+that which belongs to the profane--that which appertains to geography,
+the order of time, manners, and customs; for these, being connected with
+sacred history, are so many streams which preserve something of the
+divinity of their source.
+
+Abraham, though born near the Euphrates, makes a great epoch with the
+Western nations, yet makes none with the Orientals, who, nevertheless,
+respect him as much as we do. The Mahometans have no certain chronology
+before their hegira. The science of time, totally lost in those
+countries which were the scene of great events, has reappeared in the
+regions of the West, where those events were unknown. We dispute about
+everything that was done on the banks of the Euphrates, the Jordan, and
+the Nile, while they who are masters of the Nile, the Jordan and the
+Euphrates enjoy without disputing. Although our great epoch is that of
+Abraham, we differ sixty years with respect to the time of his birth.
+The account, according to the registers, is as follows:
+
+"And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abraham, Nahor, and Haran. And
+the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in
+Haran. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country
+and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I
+will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation."
+
+It is sufficiently evident from the text that Terah, having had Abraham
+at the age of seventy, died at that of two hundred and five; and
+Abraham, having quitted Chaldæa immediately after the death of his
+father, was just one hundred and thirty-five years old when he left his
+country. This is nearly the opinion of St. Stephen, in his discourse to
+the Jews.
+
+But the Book of Genesis also says: "And Abraham was seventy and five
+years old when he departed out of Haran."
+
+This is the principal cause (for there are several others) of the
+dispute on the subject of Abraham's age. How could he be at once a
+hundred and thirty-five years, and only seventy-five? St. Jerome and St.
+Augustine say that this difficulty is inexplicable. Father Calmet, who
+confesses that these two saints could not solve the problem, thinks he
+does it by saying that Abraham was the youngest of Terah's sons,
+although the Book of Genesis names him the first, and consequently as
+the eldest. According to Genesis, Abraham was born in his father's
+seventieth year; while, according to Calmet, he was born when his father
+was a hundred and thirty. Such a reconciliation has only been a new
+cause of controversy. Considering the uncertainty in which we are left
+by both text and commentary, the best we can do is to adore without
+disputing.
+
+There is no epoch in those ancient times which has not produced a
+multitude of different opinions. According to Moréri there were in his
+day seventy systems of chronology founded on the history dictated by God
+himself. There have since appeared five new methods of reconciling the
+various texts of Scripture. Thus there are as many disputes about
+Abraham as the number of his years (according to the text) when he left
+Haran. And of these seventy-five systems there is not one which tells us
+precisely what this town or village of Haran was, or where it was
+situated. What thread shall guide us in this labyrinth of conjectures
+and contradictions from the very first verse to the very last?
+Resignation. The Holy Spirit did not intend to teach us chronology,
+metaphysics or logic; but only to inspire us with the fear of God. Since
+we can comprehend nothing, all that we can do is to submit.
+
+It is equally difficult to explain satisfactorily how it was that Sarah,
+the wife of Abraham, was also his sister. Abraham says positively to
+Abimelech, king of Gerar, who had taken Sarah to himself on account of
+her great beauty, at the age of ninety, when she was pregnant of Isaac:
+"And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but
+not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife." The Old
+Testament does not inform us how Sarah was her husband's sister. Calmet,
+whose judgment and sagacity are known to every one, says that she might
+be his niece. With the Chaldæans it was probably no more an incest than
+with their neighbors, the Persians. Manners change with times and with
+places. It may be supposed that Abraham, the son of Terah, an idolater,
+was still an idolater when he married Sarah, whether Sarah was his
+sister or his niece.
+
+There are several Fathers of the Church who do not think Abraham quite
+so excusable for having said to Sarah, in Egypt: "It shall come to pass,
+when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his
+wife, and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray
+thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake." She
+was then only sixty-five. Since she had, twenty-five years afterwards
+the king of Gerar for a lover, it is not surprising that, when
+twenty-five years younger, she had kindled some passion in Pharaoh of
+Egypt. Indeed, she was taken away by him in the same manner as she was
+afterwards taken by Abimelech, the king of Gerar, in the desert.
+
+Abraham received presents, at the court of Pharaoh, of many "sheep, and
+oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses,
+and camels." These presents, which were considerable, prove that the
+Pharaohs had already become great kings; the country of Egypt must
+therefore have been very populous. But to make the country inhabitable,
+and to build towns, it must have cost immense labor. It was necessary to
+construct canals for the purpose of draining the waters of the Nile,
+which overflowed Egypt during four or five months of each year, and
+stagnated on the soil. It was also necessary to raise the town at least
+twenty feet above these canals. Works so considerable seem to have
+required thousands of ages.
+
+There were only about four hundred years between the Deluge and the
+period at which we fix Abraham's journey into Egypt. The Egyptians must
+have been very ingenious and indefatigably laborious, since, in so short
+a time, they invented all the arts and sciences, set bounds to the Nile,
+and changed the whole face of the country. Probably they had already
+built some of the great Pyramids, for we see that the art of embalming
+the dead was in a short time afterwards brought to perfection, and the
+Pyramids were only the tombs in which the bodies of their princes were
+deposited with the most august ceremonies.
+
+This opinion of the great antiquity of the Pyramids receives additional
+countenance from the fact that three hundred years earlier, or but one
+hundred years after the Hebrew epoch of the Deluge of Noah, the Asiatics
+had built, in the plain of Sennaar, a tower which was to reach to
+heaven. St. Jerome, in his commentary on Isaiah, says that this tower
+was already four thousand paces high when God came down to stop the
+progress of the work.
+
+Let us suppose each pace to be two feet and a half. Four thousand paces,
+then, are ten thousand feet; consequently the tower of Babel was twenty
+times as high as the Pyramids of Egypt, which are only about five
+hundred feet. But what a prodigious quantity of instruments must have
+been requisite to raise such an edifice! All the arts must have
+concurred in forwarding the work. Whence commentators conclude that men
+of those times were incomparably larger, stronger, and more industrious
+than those of modern nations.
+
+So much may be remarked with respect to Abraham, as relating to the arts
+and sciences. With regard to his person, it is most likely that he was a
+man of considerable importance. The Chaldæans and the Persians each
+claim him as their own. The ancient religion of the magi has, from time
+immemorial, been called Kish Ibrahim, Milat Ibrahim, and it is agreed
+that the word _Ibrahim_ is precisely the same as _Abraham_, nothing
+being more common among the Asiatics, who rarely wrote the vowels, than
+to change the _i_ into _a_, or the _a_ into _i_ in pronunciation.
+
+It has even been asserted that Abraham was the Brahma of the Indians,
+and that their notions were adopted by the people of the countries near
+the Euphrates, who traded with India from time immemorial.
+
+The Arabs regarded him as the founder of Mecca. Mahomet, in his Koran,
+always viewed in him the most respectable of his predecessors. In his
+third _sura_, or chapter, he speaks of him thus: "Abraham was neither
+Jew nor Christian; he was an orthodox Mussulman; he was not of the
+number of those who imagine that God has colleagues."
+
+The temerity of the human understanding has even gone so far as to
+imagine that the Jews did not call themselves the descendants of Abraham
+until a very late period, when they had at last established themselves
+in Palestine. They were strangers, hated and despised by their
+neighbors. They wished, say some, to relieve themselves by passing for
+descendants of that Abraham who was so much reverenced in a great part
+of Asia. The faith which we owe to the sacred books of the Jews removes
+all these difficulties.
+
+Other critics, no less hardy, start other objections relative to
+Abraham's direct communication with the Almighty, his battles and his
+victories. The Lord appeared to him after he went out of Egypt, and
+said, "Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art,
+northward and southward, and eastward, and westward. For all the land
+which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever."
+
+The Lord, by a second oath, afterwards promised him all "from the river
+of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." The critics ask,
+how could God promise the Jews this immense country which they have
+never possessed? And how could God give to them _forever_ that small
+part of Palestine out of which they have so long been driven? Again, the
+Lord added to these promises, that Abraham's posterity should be as
+numerous as the dust of the earth--"so that if a man can number the dust
+of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered."
+
+Our critics insist there are not now on the face of the earth four
+hundred thousand Jews, though they have always regarded marriage as a
+sacred duty and made population their greatest object. To these
+difficulties it is replied that the church, substituted for the
+synagogue, is the true race of Abraham, which is therefore very
+numerous.
+
+It must be admitted that they do not possess Palestine; but they may one
+day possess it, as they have already conquered it once, in the first
+crusade, in the time of Urban II. In a word, when we view the Old
+Testament with the eyes of faith, as a type of the New, all either is or
+will be accomplished, and our weak reason must bow in silence.
+
+Fresh difficulties are raised respecting Abraham's victory near Sodom.
+It is said to be inconceivable that a stranger who drove his flocks to
+graze in the neighborhood of Sodom should, with three hundred and
+eighteen keepers of sheep and oxen, beat a _king of Persia, a king of
+Pontus, the king of Babylon, and the king of nations_, and pursue them
+to Damascus, which is more than a hundred miles from Sodom. Yet such a
+victory is not impossible, for we see other similar instances in those
+heroic times when the arm of God was not shortened. Think of _Gideon_,
+who, with three hundred men, armed with three hundred pitchers and three
+hundred lamps, defeated a whole army! Think of _Samson_, who slew a
+thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass!
+
+Even profane history furnishes like examples. Three hundred Spartans
+stopped, for a moment, the whole army of Xerxes, at the pass of
+Thermopylæ. It is true that, with the exception of one man who fled,
+they were all slain, together with their king, Leonidas, whom Xerxes had
+the baseness to gibbet, instead of raising to his memory the monument
+which it deserved. It is moreover true that these three hundred
+Lacedæmonians, who guarded a steep passage which would scarcely admit
+two men abreast, were supported by an army of ten thousand Greeks,
+distributed in advantageous posts among the rocks of Pelion and Ossa,
+four thousand of whom, be it observed, were stationed behind this very
+passage of Thermopyl.
+
+These four thousand perished after a long combat. Having been placed in
+a situation more exposed than that of the three hundred Spartans, they
+may be said to have acquired more glory in defending it against the
+Persian army, which cut them all in pieces. Indeed, on the monument
+afterwards erected on the field of battle, mention was made of these
+four thousand victims, whereas none are spoken of now but the _three
+hundred_.
+
+A still more memorable, though much less celebrated, action was that of
+fifty Swiss, who, in 1315, routed at Morgarten the whole army of the
+Archduke Leopold, of Austria, consisting of twenty thousand men. They
+destroyed the cavalry by throwing down stones from a high rock; and gave
+time to fourteen hundred Helvetians to come up and finish the defeat of
+the army. This achievement at Morgarten is more brilliant than that of
+Thermopylæ, inasmuch as it is a finer thing to conquer than to be
+conquered. The Greeks amounted to ten thousand, well armed; and it was
+impossible that, in a mountainous country, they could have to encounter
+more than a hundred thousand Persians at once; it is more than probable
+that there were not thirty thousand Persians engaged. But here fourteen
+hundred Swiss defeat an army of twenty thousand men. The diminished
+proportions of the less to the greater number also increases the
+proportion of glory. But how far has Abraham led us? These digressions
+amuse him who makes and sometimes him who reads them. Besides, every one
+is delighted to see a great army beaten by a little one.
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Abraham_ is one of those names which were famous in Asia Minor and
+Arabia, as _Thaut_ was among the Egyptians, the first _Zoroaster_ in
+Persia, _Hercules_ in Greece, _Orpheus_ in Thrace, _Odin_ among the
+northern nations, and so many others, known more by their fame than by
+any authentic history. I speak here of profane history only; as for that
+of the Jews, our masters and our enemies, whom we at once detest and
+believe, their history having evidently been written by the Holy Ghost,
+we feel toward it as we ought to feel. We have to do here only with the
+Arabs. They boast of having descended from Abraham through Ishmael,
+believing that this patriarch built Mecca and died there. The fact is,
+that the race of Ishmael has been infinitely more favored by God than
+has that of Jacob. Both races, it is true, have produced robbers; but
+the Arabian robbers have been prodigiously superior to the Jewish ones;
+the descendants of Jacob conquered only a very small country, which they
+have lost, whereas the descendants of Ishmael conquered parts of Asia,
+of Europe, and of Africa, established an empire more extensive than that
+of the Romans, and drove the Jews from their caverns, which they called
+_The Land of Promise_.
+
+Judging of things only by the examples to be found in our modern
+histories, it would be difficult to believe that Abraham had been the
+father of two nations so widely different. We are told that he was born
+in Chaldæa, and that he was the son of a poor potter, who earned his
+bread by making little earthen idols. It is hardly likely that this son
+of a potter should have passed through impracticable deserts and founded
+the city of Mecca, at the distance of four hundred leagues, under a
+tropical sun. If he was a conqueror, he doubtless cast his eyes on the
+fine country of Assyria. If he was no more than a poor man, he did not
+found kingdoms abroad.
+
+The Book of Genesis relates that he was seventy-five years old when he
+went out of the land of Haran after the death of his father, Terah the
+potter; but the same book also tells us that Terah, having begotten
+Abraham at the age of seventy years, lived to that of two hundred and
+five; and, afterward, that Abraham went out of Haran, which seems to
+signify that it was after the death of his father.
+
+Either the author did not know how to dispose his narration, or it is
+clear from the Book of Genesis itself that Abraham was one hundred and
+thirty-five years old when he quitted Mesopotamia. He went from a
+country which is called idolatrous to another idolatrous country named
+Sichem, in Palestine. Why did he quit the fruitful banks of the
+Euphrates for a spot so remote, so barren, and so stony as Sichem? It
+was not a place of trade, and was distant a hundred leagues from
+Chaldæa, and deserts lay between. But God chose that Abraham should go
+this journey; he chose to show him the land which his descendants were
+to occupy several ages after him. It is with difficulty that the human
+understanding comprehends the reasons for such a journey.
+
+Scarcely had he arrived in the little mountainous country of Sichem,
+when famine compelled him to quit it. He went into Egypt with his wife
+Sarah, to seek a subsistence. The distance from Sichem to Memphis is two
+hundred leagues. Is it natural that a man should go so far to ask for
+corn in a country the language of which he did not understand? Truly
+these were strange journeys, undertaken at the age of nearly a hundred
+and forty years!
+
+He brought with him to Memphis his wife, Sarah, who was extremely young,
+and almost an infant when compared with himself; for she was only
+sixty-five. As she was very handsome, he resolved to turn her beauty to
+account. "Say, I pray thee, that thou art my sister, that it may be well
+with me for thy sake." He should rather have said to her, "Say, I pray
+thee, that thou art my _daughter_." The king fell in love with the young
+Sarah, and gave the pretended brother abundance of sheep, oxen,
+he-asses, she-asses, camels, men-servants and maid-servants; which
+proves that Egypt was then a powerful and well-regulated, and
+consequently an ancient kingdom, and that those were magnificently
+rewarded who came and offered their sisters to the kings of Memphis. The
+youthful Sarah was ninety years old when God promised her that, in the
+course of a year, she should have a child by Abraham, who was then a
+hundred and sixty.
+
+Abraham, who was fond of travelling, went into the horrible desert of
+Kadesh with his pregnant wife, ever young and ever pretty. A king of
+this desert was, of course, captivated by Sarah, as the king of Egypt
+had been. The father of the faithful told the same lie as in Egypt,
+making his wife pass for his sister; which brought him more sheep, oxen,
+men-servants, and maid-servants. It might be said that this Abraham
+became rich principally by means of his wife. Commentators have written
+a prodigious number of volumes to justify Abraham's conduct, and to
+explain away the errors in chronology. To these commentaries we must
+refer the reader; they are all composed by men of nice and acute
+perceptions, excellent metaphysicians, and by no means pedants.
+
+For the rest, this name of _Bram_, or _Abram_, was famous in Judæa and
+in Persia. Several of the learned even assert that he was the same
+legislator whom the Greeks called _Zoroaster_. Others say that he was
+the _Brahma_ of the Indians, which is not demonstrated. But it appears
+very reasonable to many that this Abraham was a Chaldæan or a Persian,
+from whom the Jews afterwards boasted of having descended, as the Franks
+did of their descent from Hector, and the Britons from Tubal. It cannot
+be denied that the Jewish nation were a very modern horde; that they did
+not establish themselves on the borders of Phoenicia until a very late
+period; that they were surrounded by ancient states, whose language they
+adopted, receiving from them even the name of _Israel_, which is
+Chaldæan, from the testimony of the Jew Flavius Josephus himself. We
+know that they took the names of the angels from the Babylonians, and
+that they called God by the names of _Eloi_ or _Eloa_, _Adonaï_,
+_Jehovah_ or _Hiao_, after the Phoenicians. It is probable that they
+knew the name of _Abraham_or _Ibrahim_ only through the Babylonians; for
+the ancient religion of all the countries from the Euphrates to the Oxus
+was called _Kish Ibrahim_ or _Milat Ibrahim_. This is confirmed by all
+the researches made on the spot by the learned Hyde.
+
+The Jews, then, treat their history and ancient fables as their
+clothesmen treat their old coats--they turn them and sell them for new
+at as high a price as possible. It is a singular instance of human
+stupidity that we have so long considered the Jews as a nation which
+taught all others, while their historian Josephus himself confesses the
+contrary.
+
+It is difficult to penetrate the shades of antiquity; but it is evident
+that all the kingdoms of Asia were in a very flourishing state before
+the wandering horde of Arabs, called _Jews_, had a small spot of earth
+which they called their own--when they had neither a town, nor laws, nor
+even a fixed religion. When, therefore, we see an ancient rite or an
+ancient opinion established in Egypt or Asia, and also among the Jews,
+it is very natural to suppose that this small, newly formed, ignorant,
+stupid people copied, as well as they were able, the ancient,
+flourishing, and industrious nation.
+
+It is on this principle that we must judge of Judæa, Biscay, Cornwall,
+etc. Most certainly triumphant Rome did not in anything imitate Biscay
+or Cornwall; and he must be either very ignorant or a great knave who
+would say that the Jews taught anything to the Greeks.
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+It must not be thought that Abraham was known only to the Jews; on the
+contrary, he was renowned throughout Asia. This name, which signifies
+_father of a people_ in more Oriental languages than one, was given to
+some inhabitant of Chaldæa from whom several nations have boasted of
+descending. The pains which the Arabs and the Jews took to establish
+their descent from this patriarch render it impossible for even the
+greatest Pyrrhoneans to doubt of there having been an Abraham.
+
+The Hebrew Scriptures make him the son of Terah, while the Arabs say
+that Terah was his grandfather and Azar his father, in which they have
+been followed by several Christians. The interpreters are of forty-two
+different opinions with respect to the year in which Abraham was brought
+into the world, and I shall not hazard a forty-third. It also appears,
+by the dates, that Abraham lived sixty years longer than the text allows
+him; but mistakes in chronology do not destroy the truth of a fact.
+Supposing even that the book which speaks of Abraham had not been so
+sacred as was the law, it is not therefore less certain that Abraham
+existed. The Jews distinguished books written by inspired men from books
+composed by particular inspiration. How, indeed, can it be believed that
+God dictated false dates?
+
+Philo, the Jew of Suidas, relates that Terah, the father or grandfather
+of Abraham, who dwelt at Ur in Chaldæa, was a poor man who gained a
+livelihood by making little idols, and that he was himself an idolater.
+If so, that ancient religion of the Sabeans, who had no idols, but
+worshipped the heavens, had not, then, perhaps, been established in
+Chaldæa; or, if it prevailed in one part of the country, it is very
+probable that idolatry was predominant in the rest. It seems that in
+those times each little horde had its religion, as each family had its
+own peculiar customs; all were tolerated, and all were peaceably
+confounded. Laban, the father-in-law of Jacob, had idols. Each clan was
+perfectly willing that the neighboring clan should have its gods, and
+contented itself with believing that its own were the mightiest.
+
+The Scripture says that the God of the Jews, who intended to give them
+the land of Canaan, commanded Abraham to leave the fertile country of
+Chaldæa and go towards Palestine, promising him that in his seed all the
+nations of the earth should be blessed. It is for theologians to
+explain, by allegory and _mystical sense_, how all the nations of the
+earth were to be blessed in a seed from which they did not descend,
+since this much-to-be-venerated _mystical sense_ cannot be made the
+object of a research purely critical. A short time after these promises
+Abraham's family was afflicted by famine, and went into Egypt for corn.
+It is singular that the Hebrews never went into Egypt, except when
+pressed by hunger; for Jacob afterwards sent his children on the same
+errand.
+
+Abraham, who was then very old, went this journey with his wife Sarah,
+aged sixty-five: she was very handsome, and Abraham feared that the
+Egyptians, smitten by her charms, would kill him in order to enjoy her
+transcendent beauties: he proposed to her that she should pass for his
+sister, etc. Human nature must at that time have possessed a vigor which
+time and luxury have since very much weakened. This was the opinion of
+all the ancients; it has been asserted that Helen was seventy when she
+was carried off by Paris. That which Abraham had foreseen came to pass;
+the Egyptian youth found his wife charming, notwithstanding her
+sixty-five years; the king himself fell in love with her, and placed her
+in his seraglio, though, probably, he had younger women there; but the
+Lord plagued the king and his seraglio with very great sores. The text
+does not tell us how the king came to know that this dangerous beauty
+was Abraham's wife; but it seems that he did come to know it, and
+restored her.
+
+Sarah's beauty must have been unalterable; for twenty-five years
+afterwards, when she was ninety years old, pregnant, and travelling with
+her husband through the dominions of a king of Phoenicia named
+Abimelech, Abraham, who had not yet corrected himself, made her a second
+time pass for his sister. The Phoenician king was as sensible to her
+attractions as the king of Egypt had been; but God appeared to this
+Abimelech in a dream, and threatened him with death if he touched his
+new mistress. It must be confessed that Sarah's conduct was as
+extraordinary as the lasting nature of her charms.
+
+The singularity of these adventures was probably the reason why the Jews
+had not the same sort of faith in their histories as they had in their
+Leviticus. There was not a single iota of their _law_ in which they did
+not believe; but the historical part of their Scriptures did not demand
+the same respect. Their conduct in regard to their ancient books may be
+compared to that of the English, who received the laws of St. Edward
+without absolutely believing that St. Edward cured the scrofula; or to
+that of the Romans, who, while they obeyed their primitive laws, were
+not obliged to believe in the miracles of the sieve filled with water,
+the ship drawn to the shore by a vestal's girdle, the stone cut with a
+razor, and so forth. Therefore the historian Josephus, though strongly
+attached to his form of worship, leaves his readers at liberty to
+believe just so much as they choose of the ancient prodigies which he
+relates. For the same reason the Sadducees were permitted not to believe
+in the angels, although the angels are so often spoken of in the Old
+Testament; but these same Sadducees were not permitted to neglect the
+prescribed feasts, fasts, and ceremonies. This part of Abraham's history
+(the journeys into Egypt and Phoenicia) proves that great kingdoms
+were already established, while the Jewish nation existed in a single
+family; that there already were laws, since without them a great kingdom
+cannot exist; and consequently that the law of Moses, which was
+posterior, was not the first law. It is not necessary for a law to be
+divine, that it should be the most ancient of all. God is undoubtedly
+the master of time. It would, it is true, seem more conformable to the
+faint light of reason that God, having to give a law, should have given
+it at the first to all mankind; but if it be proved that He proceeds in
+a different way, it is not for us to question Him.
+
+The remainder of Abraham's history is subject to great difficulties.
+God, who frequently appeared to and made several treaties with him, one
+day sent three angels to him in the valley of Mamre. The patriarch gave
+them bread, veal, butter, and milk to eat. The three spirits dined, and
+after dinner they sent for Sarah, who had baked the bread. One of the
+angels, whom the text calls _the Lord, the Eternal_, promised Sarah
+that, in the course of a year, she should have a son. Sarah, who was
+then ninety-four, while her husband was nearly a hundred, laughed at the
+promise--a proof that Sarah confessed her decrepitude--a proof that,
+according to the Scripture itself, human nature was not then very
+different from what it is now. Nevertheless, the following year, as we
+have already seen, this aged woman, after becoming pregnant, captivated
+King Abimelech. Certes, to consider these stories as natural, we must
+either have a species of understanding quite different from that which
+we have at present, or regard every trait in the life of Abraham as a
+miracle, or believe that it is only an allegory; but whichever way we
+turn, we cannot escape embarrassment. For instance, what are we to make
+of God's promise to Abraham that he would give to him and his posterity
+all the land of Canaan, which no Chaldæan ever possessed? This is one
+of the difficulties which it is impossible to solve.
+
+It seems astonishing that God, after causing Isaac to be born of a
+centenary father and a woman of ninety-five, should afterwards have
+ordered that father to murder the son whom he had given him contrary to
+every expectation. This strange order from God seems to show that, at
+the time when this history was written, the sacrifice of human victims
+was customary amongst the Jews, as it afterwards became in other
+nations, as witness the vow of Jephthah. But it may be said that the
+obedience of Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his son to the God who
+had given him, is an _allegory_ of the resignation which man owes to the
+orders of the Supreme Being.
+
+There is one remark which it is particularly important to make on the
+history of this patriarch regarded as the father of the Jews and the
+Arabs. His principal children were Isaac, born of his wife by a
+miraculous favor of Providence, and Ishmael, born of his servant. It was
+in Isaac that the race of the patriarch was blessed; yet Isaac was
+father only of an unfortunate and contemptible people, who were for a
+long period slaves, and have for a still longer period been dispersed.
+Ishmael, on the contrary, was the father of the Arabs, who, in course of
+time, established the empire of the caliphs, one of the most powerful
+and most extensive in the world.
+
+The Mussulmans have a great reverence for Abraham, whom they call
+_Ibrahim_. Those who believe him to have been buried at Hebron, make a
+pilgrimage thither, while those who think that his tomb is at Mecca, go
+and pay their homage to him there.
+
+Some of the ancient Persians believed that Abraham was the same as
+Zoroaster. It has been with him as with most of the founders of the
+Eastern nations, to whom various names and various adventures have been
+attributed; but it appears by the Scripture text that he was one of
+those wandering Arabs who had no fixed habitation. We see him born at Ur
+in Chaldæa, going first to Haran, then into Palestine, then into Egypt,
+then into Phoenicia, and lastly forced to buy a grave at Hebron.
+
+One of the most remarkable circumstances of his life was, that at the
+age of ninety, before he had begotten Isaac, he caused himself, his son
+Ishmael, and all his servants to be circumcised. It seems that he had
+adopted this idea from the Egyptians. It is difficult to determine the
+origin of such an operation; but it is most likely that it was performed
+in order to prevent the abuses of puberty. But why should a man undergo
+this operation at the age of a hundred?
+
+On the other hand it is asserted that only the priests were anciently
+distinguished in Egypt by this custom. It was a usage of great antiquity
+in Africa and part of Asia for the most holy personages to present their
+virile member to be kissed by the women whom they met. The organs of
+generation were looked upon as something noble and sacred--as a symbol
+of divine power: it was customary to swear by them; and, when taking an
+oath to another person, to lay the hand on his _testicles_. It was
+perhaps from this ancient custom that they afterwards received their
+name, which signifies witnesses, because they were thus made a
+_testimony_ and a pledge. When Abraham sent his servant to ask Rebecca
+for his son Isaac, the servant placed his hand on Abraham's _genitals_,
+which has been translated by the word _thigh_.
+
+By this we see how much the manners of remote antiquity differed from
+ours. In the eyes of a philosopher it is no more astonishing that men
+should formerly have sworn by that part than by the head; nor is it
+astonishing that those who wished to distinguish themselves from other
+men should have testified by this venerated portion of the human person.
+
+The Book of Genesis tells us that circumcision was a covenant between
+God and Abraham; and expressly adds, that whosoever shall not be
+circumcised in his house, shall be put to death. Yet we are not told
+that Isaac was circumcised; nor is circumcision again spoken of until
+the time of Moses.
+
+We shall conclude this article with one more observation, which is, that
+Abraham, after having by Sarah and Hagar two sons, who became each the
+father of a great nation, had six sons by Keturah, who settled in
+Arabia; but their posterity were not famous.
+
+
+
+
+ABUSE.
+
+
+A vice attached to all the customs, to all the laws, to all the
+institutions of man: the detail is too vast to be contained in any
+library.
+
+States are governed by abuses. _Maximus ille est qui minimis urgetur._
+It might be said to the Chinese, to the Japanese, to the English--your
+government swarms with abuses, which you do not correct! The Chinese
+will reply: We have existed as a people for five thousand years, and at
+this day are perhaps the most fortunate nation on earth, because we are
+the most tranquil. The Japanese will say nearly the same. The English
+will answer: We are powerful at sea, and prosperous on land; perhaps in
+ten thousand years we shall bring our usages to perfection. The grand
+secret is, to be in a better condition than others, even with enormous
+_abuses_.
+
+
+
+
+ABUSE OF WORDS.
+
+
+Books, like conversation, rarely give us any precise ideas: nothing is
+so common as to read and converse unprofitably.
+
+We must here repeat what Locke has so strongly urged--_Define your
+terms._
+
+A jurisconsult, in his criminal institute, announces that the
+non-observance of Sundays and holidays is treason against the Divine
+Majesty. _Treason against the Divine Majesty_ gives an idea of the most
+enormous of crimes, and the most dreadful of chastisements. But what
+constitutes the offence? To have missed vespers?--a thing which may
+happen to the best man in the world.
+
+In all disputes on _liberty_, one reasoner generally understands one
+thing, and his adversary another. A third comes in who understands
+neither the one nor the other, nor is himself understood. In these
+disputes, one has in his head the power of acting; a second, the power
+of willing; a third, the desire of executing; each revolves in his own
+circle, and they never meet. It is the same with quarrels about _grace_.
+Who can understand its nature, its operations, the _sufficiency_ which
+is not sufficient, and the _efficacy_ which is ineffectual.
+
+The words _substantial form_ were pronounced for two thousand years
+without suggesting the least notion. For these, _plastic natures_ have
+been substituted, but still without anything being gained.
+
+A traveller, stopped on his way by a torrent, asks a villager on the
+opposite bank to show him the ford: "Go to the right!" shouts the
+countryman. He takes the right and is drowned. The other runs up crying:
+"Oh! how unfortunate! I did not tell him to go to _his_ right, but to
+_mine_!"
+
+The world is full of these misunderstandings. How will a Norwegian, when
+reading this formula: _Servant of the servants of God_; discover that it
+is the _Bishop of Bishops, and King of Kings_ who speaks?
+
+At the time when the "Fragments of Petronius" made a great noise in the
+literary world, Meibomius, a noted learned man of Lübeck, read in the
+printed letter of another learned man of Bologna: "We have here an
+entire Petronius, which I have seen with my own eyes and admired."
+_Habemus hic Petronium integrum, quem vidi meis oculis non sine
+admiratione._ He immediately set out for Italy, hastened to Bologna,
+went to the librarian Capponi, and asked him if it were true that they
+had the entire Petronius at Bologna. Capponi answered that it was a fact
+which had long been public. "Can I see this Petronius? Be so good as to
+show him to me." "Nothing is more easy," said Capponi. He then took him
+to the church in which the body of St. Petronius was laid. Meibomius
+ordered horses and fled.
+
+If the Jesuit Daniel took a warlike abbot, _abbatem martialem_, for the
+abbot Martial, a hundred historians have fallen into still greater
+mistakes. The Jesuit d'Orleans, in his "Revolutions of England," wrote
+indifferently _Northampton_ or _Southampton_, only mistaking the north
+for the south, or _vice versa_.
+
+Metaphysical terms, taken in their proper sense, have sometimes
+determined the opinion of twenty nations. Every one knows the metaphor
+of Isaiah, _How hast thou fallen from heaven, thou star which rose in
+the morning?_ This discourse was imagined to have been addressed to the
+devil; and as the Hebrew word answering to the planet _Venus_ was
+rendered in Latin by the word _Lucifer_, the devil has ever since been
+called Lucifer.
+
+Much ridicule has been bestowed on the "Chart of the Tender Passion" by
+Mdlle. Cuderi. The lovers embark on the river _Tendre_; they dine at
+_Tendre sur Estime_, sup at _Tendre sur Inclination_, sleep at _Tendre
+sur Désir_, find themselves the next morning at _Tendre sur Passion_,
+and lastly at _Tendre sur Tendre_. These ideas may be ridiculous,
+especially when _Clelia, Horatius Cocles_, and other rude and austere
+Romans set out on the voyage; but this geographical chart at least shows
+us that love has various lodgings, and that the same word does not
+always signify the same thing. There is a prodigious difference between
+the love of Tarquin and that of Celadon--between David's love for
+Jonathan, which was stronger than that of women, and the Abbé
+Desfontaines' love for little chimney-sweepers.
+
+The most singular instance of this abuse of words--these voluntary
+_equivoques_--these misunderstandings which have caused so many
+quarrels--is the Chinese _King-tien_. The missionaries having violent
+disputes about the meaning of this word, the Court of Rome sent a
+Frenchman, named _Maigrot_, whom they made the imaginary bishop of a
+province in China, to adjust the difference. Maigrot did not know a word
+of Chinese; but the emperor deigned to grant that he should be told
+what he understood by _King-tien_. Maigrot would not believe what was
+told him, but caused the emperor of China to be condemned at Rome!
+
+The abuse of words is an inexhaustible subject. In history, in morality,
+in jurisprudence, in medicine, but especially in _theology_, beware of
+ambiguity.
+
+
+
+
+ACADEMY.
+
+
+Academies are to universities as maturity is to childhood, oratory to
+grammar, or politeness to the first lessons in civility. Academies, not
+being stipendiary, should be entirely free; such were the academies of
+Italy; such is the French Academy; and such, more particularly, is the
+Royal Society of London.
+
+The French Academy, which formed itself, received, it is true, letters
+patent from Louis XIII., but without any salary, and consequently
+without any subjection; hence it was that the first men in the kingdom,
+and even princes, sought admission into this illustrious body. The
+Society of London has possessed the same advantage.
+
+The celebrated Colbert, being a member of the French Academy, employed
+some of his brethren to compose inscriptions and devices for the public
+buildings. This assembly, to which Boileau and Racine afterwards
+belonged, soon became an academy of itself. The establishment of this
+Academy of Inscriptions, now called that of the _Belles-Lettres_, may,
+indeed, be dated from the year 1661, and that of the Academy of Sciences
+from 1666. We are indebted for both establishments to the same minister,
+who contributed in so many ways to the splendor of the age of Louis XIV.
+
+After the deaths of Jean Baptiste Colbert and the Marquis de Louvois,
+when Count de Pontchartrain, secretary of state, had the department of
+Paris, he intrusted the government of the new academies to his nephew,
+the Abbé Bignon. Then were first devised honorary fellowships requiring
+no learning, and without remuneration; places with salaries disagreeably
+distinguished from the former; fellowships without salaries; and
+scholarships, a title still more disagreeable, which has since been
+suppressed. The Academy of the Belles-Lettres was put on the same
+footing; both submitted to the immediate control of the secretary of
+state, and to the revolting distinction of _honoraries_, _pensionaries_,
+and _pupils_.
+
+The Abbé Bignon ventured to propose the same regulation to the French
+Academy, of which he was a member; but he was heard with unanimous
+indignation. The least opulent in the Academy were the first to reject
+his offers, and to prefer liberty to pensions and honors. The Abbé
+Bignon, who, in the laudable intention of doing good, had dealt too
+freely with the noble sentiments of his brethren, never again set his
+foot in the French Academy.
+
+The word _Academy_ became so celebrated that when Lulli, who was a sort
+of favorite, obtained the establishment of his Opera, in 1692, he had
+interest enough to get inserted in the patent, _that it was a Royal
+Academy of Music, in which Ladies and Gentlemen might sing without
+demeaning themselves_. He did not confer the same honor on the dancers;
+the public, however, has always continued to go to the Opera, but never
+to the Academy of Music.
+
+It is known that the word _Academy_, borrowed from the Greeks,
+originally signified a society or school of philosophy at Athens, which
+met in a garden bequeathed to it by _Academus_. The Italians were the
+first who instituted such societies after the revival of letters; the
+Academy _Delia Crusca_ is of the sixteenth century. Academies were
+afterwards established in every town where the sciences were cultivated.
+The Society of London has never taken the title of _Academy_.
+
+The provincial academies have been of signal advantage. They have given
+birth to emulation, forced youth to labor, introduced them to a course
+of good reading, dissipated the ignorance and prejudices of some of our
+towns, fostered a spirit of politeness, and, as far as it is possible,
+destroyed pedantry.
+
+Scarcely anything has been written against the French Academy, except
+frivolous and insipid pleasantries. St. Evremond's comedy of "The
+Academicians" had some reputation in its time; but a proof of the little
+merit it possessed is that it is now forgotten, whereas the good satires
+of Boileau are immortal.
+
+
+
+
+ADAM.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+So much has been said and so much written concerning Adam, his wife, the
+pre-Adamites, etc., and the rabbis have put forth so many idle stories
+respecting Adam, and it is so dull to repeat what others have said
+before, that I shall here hazard an idea entirely new; one, at least,
+which is not to be found in any ancient author, father of the church,
+preacher, theologian, critic, or scholar with whom I am acquainted. I
+mean the profound _secrecy_ with respect to Adam which was observed
+throughout the habitable earth, Palestine only excepted, until the time
+when the Jewish books began to be known in Alexandria, and were
+translated into Greek under one of the Ptolemies. Still they were very
+little known; for large books were very rare and very dear. Besides, the
+Jews of Jerusalem were so incensed against those of Alexandria, loaded
+them with so many reproaches for having translated their Bible into a
+profane tongue, called them so many ill names, and cried so loudly to
+the Lord, that the Alexandrian Jews concealed their translation as much
+as possible; it was so secret that no Greek or Roman author speaks of it
+before the time of the Emperor Aurelian.
+
+The historian Josephus confesses, in his answer to Appian, that the Jews
+had not long had any intercourse with other nations: "We inhabit," says
+he, "a country distant from the sea; we do not apply ourselves to
+commerce, nor have we any communication with other nations. Is it to be
+wondered at that our people, dwelling so far from the sea, and affecting
+never to write, have been so little known?"
+
+Here it will probably be asked how Josephus could say that his nation
+affected _never to write anything_, when they had twenty-two canonical
+books, without reckoning the _"Targum"_ by _Onkelos_. But it must be
+considered that twenty-two small volumes were very little when compared
+with the multitude of books preserved in the library of Alexandria, half
+of which were burned in Cæsar's war.
+
+It is certain that the Jews had written and read very little; that they
+were profoundly ignorant of astronomy, geometry, geography, and physics;
+that they knew nothing of the history of other nations; and that in
+Alexandria they first began to learn. Their language was a barbarous
+mixture of ancient Phoenician and corrupted Chaldee; it was so poor
+that several moods were wanting in the conjugation of their verbs.
+
+Moreover, as they communicated neither their books nor the titles of
+them to any foreigner, no one on earth except themselves had ever heard
+of _Adam_, or _Eve_, or _Abel_, or _Cain_, or _Noah_. _Abraham_ alone
+was, in course of time, known to the Oriental nations; but no ancient
+people admitted that Abraham was the root of the Jewish nation.
+
+Such are the secrets of Providence, that the father and mother of the
+human race have ever been totally unknown to their descendants; so that
+the names of Adam and Eve are to be found in no ancient author, either
+of Greece, of Rome, of Persia, or of Syria, nor even among the Arabs,
+until near the time of Mahomet. It was God's pleasure that the origin of
+the great family of the world should be concealed from all but the
+smallest and most unfortunate part of that family.
+
+How is it that Adam and Eve have been unknown to all their children? How
+could it be that neither in Egypt nor in Babylon was any trace--any
+tradition--of our first parents to be found? Why were they not mentioned
+by Orpheus, by Linus, or by Thamyris? For if they had said but one word
+of them, it would undoubtedly have been caught by Hesiod, and especially
+by Homer, who speak of everything except the authors of the human race.
+Clement of Alexandria, who collected so many ancient testimonies, would
+not have failed to quote any passage in which mention had been made of
+Adam and Eve. Eusebius, in his "Universal History," has examined even
+the most doubtful testimonies, and would assuredly have made the most of
+the smallest allusion, or appearance of an allusion, to our first
+parents. It is, then, sufficiently clear that they were always utterly
+unknown to the nations.
+
+We do, it is true, find among the Brahmins, in the book entitled the
+_"Ezourveidam"_ the names of _Adimo_ and of _Procriti_, his wife. But
+though _Adimo_ has some little resemblance to our _Adam_, the Indians
+say: "We were a great people established on the banks of the Indus and
+the Ganges many ages before the Hebrew horde moved towards the Jordan.
+The Egyptians, the Persians, and the Arabs came to us for wisdom and
+spices when the Jews were unknown to the rest of mankind. We cannot have
+taken our _Adimo_ from their Adam; our _Procriti_ does not in the least
+resemble _Eve_; besides, their history and ours are entirely different.
+
+"Moreover, the _'Veidam'_ on which the _'Ezourveidam'_ is a commentary,
+is believed by us to have been composed at a more remote period of
+antiquity than the Jewish books; and the _'Veidam'_ itself is a newer
+law given to the Brahmins, fifteen hundred years after their first law,
+called _Shasta_ or _Shastabad_."
+
+Such, or nearly such, are the answers which the Brahmins of the present
+day have often made to the chaplains of merchant vessels who have talked
+to them of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, when the traders of Europe
+have gone, with arms in their hands, to buy their spices and lay waste
+their country.
+
+The Phoenician Sanchoniathon, who certainly lived before the period at
+which we place Moses, and who is quoted by Eusebius as an authentic
+writer, gives ten generations to the human race, as does Moses, down to
+the time of Noah; but, in these ten generations, he mentions neither
+Adam nor Eve, nor any of their descendants, not even Noah himself. The
+names, according to the Greek translation by Philo of Biblos, are _Æon_,
+_Gems_, _Phox_, _Liban_, _Usou_, _Halieus_, _Chrisor_, _Tecnites_,
+_Agrove_, _Amine_; these are the first ten generations.
+
+We do not see the name of _Noah_ or of _Adam_ in any of the ancient
+dynasties of Egypt: they are not to be found among the Chaldæans; in a
+word, the whole earth has been silent respecting them. It must be owned
+that such a silence is unparalleled. Every people has attributed to
+itself some imaginary origin, yet none has approached the true one. We
+cannot comprehend how the father of all nations has so long been
+unknown, while in the natural course of things his name should have been
+carried from mouth to mouth to the farthest corners of the earth.
+
+Let us humble ourselves to the decrees of that Providence which has
+permitted so astonishing an oblivion. All was mysterious and concealed
+in the nation guided by God Himself, which prepared the way for
+Christianity, and was the wild olive on which the fruitful one has been
+grafted. That the names of the authors of mankind should be unknown to
+mankind is a mystery of the highest order.
+
+I will venture to affirm that it has required a miracle thus to shut the
+eyes and ears of all nations--to destroy every monument, every memorial
+of their first father. What would Cæsar, Antony, Crassus, Pompey,
+Cicero, Marcellus, or Metellus have thought, if a poor Jew, while
+selling them balm, had said, "We all descend from one father, named
+Adam." All the Roman senate would have cried, "Show us our genealogical
+tree." Then the Jew would have displayed his ten generations, down to
+the time of Noah, and the secret of the universal deluge. The senate
+would have asked him how many persons were in the ark to feed all the
+animals for ten whole months, and during the following year in which no
+food would be produced? The peddler would have said, "We were
+eight--Noah and his wife, their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and
+their wives. All this family descended in a right line from Adam."
+
+Cicero, would, doubtless, have inquired for the great monuments, the
+indisputable testimonies which Noah and his children had left of our
+common father. "After the deluge," he would have said, "the whole world
+would have resounded with the names of Adam and Noah, one the father,
+the other the restorer of every race. These names would have been in
+every mouth as soon as men could speak, on every parchment as soon as
+they could write, on the door of every house as soon as they could
+build, on every temple, on every statue; and have you known so great a
+secret, yet concealed it from us?" The Jew would have answered: "It is
+because we are pure and you are impure." The Roman senate would have
+laughed and the Jew would have been whipped; so much are men attached to
+their prejudices!
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+The pious Madame de Bourignon was sure that Adam was an hermaphrodite,
+like the first men of the divine Plato. God had revealed a great secret
+to her; but as I have not had the same revelation, I shall say nothing
+of the matter.
+
+The Jewish rabbis have read Adam's books, and know the names of his
+preceptor and his second wife; but as I have not read our first parent's
+books, I shall remain silent. Some acute and very learned persons are
+quite astonished when they read the _"Veidam"_ of the ancient Brahmins,
+to find that the first man was created in India, and called _Adimo_,
+which signifies _the begetter_, and his wife, Procriti, signifying
+_life_. They say the sect of the Brahmins is incontestably more ancient
+than that of the Jews; that it was not until a late period that the Jews
+could write in the Canaanitish language, since it was not until late
+that they established themselves in the little country of Canaan. They
+say the Indians were always inventors, and the Jews always imitators;
+the Indians always ingenious, and the Jews always rude. They say it is
+difficult to believe that Adam, who was fair and had hair on his head,
+was father to the negroes, who are entirely black, and have black wool.
+What, indeed, do they _not_ say? As for me, I say nothing; I leave these
+researches to the Reverend Father Berruyer of the Society of Jesus. He
+is the most perfect _Innocent_ I have ever known; the book has been
+burned, as that of a man who wished to turn the Bible into ridicule; but
+I am quite sure he had no such wicked end in view.
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+The age for inquiring seriously whether or not knowledge was infused
+into Adam had passed by; those who so long agitated the question had no
+knowledge, either infused or acquired. It is as difficult to know at
+what time the Book of Genesis, which speaks of Adam, was written, as it
+is to know the date of the _"Veidam"_ of the "Sanskrit," or any other of
+the ancient Asiatic books. It is important to remark that the Jews were
+not permitted to read the first chapter of Genesis before they were
+twenty-five years old. Many rabbis have regarded the formation of Adam
+and Eve and their adventure as an allegory. Every celebrated nation of
+antiquity has imagined some similar one; and, by a singular concurrence,
+which marks the weakness of our nature, all have endeavored to explain
+the origin of moral and physical evil by ideas nearly alike. The
+Chaldæans, the Indians, the Persians and the Egyptians have accounted,
+in similar ways, for that mixture of good and evil which seems to be a
+necessary appendage to our globe. The Jews, who went out of Egypt, rude
+as they were, had heard of the allegorical philosophy of the Egyptians.
+With the little knowledge thus acquired, they afterwards mixed that
+which they received from the Phoenicians and from the Babylonians
+during their long slavery. But as it is natural and very common for a
+rude nation to imitate rudely the conceptions of a polished people, it
+is not surprising that the Jews imagined a woman formed from the side of
+a man, the spirit of life breathed from the mouth of God on the face of
+Adam--the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile and the Oxus, having all the
+same source in a garden, and the forbidden fruit, which brought death
+into the world, as well as physical and moral evil. Full of the idea
+which prevailed among the ancients, that the serpent was a very cunning
+animal, they had no great difficulty in endowing it with understanding
+and speech.
+
+This people, who then inhabited only a small corner of the earth, which
+they believed to be long, narrow and flat, could easily believe that all
+men came from Adam. They did not even know that the negroes, with a
+conformation different from their own, inhabited immense regions; still
+less could they have any idea of America.
+
+It is, however, very strange that the Jewish people were permitted to
+read the books of Exodus, where there are so many miracles that shock
+reason, yet were not permitted to read before the age of twenty-five the
+first chapter of Genesis, in which all is necessarily a miracle, since
+the creation is the subject Perhaps it was because God, after creating
+the man and woman in the first chapter, makes them again in another, and
+it was thought expedient to keep this appearance of contradiction from
+the eyes of youth. Perhaps it is because it is said that _God made man
+in his own image_, and this expression gave the Jews too corporeal an
+idea of God. Perhaps it was because it is said that God took a rib from
+Adam's side to form the woman, and the young and inconsiderate, feeling
+their sides, and finding the right number of ribs, might have suspected
+the author of some infidelity. Perhaps it was because God, who always
+took a walk at noon in the garden of Eden, laughed at Adam after his
+fall, and this tone of ridicule might tend to give youth too great a
+taste for pleasantry. In short, every line of this chapter furnishes
+very plausible reasons for interdicting the reading of it; but such
+being the case, one cannot clearly see how it was that the other
+chapters were permitted. It is, besides, surprising that the Jews were
+not to read this chapter until they were twenty-five. One would think
+that it should first have been proposed to childhood, which receives
+everything without examination, rather than to youth, whose pride is to
+judge and to laugh. On the other hand, the Jews of twenty-five years of
+age, having their judgments prepared and strengthened, might be more
+fitted to receive this chapter than inexperienced minds. We shall say
+nothing here of Adam's second wife, named Lillah, whom the ancient
+rabbis have given him. It must be confessed that we know very few
+anecdotes of our family.
+
+
+
+
+ADORATION.
+
+
+Is it not a great fault in some modern languages that the same word that
+is used in addressing the Supreme Being is also used in addressing a
+mistress? We not infrequently go from hearing a sermon, in which the
+preacher has talked of nothing but _adoring_ God in spirit and in truth,
+to the opera, where nothing is to be heard but _the charming object of
+my adoration, etc._
+
+The Greeks and Romans, at least, did not fall into this extravagant
+profanation. Horace does not say that he _adores_ Lalage; Tibullus does
+not _adore_ Delia; nor is even the term _adoration_to be found in
+Petronius. If anything can excuse this indecency, it is the frequent
+mention which is made in our operas and songs of the gods of ancient
+fable. Poets have said that their mistresses were more adorable than
+these false divinities; for which no one could blame them. We have
+insensibly become familiarized with this mode of expression, until at
+last, without any perception of the folly, the God of the universe is
+addressed in the same terms as an opera singer.
+
+But to return to the important part of our subject: There is no
+civilized nation which does not render public adoration to God. It is
+true that neither in Asia nor in Africa is any person forced to the
+mosque or temple of the place; each one goes of his own accord. This
+custom of assembling should tend to unite the minds of men and render
+them more gentle in society; yet have they been seen raging against each
+other, even in the consecrated abode of peace. The temple of Jerusalem
+was deluged with blood by zealots who murdered their brethren, and our
+churches have more than once been defiled by carnage.
+
+In the article on "China" it will be seen that the emperor is the chief
+pontiff, and that the worship is august and simple. There are other
+countries in which it is simple without any magnificence, as among the
+reformers of Europe and in British America. In others wax tapers must be
+lighted at noon, although in the primitive ages they were held in
+abomination. A convent of nuns, if deprived of their tapers, would cry
+out that the light of the faith was extinguished and the world would
+shortly be at an end. The Church of England holds a middle course
+between the pompous ceremonies of the Church of Rome and the plainness
+of the Calvinists.
+
+Throughout the East, songs, dances and torches formed part of the
+ceremonies essential in all sacred feasts. No sacerdotal institution
+existed among the Greeks without songs and dances. The Hebrews borrowed
+this custom from their neighbors; for David _sang and danced before the
+ark_.
+
+St. Matthew speaks of a canticle sung by Jesus Christ Himself and by His
+apostles after their Passover. This canticle, which is not admitted into
+the authorized books, is to be found in fragments in the 237th letter
+of St. Augustine to Bishop Chretius; and, whatever disputes there may
+have been about its authenticity, it is certain that singing was
+employed in all religious ceremonies. Mahomet found this a settled mode
+of worship among the Arabs; it is also established in India, but does
+not appear to be in use among the lettered men of China. The ceremonies
+of all places have some resemblance and some difference; but God is
+worshipped throughout the earth. Woe, assuredly, unto those who do not
+adore Him as we do! whether erring in their tenets or in their rites.
+They sit in the shadow of death; but the greater their misfortune the
+more are they to be pitied and supported.
+
+It is indeed a great consolation for us that the Mahometans, the
+Indians, the Chinese, the Tartars, all adore one only God; for so far
+they are our kindred. Their fatal ignorance of our sacred mysteries can
+only inspire us with tender compassion for our wandering brethren. Far
+from us be all spirit of persecution which would only serve to render
+them irreconcilable.
+
+One only God being adored throughout the known world, shall those who
+acknowledge Him as their Father never cease to present to Him the
+revolting spectacle of His children detesting, anathematizing,
+persecuting and massacring one another by way of argument?
+
+It is hard to determine precisely what the Greeks and Romans understood
+by _adoring_, or whether they adored fauns, sylvans, dryads and naiads
+as they adored the twelve superior gods. It is not likely that Adrian's
+minion, Antinous, was adored by the Egyptians of later times with the
+same worship which they paid to Serapis; and it is sufficiently proved
+that the ancient Egyptians did not adore onions and crocodiles as they
+did Isis and Osiris. Ambiguity abounds everywhere and confounds
+everything; we are obliged at every word to exclaim, _What do you mean?_
+we must constantly repeat--_Define your terms._
+
+Is it quite true that Simon, called the _Magician_, was adored among the
+Romans? It is not more true that he was utterly unknown to them. St.
+Justin in his "Apology," which was as little known at Rome as Simon,
+tells us that this God had a statue erected on the Tiber, or rather near
+the Tiber, between the two bridges, with this inscription: _Simoni deo
+sancto._ St. Irenæus and Tertullian attest the same thing; but to whom
+do they attest it? To people who had never seen Rome--to Africans, to
+Allobroges, to Syrians, and to some of the inhabitants of Sichem. _They_
+had certainly not seen this statue, the real inscription on which was
+_Semo sanco deo fidio_, and not _Simoni deo sancto_. They should at
+least have consulted Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who gives this
+inscription in his fourth book. _Semo sanco_ was an old Sabine word,
+signifying _half god and half man_; we find in Livy, _Bona Semoni sanco
+censuerunt consecranda_. This god was one of the most ancient in Roman
+worship, having been consecrated by Tarquin the Proud, and was
+considered as the god of alliances and good faith. It was the custom to
+sacrifice an ox to him, and to write any treaty made with a neighboring
+people upon the skin. He had a temple near that of Quirinus; offerings
+were sometimes presented to him under the name of _Semo the father_, and
+sometimes under that of _Sancus fidius_, whence Ovid says in his
+_"Fasti"_:
+
+     _Quærebam nonas Sanco, Fidove referrem,_
+     _An tibi, Semo pater._
+
+Such was the Roman divinity which for so many ages was taken for _Simon
+the Magician_. St. Cyril of Jerusalem had no doubts on the subject, and
+St. Augustine in his first book of "Heresies" tells us that Simon the
+Magician himself procured the erection of this statue, together with
+that of his _Helena_, by order of the emperor and senate.
+
+This strange fable, the falsehood of which might so easily have been
+discovered, was constantly connected with another fable, which relates
+that Simon and St. Peter both appeared before Nero and challenged each
+other which of them should soonest bring to life the corpse of a near
+relative of Nero's, and also raise himself highest in the air; that
+Simon caused himself to be carried up by devils in a fiery chariot; that
+St. Peter and St. Paul brought him down by their prayers; that he broke
+his legs and in consequence died, and that Nero, being enraged, put
+both St. Peter and St. Paul to death.
+
+Abdias, Marcellinus and Hegisippus have each related this story, with a
+little difference in the details. Arnobius, St. Cyril of Jerusalem,
+Sulpicius Severus, Philaster, St. Epiphanius, Isidorus of Damietta,
+Maximus of Turin, and several other authors successively gave currency
+to this error, and it was generally adopted, until at length there was
+found at Rome a statue of _Semo sancus deus fidius_, and the learned
+Father Mabillon dug up an ancient monument with the inscription _Semoni
+sanco deo fidio_.
+
+It is nevertheless certain that there was a Simon, whom the Jews
+believed to be a magician, as it is certain that there was an Apollonius
+of Tyana. It is also true that this Simon, who was born in the little
+country of Samaria, gathered together some vagabonds, whom he persuaded
+that he was one sent by God; he baptized, indeed, as well as the
+apostles, and raised altar against altar.
+
+The Jews of Samaria, always hostile to those of Jerusalem, ventured to
+oppose this Simon to Jesus Christ, acknowledged by the apostles and
+disciples, all of whom were of the tribe of Benjamin or that of Judah.
+He baptized like them, but to the baptism of water he added fire, saying
+that he had been foretold by John the Baptist in these words: "He that
+cometh after me is mightier than I; _he_ shall baptize you with the Holy
+Ghost and with fire."
+
+Simon lighted a lambent flame over the baptismal font with naphtha from
+the Asphaltic Lake. His party was very strong, but it is very doubtful
+whether his disciples adored him; St. Justin is the only one who
+believes it.
+
+Menander, like Simon, said he was sent by God to be the savior of men.
+All the false Messiahs, Barcochebas especially, called themselves _sent
+by God_; but not even Barcochebas demanded to be adored. Men are not
+often erected into divinities while they live, unless, indeed, they be
+Alexanders or Roman emperors, who expressly order their slaves so to do.
+But this is not, strictly speaking, adoration; it is an extraordinary
+homage, an anticipated apotheosis, a flattery as ridiculous as those
+which are lavished on Octavius by Virgil and Horace.
+
+
+
+
+ADULTERY.
+
+
+We are not indebted for this expression to the Greeks; they called
+adultery _moicheia_, from which came the Latin _moechus_, which we
+have not adopted. We owe it neither to the Syriac tongue nor to the
+Hebrew, a jargon of the Syriac, in which adultery is called _niuph_. In
+Latin _adulteratio_ signified _alteration_--_adulteration, one thing put
+for another--a counterfeit, as false keys, false bargains, false
+signatures_; thus he who took possession of another's bed was called
+_adulter_.
+
+In a similar way, by antiphrasis, the name of _coccyx_, a cuckoo, was
+given to the poor husband into whose nest a stranger intruded. Pliny,
+the naturalist, says: _"Coccyx ova subdit in nidis alienis; ita
+plerique alienas uxores faciunt matres"_--"the cuckoo deposits its eggs
+in the nest of other birds; so the Romans not unfrequently made mothers
+of the wives of their friends." The comparison is not over just.
+_Coccyx_ signifying a cuckoo, we have made it _cuckold_. What a number
+of things do we owe to the Romans! But as the sense of all words is
+subject to change, the term applied to _cuckold_, which, according to
+good grammar, should be the gallant, is appropriated to the _husband_.
+Some of the learned assert that it is to the Greeks we owe the emblem of
+the _horns_, and that they bestowed the appellation of _goat_ upon a
+husband the disposition of whose wife resembled that of a female of the
+same species. Indeed, they used the epithet _son of a goat_ in the same
+way as the modern vulgar do an appellation which is much more literal.
+
+These vile terms are no longer made use of in good company. Even the
+word _adultery_ is never pronounced. We do not now say, _"Madame la
+Duchesse_ lives in adultery with _Monsieur le Chevalier_--_Madame la
+Marquise_ has a criminal intimacy with _Monsieur l'Abbé;"_ but we say,
+_"Monsieur l'Abbé_ is this week the lover of _Madame la Marquise_." When
+ladies talk of their adulteries to their female friends, they say, "I
+confess I have some inclination for _him_." They used formerly to
+confess that they felt some _esteem_, but since the time when a certain
+citizen's wife accused herself to her confessor of having _esteem_ for
+a counsellor, and the confessor inquired as to the number of proofs of
+esteem afforded, ladies of quality have _esteemed_ no one and gone but
+little to confession.
+
+The women of Lacedæmon, we are told, knew neither confession nor
+adultery. It is true that Menelaus had experienced the intractability of
+Helen, but Lycurgus set all right by making the women common, when the
+husbands were willing to lend them and the wives consented. Every one
+might dispose of his own. In this case a husband had not to apprehend
+that he should foster in his house the offspring of a stranger; all
+children belonged to the republic, and not to any particular family, so
+that no one was injured. Adultery is an evil only inasmuch as it is a
+theft; but we do not steal that which is given to us. The Lacedæmonians,
+therefore, had good reason for saying that adultery was impossible among
+them. It is otherwise in our modern nations, where every law is founded
+on the principle of _meum_ and _tuum_.
+
+It is the greatest wrong, the greatest injury, to give a poor fellow
+children which do not belong to him and lay upon him a burden which he
+ought not to bear. Races of heroes have thus been utterly bastardized.
+The wives of the Astolphos and the Jocondas, through a depraved
+appetite, a momentary weakness, have become pregnant by some deformed
+dwarf--some little page, devoid alike of heart and mind, and both the
+bodies and souls of the offspring have borne testimony to the fact. In
+some countries of Europe the heirs to the greatest names are little
+insignificant apes, who have in their halls the portraits of their
+pretended fathers, six feet high, handsome, well-made, and carrying a
+broadsword which their successors of the present day would scarcely be
+able to lift. Important offices are thus held by men who have no right
+to them, and whose hearts, heads, and arms are unequal to the burden.
+
+In some provinces of Europe the girls make love, without their
+afterwards becoming less prudent wives. In France it is quite the
+contrary; the girls are shut up in convents, where, hitherto, they have
+received a most ridiculous education. Their mothers, in order to console
+them, teach them to look for liberty in marriage. Scarcely have they
+lived a year with their husbands when they become impatient to ascertain
+the force of their attractions. A young wife neither sits, nor eats, nor
+walks, nor goes to the play, but in company with women who have each
+their regular intrigue. If she has not her lover like the rest, she is
+to be _unpaired_; and ashamed of being so, she is afraid to show
+herself.
+
+The Orientals proceed quite in another way. Girls are brought to them
+and warranted virgins on the words of a Circassian. They marry them and
+shut them up as a measure of precaution, as we shut up our maids. No
+jokes there upon ladies and their husbands! no songs!--nothing
+resembling our quodlibets about horns and cuckoldom! We _pity_ the
+great ladies of Turkey, Persia and India; but they are a thousand times
+happier in their seraglios than our young women in their convents.
+
+It sometimes happens among us that a dissatisfied husband, not choosing
+to institute a criminal process against his wife for adultery, which
+would subject him to the imputation of _barbarity_, contents himself
+with obtaining a separation of person and property. And here we must
+insert an abstract of a memorial, drawn up by a good man who finds
+himself in this situation. These are his complaints; are they just or
+not?--
+
+_A memorial, written by a magistrate, about the year 1764._
+
+A principal magistrate of a town in France is so unfortunate as to have
+a wife who was debauched by a priest before her marriage, and has since
+brought herself to public shame; he has, however, contented himself with
+a private separation. This man, who is forty years old, healthy, and of
+a pleasing figure, has need of woman's society. He is too scrupulous to
+seek to seduce the wife of another; he even fears to contract an illicit
+intimacy with a maid or a widow. In this state of sorrow and perplexity
+he addresses the following complaints to the Church, of which he is a
+member:
+
+"My wife is criminal, and I suffer the punishment. A woman is necessary
+to the comfort of my life--nay, even to the preservation of my virtue;
+yet she is refused me by the Church, which forbids me to marry an
+honest woman. The civil law of the present day, which is, unhappily,
+founded on the canon law, deprives me of the rights of humanity. The
+Church compels me to seek either pleasures which it reprobates, or
+shameful consolations which it condemns; it forces me to be criminal.
+
+"If I look round among the nations of the earth, I see no religion
+except the Roman Catholic which does not recognize divorce and second
+marriage as a natural right. What inversion of order, then, has made it
+a virtue in Catholics to suffer adultery and a duty to live without
+wives when their wives have thus shamefully injured them? Why is a
+cankered tie indissoluble, notwithstanding the great maxim adopted by
+the code, _Quicquid ligatur dissolubile est_? A separation of person and
+property is granted me, but not a divorce. The law takes from me my
+wife, and leaves me the word _sacrament_! I no longer enjoy matrimony,
+but still I am married! What contradiction! What slavery!
+
+"Nor is it less strange that this law of the Church is directly contrary
+to the words which it believes to have been pronounced by Jesus Christ:
+Whosoever shall put away his wife, _except it be for fornication_, and
+shall marry another, committeth adultery."
+
+"I have no wish here to inquire whether the pontiffs of Rome have a
+right to violate at pleasure the law of Him whom they regard as their
+Master; whether when a kingdom wants an heir, it is allowable to
+repudiate the woman who is incapable of giving one; nor whether a
+turbulent wife, one attacked by lunacy, or one guilty of murder, should
+not be divorced as well as an adulteress; I confine myself to what
+concerns my own sad situation. God permits me to marry again, but the
+bishop of Rome forbids me.
+
+"Divorce was customary among Catholics under all the emperors, as well
+as in all the disjointed members of the Roman Empire. Almost all those
+kings of France who are called _of the first race_, repudiated their
+wives and took fresh ones. At length came one Gregory IX., an enemy to
+emperors and kings, who, by a decree, made the bonds of marriage
+indissoluble; and his _decretal_ became the law of Europe. Hence, when a
+king wished to repudiate an adulterous wife, according to the law of
+Jesus Christ, he could not do so without seeking some ridiculous
+pretext. St. Louis was obliged, in order to effect his unfortunate
+divorce from Eleanora of Guienne, to allege a relationship which did not
+exist; and Henry IV., to repudiate Margaret of Valois, brought forward a
+still more unfounded pretence--a want of consent. Thus a lawful divorce
+was to be obtained by falsehood.
+
+"What! may a sovereign abdicate his crown, and shall he not without the
+pope's permission abdicate his faithless wife? And is it possible that
+men, enlightened in other things, have so long submitted to this absurd
+and abject slavery?
+
+"Let our priests and our monks abstain from women, if it must be so;
+they have my consent. It is detrimental to the progress of population
+and a misfortune for them; but they deserve that misfortune which they
+have contrived for themselves. They are the victims of the popes, who in
+them wish to possess slaves--soldiers without family or country, living
+for _the Church_; but I, a magistrate, who serve the state the whole day
+long, have occasion for a woman at night; and the Church has no right to
+deprive me of a possession allowed me by the Deity. The apostles were
+married, Joseph was married, and I wish to be married. If I, an
+Alsatian, am dependent on a priest who lives at Rome and has the
+barbarous power to deprive me of a wife, he may as well make me a eunuch
+to sing _Miserere_ in his chapel."
+
+_A Plea for Wives._
+
+Equity requires that, after giving this memorial in favor of husbands,
+we should also lay before the public the plea on behalf of wives,
+presented to the junta of Portugal, by one Countess _D'Arcira_. It is in
+substance as follows:
+
+"The gospel has forbidden adultery to my husband as well as to me; we
+shall be damned alike; nothing is more certain. Although he has been
+guilty of fifty infidelities--though he has given my necklace to one of
+my rivals, and my earrings to another, I have not called upon the judges
+to order his head to be shaved, himself to be shut up with monks, and
+his property to be given to me; yet I, for having but once imitated
+him--for having done that with the handsomest young man in Lisbon, which
+he is allowed to do every day with the homeliest and most stupid
+creatures of the court and the city, must be placed on a stool to answer
+the questions of a set of licentiates, every one of whom would be at my
+feet were he alone with me in my closet; must have the finest hair in
+the world cut from my head; be confined with nuns who have not common
+sense; be deprived of my portion and marriage settlement, and see my
+property given to my fool of a husband to assist him in seducing other
+women and committing fresh adulteries. I ask if the thing is just? if it
+is not evident that the cuckolds are the lawmakers?
+
+"The answer to my complaint is that I am but too fortunate in not being
+stoned at the city gate by the canons and the people, as was the custom
+with the first nation of the earth--the cherished nation--the chosen
+people--the only one which was right when all others were wrong.
+
+"To these barbarians I reply that when the poor woman, taken in
+adultery, was presented to her accusers by the Master of the Old and of
+the New Law, he did not order her to be stoned; on the contrary, he
+reproached their injustice, tracing on the sand with his finger the old
+Hebrew proverb: 'Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.' All
+then retired, the oldest being the first to depart, since the greater
+their age the more adulteries they had committed.
+
+"The doctors of the canon law tell me that this story of the woman taken
+in adultery is related only in the Gospel of St. John, and that there it
+is nothing more than an interpolation; that Leontius and Maldonat affirm
+that it is to be found in but one ancient Greek copy; that not one of
+the first twenty-three commentators has spoken of it; that neither
+Origen nor St. Jerome, nor St. John Chrysostom, nor Theophylact, nor
+Nonnus, knew anything of it; and that it is not in the Syriac Bible, nor
+in the version of Ulphilas.
+
+"Such are the arguments advanced by my husband's advocates, who would
+not only shave my head, but stone me also. However, those who plead for
+me say that Ammonius, a writer of the third century, acknowledges the
+truth of this story, and that St. Jerome, while he rejects it in some
+passages, adopts it in others; in short, that it is now authenticated.
+Here I hold, and say to my husband: If you are without sin shave my
+head, confine me, take my property; but if you have committed more sins
+than I have, it is I who must shave you, have you confined and seize
+your possessions. In both cases the justice is the same.'
+
+"My husband replies that he is my superior and my head; that he is
+taller than I by more than an inch; that he is as rough as a bear; and
+that, consequently, I owe him everything and he owes me nothing. But I
+ask if Queen Anne, of England, is not the _head_ of her husband? if the
+Prince of Denmark, who is her high admiral, does not owe her an entire
+obedience? and if she would not have him condemned by the House of Peers
+should the little man prove unfaithful? It is clear that, if women have
+not their husbands punished, it is when they are not the strongest."
+
+_Conclusion of the Chapter on Adultery._
+
+In order to obtain an equitable verdict in an action for adultery, the
+jury should be composed of twelve men and twelve women, with an
+hermaphrodite to give the casting vote in the event of necessity. But
+singular cases may exist wherein raillery is inapplicable, and of which
+it is not for us to judge. Such is the adventure related by St.
+Augustine in his sermon on Christ's preaching on the Mount.
+
+Septimius Acyndicus, proconsul of Syria, caused a Christian of Antioch
+who was unable to pay the treasury a pound of gold (the amount to which
+he was taxed), to be thrown into prison and threatened with death. A
+wealthy man promised the unfortunate prisoner's wife to furnish her with
+the pound if she would consent to his desires. The wife hastened to
+inform her husband, who begged that she would save his life at the
+expense of his rights, which he was willing to give up. She obeyed, but
+the man who owed her the gold deceived her by giving her a sackful of
+earth. The husband, being still unable to pay the tax, was about to be
+led to the scaffold, but this infamous transaction having come to the
+ears of the proconsul he paid the pound of gold from his own coffers and
+gave to the Christian couple the estate from which the sackful of earth
+had been taken.
+
+It is certain that far from injuring her husband the wife, in this
+instance, acted conformably to his will, not only obeying him, but also
+saving his life. St. Augustine does not venture to decide on the guilt
+or virtue of this action; he is afraid to condemn it.
+
+It is, in my opinion, very singular that Bayle should pretend to be more
+severe than St. Augustine. He boldly condemns the poor woman. This would
+be inconceivable did we not know how much almost every writer has
+suffered his pen to belie his heart--with what facility his own feelings
+have been sacrificed to the fear of enraging some evil-disposed
+pedant--in a word, how inconsistent he has been with himself.
+
+_A Father's Reflection._
+
+A word on the contradictory education which we bestow upon our
+daughters. We inculcate an immoderate desire of pleasing; we dictate
+when nature does enough without us, and add to her lessons every
+refinement of art. When they are perfectly trained we punish them if
+they put in practice the very arts which we have been so anxious to
+teach! What should we think of a dancing master who, having taught a
+pupil for ten years, would break his leg because he had found him
+dancing with other people?
+
+Might not this paragraph be added to the chapter of contradictions?
+
+
+
+
+AFFIRMATION OR OATH.
+
+
+We shall not say anything of the affirmations so frequently made use of
+by the learned. To affirm, to decide, is permissible only in geometry.
+In everything else let us imitate the Doctor _Metaphrastes_ of
+Molière--_it may be so; the thing is feasible; it is not impossible; we
+shall see._ Let us adopt Rabelais' _perhaps_, Montaigne's _what know I?_
+the Roman _non liquet_, or the _doubt_ of the Athenian academy: but only
+in profane matters, be it understood, for in _sacred_ things, we are
+well aware that doubting is not permitted.
+
+The primitives, in England called _Quakers_, are allowed to give
+testimony in a court of justice on their simple affirmation, without
+taking an oath. The peers of the realm have the same privilege--the lay
+peers affirming _on their honor_, and the bishops laying their hands _on
+their hearts_. The Quakers obtained it in the reign of Charles II., and
+are the only sect in Europe so honored.
+
+The Lord Chancellor Cowper wished to compel the Quakers to swear like
+other citizens. He who was then at their head said to him gravely:
+"Friend Chancellor, thou oughtest to know that our Lord and Saviour
+Jesus Christ hath forbidden us to affirm otherwise than by _yea_ or
+_nay_, he hath expressly said: _I forbid thee to swear by heaven,
+because it is the throne of God; by the earth, because it is his
+footstool; by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the King of kings; or
+by thy head, because thou canst not change the color of a single hair._
+This, friend, is positive, and we will not disobey God to please thee
+and thy parliament." "It is impossible to argue better," replied the
+Chancellor; "but be it known to thee that Jupiter one day ordered all
+beasts of burden to get shod: horses, mules, and even camels, instantly
+obeyed, the asses alone resisted; they made so many representations, and
+brayed so long that Jupiter, who was good-natured, at last said to them,
+'Asses, I grant your prayer; you shall not be shod; but the first slip
+you make you shall have a most sound cudgelling.'"
+
+It must be granted that, hitherto, the Quakers have made no _slips_.
+
+
+
+
+AGAR, OR HAGAR.
+
+
+When a man puts away his mistress--his friend--the partner of his bed,
+he must either make her condition tolerably comfortable or be regarded
+among us as a man of bad heart.
+
+We are told that Abraham was very rich in the desert of Gerar, although
+he did not possess an inch of land. However, we know with the greatest
+certainty that he defeated the armies of four great kings with three
+hundred and eighteen shepherds.
+
+He should, then, at least have given a small flock to his mistress Agar,
+when he sent her away in the desert. I speak always according to worldly
+notions, always reverencing those incomprehensible ways which are not
+_our_ ways.
+
+_I_ would have given my old companion Agar a few sheep, a few goats, a
+few suits of clothes for herself and our son Ishmael, a good she-ass for
+the mother and a pretty foal for the child, a camel to carry their
+baggage, and at least two men to attend them and prevent them from being
+devoured by wolves.
+
+But when the _Father of the Faithful_ exposed his poor mistress and her
+child in the desert he gave them only a loaf and a pitcher of water.
+Some impious persons have asserted that Abraham was not a very tender
+father--that he wished to make his bastard son die of hunger, and to cut
+his legitimate son's throat! But again let it be remembered that these
+ways were not _our_ ways.
+
+It is said that poor Agar went away into the desert of Beer-sheba. There
+was no desert of _Beer-sheba_; this name was not known until long after;
+but this is a mere trifle; the foundation of the story is not the less
+authentic. It is true that the posterity of Agar's son Ishmael took
+ample revenge on the posterity of Sarah's son Isaac, in favor of whom
+he had been cast out. The Saracens, descending in a right line from
+Ishmael, made themselves masters of Jerusalem, which belonged by right
+of conquest to the posterity of Isaac. I would have made the _Saracens_
+descend from _Sarah_; the etymology would then have been neater.
+
+It has been asserted that the word _Saracen_ comes from _sarac_, a
+robber. I do not believe any people have ever called themselves
+_robbers_; nearly all have been robbers, but it is not usual for them to
+take the _title_. _Saracen_ descending from _Sarah_, appears to me to
+sound better.
+
+
+
+
+ALCHEMY.
+
+
+The emphatic _al_ places the alchemist as much above the ordinary
+chemist as the gold which he obtains is superior to other metals.
+Germany still swarms with people who seek the _philosopher's stone_, as
+the _water_ of _immortality_ has been sought in China, and the _fountain
+of youth_ in Europe. In France some have been known to ruin themselves
+in this pursuit.
+
+The number of those who have believed in transmutations is prodigious,
+and the number of cheats has been in proportion to that of the
+credulous. At Paris we have seen Signor Dammi, Marquis of Conventiglio,
+obtain some hundred louis from several of the nobility that he might
+make them gold to the amount of two or three crowns. The best trick that
+has ever been performed in alchemy was that of a Rosicrucian, who, in
+1620, went to Henry, Duke of Bouillon, of the house of Turenne,
+Sovereign Prince of Sedan, and addressed him as follows:
+
+"You have not a sovereignty proportioned to your great courage, but I
+will make you richer than the emperor. I cannot remain for more than two
+days in your states, having to go to Venice to hold the grand assembly
+of the brethren; I only charge you to keep the secret. Send to the first
+apothecary of your town for some litharge; throw into it one grain of
+the red powder which I will give you, put the whole into a crucible and
+in a quarter of an hour you will have gold."
+
+The prince performed the operation, and repeated it three times, in
+presence of the virtuoso. This man had previously bought up all the
+litharge from the apothecaries of Sedan and got it resold after mixing
+it with a few ounces of gold. The adept, on taking leave, made the Duke
+of Bouillon a present of all his transmuting powder.
+
+The prince, having made three ounces of gold with three grains, doubted
+not that with three hundred thousand grains he should make three hundred
+thousand ounces, and that he should in a week possess eighteen thousand,
+seven hundred and fifty pounds of gold, besides what he should
+afterwards make. It took at least three months to make this powder. The
+philosopher was in haste to depart; he was without anything, having
+given all to the prince, and wanted some ready money in order to hold
+the states-general of hermetic philosophy. He was a man very moderate in
+his desires, and asked only twenty thousand crowns for the expenses of
+his journey. The duke, ashamed to give so small a sum, presented him
+with forty thousand. When he had consumed all the litharge in Sedan he
+made no more gold, nor ever more saw his philosopher or his forty
+thousand crowns.
+
+All pretended alchemic transmutations have been performed nearly in the
+same manner. To change one natural production into another, for example,
+iron into silver, is a rather difficult operation, since it requires two
+things a little above our power--the _annihilation_ of the iron and
+_creation_ of the silver.
+
+We must not, however, reject all discoveries of secrets and all new
+inventions. It is with them as with theatrical pieces, there may be one
+good out of a thousand.
+
+
+
+
+ALKORAN;
+
+OR, MORE PROPERLY, THE KORAN.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+This book governs with despotic sway the whole of northern Africa, from
+Mount Atlas to the desert of Barca, the whole of Egypt, the coasts of
+the Ethiopian Sea to the extent of six hundred leagues, Syria, Asia
+Minor, all the countries round the Black and the Caspian seas (excepting
+the kingdom of Astrakhan), the whole empire of Hindostan, all Persia, a
+great part of Tartary; and in Europe, Thrace, Macedonia, Bulgaria,
+Servia, Bosnia, Greece, Epirus, and nearly all the islands as far as the
+little strait of Otranto, which terminates these possessions.
+
+In this prodigious extent of country there is not a single Mahometan who
+has the happiness of reading our sacred books; and very few of our
+literati are acquainted with the Koran, of which we always form a
+ridiculous idea, notwithstanding the researches of our really learned
+men.
+
+The first lines of this book are as follows: "Praise to God, the
+sovereign of all worlds, to the God of mercy, the sovereign of the day
+of justice? Thee we adore! to Thee only do we look for protection. Lead
+us in the right way--in the way of those whom Thou hast loaded with Thy
+graces, and not in the way of the objects of Thy wrath--of them who have
+gone astray."
+
+Such is the introduction. Then come three letters, _A_, _L_, _M_, which,
+according to the learned Sale, are not understood, for each commentator
+explains them in his own way; but the most common opinion is that they
+signify _Ali_, _Latif_, _Magid_--God, Grace, Glory.
+
+God himself then speaks to Mahomet in these words: "This book admitteth
+not of doubt. It is for the direction of the just, who believe in the
+depths of the faith, who observe the times of prayer, who distribute in
+alms what it has pleased Me to give them, who believe in the revelation
+which hath descended to thee, and was delivered to the prophets
+before thee. Let the faithful have a firm assurance in the life to come;
+let them be directed by their Lord; and they shall be happy.
+
+[Illustration: Mahomet.]
+
+"As for unbelievers, it mattereth not whether thou callest them or no:
+they do not believe; the seal of unbelief is on their hearts and on
+their ears; a terrible punishment awaiteth them. There are some who say,
+'We believe in God and in the Last Day,' but in their hearts they are
+unbelievers. They think to deceive the Eternal; they deceive themselves
+without knowing it. Infirmity is in their hearts, and God himself
+increaseth this infirmity," etc.
+
+These words are said to have incomparably more energy in Arabic. Indeed,
+the Koran still passes for the most elegant and most sublime book that
+has been written in that language. We have imputed to the Koran a great
+number of foolish things which it never contained. It was chiefly
+against the Turks, who had become Mahometans, that our monks wrote so
+many books, at a time when no other opposition was of much service
+against the conquerors of Constantinople. Our authors, much more
+numerous than the janissaries, had no great difficulty in ranging our
+women on their side; they persuaded them that Mahomet looked upon them
+merely as intelligent animals; that, by the laws of the Koran, they were
+all slaves, having no property in this world, nor any share in the
+paradise of the next. The falsehood of all this is evident; yet it has
+all been firmly believed.
+
+It was, however, only necessary in order to discover the deception to
+have read the fourth _sura_ or chapter of the Koran, in which would have
+been found the following laws, translated in the same manner by Du Ryer,
+who resided for a long time at Constantinople; by Maracci, who never
+went there; and by Sale, who lived twenty-five years among the Arabs:
+
+_Mahomet's Regulations with Respect to Wives._
+
+1.
+
+Never marry idolatrous women, unless they will become believers. A
+Mussulman servant is better than an idolatrous woman, though of the
+highest rank.
+
+2.
+
+They who, having wives, wish to make a vow of chastity, shall wait four
+months before they decide.
+
+Wives shall conduct themselves towards their husbands as their husbands
+conduct themselves towards them.
+
+3.
+
+You may separate yourself from your wife twice; but if you divorce her a
+third time, it must be forever; you must either keep her humanely or put
+her away kindly. You are not permitted to keep anything from her that
+you have given to her.
+
+4.
+
+Good wives are obedient and attentive, even in the absence of their
+husbands. If your wife is prudent be careful not to have any quarrel
+with her; but if one should happen, let an arbiter be chosen from your
+own family, and one from hers.
+
+5.
+
+Take one wife, or two, or three, or four, but never more. But if you
+doubt your ability to act equitably towards several, take only one. Give
+them a suitable dowry, take care of them, and speak to them always like
+a friend.
+
+6.
+
+You are not permitted to inherit from your wife against her will; nor to
+prevent her from marrying another after her divorce, in order to possess
+yourself of her dower, unless she has been declared guilty of some
+crime.
+
+When you choose to separate yourself from your wife and take another,
+you must not, though you have even given her a talent at your marriage,
+take anything from her.
+
+7.
+
+You are permitted to marry a slave, but it is better that you should not
+do so.
+
+8.
+
+A repudiated wife is obliged to suckle her child until it is two years
+old, during which time the father is obliged to maintain them according
+to his condition. If the infant is weaned at an earlier period, it must
+be with the consent of both father and mother. If you are obliged to
+entrust it to a strange nurse, you shall make her a reasonable
+allowance.
+
+Here, then, is sufficient to reconcile the women to Mahomet, who has not
+used them so hardly as he is said to have done. We do not pretend to
+justify either his ignorance or his imposture; but we cannot condemn his
+doctrine of _one only God_. These words of his 122d _sura_, "God is one,
+eternal, neither begetting nor begotten; no one is like to Him;" these
+words had more effect than even his sword in subjugating the East.
+
+Still his Koran is a collection of ridiculous revelations and vague and
+incoherent predictions, combined with laws that were very good for the
+country in which he lived, and all which continue to be followed,
+without having been changed or weakened, either by Mahometan
+interpreters or by new decrees. The poets of Mecca were hostile to
+Mahomet, but above all the doctors. These raised the magistracy against
+him, and a warrant was issued for his apprehension as only duly accused
+and convicted of having said that God must be adored, and not the stars.
+This, it is known, was the source of his greatness. When it was seen
+that he could not be put down, and that his writings were becoming
+popular, it was given out in the city that he was not the author of
+them, or that at least he was assisted in their composition by a learned
+Jew, and sometimes by a learned Christian--supposing that there were at
+that time learned Jews and learned Christians.
+
+So, in our days, more than one prelate has been reproached with having
+set monks to compose his sermons and funeral orations. There was one
+Father Hercules (_Père Hercule_) who made sermons for a certain bishop,
+and when people went to hear him preach, they used to say, "Let us go
+and hear the _labors of Hercules_."
+
+To this charge Mahomet gives an answer in his 16th chapter, occasioned
+by a gross blunder he had made in the pulpit, about which a great deal
+had been said. He gets out of the scrape thus: "When thou readest the
+Koran, address thyself to God, that He may preserve thee from the
+machinations of Satan. He has power only over those who have chosen Him
+for their Master, and who give associates unto God.
+
+"When I substitute one verse for another in the Koran (the reason for
+which changes is known to God) some unbelievers cry out, _'Thou hast
+forged those verses'_; but they know not how to distinguish truth from
+falsehood. Say rather that the Holy Spirit brought those verses of truth
+to me from God. Others say, still more malignantly, _There is a certain
+man who labors with him in composing the Koran_. But how can this man,
+to whom they attribute my works, have taught me, speaking as he does, a
+foreign language, while the Koran is written in the purest Arabic?"
+
+He who, it was pretended, assisted Mahomet, was a Jew named _Bensalen_
+or _Bensalon_. It is not very likely that a Jew should have lent his
+assistance to Mahomet in writing against the Jews; yet the thing is not
+impossible. The monk who was said to have contributed to the Koran was
+by some called _Bohaira_, by others _Sergius_. There is something
+pleasant in this monk's having had both a Latin and an Arabic name. As
+for the fine theological disputes which have arisen among the
+Mussulmans, I have no concern with them; I leave them to the decision of
+the mufti.
+
+In "The Triumph of the Cross" (_"le Triomphe de la Croix"_) the Koran is
+said to be Arian, Sabellian, Carpocratian, Cardonician, Manichæan,
+Donatistic, Origenian, Macedonian, and Ebionitish. Mahomet, however, was
+nothing of all this; he was rather a _Jansenist_, for the foundation of
+his doctrine is the absolute degree of gratuitous predestination.
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+This Mahomet, son of Abdallah, was a bold and sublime charlatan. He says
+in his tenth chapter, "Who but God can have composed the Koran? Mahomet,
+you say, has forged this book. Well; try then to write one chapter
+resembling it and call to your aid whomsoever you please." In the
+seventeenth he exclaims, "Praise be to Him who in one night transported
+His servant from the sacred temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem!"
+
+This was a very fine journey, but nothing like that which he took the
+very same night from planet to planet. He pretended that it was five
+hundred years' journey from one to another, and that he cleft the moon
+in twain. His disciples who, after his death, collected, in a solemn
+manner, the verses of this Koran, suppressed this celestial journey, for
+they dreaded raillery and philosophy. After all, they had too much
+delicacy; they might have trusted to the commentators, who would have
+found no difficulty whatever in explaining the itinerary. Mahomet's
+friends should have known by experience that the marvellous is the
+reason of the multitude; the wise contradict in silence, which the
+multitude prevent them from breaking. But while the itinerary of the
+planets was suppressed, a few words were retained about the adventure of
+the moon. One cannot be always on one's guard.
+
+The Koran is a rhapsody, without connection, without order, and without
+art. This tedious book is, nevertheless, said to be a very fine
+production, at least by the Arabs, who assert that it is written with an
+elegance and purity that no later work has equalled. It is a poem, or
+sort of rhymed prose, consisting of three thousand verses. No poem ever
+advanced the fortune of its author so much as the Koran. It was disputed
+among the Mussulmans whether it was eternal or God had created it in
+order to dictate it to Mahomet. The doctors decided that it was eternal,
+and they were right; this eternity is a much finer opinion than the
+other, for with the vulgar we must always adopt that which is the most
+incredible.
+
+The monks who have attacked Mahomet, and said so many silly things
+about him, have asserted that he could not write. But how can we imagine
+that a man who had been a merchant, a poet, a legislator, and a
+sovereign, did not know how to sign his name? If his book is bad for our
+times and for us, it was very good for his contemporaries, and his
+religion was still better. It must be acknowledged that he reclaimed
+nearly the whole of Asia from idolatry. He taught the unity of God, and
+forcibly declaimed against all those who gave him associates. He forbade
+usury with foreigners, and commanded the giving of alms. With him prayer
+was a thing of absolute necessity, and resignation to the eternal
+decrees the _primum mobile_ of all. A religion so simple and so wise,
+taught by one who was constantly victorious, could hardly fail to
+subjugate a portion of the earth. Indeed the Mussulmans have made as
+many proselytes by their creed as by their swords; they have converted
+the Indians and the negroes to their religion; even the Turks, who
+conquered them, submitted to Islamism.
+
+Mahomet allowed many things to remain in his law which he had found
+established among the Arabs--as circumcision, fasting, the pilgrimage to
+Mecca, which was instituted four thousand years before his time;
+ablutions, so necessary to health and cleanliness in a burning country,
+where linen was unknown; and the idea of a last judgment, which the magi
+had always inculcated, and which had reached the inhabitants of Arabia.
+It is said that on his announcing that we should rise again quite
+naked, his wife. _Aishca_, expressed her opinion that the thing would be
+immodest and dangerous. "Do not be alarmed, my dear," said he, "no one
+will then feel any inclination to _laugh_." According to the Koran, an
+angel will weigh both men and women in a great balance; this idea, too,
+is taken from the magi. He also stole from them their narrow bridge
+which must be passed over after death; and their elysium, where the
+Mussulmans elect will find baths, well-furnished apartments, good beds,
+and houris with great black eyes. He does, it is true, say that all
+these pleasures of the senses, so necessary to those that are to rise
+again with senses, will be nothing in comparison with the pleasure of
+contemplating the Supreme Being. He has the humility to confess that he
+himself will not enter paradise through his own merits, but purely by
+the _will_ of God. Through this same _pure Divine will_ he orders that a
+fifth part of the spoil shall always be reserved for the prophet.
+
+It is not true that he excludes women from paradise. It is hardly likely
+that so able a man should have chosen to embroil himself with that half
+of the human race by which the other half is led. Abulfeda relates that
+an old lady one day importuned him to tell her what she must do to get
+into paradise. "My good lady," said he, "paradise is not for old women."
+The good woman began to weep, but the prophet consoled her by saying,
+"There will be no old women because they will become young again." This
+consolatory doctrine is confirmed in the fifty-fourth chapter of the
+Koran.
+
+He forbade wine because some of his followers once went intoxicated to
+prayers. He permitted a plurality of wives, conforming in this point to
+the immemorial usage of the orientals.
+
+In short, his civil laws are good; his doctrine is admirable in all
+which it has in common with ours; but his means are shocking--villainy
+and murder!
+
+He is excused by some, on the first of these charges, because, say they,
+the Arabs had a hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets before him,
+and there could be no great harm in the appearance of one more; men, it
+is added, require to be deceived. But how are we to justify a man who
+says, _"Believe that I have conversed with the angel Gabriel, or pay me
+tribute!"_
+
+How superior is _Confucius_--the first of mortals who have not been
+favored with revelations! He employs neither falsehood nor the sword,
+but only reason. The viceroy of a great province, he causes the laws to
+be observed and morality to flourish; disgraced and poor, he teaches
+them. He practises them alike in greatness and in humiliation; he
+renders virtue amiable; and has for his disciples the most ancient and
+wisest people on the earth.
+
+In vain does Count de Boulainvilliers, who had some respect for Mahomet,
+extol the Arabs. Notwithstanding all his boastings, they were a nation
+of banditti. They robbed before Mahomet, when they adored the stars;
+they robbed under Mahomet in the name of God. They had, say you, the
+simplicity of the heroic ages; but what were these heroic ages?--times
+when men cut one another's throats for a well or a cistern, as they now
+do for a province?
+
+The first Mussulmans were animated by Mahomet with the rage of
+enthusiasm. Nothing is more terrible than a people who, having nothing
+to lose, fight in the united spirit of rapine and of religion.
+
+It is true there was not much art in their proceedings. The contract of
+marriage between Mahomet and his first wife expresses that, while
+_Cadisha_ loves him, and he in like manner loves _Cadisha_, it is
+thought meet to join them. But is there the same simplicity in having
+composed a genealogy which makes him descend in a right line from Adam,
+as several Spanish and Scotch families have been made to descend?
+
+The great prophet experienced the disgrace common to so many husbands,
+after which no one should complain. The name of him who received the
+favors of his second wife was _Assam_. The behavior of Mahomet, on this
+occasion, was even more lofty than that of Cæsar, who put away his wife,
+saying, "The wife of Cæsar ought not to be suspected." The prophet
+_would not_ suspect his. He sent to heaven for a chapter of the Koran,
+affirming that his wife was faithful. This chapter, like all the others,
+had been written _from all eternity_.
+
+He is admired for having raised himself from being a camel-driver to be
+a pontiff, a legislator, and a monarch; for having subdued Arabia, which
+had never before been subjugated; for having given the first shock to
+the Roman Empire in the East, and to that of the Persians; and _I_
+admire him still more for having kept peace in his house among his
+wives. He changed the face of part of Europe, one half of Asia, and
+nearly all Africa; nor was his religion unlikely, at one time, to
+subjugate the whole earth. On how trivial a circumstance will
+revolutions sometimes depend! A blow from a stone, a little harder than
+that which he received in his first battle, might have changed the
+destiny of the world!
+
+His son-in-law Ali asserted that when the prophet was about to be
+inhumed, he was found in a situation not very common to the dead. The
+words of the Roman sovereign might be well applied in this case: _"Decet
+imperatorem stantem mori."_
+
+Never was the life of a man written more in detail than his; the most
+minute particulars were regarded as sacred. We have the name and the
+numbers of all that belonged to him--nine swords, three lances, three
+bows, seven cuirasses, three bucklers, twelve wives, one white cock,
+seven horses, two mules, and four camels, besides the mare _Borac_, on
+which he went to heaven. But this last he had only borrowed; it was the
+property of the angel Gabriel.
+
+All his sayings have been preserved. One was that _the enjoyment of
+women made him more fervent in prayer_. Besides all his other knowledge
+he is said to have been a great _physician_; so that he wanted none of
+the qualifications for deceiving mankind.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDER.
+
+
+It is no longer allowable to speak of Alexander, except in order to say
+something new of him, or to destroy the fables, historical, physical,
+and moral, which have disfigured the history of the only great man to be
+found among the conquerors of Asia.
+
+After reflecting a little on the life of Alexander, who, amid the
+intoxications of pleasure and conquest, built more towns than all the
+other conquerors of Asia destroyed--after calling to mind that, young as
+he was, he turned the commerce of the world into a new channel, it
+appears very strange that Boileau should have spoken of him as a robber
+and a madman. Alexander, having been elected at Corinth captain-general
+of Greece, and commissioned as such to avenge the invasions of the
+Persians, did no more than his duty in destroying their empire; and,
+having always united the greatest magnanimity with the greatest
+courage--having respected the wife and daughters of Darius when in his
+power, he did not in any way deserve either to be confined as a madman
+or hanged as a robber.
+
+Rollin asserts that Alexander took the famous city of Tyre only to
+oblige the Jews, who hated the Tyrians; it is, however, quite as likely
+that Alexander had other reasons; for a naval commander would not leave
+Tyre mistress of the sea, when he was going to attack Egypt. Alexander's
+friendship and respect for Jerusalem were undoubtedly great; but it
+should hardly be said that _the Jews set a rare example of fidelity--an
+example worthy of the only people who, at that time, had the knowledge
+of the true God, in refusing to furnish Alexander with provisions
+because they had sworn fidelity to Darius_. It is well known that the
+Jews took every opportunity of revolting against their sovereigns; for a
+Jew was not to serve a profane king. If they imprudently refused
+contributions to the conqueror, it was not with a view to prove
+themselves the faithful slaves of Darius, since their law expressly
+ordered them to hold all idolatrous nations in abhorrence; their books
+are full of execrations pronounced against them, and of reiterated
+attempts to throw off their yoke. If, therefore, they at first refused
+the contributions, it was because their rivals, the Samaritans, had paid
+them without hesitation, and they believed that Darius, though
+vanquished, was still powerful enough to support Jerusalem against
+Samaria.
+
+It is wholly false that the Jews were then the only people who had the
+knowledge of the true God, as Rollin tells us. The Samaritans worshipped
+the same God, though in another temple; they had the same Pentateuch as
+the Jews, and they had it in Tyrian characters, which the Jews had lost.
+The schism between Samaria and Jerusalem was, on a small scale, what
+the schism between the Greek and Latin churches is on a large one. The
+hatred was equal on both sides, having the same foundation--religion.
+
+Alexander, having possessed himself of Tyre by means of that famous
+causeway which is still the admiration of all generals, went to punish
+Jerusalem, which lay not far out of his way. The Jews, headed by their
+high priest, came and humbled themselves before him, offering him
+money--for angry conquerors are not to be appeased without money.
+Alexander was appeased, and they remained subject to Alexander and to
+his successors. Such is the true, as well as the only probable, history
+of the affair.
+
+Rollin repeats a story told about four hundred years after Alexander's
+expedition, by that romancing, exaggerating historian, Flavius Josephus,
+who may be pardoned for having taken every opportunity of setting off
+his wretched country to the best advantage. Rollin repeats, after
+Josephus, that Jaddus, the high-priest, having prostrated himself before
+Alexander, the prince, seeing the name of Jehovah engraved on a plate of
+gold attached to Jaddus' cap, and understanding Hebrew perfectly, fell
+prostrate in his turn, and paid homage to Jaddus. This excess of
+civility having astonished Parmenio, Alexander told him that he had
+known Jaddus a long time; that he had appeared to him, in the same habit
+and the same cap, ten years before, when he was meditating the conquest
+of Asia (a conquest which he had not then even thought of); that this
+same Jaddus had exhorted him to cross the Hellespont, assuring him that
+God would march at the head of the Greeks, and that the God of the Jews
+would give him the victory over the Persians. This old woman's tale
+makes but a sorry figure in the history of such a man as Alexander.
+
+An _ancient history_ well digested was an undertaking calculated to be
+of great service to youth; it is to be wished that it had not been in
+some degree marred by the adoption of some absurdities. The story of
+Jaddus would be entitled to our respect--it would be beyond the reach of
+animadversion--were even any shadow of it to be found in the sacred
+writings; but as they do not make the slightest mention of it, we are
+quite at liberty to see that it is ridiculous.
+
+There can be no doubt that Alexander subdued that part of India which
+lies on this side the Ganges and was tributary to the Persians. Mr.
+Holwell, who lived for thirty years among the Brahmins of Benares and
+the neighboring countries, and who learned not only their modern
+language but also their ancient sacred tongue, assures us that their
+annals attest the invasion by Alexander, whom they call _Mahadukoit
+Kounha_--great robber, great murderer. These peaceful people could not
+call him otherwise; indeed, it is hardly to be supposed that they gave
+any other name to the kings of Persia. The same annals say that
+Alexander entered by the province now called Candahar, and it is
+probable that there were always some fortresses on that frontier.
+
+Alexander afterwards descended the river Zombodipo, which the Greeks
+called _Sind_. In the history of Alexander there is not a single Indian
+name to be found. The Greeks never called an Asiatic town or province by
+their own name. They dealt in the same manner with the Egyptians. They
+would have thought it a dishonor to the Greek tongue had they introduced
+into it a pronunciation which they thought barbarous; if, for instance,
+they had not called the city of _Moph_ Memphis.
+
+Mr. Holwell says that the Indians never knew either Porus or Taxiles;
+indeed these are not Indian words. Nevertheless, if we may believe our
+missionaries, there are still some Indian lords who pretend to have
+descended from Porus. Perhaps the missionaries have flattered them with
+this origin until they have adopted it. There is, at least, no country
+in Europe in which servility has not invented and vanity received
+genealogies yet more chimerical.
+
+If Flavius Josephus has related a ridiculous fable about Alexander and a
+Jewish pontiff, Plutarch, who wrote long after Josephus, in his turn
+seems not to have been sparing in fables concerning this hero. He has
+even outdone Quintus Curtius. Both assert that Alexander, when marching
+towards India, wished to have himself adored, not only by the Persians
+but also by the Greeks. The question is, what did Alexander, the
+Persians, the Greeks, Quintus Curtius, and Plutarch understand by
+_adoring_? We must never lose sight of the great rule--_Define your
+terms._
+
+If by _adoring_ he meant invoking a man as a divinity--offering to him
+incense and sacrifices--raising to him altars and temples, it is clear
+that Alexander required nothing of all this. If, being the conqueror and
+master of the Persians, he chose that they should salute him after the
+Persian manner, prostrating themselves on certain occasions, treating
+him, in short, like what he was, a sovereign of Persia, there is nothing
+in this but what is very reasonable and very common. The members of the
+French parliament, in their _beds of justice_, address the king
+kneeling; the third estate addresses the states-general kneeling, a cup
+of wine is presented kneeling, to the king of England; several European
+sovereigns are served kneeling at their consecration. The great mogul,
+the emperor of China, and the emperor of Japan are always addressed
+kneeling. The Chinese colaos of an inferior order bend the knee before
+the colaos of a superior order. We _adore_ the pope, and kiss the toe of
+his right foot. None of these ceremonies have ever been regarded as
+adoration in the strict sense of the word, or as a worship like that due
+to the Divinity.
+
+Thus, all that has been said of the pretended adoration exacted by
+Alexander is founded on ambiguity.
+
+Octavius, surnamed _Augustus_, really caused himself to be _adored_ in
+the strictest sense of the word. Temples and altars were raised to him.
+There were _priests of Augustus_. Horace positively tells him:
+
+     _"Jurandisque tuum par nomen ponimus aras."_
+
+Here was truly a sacrilegious adoration; yet we are not told that it
+excited discontent.
+
+The contradictions in the character of Alexander would be more difficult
+to reconcile did we not know that men, especially men called _heroes_,
+are often very inconsistent with themselves, and that the life or death
+of the best citizens, or the fate of a province, has more than once
+depended on the good or bad digestion of a well or ill advised
+sovereign.
+
+But how are we to reconcile improbable facts related in a contradictory
+manner? Some say that Callisthenes was crucified by order of Alexander
+for not having acknowledged him to be the son of Jupiter. But the cross
+was not a mode of execution among the Greeks. Others say that he died
+long afterwards, of too great corpulency. Athenæus assures us that he
+was carried, like a bird, in an iron cage until he was devoured by
+vermin. Among all these different stories distinguish the true one if
+you can. Some adventures are supposed by Quintus Curtius to have
+happened in one town, and by Plutarch in another, the two places being
+five hundred leagues apart. Alexander, armed and alone, leaped from the
+top of a wall into a town he was besieging; according to Plutarch near
+the mouth of the Indus. When he arrived on the Malabar coast, or near
+the Ganges--no matter which, it is only nine hundred miles from the one
+to the other--he gave orders to seize ten of the Indian philosophers,
+called by the Greeks _gymnosophists_, who went about as naked as apes;
+to those he proposed ridiculous questions, promising them very seriously
+that he who gave the worst answers should be hanged the first, and the
+rest in due order. This reminds us of Nebuchadonosor, who would
+absolutely put his magi to death if they did not divine one of his
+dreams which he had forgotten; and of the _Caliph_ of the "Thousand and
+One Nights," who was to strangle his wife as soon as she had finished
+her story. But it is Plutarch who relates this nonsense; therefore it
+must be respected, for he was _a Greek_.
+
+This latter story is entitled to the same credit as that of the
+poisoning of Alexander by Aristotle; for Plutarch tells us that somebody
+had heard one _Agnotemis_ say, that he had heard Antigonus say, that
+Aristotle sent a bottle of water from Nonacris, a town in Arcadia, which
+water was so extremely cold that they who drank it instantly died; that
+Antipater sent this water in a horn; that it arrived at Babylon quite
+fresh; that Alexander drank of it; and that, at the end of six days, he
+died of a continued fever.
+
+Plutarch has, it is true, some doubts respecting this anecdote. All that
+we can be quite certain of is that Alexander, at the age of twenty-four,
+had conquered Persia by three battles; that his genius was as great as
+his valor; that he changed the face of Asia, Greece, and Egypt, and gave
+a new direction to the commerce of the world; and that Boileau should
+have been more sparing of his ridicule, since it is not very likely that
+Boileau would have done more in as short a time.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDRIA.
+
+
+More than twenty towns have borne the name of Alexandria, all built by
+Alexander and his captains, who became so many kings. These towns are so
+many monuments of glory, far superior to the statues which servility
+afterwards erected to power; but the only one of them which attracted
+the attention of the world by its greatness and its wealth was that
+which became the capital of Egypt. This is now but a heap of ruins; for
+it is well known that one half of the city has been rebuilt on another
+site, near the sea. The lighthouse, formerly one of the wonders of the
+world, has also ceased to exist.
+
+The city was always flourishing under the Ptolemies and the Romans. It
+did not decline under the Arabs, nor did the Mamelukes or the Turks, who
+successively conquered it, together with the rest of Egypt, suffer it to
+go to decay. It preserved some portion of its greatness until the
+passage of the Cape of Good Hope opened a new route to the Indies, and
+once more gave a new direction to the commerce of the world, which
+Alexander had previously changed, and which had been changed several
+times before Alexander.
+
+The Alexandrians were remarkable, under all their successive
+dominations, for industry united with levity; for love of novelty,
+accompanied by a close application to commerce, and to all the arts that
+make commerce flourish; and for a contentious and quarrelsome spirit,
+joined to cowardice, superstition, and debauchery--all which never
+changed. The city was peopled with Egyptians, Jews, and Turks, all of
+whom, though poor at first, enriched themselves by traffic. Opulence
+introduced the cultivation of the fine arts, with a taste for
+literature, and consequently for disputation.
+
+The Jews built a magnificent temple, and translated their books into
+Greek, which had become the language of the country. So great were the
+animosities among the native Egyptians, the Greeks, the Jews, and the
+Christians, that they were continually accusing one another to the
+governor, to the no small advantage of his revenue. There were even
+frequent and bloody seditions, in one of which, in the reign of
+Caligula, the Jews, who exaggerate everything, assert that religious and
+commercial jealousy, united, cost them fifty thousand men, whom the
+Alexandrians murdered.
+
+Christianity, which the Origens, Clements, and others had established
+and rendered admirable by their lives, degenerated into a mere spirit of
+party. The Christians adopted the manners of the Egyptians; religion
+yielded to the desire of gain; and all the inhabitants, divided in
+everything else, were unanimous only in the love of money. This it was
+which produced that famous letter from the Emperor Adrian to the Consul
+Servianus, which Vopiscus gives us as follows:
+
+ADRIANI EPISTOLA, EX LIBRIS PHLEGONTIS EJUS PRODITA.
+
+_Adrianus Augustus Serviano Cos. Vo._
+
+_Ægyptum, quam mihi laudabas, Serviane carissime, totam didici, levem,
+pendulam, et ad omnia famæ monumenta volitantem. Illi qui Serapin colunt
+Christiani sunt, et devoti sunt Serapi qui se_ CHRISTI _episcopus
+dicunt. Nemo illic Archisynagogus Judæorum, nemo Semarites, nemo
+Christianorum presbyter, non mathematicus, non aruspex, non aliptes.
+Ipse ille Patriarcha, quum Ægyptum venerit, ab aliis Serapidem adorare,
+ab aliis cogitur_ CHRISTUM. _Genus hominis seditiosissimum,
+injuriosissimum. Civitas opulenta, dives, fecunda, in qua nemo vivat
+otiosus. Alli vitrum constant, ab aliis charta conficitur; omnes certe
+lymphiones cujuscunque artis et videntur et habentur, Podagrosi quod
+agant habent, coeci quod faciant; ne chiragri quidem apud cos otiosi
+vivunt. Unus illis deus est; hunc Christiani, hunc Judæi, hunc homnes
+venerantur et gentes._
+
+Which may be rendered thus:
+
+"My dear Servian: I have seen that Egypt of which you have spoken so
+highly; I know it thoroughly. It is a light, uncertain, fickle nation.
+The worshippers of Serapis turn Christians, and they who are at the head
+of the religion of Christ devote themselves to Serapis. There is no
+chief of the rabbis, no Samaritan, no Christian priest who is not an
+astrologer, a diviner, a pander. When the Greek patriarch comes into
+Egypt, some press him to worship Serapis, others to adore Christ. They
+are very seditious, very vain, and very quarrelsome. The city is
+commercial, opulent, and populous. No one is idle. Some make glass;
+others manufacture paper; they seem to be, and indeed are, of all
+trades; not even the gout in their feet and hands can reduce them to
+entire inactivity; even the blind work. Money is a god which the
+Christians, Jews, and all men adore alike."
+
+This letter of an emperor, whose discernment was as great as his valor,
+sufficiently proves that the Christians, as well as others, had become
+corrupted in this abode of luxury and controversy; but the manners of
+the primitive Christians had not degenerated everywhere; and although
+they had the misfortune to be for a long time divided into different
+sects, which detested and accused one another, the most violent enemies
+of Christianity were obliged to acknowledge that the purest and the
+greatest souls were to be found among its proselytes. Such is the case
+even at the present day in cities wherein the degree of folly and frenzy
+exceeds that of ancient Alexandria.
+
+
+
+
+ALGIERS.
+
+
+The principal object of this dictionary is philosophy. It is not,
+therefore, as geographers that we speak of Algiers, but for the purpose
+of remarking that the first design of Louis XIV., when he took the
+reigns of government, was to deliver Christian Europe from the continual
+depredations of the Barbary corsairs. This project was an indication of
+a great mind. He wished to pursue every road to glory. It is somewhat
+astonishing that, with the spirit of order which he showed in his court,
+in his finances, and in the conduct of state affairs, he had a sort of
+relish for ancient chivalry, which led him to the performance of
+generous and brilliant actions, even approaching the romantic. It is
+certain that Louis inherited from his mother a deal of that Spanish
+gallantry, at once noble and delicate, with much of that greatness of
+soul--that passion for glory--that lofty pride, so conspicuous in old
+romances. He talked of fighting the emperor Leopold, like a knight
+seeking adventures. The erection of the pyramid at Rome, the assertion
+of his right of precedence, and the idea of having a port near Algiers
+to curb the pirates, were likewise of this class. To this latter attempt
+he was moreover excited by Pope Alexander VII., and by Cardinal Mazarin
+before his death. He had for some time debated with himself whether he
+should go on this expedition in person, like Charles the Fifth; but he
+had not vessels to execute so great an enterprise, whether in person or
+by his generals. The attempt was therefore fruitless, and it could not
+be otherwise.
+
+It was, however, of service in exercising the French marine, and
+prepared the world to expect some of those noble and heroic actions
+which are out of the ordinary line of policy, such as the disinterested
+aid lent to the Venetians besieged in Candia, and to the Germans pressed
+by the Ottoman arms at St. Gothard.
+
+The details of the African expedition are lost in the number of
+successful or unsuccessful wars, waged justly or unjustly, with good or
+bad policy. We shall merely give the following letter, which was written
+some years ago on the subject of the Algerine piracies:
+
+"It is to be lamented, sire, that the proposals of the order of Malta
+were not acceded to, when they offered, on consideration of a moderate
+subsidy from each Christian power, to free the seas from the pirates of
+Algiers, Morocco, and Tunis. The knights of Malta would then have been
+truly the defenders of Christianity. The actual force of the Algerines
+is but two fifty-gun ships, five of about forty, and four of thirty
+guns; the rest are not worth mentioning.
+
+"It is shameful to see their little barks seizing our merchant vessels
+every day throughout the Mediterranean. They even cruise as far as the
+Canaries and the Azores.
+
+"Their soldiery, composed of a variety of nations--ancient
+Mauritanians, ancient Numidians, Arabs, Turks, and even negroes, set
+sail, almost without provisions, in tight vessels carrying from eighteen
+to twenty guns, and infest all our seas like vultures seeking their
+prey. When they see a man of war, they fly; when they see a merchant
+vessel they seize it. Our friends and our relatives, men and women, are
+made slaves; and we must humbly supplicate the barbarians to deign to
+receive our money for restoring to us their captives.
+
+"Some Christian states have had the shameful prudence to treat with
+them, and send them arms wherewith to attack others, bargaining with
+them as _merchants_, while they negotiate as _warriors_.
+
+"Nothing would be more easy than to put down these marauders; yet it is
+not done. But how many other useful and easy things are entirely
+neglected! The necessity of reducing these pirates is acknowledged in
+every prince's cabinet; yet no one undertakes their reduction. When the
+ministers of different courts accidently talk the matter over, they do
+but illustrate the fable of _tying the bell round the cat's neck_.
+
+"The order of the Redemption of Captives is the finest of all monastic
+institutions, but it is a sad reproach to us. The kingdoms of Fez,
+Algiers, and Tunis have no _marabous_ of the Redemption of Captives;
+because, though they take many Christians from us, we take scarcely any
+Mussulmans from them.
+
+"Nevertheless, they are more attached to their religion than we are to
+ours; for no Turk or Arab ever turns Christian, while they have hundreds
+of renegadoes among them, who even serve in their expeditions. An
+Italian named _Pelegini_, was, in 1712, captain-general of the Algerine
+galleys. The miramolin, the bey, the dey, all have Christian females in
+their seraglios, but there are only two Turkish girls who have found
+lovers in Paris.
+
+"The Algerine land force consists of twelve thousand regular soldiers
+only; but all the rest of the men are trained to arms; and it is this
+that renders the conquest of the country so difficult. The Vandals,
+however, easily subdued it; yet we dare not attack it."
+
+
+
+
+ALLEGORIES.
+
+
+Jupiter, Neptune, and Mercury, travelling one day in Thrace, called on a
+certain king named Hyreus, who entertained them very handsomely. After
+eating a good dinner, they asked him if they could render him any
+service. The good man, who was past the age at which it is usual for men
+to have children, told them he should be very much obliged to them if
+they would make him a boy. The three gods then urinated on the skin of a
+new flayed ox; and from these sprang Orion, who became one of the
+constellations known to the most remote antiquity. This constellation
+was named Orion by the ancient Chaldæans; it is spoken of in the Book of
+Job. It would be hard to discover a rational allegory in this pretty
+story, unless we are to infer from it that nothing was impossible to the
+gods.
+
+There were in Greece two young rakes, who were told by the oracle to
+beware of the _melampygos_ or _sable posteriors_. One day Hercules took
+them and tied them by the feet to the end of his club, so that they hung
+down his back with their heads downward, like a couple of rabbits,
+having a full view of his person. "Ah!" said they; "the oracle is
+accomplished; this is the _melampygos_." Hercules fell alaughing, and
+let them go. Here again it would be rather difficult to divine the moral
+sense.
+
+Among the fathers of mythology there were some who had only imagination;
+but the greater part of them possessed understandings of no mean order.
+Not all our academies, not all our makers of devices, not even they who
+compose the legends for the counters of the royal treasury, will ever
+invent allegories more true, more pleasing, or more ingenious, than
+those of the Nine Muses, of Venus, the Graces, the God of Love, and so
+many others, which will be the delight and instruction of all ages.
+
+The ancients, it must be confessed, almost always spoke in allegories.
+The earlier fathers of the church, the greater part of whom were
+Platonists, imitated this method of Plato's. They have, indeed, been
+reproached with having carried this taste for allegories and allusions a
+little too far.
+
+St. Justin, in his "Apology," says that the sign of the cross is marked
+in the limbs and features of man; that when he extends his arms there is
+a perfect cross; and that his nose and eyes form a cross upon his face.
+
+According to Origen's explanation of Leviticus, the _fat_ of the victims
+signifies _the Church_, and the _tail_ is a symbol of _perseverance_.
+
+St. Augustine, in his sermon on the difference and agreement of the two
+genealogies of Christ, explains to his auditors why St. Matthew,
+although he reckons forty-two generations, enumerates only forty-one. It
+is, says he, because _Jechonias_ must be reckoned twice, Jechonias
+having gone from Jerusalem to Babylon. This journey is to be considered
+as the corner-stone; and if the corner-stone is the first of one side of
+a building, it is also the first of the other side; consequently this
+stone must be reckoned twice; and therefore Jechonias must be reckoned
+twice. He adds that, in the forty-two generations, we must dwell on the
+number _forty_, because that number signifies _life_. The number _ten_
+denotes _blessedness_, and _ten_ multiplied by _four_, which represents
+the four elements and the four seasons, produces _forty_.
+
+In his fifty-third sermon, the dimensions of matter have astonishing
+properties. Breadth _is the dilation of the heart_, length is
+_long-suffering_, height is _hope_, and depth is _faith_. So that,
+besides the allegory, we have four dimensions of matter instead of
+three.
+
+It is clear and indubitable (says he in his sermon on the 6th psalm)
+that the number _four_ denotes the human body, because of the four
+elements, and the four qualities of _hot_, _cold_, _moist_, and _dry_;
+and as _four_ relates to the body, so _three_ relates to the soul; for
+we must love God with a triple love--with all our _hearts_ with all our
+_souls_, and with all our _minds_. _Four_ also relates to the Old
+Testament, and _three_ to the New. _Four_ and _three_ make up the number
+of _seven_ days, and the _eight_ is the _day of judgment_.
+
+One cannot but feel that there is in these allegories an affectation but
+little compatible with true eloquence. The fathers, who sometimes made
+use of these figures, wrote in times and countries in which nearly all
+the arts were degenerating. Their learning and fine genius were warped
+by the imperfections of the age in which they lived. St. Augustine is
+not to be respected the less for having paid this tribute to the bad
+taste of Africa and the fourth century.
+
+The discourses of our modern preachers are not disfigured by similar
+faults. Not that we dare prefer them to the fathers; but the present age
+is to be preferred to the ages in which they wrote. Eloquence, which
+became more and more corrupted, and was not revived until later times,
+fell, after them, into still greater extravagances; and the languages of
+all barbarous nations were alike ridiculous until the age of Louis XIV.
+Look at all the old collections of sermons; they are far below the
+dramatic pieces of the Passion, which used to be played at the Hôtel de
+Bourgogne. But the spirit of allegory, which has never been lost, may be
+traced throughout these barbarous discourses. The celebrated _Ménot_,
+who lived in the reign of Francis I., did more honor, perhaps, than any
+other to the allegorical style. "The worthy administrators of justice,"
+said he, "are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be
+gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese
+than twenty mice can do."
+
+Here is another very curious passage: "The woodmen, in a forest, cut
+large and small branches, and bind them in faggots; just so do our
+ecclesiastics, with dispensations from Rome, heap together great and
+small benefices. The cardinal's hat is garnished with bishoprics, the
+bishoprics are garnished with abbeys and priories, and the whole is
+garnished with devils. All these church possessions must pass through
+the three links of the _Ave Maria_; for _benedicta tu_ stands for fat
+abbeys of Benedictines, _in mulieribus_ for _monsieur_ and _madame_, and
+_fructus ventris_ for banquets and gormandizers."
+
+The sermons of Barlet and Maillard are all framed after this model, and
+were delivered half in bad Latin, and half in bad French. The Italian
+sermons were in the same taste; and the German were still worse. This
+monstrous medley gave birth to the _macaroni_ style, the very climax of
+barbarism. The species of oratory, worthy only of the Indians on the
+banks of the Missouri, prevailed even so lately as the reign of Louis
+XIII. The Jesuit Garasse, one of the most distinguished enemies of
+common sense, never preached in any other style. He likened the
+celebrated _Theophile_ to a calf, because Theophile's family name was
+_Viaud_, something resembling _veau_ (a calf). "But," said he, "the
+flesh of a calf is good to roast and to boil, whereas thine is good for
+nothing but to _burn_."
+
+All these allegories, used by our barbarians, fall infinitely short of
+those employed by Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, which proves that if there be
+still some Goths and Vandals who despise ancient fable they are not
+altogether in the right.
+
+
+
+
+ALMANAC.
+
+
+It is of little moment to know whether we have the word _almanac_ from
+the ancient Saxons, who could not write, or from the Arabs, who are
+known to have been astronomers, and to have had some acquaintance with
+the courses of the planets, while the western nations were still wrapped
+in an ignorance as great as their barbarism. I shall here confine myself
+to one short observation.
+
+Let an Indian philosopher, who has embarked at Meliapour, come to
+Bayonne. I shall suppose this philosopher to be a man of sense, which,
+you will say, is rare among the learned of India; to be divested of all
+scholastic prejudices--a thing that was rare everywhere not long
+ago--and I shall suppose him to meet with a blockhead in our part of the
+world--which is not quite so great a rarity.
+
+Our blockhead, in order to make him conversant with our arts and
+sciences, presents him with a Liège almanac, composed by _Matthew
+Lansberg_, and the Lame Messenger (_Messager boiteux_) by _Anthony
+Souci, astrologer and historian_, printed every year at Basle, and sold
+to the number of 20,000 copies in eight days. There you behold the fine
+figure of a man, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac, with certain
+indications most clearly demonstrating that the _scales_ preside over
+the _posteriors_, the _ram_ over the _head_, the _fishes_ over the
+_feet_, etc.
+
+Each day of the moon informs you when you must take _Le Lièvre's_ balm
+of life, or _Keiser's_ pills; when you must be bled, have your nails
+cut, wean your children, plant, sow, go a journey, or put on a pair of
+new shoes. The Indian, when he hears these lessons, will do well to say
+to his guide that he will have none of his almanac.
+
+So soon as our simpleton shall have shown the philosopher a few of our
+ceremonies, which every wise man disapproves, but which are tolerated in
+order to amuse the populace, through pure contempt for that populace,
+the traveller, seeing these mummeries, followed by a tambourine dance,
+will not fail to pity and take us for madmen, who are, nevertheless,
+very amusing and not absolutely cruel. He will write home to the
+president of the Grand College of Benares that we have not common sense;
+but that if _His Paternity_ will send enlightened and discreet persons
+among us, something may, _with the blessing of God_, be made of us.
+
+It was precisely in this way that our first missionaries, especially St.
+Francis Xavier, spoke of the people inhabiting the peninsula of India.
+They even fell into still grosser mistakes respecting the customs of the
+Indians, their sciences, their opinions, their manners, and their
+worship. The accounts which they sent to Europe were extremely curious.
+Every statue was a devil; every assembly a sabbath; every symbolical
+figure a talisman; every Brahmin a sorcerer; and these are made the
+subject of never-ending lamentations. They hope that _the harvest will
+be abundant_; and add, by a rather incongruous metaphor, that _they will
+labor effectually in the vineyard of the Lord_, in a country where wine
+has always been unknown. Thus, or nearly thus, have every people judged,
+not only of distant nations, but of their neighbors.
+
+The Chinese are said to be the most ancient almanac-makers. The finest
+of their emperor's privileges is that of sending his calendar to his
+vassals and neighbors; their refusal of which would be considered as a
+bravado, and war would forthwith be made upon them, as it used to be in
+Europe on feudal lords who refused their homage.
+
+If we have only _twelve_ constellations, the Chinese have
+_twenty-eight_, the names of which have not the least affinity with
+ours--a sufficient proof that they have taken nothing from the Chaldæan
+Zodiac, that we have adopted. But though they have had a complete
+system of astrology for more than four thousand years, they resemble
+_Matthew Lansberg_ and _Anthony Souci_ in the fine predictions and
+secrets of health with which they stuff their _Imperial Almanac_. They
+divide the day into ten thousand minutes, and know, with the greatest
+precision, what minute is favorable or otherwise. When the Emperor Kamhi
+wished to employ the Jesuit missionaries in making the almanac, they are
+said to have excused themselves, at first, on account of the extravagant
+superstitions with which it must be filled. "I have much less faith than
+you in the superstitions," replied the emperor; "only make me a good
+calendar, and leave it for my learned men to fill up the book with their
+foolery."
+
+The ingenious author of the "Plurality of Worlds" ridicules the Chinese,
+because, says he, they see a thousand stars fall at once into the sea.
+It is very likely that the Emperor Kamhi ridiculed this notion as well
+as Fontenelle. Some Chinese almanac-maker had, it would seem, been
+good-natured enough to speak of these meteors after the manner of the
+people, and to take them for stars. Every country has its foolish
+notions. All the nations of antiquity made the sun lie down in the sea,
+where for a long time we sent the stars. We have believed that the
+clouds touched the firmament, that the firmament was a hard substance,
+and that it supported a reservoir of water. It has not long been known
+in our towns that the Virgin-thread (_fil de la vierge_) so often found
+in the country, is nothing more than the thread spun by a spider. Let us
+not laugh at any people. Let us reflect that the Chinese had astrolabes
+and spheres before we could read, and that if they have made no great
+progress in astronomy, it is through that same respect for the ancients
+which we have had for Aristotle.
+
+It is consoling to know that the Roman people, _populus late rex_, were,
+in this particular, far behind Matthew Lansberg, and the Lame Messenger,
+and the astrologers of China, until the period when Julius Cæsar
+reformed the Roman year, which we have received from him and still call
+by his name--the _Julian Calendar_, although we have no _calends_, and
+he was obliged to reform it himself.
+
+The primitive Romans had, at first, a year of ten months, making three
+hundred and four days; this was neither _solar_ nor _lunar_, nor
+anything except barbarous. The Roman year was afterwards composed of
+three hundred and fifty-five days--another mistake, which was corrected
+so imperfectly that, in Cæsar's time, the summer festivals were held in
+winter. The Roman generals always triumphed, but never knew _on what
+day_ they triumphed.
+
+Cæsar reformed everything; he seemed to rule both heaven and earth. I
+know not through what complaisance for the Roman customs it was that he
+began the year at a time when it does not begin--that is, eight days
+after the winter solstice. All the nations composing the Roman Empire
+submitted to this innovation; even the Egyptians, who had until then
+given the law in all that related to almanacs, received it; but none of
+these different nations altered anything in the distribution of their
+feasts. The Jews, like the rest, celebrated their _new moons_; their
+_phase_ or _pascha_, the fourteenth day of the moon of March, called
+_the red-haired moon_, which day often fell in April; their _Pentecost_,
+fifty days after the _pascha_; the _feast of horns_ or _trumpets_, the
+first day of July; that of _tabernacles_ on the fifteenth of the same
+month, and that of _the great sabbath_, seven days afterwards.
+
+The first Christians followed the computations of the empire, and
+reckoned by _calends_, _nones_, and _ides_, like their masters; they
+likewise received the Bissextile, which we have still, although it was
+found necessary to correct it in the fifteenth century, and it must some
+day be corrected again; but they conformed to the Jewish methods in the
+celebration of their great feasts. They fixed their _Easter_ for the
+fourteenth day of the _red moon_, until the Council of Nice determined
+that it should be the Sunday following. Those who celebrated it on the
+fourteenth were declared heretics; and both were mistaken in their
+calculation.
+
+The feasts of the Blessed Virgin were, as far as possible, substituted
+for the new moons. The author of the "Roman Calendar" (_Le Calendrier
+Romain_) says the reason of this is drawn from the verse of the
+Canticle, _pulchra ut luna_, "fair as the moon"; but, by the same rule,
+these feasts should be held on a Sunday, for in the same verse we find
+_electa ut sol_, "chosen like the sun." The Christians also kept the
+feast of Pentecost; it was fixed, like that of the Jews, precisely fifty
+days after Easter. The same author asserts that _saint-days_ took the
+place of the feasts of _tabernacles_. He adds that St. John's day was
+fixed for the 24th of June, only because the days then begin to shorten,
+and St. John had said, when speaking of Jesus Christ, "He must grow, and
+I must become less"--_Oportet ilium crescere, me autem minui._ There is
+something very singular in the ancient ceremony of lighting a great fire
+on St. John's day, in the hottest period of the year. It has been said
+to be a very old custom, originally designed to commemorate the ancient
+burning of the world, which awaited a second conflagration. The same
+writer assures us that the feast of the Assumption is kept on the 15th
+of August because the sun is then in the sign of the Virgin. He also
+certifies that St. Mathias' day is in the month of February, because he
+was, as it were, _intercalated_ among the twelve apostles, as a day is
+added to February every leap-year. There would, perhaps, be something in
+these astronomical imaginings to make our Indian philosopher smile;
+nevertheless, the author of them was mathematical master to the Dauphin,
+son of Louis XIV., and moreover, an engineer and a very worthy officer.
+
+
+
+
+ALTARS, TEMPLES, RITES, SACRIFICES, ETC.
+
+
+It is universally acknowledged that the first Christians had neither
+temples, nor altars, nor tapers, nor incense, nor holy water, nor any of
+those rites which the prudence of pastors afterwards instituted, in
+conformity with times and places, but more especially with the various
+_wants of the faithful_.
+
+We have ample testimony in Origen, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Justin, and
+Tertullian, that the primitive Christians held temples and altars in
+abomination; and that not merely because they could not in the beginning
+obtain permission from the government to build temples, but because they
+had a real aversion for everything that seemed to apply any affinity
+with other religions. This abhorrence existed among them for two hundred
+and fifty years, as is proved by the following passage of Minutius
+Felix, who lived in the third century. Addressing the Romans, he says:
+
+     _"Putatis autem nos occultare quod colimus, si delubra et aras non
+     habemus. Quod enim simulacrum Deo fingam, quum, si recte existimes,
+     sit Dei homo ipse simulacrum? quod templum ei exstruam, quum totus
+     hic mundus, ejus opere fabricatus, eum capere non possit? et quum
+     homo latius maneam, intra unam ædiculum vim tantæ majestatis
+     includam? nonne melius in nostra dedicandus est mente, in nostro
+     imo consecrandus est pectore?"_
+
+"You think that we conceal what we adore, because we have neither
+temples nor altars. But what shall we erect like to God, since man
+himself is God's image? What temple shall we build for Him, when the
+whole world, which is the work of His hands, cannot contain Him? How
+shall we enclose the power of such majesty in one dwelling-place? Is it
+not better to consecrate a temple to Him in our minds and in our
+hearts?"
+
+The Christians, then, had no temples until about the beginning of the
+reign of Diocletian. The Church had then become very numerous; and it
+was found necessary to introduce those decorations and rites which, at
+an earlier period, would have been useless and even dangerous to a
+slender flock, long despised, and considered as nothing more than a
+small sect of dissenting Jews.
+
+It is manifest that, while they were confounded with the Jews, they
+could not obtain permission to erect temples. The Jews, who paid very
+dear for their synagogues, would themselves have opposed it; for they
+were mortal enemies to the Christians, and they were rich. We must not
+say, with Toland, that the Christians, who at that time made a show of
+despising temples and altars, were like the fox that said the grapes
+were sour. This comparison appears as unjust as it is impious, since all
+the primitive Christians in so many different countries, agreed in
+maintaining that there was no need of raising temples or altars to the
+true God.
+
+Providence, acting by second causes, willed that they should erect a
+splendid temple at Nicomedia, the residence of the Emperor Diocletian,
+as soon as they had obtained that sovereign's protection. They built
+others in other cities; but still they had a horror of tapers, lustral
+water, pontifical habits, etc. All this pomp and circumstance was in
+their eyes no other than a distinctive mark of paganism. These customs
+were adopted under Constantine and his successors, and have frequently
+changed.
+
+Our good women of the present day, who every Sunday hear a Latin mass,
+at which a little boy attends, imagine that this rite has been observed
+from the earliest ages, that there never was any other, and that the
+custom in other countries of assembling to offer up prayers to God in
+common is diabolical and quite of recent origin. There is, undeniably,
+something very respectable in a mass, since it has been authorized by
+the Church; it is not at all an ancient usage, but is not the less
+entitled to our veneration.
+
+There is not, perhaps, a single ceremony of this day which was in use in
+the time of the apostles. The Holy Spirit has always conformed himself
+to the times. He inspired the first disciples in a mean apartment; He
+now communicates His inspirations in St. Peter's at Rome, which cost
+several millions--equally divine, however, in the wretched room, and in
+the superb edifice of Julius II., Leo X., Paul III., and Sixtus V.
+
+
+
+
+AMAZONS.
+
+
+Bold and vigorous women have been often seen to fight like men. History
+makes mention of such; for, without reckoning Semiramis, Tomyris, or
+Penthesilea--who, perhaps, existed only in fable--it is certain that
+there were many women in the armies of the first caliphs. In the tribe
+of the Homerites, especially, it was a sort of law, dictated by love and
+courage, that in battle wives should succor and avenge their husbands,
+and mothers their children.
+
+When the famous chief Derar was fighting in Syria against the generals
+of the Emperor Heraclius, in the time of the caliph Abubeker, successor
+to Mahomet, Peter, who commanded at Damascus, took thither several
+women, whom he had captured, together with some booty, in one of his
+excursions; among the prisoners was the sister of Derar. Alvakedi's
+"Arabian History," translated by Ockley, says that she was a perfect
+beauty, and that Peter became enamored of her, paid great attention to
+her on the way, and indulged her and her fellow-prisoners with short
+marches. They encamped in an extensive plain, under tents, guarded by
+troops posted at a short distance. _Caulah_ (so this sister of Derar's
+was named) proposed to one of her companions, called _Oserra_, that they
+should endeavor to escape from captivity, and persuaded her rather to
+die than be a victim to the lewd desires of the Christians. The same
+Mahometan enthusiasm seized all the women; they armed themselves with
+the iron-pointed staves that supported their tents, and with a sort of
+dagger which they wore in their girdles; they then formed a circle, as
+the cows do when they present their horns to attacking wolves. Peter
+only laughed at first; he advanced toward the women, who gave him hard
+blows with the staves; after hesitating for some time, he at length
+resolved to use force; the sabres of his men were already drawn, when
+Derar arrived, put the Greeks to flight, and delivered his sister and
+the other captives.
+
+Nothing can more strongly resemble those times called _heroic_, sung by
+Homer. Here are the same single combats at the head of armies, the
+combatants frequently holding a long conversation before they commence
+fighting; and this, no doubt, justifies Homer.
+
+Thomas, governor of Syria, Heraclius's son-in-law, made a sally from
+Damascus, and attacked Sergiabil, having first prayed to Jesus Christ.
+"Unjust aggressor," said he to Sergiabil, "thou canst not resist Jesus,
+my God, who will fight for the champions of His religion." "Thou tellest
+an impious lie," answered Sergiabil; "Jesus is not greater before God
+than Adam. God raised Him from the dust; He gave life to Him as to
+another man, and, after leaving Him for some time on earth, took Him up
+into heaven." After some more verbal skirmishing the fight began. Thomas
+discharged an arrow, which wounded young Aban, the son of Saib, by the
+side of the valiant Sergiabil; Aban fell and expired; the news of his
+death reached his young wife, to whom he had been united but a few days
+before; she neither wept nor complained, but ran to the field of battle,
+with a quiver at her back, and a couple of arrows in her hand; with the
+first of these she killed the Christian standard-bearer, and the Arabs
+seized the trophy, crying, _Allah achar!_ With the other she shot Thomas
+in the eye, and he retired, bleeding, into the town.
+
+Arabian history is full of similar examples, but they do not tell us
+that these warlike women burned their right breast, that they might draw
+the bow better, nor that they lived without men; on the contrary, they
+exposed themselves in battle for their husbands or their lovers; from
+which very circumstance we must conclude that, so far from reproaching
+Ariosto and Tasso for having introduced so many enamored warriors into
+their poems, we should praise them for having delineated real and
+interesting manners.
+
+When the crusading mania was at its height there were some Christian
+women who shared the fatigues and dangers of their husbands. To such a
+pitch, indeed, was this enthusiasm carried that the Genoese women
+undertook a crusade of their own, and were on the point of setting out
+for Palestine to form petticoat battalions; they had made a vow so to
+do, but were absolved from it by a pope, who was a little wiser than
+themselves.
+
+Margaret of Anjou, wife of the unfortunate Henry VI. of England,
+evinced, in a juster war, a valor truly heroic; she fought in ten
+battles to deliver her husband. History affords no authenticated example
+of greater or more persevering courage in a woman. She had been
+preceded by the celebrated Countess de Montfort, in Brittany. "This
+princess," says d'Argentré, "was virtuous beyond the nature of her sex,
+and valiant beyond all men; she mounted her horse, and managed him
+better than any esquire; she fought hand to hand, or charged a troop of
+armed men like the most valiant captain; she fought on sea and land with
+equal bravery," etc. She went, sword in hand, through her states, which
+were invaded by her competitor, Charles de Blois. She not only sustained
+two assaults, armed cap-à-pie, in the breach of Hennebon, but she made a
+sortie with five hundred men, attacked the enemy's camp, set fire to it,
+and reduced it to ashes.
+
+The exploits of Joan of Arc, better known as the _Maid of Orleans_, are
+less astonishing than those of Margaret of Anjou and the Countess de
+Montfort. These two princesses having been brought up in the luxury of
+courts, and Joan of Arc in the rude exercises of country life, it was
+more singular, as well as more noble, to quit a _palace_ for the field
+than a _cottage_.
+
+The heroine who defended Beauvais was, perhaps, superior to her who
+raised the siege of Orleans, for she fought quite as well, and neither
+boasted of being _a maid_, nor of being _inspired_. It was in 1472, when
+the Burgundian army was besieging Beauvais, that Jeanne Hachette, at the
+head of a number of women, sustained an assault for a considerable time,
+wrested the standard from one of the enemy who was about to plant it on
+the breach, threw the bearer into the trench, and gave time for the
+king's troops to arrive and relieve the town. Her descendants have been
+exempted from the _taille_ (poll tax)--a mean and shameful recompense!
+The women and girls of Beauvais are more flattered by their walking
+before the men in the procession on the anniversary day. Every public
+mark of honor is an encouragement of merit; but the exemption from the
+_taille_ is but a proof that the persons so exempted were subjected to
+this servitude by the misfortune of their birth.
+
+There is hardly any nation which does not boast of having produced such
+heroines; the number of these, however, is not great; nature seems to
+have designed women for other purposes. Women have been known but rarely
+to exhibit themselves as soldiers. In short, every people have had their
+female warriors; but the kingdom of the Amazons, on the banks of the
+Thermodon, is, like most other ancient stories, nothing more than a
+poetic fiction.
+
+
+
+
+AMBIGUITY--EQUIVOCATION.
+
+
+For want of defining terms, and especially for want of a clear
+understanding, almost all laws, that should be as plain as arithmetic
+and geometry, are as obscure as logogriphs. The melancholy proof of this
+is that nearly all processes are founded on the sense of the laws,
+always differently understood by the pleaders, the advocates, and the
+judges.
+
+The whole public law of Europe had its origin in equivocal expressions,
+beginning with the Salique law. _She shall not inherit Salique land._
+But what is _Salique land_? And shall not a girl inherit money, or a
+necklace, left to her, which may be worth more than the land?
+
+The citizens of Rome saluted Karl, son of the Austrasian Pepin le Bref,
+by the name of _imperator_. Did they understand thereby: _We confer on
+you all the prerogatives of Octavius, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius?
+We give you all the country which they possessed?_ However, they could
+not give it; for so far were they from being masters of it that they
+were scarcely masters of their own city. There never was a more
+equivocal expression; and such as it was then it still is.
+
+Did Leo III., the bishop of Rome who is said to have saluted Charlemagne
+emperor, comprehend the meaning of the words which he pronounced? The
+Germans assert that he understood by them that Charles should be his
+master. The Datary has asserted that he meant he should be master over
+Charlemagne.
+
+Have not things the most venerable, the most sacred, the most divine,
+been obscured by the ambiguities of language? Ask two Christians of what
+religion they are. Each will answer, _I am a Catholic_. You think they
+are both of the same communion; yet one is of the Greek, the other of
+the Latin church; and they are irreconcilable. If you seek to be further
+informed, you will find that by the word _Catholic_ each of them
+understands _universal_, in which case _universal_ signifies _a part_.
+
+The soul of St. Francis is in _heaven_--is in _paradise_. One of these
+words signifies _the air_; the other means _a garden_. The word _spirit_
+is used alike to express _extract_, _thought_, _distilled liquor_,
+_apparition_. Ambiguity has been so necessary a vice in all languages,
+formed by what is called _chance_ and by custom, that the author of all
+clearness and truth Himself condescended to speak after the manner of
+His people; whence is it that _Elohim_ signifies in some places
+_judges_, at other times _gods_, and at others _angels_. _"Tu es Petrus,
+et super hunc petrum ædificabo ecclesiam meam,"_ would be equivocal in a
+profane tongue, and on profane subject; but these words receive a divine
+sense from the mouth which utters them, and the subject to which they
+are applied.
+
+"I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob; now God is
+not the God of the dead, but of the living." In the ordinary sense these
+words might signify: "I am the same God that was worshipped by Abraham,
+Isaac and Jacob; as the earth, which bore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
+likewise bears their descendants; the sun which shines to-day is the sun
+that shone on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the law of their children was
+their law." This does not, however, signify that Abraham, Isaac, and
+Jacob are still living. But when the Messiah speaks, there is no longer
+any ambiguity; the sense is as clear as it is divine. It is evident
+that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not among the dead, but live in
+glory, since this oracle is pronounced by the Messiah; but it was
+necessary that He and no one else should utter it.
+
+The discourses of the Jewish prophets might seem equivocal to men of
+gross intellects, who could not perceive their meaning; but they were
+not so to minds illumined by the light of faith.
+
+All the oracles of antiquity were equivocal. It was foretold to
+Croesus that a powerful empire was to fall; but was it to be his own?
+or that of Cyrus? It was also foretold to Pyrrhus that the Romans might
+conquer him, and that he might conquer the Romans. It was impossible
+that this oracle should lie.
+
+When Septimius Severus, Pescennius Niger, and Clodius Albinus were
+contending for the empire, the oracle of Delphos, being consulted
+(notwithstanding the assertion of the Jesuit Baltus that oracles had
+ceased), answered that _the brown was very good, the white good for
+nothing, and the African tolerable_. It is plain that there are more
+ways than one of explaining such an oracle.
+
+When Aurelian consulted the god of Palmyra (still in spite of Baltus),
+the god said that _the doves fear the falcon_. Whatever might happen,
+the god would not be embarrassed; the _falcon_ would be the _conqueror_,
+and _the doves_ the _conquered_.
+
+Sovereigns, as well as gods, have sometimes made use of equivocation.
+Some tyrant, whose name I forget, having sworn to one of his captives
+that he would not kill him, ordered that he should have nothing to eat,
+saying that he had promised not to put him to death, but he had not
+promised to keep him alive.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICA.
+
+
+Since framers of systems are continually conjecturing on the manner in
+which America can have been peopled, we will be equally consistent in
+saying that He who caused flies to exist in those regions caused men to
+exist there also. However pleasant it may be to dispute, it cannot be
+denied that the Supreme Being, who lives in all nature, has created,
+about the forty-eighth degree, two-legged animals without feathers, the
+color of whose skin is a mixture of white and carnation, with long
+beards approaching to red; about the line, in Africa and its islands,
+negroes without beards; and in the same latitude, other negroes with
+beards, some of them having wool, and some hair, on their heads; and
+among them other animals quite white, having neither hair nor wool, but
+a kind of white silk. It does not very clearly appear what should have
+prevented God from placing on another continent animals of the same
+species, of a copper color, in the same latitude in which, in Africa and
+Asia, they are found black; or even from making them without beards in
+the very same latitude in which others possess them.
+
+To what lengths are we carried by the rage for systems joined with the
+tyranny of prejudice! We see these animals; it is agreed that God has
+had the power to place them where they are; yet it is not agreed that he
+_has_ so placed them. The same persons who readily admit that the
+_beavers_ of Canada are of Canadian origin, assert that the _men_ must
+have come there in boats, and that Mexico must have been peopled by some
+of the descendants of _Magog_. As well might be said that if there be
+men in the moon they must have been taken thither by Astolpho on his
+hippogriff, when he went to fetch Roland's senses, which were corked up
+in a bottle. If America had been discovered in his time, and there had
+then been men in Europe _systematic_ enough to have advanced, with the
+Jesuit Lafitau, that the Caribbees descended from the inhabitants of
+Caria, and the Hurons from the Jews, he would have done well to have
+brought back the bottle containing the wits of these reasoners, which he
+would doubtless have found in the moon, along with those of Angelica's
+lover.
+
+The first thing done when an inhabited island is discovered in the
+Indian Ocean, or in the South Seas, is to inquire whence came these
+people? But as for the trees and the tortoises, _they_ are, without any
+hesitation, pronounced to be indigenous; as if it was more difficult for
+Nature to make men than to make tortoises. One thing, however, which
+tends to countenance this system is that there is scarcely an island in
+the Eastern or in the Western Ocean which does not contain jugglers,
+quacks, knaves and fools. This, it is probable, gave rise to the opinion
+that these animals are of the same race with ourselves.
+
+
+
+
+AMPLIFICATION.
+
+
+It is pretended that _amplification_ is a fine figure of rhetoric;
+perhaps, however, it would be more reasonable to call it a _defect_. In
+saying all that we should say, we do not amplify; and if after saying
+this we amplify, we say too much. To place a good or bad action in every
+light is not to amplify; but to go farther than this is to exaggerate
+and become wearisome.
+
+Prizes were formerly given in colleges for _amplification_. This was
+indeed teaching the art of being diffuse. It would, perhaps, have been
+better to have given the fewest words, and thus teach the art of
+speaking with greater force and energy. But while we avoid
+_amplification_, let us beware of _dryness_.
+
+I have heard professors teach that certain passages in "Virgil" are
+amplifications, as, for instance, the following:
+
+     _Nox erat, et placidum carpebant fessa soporem_
+     _Corpora per terras, silvæque et saeva quierunt_
+     _Æquora; quum medio volvuntur sidera lapsu;_
+     _Quum tacet omnis ager, pecudes, pietaeque volucres;_
+     _Quaeque lacus late liquidos, quaeque aspera dumis_
+     _Rura tenant, somno positae sub node silenti_
+     _Lenibant curas, et corda oblita laborum:_
+     _At non infelix animi Phoenissa._
+
+     'Twas dead of night, when weary bodies close
+     Their eyes in balmy sleep and soft repose:
+     The winds no longer whisper through the woods,
+     Nor murmuring tides disturb the gentle floods;
+     The stars in silent order moved around,
+     And peace, with downy wings, was brooding on the ground.
+     The flocks and herds, and parti-colored fowl,
+     Which haunt the woods and swim the weedy pool.
+     Stretched on the quiet earth securely lay,
+     Forgetting the past labors of the day.
+     All else of Nature's common gift partake;
+     Unhappy Dido was alone awake.--DRYDEN.
+
+If the long description of the reign of sleep throughout all nature did
+not form an admirable contrast with the cruel inquietude of Dido, these
+lines would be no other than a puerile amplification; it is the words
+_At non infelix animi Phoenissa_--"Unhappy Dido," etc., which give
+them their charm.
+
+That beautiful ode of Sappho's which paints all the symptoms of love,
+and which has been happily translated into every cultivated language,
+would doubtless have been less touching had Sappho been speaking of any
+other than herself; it might then have been considered as an
+amplification.
+
+The description of the tempest in the first book of the "Æneid" is not
+an amplification; it is a true picture of all that happens in a tempest;
+there is no idea repeated, and _repetition_ is the vice of all which is
+merely amplification.
+
+The finest part on the stage in any language is that of _Phèdre_
+(Phædra). Nearly all that she says would be tiresome amplification if
+any other was speaking of Phædra's passion.
+
+     _Athenes me montra mon superbe ennemie;_
+     _Je le vis, je rougis, je plaîs, à sa vue;_
+     _Un trouble s'éleva dans mon âme éperdue;_
+     _Mes yeux ne voyaient plus, je ne pouvais parler,_
+     _Je sentis tout mon corps et transir et brûler;_
+     _Je reconnus Venus et ses traits redoubtables,_
+     _D'un sang qu'elle poursuit tormens inévitables._
+
+     _Yes;--Athens showed me my proud enemy;_
+     _I saw him--blushed--turned pale;--_
+     _A sudden trouble came upon my soul,--_
+     _My eyes grew dim--my tongue refused its office,--_
+     _I burned--and shivered;--through my trembling frame_
+     _Venus in all her dreadful power I felt,_
+     _Shooting through every vein a separate pang._
+
+It is quite clear that since Athens showed her her proud enemy
+Hippolytus, she _saw_ Hippolytus; if she blushed and turned pale, she
+was doubtless _troubled_. It would have been a pleonasm, a redundancy,
+if a stranger had been made to relate the loves of Phædra; but it is
+Phædra, enamored and ashamed of her passion--her heart is
+full--everything escapes her:
+
+     _Ut vidi, lit perii, ut me malus abstulit error._
+     _Je le vis, je rougis, je pâlis, à sa vue._
+
+     I saw him--blushed--turned pale.--
+
+What can be a better imitation of Virgil?
+
+     _Mes yeux ne voyaient plus, je ne pouvais parler;_
+     _Je sentis tout mon corps et transir et brûler;_
+
+     My eyes grew dim--my tongue refused its office;
+     I burned--and shivered;
+
+What can be a finer imitation of Sappho?
+
+These lines, though imitated, flow as from their first source; each word
+moves and penetrates the feeling heart; this is not amplification; it is
+the perfection of nature and of art.
+
+The following is, in my opinion, an instance of amplification, in a
+modern tragedy, which nevertheless has great beauties. Tydeus is at the
+court of Argos; he is in love with a sister of Electra; he laments the
+fall of his friend Orestes and of his father; he is divided betwixt his
+passion for Electra and his desire of vengeance; while in this state of
+care and perplexity he gives one of his followers a long description of
+a tempest, in which he had been shipwrecked some time before.
+
+     _Tu sais ce qu'en ces lieux nous venions entreprendre;_
+     _Tu sais que Palamède, avant que de s'y rendre,_
+     _Ne voulut point tenter son retour dans Argos,_
+     _Qu'il n'eût interroge l'oracle de Délos._
+     _A de si justes soins on souscrivit sans peine;_
+     _Nous partîmes, comblés des bienfaits de Thyrrène;_
+     _Tout nous favorisait; nous voyageâmes longtems_
+     _Au gré de nos désirs, bien plus qu'au gré des vents;_
+     _Mais, signalant bientôt toute son inconstance,_
+     _Le mer en un moment se mutine et s'élance;_
+     _L'air mugit, le jour fuit, une épaisse vapeur_
+     _Couvre d'un voile affreux les vagues en fureur;_
+     _La foudre, éclairante seule une nuit si profonde,_
+     _À sillons redoublés ouvre le ciel et l'onde,_
+     _Et comme un tourbillon, embrassant nos vaisseaux,_
+     _Semble en sources de feu bouillonner sur les eaux;_
+     _Les vagues quelquefois, nous portant sur leurs cimes,_
+     _Nous font router après sous de vastes abîmes,_
+     _Où les éclairs pressés, pénétrans avec nous,_
+     _Dans des gouffres de feu semblaient nous plonger tous;_
+     _Le pilote effrayé, que la flamme environne,_
+     _Aux rochers qu'il fuyait lui-même s'abandonne;_
+     _À travers les écueils notre vaisseau pousse,_
+     _Se brise, et nage enfin sur les eaux dispersées._
+
+     Thou knowest what purpose brought us to these shores;
+     Thou knowest that Palamed would not attempt
+     Again to set his foot within these walls
+     Until he'd questioned Delos' oracle.
+     To his just care we readily subscribed;
+     We sailed, and favoring gales at first appeared
+     To announce a prosperous voyage;
+     Long time we held our course, and held it rather
+     As our desires than as the winds impelled;
+     But the inconstant ocean heaved at last
+     Its treacherous bosom; howling blasts arose;
+     The heavens were darkened; vapors black and dense
+     Spread o'er the furious waves a frightful veil,
+     Pierced only by the thunderbolts, which clove
+     The waters and the firmament at once,
+     And whirling round our ship, in horrid sport
+     Chased one another o'er the boiling surge;
+     Now rose we on some watery mountain's summit.
+     Now with the lightning plunged into a gulf
+     That seemed to swallow all. Our pilot, struck
+     Powerless by terror, ceased to steer, and left us
+     Abandoned to those rocks we dreaded most;
+     Soon did our vessel dash upon their points,
+     And swim in scattered fragments on the billows.
+
+In this description we see the poet wishing to surprise his readers with
+the relation of a shipwreck, rather than the man who seeks to avenge his
+father and his friend--to kill the tyrant of Argos, but who is at the
+same time divided between love and vengeance.
+
+Several men of taste, and among others the author of "Telemachus," have
+considered the relation of the death of Hippolytus, in Racine, as an
+amplification; long recitals were the fashion at that time. The vanity
+of actors make them wish to be listened to, and it was then the custom
+to indulge them in this way. The archbishop of Cambray says that
+Theramenes should not, after Hippolytus' catastrophe, have strength to
+speak so long; that he gives too ample a description of the monster's
+_threatening horns_, his _saffron scales, etc._; that he should say in
+broken accents, _Hippolytus is dead--a monster has destroyed him--I
+beheld it._
+
+I shall not enter on a defence of the _threatening horns_, etc.; yet
+this piece of criticism, which has been so often repeated, appears to me
+to be unjust. You would have Theramenes say nothing more than
+_Hippolytus is killed--I saw him die--all is over._ This is precisely
+what he does say; _Hippolyte n'est plus!_ (Hippolytus is no more!) His
+father exclaims aloud; and Theramenes, on recovering his senses, says;
+
+     _J'ai vu des mortels périr le plus amiable,_
+
+     I have seen the most amiable of mortals perish,
+
+and adds this line, so necessary and so affecting yet so agonizing for
+Theseus:
+
+     _Et j'ose dire encore. Seigneur, le moins coupable._
+
+     And, Sire, I may truly add, the most innocent.
+
+The gradations are fully observed; each shade is accurately
+distinguished. The wretched father asks what God--what sudden
+thunder-stroke has deprived him of his son. He has not courage to
+proceed; he is mute with grief; he awaits the dreadful recital, and the
+audience awaits it also. Theramenes _must_ answer; he is asked for
+particulars; he must give them.
+
+Was it for him who had made Mentor and all the rest of his personages
+discourse at such length, sometimes even tediously; was it for him to
+shut the mouth of Theramenes? Who among the spectators would not listen
+to him? Who would not enjoy the melancholy pleasure of hearing the
+circumstance of Hippolytus' death? Who would have so much as three lines
+struck out? This is no vain description of a storm unconnected with the
+piece; no ill-written amplification; it is the purest diction, the most
+affecting language; in short, it is Racine. Amplification, declamation,
+and exaggeration were at all times the faults of the Greeks, excepting
+Demosthenes and Aristotle.
+
+There have been absurd pieces of poetry on which time has set the stamp
+of almost universal approbation, because they were mixed with brilliant
+flashes which threw a glare over their imperfections, or because the
+poets who came afterward did nothing better. The rude beginnings of
+every art acquire a greater celebrity than the art in perfection; he who
+first played the fiddle was looked upon as a demi-god, while Rameau had
+only enemies. In fine, men, generally going with the stream, seldom
+judge for themselves, and purity of taste is almost as rare as talent.
+
+At the present day, most of our sermons, funeral orations, set
+discourses, and harangues in certain ceremonies, are tedious
+amplifications--strings of commonplace expressions repeated again and
+again a thousand times. These discourses are only supportable when
+rarely heard. Why speak when you have nothing new to say? It is high
+time to put a stop to this excessive waste of words, and therefore we
+conclude our article.
+
+
+
+
+ANCIENTS AND MODERNS.
+
+
+The great cause of the ancients _versus_ the moderns is not yet disposed
+of; it has been at issue ever since the silver age, which succeeded the
+golden one. Men have always pretended that the _good old times_ were
+much better than the present. Nestor, in the "Iliad," wishing to
+insinuate himself, like a wise mediator, into the good opinion of
+Achilles and Agamemnon, begins with saying: "I have lived with better
+men than you; never have I seen, nor shall I ever see again, such great
+personages as Dryas, Cæneus, Exadius, Polyphemus equal to the gods,"
+etc. Posterity has made ample amends to Achilles for Nestor's bad
+compliment, so vainly admired by those who admire nothing but what is
+ancient. Who knows anything about _Dryas_? We have scarcely heard of
+_Exadius_ or of _Cæneus_; and as for _Polyphemus equal to the gods_, he
+has no very high reputation, unless, indeed, there was something divine
+in his having a great eye in the middle of his forehead, and eating the
+raw carcasses of mankind.
+
+Lucretius does not hesitate to say that nature has degenerated:
+
+     _Ipsa dedit dulces foetus et pabula loeta,_
+     _Quæ nunc vix nostro grandescunt aucta labore;_
+     _Conterimusque boves, et vires agricolarum, etc._
+
+Antiquity is full of the praises of another antiquity still more remote:
+
+     _Les hommes, en tout tems, ont pensé qu'autrefois,_
+     _De longs ruisseaux de lait serpentaient dans nos bois;_
+     _La lune était plus grande, et la nuit moins obscure;_
+     _L'hiver se couronnait de fleurs et de verdure;_
+     _Se contemplait à l'aise, admirait son néant,_
+     _Et, formé pour agir, se plaisait à rien faire, etc._
+
+     Men have, in every age, believed that once
+     Long streams of milk ran winding through the woods;
+     The moon was larger and the night less dark;
+     Winter was crowned with flowers and trod on verdure;
+     Man, the world's king, had nothing else to do
+     Than contemplate his utter worthlessness,
+     And, formed for action, took delight in sloth, etc.
+
+Horace combats this prejudice with equal force and address in his fine
+epistle to Augustus. "Must our poems, then," says he, "be like our
+wines, of which the oldest are always preferred?" He afterward says:
+
+     _Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crasse_
+     _Compositum illepideve putetur, sed quia nuper;_
+     _Nec veniam antiquis, sed honorem et præmia posci._
+            *       *       *       *       *
+     _Ingeniis non ille favet plauditque sepultis,_
+     _Nostra sed impugnat, nos nostraque lividus odit._
+
+     I feel my honest indignation rise,
+     When, with affected air, a coxcomb cries:
+     "The work, I own, has elegance and ease,
+     But sure no modern should presume to please";
+     Thus for his favorite ancients dares to claim,
+     Not pardon only, but rewards and fame.
+            *       *       *       *       *
+     Not to the illustrious dead his homage pays,
+     But envious robs the living of their praise.--FRANCIS.
+
+On this subject the learned and ingenious Fontenelle expresses himself
+thus:
+
+"The whole of the question of pre-eminence between the ancients and
+moderns, being once well understood, reduces itself to this: Were the
+trees which formerly grew in the country larger than those of the
+present day? If they were, Homer, Plato, and Demosthenes cannot be
+equalled in these latter ages; but if our trees are as large as those of
+former times, then can we equal Homer, Plato, and Demosthenes.
+
+"But to clear up the paradox: If the ancients had stronger minds than
+ourselves, it must have been that the brains of those times were better
+disposed, were formed of firmer or more delicate fibres, or contained a
+larger portion of animal spirits. But how should the brains of those
+times have been better disposed? Had such been the case, the leaves
+would likewise have been larger and more beautiful; for if nature was
+then more youthful and vigorous, the trees, as well as the brains of
+men, would have borne testimony to that youth and vigor."
+
+With our illustrious academician's leave, this is by no means the state
+of the question. It is not asked whether nature can at the present day
+produce as great geniuses, and as good works, as those of Greek and
+Latin antiquity, but whether we really have such. It is doubtless
+possible that there are oaks in the forest of Chantilly as large as
+those of Dodona; but supposing that the oaks of Dodona could talk, it is
+quite clear that they had a great advantage over ours, which, it is
+probable, will never talk.
+
+La Motte, a man of wit and talent, who has merited applause in more than
+one kind of writing, has, in an ode full of happy lines, taken the part
+of the moderns. We give one of his stanzas:
+
+     _Et pourquoi veut-on que j'encense_
+     _Ces prétendus Dieux dont je sors?_
+     _En moi la même intelligence_
+     _Fait mouvoir les mêmes ressorts._
+     _Croit-on la nature bizarre,_
+     _Pour nous aujourd'hui plus avare_
+     _Que pour les Grecs et les Romains?_
+     _De nos aînés mere idolâtre,_
+     _N'est-elle plus que la marâtre_
+     _Dure et grossière des humains?_
+
+     And pray, why must I bend the knee
+     To these pretended Gods of ours?
+     The same intelligence in me
+     Gives vigor to the self-same powers.
+     Think ye that nature is capricious,
+     Or towards us more avaricious
+     Than to our Greek and Roman sires--
+     To them an idolizing mother,
+     While in their children she would smother
+     The sparks of intellectual fires?
+
+He might be answered thus: _Esteem_ your ancestors, without _adoring_
+them. You have intelligence and powers of invention, as Virgil and
+Horace had; but perhaps it is not absolutely the same intelligence.
+Perhaps their talents were superior to--yours; they exercised them, too,
+in a language richer and more harmonious than our modern tongues, which
+are a mixture of corrupted Latin, with the horrible jargon of the Celts.
+
+Nature is not capricious; but it is possible that she had given the
+Athenians a soil and sky better adapted than Westphalia and the Limousin
+to the formation of geniuses of a certain order. It is also likely that,
+the government of Athens, seconding the favorable climate, put ideas
+into the head of Demosthenes which the air of Clamar and La Grenouillere
+combined with the government of Cardinal de Richelieu, did _not_ put
+into the heads of Omer Talon and Jerome Bignon.
+
+Some one answered La Motte's lines by the following:
+
+     _Cher la Motte, imite et revère_
+     _Ces Dieux dont tu ne descends pas;_
+     _Si tu crois qu'Horace est ton père,_
+     _Il a fait des enfans ingrats._
+     _La nature n'est point bizarre;_
+     _Pour Danchet elle est fort avare,_
+     _Mais Racine en fut bien traité;_
+     _Tibulle était guide par elle,_
+     _Mais pour notre ami La Chapelle,_
+     _Hélas! qu'elle a peu de bonté!_
+
+     Revere and imitate, La Motte,
+     Those Gods from whom thou'rt _not_ descended;
+     If thou by Horace _wert_ begot,
+     His children's manners might be mended.
+     Nature is not at all capricious;
+     To Danchet she is avaricious,
+     But she was liberal to Racine;
+     She used Tibullus very well,
+     Though to our good friend La Chapelle,
+     Alas! she is extremely mean!
+
+This dispute, then, resolves itself into a question of fact. Was
+antiquity more fertile in great monuments of genius of every kind, down
+to the time of Plutarch, than modern ages have been, from that of the
+house of Medicis to that of Louis XIV., inclusively?
+
+The Chinese, more than two hundred years before our Christian era, built
+their great wall, which could not save them from invasion by the
+Tartars. The Egyptians had, four thousand years before, burdened the
+earth with their astonishing pyramids, the bases of which covered ninety
+thousand square feet. No one doubts that, if it were thought advisable
+to undertake such useless works at the present day, they might be
+accomplished by lavishing plenty of money. The great wall of China is a
+monument of fear; the pyramids of Egypt are monuments of vanity and
+superstition; both testify the great patience of the two people, but no
+superior genius. Neither the Chinese nor the Egyptians could have made
+a single statue like those formed by our living sculptors.
+
+Sir William Temple, who made a point of degrading the moderns, asserts
+that they have nothing in architecture that can be compared to the
+temples of Greece and Rome; but, Englishman as he was, he should have
+admitted that St. Peter's at Rome is incomparably more beautiful than
+the capitol.
+
+There is something curious in the assurance with which he asserts that
+there is nothing new in our astronomy, nor in our knowledge of the human
+body, _except_, says he, _it be the circulation of the blood._ The love
+of his opinion, founded on his extreme self-love, makes him forget the
+discovery of Jupiter's satellites, of Saturn's five moons and ring, of
+the sun's rotation on his axis, the calculation of the positions of
+three thousand stars, the development by Kepler and Newton of the law by
+which the heavenly bodies are governed, and the knowledge of a thousand
+other things of which the ancients did not even suspect the possibility.
+The discoveries in anatomy have been no less numerous. A new universe in
+miniature, discovered by the microscope, went as nothing with Sir
+William Temple; he closed his eyes to the wonders of his contemporaries,
+and opened them only to admire ancient ignorance.
+
+He even goes so far as to regret that we have nothing left of the magic
+of the Indians, Chaldæans, and Egyptians. By this magic, he understands
+a profound knowledge of nature, which enabled them to work miracles--of
+which, however, he does not mention one, because the truth is that they
+never worked any. "What," says he, "has become of the charms of that
+music which so often enchanted men and beasts, fishes, birds, and
+serpents, and even changed their nature?" This enemy to his own times
+believed implicitly in the fable of "Orpheus," and, it should seem, had
+never heard of the fine music of Italy, nor even of that of France,
+which _do not_ charm serpents, it is true, but which _do_ charm the ears
+of the connoisseur.
+
+It is still more strange that, having all his life cultivated the
+belles-lettres, he reasons no better on our good authors than on our
+philosophers. He considers Rabelais a great man, and speaks of _"les
+Amours des Gaules"_ ("The Loves of the Gauls"), as one of his best
+works. He was, nevertheless, a learned man, a courtier, a man of
+considerable wit, and an ambassador, who had made profound reflections
+on all that he had seen; he possessed great knowledge; one prejudice
+sufficed to render all this merit unavailing.
+
+Boileau and Racine, when writing in favor of the ancients against
+Perrault, showed more address than Sir William Temple. They knew better
+than to touch on astronomy and physical science. Boikau seeks only to
+vindicate Homer against Perrault, at the same time gliding adroitly over
+the faults of the Greek poet, and the slumber with which Horace
+reproaches him. He strove to turn Perrault, the enemy of Homer, into
+ridicule. Wherever Perrault misunderstands a passage, or renders
+inaccurately a passage which he understands, Boileau, seizing this
+little advantage, falls upon him like a redoubtable enemy, and beats him
+as an ignoramus--a dull writer. But it is not at all improbable that
+Perrault, though often mistaken, was frequently right in his remarks on
+the contradictions, the repetitions, the uniformity of the combats, the
+long harangues in the midst of them, the indecent and inconsistent
+conduct of the gods in the poem--in short, on all the errors into which
+this great poet is asserted to have fallen. In a word, Boileau ridicules
+Perrault much more than he justifies Homer.
+
+Racine used the same artifice, for he was at least as malignant as
+Boileau. Although he did not, like the latter, make his fortune by
+satire, he enjoyed the pleasure of confounding his enemies on the
+occasion of a small and very pardonable mistake into which they had
+fallen respecting Euripides, and, at the same time, of feeling much
+superior to Euripides himself. He rallies the same Perrault and his
+partisans upon their critique on the Alceste of Euripides, because these
+gentlemen had unfortunately been deceived by a faulty edition of
+Euripides, and had taken some replies of Admetus for those of Alceste;
+but Euripides does not the less appear in all countries to have done
+very wrong in making Admetus use such extraordinary language to his
+father, whom he violently reproaches for not having died for him:
+
+"How!" replies the king, his father; "whom, pray, are you addressing so
+haughtily? Some Lydian or Phrygian slave? Know you not that I am free,
+and a Thessalian? (Fine language, truly, for a king and a father!) You
+insult me as if I were the meanest of men. Where is the law which says
+fathers must die for their children? Each for himself here below. I have
+fulfilled all my obligations toward you. In what, then, do I wrong you?
+Do I ask you to die for me? The light is dear to you; is it less so to
+me? You accuse me of cowardice! Coward that you yourself are! You were
+not ashamed to urge your wife to save you, by dying for you. After this,
+does it become you to treat as cowards those who refuse to do for you
+what you have not the courage to do yourself? Believe me, you ought
+rather to be silent. You love life; others love it no less. Be assured
+that if you continue to abuse me, you shall have reproaches, and not
+false ones, in return."
+
+He is here interrupted by the chorus, with: "Enough! Too much on both
+sides! Old man, cease this ill language toward your son."
+
+One would think that the chorus should rather give the son a severe
+reprimand for speaking in so brutal a manner to his father.
+
+All the rest of the scene is in the same style:
+
+_Pheres (to his son)._--Thou speakest against thy father, without his
+having injured thee.
+
+_Admetus._--Oh! I am well aware that you wish to live as long as
+possible.
+
+_Pheres._--And art thou not carrying to the tomb her who died for thee?
+
+_Admetus._--Ah! most infamous of men! 'Tis the proof of thy cowardice!
+
+_Pheres._--At least, thou canst not say she died for me.
+
+_Admetus._--Would to heaven that thou wert in a situation to need my
+assistance!
+
+_Pheres._--Thou wouldst do better to think of marrying several wives,
+who may die that thy life may be lengthened.
+
+After this scene a domestic comes and talks to himself about the arrival
+of Hercules.
+
+"A stranger," says he, "opens the door of his own accord; places himself
+without more ado at table; is angry because he is not served quick
+enough; fills his cup every moment with wine, and drinks long draughts
+of red and of white; constantly singing, or rather howling, bad songs,
+without giving himself any concern about the king and his wife, for whom
+we are mourning. He is, doubtless, some cunning rogue, some vagabond, or
+assassin."
+
+It seems somewhat strange that Hercules should be taken for a _cunning
+rogue_, and no less so that Hercules, the friend of Admetus, should be
+unknown to the household. It is still more extraordinary that Hercules
+should be ignorant of Alceste's death, at the very time when they were
+carrying her to her tomb.
+
+Tastes must not be disputed, but such scenes as these would, assuredly,
+not be tolerated at one of our country fairs.
+
+Brumoy, who has given us the _Théâtre des Grecs_ (Greek Theatre), but
+has not translated Euripides with scrupulous fidelity, does all he can
+to justify the scene of Admetus and his father: the argument he makes
+use of is rather singular.
+
+First, he says, that "there was nothing offensive to the Greeks in these
+things which we regard as horrible and indecent, therefore it must be
+admitted that they were not exactly what we take them to have been, in
+short, ideas have changed." To this it may be answered that the ideas of
+polished nations on the respect due from children to their fathers have
+never changed. He adds, "Who can doubt that in different ages ideas have
+changed relative to points of morality of still greater importance?" We
+answer, that there are scarcely any points of greater importance.
+
+"A Frenchman," continues he, "is insulted; the pretended good sense of
+the French obliges him to run the risk of a duel, and to kill or be
+killed, in order to recover his honor." We answer, that it is not the
+pretended good sense of the French alone, but of all the nations of
+Europe without exception. He proceeds:
+
+"The world in general cannot be fully sensible how ridiculous this maxim
+will appear two thousand years hence, nor how it would have been scoffed
+at in the time of Euripides." This maxim is cruel and fatal, but it is
+not _ridiculous_; nor would it have been in any way scoffed at in the
+time of Euripides. There were many instances of duels among the
+Asiatics. In the very commencement of the first book of the "Iliad," we
+see Achilles half unsheathing his sword, and ready to fight Agamemnon,
+had not Minerva taken him by the hair and made him desist.
+
+Plutarch relates that Hephæstion and Craterus were fighting a duel, but
+were separated by Alexander. Quintus Curtius tells us that two other of
+Alexander's officers fought a duel in the presence of Alexander, one of
+them armed at all points, the other, who was a wrestler, supplied only
+with a staff, and that the latter overcame his adversary. Besides, what
+has duelling to do with Admetus and his father Pheres, reproaching each
+other by turns, with having too great a love for life, and with being
+cowards?
+
+I shall give only this one instance of the blindness of translators and
+commentators; for if Brumoy, the most impartial of all, has fallen into
+such errors, what are we to expect from others? I would, however, ask
+the Brumoys and the Daciers, if they find much _salt_in the language
+which Euripides puts into the mouth of Polyphemus: "I fear not the
+thunder of Jupiter; I know not that Jupiter is a prouder or a stronger
+god than myself; I care very little about him. If he sends down rain, I
+shut myself up in my cavern; there I eat a roasted calf or some wild
+animal, after which I lie down all my length, drink off a great potful
+of milk, and send forth a certain noise, which is as good as his
+thunder."
+
+The schoolmen cannot have very fine noses if they are not disgusted with
+the noise which Polyphemus makes when he has eaten heartily.
+
+They say that the Athenian pit laughed at this pleasantry, and that the
+Athenians never laughed at anything stupid. So the whole populace of
+Athens had more wit than the court of Louis XIV., and the populace are
+not the same everywhere!
+
+Nevertheless, Euripides has beauties, and Sophocles still more; but they
+have much greater defects. We may venture to say that the fine scenes of
+Corneille and the affecting tragedies of Racine are as much superior to
+the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides, as these two Greeks were to
+Thespis. Racine was quite sensible of his great superiority over
+Euripides, but he praised the Greek poet for the sake of humbling
+Perrault.
+
+Molière, in his best pieces, is as superior to the pure but cold
+Terence, and to the buffoon Aristophanes, as to the merry-andrew
+Dancourt.
+
+Thus there are things in which the moderns are superior to the ancients;
+and others, though very few, in which we are their inferiors. The whole
+of the dispute reduces itself to this fact.
+
+_Certain Comparisons between Celebrated Works._
+
+Both taste and reason seem to require that we should, in an ancient as
+well as in a modern, discriminate between the good and the bad that are
+often to be found in contact with each other.
+
+The warmest admiration must be excited by that line of Corneille's,
+unequalled by any in Homer, in Sophocles, or in Euripides:
+
+     _Que vouliez-vous qu'il fût contre trois?_--_Qu'il mourût._
+     What could he do against three weapons?--Die.
+
+And, with equal justice, the line that follows will be condemned.
+
+The man of taste, while he admires the sublime picture, the striking
+contrasts of character and strong coloring in the last scene of
+Rodogyne, will perceive how many faults, how many improbabilities, have
+prepared the way for this terrible situation--how much Rodogyne has
+belied her character, and by what crooked ways it is necessary to pass
+to this great and tragical catastrophe.
+
+The same equitable judge will not fail to do justice to the fine and
+artful contexture of Racine's tragedies, the only ones, perhaps, that
+have been well wrought from the time of Æschylus down to the age of
+Louis XIV. He will be touched by that continued elegance, that purity of
+language, that truth of character, to be found in him only; by that
+grandeur without bombast, that fidelity to nature which never wanders in
+vain declamations, sophistical disputes, false and far-fetched images,
+often expressed in solecisms or rhetorical pleadings, fitter for
+provincial schools than for a tragedy. The same person will discover
+weakness and uniformity in some of Racine's characters; and in others,
+gallantry and sometimes even coquetry; he will find declarations of
+love breathing more of the idyl and the elegy, than of a great dramatic
+passion; and will complain that more than one well-written piece has
+elegance to please, but not eloquence to move him. Just so will he judge
+of the ancients; not by their names--not by the age in which they
+lived--but by their works themselves.
+
+Suppose Timanthes the painter were at this day to come and present to
+us, by the side of the paintings in the _Palais Royal_, his picture in
+four colors of the "Sacrifice of Iphigenia," telling us that men of
+judgment in Greece had assured him that it was an admirable artifice to
+veil the face of Agamemnon, lest his grief should appear to equal that
+of Clytemnestra, and the tears of the father dishonor the majesty of the
+monarch. He would find connoisseurs who would reply--it is a stroke of
+ingenuity, but not of painting; a veil on the head of your principal
+personage has a frightful effect; your art has failed you. Behold the
+masterpiece of Rubens, who has succeeded in expressing in the
+countenance of Mary of Medicis the pain attendant on childbirth--the
+joy, the smile, the tenderness--not with four colors, but with every
+tint of nature. If you wished that Agamemnon should partly conceal his
+face, you should have made him hide a portion of it by placing his hands
+over his eyes and forehead; and not with a veil, which is as
+disagreeable to the eye, and as unpicturesque, as it is contrary to all
+costume. You should then have shown some falling tears that the hero
+would conceal, and have expressed in his muscles the convulsions of a
+grief which he struggles to suppress; you should have painted in this
+attitude majesty and despair. You are a Greek, and Rubens is a Belgian;
+but the Belgian bears away the palm.
+
+_On a Passage in Homer._
+
+A Florentine, a man of letters, of clear understanding and cultivated
+taste, was one day in Lord Chesterfield's library, together with an
+Oxford professor and a Scotchman, who was boasting of the poem of
+Fingal, composed, said he, in the Gaelic tongue, which is still partly
+that of Lower Brittany. "Ah!" exclaimed he, "how fine is antiquity; the
+poem of Fingal has passed from mouth to mouth for nearly two thousand
+years, down to us, without any alteration. Such power has real beauty
+over the minds of men!" He then read to the company the commencement of
+Fingal:
+
+"Cuthullin sat by Tara's wall; by the tree of the rustling sound. His
+spear leaned against a rock. His shield lay on the grass by his side.
+Amid his thoughts of mighty Carbar, a hero slain by the chief in war,
+the scout of ocean comes, Moran, the son of Fithil!
+
+"'Arise,' says the youth, 'Cuthullin, arise! I see the ships of the
+north! many, chief of men, are the foe; many the heroes of the sea-born
+Swaran!' 'Moran,' replied the blue-eyed chief, 'thou ever tremblest, son
+of Fithil! thy fears have increased the foe. It is Fingal, king of
+deserts, with aid to green Erin of streams.' 'I beheld their chief,'
+says Moran, 'tall as a glittering rock. His spear is a blasted pine. His
+shield the rising moon! He sat on the shore, like a cloud of mist on the
+silent hill!'" etc.
+
+"That," said the Oxford professor, "is the true style of Homer; but what
+pleases me still more is that I find in it the sublime eloquence of the
+Hebrews. I could fancy myself to be reading passages such as these from
+those fine canticles:
+
+"'Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in
+pieces like a potter's vessel. Thou hast broken the teeth of the
+ungodly. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundation also of the
+hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth. The Lord also
+thundered in the heavens; and the Highest gave His voice hailstones and
+coals of fire. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun. Which is as
+a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.
+
+"'Break their teeth in their mouth, O God; break the great teeth of the
+young lions, O Lord. Let them pass away as waters that run continually;
+when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in
+pieces. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away, like
+the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. Before
+your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as in a
+whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
+
+"'They return at evening; they make a noise like a dog. But Thou, O
+Lord, shalt laugh at them; Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.
+Consume them in wrath; consume them that they may not be.
+
+"'The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan, a high hill as the hill of
+Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? The Lord said I will bring again
+from Bashan, I will bring up my people again from the depths of the sea;
+that thy feet may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the
+tongue of thy dogs in the same.
+
+"'Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. O my God, make them like a
+wheel; as the stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth the wood, and
+as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; so persecute them with Thy
+tempest and make them afraid with Thy storm.
+
+"'He shall judge among the heathen; he shall fill the places with dead
+bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries. Happy shall he be
+that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones,'" etc.
+
+The Florentine, having listened with great attention to the verses of
+the canticles recited by the doctor, as well as to the first lines of
+Fingal bellowed forth by the Scotchman, confessed that he was not
+greatly moved by all these Eastern figures, and that he liked the noble
+simplicity of Virgil's style much better.
+
+At these words the Scotchman turned pale with wrath, the Oxonian
+shrugged his shoulders with pity, but Lord Chesterfield encouraged the
+Florentine by a smile of approbation.
+
+The Florentine, becoming warm and finding himself supported, said to
+them: "Gentlemen, nothing is more easy than to do violence to nature;
+nothing more difficult than to imitate her. I know something of those
+whom we in Italy call _improvisatori_; and I could speak in this
+oriental style for eight hours together without the least effort, for it
+requires none to be bombastic in negligent verse, overloaded with
+epithets almost continually repeated, to heap combat upon combat, and to
+describe chimeras."
+
+"What!" said the professor, "_you_ make an epic poem _impromptu_!" "Not
+a rational epic poem in correct verse, like Virgil," replied the
+Italian, "but a poem in which I would abandon myself to the current of
+my ideas, and not take the trouble to arrange them."
+
+"I defy you to do it," said the Scotchman and the Oxford graduate at
+once. "Well," returned the Florentine, "give me a subject." Lord
+Chesterfield gave him as a subject the Black Prince, the conqueror of
+Poictiers, granting peace after the victory.
+
+The Italian collected himself and thus began:
+
+"Muse of Albion, genius that presidest over heroes, come sing with
+me--not the idle rage of men implacable alike to friends and foes--not
+the deeds of heroes whom the gods have favored in turn, without any
+reason for so favoring them--not the siege of a town which is not
+taken--not the extravagant exploits of the fabulous Fingal, but the real
+victories of a hero modest as brave, who led kings captive and respected
+his vanquished enemies.
+
+"George, the Mars of England, had descended from on high on that
+immortal charger before which the proudest coursers of Limousin flee as
+the bleating sheep and the tender lambs crowd into the fold at the sight
+of a terrible wolf issuing from the forest with fiery eyes, with hair
+erect and foaming mouth, threatening the flock and the shepherd with the
+fury of his murderous jaws.
+
+"Martin, the famed protector of them who dwell in fruitful Touraine,
+Genevieve, the mild divinity of them who drink the waters of the Seine
+and the Marne, Denis, who bore his head under his arm in the sight of
+man and of immortals, trembled as they saw George proudly traversing the
+vast fields of air. On his head was a golden helmet, glittering with
+diamonds that once paved the squares of the heavenly Jerusalem, when it
+appeared to mortals during forty diurnal revolutions of the great
+luminary and his inconstant sister, who with her mild radiance
+enlightens the darkness of night.
+
+"In his hand is the terrible and sacred lance with which, in the first
+days of the world, the demi-god Michael, who executes the vengeance of
+the Most High, overthrew the eternal enemy of the world and the
+Creator. The most beautiful of the plumage of the angels that stand
+about the throne, plucked from their immortal backs, waved over his
+casque; and around it hovered Terror, destroying War, unpitying Revenge,
+and Death, the terminator of man's calamities. He came like a comet in
+its rapid course, darting through the orbits of the wondering planets,
+and leaving far behind its rays, pale and terrible, announcing to weak
+mortals the fall of kings and nations.
+
+"He alighted on the banks of the Charente, and the sound of his immortal
+arms was echoed from the spheres of Jupiter and Saturn. Two strides
+brought him to the spot where the son of the magnanimous Edward waited
+for the son of the intrepid de Valois," etc.
+
+The Florentine continued in this strain for more than a quarter of an
+hour. The words fell from his lips, as Homer says, more thickly and
+abundantly than the snows descend in winter; but his words were not
+cold; they were rather like the rapid sparks escaping from the furnace
+when the Cyclops forge the bolts of Jove on resounding anvil.
+
+His two antagonists were at last obliged to silence him, by
+acknowledging that it was easier than they had thought it was, to string
+together gigantic images, and call in the aid of heaven, earth and hell;
+but they maintained that to unite the tender and moving with the sublime
+was the perfection of the art.
+
+"For example," said the Oxonian, "can anything be more moral, and at the
+same time more voluptuous, than to see Jupiter reposing with his wife on
+Mount Ida?"
+
+His lordship then spoke: "Gentlemen," said he, "I ask your pardon for
+meddling in the dispute. Perhaps to the Greeks there was something very
+interesting in a god's lying with his wife upon a mountain; for my own
+part, I see nothing in it refined or attractive. I will agree with you
+that the handkerchief, which commentators and imitators have been
+pleased to call _the girdle of Venus_, is a charming figure; but I never
+understood that it was a soporific, nor how Juno could receive the
+caresses of the master of the gods for the purpose of putting him to
+sleep. A queer god, truly, to fall asleep so soon! I can swear that,
+when I was young, I was not so drowsy. It may, for aught I know, be
+noble, pleasing, interesting, witty, and decorous to make Juno say to
+Jupiter, 'If you are determined to embrace me, let us go to your
+apartment in heaven, which is the work of Vulcan, and the door of which
+closes so well that none of the gods can enter."
+
+"I am equally at a loss to understand how the god of sleep, whom Juno
+prays to close the eyes of Jupiter, can be so brisk a divinity. He
+arrives in a moment from the isles of Lemnos and Imbros; there is
+something fine in coming from two islands at once. He then mounts a pine
+and, is instantly among the Greek ships; he seeks Neptune, finds him,
+conjures him to give the victory to the Greeks, and returns with a
+rapid flight to Lemnos. I know of nothing so nimble as this god of
+sleep.
+
+"In short, if in an epic poem there must be amorous matters, I own that
+I incomparably prefer the assignations of Alcina with Rogero, and of
+Armida with Rinaldo. Come, my dear Florentine, read me those two
+admirable cantos of Ariosto and Tasso."
+
+The Florentine readily obeyed, and his lordship was enchanted; during
+which time the Scotchman reperused Fingal, the Oxford professor
+reperused Homer; and every one was content. It was at last agreed that
+happy is he who is sensible to the merits of the ancients and the
+moderns, appreciates their beauties, knows their faults and pardons
+them.
+
+
+
+
+ANECDOTES.
+
+
+If Suetonius could be confronted with the valets-de-chambre of the
+twelve Cæsars, think you that they would in every instance corroborate
+his testimony? And in case of dispute, who would not back the
+valets-de-chambre against the historian?
+
+In our own times, how many books are founded on nothing more than the
+talk of the town?--just as the science of physics was founded on
+chimeras which have been repeated from age to age to the present time.
+Those who take the trouble of noting down at night what they have heard
+in the day, should, like St. Augustine, write a book of retractions at
+the end of the year.
+
+Some one related to the _grand-audiencier_ l'Étoile that Henry IV.,
+hunting near Créteil, went alone into an inn where some Parisian lawyers
+were dining in an upper room. The king, without making himself known,
+sent the hostess to ask them if they would admit him at their table or
+sell him a part of their dinner. They sent him for answer that they had
+private business to talk of and had but a short dinner; they therefore
+begged that the stranger would excuse them.
+
+Henry called his guards and had the guests outrageously beaten, to teach
+them, says de l'Étoile, to show more courtesy to gentlemen. Some authors
+of the present day, who have taken upon them to write the life of Henry
+IV., copy this anecdote from de l'Étoile without examination, and, which
+is worse, fail not to praise it as a fine action in Henry. The thing is,
+however, neither true nor likely; and were it true, Henry would have
+been guilty of an act at once the most ridiculous, the most cowardly,
+the most tyrannical, and the most imprudent.
+
+First, it is not likely that, in 1502, Henry IV., whose physiognomy was
+so remarkable, and who showed himself to everybody with so much
+affability, was unknown at Créteil near Paris. Secondly, de l'Étoile,
+far from verifying his impertinent story, says he had it from a man who
+had it from M. de Vitri; so that it is nothing more than an idle rumor.
+Thirdly, it would have been cowardly and hateful to inflict a shameful
+punishment on citizens assembled together on business, who certainly
+committed no crime in refusing to share their dinner with a stranger
+(and, it must be admitted, with an indiscreet one) who could easily find
+something to eat in the same house. Fourthly, this action, so
+tyrannical, so unworthy not only of a king but of a man, so liable to
+punishment by the laws of every country, would have been as imprudent as
+ridiculous and criminal; it would have drawn upon Henry IV. the
+execrations of the whole commonalty of Paris, whose good opinion was
+then of so much importance to him.
+
+History, then, should not have been disfigured by so stupid a story, nor
+should the character of Henry IV. have been dishonored by so impertinent
+an anecdote.
+
+In a book entitled _"Anecdotes Littéraires"_, printed by Durand in 1752,
+_avec privilége_, there appears the following passage (vol. iii, page
+183): "The Amours of Louis XIV., having been dramatized in England, that
+prince wished to have those of King William performed in France. The
+Abbé Brueys was directed by M. de Torcy to compose the piece; but though
+applauded, it was never played, for the subject of it died in the
+meantime."
+
+There are almost as many absurd lies as there are words in these few
+lines. The Amours of Louis XIV. were never played on the London stage.
+Louis XIV. never lowered himself so far as to order a farce to be
+written on the amours of King William. King William never had a
+mistress; no one accused him of weakness of that sort. The Marquis de
+Torcy never spoke to the Abbé Brueys; he was incapable of making to the
+abbé, or any one else, so indiscreet and childish a proposal. The Abbé
+Brueys never wrote the piece in question. So much for the faith to be
+placed in anecdotes.
+
+The same book says that "Louis XIV. was so much pleased with the opera
+of _Isis_ that he ordered a decree to be passed in council by which men
+of rank were permitted to sing at the opera, and receive a salary for so
+doing, without demeaning themselves. This decree was registered in the
+Parliament of Paris."
+
+No such declaration was ever registered in the Parliament of Paris. It
+is true that Lulli obtained in 1672, long before the opera of _Isis_ was
+performed, letters permitting him to establish his opera, in which
+letters he got it inserted that "ladies and gentlemen might sing in this
+theatre without degradation." But no declaration was ever registered.
+
+Of all the _anas_, that which deserves to stand foremost in the ranks of
+printed falsehood is the _Segraisiana_: It was compiled by the
+amanuensis of Segrais, one of his domestics, and was printed long after
+the master's death. The _Menagiana_, revised by La Monnoye, is the only
+one that contains anything instructive. Nothing is more common than to
+find in our new miscellanies old _bons mots_ attributed to our
+contemporaries, or inscriptions and epigrams written on certain
+princes, applied to others.
+
+We are told in the _"Histoire Philosophique et Politique du Commerce
+dans les deux Indes"_ (the Philosophical and Political History of the
+Commerce of the two Indies), that the Dutch, having driven the
+Portuguese from Malacca, the Dutch captain asked the Portuguese
+commander when he should return; to which he replied: _"When your sins
+are greater than ours."_ This answer had before been attributed to an
+Englishman in the time of Charles VII. of France, and before them to a
+Saracen emir in Sicily; after all, it is the answer rather of a Capuchin
+than of a politician; it was not because the French were greater sinners
+than the English that the latter deprived them of Canada.
+
+The author of this same history relates, in a serious manner, a little
+story invented by Steele, and inserted in the _Spectator_; and would
+make it pass for one of the real causes of war between the English and
+the savages. The tale which Steele opposes to the much pleasanter story
+of the widow of Ephesus, is as follows and is designed to prove that men
+are not more constant than women; but in Petronius the Ephesian matron
+exhibits only an amusing and pardonable weakness; while the merchant
+Inkle, in the _Spectator_, is guilty of the most frightful ingratitude:
+"This young traveller Inkle is on the point of being taken by the
+Caribbees on the continent of America, without it being said at what
+place or on what occasion. Yarico, a pretty Caribbee, saves his life,
+and at length flies with him to Barbadoes. As soon as they arrive, Inkle
+goes and sells his benefactress in the slave market. 'Ungrateful and
+barbarous man!' says Yarico, 'wilt thou sell me, when I am with child by
+thee?' 'With child!' replied the English merchant, 'so much the better;
+I shall get more for thee!'" And this is given us as a true story and as
+the origin of a long war.
+
+The speech of a woman of Boston to her judges, who condemned her to the
+house of correction for the fifth time for having brought to bed a fifth
+child, was a pleasantry of the illustrious Franklin; yet it is related
+in the same work as an authentic occurrence. How many tales have
+embellished and disfigured every history?
+
+An author, who has thought more correctly than he has quoted, asserts
+that the following epitaph was made for Cromwell:
+
+     _Ci-gît le destructeur d'un pouvoir légitime,_
+       _Jusqu' à son dernier jour favorisé des cieux,_
+       _Dont les vertus méritaient mieux_
+     _Que le sceptre acquis par un crime._
+
+     _Par quel destin faut-il, par quel étrange loi_
+       _Qu' à tous ceux qui sont nés pour porter la couronne_
+       _Ce soil l'Usurpateur qui donne_
+     _L'exemple des vertus que doit avoir un Roi?_
+
+     Here lies the man who trod on rightful power,
+     Favored by heaven to his latest hour;
+     Whose virtues merited a nobler fate
+     Than that of ruling criminally great.
+
+     What wondrous destiny can so ordain,
+     That among all whose fortune is to reign,
+     The _usurper_ only to his sceptre brings
+     The virtues vainly sought in _lawful kings_.
+
+These verses were never made for Cromwell, but for King William. They
+are not an epitaph, but were written under a portrait of that monarch.
+Instead of _Ci-gît_ (Here lies) it was:
+
+     _Tel fut le destructeur d'un pouvoir légitime._
+     _Such was_ the man who trod on rightful power.
+
+No one in France was ever so stupid as to say that Cromwell had ever set
+an example of virtue. It is granted that he had valor and genius; but
+the title of virtuous was not his due. A thousand stories--a thousand
+_faceticæ_--have been travelling about the world for the last thirty
+centuries. Our books are stuffed with maxims which come forth as new,
+but are to be found in Plutarch, in Athenæus, in Seneca, in Plautus, in
+all the ancients.
+
+These are only mistakes, as innocent as they are common; but wilful
+falsehoods--historical lies which attack the glory of princes and the
+reputation of private individuals--are serious offences. Of all the
+books that are swelled with false anecdotes, that in which the most
+absurd and impudent lies are crowded together, is the pretended
+_"Mémoires de Madame de Maintenon"_. The foundation of it was true: the
+author had several of that lady's letters, which had been communicated
+to him by a person of consequence at St. Cyr; but this small quantity of
+truth is lost in a romance of seven volumes.
+
+In this work the author shows us Louis XIV. supplanted by one of his
+valets-de-chambre. It supposes letters from Mdlle. Mancini (afterwards
+Madame Colonne) to Louis XIV., in one of which he makes this niece of
+Cardinal Mazarin say to the king: "You obey a priest--you are unworthy
+of me if you submit to serve another. I love you as I love the light of
+heaven, but I love your glory still better." Most certainly the author
+had not the original of this letter.
+
+[Illustration: Louis at Mdlle de la Vallière's feet.]
+
+"Mdlle. de la Vallière," he says, in another place, "had thrown herself
+on a sofa in a light dishabille, her thoughts employed on her lover.
+Often did the dawn of day find her still seated in a chair, her arm
+resting on a table, her eye fixed, her soul constantly attached to the
+same object, in the ecstasy of love. The king alone occupied her mind;
+perhaps at that moment she was inwardly complaining of the vigilance of
+the spies of Henriette, or the severity of the queen-mother. A slight
+noise aroused her from her reverie--she shrunk back with surprise and
+dread; Louis was at her feet--she would have fled--he stopped her; she
+threatened--he pacified; she wept--he wiped away her tears." Such a
+description would not now be tolerated in one of our most insipid
+novels.
+
+Du Haillan asserts, in one of his small works, that Charles VIII. was
+not the son of Louis XI. This would account for Louis having neglected
+his education and always keeping him at a distance. Charles VIII. did
+not resemble Louis XI. either in body or in mind; but dissimilarity
+between fathers and their children is still less a proof of illegitimacy
+than resemblance is a proof of the contrary. That Louis XI. hated
+Charles VIII. brings us to no conclusion; so bad a son might well be a
+bad father. Though ten Du Haillans should tell me that Charles VIII.
+sprung from some other than Louis XI., I should not believe him
+implicitly. I think a prudent reader should pronounce as the judges
+do--_Pater est is quern nuptiæ demonstrant._
+
+Did Charles V. intrigue with his sister Margaret, who governed the Low
+Countries? Was it by her that he had Don John of Austria, the intrepid
+brother of the prudent Philip II.? We have no more proof of this than we
+have of the secrets of Charlemagne's bed, who is said to have made free
+with all his daughters. If the Holy Scriptures did not assure me that
+Lot's daughters had children by their own father, and Tamar by her
+father-in-law, I should hesitate to accuse them of it; one cannot be too
+discreet.
+
+It has been written that the Duchess de Montpensier bestowed her favors
+on the monk Jacques Clement, in order to encourage him to assassinate
+his sovereign. It would have been more politic to have _promised_ them
+than to have _given_ them. But a fanatical or parricide priest is not
+incited in this way; _heaven_ is held out to him, and not a woman. His
+Prior Bourgoing had much greater power in determining him to any act
+than the greatest beauty upon earth. When he killed the king he had in
+his pocket no love-letters, but the stories of Judith and Ehud, quite
+dog-eared and worn out with thumbing.
+
+Jean Châtel and Ravaillac had no accomplices; their crime was that of
+the age; their only accomplice was the cry of _religion_. It has been
+repeatedly asserted that Ravaillac had taken a journey to Naples and
+that the Jesuit Alagona had, in Naples, predicted the death of the king.
+The Jesuits never were prophets; had they been so, they would have
+foretold their own destination; but, on the contrary, they, poor men,
+always positively declared that they should endure to the end of time.
+We should never be too sure of anything.
+
+It is in vain that the Jesuit Daniel tells me, in his very dry and very
+defective "History of France," that Henry IV. was a Catholic long before
+his abjuration. I will rather believe Henry IV. himself than the Jesuit
+Daniel. His letter to _La Belle Gabrielle: "C'est demain que je fais le
+saut périlleux"_ (To-morrow I take the fatal leap) proves, at least,
+that something different from Catholicism was still in his heart. Had
+his great soul been long penetrated by the efficacy of grace, he would
+perhaps have said to his mistress: "These bishops _edify_ me;" but he
+says: _"Ces gens-là m'ennuient."_ (These people _weary_ me.) Are these
+the words of a great catechumen?
+
+This great man's letters to Corisande d'Andouin, Countess of Grammont,
+are not a matter of doubt; they still exist in the originals. The author
+of the _"Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des Nations"_ (Essay on the
+Manners and Spirit of Nations) gives several of these interesting
+letters, in which there are the following curious passages: _"Tous ces
+empoisonneurs sont tous Papistes. J'ai découvert un tueur pour moi. Les
+prêcheurs Romains prêchent tout-haut qu'il n'y a plus qu'une mort à
+voir; ils admonestent tout bon Catholique de prendre exemple.--Et vous
+êtes de cette religion! Si je n'étais Huguenot, je me ferais Turc."_
+[These poisoners are all Papists. I have discovered an executioner for
+myself. The Roman preachers exclaim aloud that there is only one more
+death to be looked for; they admonish all good Catholics to profit by
+the example (of the poisoning of the prince of Condé).--And you are of
+this religion! If I were not a Huguenot, I would turn Turk.] It is
+difficult, after seeing these testimonials in Henry IV.'s own hand, to
+become firmly persuaded that he was a Catholic in his heart.
+
+Another modern historian accuses the duke of Lerma of the murder of
+Henry IV. "This," says he, "is the best established opinion." This
+opinion is evidently the worst established. It has never been heard of
+in Spain; and in France, the continuator of de Thou is the only one who
+has given any credit to these vague and ridiculous suspicions. If the
+duke of Lerma, prime minister, employed Ravaillac, he paid him very ill;
+for when the unfortunate man was seized, he was almost without money. If
+the duke of Lerma either prompted him or caused him to be prompted to
+the commission of the act, by the promise of a reward proportioned to
+the attempt, Ravaillac would assuredly have named both him and his
+emissaries, if only to revenge himself. He named the Jesuit d'Aubigny,
+to whom he had only shown a knife--why, then, should he spare the duke
+of Lerma? It is very strange obstinacy not to believe what Ravaillac
+himself declared when put to the torture. Is a great Spanish family to
+be insulted without the least shadow of proof?
+
+_Et voilà justement comme on écrit l'histoire._ (Yet this is how history
+is written.) The Spanish nation is not accustomed to resort to shameful
+crimes; and the Spanish grandees have always possessed a generous pride
+which has prevented them from acting so basely. If Philip II. set a
+price on the head of the prince of Orange, he had, at least, the pretext
+of punishing a rebellious subject, as the Parliament of Paris had when
+they set fifty thousand crowns on the head of Admiral Coligni, and
+afterwards on that of Cardinal Mazarin. These political proscriptions
+partook of the horror of the civil wars; but how can it be supposed that
+the duke of Lerma had secret communications with a poor wretch like
+Ravaillac?
+
+The same author says that Marshal D'Ancre and his wife were struck, as
+it were, by a thunderbolt. The truth is, that the one was struck by
+pistol-balls, and the other burned as a witch. An assassination and a
+sentence of death passed on the wife of a marshal of France, an
+attendant on the queen, as a reputed sorceress, do very little honor
+either to the chivalry or to the jurisprudence of that day. But I know
+not why the historian makes use of these words; "If these two wretches
+were not accomplices in the king's death, they at least deserved the
+most rigorous chastisement; it is certain that, even during the king's
+life, Concini and his wife had connections with Spain in opposition to
+the king's designs."
+
+This is not at all certain, nor is it even likely. They were
+Florentines. The grand duke of Florence was the first to acknowledge
+Henry IV., and feared nothing so much as the power of Spain in Italy.
+Concini and his wife had no influence in the time of Henry IV. If they
+intrigued with the court of Madrid it could only be through the queen,
+who must, therefore, have betrayed her husband. Besides, let it once
+more be observed that we are not at liberty to bring forward such
+accusations without proofs. What! shall a writer pronounce a defamation
+from his garret, which the most enlightened judges in the kingdom would
+tremble to hear in a court of justice? Why are a marshal of France and
+his wife, one of the queen's attendants, to be called two _wretches_?
+Does Marshal d'Ancre, who raised an army against the rebels at his own
+expense, merit an epithet suitable only to Ravaillac or Cartouche--to
+public robbers, or public calumniators?
+
+It is but too true that one fanatic is sufficient for the commission of
+a parricide, without any accomplice. Damiens had none; he repeated four
+times, in the course of his interrogatory, that he committed his crime
+solely through _a principle of religion_. Having been in the way of
+knowing the _convulsionaries_, I may say that I have seen twenty of them
+capable of any act equally horrid, so excessive has been their
+infatuation. Religion, ill-understood, is a fever which the smallest
+occurrence raises to frenzy. It is the property of fanaticism to heat
+the imagination. When a few sparks from the lire that keeps their
+superstitious heads a-boiling, fall on some violent and wicked
+spirit--when some ignorant and furious man thinks he is imitating
+Phineas, Ehud, Judith, and other such personages, he has more
+accomplices than he is aware of. Many incite to murder without knowing
+it. Some persons drop a few indiscreet and violent words; a servant
+repeats them, with additions and embellishments; a Châtel, a Ravaillac,
+or a Damiens listens to them, while they who pronounced them little
+think what mischief they have done; they are involuntary accomplices,
+without there having been either plot or instigation. In short, he knows
+little of the human mind who does not know that fanaticism renders the
+populace capable of anything.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The author of the _"Siècle de Louis XIV"_ ("Age of Louis the
+Fourteenth") is the first who has spoken of the Man in the Iron Mask in
+any authentic history. He was well acquainted with this circumstance,
+which is the astonishment of the present age, and will be that of
+posterity, but which is only too true. He had been deceived respecting
+the time of the death of this unknown and singularly unfortunate person,
+who was interred at the church of St. Paul March 3, 1703, and not in
+1704.
+
+He was first confined at Pignerol, before he was sent to the Isles of
+Ste. Marguerite, and afterwards to the Bastille, always under the care
+of the same man, that St. Marc, who saw him die. Father Griffet, a
+Jesuit, has communicated to the public the journal of the Bastille,
+which certifies the dates. He had no difficulty in obtaining this
+journal, since he exercised the delicate office of confessor to the
+prisoners confined in the Bastille.
+
+The Man in the Iron Mask is an enigma which each one attempts to solve.
+Some have said that he was the duke of Beaufort, but the duke of
+Beaufort was killed by the Turks in the defence of Candia, in 1669, and
+the Man in the Iron Mask was at Pignerol in 1672. Besides, how should
+the duke of Beaufort have been arrested in the midst of his army? How
+could he have been transferred to France without some one's knowing
+something about it? and why should he have been imprisoned? and why
+masked?
+
+Others have imagined that he was Count Vermandois, natural son to Louis
+XIV., who, it is well known, died of smallpox when with the army, in
+1683, and was buried in the town of Arras.
+
+It has since been supposed that the duke of Monmouth, who was publicly
+beheaded by order of King James, in 1685, was the Man in the Iron Mask.
+But either the duke must have come to life again, and afterwards changed
+the order of time, putting the year 1662 for the year 1685, or King
+James, who never pardoned any one, and therefore merited all his
+misfortunes, must have pardoned the duke of Monmouth, and put to death
+in his stead some one who perfectly resembled him. In the latter case, a
+person must have been found kind enough to have his head publicly cut
+off to save the duke of Monmouth. All England must have been deceived in
+the person; then King James must have begged of Louis XIV. that he would
+be so good as to become his jailer. Louis XIV., having granted King
+James this small favor, could not have refused to show the same regard
+for King William and Queen Anne, with whom he was at war; but would have
+been careful to maintain the dignity of jailer--with which King James
+had honored him--to the end of the chapter.
+
+All these illusions being dissipated, it remains to be known who this
+constantly-masked prisoner was, at what age he died, and under what name
+he was buried. It is clear that, if he was not permitted to walk in the
+court of the Bastille, nor to see his physician--except in a mask--it
+was for fear that some very striking resemblance would be discovered in
+his features. He was permitted to show his tongue, but never his face.
+As for his age, he himself told the apothecary of the Bastille, a little
+before his death, that he believed he was about sixty. The apothecary's
+son-in-law, Marsolam, surgeon to Marshal de Richelieu, and afterwards to
+the duke of Orleans the regent, has repeated this to me several times.
+To conclude: Why was an Italian name given to him? He was always called
+_Marchiali_ The writer of this article, perhaps, knows more on the
+subject than Father Griffet, though he will not say more.
+
+It is true that Nicholas Fouquet, superintendent of the finances, had
+many friends in his disgrace, and that they persevered even until
+judgment was passed on him. It is true that the chancellor, who presided
+at that judgment, treated the illustrious captive with too much rigor.
+But it was not Michel Letellier, as stated in some editions of the
+_"Siècle de Louis XIV."_, it was Pierre Seguier. This inadvertency of
+having placed one for the other is a fault which must be corrected.
+
+It is very remarkable that no one knows where this celebrated minister
+died. Not that it is of any importance to know it, for his death not
+having led to any event whatever, is like all other indifferent
+occurrences; but this serves to prove how completely he was forgotten
+towards the close of life, how worthless that worldly consideration is
+which is so anxiously sought for, and how happy they are who have no
+higher ambition than to live and die unknown. This knowledge is far more
+useful than that of dates.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Father Griffet does his utmost to persuade us that Cardinal Richelieu
+wrote a bad book. Well, many statesmen have done the same. But it is
+very fine to see him strive so hard to prove that, according to
+Cardinal Richelieu, "our allies, the Spaniards," so happily governed by
+a Bourbon, "are tributary to hell, and make the Indies tributary to
+hell!" Cardinal Richelieu's "Political Testament" is not that of a
+polite man. He alleges:
+
+That France had more good ports on the Mediterranean than the whole
+Spanish monarchy (this is an exaggeration); that to keep up an army of
+fifty thousand men it is best to raise a hundred thousand (this throws
+money away); that when a new tax is imposed the pay of the soldiers is
+increased (which has never been done either in France or elsewhere);
+that the parliaments and other superior courts should be made to pay the
+_taille_ (an infallible means of gaining their hearts and making the
+magistracy respectable); that the noblesse should be forced to serve and
+to enroll themselves in the cavalry (the better to preserve their
+privileges); that Genoa was the richest city in Italy (which I wish it
+were); that we must be very chaste (the testator _might_ add--like
+certain preachers--_"Do what I say, not what I do"_); that an abbey
+should be given to the holy chapel at Paris (a thing of great importance
+at the crisis in which your friend stood); that Pope Benedict XI. gave a
+great deal of trouble to the cordeliers, who were piqued on the subject
+of poverty (that is to say, the revenues of the order of St Francis);
+that they were exasperated against him to such a degree that they made
+war upon him by their writings (more important still and more
+learned!--especially when John XXII. is taken for Benedict XI. and when
+in a "Political Testament" nothing is said of the manner in which the
+war against Spain and the empire was to be conducted, nor of the means
+of making peace, nor of present dangers, nor of resources, nor of
+alliances, nor of the generals and ministers who were to be employed,
+nor even of the dauphin, whose education was of so much importance to
+the State, nor, in short, of any one object of the ministry).
+
+I consent with all my heart, since it must be so, that Cardinal
+Richelieu's memory shall be reproached with this unfortunate work, full
+of anachronisms, ignorance, ridiculous calculations, and acknowledged
+falsities. Let people strive as hard as they please to persuade
+themselves that the greatest minister was the most ignorant and tedious,
+as well as the most extravagant of writers; it may afford some
+gratification to those who detest his tyranny. It is also a fact worth
+preserving in the history of the human mind that this despicable work
+was praised for more than thirty years, while it was believed to be that
+great minister's, and quite as true that the pretended "Testament" made
+no noise in the world until thirty years after the Cardinal's death;
+that it was not printed until forty-two years after that event; that the
+original, signed by him, has never been seen; that the book is very bad;
+and that it scarcely deserves to be mentioned.
+
+Did Count de Moret, son of Henry IV., who was wounded in the little
+skirmish at Castelnaudari, live until the year 1693 under the name of
+_the hermit Jean Baptiste_? What proof have we that this hermit was the
+son of Henry IV.? None.
+
+Did Jeanne d'Albret de Navarre, mother of Henry IV., after the death of
+Antoine, marry a gentleman named Guyon, who was killed in the massacre
+of St. Bartholomew? Had she a son by him, who preached at Bordeaux?
+These facts are detailed at great length in the "Remarks on Bayle's
+Answers to the Questions of a Provincial," folio, page 689. Was Margaret
+of Valois, wife to Henry IV., brought to bed of two children secretly
+after her marriage?
+
+We might fill volumes with inquiries like these. But how much pains
+should we be taking to discover things of no use to mankind! Let us
+rather seek cures for the scrofula, the gout, the stone, the gravel, and
+a thousand other chronic or acute diseases. Let us seek remedies for the
+distempers of the mind, no less terrible and no less mortal. Let us
+labor to bring the arts to perfection, and to lessen the miseries of the
+human race; and let us not waste our time over the _anas_, the
+_anecdotes_, and _curious stories_ of our day, the collections of
+pretended bons mots, etc.
+
+I read in a book lately published that Louis XIV. exempted all
+new-married men from the _taille_ for five years. I have not found this
+fact in any collection of edicts, nor in any memoir of that time. I read
+in the same book that the king of Prussia has fifty livres given to
+every girl with child. There is, in truth, no better way of laying out
+money, nor of encouraging propagation, but I do not believe that this
+royal munificence is true; at least I have never witnessed it.
+
+An anecdote of greater antiquity has just fallen under my eye, and
+appears to me to be a very strange one. It is said in a chronological
+history of Italy that the great Arian, Theodoric--he who is represented
+to have been so wise--had amongst his ministers a Catholic, for whom he
+had a great liking, and who proved worthy of all his confidence. This
+minister thought he should rise still higher in his master's favor by
+embracing Arianism; but Theodoric had him immediately beheaded, saying:
+_"If a man is not faithful to God, how can he be faithful to me, who am
+but a man?"_ The compiler remarks that "this trait does great honor to
+Theodoric's manner of thinking with respect to religion."
+
+I pique myself on thinking, in matters of religion, better than
+Ostrogoth, Theodoric, the assassin of Symmachus, and Boëtius, because I
+am a good Catholic, and he was an Arian. But I declare this king worthy
+of being confined as a madman if he were so atrociously besotted. What!
+he immediately cut off his minister's head because that minister had at
+last come over to his own way of thinking. How was a worshipper of God,
+who passed from the opinion of Athanasius to that of Arius and Eusebius,
+unfaithful to God? He was at most unfaithful only to Athanasius and his
+party, at a time when the world was divided between the Athanasians and
+the Eusebians; but Theodoric could not regard him as a man unfaithful to
+God, because he had rejected the term _consubstantial_, after admitting
+it at first. To cut off his favorite's head for such a reason could
+certainly be the act of none but the wickedest fool and most barbarous
+blockhead that ever existed. What would you say of Louis XIV. if he had
+beheaded the duke de la Force because the duke de la Force had quitted
+Calvinism for the religion of Louis XIV.?
+
+I have just opened a history of Holland, in which I find that, in 1672,
+Marshal de Luxembourg harangued his troops in the following manner: "Go,
+my children, plunder, rob, kill, ravish; and if there be anything more
+abominable fail not to do it, that I may find I have not been mistaken
+in selecting you as the bravest of men." This is certainly a very pretty
+harangue. It is as true as those given us by Livy, but it is not in his
+style. To complete the dishonor of typography, this fine piece is
+inserted in several new dictionaries, which are no other than impostures
+in alphabetical order.
+
+It is a trifling error in the _"Abrégé Chronologique de l'Histoire de
+France"_ ("Chronological Abridgment of the History of France") to
+suppose that Louis XIV., after the Peace of Utrecht, for which he was
+indebted to the English, after nine years of misfortune, and after the
+many great victories which the English had gained, said to the English
+ambassador: "I have always been master at home, and sometimes abroad;
+do not remind me of it." This speech would have been very ill-timed,
+very false as it regarded the English, and would have exposed the king
+to a most galling reply.
+
+The author himself confessed to me that the Marquis de Torcy, who was
+present at all the earl of Stair's audiences, had always given the lie
+to this anecdote. It is assuredly neither true nor likely, and has
+remained in the later editions of this book only because it was put in
+the first. This error, however, does not at all disparage this very
+useful work, in which all the great events, arranged in the most
+convenient order, are perfectly authenticated.
+
+All these little tales, designed to embellish history, do but dishonor
+it, and unfortunately almost all ancient histories are little else than
+tales. Malebranche was right when, speaking on this subject, he said: "I
+think no more of history than I do of the news of my parish."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In 1723, Father Fouquet, a Jesuit, returned to France from China, where
+he had passed twenty-five years. Religious disputes had embroiled him
+with his brethren. He had carried with him to China a gospel different
+from theirs, and now brought back to France memorials against them. Two
+Chinese literati made the voyage with him; one of them died on the way,
+the other came with Father Fouquet to Paris. The Jesuit was to take the
+Chinese to Rome secretly, as a witness of the conduct of the good
+fathers in China, and in the meantime Fouquet and his companion lodged
+at the house of _the Professed_, Rue St. Antoine.
+
+The reverend fathers received advice of their reverend brother's
+intentions. Fouquet was no less quickly informed of the designs of the
+reverend fathers. He lost not a moment, but set off the same night for
+Rome. The reverend fathers had interest enough to get him pursued, but
+the Chinese only was taken. This poor fellow did not understand a word
+of French. The good fathers went to Cardinal Dubois, who at that time
+needed their support, and told him that they had among them a young man
+who had gone mad, and whom it was necessary to confine. The cardinal
+immediately granted a _lettre de cachet_, than which there is sometimes
+nothing which a minister is more ready to grant. The lieutenant of
+police went to take this madman, who was pointed out to him. He found a
+man making reverences in a way different from the French, speaking in a
+singing tone, and looking quite astonished. He expressed great pity for
+his derangement, ordered his hands to be tied behind him, and sent him
+to Charenton, where, like the Abbé Desfontaines, he was flogged twice a
+week. The Chinese did not at all understand this method of receiving
+strangers. He had passed only two or three days in Paris, and had found
+the manners of the French very odd. He had lived two years on bread and
+water, amongst madmen and keepers, and believed that the French nation
+consisted of these two species, the one part dancing while the other
+flogged them.
+
+At length, when two years had elapsed, the ministry changed and a new
+lieutenant of police was appointed. This magistrate commenced his
+administration by visiting the prisons. He also saw the lunatics at
+Charenton. After conversing with them he asked if there were no other
+persons for him to see. He was told that there was one more unfortunate
+man, but that he spoke a language which nobody understood. A Jesuit, who
+accompanied the magistrate, said it was the peculiarity of this man's
+madness that he never gave an answer in French; nothing would be gotten
+from him, and he thought it would be better not to take the trouble of
+calling him. The minister insisted. The unfortunate man was brought, and
+threw himself at his feet. The lieutenant sent for the king's
+interpreters, who spoke to him in Spanish, Latin, Greek, and English,
+but he constantly said _Kanton, Kanton_, and nothing else. The Jesuit
+assured them he was possessed. The magistrate, having at some time heard
+it said that there was a province in China called _Kanton_, thought this
+man might perhaps have come from thence. An interpreter to the foreign
+missions was sent for, who could murder Chinese. All was discovered. The
+magistrate knew not what to do, nor the Jesuit what to say. The Duke de
+Bourbon was then prime minister. The circumstance having been related to
+him, he ordered money and clothes to be given to the Chinese, and sent
+him back to his own country, whence it is not thought that many literati
+will come and see us in the future. It would have been more politic to
+have kept this man and treated him well, than to have sent him to give
+his countrymen the very worst opinion of the French.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About thirty years ago the French Jesuits sent secret missionaries to
+China, who enticed a child from his parents in Canton, and brought him
+to Paris, where they educated him in their convent of La Rue St.
+Antoine. This boy became a Jesuit at the age of fifteen, after which he
+remained ten years in France. He knows both French and Chinese
+perfectly, and is very learned. M. Bertin, comptroller-general, and
+afterwards secretary of state, sent him back to China in 1763, after the
+abolition of the Jesuits. He calls himself Ko, and signs himself _Ko,
+Jesuit_.
+
+In 1772 there were fourteen Jesuits in Pekin, amongst whom was Brother
+Ko, who still lives in their house. The Emperor Kien-Long has kept these
+monks of Europe about him in the positions of painters, engravers,
+watch-makers, and mechanics, with an express prohibition from ever
+disputing on religion, or causing the least trouble in the empire.
+
+The Jesuit Ko has sent manuscripts of his own composition from Pekin to
+Paris entitled: "Memoirs Relative to the History, Arts and Sciences of
+the Chinese by the Missionaries at Pekin." This book is printed, and is
+now selling at Paris by Nyon, the bookseller. The author attacks all
+the philosophers of Europe. He calls a prince of the Tartar race, whom
+the Jesuits had seduced, and the late emperor, Yong-Chin, had banished,
+an illustrious martyr to Jesus Christ. This Ko boasts of making many
+neophytes, who are ardent spirits, capable of troubling China even more
+than the Jesuits formerly troubled Japan. It is said that a Russian
+nobleman, indignant at this Jesuitical insolence, which reaches the
+farthest corners of the earth even after the extinction of the
+order--has resolved to find some means of sending to the president of
+the tribunal of rites at Pekin an extract in Chinese from these memoirs,
+which may serve to make the aforesaid Ko, and the Jesuits who labor with
+him, better known.
+
+
+
+
+ANGELS.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Angels of the Indians, Persians, etc._
+
+The author of the article "Angel" in the Encyclopædia says that all
+religions have admitted the existence of angels, although it is not
+demonstrated by natural reason.
+
+We understand by this word, ministers of God, supernatural is beyond
+reason. If I mistake not it should have been _several_ religions (and
+not _all_) have acknowledged the existence of angels. That of Numa, that
+of Sabaism, that of the Druids, that of the Scythians, and that of the
+Phoenicians and ancient Egyptians did not admit their existence.
+
+We understand by this word, ministers of God, deputies, beings of a
+middle order between God and man, sent to make known to us His orders.
+
+At the present time--in 1772--the Brahmins boast of having possessed in
+writing, for just four thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight years,
+their first sacred law, entitled the Shastah, fifteen hundred years
+before their second law, called Veidam, signifying the word of God. The
+Shastah contains five chapters; the first, of God and His attributes;
+the second, of the creation of the angels; the third, of the fall of the
+angels; the fourth, of their punishment; the fifth, of their pardon, and
+the creation of man.
+
+It is good, in the first place, to observe the manner in which this book
+speaks of God.
+
+_First Chapter of the Shastah._
+
+God is one; He has created all; it is a perfect sphere, without
+beginning or end. God conducts the whole creation by a general
+providence, resulting from a determined principle. Thou shalt not seek
+to discover the nature and essence of the Eternal, nor by what laws He
+governs; such an undertaking would be vain and criminal. It is enough
+for thee to contemplate day and night in His works, His wisdom, His
+power, and His goodness.
+
+After paying to this opening of the Shastah the tribute of admiration
+which is due to it, let us pass to the creation of the angels.
+
+_Second Chapter of the Shastah._
+
+The Eternal, absorbed in the contemplation of His own existence,
+resolved, in the fulness of time, to communicate His glory and His
+essence to beings capable of feeling and partaking His beatitude as well
+as of contributing to His glory. The Eternal willed it, and they were.
+He formed them partly of His own essence, capable of perfection or
+imperfection, according to their will.
+
+The Eternal first created Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, then Mozazor, and
+all the multitude of the angels. The Eternal gave the pre-eminence to
+Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Brahma was the prince of the angelic army;
+Vishnu and Siva were His coadjutors. The Eternal divided the angelic
+army into several bands, and gave to each a chief. They adored the
+Eternal, ranged around His throne, each in the degree assigned him.
+There was harmony in heaven. Mozazor, chief of the first band, led the
+canticle of praise and adoration to the Creator, and the song of
+obedience to Brahma, his first creature; and the Eternal rejoiced in His
+new creation.
+
+_Chapter III.--The Fall of a Part of the Angels._
+
+From the creation of the celestial army, joy and harmony surrounded the
+throne of the Eternal for a thousand years multiplied by a thousand, and
+would have lasted until the end of time had not envy seized Mozazor and
+other princes of the angelic bands, among whom was Raabon, the next in
+dignity to Mozazor. Forgetful of the blessing of their creation, and of
+their duty, they rejected the power of perfection, and exercised the
+power of imperfection. They did evil in the sight of the Eternal; they
+disobeyed Him; they refused to submit to God's lieutenant and his
+coadjutors Vishnu and Siva, saying: "We will govern," and, without
+fearing the power and the anger of their Creator, disseminated their
+seditious principles in the celestial army. They seduced the angels, and
+persuaded a great multitude of them to rebel; and they forsook the
+throne of the Eternal; and sorrow came upon the faithful angelic
+spirits; and for the first time grief was known in heaven.
+
+_Chapter IV.--Punishment of the Guilty Angels._
+
+The Eternal, whose omniscience, prescience, and influence extend over
+all things except the action of the beings whom He has created free,
+beheld with grief and anger the defection of Mozazor, Raabon, and the
+other chiefs of the angels.
+
+Merciful in his wrath, he sent Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva to reproach them
+with their crime, and bring them back to their duty; but, confirmed in
+their spirit of independence, they persisted in their revolt. The
+Eternal then commanded Siva to march against them, armed with almighty
+power, and hurl them down from the high place to the place of
+_darkness_, into the _Ondera_, there to be punished for a thousand years
+multiplied by a thousand.
+
+_Abstract of the Fifth Chapter._
+
+At the end of a thousand years Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva implored the
+clemency of the Eternal in favor of the delinquents. The Eternal
+vouchsafed to deliver them from the prison of the _Ondera_, and place
+them in a state of probation during a great number of solar revolutions.
+There were other rebellions against God during this time of penitence.
+
+It was at one of these periods that God created the earth, where the
+penitent angels underwent several metempsychoses, one of the last of
+which was their transformation into cows. Hence it was that cows became
+sacred in India. Lastly, they were metamorphosed into men.
+
+So that the Indian system of angels is precisely that of the Jesuit
+Bougeant, who asserts that the bodies of beasts are inhabited by sinful
+angels. What the Brahmins had invented seriously, Bougeant, more than
+four thousand years after, imagined in jest--if, indeed, this pleasantry
+of his was not a remnant of superstition, combined with the spirit of
+system-making, as is often the case.
+
+Such is the history of the angels among the ancient Brahmins, which,
+after the lapse of about fifty centuries, they still continue to teach.
+Neither our merchants who have traded in India, nor our missionaries,
+have ever been informed of it; for the Brahmins, having never been
+edified by their science or their manners, have not communicated to them
+their secrets. It was left for an Englishman, named Holwell, to reside
+for thirty years at Benares, on the Ganges, an ancient school of the
+Brahmins, to learn the ancient Sanscrit tongue, in order at length to
+enrich our Europe with this singular knowledge; just as Mr. Sale lived a
+long time in Arabia to give us a faithful translation of the Koran and
+information relative to ancient Sabaism, which has been succeeded by the
+Mussulman religion; and as Dr. Hyde continued for twenty years his
+researches into everything concerning the religion of the Magi.
+
+_Angels of the Persians._
+
+The Persians had thirty-one angels. The first of all, who is served by
+four other angels, is named Bahaman. He has the inspection of all
+animals except man, over whom God has reserved to himself an immediate
+jurisdiction.
+
+God presides over the day on which the sun enters the Ram, and this day
+is a Sabbath, which proves that the feast of the Sabbath was observed
+among the Persians in the ancient times. The second angel presides over
+the seventh day, and is called Debadur. The third is Kur, which probably
+was afterwards converted into Cyrus. He is the angel of the sun. The
+fourth is called Mah, and presides over the moon. Thus each angel has
+his province. It was among the Persians that the doctrine of the
+guardian angel and the evil angel was first adopted. It is believed that
+Raphael was the guardian angel of the Persian Empire.
+
+_Angels of the Hebrews._
+
+The Hebrews knew nothing of the fall of the angels until the
+commencement of the Christian era. This secret doctrine of the ancient
+Brahmins must have reached them at that time, for it was then that the
+book attributed to Enoch, relative to the sinful angels driven from
+heaven, was fabricated.
+
+Enoch must have been a very ancient writer, since, according to the
+Jews, he lived in the seventh generation before the deluge. But as Seth,
+still more ancient than he, had left books to the Hebrews, they might
+boast of having some from Enoch also. According to them Enoch wrote as
+follows:
+
+"It happened, after the sons of men had multiplied in those days, that
+daughters were born to them, elegant and beautiful. And when the angels,
+the sons of heaven, beheld them they became enamored of them, saying to
+each other: 'Come, let us select for ourselves wives from the progeny of
+men, and let us beget children.' Then their leader, Samyaza, said to
+them: 'I fear that you may perhaps be indisposed to the performance of
+this enterprise, and that I alone shall suffer for so grievous a crime.'
+But they answered him and said: 'We all swear, and bind ourselves by
+mutual execrations, that we will not change our intention, but execute
+our projected undertaking.'
+
+"Then they swore all together, and all bound themselves by mutual
+execrations. Their whole number was two hundred, who descended upon
+Ardis, which is the top of Mount Armon. That mountain, therefore, was
+called Armon, because they had sworn upon it, and bound themselves by
+mutual execrations. These are the names of their chiefs: Samyaza, who
+was their leader; Urakabarameel, Akabeel, Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Azkeel,
+Sarakuyal, Asael, Armers, Batraal, Anane, Zavebe, Samsaveel, Ertael,
+Turel, Yomyael, Arazyal. These were the prefects of the two hundred
+angels, and the remainder were all with them.
+
+"Then they took wives, each choosing for himself, whom they began to
+approach, and with whom they cohabited, teaching them sorcery,
+incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees. And the women,
+conceiving, brought forth giants, whose stature was each three hundred
+cubits," etc.
+
+The author of this fragment writes in the style which seems to belong to
+the primitive ages. He has the same simplicity. He does not fail to name
+the persons, nor does he forget the dates; here are no reflections, no
+maxims. It is the ancient Oriental manner.
+
+It is evident that this story is founded on the sixth chapter of
+Genesis: "There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after
+that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they
+bear children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men
+of renown." Genesis and the Book of Enoch perfectly agree respecting
+the coupling of the angels with the daughters of men, and the race of
+giants which sprung from this union; but neither this Enoch, nor any
+book of the Old Testament, speaks of the war of the angels against God,
+or of their defeat, or of their fall into hell, or of their hatred to
+mankind.
+
+Nearly all the commentators on the Old Testament unanimously say that
+before the Babylonian captivity, the Jews knew not the name of any
+angel. The one that appeared to Manoah, father of Samson, would not tell
+his name.
+
+When the three angels appeared to Abraham, and he had a whole calf
+dressed to regale them, they did not tell him their names. One of them
+said: "I will come to see thee next year, if God grant me life; and
+Sarah thy wife shall have a son."
+
+Calmet discovers a great affinity between this story and the fable which
+Ovid relates in his _"Fasti"_, of Jupiter, Neptune, and Mercury, who,
+having supped with old Hyreus, and finding that he was afflicted with
+impotence, urinated upon the skin of a calf which he had served up to
+them, and ordered him to bury this hide watered with celestial urine in
+the ground, and leave it there for nine months. At the end of the nine
+months, Hyreus uncovered his hide, and found in it a child, which was
+named Orion, and is now in the heavens. Calmet moreover says that the
+words which the angels used to Abraham may be rendered thus: A child
+shall be born of your calf.
+
+Be this as it may, the angels did not tell Abraham their names; they did
+not even tell them to Moses; and we find the name of Raphael only in
+Tobit, at the time of the captivity. The other names of angels are
+evidently taken from the Chaldæans and the Persians. _Raphael_,
+_Gabriel_, and _Uriel_, are Persian or Babylonian. The name of _Israel_
+itself is Chaldæan, as the learned Jew Philo expressly says, in the
+account of his deputation to Caligula.
+
+We shall not here repeat what has been elsewhere said of angels.
+
+_Whether the Greeks and the Romans admitted the Existence of Angels._
+
+They had gods and demi-gods enough to dispense with all other subaltern
+beings. Mercury executed the commissions of Jupiter, and Iris those of
+Juno; nevertheless, they admitted genii and demons. The doctrine of
+guardian angels was versified by Hesiod, who was contemporary with
+Homer. In his poem of "The Works and Days" he thus explains it:
+
+     When gods alike and mortals rose to birth,
+     A golden race the immortals formed on earth
+     Of many-languaged men; they lived of old,
+     When Saturn reigned in heaven--an age of gold.
+     Like gods they lived, with calm, untroubled mind,
+     Free from the toil and anguish of our kind.
+     Nor sad, decrepit age approaching nigh,
+     Their limbs misshaped with swoln deformity.
+     Strangers to ill, they Nature's banquet proved,
+     Rich in earth's fruits, and of the blest beloved:
+     They sank to death, as opiate slumber stole
+     Soft o'er the sense, and whelmed the willing soul.
+     Theirs was each good: the grain-exuberant soil
+     Poured the full harvest, uncompelled by toil;
+     The virtuous many dwelt in common, blest,
+     And all unenvying shared what all in peace possessed.
+     When on this race the verdant earth had lain,
+     By Jove's high will they rose a Genii train:
+     Earth-wandering dæmons, they their charge began,
+     The ministers or good and guards of man:
+     Veiled with a mantle of aerial night,
+     O'er earth's wide space they wing their hovering flight;
+     Dispense the fertile treasures of the ground,
+     And bend their all-observant glance around;
+     To mark the deed unjust, the just approve,
+     Their kingly office, delegate from Jove.
+                                   ELTON'S _Translation_.
+
+The farther we search into antiquity, the more we see how modern nations
+have by turns explored these now almost abandoned mines. The Greeks, who
+so long passed for inventors, imitated Egypt, which had copied from the
+Chaldæans, who owed almost everything to the Indians. The doctrine of
+the guardian angels, so well sung by Hesiod, was afterwards
+sophisticated in the schools: it was all that they were capable of
+doing. Every man had his good and his evil genius, as each one had his
+particular star--
+
+_Est genius natale comes qui temper at astrum._
+
+Socrates, we know, had his good angel; but his bad angel must have
+governed him. No angel but an evil one could prompt a philosopher to run
+from house to house, to tell people, by question and answer, that father
+and mother, preceptor and pupil, were all ignorant and imbecile. A
+guardian angel in that event will find it very difficult to save his
+protege from the hemlock.
+
+We are acquainted only with the _evil angel_ of Marcus Brutus, which
+appeared to him before the battle of Philippi.
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+The doctrine of angels is one of the oldest in the world. It preceded
+that of the immortality of the soul. This is not surprising; philosophy
+is necessary to the belief that the soul of mortal man is immortal; but
+imagination and weakness are sufficient for the invention of beings
+superior to ourselves, protecting or persecuting us. Yet it does not
+appear that the ancient Egyptians had any notion of these celestial
+beings, clothed with an ethereal body and administering to the orders of
+a God. The ancient Babylonians were the first who admitted this
+theology. The Hebrew books employ the angels from the first book of
+Genesis downwards: but the Book of Genesis was not written before the
+Chaldæans had become a powerful nation: nor was it until the captivity
+of Babylon that the Jews learned the names of _Gabriel_, _Raphael_,
+_Michael_, _Uriel_, etc., which were given to the angels. The Jewish and
+Christian religions being founded on the fall of Adam, and this fall
+being founded on the temptation by the evil angel, the devil, it is very
+singular that not a word is said in the Pentateuch of the existence of
+the bad angels, still less of their punishment and abode in hell.
+
+The reason of this omission is evident: the evil angels were unknown to
+the Jews until the Babylonian captivity; then it is that Asmodeus
+begins to be talked of, whom Raphael went to bind in Upper Egypt; there
+it is that the Jews first hear of Satan. This word _Satan_ was Chaldæan;
+and the Book of Job, an inhabitant of Chaldæa, is the first that makes
+mention of him.
+
+The ancient Persians said Satan was an angel or genius who had made war
+upon the _Dives_ and the _Peris_, that is, the fairest of the East.
+
+Thus, according to the ordinary rules of probability, those who are
+guided by reason alone might be permitted to think that, from this
+theology, the Jews and Christians at length took the idea that the evil
+angels had been driven out of heaven, and that their prince had tempted
+Eve, in the form of a serpent.
+
+It has been pretended that Isaiah, in his fourteenth chapter, had this
+allegory in view when he said: _"Quornodo occidisti de coelo, Lucifer,
+qui mane oriebaris?"_ "How hast thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son
+of the morning?"
+
+It was this same Latin verse, translated from Isaiah, which procured for
+the devil the name of Lucifer. It was forgotten that Lucifer signifies
+"that which sheds light." The words of Isaiah, too, have received a
+little attention; he is speaking of the dethroned king of Babylon; and
+by a common figure of speech, he says to him: "How hast thou fallen from
+heaven, thou brilliant star?"
+
+It does not at all appear that Isaiah sought, by this stroke of
+rhetoric, to establish the doctrine of the angels precipitated into
+hell. It was scarcely before the time of the primitive Christian church
+that the fathers and the rabbis exerted themselves to encourage this
+doctrine, in order to save the incredibility of the story of a serpent
+which seduced the mother of men, and which, condemned for this bad
+action to crawl on its belly, has ever since been an enemy to man, who
+is always striving to crush it, while it is always endeavoring to bite
+him. There seemed to be somewhat more of sublimity in celestial
+substances precipitated into the abyss, and issuing from it to persecute
+mankind.
+
+It cannot be proved by any reasoning that these celestial and infernal
+powers exist; neither can it be proved that they do not exist. There is
+certainly no contradiction in acknowledging the existence of beneficent
+and malignant substances which are neither of the nature of God nor of
+the nature of man: but a thing, to be believed, must be more than
+possible.
+
+The angels who, according to the Babylonians and the Jews, presided over
+nations, were precisely what the gods of Homer were--celestial beings,
+subordinate to a supreme being. The imagination which produced the one
+probably produced the other. The number of the inferior gods increased
+with the religion of Homer. Among the Christians, the number of the
+angels was augmented in the course of time.
+
+The writers known by the names of Dionysius the Areopagite and Gregory
+I. fixed the number of angels in nine choirs, forming three hierarchies;
+the first consisting of the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones; the second
+of the dominations, virtues and powers; and the third of the
+principalities, archangels, and, lastly, the angels, who give their
+domination to all the rest. It is hardly permissible for any one but a
+pope thus to settle the different ranks in heaven.
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+Angel, in Greek, is envoy. The reader will hardly be the wiser for being
+told that the Persians had their _peris_, the Hebrews their _malakim_,
+and the Greeks their _demonoi_.
+
+But it is perhaps better worth knowing that, one of the first of man's
+ideas has always been to place intermediate beings between the Divinity
+and himself; such were those demons, those genii, invented in the ages
+of antiquity. Man always made the gods after his own image; princes were
+seen to communicate their orders by messengers; therefore, the Divinity
+had also his couriers. Mercury, Iris, were couriers or messengers.
+
+The Jews, the only people under the conduct of the Divinity Himself, did
+not at first give names to the angels whom God vouchsafed to send them;
+they borrowed the names given them by the Chaldæans when the Jewish
+nation was captive in Babylon; Michael and Gabriel are named for the
+first time by Daniel, a slave among those people. The Jew Tobit, who
+lived at Ninevah, knew the angel Raphael, who travelled with his son to
+assist him in recovering the money due to him from the Jew Gabaël.
+
+In the laws of the Jews, that is, in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, not the
+least mention is made of the existence of the angels--much less of the
+worship of them. Neither did the Sadducees believe in the angels.
+
+But in the histories of the Jews, they are much spoken of. The angels
+were corporeal; they had wings at their backs, as the Gentiles feigned
+that Mercury had at his heels; sometimes they concealed their wings
+under their clothing. How could they be without bodies, since they all
+ate and drank, and the inhabitants of Sodom wanted to commit the sin of
+pederasty with the angels who went to Lot's house?
+
+The ancient Jewish tradition, according to Ben Maimon, admits ten
+degrees, ten orders of angels:
+
+1. The _chaios ecodesh_, pure, holy. 2. The _ofamin_, swift. 3. The
+_oralim_, strong. 4. The _chasmalim_, flames. 5. The _seraphim_, sparks.
+6. The _malakim_, angels, messengers, deputies. 7. The _elohim_, gods or
+judges. 8. The _ben elohim_, sons of the gods. 9. The _cherubim_,
+images. 10. The _ychim_, animated.
+
+The story of the fall of the angels is not to be found in the books of
+Moses. The first testimony respecting it is that of Isaiah, who,
+apostrophizing the king of Babylon, exclaims, "Where is now the exacter
+of tributes? The pines and the cedars rejoice in his fall. How hast thou
+fallen from heaven, O Hellel, star of the morning?" It has been already
+observed that the word _Hellel_ has been rendered by the Latin word
+Lucifer; that afterwards, in an allegorical sense, the name of Lucifer
+was given to the prince of the angels, who made war in heaven; and that,
+at last, this word, signifying _Phosphorus_ and _Aurora_, has become the
+name of the devil.
+
+The Christian religion is founded on the fall of the angels. Those who
+revolted were precipitated from the spheres which they inhabited into
+hell, in the centre of the earth, and became devils. A devil, in the
+form of a serpent, tempted Eve, and damned mankind. Jesus came to redeem
+mankind, and to triumph over the devil, who tempts us still. Yet this
+fundamental tradition is to be found nowhere but in the apocryphal book
+of Enoch; and there it is in a form quite different from that of the
+received tradition.
+
+St. Augustine, in his 109th letter, does not hesitate to give slender
+and agile bodies to the good and bad angels. Pope Gregory I. has reduced
+to nine choirs--to nine hierarchies or orders--the ten choirs of angels
+acknowledged by the Jews.
+
+The Jews had in their temple two cherubs, each with two heads--the one
+that of an ox, the other that of an eagle, with six wings. We paint them
+now in the form of a flying head, with two small wings below the ears.
+We paint the angels and archangels in the form of young men, with two
+wings at the back. As for the thrones and dominations, no one has yet
+thought of painting them.
+
+St. Thomas, at question cviii. article 2, says that the thrones are as
+near to God as the cherubim and the seraphim, because it is upon them
+that God sits. Scot has counted a thousand million of angels. The
+ancient mythology of the good and bad genii, having passed from the East
+to Greece and Rome, we consecrated this opinion, for admitting for each
+individual a good and an evil angel, of whom one assists him and the
+other torments him, from his birth to his death; but it is not yet known
+whether these good and bad angels are continually passing from one to
+another, or are relieved by others. On this point, consult "St. Thomas's
+Dream."
+
+It is not known precisely where the angels dwell--whether in the air, in
+the void, or in the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we
+should be informed of their abode.
+
+
+
+
+ANNALS.
+
+
+How many nations have long existed, and still exist, without annals.
+There were none in all America, that is, in one-half of our globe,
+excepting those of Mexico and Peru, which are not very ancient. Besides,
+knotted cords are a sort of books which cannot enter into very minute
+details. Three-fourths of Africa never had annals; and, at the present
+day, in the most learned nations, in those which have even used and
+abused the art of writing the most, ninety-nine out of a hundred persons
+may be regarded as not knowing anything that happened there farther back
+than four generations, and as ignorant almost of the names of their
+great-grandfathers. Such is the case with nearly all the inhabitants of
+towns and villages, very few families holding titles of their
+possessions. When a litigation arises respecting the limits of a field
+or a meadow, the judges decide according to the testimony of the old
+men; and possession constitutes the title. Some great events are
+transmitted from father to son, and are entirely altered in passing from
+mouth to mouth. They have no other annals.
+
+Look at all the villages of our Europe, so polished, so enlightened, so
+full of immense libraries, and which now seem to groan under the
+enormous mass of books. In each village two men at most, on an average,
+can read and write. Society loses nothing in consequence. All works are
+performed--building, planting, sowing, reaping, as they were in the
+remotest times. The laborer has not even leisure to regret that he has
+not been taught to consume some hours of the day in reading. This proves
+that mankind had no need of historical monuments to cultivate the arts
+really necessary to life.
+
+It is astonishing, not that so many tribes of people are without annals,
+but that three or four nations have preserved them for five thousand
+years or thereabouts, through so many violent revolutions which the
+earth has undergone. Not a line remains of the ancient Egyptian,
+Chaldæan, or Persian annals, nor of those of the Latins and Etruscans.
+The only annals that can boast of a little antiquity are the Indian, the
+Chinese, and the Hebrew.
+
+We cannot give the name of annals to vague and rude fragments of history
+without date, order, or connection. They are riddles proposed by
+antiquity to posterity, who understand nothing at all of them. We
+venture to affirm that Sanchoniathon, who is said to have lived before
+the time of Moses, composed annals. He probably limited his researches
+to cosmogony, as Hesiod afterwards did in Greece. We advance this latter
+opinion only as a doubt; for we write only to be informed, and not to
+teach.
+
+But what deserves the greatest attention is that Sanchoniathon quotes
+the books of the Egyptian Thoth, who, he tells us, lived eight hundred
+years before him. Now Sanchoniathon probably wrote in the age in which
+we place Joseph's adventure in Egypt. We commonly place the epoch of the
+promotion of the Jew Joseph to the prime-ministry of Egypt at the year
+of the creation 2300.
+
+If, then, the books of Thoth were written eight hundred years before,
+they were written in the year 1500 of the creation. Therefore, their
+date was a hundred and fifty-six years before the deluge. They must,
+then, have been engraved on stone, and preserved in the universal
+inundation. Another difficulty is that Sanchoniathon does not speak of
+the deluge, and that no Egyptian writer has ever been quoted who does
+speak of it. But these difficulties vanish before the Book of Genesis,
+inspired by the Holy Ghost.
+
+We have no intention here to plunge into the chaos which eighty writers
+have sought to clear up, by inventing different chronologies; we always
+keep to the Old Testament. We only ask whether in the time of Thoth they
+wrote in hieroglyphics, or in alphabetical characters? whether stone and
+brick had yet been laid aside for vellum, or any other material? whether
+Thoth wrote annals, or only a cosmogony? whether there were some
+pyramids already built in the time of Thoth? whether Lower Egypt was
+already inhabited? whether canals had been constructed to receive the
+waters of the Nile? whether the Chaldæans had already taught the arts of
+the Egyptians, and whether the Chaldæans had received them from the
+Brahmins? There are persons who have resolved all these questions; which
+once occasioned a man of sense and wit to say of a grave doctor, "That
+man must be very ignorant, for he answers every question that is asked
+him."
+
+
+
+
+ANNATS.
+
+
+The epoch of the establishment of annats is uncertain, which is a proof
+that the exaction of them is a usurpation--an extortionary custom.
+Whatever is not founded on an authentic law is an abuse. Every abuse
+ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the
+abuse itself. Usurpation begins by small and successive encroachments;
+equity and the public interest at length exclaim and protest; then comes
+policy, which does its best to reconcile usurpation with equity, and the
+abuse remains.
+
+In several dioceses the bishops, chapters, and arch-deacons, after the
+example of the popes, imposed annats upon the curés. In Normandy this
+exaction is called _droit de déport_. Policy having no interest in
+maintaining this pillage, it was abolished in several places; it still
+exists in others; so true is it that money is the first object of
+worship!
+
+In 1409, at the Council of Pisa, Pope Alexander V. expressly renounced
+annats; Charles VII. condemned them by an edict of April, 1418; the
+Council of Basel declared that they came under the domination of simony,
+and the Pragmatic Sanction abolished them again.
+
+Francis I., by a private treaty which he made with Leo X., and which was
+not inserted in the concordat, allowed the pope to raise this tribute,
+which produced him annually, during that prince's reign, a hundred
+thousand crowns of that day, according to the calculation then made by
+Jacques Capelle, advocate-general to the Parliament of Paris.
+
+The parliament, the universities, the clergy, the whole nation,
+protested against this exaction, and Henry II., yielding at length to
+the cries of his people, renewed the law of Charles VII., by an edict of
+the 3d of September, 1551.
+
+The paying of annats was again forbidden by Charles IX., at the States
+of Orleans, in 1560: "By the advice of our council, and in pursuance of
+the decrees of the Holy Councils, the ancient ordinances of the kings,
+our predecessors, and the decisions of our courts of parliament, we
+order that all conveying of gold and silver out of our kingdom, and
+paying of money under the name of _annats_, vacant or otherwise, shall
+cease, on pain of a four-fold penalty on the offenders."
+
+This law, promulgated in the general assembly of the nation, must have
+seemed irrevocable, but two years afterwards the same prince, subdued by
+the court of Rome, at that time powerful, re-established what the whole
+nation and himself had abrogated.
+
+Henry IV., who feared no danger, but feared Rome, confirmed the annats
+by an edict of the 22d of January, 1596.
+
+Three celebrated jurisconsults, Dumoulin, Lannoy, and Duaren, have
+written strongly against annats, which they call a _real simony_. If, in
+default of their payment the pope refuses his bulls, Duaren advises the
+Gallican Church to imitate that of Spain, which, in the twelfth Council
+of Toledo, charged the archbishop of that city, on the pope's refusal,
+to provide for the prelates appointed by the king.
+
+It is one of the most certain maxims of French law, consecrated by
+article fourteen of our liberties, that the bishop of Rome has no power
+over the temporalities of benefices, but enjoys the revenues of annats
+only by the king's permission. But ought there not to be a term to this
+permission? What avails our enlightenment if we are always to retain,
+our abuses?
+
+The amount of the sums which have been and still are paid to the pope is
+truly frightful. The attorney-general, Jean de St. Romain, has remarked
+that in the time of Pius II. twenty-two bishoprics having become vacant
+in France in the space of three years, it was necessary to carry to Rome
+a hundred and twenty thousand crowns; that sixty-one abbeys having also
+become vacant, the like sum had been paid to the court of Rome; that
+about the same time there had been paid to this court for provisions for
+the priorships, deaneries, and other inferior dignities, a thousand
+crowns; that for each curate there was at least a _grâce expectative_,
+which was sold for twenty-five crowns, besides an infinite number of
+dispensations, amounting to two millions of crowns. St. Romain lived in
+the time of Louis XI. Judge then, what these sums would now amount to.
+Judge how much other states have given. Judge whether the Roman
+commonwealth in the time of Lucullus drew more gold and silver from the
+nations conquered by its sword than the popes, the fathers of those same
+nations, have drawn from them by their pens.
+
+Supposing that St. Romain's calculation is too high by half, which is
+very unlikely, does there not still remain a sum sufficiently
+considerable to entitle us to call the apostolical chamber to an
+account and demand restitution, seeing that there is nothing at all
+apostolical in such an amount of money?
+
+
+
+
+ANTHROPOMORPHITES.
+
+
+They are said to have been a small sect of the fourth century, but they
+were rather the sect of every people that had painters and sculptors. As
+soon as they could draw a little, or shape a figure, they made an image
+of the Divinity. If the Egyptians consecrated cats and gnats they also
+sculptured Isis and Osiris. Bel was carved at Babylon, Hercules at Tyre,
+Brahma in India.
+
+The Mussulmans did not paint God as a man. The Guebres had no image of
+the Great Being. The Sabean Arabs, did not give the human figure to the
+stars. The Jews did not give it to God in their temple. None of these
+nations cultivated the art of design, and if Solomon placed figures of
+animals in his temple it is likely that he had them carved at Tyre; but
+all the Jews have spoken of God as of a man.
+
+Although they had no images they seem to have made God a man on all
+occasions. He comes down into the garden; He walks there every day at
+noon; He talks to His creatures; He talks to the serpent; He makes
+Himself heard by Moses in the bush; He shows him only His back parts on
+the mountain; He nevertheless talks to him, face to face, like one
+friend to another.
+
+In the Koran, too, God is always looked up to as a king. In the twelfth
+chapter, a throne is given Him above the waters. He had this Koran
+written by a secretary, as kings have their orders. He sent this same
+Koran to Mahomet by the angel Gabriel, as kings communicate their orders
+through the great officers of the crown. In short, although God is
+declared in the Koran to be neither begetting nor begotten, there is,
+nevertheless a morsel of anthropomorphism. In the Greek and Latin
+Churches, God has always been painted with a great beard.
+
+
+
+
+ANTI-LUCRETIUS.
+
+
+The reading of the whole poem of the late Cardinal Polignac has
+confirmed me in the idea which I formed of it when he read to me the
+first book. I am moreover astonished, that amidst the dissipations of
+the world and the troubles in public life, he should have been able to
+write a long work in verse, in a foreign language; he, who could hardly
+have made four good lines in his own tongue. It seems to me that he
+often united the strength of Lucretius and the elegance of Virgil. I
+admire him, above all, for that facility with which he expresses such
+difficult things.
+
+Perhaps, indeed, his "Anti-Lucretius" is too diffuse, and too little
+diversified, but he is here to be examined as a philosopher, not as a
+poet. It appears to me that so fine a mind as his should have done more
+justice to the morals of Epicurus, who, though he was a very bad
+natural philosopher, was, nevertheless, a very worthy man and always
+taught mildness, temperance, moderation, and justice, virtues which his
+example inculcated still more forcibly.
+
+In the "Anti-Lucretius," this great man is thus apostrophized:
+
+     _Si virtutis eras avidus, rectique bonique_
+     _Tam sitiens, quid relligio tibi sancta nocebat?_
+     _Aspera quippe nimis visa est. Asperrima certe_
+     _Gaudenti vitiis, sed non virtutis amanti._
+     _Ergo perfugium culpa, solisque benignus_
+     _Periuris ac foedifragis, Epicure, parabas._
+     _So lam hominum faecem poteras, devotaque fureis_
+     _Corpora, etc._
+
+     If virtue, justice, goodness, were thy care,
+     Why didst thou tremble at Religion's call?--
+     Whose laws are harsh to vicious minds alone--
+     Not to the spirit that delights in virtue.
+     No, no--the worst of men, the worst of crimes
+     Has thy solicitude--thy dearest aim
+     To find a refuge for the guilty soul, etc.
+
+But Epicurus might reply to the cardinal: "If I had had the happiness of
+knowing, like you, the true God, of being born, like you, in a pure and
+holy religion, I should certainly not have rejected that revealed God,
+whose tenets were necessarily unknown to my mind, but whose morality was
+in my heart. I could not admit the existence of such gods as were
+announced to me by paganism. I was too rational to adore divinities,
+made to spring from a father and a mother, like mortals, and like them,
+to make war upon one another. I was too great a friend to virtue not to
+hate a religion which now invited to crime by the example of those gods
+themselves, and now sold for money the remission of the most horrible
+enormities. I beheld, on one hand, infatuated men, stained with vices,
+and seeking to purify themselves before impure gods; and on the other,
+knaves who boasted that they could justify the most perverse by
+initiating them in mysteries, by dropping bullock's blood on their
+heads, or by dipping them in the waters of the Ganges. I beheld the most
+unjust wars undertaken with perfect sanctity, so soon as a ram's liver
+was found unspotted, or a woman, with hair dishevelled and rolling eyes,
+uttered words of which neither she nor any one else knew the meaning. In
+short, I beheld all the countries of the earth stained with the blood of
+human victims, sacrificed by barbarous pontiffs to barbarous gods. I
+consider that I did well to detest such religions. Mine is virtue. I
+exhorted my disciples not to meddle with the affairs of this world,
+because they were horribly governed. A true Epicurean was mild,
+moderate, just, amiable--a man of whom no society had to complain--one
+who did not pay executioners to assassinate in public those who thought
+differently from himself. From hence to the holy religion in which you
+have been bred there is but one step. I destroyed the false gods, and,
+had I lived in your day, I would have recognized the true ones."
+
+Thus might Epicurus justify himself concerning his error. He might even
+entitle himself to pardon respecting the dogma of the immortality of the
+soul, by saying: "Pity me for having combated a truth which God revealed
+five hundred years after my birth. I thought like all the first Pagan
+legislators of the world; and they were all ignorant of this truth."
+
+I wish, then, that Cardinal Polignac had pitied while he condemned
+Epicurus; it would have been no detriment to fine poetry. With regard to
+physics it appears to me that the author has lost much time and many
+verses in refuting the declination of atoms and the other absurdities
+which swarm in the poem of Lucretius. This is employing artillery to
+destroy a cottage. Besides, why remove Lucretius' reveries to substitute
+those of Descartes?
+
+Cardinal Polignac has inserted in his poem some very fine lines on the
+discoveries of Newton; but in these, unfortunately for himself, he
+combats demonstrated truths. The philosophy of Newton is not to be
+discussed in verse; it is scarcely to be approached in prose. Founded
+altogether on geometry, the genius of poetry is not fit to assail it.
+The surface of these truths may be decorated with fine verses but to
+fathom them, calculation is requisite, and not verse.
+
+
+
+
+ANTIQUITY.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+Have you not sometimes seen, in a village, Pierre Aoudri and his wife
+Peronelle striving to go before their neighbors in a procession? "Our
+grandfathers," say they, "rung the bells before those who elbow us now
+had so much as a stable of their own."
+
+The vanity of Pierre Aoudri, his wife, and his neighbors knows no
+better. They grow warm. The quarrel is an important one, for honor is in
+question. Proofs must now be found. Some learned churchsinger discovers
+an old rusty iron pot, marked with an A, the initial of the brazier's
+name who made the pot. Pierre Aoudri persuades himself that it was the
+helmet of one of his ancestors. So Cæsar descended from a hero and from
+the goddess Venus. Such is the history of nations; such is, very nearly,
+the knowledge of early antiquity.
+
+The learned of Armenia demonstrate that the terrestrial paradise was in
+their country. Some profound Swedes demonstrate that it was somewhere
+about Lake Wenner, which exhibits visible remains of it. Some Spaniards,
+too, demonstrate that it was in Castile. While the Japanese, the
+Chinese, the Tartars, the Indians, the Africans, and the Americans, are
+so unfortunate as not even to know that a terrestrial paradise once
+existed at the sources of the Pison, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the
+Euphrates, or, which is the same thing, at the sources of the
+Guadalquivir, the Guadiana, the Douro, and the Ebro. For of Pison we
+easily make Phæris, and of Phæris we easily make the Bætis, which is the
+Guadalquivir. The Gihon, it is plain, is the Guadiana, for they both
+begin with a G. And the Ebro, which is in Catalonia, is unquestionably
+the Euphrates, both beginning with an E.
+
+But a Scotchman comes, and in his turn demonstrates that the garden of
+Eden was at Edinburgh, which has retained its name; and it is not
+unlikely that, in a few centuries, this opinion will prevail.
+
+The whole globe was once burned, says a man conversant with ancient and
+modern history; for I have read in a journal that charcoal quite black
+has been found a hundred feet deep, among mountains covered with wood.
+And it is also suspected that there were charcoal-burners in this place.
+
+Phaeton's adventure sufficiently shows that everything has been boiled,
+even to the bottom of the sea. The sulphur of Mount Vesuvius
+incontrovertibly proves that the banks of the Rhine, the Danube, the
+Ganges, the Nile, and the Great Yellow River, are nothing but sulphur,
+nitre, and oil of guiacum, which only wait for the moment of explosion
+to reduce the earth to ashes, as it has already once been. The sand on
+which we walk is an evident proof that the universe has vitrified, and
+that our globe is nothing but a ball of glass--like our ideas.
+
+But if fire has changed our globe, water has produced still more
+wonderful revolutions. For it is plain that the sea, the tides of which
+in our latitudes rise eight feet, has produced the mountains, which are
+sixteen to seventeen thousand feet high. This is so true that some
+learned men, who never were in Switzerland, found a large vessel there,
+with all its rigging, petrified, either on Mount St. Gothard or at the
+bottom of a precipice--it is not positively known which; but it is quite
+certain that it was there. Therefore, men were originally
+fishes--Q.E.D.
+
+Coming down to antiquity less ancient let us speak of the times when
+most barbarous nations quitted their own countries to seek others which
+were not much better. It is true, if there be anything true in ancient
+history, that there were Gaulish robbers who went to plunder Rome in the
+time of Camillus. Other robbers from Gaul had, it is said, passed
+through Illyria to sell their services as murderers to other murderers
+in the neighborhood of Thrace: they bartered their blood for bread, and
+at length settled in Galatia. But who were these Gauls? Were they
+natives of Berry and Anjou? They were, doubtless, some of those
+Gauls whom the Romans called Cisalpine, and whom we call
+Transalpine--famishing mountaineers, inhabiting the Alps and the
+Apennines. The Gauls of the Seine and the Marne did not then know that
+Rome existed, and could not resolve to cross Mont Cenis, as was
+afterwards done by Hannibal, to steal the wardrobes of the Roman
+senators, whose only movables were a gown of bad grey cloth, decorated
+with a band, the color of bull's blood, two small knobs of ivory, or
+rather dog's bone, fixed to the arms of a wooden chair, and a piece of
+rancid bacon in their kitchens.
+
+The Gauls, who were dying of hunger, finding nothing to eat at home,
+went to try their fortune farther off; as the Romans afterwards did when
+they ravaged so many countries, and as the people of the North did at a
+later period when they destroyed the Roman Empire.
+
+And whence have we received our vague information respecting these
+emigrations? From some lines written at a venture by the Romans; for, as
+for the Celts, Welsh, or Gauls, whom some would have us believe to have
+been eloquent, neither they nor their bards could at that time read or
+write.
+
+But, to infer from these that the Gauls or Celts, afterwards conquered
+by a few of Cæsar's legions, then by a horde of Goths, then by a horde
+of Burgundians, and lastly by a horde of Sicambri, under one Clodovic,
+had before subjugated the whole earth, and given their names and their
+laws to Asia, seems to me to be inferring a great deal. The thing,
+however, is not mathematically impossible; and if it be demonstrated, I
+assent: it would be very uncivil to refuse to the Welsh what is granted
+to the Tartars.
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_On the Antiquity of Usages._
+
+Who have been the greatest fools, and who the most ancient fools?
+Ourselves or the Egyptians, or the Syrians or some other people? What
+was signified by our mistletoe? Who first consecrated a cat? It must have
+been he who was the most troubled with mice. In what nation did they
+first dance under the boughs of trees in honor of the gods? Who first
+made processions, and placed fools, with caps and bells, at the head of
+them? Who first carried a priapus through the streets, and fixed one
+like a knocker at the door? What Arab first took it into his head to
+hang his wife's drawers out at the window, the day after his marriage?
+
+All nations have formerly danced at the time of the new moon. Did they
+then give one another the word? No; no more than they did to rejoice at
+the birth of a son, or to mourn, or seem to mourn, at the death of a
+father. Every one is very glad to see the moon again, after having lost
+her for several nights. There are a hundred usages so natural to all
+men, that it cannot be said the Biscayans taught them to the Phrygians,
+or the Phrygians to the Biscayans.
+
+Fire and water have been used in temples. This custom needed no
+introduction. A priest did not choose always to have his hands dirty.
+Fire was necessary to cook the immolated carcasses, and to burn slips of
+resinous wood and spices, in order to combat the odor of the sacerdotal
+shambles.
+
+But the mysterious ceremonies which it is so difficult to understand,
+the usages which nature does not teach--in what place, when, where, how,
+why, were they invented? Who communicated them to other nations? It is
+not likely that it should, at the same time, have entered the head of an
+Arab and of an Egyptian to cut off one end of his son's prepuce; nor
+that a Chinese and a Persian should, both at once, have resolved to
+castrate little boys.
+
+It can never have been that two fathers, in different countries, have,
+at the same moment, formed the idea of cutting their sons' throats to
+please God. Some nations must have communicated to others their follies,
+serious, ridiculous, or barbarous. In this antiquity men love to search,
+to discover, if possible, the first madman and the first scoundrel who
+perverted human nature.
+
+But how are we to know whether Jehu, in Phoenicia, by immolating his
+son, was the inventor of sacrifices of human blood? How can we be
+assured that Lycaon was the first who ate human flesh, when we do not
+know who first began to eat fowls?
+
+We seek to know the origin of ancient feasts. The most ancient and the
+finest is that of the emperors of China tilling and sowing the ground,
+together with their first mandarins. The second is that of the
+Thesmophoria at Athens. To celebrate at once agriculture and justice, to
+show men how necessary they both are, to unite the curb of law with the
+art which is the source of all wealth--nothing is more wise, more pious,
+or more useful.
+
+There are old allegorical feasts to be found everywhere, as those of the
+return of the seasons. It was not necessary that one nation should come
+from afar off to teach another that marks of joy and friendship for
+one's neighbors may be given on the first day of the year. This custom
+has been that of every people. The Saturnalia of the Romans are better
+known than those of the Allobroges and the Picts; because there are
+many Roman writings and monuments remaining, but there are none of the
+other nations of western Europe.
+
+The feast of Saturn was the feast of Time. He had four wings; time flies
+quickly--his two faces evidently signifying the concluded and the
+commencing year. The Greeks said that he had devoured his father and
+that he devoured his children. No allegory is more reasonable. Time
+devours the past and the present, and will devour the future.
+
+Why seek for vain and gloomy explanations of a feast so universal, so
+gay, and so well known? When I look well into antiquity, I do not find a
+single annual festival of a melancholy character; or, at least, if they
+begin with lamentations, they end in dancing and revelry. If tears are
+shed for Adoni or Adonai, whom we call Adonis, he is soon resuscitated,
+and rejoicing takes place. It is the same with the feasts of Isis,
+Osiris, and Horus. The Greeks, too, did as much for Ceres as for
+Prosperine. The death of the serpent Python was celebrated with gayety.
+A feast day and a day of joy were one and the same thing. At the feasts
+of Bacchus this joy was only carried too far.
+
+I do not find one general commemoration of an unfortunate event. The
+institutors of the feasts would have shown themselves to be devoid of
+common sense if they had established at Athens a celebration of the
+battle lost at Chæronea, and at Rome another of the battle of Cannae.
+
+They perpetuated the remembrance of what might encourage men, and not of
+that which might fill them with cowardice or despair. This is so true
+that fables were invented for the purpose of instituting feasts. Castor
+and Pollux did not fight for the Romans near Lake Regillus; but, at the
+end of three or four hundred years, some priests said so, and all the
+people danced. Hercules did not deliver Greece from a hydra with seven
+heads; but Hercules and his hydra were sung.
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+_Festivals Founded on Chimeras._
+
+I do not know that there was, in all antiquity, a single festival
+founded on an established fact. It has been elsewhere remarked how
+extremely ridiculous those schoolmen appear who say to you, with a
+magisterial air: "Here is an ancient hymn in honor of Apollo, who
+visited Claros; therefore Apollo went to Claros; a chapel was erected to
+Perseus; therefore he delivered Andromeda." Poor men! You should rather
+say, therefore there was no Andromeda.
+
+But what, then, will become of that learned antiquity which preceded the
+olympiads? It will become what it is--an unknown time, a time lost, a
+time of allegories and lies, a time regarded with contempt by the wise,
+and profoundly discussed by blockheads, who like to float in a _void_,
+like Epicurus' atoms.
+
+There were everywhere days of penance, days of expiation in the temples;
+but these days were never called by a name answering to that of
+_feasts_. Every feast-day was sacred to diversion; so true is this that
+the Egyptian priests fasted on the eve in order to eat the more on the
+morrow--a custom which our monks have preserved. There were, no doubt,
+mournful ceremonies. It was not customary to dance the Greek brawl while
+interring or carrying to the funeral pile a son or a daughter; this was
+a public ceremony, but certainly not a feast.
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+_On the Antiquity of Feasts, Which, It has been Asserted, were Always
+Mournful._
+
+Men of ingenuity, profound searchers into antiquity, who would know how
+the earth was made a hundred thousand years ago, if genius could
+discover it, have asserted that mankind, reduced to a very small number
+in both continents, and still terrified at the innumerable revolutions
+which this sad globe had undergone, perpetuated the remembrance of their
+calamities by dismal and mournful commemorations.
+
+"Every feast," say they, "was a day of horror, instituted to remind men
+that their fathers had been destroyed by the fires of the volcanoes, by
+rocks falling from the mountains, by eruptions of the sea, by the teeth
+and claws of wild beasts, by war, pestilence and famine."
+
+Then we are not made as men were then. There was never so much rejoicing
+in London as after the plague and the burning of the whole city in the
+reign of Charles II. We made songs while the massacres of Bartholomew
+were still going on. Some pasquinades have been preserved which were
+made the day after the assassination of Coligni; there was printed in
+Paris, _Passio Domini nostri Gaspardi Colignii secundum Bartholomæum_.
+
+It has a thousand times happened that the sultan who reigns in
+Constantinople has made his eunuchs and odalisks dance in apartments
+stained with the blood of his brothers and his viziers. What do the
+people of Paris do on the very day that they are apprised of the loss of
+a battle and the death of a hundred brave officers? They run to the play
+and the opera.
+
+What did they when the wife of Marshal d'Ancre was given up in the Grève
+to the barbarity of her persecutors? When Marshal de Marillac was
+dragged to execution in a wagon, by virtue of a paper signed by robed
+lackeys in Cardinal de Richelieu's ante-chamber? When a
+lieutenant-general of the army, a foreigner, who had shed his blood for
+the state, condemned by the cries of his infuriated enemies, was led to
+the scaffold in a dung-cart, with a gag in his mouth? When a young man
+of nineteen, full of candor, courage and modesty, but very imprudent,
+was carried to the most dreadful of punishments? They sang vaudevilles.
+Such is man, at least man on the banks of the Seine. Such has he been
+at all times, for the same reason that rabbits have always had hair, and
+larks feathers.
+
+
+SECTION V.
+
+_On the Origin of the Arts._
+
+What! we would know the precise theology--of Thoth, Zerdusht, or
+Sanchoniathon, although we know not who invented the shuttle. The first
+weaver, the first mason, the first smith were undoubtedly great
+geniuses; yet no account has been made of them. And why? Because not one
+of them invented a perfect art. He who first hollowed the trunk of an
+oak for the purpose of crossing a river did not build galleys; nor did
+they who piled up unhewn stones, and laid pieces of wood across them,
+dream of the pyramids. Everything is done by degrees, and the glory
+belongs to no one.
+
+All was done in the dark, until philosophers, aided by geometry, taught
+men to proceed with accuracy and safety.
+
+It was left for Pythagoras, on his return from his travels, to show
+workmen the way to make an exact square. He took three rules: one three,
+one four, and one five feet long, and with these he made a right-angled
+triangle. Moreover, it was found that the side 5 furnished a square just
+equal to the two squares produced by the sides 4 and 3; a method of
+importance in all regular works.
+
+This is the famous theorem which he had brought from India, and which
+we have elsewhere said was known in China long before, according to the
+relation of the Emperor Cam-hi. Long before Plato, the Greeks made use
+of a single geometrical figure to double the square.
+
+Archytas and Erastothenes invented a method of doubling the cube, which
+was impracticable by ordinary geometry, and which would have done honor
+to Archimedes.
+
+This Archimedes found the method of calculating exactly the quantity of
+alloy mixed with gold; for gold had been worked for ages before the
+fraud of the workers could be discovered. Knavery existed long before
+mathematics. The pyramids, built with the square, and corresponding
+exactly with the four cardinal points, sufficiently show that geometry
+was known in Egypt from time immemorial; and yet it is proved that Egypt
+is quite a new country.
+
+Without philosophy we should be little above the animals that dig or
+erect their habitations, prepare their food in them, take care of their
+little ones in their dwellings, and have besides the good fortune, which
+we have not, of being born ready clothed. Vitruvius, who had travelled
+in Gaul and Spain, tells us that in his time the houses were built of a
+sort of mortar, covered with thatch or oak shingles, and that the people
+did not make use of tiles. What was the time of Vitruvius? It was that
+of Augustus. The arts had scarcely yet reached the Spaniards, who had
+mines of gold and silver; or the Gauls, who had fought for ten years
+against Cæsar.
+
+The same Vitruvius informs us that in the opulent and ingenious town of
+Marseilles, which traded with so many nations, the roofs were only of a
+kind of clay mixed with straw.
+
+He says that the Phrygians dug themselves habitations in the ground;
+they stuck poles round the hollow, brought them together at the top, and
+laid earth over them. The Hurons and the Algonquins are better lodged.
+This gives us no very lofty idea of Troy, built by the gods, and the
+palace of Priam:
+
+     _Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt;_
+     _Apparent Priami et veterum penetralia regum._
+
+     A mighty breach is made; the rooms concealed
+     Appear, and all the palace is revealed--
+     The halls of audience, and of public state.--DRYDEN.
+
+To be sure, the people are not lodged like kings; huts are to be seen
+near the Vatican and near Versailles. Besides, industry rises and falls
+among nations by a thousand revolutions:
+
+     _Et campus ubi Troja fuit._
+     ....the plain where Troy once stood.
+
+We have our arts, the ancients had theirs. We could not make a galley
+with three benches of oars, but we can build ships with a hundred pieces
+of cannon. We cannot raise obelisks a hundred feet high in a single
+piece, but our meridians are more exact. The byssus is unknown to us,
+but the stuffs of Lyons are more valuable. The Capitol was worthy of
+admiration, the church of St. Peter is larger and more beautiful. The
+Louvre is a masterpiece when compared with the palace of Persepolis, the
+situation and ruins of which do but tell of a vast monument to barbaric
+wealth. Rameau's music is probably better than that of Timotheus; and
+there is not a picture presented at Paris in the Hall of Apollo (salon
+d'Apollon) which does not excel the paintings dug out of Herculaneum.
+
+
+
+
+APIS.
+
+
+Was the ox Apis worshipped at Memphis as a god, as a symbol, or as an
+ox? It is likely that the fanatics regarded him as a god, the wise as
+merely a symbol, and that the more stupid part of the people worshipped
+the ox. Did Cambyses do right in killing this ox with his own hand? Why
+not? He showed to the imbecile that their god might be put on the spit
+without nature's arming herself to avenge the sacrilege. The Egyptians
+have been much extolled. I have not heard of a more miserable people.
+There must always have been in their character, and in their government,
+some radical vice which has constantly made vile slaves of them. Let it
+be granted that in times almost unknown they conquered the earth; but in
+historical times they have been subjugated by all who have chosen to
+take the trouble--by the Assyrians, by the Greeks, by the Romans, by the
+Arabs, by the Mamelukes, by the Turks, by all, in short, but our
+crusaders, who were even more ill-advised than the Egyptians were
+cowardly. It was the Mameluke militia that beat the French under St.
+Louis. There are, perhaps, but two things tolerable in this nation; the
+first is, that those who worshipped an ox never sought to compel those
+who adored an ape to change their religion; the second, that they have
+always hatched chickens in ovens.
+
+[Illustration: A vast monument to barbaric wealth.]
+
+We are told of their pyramids; but they are monuments of an enslaved
+people. The whole nation must have been set to work on them, or those
+unsightly masses could never have been raised. And for what use were
+they? To preserve in a small chamber the mummy of some prince, or
+governor, or intendant, which his soul was to reanimate at the end of a
+thousand years. But if they looked forward to this resurrection of the
+body, why did they take out the brains before embalming them? Were the
+Egyptians to be resuscitated without brains?
+
+
+
+
+APOCALYPSE.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+Justin the Martyr, who wrote about the year 270 of the Christian era,
+was the first who spoke of the Apocalypse; he attributes it to the
+apostle John the Evangelist. In his dialogue with Tryphon, that Jew asks
+him if he does not believe that Jerusalem is one day to be
+re-established? Justin answers that he believes it, as all Christians do
+who think aright. "There was among us," says he, "a certain person
+named John, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus; he foretold that the
+faithful shall pass a thousand years in Jerusalem."
+
+The belief in this reign of a thousand years was long prevalent among
+the Christians. This period was also in great credit among the Gentiles.
+The souls of the Egyptians returned to their bodies at the end of a
+thousand years; and, according to Virgil, the souls in purgatory were
+exorcised for the same space of time--_et mille per annos_. The New
+Jerusalem of a thousand years was to have twelve gates, in memory of the
+twelve apostles; its form was to be square; its length, breadth, and
+height were each to be a thousand stadii--_i.e._, five hundred leagues;
+so that the houses were to be five hundred leagues high. It would be
+rather disagreeable to live in the upper story; but we find all this in
+the twenty-first chapter of the Apocalypse.
+
+If Justin was the first who attributed the Apocalypse to St. John, some
+persons have rejected his testimony; because in the same dialogue with
+the Jew Tryphon he says that, according to the relation of the apostles,
+Jesus Christ, when he went into the Jordan, made the water boil, which,
+however, is not to be found in any writing of the apostles.
+
+The same St. Justin confidently cites the oracles of Sibyls; he moreover
+pretends to have seen the remains of the places in which the seventy-two
+interpreters were confined in the Egyptian pharos, in Herod's time. The
+testimony of a man who had had the misfortune to see these places seems
+to indicate that he might possibly have been confined there himself.
+
+St. Irenæus, who comes afterwards, and who also believed in the reign of
+a thousand years, tells us that he learned from an old man that St. John
+wrote the Apocalypse. But St. Irenæus is reproached with having written
+that there should be but four gospels, because there are but four
+quarters of the world, and four cardinal points, and Ezekiel saw but
+four animals. He calls this reasoning a demonstration. It must be
+confessed that Irenæus's method of demonstrating is quite worthy of
+Justin's power of sight.
+
+Clement of Alexandria, in his _"Electa"_ mentions only an Apocalypse of
+St. Peter, to which great importance was attached. Tertullian, a great
+partisan of the thousand years' reign, not only assures us that St. John
+foretold this resurrection and reign of a thousand years in the city of
+Jerusalem, but also asserts that this Jerusalem was already beginning to
+form itself in the air, where it had been seen by all the Christians of
+Palestine, and even by the Pagans, at the latter end of the night, for
+forty nights successively; but, unfortunately, the city always
+disappeared as soon as it was daylight.
+
+Origen, in his preface to St. John's Gospel, and in his homilies, quotes
+the oracles of the Apocalypse, but he likewise quotes the oracles of
+Sibyls. And St. Dionysius of Alexandria, who wrote about the middle of
+the third century, says, in one of his fragments preserved by Eusebius,
+that nearly all the doctors rejected the Apocalypse as a book devoid of
+reason, and that this book was composed, not by St. John, but by one
+Cerinthus, who made use of a great name to give more weight to his
+reveries.
+
+The Council of Laodicea, held in 360, did not reckon the Apocalypse
+among the canonical books. It is very singular that Laodicea, one of the
+churches to which the Apocalypse was addressed, should have rejected a
+treasure designed for itself, and that the bishop of Ephesus, who
+attended the council, should also have rejected this book of St. John,
+who was buried at Ephesus.
+
+It was visible to all eyes that St. John was continually turning about
+in his grave, causing a constant rising and falling of the earth. Yet
+the same persons who were sure that St. John was not quite dead were
+also sure that he had not written the Apocalypse. But those who were for
+the thousand years' reign were unshaken in their opinion. Sulpicius
+Severus, in his "Sacred History," book xi., treats as mad and impious
+those who did not receive the Apocalypse. At length, after numerous
+oppositions of council to council, the opinion of Sulpicius Severus
+prevailed. The matter having been thus cleared up, the Church came to
+the decision, from which there is no appeal, that the Apocalypse is
+incontestably St. John's.
+
+Every Christian communion has applied to itself the prophecies contained
+in this book. The English have found in it the revolutions of Great
+Britain; the Lutherans, the troubles of Germany; the French reformers,
+the reign of Charles IX., and the regency of Catherine de Medici, and
+they are all equally right. Bossuet and Newton have both commented on
+the Apocalypse, yet, after all, the eloquent declamations of the one,
+and the sublime discoveries of the other, have done them greater honor
+than their commentaries.
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+Two great men, but very different in their greatness, have commented on
+the Apocalypse in the seventeenth century: Newton, to whom such a study
+was very ill suited, and Bossuet, who was better fitted for the
+undertaking. Both gave additional weapons to their enemies, by their
+commentaries, and, as has elsewhere been said, the former consoled
+mankind for his superiority over them, while the latter made his enemies
+rejoice.
+
+The Catholics and the Protestants have both explained the Apocalypse in
+their favor, and have each found in it exactly what has accorded with
+their interests. They have made wonderful commentaries on the great
+beast with seven heads and ten horns, with the hair of a leopard, the
+feet of a bear, the throat of a lion, the strength of a dragon, and to
+buy and sell it was necessary to have the character and number of the
+beast, which number was 666.
+
+Bossuet finds that this beast was evidently the Emperor Diocletian, by
+making an acrostic of his name. Grotius believed that it was Trajan. A
+curate of St. Sulpice, named La Chétardie, known from some strange
+adventures, proves that the beast was Julian. Jurieu proves that the
+beast is the pope. One preacher has demonstrated that it was Louis XIV.
+A good Catholic has demonstrated that it was William, king of England.
+It is not easy to make them all agree.
+
+There have been warm disputes concerning the stars which fell from
+heaven to earth, and the sun and moon, which were struck with darkness
+in their third parts.
+
+There are several opinions respecting the book that the angel made the
+author of the Apocalypse eat, which book was sweet to the mouth and
+bitter to the stomach. Jurieu asserted that the books of his adversary
+were designated thereby, and his argument was retorted upon himself.
+
+There have been disputes about this verse: "And I heard a voice from
+heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great
+thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping on their harps."
+
+It is quite clear that it would have been better to have respected the
+Apocalypse than to have commented upon it.
+
+Camus, bishop of Bellay, printed in the last century a large book
+against the monks, which an unfrocked monk abridged. It was entitled
+"Apocalypse," because in it he exposed the dangers and defects of the
+monastic life; and "Melito's Apocalypse" (_"Apocalypse de Méliton?"_),
+because Melito, bishop of Sardis, in the second century, had passed for
+a prophet. This bishop's work has none of the obscurities of St. John's
+Apocalypse. Nothing was ever clearer. The bishop is like a magistrate
+saying to an attorney, "You are a forger and a cheat--do you comprehend
+me?"
+
+The bishop of Bellay computes, in his Apocalypse or Revelations, that
+there were in his time ninety-eight orders of monks endowed or
+mendicant, living at the expense of the people, without employing
+themselves in the smallest labor. He reckoned six hundred thousand monks
+in Europe. The calculation was a little strained; but it is certain that
+the real number of the monks was rather too large.
+
+He assures us that the monks are enemies to the bishops, curates, and
+magistrates; that, among the privileges granted to the Cordeliers, the
+sixth privilege is the certainty of being saved, whatever horrible crime
+you may have committed, provided you belong to the Order of St. Francis;
+that the monks are like apes; the higher they climb, the plainer you see
+their posteriors; that the name of _monk_ has become so infamous and
+execrable that it is regarded by the monks themselves as a foul reproach
+and the most violent insult that can be offered them.
+
+My dear reader, whoever you are, minister or magistrate, consider
+attentively the following short extract from our bishop's book:
+
+"Figure to yourself the convent of the Escorial or of Monte Cassino,
+where the coenobites have everything necessary, useful, delightful,
+superfluous and superabundant--since they have their yearly revenue of a
+hundred and fifty thousand, four hundred thousand, or five hundred
+thousand crowns; and judge whether Monsieur l'Abbé has wherewithal to
+allow himself and those under him to sleep after dinner.
+
+"Then imagine an artisan or laborer, with no dependence except on the
+work of his hands, and burdened with a large family, toiling like a
+slave every day and at all seasons, to feed them with the bread of
+sorrow and the water of tears; and say, which of the two conditions is
+pre-eminent in poverty."
+
+This is a passage from the "Episcopal Apocalypse" which needs no
+commentary. All that is wanted is an angel to come and fill his cup with
+the wine of the monks, to slake the thirst of the laborers who plow,
+sow, and reap, for the monasteries.
+
+But this prelate, instead of writing a useful book, only composed a
+satire. Consistently with his dignity, he should have stated the good as
+well as evil. He should have acknowledged that the Benedictines have
+produced many good works, and that the Jesuits have rendered great
+services to literature. He might have blessed the brethren of La
+Charité, and those of the Redemption of the Captives. Our first duty is
+to be just. Camus gave too much scope to his imagination. St. François
+de Sales advised him to write moral romances; but he abused the advice.
+
+
+
+
+ANTI-TRINITARIANS.
+
+
+These are heretics who might pass for other than Christians. However,
+they acknowledge Jesus as Saviour and Mediator; but they dare to
+maintain that nothing is more contrary to right reason than what is
+taught among Christians concerning the Trinity of persons in one only
+divine essence, of whom the second is begotten by the first, and the
+third proceeds from the other two; that this unintelligible doctrine is
+not to be found in any part of Scripture; that no passage can be
+produced which authorizes it; or to which, without in any wise departing
+from the spirit of the text, a sense cannot be given more clear, more
+natural, or more conformable to common notions, and to primitive and
+immutable truths; that to maintain, as the orthodox do, that in the
+divine essence there are several distinct persons, and that the Eternal
+is not the only true God, but that the Son and the Holy Ghost must be
+joined with Him, is to introduce into the Church of Christ an error the
+most gross and dangerous, since it is openly to favor polytheism; that
+it implies a contradiction, to say that there is but one God, and that,
+nevertheless, there are three _persons_, each of which is truly God;
+that this distinction, of _one_ in _essence_, and _three_ in _person_,
+was never in Scripture; that it is manifestly false, since it is certain
+that there are no fewer essences than persons, nor persons than
+essences; that the three persons of the Trinity are either three
+different substances, or accidents of the divine essence, or that
+essence itself without distinction; that, in the first place, you make
+three Gods; that, in the second, God is composed of accidents; you adore
+accidents, and metamorphose accidents into persons; that, in the third,
+you unfoundedly and to no purpose divide an indivisible subject, and
+distinguish into _three_ that which within itself has no distinction;
+that if it be said that the three personalities are neither different
+substances in the divine essence, nor accidents of that essence, it will
+be difficult to persuade ourselves that they are anything at all; that
+it must not be believed that the most rigid and decided Trinitarians
+have themselves any clear idea of the way in which the three
+_hypostases_ subsist in God, without dividing His substance, and
+consequently without multiplying it; that St. Augustine himself, after
+advancing on this subject a thousand reasonings alike dark and false,
+was forced to confess that nothing intelligible could be said about the
+matter; they then repeat the passage by this father, which is, indeed, a
+very singular one: "When," says he, "it is asked what are _the three_,
+the language of man fails and terms are wanting to express them."
+"_Three persons_, has, however, been said--not for the purpose of
+expressing anything, but in order to say something and not remain mute."
+_"Dictum est tres personæ, non ut aliquid diceretur, sed ne
+taceretur"._--De Trinit. lib. v. cap. 9; that modern theologians have
+cleared up this matter no better; that, when they are asked what they
+understand by the word _person_, they explain themselves only by saying
+that it is a certain incomprehensible distinction by which are
+distinguished in one nature only, a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost;
+that the explanation which they give of the terms _begetting_ and
+_proceeding_, is no more satisfactory, since it reduces itself to saying
+that these terms indicate certain incomprehensible relations existing
+among the three persons of the Trinity; that it may be hence gathered
+that the state of the question between them and the orthodox is to know
+whether there are in God three distinctions, of which no one has any
+definite idea, and among which there are certain relations of which no
+one has any more idea.
+
+From all this they conclude that it would be wiser to abide by the
+testimony of the apostles, who never spoke of the Trinity, and to banish
+from religion forever all terms which are not in the scriptures--as
+_trinity_, _person_, _essence_, _hypostasis_, _hypostatic_ and _personal
+union_, _incarnation_, _generation_, _proceeding_, and many others of
+the same kind; which being absolutely devoid of meaning, since they are
+represented by no real existence in nature, can excite in the
+understanding none but false, vague, obscure, and undefinable notions.
+
+To this article let us add what Calmet says in his dissertation on the
+following passage of the Epistle of John the Evangelist: "For there are
+three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
+Ghost; and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness
+in earth, the spirit, the water and the blood; and these three are one."
+Calmet acknowledges that these two verses are not in any ancient bible;
+indeed, it would be very strange if St. John had spoken of the Trinity
+in a letter, and said not a word about it in his Gospel. We find no
+trace of this dogma, either in the canonical or in the apocryphal
+gospels. All these reasons and many others might excuse the
+anti-trinitarians, if the councils had not decided. But as the heretics
+pay no regard to councils, we know not what measures to take to confound
+them. Let us content ourselves with believing and wishing them to
+believe.
+
+
+
+
+APOCRYPHA--APOCRYPHAL.
+
+(FROM THE GREEK WORD SIGNIFYING _hidden_.)
+
+
+It has been very well remarked that the divine writings might, at one
+and the same time, be sacred and apocryphal; sacred, because they had
+undoubtedly been dictated by God Himself; apocryphal, because they were
+hidden from the nations, and even from the Jewish people.
+
+That they were hidden from the nations before the translation executed
+at Alexandria, under the Ptolemies, is an acknowledged truth. Josephus
+declares it in the answer to Appian, which he wrote after Appian's
+death; and his declaration has not less strength because he seeks to
+strengthen it by a fable. He says in his history that the Jewish books
+being all-divine, no foreign historian or poet had ever dared to speak
+of them. And, immediately after assuring us that no one had ever dared
+to mention the Jewish laws, he adds that the historian Theopompus,
+having only intended to insert something concerning them in his history,
+God struck him with madness for thirty days; but that, having been
+informed in a dream that he was mad only because he had wished to know
+divine things and make them known to the profane, he asked pardon of
+God, who restored him to his senses.
+
+Josephus in the same passage also relates that a poet named Theodectes,
+having said a few words about the Jews in his tragedies, became blind,
+and that God did not restore his sight until he had done penance.
+
+As for the Jewish people, it is certain that there was a time when they
+could not read the divine writings; for it is said in the Second Book of
+Kings (chap, xxii., ver. 8), and in the Second Book of Chronicles (chap,
+xxxiv., ver. 14), that in the reign of Josias they were unknown, and
+that a single copy was accidentally found in the house of the high
+priest Hilkiah.
+
+The twelve tribes which were dispersed by Shalmaneser have never
+re-appeared; and their books, if they had any, have been lost with them.
+The two tribes which were in slavery at Babylon and allowed to return at
+the end of seventy years, returned without their books, or at least they
+were very scarce and very defective, since Esdras was obliged to
+restore them. But although during the Babylonian captivity these books
+were apocryphal, that is, hidden or unknown to the people, they were
+constantly sacred--they bore the stamp of divinity--they were, as all
+the world agrees, the only monument of truth upon earth.
+
+We now give the name of apocrypha to those books which are not worthy of
+belief; so subject are languages to change! Catholics and Protestants
+agree in regarding as apocryphal in this sense, and in rejecting, the
+prayer of Manasseh, king of Judah, contained in the Second Book of
+Kings; the Third and Fourth Books of Maccabees; the Fourth Book of
+Esdras; although these books were incontestably written by Jews. But it
+is denied that the authors were inspired by God, like the Jews.
+
+The other books, rejected by the Protestants only, and consequently
+considered by them as not inspired by God Himself, are the Book of
+Wisdom, though it is written in the same style as the Proverbs;
+Ecclesiasticus, though the style is still the same; the first two books
+of Maccabees, though written by a Jew, But they do not believe this Jew
+to have been inspired by God--Tobit--although the story is edifying. The
+judicious and profound Calmet affirms that a part of this book was
+written by Tobit the father, and a part by Tobit the son; and that a
+third author added the conclusion of the last chapter, which says that
+Tobit the younger expired at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven
+years, and that he died rejoicing over the destruction of Nineveh.
+
+The same Calmet, at the end of his preface, has these words: "Neither
+the story itself, nor the manner in which it is told, bears any fabulous
+or fictitious character. If all Scripture histories, containing anything
+of the marvellous or extraordinary, were to be rejected, where is the
+sacred book which is to be preserved?"
+
+Judith is another book rejected by the Protestants, although Luther
+himself declares that "this book is beautiful, good, holy, useful, the
+language of a holy poet and a prophet animated by the Holy Spirit, that
+had been his instructor," etc.
+
+It is indeed hard to discover at what time Judith's adventure happened,
+or where the town of Bethulia was. The degree of sanctity in Judith's
+action has also been disputed; but the book having been declared
+canonical by the Council of Trent, all disputes are at an end.
+
+Other books are Baruch, although it is written in the style of all the
+other prophets; Esther, of which the Protestants reject only some
+additions after the tenth chapter. They admit all the rest of the book;
+yet no one knows who King Ahasuerus was, although he is the principal
+person in the story; Daniel, in which the Protestants retrench
+Susannah's adventure and that of the children in the furnace; but they
+retain Nebuchadnezzar's dream and his grazing with the beasts.
+
+_On the Life of Moses, an Apocryphal Book of the Highest Antiquity._
+
+The ancient book which contains the life and death of Moses seems to
+have been written at the time of the Babylonian captivity. It was then
+that the Jews began to know the names given to the angels by the
+Chaldæans and Persians.
+
+Here we see the names of Zinguiel, Samael, Tsakon, Lakah, and many
+others of which the Jews had made no mention.
+
+The book of the death of Moses seems to have been written later. It is
+known that the Jews had several very ancient lives of Moses and other
+books, independently of the Pentateuch. In them he was called Moni, not
+Moses; and it is asserted that _mo_ signified _water_, and _ni_ the
+particle _of_. He was called by the general name of Melk. He received
+those of Joakim, Adamosi, Thetmosi; and it has been thought that he was
+the same person whom Mane then calls Ozarziph.
+
+Some of these old Hebrew manuscripts were withdrawn from their covering
+of dust in the cabinets of the Jews about the year 1517. The learned
+Gilbert Gaumin, who was a perfect master of their language, translated
+them into Latin about the year 1535. They were afterwards printed and
+dedicated to Cardinal Bérule. The copies have become extremely scarce.
+
+Never were rabbinism, the taste for the marvellous and the imagination
+of the orientals displayed to greater excess.
+
+_Fragment of the Life of Moses._
+
+A hundred and thirty years after the settling of the Jews in Egypt, and
+sixty years after the death of the patriarch Joseph, Pharaoh, while
+sleeping, had a dream. He saw an old man holding a balance; in one scale
+were all the inhabitants of Egypt; in the other was an infant, and this
+infant weighed more than all the Egyptians together. Pharaoh forthwith
+called together his _shotim_, or sages. One of the wise men said: "O
+king, this infant is a Jew who will one day do great evil to your
+kingdom. Cause all the children of the Jews to be slain; thus shalt thou
+save thy empire, if, indeed, the decrees of fate can be opposed."
+
+Pharaoh was pleased with this advice. He sent for the midwives and
+ordered them to strangle all the male children of which the Jewesses
+were delivered. There was in Egypt a man named Abraham, son of Keath,
+husband to Jocabed, sister to his brother. This Jocabed bore him a
+daughter named Mary, signifying "persecuted," because the Egyptians,
+being descended from Ham, persecuted the Israelites, who were evidently
+descended from Shem. Jocabed afterwards brought forth Aaron, signifying
+"condemned to death," because Pharaoh had condemned all the Jewish
+infants to death. Aaron and Mary were preserved by the angels of the
+Lord, who nursed them in the fields and restored them to their parents
+when they had reached the period of adolescence.
+
+At length Jocabed had a third child; this was Moses, who, consequently,
+was fifteen years younger than his brother. He was exposed on the Nile.
+Pharaoh's daughter found him while bathing, had him nursed and adopted
+him as her son, although she was not married.
+
+Three years after, her father, Pharaoh, took a fresh wife, on which
+occasion he held a great feast. His wife was at his right hand, and at
+his left was his daughter, with little Moses. The child, in sport, took
+the crown and put it on his head. Balaam, the magician, the king's
+eunuch, then recalled his majesty's dream. "Behold," said he, "the child
+who is one day to do so much mischief! The spirit of God is in him. What
+he has just now done is a proof that he has already formed the design of
+dethroning you. He must instantly be put to death." This idea pleased
+Pharaoh much.
+
+They were about to kill little Moses when the Lord sent his angel
+Gabriel, disguised as one of Pharaoh's officers, to say to him: "My
+lord, we should not put to death an innocent child, which is not yet
+come to years of discretion; he put on your crown only because he wants
+judgment. You have only to let a ruby and a burning coal be presented to
+him; if he choose the coal, it is clear that he is a blockhead who will
+never do any harm; but if he take the ruby it will be a sign that he
+has too much sense to burn his fingers; then let him be slain."
+
+A ruby and a coal were immediately brought. Moses did not fail to take
+the ruby; but the angel Gabriel, by a sort of legerdemain, slipped the
+coal into the place of the precious stone. Moses put the coal into his
+mouth and burned his tongue so horribly that he stammered ever after;
+and this was the reason that the Jewish lawgiver could never articulate.
+
+Moses was fifteen years old and a favorite with Pharaoh. A Hebrew came
+to complain to him that an Egyptian had beaten him after lying with his
+wife. Moses killed the Egyptian. Pharaoh ordered Moses' head to be cut
+off. The executioner struck him, but God instantly changed Moses' neck
+into a marble column, and sent the angel Michael, who in three days
+conducted Moses beyond the frontiers.
+
+The young Hebrew fled to Mecano, king of Ethiopia, who was at war with
+the Arabs. Mecano made him his general-in-chief; and, after Mecano's
+death, Moses was chosen king and married the widow. But Moses, ashamed
+to have married the wife of his lord, dared not to enjoy her, but placed
+a sword in the bed between himself and the queen. He lived with her
+forty years without touching her. The angry queen at length called
+together the states of the kingdom of Ethiopia, complained that Moses
+was of no service to her, and concluded by driving him away and placing
+on the throne the son of the late king.
+
+Moses fled into the country of Midian, to the priest Jethro. This priest
+thought his fortune would be made if he could put Moses into the hands
+of Pharaoh of Egypt, and began by confining him in a low cell and
+allowing him only bread and water. Moses grew fat in his dungeon, at
+which Jethro was quite astonished. He was not aware that his daughter
+Sephora had fallen in love with the prisoner, and every day, with her
+own hands, carried him partridges and quails, with excellent wine. He
+concluded that Moses was protected by God and did not give him up to
+Pharaoh.
+
+However, Jethro the priest wished to have his daughter married. He had
+in his garden a tree of sapphire, on which was engraven the word _Jaho_
+or _Jehovah_. He caused it to be published throughout the country that
+he would give his daughter to him who could tear up the sapphire tree.
+Sephora's lovers presented themselves, but none of them could so much as
+bend the tree. Moses, who was only seventy-seven years old, tore it up
+at once without an effort. He married Sephora, by whom he soon had a
+fine boy named Gerson.
+
+As he was one day walking in a small wood, he met God (who had formerly
+called Himself Sadai, and then called Himself Jehovah), and God ordered
+him to go and work miracles at Pharaoh's court. He set out with his wife
+and son. On the way they met an angel (to whom no name is given), who
+ordered Sephora to circumcise little Gerson with a knife made of stone.
+God sent Aaron on the same errand, but Aaron thought his brother had
+done wrong in marrying a Midianite; he called her a very coarse name,
+and little Gerson a bastard, and sent them the shortest way back to
+their own country.
+
+Aaron and Moses then went to Pharaoh's palace by themselves. The gate of
+the palace was guarded by two lions of an enormous size. Balaam, one of
+the king's magicians, seeing the two brothers come, set the lions upon
+them; but Moses touched them with his rod, and the lions, humbly
+prostrating themselves, licked the feet of Aaron and Moses. The king, in
+astonishment, had the two pilgrims brought into the presence of all his
+magicians, that they might strive which could work the most miracles.
+
+The author here relates the ten plagues of Egypt, nearly as they are
+related in Exodus. He only adds that Moses covered all Egypt with lice,
+to the depth of a cubit; and that he sent among all the Egyptians lions,
+wolves, bears, and tigers, which ran into all the houses,
+notwithstanding that the doors were bolted, and devoured all the little
+children.
+
+According to this writer, it was not the Jews who fled through the Red
+Sea; it was Pharaoh, who fled that way with his army: the Jews ran after
+him; the waters separated right and left to see them fight; and all the
+Egyptians, except the king, were slain upon the sand. Then the king,
+finding that his own was the weaker side, asked pardon of God. Michael
+and Gabriel were sent to him and conveyed him to the city of Nineveh,
+where he reigned four hundred years.
+
+_The Death of Moses._
+
+God had declared to the people of Israel that they should not go out of
+Egypt until they had once more found the tomb of Joseph. Moses found it
+and carried it on his shoulders through the Red Sea. God told him that
+He would bear in mind this good action and would assist him at the time
+of his death. When Moses had lived six score years, God came to announce
+to him that he must die and had but three hours more to live. The bad
+angel Samael was present at the conversation. As soon as the first hour
+had passed he began to laugh for joy that he should so soon carry off
+the soul of Moses; and Michael began to weep. "Be not rejoiced, thou
+wicked beast," said the good to the bad angel; "Moses is going to die,
+but we have Joshua in his stead."
+
+When the three hours had elapsed God commanded Gabriel to take the dying
+man's soul. Gabriel begged to be excused. Michael did the same. These
+two angels having refused, God addressed Himself to Zinguiel. But this
+angel was no more willing to obey than the others. "I," said he, "was
+formerly his preceptor, and I will not kill my disciple." Then God,
+being angry, said to the bad angel Samael, "Well, then, wicked one, thou
+must take his soul." Samael joyfully drew his sword and ran up to Moses.
+The dying man rose up in wrath, his eyes sparkling with fire. "What!
+thou villain," said Moses, "wouldst thou dare to kill me?--me, who when
+a child, put on my head the crown of a Pharaoh; who have worked miracles
+at the age of eighty years; who have led sixty millions of men out of
+Egypt; who have cut the Red Sea in two; who have conquered two kings so
+tall that at the time of the flood they were not knee-deep in water?
+Begone, you rascal; leave my presence instantly."
+
+This altercation lasted a few moments longer, during which time Gabriel
+prepared a litter to convey the soul of Moses, Michael a purple mantle,
+and Zinguiel a cassock. God then laid His hands on Moses' breast and
+took away his soul.
+
+It is to this history that St. Jude the apostle alludes in his epistle
+when he says that the archangel Michael contended with the devil for the
+body of Moses. As this fact is to be found only in the book which I have
+just quoted, it is evident that St. Jude had read it, and that he
+considered it as a canonical book.
+
+The second history of the death of Moses is likewise a conversation with
+God. It is no less pleasant and curious than the first. A part of this
+dialogue is as follows:
+
+_Moses._--I pray Thee, O Lord, let me enter the land of promise, at
+least for two or three years.
+
+_God._--No; My decree expressly saith that thou shalt not enter it.
+
+_Moses._--Grant, at least, that I may be carried thither after my
+death.
+
+_God._--No; neither dead nor alive.
+
+_Moses._--Alas! but, good Lord, thou showest such clemency to Thy
+creatures; Thou pardonest them twice or three times; I have sinned but
+once, and am not to be forgiven!
+
+_God._--Thou knowest not what thou sayest; thou hast committed six sins.
+I remember to have sworn thy death, or the destruction of Israel; one of
+the two must be accomplished. If thou wilt live Israel must perish.
+
+_Moses._--O Lord, be not so hasty. All is in Thy hands. Let Moses
+perish, rather than one soul in Israel.
+
+After several discourses of this sort, the echo of the mountain says to
+Moses, "Thou hast but five hours to live." At the end of five hours God
+sends for Gabriel, Zinguiel and Samael. He promises Moses that he shall
+be buried and carries away his soul.
+
+When we reflect that nearly the whole earth has been infatuated by
+similar stories, and that they have formed the education of mankind, the
+fables of Pilpay, Lokman, or Æsop appear quite reasonable.
+
+_Apocryphal Books of the New Law._
+
+There were fifty gospels, all very different from one another, of which
+there remain only four entire--that of James, that of Nicodemus, that of
+the infancy of Jesus, and that of the birth of Mary. Of the rest we have
+nothing more than fragments and slight notices.
+
+The traveller Tournefort, sent into Asia by Louis XIV., informs us that
+the Georgians have preserved the gospel of the Infancy, which was
+probably communicated to them by the Azmenians.
+
+In the beginning, several of these gospels, now regarded as apocryphal,
+were cited as authentic, and were even the only gospels that were cited.
+In the Acts of the Apostles we find these words uttered by St. Paul
+(chap. xx., ver. 35), "And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He
+said, it is more blessed to give than to receive."
+
+St. Barnabas, in his Catholic Epistle (Nos. 4 and 7), makes Jesus Christ
+speak thus: "Let us resist all iniquity; let us hate it. Such as would
+see Me enter into My kingdom must follow Me through pain and sorrow."
+
+St. Clement, in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, puts these words
+into the mouth of Jesus Christ: "If you are assembled in My bosom and do
+not follow My commandments, I shall reject you and say to you, 'Depart
+from Me; I know you not; depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity.'"
+
+He afterwards attributes to Jesus Christ these words: "Keep your flesh
+chaste and the seal unspotted, in order that you may receive eternal
+life."
+
+In the Apostolical Constitutions, composed in the second century, we
+find these words: "Jesus Christ has said, 'Be ye honest exchange
+brokers.'"
+
+We find many similar quotations, not one of which is taken from the four
+gospels recognized by the Church as the only canonical ones. They are,
+for the most part, taken from the gospel according to the Hebrews, a
+gospel which was translated by St. Jerome, and is now considered as
+apocryphal.
+
+St. Clement the Roman says, in his second Epistle: "The Lord, being
+asked when his reign should come, answered: 'When two shall make one,
+when that which is without shall be within, when the male shall be
+female, and when there shall be neither female nor male.'"
+
+These words are taken from the gospel according to the Egyptians; and
+the text is repeated entire by St. Clement of Alexandria. But what could
+the author of the Egyptian gospels, and what could St. Clement himself
+be thinking of? The words which he quotes are injurious to Jesus Christ;
+they give us to understand that He did not believe that His reign would
+come at all. To say that a thing will take place when two shall make
+one, when the male shall be female, is to say that it will never take
+place. A passage like this is rabbinical, much rather than evangelical.
+
+There were also two apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. They are quoted by
+St. Epiphanius. In these Acts it is related that St. Paul was the son of
+an idolatrous father and mother, and turned Jew in order to marry the
+daughter of Gamaliel; and that either being refused, or not finding her
+a virgin, he took part with the disciples of Jesus. This is nothing less
+than blasphemy against St. Paul.
+
+_The Other Apocryphal Books of the First and Second Centuries._
+
+
+I.
+
+The Book of Enoch, the seventh man after Adam, which mentions the war of
+the rebellious angels, under their captain, Samasia, against the
+faithful angels led by Michael. The object of the war was to enjoy the
+daughters of men, as has been said in the article on "Angel."
+
+
+II.
+
+The Acts of St. Thecla and St. Paul, written by a disciple named John,
+attached to St. Paul. In this history Thecla escapes from her
+persecutors to go to St. Paul, disguised as a man. She also baptizes a
+lion; but this adventure was afterwards suppressed. Here, too, we have
+the portrait of Paul: _Statura brevi, calvastrum, cruribus curvis,
+sorosum, superciliis junctis, naso aquilino, plenum gratia Dei._
+
+Although this story was recommended by St. Gregory Nazianzen, St.
+Ambrose, St. John Chrysostom, and others, it had no reputation among the
+other doctors of the Church.
+
+
+III.
+
+The Preaching of Peter. This writing is also called the Gospel or
+Revelation of Peter. St. Clement of Alexandria speaks of it with great
+praise; but it is easy to perceive that some impostor had taken that
+apostle's name.
+
+IV.
+
+The Acts of Peter, a work equally supposititious.
+
+
+V.
+
+The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs. It is doubted whether this book
+is by a Jew or a Christian of the primitive ages; for it is said in the
+Testament of Levi that at the end of the seventh week there shall come
+priests given to idolatry--_bellatores_, _avari_, _scribæ iniqui_,
+_impudici_, _puerorum corrupt ores et pecorum_; that there shall then be
+a new priesthood; that the heavens shall be opened; and that the glory
+of the Most High, and the spirit of intelligence and sanctification,
+shall descend upon this new priest; which seems to foretell Jesus
+Christ.
+
+
+VI.
+
+The Letter of Abgarus, a pretended king of Edessa, to Jesus Christ, and
+Jesus Christ's answer to King Abgarus. It is, indeed, believed that, in
+the time of Tiberius, there was a toparch of Edessa who had passed from
+the service of the Persians into that of the Romans, but his epistolary
+correspondence has been considered by all good critics as a chimera.
+
+
+VII.
+
+The Acts of Pilate. Pilate's letter to Tiberius on the death of Jesus
+Christ The life of Procula, Pilate's wife.
+
+
+VIII.
+
+The Acts of Peter and Paul, in which is the history of St. Peter's
+quarrel with Simon the magician. Abdias, Marcellus, and Hegesippus have
+all three written this story. St. Peter first disputed with Simon which
+should resuscitate one of the Emperor Nero's relatives, who had just
+died; Simon half restored him, and St. Peter finished the resurrection.
+Simon next flew up in the air, but Peter brought him down again, and the
+magician broke his legs. The Emperor Nero, incensed at the death of his
+magician, had St. Peter crucified with his head downwards, and St. Paul
+decapitated, as one of St. Peter's party.
+
+
+IX.
+
+The Acts of Blessed Paul the Apostle and Teacher of the Nations. In this
+book St. Paul is made to live at Rome for two years after St. Peter's
+death. The author says that when St. Paul's head was cut off there
+issued forth milk instead of blood, and that Lucina, a devout woman, had
+him buried twenty miles from Rome, on the way to Ostia, at her country
+house.
+
+
+X.
+
+The Acts of the Blessed Apostle Andrew. The author relates that St.
+Andrew went to the city of the Myrmidons and that he baptized all the
+citizens. A young man named Sostratus, of the town of Amarea, which is
+at least better known than that of the Myrmidons, came and said to the
+blessed Andrew: "I am so handsome that my mother has conceived a passion
+for me. I abhorred so execrable a crime, and have fled. My mother, in
+her fury, accuses me to the proconsul of the province of having
+attempted to violate her. I can make no answer, for I would rather die
+than accuse my mother." While he was yet speaking, the guards of the
+proconsul came and seized him. St Andrew accompanied the son before the
+judge, and pleaded his cause. The mother, not at all disconcerted,
+accused St. Andrew himself of having instigated her son to the crime.
+The proconsul immediately ordered St. Andrew to be thrown into the
+river; but, the apostle having prayed to God, there came a great
+earthquake, and the mother was struck by a thunderbolt.
+
+After several adventures of the same sort the author has St. Andrew
+crucified at Patras.
+
+
+XI.
+
+The Acts of St. James the Greater. The author has him condemned to death
+at Jerusalem by the pontiff, and, before his crucifixion, he baptizes
+the registrar.
+
+
+XII.
+
+The Acts of St. John the Evangelist. The author relates that, at
+Ephesus--of which place St. John wast bishop--Drusilla, being converted
+by him, desired no more of her husband Andronicus's company, but retired
+into a tomb. A young man named Callimachus, in love with her, repeatedly
+pressed her, even in her tomb, to consent to the gratification of his
+passion. Brasilia, being urged both by her husband and her lover, wished
+for death, and obtained it. Callimachus, when informed of her loss, was
+still more furious with love; he bribed one of Andronicus's domestics,
+who had the keys of the tomb; he ran to it, stripped his mistress of her
+shroud, and exclaimed, "What thou wouldst not grant me living, thou
+shalt grant me dead," A serpent instantly issued from the tomb; the
+young man fainted; the serpent killed him, as also the domestic who was
+his accomplice, and coiled itself round his body. St. John arrives with
+the husband, and, to their astonishment, they find Callimachus alive.
+St. John orders the serpent to depart, and the serpent obeys. He asks
+the young man how he has been resuscitated. Callimachus answered that an
+angel had appeared to him, saying, "It was necessary that thou shouldst
+die in order to revive a Christian." He immediately asked to be
+baptized, and begged that John would resuscitate Drusilla. The apostle
+having instantly worked this miracle, Callimachus and Drusilla prayed
+that he would also be so good as to resuscitate the domestic. The
+latter, who was an obstinate pagan, being restored to life, declared
+that he would rather die than be a Christian, and, accordingly, he
+incontinently died again; on which St. John said that a bad tree always
+bears bad fruit.
+
+Aristodemus, high-priest of Ephesus, though struck by such a prodigy,
+would not be converted; he said to St. John: "Permit me to poison you;
+and, if you do not die, I will be converted." The apostle accepted the
+proposal; but he chose that Aristodemus should first poison two
+Ephesians condemned to death. Aristodemus immediately presented to them
+the poison, and they instantly expired. St. John took the same poison,
+which did him no harm. He resuscitated the two dead men, and the
+high-priest was converted.
+
+St. John having attained the age of ninety-seven years, Jesus Christ
+appeared to him, and said, "It is time for thee to come to My table, and
+feast with thy brethren"; and soon after the apostle slept in peace.
+
+
+XIII.
+
+The History of the Blessed James the Less, and the brothers Simon and
+Jude. These apostles went into Persia, and performed things as
+incredible as those related of St. Andrew.
+
+
+XIV.
+
+The Acts of St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist. St. Matthew goes into
+Ethiopia, to the great town of Nadaver, where he restores to life the
+son of Queen Candace, and founds Christian churches.
+
+
+XV.
+
+The Acts of the Blessed Bartholomew in India. Bartholomew went first to
+the temple of Astaroth. This goddess delivered oracles, and cured all
+diseases. Bartholomew silenced her, and made sick all those whom she had
+cured. King Polimius disputed with him; the devil declared, before the
+king, that he was conquered, and St. Bartholomew consecrated King
+Polimius bishop of the Indies.
+
+
+XVI.
+
+The Acts of the Blessed Thomas, apostle of India. St. Thomas entered
+India by another road, and worked more miracles than St. Bartholomew. He
+at last suffered martyrdom, and appeared to Xiphoro and Susani.
+
+
+XVII.
+
+The Acts of the Blessed Philip. He went to preach in Scythia. They
+wished to make him a sacrifice to Mars, but he caused a dragon to issue
+from the altar and devour the children of the priests. He died at
+Hierapolis, at the age of eighty-seven. It is not known what town this
+was, for there were several of the name.
+
+All these histories are supposed to have been written by Abdias, bishop
+of Babylon, and were translated by Julius Africanus.
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+To these abuses of the Holy Scriptures was added one less revolting--one
+which did not fail in respect for Christianity, like those which have
+just been laid before the reader, viz., the Liturgies attributed to St
+James, St. Peter, and St. Mark, the falsehood of which has been shown by
+the learned Tillemont.
+
+
+XIX.
+
+Fabricius places among the apocryphal writings the Homily (attributed to
+St. Augustine) on the manner in which the Symbol was formed. But he
+certainly does not mean to insinuate that this Symbol or Creed, which we
+call the Apostles', is the less true and sacred. It is said in this
+Homily, in Rufinus, and afterwards in Isidorus, that ten days after the
+ascension, the apostles, being shut up together for fear of the Jews,
+Peter said, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty;" Andrew, "and in
+Jesus Christ, His only son;" James, "who was conceived by the Holy
+Ghost;" and that thus, each apostle having repeated an article, the
+Creed was completed.
+
+This story not being in the Acts of the Apostles, our belief in it is
+dispensed with--but not our belief in the Creed, of which the apostles
+taught the substance. Truth must not suffer from the false ornaments in
+which it has been sought to array her.
+
+
+XX.
+
+The Apostolical Constitutions. The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles,
+which were formerly supposed to have been digested by St. Clement the
+Roman, are now ranked among the apocryphal writings. The reading of a
+few chapters is sufficient to show that the apostles had no share in
+this work. In the eleventh chapter, women are ordered not to rise before
+the ninth hour. In the first chapter of the second book it is desired
+that bishops should be learned, but in the time of the apostles there
+was no hierarchy--no bishop attached to a single church. They went about
+teaching from town to town, from village to village; they were called
+_apostles_, not _bishops_; and, above all things, they did not pride
+themselves on being learned.
+
+In the second chapter of the second book it is said that a bishop should
+have but one wife, to take great care of his household; which only goes
+to prove that at the close of the first and the commencement of the
+second century, when the hierarchy was beginning to be established, the
+priests were married.
+
+Through almost the whole book the bishops are regarded as the judges of
+the faithful; but it is well known that the apostles had no
+jurisdiction.
+
+It is said, in chapter xxi., that both parties must be heard; which
+supposes an established jurisdiction. In chapter xxvi. it is said, "The
+bishop is your prince, your king, your emperor, your God upon earth."
+These expressions are somewhat at variance with the humility of the
+apostles.
+
+In chapter xxviii., "At the feasts of the Agapae, there must be given to
+the deacon double that which is given to an old woman, and to the priest
+double the gift to the deacon, because the priests are the counsellors
+of the bishops and the crown of the Church. The reader shall have a
+portion, in honor of the prophets, as also the chanter and the
+door-keeper. Such of the laity as wish to receive anything shall apply
+to the bishop through the deacon." The apostles never used any term
+answering to _laity_, or marking the difference between the profane and
+the priesthood.
+
+In chapter xxxiv., "You must reverence the bishop as a king, honor him
+as a master, and give him your fruits, the works of your hands, your
+first fruits, your tenths, your savings, the presents that are made to
+you, your corn, your wine, your oil, your wool," etc. This is a strong
+article.
+
+In chapter lvii., "Let the church be long; let it look towards the East;
+let it resemble a ship; let the bishop's throne be in the middle; let
+the reader read the books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Kings, Chronicles,
+Job," etc.
+
+In chapter xvii. of the third book, "Baptism is administered for the
+death of Jesus; oil for the Holy Ghost. When we are plunged into the
+water, we die; when we come out of it, we revive. The Father is the God
+of all. Christ is the only Son of God, his beloved Son, and the Lord of
+glory. The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, sent by Christ the teacher,
+preaching Christ Jesus." This doctrine would now be explained in more
+canonical terms.
+
+In chapter vii. of the fifth book are quoted some verses of the Sibyls
+on the coming of Jesus and the resurrection. This was the first time
+that the Christians admitted the verses of the Sibyls, which they
+continued to do for more than three hundred years. In chapter v. of the
+eighth book are these words: "O God Almighty, give to the bishop,
+through Christ, the participation of the Holy Spirit." In chapter iv.,
+"Commend yourself to God alone, through Jesus Christ"; which does not
+sufficiently express the divinity of our Lord. In chapter xii. is the
+Constitution of James, the brother of Zebedee.
+
+In chapter xv. the deacon is to say aloud, "Incline yourselves before
+God through Christ." At the present day these expressions are not very
+correct.
+
+
+XXI.
+
+The Apostolical Canons. The sixth canon ordains that no bishop or priest
+shall separate himself from his wife on pretence of religion; if he do
+so, he is to be excommunicated, and if he persist he is to be driven
+away. The seventh--that no priest shall ever meddle with secular
+affairs. The nineteenth--that he who has married two sisters shall not
+be admitted into the clergy. The twenty-first and twenty-second--that
+eunuchs shall be admitted into the priesthood excepting such as have
+castrated themselves. Yet Origen was a priest, notwithstanding this law.
+The fifty-fifth--that if a bishop, a priest, a deacon, or a clerk eat
+flesh which is not clear of blood, he shall be displaced. It is quite
+evident that these canons could not be promulgated by the apostles.
+
+
+XXII.
+
+The Confessions of St. Clement to James, brother of the Lord, in ten
+books, translated from Greek into Latin by Rufinus. This book commences
+with a doubt respecting the immortality of the soul: _"Utrumne sit mihi
+aliqua vita post mortem, an nihil omnino postea sim futurus"_. St.
+Clement, disturbed by this doubt and wishing to know whether the world
+was eternal or had been created---whether there were a Tartarus and a
+Phlegethon, an Ixion and a Tantalus, etc., resolved to go into Egypt to
+learn necromancy, but having heard of St. Bartholomew, who was preaching
+Christianity, he went to him in the East, at the time when Barnabas was
+celebrating a Jewish feast. He afterwards met St. Peter at Cæsarea, with
+Simon the magician and Zacchæus. They disputed together, and St. Peter
+related to them all that had passed since the death of Jesus. Clement
+turned Christian, but Simon remained a magician.
+
+Simon fell in love with a woman named Luna, and, while waiting to marry
+her, he proposed to St. Peter, to Zacchæus, to Lazarus, to Nicodemus, to
+Dositheus, and to several others, that they should become his disciples.
+Dositheus answered him at once with a blow from a stick; but the stick
+having passed through Simon's body as if it had been smoke, Dositheus
+worshipped him and became his lieutenant, after which Simon married his
+mistress and declared that she was Luna herself, descended from heaven
+to marry him.
+
+But enough of the Confessions of St. Clement. It must, however, be
+remarked that in the ninth book the Chinese are spoken of under the name
+of Seres as the justest and wisest of mankind. After them come the
+Brahmins, to whom the author does the justice that was rendered them by
+all antiquity. He cites them as models of soberness, mildness, and
+justice.
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+St. Peter's Letter to St. James, and St. Clement's Letter to the same
+St. James, brother of the Lord, governor of the Holy Church of the
+Hebrews at Jerusalem, and of all churches. St. Peter's Letter contains
+nothing curious, but St. Clement's is very remarkable. He asserts that
+Peter declared him bishop of Rome before his death, and his coadjutor;
+that he laid his hands upon his head, and made him sit in the episcopal
+chair in the presence of all the faithful; and that he said to him,
+"Fail not to write to my brother James as soon as I am dead."
+
+This letter seems to prove that it was not then believed that St. Peter
+had suffered martyrdom, since it is probable that this letter,
+attributed to St. Clement, would have mentioned the circumstance. It
+also proves that Cletus and Anacletus were not reckoned among the
+bishops of Rome.
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+St. Clement's Homilies, to the number of nineteen. He says in his first
+homily what he had already said in his confessions--that he went to St.
+Peter and St. Barnabas at Cæsarea, to know whether the soul was
+immortal, and the world eternal.
+
+In the second homily, No. xxxviii., we find a much more extraordinary
+passage. St. Peter himself, speaking of the Old Testament, expresses
+himself thus: "The written law contains certain false things against the
+law of God, the Creator of heaven and earth; the devil has done this,
+for good reasons; it has also come to pass through the judgments of God,
+in order to discover such as would listen with pleasure to what is
+written against Him," etc.
+
+In the sixth homily St. Clement meets with Appian, the same who had
+written against the Jews in the time of Tiberius. He tells Appian that
+he is in love with an Egyptian woman and begs that he will write a
+letter in his name to his pretended mistress to convince her, by the
+example of all the gods, that love is a duty. Appian writes a letter and
+St. Clement answers it in the name of his pretended mistress, after
+which they dispute on the nature of the gods.
+
+
+XXV.
+
+Two Epistles of St. Clement to the Corinthians. It hardly seems just to
+have ranked these epistles among the apocryphal writings. Some of the
+learned may have declined to recognize them because they speak of "the
+phoenix of Arabia, which lives five hundred years, and burns itself in
+Egypt in the city of Heliopolis." But there is nothing extraordinary in
+St. Clement's having believed this fable which so many others believed,
+nor in his having written letters to the Corinthians.
+
+It is known that there was at that time a great dispute between the
+church of Corinth and that of Rome. The church of Corinth, which
+declared itself to have been founded first, was governed in common;
+there was scarcely any distinction between the priests and the
+seculars, still less between the priests and the bishop; all alike had a
+deliberative voice, so, at least, several of the learned assert. St.
+Clement says to the Corinthians in his first epistle: "You have laid the
+first foundations of sedition; be subject to your priests, correct
+yourselves by penance, bend the knees of your hearts, learn to obey." It
+is not at all astonishing that a bishop of Rome should use these
+expressions.
+
+In the second epistle we again find that answer of Jesus Christ, on
+being asked when His kingdom of heaven should come: "When two shall make
+one, when that which is without shall be within, when the male shall be
+female, when there shall be neither male nor female."
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+Letter from St. Ignatius the martyr to the Virgin Mary, and the Virgin's
+answer to St. Ignatius:
+
+"To Mary the Mother of Christ, from her devoted Ignatius: You should
+console me, a neophyte, and a disciple of your John. I have heard
+several wonderful things of your Jesus, at which I have been much
+astonished. I desire with all my heart to be informed of them by you,
+who always lived in familiarity with Him and knew all His secrets. Fare
+you well. Comfort the neophytes, who are with me from you and through
+you. Amen."
+
+"The Holy Virgin's Answer to Her Dear Disciple Ignatius:
+
+"The Humble Servant of Jesus Christ: All the things which you have
+learned from John are true; believe in them; persevere in your belief;
+keep your vow of Christianity. I will come and see you with John, you
+and those who are with you. Be firm in the faith; act like a man; let
+not severity and persecution disturb you, but let your spirit be
+strengthened and exalted in God your Saviour. Amen."
+
+It is asserted that these letters were written in the year 116 of the
+Christian era, but they are not therefore the less false and absurd.
+They would even have been an insult to our holy religion had they not
+been written in a spirit of simplicity, which renders everything
+pardonable.
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+Fragments of the Apostles. We find in them this passage: "Paul, a man of
+short stature, with an aquiline nose and an angelic face. Instructed in
+heaven, said to Plantilla, of Rome, before he died: 'Adieu, Plantilla,
+thou little plant of eternal salvation; know thy own nobility; thou art
+whiter than snow; thou art registered among the soldiers of Christ; thou
+art an heiress to the kingdom of heaven.'" This was not worthy to be
+refuted.
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+There are eleven Apocalypses, which are attributed to the patriarchs and
+prophets, to St. Peter, Cerinthus, St. Thomas, St. Stephen the first
+martyr, two to St. John, differing from the canonical one, and three to
+St. Paul. All these Apocalypses have been eclipsed by that of St. John.
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+The Visions, Precepts, and Similitudes of Hermas. Hermas seems to have
+lived about the close of the first century. They who regard his book as
+apocryphal are nevertheless obliged to do justice to his morality. He
+begins by saying that his foster-father had sold a young woman at Rome.
+Hermas recognized this young woman after the lapse of several years, and
+loved her, he says, as if she had been his sister. He one day saw her
+bathing in the Tiber; he stretched forth his hand, drew her out of the
+river and said in his heart, "How happy should I be if I had a wife like
+her in beauty and in manners." Immediately the heavens opened, and he
+all at once beheld this same wife, who made him a courtesy from above,
+and said, "Good morning, Hermas." This wife was the Christian Church;
+she gave him much good advice.
+
+A year after, the spirit transported him to the same place where he had
+seen this beauty, who nevertheless was old; but she was fresh in her
+age, and was old only because she had been created from the beginning of
+the world, and the world had been made for her.
+
+The Book of Precepts contains fewer allegories, but that of Similitudes
+contains many. "One day," says Hennas, "when I was fasting and was
+seated on a hill, giving thanks to God for all that he had done for me,
+a shepherd came, sat down beside me, and said, 'Why have you come here
+so early?' 'Because I am going through the stations,' answered I. 'What
+is a station?' asked the shepherd. 'It is a fast.' 'And what is this
+fast?' 'It is my custom.' 'Ah!' replied the shepherd, 'you know not what
+it is to fast; all this is of no avail before God. I will teach you that
+which is true fasting and pleasing to the Divinity. Your fasting has
+nothing to do with justice and virtue. Serve God with a pure heart; keep
+His commandments; admit into your heart no guilty designs. If you have
+always the fear of God before your eyes--if you abstain from all evil,
+that will be true fasting, that will be the great fast which is
+acceptable to God.'"
+
+This philosophical and sublime piety is one of the most singular
+monuments of the first century. But it is somewhat strange that, at the
+end of the Similitudes, the shepherd gives him very good-natured
+maidens--_valde affabiles_--to take care of his house and declares to
+him that he cannot fulfil God's commandments without these maidens, who,
+it is plain, typify the virtues.
+
+This list would become immense if we were to enter into every detail. We
+will carry it no further, but conclude with the Sibyls.
+
+
+XXX.
+
+The Sibyls.--What is most apocryphal in the primitive church is the
+prodigious number of verses in favor of the Christian religion
+attributed to the ancient sibyls. Diodorus Siculus knew of only one, who
+was taken at Thebes by the Epigoni, and placed at Delphos before the
+Trojan war. Ten sibyls--that is, ten prophetesses, were soon made from
+this one. She of Cuma had most credit among the Romans, and the sibyl
+Erythrea among the Greeks.
+
+As all oracles were delivered in verse, none of the sibyls could fail to
+make verses; and to give them greater authority they sometimes made them
+in acrostics also. Several Christians who had not a zeal according to
+knowledge not only misinterpreted the ancient verses supposed to have
+been written by the sibyls, but also made some themselves, and which is
+worse, in acrostics, not dreaming that this difficult artifice of
+acrosticizing had no resemblance whatever to the inspiration and
+enthusiasm of a prophetess. They resolved to support the best of causes
+by the most awkward fraud. They accordingly made bad Greek verses, the
+initials of which signified in Greek--Jesus, Christ, Son, Saviour, and
+these verses said that with five loaves and two fishes He should feed
+five thousand men in the desert and that with the fragments that
+remained He should fill twelve baskets.
+
+The millennium and the New Jerusalem, which Justin had seen in the air
+for forty nights, were, of course, foretold by the sibyls. In the fourth
+century Lactantius collected almost all the verses attributed to the
+sibyls and considered them as convincing proofs. The opinion was so
+well authorized and so long held that we still sing hymns in which the
+testimony of the sibyls is joined with the predictions of David:
+
+     _Solvet sæclum in favilla,_
+     _Teste David cum Sibylla._
+
+This catalogue of errors and frauds has been carried quite far enough. A
+hundred might be repeated, so constantly has the world been composed of
+deceivers and of people fond of being deceived.
+
+But let us pursue no further so dangerous a research. The elucidation of
+one great truth is worth more than the discovery of a thousand
+falsehoods. Not all these errors, not all the crowd of apocryphal books
+have been sufficient to injure the Christian religion, because, as we
+all know, it is founded upon immutable truths. These truths are
+supported by a church militant and triumphant, to which God has given
+the power of teaching and of repressing. In several countries it unites
+temporal with spiritual authority. Prudence, strength, wealth are its
+attributes, and although it is divided, and its divisions have
+sometimes stained it with blood, it may be compared to the Roman
+commonwealth--constantly torn by internal dissensions, but constantly
+triumphant.
+
+
+
+
+APOSTATE.
+
+
+It is still a question among the learned whether the Emperor Julian was
+really an apostate and whether he was ever truly a Christian. He was
+not six years old when the Emperor Constantius, still more barbarous
+than Constantine, had his father, his brother, and seven of his cousins
+murdered. He and his brother Gallus with difficulty escaped from this
+carnage, but he was always very harshly treated by Constantius. His life
+was for a long time threatened, and he soon beheld his only remaining
+brother assassinated by the tyrant's order. The most barbarous of the
+Turkish sultans have never, I am sorry to say it, surpassed in cruelty
+or in villainy the Constantine family. From his tenderest years study
+was Julian's only consolation. He communicated in secret with the most
+illustrious of the philosophers, who were of the ancient religion of
+Rome. It is very probable that he professed that of his uncle
+Constantius only to avoid assassination. Julian was obliged to conceal
+his mental powers, as Brutus had done under Tarquin. He was less likely
+to be a Christian, as his uncle had forced him to be a monk and to
+perform the office of reader in the church. A man is rarely of the
+religion of his persecutor, especially when the latter wishes to be
+ruler of his conscience.
+
+Another circumstance which renders this probable is that he does not say
+in any of his works that he had been a Christian. He never asks pardon
+for it of the pontiffs of the ancient religion. He addresses them in his
+letters as if he had always been attached to the worship of the senate.
+It is not even proved that he practised the ceremonies of the
+Taurobolium, which might be regarded as a sort of expiation, and that
+he desired to wash out with bull's blood that which he so unfortunately
+called the stain of his baptism. However, this was a pagan form of
+devotion, which is no more a proof than the assembling at the mysteries
+of Ceres. In short, neither his friends nor his enemies relate any fact,
+any words which can prove that he ever believed in Christianity, and
+that he passed from that sincere belief to the worship of the gods of
+the empire. If such be the case they who do not speak of him as an
+apostate appear very excusable.
+
+Sound criticism being brought to perfection, all the world now
+acknowledges that the Emperor Julian was a hero and a wise man--a stoic,
+equal to Marcus Aurelius. His errors are condemned, but his virtues are
+admitted. He is now regarded, as he was by his contemporary, Prudentius,
+author of the hymn _"Salvete flores martyrum"_. He says of Julian:
+
+                    _Ductor fortissimus armis,_
+     _Conditor et legum celeberrimus; ore manuque_
+     _Consultor patriæ; sed non consultor habendus_
+     _Religionis; amans tercentum millia divum_
+     _Perfidus ille Deo, sed non est perfidus orbi_.
+
+     Though great in arms, in virtues, and in laws,--
+     Though ably zealous in his country's cause,
+     He spurned religion in his lofty plan,
+     Rejecting God while benefiting man.
+
+His detractors are reduced to the miserable expedient of striving to
+make him appear ridiculous. One historian, on the authority of St.
+Gregory Nazianzen, reproaches him with having worn too large a beard.
+But, my friend, if nature gave him a long beard why should he wear it
+short? He used to shake his head. Carry thy own better. His step was
+hurried. Bear in mind that the Abbé d'Aubignac, the king's preacher,
+having been hissed at the play, laughs at the air and gait of the great
+Corneille. Could you hope to turn Marshal de Luxembourg into ridicule
+because he walked ill and his figure was singular? He could march very
+well against the enemy. Let us leave it to the ex-Jesuit Patouillet, the
+ex-Jesuit Nonotte, etc., to call the Emperor Julian--_the Apostate_.
+Poor creatures! His Christian successor, Jovian, called him _Divus_
+Julianus.
+
+Let us treat this mistaken emperor as he himself treated us. He said,
+"We should pity and not hate them; they are already sufficiently
+unfortunate in erring on the most important of questions." Let us have
+the same compassion for him, since we are sure that the truth is on our
+side. He rendered strict justice to his subjects, let us then render it
+to his memory. Some Alexandrians were incensed against a bishop, who, it
+is true, was a wicked man, chosen by a worthless cabal. His name was
+George Biordos, and he was the son of a mason. His manners were lower
+than his birth. He united the basest perfidy with the most brutal
+ferocity, and superstition with every vice. A calumniator, a persecutor,
+and an impostor--avaricious, sanguinary, and seditious, he was detested
+by every party and at last the people cudgelled him to death. The
+following is the letter which the Emperor Julian wrote to the
+Alexandrians on the subject of this popular commotion. Mark how he
+addresses them, like a father and a judge:
+
+"What!" said he, "instead of reserving for me the knowledge of your
+wrongs you have suffered yourselves to be transported with anger! You
+have been guilty of the same excesses with which you reproach your
+enemies! George deserved to be so treated, but it was not for you to be
+his executioners. You have laws; you should have demanded justice," etc.
+
+Some have dared to brand Julian with the epithets intolerant and
+persecuting--the man who sought to extirpate persecution and
+intolerance! Peruse his fifty-second letter, and respect his memory. Is
+he not sufficiently unfortunate in not having been a Catholic, and
+consequently in being burned in hell, together with the innumerable
+multitude of those who have not been Catholics, without our insulting
+him so far as to accuse him of intolerance?
+
+_On the Globes of Fire said to have issued from the Earth to prevent the
+rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem under the Emperor Julian._
+
+It is very likely that when Julian resolved to carry the war into Persia
+he wanted money. It is also very likely that the Jews gave him some for
+permission to rebuild their temple, which Titus had partly destroyed,
+but of which there still remained the foundations, an entire wall, and
+the Antonine tower. But is it as likely that globes of fire burst upon
+the works and the workmen and caused the undertaking to be relinquished.
+Is there not a palpable contradiction in what the historians relate?
+
+1. How could it be that the Jews began by destroying (as they are said
+to have done) the foundations of the temple which it was their wish and
+their duty to rebuild on the same spot? The temple was necessarily to be
+on Mount Moriah. There it was that Solomon had built it. There it was
+that Herod had rebuilt it with greater solidity and magnificence, having
+previously erected a fine theatre at Jerusalem, and a temple to Augustus
+at Cæsarea. The foundations of this temple, enlarged by Herod, were,
+according to Josephus, as much as twenty-five feet broad. Could the
+Jews, in Julian's time, possibly be mad enough to wish to disarrange
+these stones which were so well prepared to receive the rest of the
+edifice, and upon which the Mahometans afterwards built their mosque?
+What man was ever foolish and stupid enough thus to deprive himself at
+great cost and excessive labor of the greatest advantage that could
+present itself to his hands and eyes? Nothing is more incredible.
+
+2. How could eruptions of flame burst forth from the interior of these
+stones? There might be an earthquake in the neighborhood, for they are
+frequent in Syria, but that great blocks of stone should have vomited
+clouds of fire! Is not this story entitled to just as much credit as all
+those of antiquity?
+
+3. If this prodigy, or if an earthquake, which is not a prodigy, had
+really happened would not the Emperor Julian have spoken of it in the
+letter in which he says that he had intended to rebuild this temple?
+Would not his testimony have been triumphantly adduced? Is it not
+infinitely more probable that he changed his mind? Does not this letter
+contain these words:
+
+_"Quid de templo sua dicent, quod, quum tertio sit eversum, nondum
+hodiernam usque diem instauratur? Hæc ego, non ut illis exprobarem, in
+medium adduxi, utpote qui templum illud tanto intervallo a ruinis
+excitare voluerim; sed ideo commemoravi, ut ostenderem delirasse
+prophetas istos, quibus cum stolidis aniculis negotium erat"._
+
+"What will they (the Jews) say of their temple which has been destroyed
+for the third time and is not yet restored? I speak of this, not for the
+purpose of reproaching them, for I myself had intended to raise it once
+more from its ruins, but to show the extravagance of their prophets who
+had none but old women to deal with."
+
+Is it not evident that the emperor having paid attention to the Jewish
+prophecies, that the temple should be rebuilt more beautiful than ever
+and that all the nations of the earth should come and worship in it,
+thought fit to revoke the permission to raise the edifice? The
+historical probability, then, from the emperor's own words, is, that
+unfortunately holding the Jewish books, as well as our own, in
+abhorrence, he at length resolved to make the Jewish prophets lie.
+
+The Abbé de la Blétrie, the historian of the Emperor Julian, does not
+understand how the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed three times. He
+says that apparently Julian reckoned as a third destruction the
+catastrophe which happened during his reign. A curious destruction this!
+the non-removal of the stones of an old foundation. What could prevent
+this writer from seeing that the temple, having been built by Solomon,
+reconstructed by Zorobabel, entirely destroyed by Herod, rebuilt by
+Herod himself with so much magnificence, and at last laid in ruins by
+Titus, manifestly made three destructions of the temple? The reckoning
+is correct. Julian should surely have escaped calumny on this point.
+
+The Abbé de la Blétrie calumniates him sufficiently by saying that all
+his virtues were only seeming, while all his vices were real. But Julian
+was not hypocritical, nor avaricious, nor fraudulent, nor lying, nor
+ungrateful, nor cowardly, nor drunken, nor debauched, nor idle, nor
+vindictive. What then were his vices?
+
+4. Let us now examine the redoubtable argument made use of to persuade
+us that globes of fire issued from stones. Ammianus Marcellinus a pagan
+writer, free from all suspicion, has said it. Be it so: but this
+Ammianus has also said that when the emperor was about to sacrifice ten
+oxen to his gods for his first victory over the Persians, nine of them
+fell to the earth before they were presented to the altar. He relates a
+hundred predictions--a hundred prodigies. Are we to believe in them? Are
+we to believe in all the ridiculous miracles related by Livy?
+
+Besides, who can say that the text of Ammianus Marcellinus has not been
+falsified? Would it be the only instance in which this artifice has been
+employed?
+
+I wonder that no mention is made of the little fiery crosses which all
+the workmen found on their bodies when they went to bed. They would have
+made an admirable figure along with the globes.
+
+The fact is that the temple of the Jews was not rebuilt, and it may be
+presumed never will be so. Here let us hold, and not seek useless
+prodigies. _Globi Hammarum_--globes of fire, issue neither from stones
+nor from earth. Ammianus, and those who have quoted him, were not
+natural philosophers. Let the abbé de la Blétrie only look at the fire
+on St. John's day, and he will see that flame always ascends with a
+point, or in a cloud, and never in a globe. This alone is sufficient to
+overturn the nonsense which he comes forward to defend with injudicious
+criticism and revolting pride.
+
+After all, the thing is of very little importance. There is nothing in
+it that affects either faith or morals; and historical truth is all that
+is here sought for.
+
+
+
+
+APOSTLES.
+
+
+_Their Lives, their Wives, their Children._
+
+After the article "Apostle" in the Encyclopædia, which is as learned as
+it is orthodox, very little remains to be said. But we often hear it
+asked--Were the apostles married? Had they any children? if they had,
+what became of those children? Where did the apostles live? Where did
+they write? Where did they die? Had they any appropriated districts? Did
+they exercise any civil ministry? Had they any jurisdiction over the
+faithful? Were they bishops? Had they a hierarchy, rites, or ceremonies?
+
+
+I.
+
+_Were the Apostles Married?_
+
+There is extant a letter attributed to St. Ignatius the Martyr, in which
+are these decisive words: "I call to mind your sanctity as I do that of
+Elias, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and the chosen disciples Timothy,
+Titus, Evadius, and Clement; yet I do not blame such other of the
+blessed as were bound in the bonds of marriage, but hope to be found
+worthy of God in following their footsteps in his kingdom, after the
+example of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Isaiah, and the other
+prophets--of Peter and Paul, and the apostles who were married."
+
+Some of the learned assert that the name of St. Paul has been
+interpolated in this famous letter: however, Turrian and all who have
+seen the letters of Ignatius in the library of the Vatican acknowledge
+that St. Paul's name appears there. And Baronius does not deny that this
+passage is to be found in some Greek manuscripts: _Non negamus in
+quibusdam græcis codicibus._ But he asserts that these words have been
+added by modern Greeks.
+
+In the old Oxford library there was a manuscript of St. Ignatius's
+letters in Greek, which contained the above words; but it was, I
+believe, burned with many other books at the taking of Oxford by
+Cromwell. There is still one in Latin in the same library, in which the
+words _Pauli et apostolorum_ have been effaced, but in such a manner
+that the old characters may be easily distinguished.
+
+It is however certain that this passage exists in several editions of
+these letters. This dispute about St. Paul's marriage is, after all, a
+very frivolous one. What matters it whether he was married or not, if
+the other apostles were married? His first Epistle to the Corinthians is
+quite sufficient to prove that he might be married, as well as the rest:
+
+"Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about
+a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the
+Lord, and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear
+working? Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?"
+
+It is clear from this passage that all the apostles were married, as
+well as St. Peter. And St. Clement of Alexandria positively declares
+that St. Paul had a wife. The Roman discipline has changed, which is no
+proof that the usage of the primitive ages was not different.
+
+
+II.
+
+_Children of the Apostles._
+
+Very little is known of their families. St. Clement of Alexandria says
+that Peter had children, that Philip had daughters, and that he gave
+them in marriage. The Acts of the Apostles specify St. Philip, whose
+four daughters prophesied, of whom it is believed that one was married,
+and that this one was St. Hermione.
+
+Eusebius relates that Nicholas, chosen by the apostles to co-operate in
+the sacred ministry with St. Stephen, had a very handsome wife, of whom
+he was jealous. The apostles having reproached him with his jealousy, he
+corrected himself of it, brought his wife to them and said, "I am ready
+to yield her up; let him marry her who will." The apostles, however, did
+not accept his proposal. He had by his wife a son and several daughters.
+
+Cleophas, according to Eusebius and St. Epiphanius, was brother to St.
+Joseph, and father of St. James the Less, and of St. Jude, whom he had
+by Mary, sister to the Blessed Virgin. So that St. Jude the apostle was
+first cousin to Jesus Christ.
+
+Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius, tells us that two grandsons of St. Jude
+were informed against to the emperor Domitian as being descendants of
+David and having an incontestable right to the throne of Jerusalem.
+Domitian, fearing that they might avail themselves of this right, put
+questions to them himself, and they acquainted him with their genealogy.
+The emperor asked them what fortune they had. They answered that they
+had thirty-nine acres of land, which paid tribute, and that they worked
+for their livelihood. He then asked them when Jesus Christ's kingdom was
+to come, and they told him "At the end of the world." After which
+Domitian permitted them to depart in peace; which goes far to prove that
+he was not a persecutor. This, if I mistake not, is all that is known
+about the children of the apostles.
+
+
+III.
+
+_Where did the Apostles Live? Where did They Die?_
+
+According to Eusebius, James, sur named the Just, brother to Jesus
+Christ, was in the beginning placed first _on the episcopal throne_ of
+the city of Jerusalem; these are his own words. So that, according to
+him, the first bishopric was that of Jerusalem--supposing that the Jews
+knew even the name of _bishop_. It does, indeed, appear very likely that
+the brother of Jesus Christ should have been the first after him, and
+that the very city in which the miracle of our salvation was worked
+should have become the metropolis of the Christian world. As for the
+_episcopal throne_, that is a term which Eusebius uses by anticipation.
+We all know that there was then neither throne nor see.
+
+Eusebius adds, after St. Clement, that the other apostles did not
+contend with St. James for this dignity. They elected him immediately
+after the Ascension. "Our Lord," says he, "after His resurrection, had
+given to James, surnamed the Just, to John and to Peter the gift of
+knowledge"--very remarkable words. Eusebius mentions James first, then
+John, and Peter comes last. It seems but just that the brother and the
+beloved disciple of Jesus should come before the man who had denied Him.
+Nearly the whole Greek Church and all the reformers ask, Where is
+Peter's primacy? The Catholics answer--If he is not placed first by the
+fathers of the church, he is in the Acts of the Apostles. The Greeks and
+the rest reply that he was not the first bishop; and the dispute will
+endure as long as the churches.
+
+St. James, this first bishop of Jerusalem, always continued to observe
+the Mosaic law. He was a Rechabite; he walked barefoot, and never
+shaved; went and prostrated himself in the Jewish temple twice a day,
+and was surnamed by the Jews _Oblia_, signifying the just. They at
+length applied to him to know who Jesus Christ was, and having answered
+that Jesus was the son of man, who sat on the right hand of God, and
+that He should come in the clouds, he was beaten to death. This was St.
+James the Less.
+
+St. James the Greater was his uncle, brother to St. John the Evangelist,
+and son of Zebedee and Salome. It is asserted that Agrippa, king of the
+Jews, had him beheaded at Jerusalem. St. John remained in Asia and
+governed the church of Ephesus, where, it is said, he was buried. St.
+Andrew, brother to St Peter, quitted the school of St. John for that of
+Jesus Christ. It is not agreed whether he preached among the Tartars or
+in Argos; but, to get rid of the difficulty, we are told that it was in
+Epirus. No one knows where he suffered martyrdom, nor even whether he
+suffered it at all. The _Acts_ of his martyrdom are more than suspected
+by the learned. Painters have always represented him on a saltier-cross,
+to which his name has been given. This custom has prevailed without its
+origin being known.
+
+St. Peter preached to the Jews dispersed in Pontus, Bithynia,
+Cappadocia, at Antioch, and at Babylon. The Acts of the Apostles do not
+speak of his journey to Rome, nor does St. Paul himself make any mention
+of it in the letters which he wrote from that capital. St. Justin is the
+first accredited author who speaks of this journey, about which the
+learned are not agreed. St. Irenæus, after St. Justin, expressly says
+that St. Peter and St. Paul came to Rome, and that they entrusted its
+government to St. Linus. But here is another difficulty: if they made
+St. Linus inspector of the rising Christian society at Rome, it must be
+inferred that they themselves did not superintend it nor remain in that
+city.
+
+Criticism has cast upon this matter a thousand uncertainties. The
+opinion that St. Peter came to Rome in Nero's reign and filled the
+pontifical chair there for twenty-five years, is untenable, for Nero
+reigned only thirteen years. The wooden chair, so splendidly inlaid in
+the church at Rome, can hardly have belonged to St. Peter: wood does not
+last so long; nor is it likely that St. Peter delivered his lessons from
+this chair as in a school thoroughly formed, since it is averred that
+the Jews of Rome were violent enemies to the disciples of Jesus Christ.
+
+The greatest difficulty perhaps is that St. Paul, in his epistle written
+to the Colossians from Rome, positively says that he was assisted only
+by Aristarchus, Marcus, and another bearing the name of Jesus. This
+objection has, to men of the greatest learning, appeared to be
+insurmountable.
+
+In his letter to the Galatians he says that he obliged James, Cephas,
+and John, who seemed to be pillars, to acknowledge himself and Barnabas
+as pillars also. If he placed James before Cephas, then Cephas was not
+the chief. Happily, these disputes affect not the foundation of our holy
+religion. Whether St. Peter ever was at Rome or not, Jesus Christ is no
+less the Son of God and the Virgin Mary; He did not the less rise again;
+nor did He the less recommend humility and poverty; which are neglected,
+it is true, but about which there is no dispute.
+
+Callistus Nicephorus, a writer of the fourteenth century, says that
+"Peter was tall, straight and slender, his face long and pale, his beard
+and hair short, curly, and neglected--his eyes black, his nose long,
+and rather flat than pointed." So Calmet translates the passage.
+
+St. Bartholomew is a word corrupted from Bar. Ptolomaios, son of
+Ptolemy. The Acts of the Apostles inform us that he was a Galilean.
+Eusebius asserts that he went to preach in India, Arabia Felix, Persia,
+and Abyssinia. He is believed to have been the same as Nathanael. There
+is a gospel attributed to him; but all that has been said of his life
+and of his death is very uncertain. It has been asserted that Astyages,
+brother to Polemon, king of Armenia, had him flayed alive; but all good
+writers regard this story as fabulous.
+
+St. Philip.--According to the apocryphal legends he lived eighty-seven
+years, and died in peace in the reign of Trajan.
+
+St. Thomas Didymus.--Origen, quoted by Eusebius, says that he went and
+preached to the Medes, the Persians, the Caramanians, the Baskerians,
+and the magi--as if the magi had been a people. It is added that he
+baptized one of the magi, who had come to Bethlehem. The Manichæans
+assert that a man who had stricken Thomas was devoured by a lion. Some
+Portuguese writers assure us that he suffered martyrdom at Meliapour, in
+the peninsula of India. The Greek Church believes that he preached in
+India, and that from thence his body was carried to Edessa. Some monks
+are further induced to believe that he went to India, by the
+circumstance that, about the end of the fifteenth century, there were
+found, near the coast of Ormuz, some families of Nestorians, who had
+been established there by a merchant of Moussoul, named Thomas. The
+legend sets forth that he built a magnificent palace for an Indian king
+named Gondaser: but all these stories are rejected by the learned.
+
+St. Matthias.--No particulars are known of him. His life was not found
+until the twelfth century by a monk of the abbey of St. Matthias of
+Treves. He said he had it from a Jew, who translated it for him from
+Hebrew into Latin.
+
+St. Matthew.--According to Rufinus, Socrates, and Abdias, he preached
+and died in Ethiopia. Heracleon makes him live a long time and die a
+natural death. But Abdias says that Hyrtacus, king of Ethiopia, brother
+to Eglypus, wishing to marry his niece Iphigenia, and finding that he
+could not obtain St. Matthew's permission, had his head struck off and
+set fire to Iphigenia's house. He to whom we owe the most circumstantial
+gospel that we possess deserved a better historian than Abdias.
+
+St. Simon the Canaanite, whose feast is commonly joined with that of St.
+Jude.--Of his life nothing is known. The modern Greeks say that he went
+to preach in Libya, and thence into England. Others make him suffer
+martyrdom in Persia.
+
+St. Thaddæus or Lebbæus.--The same as St. Jude, whom the Jews in St.
+Matthew call brother to Jesus Christ, and who, according to Eusebius,
+was his first cousin. All these relations, for the most part vague and
+uncertain, throw no light on the lives of the apostles. But if there is
+little to gratify our curiosity, there is much from which we may derive
+instruction. Two of the four gospels, chosen from among the fifty-four
+composed by the first Christians, were not written by apostles.
+
+St. Paul was not one of the twelve apostles, yet he contributed more
+than any other to the establishment of Christianity. He was the only man
+of letters among them. He had studied under Gamaliel. Festus himself,
+the governor of Judæa, reproaches him with being too learned; and,
+unable to comprehend the sublimities of his doctrine, he says to him,
+_"Insanis, Paule, multæ te litteræ ad insaniam convertunt"_. "Paul, thou
+art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad."
+
+In his first epistle to the Corinthians he calls himself _sent_. "Am I
+not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?
+Are ye not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle unto others, yet,
+doubtless, I am unto you," etc.
+
+He might, indeed, have seen Jesus while he was studying at Jerusalem
+under Gamaliel. Yet it may be said that this was not a reason which
+could authorize his apostleship. He had not been one of the disciples of
+Jesus; on the contrary, he had persecuted them, and had been an
+accomplice in the death of St. Stephen. It is astonishing that he does
+not rather justify his voluntary apostleship by the miracle which Jesus
+Christ afterwards worked in his favor--by the light from heaven which
+appeared to him at midday and threw him from his horse, and by his being
+carried up to the third heaven.
+
+St. Epiphanius quotes Acts of the Apostles, believed to have been
+composed by those Christians called Ebionites, or poor, and which were
+rejected by the Church--acts very ancient, it is true, but full of abuse
+of St. Paul. In them it is said that St. Paul was born at Tarsus of
+idolatrous parents--_utroque parente gentili procreatus_--that, having
+come to Jerusalem, where he remained some time, he wished to marry the
+daughter of Gamaliel; that, with this design, he became a Jewish
+proselyte and got himself circumcised; but that, not obtaining this
+virgin (or not finding her a virgin), his vexation made him write
+against circumcision, against the Sabbath, and against the whole law.
+
+_"Quumque Hierosolymam accessisset, et ibidem aliquandiu mansisset,
+pontificis filiam ducere in animum induxisse, et eam ab rem proselytum
+factum, atque circumcisum esse; postea quod virginem eam non accepisset,
+succensuisse, et adversus circumcisionem, ac sabbathum totamque legem
+scripsisse."_
+
+These injurious words show that these primitive Christians, under the
+name of the poor, were still attached to the Sabbath and to
+circumcision, resting this attachment on the circumcision of Jesus
+Christ and his observance of the Sabbath; and that they were enemies to
+St. Paul, regarding him as an intruder who sought to overturn
+everything. In short, they were heretics; consequently they strove to
+defame their enemies, an excess of which party spirit and superstition
+are too often guilty. St. Paul, too, calls them "false apostles,
+deceitful workers," and loads them with abuse. In his letter to the
+Philippians he calls them dogs.
+
+St. Jerome asserts that he was born at Gisceala, a town of Galilee, and
+not at Tarsus. Others dispute his having been a Roman citizen, because
+at that time there were no Roman citizens at Tarsus, nor at Galgala, and
+Tarsus was not a Roman colony until about a hundred years after. But we
+must believe the Acts of the Apostles, which were inspired by the Holy
+Ghost, and therefore outweigh the testimony of St. Jerome, learned as he
+might be.
+
+Every particular relative to St. Peter and St. Paul is interesting. If
+Nicephorus has given us a portrait of the one, the Acts of St. Thecla,
+which, though not canonical, are of the first century, have furnished us
+with a portrait of the other. He was, say these acts, short in stature,
+his head was bald, his thighs were crooked, his legs thick, his nose
+aquiline, his eyebrows joined, and he was full of the grace of
+God.--_Statura brevi, etc._
+
+These Acts of St. Paul and St. Thecla were, according to Tertullian,
+composed by an Asiatic, one of Paul's own disciples, who at first put
+them forth under the apostle's name; for which he was called to account
+and displaced--that is, excluded from the assembly; for the hierarchy,
+not being then established, no one could, properly speaking, be
+displaced.
+
+
+IV.
+
+_Under What Discipline Did the Apostles and Primitive Disciples Live?_
+
+It appears that they were all equal. Equality was the great principle of
+the Essenians, the Rechabites, the Theraputæ, the disciples of John, and
+especially those of Jesus Christ, who inculcated it more than once.
+
+St. Barnabas, who was not one of the twelve apostles, gave his voice
+along with theirs. St. Paul, who was still less a chosen apostle during
+the life of Jesus, not only was equal to them, but had a sort of
+ascendancy; he rudely rebukes St. Peter.
+
+When they are together we find among them no superior. There was no
+presiding, not even in turn. They did not at first call themselves
+bishops. St. Peter gives the name of _bishop_, or the equivalent
+epithet, only to Jesus Christ, whom he calls _the inspector of souls_.
+This name of _inspector_ or _bishop_ was afterwards given to the
+ancients, whom we call _priests_; but with no ceremony, no dignity, no
+distinctive mark of pre-eminence. It was the office of the ancients or
+elders to distribute the alms. The younger of them were chosen by a
+plurality of voices to serve the tables, and were seven in number; all
+which clearly verifies the reports in common. Of jurisdiction, of power,
+of command, not the least trace is to be found.
+
+It is true that Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for not giving all
+their money to St. Peter, but retaining a small part for their own
+immediate wants without confessing it--for corrupting, by a trifling
+falsehood, the sanctity of their gifts; but it is not St. Peter who
+condemns them. It is true that he divines Ananias' fault; he reproaches
+him with it and tells him that he has lied to the Holy Ghost; after
+which Ananias falls down dead. Then comes Sapphira; and Peter, instead
+of warning, interrogates her, which seems to be the action of a judge.
+He makes her fall into the snare by saying, "Tell me whether ye sold the
+land for so much." The wife made the same answer as her husband. It is
+astonishing that she did not, on reaching the place, learn of her
+husband's death--that no one had informed her of it--that she did not
+observe the terror and tumult which such a death must have occasioned,
+and above all, the mortal fear lest the officers of justice should take
+cognizance of it as of a murder. It is strange that this woman should
+not have filled the house with her cries, but have been quietly
+interrogated, as in a court of justice, where silence is rigidly
+enforced. It is still more extraordinary that Peter should have said to
+her, "Behold the feet of them which have carried thy husband out at the
+door, and shall carry thee out"--on which the sentence was instantly
+executed. Nothing can more resemble a criminal hearing before a despotic
+judge.
+
+But it must be considered that St. Peter is here only the organ of
+Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost; that it is to them that Ananias and his
+wife have lied, and it is they who punish them with sudden death; that,
+indeed, this miracle was worked for the purpose of terrifying all such
+as, while giving their goods to the Church, and saying that they have
+given all, keep something back for profane uses. The judicious Calmet
+shows us how the fathers and the commentators differ about the salvation
+of these two primitive Christians, whose sin consisted in simple though
+culpable reticence.
+
+Be this as it may, it is certain that the apostles had no jurisdiction,
+no power, no authority, but that of persuasion, which is the first of
+all, and upon which every other is founded. Besides, it appears from
+this very story that the Christians lived in common. When two or three
+of them were gathered together, Jesus Christ was in the midst of them.
+They could all alike receive the Spirit. Jesus was their true, their
+only superior; He had said to them:
+
+"Be not ye called rabbi; for one is your master, even Christ; and all ye
+are brethren. And call no man your father upon earth; for one is your
+father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is
+your master, even Christ."
+
+In the time of the apostles there was no ritual, no liturgy; there were
+no fixed hours for assembling, no ceremonies. The disciples baptized the
+catechumens, and breathed the Holy Ghost into their mouths, as Jesus
+Christ had breathed on the apostles; and as, in many churches, it is
+still the custom to breathe into the mouth of a child when administering
+baptism. Such were the beginnings of Christianity. All was done by
+inspiration--by enthusiasm, as among the Therapeutæ and the Judaïtes, if
+we may for a moment be permitted to compare Jewish societies, now become
+reprobate, with societies conducted by Jesus Christ Himself from the
+highest heaven, where He sat at the right hand of His Father. Time
+brought necessary changes; the Church being extended, strengthened, and
+enriched, had occasion for new laws.
+
+
+
+
+APPARITION.
+
+
+It is not at all uncommon for a person under strong emotion to see that
+which is not. In 1726 a woman in London, accused of being an accomplice
+in her husband's murder, denied the fact; the dead man's coat was held
+up and shaken before her, her terrified imagination presented the
+husband himself to her view; she fell at his feet and would have
+embraced him. She told the jury that she had seen her husband. It is not
+wonderful that Theodoric saw in the head of a fish, which was served up
+to him, that of Symmachus, whom he had assassinated--or unjustly
+executed; for it is precisely the same thing.
+
+Charles IX., after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, saw dead bodies and
+blood; not in his dreams, but in the convulsions of a troubled mind
+seeking for sleep in vain. His physician and his nurse bore witness to
+it. Fantastic visions are very frequent in hot fevers. This is not
+seeing in imagination; it is seeing in reality. The phantom exists to
+him who has the perception of it. If the gift of reason vouchsafed to
+the human machine were not at hand to correct these illusions, all
+heated imaginations would be in an almost continual transport, and it
+would be impossible to cure them.
+
+It is especially in that middle state between sleeping and waking that
+an inflamed brain sees imaginary objects and hears sounds which nobody
+utters. Fear, love, grief, remorse are the painters who trace the
+pictures before unsettled imaginations. The eye which sees sparks in the
+night, when accidentally pressed in a certain direction, is but a faint
+image of the disorders of the brain.
+
+No theologian doubts that with these natural causes the Master of nature
+has sometimes united His divine influence. To this the Old and the New
+Testament bear ample testimony. Providence has deigned to employ these
+apparitions--these visions--in favor of the Jews, who were then its
+cherished people.
+
+It may be that, in the course of time, some really pious souls, deceived
+by their enthusiasm, have believed that they had received from an
+intimate communication with God that which they owed only to their
+inflamed imaginations. In such cases there is need of the advice of an
+honest man, and especially of a good physician.
+
+The stories of apparitions are innumerable. It is said to have been in
+consequence of an apparition that St. Theodore, in the beginning of the
+fourth century, went and set fire to the temple of Amasia and reduced it
+to ashes. It is very likely that God did not command this action, in
+itself so criminal, by which several citizens perished, and which
+exposed all the Christians to a just revenge.
+
+God might permit St. Potamienne to appear to St. Basilides; for there
+resulted no disturbance to the state. We will not deny that Jesus Christ
+might appear to St. Victor. But that St. Benedict saw the soul of St.
+Germanus of Capua carried up to heaven by angels; and that two monks
+afterwards saw the soul of St. Benedict walking on a carpet extended
+from heaven to Mount Cassino--this is not quite so easy to believe.
+
+It may likewise, without any offence to our august religion, be doubted
+whether St. Eucherius was conducted by an angel into hell, where he saw
+Charles Mattel's soul; and whether a holy hermit of Italy saw the soul
+of Dagobert chained in a boat by devils, who were flogging it without
+mercy; for, after all, it is rather difficult to explain satisfactorily
+how a soul can walk upon a carpet, how it can be chained in a boat, or
+how it can be flogged.
+
+But, it may very well be that heated brains have had such visions; from
+age to age we have a thousand instances of them. One must be very
+enlightened to distinguish, in this prodigious number of visions, those
+which came from God Himself from those which were purely the offspring
+of imagination.
+
+The illustrious Bossuet relates, in his funeral oration over the
+Princess Palatine, two visions which acted powerfully on that princess,
+and determined the whole conduct of her latter years. These heavenly
+visions must be believed since they are regarded as such by the discreet
+and learned bishop of Meaux, who penetrated into all the depths of
+theology and even undertook to lift the veil which covers the
+Apocalypse.
+
+He says, then, that the Princess Palatine, having lent a hundred
+thousand francs to her sister, the queen of Poland, sold the duchy of
+Rételois for a million, and married her daughters advantageously. Happy
+according to the world, but unfortunately doubting the truths of the
+Christian religion, she was brought back to her conviction, and to the
+love of these ineffable truths by two visions. The first was a dream in
+which a man born blind told her that he had no idea of light, and that
+we must believe the word of others in things of which we cannot
+ourselves conceive. The second arose from a violent shock of the
+membranes and fibres of the brain in an attack of fever. She saw a hen
+running after one of her chickens, which a dog held in his mouth. The
+Princess Palatine snatched the chick from the dog, on which a voice
+cried out: "Give him back his chicken; if you deprive him of his food he
+will not watch as he ought." But the princess exclaimed, "No, I will
+never give it back."
+
+The chicken was the soul of Anne of Gonzaga, Princess Palatine; the hen
+was the Church, and the dog was the devil. Anne of Gonzaga, who was
+never to give back the chicken to the dog, was _efficacious grace_.
+
+Bossuet preached this funeral oration to the Carmelite nuns of the
+Faubourg St. Jacques, at Paris, before the whole house of Condé; he used
+these remarkable words: "Hearken, and be especially careful not to hear
+with contempt the order of the Divine warnings, and the conduct of
+Divine grace."
+
+The reader, then, must peruse this story with the same reverence with
+which its hearers listened to it. These extraordinary workings of
+Providence are like the miracles of canonized saints, which must be
+attested by irreproachable witnesses. And what more lawful deponent can
+we have to the apparitions and visions of the Princess Palatine than the
+man who employed his life in distinguishing truth from appearance? who
+combated vigorously against the nuns of Port Royal on the formulary;
+against Paul Ferri on the catechism; against the minister Claude on the
+variations of the Church; against Doctor Dupin on China; against Father
+Simon on the understanding of the sacred text; against Cardinal
+Sfondrati on predestination; against the pope on the rights of the
+Gallican Church; against the archbishop of Cambray on pure and
+disinterested love. He was not to be seduced by the names, nor the
+titles, nor the reputation, nor the dialectics of his adversaries. He
+related this fact; therefore he believed it. Let us join him in his
+belief, in spite of the raillery which it has occasioned. Let us adore
+the secrets of Providence, but let us distrust the wanderings of the
+imagination, which Malebranche called _la folle du logis_. For these two
+visions accorded to the Princess Palatine are not vouchsafed to every
+one.
+
+Jesus Christ appeared to St. Catharine of Sienna; he espoused her and
+gave her a ring. This mystical apparition is to be venerated, for it is
+attested by Raymond of Capua, general of the Dominicans, who confessed
+her, as also by Pope Urban VI. But it is rejected by the learned Fleury,
+author of the "Ecclesiastical History." And a young woman who should now
+boast of having contracted such a marriage might receive as a nuptial
+present a place in a lunatic asylum.
+
+The appearance of Mother Angelica, abbess of Port Royal, to Sister
+Dorothy is related by a man of very great weight among the Jansenists,
+the Sieur Dufossé, author of the _"Mémoirs de Pontis"_. Mother Angelica,
+long after her death, came and seated herself in the church of Port
+Royal, in her old place, with her crosier in her hand. She commanded
+that Sister Dorothy should be sent for and to her she told terrible
+secrets. But the testimony of this Dufossé is of less weight than that
+of Raymond of Capua, and Pope Urban VI., which, however, have not been
+formally received.
+
+The writer of the above paragraphs has since read the Abbé Langlet's
+four volumes on "Apparitions," and thinks he ought not to take anything
+from them. He is convinced of all the apparitions verified by the
+Church, but he has some doubts about the others, until they are
+authentically recognized. The Cordeliers and the Jacobins, the
+Jansenists and the Molinists have all had their apparitions and their
+miracles. _"Iliacos inter muros peccatur et extra."_
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1
+(of 10), by François-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
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