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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:04:11 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:04:11 -0700 |
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diff --git a/35625-h/35625-h.htm b/35625-h/35625-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b17ce95 --- /dev/null +++ b/35625-h/35625-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8993 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Philosophical Dictionary, by Voltaire. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + background: #FAEBD7;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +a:link {color: #0000A0; text-decoration: underline; } + +v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +.small2 {font-size: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em;} + +.small {font-size: 0.8em;} + +.caption_fig {text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em; font-family: arial;} + +.dialogue {margin-left: 15em; font-size: 0.8em; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35625 ***</div> + + +<h1>A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY</h1> + +<h3>VOLUME V</h3> + +<h4>By</h4> + +<h2>VOLTAIRE</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION</h4> + +<h3>THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE</h3> + +<h4>A CONTEMPORARY VERSION</h4> + +<h5>With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized</h5> + +<h5>New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an</h5> + +<h5>Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh</h5> + + +<h4>A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY</h4> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h4>THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY</h4> + +<h5>FORTY-THREE VOLUMES</h5> + + +<h5>One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions</h5> + +<h5>of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures,</h5> + +<h5>and curious fac-similes</h5> + + +<h4>VOLUME IX</h4> + +<h4>E.R. DuMONT</h4> + +<h4>PARIS—LONDON—NEW YORK—CHICAGO</h4> + +<h4>1901</h4> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="The_WORKS_of_VOLTAIRE" id="The_WORKS_of_VOLTAIRE"></a><i>The WORKS of VOLTAIRE</i></h2> + +<blockquote><p><i>"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."</i></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 35em;"> +<i>VICTOR HUGO.</i> +</p></blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="caption"><a name="LIST_OF_PLATES_VOL_V" id="LIST_OF_PLATES_VOL_V"></a>LIST OF PLATES—VOL. V</p> + +<p class="small2"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#Illustration_SANS_SOUCI">SANS SOUCI</a> <i>Frontispiece</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#NATURE_IS_NOT_A_WORK">A LAND STORM</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#THE_TEMPTATION_OF_ADAM">THE TEMPTATION OF ADAM</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#Descartes">DESCARTES</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 34em;"><a href="#TABLE_OF_CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 595px;"> +<a name="Illustration_SANS_SOUCI" id="Illustration_SANS_SOUCI"></a> +<img src="images/img_01_sans_souci.jpg" width="595" alt="SANS SOUCI" title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">Sans Souci</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<h3>A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY.</h3> + +<h4>IN TEN VOLUMES</h4> + +<h4>Vol. V</h4> + +<h4>FANATICISM—GREGORY VII</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FANATICISM" id="FANATICISM"></a>FANATICISM.</h3> + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + + +<p>Fanaticism is the effect of a false conscience, which makes religion +subservient to the caprices of the imagination, and the excesses of the +passions.</p> + +<p>It arises, in general, from legislators entertaining too narrow views, +or from their extending their regulations beyond the limits within which +alone they were intended to operate. Their laws are made merely for a +select society. When extended by zeal to a whole people, and transferred +by ambition from one climate to another, some changes of institution +should take place, some accommodation to persons, places, and +circumstances. But what, in fact, has been the case? Certain minds, +constituted in a great degree like those of the small original flock, +have received a system with equal ardor, and become its apostles, and +even its martyrs, rather than abate a single iota of its demands. +Others, on the contrary, less ardent, or more attached to their +prejudices of education, have struggled with energy against the new +yoke, and consented to receive it only after considerable softenings and +mitigations: hence the schism between rigorists and moderates, by which +all are urged on to vehemence and madness—the one party for servitude +and the other for freedom.</p> + +<p>Let us imagine an immense rotunda, a pantheon, with innumerable altars +placed under its dome. Let us figure to ourselves a devotee of every +sect, whether at present existing or extinct, at the feet of that +divinity which he worships in his own peculiar way, under all the +extravagant forms which human imagination has been able to invent. On +the right we perceive one stretched on his back upon a mat, absorbed in +contemplation, and awaiting the moment when the divine light shall come +forth to inform his soul. On the left is a prostrate energumen striking +his forehead against the ground, with a view to obtain from it an +abundant produce. Here we see a man with the air and manner of a +mountebank, dancing over the grave of him whom he invokes. There we +observe a penitent, motionless and mute as the statue before which he +has bent himself in humiliation. One, on the principle that God will not +blush at his own resemblance, displays openly what modesty universally +conceals; another, as if the artist would shudder at the sight of his +own work, covers with an impenetrable veil his whole person and +countenance; another turns his back upon the south, because from that +quarter blows the devil's tempest. Another stretches out his arms +towards the east, because there God first shows His radiant face. Young +women, suffused with tears, bruise and gash their lovely persons under +the idea of assuaging the demon of desire, although by means tending in +fact rather to strengthen his influence; others again, in opposite +attitudes, solicit the approaches of the Divinity. One young man, in +order to mortify the most urgent of his feelings, attaches to particular +parts of his frame large iron rings, as heavy as he can bear; another +checks still more effectually the tempter's violence by inhuman +amputation, and suspends the bleeding sacrifice upon the altar.</p> + +<p>Let us observe them quit the temple, and, full of the inspiration of +their respective deities, spread the terror and delusion over the face +of the earth. They divide the world between them; and the four +extremities of it are almost instantly in flames: nations obey them, and +kings tremble before them. That almost despotic power which the +enthusiasm of a single person exercises over a multitude who see or hear +him; the ardor communicated to each other by assembled minds; numberless +strong and agitating influences acting in such circumstances, augmented +by each individual's personal anxiety and distress, require but a short +time to operate, in order to produce universal delirium. Only let a +single people be thus fascinated and agitated under the guidance of a +few impostors, the seduction will spread with the speed of wild-fire, +prodigies will be multiplied beyond calculation, and whole communities +be led astray forever. When the human mind has once quitted the luminous +track pointed out by nature, it returns to it no more; it wanders round +the truth, but never obtains of it more than a few faint glimmerings, +which, mingling with the false lights of surrounding superstition, leave +it, in fact, in complete and palpable obscurity.</p> + +<p>It is dreadful to observe how the opinion that the wrath of heaven might +be appeased by human massacre spread, after being once started, through +almost every religion; and what various reasons have been given for the +sacrifice, as though, in order to preclude, if possible, the escape of +any one from extirpation. Sometimes they are enemies who must be +immolated to Mars the exterminator. The Scythians slay upon the altars +of this deity a hundredth part of their prisoners of war; and from this +usage attending victory, we may form some judgment of the justice of +war: accordingly, among other nations it was engaged in solely to supply +these human sacrifices, so that, having first been instituted, as it +would seem, to expiate the horrors of war, they at length came to serve +as a justification of them.</p> + +<p>Sometimes a barbarous deity requires victims from among the just and +good. The Getæ eagerly dispute the honor of personally conveying to +Zamolxis the vows and devotions of their country. He whose good fortune +has destined him to be the sacrifice is thrown with the greatest +violence upon a range of spears, fixed for the purpose. If on falling +he receives a mortal wound, it augurs well as to the success of the +negotiation and the merit of the envoy; but if he survives the wound, he +is a wretch with whom the god would not condescend to hold any +communication.</p> + +<p>Sometimes children are demanded, and the respective divinities recall +the life they had but just imparted: "Justice," says Montaigne, +"thirsting for the blood of innocence!" Sometimes the call is for the +dearest and nearest blood: the Carthaginians sacrificed their own sons +to Saturn, as if Time did not devour them with sufficient speed. +Sometimes the demand was for the blood of the most beautiful. That +Amestris, who had buried twelve men alive in order to obtain from Pluto, +in return for so revolting an offering, a somewhat longer life—that +same Amestris further sacrifices to that insatiable divinity twelve +daughters of the highest personages in Persia; as the sacrificing +priests have always taught men that they ought to offer on the altar the +most valuable of their possessions. It is upon this principle that among +some nations the first-born were immolated, and that among others they +were redeemed by offerings more valuable to the ministers of sacrifice. +This it is, unquestionably, which introduced into Europe the practice +prevalent for centuries of devoting children to celibacy at the early +age of five years, and shutting up in a cloister the brothers of an +hereditary prince, just as in Asia the practice is to murder them.</p> + +<p>Sometimes it is the purest blood that is demanded. We read of certain +Indians, if I recollect rightly, who hospitably entertain all who visit +them and make a merit of killing every sensible and virtuous stranger +who enters their country, that his talents and virtues may remain with +them. Sometimes the blood required is that which is most sacred. With +the majority of idolaters, priests perform the office of executioner at +the altar; and among the Siberians, it is the practice to kill the +priests in order to despatch them to pray in the other world for the +fulfilment of the wishes of the people.</p> + +<p>But let us turn our attention to other frenzies and other spectacles. +All Europe passes into Asia by a road inundated with the blood of Jews, +who commit suicide to avoid falling into the hands of their enemies. +This epidemic depopulates one-half of the inhabited world: kings, +pontiffs, women, the young and the aged, all yield to the influence of +the holy madness which, for a series of two hundred years, instigated +the slaughter of innumerable nations at the tomb of a god of peace. Then +were to be seen lying oracles, and military hermits, monarchs in +pulpits, and prelates in camps. All the different states constitute one +delirious populace; barriers of mountains and seas are surmounted; +legitimate possessions are abandoned to enable their owners to fly to +conquests which were no longer, in point of fertility, the land of +promise; manners become corrupted under foreign skies; princes, after +having exhausted their respective kingdoms to redeem a country which +had never been theirs, complete the ruin of them for their personal +ransom; thousands of soldiers, wandering under the banners of many +chieftains, acknowledge the authority of none and hasten their defeat by +their desertion; and the disease terminates only to be succeeded by a +contagion still more horrible and desolating.</p> + +<p>The same spirit of fanaticism cherished the rage for distant conquests: +scarcely had Europe repaired its losses when the discovery of a new +world hastened the ruin of our own. At that terrible injunction, "Go and +conquer," America was desolated and its inhabitants exterminated; Africa +and Europe were exhausted in vain to repeople it; the poison of money +and of pleasure having enervated the species, the world became nearly a +desert and appeared likely every day to advance nearer to desolation by +the continual wars which were kindled on our continent, from the +ambition of extending its power to foreign lands.</p> + +<p>Let us now compute the immense number of slaves which fanaticism has +made, whether in Asia, where uncircumcision was a mark of infamy, or in +Africa, where the Christian name was a crime, or in America, where the +pretext of baptism absolutely extinguished the feelings of humanity. Let +us compute the thousands who have been seen to perish either on +scaffolds in the ages of persecution, or in civil wars by the hands of +their fellow citizens, or by their own hands through excessive +austerities, and maceration. Let us survey the surface of the earth, and +glance at the various standards unfurled and blazing in the name of +religion; in Spain against the Moors, in France against the Turks, in +Hungary against the Tartars; at the numerous military orders, founded +for converting infidels by the point of the sword, and slaughtering one +another at the foot of the altar they had come to defend. Let us then +look down from the appalling tribunal thus raised on the bodies of the +innocent and miserable, in order to judge the living, as God, with a +balance widely different, will judge the dead.</p> + +<p>In a word, let us contemplate the horrors of fifteen centuries, all +frequently renewed in the course of a single one; unarmed men slain at +the feet of altars; kings destroyed by the dagger or by poison; a large +state reduced to half its extent by the fury of its own citizens; the +nation at once the most warlike and the most pacific on the face of the +globe, divided in fierce hostility against itself; the sword unsheathed +between the sons and the father; usurpers, tyrants, executioners, +sacrilegious robbers, and bloodstained parricides violating, under the +impulse of religion, every convention divine or human—such is the +deadly picture of fanaticism.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>If this term has at present any connection with its original meaning it +is exceedingly slight.</p> + +<p>"<i>Fanaticus</i>" was an honorable designation. It signified the minister or +benefactor of a temple. According to the dictionary of Trévoux some +antiquaries have discovered inscriptions in which Roman citizens of +considerable consequence assumed the title of "<i>fanaticus</i>."</p> + +<p>In Cicero's oration "<i>pro domo sua</i>," a passage occurs in which the word +"<i>fanaticus</i>" appears to me of difficult explanation. The seditious and +libertine Clodius, who had brought about the banishment of Cicero for +having saved the republic, had not only plundered and demolished the +houses of that great man, but in order that Cicero might never be able +to return to his city residence he procured the consecration of the land +on which it stood; and the priests had erected there a temple to +liberty, or rather to slavery, in which Cæsar, Pompey, Crassus, and +Clodius then held the republic. Thus in all ages has religion been +employed as an instrument in the persecution of great men. When at +length, in a happier period, Cicero was recalled, he pleaded before the +people in order to obtain the restoration of the ground on which his +house had stood, and the rebuilding of the house at the expense of the +Roman people. He thus expresses himself in the speech against Clodius +(<i>Oratio pro Domo sua</i>, chap. xl): "<i>Adspicite, adspicite, pontifices, +hominem religiosum.... monete eum, modum quemdam esse religionis; nimium +esse superstitiosum non oportere. Quid tibi necesse fuit anili +superstitione, homo fanatice, sacrificium, quod aliænæ domi fieret +invisere?</i>"</p> + +<p>Does the word "<i>fanaticus</i>," as used above, mean senseless, pitiless, +abominable fanatic, according to the present acceptation, or does it +rather imply the pious, religious man, the frequenter and consecrator of +temples? Is it used here in the meaning of decided censure or ironical +praise? I do not feel myself competent to determine, but will give a +translation of the passage:</p> + +<p>"Behold, reverend pontiffs, behold the pious man.... suggest to him that +even religion itself has its limits, that a man ought not to be so +over-scrupulous. What occasion was there for a sacred person, a fanatic +like yourself, to have recourse to the superstition of an old woman, in +order to assist at a sacrifice performed in another person's house?"</p> + +<p>Cicero alludes here to the mysteries of the <i>Bona Dea</i>, which had been +profaned by Clodius, who, in the disguise of a female, and accompanied +by an old woman, had obtained an introduction to them, with a view to an +assignation with Cæsar's wife. The passage is, in consequence, evidently +ironical.</p> + +<p>Cicero calls Clodius a religious man, and the irony requires to be kept +up through the whole passage. He employs terms of honorable meaning, +more clearly to exhibit Clodius's infamy. It appears to me, therefore, +that he uses the word in question, "<i>fanaticus</i>" in its respectable +sense, as a word conveying the idea of a sacrificer, a pious man, a +zealous minister of a temple.</p> + +<p>The term might be afterwards applied to those who believed themselves +inspired by the gods, who bestowed a somewhat curious gift on the +interpreters of their will, by ordaining that, in order to be a prophet, +the loss of reason is indispensable.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Les Dieux à leur interprète</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i>Ont fait un étrange don;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ne peut on être prophète</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Sans qu'on perde la raison?</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The same dictionary of Trévoux informs us that the old chronicles of +France call Clovis fanatic and pagan. The reader would have been pleased +to have had the particular chronicles specified. I have not found this +epithet applied to Clovis in any of the few books I possess at my house +near Mount Krapak, where I now write.</p> + +<p>We understand by fanaticism at present a religious madness, gloomy and +cruel. It is a malady of the mind, which is taken in the same way as +smallpox. Books communicate it much less than meetings and discourses. +We seldom get heated while reading in solitude, for our minds are then +tranquil and sedate. But when an ardent man of strong imagination +addresses himself to weak imaginations, his eyes dart fire, and that +fire rapidly spreads; his tones, his gestures, absolutely convulse the +nerves of his auditors. He exclaims, "The eye of God is at this moment +upon you; sacrifice every mere human possession and feeling; fight the +battles of the Lord"—and and they rush to the fight.</p> + +<p>Fanaticism is, in reference to superstition, what delirium is to fever, +or rage to anger. He who is involved in ecstasies and visions, who takes +dreams for realities, and his own imaginations for prophecies, is a +fanatical novice of great hope and promise, and will probably soon +advance to the highest form, and kill man for the love of God.</p> + +<p>Bartholomew Diaz was a fanatical monk. He had a brother at Nuremberg +called John Diaz, who was an enthusiastic adherent to the doctrines of +Luther, and completely convinced that the pope was Antichrist, and had +the sign of the beast. Bartholomew, still more ardently convinced that +the pope was god upon earth, quits Rome, determined either to convert or +murder his brother; he accordingly murdered him! Here is a perfect case +of fanaticism. We have noticed and done justice to this Diaz elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Polyeuctes, who went to the temple on a day of solemn festival, to throw +down and destroy the statues and ornaments, was a fanatic less horrible +than Diaz, but not less foolish. The assassins of Francis, duke of +Guise, of William, prince of Orange, of King Henry III., of King Henry +IV., and various others, were equally possessed, equally laboring under +morbid fury, with Diaz.</p> + +<p>The most striking example of fanaticism is that exhibited on the night +of St. Bartholomew, when the people of Paris rushed from house to house +to stab, slaughter, throw out of the window, and tear in pieces their +fellow citizens not attending mass. Guyon, Patouillet, Chaudon, +Nonnotte, and the ex-Jesuit Paulian, are merely fanatics in a +corner—contemptible beings whom we do not think of guarding against. +They would, however, on a day of St. Bartholomew, perform wonders.</p> + +<p>There are some cold-blooded fanatics; such as those judges who sentence +men to death for no other crime than that of thinking differently from +themselves, and these are so much the more guilty and deserving of the +execration of mankind, as, not laboring under madness like the Clements, +Châtels, Ravaillacs, and Damiens, they might be deemed capable of +listening to reason.</p> + +<p>There is no other remedy for this epidemical malady than that spirit of +philosophy, which, extending itself from one to another, at length +civilizes and softens the manners of men and prevents the access of the +disease. For when the disorder has made any progress, we should, without +loss of time, fly from the seat of it, and wait till the air has become +purified from contagion. Law and religion are not completely efficient +against the spiritual pestilence. Religion, indeed, so far from +affording proper nutriment to the minds of patients laboring under this +infectious and infernal distemper, is converted, by the diseased process +of their minds, into poison. These malignant devotees have incessantly +before their eyes the example of Ehud, who assassinated the king of +Eglon; of Judith, who cut off the head of Holofernes while in bed with +him; of Samuel, hewing in pieces King Agag; of Jehoiada the priest, who +murdered his queen at the horse-gate. They do not perceive that these +instances, which are respectable in antiquity, are in the present day +abominable. They derive their fury from religion, decidedly as religion +condemns it.</p> + +<p>Laws are yet more powerless against these paroxysms of rage. To oppose +laws to cases of such a description would be like reading a decree of +council to a man in a frenzy. The persons in question are fully +convinced that the Holy Spirit which animates and fills them is above +all laws; that their own enthusiasm is, in fact, the only law which they +are bound to obey.</p> + +<p>What can be said in answer to a man who says he will rather obey God +than men, and who consequently feels certain of meriting heaven by +cutting your throat?</p> + +<p>When once fanaticism has gangrened the brain of any man the disease may +be regarded as nearly incurable. I have seen Convulsionaries who, while +speaking of the miracles of St. Paris, gradually worked themselves up to +higher and more vehement degrees of agitation till their eyes became +inflamed, their whole frames shook, their countenances became distorted +by rage, and had any man contradicted them he would inevitably have been +murdered.</p> + +<p>Yes, I have seen these wretched Convulsionaries writhing their limbs and +foaming at their mouths. They were exclaiming, "We must have blood." +They effected the assassination of their king by a lackey, and ended +with exclaiming against philosophers.</p> + +<p>Fanatics are nearly always under the direction of knaves, who place the +dagger in their hands. These knaves resemble Montaigne's "Old Man of the +Mountain," who, it is said, made weak persons imagine, under his +treatment of them, that they really had experienced the joys of +paradise, and promised them a whole eternity of such delights if they +would go and assassinate such as he should point out to them. There has +been only one religion in the world which has not been polluted by +fanaticism and that is the religion of the learned in China. The +different sects of ancient philosophers were not merely exempt from this +pest of human society, but they were antidotes to it: for the effect of +philosophy is to render the soul tranquil, and fanaticism and +tranquillity are totally incompatible. That our own holy religion has +been so frequently polluted by this infernal fury must be imputed to the +foil and madness of mankind. Thus Icarus abused the wings which he +received for his benefit. They were given him for his salvation and they +insured his destruction:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ainsi du plumage qu'il eut</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i>Icare pervertit l'usage;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Il le reçut pour son salut,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i>Il s'en servit pour son dommage.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><span class="small">—BERTAUT</span>, bishop of Séez.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>Fanatics do not always fight the battles of the Lord. They do not always +assassinate kings and princes. There are tigers among them, but there +are more foxes.</p> + +<p>What a tissue of frauds, calumnies, and robberies has been woven by +fanatics of the court of Rome against fanatics of the court of Calvin, +by Jesuits against Jansenists, and <i>vice versa</i>! And if you go farther +back you will find ecclesiastical history, which is the school of +virtues, to be that of atrocities and abominations, which have been +employed by every sect against the others. They all have the same +bandage over their eyes whether marching out to burn down the cities and +towns of their adversaries, to slaughter the inhabitants, or condemn +them to judicial execution; or when merely engaged in the comparatively +calm occupation of deceiving and defrauding, of acquiring wealth and +exercising domination. The same fanaticism blinds them; they think that +they are doing good. Every fanatic is a conscientious knave, but a +sincere and honest murderer for the good cause.</p> + +<p>Read, if you are able, the five or six thousand volumes in which, for a +hundred years together, the Jansenists and Molinists have dealt out +against each other their reproaches and revilings, their mutual +exposures of fraud and knavery, and then judge whether Scapin or +Trevelin can be compared with them.</p> + +<p>One of the most curious theological knaveries ever practised is, in my +opinion, that of a small bishop—the narrative asserts that he was a +Biscayan bishop; however, we shall certainly, at some future period find +out both his name and his bishopric—whose diocese was partly in Biscay +and partly in France.</p> + +<p>In the French division of his diocese there was a parish which had +formerly been inhabited by some Moors. The lord of the parish or manor +was no Mahometan; he was perfectly catholic, as the whole universe +should be, for the meaning of catholic is universal. My lord the bishop +had some suspicions concerning this unfortunate seigneur, whose whole +occupation consisted in doing good, and conceived that in his heart he +entertained bad thoughts and sentiments savoring not a little of heresy. +He even accused him of having said, in the way of pleasantry, that there +were good people in Morocco as well as in Biscay, and that an honest +inhabitant of Morocco might absolutely not be a mortal enemy of the +Supreme Being, who is the father of all mankind.</p> + +<p>The fanatic, upon this, wrote a long letter to the king of France, the +paramount sovereign of our little manorial lord. In this letter he +entreated his majesty to transfer the manor of this stray and +unbelieving sheep either to Lower Brittany or Lower Normandy, according +to his good pleasure, that he might be no longer able to diffuse the +contagion of heresy among his Biscayan neighbors, by his abominable +jests. The king of France and his council smiled, as may naturally be +supposed, at the extravagance and folly of the demand.</p> + +<p>Our Biscayan pastor learning, some time afterwards, that his French +sheep was sick, ordered public notices to be fixed up at the church +gates of the canton, prohibiting any one from administering the +communion to him, unless he should previously give in a bill of +confession, from which it might appear that he was not circumcised; that +he condemned with his whole heart the heresy of Mahomet, and every other +heresy of the like kind—as, for example, Calvinism and Jansenism; and +that in every point he thought like him, the said Biscayan bishop.</p> + +<p>Bills of confession were at that time much in fashion. The sick man sent +for his parish priest, who was a simple and sottish man, and threatened +to have him hanged by the parliament of Bordeaux if he did not instantly +administer the viaticum to him. The priest was alarmed, and accordingly +celebrated the sacred ordinance, as desired by the patient; who, after +the ceremony, declared aloud, before witnesses, that the Biscayan pastor +had falsely accused him before the king of being tainted with the +Mussulman religion; that he was a sincere Christian, and that the +Biscayan was a calumniator. He signed this, after it had been written +down, in presence of a notary, and every form required by law was +complied with. He soon after became better, and rest and a good +conscience speedily completed his recovery.</p> + +<p>The Biscayan, quite exasperated that the old patient should have thus +exposed and disappointed him, resolved to have his revenge, and thus he +set about it.</p> + +<p>He procured, fifteen days after the event just mentioned, the +fabrication, in his own language or patois, of a profession of faith +which the priest pretended to have heard and received. It was signed by +the priest and three or four peasants, who had not been present at the +ceremony; and the forged instrument was then passed through the +necessary and solemn form of verification and registry, as if this form +could give it authenticity.</p> + +<p>An instrument not signed by the party alone interested, signed by +persons unknown, fifteen days after the event, an instrument disavowed +by the real and credible witnesses of that event, involved evidently the +crime of forgery; and, as the subject of the forgery was a matter of +faith, the crime clearly rendered both the priest and the witnesses +liable to the galleys in this world, and to hell in the other.</p> + +<p>Our lord of the manor, however, who loved a joke, but had no gall or +malice in his heart, took compassion both upon the bodies and souls of +these conspirators. He declined delivering them over to human justice, +and contented himself with giving them up to ridicule. But he declared +that after the death of the Biscayan he would, if he survived, have the +pleasure of printing an account of all his proceedings and manœuvres +on this business, together with the documents and evidences, just to +amuse the small number of readers who might like anecdotes of that +description; and not, as is often pompously announced, with a view to +the instruction of the universe. There are so many authors who address +themselves to the universe, who really imagine they attract, and perhaps +absorb, the attention of the universe, that he conceived he might not +have a dozen readers out of the whole who would attend for a moment to +himself. But let us return to fanaticism.</p> + +<p>It is this rage for making proselytes, this intensely mad desire which +men feel to bring others over to partake of their own peculiar cup or +communion, that induced the Jesuit Châtel and the Jesuit Routh to rush +with eagerness to the deathbed of the celebrated Montesquieu. These two +devoted zealots desired nothing better than to be able to boast that +they had persuaded him of the merits of contrition and of sufficing +grace. We wrought his conversion, they said. He was, in the main, a +worthy soul: he was much attached to the society of Jesus. We had some +little difficulty in inducing him to admit certain fundamental truths; +but as in these circumstances, in the crisis of life and death, the +mind is always most clear and acute, we soon convinced him.</p> + +<p>This fanatical eagerness for converting men is so ardent, that the most +debauched monk in his convent would even quit his mistress, and walk to +the very extremity of the city, for the sake of making a single convert.</p> + +<p>We have all seen Father Poisson, a Cordelier of Paris, who impoverished +his convent to pay his mistresses, and who was imprisoned in consequence +of the depravity of his manners. He was one of the most popular +preachers at Paris, and one of the most determined and zealous of +converters.</p> + +<p>Such also was the celebrated preacher Fantin, at Versailles. The list +might be easily enlarged; but it is unnecessary, if not also dangerous, +to expose the freaks and freedoms of constituted authorities. You know +what happened to Ham for having revealed his father's shame. He became +as black as a coal.</p> + +<p>Let us merely pray to God, whether rising or lying down, that he would +deliver us from fanatics, as the pilgrims of Mecca pray that they may +meet with no sour faces on the road.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<p>Ludlow, who was rather an enthusiast for liberty than a fanatic in +religion—that brave man, who hated Cromwell more than he did Charles +I., relates that the parliamentary forces were always defeated by the +royal army in the beginning of the civil war; just as the regiment of +porters (<i>portes-cochères</i>) were unable to stand the shock of conflict, +in the time of the Fronde against the great Condé. Cromwell said to +General Fairfax: "How can you possibly expect a rabble of London porters +and apprentices to resist a nobility urged on by the principle, or +rather the phantom, of honor? Let us actuate them by a more powerful +phantom—fanaticism! Our enemies are fighting only for their king; let +us persuade our troops they are fighting for their God.</p> + +<p>"Give me a commission, and I will raise a regiment of brother murderers, +whom I will pledge myself soon to make invincible fanatics!"</p> + +<p>He was as good as his word; he composed his regiment of red-coated +brothers, of gloomy religionists, whom he made obedient tigers. Mahomet +himself was never better served by soldiers.</p> + +<p>But in order to inspire this fanaticism, you must be seconded and +supported by the spirit of the times. A French parliament at the present +day would attempt in vain to raise a regiment of such porters as we have +mentioned; it could, with all its efforts, merely rouse into frenzy a +few women of the fish-market.</p> + +<p>Only the ablest men have the power to make and to guide fanatics. It is +not, however, sufficient to possess the profoundest dissimulation and +the most determined intrepidity; everything depends, after these +previous requisites are secured, on coming into the world at a proper +time.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION V.</h5> + +<p>Geometry then, it seems, is not always connected with clearness and +correctness of understanding. Over what precipices do not men fall, +notwithstanding their boasted leading-strings of reason! A celebrated +Protestant, who was esteemed one of the first mathematicians of the age, +and who followed in the train of the Newtons, the Leibnitzes, and +Bernouillis, at the beginning of the present century, struck out some +very singular corollaries. It is said that with a grain of faith a man +may remove mountains; and this man of science, following up the method +of pure geometrical analysis, reasoned thus with himself: I have many +grains of faith, and can, therefore, remove many mountains. This was the +man who made his appearance at London in 1707; and, associating himself +with certain men of learning and science, some of whom, moreover, were +not deficient in sagacity, they publicly announced that they would raise +to life a dead person in any cemetery that might be fixed upon. Their +reasoning was uniformly synthetical. They said, genuine disciples must +have the power of performing miracles; we are genuine disciples, we +therefore shall be able to perform as many as we please. The mere +unscientific saints of the Romish church have resuscitated many worthy +persons; therefore, <i>a fortiori</i>, we, the reformers of the reformed +themselves, shall resuscitate as many as we may desire.</p> + +<p>These arguments are irrefragable, being constructed according to the +most correct form possible. Here we have at a glance the explanation why +all antiquity was inundated with prodigies; why the temples of +Æsculapius at Epidaurus, and in other cities, were completely filled +with <i>ex-votos</i>; the roofs adorned with thighs straightened, arms +restored, and silver infants: all was miracle.</p> + +<p>In short, the famous Protestant geometrician whom I speak of appeared so +perfectly sincere; he asserted so confidently that he would raise the +dead, and his proposition was put forward with so much plausibility and +strenuousness, that the people entertained a very strong impression on +the subject, and Queen Anne was advised to appoint a day, an hour, and a +cemetery, such as he should himself select, in which he might have the +opportunity of performing his miracle legally, and under the inspection +of justice. The holy geometrician chose St. Paul's cathedral for the +scene of his exertion: the people ranged themselves in two rows; +soldiers were stationed to preserve order both among the living and the +dead; the magistrates took their seats; the register procured his +record; it was impossible that the new miracles could be verified too +completely. A dead body was disinterred agreeably to the holy man's +choice and direction; he then prayed, he fell upon his knees, and made +the most pious and devout contortions possible; his companions imitated +him; the dead body exhibited no sign of animation; it was again +deposited in its grave, and the professed resuscitator and his adherents +were slightly punished. I afterwards saw one of these misled creatures; +he declared to me that one of the party was at the time under the stain +of a venial sin, for which the dead person suffered, and but for which +the resurrection would have been infallible.</p> + +<p>Were it allowable for us to reveal the disgrace of those to whom we owe +the sincerest respect, I should observe here, that Newton, the great +Newton himself, discovered in the "Apocalypse" that the pope was +Antichrist, and made many other similar discoveries. I should also +observe that he was a decided Arian. I am aware that this deviation of +Newton, compared to that of the other geometrician, is as unity to +infinity. But if the exalted Newton imagined that he found the modern +history of Europe in the "Apocalypse," we may say: Alas, poor human +beings!</p> + +<p>It seems as if superstition were an epidemic disease, from which the +strongest minds are not always exempt. There are in Turkey persons of +great and strong sense, who would undergo empalement for the sake of +certain opinions of Abubeker. These principles being once admitted, they +reason with great consistency; and the Navaricians, the Radarists, and +the Jabarites mutually consign each other to damnation in conformity to +very shrewd and subtle argument. They all draw plausible consequences, +but they never dare to examine principles.</p> + +<p>A report is publicly spread abroad by some person, that there exists a +giant seventy feet high; the learned soon after begin to discuss and +dispute about the color of his hair, the thickness of his thumb, the +measurement of his nails; they exclaim, cabal, and even fight upon the +subject. Those who maintain that the little finger of the giant is only +fifteen lines in diameter burn those who assert that it is a foot thick. +"But, gentlemen," modestly observes a stranger passing by, "does the +giant you are disputing about really exist?" "What a horrible doubt!" +all the disputants cry out together. "What blasphemy! What absurdity!" A +short truce is then brought about to give time for stoning the poor +stranger; and, after having duly performed that murderous ceremony, they +resume fighting upon the everlasting subject of the nails and little +finger.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FANCY" id="FANCY"></a>FANCY.</h3> + + +<p>Fancy formerly signified imagination, and the term was used simply to +express that faculty of the soul which receives sensible objects.</p> + +<p>Descartes and Gassendi, and all the philosophers of their day, say that +"the form or images of things are painted in the fancy." But the greater +part of abstract terms are, in the course of time, received in a sense +different from their original one, like tools which industry applies to +new purposes.</p> + +<p>Fancy, at present, means "a particular desire, a transient taste"; he +has a fancy for going to China; his fancy for gaming and dancing has +passed away. An artist paints a fancy portrait, a portrait not taken +from any model. To have fancies is to have extraordinary tastes, but of +brief duration. Fancy, in this sense, falls a little short of oddity +(<i>bizarrerie</i>) and caprice.</p> + +<p>Caprice may express "a sudden and unreasonable disgust." He had a fancy +for music, and capriciously became disgusted with it. Whimsicality gives +an idea of inconsistency and bad taste, which fancy does not; he had a +fancy for building, but he constructed his house in a whimsical taste.</p> + +<p>There are shades of distinction between having fancies and being +fantastic; the fantastic is much nearer to the capricious and the +whimsical. The word "fantastic" expresses a character unequal and +abrupt. The idea of charming or pleasant is excluded from it; whereas +there are agreeable fancies.</p> + +<p>We sometimes hear used in conversation "odd fancies" (<i>des fantasies +musquées</i>); but the expression was never understood to mean what the +"Dictionary of Trévoux" supposes—"The whims of men of superior rank +which one must not venture to condemn;" on the contrary, that expression +is used for the very object and purpose of condemning them; and +<i>musquée</i>, in this connection, is an expletive adding force to the term +"fancies," as we say, <i>Sottise pommée</i>, <i>folie fieffée</i>, to express +nonsense and folly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FASTI" id="FASTI"></a>FASTI.</h3> + +<h4><i>Of the Different Significations of this Word.</i></h4> + + +<p>The Latin word "<i>fasti</i>" signifies festivals, and it is in this sense +that Ovid treats of it in his poem entitled "The Fasti."</p> + +<p>Godeau has composed the Fasti of the church on this model, but with less +success. The religion of the Roman Pagans was more calculated for poetry +than that of the Christians; to which it may be added, that Ovid was a +better poet than Godeau.</p> + +<p>The consular fasti were only the list of consuls.</p> + +<p>The fasti of the magistrates were the days in which they were permitted +to plead; and those on which they did not plead were called <i>nefasti</i>, +because then they could not plead for justice.</p> + +<p>The word "<i>nefastus</i>" in this sense does not signify unfortunate; on the +contrary, <i>nefastus</i> and <i>nefandus</i> were the attributes of unfortunate +days in another sense, signifying days in which people must not plead; +days worthy only to be forgotten; <i>"ille nefasto te posuit die."</i></p> + +<p>Besides other fasti, the Romans had their <i>fasti urbis</i>, <i>fasti +rustici</i>, which were calendars of the particular usages, and ceremonies +of the city and the country.</p> + +<p>On these days of solemnity, every one sought to astonish by the grandeur +of his dress, his equipage, or his banquet. This pomp, invisible on +other days, was called <i>fastus</i>. It expresses magnificence in those who +by their station can afford it, but vanity in others.</p> + +<p>Though the word "<i>fastus</i>" may not be always injurious, the word +"pompous" is invariably so. A devotee who makes a parade of his virtue +renders humility itself pompous.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FATHERS_MOTHERSmdashCHILDREN" id="FATHERS_MOTHERSmdashCHILDREN"></a>FATHERS—MOTHERS—CHILDREN.</h3> + +<h4><i>Their Duties.</i></h4> + + +<p>The "Encyclopædia" has been much exclaimed against in France; because it +was produced in France, and has done France honor. In other countries, +people have not cried out; on the contrary, they have eagerly set about +pirating or spoiling it, because money was to be gained thereby.</p> + +<p>But we, who do not, like the encyclopædists of Paris, labor for glory; +we, who are not, like them, exposed to envy; we, whose little society +lies unnoticed in Hesse, in Würtemberg, in Switzerland, among the +Grisons, or at Mount Krapak; and have, therefore, no apprehension of +having to dispute with the doctor of the <i>Comédie Italienne</i>, or with a +doctor of the Sorbonne; we, who sell not our sheets to a bookseller, but +are free beings, and lay not black on white until we have examined, to +the utmost of our ability, whether the said black may be of service to +mankind; we, in short, who love virtue, shall boldly declare what we +think.</p> + +<p>"Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long—" I would +venture to say, "Honor thy father and thy mother, <i>though this day shall +be thy last</i>."</p> + +<p>Tenderly love and joyfully serve the mother who bore you in her womb, +fed you at her breast, and patiently endured all that was disgusting in +your infancy. Discharge the same duties to your father, who brought you +up.</p> + +<p>What will future ages say of a Frank, named Louis the Thirteenth, who, +at the age of sixteen, began the exercise of his authority with having +the door of his mother's apartment walled up, and sending her into +exile, without giving the smallest reason for so doing, and solely +because it was his favorite's wish?</p> + +<p>"But, sir, I must tell you in confidence that my father is a drunkard, +who begot me one day by chance, not caring a jot about me; and gave me +no education but that of beating me every day when he came home +intoxicated. My mother was a coquette, whose only occupation was +love-making. But for my nurse, who had taken a liking to me, and who, +after the death of her son, received me into her house for charity, I +should have died of want."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, honor your nurse; and bow to your father and mother when +you meet them. It is said in the Vulgate, '<i>Honora patrem tuum et +matrem tuam</i>'—not <i>dilige</i>."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir, I shall love my father and my mother if they do me +good; I shall honor them if they do me ill. I have thought so ever since +I began to think, and you confirm me in my maxims."</p> + +<p>"Fare you well, my child, I see you will prosper, for you have a grain +of philosophy in your composition."</p> + +<p>"One word more, sir. If my father were to call himself Abraham, and me +Isaac, and were to say to me, 'My son, you are tall and strong; carry +these fagots to the top of that hill, to burn you with after I have cut +off your head; for God ordered me to do so when He came to see me this +morning,'—what would you advise me to do in such critical +circumstances?"</p> + +<p>"Critical, indeed! But what would you do of yourself? for you seem to be +no blockhead."</p> + +<p>"I own, sir, that I should ask him to produce a written order, and that +from regard for himself, I should say to him—'Father, you are among +strangers, who do not allow a man to assassinate his son without an +express condition from God, duly signed, sealed and delivered. See what +happened to poor Calas, in the half French, half Spanish town of +Toulouse. He was broken on the wheel; and the <i>procureur-général</i> Riquet +decided on having Madame Calas, the mother, burned—all on the bare and +very ill-conceived suspicion, that they had hung up their son, Mark +Antony Calas, for the love of God. I should fear that his conclusions +would be equally prejudicial to the well-being of yourself and your +sister or niece, Madame Sarah, my mother. Once more I say, show me a +<i>lettre de cachet</i> for cutting my throat, signed by God's own hand, and +countersigned by Raphael, Michael, or Beelzebub. If not, father—your +most obedient: I will go to Pharaoh of Egypt, or to the king of the +desert of Gerar, who both have been in love with my mother, and will +certainly be kind to me. Cut my brother Ishmael's throat, if you like; +but rely upon it, you shall not cut mine.'"</p> + +<p>"Good; this is arguing like a true sage. The 'Encyclopædia' itself could +not have reasoned better. I tell you, you will do great things. I admire +you for not having said an ill word to your father Abraham—for not +having been tempted to beat him. And tell me: had you been that Cram, +whom his father, the Frankish King Clothaire, had burned in a barn; a +Don Carlos, son of that fox, Philip the Second; a poor Alexis, son of +that Czar Peter, half hero, half tiger—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir, say no more of those horrors; you will make me detest human +nature."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FAVOR" id="FAVOR"></a>FAVOR.</h3> + +<h4><i>Of What is Understood by the Word.</i></h4> + + +<p>Favor, from the Latin word "<i>favor</i>," rather signifies a benefit than a +recompense.</p> + +<p>We earnestly beg a favor; we merit and loudly demand a recompense. The +god Favor, according to the Roman mythologists, was the son of Beauty +and Fortune. All favor conveys the idea of something gratuitous; he has +done me the favor of introducing me, of presenting me, of recommending +my friend, of correcting my work. The favor of princes is the effect of +their fancy, and of assiduous complaisance. The favor of the people +sometimes implies merit, but is more often attributable to lucky +accident.</p> + +<p>Favor differs much from kindness. That man is in favor with the king, +but he has not yet received any kindnesses from him. We say that he has +been received into the good graces of a person, not he has been received +into favor; though we say to be in favor, because favor is supposed to +be an habitual taste; while to receive into grace is to pardon, or, at +least, is less than to bestow a favor.</p> + +<p>To obtain grace is the effect of a moment; to obtain favor is a work of +time. Nevertheless, we say indifferently, do me the kindness and do me +the favor, to recommend my friend.</p> + +<p>Letters of recommendation were formerly called letters of favor. Severus +says, in the tragedy of Polyeuctes:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Je mourrais mille fois plutôt que d'abuser</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Des lettres de faveur que j'ai pour l'épouser.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Letters of favor," though I have to wed her,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">I'd rather die a thousand times than use them.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>We have the favor and good-will, not the kindness of the prince and the +public. We may obtain the favor of our audience by modesty, but it will +not be gracious if we are tedious.</p> + +<p>This expression "favor," signifies a gratuitous good-will, which we seek +to obtain from the prince or the public. Gallantry has extended it to +the complaisance of the ladies; and though we do not say that we have +the favors of the king, we say that we have the favors of a lady.</p> + +<p>The equivalent to this expression is unknown in Asia, where the women +possess less influence. Formerly, ribbons, gloves, buckles, and +sword-knots given by a lady, were called favors. The earl of Essex wore +a glove of Queen Elizabeth's in his hat, which he called the queen's +favor.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FAVORITE" id="FAVORITE"></a>FAVORITE.</h3> + + +<p>This word has sometimes a bounded and sometimes an extended sense. +"Favorite" sometimes conveys the idea of power; and sometimes it only +signifies a man who pleases his master.</p> + +<p>Henry III. had favorites who were only play-things, and he had those who +governed the state, as the dukes of Joyeuse and Épernon. A favorite may +be compared to a piece of gold, which is valued at whatever the prince +pleases.</p> + +<p>An ancient writer has asked, "Who ought to be the king's favorite?—the +people!" Good poets are called the favorites of the muses, as prosperous +men are called the favorites of fortune, because both are supposed to +receive these gifts without laboring for them. It is thus, that a +fertile and well-situated land is called the favorite of nature.</p> + +<p>The woman who pleases the sultan most is called the favorite sultana. +Somebody has written the history of favorites; that is to say, the +mistresses of the greatest princes.</p> + +<p>Several princes in Germany have country houses which they call +favorites.</p> + +<p>A lady's favorite is now only to be found in romances and stories of the +last century.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FEASTS" id="FEASTS"></a>FEASTS.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>A poor gentleman of the province of Hagenau, cultivated his small +estate, and St. Ragonda, or Radegonda, was the patron of his parish.</p> + +<p>Now it happened, on the feast of St. Ragonda, that it was necessary to +do something to this poor gentleman's field, without which great loss +would be incurred. The master, with all his family, after having +devoutly assisted at mass, went to cultivate his land, on which depended +the subsistence of his family, while the rector and the other +parishioners went to tipple as usual.</p> + +<p>The rector, while enjoying his glass, was informed of the enormous +offence committed in his parish by this profane laborer, and went, +burning with wine and anger, to seek the cultivator. "Sir, you are very +insolent and very impious to dare to cultivate your field, instead of +going to the tavern like other people." "I agree, sir," replied the +gentleman, "that it is necessary to drink to the honor of the saint; but +it is also necessary to eat, and my family would die of hunger if I did +not labor." "Drink and die, then," said the vicar. "In what law, in what +book is it so written?" said the laborer. "In Ovid," replied the vicar. +"I think you are mistaken," said the gentleman; "in what part of Ovid +have you read that I should go to the tavern rather than cultivate my +field on St. Ragonda's day?"</p> + +<p>It should be remarked that both the gentleman and the pastor were well +educated men. "Read the metamorphoses of the daughters of Minyas," said +the vicar. "I have read it," replied the other, "and I maintain that +they have no relation to my plough." "How, impious man! do you not +remember that the daughters of Minyas were changed into bats for having +spun on a feast day?" "The case is very different," replied the +gentleman, "these ladies had not rendered any homage to Bacchus. I have +been at the mass of St. Ragonda, you can have nothing to say to me; you +cannot change me into a bat." "I will do worse," said the priest, "I +will fine you." He did so. The poor gentleman was ruined: he quitted the +country with his family—went into a strange one—became a Lutheran—and +his ground remained uncultivated for several years.</p> + +<p>This affair was related to a magistrate of good sense and much piety. +These are the reflections which he made upon it:</p> + +<p>"They were no doubt innkeepers," said he, "that invented this prodigious +number of feasts; the religion of peasants and artisans consists in +getting tipsy on the day of a saint, whom they only know by this kind of +worship. It is on these days of idleness and debauchery that all crimes +are committed; it is these feasts which fill the prisons, and which +support the police officers, registers, lieutenants of police, and +hangmen; the only excuse for feast-days among us. From this cause +Catholic countries are scarcely-cultivated at all; whilst heretics, by +daily cultivating their lands, produce abundant crops."</p> + +<p>It is all very well that the shoemakers should go in the morning to mass +on St. Crispin's day, because <i>crepido</i> signifies the upper leather of a +shoe; that the brush-makers should honor St. Barbara their patron; that +those who have weak eyes should hear the mass of St. Clara: that St.—— +should be celebrated in many provinces; but after having paid their +devoirs to the saints they should become serviceable to men, they should +go from the altar to the plough; it is the excess of barbarity, and +insupportable slavery, to consecrate our days to idleness and vice. +Priests, command, if it be necessary that the saints Roche, Eustace, and +Fiacre, be prayed to in the morning; but, magistrates, order your fields +to be cultivated as usual. It is labor that is necessary; the greater +the industry the more the day is sanctified.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p class="small">Letter from a Weaver of Lyons to the Gentlemen of the Commission +established at Paris, for the Reformation of Religious Orders, printed +in the public papers in 1768.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Gentlemen: I am a silk-weaver, and have worked at Lyons for +nineteen years. My wages have increased insensibly; at present I +get thirty-five sous per day. My wife, who makes lace, would get +fifteen more, if it were possible for her to devote her time to it; +but as the cares of the house, illness, or other things, +continually hinder her, I reduce her profit to ten sous, which +makes forty-five sous daily. If from the year we deduct eighty-two +Sundays, or holidays, we shall have two hundred and eighty-four +profitable days, which at forty-five sous make six hundred and +thirty-nine livres. That is my revenue; the following are my +expenses:</p> + +<p>"I have eight living children, and my wife is on the point of being +confined with the eleventh; for I have lost two. I have been +married fifteen years: so that I annually reckon twenty-four livres +for the expenses of her confinements and baptisms, one hundred and +eight livres for two nurses, having generally two children out at +nurse, and sometimes even three. I pay fifty-seven livres rent and +fourteen taxes.</p> + +<p>"My income is then reduced to four hundred and thirty-six livres, +or twenty-five sous three deniers a day, with which I have to +clothe and furnish my family, buy wood and candles, and support my +wife and six children.</p> + +<p>"I look forward to holidays with dismay. I confess that I often +almost curse their institution. They could only have been +instituted by usurers and innkeepers.</p> + +<p>"My father made me study hard in my youth, and wished me to become +a monk, showing me in that state a sure asylum against want; but I +always thought that every man owes his tribute to society, and that +monks are useless drones who live upon the labor of the bees. +Notwithstanding, I acknowledge that when I see John C——, with +whom I studied, and who was the most idle boy in the college, +possessing the first place among the <i>prémontrés</i>, I cannot help +regretting that I did not listen to my father's advice.</p> + +<p>"This is the third holiday in Christmas, I have pawned the little +furniture I had, I am in a week's debt with my tradesman, and I +want bread—how are we to get over the fourth? This is not all; I +have the prospect of four more next week. Great God! Eight holidays +in ten days; you cannot have commanded it!</p> + +<p>"One year I hoped that rents would diminish by the suppression of +one of the monasteries of the Capuchins and Cordeliers. What +useless houses in the centre of Lyons are those of the Jacobins, +nuns of St. Peter, etc. Why not establish them in the suburbs if +they are thought necessary? How many more useful inhabitants would +supply their places!</p> + +<p>"All these reflections, gentlemen, have induced me to address +myself to you who have been chosen by the king for the task of +rectifying abuses. I am not the only one who thinks thus. How many +laborers in Lyons and other places, how many laborers in the +kingdom are reduced to the same extremities as myself? It is +evident that every holiday costs the state several millions +(livres). These considerations will lead you to take more to heart +the interests of the people, which are rather too little attended +to.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"I have the honor to be, etc.,</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 25em;">"BOCEN."</p></blockquote> + +<p>This request, which was really presented, will not be misplaced in a +work like the present.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>The feast given to the Roman people by Julius Cæsar and the emperors who +succeeded him are well known. The feast of twenty-two thousand tables +served by twenty-two thousand purveyors; the naval fights on artificial +lakes, etc., have not, however, been imitated by the Herulian, Lombard, +and Frankish chieftains, who would have their festivity equally +celebrated.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FERRARA" id="FERRARA"></a>FERRARA.</h3> + + +<p>What we have to say of Ferrara has no relation to literature, but it has +a very great one to justice, which is much more necessary than the +belles-lettres, and much less cultivated, at least in Italy.</p> + +<p>Ferrara was constantly a fief of the empire, like Parma and Placentia. +Pope Clement VIII. robbed Cæsar d'Este of it by force of arms, in 1597. +The pretext for this tyranny was a very singular one for a man who +called himself the humble vicar of Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>Alphonso d'Este, the first of the name, sovereign of Ferrara, Modena, +Este, Carpio, and Rovigno, espoused a simple gentlewoman of Ferrara, +named Laura Eustochia, by whom he had three children before marriage. +These children he solemnly acknowledged in the face of the Church. None +of the formalities prescribed by the laws were wanting at this +recognition. His successor, Alphonso d'Este, was acknowledged duke of +Ferrara; he espoused Julia d'Urbino, the daughter of Francis, duke +d'Urbino, by whom he had the unfortunate Cæsar d'Este, the incontestable +heir of all the property of all the family, and declared so by the last +duke, who died October 27, 1597. Pope Clement VIII., surnamed +Aldobrandino, and originally of the family of a merchant of Florence, +dared to pretend that the grandmother of Cæsar d'Este was not +sufficiently noble, and that the children that she had brought into the +world ought to be considered bastards. The first reason is ridiculous +and scandalous in a bishop, the second is unwarrantable in every +tribunal in Europe. If the duke was not legitimate, he ought to have +lost Modena and his other states also; and if there was no flaw in his +title, he ought to have kept Ferrara as well as Modena.</p> + +<p>The acquisition of Ferrara was too fine a thing for the pope not to +procure all the decretals and decisions of those brave theologians, who +declare that the pope can render just that which is unjust. Consequently +he first excommunicated Cæsar d'Este, and as excommunication necessarily +deprives a man of all his property, the common father of the faithful +raised his troops against the excommunicated, to rob him of his +inheritance in the name of the Church. These troops were defeated, but +the duke of Modena soon saw his finances exhausted, and his friends +become cool.</p> + +<p>To make his case still more deplorable, the king of France, Henry IV., +believed himself obliged to take the side of the pope, in order to +balance the credit of Philip II. at the court of Rome; in the same +manner that good King Louis XII. less excusably dishonored himself by +uniting with that monster Alexander VI., and his execrable bastard, the +duke of Borgia. The duke was obliged to return, and the pope caused +Ferrara to be invaded by Cardinal Aldobrandino, who entered this +flourishing city at the head of a thousand horse and five thousand foot +soldiers.</p> + +<p>It is a great pity that such a man as Henry IV. descended to this +unworthiness which is called politic. The Catos, Metelluses, Scipios, +and Fabriciuses would not thus have betrayed justice to please a +priest—and such a priest!</p> + +<p>From this time Ferrara became a desert; its uncultivated soil was +covered with standing marshes. This province, under the house of Este, +had been one of the finest in Italy; the people always regretted their +ancient masters. It is true that the duke was indemnified; he was +nominated to a bishopric and a benefice; he was even furnished with some +measures of salt from the mines of Servia. But it is no less true that +the house of Modena has incontestable and imprescriptable rights to the +duchy of Ferrara, of which it was thus shamefully despoiled.</p> + +<p>Now, my dear reader, let us suppose that this scene took place at the +time in which Jesus Christ appeared to his apostles after his +resurrection, and that Simon Barjonas, surnamed Peter, wished to possess +himself of the states of this poor duke of Ferrara. Imagine the duke +coming to Bethany to demand justice of the Lord Jesus. Our Lord sends +immediately for Peter and says to him, "Simon, son of Jonas, I have +given thee the keys of heaven, but I have not given thee those of the +earth. Because thou hast been told that the heavens surround the globe, +and that the contained is in the containing, dost thou imagine that +kingdoms here below belong to thee, and that thou hast only to possess +thyself of whatever thou likest? I have already forbidden thee to draw +the sword. Thou appearest to me a very strange compound; at one time +cutting off the ear of Malchus, and at another even denying me. Be more +lenient and decorous, and take neither the property nor the ears of any +one for fear of thine own."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FEVER" id="FEVER"></a>FEVER.</h3> + + +<p>It is not as a physician, but as a patient, that I wish to say a word or +two on fever. We cannot help now and then speaking of our enemies; and +this one has been attacking me for more than twenty years; not Fréron +himself has been more implacable.</p> + +<p>I ask pardon of Sydenham, who defined fever to be "an effort of nature, +laboring with all its power to expel the peccant matter." We might thus +define smallpox, measles, diarrhœa, vomitings, cutaneous eruptions, +and twenty other diseases. But, if this physician defined ill, he +practised well. He cured, because he had experience, and he knew how to +wait.</p> + +<p>Boerhaave says, in his "Aphorisms": "A more frequent opposition, and an +increased resistance about the capillary vessels, give an absolute idea +of an acute fever." These are the words of a great master; but he sets +out with acknowledging that the nature of fever is profoundly hidden.</p> + +<p>He does not tell us what that secret principle is which develops itself +at regular periods in intermittent fever—what that internal poison is, +which, after the lapse of a day, is renewed—where that flame is, which +dies and revives at stated moments.</p> + +<p>We know fairly well that we are liable to fever after excess, or in +unseasonable weather. We know that quinine, judiciously administered, +will cure it. This is quite enough; the <i>how</i> we do not know.</p> + +<p>Every animal that does not perish suddenly dies by fever. The fever +seems to be the inevitable effect of the fluids that compose the blood, +or that which is in the place of blood. The structure of every animal +proves to natural philosophers that it must, at all times, have enjoyed +a very short life.</p> + +<p>Theologians have held, as have promulgated other opinions. It is not for +us to examine this question. The philosophers and physicians have been +right <i>in sensu humano</i>, and the theologians, <i>in sensu divino</i>. It is +said in Deuteronomy, xxviii, 22, that if the Jews do not serve the law +they shall be smitten "with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an +inflammation, and with an extreme burning." It is only in Deuteronomy, +and in Molière's "Physician in Spite of Himself," that people have been +threatened with fever.</p> + +<p>It seems impossible that fever should not be an accident natural to an +animate body, in which so many fluids circulate; just as it is +impossible for an animate body not to be crushed by the falling of a +rock.</p> + +<p>Blood makes life; it furnishes the viscera, the limbs, the skin, the +very extremities of the hairs and nails with the fluids, the humors +proper for them.</p> + +<p>This blood, by which the animal has life, is formed by the chyle. During +pregnancy this chyle is transmitted from the uterus to the child, and, +after the child is born, the milk of the nurse produces this same chyle. +The greater diversity of aliments it afterwards receives, the more the +chyle is liable to be soured. This alone forming the blood, and this +blood, composed of so many different humors so subject to corruption, +circulating through the whole human body more than five hundred and +fifty times in twenty-four hours, with the rapidity of a torrent, it is +not only astonishing that fever is not more frequent, it is astonishing +that man lives. In every articulation, in every gland, in every passage, +there is danger of death; but there are also as many succors as there +are dangers. Almost every membrane extends or contracts as occasion +requires. All the veins have sluices which open and shut, giving passage +to the blood and preventing a return, by which the machine would be +destroyed. The blood, rushing through all these canals, purifies itself. +It is a river that carries with it a thousand impurities; it discharges +itself by perspiration, by transpiration, by all the secretions. Fever +is itself a succor; it is a rectification when it does not kill.</p> + +<p>Man, by his reason, accelerates the cure by administering bitters, and, +above all, by regimen. This reason is an oar with which he may row for +some time on the sea of the world when disease does not swallow him up.</p> + +<p>It is asked: How is it that nature has abandoned the animals, her work, +to so many horrible diseases, almost always accompanied by fever? How +and why is it that so many disorders exist with so much order, +formation, and destruction everywhere, side by side? This is a +difficulty that often gives me a fever, but I beg you will read the +letters of Memmius. Then, perhaps, you will be inclined to suspect that +the incomprehensible artificer of vegetables, animals, and worlds, +having made all for the best, could not have made anything better.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FICTION" id="FICTION"></a>FICTION.</h3> + + +<p>Is not a fiction, which teaches new and interesting truths, a fine +thing? Do you not admire the Arabian story of the sultan who would not +believe that a little time could appear long, and who disputed with his +dervish on the nature of duration? The latter to convince him of it, +begged him only to plunge his head for a moment into the basin in which +he was washing. Immediately the sultan finds himself transported into a +frightful desert; he is obliged to labor to get a livelihood; he +marries, and has children who grow up and ill treat him; finally he +returns to his country and his palace and he there finds the dervish who +has caused him to suffer so many evils for five and twenty years. He is +about to kill him, and is only appeased when he is assured that all +passed in the moment in which, with his eyes shut, he put his head into +the water.</p> + +<p>You still more admire the fiction of the loves of Dido and Æneas, which +caused the mortal hatred between Carthage and Rome, as also that which +exhibits in Elysium the destinies of the great men of the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>You also like that of Alcina, in Ariosto, who possesses the dignity of +Minerva with the beauty of Venus, who is so charming to the eyes of her +lovers, who intoxicates them with voluptuous delights, and unites all +the loves and graces, but who, when she is at last reduced to her true +self and the enchantment has passed away, is nothing more than a little +shrivelled, disgusting, old woman.</p> + +<p>As to fictions which represent nothing, teach nothing, and from which +nothing results, are they anything more than falsities? And if they are +incoherent and heaped together without choice, are they anything better +than dreams?</p> + +<p>You will possibly tell me that there are ancient fictions which are very +incoherent, without ingenuity, and even absurd, which are still admired; +but is it not rather owing to the fine images which are scattered over +these fictions than to the inventions which introduce them? I will not +dispute the point, but if you would be hissed at by all Europe, and +afterwards forgotten forever, write fictions similar to those which you +admire.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FIERTE" id="FIERTE"></a>FIERTÉ.</h3> + + +<p>Fierté is one of those expressions, which, having been originally +employed in an offensive sense, are afterwards used in a favorable one. +It is censure when this word signifies high-flown, proud, haughty, and +disdainful. It is almost praise when it means the loftiness of a noble +mind.</p> + +<p>It is a just eulogium on a general who marches towards the enemy with +<i>fierté</i>. Writers have praised the <i>fierté</i> of the gait of Louis XIV.; +they should have contented themselves with remarking its nobleness.</p> + +<p><i>Fierté</i>, without dignity, is a merit incompatible with modesty. It is +only <i>fierté</i> in air and manners which offends; it then displeases, even +in kings.</p> + +<p><i>Fierté</i> of manner in society is the expression of pride; <i>fierté</i> of +soul is greatness. The distinctions are so nice that a proud spirit is +deemed blamable, while a proud soul is a theme of praise. By the former +is understood one who thinks advantageously of himself while the latter +denotes one who entertains elevated sentiments.</p> + +<p><i>Fierté</i>, announced by the exterior, is so great a fault that the weak, +who abjectly praise it in the great are obliged to soften it, or rather +to extol it, by speaking of "this noble <i>fierté</i>." It is not simply +vanity, which consists in setting a value upon little things; it is not +presumption, which believes itself capable of great ones; it is not +disdain, which adds contempt of others to a great opinion of self; but +it is intimately allied to all these faults.</p> + +<p>This word is used in romances, poetry, and above all, in operas, to +express the severity of female modesty. We meet with vain <i>fierté</i>, +vigorous <i>fierté</i>, etc. Poets are, perhaps, more in the right than they +imagine. The <i>fierté</i> of a woman is not only rigid modesty and love of +duty, but the high value which she sets upon her beauty. The <i>fierté</i> of +the pencil is sometimes spoken of to signify free and fearless touches.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FIGURE" id="FIGURE"></a>FIGURE.</h3> + + +<p>Every one desirous of instruction should read with attention all the +articles in the "<i>Dictionnaire Encyclopédique</i>," under the head +"Figure," viz.:</p> + +<p>"Figure of the Earth," by M. d'Alembert—a work both clear and profound, +in which we find all that can be known on the subject.</p> + +<p>"Figure of Rhetoric," by César Dumarsais—a piece of instruction which +teaches at once to think and to write; and, like many other articles, +make us regret that young people in general have not a convenient +opportunity of reading things so useful.</p> + +<p>"Human Figure," as relating to painting and sculpture—an excellent +lesson given to every artist, by M. Watelet.</p> + +<p>"Figure," in physiology—a very ingenious article, by M. de Caberoles.</p> + +<p>"Figure," in arithmetic and in algebra—by M. Mallet.</p> + +<p>"Figure," in logic, in metaphysics, and in polite literature, by M. le +Chevalier de Jaucourt—a man superior to the philosophers of antiquity, +inasmuch as he has preferred retirement, real philosophy, and +indefatigable labor, to all the advantages that his birth might have +procured him, in a country where birth is set above all beside, +excepting money.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Figure or Form of the Earth.</i></p> + +<p>Plato, Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Posidonius, and all the geometricians of +Asia, of Egypt, and of Greece, having acknowledged the sphericity of our +globe, how did it happen that we, for so long a time, imagined that the +earth was a third longer than it was broad, and thence derived the terms +"<i>longitude</i>" and "<i>latitude</i>," which continually bear testimony to our +ancient ignorance?</p> + +<p>The reverence due to the "Bible," which teaches us so many truths more +necessary and more sublime, was the cause of this, our almost universal +error. It had been found, in Psalm ciii, that God had stretched the +heavens over the earth like a skin; and as a skin is commonly longer +than it is wide, the same was concluded of the earth.</p> + +<p>St. Athanasius expresses himself as warmly against good astronomers as +against the partisans of Arius and Eusebius. "Let us," says he, "stop +the mouths of those barbarians, who, speaking without proof, dare to +assert that the heavens also extend under the earth." The fathers +considered the earth as a great ship, surrounded by water, with the prow +to the east, and the stern to the west. We still find, in "Cosmos," a +work of the fourth century, a sort of geographical chart, in which the +earth has this figure.</p> + +<p>Tortato, bishop of Avila, near the close of the fifteenth century, +declares in his commentary on Genesis, that the Christian faith is +shaken, if the earth is believed to be round. Columbus, Vespucius, and +Magellan, not having the fear of excommunication by this learned bishop +before their eyes, the earth resumed its rotundity in spite of him.</p> + +<p>Then man went from one extreme to the other, and the earth was regarded +as a perfect sphere. But the error of the perfect sphere was the mistake +of philosophers, while that of a long, flat earth was the blunder of +idiots.</p> + +<p>When once it began to be clearly known that our globe revolves on its +own axis every twenty-four hours, it might have been inferred from that +alone that its form could not be absolutely round. Not only does the +centrifugal zone considerably raise the waters in the region of the +equator, by the motion of the diurnal rotation, but they are moreover +elevated about twenty-five feet, twice a day, by the tides; the lands +about the equator must then be perfectly inundated. But they are not so; +therefore the region of the equator is much more elevated, in +proportion, than the rest of the earth: then the earth is a spheroid +elevated at the equator, and cannot be a perfect sphere. This proof, +simple as it is, had escaped the greatest geniuses: because a universal +prejudice rarely permits investigation.</p> + +<p>We know that, in 1762, in a voyage to Cayenne, near the line, undertaken +by order of Louis XIV., under the auspices of Colbert, the patron of all +the arts, Richer, among many other observations, found that the +oscillations or vibrations of his timepiece did not continue so frequent +as in the latitude of Paris, and that it was absolutely necessary to +shorten the pendulum one line and something more than a quarter. Physics +and geometry were at that time not nearly so much cultivated as they now +are; what man would have believed that an observation so trivial in +appearance, a line more or less, could lead to the knowledge of the +greatest physical truths? It was first of all discovered that the weight +must necessarily be less on the equator than in our latitudes, since +weight alone causes the oscillation of a pendulum. Consequently, the +weight of bodies being the less the farther they are from the centre of +the earth, it was inferred that the region of the equator must be much +more elevated than our own—much more remote from the centre; so the +earth could not be an exact sphere.</p> + +<p>Many philosophers acted, on the occasion of these discoveries, as all +men act when an opinion is to be changed—they disputed on Richer's +experiment; they pretended that our pendulums made their vibrations more +slowly about the equator only because the metal was lengthened by the +heat; but it was seen that the heat of the most burning summer lengthens +it but one line in thirty feet; and here was an elongation of a line and +a quarter, a line and a half, or even two lines, in an iron rod, only +three feet and eight lines long.</p> + +<p>Some years after MM. Varin, Deshayes, Feuillée, and Couplet, repeated +the same experiment on the pendulum, near the equator; and it was always +found necessary to shorten it, although the heat was very often less on +the line than fifteen or twenty degrees from it. This experiment was +again confirmed by the academicians whom Louis XV. sent to Peru; and who +were obliged, on the mountains about Quito, where it froze, to shorten +the second pendulum about two lines.</p> + +<p>About the same time, the academicians who went to measure an arc of the +meridian in the north, found that at Pello, within the Polar circle, it +was necessary to lengthen the pendulum, in order to have the same +oscillations as at Paris: consequently weight is greater at the polar +circle than in the latitude of France, as it is greater in our latitude +than at the equator. Weight being greater in the north, the north was +therefore nearer the centre of the earth than the equator; therefore the +earth was flattened at the poles.</p> + +<p>Never did reasoning and experiment so fully concur to establish a truth. +The celebrated Huygens, by calculating centrifugal forces, had proved +that the consequent diminution of weight on the surface of a sphere was +not great enough to explain the phenomena, and that therefore the earth +must be a spheroid flattened at the poles. Newton, by the principles of +attraction, had found nearly the same relations: only it must be +observed, that Huygens believed this force inherent in bodies +determining them towards the centre of the globe, to be everywhere the +same. He had not yet seen the discoveries of Newton; so that he +considered the diminution of weight by the theory of centrifugal forces +only. The effect of centrifugal forces diminishes the primitive gravity +on the equator. The smaller the circles in which this centrifugal force +is exercised become, the more it yields to the force of gravity; thus, +at the pole itself the centrifugal force being null, must leave the +primitive gravity in full action. But this principle of a gravity always +equal, falls to nothing before the discovery made by Newton, that a body +transported, for instance, to the distance of ten diameters from the +centre of the earth, would weigh one hundred times less than at the +distance of one diameter.</p> + +<p>It is then by the laws of gravitation, combined with those of the +centrifugal force, that the real form of the earth must be shown. Newton +and Gregory had such confidence in this theory that they did not +hesitate to advance that experiments on weight were a surer means of +knowing the form of the earth than any geographical measurement.</p> + +<p>Louis XIV. had signalized his reign by that meridian which was drawn +through France: the illustrious Dominico Cassini had begun it with his +son; and had, in 1701, drawn from the feet of the Pyrenees to the +observatory a line as straight as it could be drawn, considering the +almost insurmountable obstacles which the height of mountains, the +changes of refraction in the air, and the altering of instruments were +constantly opposing to the execution of so vast and delicate an +undertaking; he had, in 1701, measured six degrees eighteen minutes of +that meridian. But, from whatever cause the error might proceed, he had +found the degrees towards Paris, that is towards the north, shorter than +those towards the Pyrenees and the south. This measurement gave the lie +both to the theory of Norwood and to the new theory of the earth +flattened at the poles. Yet this new theory was beginning to be so +generally received that the academy's secretary did not hesitate, in his +history of 1701, to say that the new measurements made in France proved +the earth to be a spheroid flattened at the poles. The truth was, that +Dominico Cassini's measurement led to a conclusion directly opposite; +but, as the figure of the earth had not yet become a question in France, +no one at that time was at the trouble of combating this false +conclusion. The degrees of the meridian from Collioure to Paris were +believed to be exactly measured; and the pole, which from that +measurement must necessarily be elongated, was believed to be flattened.</p> + +<p>An engineer, named M. de Roubais, astonished at this conclusion, +demonstrated that, by the measurements taken in France, the earth must +be an oblate spheroid, of which the meridian passing through the poles +must be longer than the equator, the poles being elongated. But of all +the natural philosophers to whom he addressed his dissertation, not one +would have it printed; because it seemed that the academy had pronounced +it as too bold in an individual to raise his voice. Some time after the +error of 1701 was acknowledged, that which had been said was unsaid; and +the earth was lengthened by a just conclusion drawn from a false +principle. The meridian was continued in the same principle from Paris +to Dunkirk; and the degrees were still found to grow shorter as they +approached the north. People were still mistaken respecting the figure +of the earth, as they had been concerning the nature of light. About the +same time, some mathematicians who were performing the same operations +in China were astonished to find a difference among their degrees, +which they had expected to find alike; and to discover, after many +verifications, that they were shorter towards the north than towards the +south. This accordance of the mathematicians of France with those of +China was another powerful reason for believing in the oblate spheroid. +In France they did still more; they measured parallels to the equator. +It is easily understood that on an oblate spheroid our degrees of +longitude must be shorter than on a sphere. M. de Cassini found the +parallel which passes through St. Malo to be shorter by one thousand and +thirty-seven toises than it would have been on a spherical earth.</p> + +<p>All these measurements proved that the degrees had been found as it was +wished to find them. They overturned, for a time, in France, the +demonstrations of Newton and Huygens; and it was no longer doubted that +the poles were of a form precisely contrary to that which had at first +been attributed to them. In short, nothing at all was known about the +matter.</p> + +<p>At length, other academicians, who had visited the polar circle in 1736, +having found, by new measurements, that the degree was longer there than +in France, people doubted between them and the Cassinis. But these +doubts were soon after removed: for these same astronomers, returning +from the pole, examined afresh the degree to the north of Paris, +measured by Picard, in 1677, and found it to be a hundred and +twenty-three toises longer than it was according to Picard's +measurement. If, then, Picard, with all his precautions, had made his +degree one hundred and twenty-three toises too short, it was not at all +unlikely that the degrees towards the south had in like manner been +found too long. Thus the first error of Picard, having furnished the +foundations for the measurements of the meridian, also furnished an +excuse for the almost inevitable errors which very good astronomers +might have committed in the course of these operations.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, other men of science found that, at the Cape of Good +Hope, the degrees of the meridian did not agree with ours. Other +measurements, taken in Italy, likewise contradicted those of France, and +all were falsified by those of China. People again began to doubt, and +to suspect, in my opinion quite reasonably, that the earth had +protuberances. As for the English, though they are fond of travelling, +they spared themselves the fatigue, and held fast their theory.</p> + +<p>The difference between one diameter and the other is not more than five +or six of our leagues—a difference immense in the eyes of a disputant, +but almost imperceptible to those who consider the measurement of the +globe only in reference to the purposes of utility which it may serve. A +geographer could scarcely make this difference perceptible on a map; nor +would a pilot be able to discover whether he was steering on a spheroid +or on a sphere. Yet there have been men bold enough to assert that the +lives of navigators depended on this question. Oh quackery! will you +spare no degrees—not even those of the meridian?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FIGURED_FIGURATIVE" id="FIGURED_FIGURATIVE"></a>FIGURED—FIGURATIVE.</h3> + + +<p>We say, a truth "figured" by a fable, by a parable; the church "figured" +by the young spouse in Solomon's Song; ancient Rome "figured" by +Babylon. A figurative style is constituted by metaphorical expressions, +figuring the things spoken of—and disfiguring them when the metaphors +are not correct.</p> + +<p>Ardent imagination, passion, desire—frequently deceived—produce the +figurative style. We do not admit it into history, for too many +metaphors are hurtful, not only to perspicuity, but also to truth, by +saying more or less than the thing itself.</p> + +<p>In didactic works, this style should be rejected. It is much more out of +place in a sermon than in a funeral oration, because the sermon is a +piece of instruction in which the truth is to be announced; while the +funeral oration is a declaration in which it is to be exaggerated.</p> + +<p>The poetry of enthusiasm, as the epopee and the ode, is that to which +this style is best adapted. It is less admissible in tragedy, where the +dialogue should be natural as well as elevated; and still less in +comedy, where the style must be more simple.</p> + +<p>The limits to be set to the figurative style, in each kind, are +determined by taste. Baltasar Gracian says, that "our thoughts depart +from the vast shores of memory, embark on the sea of imagination, arrive +in the harbor of intelligence, and are entered at the custom house of +the understanding."</p> + +<p>This is precisely the style of Harlequin. He says to his master, "The +ball of your commands has rebounded from the racquet of my obedience." +Must it not be owned that such is frequently that oriental style which +people try to admire? Another fault of the figurative style is the +accumulating of incoherent figures. A poet, speaking of some +philosophers, has called them:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;"><i>D'ambitieux pygmées</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Qui sur leurs pieds vainement redressés</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Et sur des monts d'argumens entassés</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>De jour en jour superbes Encelades,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Vont redoublant leurs folles escalades.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>When philosophers are to be written against, it should be done better. +How do ambitious pygmies, reared on their hind legs on mountains of +arguments, continue escalades? What a false and ridiculous image! What +elaborate dulness!</p> + +<p>In an allegory by the same author, entitled the "Liturgy of Cytherea," +we find these lines:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>De toutes parts, autour de l'inconnue,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ils vont tomber comme grêle menue,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Moissons des cœurs sur la terre jonchés,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Et des Dieux même à son char attachés.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>De par Venus nous venons cette affaire</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Si s'en retourne aux cieux dans son sérail,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>En ruminant comment il pourra faire</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Pour ramener la brebis au bercail.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Here we have harvests of hearts thrown on the ground like small hail; +and among these hearts palpitating on the ground, are gods bound to the +car of the unknown; while love, sent by Venus, ruminates in his seraglio +in heaven, what he shall do to bring back to the fold this lost mutton +surrounded by scattered hearts. All this forms a figure at once so +false, so puerile, and so incoherent—so disgusting, so extravagant, so +stupidly expressed, that we are astonished that a man, who made good +verses of another kind, and was not devoid of taste, could write +anything so miserably bad.</p> + +<p>Figures, metaphors, are not necessary in an allegory; what has been +invented with imagination may be told with simplicity. Plato has more +allegories than figures; he often expresses them elegantly and without +ostentation.</p> + +<p>Nearly all the maxims of the ancient orientals and of the Greeks were in +the figurative style. All those sentences are metaphors, or short +allegories; and in them the figurative style has great effect in rousing +the imagination and impressing the memory.</p> + +<p>We know that Pythagoras said, "In the tempest adore the echo," that is, +during civil broils retire to the country; and "Stir not the fire with +the sword," meaning, do not irritate minds already inflamed. In every +language, there are many common proverbs which are in the figurative +style.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FIGURE_IN_THEOLOGY" id="FIGURE_IN_THEOLOGY"></a>FIGURE IN THEOLOGY.</h3> + + +<p>It is quite certain, and is agreed by the most pious men, that figures +and allegories have been carried too far. Some of the fathers of the +church regard the piece of red cloth, placed by the courtesan Rahab at +her window, for a signal to Joshua's spies, as a figure of the blood of +Jesus Christ. This is an error of an order of mind which would find +mystery in everything.</p> + +<p>Nor can it be denied that St. Ambrose made very bad use of his taste for +allegory, when he says, in his book of "Noah and the Ark," that the back +door of the ark was a figure of our hinder parts.</p> + +<p>All men of sense have asked how it can be proved that these Hebrew +words, "<i>maher, salas-has-has</i>," (take quick the spoils) are a figure of +Jesus Christ? How is Judah, tying his ass to a vine, and washing his +cloak in the wine, also a figure of Him. How can Ruth, slipping into bed +to Boaz, figure the church, how are Sarah and Rachel the church, and +Hagar and Leah the synagogue? How, do the kisses of the Shunamite typify +the marriage of the church? A volume might be made of these enigmas, +which, to the best theologians of later times, have appeared to be +rather far-fetched than edifying.</p> + +<p>The danger of this abuse is fully admitted by Abbé Fleury, the author of +the "Ecclesiastical History." It is a vestige of rabbinism; a fault +into which the learned St. Jerome never fell. It is like oneiromancy, +or the explanation of dreams. If a girl sees muddy water, when dreaming, +she will be ill-married; if she sees clear water, she will have a good +husband; a spider denotes money, etc. In short, will enlightened +posterity believe it? The understanding of dreams has, for more than +four thousand years, been made a serious study.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Symbolical Figures.</i></p> + +<p>All nations have made use of them, as we have said in the article +"emblem." But who began? Was it the Egyptians? It is not likely. We +think we have already more than once proved that Egypt is a country +quite new, and that many ages were requisite to save the country from +inundations, and render it habitable. It is impossible that the +Egyptians should have invented the signs of the zodiac, since the +figures denoting our seed-time and harvest cannot coincide with theirs. +When we cut our corn, their land is covered with water; and when we sow, +their reaping time is approaching. Thus the bull of our zodiac and the +girl bearing ears of corn cannot have come from Egypt.</p> + +<p>Here is also an evident proof of the falsity of the new paradox, that +the Chinese are an Egyptian colony. The characters are not the same. The +Chinese mark the course of the sun by twenty-eight constellations and +the Egyptians, after the Chaldæans, reckoned only twelve, like +ourselves.</p> + +<p>The figures that denote the planets are in China and in India all +different from those of Egypt and of Europe; so are the signs of the +metals; so is the method of guiding the hand in writing. Nothing could +have been more chimerical than to send the Egyptians to people China.</p> + +<p>All these fabulous foundations, laid in fabulous times, have caused an +irreparable loss of time to a prodigious multitude of the learned, who +have all been bewildered in their laborious researches, which might have +been serviceable to mankind if directed to arts of real utility.</p> + +<p>Pluche, in his History, or rather his fable, of the Heavens, assures us +that Ham, son of Noah, went and reigned in Egypt, where there was nobody +to reign over; that his son Menes was the greatest of legislators, and +that Thoth was his prime minister.</p> + +<p>According to him and his authorities, this Thoth, or somebody else, +instituted feasts in honor of the deluge; and the joyful cry of "<i>Io +Bacche</i>," so famous among the Greeks, was, among the Egyptians, a +lamentation. "<i>Bacche</i>" came from the Hebrew "<i>beke</i>" signifying <i>sobs</i>, +and that at a time when the Hebrew people did not exist. According to +this explanation, "<i>joy</i>" means "<i>sorrow</i>," and "<i>to sing</i>" signifies +"<i>to weep</i>."</p> + +<p>The Iroquois have more sense. They do not take the trouble to inquire +what passed on the shores of Lake Ontario some thousand years ago: +instead of making systems, they go hunting.</p> + +<p>The same authors affirm that the sphinxes, with which Egypt was adorned, +signified superabundance, because some interpreters have asserted that +the Hebrew word "<i>spang</i>" meant an "excess"; as if the Egyptians had +taken lessons from the Hebrew tongue, which is, in great part, derived +from the Phœnician: besides, what relation has a sphinx to an +abundance of water? Future schoolmen will maintain, with greater +appearance of reason, that the masks which decorate the keystones of our +windows are emblems of our masquerades; and that these fantastic +ornaments announced that balls were given in every house to which they +were affixed.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Figure, Figurative, Allegorical, Mystical, Topological, Typical, etc.</i></p> + +<p>This is often the art of finding in books everything but what they +really contain. For instance, Romulus killing his brother Remus shall +signify the death of the duke of Berry, brother of Louis XI.; Regulus, +imprisoned at Carthage, shall typify St. Louis captive at Mansurah.</p> + +<p>It is very justly remarked in the "Encyclopædia," that many fathers of +the church have, perhaps, carried this taste for allegorical figures a +little too far; but they are to be reverenced, even in their wanderings. +If the holy fathers used and then abused this method, their little +excesses of imagination may be pardoned, in consideration of their holy +zeal.</p> + +<p>The antiquity of the usage may also be pleaded in justification, since +it was practised by the earliest philosophers. But it is true that the +symbolical figures employed by the fathers are in a different taste.</p> + +<p>For example: When St. Augustine wishes to make it appear that the +forty-two generations of the genealogy of Jesus are announced by St. +Matthew, who gives only forty-one, he says that Jechonias must be +counted twice, because Jechonias is a corner-stone belonging to two +walls; that these two walls figure the old and the new law; and that +Jechonias, being thus the corner-stone, figures Jesus Christ, who is the +real corner-stone.</p> + +<p>The same saint, in the same sermon, says that the number forty must +prevail; and at once abandons Jechonias and his corner-stone, counted as +two. The number forty, he says, signifies life; ten, which is perfect +beatitude, being multiplied by four, which, being the number of the +seasons, figures time.</p> + +<p>Again, in the same sermon, he explains why St. Luke gives Jesus Christ +seventy-seven ancestors: fifty-six up to the patriarch Abraham, and +twenty-one from Abraham up to God himself. It is true that, according to +the Hebrew text, there would be but seventy-six; for the Hebrew does not +reckon a Cainan, who is interpolated in the Greek translation called +"The Septuagint."</p> + +<p>Thus said Augustine: "The number seventy-seven figures the abolition of +all sins by baptism.... the number ten signifies justice and beatitude, +resulting from, the creature, which makes seven with the Trinity, which +is three: therefore it is that God's commandments are ten in number. The +number eleven denotes sin, because it transgresses ten.... This number +seventy-seven is the product of eleven, figuring sin, multiplied by +seven, and not by ten, for seven is the symbol of the creature. Three +represents the soul, which is in some sort an image of the Divinity; and +four represents the body, on account of its four qualities." In these +explanations, we find some trace of the cabalistic mysteries and the +quaternary of Pythagoras. This taste was very long in vogue.</p> + +<p>St. Augustine goes much further, concerning the dimensions of matter. +Breadth is the dilatation of the heart, which performs good works; +length is perseverance; depth is the hope of reward. He carries the +allegory very far, applying it to the cross, and drawing great +consequences therefrom. The use of these figures had passed from the +Jews to the Christians long before St. Augustine's time. It is not for +us to know within what bounds it was right to stop.</p> + +<p>The examples of this fault are innumerable. No one who has studied to +advantage will hazard the introduction of such figures, either in the +pulpit or in the school. We find no such instances among the Romans or +the Greeks, not even in their poets.</p> + +<p>In Ovid's "Metamorphoses" themselves, we find only ingenious deductions +drawn from fables which are given as fables. Deucalion and Pyrrha threw +stones behind them between their legs, and men were produced therefrom. +Ovid says:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Et documenta damus qua simus origine nati.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thence we are a hardened and laborious race,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Proving full well our stony origin.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Apollo loves Daphne, but Daphne does not love Apollo. This is because +love has two kinds of arrows; the one golden and piercing, the other +leaden and blunt. Apollo has received in his heart a golden arrow, +Daphne a leaden one.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ecce sagittifera prompsit duo tela pharetra</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Diversorum operum; fugat hoc, facit illud amorem</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Quod facit auratum est, et cuspide fulget acuta;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Quod fugat obtusum est, et habet sub arundine plumbum....</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Two different shafts he from his quiver draws;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">One to repel desire, and one to cause.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">One shaft is pointed with refulgent gold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To bribe the love, and make the lover bold;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">One blunt and tipped with lead, whose base allay</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Provokes disdain, and drives desire away.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;" class="small">—DRYDEN.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>These figures are all ingenious, and deceive no one.</p> + +<p>That Venus, the goddess of beauty, should not go unattended by the +Graces, is a charming truth. These fables, which were in the mouths of +all—these allegories, so natural and attractive—had so much sway over +the minds of men, that perhaps the first Christians imitated while they +opposed them.</p> + +<p>They took up the weapons of mythology to destroy it, but they could not +wield them with the same address. They did not reflect that the sacred +austerity of our holy religion placed these resources out of their +power, and that a Christian hand would have dealt but awkwardly with the +lyre of Apollo.</p> + +<p>However, the taste for these typical and prophetic figures was so firmly +rooted that every prince, every statesman, every pope, every founder of +an order, had allegories or allusions taken from the Holy Scriptures +applied to him. Satire and flattery rivalled each other in drawing from +this source.</p> + +<p>When Pope Innocent III. made a bloody crusade against the court of +Toulouse, he was told, "<i>Innocens eris a maledictione</i>." When the order +of the Minimes was established, it appeared that their founder had been +foretold in Genesis: "<i>Minimus cum patre nostro</i>."</p> + +<p>The preacher who preached before John of Austria after the celebrated +battle of Lepanto, took for his text, "<i>Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui +nomen erat Johannes</i>;" A man sent from God, whose name was John; and +this allusion was very fine, if all the rest were ridiculous. It is said +to have been repeated for John Sobieski, after the deliverance of +Vienna; but this latter preacher was nothing more than a plagiarist.</p> + +<p>In short, so constant has been this custom that no preacher of the +present day has ever failed to take an allegory for his text. One of the +most happy instances is the text of the funeral oration over the duke of +Candale, delivered before his sister, who was considered a pattern of +virtue: "<i>Die, quia soror, mea es, ut mihi bene eveniat propter, +te</i>."—"Say, I pray thee, that thou art my sister, that it may be well +with me for thy sake."</p> + +<p>It is not to be wondered at that the Cordeliers carried these figures +rather too far in favor of St. Francis of Assisi, in the famous but +little-known book, entitled, "Conformities of St. Francis of Assisi with +Jesus Christ." We find in it sixty-four predictions of the coming of St. +Francis, some in the Old Testament, others in the New; and each +prediction contains three figures, which signify the founding of the +Cordeliers. So that these fathers find themselves foretold in the Bible +a hundred and ninety-two times.</p> + +<p>From Adam down to St. Paul, everything prefigured the blessed Francis of +Assisi. The Scriptures were given to announce to the universe the +sermons of Francis to the quadrupeds, the fishes, and the birds, the +sport he had with a woman of snow, his frolics with the devil, his +adventures with brother Elias and brother Pacificus.</p> + +<p>These pious reveries, which amounted even to blasphemy, have been +condemned. But the Order of St. Francis has not suffered by them, having +renounced these extravagancies so common to the barbarous ages.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FINAL_CAUSES" id="FINAL_CAUSES"></a>FINAL CAUSES.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>Virgil says ("Æneid," book vi. 727):</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">This active mind infused, through all the space</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;" class="small">—DRYDEN</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Virgil said well: and Benedict Spinoza, who has not the brilliancy of +Virgil, nor his merit, is compelled to acknowledge an intelligence +presiding over all. Had he denied this, I should have said to him: +Benedict, you are a fool; you possess intelligence, and you deny it, and +to whom do you deny it?</p> + +<p>In the year 1770, there appeared a man, in some respects far superior to +Spinoza, as eloquent as the Jewish Hollander is dry, less methodical, +but infinitely more perspicuous; perhaps equal to him in mathematical +science; but without the ridiculous affectation of applying mathematical +reasonings to metaphysical and moral subjects. The man I mean is the +author of the "System of Nature." He assumed the name of Mirabaud, the +secretary of the French Academy. Alas! the worthy secretary was +incapable of writing a single page of the book of our formidable +opponent. I would recommend all you who are disposed to avail yourselves +of your reason and acquire instruction, to read the following eloquent +though dangerous passage from the "System of Nature." (Part II. v. 153.)</p> + +<p>It is contended that animals furnish us with a convincing evidence that +there is some powerful cause of their existence; the admirable +adaptation of their different parts, mutually receiving and conferring +aid towards accomplishing their functions, and maintaining in health and +vigor the entire being, announce to us an artificer uniting power to +wisdom. Of the power of nature, it is impossible for us to doubt; she +produces all the animals that we see by the help of combinations of that +matter, which is in incessant action; the adaptation of the parts of +these animals is the result of the necessary laws of their nature, and +of their combination. When the adaptation ceases, the animal is +necessarily destroyed. What then becomes of the wisdom, the +intelligence, or the goodness of that alleged cause, to which was +ascribed all the honor of this boasted adaptation? Those animals of so +wonderful a structure as to be pronounced the works of an immutable God, +do not they undergo incessant changes; and do not they end in decay and +destruction? Where is the wisdom, the goodness, the fore-sight, the +immutability of an artificer, whose sole object appears to be to derange +and destroy the springs of those machines which are proclaimed to be +masterpieces of his power and skill? If this God cannot act otherwise +than thus, he is neither free nor omnipotent. If his will changes, he is +not immutable. If he permits machines, which he has endowed with +sensibility, to experience pain, he is deficient in goodness. If he has +been unable to render his productions solid and durable, he is deficient +in skill. Perceiving as we do the decay and ruin not only of all +animals, but of all the other works of deity, we cannot but inevitably +conclude, either that everything performed in the course of nature is +absolutely necessary—the unavoidable result of its imperative and +insuperable laws, or that the artificer who impels her various +operations is destitute of plan, of power, of constancy, of skill, and +of goodness.</p> + +<p>"Man, who considers himself the master-work of the Divinity, supplies us +more readily and completely than any other production, with evidence of +the incapacity or malignity of his pretended author. In this being, +possessed of feeling, intuition, and reason, which considers itself as +the perpetual object of divine partiality, and forms its God on the +model of itself, we see a machine more changeable, more frail, more +liable to derangement from its extraordinary complication, than that of +the coarsest and grossest beings. Beasts, which are destitute of our +mental powers and acquirements; plants, which merely vegetate; stones, +which are unendowed with sensation, are, in many respects, beings far +more favored than man. They are, at least, exempt from distress of mind, +from the tortures of thought, and corrosions of care, to which the +latter is a victim. Who would not prefer being a mere unintelligent +animal, or a senseless stone, when his thoughts revert to the +irreparable loss of an object dearly beloved? Would it not be infinitely +more desirable to be an inanimate mass, than the gloomy votary and +victim of superstition, trembling under the present yoke of his +diabolical deity, and anticipating infinite torments in a future +existence? Beings destitute of sensation, life, memory, and thought +experience no affliction from the idea of what is past, present, or to +come; they do not believe there is any danger of incurring eternal +torture for inaccurate reasoning; which is believed, however, by many of +those favored beings who maintain that the great architect of the world +has created the universe for themselves.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 602px;"> +<a name="NATURE_IS_NOT_A_WORK" id="NATURE_IS_NOT_A_WORK"></a> +<img src="images/img_02_landstorm.jpg" width="602" alt="Nature is not a work." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">Nature is not a work</span> +</div> + +<p>"Let us not be told that we have no idea of a work without having that +of the artificer distinguished from the work. <i>Nature is not a work.</i> +She has always existed of herself. Every process takes place in her +bosom. She is an immense manufactory, provided with materials, and she +forms the instruments by which she acts; all her works are effects of +her own energy, and of agents or causes which she frames, contains, and +impels. Eternal, uncreated elements—elements indestructible, ever in +motion, and combining in exquisite and endless diversity, originate all +the beings and all the phenomena that we behold; all the effects, good +or evil, that we feel; the order or disorder which we distinguish, +merely by different modes in which they affect ourselves; and, in a +word, all those wonders which excite our meditation and confound our +reasoning. These elements, in order to effect objects thus comprehensive +and important, require nothing beyond their own properties, individual +or combined, and the motion essential to their very existence; and thus +preclude the necessity of recurring to an unknown artificer, in order to +arrange, mould, combine, preserve, and dissolve them.</p> + +<p>"But, even admitting for a moment, that it is impossible to conceive of +the universe without an artificer who formed it, and who preserves and +watches over his work, where shall we place that artificer? Shall he be +within or without the universe? Is he matter or motion? Or is he mere +space, nothingness, vacuity? In each of these cases, he will either be +nothing, or he will be comprehended in nature, and subjected to her +laws. If he is in nature, I think I see in her only matter in motion, +and cannot but thence conclude that the agent impelling her is corporeal +and material, and that he is consequently liable to dissolution. If this +agent is out of nature, then I have no idea of what place he can occupy, +nor of an immaterial being, nor of the manner in which a spirit, without +extension, can operate upon the matter from which it is separated. Those +unknown tracts of space which imagination has placed beyond the visible +world may be considered as having no existence for a being who can +scarcely see to the distance of his own feet; the ideal power which +inhabits them can never be represented to my mind, unless when my +imagination combines at random the fantastic colors which it is always +forced to employ in the world on which I am. In this case, I shall +merely reproduce in idea what my senses have previously actually +perceived; and that God, which I, as it were, compel myself to +distinguish from nature, and to place beyond her circuit, will ever, in +opposition to all my efforts, necessarily withdraw within it.</p> + +<p>"It will be observed and insisted upon by some that if a statue or a +watch were shown to a savage who had never seen them, he would +inevitably acknowledge that they were the productions of some +intelligent agent, more powerful and ingenious than himself; and hence +it will be inferred that we are equally bound to acknowledge that the +machine of the universe, that man, that the phenomena of nature, are the +productions of an agent, whose intelligence and power are far superior +to our own.</p> + +<p>"I answer, in the first place, that we cannot possibly doubt either the +great power or the great skill of nature; we admire her skill as often +as we are surprised by the extended, varied and complicated effects +which we find in those of her works that we take the pains to +investigate; she is not, however, either more or less skilful in any one +of her works than in the rest. We no more comprehend how she could +produce a stone or a piece of metal than how she could produce a head +organized like that of Newton. We call that man skilful who can perform +things which we are unable to perform ourselves. Nature can perform +everything; and when anything exists, it is a proof that she was able to +make it. Thus, it is only in relation to ourselves that we ever judge +nature to be skilful; we compare it in those cases with ourselves; and, +as we possess a quality which we call intelligence, by the aid of which +we produce works, in which we display our skill, we thence conclude that +the works of nature, which must excite our astonishment and admiration, +are not in fact hers, but the productions of an artificer, intelligent +like ourselves, and whose intelligence we proportion, in our minds, to +the degree of astonishment excited in us by his works; that is, in fact, +to our own weakness and ignorance."</p> + +<p>See the reply to these arguments under the articles on "Atheism" and +"God," and in the following section, written long before the "System of +Nature."</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>If a clock is not made in order to tell the time of the day, I will then +admit that final causes are nothing but chimeras, and be content to go +by the name of a final-cause-finder—in plain language, fool—to the end +of my life.</p> + +<p>All the parts, however, of that great machine, the world, seem made for +one another. Some philosophers affect to deride final causes, which were +rejected, they tell us, by Epicurus and Lucretius. But it seems to me +that Epicurus and Lucretius rather merit the derision. They tell you +that the eye is not made to see; but that, since it was found out that +eyes were capable of being used for that purpose, to that purpose they +have been applied. According to them, the mouth is not formed to speak +and eat, nor the stomach to digest, nor the heart to receive the blood +from the veins and impel it through the arteries, nor the feet to walk, +nor the ears to hear. Yet, at the same time, these very shrewd and +consistent persons admitted that tailors made garments to clothe them, +and masons built houses to lodge them; and thus ventured to deny +nature—the great existence, the universal intelligence—what they +conceded to the most insignificant artificers employed by themselves.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of final causes ought certainly to be preserved from being +abused. We have already remarked that M. le Prieur, in the "Spectator of +Nature," contends in vain that the tides were attached to the ocean to +enable ships to enter more easily into their ports, and to preserve the +water from corruption; he might just as probably and successfully have +urged that legs were made to wear boots, and noses to bear spectacles.</p> + +<p>In order to satisfy ourselves of the truth of a final cause, in any +particular instance, it is necessary that the effect produced should be +uniform and invariably in time and place. Ships have not existed in all +times and upon all seas; accordingly, it cannot be said that the ocean +was made for ships. It is impossible not to perceive how ridiculous it +would be to maintain that nature had toiled on from the very beginning +of time to adjust herself to the inventions of our fortuitous and +arbitrary arts, all of which are of so late a date in their discovery; +but it is perfectly clear that if noses were not made for spectacles, +they were made for smelling, and there have been noses ever since there +were men. In the same manner, hands, instead of being bestowed for the +sake of gloves, are visibly destined for all those uses to which the +metacarpus, the phalanges of the fingers, and the movements of the +circular muscle of the wrist, render them applicable by us. Cicero, who +doubted everything else, had no doubt about final causes.</p> + +<p>It appears particularly difficult to suppose that those parts of the +human frame by which the perpetuation of the species is conducted should +not, in fact, have been intended and destined for that purpose, from +their mechanism so truly admirable, and the sensation which nature has +connected with it more admirable still. Epicurus would be at least +obliged to admit that pleasure is divine, and that that pleasure is a +final cause, in consequence of which beings, endowed with sensibility, +but who could never have communicated it to themselves, have been +incessantly introduced into the world as others have passed away from +it.</p> + +<p>This philosopher, Epicurus, was a great man for the age in which he +lived. He saw that Descartes denied what Gassendi affirmed and what +Newton demonstrated—that motion cannot exist without a vacuum. He +conceived the necessity of atoms to serve as constituent parts of +invariable species. These are philosophical ideas. Nothing, however, +was more respectable than the morality of genuine Epicureans; it +consisted in sequestration from public affairs, which are incompatible +with wisdom, and in friendship, without which life is but a burden. But +as to the rest of the philosophy of Epicurus, it appears not to be more +admissible than the grooved or tubular matter of Descartes. It is, as it +appears to me, wilfully to shut the eyes and the understanding, and to +maintain that there is no design in nature; and if there is design, +there is an intelligent cause—there exists a God.</p> + +<p>Some point us to the irregularities of our globe, the volcanoes, the +plains of moving sand, some small mountains swallowed up in the ocean, +others raised by earthquakes, etc. But does it follow from the naves of +your chariot wheel taking fire, that your chariot was not made expressly +for the purpose of conveying you from one place to another?</p> + +<p>The chains of mountains which crown both hemispheres, and more than six +hundred rivers which flow from the foot of these rocks towards the sea; +the various streams that swell these rivers in their courses, after +fertilizing the fields through which they pass; the innumerable +fountains which spring from the same source, which supply necessary +refreshment, and growth, and beauty to animal and vegetable life; all +this appears no more to result from a fortuitous concourse and an +obliquity of atoms, than the retina which receives the rays of light, or +the crystalline humor which refracts it, or the drum of the ear which +admits sound, or the circulation of the blood in our veins, the systole +and diastole of the heart, the regulating principle of the machine of +life.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>It would appear that a man must be supposed to have lost his senses +before he can deny that stomachs are made for digestion, eyes to see, +and ears to hear.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, a man must have a singular partiality for final +causes, to assert that stone was made for building houses, and that +silkworms are produced in China that we may wear satins in Europe.</p> + +<p>But, it is urged, if God has evidently done one thing by design, he has +then done all things by design. It is ridiculous to admit Providence in +the one case and to deny it in the others. Everything that is done was +foreseen, was arranged. There is no arrangement without an object, no +effect without a cause; all, therefore, is equally the result, the +product of the final cause; it is, therefore, as correct to say that +noses were made to bear spectacles, and fingers to be adorned with +rings, as to say that the ears were formed to hear sounds, the eyes to +receive light.</p> + +<p>All that this objection amounts to, in my opinion, is that everything is +the result, nearer or more remote, of a general final cause; that +everything is the consequence of eternal laws. When the effects are +invariably the same in all times and places, and when these uniform +effects are independent of the beings to which they attach, then there +is visibly a final cause.</p> + +<p>All animals have eyes and see; all have ears and hear; all have mouths +with which they eat; stomachs, or something similar, by which they +digest their food; all have suitable means for expelling the fæces; all +have the organs requisite for the continuation of their species; and +these natural gifts perform their regular course and process without any +application or intermixture of art. Here are final causes clearly +established; and to deny a truth so universal would be a perversion of +the faculty of reason.</p> + +<p>But stones, in all times and places, do not constitute the materials of +buildings. All noses do not bear spectacles; all fingers do not carry a +ring; all legs are not covered with silk stockings. A silkworm, +therefore, is not made to cover my legs, exactly as your mouth is made +for eating, and another part of your person for the "garderobe." There +are, therefore, we see, immediate effects produced from final causes, +and effects of a very numerous description, which are remote productions +from those causes.</p> + +<p>Everything belonging to nature is uniform, immutable, and the immediate +work of its author. It is he who has established the laws by which the +moon contributes three-fourths to the cause of the flux and reflux of +the ocean, and the sun the remaining fourth. It is he who has given a +rotatory motion to the sun, in consequence of which that orb +communicates its rays of light in the short space of seven minutes and a +half to the eyes of men, crocodiles, and cats.</p> + +<p>But if, after a course of ages, we started the inventions of shears and +spits, to clip the wool of sheep with the one, and with the other to +roast in order to eat them, what else can be inferred from such +circumstances, but that God formed us in such a manner that, at some +time or other, we could not avoid becoming ingenious and carnivorous?</p> + +<p>Sheep, undoubtedly, were not made expressly to be roasted and eaten, +since many nations abstain from such food with horror. Mankind are not +created essentially to massacre one another, since the Brahmins, and the +respectable primitives called Quakers, kill no one. But the clay out of +which we are kneaded frequently produces massacres, as it produces +calumnies, vanities, persecutions, and impertinences. It is not +precisely that the formation of man is the final cause of our madnesses +and follies, for a final cause is universal, and invariable in every age +and place; but the horrors and absurdities of the human race are not at +all the less included in the eternal order of things. When we thresh our +corn, the flail is the final cause of the separation of the grain. But +if that flail, while threshing my grain, crushes to death a thousand +insects, that occurs not by an express and determinate act of my will, +nor, on the other hand, is it by mere chance; the insects were, on this +occasion, actually under my flail, and could not but be there.</p> + +<p>It is a consequence of the nature of things that a man should be +ambitious; that he should enroll and discipline a number of other men; +that he should be a conqueror, or that he should be defeated; but it can +never be said that the man was created by God to be killed in war.</p> + +<p>The organs with which nature has supplied us cannot always be final +causes in action. The eyes which are bestowed for seeing are not +constantly open. Every sense has its season for repose. There are some +senses that are even made no use of. An imbecile and wretched female, +for example, shut up in a cloister at the age of fourteen years, mars +one of the final causes of her existence; but the cause, nevertheless, +equally exists, and whenever it is free it will operate.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FINESSE_FINENESS_ETC" id="FINESSE_FINENESS_ETC"></a>FINESSE, FINENESS, ETC.</h3> + +<h4><i>Of the Different Significations of the Word.</i></h4> + + +<p>Fineness either in its proper or its figurative sense does not signify +either light, slender, fine, or of a rare thin texture; this word +expresses something delicate and finished. Light cloth, soft linen, thin +lace, or slender galloon, are not always fine.</p> + +<p>This word has a relation to the verb "to finish," whence come the +finishings of art; thus, we say, the finishings of Vanderwerff's pencil +or of Mieris; we say, a fine horse, fine gold, a fine diamond. A fine +horse is opposed to a clumsy one; the fine diamond to a false one; fine +or refined gold to gold mixed with alloy.</p> + +<p>Fineness is generally applied to delicate things and lightness of +manufacture. Although we say a fine horse, we seldom say, "the fineness +of a horse." We speak of the fineness of hair, lace, or stuff. When by +this word we should express the fault or wrong use of anything, we add +the adverb "too"; as—This thread is broken, it was too fine; this stuff +is too fine for the season.</p> + +<p>Fineness or finesse, in a figurative sense, applies to conduct, speech, +and works of mind. In conduct, finesse always expresses, as in the arts, +something delicate or subtile; it may sometimes exist without ability, +but it is very rarely unaccompanied by a little deception; politics +admit it, and society reproves it.</p> + +<p>Finesse is not exactly subtlety; we draw a person into a snare with +finesse; we escape from it with subtlety. We act with finesse, and we +play a subtle trick. Distrust is inspired by an unsparing use of +finesse; yet we almost always deceive ourselves if we too generally +suspect it.</p> + +<p>Finesse, in works of wit, as in conversation, consists in the art of not +expressing a thought clearly, but leaving it so as to be easily +perceived. It is an enigma to which people of sense readily find the +solution.</p> + +<p>A chancellor one day offering his protection to parliament, the first +president turning towards the assembly, said: "Gentlemen, thank the +chancellor; he has given us more than we demanded of him"—a very witty +reproof.</p> + +<p>Finesse, in conversation and writing, differs from delicacy; the first +applies equally to piquant and agreeable things, even to blame and +praise; and still more to indecencies, over which a veil is drawn, +through which we cannot penetrate without a blush. Bold things may be +said with finesse.</p> + +<p>Delicacy expresses soft and agreeable sentiments and ingenious praise; +thus finesse belongs more to epigram, and delicacy to madrigal. It is +delicacy which enters into a lover's jealousies, and not finesse.</p> + +<p>The praises given to Louis XIV. by Despréaux are not always equally +delicate; satires are not always sufficiently ingenious in the way of +finesse. When Iphigenia, in Racine, has received from her father the +order never to see Achilles more, she cries: "<i>Dieux plus doux, vous +n'aviez demandé que ma vie!</i>"—"More gentle gods, you only ask my life!" +The true character of this partakes rather of delicacy than of finesse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FIRE" id="FIRE"></a>FIRE.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>Is fire anything more than an element which lights, warms, and burns us? +Is not light always fire, though fire is not always light? And is not +Boerhaave in the right?</p> + +<p>Is not the purest fire extracted from our combustibles, always gross, +and partaking of the bodies consumed, and very different from elementary +fire? How is fire distributed throughout nature, of which it is the +soul?</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ignis ubique latet, naturam amplectitur omnem,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Cuncta parit, renovat, dividit, unit, alit.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Why did Newton, in speaking of rays of light, always say, "<i>De natura +radiorum lucis, utrum corpora sint necne non disputamus</i>"; without +examining whether they were bodies or not?</p> + +<p>Did he only speak geometrically? In that case, this doubt was useless. +It is evident that he doubted of the nature of elementary fire, and +doubted with reason.</p> + +<p>Is elementary fire a body like others, as earth and water? If it was a +body of this kind, would it not gravitate like all other matter? Would +it escape from the luminous body in the right line? Would it have a +uniform progression? And why does light never move out of a right line +when it is unimpeded in its rapid course?</p> + +<p>May not elementary fire have properties of matter little known to us, +and properties of substance entirely so? May it not be a medium between +matter and substances of another kind? And who can say that there are +not a million of these substances? I do not say that there are, but I +say it is not proved that there may not be.</p> + +<p>It was very difficult to believe about a hundred years ago that bodies +acted upon one another, not only without touching, and without emission, +but at great distances; it is, however, found to be true, and is no +longer doubted. At present, it is difficult to believe that the rays of +the sun are penetrable by each other, but who knows what may happen to +prove it?</p> + +<p>However that may be, I wish, for the novelty of the thing, that this +incomprehensible penetrability could be admitted. Light has something so +divine that we should endeavor to make it a step to the discovery of +substances still more pure.</p> + +<p>Come to my aid, Empedocles and Democritus; come and admire the wonders +of electricity; see if the sparks which traverse a thousand bodies in +the twinkling of an eye are of ordinary matter; judge if elementary fire +does not contract the heart, and communicate that warmth which gives +life! Judge if this element is not the source of all sensation, and if +sensation is not the origin of thought; though ignorant and insolent +pedants have condemned the proposition, as one which should be +persecuted.</p> + +<p>Tell me, if the Supreme Being, who presides over all nature, cannot +forever preserve these elementary atoms which he has so rarely endowed? +<i>"Igneus est ollis vigor et cœlestis origo.</i>"</p> + +<p>The celebrated Le Cat calls this vivifying fluid "an amphibious being, +endowed by its author with a superior refinement which links it to +immaterial beings, and thereby ennobles and elevates it into that medium +nature which we recognize, and which is the source of all its +properties."</p> + +<p>You are of the opinion of Le Cat? I would be so too if I could; but +there are so many fools and villains that I dare not. I can only think +quietly in my own way at Mount Krapak. Let others think as well as they +are allowed to think, whether at Salamanca or Bergamo.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<h4><i>What is Understood by Fire Used Figuratively.</i></h4> + +<p>Fire, particularly in poetry, often signifies love, and is employed more +elegantly in the plural than in the singular. Corneille often says "<i>un +beau feu</i>" for a virtuous and noble love. A man has fire in his +conversation; that does not mean that he has brilliant and enlightened +ideas, but lively expressions animated by action.</p> + +<p>Fire in writing does not necessarily imply lightness and beauty, but +vivacity, multiplied figures, and spontaneous ideas. Fire is a merit in +speech and writing only when it is well managed. It is said that poets +are animated with a divine fire when they are sublime; genius cannot +exist without fire, but fire may be possessed without genius.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FIRMNESS" id="FIRMNESS"></a>FIRMNESS.</h3> + + +<p>Firmness comes from firm, and has a different signification from +solidity and hardness; a squeezed cloth, a beaten negro, have firmness +without being hard or solid.</p> + +<p>It must always be remembered that modifications of the soul can only be +expressed by physical images; we say firmness of soul, and of mind, +which does not signify that they are harder or more solid than usual.</p> + +<p>Firmness is the exercise of mental courage; it means a decided +resolution; while obstinacy, on the contrary, signifies blindness. Those +who praise the firmness of Tacitus are not so much in the wrong as P. +Bouhours pretends; it is an accidental ill-chosen term, which expresses +energy and strength of thought and of style. It may be said that La +Bruyère has a firm style, and that many other writers have only a hard +one.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FLATTERY" id="FLATTERY"></a>FLATTERY.</h3> + + +<p>I find not one monument of flattery in remote antiquity; there is no +flattery in Hesiod—none in Homer. Their stories are not addressed to a +Greek, elevated to some dignity, nor to his lady; as each canto of +Thomson's "Seasons" is dedicated to some person of rank, or as so many +forgotten epistles in verse have been dedicated, in England, to +gentlemen or ladies of quality, with a brief eulogy, and the arms of +the patron or patroness placed at the head of the work.</p> + +<p>Nor is there any flattery in Demosthenes. This way of asking alms +harmoniously began, if I mistake not, with Pindar. No hand can be +stretched out more emphatically.</p> + +<p>It appears to me that among the Romans great flattery is to be dated +from the time of Augustus. Julius Cæsar had scarcely time to be +flattered. There is not, extant, any dedicatory epistle to Sulla, +Marius, or Carbo, nor to their wives, or their mistresses. I can well +believe that very bad verses were presented to Lucullus and Pompey; but, +thank God, we do not have them.</p> + +<p>It is a great spectacle to behold Cicero equal in dignity to Cæsar, +speaking before him as advocate for a king of Bithynia and Lesser +Armenia, named Deiotarus, accused of laying ambuscades for him, and even +designing to assassinate him. Cicero begins with acknowledging that he +is disconcerted in his presence. He calls him the vanquisher of the +world—"<i>victorem orbis terrarum</i>." He flatters him; but this adulation +does not yet amount to baseness; some sense of shame still remains.</p> + +<p>But with Augustus there are no longer any bounds; the senate decrees his +apotheosis during his lifetime. Under the succeeding emperors this +flattery becomes the ordinary tribute, and is no longer anything more +than a style. It is impossible to flatter any one, when the most +extravagant adulation has become the ordinary currency.</p> + +<p>In Europe, we have had no great monuments of flattery before Louis XIV. +His father, Louis XIII., had very little incense offered him. We find no +mention of him, except in one or two of Malherbe's odes. There, indeed, +according to custom, he is called "thou greatest of kings"—as the +Spanish poets say to the king of Spain, and the English poets (laureate) +to the king of England; but the better part of the poet's praises is +bestowed on Cardinal Richelieu, whose soul is great and fearless; who +practises so well the healing art of government, and who knows how to +cure all our evils:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Dont l'âme toute grande est une âme hardîe,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Qui pratique si bien l'art de nous secourir,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Que, pourvu qu'il soit cru, nous n'avons maladie,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Qu'il ne sache guérir.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Upon Louis XIV. flattery came in a deluge. But he was not like the man +said to have been smothered by the rose leaves heaped upon him; on the +contrary, he thrived the more.</p> + +<p>Flattery, when it has some plausible pretext, may not be so pernicious +as it has been thought; it sometimes encourages to great acts; but its +excess is vicious, like the excess of satire. La Fontaine says, and +pretends to say it after Æsop:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>On ne peut trop louer trois sortes de personnes;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Les dieux, sa maitresse, et son roi.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Æsope le disait; j'y souscris quant à moi;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ces sont maximes toujours bonnes.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Your flattery to three sorts of folks apply:—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">You cannot say too civil things</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To gods, to mistresses, and kings;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">So honest Æsop said—and so say I.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Honest Æsop said no such thing; nor do we find that he flattered any +king, or any concubine. It must not be thought that kings are in reality +flattered by all the flatteries that are heaped upon them; for the +greater number never reach them.</p> + +<p>One common folly of orators is that of exhausting themselves in praising +some prince who will never hear of their praises. But what is most +lamentable of all is that Ovid should have praised Augustus even while +he was dating "<i>de Ponto</i>."</p> + +<p>The perfection of the ridiculous might be found in the compliments which +preachers address to kings, when they have the happiness of exhibiting +before their majesties.—"To the reverend Father Gaillard, preacher to +the king." Ah! most reverend father, do you preach only for the king? +Are you like the monkey at the fair, which leaps "only for the king?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FORCE_PHYSICAL" id="FORCE_PHYSICAL"></a>FORCE (PHYSICAL).</h3> + + +<p>What is "force?" Where does it reside? Whence does it come? Does it +perish? Or is it ever the same?</p> + +<p>It has pleased us to denominate "force" that weight which one body +exercises upon another. Here is a ball of two hundred pounds' weight on +this floor; it presses the floor, you say, with a force of two hundred +pounds. And this you call a "dead force." But are not these words +"dead" and "force" a little contradictory? Might we not as well say +"dead alive"—yes and no at once?</p> + +<p>This ball "weighs." Whence comes this "weight?" and is this weight a +"force?" If the ball were not impeded, would it go directly to the +centre of the earth? Whence has it this incomprehensible property?</p> + +<p>It is supported by my floor; and you freely give to my floor the "<i>vis +inertiæ</i>"—"inertiæ" signifying "inactivity," "impotence." Now is it not +singular that "impotence" should be denominated "force?"</p> + +<p>What is the living force which acts in your arm and your leg? What is +the source of it? How can it be supposed that this force exists when you +are dead? Does it go and take up its abode elsewhere, as a man goes to +another house when his own is in ruins?</p> + +<p>How can it have been said that there is always the same force in nature? +There must, then, have been always the same number of men, or of active +beings equivalent to men. Why does a body in motion communicate its +force to another body with which it comes in contact?</p> + +<p>These are questions which neither geometry, nor mechanics, nor +metaphysics can answer. Would you arrive at the first principle of the +force of bodies, and of motion, you must ascend to a still superior +principle. Why is there "anything?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FORCE_STRENGTH" id="FORCE_STRENGTH"></a>FORCE—STRENGTH.</h3> + + +<p>These words have been transplanted from simple to figurative speech. +They are applied to all the parts of the body that are in motion, in +action—the force of the heart, which some have made four hundred +pounds, and some three ounces; the force of the viscera, the lungs, the +voice; the force of the arm.</p> + +<p>The metaphor which has transported these words into morals has made them +express a cardinal virtue. Strength, in this sense, is the courage to +support adversity, and to undertake virtuous and difficult actions; it +is the "<i>animi fortitudo</i>."</p> + +<p>The strength of the mind is penetration and depth—"<i>ingenii vis</i>." +Nature gives it as she gives that of the body; moderate labor increases +and excessive labor diminishes it.</p> + +<p>The force of an argument consists in a clear exposition of +clearly-exhibited proofs, and a just conclusion; with mathematical +theorems it has nothing to do; because the evidence of a demonstration +can be made neither more nor less; only it may be arrived at by a longer +or a shorter path—a simpler or more complicated method. It is in +doubtful questions that the force of reasoning is truly applicable.</p> + +<p>The force of eloquence is not merely a train of just and vigorous +reasoning, which is not incompatible with dryness; this force, requires +floridity, striking images, and energetic expressions. Thus it has been +said, that the sermons of Bourdaloue have force, those of Massillon +more elegance. Verses may have strength, and want every other beauty. +The strength of a line in our language consists principally in saying +something in each hemistich.</p> + +<p>Strength in painting is the expression of the muscles, which, by feeling +touches, are made to appear under the flesh that covers them. There is +too much strength when the muscles are too strongly articulated. The +attitudes of the combatants have great strength in the battles of +Constantine, drawn by Raphael and Julio Romano; and in those of Cæsar, +painted by Lebrun. Inordinate strength is harsh in painting and +bombastic in poetry.</p> + +<p>Some philosophers have asserted that force is a property inherent in +matter; that each invisible particle, or rather <i>monad</i>, is endowed with +an active force; but it would be as difficult to demonstrate this +assertion as it would be to prove that whiteness is a quality inherent +in matter, as the Trévoux dictionary says in the article "Inherent."</p> + +<p>The strength of every animal has arrived at the highest when the animal +has attained its full growth. It decreases when the muscles no longer +receive the same quantity of nourishment: and this quantity ceases to be +the same when the animal spirits no longer communicate to the muscles +their accustomed motion. It is probable that the animal spirits are of +fire, inasmuch as old men want motion and strength in proportion as they +want warmth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FRANCHISE" id="FRANCHISE"></a>FRANCHISE.</h3> + + +<p>A word which always gives an idea of liberty in whatever sense it is +taken; a word derived from the Franks, who were always free. It is so +ancient, that when the Cid besieged and took Toledo, in the eleventh +century, franchies or franchises were given to all the French who went +on this expedition, and who established themselves at Toledo. All walled +cities had franchises, liberties, and privileges, even in the greatest +anarchy of feudal power. In all countries possessing assemblies or +states, the sovereign swore, on his accession, to guard their liberties.</p> + +<p>This name, which has been given generally to the rights of the people, +to immunities, and to sanctuaries or asylums, has been more particularly +applied to the quarters of the ambassadors of the court of Rome. It was +a plot of ground around their palaces, which was larger or smaller +according to the will of the ambassador. The ground was an asylum for +criminals, who could not be there pursued. This franchise was +restricted, under Innocent XI. to the inside of their palaces. Churches +and convents had the same privileges in Italy, but not in other states. +There are in Paris several places of sanctuary, in which debtors cannot +be seized for their debts by common justice, and where mechanics can +pursue their trades without being freemen. Mechanics have this privilege +in the Faubourg St. Antoine, but it is not an asylum like the Temple.</p> + +<p>The word "franchise," which usually expresses the liberties of a nation, +city, or person, is sometimes used to signify liberty of speech, of +counsel, or of a law proceeding; but there is a great difference between +speaking with frankness and speaking with liberty. In a speech to a +superior, liberty is a studied or excessive boldness—frankness +outstepping its just bounds. To speak with liberty is to speak without +fear; to speak with frankness is to conduct yourself openly and nobly. +To speak with too much liberty is to become audacious; to speak with too +much frankness is to be too open-hearted.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FRANCIS_XAVIER" id="FRANCIS_XAVIER"></a>FRANCIS XAVIER.</h3> + + +<p>It would not be amiss to know something true concerning the celebrated +Francis Xavero, whom we call Xavier, surnamed the Apostle of the Indies. +Many people still imagine that he established Christianty along the +whole southern coast of India, in a score of islands, and above all in +Japan. But thirty years ago, even a doubt on the subject was hardly to +be tolerated in Europe. The Jesuits have not hesitated to compare him to +St. Paul. His travels and miracles had been written in part by +Tursellinus and Orlandini, by Levena, and by Partoli, all Jesuits, but +very little known in France; and the less people were acquainted with +the details the greater was his reputation.</p> + +<p>When the Jesuit Bouhours composed his history, he (Bouhours) was +considered as a man of very enlightened mind, and was living in the best +company in Paris; I do not mean the company of Jesus, but that of men of +the world the most distinguished for intellect and knowledge. No one +wrote in a purer or more unaffected style; it was even proposed in the +French Academy that it should trespass against the rules of its +institution, by receiving Father Bouhours into its body. He had another +great advantage in the influence of his order, which then, by an almost +inconceivable illusion, governed all Catholic princes.</p> + +<p>Sound criticism was, it is true, beginning to rear its head; but its +progress was slow: men were, in general, more anxious to write ably than +to write what was true.</p> + +<p>Bouhours wrote the lives of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier almost +without encountering a single objection. Even his comparison of St. +Ignatius to Cæsar, and Xavier to Alexander, passed without +animadversion; it was tolerated as a flower of rhetoric.</p> + +<p>I have seen in the Jesuit's college, Rue St. Jacques, a picture twelve +feet long and twelve high, representing Ignatius and Xavier ascending to +heaven, each in a magnificent chariot drawn by four milk-white horses; +and above, the Eternal Father, adorned with a fine white beard +descending to His waist, with Jesus and the Virgin beside him; the Holy +Ghost beneath them, in the form of a dove; and angels joining their +hands, and bending down to receive Father Ignatius and Father Xavier.</p> + +<p>Had anyone publicly made a jest of this picture, the reverend Father La +Chaise, confessor to the king, would infallibly have had the +sacrilegious scoffer honored with a <i>lettre de cachet</i>.</p> + +<p>It cannot be denied that Francis Xavier is comparable to Alexander, +inasmuch as they both went to India—so is Ignatius to Cæsar, both +having been in Gaul. But Xavier, the vanquisher of the devil, went far +beyond Alexander, the conqueror of Darius. How gratifying it is to see +him going, in the capacity of a volunteer converter, from Spain into +France, from France to Rome, from Rome to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to +Mozambique, after making the tour of Africa. He stays a long time at +Mozambique, where he receives from God the gift of prophecy: he then +proceeds to Melinda, where he disputes on the Koran with the Mahometans, +who doubtless understand his religion as well as he understands theirs, +and where he even finds caciques, although they are to be found nowhere +but in America. The Portuguese vessel arrives at the island of Zocotora, +which is unquestionably that of the Amazons: there he converts all the +islanders, and builds a church. Thence he reaches Goa, where he finds a +pillar on which St. Thomas had engraved, that one day St. Xavier should +come and re-establish the Christian religion, which had flourished of +old in India. Xavier has no difficulty whatever in perusing the ancient +characters, whether Indian or Hebrew, in which this prophecy is +expressed. He forthwith takes up a hand-bell, assembles all the little +boys around him, explains to them the creed, and baptizes them—but his +great delight was to marry the Indians to their mistresses.</p> + +<p>From Goa he speeds to Cape Comorin, to the fishing coast, to the kingdom +of Travancore. His greatest anxiety, on arriving in any country, is to +quit it. He embarks in the first Portuguese ship he finds, whithersoever +it is bound, it matters not to Xavier; provided only that he is +travelling somewhere, he is content. He is received through charity, and +returns two or three times to Goa, to Cochin, to Cori, to Negapatam, to +Meliapour. A vessel is departing for Malacca, and Xavier accordingly +takes his passage for Malacca, in great despair that he has not yet had +an opportunity of seeing Siam, Pegu, and Tonquin. We find him in the +island of Sumatra, at Borneo, at Macassar, in the Moluccas, and +especially at Ternate and Amboyna. The king of Ternate had, in his +immense seraglio, a hundred women in the capacity of wives, and seven or +eight hundred in that of concubines. The first thing Xavier does is to +turn them all out. Please to observe that the island of Ternate is two +leagues across.</p> + +<p>Thence finding another Portugese vessel bound for Ceylon, he returns to +Ceylon, where he makes various excursions to Goa and to Cochin. The +Portuguese were already trading to Japan. A ship sails for that country: +Xavier takes care to embark in it, and visits all the Japan islands. In +short (says the Jesuit Bouhours), the whole length of Xavier's routes, +joined together, would reach several times around the globe.</p> + +<p>Be it observed, that he set out on his travels in 1542, and died in +1552. If he had time to learn the languages of all the nations he +visited, it was no trifling miracle: if he had the gift of tongues, it +was a greater miracle still. But unfortunately, in several of his +letters, he says that he is obliged to employ an interpreter; and in +others he acknowledges that he finds extreme difficulty in learning the +Japanese language, which he cannot pronounce.</p> + +<p>The Jesuit Bouhours, in giving some of his letters, has no doubt that +"St. Francis Xavier had the gift of tongues"; but he acknowledges that +"he had it not always." "He had it," says he, "on several occasions; +for, without having learned the Chinese tongue, he preached to the +Chinese every morning at Amanguchi, which is the capital of a province +in Japan."</p> + +<p>He must have been perfectly acquainted with all the languages of the +East; for he made songs in them of the Paternoster, Ave-Maria, and +Credo, for the instruction of the little boys and girls.</p> + +<p>But the best of all is, that this man, who had occasion for a dragoman, +spoke every tongue at once, like the apostles; and when he spoke +Portuguese, in which language Bouhours acknowledges that the saint +explained himself very ill, the Indians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the +inhabitants of Ceylon and of Sumatra, all understood him perfectly.</p> + +<p>One day in particular, when he was preaching on the immateriality of the +soul, the motion of the planets, the eclipses of the sun and moon, the +rainbow, sin and grace, paradise and purgatory, he made himself +understood to twenty persons of different nations.</p> + +<p>Is it asked how such a man could make so many converts in Japan? The +simple answer is that he did not make any; but other Jesuits, who staid +a long time in the country, by favor of the treaties between the kings +of Portugal and the emperors of Japan, converted so many people, that a +civil war ensued, which is said to have cost the lives of nearly four +hundred thousand men. This is the most noted prodigy that the +missionaries have worked in Japan.</p> + +<p>But those of Francis Xavier are not without their merit. Among his host +of miracles, we find no fewer than eight children raised from the dead. +"Xavier's greatest miracle," says the Jesuit Bouhours, "was not his +raising so many of the dead to life, but his not himself dying of +fatigue."</p> + +<p>But the pleasantest of his miracles is, that having dropped his crucifix +into the sea, near the island of Baranura, which I am inclined to think +was the island of Barataria, a crab came, four-and-twenty hours after, +bringing the cane between its claws.</p> + +<p>The most brilliant of all, and after which no other deserves to be +related, is that in a storm which lasted three days, he was constantly +in two ships, a hundred and fifty leagues apart, and served one of them +as a pilot. The truth of this miracle was attested by all the +passengers, who could neither deceive nor be deceived.</p> + +<p>Yet all this was written seriously and with success in the age of Louis +XIV., in the age of the "Provincial Letters," of Racine's tragedies, of +"Bayle's Dictionary," and of so many other learned works.</p> + +<p>It would appear to be a sort of miracle that a man of sense, like +Bouhours, should have committed such a mass of extravagance to the +press, if we did not know to what excesses men can be carried by the +corporate spirit in general, and the monachal spirit in particular. We +have more than two hundred volumes entirely in this taste, compiled by +monks; but what is most to be lamented is, that the enemies of the monks +also compile. They compile more agreeably, and are read. It is most +deplorable that, in nineteen-twentieths of Europe, there is no longer +that profound respect and just veneration for the monks which is still +felt for them in some of the villages of Aragon and Calabria.</p> + +<p>The miracles of St. Francis Xavier, the achievements of Don Quixote, +the Comic Romance, and the convulsionaries of St. Medard, have an equal +claim on our admiration and reverence.</p> + +<p>After speaking of Francis Xavier it would be useless to discuss the +history of the other Francises. If you would be instructed thoroughly, +consult the conformities of St. Francis of Assisi.</p> + +<p>Since the fine history of St. Francis Xavier by the Jesuit Bouhours, we +have had the history of St. Francis Régis by the Jesuit Daubenton, +confessor to Philip V. of Spain: but this is small-beer after brandy. In +the history of the blessed Régis, there is not even a single +resuscitation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FRANKS_FRANCEmdashFRENCH" id="FRANKS_FRANCEmdashFRENCH"></a>FRANKS—FRANCE—FRENCH</h3> + + +<p>Italy has always preserved its name, notwithstanding the pretended +establishment of Æneas, which should have left some traces of the +language, characters, and manners of Phrygia, if he ever came with +Achates and so many others, into the province of Rome, then almost a +desert. The Goths, Lombards, Franks, Allemani or Germans, who have by +turns invaded Italy, have at least left it its name.</p> + +<p>The Tyrians, Africans, Romans, Vandals, Visigoths, and Saracens, have, +one after the other, been masters of Spain, yet the name of Spain +exists. Germany has also always preserved its own name; it has merely +joined that of Allemagne to it, which appellation it did not receive +from any conqueror.</p> + +<p>The Gauls are almost the only people in the west who have lost their +name. This name was originally Walch or Welsh; the Romans always +substituted a G for the W, which is barbarous: of "Welsh" they made +Galli, Gallia. They distinguished the Celtic, the Belgic, and the +Aquitanic Gaul, each of which spoke a different jargon.</p> + +<p>Who were, and whence came these Franks, who in such small numbers and +little time possessed themselves of all the Gauls, which in ten years +Cæsar could not entirely reduce? I am reading an author who commences by +these words: "The Franks from whom we descend." ... Ha! my friend, who +has told you that you descend in a right line from a Frank? Clovodic, +whom we call Clovis, probably had not more than twenty thousand men, +badly clothed and armed, when he subjugated about eight or ten millions +of Welsh or Gauls, held in servitude by three or four Roman legions. We +have not a single family in France which can furnish, I do not say the +least proof, but the least probability, that it had its origin from a +Frank.</p> + +<p>When the pirates of the Baltic Sea came, to the number of seven or eight +thousand, to give Normandy in fief, and Brittany in <i>arrière fief</i>, did +they, leave any archives by which it may be seen whether they were the +fathers of all the Normans of the present day?</p> + +<p>It has been a long time believed that the Franks came from the Trojans. +Ammianus Marcellinus, who lived in the fourth century, says: "According +to several ancient writers, troops of fugitive Trojans established +themselves on the borders of the Rhine, then a desert." As to Æneas, he +might easily have sought an asylum at the extremity of the +Mediterranean, but Francus, the son of Hector, had too far to travel to +go towards Düsseldorf, Worms, Solm, Ehrenbreitstein.</p> + +<p>Fredegarius doubts not that the Franks at first retired into Macedonia, +and carried arms under Alexander, after having fought under Priam; on +which alleged facts the monk Otfried compliments the emperor, Louis the +German.</p> + +<p>The geographer of Ravenna, less fabulous, assigns the first habitation +of the horde of Franks among the Cimbrians, beyond the Elbe, towards the +Baltic Sea. These Franks might well be some remains of these barbarian +Cimbri defeated by Marius; and the learned Leibnitz is of this opinion.</p> + +<p>It is very certain that, in the time of Constantine, beyond the Rhine, +there were hordes of Franks or Sicambri, who lived by pillage. They +assembled under bandit captains, chiefs whom historians have had the +folly to call kings. Constantine himself pursued them to their haunts, +caused several to be hanged, and others to be delivered to wild beasts, +in the amphitheatre of Trier, for his amusement. Two of their pretended +kings perished in this manner, at which the panegyrists of Constantine +are in ecstasies.</p> + +<p>The Salic law, written, it is said, by these barbarians, is one of the +absurd chimeras with which we have always been pestered. It would be +very strange if the Franks had written such a considerable code in their +marshes, and the French had not any written usages until the close of +the reign of Charles VII. It might as well be said that the Algonquins +and Chicachas had written laws. Men are never governed by authentic +laws, consigned to public records, until they have been assembled into +cities, and have a regular police, archives, and all that characterizes +a civilized nation. When you find a code in a nation which was barbarous +at the time it was written, who lived upon rapine and pillage, and which +had not a walled town, you may be sure that this code is a pretended +one, which has been made in much later times. Fallacies and suppositions +never obliterate this truth from the minds of the wise.</p> + +<p>What is more ridiculous still, this Salic law has been given to us in +Latin; as if savages, wandering beyond the Rhine, had learnt the Latin +language. It is supposed to have been first digested by Clovis, and it +ran thus: "While the illustrious nation of the Franks was still +considered barbarous, the heads of this nation dictated the Salic law. +They chose among themselves four chiefs, Visogast, Bodogast, Sologast, +Vindogast"—taking, according to La Fontaine's fable, the names of +places for those of men:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Notre magot prit pour ce coup</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Le nom d'un port pour un nom d'homme.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>These names are those of some Frank cantons in the province of Worms. +Whatever may be the epoch in which the customs denominated the Salic law +were constructed on an ancient tradition, it is very clear that the +Franks were not great legislators.</p> + +<p>What is the original meaning of the word "Frank?" That is a question of +which we know nothing, and which above a hundred authors have endeavored +to find out. What is the meaning of Hun, Alan, Goth, Welsh, Picard? And +what do these words signify?</p> + +<p>Were the armies of Clovis all composed of Franks? It does not appear so. +Childeric the Frank had made inroads as far as Tournay. It is said that +Clovis was the son of Childeric, and Queen Bazine, the wife of King +Bazin. Now Bazin and Bazine are assuredly not German names, and we have +never seen the least proof that Clovis was their son. All the German +cantons elected their chiefs, and the province of Franks had no doubt +elected Clovis as they had done his father. He made his expedition +against the Gauls, as all the other barbarians had undertaken theirs +against the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>Do you really and truly believe that the Herulian Odo, surnamed Acer by +the Romans, and known to us by the name of Odoacer, had only Herulians +in his train, and that Genseric conducted Vandals alone into Africa? All +the wretches without talent or profession, who have nothing to lose, do +they not always join the first captain of robbers who raises the +standard of destruction?</p> + +<p>As soon as Clovis had the least success, his troops were no doubt joined +by all the Belgians who panted for booty; and this army is nevertheless +called the army of Franks. The expedition is very easy. The Visigoths +had already invaded one-third of Gaul, and the Burgundians another. The +rest submitted to Clovis. The Franks divided the land of the vanquished, +and the Welsh cultivated it.</p> + +<p>The word "Frank" originally signified a free possessor, while the others +were slaves. Hence come the words "franchise," and "to enfranchise"—"I +make you a Frank," "I render you a free man." Hence, <i>francalenus</i>, +holding freely; <i>frank aleu</i>, <i>frank dad</i>, <i>frank chamen</i>, and so many +other terms half Latin and half barbarian, which have so long composed +the miserable patois spoken in France.</p> + +<p>Hence, also, a franc in gold or silver to express the money of the king +of the Franks, which did not appear until a long time after, but which +reminds us of the origin of the monarchy. We still say twenty francs, +twenty livres, which signifies nothing in itself; it gives no idea of +the weight or value of the money, being only a vague expression, by +which ignorant people have been continually deceived, not knowing really +how much they receive or how much they pay.</p> + +<p>Charlemagne did not consider himself as a Frank; he was born in +Austrasia, and spoke the German language. He was of the family of +Arnold, bishop of Metz, preceptor to Dagobert. Now it is not probable +that a man chosen for a preceptor was a Frank. He made the greatest +glory of the most profound ignorance, and was acquainted only with the +profession of arms. But what gives most weight to the opinion that +Charlemagne regarded the Franks as strangers to him is the fourth +article of one of his capitularies on his farms. "If the Franks," said +he, "commit any ravages on our possessions, let them be judged according +to their laws."</p> + +<p>The Carlovingian race always passed for German: Pope Adrian IV., in his +letter to the archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, and Trier, expresses +himself in these remarkable terms: "The emperor was transferred from the +Greeks to the Germans. Their king was not emperor until after he had +been crowned by the pope.... all that the emperor possessed he held from +us. And as Zacharius gave the Greek Empire to the Germans, we can give +that of the Germans to the Greeks."</p> + +<p>However, France having been divided into eastern and western, and the +eastern being Austrasia, this name of France prevailed so far, that even +in the time of the Saxon emperors, the court of Constantinople always +called them pretended Frank emperors, as may be seen in the letters of +Bishop Luitgrand, sent from Rome to Constantinople.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Of the French Nation.</i></p> + +<p>When the Franks established themselves in the country of the first +Welsh, which the Romans called Gallia, the nation was composed of +ancient Celts or Gauls, subjugated by Cæsar, Roman families who were +established there, Germans who had already emigrated there, and finally +of the Franks, who had rendered themselves masters of the country under +their chief Clovis. While the monarchy existed, which united Gaul and +Germany, all the people, from the source of the Weser to the seas of +Gaul, bore the name of Franks. But when at the congress of Verdun, in +843, under Charles the Bald, Germany and Gaul were separated, the name +of Franks remained to the people of western France, which alone retained +the name of France.</p> + +<p>The name of French was scarcely known until towards the tenth century. +The foundation of the nation is of Gallic families, and traces of the +character of the ancient Gauls have always existed.</p> + +<p>Indeed, every people has its character, as well as every man; and this +character is generally formed of all the resemblances caused by nature +and custom among the inhabitants of the varieties which distinguish +them. Thus French character, genius, and wit, result from that which has +been common to the different provinces in the kingdom. The people of +Guienne and those of Normandy differ much; there is, however, found in +them the French genius, which forms a nation of these different +provinces, and distinguishes them from the Indians and Germans. Climate +and soil evidently imprint unchangeable marks on men, as well as on +animals and plants. Those which depend on government, religion, and +education are different. That is the knot which explains how people have +lost one part of their ancient character and preserved the other. A +people who formerly conquered half the world are no longer recognized +under sacerdotal government, but the seeds of their ancient greatness of +soul still exist, though hidden beneath weakness.</p> + +<p>In the same manner the barbarous government of the Turks has enervated +the Egyptians and the Greeks, without having been able to destroy the +original character or temper of their minds.</p> + +<p>The present character of the French is the same as Cæsar ascribed to the +Gauls—prompt to resolve, ardent to combat, impetuous in attack, and +easily discouraged. Cæsar, Agatius, and others say, that of all the +barbarians the Gauls were the most polished. They are still in the most +civilized times the model of politeness to all their neighbors, though +they occasionally discover the remains of their levity, petulance, and +barbarity.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of the coasts of France were always good seamen; the +people of Guienne always compose the best infantry; "those who inhabit +the provinces of Blois and Tours are not," says Tasso, "robust and +indefatigable, but bland and gentle, like the land which they inhabit."</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>.... Gente robusta, e faticosa,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>La terra molle, e lieta, e dilettosa</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Simili a se gli abitator, produce.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But how can we reconcile the character of the Parisians of our day with +that which the Emperor Julian, the first of princes and men after Marcus +Aurelius, gave to the Parisians of his time?—"I love this people," says +he in his "<i>Misopogon</i>," "because they are serious and severe like +myself." This seriousness, which seems at present banished from an +immense city become the centre of pleasure, then reigned in a little +town destitute of amusements: in this respect the spirit of the +Parisians has changed notwithstanding the climate.</p> + +<p>The affluence, opulence, and idleness of the people who may occupy +themselves with pleasures and the arts, and not with the government, +have given a new turn of mind to a whole nation.</p> + +<p>Further, how is it to be explained by what degrees this people have +passed from the fierceness which characterized them in the time of King +John, Charles VI., Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV., to the soft +facility of manners for which they are now the admiration of Europe? It +is that the storms of government and religion forced constitutional +vivacity into paroxysms of faction and fanaticism; and that this same +vivacity, which always will exist, has at present no object but the +pleasures of society. The Parisian is impetuous in his pleasures as he +formerly was in his fierceness. The original character which is caused +by the climate is always the same. If at present he cultivates the +arts, of which he was so long deprived, it is not that he has another +mind, since he has not other organs; but it is that he has more relief, +and this relief has not been created by himself, as by the Greeks and +Florentines, among whom the arts flourished like the natural fruits of +their soil. The Frenchman has only received them, but having happily +cultivated and adopted these exotics, he has almost perfected them.</p> + +<p>The French government was originally that of all the northern +nations—of all those whose policy was regulated in general assemblies +of the nation. Kings were the chief of these assemblies; and this was +almost the only administration of the French in the first two +generations, before Charles the Simple.</p> + +<p>When the monarchy was dismembered, in the decline of the Carlovingian +race, when the kingdom of Aries arose, and the provinces were occupied +by vassals little dependent on the crown, the name of French was more +restricted. Under Hugh Capet, Henry, and Philip, the people on this side +the Loire only, were called French. There was then seen a great +diversity of manners and of laws in the provinces held from the crown of +France. The particular lords who became the masters of these provinces +introduced new customs into their new states. A Breton and a Fleming +have at present some conformity, notwithstanding the difference of +their character, which they hold from the sun and the climate, but +originally there was not the least similitude between them.</p> + +<p>It is only since the time of Francis I. that there has been any +uniformity in manners and customs. The court, at this time, first began +to serve for a model to the United Provinces; but in general, +impetuosity in war, and a lax discipline, always formed the predominant +character of the nation.</p> + +<p>Gallantry and politeness began to distinguish the French under Francis +I. Manners became odious after the death of Francis II. However, in the +midst of their horrors, there was always a politeness at court which the +Germans and English endeavored to imitate. The rest of Europe, in aiming +to resemble the French, were already jealous of them. A character in one +of Shakespeare's comedies says that it is difficult to be polite without +having been at the court of France.</p> + +<p>Though the nation has been taxed with frivolity by Cæsar, and by all +neighboring nations, yet this kingdom, so long dismembered, and so often +ready to sink, is united and sustained principally by the wisdom of its +negotiations, address, and patience; but above all, by the divisions of +Germany and England. Brittany alone has been united to the kingdom by a +marriage; Burgundy by right of fee, and by the ability of Louis XI.; +Dauphiny by a donation, which was the fruit of policy; the county of +Toulouse by a grant, maintained by an army; Provence by money. One +treaty of peace has given Alsace, another Lorraine. The English have +been driven from France, notwithstanding the most signal victories, +because the kings of France have known how to temporize, and profit on +all favorable occasions;—all which proves, that if the French youth are +frivolous, the men of riper age, who govern it, have always been wise. +Even at present the magistracy are severe in manners, as in the time of +the Emperor Julian. If the first successes in Italy, in the time of +Charles VIII., were owing to the warlike impetuosity of the nation, the +disgraces which followed them were caused by the blindness of a court +which was composed of young men alone. Francis I. was only unfortunate +in his youth, when all was governed by favorites of his own age, and he +rendered his kingdom more flourishing at a more advanced age.</p> + +<p>The French have always used the same arms as their neighbors, and have +nearly the same discipline in war, but were the first who discarded the +lance and pike. The battle of Ivry discouraged the use of lances, which +were soon abolished, and under Louis XIV. pikes were also discontinued. +They wore tunics and robes until the sixteenth century. Under Louis the +Young they left off the custom of letting the beards grow, and retook to +it under Francis I. Only under Louis XIV. did they begin to shave the +entire face. Their dress is continually changing, and at the end of each +century the French might take the portraits of their grandfathers for +those of foreigners.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FRAUD" id="FRAUD"></a>FRAUD.</h3> + +<h4><i>Whether pious Frauds should be practised upon the People.</i></h4> + +<p>Once upon a time the fakir Bambabef met one of the disciples of +Confutzee (whom we call Confucius), and this disciple was named Whang. +Bambabef maintained that the people require to be deceived, and Whang +asserted that we should never deceive any one. Here is a sketch of their +dispute:</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—We must imitate the Supreme Being, who does not show us +things as they are. He makes us see the sun with a diameter of two or +three feet, although it is a million of times larger than the earth. He +makes us see the moon and the stars affixed to one and the same blue +surface, while they are at different elevations; he chooses that a +square tower should appear round to us at a distance; he chooses that +fire should appear to us to be hot, although it is neither hot nor cold; +in short, he surrounds us with errors, suitable to our nature.</p> + +<p><span class="small">WHANG</span>.—What you call error is not so. The sun, such as it is, placed at +millions of millions of lis from our globe, is not that which we see, +that which we really perceive: we perceive only the sun which is painted +on our retina, at a determinate angle. Our eyes were not given us to +know sizes and distances: to know these, other aids and other +operations are necessary.</p> + +<p>Bambabef seemed much astonished at this position. Whang, being very +patient, explained to him the theory of optics; and Bambabef, having +some conception, was convinced by the demonstrations of the disciple of +Confucius. He then resumed in these terms:</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—If God does not, as I thought, deceive us by the ministry of +our senses, you will at least acknowledge that our physicians are +constantly deceiving children for their good. They tell them that they +are giving them sugar, when in reality they are giving them rhubarb. I, +a fakir, may then deceive the people, who are as ignorant as children.</p> + +<p><span class="small">WHANG</span>.—I have two sons; I have never deceived them. When they have been +sick, I have said to them: "Here is a nauseous medicine; you must have +the courage to take it; if it were pleasant, it would injure you." I +have never suffered their nurses and tutors to make them afraid of +ghosts, goblins, and witches. I have thereby made them wise and +courageous citizens.</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—The people are not born so happily as your family.</p> + +<p><span class="small">WHANG</span>.—Men all nearly resemble one another; they are born with the same +dispositions. Their nature ought not to be corrupted.</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—We teach them errors, I own; but it is for their good. We +make them believe that if they do not buy our blessed nails, if they do +not expiate their sins by giving us money, they will, in another life, +become post-horses, dogs, or lizards. This intimidates them, and they +become good people.</p> + +<p><span class="small">WHANG</span>.—Do you not see that you are perverting these poor folks? There +are among them many more than you think there are who reason, who make a +jest of your miracles and your superstitions; who see very clearly that +they will not be turned into lizards, nor into post-horses. What is the +consequence? They have good sense enough to perceive that you talk to +them very impertinently; but they have not enough to elevate themselves +to a religion pure and untrammelled by superstition like ours. Their +passions make them think there is no religion, because the only one that +is taught them is ridiculous: thus you become guilty of all the vices +into which they plunge.</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—Not at all, for we teach them none but good morals.</p> + +<p>WHANG.—The people would stone you if you taught impure morals. Men are +so constituted that they like very well to do evil, but they will not +have it preached to them. But a wise morality should not be mixed up +with absurd fables: for by these impostures, which you might do without, +you weaken that morality which you are forced to teach.</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—What! do you think that truth can be taught to the people +without the aid of fables?</p> + +<p><span class="small">WHANG</span>.—I firmly believe it. Our literati are made of the same stuff as +our tailors, our weavers, and our laborers. They worship a creating, +rewarding, and avenging God. They do not sully their worship by absurd +systems, nor by extravagant ceremonies. There are much fewer crimes +among the lettered than among the people; why should we not condescend +to instruct our working classes as we do our literati?</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—That would be great folly; as well might you wish them to +have the same politeness, or to be all jurisconsults. It is neither +possible nor desirable. There must be white bread for the master, and +brown for the servant.</p> + +<p><span class="small">WHANG</span>.—I own that men should not all have the same science; but there +are things necessary to all. It is necessary that each one should be +just; and the surest way of inspiring all men with justice is to inspire +them with religion without superstition.</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—That is a fine project, but it is impracticable. Do you think +it is sufficient for men to believe in a being that rewards and +punishes? You have told me that the more acute among the people often +revolt against fables. They will, in like manner, revolt against truth. +They will say: Who shall assure me that God rewards and punishes? Where +is the proof? What mission have you? What miracle have you worked that I +should believe in you? They will laugh at you much more than at me.</p> + +<p><span class="small">WHANG</span>.—Your error is this: You imagine that men will spurn an idea that +is honest, likely, and useful to every one; an idea which accords with +human reason, because they reject things which are dishonest, absurd, +useless, dangerous, and shocking to good sense.</p> + +<p>The people are much disposed to believe their magistrates; and when +their magistrates propose to them only a rational belief, they embrace +it willingly. There is no need of prodigies to believe in a just God, +who reads the heart of man: this is an idea too natural, too necessary, +to be combated. It is not necessary to know precisely how God rewards +and punishes: to believe in His justice is enough. I assure you that I +have seen whole towns with scarcely any other tenet; and that in them I +have seen the most virtue.</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—Take heed what you say. You will find philosophers in these +times, who will deny both pains and rewards.</p> + +<p><span class="small">WHANG</span>.—But you will acknowledge that these philosophers will much more +strongly deny your inventions; so you will gain nothing by that. +Supposing that there are philosophers who do not agree with my +principles, they are not the less honest men; they do not the less +cultivate virtue, which should be embraced through love, and not through +fear. Moreover, I maintain that no philosopher can ever be assured that +Providence does not reserve pains for the wicked, and rewards for the +good. For, if they ask me who has told me that God punishes, I shall ask +them who has told them that God does not punish. In short, I maintain +that the philosophers, far from contradicting, will aid me. Will you be +a philosopher?</p> + +<p><span class="small">BAMBABEF</span>.—With all my heart. But do not tell the fakirs. And let us, +above all, remember that if a philosopher would be of service to human +society, he must announce a God.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FREE-WILL" id="FREE-WILL"></a>FREE-WILL.</h3> + + +<p>From the commencement of the time in which men began to reason, +philosophers have agitated this question, which theologians have +rendered unintelligible by their absurd subtleties upon grace. Locke is +perhaps the first who, without having the arrogance of announcing a +general principle, has examined human nature by analysis. It has been +disputed for three thousand years, whether the will is free or not; +Locke shows that the question is absurd, and that liberty cannot belong +to the will any more than color and motion.</p> + +<p>What is meant by the expression to be free? It signifies power, or +rather it has no sense at all. To say that the will <i>can</i>, is in itself +as ridiculous as if we said that it is yellow, or blue, round, or +square.</p> + +<p>Will is will, and liberty is power. Let us gradually examine the chain +of what passes within us, without confusing our minds with any +scholastic terms, or antecedent principle.</p> + +<p>It is proposed to you to ride on horseback; it is absolutely necessary +for you to make a choice, for it is very clear that you must either go +or not; there is no medium, you must absolutely do the one or the other. +So far it is demonstrated that the will is not free. You will get on +horseback; why? Because I will to do so, an ignoramus will say. This +reply is an absurdity; nothing can be done without reason or cause. Your +will then is caused by what? The agreeable idea which is presented to +your brain; the predominant, or determined idea; but, you will say, +cannot I resist an idea which predominates over me? No, for what would +be the cause of your resistance? An idea by which your will is swayed +still more despotically.</p> + +<p>You receive your ideas, and, therefore, receive your will. You will then +necessarily; consequently, the word "liberty" belongs not to will in any +sense.</p> + +<p>You ask me how thought and will are formed within you? I answer that I +know nothing about it. I no more know how ideas are created than I know +how the world was formed. We are only allowed to grope in the dark in +reference to all that inspires our incomprehensible machine.</p> + +<p>Will, then, is not a faculty which can be called free. "Free-will" is a +word absolutely devoid of sense, and that which scholars have called +"indifference," that is to say, will without cause, is a chimera +unworthy to be combated.</p> + +<p>In what then consists liberty? In the power of doing what we will? I +would go into my cabinet; the door is open, I am free to enter. But, say +you, if the door is shut and I remain where I am, I remain freely. Let +us explain ourselves—you then exercise the power that you possess of +remaining; you possess this power, but not the power of going out.</p> + +<p>Liberty, then, on which so many volumes have been written, reduced to +its proper sense, is only the power of acting.</p> + +<p>In what sense must the expression "this man is free" be spoken? In the +same sense in which we use the words "health," "strength," and +"happiness." Man is not always strong, healthy, or happy. A great +passion, a great obstacle, may deprive him of his liberty, or power of +action.</p> + +<p>The words "liberty" and "free-will" are, then, abstractions, general +terms, like beauty, goodness, justice. These terms do not signify that +all men are always handsome, good, and just, neither are they always +free.</p> + +<p>Further, liberty being only the power of acting, what is this power? It +is the effect of the constitution, and the actual state of our organs. +Leibnitz would solve a problem of geometry, but falls into an apoplexy; +he certainly has not the liberty to solve his problem. A vigorous young +man, passionately in love, who holds his willing mistress in his arms, +is he free to subdue his passion? Doubtless not. He has the power of +enjoying, and has not the power to abstain. Locke then is very right in +calling liberty, power. When can this young man abstain, notwithstanding +the violence of his passion? When a stronger idea shall determine the +springs of his soul and body to the contrary.</p> + +<p>But how? Have other animals the same liberty, the same power? Why not? +They have sense, memory, sentiment, and perceptions like ourselves; they +act spontaneously as we do. They must, also, like us, have the power of +acting by virtue of their perception, and of the play of their organs.</p> + +<p>We exclaim: If it be thus, all things are machines merely; everything in +the universe is subjected to the eternal laws. Well, would you have +everything rendered subject to a million of blind caprices? Either all +is the consequence of the nature of things, or all is the effect of the +eternal order of an absolute master; in both cases, we are only wheels +to the machine of the world.</p> + +<p>It is a foolish, common-place expression that without this pretended +freedom of will, rewards and punishments are useless. Reason, and you +will conclude quite the contrary.</p> + +<p>If, when a robber is executed, his accomplice, who sees him suffer, has +the liberty of not being frightened at the punishment; if his will +determines of itself, he will go from the foot of the scaffold to +assassinate on the high road; if struck with horror, he experiences an +insurmountable terror, he will no longer thieve. The punishment of his +companion will become useful to him, and moreover prove to society that +his will is not free.</p> + +<p>Liberty, then, is not and cannot be anything but the power of doing what +we will. That is what philosophy teaches us. But, if we consider liberty +in the theological sense, it is so sublime a matter that profane eyes +may not be raised so high.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FRENCH_LANGUAGE" id="FRENCH_LANGUAGE"></a>FRENCH LANGUAGE.</h3> + + +<p>The French language did not begin to assume a regular form until the +tenth century; it sprang from the remains of the Latin and the Celtic, +mixed with a few Teutonic words. This language was, in the first +instance, the provincial Roman, and the Teutonic was the language of the +courts, until the time of Charles the Bald. The Teutonic remained the +only language in Germany, after the grand epoch of the division in 433. +The rustic Roman prevailed in Western France; the inhabitants of the +Pays de Vaud, of the Valois, of the valley of Engadine, and some other +cantons, still preserve some manifest vestiges of this idiom.</p> + +<p>At the commencement of the eleventh century, French began to be written; +but this French retained more of Romance or rustic Roman than of the +language of the present day. The romance of Philomena, written in the +tenth century, is not very different in language from that of the laws +of the Normans. We cannot yet trace the original Celtic, Latin, and +German. The words which signify the members of the human body, or +things in daily use, which have no relation to the Latin or German, are +of ancient Gallic or Celtic, as <i>tête</i>, <i>jambe</i>, <i>sabre</i>, <i>point</i>, +<i>alter</i>, <i>parler</i>, <i>écouter</i>, <i>regarder</i>, <i>crier</i>, <i>cotume</i>, <i>ensemble</i>, +and many more of the same kind. The greater number of the warlike +phrases were French or German, as <i>marche, halte, maréchal, bivouac, +lansquenet</i>. Almost, all the rest are Latin, and the Latin words have +been all abridged, according to the usage and genius of the nations of +the north.</p> + +<p>In the twelfth century, some terms were borrowed from the philosophy of +Aristotle; and toward the sixteenth century, Greek names were found for +the parts of the human body, and for its maladies and their remedies. +Although the language was then enriched with Greek, and aided from the +time of Charles VIII. with considerable accessions from the Italian, +already arrived at perfection, it did not acquire a regular form. +Francis I. abolished the custom of pleading and of judging in Latin, +which proved the barbarism of a language which could not be used in +public proceedings—a pernicious custom to the natives, whose fortunes +were regulated in a language which they could not understand. It then +became necessary to cultivate the French, but the language was neither +noble nor regular, and its syntax was altogether capricious. The genius +of its conversation being turned towards pleasantry, the language became +fertile in smart and lively expressions, but exceedingly barren in +dignified and harmonious phrases; whence it arises that in the +dictionaries of rhymes, twenty suitable words are found for comic poetry +for one of poetry of a more elevated nature. This was the cause that +Marot never succeeded in the serious style, and that Amyot was unable to +give a version of the elegant simplicity of Plutarch.</p> + +<p>The French tongue acquired strength from the pen of Montaigne, but still +wanted elevation and harmony. Ronsard injured the language by +introducing into French poetry the Greek compounds, derivable from the +physicians. Malherbe partly repaired the fault of Ronsard. It became +more lofty and harmonious by the establishment of the French Academy, +and finally in the age of Louis XIV. acquired the perfection by which it +is now distinguished.</p> + +<p>The genius of the French language—for every language has its genius—is +clearness and order. This genius consists in the facility which a +language possesses of expressing itself more or less happily, and of +employing or rejecting the familiar terms of other languages. The French +tongue having no declensions, and being aided by articles, cannot adopt +the inversions of the Greek and the Latin; the words are necessarily +arranged agreeably to the course of the ideas. We can only say in one +way, "<i>Plancus a pris soin des affaires de Cæsar</i>"; but this phrase in +Latin, "<i>Res Cæsaris, Plancus diligenter curavit</i>" may be arranged in a +hundred and twenty different forms without injuring the sense or rules +of the language. The auxiliary verbs, which lengthen and weaken phrases +in the modern tongues, render that of France still less adapted to the +lapidary style. Its auxiliary verbs, its pronouns, its articles, its +deficiency of declinable participles, and, lastly, its uniformity of +position, preclude the exhibition of much enthusiasm in poetry; it +possesses fewer capabilities of this nature than the Italian and the +English; but this constraint and slavery render it more proper for +tragedy and comedy than any language in Europe. The natural order in +which the French people are obliged to express their thoughts and +construct their phrases, infuses into their speech a facility and +amenity which please everybody; and the genius of the nation suiting +with the genius of the language, has produced a greater number of books +agreeably written than are to be found among any other people.</p> + +<p>Social freedom and politeness having been for a long time established in +France, the language has acquired a delicacy of expression, and a +natural refinement which are seldom to be found out of it. This +refinement has occasionally been carried too far; but men of taste have +always known how to reduce it within due bounds.</p> + +<p>Many persons have maintained that the French language has been +impoverished since the days of Montaigne and Amyot, because expressions +abound in these authors which are no longer employed; but these are for +the most part terms for which equivalents have been found. It has been +enriched with a number of noble and energetic expressions, and, without +adverting to the eloquence of matter, has certainly that of speech. It +was during the reign of Louis XIV., as already observed, that the +language was fixed. Whatever changes time and caprice may have in store, +the good authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will always +serve for models.</p> + +<p>Circumstances created no right to expect that France would be +distinguished in philosophy. A Gothic government extinguished all kind +of illumination during more than twelve centuries; and professors of +error, paid for brutalizing human nature, more increased the darkness. +Nevertheless, there is more philosophy in Paris than in any town on +earth, and possibly than in all the towns put together, excepting +London. The spirit of reason has even penetrated into the provinces. In +a word, the French genius is probably at present equal to that of +England in philosophy; while for the last four-score years France has +been superior to all other nations in literature; and has undeniably +taken the lead in the courtesies of society, and in that easy and +natural politeness, which is improperly termed urbanity.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FRIENDSHIP" id="FRIENDSHIP"></a>FRIENDSHIP.</h3> + +<p>The temple of friendship has long been known by name, but it is well +known that it has been very little frequented; as the following verses +pleasantly observe, Orestes, Pylades, Pirithous, Achates, and the tender +Nisus, were all genuine friends and great heroes; but, alas, existent +only in fable:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>En vieux langage on voit sur la façade,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Les noms sacrés d'Oreste et de Pylade;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Le médaillon du bon Pirithous,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Du sage Achate et du tendre Nisus;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Tous grands héros, tous amis véritables;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ces noms sont beaux; mais ils sont dans les fables.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Friendship commands more than love and esteem. Love your neighbor +signifies assist your neighbor, but not—enjoy his conversation with +pleasure, if he be tiresome; confide to him your secrets, if he be a +tattler; or lend him your money, if he be a spendthrift.</p> + +<p>Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to +divorce. It is a tacit contract between two sensible and virtuous +persons. I say sensible, for a monk or a hermit cannot be so, who lives +without knowing friendship. I say virtuous, for the wicked only have +accomplices—the voluptuous, companions—the interested, associates; +politicians assemble factions—the generality of idle men have +connections—princes, courtiers. Virtuous men alone possess friends.</p> + +<p>Cethegus was the accomplice of Catiline, and Mæcenas the courtier of +Octavius; but Cicero was the friend of Atticus.</p> + +<p>What is caused by this contract between two tender, honest minds? Its +obligations are stronger or weaker according to the degrees of +sensibility, and the number of services rendered.</p> + +<p>The enthusiasm of friendship has been stronger among the Greeks and +Arabs than among us. The tales that these people have imagined on the +subject of friendship are admirable; we have none to compare to them. We +are rather dry and reserved—in everything. I see no great trait of +friendship in our histories, romances, or theatre.</p> + +<p>The only friendship spoken of among the Jews, was that which existed +between Jonathan and David. It is said that David loved him with a love +stronger than that of women; but it is also said that David, after the +death of his friend, dispossessed Mephibosheth, his son, and caused him +to be put to death.</p> + +<p>Friendship was a point of religion and legislation among the Greeks. The +Thebans had a regiment of lovers—a fine regiment; some have taken it +for a regiment of nonconformists. They are deceived; it is taking a +shameful accident for a noble principle. Friendship, among the Greeks, +was prescribed by the laws and religion. Manners countenanced abuses, +but the laws did not.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FRIVOLITY" id="FRIVOLITY"></a>FRIVOLITY.</h3> + + +<p>What persuades me still more of the existence of Providence, said the +profound author of "<i>Bacha Billeboquet</i>," is that to console us for our +innumerable miseries, nature has made us frivolous. We are sometimes +ruminating oxen, overcome by the weight of our yoke; sometimes +dispersed doves, tremblingly endeavoring to avoid the claws of the +vulture, stained with the blood of our companions; foxes, pursued by +dogs; and tigers, who devour one another. Then we suddenly become +butterflies; and forget, in our volatile winnowings, all the horrors +that we have experienced.</p> + +<p>If we were not frivolous, what man without shuddering, could live in a +town in which the wife of a marshal of France, a lady of honor to the +queen, was burned, under the pretext that she had killed a white cock by +moonlight; or in the same town in which Marshal Marillac was +assassinated according to form, pursuant to a sentence passed by +judicial murderers appointed by a priest in his own country house, in +which he embraced Marion de Lorme while these robed wretches executed +his sanguinary wishes?</p> + +<p>Could a man say to himself, without trembling in every nerve, and having +his heart frozen with horror: "Here I am, in the very place which, it is +said, was strewed with the dead and dying bodies of two thousand young +gentlemen, murdered near the Faubourg St. Antoine, because one man in a +red cassock displeased some others in black ones!"</p> + +<p>Who could pass the Rue de la Féronerie without shedding tears and +falling into paroxysms of rage against the holy and abominable +principles which plunged the sword into the heart of the best of men, +and of the greatest of kings?</p> + +<p>We could not walk a step in the streets of Paris on St. Bartholomew's +day, without saying: "It was here that one of my ancestors was murdered +for the love of God; it was here that one of my mother's family was +dragged bleeding and mangled; it was here that one-half of my countrymen +murdered the other."</p> + +<p>Happily, men are so light, so frivolous, so struck with the present and +so insensible to the past, that in ten thousand there are not above two +or three who make these reflections.</p> + +<p>How many boon companions have I seen, who, after the loss of children, +wives, mistresses, fortune, and even health itself, have eagerly +resorted to a party to retail a piece of scandal, or to a supper to tell +humorous stories. Solidity consists chiefly in a uniformity of ideas. It +has been said that a man of sense should invariably think in the same +way; reduced to such an alternative, it would be better not to have been +born. The ancients never invented a finer fable than that which bestowed +a cup of the water of Lethe on all who entered the Elysian fields.</p> + +<p>If you would tolerate life, mortals, forget yourselves, and enjoy it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GALLANT" id="GALLANT"></a>GALLANT.</h3> + + +<p>This word is derived from "<i>gal</i>" the original signification of which +was gayety and rejoicing, as may be seen in Alain Chartier, and in +Froissart. Even in the "Romance of the Rose" we meet with the word +"<i>galandé</i>" in the sense of ornamented, adorned.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>La belle fut bien attornie</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Et d'un filet d'or galandée.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It is probable that the <i>gala</i> of the Italians, and the <i>galan</i> of the +Spaniards, are derived from the word "<i>gal</i>" which seems to be +originally Celtic; hence, was insensibly formed <i>gallant</i>, which +signifies a man forward, or eager to please. The term received an +improved and more noble signification in the times of chivalry, when the +desire to please manifested itself in feats of arms, and personal +conflict. To conduct himself gallantly, to extricate himself from an +affair gallantly, implies, even at present, a man's conducting himself +conformably to principle and honor. A gallant man among the English, +signifies a man of courage; in France it means more—a man of noble +general demeanor. A gallant (<i>un homme galant</i>) is totally different +from a gallant man (<i>un galant homme</i>); the latter means a man of +respectable and honorable feeling—the former, something nearer the +character of a <i>petit maître</i> a man successfully addicted to intrigue. +Being gallant (<i>être galant</i>) in general implies an assiduity to please +by studious attentions, and flattering deference. "He was exceedingly +gallant to those ladies," means merely, he behaved more than politely to +them; but being the gallant of a lady is an expression of stronger +meaning; it signifies being her lover; the word is scarcely any longer +in use in this sense, except in low or familiar poetry. A gallant is not +merely a man devoted to and successful in intrigue, but the term +implies, moreover, somewhat of impudence and effrontery, in which sense +Fontaine uses it in the following: "<i>Mais un 'galant,' chercheur des +pucelages</i>."</p> + +<p>Thus are various meanings attached to the same word. The case is similar +with the term "gallantry," which sometimes signifies a disposition to +coquetry, and a habit of flattery; sometimes a present of some elegant +toy, or piece of jewelry; sometimes intrigue, with one woman or with +many; and, latterly, it has even been applied to signify ironically the +favors of Venus; thus, to talk gallantries, to give gallantries, to have +gallantries, to contract a gallantry, express very different meanings. +Nearly all the terms which occur frequently in conversation acquire, in +the same manner, various shades of meaning, which it is difficult to +discriminate; the meaning of terms of art is more precise and less +arbitrary.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GARGANTUA" id="GARGANTUA"></a>GARGANTUA.</h3> + + +<p>If ever a reputation was fixed on a solid basis, it is that of +Gargantua. Yet in the present age of philosophy and criticism, some rash +and daring minds have started forward, who have ventured to deny the +prodigies believed respecting this extraordinary man—persons who have +carried their skepticism so far as even to doubt his very existence.</p> + +<p>How is it possible, they ask, that there should have existed in the +sixteenth century a distinguished hero, never mentioned by a single +contemporary, by St. Ignatius, Cardinal Capitan, Galileo, or +Guicciardini, and respecting whom the registers of the Sorbonne do not +contain the slightest notice?</p> + +<p>Investigate the histories of France, of Germany, of England, Spain, and +other countries, and you find not a single word about Gargantua. His +whole life, from his birth to his death, is a tissue of inconceivable +prodigies.</p> + +<p>His mother, Gargamelle, was delivered of him from the left ear. Almost +at the instant of his birth he called out for a drink, with a voice that +was heard even in the districts of Beauce and Vivarais. Sixteen ells of +cloth were required to make him breeches, and a hundred hides of brown +cows were used in his shoes. He had not attained the age of twelve years +before he gained a great battle, and founded the abbey of Thélème. +Madame Badebec was given to him in marriage, and Badebec is proved to be +a Syrian name.</p> + +<p>He is represented to have devoured six pilgrims in a mere salad, and the +river Seine is stated to have flowed entirely from his person, so that +the Parisians are indebted for their beautiful river to him alone.</p> + +<p>All this is considered contrary to nature by our carping philosophers, +who scruple to admit even what is probable, unless it is well supported +by evidence.</p> + +<p>They observe, that if the Parisians have always believed in Gargantua, +that is no reason why other nations should believe in him; that if +Gargantua had really performed one single prodigy out of the many +attributed to him, the whole world would have resounded with it, all +records would have noticed it, and a hundred monuments would have +attested it. In short, they very unceremoniously treat the Parisians who +believe in Gargantua as ignorant simpletons and superstitious idiots, +with whom are inter-mixed a few hypocrites, who pretend to believe in +Gargantua, in order to obtain some convenient priorship in the abbey of +Thélème.</p> + +<p>The reverend Father Viret, a Cordelier of full-sleeved dignity, a +confessor of ladies, and a preacher to the king, has replied to our +Pyrrhonean philosophers in a manner decisive and invincible. He very +learnedly proves that if no writer, with the exception of Rabelais, has +mentioned the prodigies of Gargantua, at least, no historian has +contradicted them; that the sage de Thou, who was a believer in +witchcraft, divination, and astrology, never denied the miracles of +Gargantua. They were not even called in question by La Mothe le Vayer. +Mézeray treated them with such respect as not to say a word against +them, or indeed about them. These prodigies were performed before the +eyes of all the world. Rabelais was a witness of them. It was impossible +that he could be deceived, or that he would deceive. Had he deviated +even in the smallest degree from the truth, all the nations of Europe +would have been roused against him in indignation; all the gazetteers +and journalists of the day would have exclaimed with one voice against +the fraud and imposture.</p> + +<p>In vain do the philosophers reply—for they reply to everything—that, +at the period in question, gazettes and journals were not in existence. +It is said in return that there existed what was equivalent to them, and +that is sufficient. Everything is impossible in the history of +Gargantua, and from this circumstance itself may be inferred its +incontestable truth. For if it were not true, no person could possibly +have ventured to imagine it, and its incredibility constitutes the great +proof that it ought to be believed.</p> + +<p>Open all the "Mercuries," all the "Journals de Trévoux"; those immortal +works which teem with instruction to the race of man, and you will not +find a single line which throws a doubt on the history of Gargantua. It +was reserved for our own unfortunate age to produce monsters, who would +establish a frightful Pyrrhonism, under the pretence of requiring +evidence as nearly approaching to mathematical as the case will admit, +and of a devotion to reason, truth, and justice. What a pity! Oh, for a +single argument to confound them!</p> + +<p>Gargantua founded the abbey of Thélème. The title deeds, it is true, +were never found; it never had any; but it exists, and produces an +income of ten thousand pieces of gold a year. The river Seine exists, +and is an eternal monument of the prodigious fountain from which +Gargantua supplied so noble a stream. Moreover, what will it cost you to +believe in him? Should you not take the safest side? Gargantua can +procure for you wealth, honors, and influence. Philosophy can only +bestow on you internal tranquillity and satisfaction, which you will of +course estimate as a trifle. Believe, then, I again repeat, in +Gargantua; if you possess the slightest portion of avarice, ambition, or +knavery, it is the wisest part you can adopt.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GAZETTE" id="GAZETTE"></a>GAZETTE.</h3> + + +<p>A narrative of public affairs. It was at the beginning of the +seventeenth century that this useful practice was suggested and +established at Venice, at the time when Italy still continued the centre +of European negotiations, and Venice was the unfailing asylum of +liberty. The leaves or sheets containing this narrative, which were +published once a week, were called "Gazettes," from the word "gazetta," +the name of a small coin, amounting nearly to one of our demi-sous, then +current at Venice. The example was afterwards followed in all the great +cities of Europe.</p> + +<p>Journals of this description have been established in China from time +immemorial. The "<i>Imperial Gazette</i>" is published there every day by +order of the court. Admitting this gazette to be true, we may easily +believe it does not contain all that is true; neither in fact should it +do so.</p> + +<p>Théophraste Renaudot, a physician, published the first gazettes in +France in 1601, and he had an exclusive privilege for the publication, +which continued for a long time a patrimony to his family. The like +privilege became an object of importance at Amsterdam, and the greater +part of the gazettes of the United Provinces are still a source of +revenue to many of the families of magistrates, who pay writers for +furnishing materials for them. The city of London alone publishes more +than twelve gazettes in the course of a week. They can be printed only +upon stamped paper, and produce no inconsiderable income to the State.</p> + +<p>The gazettes of China relate solely to that empire; those of the +different states of Europe embrace the affairs of all countries. +Although they frequently abound in false intelligence, they may +nevertheless be considered as supplying good material for history; +because, in general, the errors of each particular gazette are corrected +by subsequent ones, and because they contain authentic copies of almost +all state papers, which indeed are published in them by order of the +sovereigns or governments themselves. The French gazettes have always +been revised by the ministry. It is on this account that the writers of +them have always adhered to certain forms and designations, with a +strictness apparently somewhat inconsistent with the courtesies of +polished society, bestowing the title of monsieur only on some +particular descriptions of persons, and that of sieur upon others; the +authors having forgotten that they were not speaking in the name of +their king. These public journals, it must be added, to their praise, +have never been debased by calumny, and have always been written with +considerable correctness.</p> + +<p>The case is very different with respect to foreign gazettes; those of +London, with the exception of the court gazette, abound frequently in +that coarseness and licentiousness of observation which the national +liberty allows. The French gazettes established in that country have +been seldom written with purity, and have sometimes been not a little +instrumental in corrupting the language. One of the greatest faults +which has found a way into them arises from the authors having concluded +that the ancient forms of expression used in public proclamations and in +judicial and political proceedings and documents in France, and with +which they were particularly conversant, were analogous to the regular +syntax of our language, and from their having accordingly imitated that +style in their narrative. This is like a Roman historian's using the +style of the law of the twelve tables.</p> + +<p>In imitation of the political gazettes, literary ones began to be +published in France in 1665; for the first journals were, in fact, +simply advertisements of the works recently printed in Europe; to this +mere announcement of publication was soon added a critical examination +or review. Many authors were offended at it, notwithstanding its great +moderation.</p> + +<p>We shall here speak only of those literary gazettes with which the +public, who were previously in possession of various journals from every +country in Europe in which the sciences were cultivated, were completely +overwhelmed. These gazettes appeared at Paris about the year 1723, under +many different names, as "The Parnassian Intelligencer," "Observations +on New Books," etc. The greater number of them were written for the +single purpose of making money; and as money is not to be made by +praising authors, these productions consisted generally of satire and +abuse. They often contained the most odious personalities, and for a +time sold in proportion to the virulence of their malignity; but reason +and good taste, which are always sure to prevail at last, consigned them +eventually to contempt and oblivion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GENEALOGY" id="GENEALOGY"></a>GENEALOGY.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>Many volumes have been written by learned divines in order to reconcile +St. Matthew with St. Luke on the subject of the genealogy of Jesus +Christ. The former enumerates only twenty-seven generations from David +through Solomon, while Luke gives forty-two, and traces the descent +through Nathan. The following is the method in which the learned Calmet +solves a difficulty relating to Melchizedek: The Orientals and the +Greeks, ever abounding in fable and invention, fabricated a genealogy +for him, in which they give us the names of his ancestors. But, adds +this judicious Benedictine, as falsehood always betrays itself, some +state his genealogy according to one series, and others according to +another. There are some who maintain that he descended from a race +obscure and degraded, and there are some who are disposed to represent +him as illegitimate.</p> + +<p>This passage naturally applies to Jesus, of whom, according to the +apostle, Melchizedek was the type or figure. In fact, the gospel of +Nicomedes expressly states that the Jews, in the presence of Pilate, +reproached Jesus with being born of fornication; upon which the learned +Fabricius remarks, that it does not appear from any clear and credible +testimony that the Jews directed to Jesus Christ during His life, or +even to His apostles, that calumny respecting His birth which they so +assiduously and virulently circulated afterwards. The Acts of the +Apostles, however, inform us that the Jews of Antioch opposed +themselves, blaspheming against what Paul spoke to them concerning +Jesus; and Origen maintains that the passage in St. John's gospel "We +are not born of fornication, we have never been in subjection unto any +man" was an indirect reproach thrown out by the Jews against Jesus on +the subject of His birth. For, as this father informs us, they pretended +that Jesus was originally from a small hamlet of Judæa, and His mother +nothing more than a poor villager subsisting by her labor, who, having +been found guilty of adultery with a soldier of the name of Panther, was +turned away by her husband, whose occupation was that of a carpenter; +that, after this disgraceful expulsion, she wandered about miserably +from one place to another, and was privately delivered of Jesus, who, +pressed by the necessity of His circumstances, was compelled to go and +hire Himself as a servant in Egypt, where He acquired some of those +secrets which the Egyptians turn to so good an account, and then +returned to His own country, in which, full of the miracles He was +enabled to perform, He proclaimed Himself to be God.</p> + +<p>According to a very old tradition, the name of Panther, which gave +occasion to the mistake of the Jews, was, as we are informed by St. +Epiphanius, the surname of Joseph's father, or rather, as is asserted by +St. John Damascene, the proper name of Mary's grandfather.</p> + +<p>As to the situation of servant, with which Jesus was reproached, He +declares Himself that He came not to be served, but to serve. Zoroaster, +according to the Arabians, had in like manner been the servant of +Esdras. Epictetus was even born in servitude. Accordingly, St. Cyril of +Jerusalem justly observed that it is no disgrace to any man.</p> + +<p>On the subject of the miracles, we learn indeed from Pliny that the +Egyptians had the secret of dyeing with different colors, stuffs which +were dipped in the very same furnace, and this is one of the miracles +which the gospel of the Infancy attributes to Jesus. But, according to +St. Chrysostom, Jesus performed no miracle before His baptism, and those +stated to have been wrought by Him before are absolute fabrications. The +reason assigned by this father for such an arrangement is, that the +wisdom of God determined against Christ's performing any miracles in His +childhood, lest they should have been regarded as impostures.</p> + +<p>Epiphanius in vain alleges that to deny the miracles ascribed by some to +Jesus during His infancy, would furnish heretics with a specious pretext +for saying that He became Son of God only in consequence of the effusion +of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon Him at His baptism; we are +contending here, not against heretics, but against Jews.</p> + +<p>Mr. Wagenseil has presented us with a Latin translation of a Jewish work +entitled "<i>Toldos Jeschu</i>," in which it is related that Jeschu, being at +Bethlehem in Judah, the place of his birth, cried out aloud, "Who are +the wicked men that pretend I am a bastard, and spring from an impure +origin? They are themselves bastards, themselves exceedingly impure! Was +I not born of a virgin mother? And I entered through the crown of her +head!"</p> + +<p>This testimony appeared of such importance to M. Bergier, that that +learned divine felt no scruple about employing it without quoting his +authority. The following are his words, in the twenty-third page of the +"Certainty of the Proofs of Christianity": "Jesus was born of a virgin +by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself frequently assured us +of this with His own mouth; and to the same purpose is the recital of +the apostles." It is certain that these words are only to be found in +the "<i>Toldos Jeschu</i>"; and the certainty of that proof, among those +adduced by M. Bergier, subsists, although St. Matthew applies to Jesus +the passage of "Isaiah": "He shall not dispute, he shall not cry aloud, +and no one shall hear his voice in the streets."</p> + +<p>According to St. Jerome, there was in like manner an ancient tradition +among the Gymnosophists of India, that Buddha, the author of their +creed, was born of a virgin, who was delivered of him from her side. In +the same manner was born Julius Cæsar, Scipio Africanus, Manlius, Edward +VI. of England, and others, by means of an operation called by surgeons +the Cæsarian operation, because it consists in abstracting the child +from the womb by an incision in the abdomen of the mother. Simon, +surnamed the Magician, and Manes both pretended to have been born of +virgins. This might, however, merely mean, that their mothers were +virgins at the time of conceiving them. But in order to be convinced of +the uncertainty attending the marks and evidences of virginity, it will +be perfectly sufficient to read the commentary of M. de Pompignan, the +celebrated bishop of Puy en Velai, on the following passage in the Book +of Proverbs: "There are three things which are too wonderful for me, +yea, four which I know not. The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a +serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the +way of a man in his youth." In order to give a literal translation of +the passage, according to this prelate (in the third chapter of the +second part of his work entitled "Infidelity Convinced by the +Prophecies"), it would have been necessary to say, "<i>Viam viri in +virgine adolescentula</i>"—The way of a man with a maid. The translation +of our Vulgate, says he, substitutes another meaning, exact indeed and +true, but less conformable to the original text. In short, he +corroborates his curious interpretation by the analogy between this +verse and the following one: "Such is the life of the adulterous woman, +who, after having eaten, wipeth her mouth and saith, I have done no +wickedness."</p> + +<p>However this may be, the virginity of Mary was not generally admitted, +even at the beginning of the third century. "Many have entertained the +opinion and do still," said St. Clement of Alexandria, "that Mary was +delivered of a son without that delivery producing any change in her +person; for some say that a midwife who visited her after the birth +found her to retain all the marks of virginity." It is clear that St. +Clement refers here to the gospel of the conception of Mary, in which +the angel Gabriel says to her, "Without intercourse with man, thou, a +virgin, shalt conceive, thou, a virgin, shalt be delivered of a child, +thou, a virgin, shalt give suck"; and also to the first gospel of James, +in which the midwife exclaims, "What an unheard-of wonder! Mary has just +brought a son into the world, and yet retains all the evidences of +virginity." These two gospels were, nevertheless, subsequently rejected +as apocryphal, although on this point they were conformable to the +opinion adopted by the church; the scaffolding was removed after the +building was completed.</p> + +<p>What is added by Jeschu—"I entered by the crown of the head"—was +likewise the opinion held by the church. The Breviary of the Maronites +represents the word of the Father as having entered by the ear of the +blessed woman. St. Augustine and Pope Felix say expressly that the +virgin became pregnant through the ear. St. Ephrem says the same in a +hymn, and Voisin, his translator, observes that the idea came originally +from Gregory of Neocæsarea, surnamed Thaumaturgos. Agobar relates that +in his time the church sang in the time of public service: "The Word +entered through the ear of the virgin, and came out at the golden gate." +Eutychius speaks also of Elian, who attended at the Council of Nice, and +who said that the Word entered by the ear of the virgin, and came out +in the way of childbirth. This Elian was a rural bishop, whose name +occurs in Selden's published Arabic List of Fathers who attended the +Council of Nice.</p> + +<p>It is well known that the Jesuit Sanchez gravely discussed the question +whether the Virgin Mary contributed seminally in the incarnation of +Christ, and that, like other divines before him, he concluded in the +affirmative. But these extravagances of a prurient and depraved +imagination should be classed with the opinion of Aretin, who introduces +the Holy Spirit on this occasion effecting his purpose under the figure +of a dove; as mythology describes Jupiter to have succeeded with Leda in +the form of a swan, or as the most eminent authors of the church—St. +Austin, Athenagoras, Tertullian, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Cyprian, +Lactantius, St. Ambrose—and others believed, after Philo and Josephus, +the historian, who were Jews, that angels had associated with the +daughters of men, and engaged in sexual connection with them. St. +Augustine goes so far as to charge the Manichæans with teaching, as a +part of their religious persuasion, that beautiful young persons +appeared in a state of nature before the princes of darkness, or evil +angels, and deprived them of the vital substance which that father calls +the nature of God. Herodius is still more explicit, and says that the +divine majesty escaped through the productive organs of demons.</p> + +<p>It is true that all these fathers believed angels to be corporeal. But, +after the works of Plato had established the idea of their spirituality, +the ancient opinion of a corporeal union between angels and women was +explained by the supposition that the same angel who, in a woman's form, +had received the embraces of a man, in turn held communication with a +woman, in the character of a man. Divines, by the terms "incubus" and +"succubus," designate the different parts thus performed by angels. +Those who are curious on the subject of these offensive and revolting +reveries may see further details in "Various Readings of the Book of +Genesis," by Otho Gualter; "Magical Disquisitions," by Delvis, and the +"Discourses on Witchcraft," by Henry Boguet.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>No genealogy, even although reprinted in Moréri, approaches that of +Mahomet or Mahommed, the son of Abdallah, the son of Abd'all Montaleb, +the son of Ashem; which Mahomet was, in his younger days, groom of the +widow Khadijah, then her factor, then her husband, then a prophet of +God, then condemned to be hanged, then conqueror and king of Arabia; and +who finally died an enviable death, satiated with glory and with love.</p> + +<p>The German barons do not trace back their origin beyond Witikind; and +our modern French marquises can scarcely any of them show deeds and +patents of an earlier date than Charlemagne. But the race of Mahomet, or +Mohammed, which still exists, has always exhibited a genealogical tree, +of which the trunk is Adam, and of which the branches reach from Ishmael +down to the nobility and gentry who at the present day bear the high +title of cousins of Mahomet.</p> + +<p>There is no difficulty about this genealogy, no dispute among the +learned, no false calculations to be rectified, no contradictions to +palliate, no impossibilities to be made possible.</p> + +<p>Your pride cavils against the authenticity of these titles. You tell me +that you are descended from Adam as well as the greatest prophet, if +Adam was the common father of our race; but that this same Adam was +never known by any person, not even by the ancient Arabs themselves; +that the name has never been cited except in the books of the Jews; and +that, consequently, you take the liberty of writing down <i>false</i> against +the high and noble claims of Mahomet, or Mohammed.</p> + +<p>You add that, in any case, if there has been a first man, whatever his +name might be, you are a descendant from him as decidedly as Khadijah's +illustrious groom; and that, if there has been no first man, if the +human race always existed, as so many of the learned pretend, then you +are clearly a gentleman from all eternity.</p> + +<p>In answer to this you are told that you are a plebeian (<i>roturier</i>) from +all eternity, unless you can produce a regular and complete set of +parchments.</p> + +<p>You reply that men are equal; that one race cannot be more ancient than +another; that parchments, with bits of wax dangling to them, are a +recent invention; that there is no reason that compels you to yield to +the family of Mahomet, or to that of Confucius; or to that of the +emperors of Japan; or to the royal secretaries of the grand college. Nor +can I oppose your opinion by arguments, physical, metaphysical, or +moral. You think yourself equal to the dairo of Japan, and I entirely +agree with you. All that I would advise you is, that if ever you meet +with him, you take good care to be the stronger.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GENESIS" id="GENESIS"></a>GENESIS.</h3> + + +<p>The sacred writer having conformed himself to the ideas generally +received, and being indeed obliged not to deviate from them, as without +such condescension to the weakness and ignorance of those whom he +addressed, he would not have been understood, it only remains for us to +make some observations on the natural philosophy prevailing in those +early periods; for, with respect to theology, we reverence it, we +believe in it, and never either dispute or discuss it.</p> + +<p>"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Thus has the +original passage been translated, but the translation is not correct. +There is no one, however slightly informed upon the subject, who is not +aware that the real meaning of the word is, "In the beginning the gods +made <i>firent</i> or <i>fit</i> the heaven and the earth." This reading, +moreover, perfectly corresponds with the ancient idea of the +Phœnicians, who imagined that, in reducing the chaos (<i>chautereb</i>) +into order, God employed the agency of inferior deities.</p> + +<p>The Phœnicians had been long a powerful people, having a theogony of +their own, before the Hebrews became possessed of a few cantons of land +near their territory. It is extremely natural to suppose that when the +Hebrews had at length formed a small establishment near Phœnicia, +they began to acquire its language. At that time their writers might, +and probably did, borrow the ancient philosophy of their masters. Such +is the regular march of the human mind.</p> + +<p>At the time in which Moses is supposed to have lived, were the +Phœnician philosophers sufficiently enlightened to regard the earth +as a mere point in the compass with the infinite orbs placed by God in +the immensity of space, commonly called heaven? The idea so very +ancient, and at the same time so utterly false, that heaven was made for +earth, almost always prevailed in the minds of the great mass of the +people. It would certainly be just as correct and judicious for any +person to suppose, if told that God created all the mountains and a +single grain of sand, that the mountains were created for that grain of +sand. It is scarcely possible that the Phœnicians, who were such +excellent navigators, should not have had some good astronomers; but +the old prejudices generally prevailed, and those old prejudices were +very properly spared and indulged by the author of the Book of Genesis, +who wrote to instruct men in the ways of God, and not in natural +philosophy.</p> + +<p>"The earth was without form (<i>tohu bohu</i>) and void; darkness rested upon +the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the surface of +the waters."</p> + +<p><i>Tohu bohu</i> means precisely chaos, disorder. It is one of those +imitative words which are to be found in all languages; as, for example, +in the French we have <i>sens dessus dessous, tintamarre, trictrac, +tonnerre, bombe</i>. The earth was not as yet formed in its present state; +the matter existed, but the divine power had not yet arranged it. The +spirit of God means literally the breath, the wind, which agitated the +waters. The same idea occurs in the "Fragments" of the Phœnician +author Sanchoniathon. The Phœnicians, like every other people, +believed matter to be eternal. There is not a single author of antiquity +who ever represented something to have been produced from nothing. Even +throughout the whole Bible, no passage is to be found in which matter is +said to have been created out of nothing. Not, however, that we mean to +controvert the truth of such creation. It was, nevertheless, a truth not +known by the carnal Jews.</p> + +<p>On the question of the eternity of the world, mankind has always been +divided, but never on that of the eternity of matter. From nothing, +nothing can proceed, nor into nothing can aught existent return. <i>"De +nihilo nihilum, et in nihilum nil posse gigni reverti."</i> (<i>Persius; Sat. +iii.</i>) Such was the opinion of all antiquity.</p> + +<p>"God said let there be light, and there was light; and he saw that the +light was good, and he divided the light from the darkness; and he +called the light day, and the darkness night; and the evening and the +morning were the first day. And God said also, let there be a firmament +in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the +waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were +under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And +God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were +the second day.... And he saw that it was good."</p> + +<p>We begin with examining whether Huet, bishop of Avranches, Leclerc, and +some other commentators, are not in the right in opposing the idea of +those who consider this passage as exhibiting the most sublime +eloquence.</p> + +<p>Eloquence is not aimed at in any history written by the Jews. The style +of the passage in question, like that of all the rest of the work, +possesses the most perfect simplicity. If an orator, intending to give +some idea of the power of God, employed for that purpose the short and +simple expression we are considering, "He said, let there be light, and +there was light," it would then be sublime. Exactly similar is the +passage in one of the Psalms, "<i>Dixit, et facta sunt</i>"—"He spake, and +they were made." It is a trait which, being unique in this place, and +introduced purposely in order to create a majestic image, elevates and +transports the mind. But, in the instance under examination, the +narrative is of the most simple character. The Jewish writer is speaking +of light just in the same unambitious manner as of other objects of +creation; he expresses himself equally and regularly after every +article, "and God saw that it was good." Everything is sublime in the +course or act of creation, unquestionably, but the creation of light is +no more so than that of the herbs of the field; the sublime is something +which soars far from the rest, whereas all is equal throughout the +chapter.</p> + +<p>But further, it was another very ancient opinion that light did not +proceed from the sun. It was seen diffused throughout the atmosphere, +before the rising and after the setting of that star; the sun was +supposed merely to give it greater strength and clearness; accordingly +the author of Genesis accommodates himself to this popular error, and +even states the creation of the sun and moon not to have taken place +until four days after the existence of light. It was impossible that +there could be a morning and evening before the existence of a sun. The +inspired writer deigned, in this instance, to condescend to the gross +and wild ideas of the nation. The object of God was not to teach the +Jews philosophy. He might have raised their minds to the truth, but he +preferred descending to their error. This solution can never be too +frequently repeated.</p> + +<p>The separation of the light from the darkness is a part of the same +system of philosophy. It would seem that night and day were mixed up +together, as grains of different species which are easily separable from +each other. It is sufficiently known that darkness is nothing but the +absence of light, and that there is in fact no light when our eyes +receive no sensation of it; but at that period these truths were far +from being known.</p> + +<p>The idea of a firmament, again, is of the very highest antiquity. The +heavens are imagined to be a solid mass, because they always exhibited +the same phenomena. They rolled over our heads, they were therefore +constituted of the most solid materials. Who could suppose that the +exhalations from the land and sea supplied the water descending from the +clouds, or compute their corresponding quantities? No Halley then lived +to make so curious a calculation. The heavens therefore were conceived +to contain reservoirs. These reservoirs could be supported only on a +strong arch, and as this arch of heaven was actually transparent, it +must necessarily have been made of crystal. In order that the waters +above might descend from it upon the earth, sluices, cataracts, and +floodgates were necessary, which might be opened and shut as +circumstances required. Such was the astronomy of the day; and, as the +author wrote for Jews, it was incumbent upon him to adopt their gross +ideas, borrowed from other people somewhat less gross than themselves.</p> + +<p>"God also made two great lights, one to rule the day, the other the +night; He also made the stars."</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that we perceive throughout the same ignorance of +nature. The Jews did not know that the moon shone only with a reflected +light. The author here speaks of stars as of mere luminous points, such +as they appear, although they are in fact so many suns, having each of +them worlds revolving round it. The Holy Spirit, then, accommodated +Himself to the spirit of the times. If He had said that the sun was a +million times larger than the earth, and the moon fifty times smaller, +no one would have comprehended Him. They appear to us two stars of +nearly equal size.</p> + +<p>"God said, also, let us make man in our own image, and let him have +dominion over the fishes."</p> + +<p>What meaning did the Jews attach to the expression, "let us make man in +our own image?" The same as all antiquity attached to it: "<i>Finxit in +effigiem moderantum cuncta deorum.</i>" (Ovid, Metam. i. 82.)</p> + +<p>No images are made but of bodies. No nation ever imagined a God without +body, and it is impossible to represent Him otherwise. We may indeed say +that God is nothing that we are acquainted with, but we can have no +idea of what He is. The Jews invariably conceived God to be corporeal, +as well as every other people. All the first fathers of the Church, +also, entertained the same belief till they had embraced the ideas of +Plato, or rather until the light of Christianity became more pure.</p> + +<p>"He created them male and female." If God, of the secondary or inferior +gods, created mankind, male and female, after their own likeness, it +would seem in that case, as if the Jews believed that God and the gods +who so formed them were male and female. It has been a subject of +discussion, whether the author means to say that man had originally two +sexes, or merely that God made Adam and Eve on the same day. The most +natural meaning is that God formed Adam and Eve at the same time; but +this interpretation involves an absolute contradiction to the statement +of the woman's being made out of the rib of man after the seven days +were concluded.</p> + +<p>"And he rested on the seventh day." The Phœnicians, Chaldæans, and +Indians, represented God as having made the world in six periods, which +the ancient Zoroaster calls the six "Gahanbars," so celebrated among the +Persians.</p> + +<p>It is beyond all question that these nations possessed a theology before +the Jews inhabited the deserts of Horeb and Sinai, and before they could +possibly have had any writers. Many writers have considered it probable +that the allegory of six days was imitated from that of the six +periods. God may have permitted the idea to have prevailed in large and +populous empires before he inspired the Jewish people with it. He had +undoubtedly permitted other people to invent the arts before the Jews +were in possession of any one of them.</p> + +<p>"From this pleasant place a river went out which watered the garden, and +thence it was divided into four rivers. One was called Pison, which +compassed the whole land of Havilah, whence cometh gold.... the second +was called Gihon and surrounds Ethiopia.... the third is the Tigris, and +the fourth the Euphrates."</p> + +<p>According to this version, the earthly paradise would have contained +nearly a third part of Asia and of Africa. The sources of the Euphrates +and the Tigris are sixty leagues distant from each other, in frightful +mountains, bearing no possible resemblance to a garden. The river which +borders Ethiopia, and which can be no other than the Nile, commences its +course at the distance of more than a thousand leagues from the sources +of the Tigris and Euphrates; and, if the Pison means the Phasis, it is +not a little surprising that the source of a Scythian river and that of +an African one should be situated on the same spot. We must therefore +look for some other explanation, and for other rivers. Every commentator +has got up a paradise of his own.</p> + +<p>It has been said that the Garden of Eden resembles the gardens of Eden +at Saana in Arabia Felix, celebrated throughout all antiquity; that the +Hebrews, a very recent people, might be an Arabian horde, and assume to +themselves the honor of the most beautiful spot in the finest district +of Arabia; and that they have always converted to their own purposes the +ancient traditions of the vast and powerful nations in the midst of whom +they were in bondage. They were not, however, on this account, the less +under the divine protection and guidance.</p> + +<p>"The Lord then took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden that he +might cultivate it." It is very respectable and pleasant for a man to +"cultivate his garden," but it must have been somewhat difficult for +Adam to have dressed and kept in order a garden of a thousand leagues in +length, even although he had been supplied with some assistants. +Commentators on this subject, therefore, we again observe, are +completely at a loss, and must be content to exercise their ingenuity in +conjecture. Accordingly, these four rivers have been described as +flowing through numberless different territories.</p> + +<p>"Eat not of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil." It is +not easy to conceive that there ever existed a tree which could teach +good and evil, as there are trees that bear pears and apricots. And +besides the question is asked, why is God unwilling that man should know +good and evil? Would not his free access to this knowledge, on the +contrary, appear—if we may venture to use such language—more +worthy of God, and far more necessary to man? To our weak reason it +would seem more natural and proper for God to command him to eat largely +of such fruit; but we must bring our reason under subjection, and +acquiesce with humility and simplicity in the conclusion that God is to +be obeyed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;"> +<a name="THE_TEMPTATION_OF_ADAM" id="THE_TEMPTATION_OF_ADAM"></a> + +<span class="caption_fig">The Temptation of Adam (***Missing Image***)</span> +</div> + +<p>"If thou shalt eat thereof, thou shalt die." Nevertheless, Adam ate of +it and did not die; on the contrary, he is stated to have lived on for +nine hundred and thirty years. Many of the fathers considered the whole +matter as an allegory. In fact, it might be said that all other animals +have no knowledge that they shall die, but that man, by means of his +reason, has such knowledge. This reason is the tree of knowledge which +enables him to foresee his end. This, perhaps, is the most rational +interpretation that can be given. We venture not to decide positively.</p> + +<p>"The Lord said, also, it is not good for man to be alone; let us make +him a helpmeet for him." We naturally expect that the Lord is about to +bestow on him a wife; but first he conducts before him all the various +tribes of animals. Perhaps the copyist may have committed here an error +of transposition.</p> + +<p>"And the name which Adam gave to every animal is its true name." What we +should naturally understand by the true name of an animal, would be a +name describing all, or at least, the principal properties of its +species. But this is not the case in any language. In each there are +some imitative words, as "<i>coq</i>" and "<i>cocu</i>" in the Celtic, which bear +some slight similarity to the notes of the cock and the cuckoo; +<i>tintamarre, trictrac</i>, in French; <i>alali</i>, in Greek; <i>lupus</i>, in Latin, +etc. But these imitative words are exceedingly few. Moreover, if Adam +had thus thoroughly known the properties of various animals, he must +either have previously eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, or +it would apparently have answered no end for God to have interdicted him +from it. He must have already known more than the Royal Society of +London, and the Academy of the Sciences.</p> + +<p>It may be remarked that this is the first time the name of Adam occurs +in the Book of Genesis. The first man, according to the ancient +Brahmins, who were prodigiously anterior to the Jews, was called Adimo, +a son of the earth, and his wife, Procris, life. This is recorded in the +Vedas, in the history of the second formation of the world. Adam and Eve +expressed perfectly the same meanings in the Phoenician language—a new +evidence of the Holy Spirit's conforming Himself to commonly received +ideas.</p> + +<p>"When Adam was asleep God took one of his ribs and put flesh instead +thereof; and of the rib which he had taken from Adam he formed a woman, +and he brought the woman to Adam."</p> + +<p>In the previous chapter the Lord had already created the male and the +female; why, therefore, remove a rib from the man to form out of it a +woman who was already in being? It is answered that the author barely +announces in the one case what he explains in another. It is answered +further that this allegory places the wife in subjection to her husband, +and expresses their intimate union. Many persons have been led to +imagine from this verse that men have one rib less than women; but this +is a heresy, and anatomy informs us that a wife has no more ribs than +her husband.</p> + +<p>"But the serpent was more subtle than all animals on the earth; he said +to the woman," etc. Throughout the whole of this article there is no +mention made of the devil. Everything in it relates to the usual course +of nature. The serpent was considered by all oriental nations, not only +as the most cunning of all animals, but likewise as immortal. The +Chaldæans had a fable concerning a quarrel between God and the serpent, +and this fable had been preserved by Pherecydes. Origen cites it in his +sixth book against Celsus. A serpent was borne in procession at the +feasts of Bacchus. The Egyptians, according to the statement of Eusebius +in the first book of the tenth chapter of his "Evangelical Preparation," +attached a sort of divinity to the serpent. In Arabia, India, and even +China, the serpent was regarded as a symbol of life; and hence it was +that the emperors of China, long before the time of Moses, always bore +upon their breast the image of a serpent.</p> + +<p>Eve expresses no astonishment at the serpent's speaking to her. In all +ancient histories, animals have spoken; hence Pilpay and Lokman excited +no surprise by their introduction of animals conversing and disputing.</p> + +<p>The whole of this affair appears so clearly to have been supposed in the +natural course of events, and so unconnected with anything allegorical, +that the narrative assigns a reason why the serpent, from that time, has +moved creeping on its belly, why we always are eager to crush it under +our feet, and why it always attempts—at least according to the popular +belief—to bite and wound us. Precisely as, with respect to presumed +changes affecting certain animals recorded in ancient fable, reasons +were stated why the crow which originally had been white is at the +present day black; why the owl quits his gloomy retreat only by night; +why the wolf is devoted to carnage. The fathers, however, believed the +affair to be an allegory at once clear and venerable. The safest way is +to believe like them.</p> + +<p>"I will multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou +bring forth children. Thou shalt be under the power of the man, and he +shall rule over thee." Why, it is asked, should the multiplication of +conception be a punishment? It was, on the contrary, says the objector, +esteemed a superior blessing, particularly among the Jews. The pains of +childbirth are inconsiderable, in all except very weak or delicate +women. Those accustomed to labor are delivered, particularly in warm +climates, with great ease. Brutes frequently experience greater +suffering from this process of nature: some even die under it. And with +respect to the superiority or dominion of the man over the woman, it is +merely in the natural course of events; it is the effect of strength of +body, and even of strength of mind. Men, generally speaking, possess +organs more capable of continued attention than women, and are better +fitted by nature for labors both of the head and arm. But when a woman +possesses both a hand and a mind more powerful than her husband's, she +everywhere possesses the dominion over him; it is then the husband that +is under subjection to the wife. There is certainly truth in these +remarks; but it might, nevertheless, very easily be the fact that, +before the commission of the original sin, neither subjection nor sorrow +existed.</p> + +<p>"The Lord made for them coats of skins." This passage decidedly proves +that the Jews believed God to be corporeal. A rabbi, of the name of +Eliezer, stated in his works that God clothed Adam and Eve with the skin +of the very serpent who had tempted them; and Origen maintains that this +coat of skins was a new flesh, a new body, which God conferred on man. +It is far better to adhere respectfully to the literal texts.</p> + +<p>"And the Lord said; Lo! Adam is become like one of us." It seems as if +the Jews admitted, originally, many gods. It is somewhat more difficult +to determine what they meant by the word "God," <i>Elohim</i>. Some +commentators have contended that the expression "one of us" signifies +the Trinity. But certainly there is nothing relating to the Trinity +throughout the Bible. The Trinity is not a compound of many or several +Gods: it is one and the same god threefold; and the Jews never heard the +slightest mention of one god in three persons. By the words "like us," +or "as one of us," it is probable that the Jews understood the angels, +<i>Elohim</i>. It is this passage which has induced many learned men very +rashly to conclude that this book was not written until that people had +adopted the belief of those inferior gods. But this opinion has been +condemned.</p> + +<p>"The Lord sent him forth from the garden of Eden to cultivate the +ground." "But," it is remarked by some, "the Lord had placed him in the +garden of Eden to <i>cultivate</i> that garden." If Adam, instead of being a +gardener, merely becomes a laborer, his situation, they observe, is not +made very much worse by the change. A good laborer is well worth a good +gardener. These remarks must be regarded as too light and frivolous. It +appears more judicious to say that God punished disobedience by +banishing the offender from the place of his nativity.</p> + +<p>The whole of this history, generally speaking—according to the opinion +of liberal, not to say licentious, commentators—proceeds upon the idea +which has prevailed in every past age, and still exists, that the first +times were better and happier than those which followed. Men have +always complained of the present and extolled the past. Pressed down by +the labors of life, they have imagined happiness to consist in +inactivity, not considering that the most unhappy of all states is that +of a man who has nothing to do. They felt themselves frequently +miserable, and framed in their imaginations an ideal period in which all +the world had been happy; although it might be just as naturally and +truly supposed that there had existed times in which no tree decayed and +perished, in which no beast was weak, diseased, or devoured by another, +and in which spiders did not prey upon flies. Hence the idea of the +golden age; of the egg pierced by Arimanes; of the serpent who stole +from the ass the recipe for obtaining a happy and immortal life, which +the man had placed upon his pack-saddle; of the conflict between Typhon +and Osiris, and between Opheneus and the gods; of the famous box of +Pandora; and of all those ancient tales, of which some are ingenious, +but none instructive. But we are bound to believe that the fables of +other nations are imitations of the Hebrew history, since we possess the +ancient history of the Hebrews, and the early books of other nations are +nearly all destroyed. Besides the testimonies in favor of the Book of +Genesis are irrefragable.</p> + +<p>"And He placed before the garden of Eden a cherub with a flaming sword, +which turned all round to guard the way to the tree of life." The word +"<i>kerub</i>" signifies <i>ox</i>. An ox armed with a flaming sword is rather a +singular exhibition, it is said, before a portal. But the Jews +afterwards represented angels under the form of oxen and hawks although +they were forbidden to make any images. They evidently derived these +emblems of oxen and hawks from the Egyptians, whom they imitated in so +many other things. The Egyptians first venerated the ox as the emblem of +agriculture, and the hawk as that of the winds; but they never converted +the ox into a sentinel. It is probably an allegory; and the Jews by +"<i>kerub</i>" understood nature. It was a symbol formed of the head of an +ox, the head and body of a man, and the wings of a hawk.</p> + +<p>"And the Lord set a mark upon Cain." What Lord? says the infidel. He +accepts the offering of Abel, and rejects that of his elder brother, +without the least reason being assigned for the distinction. By this +proceeding the Lord was the cause of animosity between the two brothers. +We are presented in this piece of history, it is true, with a moral, +however humiliating, lesson; a lesson to be derived from all the fables +of antiquity, that scarcely had the race of man commenced the career of +existence, before one brother assassinates another. But what the sages, +of this world consider contrary to everything moral, to everything just, +to all the principles of common sense, is that God, who inflicted +eternal damnation on the race of man, and useless crucifixion on His own +son, on account merely of the eating of an apple, should absolutely +pardon a fratricide! nay, that He should more than pardon, that He +should take the offender under His peculiar protection! He declares that +whoever shall avenge the murder of Abel shall experience sevenfold the +punishment that Cain might have suffered. He puts a mark upon him as a +safeguard. Here, continue these vile blasphemers, here is a fable as +execrable as it is absurd. It is the raving of some wretched Jew, who +wrote those infamous and revolting fooleries, in imitation of the tales +so greedily swallowed by the neighboring population in Syria. This +senseless Jew attributes these atrocious reveries to Moses, at a time +when nothing was so rare as books. That fatality, which affects and +disposes of everything, has handed down this contemptible production to +our own times. Knaves have extolled it, and fools have believed it. Such +is the language of a tribe of theists, who, while they adore a God, dare +to condemn the God of Israel; and who judge of the conduct of the +eternal Deity by the rules of our own imperfect morality, and erroneous +justice. They admit a God, to subject Him to our laws. Let us guard +against such rashness; and, once again it must be repeated, let us +revere what we cannot comprehend. Let us cry out, <i>O Altitudo</i>! O the +height and depth! with all our strength.</p> + +<p>"The gods Elohim, seeing the daughters of men that they were fair, took +for wives those whom they chose." This imagination, again, may be traced +in the history of every people. No nation has ever existed, unless +perhaps we may except China, in which some god is not described as +having had offspring from women. These corporeal gods frequently +descended to visit their dominions upon earth; they saw the daughters of +our race, and attached themselves to those who were most interesting and +beautiful: the issue of this connection between gods and mortals must of +course have been superior to other men; accordingly, Genesis informs us +that from the association it mentions, of the gods with women, sprang a +race of giants.</p> + +<p>"I will bring a deluge of waters upon the earth." I will merely observe +here that St. Augustine, in his "City of God," No. 8, says, "<i>Maximum +illud diluvium Græca nec Latina novit historia</i>"—neither Greek nor +Latin history knows anything about the great deluge. In fact, none had +ever been known in Greece but those of Deucalion and Ogyges. They are +regarded as universal in the fables collected by Ovid, but are wholly +unknown in eastern Asia. St. Augustine, therefore, is not mistaken, in +saying that history makes no mention of this event.</p> + +<p>"God said to Noah, I will make a covenant with you, and with your seed +after you, and with all living creatures." God make a covenant with +beasts! What sort of a covenant? Such is the outcry of infidels. But if +He makes a covenant with man, why not with the beast? It has feeling, +and there is something as divine in feeling as in the most metaphysical +meditation. Besides, beasts feel more correctly than the greater part of +men think. It is clearly in virtue of this treaty that Francis d'Assisi, +the founder of the Seraphic order, said to the grasshoppers and the +hares, "Pray sing, my dear sister grasshopper; pray browse, my dear +brother hare." But what were the conditions of the treaty? That all +animals should devour one another; that they should feed upon our flesh, +and we upon theirs; that, after having eaten them, we should proceed +with wrath and fury to the extermination of our own race—nothing being +then wanting to crown the horrid series of butchery and cruelty, but +devouring our fellow-men, after having thus remorselessly destroyed +them. Had there been actually such a treaty as this it could have been +entered into only with the devil.</p> + +<p>Probably the meaning of the whole passage is neither more nor less than +that God is equally the absolute master of everything that breathes. +This pact can be nothing more than an order, and the word "covenant" is +used merely as more emphatic and impressive; we should not therefore be +startled and offended at the words, but adore the spirit, and direct our +minds back to the period in which this book was written—a book of +scandal to the weak, but of edification to the strong.</p> + +<p>"And I will put my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of my +covenant." Observe that the author does not say, I <i>have</i> put my bow in +the clouds; he says, I <i>will</i> put: this clearly implies it to have been +the prevailing opinion that there had not always been a rainbow. This +phenomenon is necessarily produced by rain; yet in this place it is +represented as something supernatural, exhibited in order to announce +and prove that the earth should no more be inundated. It is singular to +choose the certain sign of rain, in order to assure men against their +being drowned. But it may also be replied that in any danger of +inundation, we have the cheering security of the rainbow.</p> + +<p>"But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of +Adam had built, and he said, 'Behold a people which have but one +language. They have begun to do this, and they will not desist until +they have completed it. Come, then, let us go and confound their +language, that no one may understand his neighbor.'" Observe here, that +the sacred writer always continues to conform to the popular opinions. +He always speaks of God as of a man who endeavors to inform himself of +what is passing, who is desirous of seeing with his own eyes what is +going on in his dominions, who calls together his council in order to +deliberate with them.</p> + +<p>"And Abraham having divided his men—who were three hundred and eighteen +in number—fell upon the five kings, and pursued them unto Hoba, on the +left hand of Damascus." From the south bank of the lake of Sodom to +Damascus was a distance of eighty leagues, not to mention crossing the +mountains Libanus and Anti-Libanus. Infidels smile and triumph at such +exaggeration. But as the Lord favored Abraham, nothing was in fact +exaggerated.</p> + +<p>"And two angels arrived at Sodom at even." The whole history of these +two angels, whom the inhabitants of Sodom wished to violate, is perhaps +the most extraordinary in the records of all antiquity. But it must be +considered that almost all Asia believed in the existence of the +demoniacal incubus and succubus; and moreover, that these two angels +were creatures more perfect than mankind, and must have possessed more +beauty to stimulate their execrable tendencies. It is possible that the +passage may be only meant as a rhetorical figure to express the +atrocious depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is not without the +greatest diffidence that we suggest to the learned this solution.</p> + +<p>As to Lot, who proposes to the people of Sodom the substitution of his +two daughters in the room of the angels; and his wife, who was changed +into a statue of salt, and all the rest of that history, what shall we +venture to say? The old Arabian tale of Kinyras and Myrrha has some +resemblance to the incest of Lot with his daughters; and the adventure +of Philemon and Baucis is somewhat similar to the case of the two angels +who appeared to Lot and his wife. With respect to the statue of salt, we +know not where to find any resemblance; perhaps in the history of +Orpheus and Eurydice.</p> + +<p>Many ingenious men are of opinion, with the great Newton and the learned +Leclerc that the Pentateuch was written by Samuel when the Jews had a +little knowledge of reading and writing, and that all these histories +are imitations of Syrian fables.</p> + +<p>But it is enough that all this is in the Holy Scripture to induce us to +reverence it, without attempting to find out in this book anything +besides what is written by the Holy Spirit. Let us always recollect that +those times were not like our times; and let us not fail to repeat, +after so many great men, that the Old Testament is a true history; and +that all that has been written differing from it by the rest of the +world is fabulous.</p> + +<p>Some critics have contended that all the incredible passages in the +canonical books, which scandalize weak minds, ought to be suppressed; +but it has been observed in answer that those critics had bad hearts, +and ought to be burned at the stake; and that it is impossible to be a +good man without believing that the people of Sodom wanted to violate +two angels. Such is the reasoning of a species of monsters who wish to +lord it over the understandings of mankind.</p> + +<p>It is true that many eminent fathers of the Church have had the prudence +to turn all these histories into allegories, after the example of the +Jews, and particularly of Philo. The popes, more discreet, have +endeavored to prevent the translation of these books into the vulgar +tongue, lest some men should in consequence be led to think and judge, +about what was proposed to them only to adore.</p> + +<p>We are certainly justified in concluding hence, that those who +thoroughly understand this book should tolerate those who do not +understand it at all; for if the latter understand nothing of it, it is +not their own fault: on the other hand, those who comprehend nothing +that it contains should tolerate those who comprehend everything in it.</p> + +<p>Learned and ingenious men, full of their own talents and acquirements, +have maintained that it is impossible that Moses could have written the +Book of Genesis. One of their principal reasons is that in the history +of Abraham that patriarch is stated to have paid for a cave which he +purchased for the interment of his wife, in silver coin, and the king of +Gerar is said to have given Sarah a thousand pieces of silver when he +restored her, after having carried her off for her beauty at the age of +seventy-five. They inform us that they have consulted all the ancient +authors, and that it appears very certain that at the period mentioned +silver money was not in existence. But these are evidently mere cavils, +as the Church has always firmly believed Moses to have been the author +of the Pentateuch. They strengthen all the doubts suggested by +Aben-Ezra, and Baruch Spinoza. The physician Astruc, father-in-law of +the comptroller-general Silhouette, in his book—now become very +scarce—called "Conjectures on the Book of Genesis," adds some +objections, inexplicable undoubtedly to human learning, but not so to a +humble and submissive piety. The learned, many of them, contradict every +line, but the devout consider every line sacred. Let us dread falling +into the misfortune of believing and trusting to our reason; but let us +bring ourselves into subjection in understanding as well as in heart.</p> + +<p>"And Abraham said that Sarah was his sister, and the king of Gerar took +her for himself." We admit, as we have said under the article on +"Abraham," that Sarah was at this time ninety years of age, that she had +been already carried away by a king of Egypt, and that a king of this +same horrid wilderness of Gerar, likewise, many years afterwards, +carried away the wife of Isaac, Abraham's son. We have also spoken of +his servant, Hagar, who bore him a son, and of the manner in which the +patriarch sent her and her son away. It is well known how infidels +triumph on the subject of all these histories, with what a disdainful +smile they speak of them, and that they place the story of one Abimelech +falling in love with Sarah whom Abraham had passed off as his sister, +and of another Abimelech falling in love with Rebecca, whom Isaac also +passes as his sister, even beneath the thousand and one nights of the +Arabian fables. We cannot too often remark that the great error of all +these learned critics is their wishing to try everything by the test of +our feeble reason, and to judge of the ancient Arabs as they judge of +the courts of France or of England.</p> + +<p>"And the soul of Shechem, King Hamor's son, was bound up with the soul +of Dinah, and he soothed her grief by his tender caresses, and he went +to Hamor his father, and said to him, give me that woman to be my wife."</p> + +<p>Here our critics exclaim in terms of stronger disgust than ever. "What!" +say they; "the son of a king is desirous to marry a vagabond girl;" the +marriage is celebrated; Jacob the father, and Dinah the daughter, are +loaded with presents; the king of Shechem deigns to receive those +wandering robbers called patriarchs within his city; he has the +incredible politeness or kindness to undergo, with his son, his court, +and his people, the rite of circumcision, thus condescending to the +superstition of a petty horde that could not call half a league of +territory their own! And in return for this astonishing hospitality and +goodness, how do our holy patriarchs act? They wait for the day when the +process of circumcision generally induces fever, when Simeon and Levi +run through the whole city with poniards in their hands and massacre the +king, the prince his son, and all the inhabitants. We are precluded from +the horror appropriate to this infernal counterpart of the tragedy of +St. Bartholomew, only by a sense of its absolute impossibility. It is an +abominable romance; but it is evidently a ridiculous romance. It is +impossible that two men could have slaughtered in quiet the whole +population of a city. The people might suffer in a slight degree from +the operation which had preceded, but notwithstanding this, they would +have risen in self-defence against two diabolical miscreants; they would +have instantly assembled, would have surrounded them, and destroyed them +with the summary and complete vengeance merited by their atrocity.</p> + +<p>But there is a still more palpable impossibility. It is, that according +to the accurate computation of time, Dinah, this daughter of Jacob, +could be only three years old; and that, even by forcing up chronology +as far as possible in favor of the narrative, she could at the very most +be only five. It is here, then, that we are assailed with bursts of +indignant exclamation! "What!" it is said, "what! is it this book, the +book of a rejected and reprobate people; a book so long unknown to all +the world; a book in which sound reason and decent manners are outraged +in every page, that is held up to us as irrefragable, holy, and dictated +by God Himself? Is it not even impious to believe it? or could anything +less than the fury of cannibals urge to the persecution of sensible and +modest men for not believing it?"</p> + +<p>To this we reply: "The Church declares its belief in it. The copyists +may have mixed up some revolting absurdities with respectable and +genuine histories. It belongs to the holy church only to decide. +The profane ought to be guided by her. Those absurdities, those alleged +horrors do not affect the substance of our faith. How lamentable would +be the fate of mankind, if religion and virtue depended upon what +formerly happened to Shechem and to little Dinah!"</p> + +<p>"These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before the children +of Israel had a king." This is the celebrated passage which has proved +one of the great stumbling stones. This it was which decided the great +Newton, the pious and acute Samuel Clarke, the profound and philosophic +Bolingbroke, the learned Leclerc, the ingenious Fréret, and a host of +other enlightened men, to maintain that it was impossible Moses could +have been the author of Genesis.</p> + +<p>We admit that in fact these words could not have been written until +after the time that the Jews had kings.</p> + +<p>It is principally this verse that determined Astruc to give up the +inspired authority of the whole Book of Genesis, and suppose the author +had derived his materials from existing memoirs and records. His work is +ingenious and accurate, but it is rash, not to say audacious. Even a +council would scarcely have ventured on such an enterprise. And to what +purpose has it served Astruc's thankless and dangerous labor—to double +the darkness he wished to enlighten? Here is the fruit of the tree of +knowledge, of which we are all so desirous of eating. Why must it be, +that the fruit of the tree of ignorance should be more nourishing and +more digestible?</p> + +<p>But of what consequence can it be to us, after all, whether any +particular verse or chapter was written by Moses, or Samuel, or the +priest (<i>sacrificateur</i>) who came to Samaria, or Esdras, or any other +person? In what respect can our government, our laws, our fortunes, our +morals, our well-being, be bound up with the unknown chiefs of a +wretched and barbarous country called Edom or Idumæa, always inhabited +by robbers? Alas! those poor Arabs, who have not shirts to their backs, +neither know nor care whether or not we are in existence! They go on +steadily plundering caravans, and eating barley bread, while we are +perplexing and tormenting ourselves to know whether any petty kings +flourished in a particular canton of Arabia Petræa, before they existed +in a particular canton adjoining the west of the lake of Sodom!</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>O miseras hominum curas! Opectora cœca!</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 16em;" class="small">—LUCRETIUS, ii. 14.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Blind, wretched man! in what dark paths of strife</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thou walkest the little journey of thy life!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;" class="small">—CREECH</span>.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GENII" id="GENII"></a>GENII.</h3> + + +<p>The doctrines of judicial astrology and magic have spread all over the +world. Look back to the ancient Zoroaster, and you will find that of the +genii long established. All antiquity abounds in astrologers and +magicians; such ideas were therefore very natural. At present, we smile +at the number who entertained them; if we were in their situation, if +like them we were only beginning to cultivate the sciences, we should +perhaps believe just the same. Let us suppose ourselves intelligent +people, beginning to reason on our own existence, and to observe the +stars. The earth, we might say, is no doubt immovable in the midst of +the world; the sun and planets only revolve in her service, and the +stars are only made for us; man, therefore, is the great object of all +nature. What is the intention of all these globes, and of the immensity +of heaven thus destined for our use? It is very likely that all space +and these globes are peopled with substances, and since we are the +favorites of nature, placed in the centre of the universe, and all is +made for man, these substances are evidently destined to watch over man.</p> + +<p>The first man who believed the thing at all possible would soon find +disciples persuaded that it existed. We might then commence by saying, +genii perhaps exist, and nobody could affirm the contrary; for where is +the impossibility of the air and planets being peopled? We might +afterwards say there <i>are</i> genii, and certainly no one could prove that +there are not. Soon after, some sages might see these genii, and we +should have no right to say to them: "You have not seen them"; as these +persons might be honorable, and altogether worthy of credit. One might +see the genius of the empire or of his own city; another that of Mars +or Saturn; the genii of the four elements might be manifested to several +philosophers; more than one sage might see his own genius; all at first +might be little more than dreaming, but dreams are the symbols of truth.</p> + +<p>It was soon known exactly how these genii were formed. To visit our +globe, they must necessarily have wings; they therefore had wings. We +know only of bodies; they therefore had bodies, but bodies much finer +than ours, since they were genii, and much lighter, because they came +from so great a distance. The sages who had the privilege of conversing +with the genii inspired others with the hope of enjoying the same +happiness. A skeptic would have been ill received, if he had said to +them: "I have seen no genius, therefore there are none." They would have +replied: "You reason ill; it does not follow that a thing exists not, +which is unknown to you. There is no contradiction in the doctrine which +inculcates these ethereal powers; no impossibility that they may visit +us; they show themselves to our sages, they manifest themselves to us; +you are not worthy of seeing genii."</p> + +<p>Everything on earth is composed of good and evil; there are therefore +incontestably good and bad genii. The Persians had their peris and +dives; the Greeks, their demons and cacodæmons; the Latins, <i>bonos et +malos genios</i>. The good genii are white, and the bad black, except among +the negroes, where it is necessarily the reverse. Plato without +difficulty admits of a good and evil genius for every individual. The +evil genius of Brutus appeared to him, and announced to him his death +before the battle of Philippi. Have not grave historians said so? And +would not Plutarch have been very injudicious to have assured us of this +fact, if it were not true?</p> + +<p>Further, consider what a source of feasts, amusements, good tales, and +bon mots, originated in the belief of genii!</p> + +<p>There were male and female genii. The genii of the ladies were called by +the Romans little Junos. They also had the pleasure of seeing their +genii grow up. In infancy, they were a kind of Cupid with wings, and +when they protected old age, they wore long beards, and even sometimes +the forms of serpents. At Rome, there is preserved a marble, on which is +represented a serpent under a palm tree, to which are attached two +crowns with this inscription: "To the genius of the Augusti"; it was the +emblem of immortality.</p> + +<p>What demonstrative proof have we at present, that the genii, so +universally admitted by so many enlightened nations, are only phantoms +of the imagination? All that can be said is reduced to this: "I have +never seen a genius, and no one of my acquaintance has ever seen one; +Brutus has not written that his genius appeared to him before the battle +of Philippi; neither Newton, Locke, nor even Descartes, who gave the +reins to his imagination; neither kings nor ministers of state have +ever been suspected of communing with their genii; therefore I do not +believe a thing of which there is not the least truth. I confess their +existence is not impossible; but the possibility is not a proof of the +reality. It is possible that there may be satyrs, with little turned-up +tails and goats' feet; but I must see several to believe in them; for if +I saw but one, I should still doubt their existence."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GENIUS" id="GENIUS"></a>GENIUS.</h3> + + +<p>Of genius or demon, we have already spoken in the article on "angel." It +is not easy to know precisely whether the peris of the Persians were +invented before the demons of the Greeks, but it is very probable that +they were. It may be, that the souls of the dead, called shades, manes, +etc., passed for demons. Hesiod makes Hercules say that a demon dictated +his labors.</p> + +<p>The demon of Socrates had so great a reputation, that Apuleius, the +author of the "Golden Ass," who was himself a magician of good repute, +says in his "Treatise on the Genius of Socrates," that a man must be +without religion who denies it. You see that Apuleius reasons precisely +like brothers Garasse and Bertier: "You do not believe that which I +believe; you are therefore without religion." And the Jansenists have +said as much of brother Bertier, as well as of all the world except +themselves. "These demons," says the very religious and filthy +Apuleius, "are intermediate powers between ether and our lower region. +They live in our atmosphere, and bear our prayers and merits to the +gods. They treat of succors and benefits, as interpreters and +ambassadors. Plato says, that it is by their ministry that revelations, +presages, and the miracles of magicians, are effected."—"<i>Cæterum sunt +quædam divinæ mediæ potestates, inter summum æthera, et infimas terras, +in isto intersitæ æris spatio, per quas et desideria nostra et merita ad +deos commeant. Hos Græco nomine demonias nuncupant. Inter terricolas +cœli colasque victores, hinc pecum, inde donorum: qui ultro citroque +portant, hinc petitiones, inde suppetias: ceu quidam utriusque +interpretes, et salutigeri. Per hos eosdem, ut Plato in symposio +autumat, cuncta denuntiata; et majorum varia miracula, omnesque +præsagium species reguntur.</i>"</p> + +<p>St. Augustine has condescended to refute Apuleius in these words:</p> + +<p>"It is impossible for us to say that demons are neither mortal nor +eternal, for all that has life, either lives eternally, or loses the +breath of life by death; and Apuleius has said, that as to time, the +demons are eternal. What then remains, but that demons hold a medium +situation, and have one quality higher and another lower than mankind; +and as, of these two things, eternity is the only higher thing which +they exclusively possess, to complete the allotted medium, what must be +the lower, if not misery?" This is powerful reasoning!</p> + +<p>As I have never seen any genii, demons, peris, or hobgoblins, whether +beneficent or mischievous, I cannot speak of them from knowledge. I only +relate what has been said by people who have seen them.</p> + +<p>Among the Romans, the word "genius" was not used to express a rare +talent, as with us: the term for that quality was <i>ingenium</i>. We use the +word "genius" indifferently in speaking of the tutelar demon of a town +of antiquity, or an artist, or a musician. The term "genius" seems to +have been intended to designate not great talents generally, but those +into which invention enters. Invention, above everything, appeared a +gift from the gods—this <i>ingenium, quasi ingenitum</i>, a kind of divine +inspiration. Now an artist, however perfect he may be in his profession, +if he have no invention, if he be not original, is not considered a +genius. He is only inspired by the artists his predecessors, even when +he surpasses them.</p> + +<p>It is very probable that many people now play at chess better than the +inventor of the game, and that they might gain the prize of corn +promised him by the Indian king. But this inventor was a genius, and +those who might now gain the prize would be no such thing. Poussin, who +was a great painter before he had seen any good pictures, had a genius +for painting. Lulli, who never heard any good musician in France, had a +genius for music.</p> + +<p>Which is the more desirable to possess, a genius without a master, or +the attainment of perfection by imitating and surpassing the masters +which precede us?</p> + +<p>If you put this question to artists, they will perhaps be divided; if +you put it to the public, it will not hesitate. Do you like a beautiful +Gobelin tapestry better than one made in Flanders at the commencement of +the arts? Do you prefer modern masterpieces of engraving to the first +wood-cuts? the music of the present day to the first airs, which +resembled the Gregorian chant? the makers of the artillery of our time +to the genius which invented the first cannon? everybody will answer, +"yes." All purchasers will say: "I own that the inventor of the shuttle +had more genius than the manufacturer who made my cloth, but my cloth is +worth more than that of the inventor."</p> + +<p>In short, every one in conscience will confess, that we respect the +geniuses who invented the arts, but that the minds which perfect them +are of more present benefit.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>The article on "Genius" has been treated in the "Encyclopædia" by men +who possess it. We shall hazard very little after them.</p> + +<p>Every town, every man possessed a genius. It was imagined that those who +performed extraordinary things were inspired by their genius. The nine +muses were nine genii, whom it was necessary to invoke; therefore Ovid +says: "<i>Et Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo</i>"—"The God within +us, He the mind inspires."</p> + +<p>But, properly speaking, is genius anything but capability? What is +capability but a disposition to succeed in an art? Why do we say the +genius of a language? It is, that every language, by its terminations, +articles, participles, and shorter or longer words, will necessarily +have exclusive properties of its own.</p> + +<p>By the genius of a nation is meant the character, manners, talents, and +even vices, which distinguish one people from another. It is sufficient +to see the French, English, and Spanish people, to feel this difference.</p> + +<p>We have said that the particular genius of a man for an art is a +different thing from his general talent; but this name is given only to +a very superior ability. How many people have talent for poetry, music, +and painting; yet it would be ridiculous to call them geniuses.</p> + +<p>Genius, conducted by taste, will never commit a gross fault. Racine, +since his "Andromache," "Le Poussin," and "Rameau," has never committed +one. Genius, without taste, will often commit enormous errors; and, what +is worse, it will not be sensible of them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GEOGRAPHY" id="GEOGRAPHY"></a>GEOGRAPHY.</h3> + + +<p>Geography is one of those sciences which will always require to be +perfected. Notwithstanding the pains that have been taken, it has +hitherto been impossible to have an exact description of the earth. For +this great work, it would be necessary that all sovereigns should come +to an understanding, and lend mutual assistance. But they have ever +taken more pains to ravage the world than they have to measure it.</p> + +<p>No one has yet been able to make an exact map of upper Egypt, nor of the +regions bordering on the Red Sea, nor of the vast country of Arabia. Of +Africa we know only the coasts; all the interior is no more known than +it was in the times of Atlas and Hercules. There is not a single +well-detailed map of all the Grand Turk's possessions in Asia; all is +placed at random, excepting some few large towns, the crumbling remains +of which are still existing. In the states of the Great Mogul something +is known of the relative positions of Agra and Delhi; but thence to the +kingdom of Golconda everything is laid down at a venture.</p> + +<p>It is known that Japan extends from about the thirtieth to the fortieth +degree of north latitude; there cannot be an error of more than two +degrees, which is about fifty leagues; so that, relying on one of our +best maps, a pilot would be in danger of losing his track or his life.</p> + +<p>As for the longitude, the first maps of the Jesuits determined it +between the one hundred and fifty-seventh and the one hundred and +seventy-fifth degree; whereas, it is now determined between the one +hundred and forty-sixth and the one hundred and sixtieth.</p> + +<p>China is the only Asiatic country of which we have an exact measurement; +because the emperor Kam-hi employed some Jesuit astronomers to draw +exact maps, which is the best thing the Jesuits have done. Had they been +content with measuring the earth, they would never have been proscribed.</p> + +<p>In our western world, Italy, France, Russia, England, and the principal +towns of the other states, have been measured by the same method as was +employed in China; but it was not until a very few years ago, that in +France it was undertaken to form an entire topography. A company taken +from the Academy of Sciences despatched engineers or surveyors into +every corner of the kingdom, to lay down even the meanest hamlet, the +smallest rivulet, the hills, the woods, in their true places. Before +that time, so confused was the topography, that on the eve of the battle +of Fontenoy, the maps of the country being all examined, every one of +them was found entirely defective.</p> + +<p>If a positive order had been sent from Versailles to an inexperienced +general to give battle, and post himself as appeared most advisable from +the maps, as sometimes happened in the time of the minister Chamillar, +the battle would infallibly have been lost.</p> + +<p>A general who should carry on a war in the country of the Morlachians, +or the Montenegrins, with no knowledge of places but from the maps, +would be at as great a loss as if he were in the heart of Africa.</p> + +<p>Happily, that which has often been traced by geographers, according to +their own fancy, in their closets, is rectified on the spot. In +geography, as in morals, it is very difficult to know the world without +going from home.</p> + +<p>It is not with this department of knowledge, as with the arts of poetry, +music, and painting. The last works of these kinds are often the worst. +But in the sciences, which require exactness rather than genius, the +last are always the best, provided they are done with some degree of +care.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest advantages of geography, in my opinion, is this: +your fool of a neighbor, and his wife almost as stupid, are incessantly +reproaching you with not thinking as they think in Rue St. Jacques. +"See," say they, "what a multitude of great men have been of our +opinion, from Peter the Lombard down to the Abbé Petit-pied. The whole +universe has received our truths; they reign in the Faubourg St. Honoré, +at Chaillot and at Étampes, at Rome and among the Uscoques." Take a map +of the world; show them all Africa, the empires of Japan, China, India, +Turkey, Persia, and that of Russia, more extensive than was the Roman +Empire; make them pass their finger over all Scandinavia, all the north +of Germany, the three kingdoms of Great Britain, the greater part of the +Low Countries, and of Helvetia; in short make them observe, in the four +great divisions of the earth, and in the fifth, which is as little known +as it is great in extent, the prodigious number of races, who either +never heard of those opinions, or have combated them, or have held them +in abhorrence, and you will thus oppose the whole universe to Rue St. +Jacques.</p> + +<p>You will tell them that Julius Cæsar, who extended his power much +farther than that street, did not know a word of all which they think so +universal; and that our ancestors, on whom Julius Cæsar bestowed the +lash, knew no more of them than he did.</p> + +<p>They will then, perhaps, feel somewhat ashamed at having believed that +the organ of St. Severin's church gave the tone to the rest of the +world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GLORY_GLORIOUS" id="GLORY_GLORIOUS"></a>GLORY—GLORIOUS.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>Glory is reputation joined with esteem, and is complete when admiration +is superadded. It always supposes that which is brilliant in action, in +virtue, or in talent, and the surmounting of great difficulties. Cæsar +and Alexander had glory. The same can hardly be said of Socrates. He +claims esteem, reverence, pity, indignation against his enemies; but the +term "glory" applied to him would be improper; his memory is venerable +rather than glorious. Attila had much brilliancy, but he has no glory; +for history, which may be mistaken, attributes to him no virtues: +Charles XII. still has glory; for his valor, his disinterestedness, his +liberality, were extreme. Success is sufficient for reputation, but not +for glory. The glory of Henry IV. is every day increasing; for time has +brought to light all his virtues, which were incomparably greater than +his defects.</p> + +<p>Glory is also the portion of inventors in the fine arts; imitators have +only applause. It is granted, too, to great talents, but in sublime arts +only. We may well say, the glory of Virgil, or Cicero, but not of +Martial, nor of Aulus Gellius.</p> + +<p>Men have dared to say, the glory of God: God created this world for His +glory; not that the Supreme Being can have glory; but that men, having +no expressions suitable to Him, use for Him those by which they are +themselves most flattered.</p> + +<p>Vainglory is that petty ambition which is contented with appearances, +which is exhibited in pompous display, and never elevates itself to +greater things. Sovereigns, having real glory, have been known to be +nevertheless fond of vainglory—seeking too eagerly after praise, and +being too much attached to the trappings of ostentation.</p> + +<p>False glory often verges towards vanity; but it often leads to excesses, +while vainglory is more confined to splendid littlenesses. A prince who +should look for honor in revenge, would seek a false glory rather than a +vain one.</p> + +<p>To give glory signifies to acknowledge, to bear witness. Give glory to +truth, means acknowledging truth—Give glory to the God whom you +serve—Bear witness to the God whom you serve.</p> + +<p>Glory is taken for heaven—He dwells in glory; but this is the case in +no religion but ours. It is not allowable to say that Bacchus or +Hercules was received into glory, when speaking of their apotheosis. The +saints and angels have sometimes been called the glorious, as dwelling +in the abode of glory.</p> + +<p>Gloriously is always taken in the good sense; he reigned gloriously; he +extricated himself gloriously from great danger or embarrassment.</p> + +<p>To glory in, is sometimes taken in the good, sometimes in the bad, +sense, according to the nature of the object in question. He glories in +a disgrace which is the fruit of his talents and the effect of envy. We +say of the martyrs, that they glorified God—that is, that their +constancy made the God whom they attested revered by men.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>That Cicero should love glory, after having stifled Catiline's +conspiracy, may be pardoned him. That the king of Prussia, Frederick the +Great, should have the same feelings after Rosbach and Lissa, and after +being the legislator, the historian, the poet, and the philosopher of +his country—that he should be passionately fond of glory, and at the +same time, have self-command enough to be modestly so—he will, on that +account, be the more glorified.</p> + +<p>That the empress Catherine II. should have been forced by the brutish +insolence of a Turkish sultan to display all her genius; that from the +far north she should have sent four squadrons which spread terror in the +Dardanelles and in Asia Minor; and that, in 1770, she took four +provinces from those Turks who made Europe tremble—with this sort of +glory she will not be reproached, but will be admired for speaking of +her successes with that air of indifference and superiority which shows +that they were merited.</p> + +<p>In short, glory befits geniuses of this sort, though belonging to the +very mean race of mortals.</p> + +<p>But if, at the extremity of the west, a townsman of a place called Paris +thinks he has glory in being harangued by a teacher of the university, +who says to him: "Monseigneur, the glory you have acquired in the +exercise of your office, your illustrious labors with which the universe +resounds," etc., then I ask if there are mouths enough in that universe +to celebrate, with their hisses, the glory of our citizen, and the +eloquence of the pedant who attends to bray out this harangue at +monseigneur's hotel? We are such fools that we have made God glorious +like ourselves.</p> + +<p>That worthy chief of the dervishes, Ben-al-betif, said to his brethren +one day: "My brethren, it is good that you should frequently use that +sacred formula of our Koran, 'In the name of the most merciful God'; +because God uses mercy, and you learn to do so too, by oft repeating the +words that recommend virtue, without which there would be few men left +upon the earth. But, my brethren, beware of imitating those rash ones +who boast, on every occasion, of laboring for the glory of God.</p> + +<p>"If a young simpleton maintains a thesis on the categories, an ignoramus +in furs presiding, he is sure to write in large characters, at the head +of his thesis, '<i>Ek alha abron doxa</i>!—'<i>Ad majorem Dei gloriam</i>.' —To +the greater glory of God. If a good Mussulman has had his house +whitewashed, he cuts this foolish inscription in the door. A saka +carries water for the greater glory of God. It is an impious usage, +piously used. What would you say of a little chiaoux, who, while +emptying our sultan's close-stool, should exclaim: "To the greater glory +of our invincible monarch?" There is certainly a greater distance +between God and the sultan than between the sultan and the little +chiaoux.</p> + +<p>"Ye miserable earth-worms, called men, what have you resembling the +glory of the Supreme Being? Can He love glory? Can He receive it from +you? Can He enjoy it? How long, ye two-legged animals without feathers, +will you make God after your own image? What! because you are vain, +because you love glory, you would have God love it also? If there were +several Gods, perhaps each one would seek to gain the good opinion of +his fellows. That might be glory to God. Such a God, if infinite +greatness may be compared with extreme lowliness, would be like King +Alexander or Iscander, who would enter the lists with none but kings. +But you, poor creatures! what glory can you give to God? Cease to +profane the sacred name. An emperor, named Octavius Augustus, forbade +his being praised in the schools of Rome, lest his name should be +brought into contempt. You can bring the name of the Supreme Being +neither into contempt, nor into honor. Humble yourselves in the dust; +adore, and be silent."</p> + +<p>Thus spake Ben-al-betif; and the dervishes cried out: "Glory to God! +Ben-al-betif has said well."</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<h4><i>Conversation with a Chinese.</i></h4> + +<p>In 1723, there was in Holland a Chinese: this Chinese was a man of +letters and a merchant; which two professions ought not to be +incompatible, but which have become so amongst us, thanks to the extreme +regard which is paid to money, and the little consideration which +mankind have ever shown, and will ever show, for merit.</p> + +<p>This Chinese, who spoke a little Dutch, was once in a bookseller's shop +with some men of learning. He asked for a book, and "Bossuet's Universal +History," badly translated, was proposed to him. "Ah!" said he, "how +fortunate! I shall now see what is said of our great empire—of our +nation, which has existed as a national body for more than fifty +thousand years—of that succession of emperors who have governed us for +so many ages. I shall now see what is thought of the religion of the +men of letters—of that simple worship which we render to the Supreme +Being. How pleasing to see what is said in Europe of our arts, many of +which are more ancient amongst us than any European kingdom. I guess the +author will have made many mistakes in the history of the war which we +had twenty-two thousand five hundred and fifty-two years ago, with the +warlike nations of Tonquin and Japan, and of that solemn embassy which +the mighty emperor of the Moguls sent to ask laws from us, in the year +of the world 500,000,000,000,079,123,450,000." "Alas!" said one of the +learned men to him, "you are not even mentioned in that book; you are +too inconsiderable; it is almost all about the first nation in the +world—the only nation, the great Jewish people!"</p> + +<p>"The Jewish people!" exclaimed the Chinese. "Are they, then, masters of +at least three-quarters of the earth?" "They flatter themselves that +they shall one day be so," was the answer; "until which time they have +the honor of being our old-clothes-men, and, now and then, clippers of +our coin."—"You jest," said the Chinese; "had these people ever a vast +empire?" "They had as their own for some years," said I, "a small +country; but it is not by the extent of their states that a people are +to be judged; as it is not by his riches that we are to estimate a man."</p> + +<p>"But is no other people spoken of in this book?" asked the man of +letters. "Undoubtedly," returned a learned man who stood next me, and +who instantly replied, "there is a deal said in it of a small country +sixty leagues broad, called Egypt, where it is asserted that there was a +lake a hundred and fifty leagues round, cut by the hands of +men."—"Zounds!" said the Chinese; "a lake a hundred and fifty leagues +round in a country only sixty broad! That is fine, indeed!"—"Everybody +was wise in that country," added the doctor. "Oh! what fine times they +must have been," said the Chinese. "But is that all?"—"No," replied the +European; "he also treats of that celebrated people, the Greeks." "Who +are these Greeks?" asked the man of letters. "Ah!" continued the other, +"they inhabited a province about a two-hundredth part as large as China, +but which has been famous throughout the world." "I have never heard +speak of these people, neither in Mogul nor in Japan, nor in Great +Tartary," said the Chinese, with an ingenuous look.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ignorant, barbarous man!" politely exclaimed our scholar. "Know you +not, then, the Theban Epaminondas; nor the harbor of Piraeus; nor the +name of the two horses of Achilles; nor that of Silenus's ass? Have you +not heard of Jupiter, nor of Diogenes, nor of Lais, nor of Cybele, +nor—"</p> + +<p>"I am much afraid," replied the man of letters, "that you know nothing +at all of the ever memorable adventure of the celebrated Xixofou +Concochigramki, nor of the mysteries of the great Fi Psi Hi Hi. But +pray, what are the other unknown things of which this universal history +treats?" The scholar then spoke for a quarter of an hour on the Roman +commonwealth: but when he came to Julius Cæsar, the Chinese interrupted +him, saying, "As for him, I think I know him: was he not a Turk?"</p> + +<p>"What!" said the scholar, somewhat warm, "do you not at least know the +difference between Pagans, Christians, and Mussulmans? Do you not know +Constantine, and the history of the popes?" "We have indistinctly +heard," answered the Asiatic, "of one Mahomet."</p> + +<p>"It is impossible," returned the other, "that you should not, at least, +be acquainted with Luther, Zuinglius, Bellarmin, Œcolampadius." "I +shall never remember those names," said the Chinese. He then went away +to sell a considerable parcel of tea and fine grogram, with which he +bought two fine girls and a ship-boy, whom he took back to his own +country, adoring Tien, and commending himself to Confucius.</p> + +<p>For myself, who was present at this conversation, I clearly saw what +glory is; and I said: Since Cæsar and Jupiter are unknown in the finest, +the most ancient, the most extensive, the most populous and +well-regulated kingdom upon earth; it beseems you, ye governors of some +little country, ye preachers in some little parish, or some little +town—ye doctors of Salamanca and of Bourges, ye flimsy authors, and ye +ponderous commentators—it beseems you to make pretensions to renown!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GOAT_SORCERY" id="GOAT_SORCERY"></a>GOAT—SORCERY.</h3> + + +<p>The honors of every kind which antiquity paid to goats would be very +astonishing, if anything could astonish those who have grown a little +familiar with the world, ancient and modern. The Egyptians and the Jews +often designated the kings and the chiefs of the people by the word +"goat." We find in Zachariah:</p> + +<p>"Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats; +for the Lord of Hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Judah, and +hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle."</p> + +<p>"Remove out of the midst of Babylon," says Jeremiah to the chiefs of the +people; "go forth out of the land of the Chaldæans, and be as the +he-goats before the flocks."</p> + +<p>Isaiah, in chapters x. and xiv., uses the term "goat," which has been +translated "prince." The Egyptians went much farther than calling their +kings goats; they consecrated a goat in Mendes, and it is even said that +they adored him. The truth very likely was, that the people took an +emblem for a divinity, as is but too often the case.</p> + +<p>It is not likely that the Egyptian <i>shoën</i> or <i>shotim</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, priests, +immolated goats and worshipped them at the same time. We know that they +had their goat Hazazel, which they adorned and crowned with flowers, and +threw down headlong, as an expiation for the people; and that the Jews +took from them, not only this ceremony, but even the very name of +Hazazel, as they adopted many other rites from Egypt.</p> + +<p>But goats received another, and yet more singular honor. It is beyond a +doubt that in Egypt many women set the same example with goats, as +Pasiphae did with her bull.</p> + +<p>The Jews but too faithfully imitated these abominations. Jeroboam +instituted priests for the service of his calves and his goats.</p> + +<p>The worship of the goat was established in Egypt, and in the lands of a +part of Palestine. Enchantments were believed to be operated by means of +goats, and other monsters, which were always represented with a goat's +head.</p> + +<p>Magic, sorcery, soon passed from the East into the West, and extended +itself throughout the earth. The sort of sorcery that came from the Jews +was called Sabbatum by the Romans, who thus confounded their sacred day +with their secret abominations. Thence it was, that in the neighboring +nations, to be a sorcerer and to go to the sabbath, meant the same +thing.</p> + +<p>Wretched village women, deceived by knaves, and still more by the +weakness of their own imaginations, believed that after pronouncing the +word "<i>abraxa</i>", and rubbing themselves with an ointment mixed with +cow-dung and goat's hair, they went to the sabbath on a broom-stick in +their sleep, that there they adored a goat, and that he enjoyed them.</p> + +<p>This opinion was universal. All the doctors asserted that it was the +devil, who metamorphosed himself into a goat. This may be seen in Del +Rio's "Disquisitions," and in a hundred other authors. The theologian +Grillandus, a great promoter of the Inquisition, quoted by Del Rio, says +that sorcerers call the goat Martinet. He assures us that a woman who +was attached to Martinet, mounted on his back, and was carried in an +instant through the air to a place called the Nut of Benevento.</p> + +<p>There were books in which the mysteries of the sorcerers were written. I +have seen one of them, at the head of which was a figure of a goat very +badly drawn, with a woman on her knees behind him. In France, these +books were called "<i>grimoires</i>"; and in other countries "the devil's +alphabet." That which I saw contained only four leaves, in almost +illegible characters, much like those of the "Shepherd's Almanac."</p> + +<p>Reasoning and better education would have sufficed in Europe for the +extirpation of such an extravagance; but executions were employed +instead of reasoning. The pretended sorcerers had their "<i>grimoire</i>" and +the judges had their sorcerer's code. In 1599, the Jesuit Del Rio, a +doctor of Louvain, published his "Magical Disquisitions." He affirms +that all heretics are magicians, and frequently recommends that they be +put to the torture. He has no doubt that the devil transforms himself +into a goat and grants his favors to all women presented to him. He +quotes various jurisconsults, called demonographers, who assert that +Luther was the son of a woman and a goat. He assures us that at +Brussels, in 1595, a woman was brought to bed of a child, of which the +devil, disguised as a goat, was father, and that she was punished, but +he does not inform us in what manner.</p> + +<p>But the jurisprudence of witchcraft has been the most profoundly treated +by one Boguet, "<i>grand juge en dernier ressort</i>" of an abbey of St. +Claude in Franche-Comté. He gives an account of all the executions to +which he condemned wizards and witches, and the number is very +considerable. Nearly all the witches are supposed to have had commerce +with the goat.</p> + +<p>It has already been said that more than a hundred thousand sorcerers +have been executed in Europe. Philosophy alone has at length cured men +of this abominable delusion, and has taught judges that they should not +burn the insane.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GOD_GODS" id="GOD_GODS"></a>GOD—GODS.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>The reader cannot too carefully bear in mind that this dictionary has +not been written for the purpose of repeating what so many others have +said.</p> + +<p>The knowledge of a God is not impressed upon us by the hands of nature, +for then men would all have the same idea; and no idea is born with us. +It does not come to us like the perception of light, of the ground, +etc., which we receive as soon as our eyes and our understandings are +opened. Is it a philosophical idea? No; men admitted the existence of +gods before they were philosophers.</p> + +<p>Whence, then, is this idea derived? From feeling, and from that natural +logic which unfolds itself with age, even in the rudest of mankind. +Astonishing effects of nature were beheld—harvests and barrenness, fair +weather and storms, benefits and scourges; and the hand of a master was +felt. Chiefs were necessary to govern societies; and it was needful to +admit sovereigns of these new sovereigns whom human weakness had given +itself—beings before whose power these men who could bear down their +fellow-men might tremble. The first sovereigns in their time employed +these notions to cement their power. Such were the first steps; thus +every little society had its god. These notions were rude because +everything was rude. It is very natural to reason by analogy. One +society under a chief did not deny that the neighboring tribe should +likewise have its judge, or its captain; consequently it could not deny +that the other should also have its god. But as it was to the interest +of each tribe that its captain should be the best, it was also +interested in believing, and consequently it did believe, that its god +was the mightiest. Hence those ancient fables which have so long been +generally diffused, that the gods of one nation fought against the gods +of another. Hence the numerous passages in the Hebrew books, which we +find constantly disclosing the opinion entertained by the Jews, that the +gods of their enemies existed, but that they were inferior to the God of +the Jews.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, in the great states where the progress of society allowed to +individuals the enjoyment of speculative leisure, there were priests, +Magi, and philosophers.</p> + +<p>Some of these perfected their reason so far as to acknowledge in secret +one only and universal god. So, although the ancient Egyptians adored +Osiri, Osiris, or rather Osireth (which signifies this land is mine); +though they also adored other superior beings, yet they admitted one +supreme, one only principal god, whom they called "<i>Knef</i>", whose symbol +was a sphere placed on the frontispiece of the temple.</p> + +<p>After this model, the Greeks had their Zeus, their Jupiter, the master +of the other gods, who were but what the angels are with the Babylonians +and the Hebrews, and the saints with the Christians of the Roman +communion.</p> + +<p>It is a more thorny question than it has been considered, and one by no +means profoundly examined, whether several gods, equal in power, can +exist at the same time?</p> + +<p>We have no adequate idea of the Divinity; we creep on from conjecture to +conjecture, from likelihood to probability. We have very few +certainties. There is something; therefore there is something eternal; +for nothing is produced from nothing. Here is a certain truth on which +the mind reposes. Every work which shows us means and an end, announces +a workman; then this universe, composed of springs, of means, each of +which has its end, discovers a most mighty, a most intelligent workman. +Here is a probability approaching the greatest certainty. But is this +supreme artificer infinite? Is he everywhere? Is he in one place? How +are we, with our feeble intelligence and limited knowledge, to answer +these questions?</p> + +<p>My reason alone proves to me a being who has arranged the matter of this +world; but my reason is unable to prove to me that he made this +matter—that he brought it out of nothing. All the sages of antiquity, +without exception, believed matter to be eternal, and existing by +itself. All then that I can do, without the aid of superior light, is to +believe that the God of this world is also eternal, and existing by +Himself. God and matter exist by the nature of things. May not other +gods exist, as well as other worlds? Whole nations, and very enlightened +schools, have clearly admitted two gods in this world—one the source of +good, the other the source of evil. They admitted an eternal war between +two equal powers. Assuredly, nature can more easily suffer the existence +of several independent beings in the immensity of space, than that of +limited and powerless gods in this world, of whom one can do no good, +and the other no harm.</p> + +<p>If God and matter exist from all eternity, as antiquity believed, here +then are two necessary beings; now, if there be two necessary beings, +there may be thirty. These doubts alone, which are the germ of an +infinity of reflections, serve at least to convince us of the feebleness +of our understanding. We must, with Cicero, confess our ignorance of the +nature of the Divinity; we shall never know any more of it than he did.</p> + +<p>In vain do the schools tell us that God is infinite negatively and not +privatively—"<i>formaliter et non materialiter</i>" that He is the first +act, the middle, and the last—that He is everywhere without being in +any place; a hundred pages of commentaries on definitions like these +cannot give us the smallest light. We have no steps whereby to arrive at +such knowledge.</p> + +<p>We feel that we are under the hand of an invisible being; this is all; +we cannot advance one step farther. It is mad temerity to seek to divine +what this being is—whether he is extended or not, whether he is in one +place or not, how he exists, or how he operates.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>I am ever apprehensive of being mistaken; but all monuments give me +sufficient evidence that the polished nations of antiquity acknowledged +a supreme god. There is not a book, not a medal, not a bas-relief, not +an inscription, in which Juno, Minerva, Neptune, Mars, or any of the +other deities, is spoken of as a forming being, the sovereign of all +nature. On the contrary, the most ancient profane books that we +have—those of Hesiod and Homer—represent their Zeus as the only +thunderer, the only master of gods and men; he even punishes the other +gods; he ties Juno with a chain, and drives Apollo out of heaven.</p> + +<p>The ancient religion of the Brahmins—the first that admitted celestial +creatures—the first which spoke of their rebellion—explains itself in +sublime manner concerning the unity and power of God; as we have seen in +the article on "Angel."</p> + +<p>The Chinese, ancient as they are, come after the Indians. They have +acknowledged one only god from time immemorial; they have no subordinate +gods, no t mediating demons or genii between God and man; no oracles, no +abstract dogmas, no theological disputes among the lettered; their +emperor was always the first pontiff; their religion was always august +and simple; thus it is that this vast empire, though twice subjugated, +has constantly preserved its integrity, has made its conquerors receive +its laws, and notwithstanding the crimes and miseries inseparable from +the human race, is still the most flourishing state upon earth.</p> + +<p>The Magi of Chaldæa, the Sabeans, acknowledged but one supreme god, whom +they adored in the stars, which are his work. The Persians adored him in +the sun. The sphere placed on the frontispiece of the temple of Memphis +was the emblem of one only and perfect god, called "<i>Knef</i>" by the +Egyptians.</p> + +<p>The title of "<i>Deus Optimus Maximus</i>" was never given by the Romans to +any but "<i>Jupiter, hominum sator atque deorum</i>." This great truth, which +we have elsewhere pointed out, cannot be too often repeated.</p> + +<p>This adoration of a Supreme God, from Romulus down to the total +destruction of the empire and of its religion, is confirmed. In spite of +all the follies of the people, who venerated secondary and ridiculous +gods, and in spite of the Epicureans, who in reality acknowledged none, +it is verified that, in all times, the magistrates and the wise adored +one sovereign God.</p> + +<p>From the great number of testimonies left us to this truth, I will +select first that of Maximus of Tyre, who flourished under the +Antonines—those models of true piety, since they were models of +humanity. These are his words, in his discourse entitled "Of God," +according to Plato. The reader who would instruct himself is requested +to weigh them well:</p> + +<p>"Men have been so weak as to give to God a human figure, because they +had seen nothing superior to man; but it is ridiculous to imagine, with +Homer, that Jupiter or the Supreme Divinity has black eyebrows and +golden hair, which he cannot shake without making the heavens tremble.</p> + +<p>"When men are questioned concerning the nature of the Divinity, their +answers are all different. Yet, notwithstanding this prodigious variety +of opinions, you will find one and the same feeling throughout the +earth—viz., that there is but one God, who is the father of all...."</p> + +<p>After this formal avowal, after the immortal discourses of Cicero, of +Antonine, of Epictetus, what becomes of the declamations which so many +ignorant pedants are still repeating? What avail those eternal +reproachings of base polytheism and puerile idolatry, but to convince us +that the reproachers have not the slightest acquaintance with sterling +antiquity? They have taken the reveries of Homer for the doctrines of +the wise.</p> + +<p>Is it necessary to have stronger or more expressive testimony? You will +find it in the letter from Maximus of Madaura to St. Augustine; both +were philosophers and orators; at least, they prided themselves on being +so; they wrote to each other freely; they were even friends as much as a +man of the old religion and one of the new could be friends. Read +Maximus of Madaura's letter, and the bishop of Hippo's answer:</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Letter from Maximus of Madaura.</i></p> + +<p>"Now, that there is a sovereign God, who is without beginning, and, who, +without having begotten anything like unto himself, is nevertheless the +father and the former of all things, what man can be gross and stupid +enough to doubt? He it is of whom, under different names, we adore the +eternal power extending through every part of the world—thus honoring +separately, by different sorts of worship, what may be called his +several members, we adore him entirely.... May those subordinate gods +preserve you, under whose names, and by whom all we mortals upon earth +adore the common father of gods and men, by different sorts of worship, +it is true, but all according in their variety, and all tending to the +same end."</p> + +<p>By whom was this letter written? By a Numidian—one of the country of +the Algerines!</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Augustine's Answer.</i></p> + +<p>"In your public square there are two statues of Mars, the one naked, the +other armed; and close by, the figure of a man who, with three fingers +advanced towards Mars, holds in check that divinity, so dangerous to the +whole town. With regard to what you say of such gods, being portions of +the only true God, I take the liberty you give me, to warn you not to +fall into such a sacrilege; for that only God, of whom you speak, is +doubtless He who is acknowledged by the whole world, and concerning +whom, as some of the ancients have said, the ignorant agree with the +learned. Now, will you say that he whose strength, if not his cruelty, +is represented by an inanimate man, is a portion of that God? I could +easily push you hard on this subject; for you will clearly see how much +might be said upon it; but I refrain, lest you should say that I employ +against you the weapons of rhetoric rather than those of virtue."</p> + +<p>We know not what was signified by these two statues, of which no vestige +is left us; but not all the statues with which Rome was filled—not the +Pantheon and all the temples consecrated to the inferior gods, nor even +those of the twelve greater gods prevented "<i>Deus Optimus +Maximus</i>"—"God, most good, most great"—from being acknowledged +throughout the empire.</p> + +<p>The misfortune of the Romans, then, was their ignorance of the Mosaic +law, and afterwards, of the law of the disciples of our Saviour Jesus +Christ—their want of the faith—their mixing with the worship of a +supreme God the worship of Mars, of Venus, of Minerva, of Apollo, who +did not exist, and their preserving that religion until the time of the +Theodosii. Happily, the Goths, the Huns, the Vandals, the Heruli, the +Lombards, the Franks, who destroyed that empire, submitted to the truth, +and enjoyed a blessing denied to Scipio, to Cato, to Metellus, to +Emilius, to Cicero, to Varro, to Virgil, and to Horace.</p> + +<p>None of these great men knew Jesus Christ, whom they could not know; yet +they did not worship the devil, as so many pedants are every day +repeating. How should they worship the devil, of whom they had never +heard?</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>A Calumny on Cicero by Warburton, on the Subject of a Supreme God.</i></p> + +<p>Warburton, like his contemporaries, has calumniated Cicero and ancient +Rome. He boldly supposes that Cicero pronounced these words, in his +"Oration for Flaccus":</p> + +<p>"It is unworthy of the majesty of the empire to adore only one +God"—"<i>Majestatem imperii non decuit ut unus tantum Deus colatur.</i>"</p> + +<p>It will, perhaps, hardly be believed that there is not a word of this in +the "Oration for Flaccus," nor in any of Cicero's works. Flaccus, who +had exercised the prætorship in Asia Minor, is charged with exercising +some vexations. He was secretly persecuted by the Jews, who then +inundated Rome; for, by their money, they had obtained privileges in +Rome at the very time when Pompey, after Crassus, had taken Jerusalem, +and hanged their petty king, Alexander, son of Aristobolus. Flaccus had +forbidden the conveying of gold and silver specie to Jerusalem, because +the money came back altered, and commerce was thereby injured; and he +had seized the gold which was clandestinely carried. This gold, said +Cicero, is still in the treasury. Flaccus has acted as disinterestedly +as Pompey.</p> + +<p>Cicero, then, with his wonted irony, pronounces these words: "Each +country has its religion; we have ours. While Jerusalem was yet free, +while the Jews were yet at peace, even then they held in abhorrence the +splendor of this empire, the dignity of the Roman name, the +institutions of our ancestors. Now that nation has shown more than ever, +by the strength of its arms, what it should think of the Roman Empire. +It has shown us, by its valor, how dear it is to the immortal gods; it +has proved it to us, by its being vanquished, expatriated, and +tributary."—"<i>Stantibus Hierosolymis, pacatisque Judais, tamen istorum +religio sacrorum, a splendore hujus imperii, gravitate nominis nostri, +ma jorum institutis, abhorrebat; nunc vero hoc magis quid ilia gens, +quid de imperio nostro sentiret, ostendit armis; quam cara diis +immortalibus esset, docuit, quod est victa, quod elocata, quod +servata.</i>"</p> + +<p>It is then quite false that Cicero, or any other Roman, ever said that +it did not become the majesty of the empire to acknowledge a supreme +God. Their Jupiter, the Zeus of the Greeks, the Jehovah of the +Phœnicians, was always considered as the master of the secondary +gods. This great truth cannot be too forcibly inculcated.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Did the Romans Take Their Gods from the Greeks?</i></p> + +<p>Had not the Romans served gods for whom they were not indebted to the +Greeks? For instance, they could not be guilty of plagiarism in adoring +Coelum, while the Greeks adored Ouranon; or in addressing themselves to +Saturnus and Tellus, while the Greeks addressed themselves to Ge and +Chronos. They called Ceres, her whom the Greeks named Deo and Demiter.</p> + +<p>Their Neptune was Poseidon, their Venus was Aphrodite; their Juno was +called, in Greek, Era; their Proserpine, Core; and their favorites, Mars +and Bellona, were Ares and Enio. In none of these instances do the names +resemble.</p> + +<p>Did the inventive spirits of Rome and of Greece assemble? or did the one +take from the other the <i>thing</i>, while they disguised the <i>name</i>? It is +very natural that the Romans, without consulting the Greeks, should make +to themselves gods of the heavens, of time; beings presiding over war, +over generation, over harvests, without going to Greece to ask for gods, +as they afterwards went there to ask for laws. When you find a name that +resembles nothing else, it is but fair to believe it a native of that +particular country.</p> + +<p>But is not Jupiter, the master of all the gods, a word belonging to +every nation, from the Euphrates to the Tiber? Among the first Romans, +it was <i>Jov</i>, <i>Jovis</i>; among the Greeks, <i>Zeus</i>; among the +Phœnicians, the Syrians, and the Egyptians, <i>Jehovah</i>.</p> + +<p>Does not this resemblance serve to confirm the supposition that every +people had the knowledge of the Supreme Being?—a knowledge confused, it +is true; but what man can have it <i>distinct</i>?</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p class="caption"><i>Examination of Spinoza.</i></p> + +<p>Spinoza cannot help admitting an intelligence acting in matter, and +forming a whole with it.</p> + +<p>"I must conclude," he says, "that the absolute being is neither thought +nor extent, exclusively of each other; but that extent and thought are +necessary attributes of the absolute being."</p> + +<p>Herein he appears to differ from all the atheists of antiquity; from +Ocellus, Lucanus, Heraclitus, Democritus, Leucippus, Strato, Epicurus, +Pythagoras, Diagoras, Zeno of Elis, Anaximander, and so many others. He +differs from them, above all, in his method, which he took entirely from +the reading of Descartes, whose very style he has imitated.</p> + +<p>The multitude of those who cry out against Spinoza, without ever having +read him, will especially be astonished by his following declaration. He +does not make it to dazzle mankind, nor to appease theologians, nor to +obtain protectors, nor to disarm a party; he speaks as a philosopher, +without naming himself, without advertising himself; and expresses +himself in Latin, so as to be understood by a very small number. Here is +his profession of faith.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Spinoza's Profession of Faith.</i></p> + +<p>"If I also concluded that the idea of God, comprised in that of the +infinity of the universe, excused me from obedience, love, and worship, +I should make a still more pernicious use of my reason; for it is +evident to me that the laws which I <i>have</i> received, not by the relation +or intervention of other men, but immediately from Him, are those which +the light of nature points out to me as the true guides of rational +conduct. If I failed of obedience, in this particular, I should sin, not +only against the principle of my being and the society of my kind, but +also against myself, in depriving myself of the most solid advantage of +my existence. This obedience does, it is true, bind me only to the +duties of my state, and makes me look on all besides as frivolous +practices, invented in superstition to serve the purposes of their +inventors.</p> + +<p>"With regard to the love of God, so far, I conceive, is this idea from +tending to weaken it, that no other is more calculated to increase it; +since, through it, I know that God is intimate with my being; that He +gives me existence and my every property; but He gives me them +liberally, without reproach, without interest, without subjecting me to +anything but my own nature. It banishes fear, uneasiness, distrust, and +all the effects of a vulgar or interested love. It informs me that this +is a good which I cannot lose, and which I possess the more fully, as I +know and love it."</p> + +<p>Are these the words of the virtuous and tender Fénelon, or those of +Spinoza? How is it that two men so opposed to each other, have, with +such different notions of God, concurred in the idea of loving God for +Himself?</p> + +<p>It must be acknowledged that they went both to the same end—the one as +a Christian, the other as a man who had the misfortune not to be so; +the holy archbishop, as philosopher, convinced that God is distinct +from nature; the other as a widely-erring disciple of Descartes, who +imagined that God is all nature.</p> + +<p>The former was orthodox, the latter was mistaken, I must assent; but +both were honest, both estimable in their sincerity, as in their mild +and simple manners; though there is no other point of resemblance +between the imitator of the "Odyssey," and a dry Cartesian fenced round +with arguments; between one of the most accomplished men of the court of +Louis XIV. invested with what is called a <i>high</i> divinity, and a poor +unjudaïzed Jew, living with an income of three hundred florins, in the +most profound obscurity.</p> + +<p>If there be any similitude between them, it is that Fénelon was accused +before the Sanhedrim of the new law, and the other before a synagogue +without power or without reason; but the one submitted, the other +rebelled.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Foundation of Spinoza's Philosophy.</i></p> + +<p>The great dialectician Bayle has refuted Spinoza. His system, therefore, +is not demonstrated, like one of Euclid's propositions; for, if it were +so, it could not be combated. It is, therefore, at least obscure.</p> + +<p>I have always had some suspicion that Spinoza, with his universal +substance, his modes and accidents, had some other meaning than that in +which he is understood by Bayle; and consequently, that Bayle may be +right, without having confounded Spinoza. And, in particular, I have +always thought that often Spinoza did not understand himself, and that +this is the principal reason why he has not been understood.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that the ramparts of Spinozism might be beaten down on a +side which Bayle has neglected. Spinoza thinks that there can exist but +one substance; and it appears throughout his book that he builds his +theory on the mistake of Descartes, that "nature is a plenum."</p> + +<p>The theory of a plenum is as false as that of a void. It is now +demonstrated that motion is as impossible in absolute fulness, as it is +impossible that, in an equal balance, a weight of two pounds in one +scale should sink a weight of two in the other.</p> + +<p>Now, if every motion absolutely requires empty space, what becomes of +Spinoza's one and only substance? How can the substance of a star, +between which and us there is a void so immense, be precisely the +substance of this earth, or the substance of myself, or the substance of +a fly eaten by a spider?</p> + +<p>Perhaps I mistake, but I never have been able to conceive how Spinoza, +admitting an infinite substance of which thought and matter are the two +modalities—admitting the substance which he calls God, and of which all +that we see is mode or accident—could nevertheless reject final causes. +If this infinite, universal being thinks, must he not have design? If he +has design, must he not have a will?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;"> +<a name="Descartes" id="Descartes"></a> +<img src="images/img_04_descartes.jpg" width="428" alt="Descartes." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">Descartes.</span> +</div> + +<p>Spinoza says, we are modes of that absolute, necessary, infinite being. +I say to Spinoza, we will, and have design, we who are but modes; +therefore, this infinite, necessary, absolute being cannot be deprived +of them; therefore, he has will, design, power.</p> + +<p>I am aware that various philosophers, and especially Lucretius, have +denied final causes; I am also aware that Lucretius, though not very +chaste, is a very great poet in his descriptions and in his morals; but +in philosophy I own he appears to me to be very far behind a college +porter or a parish beadle. To affirm that the eye is not made to see, +nor the ear to hear, nor the stomach to digest—is not this the most +enormous absurdity, the most revolting folly, that ever entered the +human mind? Doubter as I am, this insanity seems to me evident, and I +say so.</p> + +<p>For my part, I see in nature, as in the arts, only final causes, and I +believe that an apple tree is made to bear apples, as I believe that a +watch is made to tell the hour.</p> + +<p>I must here acquaint the readers that if Spinoza, in several passages of +his works, makes a jest of final causes, he most expressly acknowledges +them in the first part of his "Being, in General and in Particular."</p> + +<p>Here he says, "Permit me for a few moments to dwell with admiration on +the wonderful dispensation of nature, which, having enriched the +constitution of man with all the resources necessary to prolong to a +certain term the duration of his frail existence, and to animate his +knowledge of himself by that of an infinity of distant objects, seems +purposely to have neglected to give him the means of well knowing what +he is obliged to make a more ordinary use of—the individuals of his own +species. Yet, when duly considered, this appears less the effect of a +refusal than of an extreme liberality; for, if there were any +intelligent being that could penetrate another against his will, he +would enjoy such an advantage as would of itself exclude him from +society; whereas, in the present state of things, each individual +enjoying himself in full independence communicates himself so much only +as he finds convenient."</p> + +<p>What shall I conclude from this? That Spinoza frequently contradicted +himself; that he had not always clear ideas; that in the great wreck of +systems, he clung sometimes to one plank, sometimes to another; that in +this weakness he was like Malebranche, Arnauld, Bossuet, and Claude, who +now and then contradicted themselves in their disputes; that he was like +numberless metaphysicians and theologians? I shall conclude that I have +additional reason for distrusting all my metaphysical notions; that I am +a very feeble animal, treading on quicksands, which are continually +giving way beneath me; and that there is perhaps nothing so foolish as +to believe ourselves always in the right.</p> + +<p>Baruch Spinoza, you are very confused; but are you as dangerous as you +are said to be? I maintain that you are not; and my reason is, that you +<i>are</i> confused, that you have written in bad Latin, and that there are +not ten persons in Europe who read you from beginning to end, although +you have been translated into French. Who is the dangerous author? He +who is read by the idle at court and by the ladies.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<p class="caption"><i>The "System of Nature."</i></p> + +<p>The author of the "System of Nature" has had the advantage of being read +by both learned and ignorant, and by women. His style, then, has merits +which that of Spinoza wanted. He is often luminous, sometimes eloquent; +although he may be charged, like all the rest, with repetition, +declamation, and self-contradiction. But for profundity, he is very +often to be distrusted both in physics and in morals. The interest of +mankind is here in question; we will, therefore, examine whether his +doctrine is true and useful; and will, if we can, be brief.</p> + +<p>"Order and disorder do not exist." What! in physics, is not a child born +blind, without legs, or a monster, contrary to the nature of the +species? Is it not the ordinary regularity of nature that makes order, +and irregularity that constitutes disorder? Is it not a great +derangement, a dreadful disorder, when nature gives a child hunger and +closes the œsophagus? The evacuations of every kind are necessary; +yet the channels are frequently without orifices, which it is necessary +to remedy. Doubtless this disorder has its cause; for there is no effect +without a cause; but it is a very disordered effect.</p> + +<p>Is not the assassination of our friend, or of our brother, a horrible +disorder in morals? Are not the calumnies of a Garasse, of a Letellier, +of a Doucin, against Jansenists, and those of Jansenists against +Jesuits, petty disorders? Were not the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the +Irish massacre, etc., execrable disorders? This crime has its cause in +passion, but the effect is execrable; the cause is fatal; this disorder +makes us shudder. The origin of the disorder remains to be discovered, +but the disorder exists.</p> + +<p>"Experience proves to us that the matter which we regard as inert and +dead assumes action, intelligence, and life, when it is combined in a +certain way."</p> + +<p>This is precisely the difficulty. How does a germ come to life? Of this +the author and the reader are alike ignorant. Hence, are not the "System +of Nature," and all the systems in the world, so many dreams?</p> + +<p>"It would be necessary to define the vital principle, which I deem +impossible." Is not this definition very easy, very common? Is not life +organization with feeling? But that you have these two properties from +the motion of matter alone, it is impossible to give any proof; and if +it cannot be proved, why affirm it? Why say aloud, "I know," while you +say to yourself, "I know not"?</p> + +<p>"It will be asked, what is man?" etc. Assuredly, this article is no +clearer than the most obscure of Spinoza's; and many readers will feel +indignant at the decisive tone which is assumed without anything being +explained.</p> + +<p>"Matter is eternal and necessary; but its forms and its combinations are +transitory and contingent," etc. It is hard to comprehend, matter being, +according to our author, necessary, and without freedom, how there can +be anything contingent. By contingency, we understand that which may be, +or may not be; but since all must be, of absolute necessity, every +manner of being, which he here very erroneously calls contingent, is as +absolutely of necessity as the being itself. Here again we are in a +labyrinth.</p> + +<p>When you venture to affirm that there is no God, that matter acts of +itself by an eternal necessity, it must be demonstrated like a +proposition in Euclid, otherwise you rest your system only on a perhaps. +What a foundation for that which is most interesting to the human race!</p> + +<p>"If man is by his nature forced to love his well-being, he is forced to +love the means of that well-being. It were useless, and perhaps unjust, +to ask a man to be virtuous, if he cannot be so without making himself +unhappy. So soon as vice makes him happy, he must love vice."</p> + +<p>This maxim is yet more execrable in morals than the others are in +physics. Were it true that a man could not be virtuous without +suffering, he must be encouraged to suffer. Our author's proposition +would evidently be the ruin of society. Besides, how does he know that +we cannot be happy without having vices? On the contrary, is it not +proved by experience that the satisfaction of having subdued them is a +thousand times greater than the pleasure of yielding to them?—a +pleasure always empoisoned, a pleasure leading to woe. By subduing our +vices, we acquire tranquillity, the consoling testimony of our +conscience; by giving ourselves up to them, we lose our health, our +quiet—we risk everything. Thus our author himself, in twenty passages, +wishes all to be sacrificed to virtue; and he advances this proposition +only to give in his system a fresh proof of the necessity of being +virtuous.</p> + +<p>"They who, with so many arguments, reject innate ideas should have +perceived that this ineffable intelligence by which the world is said to +be guided, and of which our senses can determine neither the existence +nor the qualities, is a being of reason."</p> + +<p>But, truly, how does it follow from our having no innate ideas, that +there is no God? Is not this consequence absurd? Is there any +contradiction in saying that God gives us ideas through our senses? Is +it not, on the contrary, most clearly evident, that if there is an +Almighty Being from whom we have life, we owe to him our ideas and our +senses as well as everything else? It should first have been proved +that God does not exist, which our author has not done, which he has not +even attempted to do before this page of his tenth chapter.</p> + +<p>Fearful of wearying the reader by an examination of all these detached +passages, I will come at once to the foundation of the book, and the +astonishing error upon which the author has built his system.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Story of the Eels on Which the System is Founded.</i></p> + +<p>About the year 1750 there was, in France, an English Jesuit called +Needham, disguised as a secular, who was then serving as tutor to the +nephew of M. Dillon, archbishop of Toulouse. This man made experiments +in natural philosophy, and especially in chemistry.</p> + +<p>Having put some rye meal into well-corked bottles, and some boiled +mutton gravy into other bottles, he thought that his mutton gravy and +his meal had given birth to eels, which again produced others; and that +thus a race of eels was formed indifferently from the juice of meat, or +from a grain of rye.</p> + +<p>A natural philosopher, of some reputation, had no doubt that this +Needham was a profound atheist. He concluded that, since eels could be +made of rye meal, men might be made of wheat flour; that nature and +chemistry produce all; and that it was demonstrated that we may very +well dispense with an all-forming God.</p> + +<p>This property of meal very easily deceived one who, unfortunately, was +already wandering amidst ideas that should make us tremble for the +weakness of the human mind. He wanted to dig a hole in the centre of the +earth, to see the central fire; to dissect Patagonians, that he might +know the nature of the soul; to cover the sick with pitch, to prevent +them from perspiring; to exalt his soul, that he might foretell the +future. If to these things it were added, that he had the still greater +unhappiness of seeking to oppress two of his brethren, it would do no +honor to atheism; it would only serve to make us look into ourselves +with confusion.</p> + +<p>It is really strange that men, while denying a creator, should have +attributed to themselves the power of creating eels.</p> + +<p>But it is yet more deplorable that natural philosophers, of better +information, adopted the Jesuit Needham's ridiculous system, and joined +it to that of Maillet, who asserted that the ocean had formed the Alps +and Pyrenees, and that men were originally porpoises, whose forked tails +changed in the course of time into thighs and legs. Such fancies are +worthy to be placed with the eels formed by meal. We were assured, not +long ago, that at Brussels a hen had brought forth half a dozen young +rabbits.</p> + +<p>This transmutation of meal and gravy into eels was demonstrated to be as +false and ridiculous as it really is, by M. Spallanzani, a rather better +observer than Needham. But the extravagance of so palpable an illusion +was evident without his observations.</p> + +<p>Needham's eels soon followed the Brussels' hen.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, in 1768, the correct, elegant, and judicious translator of +Lucretius was so far led away, that he not only, in his notes to book +viii. p. 361, repeats Needham's pretended experiments, but he also does +all he can to establish their validity. Here, then, we have the new +foundation of the "System of Nature."</p> + +<p>The author, in the second chapter, thus expresses himself: "After +moistening meal with water, and shutting up the mixture, it is found +after a little time, with the aid of the microscope, that it has +produced organized beings, of whose production the water and meal were +believed to be incapable. Thus inanimate nature can pass into life, +which is itself but an assemblage of motions."</p> + +<p>Were this unparalleled blunder true, yet, in rigorous reasoning, I do +not see how it would prove there is no God; I do not see why a supreme, +intelligent, and mighty being, having formed the sun and the stars, +might not also deign to form animalculae without a germ. Here is no +contradiction in terms. A demonstrative proof that God has no existence +must be sought elsewhere; and most assuredly no person has ever found, +or will ever find, one.</p> + +<p>Our author treats final causes with contempt, because the argument is +hackneyed; but this much-contemned argument is that of Cicero and of +Newton. This alone might somewhat lessen the confidence of atheists in +themselves. The number is not small of the sages who, observing the +course of the stars, and the prodigious art that pervades the structure +of animals and vegetables, have acknowledged a powerful hand working +these continual wonders.</p> + +<p>The author asserts that matter, blind and without choice, produces +intelligent animals. Produce, without intelligence, beings with +intelligence! Is this conceivable? Is this system founded on the +smallest verisimilitude? An opinion so contradictory requires proofs no +less astonishing than itself. The author gives us none; he never proves +anything; but he affirms all that he advances. What chaos! what +confusion! and what temerity!</p> + +<p>Spinoza at least acknowledged an intelligence acting in this great +whole, which constituted nature: in this there was philosophy. But in +the new system, I am under the necessity of saying that there is none.</p> + +<p>Matter has extent, solidity, gravity, divisibility. I have all these as +well as this stone: but was a stone ever known to feel and think? If I +am extended, solid, divisible, I owe it to matter. But I have sensations +and thoughts—to what do I owe them? Not to water, not to mire—most +likely to something more powerful than myself. Solely to the combination +of the elements, you will say. Then prove it to me. Show me plainly that +my intelligence cannot have been given to me by an intelligent cause. To +this are you reduced.</p> + +<p>Our author successively combats the God of the schoolmen—a God composed +of discordant qualities; a God to whom, as to those of Homer, is +attributed the passions of men; a God capricious, fickle, unreasonable, +absurd—but he cannot combat the God of the wise. The wise, +contemplating nature, admit an intelligent and supreme power. It is +perhaps impossible for human reason, destitute of divine assistance, to +go a step further.</p> + +<p>Our author asks where this being resides; and, from the impossibility +that anyone, without being infinite, should tell where He resides, he +concludes that He does not exist. This is not philosophical; for we are +not, because we cannot tell where the cause of an effect is, to conclude +that there is no cause. If you had never seen a gunner, and you saw the +effects of a battery of cannon, you would not say it acts entirely by +itself. Shall it, then, only be necessary for you to say there is no +God, in order to be believed on your words?</p> + +<p>Finally, his great objection is, the woes and crimes of mankind—an +objection alike ancient and philosophical; an objection common, but +fatal and terrible, and to which we find no answer but in the hope of a +better life. Yet what is this hope? We can have no certainty in it but +from reason. But I will venture to say, that when it is proved to us +that a vast edifice, constructed with the greatest art, is built by an +architect, whoever he may be, we ought to believe in that architect, +even though the edifice should be stained with our blood, polluted by +our crimes, and should crush us in its fall. I inquire not whether the +architect is a good one, whether I should be satisfied with his +building, whether I should quit it rather than stay in it, nor whether +those who are lodged in it for a few days, like myself, are content: I +only inquire if it be true that there is an architect, or if this house, +containing so many fine apartments and so many wretched garrets, built +itself.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION V.</h5> + +<p class="caption"><i>The Necessity of Believing in a Supreme Being.</i></p> + +<p>The great, the interesting object, as it appears to me, is, not to argue +metaphysically, but to consider whether, for the common good of us +miserable and thinking animals, we should admit a rewarding and avenging +God, at once our restraint and consolation, or should reject this idea, +and so abandon ourselves to calamity without hope, and crime without +remorse.</p> + +<p>Hobbes says that if, in a commonwealth, in which no God should be +acknowledged, any citizen were to propose one, he would have him hanged.</p> + +<p>Apparently, he meant by this strange exaggeration, a citizen who should +seek to rule in the name of a god, a charlatan who would make himself a +tyrant. We understand citizens, who, feeling the weakness of human +nature, its perverseness, and its misery, seek some prop to support it +through the languors and horrors of this life.</p> + +<p>From Job down to us, a great many men have cursed their existence; we +have, therefore, perpetual need of consolation and hope. Of these your +philosophy deprives us. The fable of Pandora was better; it left us +hope—which you snatch from us! Philosophy, you say, furnishes no proof +of happiness to come. No—but you have no demonstration of the contrary. +There may be in us an indestructible monad which feels and thinks, +without our knowing anything at all of how that monad is made. Reason is +not absolutely opposed to this idea, though reason alone does not prove +it. Has not this opinion a prodigious advantage over yours? Mine is +useful to mankind, yours is baneful; say of it what you will, it may +encourage a Nero, an Alexander VI., or a Cartouche. Mine may restrain +them.</p> + +<p>Marcus Antoninus and Epictetus believed that their monad, of whatever +kind it was, would be united to the monad of the Great Being; and they +were the most virtuous of men.</p> + +<p>In the state of doubt in which we both are, I do not say to you with +Pascal, "choose the safest." There is no safety in uncertainty. We are +here not to talk, but to examine; we must judge, and our judgment is not +determined by our will. I do not propose to you to believe extravagant +things, in order to escape embarrassment. I do not say to you, "Go to +Mecca, and instruct yourself by kissing the black stone, take hold of a +cow's tail, muffle yourself in a scapulary, or be imbecile and fanatical +to acquire the favor of the Being of beings." I say to you: "Continue +to cultivate virtue, to be beneficent, to regard all superstition with +horror, or with pity; but adore, with me, the design which is manifested +in all nature, and consequently the Author of that design—the +primordial and final cause of all; hope with me that our monad, which +reasons on the great eternal being, may be happy through that same great +Being." There is no contradiction in this. You can no more demonstrate +its impossibility than I can demonstrate mathematically that it is so. +In metaphysics we scarcely reason on anything but probabilities. We are +all swimming in a sea of which we have never seen the shore. Woe be to +those who fight while they swim! Land who can: but he that cries out to +me, "You swim in vain, there is no land," disheartens me, and deprives +me of all my strength.</p> + +<p>What is the object of our dispute? To console our unhappy existence. Who +consoles it—you or I?</p> + +<p>You yourself own, in some passages of your work, that the belief in a +God has withheld some men on the brink of crime; for me, this +acknowledgment is enough. If this opinion had prevented but ten +assassinations, but ten calumnies, but ten iniquitous judgments on the +earth, I hold that the whole earth ought to embrace it.</p> + +<p>Religion, you say, has produced thousands of crimes—say, rather, +superstition, which unhappily reigns over this globe; it is the most +cruel enemy of the pure adoration due to the Supreme Being.</p> + +<p>Let us detest this monster which has constantly been tearing the bosom +of its mother; they who combat it are benefactors to mankind: it is a +serpent enclosing religion in its folds, its head must be bruised, +without wounding the parent whom it infects and devours.</p> + +<p>You fear, "that, by adoring God, men would soon again become +superstitious and fanatical." But is it not to be feared that in denying +Him, they would abandon themselves to the most atrocious passions, and +the most frightful crimes? Between these two extremes is there not a +very rational mean? Where is the safe track between these two rocks? It +is God, and wise laws.</p> + +<p>You affirm that it is but one step from adoration to superstition: but +there is an infinity to well-constituted minds, and these are now very +numerous; they are at the head of nations; they influence public +manners, and, year by year, the fanaticism that overspread the earth is +receding in its detestable usurpations.</p> + +<p>I shall say a few words more in answer to what you say in page 223. "If +it be presumed that there are relations between man and this incredible +being, then altars must be raised and presents must be made to him, +etc.; if no conception be formed of this being, then the matter must be +referred to priests, who...." A great evil to be sure, to assemble in +the harvest season, and thank God for the bread that He has given us! +Who says you should make presents to God? The idea is ridiculous! But +where is the harm of employing a citizen, called an "elder" or "priest," +to render thanks to the Divinity in the name of the other +citizens?—provided the priest is not a Gregory VII. trampling on the +heads of kings, nor an Alexander VI. polluting by incest his daughter, +the offspring of a rape, and, by the aid of his bastard son, poisoning +and assassinating almost all the neighboring princes: provided that, in +a parish, this priest is not a knave, picking the pockets of the +penitents he confesses, and using the money to seduce the girls he +catechises; provided that this priest is not a Letellier, putting the +whole kingdom in combustion by rogueries worthy of the pillory, nor a +Warburton, violating the laws of society, making public the private +papers of a member of parliament in order to ruin him, and calumniating +whosoever is not of his opinion. The latter cases are rare. The +sacerdotal state is a curb which forces to good behavior.</p> + +<p>A stupid priest excites contempt; a bad priest inspires horror; a good +priest, mild, pious, without superstition, charitable, tolerant, is one +who ought to be cherished and revered. You dread abuses—so do I. Let us +unite to prevent them; but let us not condemn the usage when it is +useful to society, when it is not perverted by fanaticism, or by +fraudulent wickedness.</p> + +<p>I have one very important thing to tell you. I am persuaded that you are +in a great error, but I am equally convinced that you are honest in your +self-delusion. You would have men virtuous even without a God, although +you have unfortunately said that "so soon as vice renders man happy, he +must love vice"—a frightful proposition, which your friends should have +prevailed on you to erase. Everywhere else you inspire probity. This +philosophical dispute will be only between you and a few philosophers +scattered over Europe; the rest of the earth will not even hear of it. +The people do not read us. If some theologian were to seek to persecute +us, he would be impudent as well as wicked; he would but serve to +confirm you, and to make new atheists.</p> + +<p>You are wrong: but the Greeks did not persecute Epicurus; the Romans did +not persecute Lucretius. You are wrong: but your genius and your virtue +must be respected, while you are refuted with all possible strength.</p> + +<p>In my opinion, the finest homage that can be rendered to God is to stand +forward in His defence without anger; as the most unworthy portrait that +can be drawn of Him is to paint Him vindictive and furious. He is truth +itself; and truth is without passion. To be a disciple of God is to +announce Him as of a mild heart and of an unalterable mind.</p> + +<p>I think, with you, that fanaticism is a monster a thousand times more +dangerous than philosophical atheism. Spinoza did not commit a single +bad action. Châtel and Ravaillac, both devotees, assassinated Henry IV.</p> + +<p>The atheist of the closet is almost always a quiet philosopher, while +the fanatic is always turbulent: but the court atheist, the atheistical +prince, might be the scourge of mankind. Borgia and his like have done +almost as much harm as the fanatics of Münster and of the Cévennes. I +say the fanatics on both sides. The misfortune is, that atheists of the +closet make atheists of the court. It was Chiron who brought up +Achilles; he fed him with lion's marrow. Achilles will one day drag +Hector's body round the walls of Troy, and immolate twelve captives to +his vengeance.</p> + +<p>God keep us from an abominable priest who should hew a king in pieces +with his sacrificing knife, as also from him who, with a helmet on his +head and a cuirass on his back, at the age of seventy, should dare to +sign with his three bloody fingers the ridiculous excommunication of a +king of France! and from.... and from....</p> + +<p>But also, may God preserve us from a choleric and barbarous despot, who, +not believing in a God, should be his own God, who should render himself +unworthy of his sacred trust by trampling on the duties which that trust +imposes, who should remorselessly sacrifice to his passions, his +friends, his relatives, his servants, and his people. These two tigers, +the one shorn, the other crowned are equally to be feared. By what means +shall we muzzle them?....</p> + +<p>If the idea of a God has made a Titus or a Trajan, an Antonine or an +Aurelius, and those great Chinese emperors, whose memory is so dear to +the second of the most ancient and most extensive empires in the world, +these examples are sufficient for my cause—and my cause is that of all +mankind.</p> + +<p>I do not believe that there is in all Europe one statesman, one man at +all versed in the affairs of the world, who has not the most profound +contempt for the legends with which we have been inundated, even more +than we now are with pamphlets. If religion no longer gives birth to +civil wars, it is to philosophy alone that we are indebted, theological +disputes beginning to be regarded in much the same manner as the +quarrels of Punch and Judy at the fair. A usurpation, alike odious and +ridiculous, founded upon fraud on one side and stupidity on the other, +is every instant undermined by reason, which is establishing its reign. +The bull "<i>In cæna Domini</i>"—that masterpiece of insolence and folly, no +longer dares appear, even in Rome. If a regiment of monks makes the +least evolution against the laws of the state, it is immediately broken. +But, because the Jesuits have been expelled, must we also expel God? On +the contrary, we must love Him the more.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VI.</h5> + +<p>In the reign of Arcadius, Logomachos, a theologue of Constantinople, +went into Scythia and stopped at the foot of Mount Caucasus in the +fruitful plains of Zephirim, on the borders of Colchis. The good old man +Dondindac was in his great hall between his large sheepfold and his +extensive barn; he was on his knees with his wife, his five sons and +five daughters, his kinsmen and servants; and all were singing the +praises of God, after a light repast. "What are you doing, idolater?" +said Logomachos to him. "I am not an idolater," said Dondindac. "You +must be an idolater," said Logomachos, "for you are not a Greek. Come, +tell me what you were singing in your barbarous Scythian jargon?" "All +tongues are alike to the ears of God," answered the Scythian; "we were +singing His praises." "Very extraordinary!" returned the theologue; "a +Scythian family praying to God without having been instructed by us!" He +soon entered into conversation with the Scythian Dondindac; for the +theologue knew a little Scythian, and the other a little Greek. This +conversation has been found in a manuscript preserved in the library of +Constantinople.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>Let us see if you know your catechism. Why do you pray to God?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC.</p> + +<p>Because it is just to adore the Supreme Being, from whom we have +everything.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>Very fair for a barbarian. And what do you ask of him?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC</p> + +<p>I thank Him for the blessings I enjoy, and even for the trials which He +sends me; but I am careful to ask nothing of Him; for He knows our wants +better than we do; besides, I should be afraid of asking for fair +weather while my neighbor was asking for rain.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>Ah! I thought he would say some nonsense or other. Let us begin farther +back. Barbarian, who told you that there is a God?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC</p> + +<p>All nature tells me.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>That is not enough. What idea have you of God?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC</p> + +<p>The idea of my Creator; my master, who will reward me if I do good, and +punish me if I do evil.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>Trifles! trash! Let us come to some essentials. Is God <i>infinite +secundum quid</i>, or according to essence?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC</p> + +<p>I don't understand you.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>Brute beast! Is God in one place, or in every place?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC.</p> + +<p>I know not ... just as you please.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>Ignoramus!... Can He cause that which has not been to have been, or that +a stick shall not have two ends? Does He see the future as future, or as +present? How does He draw being from nothing, and how reduce being to +nothing?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC.</p> + +<p>I have never examined these things.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>What a stupid fellow! Well, I must come nearer to your level.... Tell +me, friend, do you think that matter can be eternal?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC</p> + +<p>What matters it to me whether it exists from all eternity or not? I do +not exist from all eternity. God must still be my Master. He has given +me the nature of justice; it is my duty to follow it: I seek not to be a +philosopher; I wish to be a man.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>One has a great deal of trouble with these block-heads. Let us proceed +step by step. What is God?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC</p> + +<p>My sovereign, my judge, my father.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>That is not what I ask. What is His nature?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC.</p> + +<p>To be mighty and good.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>But is He corporeal or spiritual?</p> + +<p>DONDINDAC.</p> + +<p>How should I know that?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>What; do you not know what a spirit is?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC.</p> + +<p>Not in the least. Of what service would that knowledge be to me? Should +I be more just? Should I be a better husband, a better father, a better +master, or a better citizen?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>You must absolutely be taught what a spirit is. It is—it is—it is—I +will say what another time.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC.</p> + +<p>I much fear that you will tell me rather what it is not than what it is. +Permit me, in turn, to ask you one question. Some time ago, I saw one of +your temples: why do you paint God with a long beard?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">LOGOMACHOS.</p> + +<p>That is a very difficult question, and requires preliminary +instruction.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">DONDINDAC.</p> + +<p>Before I receive your instruction, I must relate to you a thing which +one day happened to me. I had just built a closet at the end of my +garden, when I heard a mole arguing thus with an ant: "Here is a fine +fabric," said the mole; "it must have been a very powerful mole that +performed this work." "You jest," returned the ant; "the architect of +this edifice is an ant of mighty genius." From that time I resolved +never to dispute.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GOOD_THE_SOVEREIGN_GOOD_A_CHIMERA" id="GOOD_THE_SOVEREIGN_GOOD_A_CHIMERA"></a>GOOD—THE SOVEREIGN GOOD, A CHIMERA.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>Happiness is an abstract idea composed of certain pleasurable +sensations. Plato, who wrote better than he reasoned, conceived the +notion of his world in archetype; that is, his original world—of his +general ideas of the beautiful, the good, the orderly, and the just, as +if there had existed eternal beings, called order, good, beauty, and +justice; whence might be derived the feeble copies exhibited here below +of the just, the beautiful, and the good.</p> + +<p>It is, then, in consequence of his suggestions that philosophers have +occupied themselves in seeking for the sovereign good, as chemists seek +for the philosopher's stone; but the sovereign good has no more +existence than the sovereign square, or the sovereign crimson: there is +the crimson color, and there are squares; but there is no general +existence so denominated. This chimerical manner of reasoning was for a +long time the bane of philosophy.</p> + +<p>Animals feel pleasure in performing all the functions for which they are +destined. The happiness which poetical fancy has imagined would be an +uninterrupted series of pleasures; but such a series would be +incompatible with our organs and our destination. There is great +pleasure in eating, drinking, and connubial endearments; but it is clear +that if a man were always eating, or always in the full ecstasy of +enjoyment, his organs would be incapable of sustaining it: it is further +evident that he would be unable to fulfil the destinies he was born to, +and that, in the case supposed, the human race would absolutely perish +through pleasure.</p> + +<p>To pass constantly and without interruption from one pleasure to another +is also a chimera. The woman who has conceived must go through +childbirth, which is a pain; the man is obliged to cleave wood and hew +stone, which is not a pleasure.</p> + +<p>If the name of happiness is meant to be applied to some pleasures which +are diffused over human life, there is in fact, we must admit, +happiness. If the name attaches only to one pleasure always permanent, +or a continued although varied range of delicious enjoyment, then +happiness belongs not to this terraqueous globe. Go and seek for it +elsewhere.</p> + +<p>If we make happiness consist in any particular situation that a man may +be in, as for instance, a situation of wealth, power, or fame, we are no +less mistaken. There are some scavengers who are happier than some +sovereigns. Ask Cromwell whether he was more happy when he was lord +protector of England, than when, in his youthful days, he enjoyed +himself at a tavern; he will probably tell you in answer, that the +period of his usurpation was not the period most productive of +pleasures. How many plain or even ugly country women are more happy than +were Helen and Cleopatra.</p> + +<p>We must here however make one short remark; that when we say such a +particular man is probably happier than some other; that a young +muleteer has advantages very superior to those of Charles V.; that a +dressmaker has more enjoyment than a princess, we should adhere to the +probability of the case. There is certainly every appearance that a +muleteer, in full health, must have more pleasure than Charles the +Fifth, laid up with the gout; but nevertheless it may also be, that +Charles, on his crutches, revolves in his mind with such ecstasy the +facts of his holding a king of France and a pope prisoners, that his lot +is absolutely preferable to that of the young and vigorous muleteer.</p> + +<p>It certainly belongs to God alone, to a being capable of seeing through +all hearts, to decide which is the happiest man. There is only one case +in which a person can affirm that his actual state is worse or better +than that of his neighbor; this case is that of existing rivalship, and +the moment that of victory.</p> + +<p>I will suppose that Archimedes has an assignation at night with his +mistress. Nomentanus has the same assignation at the same hour. +Archimedes presents himself at the door, and it is shut in his face; but +it is opened to his rival, who enjoys an excellent supper, which he +enlivens by his repeated sallies of wit upon Archimedes, and after the +conclusion of which he withdraws to still higher enjoyments, while the +other remains exposed in the street to all the pelting of a pitiless +storm. There can be no doubt that Nomentanus has a right to say: "I am +more happy to-night than Archimedes: I have more pleasure than he"; but +it is necessary, in order to admit the truth and justness of the +inference of the successful competitors in his own favor, to suppose +that Archimedes is thinking only about the loss of his good supper, +about being despised and deceived by a beautiful woman, about being +supplanted by his rival, and annoyed by the tempest; for, if the +philosopher in the street should be calmly reflecting that his soul +ought to be above being discomposed by a strumpet or a storm, if he +should be absorbed in a profound and interesting problem, and if he +should discover the proportions between the cylinder and the sphere, he +may experience a pleasure a hundred times superior to that of +Nomentanus.</p> + +<p>It is only therefore in the single case of actual pleasure and actual +pain, and without a reference to anything else whatever, that a +comparison between any two individuals can be properly made. It is +unquestionable that he who enjoys the society of his mistress is +happier at the moment than his scorned rival deploring over his +misfortune. A man in health, supping on a fat partridge, is undoubtedly +happier at the time than another under the torment of the colic; but we +cannot safely carry our inferences farther; we cannot estimate the +existence of one man against that of another; we possess no accurate +balance for weighing desires and sensations.</p> + +<p>We began this article with Plato and his sovereign good; we will +conclude it with Solon and the saying of his which has been so highly +celebrated, that "we ought to pronounce no man happy before his death." +This maxim, when examined into, will be found nothing more than a +puerile remark, just like many other apothegms consecrated by their +antiquity. The moment of death has nothing in common with the lot +experienced by any man in life; a man may perish by a violent and +ignominious death, and yet, up to that moment, may have enjoyed all the +pleasures of which human nature is susceptible. It is very possible and +very common for a happy man to cease to be so; no one can doubt it; but +he has not the less had his happy moments.</p> + +<p>What, then, can Solon's expression strictly and fairly mean? that a man +happy to-day is not certain of being so to-morrow! In this case it is a +truth so incontestable and trivial that, not merely is it not worthy of +being elevated into a maxim, but it is not worthy delivering at all.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>Well-being is a rare possession. May not the sovereign good in this +world be considered as a sovereign chimera? The Greek philosophers +discussed at great length, according to their usual practice, this +celebrated question. The reader will, probably, compare them to just so +many mendicants reasoning about the philosopher's stone.</p> + +<p>The sovereign good! What an expression! It might as well have been +asked: What is the sovereign blue, or the sovereign ragout, or the +sovereign walk, or the sovereign reading?</p> + +<p>Every one places his good where he can, and has as much of it as he can, +in his own way, and in very scanty measure. Castor loved horses; his +twin brother, to try a fall—</p> + +<p><i>Quid dem? quid non dem? renuis tu quod jubet alter.... Castor gaudet +equis, ovo prognatus eodem Pugnis, etc.</i></p> + +<p>The greatest good is that which delights us so powerfully as to render +us incapable of feeling anything else; as the greatest evil is that +which goes so far as to deprive us of all feeling. These are the two +extremes of human nature, and these moments are short. Neither extreme +delight nor extreme torture can last a whole life. The sovereign good +and the sovereign evil are nothing more than chimeras.</p> + +<p>We all know the beautiful fable of Crantor. He introduces upon the stage +at the Olympic games, Wealth, Pleasure, Health, and Virtue. Each claims +the apple. Wealth says, I am the sovereign good, for with me all goods +are purchased. Pleasure says, the apple belongs to me, for it is only on +my account that wealth is desired. Health asserts, that without her +there can be no pleasure, and wealth is useless. Finally, Virtue states +that she is superior to the other three, because, although possessed of +gold, pleasures, and health, a man may make himself very contemptible by +misconduct. The apple was conferred on Virtue.</p> + +<p>The fable is very ingenious; it would be still more so if Crantor had +said that the sovereign good consists in the combination of the four +rivals, Virtue, Health, Wealth, and Pleasure; but this fable neither +does, nor can, resolve the absurd question about the sovereign good. +Virtue is not a good; it is a duty. It is of a different nature; of a +superior order. It has nothing to do with painful or with agreeable +sensations. A virtuous man, laboring under stone and gout, without aid, +without friends, destitute of necessaries, persecuted, and chained down +to the floor by a voluptuous tyrant who enjoys good health, is very +wretched; and his insolent persecutor, caressing a new mistress on his +bed of purple, is very happy. Say, if you please, that the persecuted +sage is preferable to the persecuting profligate; say that you admire +the one and detest the other; but confess that the sage in chains is +scarcely less than mad with rage and pain; if he does not himself admit +that he is so, he completely deceives you; he is a charlatan.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GOOD" id="GOOD"></a>GOOD.</h3> + +<h4><i>Of Good and Evil, Physical and Moral.</i></h4> + + +<p>We here treat of a question of the greatest difficulty and importance. +It relates to the whole of human life. It would be of much greater +consequence to find a remedy for our evils; but no remedy is to be +discovered, and we are reduced to the sad necessity of tracing out their +origin. With respect to this origin, men have disputed ever since the +days of Zoroaster, and in all probability they disputed on the same +subject long before him. It was to explain the mixture of good and evil +that they conceived the idea of two principles—Oromazes, the author of +light, and Arimanes, the author of darkness; the box of Pandora; the two +vessels of Jupiter; the apple eaten by Eve; and a variety of other +systems. The first of dialecticians, although not the first of +philosophers, the illustrious Bayle, has clearly shown how difficult it +is for Christians who admit one only God, perfectly good and just, to +reply to the objections of the Manichæans who acknowledge two Gods—one +good, and the other evil.</p> + +<p>The foundation of the system of the Manichæans, with all its antiquity, +was not on that account more reasonable. Lemmas, susceptible of the most +clear and rigid geometrical demonstrations, should alone have induced +any men to the adoption of such a theorem as the following: "There are +two necessary beings, both supreme, both infinite, both equally +powerful, both in conflict with each other, yet, finally, agreeing to +pour out upon this little planet—one, all the treasures of his +beneficence, and the other all the stores of his malice." It is in vain +that the advocates of this hypothesis attempt to explain by it the cause +of good and evil: even the fable of Prometheus explains it better. Every +hypothesis which only serves to assign a reason for certain things, +without being, in addition to that recommendation, established upon +indisputable principles, ought invariably to be rejected.</p> + +<p>The Christian doctors—independently of revelation, which makes +everything credible—explain the origin of good-and evil no better than +the partner-gods of Zoroaster.</p> + +<p>When they say God is a tender father, God is a just king; when they add +the idea of infinity to that of love, that kindness, that justice which +they observe in the best of their own species, they soon fall into the +most palpable and dreadful contradictions. How could this sovereign, who +possessed in infinite fulness the principle or quality of human justice, +how could this father, entertaining an infinite affection for his +children; how could this being, infinitely powerful, have formed +creatures in His own likeness, to have them immediately afterwards +tempted by a malignant demon, to make them yield to that temptation to +inflict death on those whom He had created immortal, and to overwhelm +their posterity with calamities and crimes! We do not here speak of a +contradiction still more revolting to our feeble reason. How could God, +who ransomed the human race by the death of His only Son; or rather, how +could God, who took upon Himself the nature of man, and died on the +cross to save men from perdition, consign over to eternal tortures +nearly the whole of that human race for whom He died? Certainly, when we +consider this system merely as philosophers—without the aid of +faith—we must consider it as absolutely monstrous and abominable. It +makes of God either pure and unmixed malice, and that malice infinite, +which created thinking beings, on purpose to devote them to eternal +misery, or absolute impotence and imbecility, in not being able to +foresee or to prevent the torments of his offspring.</p> + +<p>But the eternity of misery is not the subject of this article, which +relates properly only to the good and evil of the present life. None of +the doctors of the numerous churches of Christianity, all of which +advocate the doctrine we are here contesting, have been able to convince +a single sage.</p> + +<p>We cannot conceive how Bayle, who managed the weapons of dialectics with +such admirable strength and dexterity, could content himself with +introducing in a dispute a Manichæan, a Calvinist, a Molinist, and a +Socinian. Why did he not introduce, as speaking, a reasonable and +sensible man? Why did not Bayle speak in his own person? He would have +said far better what we shall now venture to say ourselves. A father +who kills his children is a monster; a king who conducts his subjects +into a snare, in order to obtain a pretext for delivering them up to +punishment and torture, is an execrable tyrant. If you conceive God to +possess the same kindness which you require in a father, the same +justice that you require in a king, no possible resource exists by +which, if we may use the expression, God can be exculpated; and by +allowing Him to possess infinite wisdom and infinite goodness you, in +fact, render Him infinitely odious; you excite a wish that He had no +existence; you furnish arms to the atheist, who will ever be justified +in triumphantly remarking to you: Better by far is it to deny a God +altogether, than impute to Him such conduct as you would punish, to the +extremity of the law, in men.</p> + +<p>We begin then with observing, that it is unbecoming in us to ascribe to +God human attributes. It is not for us to make God after our own +likeness. Human justice, human kindness, and human wisdom can never be +applied or made suitable to Him. We may extend these attributes in our +imagination as far as we are able, to infinity; they will never be other +than human qualities with boundaries perpetually or indefinitely +removed; it would be equally rational to attribute to Him infinite +solidity, infinite motion, infinite roundness, or infinite divisibility. +These attributes can never be His.</p> + +<p>Philosophy informs us that this universe must have been arranged by a +Being incomprehensible, eternal, and existing by His own nature; but, +once again, we must observe that philosophy gives us no information on +the subject of the attributes of that nature. We know what He is not, +and not what He is.</p> + +<p>With respect to God, there is neither good nor evil, physically or +morally. What is physical or natural evil? Of all evils, the greatest, +undoubtedly, is death. Let us for a moment consider whether man could +have been immortal.</p> + +<p>In order that a body like ours should have been indissoluble, +imperishable, it would have been necessary that it should not be +composed of parts; that it—should not be born; that it should have +neither nourishment nor growth; that it should experience no change. Let +any one examine each of these points; and let every reader extend their +number according to his own suggestions, and it will be seen that the +proposition of an immortal man is a contradiction.</p> + +<p>If our organized body were immortal, that of mere animals would be so +likewise; but it is evident that, in the course of a very short time, +the whole globe would, in this case, be incompetent to supply +nourishment to those animals; those immortal beings which exist only in +consequence of renovation by food, would then perish for want of the +means of such renovation. All this involves contradiction. We might make +various other observations on the subject, but every reader who deserves +the name of a philosopher will perceive that death was necessary to +everything that is born; that death can neither be an error on the part +of God, nor an evil, an injustice, nor a chastisement to man.</p> + +<p>Man, born to die, can no more be exempt from pain than from death. To +prevent an organized substance endowed with feeling from ever +experiencing pain, it would be necessary that all the laws of nature +should be changed; that matter should no longer be divisible; that it +should neither have weight, action, nor force; that a rock might fall on +an animal without crushing it; and that water should have no power to +suffocate, or fire to burn it. Man, impassive, then, is as much a +contradiction as man immortal.</p> + +<p>This feeling of pain was indispensable to stimulate us to +self-preservation, and to impart to us such pleasures as are consistent +with those general laws by which the whole system of nature is bound and +regulated.</p> + +<p>If we never experienced pain, we should be every moment injuring +ourselves without perceiving it. Without the excitement of uneasiness, +without some sensation of pain, we should perform no function of life; +should never communicate it, and should be destitute of all the +pleasures of it. Hunger is the commencement of pain which compels us to +take our required nourishment. Ennui is a pain which stimulates to +exercise and occupation. Love itself is a necessity which becomes +painful until it is met with corresponding attachment. In a word, every +desire is a want, a necessity, a beginning of pain. Pain, therefore, is +the mainspring of all the actions of animated beings. Every animal +possessed of feeling must be liable to pain, if matter is divisible; and +pain was as necessary as death. It is not, therefore, an error of +Providence, nor a result of malignity, nor a creature of imagination. +Had we seen only brutes suffer, we should, for that, never have accused +nature of harshness or cruelty; had we, while ourselves were impassive, +witnessed the lingering and torturing death of a dove, when a kite +seized upon it with his murderous talons, and leisurely devouring its +bleeding limbs, doing in that no more than we do ourselves, we should +not express the slightest murmur of dissatisfaction. But what claim have +we for an exemption of our own bodies from such dismemberment and +torture beyond what might be urged in behalf of brutes? Is it that we +possess an intellect superior to theirs? But what has intellect to do +with the divisibility of matter? Can a few ideas more or less in a brain +prevent fire from burning, or a rock from crushing us?</p> + +<p>Moral evil, upon which so many volumes have been written is, in fact, +nothing but natural evil. This moral evil is a sensation of pain +occasioned by one organized being to another. Rapine, outrage, etc., are +evil only because they produce evil. But as we certainly are unable to +do any evil, or occasion any pain to God, it is evident by the light of +reason—for faith is altogether a different principle—that in relation +to the Supreme Being and as affecting Him, moral evil can have no +existence.</p> + +<p>As the greatest of natural evils is death, the greatest of moral evils +is, unquestionably, war. All crimes follow in its train; false and +calumnious declarations, perfidious violation of the treaties, pillage, +devastation, pain, and death under every hideous and appalling form.</p> + +<p>All this is physical evil in relation to man, but can no more be +considered moral evil in relation to God than the rage of dogs worrying +and destroying one another. It is a mere common-place idea, and as false +as it is feeble, that men are the only species that slaughter and +destroy one another. Wolves, dogs, cats, cocks, quails, all war with +their respective species: house spiders devour one another; the male +universally fights for the female. This warfare is the result of the +laws of nature, of principles in their very blood and essence; all is +connected; all is necessary.</p> + +<p>Nature has granted man about two and twenty years of life, one with +another; that is, of a thousand children born in the same month, some of +whom have died in their infancy, and the rest lived respectively to the +age of thirty, forty, fifty, and even eighty years, or perhaps beyond, +the average calculation will allow to each the above-mentioned number of +twenty-two years.</p> + +<p>How can it affect the Deity, whether a man die in battle or of a fever? +War destroys fewer human beings than smallpox. The scourge of war is +transient, that of smallpox reigns with paramount and permanent fatality +throughout the earth, followed by a numerous train of others; and taking +into consideration the combined, and nearly regular operation of the +various causes which sweep mankind from the stage of life, the allowance +of two and twenty years for every individual will be found in general to +be tolerably correct.</p> + +<p>Man, you say, offends God by killing his neighbor; if this be the case, +the directors of nations must indeed be tremendous criminals; for, while +even invoking God to their assistance, they urge on to slaughter immense +multitudes of their fellow-beings, for contemptible interests which it +would show infinitely more policy, as well as humanity, to abandon. But +how—to reason merely as philosophers—how do they offend God? Just as +much as tigers and crocodiles offend him. It is, surely, not God whom +they harass and torment, but their neighbor. It is only against man that +man can be guilty. A highway robber can commit no robbery on God. What +can it signify to the eternal Deity, whether a few pieces of yellow +metal are in the hands of Jerome, or of Bonaventure? We have necessary +desires, necessary passions, and necessary laws for the restraint of +both; and while on this our ant-hill, during the little day of our +existence, we are engaged in eager and destructive contest about a +straw, the universe moves, on in its majestic course, directed by +eternal and unalterable laws, which comprehend in their operation the +atom that we call the earth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GOSPEL" id="GOSPEL"></a>GOSPEL.</h3> + + +<p>It is a matter of high importance to ascertain which are the first +gospels. It is a decided truth, whatever Abbadie may assert to the +contrary, that none of the first fathers of the Church, down to Irenæus +inclusively, have quoted any passage from the four gospels with which we +are acquainted. And to this it may be added, that the Alogi, the +Theodosians, constantly rejected the gospel of St. John, and always +spoke of it with contempt; as we are informed by St. Epiphanius in his +thirty-fourth homily. Our enemies further observe that the most ancient +fathers do not merely forbear to quote anything from our gospels, but +relate many passages or events which are to be found only in the +apocryphal gospels rejected by the canon.</p> + +<p>St. Clement, for example, relates that our Lord, having been questioned +concerning the time when His kingdom would come, answered, "That will be +when what is without shall Resemble that within, and when there shall be +neither male nor female." But we must admit that this passage does not +occur in either of our gospels. There are innumerable other instances to +prove this truth; which may be seen in the "Critical Examination" of M. +Fréret, perpetual secretary of the Academy of Belles Lettres at Paris.</p> + +<p>The learned Fabricius took the pains to collect the ancient gospels +which time has spared; that of James appears to be the first; and it is +certain that it still possesses considerable authority with some of the +Oriental churches. It is called "the first gospel." There remain the +passion and the resurrection, pretended to have been written by +Nicodemus. This gospel of Nicodemus is quoted by St. Justin and +Tertullian. It is there we find the names of our Lord's accusers—Annas, +Caiaphas, Soumas, Dathan, Gamaliel, Judas, Levi, and Napthali; the +attention and particularity with which these names are given confer upon +the work an appearance of truth and sincerity. Our adversaries have +inferred that as so many false gospels were forged, which at first were +recognized as true, those which constitute at the present day the +foundation of our own faith may have been forged also. They dwell much +on the circumstance of the first heretics suffering even death itself in +defence of these apocryphal gospels. There have evidently been, they +say, forgers, seducers, and men who have been seduced by them into +error, and died in defence of that error; it is, at least, therefore, no +proof of the truth of Christianity that it has had its martyrs who have +died for it.</p> + +<p>They add further, that the martyrs were never asked the question, +whether they believed the gospel of John or the gospel of James. The +Pagans could not put a series of interrogatories about books with which +they were not at all acquainted; the magistrates punished some +Christians very unjustly, as disturbers of the public peace, but they +never put particular questions to them in relation to our four gospels. +These books were not known to the Romans before the time of Diocletian, +and even towards the close of Diocletian's reign, they had scarcely +obtained any publicity. It was deemed in a Christian a crime both +abominable and unpardonable to show a gospel to any Gentile. This is so +true, that you cannot find the word "gospel" in any profane author +whatever.</p> + +<p>The rigid Socinians, influenced by the above-mentioned or other +difficulties, do not consider our four divine gospels in any other light +than as works of clandestine introduction, fabricated about a century +after the time of Jesus Christ, and carefully concealed from the +Gentiles for another century beyond that; works, as they express it, of +a coarse and vulgar character, written by coarse and vulgar men, who, +for a long time confined their discourses and appeals to the mere +populace of their party. We will not here repeat the blasphemies uttered +by them. This sect, although considerably diffused and numerous, is at +present as much concealed as were the first gospels. The difficulty of +converting them is so much the greater, in consequence of their +obstinately refusing to listen to anything but mere reason. The other +Christians contend against them only with the weapons of the Holy +Scripture: it is consequently impossible that, being thus always in +hostility with respect to principles, they should ever unite in their +conclusions.</p> + +<p>With respect to ourselves, let us ever remain inviolably attached to our +four gospels, in union with the infallible church. Let us reject the +five gospels which it has rejected; let us not inquire why our Lord +Jesus Christ permitted five false gospels, five false histories of his +life to be written; and let us submit to our spiritual pastors and +directors, who alone on earth are enlightened by the Holy Spirit.</p> + +<p>Into what a gross error did Abbadie fall when he considered as authentic +the letters so ridiculously forged, from Pilate to Tiberius, and the +pretended proposal of Tiberius to place Jesus Christ in the number of +the gods. If Abbadie is a bad critic and a contemptible reasoner, is the +Church on that account less enlightened? are we the less bound to +believe it? Shall we at all the less submit to it?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GOVERNMENT" id="GOVERNMENT"></a>GOVERNMENT.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>The pleasure of governing must certainly be exquisite, if we may judge +from the vast numbers who are eager to be concerned in it. We have many +more books on government than there are monarchs in the world. Heaven +preserve me from making any attempt here to give instruction to kings +and their noble ministers—their valets, confessors, or financiers. I +understand nothing about the matter; I have the profoundest respect and +reverence for them all. It belongs only to Mr. Wilkes, with his English +balance, to weigh the merits of those who are at the head of the human +race. It would, besides, be exceedingly strange if, with three or four +thousand volumes on the subject of government, with Machiavelli, and +Bossuet's "Policy of the Holy Scripture," with the "General Financier," +the "Guide to Finances," the "Means of Enriching a State," etc., there +could possibly be a single person living who was not perfectly +acquainted with the duties of kings and the science of government.</p> + +<p>Professor Puffendorf, or, as perhaps we should rather say, Baron +Puffendorf, says that King David, having sworn never to attempt the life +of Shimei, his privy counsellor, did not violate his oath when, +according to the Jewish history, he instructed his son Solomon to get +him assassinated, "because David had only engaged that he himself would +not kill Shimei." The baron, who rebukes so sharply the mental +reservations of the Jesuits, allows David, in the present instance, to +entertain one which would not be particularly palatable to privy +counsellors.</p> + +<p>Let us consider the words of Bossuet in his "Policy of the Holy +Scripture," addressed to Monseigneur the Dauphin. "Thus we see royalty +established according to the order of succession in the house of David +and Solomon, and the throne of David is secured forever—although, by +the way, that same little joint-stool called a 'throne,' instead of +being secured forever, lasted, in fact, only a very short time." By +virtue of this law, the eldest son was to succeed, to the exclusion of +his brothers, and on this account Adonijah, who was the eldest, said to +Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, "Thou knowest that the kingdom was +mine, and all Israel had recognized my right; but the Lord hath +transferred the kingdom to my brother Solomon." The right of Adonijah +was incontestable. Bossuet expressly admits this at the close of this +article. "The Lord has transferred" is only a usual phrase, which means, +I have lost my property or right, I have been deprived of my right. +Adonijah was the issue of a lawful wife; the birth of his younger +brother was the fruit of a double crime.</p> + +<p>"Unless, then," says Bossuet, "something extraordinary occurred, the +eldest was to succeed." But the something extraordinary, in the present +instance, which prevented it was, that Solomon, the issue of a marriage +arising out of a double adultery and a murder, procured the +assassination, at the foot of the altar, of his elder brother and his +lawful king, whose rights were supported by the high priest Abiathar and +the chief commander Joab. After this we must acknowledge that it is more +difficult than some seem to imagine to take lessons on the rights of +persons, and on the true system of government from the Holy Scriptures, +which were first given to the Jews, and afterwards to ourselves, for +purposes of a far higher nature.</p> + +<p>"The preservation of the people is the supreme law." Such is the +fundamental maxim of nations; but in all civil wars the safety of the +people is made to consist in slaughtering a number of the citizens. In +all foreign wars, the safety of a people consists in killing their +neighbors, and taking possession of their property! It is difficult to +perceive in this a particularly salutary "right of nations," and a +government eminently favorable to liberty of thought and social +happiness.</p> + +<p>There are geometrical figures exceedingly regular and complete in their +kind; arithmetic is perfect; many trades or manufactures are carried on +in a manner constantly uniform and excellent; but with respect to the +government of men, is it possible for any one to be good, when all are +founded on passions in conflict with each other?</p> + +<p>No convent of monks ever existed without discord; it is impossible, +therefore, to exclude it from kingdoms. Every government resembles not +merely a monastic institution, but a private household. There are none +existing without quarrels; and quarrels between one people and another, +between one prince and another, have ever been, sanguinary; those +between subjects and their sovereigns have been sometimes no less +destructive. How is an individual to act? Must he risk joining in the +conflict, or withdraw from the scene of action?</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>More than one people are desirous of new constitutions. The English +would have no objection to a change of ministers once in every eight +hours, but they have no wish to change the form of their government.</p> + +<p>The modern Romans are proud of their church of St. Peter and their +ancient Greek statues; but the people would be glad to be better fed, +although they were not quite so rich in benedictions; the fathers of +families would be content that the Church should have less gold, if the +granaries had more corn; they regret the time when the apostles +journeyed on foot, and when the citizens of Rome travelled from one +palace to another in litters.</p> + +<p>We are incessantly reminded of the admirable republics of Greece. There +is no question that the Greeks would prefer the government of a Pericles +and a Demosthenes to that of a pasha; but in their most prosperous and +palmy times they were always complaining; discord and hatred prevailed +between all the cities without, and in every separate city within. They +gave laws to the old Romans, who before that time had none; but their +own were so bad for themselves that they were continually changing them.</p> + +<p>What could be said in favor of a government under which the just +Aristides was banished, Phocion put to death, Socrates condemned to +drink hemlock after having been exposed to banter and derision on the +stage by Aristophanes; and under which the Amphyctions, with +contemptible imbecility, actually delivered up Greece into the power of +Philip, because the Phocians had ploughed up a field which was part of +the territory of Apollo? But the government of the neighboring +monarchies was worse.</p> + +<p>Puffendorf promises us a discussion on the best form of government. He +tells us, "that many pronounce in favor of monarchy, and others, on the +contrary, inveigh furiously against kings; and that it does not fall +within the limits of his subject to examine in detail the reasons of the +latter." If any mischievous and malicious reader expects to be told here +more than he is told by Puffendorf, he will be much deceived.</p> + +<p>A Swiss, a Hollander, a Venetian nobleman, an English peer, a cardinal, +and a count of the empire, were once disputing, on a journey, about the +nature of their respective governments, and which of them deserved the +preference: no one knew much about the matter; each remained in his own +opinion without having any very distinct idea what that opinion was; and +they returned without having come to any general conclusion; every one +praising his own country from vanity, and complaining of it from +feeling.</p> + +<p>What, then, is the destiny of mankind? Scarcely any great nation is +governed by itself. Begin from the east, and take the circuit of the +world. Japan closed its ports against foreigners from the well-founded +apprehension of a dreadful revolution.</p> + +<p>China actually experienced such a revolution; she obeys Tartars of a +mixed race, half Mantchou and half Hun. India obeys Mogul Tartars. The +Nile, the Orontes, Greece, and Epirus are still under the yoke of the +Turks. It is not an English race that reigns in England; it is a German +family which succeeded to a Dutch prince, as the latter succeeded a +Scotch family which had succeeded an Angevin family, that had replaced a +Norman family, which had expelled a family of usurping Saxons. Spain +obeys a French family; which succeeded to an Austrasian race, that +Austrasian race had succeeded families that boasted of Visigoth +extraction; these Visigoths had been long driven out by the Arabs, after +having succeeded to the Romans, who had expelled the Carthaginians. Gaul +obeys Franks, after having obeyed Roman prefects.</p> + +<p>The same banks of the Danube have belonged to Germans, Romans, Arabs, +Slavonians, Bulgarians, and Huns, to twenty different families, and +almost all foreigners.</p> + +<p>And what greater wonder has Rome had to exhibit than so many emperors +who were born in the barbarous provinces, and so many popes born in +provinces no less barbarous? Let him govern who can. And when any one +has succeeded in his attempts to become master, he governs as he can.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>In 1769, a traveller delivered the following narrative: "I saw, in the +course of my journey, a large and populous country, in which all offices +and places were purchasable; I do not mean clandestinely, and in +evasion of the law, but publicly, and in conformity to it. The right to +judge, in the last resort, of the honor, property, and life of the +citizen, was put to auction in the same manner as the right and property +in a few acres of land. Some very high commissions in the army are +conferred only on the highest bidder. The principal mystery of their +religion is celebrated for the petty sum of three sesterces, and if the +celebrator does not obtain this fee he remains idle like a porter +without employment.</p> + +<p>"Fortunes in this country are not made by agriculture, but are derived +from a certain game of chance, in great practice there, in which the +parties sign their names, and transfer them from hand to hand. If they +lose, they withdraw into the mud and mire of their original extraction; +if they win, they share in the administration of public affairs; they +marry their daughters to mandarins, and their sons become a species of +mandarins also.</p> + +<p>"A considerable number of the citizens have their whole means of +subsistence assigned upon a house, which possesses in fact nothing, and +a hundred persons have bought for a hundred thousand crowns each the +right of receiving and paying the money due to these citizens upon their +assignments on this imaginary hotel; rights which they never exercise, +as they in reality know nothing at all of what is thus supposed to pass +through their hands.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes a proposal is made and cried about the streets, that all who +have a little money in their chest should exchange it for a slip of +exquisitely manufactured paper, which will free you from all pecuniary +care, and enable you to pass through life with ease and comfort. On the +morrow an order is published, compelling you to change this paper for +another, much better. On the following day you are deafened with the cry +of a new paper, cancelling the two former ones. You are ruined! But long +heads console you with the assurance, that within a fortnight the +newsmen will cry up some proposal more engaging.</p> + +<p>"You travel into one province of this empire, and purchase articles of +food, drink, clothing, and lodging. If you go into another province, you +are obliged to pay duties upon all those commodities, as if you had just +arrived from Africa. You inquire the reason of this, but obtain no +answer; or if, from extraordinary politeness, any one condescends to +notice your questions, he replies that you come from a province reputed +foreign, and that, consequently, you are obliged to pay for the +convenience of commerce. In vain you puzzle yourself to comprehend how +the province of a kingdom can be deemed foreign to that kingdom.</p> + +<p>"On one particular occasion, while changing horses, finding myself +somewhat fatigued, I requested the postmaster to favor me with a glass +of wine. 'I cannot let you have it,' says he; 'the superintendents of +thirst, who are very considerable in number, and all of them remarkably +sober, would accuse me of drinking to excess, which would absolutely be +my ruin.' 'But drinking a single glass of wine,' I replied, 'to repair a +man's strength, is not drinking to excess; and what difference can it +make whether that single glass of wine is taken by you or me?'</p> + +<p>"'Sir,' replied the man, 'our laws relating to thirst are much more +excellent than you appear to think them. After our vintage is finished, +physicians are appointed by the regular authorities to visit our +cellars. They set aside a certain quantity of wine, such as they judge +we may drink consistently with health. At the end of the year they +return; and if they conceive that we have exceeded their restriction by +a single bottle; they punish us with very severe fines; and if we make +the slightest resistance, we are sent to Toulon to drink salt-water. +Were I to give you the wine you ask, I should most certainly be charged +with excessive drinking. You must see to what danger I should be exposed +from the supervisors of our health.'</p> + +<p>"I could not refrain from astonishment at the existence of such a +system; but my astonishment was no less on meeting with a disconsolate +and mortified pleader, who informed me that he had just then lost, a +little beyond the nearest rivulet, a cause precisely similar to one he +had gained on this side of it. I understood from him that, in his +country, there are as many different codes of laws as there are cities. +His conversation raised my curiosity. 'Our nation,' said he, 'is so +completely wise and enlightened, that nothing is regulated in it. Laws, +customs, the rights of corporate bodies, rank, precedence, everything is +arbitrary; all is left to the prudence of the nation.'</p> + +<p>"I happened to be still in this same country when it became involved in +a war with some of its neighbors. This war was nicknamed 'The Ridicule,' +because there was much to be lost and nothing to be gained by it. I went +upon my travels elsewhere, and did not return till the conclusion of +peace, when the nation seemed to be in the most dreadful state of +misery; it had lost its money, its soldiers, its fleets, and its +commerce. I said to myself, its last hour is come; everything, alas! +must pass away. Here is a nation absolutely annihilated. What a dreadful +pity! for a great part of the people were amiable, industrious, and gay, +after having been formerly coarse, superstitious, and barbarous.</p> + +<p>"I was perfectly astonished, at the end of only two years, to find its +capital and principal cities more opulent than ever. Luxury had +increased, and an air of enjoyment prevailed everywhere. I could not +comprehend this prodigy; and it was only after I had examined into the +government of the neighboring nations that I could discover the cause of +what appeared so unaccountable. I found that the government of all the +rest was just as bad as that of this nation, and that this nation was +superior to all the rest in industry.</p> + +<p>"A provincial of the country I am speaking of was once bitterly +complaining to me of all the grievances under which he labored. He was +well acquainted with history. I asked him if he thought he should have +been happier had he lived a hundred years before, when his country was +in a comparative state of barbarism, and a citizen was liable to be +hanged for having eaten flesh in Lent? He shook his head in the +negative. Would you prefer the times of the civil wars, which began at +the death of Francis II.; or the times of the defeats of St. Quentin and +Pavia; or the long disorders attending the wars against the English; or +the feudal anarchy; or the horrors of the second race of kings, or the +barbarity of the first? At every successive question, he appeared to +shudder more violently. The government of the Romans seemed to him the +most intolerable of all. 'Nothing can be worse,' he said, 'than to be +under foreign masters.' At last we came to the Druids. 'Ah!' he +exclaimed, 'I was quite mistaken: it is still worse to be governed by +sanguinary priests.' He admitted, at last, although with sore +reluctance, that the time he lived in was, all things considered, the +least intolerable and hateful."</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<p>An eagle governed the birds of the whole country of Ornithia. He had no +other right, it must be allowed, than what he derived from his beak and +claws; however, after providing liberally for his own repasts and +pleasures, he governed as well as any other bird of prey.</p> + +<p>In his old age he was invaded by a flock of hungry vultures, who rushed +from the depths of the North to scatter fear and desolation through his +provinces. There appeared, just about this time, a certain owl, who was +born in one of the most scrubby thickets of the empire, and who had long +been known under the name of "<i>luci-fugax</i>," or light-hater. He +possessed much cunning, and associated only with bats; and, while the +vultures were engaged in conflict with the eagle, our politic owl and +his party entered with great adroitness, in the character of +pacificators, on that department of the air which was disputed by the +combatants.</p> + +<p>The eagle and vultures, after a war of long duration, at last actually +referred the cause of contention to the owl, who, with his solemn and +imposing physiognomy, was well formed to deceive them both.</p> + +<p>He persuaded the eagles and vultures to suffer their claws to be a +little pared, and just the points of their beaks to be cut off, in order +to bring about perfect peace and reconciliation. Before this time, the +owl had always said to the birds, "Obey the eagle"; afterwards, in +consequence of the invasion, he had said to them, "Obey the vultures." +He now, however, soon called out to them, "Obey me only." The poor birds +did not know to whom to listen: they were plucked by the eagle, the +vultures, and the owl and bats. "<i>Qui habet aures, audiat</i>."—"He that +hath ears to hear, let him hear."</p> + + +<h5>SECTION V.</h5> + +<p>"I have in my possession a great number of catapultæ and balistæ of the +ancient Romans, which are certainly rather worm-eaten, but would still +do very well as specimens. I have many water-clocks, but half of them +probably out of repair and broken, some sepulchral lamps, and an old +copper model of a quinquereme. I have also togas, pretextas, and +laticlaves in lead; and my predecessors established a society of +tailors; who, after inspecting ancient monuments, can make up robes +pretty awkwardly. For these reasons thereunto moving us, after hearing +the report of our chief antiquary, we do hereby appoint and ordain, that +all the said venerable usages should be observed and kept up forever; +and every person, through the whole extent of our dominions, shall dress +and think precisely as men dressed and thought in the time of Cnidus +Rufillus, proprietor of the province devolved to us by right," etc.</p> + +<p>It is represented to an officer belonging to the department whence this +edict issued, that all the engines enumerated in it are become useless; +that the understandings and the inventions of mankind are every day +making new advances towards perfection; and that it would be more +judicious to guide and govern men by the reins in present use, than by +those by which they were formerly subjected; that no person could be +found to go on board the quinquereme of his most serene highness; that +his tailors might make as many laticlaves as they pleased, and that not +a soul would purchase one of them; and that it would be worthy of his +wisdom to condescend, in some small measure, to the manner of thinking +that now prevailed among the better sort of people in his own dominions.</p> + +<p>The officer above mentioned promised to communicate this representation +to a clerk, who promised to speak about it to the referendary, who +promised to mention it to his most serene highness whenever an +opportunity should offer.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VI.</h5> + +<h4><i>Picture of the English Government.</i></h4> + +<p>The establishment of a government is a matter of curious and interesting +investigation. I shall not speak, in this place, of the great Tamerlane, +or Timerling, because I am not precisely acquainted with the mystery of +the Great Mogul's government. But we can see our way somewhat more +clearly into the administration of affairs in England; and I had rather +examine that than the administration of India; as England, we are +informed, is inhabited by free men and not by slaves; and in India, +according to the accounts we have of it, there are many slaves and but +few free men.</p> + +<p>Let us, in the first place, view a Norman bastard seating himself upon +the throne of England. He had about as much right to it as St. Louis +had, at a later period, to Grand Cairo. But St. Louis had the misfortune +not to begin with obtaining a judicial decision in favor of his right to +Egypt from the court of Rome; and William the Bastard failed not to +render his cause legitimate and sacred, by obtaining in confirmation of +the rightfulness of his claim, a decree of Pope Alexander II. issued +without the opposite party having obtained a hearing, and simply in +virtue of the words, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be +bound in heaven." His competitor, Harold, a perfectly legitimate +monarch, being thus bound by a decree of heaven, William united to this +virtue of the holy see another of far more powerful efficacy still, +which was the victory of Hastings. He reigned, therefore, by the right +of the strongest, just as Pepin and Clovis had reigned in France; the +Goths and Lombards in Italy; the Visigoths, and afterwards the Arabs in +Spain; the Vandals in Africa, and all the kings of the world in +succession.</p> + +<p>It must be nevertheless admitted, that our Bastard possessed as just a +title as the Saxons and the Danes, whose title, again, was quite as good +as that of the Romans. And the title of all these heroes in succession +was precisely that of "robbers on the highway," or, if you like it +better, that of foxes and pole-cats when they commit their depredations +on the farm-yard.</p> + +<p>All these great men were so completely highway robbers, that from the +time of Romulus down to the buccaneers, the only question and concern +were about the "<i>spolia opima</i>," the pillage and plunder, the cows and +oxen carried off by the hand of violence. Mercury, in the fable, steals +the cows of Apollo; and in the Old Testament, Isaiah assigns the name of +robber to the son whom his wife was to bring into the world, and who was +to be an important and sacred type. That name was Mahershalalhashbaz, +"divide speedily the soil." We have already observed, that the names of +soldier and robber were often synonymous.</p> + +<p>Thus then did William soon become king by divine right. William Rufus, +who usurped the crown over his elder brother, was also king by divine +right, without any difficulty; and the same right attached after him to +Henry, the third usurper.</p> + +<p>The Norman barons who had joined at their own expense in the invasion of +England, were desirous of compensation. It was necessary to grant it, +and for this purpose to make them great vassals, and great officers of +the crown. They became possessed of the finest estates. It is evident +that William would rather, had he dared, have kept all to himself, and +made all these lords his guards and lackeys. But this would have been +too dangerous an attempt. He was obliged, therefore, to divide and +distribute.</p> + +<p>With respect to the Anglo-Saxon lords, there was no very easy way of +killing, or even making slaves of the whole of them. They were +permitted in their own districts, to enjoy the rank and denomination of +lords of the manor—<i>seignieurs châtelans</i>. They held of the great +Norman vassals, who held of William.</p> + +<p>By this system everything was kept in equilibrium until the breaking out +of the first quarrel. And what became of the rest of the nation? The +same that had become of nearly all the population of Europe. They became +serfs or villeins.</p> + +<p>At length, after the frenzy of the Crusades, the ruined princes sell +liberty to the serfs of the glebe, who had obtained money by labor and +commerce. Cities are made free, the commons are granted certain +privileges; and the rights of men revive even out of anarchy itself.</p> + +<p>The barons were everywhere in contention with their king, and with one +another. The contention became everywhere a petty intestine war, made up +out of numberless civil wars. From this abominable and gloomy chaos +appeared a feeble gleam, which enlightened the commons, and considerably +improved their situation.</p> + +<p>The kings of England, being themselves great vassals of France for +Normandy, and afterwards for Guienne and other provinces, easily adopted +the usages of the kings from whom they held. The states of the realm +were long made up, as in France, of barons and bishops.</p> + +<p>The English court of chancery was an imitation of the council of state, +of which the chancellor of France was president. The court of king's +bench was formed on the model of the parliament instituted by Philip le +Bel. The common pleas were like the jurisdiction of the châtelat. The +court of exchequer resembled that of the superintendents of the +finances—<i>généraux des finances</i>—which became, in France, the court of +aids.</p> + +<p>The maxim that the king's domain is inalienable is evidently taken from +the system of French government.</p> + +<p>The right of the king of England to call on his subjects to pay his +ransom, should he become a prisoner of war; that of requiring a subsidy +when he married his eldest daughter, and when he conferred the honor of +knighthood on his son; all these circumstances call to recollection the +ancient usages of a kingdom of which William was the chief vassal.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had Philip le Bel summoned the commons to the states-general, +before Edward, king of England, adopted the like measure, in order to +balance the great power of the barons. For it was under this monarch's +reign that the commons were first clearly and distinctly summoned to +parliament.</p> + +<p>We perceive, then, that up to this epoch in the fourteenth century, the +English government followed regularly in the steps of France. The two +churches are entirely alike; the same subjection to the court of Rome; +the same exactions which are always complained of, but, in the end, +always paid to that rapacious court; the same dissensions, somewhat +more or less violent; the same excommunications; the same donations to +monks; the same chaos; the same mixture of holy rapine, superstition, +and barbarism.</p> + +<p>As France and England, then, were for so long a period governed by the +same principles, or rather without any principle at all, and merely by +usages of a perfectly similar character, how is it that, at length, the +two governments have become as different as those of Morocco and Venice?</p> + +<p>It is, perhaps, in the first place to be ascribed to the circumstance of +England, or rather Great Britain, being an island, in consequence of +which the king has been under no necessity of constantly keeping up a +considerable standing army which might more frequently be employed +against the nation itself than against foreigners.</p> + +<p>It may be further observed, that the English appear to have in the +structure of their minds something more firm, more reflective, more +persevering, and, perhaps, more obstinate, than some other nations.</p> + +<p>To this latter circumstance it may be probably attributed, that, after +incessantly complaining of the court of Rome, they at length completely +shook off its disgraceful yoke; while a people of more light and +volatile character has continued to wear it, affecting at the same time +to laugh and dance in its chains.</p> + +<p>The insular situation of the English, by inducing the necessity of +urging to the particular pursuit and practice of navigation, has +probably contributed to the result we are here considering, by giving to +the natives a certain sternness and ruggedness of manners.</p> + +<p>These stern and rugged manners, which have made their island the theatre +of many a bloody tragedy, have also contributed, in all probability, to +inspire a generous frankness.</p> + +<p>It is in consequence of this combination of opposite qualities that so +much royal blood has been shed in the field, and on the scaffold, and +yet poison, in all their long and violent domestic contentions, has +never been resorted to; whereas, in other countries, under priestly +domination poison has been the prevailing weapon of destruction.</p> + +<p>The love of liberty appears to have advanced, and to have characterized +the English, in proportion as they have advanced in knowledge and in +wealth. All the citizens of a state cannot be equally powerful, but they +may be equally free. And this high point of distinction and enjoyment +the English, by their firmness and intrepidity, have at length attained.</p> + +<p>To be free is to be dependent only on the laws. The English, therefore, +have ever loved the laws, as fathers love their children, because they +are, or at least think themselves, the framers of them.</p> + +<p>A government like this could be established only at a late period; +because it was necessary long to struggle with powers which commanded +respect, or at least, impressed awe—the power of the pope, the most +terrible of all, as it was built on prejudice and ignorance; the royal +power ever tending to burst its proper boundary, and which it was +requisite, however difficult, to restrain within it; the power of the +barons, which was, in fact, an anarchy; the power of the bishops, who, +always mixing the sacred with the profane, left no means unattempted to +prevail over both barons and kings.</p> + +<p>The house of commons gradually became the impregnable mole, which +successfully repelled those serious and formidable torrents.</p> + +<p>The house of commons is, in reality, the nation; for the king, who is +the head, acts only for himself, and what is called his prerogative. The +peers are a parliament only for themselves; and the bishops only for +themselves, in the same manner.</p> + +<p>But the house of commons is for the people, as every member of it is +deputed by the people. The people are to the king in the proportion of +about eight millions to unity. To the peers and bishops they are as +eight millions to, at most, two hundred. And these eight million free +citizens are represented by the lower house.</p> + +<p>With respect to this establishment or constitution—in comparison with +which the republic of Plato is merely a ridiculous reverie, and which +might be thought to have been invented by Locke, or Newton, or Halley, +or Archimedes—it sprang, in fact, out of abuses, of a most dreadful +description, and such as are calculated to make human nature shudder. +The inevitable friction of this vast machine nearly proved its +destruction in the days of Fairfax and Cromwell. Senseless fanaticism +broke into this noble edifice, like a devouring fire that consumes a +beautiful building formed only of wood.</p> + +<p>In the time of William the Third it was rebuilt of stone. Philosophy +destroyed fanaticism, which convulses to their centres states even the +most firm and powerful. We cannot easily help believing that a +constitution which has regulated the rights of king, lords, and people, +and in which every individual finds security, will endure as long as +human institutions and concerns shall have a being.</p> + +<p>We cannot but believe, also, that all states not established upon +similar principles, will experience revolutions.</p> + +<p>The English constitution has, in fact, arrived at that point of +excellence, in consequence of which all men are restored to those +natural rights, which, in nearly all monarchies, they are deprived of. +These rights are, entire liberty of person and property; freedom of the +press; the right of being tried in all criminal cases by a jury of +independent men—the right of being tried only according to the strict +letter of the law; and the right of every man to profess, unmolested, +what religion he chooses, while he renounces offices, which the members +of the Anglican or established church alone can hold. These are +denominated privileges. And, in truth, invaluable privileges they are +in comparison with the usages of most other nations of the world! To be +secure on lying down that you shall rise in possession of the same +property with which you retired to rest; that you shall not be torn from +the arms of your wife, and from your children, in the dead of night, to +be thrown into a dungeon, or buried in exile in a desert; that, when +rising from the bed of sleep, you will have the power of publishing all +your thoughts; and that, if you are accused of having either acted, +spoken, or written wrongly, you can be tried only according to law. +These privileges attach to every one who sets his foot on English +ground. A foreigner enjoys perfect liberty to dispose of his property +and person; and, if accused of any offence, he can demand that half the +jury shall be composed of foreigners.</p> + +<p>I will venture to assert, that, were the human race solemnly assembled +for the purpose of making laws, such are the laws they would make for +their security. Why then are they not adopted in other countries? But +would it not be equally judicious to ask, why cocoanuts, which are +brought to maturity in India, do not ripen at Rome? You answer, these +cocoanuts did not always, or for some time, come to maturity in England; +that the trees have not been long cultivated; that Sweden, following her +example, planted and nursed some of them for several years, but that +they did not thrive; and that it is possible to produce such fruit in +other provinces, even in Bosnia and Servia. Try and plant the tree then.</p> + +<p>And you who bear authority over these benighted people, whether under +the name of pasha, effendi, or mollah, let me advise you, although an +unpromising subject for advice, not to act the stupid as well as +barbarous part of riveting your nations in chains. Reflect, that the +heavier you make the people's yoke, the more completely your own +children, who cannot all of them be pashas, will be slaves. Surely you +would not be so contemptible a wretch as to expose your whole posterity +to groan in chains, for the sake of enjoying a subaltern tyranny for a +few days! Oh, how great at present is the distance between an Englishman +and a Bosnian!</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VII.</h5> + +<p>The mixture now existing in the government of England—this concert +between the commons, the lords, and the king—did not exist always. +England was long a slave. She was so to the Romans, the Saxons, Danes, +and French. William the Conqueror, in particular, ruled her with a +sceptre of iron. He disposed of the properties and lives of his new +subjects like an Oriental despot; he prohibited them from having either +fire or candle in their houses after eight o'clock at night, under pain +of death: his object being either to prevent nocturnal assemblies among +them, or merely, by so capricious and extravagant a prohibition, to +show how far the power of some men can extend over others. It is true, +that both before as well as after William the Conqueror, the English had +parliaments; they made a boast of them; as if the assemblies then called +parliaments, made up of tyrannical churchmen and baronial robbers, had +been the guardians of public freedom and happiness.</p> + +<p>The barbarians, who, from the shores of the Baltic poured over the rest +of Europe, brought with them the usage of states or parliaments, about +which a vast deal is said and very little known. The kings were not +despotic, it is true; and it was precisely on this account that the +people groaned in miserable slavery. The chiefs of these savages, who +had ravaged France, Italy, Spain, and England, made themselves monarchs. +Their captains divided among themselves the estates of the vanquished; +hence, the margraves, lairds, barons, and the whole series of the +subaltern tyrants, who often contested the spoils of the people with the +monarchs, recently advanced to the throne and not firmly fixed on it. +These were all birds of prey, battling with the eagle, in order to suck +the blood of the doves. Every nation, instead of one good master, had a +hundred tyrants. The priests soon took part in the contest. From time +immemorial it had been the fate of the Gauls, the Germans, and the +islanders of England, to be governed by their druids and the chiefs of +their villages, an ancient species of barons, but less tyrannical than +their successors. These druids called themselves mediators between God +and men; they legislated, they excommunicated, they had the power of +life and death. The bishops gradually succeeded to the authority of the +druids, under the Goth and Vandal government. The popes put themselves +at their head; and, with briefs, bulls, and monks, struck terror into +the hearts of kings, whom they sometimes dethroned and occasionally +caused to be assassinated, and drew to themselves, as nearly as they +were able, all the money of Europe. The imbecile Ina, one of the tyrants +of the English heptarchy, was the first who, on a pilgrimage to Rome, +submitted to pay St. Peter's penny—which was about a crown of our +money—for every house within his territory. The whole island soon +followed this example; England gradually became a province of the pope; +and the holy father sent over his legates, from time to time, to levy +upon it his exorbitant imposts. John, called Lackland, at length made a +full and formal cession of his kingdom to his holiness, by whom he had +been excommunicated; the barons, who did not at all find their account +in this proceeding, expelled that contemptible king, and substituted in +his room Louis VIII., father of St. Louis, king of France. But they soon +became disgusted with the new-comer, and obliged him to recross the sea.</p> + +<p>While the barons, bishops, and popes were thus harassing and tearing +asunder England, where each of the parties strove eagerly to be the +dominant one, the people, who form the most numerous, useful, and +virtuous portion of a community, consisting of those who study the laws +and sciences, merchants, artisans, and even peasants, who exercise at +once the most important and the most despised of occupations; the +people, I say, were looked down upon equally by all these combatants, as +a species of beings inferior to mankind. Far, indeed, at that time, were +the commons from having the slightest participation in the government: +they were villeins, or serfs of the soil; both their labor and their +blood belonged to their masters, who were called "nobles." The greater +number of men in Europe were what they still continue to be in many +parts of the world—the serfs of a lord, a species of cattle bought and +sold together with the land. It required centuries to get justice done +to humanity; to produce an adequate impression of the odious and +execrable nature of the system, according to which the many sow, and +only the few reap; and surely it may even be considered fortunate for +France that the powers of these petty robbers were extinguished there by +the legitimate authority of kings, as it was in England by that of the +king and nation united.</p> + +<p>Happily, in consequence of the convulsions of empires by the contests +between sovereigns and nobles, the chains of nations are more or less +relaxed. The barons compelled John (Lackland) and Henry III to grant the +famous charter, the great object of which, in reality, was to place the +king in dependence on the lords, but in which the rest of the nation +was a little favored, to induce it, when occasion might require, to +range itself in the ranks of its pretended protectors. This great +charter, which is regarded as the sacred origin of English liberties, +itself clearly shows how very little liberty was understood. The very +title proves that the king considered himself absolute by right, and +that the barons and clergy compelled him to abate his claim to this +absolute power only by the application of superior force. These are the +words with which Magna Charta begins: "We grant, of our free will, the +following privileges to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and +barons, of our kingdom," etc. Throughout the articles of it, not a word +is said of the house of commons; a proof that it did not then exist, or +that it existed without power. The freemen of England are specified in +it, a melancholy demonstration that there were men who were not free. We +perceive, from the thirty-seventh article, that the pretended freemen +owed service to their lord. Liberty of such a description had but too +strong a similarity to bondage. By the twenty-first article, the king +ordains that henceforward his officers shall not take away the horses +and ploughs of freemen, without paying for them. This regulation was +considered by the people as true liberty, because it freed them from a +greater tyranny. Henry VII., a successful warrior and politician, who +pretended great attachment to the barons, but who cordially hated and +feared them, granted them permission to alienate their lands. In +consequence of this, the villeins, who by their industry and skill +accumulated property, in the course of time became purchasers of the +castles of the illustrious nobles who had ruined themselves by their +extravagance, and, gradually, nearly all the landed property of the +kingdom changed masters.</p> + +<p>The house of commons now advanced in power every day. The families of +the old nobility became extinct in the progress of time; and, as in +England, correctly speaking, peers only are nobles, there would scarcely +have been any nobles in the country, if the kings had not, from time to +time, created new barons, and kept up the body of peers, whom they had +formerly so much dreaded, to counteract that of the commons, now become +too formidable. All the new peers, who compose the upper house, receive +from the king their title and nothing more, since none of them have the +property of the lands of which they bear the names. One is duke of +Dorset, without possessing a single foot of land in Dorsetshire; another +is an earl under the name of a certain village, yet scarcely knowing +where that village is situated. They have power in the parliament, and +nowhere else.</p> + +<p>You hear no mention, in this country, of the high, middle, and low +courts of justice, nor of the right of chase over the lands of private +citizens, who have no right to fire a gun on their own estates.</p> + +<p>A man is not exempted from paying particular taxes because he is a +noble or a clergyman. All imposts are regulated by the house of commons, +which, although subordinate in rank, is superior in credit to that of +the lords. The peers and bishops may reject a bill sent up to them by +the commons, when the object is to raise money, but they can make no +alteration in it: they must admit it or reject it, without restriction. +When the bill is confirmed by the lords, and assented to by the king, +then all the classes of the nation contribute. Every man pays, not +according to his rank—which would be absurd—but according to his +revenue. There is no arbitrary <i>faille</i> or capitation, but a real tax on +lands. These were all valued in the reign of the celebrated King +William. The tax exists still unaltered, although the rents of lands +have considerably increased; thus no one is oppressed, and no one +complains. The feet of the cultivator are not bruised and mutilated by +wooden shoes; he eats white bread; he is well clothed. He is not afraid +to increase his farming-stock, nor to roof his cottage with tiles, lest +the following year should, in consequence, bring with it an increase of +taxation. There are numerous farmers who have an income of about five or +six hundred pounds sterling, and still disdain not to cultivate the land +which has enriched them, and on which they enjoy the blessing of +freedom.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VIII.</h5> + +<p>The reader well knows that in Spain, near the coast of Malaga, there was +discovered, in the reign of Philip II., a small community, until then +unknown, concealed in the recesses of the Alpuxarras mountains. This +chain of inaccessible rocks is intersected by luxuriant valleys, and +these valleys are still cultivated by the descendants of the Moors, who +were forced, for their own happiness, to become Christians, or at least +to appear such.</p> + +<p>Among these Moors, as I was stating, there was, in the time of Philip, a +small society, inhabiting a valley to which there existed no access but +through caverns. This valley is situated between Pitos and Portugos. The +inhabitants of this secluded abode were almost unknown to the Moors +themselves. They spoke a language that was neither Spanish nor Arabic, +and which was thought to be derived from that of the ancient +Carthaginians.</p> + +<p>This society had but little increased in numbers: the reason alleged for +which was that the Arabs, their neighbors, and before their time the +Africans, were in the practice of coming and taking from them the young +women.</p> + +<p>These poor and humble, but nevertheless happy, people, had never heard +any mention of the Christian or Jewish religions; and knew very little +about that of Mahomet, not holding it in any estimation. They offered +up, from time immemorial, milk and fruits to a statue of Hercules. This +was the amount of their religion. As to other matters, they spent their +days in indolence and innocence. They were at length discovered by a +familiar of the Inquisition. The grand inquisitor had the whole of them +burned. This is the sole event of their history.</p> + +<p>The hallowed motives of their condemnation were, that they had never +paid taxes, although, in fact, none had ever been demanded of them, and +they were totally unacquainted with money; that they were not possessed +of any Bible, although they did not understand Latin; and that no person +had been at the pains of baptizing them. They were all invested with the +san benito, and broiled to death with becoming ceremony.</p> + +<p>It is evident that this is a specimen of the true system of government; +nothing can so completely contribute to the content, harmony, and +happiness of society.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GOURD_OR_CALABASH" id="GOURD_OR_CALABASH"></a>GOURD OR CALABASH.</h3> + + +<p>This fruit grows in America on the branches of a tree as high as the +tallest oaks.</p> + +<p>Thus, Matthew Garo, who is thought so wrong in Europe for finding fault +with gourds creeping on the ground, would have been right in Mexico. He +would have been still more in the right in India, where cocoas are very +elevated. This proves that we should never hasten to conclusions. What +God has made, He has made well, no doubt; and has placed his gourds on +the ground in our climates, lest, in falling from on high, they should +break Matthew Garo's nose.</p> + +<p>The calabash will only be introduced here to show that we should +mistrust the idea that all was made for man. There are people who +pretend that the turf is only green to refresh the sight. It would +appear, however, that it is rather made for the animals who nibble it +than for man, to whom dog-grass and trefoil are useless. If nature has +produced the trees in favor of some species, it is difficult to say to +which she has given the preference. Leaves, and even bark, nourish a +prodigious multitude of insects: birds eat their fruits, and inhabit +their branches, in which they build their industriously formed nests, +while the flocks repose under their shades.</p> + +<p>The author of the "<i>Spectacle de la Nature</i>" pretends that the sea has a +flux and reflux, only to facilitate the going out and coming in of our +vessels. It appears that even Matthew Garo reasoned better; the +Mediterranean, on which so many vessels sail, and which only has a tide +in three or four places, destroys the opinion of this philosopher.</p> + +<p>Let us enjoy what we have, without believing ourselves the centre and +object of all things.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GRACE" id="GRACE"></a>GRACE.</h3> + + +<p>In persons and works, grace signifies, not only that which is pleasing, +but that which is attractive; so that the ancients imagined that the +goddess of beauty ought never to appear without the graces. Beauty never +displeases, but it may be deprived of this secret charm, which invites +us to regard it, and sentimentally attracts and fills the soul. Grace +in figure, carriage, action, discourse, depends on its attractive +merit. A beautiful woman will have no grace, if her mouth be shut +without a smile, and if her eyes display no sweetness. The serious is +not always graceful, because unattractive, and approaching too near to +the severe, which repels.</p> + +<p>A well-made man whose carriage is timid or constrained, gait precipitate +or heavy, and gestures awkward, has no gracefulness, because he has +nothing gentle or attractive in his exterior. The voice of an orator +which wants flexibility or softness is without grace.</p> + +<p>It is the same in all the arts. Proportion and beauty may not be +graceful. It cannot be said that the pyramids of Egypt are graceful; it +cannot be said that the Colossus of Rhodes is as much so as the Venus of +Cnidus. All that is merely strong and vigorous exhibits not the charm of +grace.</p> + +<p>It would show but small acquaintance with Michelangelo and Caravaggio to +attribute to them the grace of Albano. The sixth book of the "Æneid" is +sublime; the fourth has more grace. Some of the gallant odes of Horace +breathe gracefulness, as some of his epistles cultivate reason.</p> + +<p>It seems, in general, that the little and pretty of all kinds are more +susceptible of grace than the large. A funeral oration, a tragedy, or a +sermon, are badly praised, if they are only honored with the epithet of +graceful.</p> + +<p>It is not good for any kind of work to be opposed to grace, for its +opposite is rudeness, barbarity, and dryness. The Hercules of Farnese +should not have the gracefulness of the Apollo of Belvidere and of +Antinous, but it is neither rude nor clumsy. The burning of Troy is not +described by Virgil with the graces of an elegy of Tibullus: it pleases +by stronger beauties. A work, then, may be deprived of grace, without +being in the least disagreeable. The terrible, or horrible, in +description, is not to be graceful, neither should it solely affect its +opposite; for if an artist, whatever branch he may cultivate, expresses +only frightful things, and softens them not by agreeable contrasts, he +will repel.</p> + +<p>Grace, in painting and sculpture, consists in softness of outline and +harmonious expression; and painting, next to sculpture, has grace in the +unison of parts, and of figures which animate one another, and which +become agreeable by their attributes and their expression.</p> + +<p>Graces of diction, whether in eloquence or poetry, depend on choice of +words and harmony of phrases, and still more upon delicacy of ideas and +smiling descriptions. The abuse of grace is affectation, as the abuse of +the sublime is absurdity; all perfection is nearly a fault.</p> + +<p>To have grace applies equally to persons and things. This dress, this +work, or that woman, is graceful. What is called a good grace applies to +manner alone. She presents herself with good grace. He has done that +which was expected of him with a good grace. To possess the graces: +This woman has grace in her carriage, in all that she says and does.</p> + +<p>To obtain grace is, by a metaphor, to obtain pardon, as to grant grace +is to grant pardon. We make grace of one thing by taking away all the +rest. The commissioners took all his effects and made him a gift—a +grace—of his money. To grant graces, to diffuse graces, is the finest +privilege of the sovereignty; it is to do good by something more than +justice. To have one's good graces is usually said in relation to a +superior: to have a lady's good graces, is to be her favorite lover. To +be in grace, is said of a courtier who has been in disgrace: we should +not allow our happiness to depend on the one, nor our misery on the +other. Graces, in Greek, are "charities"; a term which signifies +amiable.</p> + +<p>The graces, divinities of antiquity, are one of the most beautiful +allegories of the Greek mythology. As this mythology always varied +according either to the imagination of the poets, who were its +theologians, or to the customs of the people, the number, names, and +attributes of the graces often change; but it was at last agreed to fix +them as three, Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne, that is to say, +sparkling, blooming, mirthful. They were always near Venus. No veil +should cover their charms. They preside over favors, concord, +rejoicings, love, and even eloquence; they were the sensible emblem of +all that can render life agreeable. They were painted dancing and +holding hands; and every one who entered their temples was crowned with +flowers. Those who have condemned the fabulous mythology should at least +acknowledge the merit of these lively fictions, which announce truths +intimately connected with the felicity of mankind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GRACE_OF" id="GRACE_OF"></a>GRACE (OF).</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>This term, which signifies favor or privilege, is employed in this sense +by theologians. They call grace a particular operation of God on +mankind, intended to render them just and happy. Some have admitted +universal grace, that which God gives to all men, though mankind, +according to them, with the exception of a very small number, will be +delivered to eternal flames: others admit grace towards Christians of +their communion only; and lastly, others only for the elect of that +communion.</p> + +<p>It is evident that a general grace, which leaves the universe in vice, +error, and eternal misery, is not a grace, a favor, or privilege, but a +contradiction in terms.</p> + +<p>Particular grace, according to theologians, is either in the first place +"sufficing," which if resisted, suffices not—resembling a pardon given +by a king to a criminal, who is nevertheless delivered over to the +punishment; or "efficacious" when it is not resisted, although it <i>may +be</i> resisted; in this case, they just resemble famished guests to whom +are presented delicious viands, of which they will surely eat, though, +in general, they may be supposed at liberty not to eat; or "necessary," +that is, unavoidable, being nothing more than the chain of eternal +decrees and events. We shall take care not to enter into the long and +appalling details, subtleties, and sophisms, with which these questions +are embarrassed. The object of this dictionary is not to be the vain +echo of vain disputes.</p> + +<p>St. Thomas calls grace a substantial form, and the Jesuit Bouhours names +it a <i>je ne sais quoi</i>; this is perhaps the best definition which has +ever been given of it.</p> + +<p>If the theologians had wanted a subject on which to ridicule Providence, +they need not have taken any other than that which they have chosen. On +one side the Thomists assure us that man, in receiving efficacious +grace, is not free in the compound sense, but that he is free in the +divided sense; on the other, the Molinists invent the medium doctrine of +God and congruity, and imagine exciting, preventing, concomitant, and +co-operating grace.</p> + +<p>Let us quit these bad but seriously constructed jokes of the +theologians; let us leave their books, and each consult his common +sense; when he will see that all these reasoners have sagaciously +deceived themselves, because they have reasoned upon a principle +evidently false. They have supposed that God acts upon particular views; +now, an eternal God, without general, immutable, and eternal laws, is +an imaginary being, a phantom, a god of fable.</p> + +<p>Why, in all religions on which men pique themselves on reasoning, have +theologians been forced to admit this grace which they do not +comprehend? It is that they would have salvation confined to their own +sect, and further, they would have this salvation divided among those +who are the most submissive to themselves. These particular theologians, +or chiefs of parties, divide among themselves. The Mussulman doctors +entertain similar opinions and similar disputes, because they have the +same interest to actuate them; but the universal theologian, that is to +say, the true philosopher, sees that it is contradictory for nature to +act on particular or single views; that it is ridiculous to imagine God +occupying Himself in forcing one man in Europe to obey Him, while He +leaves all the Asiatics intractable; to suppose Him wrestling with +another man who sometimes submits, and sometimes disarms Him, and +presenting to another a help, which is nevertheless useless. Such grace, +considered in a true point of view, is an absurdity. The prodigious mass +of books composed on this subject is often an exercise of intellect, but +always the shame of reason.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>All nature, all that exists, is the grace of God; He bestows on all +animals the grace of form and nourishment. The grace of growing seventy +feet high is granted to the fir, and refused to the reed. He gives to +man the grace of thinking, speaking, and knowing him; He grants me the +grace of not understanding a word of all that Tournelli, Molina, and +Soto, have written on the subject of grace.</p> + +<p>The first who has spoken of efficacious and gratuitous grace is, without +contradiction, Homer. This may be astonishing to a bachelor of theology, +who knows no author but St. Augustine; but, if he read the third book of +the "Iliad," he will see that Paris says to his brother Hector: "If the +gods have given you valor, and me beauty, do not reproach me with the +presents of the beautiful Venus; no gift of the gods is despicable—it +does not depend upon man to obtain them."</p> + +<p>Nothing is more positive than this passage. If we further remark that +Jupiter, according to his pleasure, gave the victory sometimes to the +Greeks, and at others to the Trojans, we shall see a new proof that all +was done by grace from on high. Sarpedon, and afterwards Patroclus, are +barbarians to whom by turns grace has been wanting.</p> + +<p>There have been philosophers who were not of the opinion of Homer. They +have pretended that general Providence does not immediately interfere +with the affairs of particular individuals; that it governs all by +universal laws; that Thersites and Achilles were equal before it, and +that neither Chalcas nor Talthybius ever had versatile or congruous +graces.</p> + +<p>According to these philosophers, the dog-grass and the oak, the mite and +the elephant, man, the elements and stars, obey invariable laws, which +God, as immutable, has established from all eternity.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>If one were to come from the bottom of hell, to say to us on the part of +the devil—Gentlemen, I must inform you that our sovereign lord has +taken all mankind for his share, except a small number of people who +live near the Vatican and its dependencies—we should all pray of this +deputy to inscribe us on the list of the privileged; we should ask him +what we must do to obtain this grace.</p> + +<p>If he were to answer, You cannot merit it, my master has made the list +from the beginning of time; he has only listened to his own pleasure, he +is continually occupied in making an infinity of <i>pots-de-chambre</i> and +some dozen gold vases; if you are <i>pots-de-chambre</i> so much the worse +for you.</p> + +<p>At these fine words we should use our pitchforks to send the ambassador +back to his master. This is, however, what we have dared to impute to +God—-to the eternal and sovereignly good being!</p> + +<p>Man has been always reproached with having made God in his own image, +Homer has been condemned for having transported all the vices and +follies of earth into heaven. Plato, who has thus justly reproached him, +has not hesitated to call him a blasphemer; while we, a hundred times +more thoughtless, hardy, and blaspheming than this Greek, who did not +understand conventional language, devoutly accuse God of a thing of +which we have never accused the worst of men.</p> + +<p>It is said that the king of Morocco, Muley Ismael, had five hundred +children. What would you say if a marabout of Mount Atlas related to you +that the wise and good Muley Ismael, dining with his family, at the +close of the repast, spoke thus:</p> + +<p>"I am Muley Ismael, who has forgotten you for my glory, for I am very +glorious. I love you very tenderly, I shelter you as a hen covers her +chickens; I have decreed that one of my youngest children shall have the +kingdom of Tafilet, and that another shall possess Morocco; and for my +other dear children, to the number of four hundred and ninety-eight, I +order that one-half shall be tortured, and the other half burned, for I +am the Lord Muley Ismael."</p> + +<p>You would assuredly take the marabout for the greatest fool that Africa +ever produced; but if three or four thousand marabouts, well entertained +at your expense, were to repeat to you the same story, what would you +do? Would you not be tempted to make them fast upon bread and water +until they recovered their senses?</p> + +<p>You will allege that my indignation is reasonable enough against the +supralapsarians, who believe that the king of Morocco begot these five +hundred children only for his glory; and that he had always the +intention to torture and burn them, except two, who were destined to +reign.</p> + +<p>But I am wrong, you say, against the infralapsarians, who avow that it +was not the first intention of Muley Ismael to cause his children to +perish; but that, having foreseen that they would be of no use, he +thought he should be acting as a good father in getting rid of them by +torture and fire.</p> + +<p>Ah, supralapsarians, infralapsarians, free-gracians, sufficers, +efficacians, jansenists, and molinists become men, and no longer trouble +the earth with such absurd and abominable fooleries.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<p>Holy advisers of modern Rome, illustrious and infallible theologians, no +one has more respect for your divine decisions than I; but if Paulus +milius, Scipio, Cato, Cicero, Cæsar, Titus, Trajan, or Marcus Aurelius, +revisited that Rome to which they formerly did such credit, you must +confess that they would be a little astonished at your decisions on +grace. What would they say if they heard you speak of healthful grace +according to St. Thomas, and medicinal grace according to Cajetan; of +exterior and interior grace, of free, sanctifying, co-operating, actual, +habitual, and efficacious grace, which is sometimes inefficacious; of +the sufficing which sometimes does not suffice, of the versatile and +congruous—would they really comprehend it more than you and I?</p> + +<p>What need would these poor people have of your instructions? I fancy I +hear them say: "Reverend fathers, you are terrible genii; we foolishly +thought that the Eternal Being never conducted Himself by particular +laws like vile human beings, but by general laws, eternal like Himself. +No one among us ever imagined that God was like a senseless master, who +gives an estate to one slave and refuses food to another; who orders one +with a broken arm to knead a loaf, and a cripple to be his courier."</p> + +<p>All is grace on the part of God; He has given to the globe we inhabit +the grace of form; to the trees the grace of making them grow; to +animals that of feeding them; but will you say, because one wolf finds +in his road a lamb for his supper, while another is dying with hunger, +that God has given the first wolf a particular grace? Is it a preventive +grace to cause one oak to grow in preference to another in which sap is +wanting? If throughout nature all being is submitted to general laws, +how can a single species of animals avoid conforming to them?</p> + +<p>Why should the absolute master of all be more occupied in directing the +interior of a single man than in conducting the remainder of entire +nature? By what caprice would He change something in the heart of a +Courlander or a Biscayan, while He changes nothing in the general laws +which He has imposed upon all the stars.</p> + +<p>What a pity to suppose that He is continually making, defacing, and +renewing our sentiments! And what audacity in us to believe ourselves +excepted from all beings! And further, is it not only for those who +confess that these changes are imagined? A Savoyard, a Bergamask, on +Monday, will have the grace to have a mass said for twelve sous; on +Tuesday he will go to the tavern and have no grace; on Wednesday he will +have a co-operating grace, which will conduct him to confession, but he +will not have the efficacious grace of perfect contrition; on Thursday +there will be a sufficing grace which will not suffice, as has been +already said. God will labor in the head of this Bergamask—sometimes +strongly, sometimes weakly, while the rest of the earth will no way +concern Him! He will not deign to meddle with the interior of the +Indians and Chinese! If you possess a grain of reason, reverend fathers, +do you not find this system prodigiously ridiculous?</p> + +<p>Poor, miserable man! behold this oak which rears its head to the clouds, +and this reed which bends at its feet; you do not say that efficacious +grace has been given to the oak and withheld from the reed. Raise your +eyes to heaven; see the eternal Demiourgos creating millions of worlds, +which gravitate towards one another by general and eternal laws. See the +same light reflected from the sun to Saturn, and from Saturn to us; and +in this grant of so many stars, urged onward in their rapid course; in +this general obedience of all nature, dare to believe, if you can, that +God is occupied in giving a versatile grace to Sister Theresa, or a +concomitant one to Sister Agnes.</p> + +<p>Atom—to which another foolish atom has said that the Eternal has +particular laws for some atoms of thy neighborhood; that He gives His +grace to that one and refuses it to this; that such as had not grace +yesterday shall have it to-morrow—repeat not this folly. God has made +the universe, and creates not new winds to remove a few straws in one +corner of the universe. Theologians are like the combatants in Homer, +who believed that the gods were sometimes armed for and sometimes +against them. Had Homer not been considered a poet, he would be deemed a +blasphemer.</p> + +<p>It is Marcus Aurelius who speaks, and not I; for God, who inspires you, +has given me grace to believe all that you say, all that you have said, +and all that you will say.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GRAVE_GRAVITY" id="GRAVE_GRAVITY"></a>GRAVE—GRAVITY.</h3> + + +<p>Grave, in its moral meaning, always corresponds with its physical one; +it expresses something of weight; thus, we say—a person, an author, or +a maxim of weight, for a grave person, author, or maxim. The grave is to +the serious what the lively is to the agreeable. It is one degree more +of the same thing, and that degree a considerable one. A man may be +serious by temperament, and even from want of ideas. He is grave, either +from a sense of decorum, or from having ideas of depth and importance, +which induce gravity. There is a difference between being grave and +being a grave man. It is a fault to be unseasonably grave. He who is +grave in society is seldom much sought for; but a grave man is one who +acquires influence and authority more by his real wisdom than his +external carriage.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Tum pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Conspexere, silent, adrectisque auribus adstant.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">—<span class="small">VIRGIL'S</span> <i>Æneid</i>, i. 151.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">If then some grave and pious man appear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">They hush their noise, and lend a listening ear.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 15em;">—<span class="small">DRYDEN</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>A decorous air should be always preserved, but a grave air is becoming +only in the function of some high and important office, as, for example, +in council. When gravity consists, as is frequently the case, only in +the exterior carriage, frivolous remarks are delivered with a pompous +solemnity, exciting at once ridicule and aversion. We do not easily +pardon those who wish to impose upon us by this air of consequence and +self-sufficiency.</p> + +<p>The duke de La Rochefoucauld said "Gravity is a mysteriousness of body +assumed in order to conceal defects of mind." Without investigating +whether the phrase "mysteriousness of body" is natural and judicious, it +is sufficient to observe that the remark is applicable to all who affect +gravity, but not to those who merely exhibit a gravity suitable to the +office they hold, the place where they are, or the business in which +they are engaged.</p> + +<p>A grave author is one whose opinions relate to matters obviously +disputable. We never apply the term to one who has written on subjects +which admit no doubt or controversy. It would be ridiculous to call +Euclid and Archimedes grave authors.</p> + +<p>Gravity is applicable to style. Livy and de Thou have written with +gravity. The same observations cannot with propriety be applied to +Tacitus, whose object was brevity, and who has displayed malignity; +still less can it be applied to Cardinal de Retz, who sometimes infuses +into his writings a misplaced gayety, and sometimes even forgets +decency.</p> + +<p>The grave style declines all sallies of wit or pleasantry; if it +sometimes reaches the sublime, if on any particular occasion it is +pathetic, it speedily returns to the didactic wisdom and noble +simplicity which habitually characterizes it; it possesses strength +without daring. Its greatest difficulty is to avoid monotony.</p> + +<p>A grave affair (<i>affaire</i>), a grave case (<i>cas</i>), is used concerning a +criminal rather than a civil process. A grave disease implies danger.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GREAT_GREATNESS" id="GREAT_GREATNESS"></a>GREAT—GREATNESS.</h3> + +<h4><i>Of the Meaning of These Words.</i></h4> + +<p>Great is one of those words which are most frequently used in a moral +sense, and with the least consideration and judgment. Great man, great +genius, great captain, great philosopher, great poet; we mean by this +language "one who has far exceeded ordinary limits." But, as it is +difficult to define those limits, the epithet "great" is often applied +to those who possess only mediocrity.</p> + +<p>This term is less vague and doubtful when applied to material than to +moral subjects. We know what is meant by a great storm, a great +misfortune, a great disease, great property, great misery.</p> + +<p>The term "large" (<i>gros</i>) is sometimes used with respect to subjects of +the latter description, that is, material ones, as equivalent to great, +but never with respect to moral subjects. We say large property for +great wealth, but not a large captain for a great captain, or a large +minister for a great minister. Great financier means a man eminently +skilful in matters of national finance; but <i>gros</i> financier expresses +merely a man who has become wealthy in the department of finance.</p> + +<p>The great man is more difficult to be defined than the great artist. In +an art or profession, the man who has far distanced his rivals, or who +has the reputation of having done so, is called great in his art, and +appears, therefore, to have required merit of only one description in +order to obtain this eminence; but the great man must combine different +species of merit. Gonsalvo, surnamed the Great Captain, who observed +that "the web of honor was coarsely woven," was never called a great +man. It is more easy to name those to whom this high distinction should +be refused than those to whom it should be granted. The denomination +appears to imply some great virtues. All agree that Cromwell was the +most intrepid general, the most profound statesman, the man best +qualified to conduct a party, a parliament, or an army, of his day; yet +no writer ever gives him the title of great man; because, although he +possessed great qualities, he possessed not a single great virtue.</p> + +<p>This title seems to fall to the lot only of the small number of men who +have been distinguished at once by virtues, exertions, and success. +Success is essential, because the man who is always unfortunate is +supposed to be so by his own fault.</p> + +<p>Great (grand), by itself, expresses some dignity. In Spain it is a high +and most distinguishing appellative (<i>grandee</i>) conferred by the king on +those whom he wishes to honor. The grandees are covered in the presence +of the king, either before speaking to him or after having spoken to +him, or while taking their seats with the rest.</p> + +<p>Charles the Fifth conferred the privileges of grandeeship on sixteen +principal noblemen. That emperor himself afterwards granted the same +honors to many others. His successors, each in his turn, have added to +the number. The Spanish grandees have long claimed to be considered of +equal rank and dignity with the electors and the princes of Italy. At +the court of France they have the same honors as peers.</p> + +<p>The title of "great" has been always given, in France, to many of the +chief officers of the crown—as great seneschal, great master, great +chamberlain, great equerry, great pantler, great huntsman, great +falconer. These titles were given them to distinguish their pre-eminence +above the persons serving in the same departments under them. The +distinction is not given to the constable, nor to the chancellor, nor to +the marshals, although the constable is the chief of all the household +officers, the chancellor the second person in the state, and the marshal +the second officer in the army. The reason obviously is, that they had +no deputies, no vice-constables, vice-marshals, vice-chancellors, but +officers under another denomination who executed their orders, while the +great steward, great chamberlain, and great equerry, etc., had stewards, +chamberlains, and equerries under them.</p> + +<p>Great (grand) in connection with <i>seigneur</i>, "great lord," has a +signification more extensive and uncertain. We give this title of +"<i>grand seigneur</i>" (seignor) to the Turkish sultan, who assumes that of +pasha, to which the expression grand seignor does not correspond. The +expression "<i>un grand</i>," "great man," is used in speaking of a man of +distinguished birth, invested with dignities, but it is used only by the +common people. A person of birth or consequence never applies the term +to any one. As the words "great lord" (<i>grand seigneur</i>) are commonly +applied to those who unite birth, dignity, and riches, poverty seems to +deprive a man of the right to it, or at least to render it inappropriate +or ridiculous. Accordingly, we say a poor gentleman, but not a poor +grand seigneur.</p> + +<p>Great (grand) is different from mighty (<i>puissant</i>). A man may at the +same time be both one and the other, but <i>puissant</i> implies the +possession of some office of power and consequence. "Grand" indicates +more show and less reality; the "puissant" commands, the "grand" +possesses honors.</p> + +<p>There is greatness (grandeur) in mind, in sentiments, in manners, and in +conduct. The expression is not used in speaking of persons in the +middling classes of society, but only of those who, by their rank, are +bound to show nobility and elevation. It is perfectly true that a man of +the most obscure birth and connections may have more greatness of mind +than a monarch. But it would be inconsistent with the usual phraseology +to say, "that merchant" or "that farmer acted greatly" (<i>avec +grandeur</i>); unless, indeed, in very particular circumstances, and +placing certain characters in striking opposition, we should, for +example, make such a remark as the following: "The celebrated merchant +who entertained Charles the Fifth in his own house, and lighted a fire +of cinnamon wood with that prince's bond to him for fifty thousand +ducats, displayed more greatness of soul than the emperor."</p> + +<p>The title of "greatness" (grandeur) was formerly given to various +persons possessing stations of dignity. French clergymen, when writing +to bishops, still call them "your greatness." Those titles, which are +lavished by sycophancy and caught at by vanity, are now little used.</p> + +<p>Haughtiness is often mistaken for greatness (grandeur). He who is +ostentatious of greatness displays vanity. But one becomes weary and +exhausted with writing about greatness. According to the lively remark +of Montaigne, "we cannot obtain it, let us therefore take our revenge by +abusing it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GREEK" id="GREEK"></a>GREEK.</h3> + +<h4><i>Observations Upon the Extinction of the Greek Language at Marseilles.</i></h4> + + +<p>It is exceedingly strange that, as Marseilles was founded by a Greek +colony, scarcely any vestige of the Greek language is to be found in +Provence Languedoc, or any district of France; for we cannot consider as +Greek the terms which were taken, at a comparatively modern date, from +the Latins, and which had been adopted by the Romans themselves from the +Greeks so many centuries before. We received those only at second hand. +We have no right to say that we abandoned the word <i>Got</i> for that of +<i>Theos</i>, rather than that of <i>Deus</i>, from which, by a barbarous +termination, we have made <i>Dieu</i>.</p> + +<p>It is clear that the Gauls, having received the Latin language with the +Roman laws, and having afterwards received from those same Romans the +Christian religion, adopted from them all the terms which were connected +with that religion. These same Gauls did not acquire, until a late +period, the Greek terms which relate to medicine, anatomy, and surgery.</p> + +<p>After deducting all the words originally Greek which we have derived +through the Latin, and all the anatomical and medical terms which were, +in comparison, so recently acquired, there is scarcely anything left; +for surely, to derive "<i>abréger</i>" from "<i>brakus</i>," rather than from +"<i>abreviare</i>"; "<i>acier</i>" from "<i>axi</i>" rather than from "<i>acies</i>"; +"<i>acre</i>" from "<i>agros</i>," rather than from "<i>ager</i>"; and "<i>aile</i>" from +"<i>ily</i>" rather than from "<i>ala</i>"—this, I say, would surely be perfectly +ridiculous.</p> + +<p>Some have even gone so far as to say that "omelette" comes from +"<i>omeilaton</i>" because "<i>meli</i>" in Greek signifies honey, and "<i>oon</i>" an +egg. In the "Garden of Greek Roots" there is a more curious derivation +still; it is pretended that "<i>diner</i>" (dinner) comes from "<i>deipnein</i>," +which signifies supper.</p> + +<p>As some may be desirous of possessing a list of the Greek words which +the Marseilles colony may have introduced into the language of the +Gauls, independently of those which came through the Romans, we present +the following one:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Aboyer, perhaps from <i>bauzein</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Affre, affreux, from <i>afronos</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Agacer, perhaps from <i>anaxein</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Alali, a Greek war-cry.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Babiller, perhaps from <i>babazo</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Balle, from <i>ballo</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Bas, from <i>batys</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Blesser, from the aorist of <i>blapto</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Bouteille, from <i>bouttis</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Bride, from <i>bryter</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Brique, from <i>bryka</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Coin, from <i>gonia</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Colère, from <i>chole</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Colle, from <i>colla</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Couper, from <i>cop to</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Cuisse, perhaps from <i>ischis</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Entraille, from <i>entera</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Ermite, from <i>eremos</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Fier, from <i>fiaros</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Gargarizer, from <i>gargarizein</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Idiot, from <i>idiotes</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Maraud, from <i>miaros</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Moquer, from <i>mokeuo</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Moustache, from <i>mustax</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Orgueil, from <i>orge</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Page, from <i>pais</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Siffler, perhaps from <i>siffloo</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Tuer, <i>thuein</i>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>I am astonished to find so few words remaining of a language spoken at +Marseilles, in the time of Augustus, in all its purity; and I am +particularly astonished to find the greater number of the Greek words +preserved in Provence, signifying things of little or no utility, while +those used to express things of the first necessity and importance are +utterly lost. We have not a single one remaining that signifies land, +sea, sky, the sun, the moon, rivers, or the principal parts of the human +body; the words used for which might have been expected to be +transmitted down from the beginning through every succeeding age. +Perhaps we must attribute the cause of this to the Visigoths, the +Burgundians, and the Franks; to the horrible barbarism of all those +nations which laid waste the Roman Empire, a barbarism of which so many +traces yet remain.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GUARANTEE" id="GUARANTEE"></a>GUARANTEE.</h3> + + +<p>A guarantee is a pledge by which a person renders himself responsible to +another for something, and binds himself to secure him in the enjoyment +of it. The word (<i>garant</i>) is derived from the Celtic and Teutonic +"warrant." In all the words which we have retained from those ancient +languages we have changed the <i>w</i> into <i>g</i>. Among the greater number of +the nations of the North "warrant" still signifies assurance, guaranty; +and in this sense it means, in English, an order of the king, as +signifying the pledge of the king. When in the middle ages kings +concluded treaties, they were guaranteed on both sides by a considerable +number of knights, who bound themselves by oath to see that the treaty +was observed, and even, when a superior education qualified them to do +so, which sometimes happened, signed their names to it. When the emperor +Frederick Barbarossa ceded so many rights to Pope Alexander III. at the +celebrated congress of Venice, in 1117, the emperor put his seal to the +instrument which the pope and cardinals signed. Twelve princes of the +empire guaranteed the treaty by an oath upon the gospel; but none of +them signed it. It is not said that the doge of Venice guaranteed that +peace which was concluded in his palace. When Philip Augustus made peace +in 1200 with King John of England, the principal barons of France and +Normandy swore to the due observance of it, as cautionary or +guaranteeing parties. The French swore that they would take arms against +their king if he violated his word, and the Normans, in like manner, to +oppose their sovereign if he did not adhere to his. One of the +constables of the Montmorency family, after a negotiation with one of +the earls of March, in 1227, swore to the observance of the treaty upon +the soul of the king.</p> + +<p>The practice of guaranteeing the states of a third party was of great +antiquity, although under a different name. The Romans in this manner +guaranteed the possessions of many of the princes of Asia and Africa, by +taking them under their protection until they secured to themselves the +possession of the territories thus protected. We must regard as a mutual +guaranty the ancient alliance between France and Castile, of king to +king, kingdom to kingdom, and man to man.</p> + +<p>We do not find any treaty in which the guaranty of the states of a third +party is expressly stipulated for before that which was concluded +between Spain and the states-general in 1609, by the mediation of Henry +IV. He procured from Philip III., king of Spain, the recognition of the +United Provinces as free and sovereign states. He signed the guaranty of +this sovereignty of the seven provinces, and obtained the signature of +the same instrument from the king of Spain; and the republic +acknowledged that it owed its freedom to the interference of the French +monarch. It is principally within our own times that treaties of +guaranty have become comparatively frequent. Unfortunately these +engagements have occasionally produced ruptures and war; and it is +clearly ascertained that the best of all possible guaranties is power.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GREGORY_VII" id="GREGORY_VII"></a>GREGORY VII.</h3> + + +<p>Bayle himself, while admitting that Gregory was the firebrand of Europe, +concedes to him the denomination of a great man. "That old Rome," says +he, "which plumed itself upon conquests and military virtue, should have +brought so many other nations under its dominion, redounds, according to +the general maxims of mankind, to her credit and glory; but, upon the +slightest reflection, can excite little surprise. On the other hand, it +is a subject of great surprise to see new Rome, which pretended to value +itself only on an apostolic ministry, possessed of an authority under +which the greatest monarchs have been constrained to bend. Caron may +observe, with truth, that there is scarcely a single emperor who has +opposed the popes without feeling bitter cause to regret his resistance. +Even at the present day the conflicts of powerful princes with the court +of Rome almost always terminate in their confusion."</p> + +<p>I am of a totally different opinion from Bayle. There will probably be +many of a different one from mine. I deliver it however with freedom, +and let him who is willing and able refute it.</p> + +<p>1. The differences of the princes of Orange and the seven provinces with +Rome did not terminate in their confusion; and Bayle, who, while at +Amsterdam, could set Rome at defiance, was a happy illustration of the +contrary.</p> + +<p>The triumphs of Queen Elizabeth, of Gustavus Vasa in Sweden, of the +kings of Denmark, of all the princes of the north of Germany, of the +finest part of Helvetia, of the single and small city of Geneva—the +triumphs, I say, of all these over the policy of the Roman court are +perfectly satisfactory testimonies that it may be easily and +successfully resisted, both in affairs of religion and government.</p> + +<p>2. The sacking of Rome by the troops of Charles the Fifth; the pope +(Clement VII.) a prisoner in the castle of St. Angelo; Louis XIV. +compelling Pope Alexander VII. to ask his pardon, and erecting even in +Rome itself a monument of the pope's submission; and, within our own +times, the easy subversion of that steady, and apparently most +formidable support of the papal power, the society of Jesuits in Spain, +in France, in Naples, in Goa, and in Paraguay—all this furnishes +decisive evidence, that, when potent princes are in hostility with Rome, +the quarrel is not terminated in their confusion; they may occasionally +bend before the storm, but they will not eventually be overthrown.</p> + +<p>When the popes walked on the heads of kings, when they conferred crowns +by a parchment bull, it appears to me, that at this extreme height of +their power and grandeur they did no more than the caliphs, who were the +successors of Mahomet, did in the very period of their decline. Both of +them, in the character of priests, conferred the investiture of empires, +in solemn ceremony, on the most powerful of contending parties.</p> + +<p>3. Maimbourg says: "What no pope ever did before, Gregory VIII. did, +depriving Henry IV. of his dignity of emperor, and of his kingdoms of +Germany and Italy."</p> + +<p>Maimbourg is mistaken. Pope Zachary had, long before that, placed a +crown on the head of the Austrasian Pepin, who usurped the kingdom of +the Franks; and Pope Leo III. had declared the son of that Pepin emperor +of the West, and thereby deprived the empress Irene of the whole of that +empire; and from that time, it must be admitted, there has not been a +single priest of the Romish church who has not imagined that his bishop +enjoyed the disposal of all crowns.</p> + +<p>This maxim was always turned to account when it was possible to be so. +It was considered as a consecrated weapon, deposited in the sacristy of +St. John of Lateran, which might be drawn forth in solemn and impressive +ceremony on every occasion that required it. This prerogative is so +commanding; it raises to such a height the dignity of an exorcist born +at Velletri or Cività Vecchia, that if Luther, Œcolampadius, John +Calvin, and all the prophets of the Cévennes, had been natives of any +miserable village near Rome, and undergone the tonsure there, they would +have supported that church with the same rage which they actually +manifested for its destruction.</p> + +<p>4. Everything, then, depends on the time and place of a man's birth, and +the circumstances by which he is surrounded. Gregory VII. was born in an +age of barbarism, ignorance, and superstition; and he had to deal with a +young, debauched, inexperienced emperor, deficient in money, and whose +power was contested by all the powerful lords of Germany.</p> + +<p>We cannot believe, that, from the time of the Austrasian Charlemagne, +the Roman people ever paid very willing obedience to Franks or +Teutonians: they hated them as much as the genuine old Romans would have +hated the Cimbri, if the Cimbri had obtained dominion in Italy. The +Othos had left behind them in Rome a memory that was execrated, because +they had enjoyed great power there; and, after the time of the Othos, +Europe it is well known became involved in frightful anarchy.</p> + +<p>This anarchy was not more effectually restrained under the emperors of +the house of Franconia. One-half of Germany was in insurrection against +Henry IV. The countess Mathilda, grand duchess, his cousin-german, more +powerful than himself in Italy, was his mortal enemy. She possessed, +either as fiefs of the empire, or as allodial property, the whole duchy +of Tuscany, the territory of Cremona, Ferrara, Mantua, and Parma; a part +of the Marches of Ancona, Reggio, Modena, Spoleto, and Verona; and she +had rights, that is to say pretensions, to the two Burgundies; for the +imperial chancery claimed those territories, according to its regular +practice of claiming everything.</p> + +<p>We admit, that Gregory VII. would have been little less than an idiot +had he not exerted his strongest efforts to secure a complete influence +over this powerful princess; and to obtain, by her means, a point of +support and protection against the Germans. He became her director, and, +after being her director, her heir.</p> + +<p>I shall not, in this place, examine whether he was really her lover, or +whether he only pretended to be so; or whether his enemies merely +pretended it; or whether, in his idle moments, the assuming and ardent +little director did not occasionally abuse the influence he possessed +with his penitent, and prevail over a feeble and capricious woman. In +the course of human events nothing can be more natural or common; but as +usually no registers are kept of such cases; as those interesting +intimacies between the directors and directed do not take place before +witnesses, and as Gregory has been reproached with this imputation only +by his enemies, we ought not to confound accusation with proof. It is +quite enough that Gregory claimed the whole of his penitent's property.</p> + +<p>5. The donation which he procured to be made to himself by the countess +Mathilda, in the year 1077, is more than suspected. And one proof that +it is not to be relied upon is that not merely was this deed never +shown, but that, in a second deed, the first is stated to have been +lost. It was pretended that the donation had been made in the fortress +of Canossa, and in the second act it is said to have been made at Rome. +These circumstances may be considered as confirming the opinion of some +antiquaries, a little too scrupulous, who maintain that out of a +thousand grants made in those times—and those times were of long +duration—there are more than nine hundred evidently counterfeit.</p> + +<p>There have been two sorts of usurpers in our quarter of the world, +Europe—robbers and forgers.</p> + +<p>6. Bayle, although allowing the title of Great to Gregory, acknowledges +at the same time that this turbulent man disgraced his heroism by his +prophecies. He had the audacity to create an emperor, and in that he +did well, as the emperor Henry IV. had made a pope. Henry deposed him, +and he deposed Henry. So far there is nothing to which to object—both +sides are equal. But Gregory took it into his head to turn prophet; he +predicted the death of Henry IV. for the year 1080; but Henry IV. +conquered, and the pretended emperor Rudolph was defeated and slain in +Thuringia by the famous Godfrey of Bouillon, a man more truly great than +all the other three. This proves, in my opinion, that Gregory had more +enthusiasm than talent.</p> + +<p>I subscribe with all my heart to the remark of Bayle, that "when a man +undertakes to predict the future, he is provided against everything by a +face of brass, and an inexhaustible magazine of equivocations." But your +enemies deride your equivocations; they also have a face of brass like +yourself; and they expose you as a knave, a braggart, and a fool.</p> + +<p>7. Our great man ended his public career with witnessing the taking of +Rome by assault, in the year 1083. He was besieged in the castle, since +called St. Angelo, by the same emperor Henry IV., whom he had dared to +dispossess, and died in misery and contempt at Salerno, under the +protection of Robert Guiscard the Norman.</p> + +<p>I ask pardon of modern Rome, but when I read the history of the Scipios, +the Catos, the Pompeys, and the Cæsars, I find a difficulty in ranking +with them a factious monk who was made a pope under the name of Gregory +VII.</p> + +<p>But our Gregory has obtained even a yet finer title; he has been made a +saint, at least at Rome. It was the famous cardinal Coscia who effected +this canonization under Pope Benedict XIII. Even an office or service of +St. Gregory VII. was printed, in which it was said, that that saint +"absolved the faithful from the allegiance which they had sworn to their +emperor."</p> + +<p>Many parliaments of the kingdom were desirous of having this legend +burned by the executioner: but Bentivoglio, the nuncio—who kept one of +the actresses at the opera, of the name of Constitution, as his +mistress, and had by her a daughter called la Legende; a man otherwise +extremely amiable, and a most interesting companion—procured from the +ministry a mitigation of the threatened storm; and, after passing +sentence of condemnation on the legend of St. Gregory, the hostile party +were contented to suppress it and to laugh at it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + + +<p class="caption"><a name="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS" id="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS"></a>TABLE OF CONTENTS</p> +<p class="small"> +<br /> +<a href="#LIST_OF_PLATES_VOL_V"><b>LIST OF PLATES—VOL. V</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FANATICISM"><b>FANATICISM.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FANCY"><b>FANCY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FASTI"><b>FASTI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FATHERS_MOTHERSmdashCHILDREN"><b>FATHERS—MOTHERS—CHILDREN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FAVOR"><b>FAVOR.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FAVORITE"><b>FAVORITE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FEASTS"><b>FEASTS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FERRARA"><b>FERRARA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FEVER"><b>FEVER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FICTION"><b>FICTION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FIERTE"><b>FIERTÉ.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FIGURE"><b>FIGURE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FIGURED_FIGURATIVE"><b>FIGURED—FIGURATIVE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FIGURE_IN_THEOLOGY"><b>FIGURE IN THEOLOGY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FINAL_CAUSES"><b>FINAL CAUSES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FINESSE_FINENESS_ETC"><b>FINESSE, FINENESS, ETC.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FIRE"><b>FIRE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FIRMNESS"><b>FIRMNESS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FLATTERY"><b>FLATTERY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FORCE_PHYSICAL"><b>FORCE (PHYSICAL).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FORCE_STRENGTH"><b>FORCE—STRENGTH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FRANCHISE"><b>FRANCHISE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FRANCIS_XAVIER"><b>FRANCIS XAVIER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FRANKS_FRANCEmdashFRENCH"><b>FRANKS—FRANCE—FRENCH</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FRAUD"><b>FRAUD.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FREE-WILL"><b>FREE-WILL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FRENCH_LANGUAGE"><b>FRENCH LANGUAGE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FRIENDSHIP"><b>FRIENDSHIP.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FRIVOLITY"><b>FRIVOLITY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GALLANT"><b>GALLANT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GARGANTUA"><b>GARGANTUA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GAZETTE"><b>GAZETTE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GENEALOGY"><b>GENEALOGY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GENESIS"><b>GENESIS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GENII"><b>GENII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GENIUS"><b>GENIUS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GEOGRAPHY"><b>GEOGRAPHY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GLORY_GLORIOUS"><b>GLORY—GLORIOUS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GOAT_SORCERY"><b>GOAT—SORCERY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GOD_GODS"><b>GOD—GODS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GOOD_THE_SOVEREIGN_GOOD_A_CHIMERA"><b>GOOD—THE SOVEREIGN GOOD, A CHIMERA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GOOD"><b>GOOD.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GOSPEL"><b>GOSPEL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GOVERNMENT"><b>GOVERNMENT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GOURD_OR_CALABASH"><b>GOURD OR CALABASH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GRACE"><b>GRACE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GRACE_OF"><b>GRACE (OF).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GRAVE_GRAVITY"><b>GRAVE—GRAVITY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GREAT_GREATNESS"><b>GREAT—GREATNESS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GREEK"><b>GREEK.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GUARANTEE"><b>GUARANTEE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GREGORY_VII"><b>GREGORY VII.</b></a><br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35625 ***</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/35625-h/images/img_01_sans_souci.jpg b/35625-h/images/img_01_sans_souci.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5929107 --- /dev/null +++ b/35625-h/images/img_01_sans_souci.jpg diff --git a/35625-h/images/img_02_landstorm.jpg b/35625-h/images/img_02_landstorm.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..19d9742 --- /dev/null +++ b/35625-h/images/img_02_landstorm.jpg diff --git a/35625-h/images/img_04_descartes.jpg b/35625-h/images/img_04_descartes.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8066c90 --- /dev/null +++ b/35625-h/images/img_04_descartes.jpg |
