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diff --git a/old/35626-8.txt b/old/35626-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..555c062 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/35626-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8734 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 6 (of 10), by +François-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 6 (of 10) + From "The Works of Voltaire - A Contemporary Version" + +Author: François-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire) + +Commentator: John Morley + Tobias Smollett + H.G. Leigh + +Translator: William F. Fleming + +Release Date: March 28, 2011 [EBook #35626] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY *** + + + + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & Marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + +A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY + +VOLUME VI + +By + +VOLTAIRE + + + + +EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION + +THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE + +A CONTEMPORARY VERSION + + + With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized + New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an + Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh + + +A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY + +BY + +THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY + +FORTY-THREE VOLUMES + + + One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions + of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures, + and curious fac-similes + + +VOLUME X + + +E.R. DuMONT + +PARIS--LONDON--NEW YORK--CHICAGO + +1901 + + + + +_The WORKS of VOLTAIRE_ + + _"Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundred + years apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say it + with a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. + Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the + sweetness of the present civilization."_ + + _VICTOR HUGO._ + + + + +LIST OF PLATES--VOL. VI + + VOLTAIRE'S HOME IN GENEVA _Frontispiece_ + THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS + THE DUKE OF SULLY + THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL + + +[Illustration: GENEVA--VOLTAIRE'S HOME IN THE SUBURBS.] + + + * * * * * + + +VOLTAIRE + +A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +VOL. VI + +HAPPY--JOB + + + * * * * * + + +HAPPY--HAPPILY. + + +What is called happiness is an abstract idea, composed of various ideas +of pleasure; for he who has but a moment of pleasure is not a happy man, +in like manner that a moment of grief constitutes not a miserable one. +Pleasure is more transient than happiness, and happiness than felicity. +When a person says--I am happy at this moment, he abuses the word, and +only means I am pleased. When pleasure is continuous, he may then call +himself happy. When this happiness lasts a little longer, it is a state +of felicity. We are sometimes very far from being happy in prosperity, +just as a surfeited invalid eats nothing of a great feast prepared for +him. + +The ancient adage, "No person should be called happy before his death," +seems to turn on very false principles, if we mean by this maxim that we +should not give the name of happy to a man who had been so constantly +from his birth to his last hour. This continuity of agreeable moments is +rendered impossible by the constitution of our organs, by that of the +elements on which we depend, and by that of mankind, on whom we depend +still more. Constant happiness is the philosopher's stone of the soul; +it is a great deal for us not to be a long time unhappy. A person whom +we might suppose to have always enjoyed a happy life, who perishes +miserably, would certainly merit the appellation of happy until his +death, and we might boldly pronounce that he had been the happiest of +men. Socrates might have been the happiest of the Greeks, although +superstitious, absurd, or iniquitous judges, or all together, +juridically poisoned him at the age of seventy years, on the suspicion +that he believed in only one God. + +The philosophical maxim so much agitated, "_Nemo ante obitum felix_," +therefore, appears absolutely false in every sense; and if it signifies +that a happy man may die an unhappy death, it signifies nothing of +consequence. + +The proverb of being "Happy as a king" is still more false. Everybody +knows how the vulgar deceive themselves. + +It is asked, if one condition is happier than another; if man in general +is happier than woman. It would be necessary to have tried all +conditions, to have been man and woman like Tiresias and Iphis, to +decide this question; still more would it be necessary to have lived in +all conditions, with a mind equally proper to each; and we must have +passed through all the possible states of man and woman to judge of it. + +It is further queried, if of two men one is happier than the other. It +is very clear that he who has the gout and stone, who loses his fortune, +his honor, his wife and children, and who is condemned to be hanged +immediately after having been mangled, is less happy in this world in +everything than a young, vigorous sultan, or La Fontaine's cobbler. + +But we wish to know which is the happier of two men equally healthy, +equally rich, and of an equal condition. It is clear that it is their +temper which decides it. The most moderate, the least anxious, and at +the same time the most sensible, is the most happy; but unfortunately +the most sensible is often the least moderate. It is not our condition, +it is the temper of our souls which renders us happy. This disposition +of our souls depends on our organs, and our organs have been arranged +without our having the least part in the arrangement. + +It belongs to the reader to make his reflections on the above. There are +many articles on which he can say more than we ought to tell him. In +matters of art, it is necessary to instruct him; in affairs of morals, +he should be left to think for himself. + +There are dogs whom we caress, comb, and feed with biscuits, and whom we +give to pretty females: there are others which are covered with the +mange, which die of hunger; others which we chase and beat, and which a +young surgeon slowly dissects, after having driven four great nails into +their paws. Has it depended upon these poor dogs to be happy or unhappy? + +We say a happy thought, a happy feature, a happy repartee, a happy +physiognomy, happy climate, etc. These thoughts, these happy traits, +which strike like sudden inspirations, and which are called the happy +sallies of a man of wit, strike like flashes of light across our eyes, +without our seeking it. They are no more in our power than a happy +physiognomy; that is to say, a sweet and noble aspect, so independent of +us, and so often deceitful. The happy climate is that which nature +favors: so are happy imaginations, so is happy genius, or great talent. +And who can give himself genius? or who, when he has received some ray +of this flame, can preserve it always brilliant? + +When we speak of a happy rascal, by this word we only comprehend his +success. "Felix Sulla"--the fortunate Sulla, and Alexander VI., a duke +of Borgia, have happily pillaged, betrayed, poisoned, ravaged, and +assassinated. But being villains, it is very likely that they were very +unhappy, even when not in fear of persons resembling themselves. + +It may happen to an ill-disposed person, badly educated--a Turk, for +example, of whom it ought to be said, that he is permitted to doubt the +Christian faith--to put a silken cord round the necks of his viziers, +when they are rich; to strangle, massacre, or throw his brothers into +the Black Sea, and to ravage a hundred leagues of country for his glory. +It may happen, I say, that this man has no more remorse than his mufti, +and is very happy--on all which the reader may duly ponder. + +There were formerly happy planets, and others unhappy, or unfortunate; +unhappily, they no longer exist. Some people would have deprived the +public of this useful Dictionary--happily, they have not succeeded. + +Ungenerous minds, and absurd fanatics, every day endeavor to prejudice +the powerful and the ignorant against philosophers. If they were +unhappily listened to, we should fall back into the barbarity from which +philosophers alone have withdrawn us. + + + + +HEAVEN (CIEL MATÉRIEL). + + +The laws of optics, which are founded upon the nature of things, have +ordained that, from this small globe of earth on which we live, we shall +always see the material heaven as if we were the centre of it, although +we are far from being that centre; that we shall always see it as a +vaulted roof, hanging over a plane, although there is no other vaulted +roof than that of our atmosphere, which has no such plane; that our sun +and moon will always appear one-third larger at the horizon than at +their zenith, although they are nearer the spectator at the zenith than +at the horizon. + +Such are the laws of optics, such is the structure of your eyes, that, +in the first place, the material heaven, the clouds, the moon, the sun, +which is at so vast a distance from you; the planets, which in their +apogee are still at a greater distance from it; all the stars placed at +distances yet vastly greater, comets and meteors, everything, must +appear to us in that vaulted roof as consisting of our atmosphere. + +The sun appears to us, when in its zenith, smaller than when at fifteen +degrees below; at thirty degrees below the zenith it will appear still +larger than at fifteen; and finally, at the horizon, its size will seem +larger yet; so that its dimensions in the lower heaven decrease in +consequence of its elevations, in the following proportions: + + At the horizon 100 + At fifteen degrees above 68 + At thirty degrees 50 + At forty-five degrees 40 + +Its apparent magnitudes in the vaulted roof are as its apparent +elevations; and it is the same with the moon, and with a comet. + +It is not habit, it is not the intervention of tracts of land, it is not +the refraction of the atmosphere which produces this effect. Malebranche +and Régis have disputed with each other on this subject; but Robert +Smith has calculated. + +Observe the two stars, which, being at a prodigious distance from each +other, and at very different depths, in the immensity of space, are here +considered as placed in the circle which the sun appears to traverse. +You perceive them distant from each other in the great circle, but +approximating to each other in every circle smaller, or within that +described by the path of the sun. + +It is in this manner that you see the material heaven. It is by these +invariable laws of optics that you perceive the planets sometimes +retrograde and sometimes stationary; there is in fact nothing of the +kind. Were you stationed in the sun, we should perceive all the planets +and comets moving regularly round it in those elliptical orbits which +God assigns. But we are upon the planet of the earth, in a corner of the +universe, where it is impossible for us to enjoy the sight of +everything. + +Let us not then blame the errors of our senses, like Malebranche; the +steady laws of nature originating in the immutable will of the Almighty, +and adapted to the structure of our organs, cannot be errors. + +We can see only the appearances of things, and not things themselves. We +are no more deceived when the sun, the work of the divinity--that star a +million times larger than our earth--appears to us quite flat and two +feet in width, than when, in a convex mirror, which is the work of our +own hands, we see a man only a few inches high. + +If the Chaldæan magi were the first who employed the understanding which +God bestowed upon them, to measure and arrange in their respective +stations the heavenly bodies, other nations more gross and unintelligent +made no advance towards imitating them. + +These childish and savage populations imagined the earth to be flat, +supported, I know not how, by its own weight in the air; the sun, moon, +and stars to move continually upon a solid vaulted roof called a +firmament; and this roof to sustain waters, and have flood-gates at +regular distances, through which these waters issued to moisten and +fertilize the earth. + +But how did the sun, the moon, and all the stars reappear after their +setting? Of this they know nothing at all. The heaven touched the flat +earth: and there were no means by which the sun, moon, and stars could +turn under the earth, and go to rise in the east after having set in the +west. It is true that these children of ignorance were right by chance +in not entertaining the idea that the sun and fixed stars moved, round +the earth. But they were far from conceiving that the sun was immovable, +and the earth with its satellite revolving round him in space together +with the other planets. Their fables were more distant from the true +system of the world than darkness from light. + +They thought that the sun and stars returned by certain unknown roads +after having refreshed themselves for their course at some spot, not +precisely ascertained, in the Mediterranean Sea. This was the amount of +astronomy, even in the time of Homer, who is comparatively recent; for +the Chaldæans kept their science to themselves, in order to obtain +thereby, greater respect from other nations. Homer says, more than once, +that the sun plunges into the ocean--and this ocean, be it observed, is +nothing but the Nile--here, by the freshness of the waters, he repairs +during the night the fatigue and exhaustion of the day, after which, he +goes to the place of his regular rising by ways unknown to mortals. This +idea is very like that of Baron Foeneste, who says, that the cause of +our not seeing the sun when he goes back, is that he goes back by night. + +As, at that time, the nations of Syria and the Greeks were somewhat +acquainted with Asia and a small part of Europe, and had no notion of +the countries which lie to the north of the Euxine Sea and to the south +of the Nile, they laid it down as a certainty that the earth was a full +third longer than it was wide; consequently the heaven, which touched +the earth and embraced it, was also longer than it was wide. Hence came +down to us degrees of longitude and latitude, names which we have always +retained, although with far more correct ideas than those which +originally suggested them. + +The Book of Job, composed by an ancient Arab who possessed some +knowledge of astronomy, since he speaks of the constellations, contains +nevertheless the following passage: "Where wert thou, when I laid the +foundation of the earth? Who hath taken the dimensions thereof? On what +are its foundations fixed? Who hath laid the cornerstone thereof?" + +The least informed schoolboy, at the present day, would tell him, in +answer: "The earth has neither cornerstone nor foundation; and, as to +its dimensions, we know them perfectly well, as from Magellan to +Bougainville, various navigators have sailed round it." + +The same schoolboy would put to silence the pompous declaimer +Lactantius, and all those who before and since his time have decided +that the earth was fixed upon the water, and that there can be no heaven +under the earth; and that, consequently, it is both ridiculous and +impious to suppose the existence of antipodes. + +It is curious to observe with what disdain, with what contemptuous pity, +Lactantius looks down upon all the philosophers, who, from about four +hundred years before his time, had begun to be acquainted with the +apparent revolutions of the sun and planets, with the roundness of the +earth, and the liquid and yielding nature of the heaven through which +the planets revolved in their orbits, etc. He inquires, "by what degrees +philosophers attained such excess of folly as to conceive the earth to +be a globe, and to surround that globe with heaven." These reasonings +are upon a par with those he has adduced on the subject of the sibyls. + +Our young scholar would address some such language as this to all these +consequential doctors: "You are to learn that there are no such things +as solid heavens placed one over another, as you have been told; that +there are no real circles in which the stars move on a pretended +firmament; that the sun is the centre of our planetary world; and that +the earth and the planets move round it in space, in orbits not circular +but elliptical. You must learn that there is, in fact, neither above nor +below, but that the planets and the comets tend all towards the sun, +their common centre, and that the sun tends towards them, according to +an eternal law of gravitation." + +Lactantius and his gabbling associates would be perfectly astonished, +were the true system of the world thus unfolded to them. + + + + +HEAVEN OF THE ANCIENTS. + + +Were a silkworm to denominate the small quantity of downy substance +surrounding its ball, heaven, it would reason just as correctly as all +the ancients, when they applied that term to the atmosphere; which, as +M. de Fontenelle has well observed in his "Plurality of Worlds," is the +down of our ball. + +The vapors which rise from our seas and land, and which form the clouds, +meteors, and thunder, were supposed, in the early ages of the world, to +be the residence of gods. Homer always makes the gods descend in clouds +of gold; and hence painters still represent them seated on a cloud. How +can any one be seated on water? It was perfectly correct to place the +master of the gods more at ease than the rest; he had an eagle to carry +him, because the eagle soars higher than the other birds. + +The ancient Greeks, observing that the lords of cities resided in +citadels on the tops of mountains, supposed that the gods might also +have their citadel, and placed it in Thessaly, on Mount Olympus, whose +summit is sometimes hidden in clouds; so that their palace was on the +same floor with their heaven. + +Afterwards, the stars and planets, which appear fixed to the blue vault +of our atmosphere, became the abodes of gods; seven of them had each a +planet, and the rest found a lodging where they could. The general +council of gods was held in a spacious hall which lay beyond the Milky +Way; for it was but reasonable that the gods should have a hall in the +air, as men had town-halls and courts of assembly upon earth. + +When the Titans, a species of animal between gods and men, declared +their just and necessary war against these same gods in order to recover +a part of their patrimony, by the father's side, as they were the sons +of heaven and earth; they contented themselves with piling two or three +mountains upon one another, thinking that would be quite enough to make +them masters of heaven, and of the castle of Olympus. + + _Neve foret terris securior arduus æther,_ + _Affectasse ferunt regnum celeste gigantes;_ + _Attaque congestos struxisse ad sidera montes._ + --OVID'S _Metamorph_., i. 151-153. + + Nor heaven itself was more secure than earth; + Against the gods the Titans levied wars, + And piled up mountains till they reached the stars. + +It is, however, more than six hundred leagues from these stars to Mount +Olympus, and from some stars infinitely farther. + +Virgil (Eclogue v, 57) does not hesitate to say: "_Sub pedibusque videt +nubes et sidera Daphnis._" + + Daphnis, the guest of heaven, with wondering eyes, + Views in the Milky Way, the Starry skies, + And far beneath him, from the shining sphere + Beholds the morning clouds, and rolling year. + --DRYDEN. + +But where then could Daphnis possibly place himself? + +At the opera, and in more serious productions, the gods are introduced +descending in the midst of tempests, clouds, and thunder; that is, God +is brought forward in the midst of the vapors of our petty globe. These +notions are so suitable to our weak minds, that they appear to us grand +and sublime. + +This philosophy of children and old women was of prodigious antiquity; +it is believed, however, that the Chaldæans entertained nearly as +correct ideas as ourselves on the subject of what is called heaven. They +placed the sun in the midst of our planetary system, nearly at the same +distance from our globe as our calculation computes it; and they +supposed the earth and some planets to revolve round that star; this we +learn from Aristarchus of Samos. It is nearly the system of the world +since established by Copernicus: but the philosophers kept the secret to +themselves, in order to obtain greater respect both from kings and +people, or rather perhaps, to avoid the danger of persecution. + +The language of error is so familiar to mankind that we still apply the +name of heaven to our vapors, and the space between the earth and moon. +We use the expression of ascending to heaven, just as we say the sun +turns round, although we well know that it does not. We are, probably, +the heaven of the inhabitants of the moon; and every planet places its +heaven in that planet nearest to itself. + +Had Homer been asked, to what heaven the soul of Sarpedon had fled, or +where that of Hercules resided, Homer would have been a good deal +embarrassed, and would have answered by some harmonious verses. + +What assurance could there be, that the ethereal soul of Hercules would +be more at its ease in the planet Venus or in Saturn, than upon our own +globe? Could its mansion be in the sun? In that flaming and consuming +furnace, it would appear difficult for it to endure its station. In +short, what was it that the ancients meant by heaven? They knew nothing +about it; they were always exclaiming, "Heaven and earth," thus placing +completely different things in most absurd connection. It would be just +as judicious to exclaim, and connect in the same manner, infinity and an +atom. Properly speaking, there is no heaven. There are a prodigious +number of globes revolving in the immensity of space, and our globe +revolves like the rest. + +The ancients thought that to go to heaven was to ascend; but there is no +ascent from one globe to another. The heavenly bodies are sometimes +above our horizon, and sometimes below it. Thus, let us suppose that +Venus, after visiting Paphos, should return to her own planet, when that +planet had set; the goddess would not in that case ascend, in reference +to our horizon; she would descend, and the proper expression would be +then, descended to heaven. But the ancients did not discriminate with +such nicety; on every subject of natural philosophy, their notions were +vague, uncertain and contradictory. Volumes have been composed in order +to ascertain and point out what they thought upon many questions of this +description. Six words would have been sufficient--"they did not think +at all." We must always except a small number of sages; but they +appeared at too late a period, and but rarely disclosed their thoughts; +and when they did so, the charlatans in power took care to send them to +heaven by the shortest way. + +A writer, if I am not mistaken, of the name of Pluche, has been recently +exhibiting Moses as a great natural philosopher; another had previously +harmonized Moses with Descartes, and published a book, which he called, +"_Carlesius Mosaisans_"; according to him, Moses was the real inventor +of "Vortices," and the subtile matter; but we full well know, that when +God made Moses a great legislator and prophet, it was no part of His +scheme to make him also a professor of physics. Moses instructed the +Jews in their duty, and did not teach them a single word of philosophy. +Calmet, who compiled a great deal, but never reasoned at all, talks of +the system of the Hebrews; but that stupid people never had any system. +They had not even a school of geometry; the very name was utterly +unknown to them. The whole of their science was comprised in +money-changing and usury. + +We find in their books ideas on the structure of heaven, confused, +incoherent, and in every respect worthy of a people immersed in +barbarism. Their first heaven was the air, the second the firmament in +which the stars were fixed. This firmament was solid and made of glass, +and supported the superior waters which issued from the vast reservoirs +by flood-gates, sluices, and cataracts, at the time of the deluge. + +Above the firmament or these superior waters was the third heaven, or +the empyream, to which St. Paul was caught up. The firmament was a sort +of demi-vault which came close down to the earth. + +It is clear that, according to this opinion, there could be no +antipodes. Accordingly, St. Augustine treats the idea of antipodes as an +absurdity; and Lactantius, whom we have already quoted, expressly says +"can there possibly be any persons so simple as to believe that there +are men whose heads are lower than their feet?" etc. + +St. Chrysostom exclaims, in his fourteenth homily, "Where are they who +pretend that the heavens are movable, and that their form is circular?" + +Lactantius, once more, says, in the third book of his "Institutions," "I +could prove to you by many arguments that it is impossible heaven should +surround the earth." + +The author of the "Spectacle of Nature" may repeat to M. le Chevalier as +often as he pleases, that Lactantius and St. Chrysostom are great +philosophers. He will be told in reply that they were great saints; and +that to be a great saint, it is not at all necessary to be a great +astronomer. It will be believed that they are in heaven, although it +will be admitted to be impossible to say precisely in what part of it. + + + + +HELL. + + +Infernum, subterranean; the regions below, or the infernal regions. +Nations which buried the dead placed them in the inferior or infernal +regions. Their soul, then, was with them in those regions. Such were the +first physics and the first metaphysics of the Egyptians and Greeks. + +The Indians, who were far more ancient, who had invented the ingenious +doctrine of the metempsychosis, never believed that souls existed in the +infernal regions. + +The Japanese, Coreans, Chinese, and the inhabitants of the vast +territory of eastern and western Tartary never knew a word of the +philosophy of the infernal regions. + +The Greeks, in the course of time, constituted an immense kingdom of +these infernal regions, which they liberally conferred on Pluto and his +wife Proserpine. They assigned them three privy counsellors, three +housekeepers called Furies, and three Fates to spin, wind, and cut the +thread of human life. And, as in ancient times, every hero had his dog +to guard his gate, so was Pluto attended and guarded by an immense dog +with three heads; for everything, it seems, was to be done by threes. Of +the three privy counsellors, Minos, Æacus, and Rhadamanthus, one judged +Greece, another Asia Minor--for the Greeks were then unacquainted with +the Greater Asia--and the third was for Europe. + +The poets, having invented these infernal regions, or hell, were the +first to laugh at them. Sometimes Virgil mentions hell in the "Æneid" in +a style of seriousness, because that style was then suitable to his +subject. Sometimes he speaks of it with contempt in his "Georgics" (ii. +490, etc.). + + _Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas_ + _Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum_ + _Subjecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari!_ + + Happy the man whose vigorous soul can pierce + Through the formation of this universe, + Who nobly dares despise, with soul sedate, + The den of Acheron, and vulgar fears and fate. + --WHARTON. + +The following lines from the "Troad" (chorus of act ii.), in which +Pluto, Cerberus, Phlegethon, Styx, etc., are treated like dreams and +childish tales, were repeated in the theatre of Rome, and applauded by +forty thousand hands: + + _.... Toenara et aspero_ + _Regnum sub domino, limen et obsidens_ + _Custos non facili Cerberus ostio_ + _Rumores vacui, verbaque inania,_ + _Et par solicito fabula somnio._ + +Lucretius and Horace express themselves equally strongly. Cicero and +Seneca used similar language in innumerable parts of their writings. The +great emperor Marcus Aurelius reasons still more philosophically than +those I have mentioned. "He who fears death, fears either to be deprived +of all senses, or to experience other sensations. But, if you no longer +retain your own senses, you will be no longer subject to any pain or +grief. If you have senses of a different nature, you will be a totally +different being." + +To this reasoning, profane philosophy had nothing to reply. Yet, +agreeably to that contradiction or perverseness which distinguishes the +human species, and seems to constitute the very foundation of our +nature, at the very time when Cicero publicly declared that "not even an +old woman was to be found who believed in such absurdities," Lucretius +admitted that these ideas were powerfully impressive upon men's minds; +his object, he says, is to destroy them: + + _.... Si certum finem esse viderent_ + _Ærumnarum homines, aliqua ratione valerent_ + _Religionibus atque minis obsistere vatum._ + _Nunc ratio nulla est restandi, nulla facultas;_ + _Æternas quoniam poenas in morte timendum._ + --LUCRETIUS, i. 108. + + .... If it once appear + That after death there's neither hope nor fear; + Then might men freely triumph, then disdain + The poet's tales, and scorn their fancied pain; + But now we must submit, since pains we fear + Eternal after death, we know not where. + --CREECH. + +It was therefore true, that among the lowest classes of the people, some +laughed at hell, and others trembled at it. Some regarded Cerberus, the +Furies, and Pluto as ridiculous fables, others perpetually presented +offerings to the infernal gods. It was with them just as it is now among +ourselves: + + _Et quocumque tamen miseri venere, parentant,_ + _Et nigros mactant pecudes, et Manibus divis_ + _Inferias mittunt multoque in rebus acerbis_ + _Acrius admittunt animos ad religionem._ + --LUCRETIUS, iii. 51. + + Nay, more than that, where'er the wretches come + They sacrifice black sheep on every tomb, + To please the manes; and of all the rout, + When cares and dangers press, grow most devout. + --CREECH. + +Many philosophers who had no belief in the fables about hell, were yet +desirous that the people should retain that belief. Such was Zimens of +Locris. Such was the political historian Polybius. "Hell," says he, "is +useless to sages, but necessary to the blind and brutal populace." + +It is well known that the law of the Pentateuch never announces a hell. +All mankind was involved in this chaos of contradiction and uncertainty, +when Jesus Christ came into the world. He confirmed the ancient doctrine +of hell, not the doctrine of the heathen poets, not that of the Egyptian +priests, but that which Christianity adopted, and to which everything +must yield. He announced a kingdom that was about to come, and a hell +that should have no end. + +He said, in express words, at Capernaum in Galilee, "Whosoever shall +call his brother '_Raca_,' shall be condemned by the sanhedrim; but +whosoever shall call him 'fool,' shall be condemned to _Gehenna Hinnom_, +Gehenna of fire." + +This proves two things, first, that Jesus Christ was adverse to abuse +and reviling; for it belonged only to Him, as master, to call the +Pharisees hypocrites, and a "generation of vipers." + +Secondly, that those who revile their neighbor deserve hell; for the +Gehenna of fire was in the valley of Hinnom, where victims had formerly +been burned in sacrifice to Moloch, and this Gehenna was typical of the +fire of hell. + +He says, in another place, "If any one shall offend one of the weak who +believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about +his neck and he were cast into the sea. + +"And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter +into life maimed, than to go into the Gehenna of inextinguishable fire, +where the worm dies not, and where the fire is not quenched. + +"And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter +lame into eternal life, than to be cast with two feet into the +inextinguishable Gehenna, where the worm dies not; and where the fire is +not quenched. + +"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; it is better to enter into +the kingdom of God with one eye, than to be cast with both eyes into the +Gehenna of fire, where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. + +"For everyone shall be burned with fire, and every victim shall be +salted with salt. + +"Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its savor, with what will you +salt? + +"You have salt in yourselves, preserve peace one with another." + +He said on another occasion, on His journey to Jerusalem, "When the +master of the house shall have entered and shut the door, you will +remain without, and knock, saying, 'Lord, open unto us;' and he will +answer and say unto you, '_Nescio vos_,' I know you not; whence are you? +And then ye shall begin to say, we have eaten and drunk with thee, and +thou hast taught in our public places; and he will reply, '_Nescio +vos_,' whence are you, workers of iniquity? And there shall be weeping +and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see there Abraham, Isaac, and +Jacob, and the prophets, and yourselves cast out." + +Notwithstanding the other positive declarations made by the Saviour of +mankind, which assert the eternal damnation of all who do not belong to +our church, Origen and some others were not believers in the eternity of +punishments. + +The Socinians reject such punishments; but they are without the pale. +The Lutherans and Calvinists, although they have strayed beyond the +pale, yet admit the doctrine of a hell without end. + +When men came to live in society, they must have perceived that a great +number of criminals eluded the severity of the laws; the laws punished +public crimes; it was necessary to establish a check upon secret crimes; +this check was to be found only in religion. The Persians, Chaldæans, +Egyptians, and Greeks, entertained the idea of punishments after the +present life, and of all the nations of antiquity that we are acquainted +with, the Jews, as we have already remarked, were the only one who +admitted solely temporal punishments. It is ridiculous to believe, or +pretend to believe, from some excessively obscure passages, that hell +was recognized by the ancient laws of the Jews, by their Leviticus, or +by their Decalogue, when the author of those laws says not a single word +which can bear the slightest relation to the chastisements of a future +life. We might have some right to address the compiler of the Pentateuch +in such language as the following: "You are a man of no consistency, as +destitute of probity as understanding, and totally unworthy of the name +which you arrogate to yourself of legislator. What! you are perfectly +acquainted, it seems, with that doctrine so eminently repressive of +human vice, so necessary to the virtue and happiness of mankind--the +doctrine of hell; and yet you do not explicitly announce it; and, while +it is admitted by all the nations which surround you, you are content to +leave it for some commentators, after four thousand years have passed +away, to suspect that this doctrine might possibly have been entertained +by you, and to twist and torture your expressions, in order to find that +in them which you have never said. Either you are grossly ignorant not +to know that this belief was universal in Egypt, Chaldæa, and Persia; or +you have committed the most disgraceful error in judgment, in not having +made it the foundation-stone of your religion." + +The authors of the Jewish laws could at most only answer: "We confess +that we are excessively ignorant; that we did not learn the art of +writing until a late period; that our people were a wild and barbarous +horde, that wandered, as our own records admit, for nearly half a +century in impracticable deserts, and at length obtained possession of a +petty territory by the most odious rapine and detestable cruelty ever +mentioned in the records of history. We had no commerce with civilized +nations, and how could you suppose that, so grossly mean and grovelling +as we are in all our ideas and usages, we should have invented a system +so refined and spiritual as that in question?" + +We employed the word which most nearly corresponds with soul, merely to +signify life; we know our God and His ministers, His angels, only as +corporeal beings; the distinction of soul and body, the idea of a life +beyond death, can be the fruit only of long meditation and refined +philosophy. Ask the Hottentots and negroes, who inhabit a country a +hundred times larger than ours, whether they know anything of a life to +come? We thought we had done enough in persuading the people under our +influence that God punished offenders to the fourth generation, either +by leprosy, by sudden death, or by the loss of the little property of +which the criminal might be possessed. + +To this apology it might be replied: "You have invented a system, the +ridicule and absurdity of which are as clear as the sun at noon-day; for +the offender who enjoyed good health, and whose family were in +prosperous circumstances, must absolutely have laughed you to scorn." + +The apologist for the Jewish law would here rejoin: "You are much +mistaken; since for one criminal who reasoned correctly, there were a +hundred who never reasoned at all. The man who, after he had committed a +crime, found no punishment of it attached to himself or his son, would +yet tremble for his grandson. Besides, if after the time of committing +his offence he was not speedily seized with some festering sore, such as +our nation was extremely subject to, he would experience it in the +course of years. Calamities are always occurring in a family, and we, +without difficulty, instilled the belief that these calamities were +inflicted by the hand of God taking vengeance for secret offences." + +It would be easy to reply to this answer by saying: "Your apology is +worth nothing; for it happens every day that very worthy and excellent +persons lose their health and their property; and, if there were no +family that did not experience calamity, and that calamity at the same +time was a chastisement from God, all the families of your community +must have been made up of scoundrels." + +The Jewish priest might again answer and say that there are some +calamities inseparable from human nature, and others expressly inflicted +by the hand of God. But, in return, we should point out to such a +reasoner the absurdity of considering fever and hail-stones in some +cases as divine punishments; in others as mere natural effects. + +In short, the Pharisees and the Essenians among the Jews did admit, +according to certain notions of their own, the belief of a hell. This +dogma had passed from the Greeks to the Romans, and was adopted by the +Christians. + +Many of the fathers of the church rejected the doctrine of eternal +punishments. It appeared to them absurd to burn to all eternity an +unfortunate man for stealing a goat. Virgil has finely said: + + _.... Sedit eternumque sedebit_ + _Infelix Theseus._ + + Unhappy Theseus, doomed forever there, + Is fixed by fate on his eternal chair. + --DRYDEN. + +But it is vain for him to maintain or imply that Theseus is forever +fixed to his chair, and that this position constitutes his punishment. +Others have imagined Theseus to be a hero who could never be seen on any +seat in hell, and who was to be found in the Elysian Fields. + +A Calvinistical divine, of the name of Petit Pierre, not long since +preached and published the doctrine that the damned would at some future +period be pardoned. The rest of the ministers of his association told +him that they wished for no such thing. The dispute grew warm. It was +said that the king, whose subjects they were, wrote to him, that since +they were desirous of being damned without redemption, he could have no +reasonable objection, and freely gave his consent. The damned majority +of the church of Neufchâtel ejected poor Petit Pierre, who had thus +converted hell into a mere purgatory. It is stated that one of them said +to him: "My good friend, I no more believe in the eternity of hell than +yourself; but recollect that it may be no bad thing, perhaps, for your +servant, your tailor, and your lawyer to believe in it." + +I will add, as an illustration of this passage, a short address of +exhortation to those philosophers who in their writings deny a hell; I +will say to them: "Gentlemen, we do not pass our days with Cicero, +Atticus, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, the Chancellor de l'Hôpital, La +Mothe le Vayer, Desyveteaux, René Descartes, Newton, or Locke, nor with +the respectable Bayle, who was superior to the power and frown of +fortune, nor with the too scrupulously virtuous infidel Spinoza, who, +although laboring under poverty and destitution, gave back to the +children of the grand pensionary De Witt an allowance of three hundred +florins, which had been granted him by that great statesman, whose +heart, it may be remembered, the Hollanders actually devoured, although +there was nothing to be gained by it. Every man with whom we intermingle +in life is not a des Barreaux, who paid the pleaders their fees for a +cause which he had forgotten to bring into court. Every woman is not a +Ninon de L'Enclos, who guarded deposits in trust with religious +fidelity, while the gravest personages in the state were violating them. +In a word, gentlemen, all the world are not philosophers. + +"We are obliged to hold intercourse and transact business, and mix up in +life with knaves possessing little or no reflection--with vast numbers +of persons addicted to brutality, intoxication, and rapine. You may, if +you please, preach to them that there is no hell, and that the soul of +man is mortal. As for myself, I will be sure to thunder in their ears +that if they rob me they will inevitably be damned. I will imitate the +country clergyman, who, having had a great number of sheep stolen from +him, at length said to his hearers, in the course of one of his sermons: +'I cannot conceive what Jesus Christ was thinking about when he died for +such a set of scoundrels as you are.'" + +There is an excellent book for fools called "The Christian Pedagogue," +composed by the reverend father d'Outreman, of the Society of Jesus, and +enlarged by Coulon, curé of Ville-Juif-les-Paris. This book has passed, +thank God, through fifty-one editions, although not a single page in it +exhibits a gleam of common sense. + +Friar Outreman asserts--in the hundred and fifty-seventh page of the +second edition in quarto--that one of Queen Elizabeth's ministers, +Baron Hunsdon, predicted to Cecil, secretary of state, and to six other +members of the cabinet council, that they as well as he would be damned; +which, he says, was actually the case, and is the case with all +heretics. It is most likely that Cecil and the other members of the +council gave no credit to the said Baron Hunsdon; but if the fictitious +baron had said the same to six common citizens, they would probably have +believed him. + +Were the time ever to arrive in which no citizen of London believed in a +hell, what course of conduct would be adopted? What restraint upon +wickedness would exist? There would exist the feeling of honor, the +restraint of the laws, that of the Deity Himself, whose will it is that +mankind shall be just, whether there be a hell or not. + + + + +HELL (DESCENT INTO). + + +Our colleague who wrote the article on "Hell" has made no mention of the +descent of Jesus Christ into hell. This is an article of faith of high +importance; it is expressly particularized in the creed of which we have +already spoken. It is asked whence this article of faith is derived; for +it is not to be found in either of our four gospels, and the creed +called the Apostles' Creed is not older than the age of those learned +priests, Jerome, Augustine, and Rufinus. + +It is thought that this descent of our Lord into hell is taken +originally from the gospel of Nicodemus, one of the oldest. + +In that gospel the prince of Tartarus and Satan, after a long +conversation with Adam, Enoch, Elias the Tishbite, and David, hears a +voice like the thunder, and a voice like a tempest. David says to the +prince of Tartarus, "Now, thou foul and miscreant prince of hell, open +thy gates and let the King of Glory enter," etc. While he was thus +addressing the prince, the Lord of Majesty appeared suddenly in the form +of man, and He lighted up the eternal darkness, and broke asunder the +indissoluble bars, and by an invincible virtue He visited those who lay +in the depth of the darkness of guilt, in the shadow of the depth of +sin. + +Jesus Christ appeared with St. Michael; He overcame death; He took Adam +by the hand; and the good thief followed Him, bearing the cross. All +this took place in hell, in the presence of Carinus and Lenthius, who +were resuscitated for the express purpose of giving evidence of the fact +to the priests Ananias and Caiaphas, and to Doctor Gamaliel, at that +time St. Paul's master. + +This gospel of Nicodemus has long been considered as of no authority. +But a confirmation of this descent into hell is found in the First +Epistle of St. Peter, at the close of the third chapter: "Because Christ +died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might offer us +to God; dead indeed in the flesh, but resuscitated in spirit, by which +He went to preach to the spirits that were in prison." + +Many of the fathers interpreted this passage very differently, but all +were agreed as to the fact of the descent of Jesus into hell after His +death. A frivolous difficulty was started upon the subject. He had, +while upon the cross, said to the good thief: "This day shalt thou be +with Me in paradise." By going to hell, therefore, He failed to perform +His promise. This objection is easily answered by saying that He took +him first to hell and afterwards to paradise; but, then, what becomes of +the stay of three days? + +Eusebius of Cæsarea says that Jesus left His body, without waiting for +Death to come and seize it; and that, on the contrary, He seized Death, +who, in terror and agony, embraced His feet, and afterwards attempted to +escape by flight, but was prevented by Jesus, who broke down the gates +of the dungeons which enclosed the souls of the saints, drew them forth +from their confinement, resuscitated them, then resuscitated Himself, +and conducted them in triumph to that heavenly Jerusalem _which +descended from heaven every night_, and was actually seen by the +astonished eyes of St. Justin. + +It was a question much disputed whether all those who were resuscitated +died again before they ascended into heaven. St. Thomas, in his +"Summary," asserts that they died again. This also is the opinion of the +discriminating and judicious Calmet. "We maintain," says he, in his +dissertation on this great question, "that the saints who were +resuscitated, after the death of the Saviour died again, in order to +revive hereafter." + +God had permitted, ages before, that the profane Gentiles should imitate +in anticipation these sacred truths. The ancients imagined that the gods +resuscitated Pelops; that Orpheus extricated Eurydice from hell, at +least for a moment; that Hercules delivered Alcestis from it; that +Æsculapius resuscitated Hippolytus, etc. Let us ever discriminate +between fable and truth, and keep our minds in the same subjection with +respect to whatever surprises and astonishes us, as with respect to +whatever appears perfectly conformable to their circumscribed and narrow +views. + + + + +HERESY. + + +SECTION I. + +A Greek word, signifying "belief, or elected opinion." It is not greatly +to the honor of human reason that men should be hated, persecuted, +massacred, or burned at the stake, on account of their chosen opinions; +but what is exceedingly little to our honor is that this mischievous and +destructive madness has been as peculiar to us as leprosy was to the +Hebrews, or lues formerly to the Caribs. + +We well know, theologically speaking, that heresy having become a crime, +as even the word itself is a reproach; we well know, I say, that the +Latin church, which alone can possess reason, has also possessed the +right of reproving all who were of a different opinion from her own. + +On the other side, the Greek church had the same right; accordingly, it +reproved the Romans when they chose a different opinion from the Greeks +on the procession of the Holy Spirit, the viands which might be taken in +Lent, the authority of the pope, etc. + +But upon what ground did any arrive finally at the conclusion that, when +they were the strongest, they might burn those who entertained chosen +opinions of their own? Those who had such opinions were undoubtedly +criminal in the sight of God, since they were obstinate. They will, +therefore, as no one can possibly doubt, be burned to all eternity in +another world; but why burn them by a slow fire in this? The sufferers +have represented that such conduct is a usurpation of the jurisdiction +of God; that this punishment is very hard and severe, considered as an +infliction by men; and that it is, moreover, of no utility, since one +hour of suffering added to eternity is an absolute cipher. + +The pious inflicters, however, replied to these reproaches that nothing +was more just than to put upon burning coals whoever had a self-formed +opinion; that to burn those whom God Himself would burn, was in fact a +holy conformity to God; and finally, that since, by admission, the +burning for an hour or two was a mere cipher in comparison with +eternity, the burning of five or six provinces for chosen opinions--for +heresies--was a matter in reality of very little consequence. + +In the present day it is asked, "Among what cannibals have these +questions been agitated, and their solutions proved by facts?" We must +admit with sorrow and humiliation that it was asked even among +ourselves, and in the very same cities where nothing is minded but +operas, comedies, balls, fashions, and intrigue. + +Unfortunately, it was a tyrant who introduced the practice of destroying +heretics--not one of those equivocal tyrants who are regarded as saints +by one party, and monsters by another, but one Maximus, competitor of +Theodosius I., a decided tyrant, in the strictest meaning of the term, +over the whole empire. + +He destroyed at Trier, by the hands of the executioner, the Spaniard +Priscillian and his adherents, whose opinions were pronounced erroneous +by some bishops of Spain. These prelates solicited the capital +punishment of the Priscillianists with a charity so ardent that Maximus +could refuse them nothing. It was by no means owing to them that St. +Martin was not beheaded as a heretic. He was fortunate enough to quit +Trier and escape back to Tours. + +A single example is sufficient to establish a usage. The first Scythian +who scooped out the brains of his enemy and made a drinking-cup of his +skull, was allowed all the rank and consequence in Scythia. Thus was +consecrated the practice of employing the executioner to cut off +"opinions." + +No such thing as heresy existed among the religions of antiquity, +because they had reference only to moral conduct and public worship. +When metaphysics became connected with Christianity, controversy +prevailed; and from controversy arose different parties, as in the +schools of philosophy. It was impossible that metaphysics should not +mingle the uncertainties essential to their nature with the faith due to +Jesus Christ. He had Himself written nothing; and His incarnation was a +problem which the new Christians, whom He had not Himself inspired, +solved in many different ways. "Each," as St. Paul expressly observes, +"had his peculiar party; some were for Apollos, others for Cephas." + +Christians in general, for a long time, assumed the name of Nazarenes, +and even the Gentiles gave them no other appellations during the two +first centuries. But there soon arose a particular school of Nazarenes, +who believed a gospel different from the four canonical ones. It has +even been pretended that this gospel differed only very slightly from +that of St. Matthew, and was in fact anterior to it. St. Epiphanius and +St. Jerome place the Nazarenes in the cradle of Christianity. + +Those who considered themselves as knowing more than the rest, took the +denomination of gnostics, "knowers"; and this denomination was for a +long time so honorable that St. Clement of Alexandria, in his +"_Stromata_" always calls the good Christians true gnostics. "Happy are +they who have entered into the gnostic holiness! He who deserves the +name of gnostic resists seducers and gives to every one that asks." The +fifth and sixth books of the "_Stromata_" turn entirely upon the +perfection of gnosticism. + +The Ebionites existed incontestably in the time of the apostles. That +name, which signifies "poor," was intended to express how dear to them +was the poverty in which Jesus was born. + +Cerinthus was equally ancient. The "Apocalypse" of St. John was +attributed to him. It is even thought that St. Paul and he had violent +disputes with each other. + +It seems to our weak understandings very natural to expect from the +first disciples a solemn declaration, a complete and unalterable +profession of faith, which might terminate all past, and preclude any +future quarrels; but God permitted it not so to be. The creed called the +"Apostles' Creed," which is short, and in which are not to be found the +consubstantiality, the word trinity, or the seven sacraments, did not +make its appearance before the time of St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and +the celebrated priest Rufinus. It was by this priest, the enemy of St. +Jerome, that we are told it was compiled. Heresies had had time to +multiply, and more than fifty were enumerated as existing in the fifth +century. + +Without daring to scrutinize the ways of Providence, which are +impenetrable by the human mind, and merely consulting, as far as we are +permitted, our feeble reason, it would seem that of so many opinions on +so many articles, there would always exist one which must prevail, which +was the orthodox, "the right of teaching." The other societies, besides +the really orthodox, soon assumed that title also; but being the weaker +parties, they had given to them the designation of "heretics." + +When, in the progress of time, the Christian church in the East, which +was the mother of that in the West, had irreparably broken with her +daughter, each remained sovereign in her distinct sphere, and each had +her particular heresies, arising out of the dominant opinion. + +The barbarians of the North, having but recently become Christians, +could not entertain the same opinions as Southern countries, because +they could not adopt the same usages. They could not, for example, for a +long time adore images, as they had neither painters nor sculptors. It +also was somewhat dangerous to baptize an infant in winter, in the +Danube, the Weser, or the Elbe. + +It was no easy matter for the inhabitants of the shores of the Baltic to +know precisely the opinions held in the Milanese and the march of +Ancona. The people of the South and of the North of Europe had therefore +chosen opinions different from each other. This seems to me to be the +reason why Claude, bishop of Turin, preserved in the ninth century all +the usages and dogmas received in the seventh and eighth, from the +country of the Allobroges, as far as the Elbe and the Danube. + +These dogmas and usages became fixed and permanent among the inhabitants +of valleys and mountainous recesses, and near the banks of the Rhône, +among a sequestered and almost unknown people, whom the general +desolation left untouched in their seclusion and poverty, until they at +length became known, under the name of the Vaudois in the twelfth, and +that of the Albigenses in the thirteenth century. It is known how their +chosen opinions were treated; what crusades were preached against them; +what carnage was made among them; and that, from that period to the +present day, Europe has not enjoyed a single year of tranquillity and +toleration. + +It is a great evil to be a heretic; but is it a great good to maintain +orthodoxy by soldiers and executioners? Would it not be better that +every man should eat his bread in peace under the shade of his own +fig-tree? I suggest so bold a proposition with fear and trembling. + + +SECTION II. + +_Of the Extirpation of Heresies._ + +It appears to me that, in relation to heresies, we ought to distinguish +between opinion and faction. From the earliest times of Christianity +opinions were divided, as we have already seen. The Christians of +Alexandria did not think, on many points, like those of Antioch. The +Achaians were opposed to the Asiatics. This difference has existed +through all past periods of our religion, and probably will always +continue. Jesus Christ, who might have united all believers in the same +sentiment, has not, in fact, done so; we must, therefore, presume that +He did not desire it, and that it was His design to exercise in all +churches the spirit of indulgence and charity, by permitting the +existence of different systems of faith, while all should be united in +acknowledging Him for their chief and master. All the varying sects, a +long while tolerated by the emperors, or concealed from their +observation, had no power to persecute and proscribe one another, as +they were all equally subject to the Roman magistrates. They possessed +only the power of disputing with each other. When the magistrates +prosecuted them, they all claimed the rights of nature. They said: +"Permit us to worship God in peace; do not deprive us of the liberty you +allow to the Jews." + +All the different sects existing at present may hold the same language +to those who oppress them. They may say to the nations who have granted +privileges to the Jews: Treat us as you treat these sons of Jacob; let +us, like them, worship God according to the dictates of conscience. Our +opinion is not more injurious to your state or realm than Judaism. You +tolerate the enemies of Jesus Christ; tolerate us, therefore, who adore +Jesus Christ, and differ from yourselves only upon subtle points of +theology; do not deprive yourselves of the services of useful subjects. +It is of consequence to you to obtain their labor and skill in your +manufactures, your marine, and your agriculture, and it is of no +consequence at all to you that they hold a few articles of faith +different from your own. What you want is their work, and not their +catechism. + +Faction is a thing perfectly different. It always happens, as a matter +of necessity, that a persecuted sect degenerates into a faction. The +oppressed unite, and console and encourage one another. They have more +industry to strengthen their party than the dominant sect has for their +extermination. To crush them or be crushed by them is the inevitable +alternative. Such was the case after the persecution raised in 303 by +the Cæsar, Galerius, during the last two years of the reign of +Diocletian. The Christians, after having been favored by Diocletian for +the long period of eighteen years, had become too numerous and wealthy +to be extirpated. They joined the party of Constantius Chlorus; they +fought for Constantine his son; and a complete revolution took place in +the empire. + +We may compare small things to great, when both are under the direction +of the same principle or spirit. A similar revolution happened in +Holland, in Scotland, and in Switzerland. When Ferdinand and Isabella +expelled from Spain the Jews,--who were settled there not merely before +the reigning dynasty, but before the Moors and Goths, and even the +Carthaginians--the Jews would have effected a revolution in that country +if they had been as warlike as they were opulent, and if they could have +come to an understanding with the Arabs. + +In a word, no sect has ever changed the government of a country but when +it was furnished with arms by despair. Mahomet himself would not have +succeeded had he not been expelled from Mecca and a price set upon his +head. + +If you are desirous, therefore, to prevent the overflow of a state by +any sect, show it toleration. Imitate the wise conduct exhibited at the +present day by Germany, England, Holland, Denmark, and Russia. There is +no other policy to be adopted with respect to a new sect than to +destroy, without remorse, both leaders and followers, men, women, and +children, without a single exception, or to tolerate them when they are +numerous. The first method is that of a monster, the second that of a +sage. + +Bind to the state all the subjects of that state by their interest; let +the Quaker and the Turk find their advantage in living under your laws. +Religion is between God and man; civil law is between you and your +people. + + +SECTION III. + +It is impossible not to regret the loss of a "History of Heresies," +which Strategius wrote by order of Constantine. Ammianus Marcellinus +informs us that the emperor, wishing to ascertain the opinions of the +different sects, and not finding any other person who could give correct +ideas on the subject, imposed the office of drawing up a report or +narrative upon it on that officer, who acquitted himself so well, that +Constantine was desirous of his being honored in consequence with the +name of Musonianus. M. de Valois, in his notes upon Ammianus, observes +that Strategius, who was appointed prefect of the East, possessed as +much knowledge and eloquence, as moderation and mildness; such, at +least, is the eulogium passed upon him by Libanius. + +The choice of a layman by the emperor shows that an ecclesiastic at that +time had not the qualities indispensable for a task so delicate. In +fact, St. Augustine remarks that a bishop of Bresse, called Philastrius, +whose work is to be found in the collection of the fathers, having +collected all the heresies, even including those which existed among the +Jews before the coming of Jesus Christ, reckons twenty-eight of the +latter and one hundred and twenty-eight from the coming of Christ; while +St. Epiphanius, comprising both together, makes the whole number but +eighty. The reason assigned by St. Augustine for this difference is, +that what appears heresy to the one, does not appear so to the other. +Accordingly this father tells the Manichæans: "We take the greatest care +not to treat you with rigor; such conduct we leave to those who know not +what pains are necessary for the discovery of truth, and how difficult +it is to avoid falling into errors; we leave it to those who know not +with what sighs and groans even a very slight knowledge of the divine +nature is alone to be acquired. For my own part, I consider it my duty +to bear with you as I was borne with formerly myself, and to show you +the same tolerance which I experienced when I was in error." + +If, however, any one considers the infamous imputations, which we have +noticed under the article on "Genealogy," and the abominations of which +this professedly indulgent and candid father accused the Manichæans in +the celebration of their mysteries--as we shall see under the article on +"Zeal"--we shall be convinced that toleration was never the virtue of +the clergy. We have already seen, under the article on "Council," what +seditions were excited by the ecclesiastics in relation to Arianism. +Eusebius informs us that in some places the statues of Constantine were +thrown down because he wished the Arians to be tolerated; and Sozomen +says that on the death of Eusebius of Nicomedia, when Macedonius, an +Arian, contested the see of Constantinople with Paul, a Catholic, the +disturbance and confusion became so dreadful in the church, from which +each endeavored to expel the other, that the soldiers, thinking the +people in a state of insurrection, actually charged upon them; a fierce +and sanguinary conflict ensued, and more than three thousand persons +were slain or suffocated. Macedonius ascended the episcopal throne, took +speedy possession of all the churches, and persecuted with great cruelty +the Novatians and Catholics. It was in revenge against the latter of +these that he denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, just as he +recognized the divinity of the Word, which was denied by the Arians out +of mere defiance to their protector Constantius, who had deposed him. + +The same historian adds that on the death of Athanasius, the Arians, +supported by Valens, apprehended, bound in chains, and put to death +those who remained attached to Peter, whom Athanasius had pointed out as +his successor. Alexandria resembled a city taken by assault. The Arians +soon possessed themselves of the churches, and the bishop, installed by +them, obtained the power of banishing from Egypt all who remained +attached to the Nicean creed. + +We read in Socrates that, after the death of Sisinnius, the church of +Constantinople became again divided on the choice of a successor, and +Theodosius the Younger placed in the patriarchal see the violent and +fiery Nestorius. In his first sermon he addresses the following language +to the emperor: "Give me the land purged of heretics, and I will give +you the kingdom of Heaven; second me in the extermination of heretics, +and I engage to furnish you with effectual assistance against the +Persians." He afterwards expelled the Arians from the capital, armed the +people against them, pulled down their churches, and obtained from the +emperor rigorous and persecuting edicts to effect their extirpation. He +employed his powerful influence subsequently in procuring the arrest, +imprisonment, and even whipping of the principal persons among the +people who had interrupted him in the middle of a discourse, in which he +was delivering his distinguishing system of doctrine, which was soon +condemned at the Council of Ephesus. + +Photius relates that when the priest reached the altar, it was customary +in the church of Constantinople for the people to chant: "Holy God, +powerful God, immortal God"; and the name given to this part of the +service was "the trisagion." The priest, Peter had added: "Who hast been +crucified for us, have mercy upon us." The Catholics considered this +addition as containing the error of the Eutychian Theopathists, who +maintained that the divinity had suffered; they, however, chanted the +trisagion with the addition, to avoid irritating the emperor Anastasius, +who had just deposed another Macedonius, and placed in his stead +Timotheus, by whose order this addition was ordered to be chanted. But +on a particular day the monks entered the church, and, instead of the +addition in question, chanted a verse from one of the Psalms: the people +instantly exclaimed: "The orthodox have arrived very seasonably!" All +the partisans of the Council of Chalcedon chanted, in union with the +monks, the verse from the Psalm; the Eutychians were offended; the +service was interrupted; a battle commenced in the church; the people +rushed out, obtained arms as speedily as possible, spread carnage and +conflagration through the city, and were pacified only by the +destruction of ten thousand lives. + +The imperial power at length established through all Egypt the authority +of this Council of Chalcedon; but the massacre of more than a hundred +thousand Egyptians, on different occasions, for having refused to +acknowledge the council, had planted in the hearts of the whole +population an implacable hatred against the emperors. A part of those +who were hostile to the council withdrew to Upper Egypt, others quitted +altogether the dominions of the empire and passed over to Africa and +among the Arabs, where all religions were tolerated. + +We have already observed that under the reign of the empress Irene the +worship of images was re-established and confirmed by the second Council +of Nice. Leo the Armenian, Michael the Stammerer, and Theophilus, +neglected nothing to effect its abolition; and this opposition caused +further disturbance in the empire of Constantinople, till the reign of +the empress Theodora, who gave the force of law to the second Council of +Nice, extinguished the party of Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, and +exerted the utmost extent of her authority against the Manichæans. She +despatched orders throughout the empire to seek for them everywhere, and +put all those to death who would not recant. More than a hundred +thousand perished by different modes of execution. Four thousand, who +escaped from this severe scrutiny and extensive punishment, took refuge +among the Saracens, united their own strength with theirs, ravaged the +territories of the empire, and erected fortresses in which the +Manichæans, who had remained concealed through terror of capital +punishment, found an asylum, and constituted a hostile force, formidable +from their numbers, and from their burning hatred both of the emperors +and Catholics. They frequently inflicted on the territories of the +empire dread and devastation, and cut to pieces its disciplined armies. + +We abridge the details of these dreadful massacres; those of Ireland, +those of the valleys of Piedmont, those which we shall speak of in the +article on "Inquisition," and lastly, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, +displayed in the West the same spirit of intolerance, against which +nothing more pertinent and sensible has been written than what we find +in the works of Salvian. + +The following is the language employed respecting the followers of one +of the principal heresies by this excellent priest of Marseilles, who +was surnamed the master of bishops, who deplored with bitterness the +violence and vices of his age, and who was called the Jeremiah of the +fifth century. "The Arians," says he, "are heretics; but they do not +know it; they are heretics among us, but they are not so among +themselves; for they consider themselves so perfectly and completely +Catholic, that they treat us as heretics. We are convinced that they +entertain an opinion injurious to the divine generation, inasmuch as +they say that the Son is less than the Father. They, on the other hand, +think that we hold an opinion injurious to the Father, because we regard +the Father and the Son equal. The truth is with us, but they consider it +as favoring them. We give to God the honor which is due to Him, but +they, according to their peculiar way of thinking, maintain that they do +the same. They do not acquit themselves of their duty; but in the very +point where they fail in doing so, they make the greatest duty of +religion consist. They are impious, but even in being so they consider +themselves as following, and as practising, genuine piety. They are then +mistaken, but from a principle of love to God; and, although they have +not the true faith, they regard that which they have actually embraced +as the perfect love of God. + +"The sovereign judge of the universe alone knows how they will be +punished for their errors in the day of judgment. In the meantime he +patiently bears with them, because he sees that if they are in error, +they err from pure motives of piety." + + + + +HERMES. + +_Hermes, or Ermes, Mercury Trismegistus, or Thaut, or Taut, or Thot._ + + +We neglect reading the ancient book of Mercury Trismegistus, and we are +not wrong in so doing. To philosophers it has appeared a sublime piece +of jargon, and it is perhaps for this reason that they believed it the +work of a great Platonist. + +Nevertheless, in this theological chaos, how many things there are to +astonish and subdue the human mind! God, whose triple essence is wisdom, +power and bounty; God, forming the world by His thought, His word; God +creating subaltern gods; God commanding these gods to direct the +celestial orbs, and to preside over the world; the sun; the Son of God; +man His image in thought; light, His principal work a divine +essence--all these grand and lively images dazzle a subdued imagination. + +It remains to be known whether this work, as much celebrated as little +read, was the work of a Greek or of an Egyptian. St. Augustine hesitates +not in believing that it is the work of an Egyptian, who pretended to be +descended from the ancient Mercury, from the ancient Thaut, the first +legislator of Egypt. It is true that St. Augustine knew no more of the +Egyptian than of the Greek; but in his time it was necessary that we +should not doubt that Hermes, from whom we received theology, was an +Egyptian sage, probably anterior to the time of Alexander, and one of +the priests whom Plato consulted. + +It has always appeared to me that the theology of Plato in nothing +resembled that of other Greeks, with the exception of Timæus, who had +travelled in Egypt, as well as Pythagoras. + +The Hermes Trismegistus that we possess is written in barbarous Greek, +and in a foreign idiom. This is a proof that it is a translation in +which the words have been followed more than the sense. + +Joseph Scaliger, who assisted the lord of Candale, bishop of Aire, to +translate the Hermes, or Mercury Trismegistus, doubts not that the +original was Egyptian. Add to these reasons that it is not very probable +that a Greek would have addressed himself so often to Thaut. It is not +natural for us to address ourselves to strangers with so much +warm-heartedness; at least, we see no example of it in antiquity. + +The Egyptian Æsculapius, who is made to speak in this book, and who is +perhaps the author of it, wrote to Ammon, king of Egypt: "Take great +care how you suffer the Greeks to translate the books of our Mercury, +our Thaut, because they would disfigure them." Certainly a Greek would +not have spoken thus; there is therefore every appearance of this book +being Egyptian. + +There is another reflection to be made, which is, that the systems of +Hermes and Plato were equally formed to extend themselves through all +the Jewish schools, from the time of the Ptolemies. This doctrine made +great progress in them; you see it completely displayed by the Jew +Philo, a learned man after the manner of those times. + +He copies entire passages from Mercury Trismegistus in his chapter on +the formation of the world. "Firstly," says he, "God made the world +intelligible, the Heavens incorporeal, and the earth invisible; he +afterwards created the incorporeal essence of water and spirit; and +finally the essence of incorporeal light, the origin of the sun and of +the stars." + +Such is the pure doctrine of Hermes. He adds that the word, or invisible +and intellectual thought, is the image of God. Here is the creation of +the world by the word, by thought, by the _logos_, very strongly +expressed. + +Afterwards follows the doctrine of Numbers, which descended from the +Egyptians to the Jews. He calls reason the relation of God. The number +of seven is the accomplishment of all things, "which is the reason," +says he, "that the lyre has only seven strings." + +In a word Philo possessed all the philosophy of his time. + +We are therefore deceived, when we believe that the Jews, under the +reign of Herod, were plunged in the same state of ignorance in which +they were previously immersed. It is evident that St. Paul was well +informed. It is only necessary to read the first chapter of St. John, +which is so different from those of the others, to perceive that the +author wrote precisely like Hermes and Plato. "In the beginning was the +word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in +the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was +not anything made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of man." +It is thus that St. Paul says: "God made the worlds by His Son." + +In the time of the apostles were seen whole societies of Christians who +were only too learned, and thence substituted a fantastic philosophy for +simplicity of faith. The Simons, Menanders, and Cerinthuses, taught +precisely the doctrines of Hermes. Their Æons were only the subaltern +gods, created by the great Being. All the first Christians, therefore, +were not ignorant men, as it always has been asserted; since there were +several of them who abused their literature; even in the Acts the +governor Festus says to St. Paul: "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much +learning doth make thee mad." + +Cerinthus dogmatized in the time of St. John the Evangelist. His errors +were of a profound, refined, and metaphysical cast. The faults which he +remarked in the construction of the world made him think--at least so +says Dr. Dupin--that it was not the sovereign God who created it, but a +virtue inferior to this first principle, which had not the knowledge of +the sovereign God. This was wishing to correct even the system of Plato, +and deceiving himself, both as a Christian and a philosopher; but at the +same time it displayed a refined and well-exercised mind. + +It is the same with the primitives called Quakers, of whom we have so +much spoken. They have been taken for men who cannot see beyond their +noses, and who make no use of their reason. However, there have been +among them several who employed all the subtleties of logic. Enthusiasm +is not always the companion of total ignorance, it is often that of +erroneous information. + + + + +HISTORIOGRAPHER. + + +This is a title very different from that of historian. In France we +commonly see men of letters pensioned, and, as it was said formerly, +appointed to write history. Alain Chartier was the historiographer of +Charles VII.; he says that he interrogated the domestics of this prince, +and put them on their oaths, according to the duty of his charge, to +ascertain whether Charles really had Agnes Sorel for his mistress. He +concludes that nothing improper ever passed between these lovers; and +that all was reduced to a few honest caresses, to which these domestics +had been the innocent witnesses. However, it is proved, not by +historiographers, but by historians supported by family titles, that +Charles VII. had three daughters by Agnes Sorel, the eldest of whom, +married to one Breze, was stabbed by her husband. From this time there +were often titled historiographers in France, and it was the custom to +give them commissions of councillors of state, with the provisions of +their charge. They were commensal officers of the king's house. Matthieu +had these privileges under Henry IV., but did not therefore write a +better history. + +At Venice it is always a noble of the senate who possesses this title +and function, and the celebrated Nani has filled them with general +approbation. It is very difficult for the historiographer of a prince +not to be a liar; that of a republic flatters less; but he does not tell +all the truth. In China historiographers are charged with collecting all +the events and original titles under a dynasty. They throw the leaves +numbered into a vast hall, through an orifice resembling the lion's +mouth at Venice, into which is cast all secret intelligence. When the +dynasty is extinct the hall is opened and the materials digested, of +which an authentic history is composed. The general journal of the +empire also serves to form the body of history; this journal is superior +to our newspapers, being made under the superintendence of the mandarins +of each province, revised by a supreme tribunal, and every piece bearing +an authenticity which is decisive in contentious matters. + +Every sovereign chose his own historiographer. Vittorio Siri was one; +Pelisson was first chosen by Louis XIV. to write the events of his +reign, and acquitted himself of his task with eloquence in the history +of Franche-Comté. Racine, the most elegant of poets, and Boileau, the +most correct, were afterwards substituted for Pelisson. Some curious +persons have collected "Memoirs of the Passage of the Rhine," written by +Racine. We cannot judge by these memoirs whether Louis XIV. passed the +Rhine or not with his troops, who swam across the river. This example +sufficiently demonstrates how rarely it happens that an historiographer +dare tell the truth. Several also, who have possessed this title, have +taken good care of writing history; they have followed the example of +Amyot, who said that he was too much attached to his masters to write +their lives. Father Daniel had the patent of historiographer, after +having given his "History of France"; he had a pension of 600 livres, +regarded merely as a suitable stipend for a monk. + +It is very difficult to assign true bounds to the arts, sciences, and +literary labor. Perhaps it is the proper duty of an historiographer to +collect materials, and that of an historian to put them in order. The +first can amass everything, the second arrange and select. The +historiographer is more of the simple annalist, while the historian +seems to have a more open field for reflection and eloquence. + +We need scarcely say here that both should equally tell the truth, but +we can examine this great law of Cicero: "_Ne quid veri tacere non +audeat_."--"That we ought not to dare to conceal any truth." This rule +is of the number of those that want illustration. Suppose a prince +confides to his historiographer an important secret to which his honor +is attached, or that the good of the state requires should not be +revealed--should the historiographer or historian break his word with +the prince, or betray his country to obey Cicero? The curiosity of the +public seems to exact it; honor and duty forbid it. Perhaps in this case +he should renounce writing history. + +If a truth dishonors a family, ought the historiographer or historian to +inform the public of it? No; doubtless he is not bound to reveal the +shame of individuals; history is no satire. + +But if this scandalous truth belongs to public events, if it enters into +the interests of the state--if it has produced evils of which it imports +to know the cause, it is then that the maxims of Cicero should be +observed; for this law is like all others which must be executed, +tempered, or neglected, according to circumstances. + +Let us beware of this humane respect when treating of acknowledged +public faults, prevarications, and injustices, into which the +misfortunes of the times have betrayed respectable bodies. They cannot +be too much exposed; they are beacons which warn these always-existing +bodies against splitting again on similar rocks. If an English +parliament has condemned a man of fortune to the torture--if an assembly +of theologians had demanded the blood of an unfortunate who differed in +opinion from themselves, it should be the duty of an historian to +inspire all ages with horror for these juridical assassins. We should +always make the Athenians blush for the death of Socrates. + +Happily, even an entire people always find it good to have the crimes of +their ancestors placed before them; they like to condemn them, and to +believe themselves superior. The historiographer or historian encourages +them in these sentiments, and, in retracing the wars of government and +religion, prevents their repetition. + + + + +HISTORY. + + +SECTION I. + +_Definition of History._ + +History is the recital of facts represented as true. Fable, on the +contrary, is the recital of facts represented as fiction. There is the +history of human opinions, which is scarcely anything more than the +history of human errors. + +The history of the arts may be made the most useful of all, when to a +knowledge of their invention and progress it adds a description of their +mechanical means and processes. + +Natural history, improperly designated "history," is an essential part +of natural philosophy. The history of events has been divided into +sacred and profane. Sacred history is a series of divine and miraculous +operations, by which it has pleased God formerly to direct and govern +the Jewish nation, and, in the present day, to try our faith. "To learn +Hebrew, the sciences, and history," says La Fontaine, "is to drink up +the sea." + + _Si j'apprenois l'Hébreu, les sciences, l'histoire,_ + _Tout cela, c'est la mer à boire._ + --LA FONTAINE, book viii, fable 25. + + +_The Foundations of History._ + +The foundations of all history are the recitals of events, made by +fathers to their children, and afterwards transmitted from one +generation to another. They are, at most, only probable in their origin +when they do not shock common sense, and they lose a degree of +probability at every successive transmission. With time the fabulous +increases and the true disappears; hence it arises that the original +traditions and records of all nations are absurd. Thus the Egyptians had +been governed for many ages by the gods. They had next been under the +government of demi-gods; and, finally, they had kings for eleven +thousand three hundred and forty years, and during that period the sun +had changed four times from east and west. + +The Phoenicians, in the time of Alexander, pretended that they had +been settled in their own country for thirty thousand years; and those +thirty thousand years were as full of prodigies as the Egyptian +chronology. I admit it to be perfectly consistent with physical +possibility that Phoenicia may have existed, not merely for thirty +thousand years, but thirty thousand millions of ages, and that it may +have endured, as well as the other portions of the globe, thirty +millions of revolutions. But of all this we possess no knowledge. + +The ridiculous miracles which abound in the ancient history of Greece +are universally known. + +The Romans, although a serious and grave people, have, nevertheless, +equally involved in fables the early periods of their history. That +nation, so recent in comparison with those of Asia, was five hundred +years without historians. It is impossible, therefore, to be surprised +on finding that Romulus was the son of Mars; that a she-wolf was his +nurse; that he marched with a thousand men from his own village, Rome, +against twenty thousand warriors belonging to the city of the Sabines; +that he afterwards became a god; that the elder Tarquin cut through a +stone with a razor, and that a vestal drew a ship to land with her +girdle, etc. + +The first annals of modern nations are no less fabulous; things +prodigious and improbable ought sometimes, undoubtedly, to be related, +but only as proofs of human credulity. They constitute part of the +history of human opinion and absurdities; but the field is too immense. + +_Of Monuments or Memorials._ + +The only proper method of endeavoring to acquire some knowledge of +ancient history is to ascertain whether there remain any incontestable +public monuments. We possess only three such, in the way of writing or +inscription. The first is the collection of astronomical observations +made during nineteen hundred successive years at Babylon, and +transferred by Alexander to Greece. This series of observations, which +goes back two thousand two hundred and thirty-four years beyond our +vulgar era, decidedly proves that the Babylonians existed as an +associated and incorporated people many ages before; for the arts are +struck out and elaborated only in the slow course of time, and the +indolence natural to mankind permits thousands of years to roll away +without their acquiring any other knowledge or talents than what are +required for food, clothing, shelter, and mutual destruction. Let the +truth of these remarks be judged of from the state of the Germans and +the English in the time of Cæsar, from that of the Tartars at the +present day, from that of two-thirds of Africa, and from that of all the +various nations found in the vast continent of America, excepting, in +some respects, the kingdoms of Peru and Mexico, and the republic of +Tlascala. Let it be recollected that in the whole of the new world not a +single individual could write or read. + +The second monument is the central eclipse of the sun, calculated in +China two thousand one hundred and fifty-five years before our vulgar +era, and admitted by all our astronomers to have actually occurred. We +must apply the same remark to the Chinese as to, the people of Babylon. +They had undoubtedly, long before this period, constituted a vast empire +and social polity. But what places the Chinese above all the other +nations of the world is that neither their laws, nor manners, nor the +language exclusively spoken by their men of learning, have experienced +any change in the course of about four thousand years. Yet this nation +and that of India, the most ancient of all that are now subsisting, +those which possess the largest and most fertile tracts of territory, +those which had invented nearly all the arts almost before we were in +possession even of any of them, have been always omitted, down to our +time, in our pretended universal histories. And whenever a Spaniard or a +Frenchman enumerated the various nations of the globe, neither of them +failed to represent his own country as the first monarchy on earth, and +his king as the greatest sovereign, under the flattering hope, no doubt, +that that greatest of sovereigns, after having read his book, would +confer upon him a pension. + +The third monument, but very inferior to the two others, is the Arundel +Marbles. The chronicle of Athens was inscribed on these marbles two +hundred and sixty-three years before our era, but it goes no further +back than the time of Cecrops, thirteen hundred and nineteen years +beyond the time of its inscription. In the history of all antiquity +these are the only incontestable epochs that we possess. + +Let us attend a little particularly to these marbles, which were brought +from Greece by Lord Arundel. The chronicle contained in them commences +fifteen hundred and seventy-seven years before our era. This, at the +present time, makes an antiquity of 3,348 years, and in the course of +that period you do not find a single miraculous or prodigious event on +record. It is the same with the Olympiads. It must not be in reference +to these that the expression can be applied of "_Græcia mendax_" (lying +Greece). The Greeks well knew how to distinguish history from fable, and +real facts from the tales of Herodotus; just as in relation to important +public affairs, their orators borrowed nothing from the discourses of +the sophists or the imagery of the poets. + +The date of the taking of Troy is specified in these marbles, but there +is no mention made of Apollo's arrows, or the sacrifice of Iphigenia, or +the ridiculous battles of the gods. The date of the inventions of +Triptolemus and Ceres is given; but Ceres is not called goddess. Notice +is taken of a poem upon the rape of Proserpine; but it is not said that +she is the daughter of Jupiter and a goddess, and the wife of the god of +hell. + +Hercules is initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, but not a single word +is mentioned of the twelve labors, nor of his passage to Africa in his +cup, nor of his divinity, nor of the great fish by which he was +swallowed, and which, according to Lycophron, kept him in its belly +three days and three nights. + +Among us, on the contrary, a standard is brought by an angel from heaven +to the monks of St. Denis; a pigeon brings a bottle of oil to the church +of Rheims; two armies of serpents engage in pitched battle in Germany; +an archbishop of Mentz is besieged and devoured by rats; and to complete +and crown the whole, the year in which these adventures occurred, is +given with the most particular precision. The abbé Langlet, also +condescending to compile, compiles these contemptible fooleries, while +the almanacs, for the hundredth time, repeat them. In this manner are +our youth instructed and enlightened; and all these trumpery fables are +put in requisition even for the education of princes! + +All history is comparatively recent. It is by no means astonishing to +find that we have, in fact, no profane history that goes back beyond +about four thousand years. The cause of this is to be found in the +revolutions of the globe, and the long and universal ignorance of the +art which transmits events by writing. There are still many nations +totally unacquainted with the practice of this art. It existed only in a +small number of civilized states, and even in them was confined to +comparatively few hands. Nothing was more rare among the French and +Germans than knowing how to write; down to the fourteenth century of our +era, scarcely any public acts were attested by witnesses. It was not +till the reign of Charles VII. in France, in 1454, that an attempt was +made to reduce to writing some of the customs of France. The art was +still more uncommon among the Spaniards, and hence it arises that their +history is so dry and doubtful till the time of Ferdinand and Isabella. +We perceive, from what has been said, with what facility the very small +number of persons who possessed the art of writing might impose by means +of it, and how easy it has been to produce a belief in the most enormous +absurdities. + +There have been nations who have subjugated a considerable part of the +world, and who yet have not been acquainted with the use of characters. +We know that Genghis Khan conquered a part of Asia in the beginning of +the thirteenth century; but it is not from him, nor from the Tartars, +that we have derived that knowledge. Their history, written by the +Chinese, and translated by Father Gaubil, states that these Tartars were +at that time unacquainted with the art of writing. + +This art was, unquestionably, not likely to be less unknown to the +Scythian Ogus-kan, called by the Persians and Greeks Madies, who +conquered a part of Europe and Asia long before the reign of Cyrus. It +is almost a certainty that at that time, out of a hundred nations, there +were only two or three that employed characters. It is undoubtedly +possible, that in an ancient world destroyed, mankind were acquainted +with the art of writing and the other arts, but in our world they are +all of recent date. + +There remain monuments of another kind, which serve to prove merely the +remote antiquity of certain nations, an antiquity preceding all known +epochs, and all books; these are the prodigies of architecture, such as +the pyramids and palaces of Egypt, which have resisted and wearied the +power of time. Herodotus, who lived two thousand two hundred years ago, +and who had seen them, was unable to learn from the Egyptian priests at +what periods these structures were raised. + +[Illustration: "A MONUMENT OF ANTIQUITY"--THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS] + +It is difficult to ascribe to the oldest of the pyramids an antiquity of +less than four thousand years, and, it is necessary to consider, that +those ostentatious piles, erected by monarchs, could not have been +commenced till long after the establishment of cities. But, in order to +build cities in a country every year inundated, it must always be +recollected that it would have been previously necessary in this land of +slime and mud, to lay the foundation upon piles, that they might thus be +inaccessible to the inundation; it would have been necessary, even +before taking this indispensable measure of precaution, and before the +inhabitants could be in a state to engage in such important and even +dangerous labors, that the people should have contrived retreats, during +the swelling of the Nile, between the two chains of rocks which exist on +the right and left banks of the river. It would have been necessary that +these collected multitudes should have instruments of tillage, and of +architecture, a knowledge of architecture and surveying, regular laws, +and an active police. All these things require a space of time +absolutely prodigious. We see, every day, by the long details which +relate even to those of our undertakings, which are most necessary and +most diminutive, how difficult it is to execute works of magnitude, and +that they not only require unwearied perseverance, but many generations +animated by the same spirit. + +However, whether we admit that one or two of those immense masses were +erected by Menés, or Thaut, or Cheops, or Rameses, we shall not, in +consequence, have the slightest further insight into the ancient history +of Egypt. The language of that people is lost; and all we know in +reference to the subject is that before the most ancient historians +existed, there existed materials for writing ancient history. + + +SECTION II. + +As we already possess, I had almost said, twenty thousand works, the +greater number of them extending to many volumes, on the subject, +exclusively, of the history of France; and as, even a studious man, were +he to live a hundred years, would find it impossible to read them, I +think it a good thing to know where to stop. We are obliged to connect +with the knowledge of our own country the history of our neighbors. We +are still less permitted to remain ignorant of the Greeks and Romans, +and their laws which are become ours; but, if to this laborious study we +should resolve to add that of more remote antiquity, we should resemble +the man who deserted Tacitus and Livy to study seriously the "Thousand +and One Nights." All the origins of nations are evidently fables. The +reason is that men must have lived long in society, and have learned to +make bread and clothing (which would be matters of some difficulty) +before they acquired the art of transmitting all their thoughts to +posterity (a matter of greater difficulty still). The art of writing is +certainly not more than six thousand years old, even among the Chinese; +and, whatever may be the boast of the Chaldæans and Egyptians, it +appears not at all likely that they were able to read and write earlier. + +The history, therefore, of preceding periods, could be transmitted by +memory alone; and we well know how the memory of past events changes +from one generation to another. The first histories were written only +from the imagination. Not only did every people invent its own origin, +but it invented also the origin of the whole world. + +If we may believe Sanchoniathon, the origin of things was a thick air, +which was rarified by the wind; hence sprang desire and love, and from +the union of desire and love were formed animals. The stars were later +productions, and intended merely to adorn the heavens, and to rejoice +the sight of the animals upon earth. + +The Knef of the Egyptians, their Oshiret and Ishet, which we call Osiris +and Isis, are neither less ingenious nor ridiculous. The Greeks +embellished all these fictions. Ovid collected them and ornamented them +with the charms of the most beautiful poetry. What he says of a god who +develops or disembroils chaos, and of the formation of man, is sublime. + + _Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altæ_ + _Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in cætera posset._ + _Natus homo est...._ + --OVID, _Metam._, i, v. 76. + + A creature of a more exalted kind + Was wanting yet, and then was man designed; + Conscious or thought, of more capacious breast, + For empire formed, and fit to rule the rest. + --DRYDEN. + + _Pronaque cum spectent animalia cætera terram;_ + _Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tueri_ + _Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus._ + METAM., i, v. 84. + + Thus, while the mute creation downward bend + Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, + Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes + Beholds his own hereditary skies. + --DRYDEN. + +Hesiod, and other writers who lived so long before, would have been very +far from expressing themselves with this elegant sublimity. But, from +the interesting moment of man's formation down to the era of the +Olympiads, everything is plunged in profound obscurity. + +Herodotus is present at the Olympic games, and, like an old woman to +children, recites his narratives, or rather tales, to the assembled +Greeks. He begins by saying that the Phoenicians sailed from the Red +Sea into the Mediterranean; which, if true, must necessarily imply that +they had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and made the circuit of Africa. + +Then comes the rape of Io; then the fable of Gyges and Candaules; then +the wondrous stories of banditti, and that of the daughter of Cheops, +king of Egypt, having required a hewn stone from each of her many +lovers, and obtained, in consequence, a number large enough to build one +of the pyramids. + +To this, add the oracles, prodigies, and frauds of priests, and you have +the history of the human race. + +The first periods of the Roman history appear to have been written by +Herodotus; our conquerors and legislators knew no other way of counting +their years as they passed away, than by driving nails into a wall by +the hand of the sacred pontiff. + +The great Romulus, the king of a village, is the son of the god Mars, +and a recluse, who was proceeding to a well to draw water in a pitcher. +He has a god for his father, a woman of loose manners for his mother, +and a she-wolf for his nurse. A buckler falls from heaven expressly for +Numa. The invaluable books of the Sibyls are found by accident. An +augur, by divine permission, divides a large flint-stone with a razor. A +vestal, with her mere girdle, draws into the water a large vessel that +has been stranded. Castor and Pollux come down to fight for the Romans, +and the marks of their horses' feet are imprinted on the stones. The +transalpine Gauls advanced to pillage Rome; some relate that they were +driven away by geese, others that they carried away with them much gold +and silver; but it is probable that, at that time in Italy, geese were +far more abundant than silver. We have imitated the first Roman +historians, at least in their taste for fables. We have our oriflamme, +our great standard, brought from heaven by an angel, and the holy phial +by a pigeon; and, when to these we add the mantle of St. Martin, we feel +not a little formidable. + +What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our +duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them. + +It is often asked whether the fable of the sacrifice of Iphigenia is +taken from the history of Jephthah; whether the deluge of Deucalion is +invented in imitation of that of Noah; whether the adventure of Philemon +and Baucis is copied from that of Lot and his wife. The Jews admit that +they had no communication with strangers, that their books were unknown +to the Greeks till the translation made by the order of Ptolemy. The +Jews were, long before that period, money-brokers and usurers among the +Greeks at Alexandria; but the Greeks never went to sell old clothes at +Jerusalem. It is evident that no people imitated the Jews, and also that +the Jews imitated or adopted many things from the Babylonians, the +Egyptians, and the Greeks. + +All Jewish antiquities are sacred in our estimation, notwithstanding the +hatred and contempt in which we hold that people. We cannot, indeed, +believe them by reason, but we bring ourselves under subjection to the +Jews by faith. There are about fourscore systems in existence on the +subject of their chronology, and a far greater number of ways of +explaining the events recorded in their histories; we know not which is +the true one, but we reserve our faith for it in store against the time +when that true one shall be discovered. + +We have so many things to believe in this sensible and magnanimous +people, that all our faith is exhausted by them, and we have none left +for the prodigies with which the other nations abound. Rollin may go on +repeating to us the oracles of Apollo, and the miraculous achievements +of Semiramis; he may continue to transcribe all that has been narrated +of the justice of those ancient Scythians who so frequently pillaged +Africa, and occasionally ate men for their breakfast; yet sensible and +well-educated people will still feel and express some degree of +incredulity. + +What I most admire in our modern compilers is the judgment and zeal with +which they prove to us, that whatever happened in former ages, in the +most extensive and powerful empires of the world, took place solely for +the instruction of the inhabitants of Palestine. If the kings of +Babylon, in the course of their conquests, overrun the territories of +the Hebrew people, it is only to correct that people for their sins. If +the monarch, who has been commonly named Cyrus, becomes master of +Babylon, it is that he may grant permission to some captive Jews to +return home. If Alexander conquers Darius, it is for the settlement of +some Jew old-clothesmen at Alexandria. When the Romans join Syria to +their vast dominions, and round their empire with the little district of +Judæa, this is still with a view to teach a moral lesson to the Jews. +The Arabs and the Turks appear upon the stage of the world solely for +the correction of this amiable people. We must acknowledge that they +have had an excellent education; never had any pupil so many preceptors. +Such is the utility of history. + +But what is still more instructive is the exact justice which the clergy +have dealt out to all those sovereigns with whom they were dissatisfied. +Observe with what impartial candor St. Gregory of Nazianzen judges the +emperor Julian, the philosopher. He declares that that prince, who did +not believe in the existence of the devil, held secret communication +with that personage, and that, on a particular occasion, when the demons +appeared to him under the most hideous forms, and in the midst of the +most raging flames, he drove them away by making inadvertently the sign +of the cross. + +He denominates him madman and wretch; he asserts that Julian immolated +young men and women every night in caves. Such is the description he +gives of the most candid and clement of men, and who never exercised the +slightest revenge against this same Gregory, notwithstanding the abuse +and invectives with which he pursued him throughout his reign. + +To apologize for the guilty is a happy way of justifying calumny against +the innocent. Compensation is thus effected; and such compensation was +amply afforded by St. Gregory. The emperor Constantius, Julian's uncle +and predecessor, upon his accession to the throne, had massacred Julius, +his mother's brother, and his two sons, all three of whom had been +declared august; this was a system which he had adopted from his father. +He afterwards procured the assassination of Gallus, Julian's brother. +The cruelty which he thus displayed to his own family, he extended to +the empire at large; but he was a man of prayer, and, even at the +decisive battle with Maxentius, he was praying to God in a neighboring +church during the whole time in which the armies were engaged. Such was +the man who was eulogized by Gregory; and, if such is the way in which +the saints make us acquainted with the truth, what may we not expect +from the profane, particularly when they are ignorant, superstitious, +and irritable? + +At the present day the study of history is occasionally applied to a +purpose somewhat whimsical and absurd. Certain charters of the time of +Dagobert are discovered and brought forward, the greater part of them of +a somewhat suspicious character in point of genuineness, and +ill-understood; and from these it is inferred, that customs, rights, and +prerogatives, which subsisted then, should be revived now. I would +recommend it to those who adopt this method of study and reasoning, to +say to the ocean, "You formerly extended to Aigues-Mortes, Fréjus, +Ravenna, and Ferrara. Return to them immediately." + + +SECTION III. + +_Of the Certainty of History._ + +All certainty which does not consist in mathematical demonstration is +nothing more than the highest probability; there is no other historical +certainty. + +When Marco Polo described the greatness and population of China, being +the first, and for a time the only writer who had described them, he +could not obtain credit. The Portuguese, who for ages afterwards had +communication and commerce with that vast empire, began to render the +description probable. It is now a matter of absolute certainty; of that +certainty which arises from the unanimous deposition of a thousand +witnesses or different nations, unopposed by the testimony of a single +individual. + +If merely two or three historians had described the adventure of King +Charles XII. when he persisted in remaining in the territories of his +benefactor, the sultan, in opposition to the orders of that monarch, and +absolutely fought, with the few domestics that attended his person, +against an army of janissaries and Tartars, I should have suspended my +judgment about its truth; but, having spoken to many who actually +witnessed the fact, and having never heard it called in question, I +cannot possibly do otherwise than believe it; because, after all, +although such conduct is neither wise nor common, there is nothing in it +contradictory to the laws of nature, or the character of the hero. + +That which is in opposition to the ordinary course of nature ought not +to be believed, unless it is attested by persons evidently inspired by +the divine mind, and whose inspiration, indeed, it is impossible to +doubt. Hence we are justified in considering as a paradox the assertion +made under the article on "Certainty," in the great "Encyclopædia," that +we are as much bound to believe in the resuscitation of a dead man, if +all Paris were to affirm it, as to believe all Paris when it states that +we gained the battle of Fontenoy. It is clear that the evidence of all +Paris to a thing improbable can never be equal to that evidence in favor +of a probable one. These are the first principles of genuine logic. Such +a dictionary as the one in question should be consecrated only to truth. + +_Uncertainty of History._ + +Periods of time are distinguished as fabulous and historical. But even +in the historical times themselves it is necessary to distinguish truths +from fables. I am not here speaking of fables, now universally admitted +to be such. There is no question, for example, respecting the prodigies +with which Livy has embellished, or rather defaced, his history. But +with respect to events generally admitted, how many reasons exist for +doubt! + +Let it be recollected that the Roman republic was five hundred years +without historians; that Livy himself deplores the loss of various +public monuments or records, as almost all, he says, were destroyed in +the burning of Rome: "_Pleraque interiere_." Let it be considered that, +in the first three hundred years, the art of writing was very uncommon: +"_Raræ per eadem tempora literæ_." Reason will be then seen for +entertaining doubt on all those events which do not correspond with the +usual order of human affairs. + +Can it be considered very likely that Romulus, the grandson of the king +of the Sabines, was compelled to carry off the Sabine women in order to +obtain for his people wives? Is the history of Lucretia highly probable; +can we easily believe, on the credit of Livy, that the king Porsenna +betook himself to flight, full of admiration for the Romans, because a +fanatic had pledged himself to assassinate him? Should we not rather be +inclined to rely upon Polybius, who was two hundred years earlier than +Livy? Polybius informs us that Porsenna subjugated the Romans. This is +far more probable than the adventure of Scævola's burning off his hand +for failing in the attempt to assassinate him. I would have defied +Poltrot to do as much. + +Does the adventure of Regulus, inclosed within a hogshead or tub stuck +round with iron spikes, deserve belief? Would not Polybius, a +contemporary, have recorded it had it been true? He says not a single +word upon the subject. Is not this a striking presumption that the story +was trumped up long afterwards to gratify the popular hatred against the +Carthaginians? + +Open "Moréri's Dictionary," at the article on "Regulus." He informs you +that the torments inflicted on that Roman are recorded in Livy. The +particular decade, however, in which Livy would have recorded it, if at +all, is lost; and in lieu of it, we have only the supplement of +Freinsheim; and thus it appears that Dictionary has merely cited a +German writer of the seventeenth century, under the idea of citing a +Roman of the Augustan age. Volumes might be composed out of all the +celebrated events which have been generally admitted, but which may be +more fairly doubted. But the limits allowed for this article will not +permit us to enlarge. + +_Whether Temples, Festivals, Annual Ceremonies, and even Medals, are +Historic Proofs._ + +We might be naturally led to imagine that a monument raised by any +nation in celebration of a particular event, would attest the certainty +of that event; if, however, these monuments were not erected by +contemporaries, or if they celebrate events that carry with them but +little probability, they may often be regarded as proving nothing more +than a wish to consecrate a popular opinion. + +The rostral column, erected in Rome by the contemporaries of Duilius, is +undoubtedly a proof of the naval victory obtained by Duilius; but does +the statue of the augur Nævius, who is said to have divided a large +flint with a razor, prove that Nævius in reality performed that prodigy? +Were the statues of Ceres and Triptolemus, at Athens, decisive evidences +that Ceres came down from I know not what particular planet, to instruct +the Athenians in agriculture? Or does the famous Laocoon, which exists +perfect to the present day, furnish incontestable evidence of the truth +of the story of the Trojan horse? + +Ceremonies and annual festivals observed universally throughout any +nation, are, in like manner, no better proofs of the reality of the +events to which they are attributed. The festival of Orion, carried on +the back of a dolphin, was celebrated among the Romans as well as the +Greeks. That of Faunus was in celebration of his adventure with Hercules +and Omphale, when that god, being enamored of Omphale, mistook the bed +of Hercules for that of his mistress. + +The famous feast of the Lupercals was instituted in honor of the +she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus. + +What was the origin of the feast of Orion, which was observed on the +fifth of the ides of May? It was neither more nor less than the +following adventure: Hyreus once entertained at his house the gods +Jupiter, Neptune, and Mercury, and when his high and mighty guests were +about to depart, the worthy host, who had no wife, and was very desirous +of having a son, lamented his unfortunate fate, and expressed his +anxious desire to the three divinities. We dare not exactly detail what +they did to the hide of an ox which Hyreus had killed for their +entertainment; however, they afterwards covered the well-soaked hide +with a little earth; and thence, at the end of nine months, was born +Orion. + +Almost all the Roman, Syrian, Grecian, and Egyptian festivals, were +founded on similar legends, as well as the temples and statues of +ancient heroes. They were monuments consecrated by credulity to error. + +One of our most ancient monuments is the statue of St. Denis carrying +his head in his arms. + +Even a medal, and a contemporary medal, is sometimes no proof. How many +medals has flattery struck in celebration of battles very indecisive in +themselves, but thus exalted into victories; and of enterprises, in +fact, baffled and abortive, and completed only in the inscription on the +medal? Finally, during the war in 1740, between the Spaniards and the +English, was there not a medal struck, attesting the capture of +Carthagena by Admiral Vernon, although that admiral was obliged to raise +the siege? + +Medals are then unexceptionable testimonies only when the event they +celebrate is attested by contemporary authors; these evidences thus +corroborating each other, verify the event described. + +_Should an Historian ascribe Fictitious Speeches to his Characters, and +sketch Portraits of them?_ + +If on any particular occasion the commander of an army, or a public +minister, has spoken in a powerful and impressive manner, characteristic +of his genius and his age, his discourse should unquestionably be given +with the most literal exactness. Speeches of this description are +perhaps the most valuable part of history. But for what purpose +represent a man as saying what he never did say? It would be just as +correct to attribute to him acts which he never performed. It is a +fiction imitated from Homer; but that which is fiction in a poem, in +strict language, is a lie in the historian. Many of the ancients adopted +the method in question, which merely proves that many of the ancients +were fond of parading their eloquence at the expense of truth. + +_Of Historical Portraiture._ + +Portraits, also, frequently manifest a stronger desire for display, than +to communicate information. Contemporaries are justifiable in drawing +the portraits of statesmen with whom they have negotiated, or of +generals under whom they have fought. But how much is it to be +apprehended that the pencil will in many cases be guided by the +feelings? The portraits given by Lord Clarendon appear to be drawn with +more impartiality, gravity, and judgment, than those which we peruse +with so much delight in Cardinal de Retz. + +But to attempt to paint the ancients; to elaborate in this way the +development of their minds; to regard events as characters in which we +may accurately read the most sacred feelings and intents of their +hearts--this is an undertaking of no ordinary difficulty and +discrimination, although as frequently conducted, both childish and +trifling. + +_Of Cicero's Maxim Concerning History, that an Historian should never +dare to relate a Falsehood or to Conceal a Truth._ + +The first part of this precept is incontestable; we must stop for a +moment to examine the other. If a particular truth may be of any service +to the state, your silence is censurable. But I will suppose you to +write the history of a prince who had reposed in you a secret--ought you +to reveal that secret? Ought you to say to all posterity what you would +be criminal in disclosing to a single individual? Should the duty of an +historian prevail over the higher and more imperative duty of a man? + +I will suppose again, that you have witnessed a failing or weakness +which has not had the slightest influence on public affairs--ought you +to publish such weakness? In such a case history becomes satire. + +It must be allowed, indeed, that the greater part of anecdote writers +are more indiscreet than they are useful. But what opinion must we +entertain of those impudent compilers who appear to glory in scattering +about them calumny and slander, and print and sell scandals as Voisin +sold poisons? + +_Of Satirical History._ + +If Plutarch censured Herodotus for not having sufficiently extolled the +fame of some of the Grecian cities, and for omitting many known facts +worthy of being recorded, how much more censurable are certain of our +modern writers, who, without any of the merits of Herodotus, impute both +to princes and to nations acts of the most odious character, without the +slightest proof or evidence? The history of the war in 1741 has been +written in England; and it relates, "that at the battle of Fontenoy the +French fired at the English balls and pieces of glass which had been +prepared with poison; and that the duke of Cumberland sent to the king +of France a box full of those alleged poisonous articles, which had been +found in the bodies of the wounded English." The same author adds, that +the French having lost in that battle forty thousand men, the parliament +issued an order to prevent people from talking on the subject, under +pain of corporal punishment. + +The fraudulent memoirs published not long since under the name of Madame +de Maintenon, abound with similar absurdities. We are told in them, that +at the siege of Lille the allies threw placards into the city, +containing these words: "Frenchmen, be comforted--Maintenon shall never +be your queen." + +Almost every page is polluted by false statements and abuse of the royal +family and other leading families in the kingdom, without the author's +making out the smallest probability to give a color to his calumnies. +This is not writing history; it is writing slanders which deserve the +pillory. + +A vast number of works have been printed in Holland, under the name of +history, of which the style is as vulgar and coarse as the abuse, and +the facts as false as they are ill-narrated. This, it has been observed, +is a bad fruit of the noble tree of liberty. But if the contemptible +authors of this trash have the liberty thus to deceive their readers, it +becomes us here to take the liberty to undeceive them. + +A thirst for despicable gain, and the insolence of vulgar and grovelling +manners, were the only motives which led that Protestant refugee from +Languedoc, of the name of Langlevieux, but commonly called La Beaumelle, +to attempt the most infamous trick that ever disgraced literature. He +sold to Eslinger, the bookseller of Frankfort, in 1751, for seventeen +louis d'or, the "History of the Age of Louis XIV.," which is not his; +and, either to make it believed that he was the proprietor, or to earn +his money, he loaded it with abusive and abominable notes against Louis +XIV., his son, and his grandson, the duke of Burgundy, whom he abuses in +the most unmeasured terms, and calls a traitor to his grandfather and +his country. He pours upon the duke of Orleans, the regent, calumnies at +once the most horrible and the most absurd; no person of consequence is +spared, and yet no person of consequence did he ever know. He retails +against the marshals Villars and Villeroi, against ministers, and even +against ladies, all the petty, dirty, and scandalous tales that could be +collected from the lowest taverns and wine-houses; and he speaks of the +greatest princes as if they were amenable to himself, and under his own +personal jurisdiction. He expresses himself, indeed, as if he were a +formal and authorized judge of kings: "Give me," says he, "a Stuart, and +I will make him king of England." + +This most ridiculous and abominable conduct, proceeding from an author +obscure and unknown, has incurred no prosecution; it would have been +severely punished in a man whose words would have carried any weight. +But we must here observe, that these works of darkness frequently +circulate through all Europe; they are sold at the fairs of Frankfort +and Leipsic, and the whole of the North is overrun with them. +Foreigners, who are not well informed, derive from books of this +description their knowledge of modern history. German authors are not +always sufficiently on their guard against memoirs of this character, +but employ them as materials; which has been the case with the memoirs +of Pontis, Montbrun, Rochefort, and Pordac; with all the pretended +political testaments of ministers of state, which have proceeded from +the pen of forgery; with the "Royal Tenth" of Boisguillebert, impudently +published under the name of Marshal Vauban; and with innumerable +compilations of _anas_ and anecdotes. + +History is sometimes even still more shamefully abused in England. As +there are always two parties in furious hostility against each other, +until some common danger for a season unites them, the writers of one +faction condemn everything that the others approve. The same individual +is represented as a Cato and a Catiline. How is truth to be extricated +from this adulation and satire? Perhaps there is only one rule to be +depended upon, which is, to believe all the good which the historian of +a party ventures to allow to the leaders of the opposite faction; and +all the ills which he ventures to impute to the chiefs of his own--a +rule, of which neither party can severely complain. + +With regard to memoirs actually written by agents in the events +recorded, as those of Clarendon, Ludlow, and Burnet, in England, and de +la Rochefoucauld and de Retz in France, if they agree, they are true; if +they contradict each other, doubt them. + +With respect to _anas_ and anecdotes, there may perhaps be one in a +hundred of them that contain some shadow of truth. + + +SECTION IV. + +_Of the Method or Manner of Writing History, and of Style._ + +We have said so much upon this subject, that we must here say very +little. It is sufficiently known and fully admitted, that the method and +style of Livy--his gravity, and instructive eloquence, are suitable to +the majesty of the Roman republic; that Tacitus is more calculated to +portray tyrants, Polybius to give lessons on war, and Dionysius of +Halicarnassus to investigate antiquities. + +But, while he forms himself on the general model of these great masters, +a weighty responsibility is attached to the modern historian from which +they were exempt. He is required to give more minute details, facts more +completely authenticated, correct dates, precise authorities, more +attention to customs, laws, manners, commerce, finance, agriculture, and +population. It is with history, as it is with mathematics and natural +philosophy; the field of it is immensely enlarged. The more easy it is +to compile newspapers, the more difficult it is at the present day to +write history. + +Daniel thought himself a historian, because he transcribed dates and +narratives of battles, of which I can understand nothing. He should have +informed me of the rights of the nation, the rights of the chief +corporate establishments in it; its laws, usages, manners, with the +alterations by which they have been affected in the progress of time. +This nation might not improperly address him in some such language as +the following:--I want from you my own history rather than that of Louis +le Gros and Louis Hutin; you tell me, copying from some old, +unauthenticated, and carelessly-written chronicle, that when Louis VIII. +was attacked by a mortal disease, and lay languishing and powerless, the +physicians ordered the more than half-dead monarch to take to his bed a +blooming damsel, who might cherish the few sparks of remaining life; and +that the pious king rejected the unholy advice with indignation. Alas! +Daniel, you are unacquainted, it seems, with the Italian +proverb--"_Donna ignuda manda l'uomo sotto la terra_." You ought to +possess a little stronger tincture of political and natural history. + +The history of a foreign country should be formed on a different model +to that of our own. + +If we compose a history of France, we are under no necessity to describe +the course of the Seine and the Loire; but if we publish a history of +the conquests of the Portuguese in Asia, a topographical description of +the recently explored country is required. It is desirable that we +should, as it were, conduct the reader by the hand round Africa, and +along the coasts of Persia and India; and it is expected that we should +treat with information and judgment, of manners, laws, and customs so +new to Europe. + +We have a great variety of histories of the establishment of the +Portuguese in India, written by our countrymen, but not one of them has +made us acquainted with the different governments of that country, with +its religious antiquities, Brahmins, disciples of St. John, Guebers, and +Banians. Some letters of Xavier and his successors have, it is true, +been preserved to us. We have had histories of the Indies composed at +Paris, from the accounts of those missionaries who were unacquainted +with the language of the Brahmins. We have it repeated, in a hundred +works, that the Indians worship the devil. The chaplains of a company of +merchants quit our country under these impressions, and, as soon as they +perceive on the coast some symbolical figures, they fail not to write +home that they are the portraits and likenesses of the devil, that they +are in the devil's empire, and that they are going to engage in battle +with him. They do not reflect that we are the real worshippers of the +devil Mammon, and that we travel six thousand leagues from our native +land to offer our vows at his shrine, and to obtain the grant of some +portion of his treasures. + +As to those who hire themselves out at Paris to some bookseller in the +Rue de St. Jacques, and at so much per job, and who are ordered to write +a history of Japan, Canada, or the Canaries, as the case requires and +opportunity suggests, from the memoirs of a few Capuchin friars--to such +I have nothing to say. + +It is sufficient, if it be clearly understood, that the method which +would be proper in writing a history of our own country is not suitable +in describing the discoveries of the new world; that we should not write +on a small city as on a great empire; and that the private history of a +prince should be composed in a very different manner from the history of +France and England. + +If you have nothing to tell us, but that on the banks of the Oxus and +the Jaxartes, one barbarian has been succeeded by another barbarian, in +what respect do you benefit the public? + +These rules are well known; but the art of writing history well will +always be very uncommon. It obviously requires a style grave, pure, +varied, and smooth. But we may say with respect to rules for writing +history, as in reference to those for all the intellectual arts--there +are many precepts, but few masters. + + +SECTION V. + +_History of the Jewish Kings, and of the "Paralipomena."_ + +Every nation, as soon as it was able to write, has written its own +history, and the Jews have accordingly written theirs. Before they had +kings, they lived under a theocracy; it was their destiny to be governed +by God himself. + +When the Jews were desirous of having a king, like the adjoining +nations, the prophet Samuel, who was exceedingly interested in +preventing it, declared to them, on the part of God, that they were +rejecting God himself. Thus the Jewish theocracy ceased when the +monarchy commenced. + +We may therefore remark, without the imputation of blasphemy, that the +history of the Jewish kings was written like that of other nations, and +that God did not take the pains Himself to dictate the history of a +people whom He no longer governed. + +We advance this opinion with the greatest diffidence. What may perhaps +be considered as confirming it, is, that the "Paralipomena" very +frequently contradict the Book of Kings, both with respect to chronology +and facts, just as profane historians sometimes contradict one another. +Moreover, if God always wrote the history of the Jews, it seems only +consistent and natural to think that He writes it still; for the Jews +are always His cherished people. They are on some future day to be +converted, and it seems that whenever that event happens, they will have +as complete a right to consider the history of their dispersion as +sacred, as they have now to say, that God wrote the history of their +kings. + +We may be allowed here to make one reflection; which is, that as God was +for a very long period their king, and afterwards became their +historian, we are bound to entertain for all Jews the most profound +respect. There is not a single Jew broker, or slop-man, who is not +infinitely superior to Cæsar and Alexander. How can we avoid bending in +prostration before an old-clothes man, who proves to us that his history +has been written by God Himself, while the histories of Greece and Rome +have been transmitted to us merely by the profane hand of man? + +If the style of the history of the kings, and of the "Paralipomena," is +divine, it may nevertheless be true that the acts recorded in these +histories are not divine. David murders Uriah; Ishbosheth and +Mephibosheth are murdered; Absalom murders Ammon; Joab murders Absalom; +Solomon murders his brother Adonijah; Baasha murders Nadab; Zimri +murders Ela; Omri murders Zimri; Ahab murders Naboth; Jehu murders Ahab +and Joram; the inhabitants of Jerusalem murder Amaziah, son of Joash; +Shallum, son of Jabesh, murders Zachariah, son of Jeroboam; Menahhem +murders Shallum, son of Jabesh; Pekah, son of Remaliah, murders +Pekahiah, son of Manehem; and Hoshea, son of Elah, murders Pekah, son of +Remaliah. We pass over, in silence, many other minor murders. It must be +acknowledged, that, if the Holy Spirit did write this history, He did +not choose a subject particularly edifying. + + +SECTION VI. + +_Of bad Actions which have been consecrated or excused in History._ + +It is but too common for historians to praise very depraved and +abandoned characters, who have done service either to a dominant sect, +or to their nation at large. The praises thus bestowed, come perhaps +from a loyal and zealous citizen; but zeal of this description is +injurious to the great society of mankind. Romulus murders his brother, +and he is made a god. Constantine cuts the throat of his son, strangles +his wife, and murders almost all his family: he has been eulogized in +general councils, but history should ever hold up such barbarities to +detestation. It is undoubtedly fortunate for us that Clovis was a +Catholic. It is fortunate for the Anglican church that Henry VIII. +abolished monks, but we must at the same time admit that Clovis and +Henry VIII. were monsters of cruelty. + +When first the Jesuit Berruyer, who although a Jesuit, was a fool, +undertook to paraphrase the Old and New Testaments in the style of the +lowest populace, with no other intention than that of having them read; +he scattered some flowers of rhetoric over the two-edged knife which the +Jew Ehud thrust up to the hilt in the stomach of the king Eglon; and +over the sabre with which Judith cut off the head of Holofernes after +having prostituted herself to his pleasures; and also over many other +acts recorded, of a similar description. The parliament, respecting the +Bible which narrates these histories, nevertheless condemned the Jesuit +who extolled them, and ordered the Old and New Testaments to be +burned:--I mean merely those of the Jesuit. + +But as the judgments of mankind are ever different in similar cases, the +same thing happened to Bayle in circumstances totally different. He was +condemned for not praising all the actions of David, king of the +province of Judæa. A man of the name of Jurieu, a refugee preacher in +Holland, associated with some other refugee preachers, were desirous of +obliging him to recant. But how could he recant with reference to facts +delivered in the scripture? Had not Bayle some reason to conclude that +all the facts recorded in the Jewish books are not the actions of +saints; that David, like other men, had committed some criminal acts; +and that if he is called a man after God's own heart, he is called so in +consequence of his penitence, and not of his crimes? + +Let us disregard names and confine our consideration to things only. Let +us suppose, that during the reign of Henry IV. a clergyman of the League +party secretly poured out a phial of oil on the head of a shepherd of +Brie; that the shepherd comes to court; that the clergyman presents him +to Henry IV. as an excellent violin player who can completely drive away +all care and melancholy; that the king makes him his equerry, and +bestows on him one of his daughters in marriage; that afterwards, the +king having quarrelled with the shepherd, the latter takes refuge with +one of the princes of Germany, his father-in-law's enemy; that he +enlists and arms six hundred banditti overwhelmed by debt and +debauchery; that with this regiment of brigands he rushes to the field, +slays friends as well as enemies, exterminating all, even to women with +children at the breast, in order to prevent a single individual's +remaining to give intelligence of the horrid butchery. I farther suppose +this same shepherd of Brie to become king of France after the death of +Henry IV.; that he procures the murder of that king's grandson, after +having invited him to sit at meat at his own table, and delivers over to +death seven other younger children of his king and benefactor. Who is +the man that will not conceive the shepherd of Brie to act rather +harshly? + +Commentators are agreed that the adultery of David, and his murder of +Uriah, are faults which God pardoned. We may therefore conclude that the +massacres above mentioned are faults which God also pardoned. + +However, Bayle had no quarter given him; but at length some preachers at +London having compared George II. to David, one of that monarch's +servants prints and publishes a small book, in which he censures the +comparison. He examines the whole conduct of David; he goes infinitely +farther than Bayle, and treats David with more severity than Tacitus +applies to Domitian. This book did not raise in England the slightest +murmur; every reader felt that bad actions are always bad; that God may +pardon them when repentance is proportioned to guilt, but that certainly +no man can ever approve of them. + +There was more reason, therefore, prevailing in England than there was +in Holland in the time of Bayle. We now perceive clearly and without +difficulty, that we ought not to hold up as a model of sanctity what, in +fact, deserves the severest punishment; and we see with equal clearness +that, as we ought not to consecrate guilt, so we ought not to believe +absurdity. + + + + +HONOR. + + +The author of the "Spirit of Laws" has founded his system on the idea +that virtue is the principle of a republican government, and honor that +of mom archism. Is there virtue then without honor, and how is a +republic established in virtue? + +Let us place before the reader's eyes that which has been said in an +able little book upon this subject. Pamphlets soon sink into oblivion. +Truth ought not to be lost; it should be consigned to works possessing +durability. + +"Assuredly republics have never been formed on a theoretical principle +of virtue. The public interest being opposed to the domination of an +individual, the spirit of self-importance, and the ambition of every +person, serve to curb ambition and the inclination to rapacity, wherever +they may appear. The pride of each citizen watches over that of his +neighbor, and no person would willingly be the slave of another's +caprice. Such are the feelings which establish republics, and which +preserve them. It is ridiculous to imagine that there must be more +virtue in a Grison than in a Spaniard." + +That honor can be the sole principle of monarchies is a no less +chimerical idea, and the author shows it to be so himself, without being +aware of it. "The nature of honor," says he, in chapter vii. of book +iii., "is to demand preferences and distinctions. It, therefore, +naturally suits a monarchical government." + +Was it not on this same principle, that the Romans demanded the +prætorship, consulship, ovation, and triumph in their republic? These +were preferences and distinctions well worth the titles and preferences +purchased in monarchies, and for which there is often a regular fixed +price. + +This remark proves, in our opinion, that the "Spirit of Laws," although +sparkling with wit, and commendable by its respect for the laws and +hatred of superstition and rapine, is founded entirely upon false views. + +Let us add, that it is precisely in courts that there is always least +honor: + + _L'ingannare, il mentir, la frode, il furto,_ + _E la rapina di pictà vestita,_ + _Crescer coi damno e precipizio altrui,_ + _E fare a se de l'altrui biasmo onore,_ + _Son le virtù di quella gente infidà._ + --PASTOR FIDO, atto v., scena i. + + _Ramper avec bassesse en affectant l'audace,_ + _S'engraisser de rapine en attestant les lois,_ + _Étouffer en secret son ami qu'on embrasse._ + _Voilà l'honneur qui règne à la suite des rois._ + + To basely crawl, yet wear a face of pride; + To rob the public, yet o'er law preside; + Salute a friend, yet sting in the embrace-- + Such is the _honor_ which in courts takes place. + +Indeed, it is in courts, that men devoid of honor often attain to the +highest dignities; and it is in republics that a known dishonorable +citizen is seldom trusted by the people with public concerns. + +The celebrated saying of the regent, duke of Orleans, is sufficient to +destroy the foundation of the "Spirit of Laws": "This is a perfect +courtier--he has neither temper nor honor." + + + + +HUMILITY. + + +Philosophers have inquired, whether humility is a virtue; but virtue or +not, every one must agree that nothing is more rare. The Greeks called +it "_tapeinosis_" or "tapeineia." It is strongly recommended in the +fourth book of the "Laws of Plato": he rejects the proud and would +multiply the humble. + +Epictetus, in five places, preaches humility: "If thou passest for a +person of consequence in the opinion of some people, distrust thyself. +No lifting up of thy eye-brows. Be nothing in thine own eyes--if thou +seekest to please, thou art lost. Give place to all men; prefer them to +thyself; assist them all." We see by these maxims that never Capuchin +went so far as Epictetus. + +Some theologians, who had the misfortune to be proud, have pretended +that humility cost nothing to Epictetus, who was a slave; and that he +was humble by station, as a doctor or a Jesuit may be proud by station. + +But what will they say of Marcus Antoninus, who on the throne +recommended humility? He places Alexander and his muleteer on the same +line. He said that the vanity of pomp is only a bone thrown in the midst +of dogs; that to do good, and to patiently hear himself calumniated, +constitute the virtue of a king. + +Thus the master of the known world recommended humility; but propose +humility to a musician, and see how he will laugh at Marcus Aurelius. + +Descartes, in his treatise on the "Passions of the Soul," places +humility among their number, who--if we may personify this quality--did +not expect to be regarded as a passion. He also distinguishes between +virtuous and vicious humility. + +But we leave to philosophers more enlightened than ourselves the care of +explaining this doctrine, and will confine ourselves to saying, that +humility is "the modesty of the soul." + +It is the antidote to pride. Humility could not prevent Rousseau from +believing that he knew more of music than those to whom he taught it; +but it could induce him to believe that he was not superior to Lulli in +recitative. + +The reverend father Viret, cordelier, theologian, and preacher, all +humble as he is, will always firmly believe that he knows more than +those who learn to read and write; but his Christian humility, his +modesty of soul, will oblige him to confess in the bottom of his heart +that he has written nothing but nonsense. Oh, brothers Nonnotte, Guyon, +Pantouillet, vulgar scribblers! be more humble, and always bear in +recollection "the modesty of the soul." + + + + +HYPATIA. + + +I will suppose that Madame Dacier had been the finest woman in Paris; +and that in the quarrel on the comparative merits of the ancients and +moderns, the Carmelites pretended that the poem of the Magdalen, written +by a Carmelite, was infinitely superior to Homer, and that it was an +atrocious impiety to prefer the "Iliad" to the verses of a monk. I will +take the additional liberty of supposing that the archbishop of Paris +took the part of the Carmelites against the governor of the city, a +partisan of the beautiful Madame Dacier, and that he excited the +Carmelites to massacre this fine woman in the church of Notre Dame, and +to drag her, naked and bloody, to the Place Maubert--would not everybody +say that the archbishop of Paris had done a very wicked action, for +which he ought to do penance? + +This is precisely the history of Hypatia. She taught Homer and Plato, in +Alexandria, in the time of Theodosius II. St. Cyril incensed the +Christian populace against her, as it is related by Damasius and Suidas, +and clearly proved by the most learned men of the age, such as Bruker, +La Croze, and Basnage, as is very judiciously exposed in the great +"_Dictionnaire Encyclopédique_," in the article on "Éclectisme." + +A man whose intentions are no doubt very good, has printed two volumes +against this article of the "Encyclopædia." Two volumes against two +pages, my friends, are too much. I have told you a hundred times you +multiply being without necessity. Two lines against two volumes would be +quite sufficient; but write not even these two lines. + +I am content with remarking, that St. Cyril was a man of parts; that he +suffered his zeal to carry him too far; that when we strip beautiful +women, it is not to massacre them; that St. Cyril, no doubt, asked +pardon of God for this abominable action; and that I pray the father of +mercies to have pity on his soul. He wrote the two volumes against +"Éclectisme," also inspires me with infinite commiseration. + + + + +IDEA. + + +SECTION I. + +What is an idea? + +It is an image painted upon my brain. + +Are all your thoughts, then, images? + +Certainly; for the most abstract thoughts are only the consequences of +all the objects that I have perceived. I utter the word "being" in +general, only because I have known particular beings; I utter the word +"infinity," only because I have seen certain limits, and because I push +back those limits in my mind to a greater and still greater distance, as +far as I am able. I have ideas in my head only because I have images. + +And who is the painter of this picture? + +It is not myself; I cannot draw with sufficient skill; the being that +made me, makes my ideas. + +And how do you know that the ideas are not made by yourself? + +Because they frequently come to me involuntarily when I am awake, and +always without my consent when I dream. + +You are persuaded, then, that your ideas belong to you only in the same +manner as your hairs, which grow and become white, and fall off, without +your having anything at all to do with the matter? + +Nothing can possibly be clearer; all that I can do is to frizzle, cut, +and powder them; but I have nothing to do with producing them. + +You must, then, I imagine, be of Malebranche's opinion, that we see all +in God? + +I am at least certain of this, that if we do not see things in the Great +Being, we see them in consequence of His powerful and immediate action. + +And what was the nature or process of this action? + +I have already told you repeatedly, in the course of our conversation, +that I do not know a single syllable about the subject, and that God has +not communicated His secret to any one. I am completely ignorant of that +which makes my heart beat, and my blood flow through my veins; I am +ignorant of the principle of all my movements, and yet you seem to +expect how I should explain how I feel and how I think. Such an +expectation is unreasonable. + +But you at least know whether your faculty of having ideas is joined to +extension? + +Not in the least; It is true that Tatian, in his discourse to the +Greeks, says the soul is evidently composed of a body. Irenæus, in the +twenty-sixth chapter of his second book, says, "The Lord has taught that +our souls preserve the figure of our body in order to retain the memory +of it." Tertullian asserts, in his second book on the soul, that it is a +body. Arnobius, Lactantius, Hilary, Gregory of Nyssa, and Ambrose, are +precisely of the same opinion. It is pretended that other fathers of the +Church assert that the soul is without extension, and that in this +respect they adopt the opinion of Plato; this, however, may well be +doubted. With respect to myself, I dare not venture to form an opinion; +I see nothing but obscurity and incomprehensibility in either system; +and, after a whole life's meditation on the subject, I am not advanced a +single step beyond where I was on the first day. + +The subject, then, was not worth thinking about? + +That is true; the man who enjoys knows more of it, or at least knows it +better, than he who reflects; he is more happy. But what is it that you +would have? It depended not, I repeat, upon myself whether I should +admit or reject all those ideas which have crowded into my brain in +conflict with each other, and actually converted my medullary magazine +into their field of battle. After a hard-fought contest between them, I +have obtained nothing but uncertainty from the spoils. + +It is a melancholy thing to possess so many ideas, and yet to have no +precise knowledge of the nature of ideas? + +It is, I admit; but it is much more melancholy, and inexpressibly more +foolish, for a man to believe he knows what in fact he does not. + +But, if you do not positively know what an idea is, if you are ignorant +whence ideas come, you at least know by what they come? + +Yes; just in the same way as the ancient Egyptians, who, without knowing +the source of the Nile, knew perfectly well that its waters reached them +by its bed. We know perfectly that ideas come to us by the senses; but +we never know whence they come. The source of this Nile will never be +discovered. + +If it is certain that all ideas are given by means of the senses, why +does the Sorbonne, which has so long adopted this doctrine from +Aristotle, condemn it with so much virulence in Helvetius? + +Because the Sorbonne is composed of theologians. + + +SECTION II. + +_All in God._ + +In God we live and move and have our being. + --ST. PAUL, Acts xvii, 28. + + +Aratus, who is thus quoted and approved by St. Paul, made this +confession of faith, we perceive among the Greeks. + +The virtuous Cato says the same thing: "_Jupiter est quodcumque vides +quocumque moveris_."--Lucan's "_Pharsalia_" ix, 580. "Whate'er we see, +whate'er we feel, is Jove." + +Malebranche is the commentator on Aratus, St. Paul, and Cato. He +succeeded, in the first instance, in showing the errors of the senses +and imagination; but when he attempted to develop the grand system, that +all is in God, all his readers declared the commentary to be more +obscure than the text. In short, having plunged into this abyss, his +head became bewildered; he held conversations with the Word; he was made +acquainted with what the Word had done in other planets; he became, in +truth, absolutely mad; a circumstance well calculated to excite +apprehension in our own minds, apt as we some of us are to attempt +soaring, upon our weak and puny opinions, very far beyond our reach. + +In order to comprehend the notion of Malebranche, such as he held it +while he retained his faculties, we must admit nothing that we do not +clearly conceive, and reject what we do not understand. Attempting to +explain an obscurity by obscurities, is to act like an idiot. + +I feel decidedly that my first ideas and my sensations have come to me +without any co-operation or volition on my part. I clearly see that I +cannot give myself a single idea. I cannot give myself anything. I have +received everything. The objects which surround me cannot, of +themselves, give me either idea or sensation; for how is it possible for +a little particle of matter to possess the faculty of producing a +thought? + +I am therefore irresistibly led to conclude that the Eternal Being, who +bestows everything, gives me my ideas, in whatever manner this may be +done. But what is an idea, what is a sensation, a volition, etc.? It is +myself perceiving, myself feeling, myself willing. + +We see, in short, that what is called an idea is no more a real being +than there is a real being called motion, although there are bodies +moved. In the same manner there is not any particular being called +memory, imagination, judgment; but we ourselves remember, imagine, and +judge. + +The truth of all this, it must be allowed, is sufficiently plain and +trite; but it is necessary to repeat and inculcate such truth, as the +opposite errors are more trite still. + +_Laws of Nature._ + +How, let us now ask, would the Eternal Being, who formed all, produce +all those various modes or qualities which we perceive in organized +bodies? + +Did He introduce two beings in a grain of wheat, one of which should +produce germination in the other? Did He introduce two beings in the +composition of a stag, one of which should produce swiftness in the +other? Certainly not. All that we know on the subject is that the grain +is endowed with the faculty of vegetating, and the stag with that of +speed. + +There is evidently a grand mathematical principle directing all nature, +and affecting everything produced. The flying of birds, the swimming of +fishes, the walking or running of quadrupeds, are visible effects of +known laws of motion. "_Mens agitat molem_." Can the sensations and +ideas of those animals, then, be anything more than the admirable +effects or mathematical laws more refined and less obvious? + +_Organisation of the Senses and Ideas._ + +It is by these general and comprehensive laws that every animal is +impelled to seek its appropriate food. We are naturally, therefore, led +to conjecture that there is a law by which it has the idea of this food, +and without which it would not go in search of it. + +The eternal intelligence has made all the actions of an animal depend +upon a certain principle; the eternal intelligence, therefore, has made +the sensations which cause those actions depend on the same principle. + +Would the author of nature have disposed and adjusted those admirable +instruments, the senses, with so divine a skill; would he have exhibited +such astonishing adaptation between the eyes and light; between the +atmosphere and the ears, had it, after all, been necessary to call in +the assistance of other agency to complete his work? Nature always acts +by the shortest ways. Protracted processes indicate want of skill; +multiplicity of springs, and complexity of co-operation are the result +of weakness. We cannot but believe, therefore, that one main spring +regulates the whole system. + +_The Great Being Does Everything._ + +Not merely are we unable to give ourselves sensations, we cannot even +imagine any beyond those which we have actually experienced. Let all the +academies of Europe propose a premium for him who shall imagine a new +sense; no one will ever gain that premium. We can do nothing, then, of +our mere selves, whether there be an invisible and intangible being +enclosed in our brain or diffused throughout our body, or whether there +be not; and it must be admitted, upon every system, that the author of +nature has given us all that we possess--organs, sensations, and the +ideas which proceed from them. + +As we are thus secured under His forming hand, Malebranche, +notwithstanding all his errors, had reason to say philosophically, that +we are in God and that we see all in God; as St. Paul used the same +language in a theological sense, and Aratus and Cato in a moral one. + +What then are we to understand by the words seeing all in God? They are +either words destitute of meaning, or they mean that God gives us all +our ideas. + +What is the meaning of receiving an idea? We do not create it when we +receive it; it is not, therefore, so unphilosophical as has been +thought, to say it is God who produces the ideas in my head, as it is He +who produces motion in my whole body. Everything is an operation of God +upon His creatures. + +_How is Everything an Action of God?_ + +There is in nature only one universal, eternal, and active principle. +There cannot be two such principles; for they would either be alike or +different. If they are different, they destroy one another; if they are +alike, it is the same as if they were only one. The unity of design, +visible through the grand whole in all its infinite variety, announces +one single principle, and that principle must act upon all being, or it +ceases to be a universal opinion. + +If it acts upon all being, it acts upon all the modes of all being. +There is not, therefore, a single remnant, a single mode, a single idea, +which is not the immediate effect of a universal cause perpetually +present. + +The matter of the universe, therefore, belongs to God, as much as the +ideas and the ideas as much as the matter. To say that anything is out +of Him would be saying that there is something out of the vast whole. +God being the universal principle of all things, all, therefore, exists +in Him, and by Him. + +The system includes that of "physical premotion," but in the same manner +as an immense wheel includes a small one that endeavors to fly off from +it. The principle which we have just been unfolding is too vast to admit +of any particular and detailed view. + +Physical premotion occupies the great supreme with all the changing +vagaries which take place in the head of an individual Jansenist or +Molinist; we, on the contrary, occupy the Being of Beings only with the +grand and general laws of the universe. Physical premotion makes five +propositions a matter of attention and occupation to God, which interest +only some lay-sister, the sweeper of a convent; while we attribute to +Him employment of the most simple and important description--the +arrangement of the whole system of the universe. + +Physical premotion is founded upon that subtle and truly Grecian +principle, that if a thinking being can give himself an idea, he would +augment his existence; but we do not, for our parts, know what is meant +by augmenting our being. We comprehend nothing about the matter. We say +that a thinking being might give himself new modes without adding to his +existence; just in the same manner as when we dance, our sliding steps +and crossings and attitudes give us no new existence; and to suppose +they do so would appear completely absurd. We agree only so far in the +system of physical premotion, that we are convinced we give ourselves +nothing. + +Both the system of premotion and our own are abused, as depriving men of +their liberty. God forbid we should advocate such deprivation. To do +away with this imputation, it is only necessary to understand the +meaning of the word liberty. We shall speak of it in its proper place; +and in the meantime the world will go on as it has gone on hitherto, +without the Thomists or their opponents, or all the disputants in the +world, having any power to change it. In the same manner we shall always +have ideas, without precisely knowing what an idea is. + + + + +IDENTITY. + + +This scientific term signifies no more than "the same thing." It might +be correctly translated by "sameness." This subject is of considerably +more interest than may be imagined. All agree that the guilty person +only ought to be punished--the individual perpetrator, and no other. But +a man fifty years of age is not in reality the same individual as the +man of twenty; he retains no longer any of the parts which then formed +his body; and if he has lost the memory of past events, it is certain +that there is nothing left to unite his actual existence to an existence +which to him is lost. + +I am the same person only by the consciousness of what I have been +combined with that of what I am; I have no consciousness of my past +being but through memory; memory alone, therefore, establishes the +identity, the sameness of my person. + +We may, in truth, be naturally and aptly resembled to a river, all whose +waters pass away in perpetual change and flow. It is the same river as +to its bed, its banks, its source, its mouth, everything, in short, that +is not itself; but changing every moment its waters, which constitute +its very being, it has no identity; there is no sameness belonging to +the river. + +Were there another Xerxes like him who lashed the Hellespont for +disobedience, and ordered for it a pair of handcuffs; and were the son +of this Xerxes to be drowned in the Euphrates, and the father desirous +of punishing that river for the death of his son, the Euphrates might +very reasonably say in its vindication: "Blame the waves that were +rolling on at the time your son was bathing; those waves belong not to +me, and form no part of me; they have passed on to the Persian Gulf; a +part is mixed with the salt water of that sea, and another part, exhaled +in vapor, has been impelled by a south-east wind to Gaul, and been +incorporated with endives and lettuces, which the Gauls have since used +in their salads; seize the culprit where you can find him." + +It is the same with a tree, a branch of which broken by the wind might +have fractured the skull of your great grandfather. It is no longer the +same tree; all its parts have given way to others. The branch which +killed your great grandfather is no part of this tree; it exists no +longer. + +It has been asked, then, how a man, who has totally lost his memory +before his death, and whose members have been changed into other +substances, can be punished for his faults or rewarded for his virtues +when he is no longer himself? I have read in a well known book the +following question and answer: + +"Question. How can I be either rewarded or punished when I shall no +longer exist; when there will be nothing remaining of that which +constituted my person? It is only by means of memory that I am always +myself; after my death, a miracle will be necessary to restore it to +me--to enable me to reenter upon my lost existence. + +"Answer. That is just as much as to say that if a prince had put to +death his whole family, in order to reign himself, and if he had +tyrannized over his subjects with the most wanton cruelty, he would be +exempted from punishment on pleading before God, 'I am not the offender; +I have lost my memory; you are under a mistake; I am no longer the same +person.' Do you think this sophism would pass with God?" + +This answer is a highly commendable one; but it does not completely +solve the difficulty. + +It would be necessary for this purpose, in the first place, to know +whether understanding and sensation are a faculty given by God to man, +or a created substance; a question which philosophy is too weak and +uncertain to decide. + +It is necessary in the next place to know whether, if the soul be a +substance and has lost all knowledge of the evil it has committed, and +be, moreover, as perfect a stranger to what it has done with its own +body, as to all the other bodies of our universe--whether, in these +circumstances, it can or should, according to our manner of reasoning, +answer in another universe for actions of which it has not the slightest +knowledge; whether, in fact, a miracle would not be necessary to impart +to this soul the recollection it no longer possesses, to render it +consciously present to the crimes which have become obliterated and +annihilated in its mind, and make it the same person that it was on +earth; or whether God will judge it nearly in the same way in which the +presidents of human tribunals proceed, condemning a criminal, although +he may have completely forgotten the crimes he has actually committed. +He remembers them no longer; but they are remembered for him; he is +punished for the sake of the example. But God cannot punish a man after +his death with a view to his being an example to the living. No living +man knows whether the deceased is condemned or absolved. God, therefore, +can punish him only because he cherished and accomplished evil desires; +but if, when after death he presents himself before the tribunal of God, +he no longer entertains any such desire; if for a period of twenty years +he has totally forgotten that he did entertain such; if he is no longer +in any respect the same person; what is it that God will punish in him? + +These are questions which appear beyond the compass of the human +understanding, and there seems to exist a necessity, in these +intricacies and labyrinths, of recurring to faith alone, which is always +our last asylum. + +Lucretius had partly felt these difficulties, when in his third book +(verses 890-91) he describes a man trembling at the idea of what will +happen to him when he will no longer be the same man: + + _Nec radicitus e vita se tollit et evit;_ + _Sed facit esse sui quiddam super inscius ipse._ + +But Lucretius is not the oracle to be addressed, in order to obtain any +discoveries of the future. + +The celebrated Toland, who wrote his own epitaph, concluded it with +these words: "_Idem futurus Tolandus nunquam_"--"He will never again be +the same Toland." + +However, it may be presumed that God would have well known how to find +and restore him, had such been his good pleasure; and it is to be +presumed, also, that the being who necessarily exists, is necessarily +good. + + + + +IDOL--IDOLATER--IDOLATRY. + + +SECTION I. + +Idol is derived from the Greek word "_eidos_," figure; "_eidolos_," the +representation of a figure, and "_latreuein_," to serve, revere, or +adore. + +It does not appear that there was ever any people on earth who took the +name of idolaters. This word is an offence, an insulting term, like that +of "_gavache_," which the Spaniards formerly gave to the French; and +that of "_maranes_," which the French gave to the Spaniards in return. +If we had demanded of the senate of the Areopagus of Athens, or at the +court of the kings of Persia: "Are you idolaters?" they would scarcely +have understood the question. None would have answered: "We adore images +and idols." This word, idolater, idolatry, is found neither in Homer, +Hesiod, Herodotus, nor any other author of the religion of the Gentiles. +There was never any edict, any law, which commanded that idols should be +adored; that they should be treated as gods and regarded as gods. + +When the Roman and Carthaginian captains made a treaty, they called all +their gods to witness. "It is in their presence," said they, "that we +swear peace." Yet the statues of these gods, whose number was very +great, were not in the tents of the generals. They regarded, or +pretended to regard, the gods as present at the actions of men as +witnesses and judges. And assuredly it was not the image which +constituted the divinity. + +In what view, therefore, did they see the statues of their false gods in +the temples? With the same view, if we may so express ourselves, that +the Catholics see the images, the object of _their_ veneration. The +error was not in adoring a piece of wood or marble, but in adoring a +false divinity, represented by this wood and marble. The difference +between them and the Catholics is, not that they had images, and the +Catholics had none; the difference is, that their images represented the +fantastic beings of a false religion, and that the Christian images +represent real beings in a true religion. The Greeks had the statue of +Hercules, and we have that of St. Christopher; they had Æsculapius and +his goat, we have St. Roch and his dog; they had Mars and his lance, and +we have St. Anthony of Padua and St. James of Compostella. + +When the consul Pliny addresses prayers to the immortal gods in the +exordium of the panegyric of Trajan, it is not to images that he +addresses them. These images were not immortal. + +Neither the latest nor the most remote times of paganism offer a single +fact which can lead to the conclusion that they adored idols. Homer +speaks only of the gods who inhabited the high Olympus. The palladium, +although fallen from heaven, was only a sacred token of the protection +of Pallas; it was herself that was venerated in the palladium. It was +our ampoule, or holy oil. + +But the Romans and Greeks knelt before their statues, gave them crowns, +incense, and flowers, and carried them in triumph in the public places. +The Catholics have sanctified these customs, and yet are not called +idolaters. + +The women in times of drouth carried the statues of the Gods after +having fasted. They walked barefooted with dishevelled hair, and it +quickly rained bucketfuls, says Pretonius: "_Et statim urceatim +pluebat_." Has not this custom been consecrated; illegitimate indeed +among the Gentiles, but legitimate among the Catholics? In how many +towns are not images carried to obtain the blessings of heaven through +their intercession? If a Turk, or a learned Chinese, were a witness of +these ceremonies, he would, through ignorance, accuse the Italians of +putting their trust in the figures which they thus promenade in +possession. + + +SECTION II. + +_Examination of the Ancient Idolatry._ + +From the time of Charles I., the Catholic religion was declared +idolatrous in England. All the Presbyterians are persuaded that the +Catholics adore bread, which they eat, and figures, which are the work +of their sculptors and painters. With that which one part of Europe +reproaches the Catholics, they themselves reproach the Gentiles. + +We are surprised at the prodigious number of declamations uttered in all +times against the idolatry of the Romans and Greeks; and we are +afterwards still more surprised when we see that they were not +idolaters. + +They had some temples more privileged than others. The great Diana of +Ephesus had more reputation than a village Diana. There were more +miracles performed in the temple of Æsculapius at Epidaurus, than in any +other of his temples. The statue of the Olympian Jupiter attracted more +offerings than that of the Paphlagonian Jupiter. But to oppose the +customs of a true religion to those of a false one, have we not for +several ages had more devotion to certain altars than to others? + +Has not Our Lady of Loretto been preferred to Our Lady of Neiges, to +that of Ardens, of Hall, etc.? That is not saying there is more virtue +in a statue at Loretto than in a statue of the village of Hall, but we +have felt more devotion to the one than to the other; we have believed +that she whom we invoked, at the feet of her statues, would condescend, +from the height of heaven, to diffuse more favors and to work more +miracles in Loretto than in Hall. This multiplicity of images of the +same person also proves that it is the images that we revere, and that +the worship relates to the person who is represented; for it is not +possible that every image can be the same thing. There are a thousand +images of St. Francis, which have no resemblance to him, and which do +not resemble one another; and all indicate a single Saint Francis, +invoked, on the day of his feast, by those who are devoted to this +saint. + +It was precisely the same with the pagans, who supposed the existence +only of a single divinity, a single Apollo, and not as many Apollos and +Dianas as they had temples and statues. It is therefore proved, as much +as history can prove anything, that the ancients believed not the statue +to be a divinity; that worship was not paid to this statue or image, and +consequently that they were not idolaters. It is for us to ascertain how +far the imputation has been a mere pretext to accuse them of idolatry. + +A gross and superstitious populace who reason not, and who know neither +how to doubt, deny, or believe; who visit the temples out of idleness, +and because the lowly are there equal to the great; who make their +contributions because it is the custom; who speak continually of +miracles without examining any of them; and who are very little in point +of intellect beyond the brutes whom they sacrifice--such a people, I +repeat, in the sight of the great Diana, or of Jupiter the Thunderer, +may well be seized with a religious horror, and adore, without +consciousness, the statue itself. This is what happens now and then, in +our own churches, to our ignorant peasantry, who, however, are informed +that it is the blessed mortals received into heaven whose intercession +they solicit, and not that of images of wood and stone. + +The Greeks and Romans augment the number of their gods by their +apotheoses. The Greeks deified conquerors like Bacchus, Hercules, and +Perseus. Rome devoted altars to her emperors. Our apotheoses are of a +different kind; we have infinitely more saints than they have secondary +gods, but we pay respect neither to rank nor to conquest. We consecrate +temples to the simply virtuous, who would have been unknown on earth if +they had not been placed in heaven. The apotheoses of the ancients were +the effect of flattery, ours are produced by a respect for virtue. + +Cicero, in his philosophical works, only allows of a suspicion that the +people may mistake the statues of the gods and confound them with the +gods themselves. His interlocutors attack the established religion, but +none of them think of accusing the Romans of taking marble and brass for +divinities. Lucretius accuses no person of this stupidity, although he +reproaches the superstitious of every class. This opinion, therefore, +has never existed; there never have been idolaters. + +Horace causes an image of Priapus to speak, and makes him say: "I was +once the trunk of a fig tree, and a carpenter being doubtful whether he +should make of me a god or a bench, at length determined to make me a +divinity." What are we to gather from this pleasantry? Priapus was one +of the subaltern divinities, and a subject of raillery for the wits, and +this pleasantry is a tolerable proof that a figure placed in the garden +to frighten away the birds could not be very profoundly worshipped. + +Dacier, giving way to the spirit of a commentator, observes that Baruch +predicted this adventure. "They became what the workmen chose to make +them:" but might not this be observed of all statues? Had Baruch a +visionary anticipation of the "Satires of Horace"? + +A block of marble may as well be hewn into a cistern, as into a figure +of Alexander, Jupiter, or any being still more respectable. The matter +which composed the cherubim of the Holy of Holies might have been +equally appropriated to the vilest functions. Is a throne or altar the +less revered because it might have been formed into a kitchen table? + +Dacier, instead of concluding that the Romans adored the statue of +Priapus, and that Baruch predicted it, should have perceived that the +Romans laughed at it. Consult all the authors who speak of the statues +of the gods, you will not find one of them allude to idolatry; their +testimony amounts to the express contrary. "It is not the workman," says +Martial, "who makes the gods, but he who prays to them." + + _Qui finxit sacros auro vel marmore vultus_ + _Non facit ille deos, qui rogat ille facit._ + +"It is Jove whom we adore in the image of Jove," writes Ovid: "_Colitur +pro Jove, forma Jovis_." + +"The gods inhabit our minds and bosoms," observes Statius, "and not +images in the form of them:" + + _Nulla autem effigies, nulli commissa metallo._ + _Forma Dei, mentes habitare et pectora gaudet._ + +Lucan, too, calls the universe the abode and empire of God: "_Estne Dei, +sedes, nisi terra, et pontus, et aer?_" A volume might be filled with +passages asserting idols to be images alone. + +There remains but the case in which statues became oracles; notions that +might have led to an opinion that there was something divine about them. +The predominant sentiment, however, was that the gods had chosen to +visit certain altars and images, in order to give audience to mortals, +and to reply to them. We read in Homer and in the chorus of the Greek +tragedies, of prayers to Apollo, who delivered his responses on the +mountains in such a temple, or such a town. There is not, in all +antiquity, the least trace of a prayer addressed to a statue; and if it +was believed that the divine spirit preferred certain temples and +images, as he preferred certain men, it was simply an error in +application. How many miraculous images have we? The ancients only +boasted of possessing what we possess, and if we are not idolaters for +using images, by what correct principle can we term them so? + +Those who profess magic, and who either believe, or affect to believe +it, a science, pretend to possess the secret of making the gods descend +into their statues, not indeed, the superior gods, but the secondary +gods or genii. This is what Hermes Trismegistus calls "making" gods--a +doctrine which is controverted by St. Augustine in his "City of God." +But even this clearly shows that the images were not thought to possess +anything divine, since it required a magician to animate them, and it +happened very rarely that a magician was successful in these sublime +endeavors. + +In a word, the images of the gods were not gods. Jupiter, and not his +statue, launched his thunderbolts; it was not the statue of Neptune +which stirred up tempests, nor that of Apollo which bestowed light. The +Greeks and the Romans were Gentiles and Polytheists, but not idolaters. + +We lavished this reproach upon them when we had neither statues nor +temples, and have continued the injustice even after having employed +painting and sculpture to honor and represent our truths, precisely in +the same manner in which those we reproach employed them to honor and +personify their fiction. + + +SECTION III. + +_Whether the Persians, the Sabæans, the Egyptians, the Tartars, or the +Turks, have been Idolaters, and the Extent of the Antiquity of the +Images Called Idols--History of Their Worship._ + +It is a great error to denominate those idolaters who worship the sun +and the stars. These nations for a long time had neither images nor +temples. If they were wrong, it was in rendering to the stars that which +belonged only to the creator of the stars. Moreover, the dogma of +Zoroaster, or Zerdusht, teaches a Supreme Being, an avenger and +rewarder, which opinion is very distant from idolatry. The government of +China possesses no idol, but has always preserved the simple worship of +the master of heaven, Kien-tien. + +Genghis Khan, among the Tartars, was not an idolater, and used no +images. The Mahometans, who inhabit Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, +India, and Africa, call the Christians idolaters and giaours, because +they imagine that Christians worship images. They break the statues +which they find in Sancta Sophia, the church of the Holy Apostles; and +others they convert into mosques. Appearances have deceived them, as +they are eternally deceiving man, and have led them to believe that +churches dedicated to saints who were formerly men, images of saints +worshipped kneeling, and miracles worked in these churches, are +invincible proofs of absolute idolatry; although all amount to nothing. +Christians, in fact, adore one God only, and even in the blessed, only +revere the virtues of God manifested in them. The image-breakers +(iconoclasts), and the Protestants, who reproach the Catholic Church +with idolatry, claim the same answer. + +As men rarely form precise ideas, and still less express them with +precision, we call the Gentiles, and still more the Polytheists, +idolaters. An immense number of volumes have been written in order to +develop the various opinions upon the origin of the worship rendered to +the deity. This multitude of books and opinions proves nothing, except +ignorance. + +It is not known who invented coats, shoes, and stockings, and yet we +would know who invented idols. What signifies a passage of +Sanchoniathon, who lived before the battle of Troy? What does he teach +us when he says that _Chaos_--the spirit, that is to say, the breath--in +love with his principles, draws the veil from it, which renders the air +luminous; that the wind _Colp_, and his wife _Bau_, engendered _Eon_; +that _Eon_ engendered _Genos_, that _Chronos_, their descendant, had two +eyes behind as well as before; that he became a god, and that he gave +Egypt to his son _Thaut_? Such is one of the most respectable monuments +of antiquity. + +Orpheus will teach us no more in his "Theogony," than Damasius has +preserved to us. He represents the principles of the world under the +figure of a dragon with two heads, the one of a bull, the other of a +lion; a face in the middle, which he calls the face of God, and golden +wings to his shoulders. + +But, from these fantastic ideas may be drawn two great truths--the one +that sensible images and hieroglyphics are of the remotest antiquity; +the other that all the ancient philosophers have recognized a First +Principle. + +As to polytheism, good sense will tell you that as long as men have +existed--that is to say, weak animals capable of reason and folly, +subject to all accidents, sickness and death--these men have felt their +weakness and dependence. Obliged to acknowledge that there is something +more powerful than themselves; having discovered a principle in the +earth which furnishes their aliment; one in the air which often destroys +them; one in fire which consumes; and in water which drowns them--what +is more natural than for ignorant men to imagine beings which preside +over these elements? What is more natural than to revere the invisible +power which makes the sun and stars shine to our eyes? and, since they +would form an idea of powers superior to man, what more natural than to +figure them in a sensible manner? Could they think otherwise? The Jewish +religion, which preceded ours, and which was given by God himself, was +filled with these images, under which God is represented. He deigns to +speak the human language in a bush; He appeared once on a mountain; the +celestial spirits which he sends all come with a human form: finally, +the sanctuary is covered with cherubs, which are the bodies of men with +the wings and heads of animals. It is this which has given rise to the +error of Plutarch, Tacitus, Appian, and so many others, of reproaching +the Jews with adoring an ass's head. God, in spite of his prohibition to +paint or form likenesses, has, therefore, deigned to adapt himself to +human weakness, which required the senses to be addressed by sensible +beings. + +Isaiah, in chapter vi., sees the Lord seated on a throne, and His train +filled the temple. The Lord extends His hand, and touches the mouth of +Jeremiah, in chap. i. of that prophet. Ezekiel, in chap. i., sees a +throne of sapphire, and God appeared to him like a man seated on this +throne. These images alter not the purity of the Jewish religion, which +never employed pictures, statues, or idols, to represent God to the eyes +of the people. + +The learned Chinese, the Parsees, and the ancient Egyptians, had no +idols; but Isis and Osiris were soon represented. Bel, at Babylon, was a +great colossus. Brahma was a fantastic monster in the peninsula of +India. Above all, the Greeks multiplied the names of the gods, statues, +and temples, but always attributed the supreme power to their _Zeus_, +called Jupiter by the Latins, the sovereign of gods and men. The Romans +imitated the Greeks. These people always placed all the gods in heaven, +without knowing what they understood by heaven. + +The Romans had their twelve great gods, six male and six female, whom +they called "_Dii majorum gentium_"; Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Vulcan, +Mars, Mercury, Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Venus, and Diana; Pluto was +therefore forgotten: Vesta took his place. + +Afterwards, came the gods "_minorum gentium_," the gods of mortal +origin; the heroes, as Bacchus, Hercules, and Æsculapius: the infernal +gods, Pluto and Proserpine: those of the sea, as Tethys, Amphitrite, the +Nereids, and Glaucus. The Dryads, Naiads, gods of gardens; those of +shepherds, etc. They had them, indeed, for every profession, for every +action of life, for children, marriageable girls, married, and lying-in +women: they had even the god Peditum; and finally, they idolized their +emperors. Neither these emperors nor the god Peditum, the goddess +Pertunda, nor Priapus, nor Rumilia, the goddess of nipples; nor +Stercutius, the god of the privy, were, in truth, regarded as the +masters of heaven and earth. The emperors had sometimes temples, the +petty gods--the penates--had none; but all had their representations, +their images. + +There were little images with which they ornamented their closets, the +amusements of old women and children, which were not authorized by any +public worship. The superstition of every individual was left to act +according to his own taste. These small idols are still found in the +ruins of ancient towns. + +If no person knows when men began to make these images, they must know +that they are of the greatest antiquity. Terah, the father of Abraham, +made them at Ur in Chaldæa. Rachel stole and carried off the images of +Laban, her father. We cannot go back further. + +But what precise notion had the ancient nations of all these +representations? What virtue, what power, was attributed to them? +Believed they that the gods descended from heaven to conceal themselves +in these statues; or that they communicated to them a part of the divine +spirit; or that they communicated to them nothing at all? There has been +much very uselessly written on this subject; it is clear that every man +judged of it according to the degree of his reason, credulity, or +fanaticism. It is evident that the priests attached as much divinity to +their statues as they possibly could, to attract more offerings. We know +that the philosophers reproved these superstitions, that warriors +laughed at them, that the magistrates tolerated them, and that the +people, always absurd, knew not what they did. In a word, this is the +history of all nations to which God has not made himself known. + +The same idea may be formed of the worship which all Egypt rendered to +the cow, and that several towns paid to a dog, an ape, a cat, and to +onions. It appears that these were first emblems. Afterwards, a certain +ox Apis, and a certain dog Anubis, were adored; they always ate beef and +onions; but it is difficult to know what the old women of Egypt thought +of the holy cows and onions. + +Idols also often spoke. On the day of the feast of Cybele at Rome, those +fine words were commemorated which the statue pronounced when it was +translated from the palace of King Attilus: "I wish to depart; take me +away quickly; Rome is worthy the residence of every god." + + _Ipsa peti volui; ne sit mora, mitte volentum;_ + _Dignus Roma locus quo Deus omnis eat._ + --OVID'S _Fasti_, iv, 269-270. + +The statue of Fortune spoke; the Scipios, the Ciceros, and the Cæsars, +indeed, believed nothing of it; but the old woman, to whom Encolpus gave +a crown to buy geese and gods, might credit it. + +Idols also gave oracles, and priests hidden in the hollow of the statues +spoke in the name of the divinity. + +How happens it, in the midst of so many gods and different théogonies +and particular worships, that there was never any religious war among +the people called idolaters? This peace was a good produced from an +evil, even from error; for each nation, acknowledging several inferior +gods, found it good for his neighbors also to have theirs. If you except +Cambyses, who is reproached with having killed the ox Apis, you will not +see any conqueror in profane history who ill-treated the gods of a +vanquished people. The heathens had no exclusive religion, and the +priests thought only of multiplying the offerings and sacrifices. + +The first offerings were fruits. Soon after, animals were required for +the table of the priests; they killed them themselves, and became cruel +butchers; finally, they introduced the horrible custom of sacrificing +human victims, and above all, children and young girls. The Chinese, +Parsees, and Indians, were never guilty of these abominations; but at +Hieropolis, in Egypt, according to Porphyrius, they immolated men. + +Strangers were sacrificed at Taurida: happily, the priests of Taurida +had not much practice. The first Greeks, the Cypriots, Phoenicians, +Tyrians, and Carthaginians, possessed this abominable superstition. The +Romans themselves fell into this religious crime; and Plutarch relates, +that they immolated two Greeks and two Gauls to expiate the gallantries +of three vestals. Procopius, contemporary with the king of the Franks, +Theodobert, says that the Franks sacrificed men when they entered Italy +with that prince. The Gauls and Germans commonly made these frightful +sacrifices. We can scarcely read history without conceiving horror at +mankind. + +It is true that among the Jews, Jeptha sacrificed his daughter, and Saul +was ready to immolate his son; it is also true that those who were +devoted to the Lord by anathema could not be redeemed, as other beasts +were, but were doomed to perish. + +We will now speak of the human victims sacrificed in all religions. + +To console mankind for the horrible picture of these pious sacrifices, +it is important to know, that amongst almost all nations called +idolatrous, there have been holy theologies and popular error, secret +worship and public ceremonies; the religion of sages, and that of the +vulgar. To know that one God alone was taught to those initiated into +the mysteries, it is only necessary to look at the hymn attributed to +the ancient Orpheus, which was sung in the mysteries of the Eleusinian +Ceres, so celebrated in Europe and Asia: "Contemplate divine nature; +illuminate thy mind; govern thy heart; walk in the path of justice, that +the God of heaven and earth may be always present to thy eyes: He only +self-exists, all beings derive their existence from Him; He sustains +them all; He has never been seen by mortals, and He sees all things." + +We may also read the passage of the philosopher Maximus, whom we have +already quoted: "What man is so gross and stupid as to doubt that there +is a supreme, eternal, and infinite God, who has engendered nothing like +Himself, and who is the common father of all things?" + +There are a thousand proofs that the ancient sages not only abhorred +idolatry, but polytheism. + +Epictetus, that model of resignation and patience, that man so great in +a humble condition, never speaks of but one God. Read over these maxims: +"God has created me; God is within me; I carry Him everywhere. Can I +defile Him by obscene thoughts, unjust actions, or infamous desires? My +duty is to thank God for all, to praise Him for all; and only to cease +blessing Him in ceasing to live." All the ideas of Epictetus turn on +this principle. Is this an idolater? + +Marcus Aurelius, perhaps as great on the throne of the Roman Empire as +Epictetus was in slavery, often speaks, indeed, of the gods, either to +conform himself to the received language, or to express intermediate +beings between the Supreme Being and men; but in how many places does he +show that he recognizes one eternal, infinite God alone? "Our soul," +says he, "is an emanation from the divinity. My children, my body, my +mind, are derived from God." + +The Stoics and Platonics admitted a divine and universal nature; the +Epicureans denied it. The pontiffs spoke only of a single God in their +mysteries. Where then were the idolaters? All our declaimers exclaim +against idolatry like little dogs, that yelp when they hear a great one +bark. + +As to the rest, it is one of the greatest errors of the "Dictionary" of +Moréri to say, that in the time of Theodosius the younger, there +remained no idolaters except in the retired countries of Asia and +Africa. Even in the seventh century there were many people still heathen +in Italy. The north of Germany, from the Weser, was not Christian in the +time of Charlemagne. Poland and all the south remained a long time after +him in what was called idolatry; the half of Africa, all the kingdoms +beyond the Ganges, Japan, the populace of China, and a hundred hordes of +Tartars, have preserved their ancient religion. In Europe there are only +a few Laplanders, Samoyedes, and Tartars, who have persevered in the +religion of their ancestors. + +Let us conclude with remarking, that in the time which we call the +middle ages, we dominated the country of the Mahometans pagan; we +treated as idolaters and adorers of images, a people who hold all images +in abhorrence. Let us once more avow, that the Turks are more excusable +in believing us idolaters, when they see our altars loaded with images +and statues. + +A gentleman belonging to Prince Ragotski assured me upon his honor, that +being in a coffee-house at Constantinople, the mistress ordered that he +should not be served because he was an idolater. He was a Protestant, +and swore to her that he adored neither host nor images. "Ah! if that is +the case," said the woman, "come to me every day, and you shall be +served for nothing." + + + + +IGNATIUS LOYOLA. + + +If you are desirous of obtaining a great name, of becoming the founder +of a sect or establishment, be completely mad; but be sure that your +madness corresponds with the turn and temper of your age. Have in your +madness reason enough to guide your extravagances; and forget not to be +excessively opinionated and obstinate. It is certainly possible that you +may get hanged; but if you escape hanging, you will have altars erected +to you. + +In real truth, was there ever a fitter subject for the Petites-Maisons, +or Bedlam, than Ignatius, or St. Inigo the Biscayan, for that was his +true name? His head became deranged in consequence of his reading the +"Golden Legend"; as Don Quixote's was, afterwards, by reading the +romances of chivalry. Our Biscayan hero, in the first place, dubs +himself a knight of the Holy Virgin, and performs the Watch of Arms in +honor of his lady. The virgin appears to him and accepts his services; +she often repeats her visit, and introduces to him her son. The devil, +who watches his opportunity, and clearly foresees the injury he must in +the course of time suffer from the Jesuits, comes and makes a tremendous +noise in the house, and breaks all the windows; the Biscayan drives him +away with the sign of the cross; and the devil flies through the wall, +leaving in it a large opening, which was shown to the curious fifty +years after the happy event. + +His family, seeing the very disordered state of his mind, is desirous of +his being confined and put under a course of regimen and medicine. He +extricates himself from his family as easily as he did from the devil, +and escapes without knowing where to go. He meets with a Moor, and +disputes with him about the immaculate conception. The Moor, who takes +him exactly for what he is, quits him as speedily as possible. The +Biscayan hesitates whether he shall kill the Moor or pray to God for his +conversion; he leaves the decision to his horse, and the animal, rather +wiser than its master, takes the road leading to the stable. + +Our hero, after this adventure, undertakes a pilgrimage to Bethlehem, +begging his bread on the way: his madness increases as he proceeds; the +Dominicans take pity on him at Manrosa, and keep him in their +establishment for some days, and then dismiss him uncured. + +He embarks at Barcelona, and goes to Venice; he returns to Barcelona, +still travelling as a mendicant, always experiencing trances and +ecstacies, and frequently visited by the Holy Virgin and Jesus Christ. + +At length, he was given to understand that, in order to go to the Holy +Land with any fair view of converting the Turks, the Christians of the +Greek church, the Armenians, and the Jews, it was necessary to begin +with a little study of theology. Our hero desires nothing better; but, +to become a theologian, it was requisite to know something of grammar +and a little Latin; this gives him no embarrassment whatever: he goes to +college at the age of thirty-three; he is there laughed at, and learns +nothing. + +He was almost broken-hearted at the idea of not being able to go and +convert the infidels. The devil, for this once, took pity on him. He +appeared to him, and swore to him, on the faith of a Christian, that, if +he would deliver himself over to him, he would make him the most learned +and able man in the church of God. Ignatius, however, was not to be +cajoled to place himself under the discipline of such a master; he went +back to his class; he occasionally experienced the rod, but his learning +made no progress. + +Expelled from the college of Barcelona, persecuted by the devil, who +punished him for refusing to submit to his instructions, and abandoned +by the Virgin Mary, who took no pains about assisting her devoted +knight, he, nevertheless, does not give way to despair. He joins the +pilgrims of St. James in their wanderings over the country. He preaches +in the streets and public places, from city to city, and is shut up in +the dungeons of the Inquisition. Delivered from the Inquisition, he is +put in prison at Alcala. He escapes thence to Salamanca, and is there +again imprisoned. At length, perceiving that he is no prophet in his own +country, he forms a resolution to go to Paris. He travels thither on +foot, driving before him an ass which carried his baggage, money, and +manuscripts. Don Quixote had a horse and an esquire, but Ignatius was +not provided with either. + +He experiences at Paris the same insults and injuries as he had endured +in Spain. He is absolutely flogged, in all the regular form and ceremony +of scholastic discipline, at the college of St. Barbe. His vocation, at +length, calls him to Rome. + +How could it possibly come to pass, that a man of such extravagant +character and manners, should at length obtain consideration at the +court of Rome, gain over a number of disciples, and become the founder +of a powerful order, among whom are to be found men of unquestionable +worth and learning? The reason is, that he was opinionated, obstinate, +and enthusiastic; and found enthusiasts like himself, with whom he +associated. These, having rather a greater share of reason than himself, +were instrumental in somewhat restoring and re-establishing his own; he +became more prudent and regular towards the close of his life, and +occasionally even displayed in his conduct proofs of ability. + +Perhaps Mahomet, in his first conversations with the angel Gabriel, +began his career with being as much deranged as Ignatius; and perhaps +Ignatius, in Mahomet's circumstances, would have performed as great +achievements as the prophet; for he was equally ignorant, and quite as +visionary and intrepid. + +It is a common observation, that such cases occur only once: however, it +is not long since an English rustic, more ignorant than the Spaniard +Ignatius, formed the society of people called "Quakers"; a society far +superior to that of Ignatius. Count Zinzendorf has, in our own time, +formed the sect of Moravians; and the Convulsionaries of Paris were very +nearly upon the point of effecting a revolution. They were quite mad +enough, but they were not sufficiently persevering and obstinate. + + + + +IGNORANCE. + + +SECTION I. + +There are many kinds of ignorance; but the worst of all is that of +critics, who, it is well known, are doubly bound to possess information +and judgment as persons who undertake to affirm and to censure. When +they pronounce erroneously, therefore, they are doubly culpable. + +A man, for example, composes two large volumes upon a few pages of a +valuable book which he has not understood, and in the first place +examines the following words: + +"The sea has covered immense tracts.... The deep beds of shells which +are found in Touraine and elsewhere, could have been deposited there +only by the sea." + +True, if those beds of shells exist in fact; but the critic ought to be +aware that the author himself discovered, or thought he had discovered, +that those regular beds of shells have no existence. + +He ought to have said: + +"The universal Deluge is related by Moses with the agreement of all +nations." + +1. Because the Pentateuch was long unknown, not only to the other +nations of the world, but to the Jews themselves. + +2. Because only a single copy of the law was found at the bottom of an +old chest in the time of King Josiah. + +3. Because that book was lost during the captivity. + +4. Because it was restored by Esdras. + +5. Because it was always unknown to every other nation till the time of +its being translated by the Seventy. + +6. Because, even after the translation ascribed to the Seventy, we have +not a single author among the Gentiles who quotes a single passage from +this book, down to the time of Longinus, who lived under the Emperor +Aurelian. + +7. Because no other nation ever admitted a universal deluge before +Ovid's "Metamorphoses"; and even Ovid himself does not make his deluge +extend beyond the Mediterranean. + +8. Because St. Augustine expressly acknowledges that the universal +deluge was unknown to all antiquity. + +9. Because the first deluge of which any notice is taken by the +Gentiles, is that mentioned by Berosus, and which he fixes at about four +thousand four hundred years before our vulgar era; which deluge did not +extend beyond the Euxine Sea. + +10. Finally, because no monument of a universal deluge remains in any +nation in the world. + +In addition to all these reasons, it must be observed, that the critic +did not even understand the simple state of the question. The only +inquiry is, whether we have any natural proof that the sea has +successively abandoned many tracts of territory? and upon this plain and +mere matter-of-fact subject, M. Abbé François has taken occasion to +abuse men whom he certainly neither knows nor understands. It is far +better to be silent, than merely to increase the quantity of bad books. + +The same critic, in order to prop up old ideas, now almost universally +despised and derided, and which have not the slightest relation to +Moses, thinks proper to say: "Berosus perfectly agrees with Moses in the +number of generations before the Deluge." + +Be it known to you, my dear reader, that this same Berosus is the writer +who informs us that the fish Oannes came out to the river Euphrates +every day, to go and preach to the Chaldæans; and that the same fish +wrote with one of its bones a capital book about the origin of things. +Such is the writer whom the ingenious abbé brings forward as a voucher +for Moses. + +"Is it not evident," he says, "that a great number of European families, +transplanted to the coasts of Africa, have become, without any mixture +of African blood, as black as any of the natives of the country?" + +It is just the contrary of this, M. l'Abbé, that is evident. You are +ignorant that the "_reticulum mucosum_" of the negroes is black, +although I have mentioned the fact times innumerable. Were you to have +ever so large a number of children born to you in Guinea, of a European +wife, they would not one of them have that black unctuous skin, those +dark and thick lips, those round eyes, or that woolly hair, which form +the specific differences of the negro race. In the same manner, were +your family established in America, they would have beards, while a +native American will have none. Now extricate yourself from the +difficulty, with Adam and Eve only, if you can. + +"Who was this 'Melchom,' you ask, who had taken possession of the +country of God? A pleasant sort of god, certainly, whom the God of +Jeremiah would carry off to be dragged into captivity." + +Ah, M. l'Abbé! you are quite smart and lively. You ask, who is this +Melchom? I will immediately inform you. Melek or Melkom signified the +Lord, as did Adoni or Adonai, Baal or Bel, Adad or Shadai, Eloi or Eloa. +Almost all the nations of Syria gave such names to their gods; each had +its lord, its protector, its god. Even the name of Jehovah was a +Phoenician and proper name; this we learn from Sanchoniathon, who was +certainly anterior to Moses; and also from Diodorus. + +We well know that God is equally the God, the absolute master, of +Egyptians and Jews, of all men and all worlds; but it is not in this +light that he is represented when Moses appears before Pharaoh. He never +speaks to that monarch but in the name of the God of the Hebrews, as an +ambassador delivers the orders of the king his master. He speaks so +little in the name of the Master of all Nature, that Pharaoh replies to +him, "I do not know him." Moses performs prodigies in the name of this +God; but the magicians of Pharaoh perform precisely the same prodigies +in the name of their own. Hitherto both sides are equal; the contest is, +who shall be deemed most powerful, not who shall be deemed alone +powerful. At length, the God of the Hebrews decidedly carries the day; +he manifests a power by far the greater; but not the only power. Thus, +speaking after the manner of men, Pharaoh's incredulity is very +excusable. It is the same incredulity as Montezuma exhibited before +Cortes, and Atahualpa before the Pizarros. + +When Joshua called together the Jews, he said to them: "Choose ye this +day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your father served, that +were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in +whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the +Lord." The people, therefore, had already given themselves up to other +gods, and might serve whom they pleased. + +When the family of Micah, in Ephraim, hire a Levitical priest to conduct +the service of a strange god, when the whole tribe of Dan serve the same +god as the family of Micah; when a grandson of Moses himself becomes a +hired priest of the same god--no one murmurs; every one has his own god, +undisturbed; and the grandson of Moses becomes an idolater without any +one's reviling or accusing him. At that time, therefore, every one chose +his own local god, his own protector. + +The same Jews, after the death of Gideon, adore Baal-berith, which means +precisely the same as Adonai--the lord, the protector; they change their +protector. + +Adonai, in the time of Joshua, becomes master of the mountains; but he +is unable to overcome the inhabitants of the valleys, because they had +chariots armed with scythes. Can anything more correctly represent the +idea of a local deity, a god who is strong in one place, but not so in +another? + +Jephthah, the son of Gilead, and a concubine, says to the Moabites: +"Wilt thou not possess what Chemosh, thy god, giveth thee to possess? +So, whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out from before us, them +will we possess." + +It is then perfectly proved, that the undistinguishing Jews, although +chosen by the God of the universe, regarded him notwithstanding as a +mere local god, the god of a particular territory of people, like the +god of the Amorites, or that of the Moabites, of the mountains or of the +valleys. + +It is unfortunately very evident that it was perfectly indifferent to +the grandson of Moses whether he served Micah's god or his +grandfather's. It is clear, and cannot but be admitted, that the Jewish +religion was not formed, that it was not uniform, till the time of +Esdras; and we must, even then, except the Samaritans. + +You may now, probably, have some idea of the meaning of this lord or god +Melchom. I am not in favor of his cause--the Lord deliver me from such +folly!--but when you remark, "the god which Jeremiah threatened to carry +into slavery must be a curious and pleasant sort of deity," I will +answer you, M. l'Abbé, with this short piece of advice:--"From your own +house of glass do not throw stones at those of your neighbors." + +They were the Jews who were at that very time carried off in slavery to +Babylon. It was the good Jeremiah himself who was accused of being +bribed by the court of Babylon, and of having consequently prophesied in +his favor. It was he who was the object of public scorn and hatred, and +who it is thought ended his career by being stoned to death by the Jews +themselves. This Jeremiah, be assured from me, was never before +understood to be a joker. + +The God of the Jews, I again repeat, is the God of all nature. I +expressly make this repetition that you may have no ground for +pretending ignorance of it, and that you may not accuse me before the +ecclesiastical court. I still, however, assert and maintain, that the +stupid Jews frequently knew no other God than a local one. + +"It is not natural to attribute the tides to the phases of the moon. +They are not the high tides which occur at the full moon, that are +ascribed to the phases of that planet." Here we see ignorance of a +different description. + +It occasionally happens that persons of a certain description are so +much ashamed of the part they play in the world, that they are desirous +of disguising themselves sometimes as wits, and sometimes as +philosophers. + +In the first place, it is proper to inform M. l'Abbé, that nothing is +more natural than to attribute an effect to that which is always +followed by this effect. If a particular wind is constantly followed by +rain, it is natural to attribute the rain to the wind. Now, over all the +shores of the ocean, the tides are always higher in the moon's +"syzygies"--if you happen to know the meaning of the term--than at its +quarterings. The moon rises every day later; the tide is also every day +later. The nearer the moon approaches our zenith, the greater is the +tide; the nearer the moon approaches its perigee, the higher the tide +still rises. These experiences and various others, these invariable +correspondences with the phases of the moon, were the foundation of the +ancient and just opinion, that that body is a principal cause of the +flux and reflux of the ocean. + +After numerous centuries appeared the great Newton--Are you at all +acquainted with Newton? Did you ever hear, that after calculating the +square of the progress of the moon in its orbit during the space of a +minute, and dividing that square by the diameter of that orbit, he found +the quotient to be fifteen feet? that he thence demonstrated that the +moon gravitates towards the earth three thousand six hundred times less +than if she were near the earth? that he afterwards demonstrated that +its attractive force is the cause of three-fourths of the elevation of +the sea by the tide, and that the force of the sun is the cause of the +remaining fourth? You appear perfectly astonished. You never read +anything like this in the "Christian Pedagogue." Endeavor henceforward, +both you and the porters of your parish, never to speak about things of +which you have not even the slightest idea. + +You can form no conception of the injury you do to religion by your +ignorance, and still more by your reasonings. In order to preserve in +the world the little faith that remains in it, it would be the most +judicious measure possible to restrain you, and such as you, from +writing and publishing in behalf of it. + +I should absolutely make your astonished eyes stare almost to starting, +were I to inform you, that this same Newton was persuaded that Samuel is +the author of the Pentateuch. I do not mean to say that he demonstrated +it in the same way as he calculated and deduced the power of +gravitation. Learn, then, to doubt and to be modest. I believe in the +Pentateuch, remember; but I believe, also, that you have printed and +published the most enormous absurdities. I could here transcribe a large +volume of instances of your own individual ignorance and imbecility, and +many of those of your brethren and colleagues. I shall not, however, +take the trouble of doing it. Let us go on with our questions. + + +SECTION II. + +I am ignorant how I was formed, and how I was born. I was perfectly +ignorant, for a quarter of my life, of the reasons of all that I saw, +heard, and felt, and was a mere parrot, talking by rote in imitation of +other parrots. + +When I looked about me and within me, I conceived that something existed +from all eternity. Since there are beings actually existing, I concluded +that there is some being necessary and necessarily eternal. Thus the +first step I took to extricate myself from my ignorance, overpassed the +limits of all ages--the boundaries of time. + +But when I was desirous of proceeding in this infinite career, I could +neither perceive a single path, nor clearly distinguish a single object; +and from the flight which I took to contemplate eternity, I have fallen +back into the abyss of my original ignorance. + +I have seen what is denominated "matter," from the star Sirius, and the +stars of the "milky way," as distant from Sirius as that is from us, to +the smallest atom that can be perceived by the microscope; and yet I +know not what matter is. + +Light, which has enabled me to see all these different and distant +beings, is perfectly unknown to me; I am able by the help of a prism to +anatomize this light, and divide it into seven pencillings of rays; but +I cannot divide these pencillings themselves; I know not of what they +are composed. Light resembles matter in having motion and impinging upon +objects, but it does not tend towards a common centre like all other +bodies; on the contrary it flies off by some invincible power from the +centre, while all matter gravitates towards a centre. Light appears to +be penetrable, and matter is impenetrable. Is light matter, or is it not +matter? What is it? With what numberless properties can it be invested? +I am completely ignorant. + +This substance so brilliant, so rapid, and so unknown, and those other +substances which float in the immensity of space--seeming to be +infinite--are they eternal? I know nothing on the subject. Has a +necessary being, sovereignly intelligent, created them from nothing, or +has he only arranged them? Did he produce this order in time, or before +_time_? Alas! what is this time, of which I am speaking? I am incapable +of defining it. O God, it is Thou alone by whom I can be instructed, for +I am neither enlightened by the darkness of other men nor by my own. + +Mice and moles have their resemblances of structure, in certain +respects, to the human frame. What difference can it make to the Supreme +Being whether animals like ourselves, or such as mice, exist upon this +globe revolving in space with innumerable globes around it? + +Why have we being? Why are there any beings? What is sensation? How have +I received it? What connection is there between the air which vibrates +on my ear and the sensation of sound? between this body and the +sensation of colors? I am perfectly ignorant, and shall ever remain +ignorant. + +What is thought? Where does it reside? How is it formed? Who gives me +thoughts during my sleep? Is it in virtue of my will that I think? No, +for always during sleep, and often when I am awake, I have ideas +against, or at least without, my will. These ideas, long forgotten, long +put away, and banished in the lumber room of my brain, issue from it +without any effort or volition of mine, and suddenly present themselves +to my memory, which had, perhaps, previously made various vain attempts +to recall them. + +External objects have not the power of forming ideas in me, for nothing +can communicate what it does not possess; I am well assured that they +are not given me by myself, for they are produced without my orders. Who +then produces them in me? Whence do they come? Whither do they go? +Fugitive phantoms! What invisible hand produces and disperses you? + +Why, of all the various tribes of animals, has man alone the mad +ambition of domineering over his fellow? Why and how could it happen, +that out of a thousand millions of men, more than nine hundred and +ninety-nine have been sacrificed to this mad ambition? + +How is it that reason is a gift so precious that we would none of us +lose it for all the pomp or wealth of the world, and yet at the same +time that it has merely served to render us, in almost all cases, the +most miserable of beings? Whence comes it, that with a passionate +attachment to truth, we are always yielding to the most palpable +impostures? + +Why do the vast tribes of India, deceived and enslaved by the bonzes, +trampled upon by the descendant of a Tartar, bowed down by labor, +groaning in misery, assailed by diseases, and a mark for all the +scourges and plagues of life, still fondly cling to that life? Whence +comes evil, and why does it exist? + +O atoms of a day! O companions in littleness, born like me to suffer +everything, and be ignorant of everything!--are there in reality any +among you so completely mad as to imagine you know all this, or that you +can solve all these difficulties? Certainly there can be none. No; in +the bottom of your heart you feel your own nothingness, as completely as +I do justice to mine. But you are nevertheless arrogant and conceited +enough to be eager for our embracing your vain systems; and not having +the power to tyrannize over our bodies, you aim at becoming the tyrants +of our souls. + + + + +IMAGINATION. + + +SECTION I. + +Imagination is the power which every being, endowed with perception and +reason, is conscious he possesses of representing to himself sensible +objects. This faculty is dependent upon memory. We see men, animals, +gardens, which perceptions are introduced by the senses; the memory +retains them, and the imagination compounds them. On this account the +ancient Greeks called the muses, "the daughters of memory." + +It is of great importance to observe, that these faculties of receiving +ideas, retaining them, and compounding them, are among the many things +of which we can give no explanation. These invisible springs of our +being are of nature's workmanship, and not of our own. + +Perhaps this gift of God, imagination, is the sole instrument with which +we compound ideas, even those which are abstract and metaphysical. + +You pronounce the word "triangle;" but you merely utter a sound, if you +do not represent to yourself the image of some particular triangle. You +certainly have no idea of a triangle but in consequence of having seen +triangles, if you have the gift of sight, or of having felt them, if you +are blind. You cannot think of a triangle in general, unless your +imagination figures to itself, at least in a confused way, some +particular triangle. You calculate; but it is necessary that you should +represent to yourself units added to each other, or your mind will be +totally insensible to the operation of your hand. + +You utter the abstract terms--greatness, truth, justice, finite, +infinite; but is the term "greatness" thus uttered, anything more or +less, than a mere sound, from the action of your tongue, producing +vibrations in the air, unless you have the image of some greatness in +your mind? What meaning is there in the words "truth" and "falsehood," +if you have not perceived, by means of your senses, that some particular +thing which you were told existed, did exist in fact; and that another +of which you were told the same, did not exist? And, is it not from this +experience, that you frame the general idea of truth and falsehood? And, +when asked what you mean by these words, can you help figuring to +yourself some sensible image, occasioning you to recollect that you have +sometimes been told, as a fact, what really and truly happened, and very +often what was not so? + +Have you any other notion of just and unjust, than what is derived from +particular actions, which appeared to you respectively of these +descriptions? You began in your childhood by learning to read under some +master: you endeavored to spell well, but you really spelled ill: your +master chastised you: this appeared to you very unjust. You have +observed a laborer refused his wages, and innumerable instances of the +like nature. Is the abstract idea of just and unjust anything more than +facts of this character confusedly mixed up in your imagination? + +Is "finite" anything else in your conception than the image of some +limited quantity or extent? Is "infinite" anything but the image of the +same extent or quantity enlarged indefinitely? Do not all these +operations take place in your mind just in the same manner as you read a +book? You read circumstances and events recorded in it, and never think +at the time of the alphabetical characters, without which, however, you +would have no notion of these events and circumstances. Attend to this +point for a single moment, and then you will distinctly perceive the +essential importance of those characters over which your eye previously +glided without thinking of them. In the same manner all your reasonings, +all your accumulations of knowledge are founded on images traced in your +brain. You have, in general, no distinct perception or recollection of +them; but give the case only a moment's attention, and you will then +clearly discern, that these images are the foundation of all the notions +you possess. It may be worth the reader's while to dwell a little upon +this idea, to extend it, and to rectify it. + +The celebrated Addison, in the eleven essays on the imagination with +which he has enriched the volumes of the "Spectator," begins with +observing, that "the sense of sight is the only one which furnishes the +imagination with ideas." Yet certainly it must be allowed, that the +other senses contribute some share. A man born blind still hears, in his +imagination, the harmony which no longer vibrates upon his ear; he still +continues listening as in a trance or dream; the objects which have +resisted or yielded to his hands produce a similar effect in his head or +mind. It is true that the sense of sight alone supplies images; and as +it is a kind of touching or feeling which extends even to the distance +of the stars, its immense diffusion enriches the imagination more than +all the other senses put together. + +There are two descriptions of imagination; one consists in retaining a +simple impression of objects; the other arranges the images received, +and combines them in endless diversity. The first has been called +passive imagination, and the second active. The passive scarcely +advances beyond memory, and is common to man and to animals. From this +power or faculty it arises, that the sportsman and his dog both follow +the hunted game in their dreams, that they both hear the sound of the +horn, and the one shouts and the other barks in their sleep. Both men +and brutes do something more than recollect on these occasions, for +dreams are never faithful and accurate images. This species of +imagination compounds objects, but it is not the understanding which +acts in it; it is the memory laboring under error. + +This passive imagination certainly requires no assistance from volition, +whether we are asleep or awake; it paints, independently of ourselves, +what our eyes have seen; it hears what our ears have heard, and touches +what we have touched; it adds to it or takes from it. It is an internal +sense, acting necessarily, and accordingly there is nothing more common, +in speaking of any particular individual, than to say, "he has no +command over his imagination." + +In this respect we cannot but see, and be astonished at the slight share +of power we really possess. Whence comes it, that occasionally in dreams +we compose most coherent and eloquent discourses, and verses far +superior to what we should write on the same subject if perfectly +awake?--that we even solve complicated problems in mathematics? Here +certainly there are very combined and complex ideas in no degree +dependent on ourselves. But if it is incontestable that coherent ideas +are formed within us independently of our will in sleep, who can safely +assert that they are not produced in the same manner when we are awake? +Is there a man living who foresees the idea which he will form in his +mind the ensuing minute? Does it not seem as if ideas were given to us +as much as the motions of our fibres; and had Father Malebranche merely +maintained the principle that all ideas are given by God, could any one +have successfully opposed him? + +This passive faculty, independent of reflection, is the source of our +passions and our errors; far from being dependent on the will, the will +is determined by it. It urges us towards the objects which it paints +before us, or diverts us from them, just according to the nature of the +exhibition thus made of them by it. The image of a danger inspires fear; +that of a benefit excites desire. It is this faculty alone which +produces the enthusiasm of glory, of party, of fanaticism; it is this +which produces so many mental alienations and disorders, making weak +brains, when powerfully impressed, conceive that their bodies are +metamorphosed into various animals, that they are possessed by demons, +that they are under the infernal dominion of witchcraft, and that they +are in reality going to unite with sorcerers in the worship of the +devil, because they have been told that they were going to do so. This +species of slavish imagination, which generally is the lot of ignorant +people, has been the instrument which the imagination of some men has +employed to acquire and retain power. It is, moreover, this passive +imagination of brains easily excited and agitated, which sometimes +produces on the bodies of children evident marks of the impression +received by the mother; examples of this kind are indeed innumerable, +and the writer of this article has seen some so striking that, were he +to deny them, he must contradict his own ocular demonstration. This +effect of imagination is incapable of being explained; but every other +operation of nature is equally so; we have no clearer idea how we have +perceptions, how we retain them, or how we combine them. There is an +infinity between us and the springs or first principles of our nature. + +Active imagination is that which joins combination and reflection to +memory. It brings near to us many objects at a distance; it separates +those mixed together, compounds them, and changes them; it seems to +create, while in fact it merely arranges; for it has not been given to +man to make ideas--he is only able to modify them. + +This active imagination then is in reality a faculty as independent of +ourselves as passive imagination; and one proof of its not depending +upon ourselves is that, if we propose to a hundred persons, equally +ignorant, to imagine a certain new machine, ninety-nine of them will +form no imagination at all about it, notwithstanding all their +endeavors. If the hundredth imagines something, is it not clear that it +is a particular gift or talent which he has received? It is this gift +which is called "genius"; it is in this that we recognize something +inspired and divine. + +This gift of nature is an imagination inventive in the arts--in the +disposition of a picture, in the structure of a poem. It cannot exist +without memory, but it uses memory as an instrument with which it +produces all its performances. + +In consequence of having seen that a large stone which the hand of man +could not move, might be moved by means of a staff, active imagination +invented levers, and afterwards compound moving forces, which are no +other than disguised levers. It is necessary to figure in the mind the +machines with their various effects and processes, in order to the +actual production of them. + +It is not this description of imagination that is called by the vulgar +the enemy of judgment. On the contrary, it can only act in union with +profound judgment; it incessantly combines its pictures, corrects its +errors, and raises all its edifices according to calculation and upon a +plan. There is an astonishing imagination in practical mathematics; and +Archimedes had at least as much imagination as Homer. It is by this +power that a poet creates his personages, appropriates to them +characters and manners, invents his fable, presents the exposition of +it, constructs its complexity, and prepares its development; a labor, +all this, requiring judgment the most profound and the most delicately +discriminative. + +A very high degree of art is necessary in all these imaginative +inventions, and even in romances. Those which are deficient in this +quality are neglected and despised by all minds of natural good taste. +An invariably sound judgment pervades all the fables of Æsop. They will +never cease to be the delight of mankind. There is more imagination in +the "Fairy Tales"; but these fantastic imaginations, destitute of order +and good sense, can never be in high esteem; they are read childishly, +and must be condemned by reason. + +The second part of active imagination is that of detail, and it is this +to which the world distinguishingly applies the term. It is this which +constitutes the charm of conversation, for it is constantly presenting +to the mind what mankind are most fond of--new objects. It paints in +vivid colors what men of cold and reserved temperament hardly sketch; it +employs the most striking circumstances; it cites the most appropriate +examples; and when this talent displays itself in union with the modesty +and simplicity which become and adorn all talents, it conciliates to +itself an empire over society. Man is so completely a machine that wine +sometimes produces this imagination, as intoxication destroys it. This +is a topic to excite at once humiliation and wonder. How can it happen +that a small quantity of a certain liquor, which would prevent a man +from effecting an important calculation, shall at the same time bestow +on him the most brilliant ideas? + +It is in poetry particularly that this imagination of detail and +expression ought to prevail. It is always agreeable, but there it is +necessary. In Homer, Virgil, and Horace, almost all is imagery, without +even the reader's perceiving it. Tragedy requires fewer images, fewer +picturesque expressions and sublime metaphors and allegories than the +epic poem and the ode; but the greater part of these beauties, under +discreet and able management, produce an admirable effect in tragedy; +they should never, however, be forced, stilted, or gigantic. + +Active imagination, which constitutes men poets, confers on them +enthusiasm, according to the true meaning of the Greek word, that +internal emotion which in reality agitates the mind and transforms the +author into the personage whom he introduces as the speaker; for such is +the true enthusiasm, which consists in emotion and imagery. An author +under this influence says precisely what would be said by the character +he is exhibiting. + +Less imagination is admissible in eloquence than in poetry. The reason +is obvious--ordinary discourse should be less remote from common ideas. +The orator speaks the language of all; the foundation of the poet's +performance is fiction. Accordingly, imagination is the essence of his +art; to the orator it is only an accessory. + +Particular traits or touches of imagination have, it is observed, added +great beauties to painting. That artifice especially is often cited, by +which the artist covers with a veil the head of Agamemnon at the +sacrifice of Iphigenia; an expedient, nevertheless, far less beautiful +than if the painter had possessed the secret of exhibiting in the +countenance of Agamemnon the conflict between the grief of a father, the +majesty of a monarch, and the resignation of a good man to the will of +heaven; as Rubens had the skill to paint in the looks and attitude of +Mary de Medici the pain of childbirth, the joy of being delivered of a +son, and the maternal affection with which she looks upon her child. + +In general, the imaginations of painters when they are merely ingenious, +contribute more to exhibit the learning in the artist than to increase +the beauty of the art. All the allegorical compositions in the world are +not worth the masterly execution and fine finish which constitute the +true value of paintings. + +In all the arts, the most beautiful imagination is always the most +natural. The false is that which brings together objects incompatible; +the extravagant paints objects which have no analogy, allegory, or +resemblance. A strong imagination explores everything to the bottom; a +weak one skims over the surface; the placid one reposes in agreeable +pictures; the ardent one piles images upon images. The judicious or sage +imagination is that which employs with discrimination all these +different characters, but which rarely admits the extravagant and always +rejects the false. + +If memory nourished and exercised be the source of all imagination, that +same faculty of memory, when overcharged, becomes the extinction of it. +Accordingly, the man whose head is full of names and dates does not +possess that storehouse of materials from which he can derive compound +images. Men occupied in calculation, or with intricate matters of +business, have generally a very barren imagination. + +When imagination is remarkably stirring and ardent, it may easily +degenerate into madness; but it has been observed that this morbid +affection of the organs of the brain more frequently attaches to those +passive imaginations which are limited to receiving strong impressions +of objects than to those fervid and active ones which collect and +combine ideas; for this active imagination always requires the +association of judgment, the other is independent of it. + +It is not perhaps useless to add to this essay, that by the words +perception, memory, imagination, and judgment, we do not mean distinct +and separate organs, one of which has the gift of perceiving, another of +recollecting, the third of imagining, and the last of judging. Men are +more inclined, than some are aware, to consider these as completely +distinct and separate faculties. It is, however, one and the same being +that performs all these operations, which we know only by their effects, +without being able to know anything of that being itself. + + +SECTION II. + +Brutes possess imagination as well as ourselves; your dog, for example, +hunts in his dreams. "Objects are painted in the fancy," says Descartes, +as others have also said. Certainly they are; but what is the fancy, and +how are objects painted in it? Is it with "the subtle matter"? "How can +I tell" is the appropriate answer to all questions thus affecting the +first principles of human organization. + +Nothing enters the understanding without an image. It was necessary, in +order to our obtaining the confused idea we possess of infinite space, +that we should have an idea of a space of a few feet. It is necessary, +in order to our having the idea of God, that the image of something more +powerful than ourselves should have long dwelt upon our minds. + +We do not create a single idea or image. I defy you to create one. +Ariosto did not make Astolpho travel to the moon till long after he had +heard of the moon, of St. John, and of the Paladins. + +We make no images; we only collect and combine them. The extravagances +of the "Thousand and One Nights" and the "Fairy Tales" are merely +combinations. He who comprises most images in the storehouse of his +memory is the person who possesses most imagination. + +The difficulty is in not bringing together these images in profusion, +without any selection. You might employ a whole day in representing, +without any toilsome effort, and almost without any attention, a fine +old man with a long beard, clothed in ample drapery, and borne in the +midst of a cloud resting on chubby children with beautiful wings +attached to their shoulders, or upon an eagle of immense size and +grandeur; all the gods and animals surrounding him; golden tripods +running to arrive at his council; wheels revolving by their own +self-motion, advancing as they revolve; having four faces covered with +eyes, ears, tongues, and noses; and between these tripods and wheels an +immense multitude of dead resuscitated by the crash of thunder; the +celestial spheres dancing and joining in harmonious concert, etc. The +lunatic asylum abounds in such imaginations. + +We may, in dealing with the subject of imagination distinguish: + +1. The imagination which disposes of the events of a poem, romance, +tragedy, or comedy, and which attaches the characters and passions to +the different personages. This requires the profoundest judgment and the +most exquisite knowledge of the human heart; talents absolutely +indispensable; but with which, however, nothing has yet been done but +merely laying the foundation of the edifice. + +2. The imagination which gives to all these personages the eloquence or +diction appropriate to their rank, suitable to their station. Here is +the great art and difficulty; but even after doing this they have not +done enough. + +3. The imagination in the expression, by which every word paints an +image in the mind without astonishing or overwhelming it; as in Virgil: + + _.... Remigium alarum_.--ÆNEID, vi, 19. + + _Mærentem abjungens fraterna morte juvencum._ + --GEORGICS, iii, 517. + + _.... Velorum pandimus alas_.--ÆNEID, iii, 520. + + _Pendent circum oscula nati_.--GEORGICS, ii, 523. + + _Immortale jecur tundens fecundaque poenis_ + _Viscera_.--ÆNEID, vi, 598-599. + + _Et caligantem nigra formidine lucum._ + --GEORGICS, iv, 468. + + _Fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus._ + --GEORGICS, iv, 496. + +Virgil is full of these picturesque expressions, with which he enriches +the Latin language, and which are so difficult to be translated into our +European jargons--the crooked and lame offspring of a well-formed and +majestic sire, but which, however, have some merit of their own, and +have done some tolerably good things in their way. + +There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. +An inventor must begin with painting correctly in his mind the figure, +the machine invented by him, and its properties or effects. We repeat +there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of +Homer. + +As the imagination of a great mathematician must possess extreme +precision, so must that of a great poet be exceedingly correct and +chaste. He must never present images that are incompatible with each +other, incoherent, highly exaggerated, or unsuitable to the nature of +the subject. + +The great fault of some writers who have appeared since the age of Louis +XIV. is attempting a constant display of imagination, and fatiguing the +reader by the profuse abundance of far-fetched images and double rhymes, +one-half of which may be pronounced absolutely useless. It is this which +at length brought into neglect and obscurity a number of small poems, +such as "Ver Vert," "The Chartreuse," and "The Shades," which at one +period possessed considerable celebrity. Mere sounding superfluity soon +finds oblivion. + + _Omne supervacuum pleno depectore manat._ + --HORACE, _Art of Poetry_, 837. + + +The active and the passive imagination have been distinguished in the +"Encyclopædia." The active is that of which we have treated. It is the +talent of forming new pictures out of all those contained in our memory. + +The passive is scarcely anything beyond memory itself, even in a brain +under strong emotion. A man of an active and fervid imagination, a +preacher of the League in France, or a Puritan in England, harangues the +populace with a voice of thunder, with an eye of fire, and the gesture +of a demoniac, and represents Jesus Christ as demanding justice of the +Eternal Father for the new wounds he has received from the royalists, +for the nails which have been driven for the second time through his +feet and hands by these impious miscreants. Avenge, O God the Father, +avenge the blood of God the Son; march under the banner of the Holy +Spirit; it was formerly a dove, but is now an eagle bearing thunder! The +passive imaginations, roused and stimulated by these images, by the +voice, by the action of those sanguinary empirics, urge the maddened +hearers to rush with fury from the chapel or meeting house, to kill +their opponents and get themselves hanged. + +Persons of passive imaginations, for the sake of high and violent +excitement, go sometimes to the sermon and sometimes to the play; +sometimes to the place of execution; and sometimes even to what they +suppose to be the midnight and appalling meetings of presumed sorcerers. + + + + +IMPIOUS. + + +Who is the impious man? It is he who exhibits the Being of Beings, the +great former of the world, the eternal intelligence by whom all nature +is governed, with a long white beard, and having hands and feet. +However, he is pardonable for his impiety--a weak and ignorant creature, +the sight or conduct of whom we ought not to allow to provoke or to vex +us. + +If he should even paint that great and incomprehensible Being as carried +on a cloud, which can carry nothing; if he is so stupid as to place God +in a mist, in rain, or on a mountain, and to surround him with little +round, chubby, painted faces, accompanied by two wings, I can smile and +pardon him with all my heart. + +The impious man, who ascribes to the Being of Beings absurd predictions +and absolute iniquities, would certainly provoke me, if that Great Being +had not bestowed upon me the gift of reason to control my anger. This +senseless fanatic repeats to me once more what thousands of others have +said before him, that it is not our province to decide what is +reasonable and just in the Great Being; that His reason is not like our +reason, nor His justice like our justice. What then, my rather too +absurd and zealous friend, would you really wish me to judge of justice +and reason by any other notions than I have of them myself? Would you +have me walk otherwise than with my feet, or speak otherwise than with +my mouth? + +The impious man, who supposes the Great Being to be jealous, proud, +malignant, and vindictive, is more dangerous. I would not sleep under +the same roof with such a man. + +But how will you treat the impious man, the daring blasphemer, who says +to you: "See only with my eyes; do not think for yourself; I proclaim to +you a tyrant God, who ordained me to be your tyrant; I am His +well-beloved; He will torment to all eternity millions of His creatures, +whom He detests, for the sake of gratifying me; I will be your master in +this world and will laugh at your torments in the next!" + +Do you not feel a very strong inclination to beat this cruel blasphemer? +And, even if you happen to be born with a meek and forgiving spirit, +would you not fly with the utmost speed to the West, when this barbarian +utters his atrocious reveries in the East? + +With respect to another and very different class of the impious--those +who, while washing their elbows, neglect to turn their faces towards +Aleppo and Erivan, or who do not kneel down in the dirt on seeing a +procession of capuchin friars at Perpignan, they are certainly culpable; +but I hardly think they ought to be impaled. + + + + +IMPOST. + + +SECTION I. + +So many philosophical works have been written on the nature of impost, +that we need say very little about it here. It is true that nothing is +less philosophical than this subject; but it may enter into moral +philosophy by representing to a superintendent of finances or to a +Turkish teftardar that it accords not with universal morals to take his +neighbor's money; and that all receivers and custom-house officers and +collectors of taxes are cursed in the gospel. + +Cursed as they are, it must, however, be agreed that it is impossible +for society to subsist unless each member pays something towards the +expenses of it; and as, since every one ought to pay, it is necessary to +have a receiver, we do not see why this receiver is to be cursed and +regarded as an idolater. There is certainly no idolatry in receiving +money of guests to-day for their supper. + +In republics, and states which with the name of kingdoms are really +republics, every individual is taxed according to his means and to the +wants of society. + +In despotic kingdoms--or to speak more politely--in monarchical states, +it is not quite the same--the nation is taxed without consulting it. An +agriculturist who has twelve hundred livres of revenue is quite +astonished when four hundred are demanded of him. There are several who +are even obliged to pay more than half of what they receive. + +The cultivator demands why the half of his fortune is taken from him to +pay soldiers, when the hundredth part would suffice. He is answered +that, besides the soldiers, he must pay for luxury and the arts; that +nothing is lost; and that in Persia towns and villages are assigned to +the queen to pay for her girdles, slippers, and pins. + +He replies that he knows nothing of the history of Persia, and that he +should be very indignant if half his fortune were taken for girdles, +pins, and shoes; that he would furnish them from a better market, and +that he endures a grievous imposition. + +He is made to hear reason by being put into a dungeon, and having his +goods put up to sale. If he resists the tax-collectors whom the New +Testament has damned, he is hanged, which renders all his neighbors +infinitely accommodating. + +Were this money employed by the sovereign in importing spices from +India, coffee from Mocha, English and Arabian horses, silks from the +Levant, and gew-gaws from China, it is clear that in a few years there +would not remain a single sous in the kingdom. The taxes, therefore, +serve to maintain the manufacturers; and so far what is poured into the +coffers of the prince returns to the cultivators. They suffer, they +complain, and other parts of the state suffer and complain also; but at +the end of the year they find that every one has labored and lived some +way or other. + +If by chance a clown goes to the capital, he sees with astonishment a +fine lady dressed in a gown of silk embroidered with gold, drawn in a +magnificent carriage by two valuable horses, and followed by four +lackeys dressed in a cloth of twenty francs an ell. He addresses himself +to one of these lackeys, and says to him: "Sir, where does this lady get +money to make such an expensive appearance?" "My friend," says the +lackey, "the king allows her a pension of forty thousand livres." +"Alas," says the rustic, "it is my village which pays this pension." +"Yes," answers the servant; "but the silk that you have gathered and +sold has made the stuff in which she is dressed; my cloth is a part of +thy sheep's wool; my baker has made my bread of thy corn; thou hast sold +at market the very fowls that we eat; thus thou seest that the pension +of madame returns to thee and thy comrades." + +The peasant does not absolutely agree with the axioms of this +philosophical lackey; but one proof that there is something true in his +answer is that the village exists, and produces children who also +complain, and who bring forth children again to complain. + + +SECTION II. + +If we were obliged to read all the edicts of taxation, and all the books +written against them, that would be the greatest tax of all. + +We well know that taxes are necessary, and that the malediction +pronounced in the gospel only regards those who abuse their employment +to harass the people. Perhaps the copyist forgot a word, as for instance +the epithet _pravus_. It might have meant _pravus publicanus_; this word +was much more necessary, as the general malediction is a formal +contradiction to the words put into the mouth of Jesus Christ: "Render +unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's." Certainly those who collected +the dues of Cæsar ought not to have been held in horror. It would have +been, at once, insulting the order of Roman Knights and the emperor +himself; nothing could have been more ill-advised. + +In all civilized countries the imposts are great, because the charges of +the state are heavy. In Spain the articles of commerce sent to Cadiz, +and thence to America, pay more than thirty per cent. before their +transit is accomplished. + +In England all duty upon importation is very considerable; however, it +is paid without murmuring; there is even a pride in paying it. A +merchant boasts of putting four or five thousand guineas a year into the +public treasury. The richer a country is, the heavier are the taxes. +Speculators would have taxes fall on landed productions only. What! +having sown a field of flax, which will bring me two hundred crowns, by +which flax a great manufacturer will gain two hundred thousand crowns by +converting it into lace--must this manufacturer pay nothing, and shall +I pay all, because it is produced by my land? The wife of this +manufacturer will furnish the queen and princesses with fine point of +Alençon, she will be patronized; her son will become intendant of +justice, police, and finance, and will augment my taxes in my miserable +old age. Ah! gentlemen speculators, you calculate badly; you are unjust. + +The great point is that an entire people be not despoiled by an army of +alguazils, in order that a score of town or court leeches may feast upon +its blood. + +The Duke de Sully relates, in his "Political Economy," that in 1585 +there were just twenty lords interested in the leases of farms, to whom +the highest bidders gave three million two hundred and forty-eight +thousand crowns. + +It was still worse under Charles IX., and Francis I., and Louis XIII. +There was not less depredation in the minority of Louis XIV. France, +notwithstanding so many wounds, is still in being. Yes; but if it had +not received them it would have been in better health. It was thus with +several other states. + + +SECTION III. + +It is just that those who enjoy the advantages of a government should +support the charges. The ecclesiastics and monks, who possess great +property, for this reason should contribute to the taxes in all +countries, like other citizens. In the times which we call +barbarous, great benefices and abbeys Were taxed in France to the third +of their revenue. + +[Illustration: THE DUKE OF SULLY.] + +By a statute of the year 1188, Philip Augustus imposed a tenth of the +revenues of all benefices. Philip le Bel caused the fifth, afterwards +the fifteenth, and finally the twentieth part, to be paid, of all the +possessions of the clergy. + +King John, by a statute of March 12, 1355, taxed bishops, abbots, +chapters, and all ecclesiastics generally, to the tenth of the revenue +of their benefices and patrimonies. The same prince confirmed this tax +by two other statutes, one of March 3, the other of Dec. 28, 1358. + +In the letters-patent of Charles V., of June 22, 1372, it is decreed, +that the churchmen shall pay taxes and other real and personal imposts. +These letters-patent were renewed by Charles VI. in the year 1390. + +How is it that these laws have been abolished, while so many monstrous +customs and sanguinary decrees have been preserved? The clergy, indeed, +pay a tax under the name of a free gift, and, as it is known, it is +principally the poorest and most useful part of the church--the curates +(rectors)--who pay this tax. But, why this difference and inequality of +contributions between the citizens of the same state? Why do those who +enjoy the greatest prerogatives, and who are sometimes useless to the +public, pay less than the laborer, who is so necessary? The Republic of +Venice supplies rules on this subject, which should serve as examples +to all Europe. + + +SECTION IV. + +Churchmen have not only pretended to be exempt from taxes, they have +found the means in several provinces to tax the people, and make them +pay as a legitimate right. + +In several countries, monks having seized the tithes to the prejudice of +the rectors, the peasants are obliged to tax themselves, to furnish +their pastors with subsistence; and thus in several villages, and above +all, in Franche-Comté, besides the tithes which the parishioners pay to +the monks or to chapters, they further pay three or four measures of +corn to their curates or rectors. This tax was called the right of +harvest in some provinces, and boisselage in others. + +It is no doubt right that curates should be well paid, but it would be +much better to give them a part of the tithes which the monks have taken +from them, than to overcharge the poor cultivator. + +Since the king of France fixed the competent allowances for the curates, +by his edict of the month of May, 1768, and charged the tithe-collectors +with paying them, the peasants should no longer be held to pay a second +tithe, a tax to which they only voluntarily submitted at a time when the +influence and violence of the monks had taken from their pastors all +means of subsistence. + +The king has abolished this second tithe in Poitou, by letters-patent, +registered by the Parliament of Paris July 11, 1769. It would be well +worthy of the justice and beneficence of his majesty to make a similar +law for other provinces, which are in the same situation as those of +Poitou, Franche-Comté, etc. + + By M. CHR., Advocate of Besançon. + + + + +IMPOTENCE. + + +I commence by this question, in favor of the impotent--"_frigidi et +maleficiati_," as they are denominated in the decretals: Is there a +physician, or experienced person of any description, who can be certain +that a well-formed young man, who has had no children by his wife, may +not have them some day or other? Nature may know, but men can tell +nothing about it. Since, then, it is impossible to decide that the +marriage may not be consummated some time or other, why dissolve it? + +Among the Romans, on the suspicion of impotence, a delay of two years +was allowed, and in the Novels of Justinian three are required; but if +in three years nature may bestow capability, she may equally do so in +seven, ten, or twenty. + +Those called "_maleficiati_" by the ancients were often considered +bewitched. These charms were very ancient, and as there were some to +take away virility, so there were others to restore it; both of which +are alluded to in Petronius. + +This illusion lasted a long time among us, who exorcised instead of +disenchanting; and when exorcism succeeded not, the marriage was +dissolved. + +The canon law made a great question of impotence. Might a man who was +prevented by sorcery from consummating his marriage, after being +divorced and having children by a second wife--might such man, on the +death of the latter wife, reject the first, should she lay claim to him? +All the great canonists decided in the negative--Alexander de Nevo, +Andrew Alberic, Turrecremata, Soto, and fifty more. + +It is impossible to help admiring the sagacity displayed by the +canonists, and above all by the religious of irreproachable manners in +their development of the mysteries of sexual intercourse. There is no +singularity, however strange, on which they have not treated. They have +discussed at length all the cases in which capability may exist at one +time or situation, and impotence in another. They have inquired into all +the imaginary inventions to assist nature; and with the avowed object of +distinguishing that which is allowable from that which is not, have +exposed all which ought to remain veiled. It might be said of them: +"_Nox nocti indicat scientiam_." + +Above all, Sanchez has distinguished himself in collecting cases of +conscience which the boldest wife would hesitate to submit to the most +prudent of matrons. One query leads to another in almost endless +succession, until at length a question of the most direct and +extraordinary nature is put, as to the manner of the communication of +the Holy Ghost with the Virgin Mary. + +These extraordinary researches were never made by anybody in the world +except theologians; and suits in relation to impotency were unknown +until the days of Theodosius. + +In the Gospel, divorce is spoken of as allowable for adultery alone. The +Jewish law permitted a husband to repudiate a wife who displeased him, +without specifying the cause. "If she found no favor in his eyes, that +was sufficient." It is the law of the strongest, and exhibits human +nature in its most barbarous garb. The Jewish laws treat not of +impotence; it would appear, says a casuist, that God would not permit +impotency to exist among a people who were to multiply like the sands on +the seashore, and to whom he had sworn to bestow the immense country +which lies between the Nile and Euphrates, and, by his prophets, to make +lords of the whole earth. To fulfil these divine promises, it was +necessary that every honest Jew should be occupied without ceasing in +the great work of propagation. There was certainly a curse upon +impotency; the time not having then arrived for the devout to make +themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. + +Marriage in the course of time having arrived at the dignity of a +sacrament and a mystery, the ecclesiastics insensibly became judges of +all which took place between husband and wife, and not only so, but of +all which did _not_ take place. + +Wives possessed the liberty of presenting a request to be +_embesognées_--such being our Gallic term, although the causes were +carried on in Latin. Clerks pleaded and priests pronounced judgment, and +the process was uniformly to decide two points--whether the man was +bewitched, or the woman wanted another husband. + +What appears most extraordinary is that all the canonists agree that a +husband whom a spell or charm has rendered impotent, cannot in +conscience apply to other charms or magicians to destroy it. This +resembles the reasoning of the regularly admitted surgeons, who having +the exclusive privilege of spreading a plaster, assure us that we shall +certainly die if we allow ourselves to be cured by the hand which has +hurt us. It might have been as well in the first place to inquire +whether a sorcerer can really operate upon the virility of another man. +It may be added that many weak-minded persons feared the sorcerer more +than they confided in the exorcist. The sorcerer having deranged nature, +holy water alone would not restore it. + +In the cases of impotency in which the devil took no part, the presiding +ecclesiastics were not less embarrassed. We have, in the Decretals, the +famous head "_De frigidis et maleficiatis_," which is very curious, but +altogether uninforming. The political use made of it is exemplified in +the case of Henry IV. of Castile, who was declared impotent, while +surrounded by mistresses, and possessed of a wife by whom he had an +heiress to the throne; but it was an archbishop of Toledo who pronounced +this sentence, not the pope. + +Alfonso, king of Portugal, was treated in the same manner, in the middle +of the seventeenth century. This prince was known chiefly by his +ferocity, debauchery, and prodigious strength of body. His brutal +excesses disgusted the nation; and the queen, his wife, a princess of +Nemours, being desirous of dethroning him, and marrying the infant Don +Pedro his brother, was aware of the difficulty of wedding two brothers +in succession, after the known circumstance of consummation with the +elder. The example of Henry VIII. of England intimidated her, and she +embraced the resolution of causing her husband to be declared impotent +by the chapter of the cathedral of Lisbon; after which she hastened to +marry his brother, without even waiting for the dispensation of the +pope. + +The most important proof of capability required from persons accused of +impotency, is that called "the congress." The President Bouhier says, +that this combat in an enclosed field was adopted in France in the +fourteenth century. And he asserts that it is known in France only. + +This proof, about which so much noise has been made, was not conducted +precisely as people have imagined. It has been supposed that a conjugal +consummation took place under the inspection of physicians, surgeons, +and midwives, but such was not the fact. The parties went to bed in the +usual manner, and at a proper time the inspectors, who were assembled in +the next room, were called on to pronounce upon the case. + +In the famous process of the Marquis de Langeais, decided in 1659, he +demanded "the congress"; and owing to the management of his lady (Marie +de St. Simon) did not succeed. He demanded a second trial, but the +judges, fatigued with the clamors of the superstitious, the plaints of +the prudes, and the raillery of the wits, refused it. They declared the +marquis impotent, his marriage void, forbade him to marry again, and +allowed his wife to take another husband. The marquis, however, +disregarded this sentence, and married Diana de Navailles, by whom he +had seven children! + +His first wife being dead, the marquis appealed to the grand chamberlain +against the sentence which had declared him impotent, and charged him +with the costs. The grand chamberlain, sensible of the ridicule +applicable to the whole affair, confirmed his marriage with Diana de +Navailles, declared him most potent, refused him the costs, but +abolished the ceremony of the congress altogether. + +The President Bouhier published a defence of the proof by congress, when +it' was no longer in use. He maintained, that the judges would not have +committed the error of abolishing it, had they not been guilty of the +previous error of refusing the marquis a second trial. + +But if the congress may prove indecisive, how much more uncertain are +the various other examinations had recourse to in cases of alleged +impotency? Ought not the whole of them to be adjourned, as in Athens, +for a hundred years? These causes are shameful to wives, ridiculous for +husbands, and unworthy of the tribunals, and it would be better not to +allow them at all. Yes, it may be said, but, in that case, marriage +would not insure issue. A great misfortune, truly, while Europe contains +three hundred thousand monks and eighty thousand nuns, who voluntarily +abstain from propagating their kind. + + + + +INALIENATION--INALIENABLE. + + +The domains of the Roman emperors were anciently inalienable--it was the +sacred domain. The barbarians came and rendered it altogether +inalienable. The same thing happened to the imperial Greek domain. + +After the re-establishment of the Roman Empire in Germany, the sacred +domain was declared inalienable by the priests, although there remains +not at present a crown's worth of territory to alienate. + +All the kings of Europe, who affect to imitate the emperors, have had +their inalienable domain. Francis I., having effected his liberty by the +cession of Burgundy, could find no other expedient to preserve it, than +a state declaration, that Burgundy was inalienable; and was so +fortunate as to violate both his honor and the treaty with impunity. +According to this jurisprudence, every king may acquire the dominions of +another, while incapable of losing any of his own. So that, in the end, +each would be possessed of the property of somebody else. The kings of +France and England possess very little special domain: their genuine and +more effective domain is the purses of their subjects. + + + + +INCEST. + + +"The Tartars," says the "Spirit of Laws," "who may legally wed their +daughters, never espouse their mothers." + +It is not known of what Tartars our author speaks, who cites too much at +random: we know not at present of any people, from the Crimea to the +frontiers of China, who are in the habit of espousing their daughters. +Moreover, if it be allowed for the father to marry his daughter, why may +not a son wed his mother? + +Montesquieu cites an author named Priscus Panetes, a sophist who lived +in the time of Attila. This author says that Attila married with his +daughter Esca, according to the manner of the Scythians. This Priscus +has never been printed, but remains in manuscript in the library of the +Vatican; and Jornandes alone makes mention of it. It is not allowable to +quote the legislation of a people on such authority. No one knows this +Esca, or ever heard of her marriage with her father Attila. + +I confess I have never believed that the Persians espoused their +daughters, although in the time of the Cæsars the Romans accused them of +it, to render them odious. It might be that some Persian prince +committed incest, and the turpitude of an individual was imputed to the +whole nation. + + _Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi._ + --HORACE, i, epistle ii, 14. + + ....When doting monarchs urge + Unsound resolves, their subjects feel the scourge. + --FRANCIS. + +I believe that the ancient Persians were permitted to marry with their +sisters, just as much as I believe it of the Athenians, the Egyptians, +and even of the Jews. From the above it might be concluded, that it was +common for children to marry with their fathers or mothers; whereas even +the marriage of cousins is forbidden among the Guebers at this day, who +are held to maintain the doctrines of their forefathers as scrupulously +as the Jews. + +You will tell me that everything is contradictory in this world; that it +was forbidden by the Jewish law to marry two sisters, which was deemed a +very indecent act, and yet Jacob married Rachel during the life of her +elder sister Leah; and that this Rachel is evidently a type of the Roman +Catholic and apostolic church. You are doubtless right, but that +prevents not an individual who sleeps with two sisters in Europe from +being grievously censured. As to powerful and dignified princes, they +may take the sisters of their wives for the good of their states, and +even their own sisters by the same father and mother, if they think +proper. + +It is a far worse affair to have a commerce with a gossip or godmother, +which was deemed an unpardonable offence by the capitularies of +Charlemagne, being called a spiritual incest. + +One Andovere, who is called queen of France, because she was the wife of +a certain Chilperic, who reigned over Soissons, was stigmatized by +ecclesiastical justice, censured, degraded, and divorced, for having +borne her own child to the baptismal font. It was a mortal sin, a +sacrilege, a spiritual incest; and she thereby forfeited her +marriage-bed and crown. This apparently contradicts what I have just +observed, that everything in the way of love is permitted to the great, +but then I spoke of present times, and not of those of Andovere. + +As to carnal incest, read the advocate Voglan, who would absolutely have +any two cousins burned who fall into a weakness of this kind. The +advocate Voglan is rigorous--the unmerciful Celt. + + + + +INCUBUS. + + +Have there ever been incubi and succubi? Our learned juriconsults and +demonologists admit both the one and the other. + +It is pretended that Satan, always on the alert, inspires young ladies +and gentlemen with heated dreams, and by a sort of double process +produces extraordinary consequences, which in point of fact led to the +birth of so many heroes and demigods in ancient times. + +The devil took a great deal of superfluous trouble: he had only to leave +the young people alone, and the world will be sufficiently supplied with +heroes without any assistance from him. + +An idea may be formed of incubi by the explanation of the great Delrio, +of Boguets, and other writers learned in sorcery; but they fail in their +account of succubi. A female might pretend to believe that she had +communicated with and was pregnant by a god, the explication of Delrio +being very favorable to the assumption. The devil in this case acts the +part of an incubus, but his performances as a succubus are more +inconceivable. The gods and goddesses of antiquity acted much more nobly +and decorously; Jupiter in person, was the incubus of Alcmena and +Semele; Thetis in person, the succubus of Peleus, and Venus of Anchises, +without having recourse to the various contrivances of our extraordinary +demonism. + +Let us simply observe, that the gods frequently disguised themselves, in +their pursuit of our girls, sometimes as an eagle, sometimes as a +pigeon, a swan, a horse, a shower of gold; but the goddesses assumed no +disguise: they had only to show themselves, to please. It must however +be presumed, that whatever shapes the gods assumed to steal a march, +they consummated their loves in the form of men. + +As to the new manner of rendering girls pregnant by the ministry of the +devil, it is not to be doubted, for the Sorbonne decided the point in +the year 1318. + +"_Per tales artes et ritus impios et invocationes et demonum, nullus +unquam sequatur effectus ministerio demonum, error._"--"It is an error +to believe, that these magic arts and invocations of the devils are +without effect." + +This decision has never been revoked. Thus we are bound to believe in +succubi and incubi, because our teachers have always believed in them. + +There have been many other sages in this science, as well as the +Sorbonne. Bodin, in his book concerning sorcerers, dedicated to +Christopher de Thou, first president of the Parliament of Paris, relates +that John Hervilier, a native of Verberie, was condemned by that +parliament to be burned alive for having prostituted his daughter to the +devil, a great black man, whose caresses were attended with a sensation +of cold which appears to be very uncongenial to his nature; but our +jurisprudence has always admitted the fact, and the prodigious number of +sorcerers which it has burned in consequence will always remain a proof +of its accuracy. + +The celebrated Picus of Mirandola--a prince never lies--says he knew an +old man of the age of eighty years who had slept half his life with a +female devil, and another of seventy who enjoyed a similar felicity. +Both were buried at Rome, but nothing is said of the fate of their +children. Thus is the existence of incubi and succubi demonstrated. + +It is impossible, at least, to prove to the contrary; for if we are +called on to believe that devils can enter our bodies, who can prevent +them from taking kindred liberties with our wives and our daughters? And +if there be demons, there are probably demonesses; for to be consistent, +if the demons beget children on our females, it must follow that we +effect the same thing on the demonesses. Never has there been a more +universal empire than that of the devil. What has dethroned him? Reason. + + + + +INFINITY. + + +Who will give me a clear idea of infinity? I have never had an idea of +it which was not excessively confused--possibly because I am a finite +being. + +What is that which is eternally going on without advancing--always +reckoning without a sum total--dividing eternally without arriving at an +indivisible particle? + +It might seem as if the notion of infinity formed the bottom of the +bucket of the Danaïdes. Nevertheless, it is impossible that infinity +should not exist. An infinite duration is demonstrable. + +The commencement of existence is absurd; for nothing cannot originate +something. When an atom exists we must necessarily conclude that it has +existed from all eternity; and hence an infinite duration rigorously +demonstrated. But what is an infinite past?--an infinitude which I +arrest in imagination whenever I please. Behold! I exclaim, an infinity +passed away; let us proceed to another. I distinguish between two +eternities, the one before, the other behind me. + +When, however, I reflect upon my words, I perceive that I have absurdly +pronounced the words: "one eternity has passed away, and I am entering +into another." For at the moment that I thus talk, eternity endures, and +the tide of time flows. Duration is not separable; and as something has +ever been, something must ever be. + +The infinite in duration, then, is linked to an uninterrupted chain. +This infinite perpetuates itself, even at the instant that I say it has +passed. Time begins and ends with me, but duration is infinite. The +infinite is here quickly formed without, however, our possession of the +ability to form a clear notion of it. + +We are told of infinite space--what is space? Is it a being, or nothing +at all? If it is a being, what is its nature? You cannot tell me. If it +is nothing, nothing can have no quality; yet you tell me that it is +penetrable and immense. I am so embarrassed, I cannot correctly call it +either something or nothing. + +In the meantime, I know not of anything which possesses more properties +than a void. For if passing the confines of this globe, we are able to +walk amidst this void, and thatch and build there when we possess +materials for the purpose, this void or nothing is not opposed to +whatever we might choose to do; for having no property it cannot hinder +any; moreover, since it cannot hinder, neither can it serve us. + +It is pretended that God created the world amidst nothing, and from +nothing. That is abstruse; it is preferable to think that there is an +infinite space; but we are curious--and if there be infinite space, our +faculties cannot fathom the nature of it. We call it immense, because we +cannot measure it; but what then? We have only pronounced words. + +_Of the Infinite in Number._ + +We have adroitly defined the infinite in arithmetic by a love-knot, in +this manner [symbol: infin.]; but we possess not therefore a clearer +notion of it. This infinity is not like the others, a powerlessness of +reaching a termination. We call the infinite in quantity any number +soever, which surpasses the utmost number we are able to imagine. + +When we seek the infinitely small, we divide, and call that infinitely +small which is less than the least assignable quantity. It is only +another name for incapacity. + +_Is Matter Infinitely Divisible?_ + +This question brings us back again precisely to our inability of finding +the remotest number. In thought we are able to divide a grain of sand, +but in imagination only; and the incapacity of eternally dividing this +grain is called infinity. + +It is true, that matter is not always practically divisible, and if the +last atom could be divided into two, it would no longer be the least; or +if the least, it would not be divisible; or if divisible, what is the +germ or origin of things? These are all abstruse queries. + +_Of the Universe._ + +Is the universe bounded--is its extent immense--are the suns and planets +without number? What advantage has the space which contains suns and +planets, over the space which is void of them? Whether space be an +existence or not, what is the space which we occupy, preferable to other +space? + +If our material heaven be not infinite, it is but a point in general +extent. If it is infinite, it is an infinity to which something can +always be added by the imagination. + +_Of the Infinite in Geometry._ + +We admit, in geometry, not only infinite magnitudes, that is to say, +magnitudes greater than any assignable magnitude, but infinite +magnitudes infinitely greater, the one than the other. This astonishes +our dimension of brains, which is only about six inches long, five +broad, and six in depth, in the largest heads. It means, however, +nothing more than that a square larger than any assignable square, +surpasses a line larger than any assignable line, and bears no +proportion to it. + +It is a mode of operating, a mode of working geometrically, and the +word infinite is a mere symbol. + +_Of Infinite Power, Wisdom, Goodness._ + +In the same manner, as we cannot form any positive idea of the infinite +in duration, number, and extension, are we unable to form one in respect +to physical and moral power. + +We can easily conceive, that a powerful being has modified matter, +caused worlds to circulate in space, and formed animals, vegetables, and +metals. We are led to this idea by the perception of the want of power +on the part of these beings to form themselves. We are also forced to +allow, that the Great Being exists eternally by His own power, since He +cannot have sprung from nothing; but we discover not so easily His +infinity in magnitude, power, and moral attributes. + +How are we to conceive infinite extent in a being called simple? and if +he be uncompounded, what notions can we form of a simple being? We know +God by His works, but we cannot understand Him by His Nature. If it is +evident that we cannot understand His nature, is it not equally so, that +we must remain ignorant of His attributes? + +When we say that His power is infinite, do we mean anything more than +that it is very great? Aware of the existence of pyramids of the height +of six hundred feet, we can conceive them of the altitude of 600,000 +feet. + +Nothing can limit the power of the Eternal Being existing necessarily +of Himself. Agreed: no antagonists circumscribe Him; but how convince me +that He is not circumscribed by His own nature? Has all that has been +said on this great subject been demonstrated? + +We speak of His moral attributes, but we only judge of them by our own; +and it is impossible to do otherwise. We attribute to Him justice, +goodness, etc., only from the ideas we collect from the small degree of +justice and goodness existing among ourselves. But, in fact, what +connection is there between our qualities so uncertain and variable, and +those of the Supreme Being? + +Our idea of justice is only that of not allowing our own interest to +usurp over the interest of another. The bread which a wife has kneaded +out of the flour produced from the wheat which her husband has sown, +belongs to her. A hungry savage snatches away her bread, and the woman +exclaims against such enormous injustice. The savage quietly answers +that nothing is more just, and that it was not for him and his family to +expire of famine for the sake of an old woman. + +At all events, the infinite justice we attribute to God can but little +resemble the contradictory notions of justice of this woman and this +savage; and yet, when we say that God is just, we only pronounce these +words agreeably to our own ideas of justice. + +We know of nothing belonging to virtue more agreeable than frankness +and cordiality, but to attribute infinite frankness and cordiality to +God would amount to an absurdity. + +We have such confused notions of the attributes of the Supreme Being, +that some schools endow Him with prescience, an infinite foresight which +excludes all contingent event, while other schools contend for +prescience without contingency. + +Lastly, since the Sorbonne has declared that God can make a stick +divested of two ends, and that the same thing can at once be and not be, +we know not what to say, being in eternal fear of advancing a heresy. +One thing _may_, however, be asserted without danger--that God is +infinite, and man exceedingly bounded. + +The mind of man is so extremely narrow, that Pascal has said: "Do you +believe it impossible for God to be infinite and without parts? I wish +to convince you of an existence infinite and indivisible--it is a +mathematical point--moving everywhere with infinite swiftness, for it is +in all places, and entire in every place." + +Nothing more absurd was ever asserted, and yet it has been said by the +author of the "Provincial Letters." It is sufficient to give men of +sense the ague. + + + + +INFLUENCE. + + +Everything around exercises some influence upon us, either physically or +morally. With this truth we are well acquainted. Influence may be +exerted upon a being without touching, without moving that being. + +In short, matter has been demonstrated to possess the astonishing power +of gravitating without contact, of acting at immense distances. One idea +influences another; a fact not less incomprehensible. + +I have not with me at Mount Krapak the book entitled, "On the Influence +of the Sun and Moon," composed by the celebrated physician Mead; but I +well know that those two bodies are the cause of the tides; and it is +not in consequence of touching the waters of the ocean that they produce +that flux and reflux: it is demonstrated that they produce them by the +laws of gravitation. + +But when we are in a fever, have the sun and moon any influence upon the +accesses of it, in its days of crisis? Is your wife constitutionally +disordered only during the first quarter of the moon? Will the trees, +cut at the time of full moon, rot sooner than if cut down in its wane? +Not that I know. But timber cut down while the sap is circulating in it, +undergoes putrefaction sooner than other timber; and if by chance it is +cut down at the full moon, men will certainly say it was the full moon +that caused all the evil. Your wife may have been disordered during the +moon's growing; but your neighbor's was so in its decline. + +The fitful periods of the fever which you brought upon yourself by +indulging too much in the pleasures of the table occur about the first +quarter of the moon; your neighbor experiences his in its decline. +Everything that can possibly influence animals and vegetables must of +course necessarily exercise that influence while the moon is making her +circuit. + +Were a woman of Lyons to remark that the periodical affections of her +constitution had occurred in three or four successive instances on the +day of the arrival of the diligence from Paris, would her medical +attendant, however devoted he might be to system, think himself +authorized in concluding that the Paris diligence had some peculiar and +marvellous influence on the lady's constitution? + +There was a time when the inhabitants of every seaport were persuaded, +that no one would die while the tide was rising, and that death always +waited for its ebb. + +Many physicians possessed a store of strong reasons to explain this +constant phenomenon. The sea when rising communicates to human bodies +the force or strength by which itself is raised. It brings with it +vivifying particles which reanimate all patients. It is salt, and salt +preserves from the putrefaction attendant on death. But when the sea +sinks and retires, everything sinks or retires with it; nature +languishes; the patient is no longer vivified; he departs with the tide. +The whole, it must be admitted, is most beautifully explained, but the +presumed fact, unfortunately, is after all untrue. + +The various elements, food, watching, sleep, and the passions, are +constantly exerting on our frame their respective influences. While +these influences are thus severally operating on us, the planets +traverse their appropriate orbits, and the stars shine with their usual +brillancy. But shall we really be so weak as to say that the progress +and light of those heavenly bodies are the cause of our rheums and +indigestion, and sleeplessness; of the ridiculous wrath we are in with +some silly reasoner; or of the passion with which we are enamored of +some interesting woman? + +But the gravitation of the sun and moon has made the earth in some +degree flat at the pole, and raises the sea twice between the tropics in +four-and-twenty hours. It may, therefore, regulate our fits of fever, +and govern our whole machine. Before, however, we assert this to be the +case, we should wait until we can prove it. + +The sun acts strongly upon us by its rays, which touch us, and enter +through our pores. Here is unquestionably a very decided and a very +benignant influence. We ought not, I conceive, in physics, to admit of +any action taking place without contact, until we have discovered some +well-recognized and ascertained power which acts at a distance, like +that of gravitation, for example, or like that of your thoughts over +mine, when you furnish me with ideas. Beyond these cases, I at present +perceive no influences but from matter in contact with matter. + +The fish of my pond and myself exist each of us in our natural element. +The water which touches them from head to tail is continually acting +upon them. The atmosphere which surrounds and closes upon me acts upon +me. I ought not to attribute to the moon, which is ninety thousand miles +distant, what I might naturally ascribe to something incessantly in +contact with my skin. This would be more unphilosophical than my +considering the court of China responsible for a lawsuit that I was +carrying on in France. We should never seek at a distance for what is +absolutely within our immediate reach. + +I perceive that the learned and ingenious M. Menuret is of a different +opinion in the "Encyclopædia" under the article on "Influence." This +certainly excites in my mind considerable diffidence with respect to +what I have just advanced. The Abbé de St. Pierre used to say, we should +never maintain that we are absolutely in the right, but should rather +say, "such is my opinion for the present." + +_Influence of the Passions of Mothers upon their Foetus._ + +I think, for the present, that violent affections of pregnant women +produce often a prodigious effect upon the embryo within them; and I +think that I shall always think so: my reason is that I have actually +seen this effect. If I had no voucher of my opinion but the testimony of +historians who relate the instance of Mary Stuart and her son James I., +I should suspend my judgment; because between that event and myself, a +series of two hundred years has intervened, a circumstance naturally +tending to weaken belief; and because I can ascribe the impression made +upon the brain of James to other causes than the imagination of Mary. +The royal assassins, headed by her husband, rush with drawn swords into +the cabinet where she is supping in company with her favorite, and kill +him before her eyes; the sudden convulsion experienced by her in the +interior of her frame extends to her offspring; and James I., although +not deficient in courage, felt during his whole life an involuntary +shuddering at the sight of a sword drawn from a scabbard. It is, +however, possible that this striking and peculiar agitation might be +owing to a different cause. + +There was once introduced, in my presence, into the court of a woman +with child, a showman who exhibited a little dancing dog with a kind of +red bonnet on its head: the woman called out to have the figure removed; +she declared that her child would be marked like it; she wept; and +nothing could restore her confidence and peace. "This is the second +time," she said, "that such a misfortune has befallen me. My first child +bears the impression of a similar terror that I was exposed to; I feel +extremely weak. I know that some misfortune will reach me." She was but +too correct in her prediction. She was delivered of a child similar to +the figure which had so terrified her. The bonnet was particularly +distinguishable. The little creature lived two days. + +In the time of Malebranche no one entertained the slightest doubt of +the adventure which he relates, of the woman who, after seeing a +criminal racked, was delivered of a son, all whose limbs were broken in +the same places in which the malefactor had received the blows of the +executioner. All the physicians at the time were agreed, that the +imagination had produced this fatal effect upon her offspring. + +Since that period, mankind is believed to have refined and improved; and +the influence under consideration has been denied. It has been asked, in +what way do you suppose that the affections of a mother should operate +to derange the members of the foetus? Of that I know nothing; but I +have witnessed the fact. You new-fangled philosophers inquire and study +in vain how an infant is _formed_, and yet require me to know how it +becomes _deformed_. + + + + + +INITIATION. + +_Ancient Mysteries._ + +The origin of the ancient mysteries may, with the greatest probability, +be ascribed to the same weakness which forms associations of brotherhood +among ourselves, and which established congregations under the direction +of the Jesuits. It was probably this want of society which raised so +many secret assemblies of artisans, of which scarcely any now remain +besides that of the Freemasons. Even down to the very beggars +themselves, all had their societies, their confraternities, their +mysteries, and their particular jargon, of which I have met with a small +dictionary, printed in the sixteenth century. + +This natural inclination in men to associate, to secure themselves, to +become distinguished above others, and to acquire confidence in +themselves, may be considered as the generating cause of all those +particular bonds or unions, of all those mysterious initiations which +afterwards excited so much attention and produced such striking effects, +and which at length sank into that oblivion in which everything is +involved by time. + +Begging pardon, while I say it, of the gods Cabri, of the hierophants of +Samothrace, of Isis, Orpheus, and the Eleusinian Ceres, I must +nevertheless acknowledge my suspicions that their sacred secrets were +not in reality more deserving of curiosity than the interior of the +convents of Carmelites or Capuchins. + +These mysteries being sacred, the participators in them soon became so. +And while the number of these was small, the mystery was respected; but +at length, having grown too numerous, they retained no more consequence +and consideration than we perceive to attach to German barons, since the +world became full of barons. + +Initiation was paid for, as every candidate pays his admission fees or +welcome, but no member was allowed to talk for his money. In all ages it +was considered a great crime to reveal the secrets of these religious +farces. This secret was undoubtedly not worth knowing, as the assembly +was not a society of philosophers, but of ignorant persons, directed by +a hierophant. An oath of secrecy was administered, and an oath was +always regarded as a sacred bond. Even at the present day, our +comparatively pitiful society of Freemasons swear never to speak of +their mysteries. These mysteries are stale and flat enough; but men +scarcely ever perjure themselves. + +Diagoras was proscribed by the Athenians for having made the secret hymn +of Orpheus a subject for conversation. Aristotle informs us, that +Æschylus was in danger of being torn to pieces by the people, or at +least of being severely beaten by them, for having, in one of his +dramas, given some idea of those Orphean mysteries in which nearly +everybody was then initiated. + +It appears that Alexander did not pay the highest respect possible to +these reverend fooleries; they are indeed very apt to be despised by +heroes. He revealed the secret to his mother Olympias, but he advised +her to say nothing about it--so much are even heroes themselves bound in +the chains of superstition. + +"It is customary," says Herodotus, "in the city of Rusiris, to strike +both men and women after the sacrifice, but I am not permitted to say +where they are struck." He leaves it, however, to be very easily +inferred. + +I think I see a description of the mysteries of the Eleusinian Ceres, +in Claudian's poem on the "Rape of Proserpine," much clearer than I can +see any in the sixth book of the "Æneid." Virgil lived under a prince +who joined to all his other bad qualities that of wishing to pass for a +religious character; who was probably initiated in these mysteries +himself, the better to impose thereby upon the people; and who would not +have tolerated such a profanation. You see his favorite Horace regards +such a revelation as sacrilege:-- + + _.... Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum_ + _Fulgarit arcanæ sub iisdem_ + _Sit trabibus, vel fragilem que mecum_ + _Solvat phaselum_.--HORACE, book iii, ode 2. + + To silence due rewards we give; + And they who mysteries reveal + Beneath my roof shall never live, + Shall never hoist with me the doubtful sail. + --FRANCIS. + +Besides, the Cumæan sibyl and the descent into hell, imitated from Homer +much less than it is embellished by Virgil, with the beautiful +prediction of the destinies of the Cæsars and the Roman Empire, have no +relation to the fables of Ceres, Proserpine, and Triptolemus. +Accordingly, it is highly probable that the sixth book of the "Æneid" is +not a description of those mysteries. If I ever said the contrary, I +here unsay it; but I conceive that Claudian revealed them fully. He +flourished at a time when it was permitted to divulge the mysteries of +Eleusis, and indeed all the mysteries of the world. He lived under +Honorius, in the total decline of the ancient Greek and Roman religion, +to which Theodosius I. had already given the mortal blow. + +Horace, at that period, would not have been at all afraid of living +under the same roof with a revealer of mysteries. Claudian, as a poet, +was of the ancient religion, which was more adapted to poetry than the +new. He describes the droll absurdities of the mysteries of Ceres, as +they were still performed with all becoming reverence in Greece, down to +the time of Theodosius II. They formed a species of operatic pantomime, +of the same description as we have seen many very amusing ones, in which +were represented all the devilish tricks and conjurations of Doctor +Faustus, the birth of the world and of Harlequin who both came from a +large egg by the heat of the sun's rays. Just in the same manner, the +whole history of Ceres and Proserpine was represented by the +mystagogues. The spectacle was fine; the cost must have been great; and +it is no matter of astonishment that the initiated should pay the +performers. All live by their respective occupations. + +Every mystery had its peculiar ceremonies; but all admitted of wakes or +vigils of which the youthful votaries fully availed themselves; but it +was this abuse in part which finally brought discredit upon those +nocturnal ceremonies instituted for sanctification. The ceremonies thus +perverted to assignation and licentiousness were abolished in Greece in +the time of the Peloponnesian war; they were abolished at Rome in the +time of Cicero's youth, eighteen years before his consulship. From the +"_Aulularia_" of Plautus, we are led to consider them as exhibiting +scenes of gross debauchery, and as highly injurious to public morals. + +Our religion, which, while it adopted, greatly purified various pagan +institutions, sanctified the name of the initiated, nocturnal feasts, +and vigils, which were a long time in use, but which at length it became +necessary to prohibit when an administration of police was introduced +into the government of the Church, so long entrusted to the piety and +zeal that precluded the necessity of police. + +The principal formula of all the mysteries, in every place of their +celebration, was, "Come out, ye who are profane;" that is, uninitiated. +Accordingly, in the first centuries, the Christians adopted a similar +formula. The deacon said, "Come out, all ye catechumens, all ye who are +possessed, and who are uninitiated." + +It is in speaking of the baptism of the dead that St. Chrysostom says, +"I should be glad to explain myself clearly, but I can do so only to the +initiated. We are in great embarrassment. We must either speak +unintelligibly, or disclose secrets which we are bound to conceal." + +It is impossible to describe more clearly the obligation of secrecy and +the privilege of initiation. All is now so completely changed, that were +you at present to talk about initiation to the greater part of your +priests and parish officers, there would not be one of them that would +understand you, unless by great chance he had read the chapter of +Chrysostom above noticed. + +You will see in Minutius Felix the abominable imputations with which the +pagans attacked the Christian mysteries. The initiated were reproached +with treating each other as brethren and sisters, solely with a view to +profane that sacred name. They kissed, it was said, particular parts of +the persons of the priests, as is still practised in respect to the +santons of Africa; they stained themselves with all those pollutions +which have since disgraced and stigmatized the templars. Both were +accused of worshipping a kind of ass's head. + +We have seen that the early Christian societies ascribed to each other, +reciprocally, the most inconceivable infamies. The pretext for these +calumnies was the inviolable secret which every society made of its +mysteries. It is upon this ground that in Minutius Felix, Cecilius, the +accuser of the Christians, exclaims: + +"Why do they so carefully endeavor to conceal what they worship, since +what is decent and honorable always courts the light, and crimes alone +seek secrecy?" + +"_Cur occultare et abscondere quidquid colunt magnopere nituntur? Quum +honesta semper publico gaudeant, scelera secreta sint."_ + +It cannot be doubted that these accusations, universally spread, drew +upon the Christians more than one persecution. Whenever a society of +men, whatever they may be, are accused by the public voice, the +falsehood of the charge is urged in vain, and it is deemed meritorious +to persecute them. + +How could it easily be otherwise than that the first Christians should +be even held in horror, when St. Epiphanius himself urges against them +the most execrable imputations? He asserts that the Christian +Phibionites committed indecencies, which he specifies, of the grossest +character; and, after passing through various scenes of pollution, +exclaimed each of them: "I am the Christ." + +According to the same writer, the Gnostics and the Stratiotics equalled +the Phibionites in exhibitions of licentiousness, and all three sects +mingled horrid pollutions with their mysteries, men and women displaying +equal dissoluteness. + +The Carpocratians, according to the same father of the Church, even +exceeded the horrors and abominations of the three sects just mentioned. + +The Cerinthians did not abandon themselves to abominations such as +these; but they were persuaded that Jesus Christ was the son of Joseph. + +The Ebionites, in their gospel, maintain that St. Paul, being desirous +of marrying the daughter of Gamaliel, and not able to obtain her, became +a Christian, and established Christianity out of revenge. + +All these accusations did not for some time reach the ear of the +government. The Romans paid but little attention to the quarrels and +mutual reproaches which occurred between these little societies of +Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians, who were, as it were, hidden in the vast +and general population; just as in London, in the present day, the +parliament does not embarrass or concern itself with the peculiar forms +or transactions of Mennonites, Pietists, Anabaptists, Millennarians, +Moravians, or Methodists. It is occupied with matters of urgency and +importance, and pays no attention to their mutual charges and +recriminations till they become of importance from their publicity. + +The charges above mentioned, at length, however, came to the ears of the +senate; either from the Jews, who were implacable enemies of the +Christians, or from Christians themselves; and hence it resulted that +the crimes charged against some Christian societies were imputed to all; +hence it resulted that their initiations were so long calumniated; hence +resulted the persecutions which they endured. These persecutions, +however, obliged them to greater circumspection; they strengthened +themselves, they combined, they disclosed their books only to the +initiated. No Roman magistrate, no emperor, ever had the slightest +knowledge of them, as we have already shown. Providence increased, +during the course of three centuries, both their number and their +riches, until at length, Constantius Chlorus openly protected them, and +Constantine, his son, embraced their religion. + +In the meantime the names of initiated and mysteries still subsisted, +and they were concealed from the Gentiles as much as was possible. As to +the mysteries of the Gentiles, they continued down to the time of +Theodosius. + + + + +INNOCENTS. + +_Of the Massacre of the Innocents._ + + +When people speak of the massacre of the innocents, they do not refer to +the Sicilian Vespers, nor to the matins of Paris, known under the name +of St. Bartholomew; nor to the inhabitants of the new world, who were +murdered because they were not Christians, nor to the _auto-da-fés_ of +Spain and Portugal, etc. They usually refer to the young children who +were killed within the precincts of Bethlehem, by order of Herod the +Great, and who were afterwards carried to Cologne, where they are still +to be found. + +Their number was maintained by the whole Greek Church to be fourteen +thousand. + +The difficulties raised by critics upon this point of history have been +all solved by shrewd and learned commentators. + +Objections have been started in relation to the star which conducted the +Magi from the recesses of the East to Jerusalem. It has been said that +the journey, being a long one, the star must have appeared for a long +time above the horizon; and yet that no historian besides St. Matthew +ever took notice of this extraordinary star; that if it had shone so +long in the heavens, Herod and his whole court, and all Jerusalem, must +have seen it as well as these three Magi, or kings; that Herod +consequently could not, without absurdity, have inquired diligently, as +Matthew expresses it, of these kings, at what time they had seen the +star; that, if these three kings had made presents of gold and myrrh and +incense to the new-born infant, his parents must have been very rich; +that Herod could certainly never believe that this infant, born in a +stable at Bethlehem, would be king of the Jews, as the kingdom of Judæa +belonged to the Romans, and was a gift from Cæsar; that if three kings +of the Indies were, at the present day, to come to France under the +guidance of a star, and stop at the house of a woman of Vaugirard, no +one could ever make the reigning monarch believe that the child of that +poor woman would become king of France. + +A satisfactory answer has been given to these difficulties, which may be +considered preliminary ones, attending the subject of the massacre of +the innocents; and it has been shown that what is impossible with man is +not impossible with God. + +With respect to the slaughter of the little children, whether the number +was fourteen thousand, or greater, or less, it has been shown that this +horrible and unprecedented cruelty was not absolutely incompatible with +the character of Herod; that, after being established as king of Judæa +by Augustus, he could not indeed fear anything from the child of +obscure and poor parents, residing in a petty village; but that +laboring at that time under the disorder of which he at length died, his +blood might have become so corrupt that he might in consequence have +lost both reason and humanity; that, in short, all these +incomprehensible events, which prepared the way for mysteries still more +incomprehensible, were directed by an inscrutable Providence. + +It is objected that the historian Josephus, who was nearly contemporary, +and who has related all the cruelties of Herod, has made no more mention +of the massacre of the young children than of the star of the three +kings; that neither the Jew Philo, nor any other Jew, nor any Roman +takes any notice of it; and even that three of the evangelists have +observed a profound silence upon these important subjects. It is replied +that they are nevertheless announced by St. Matthew, and that the +testimony of one inspired man is of more weight than the silence of all +the world. + +The critics, however, have not surrendered; they have dared to censure +St. Matthew himself for saying that these children were massacred, "that +the words of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. A voice is heard in Ramah, a +voice of groaning and lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children, and +refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." + +These historical words, they observe, were literally fulfilled in the +tribe of Benjamin, which descended from Rachel, when Nabuzaradan +destroyed a part of that tribe near the city of Ramah. It was no longer +a prediction, they say, any more than were the words "He shall be called +a Nazarene. And He came to dwell in a city called Nazareth, that it +might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called +a Nazarene." They triumph in the circumstance that these words are not +to be found in any one of the prophets; just as they do in the idea that +Rachel weeping for the Benjamites at Ramah has no reference whatever to +the massacre of the innocents by Herod. + +They dare even to urge that these two allusions, being clearly false, +are a manifest proof of the falsehood of this narrative; and conclude +that the massacre of the children, and the new star, and the journey of +the three kings, never had the slightest foundation in fact. + +They even go much further yet; they think they find as palpable a +contradiction between the narrative of St. Matthew and that of St. Luke, +as between the two genealogies adduced by them. St. Matthew says that +Joseph and Mary carried Jesus into Egypt, fearing that he would be +involved in the massacre. St. Luke, on the contrary, says, "After having +fulfilled all the ceremonies of the law, Joseph and Mary returned to +Nazareth, their city, and went every year to Jerusalem, to keep the +Passover." + +But thirty days must have expired before a woman could have completed +her purification from childbirth and fulfilled all the ceremonies of the +law. During these thirty days, therefore, the child must have been +exposed to destruction by the general proscription. And if his parents +went to Jerusalem to accomplish the ordinance of the law, they certainly +did not go to Egypt. + +These are the principal objections of unbelievers. They are effectually +refuted by the faith both of the Greek and Latin churches. If it were +necessary always to be clearing up the doubts of persons who read the +Scriptures, we must inevitably pass our whole lives in disputing about +all the articles contained in them. Let us rather refer ourselves to our +worthy superiors and masters; to the university of Salamanca when in +Spain, to the Sorbonne in France, and to the holy congregation at Rome. +Let us submit both in heart and in understanding to that which is +required of us for our good. + + + + +INQUISITION. + + +SECTION I. + +The Inquisition is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, established by the +see of Rome in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and even in the Indies, for the +purpose of searching out and extirpating infidels, Jews, and heretics. + +That we may not be suspected of resorting to falsehood in order to +render this tribunal odious, we shall in this present article give the +abstract of a Latin work on the "Origin and Progress of the Office of +the Holy Inquisition," printed by the royal press at Madrid in 1589, by +order of Louis de Paramo, inquisitor in the kingdom of Sicily. + +Without going back to the origin of the Inquisition, which Paramo thinks +he discovers in the manner in which God is related to have proceeded +against Adam and Eve, let us abide by the new law of which Jesus Christ, +according to him, was the chief inquisitor. He exercised the functions +of that office on the thirteenth day after his birth, by announcing to +the city of Jerusalem, through the three kings or Magi, his appearance +in the world, and afterwards by causing Herod to be devoured alive by +worms; by driving the buyers and sellers out of the temple; and finally, +by delivering Judæa into the hands of tyrants, who pillaged it in +punishment of its unbelief. + +After Jesus Christ, St. Peter, St. Paul, and the rest of the apostles +exercised the office of inquisitor, which they transmitted to the popes +and bishops, and their successors. St. Dominic having arrived in France +with the bishop of Osma, of which he was archdeacon, became animated +with zeal against the Albigenses, and obtained the regard and favor of +Simon, Count de Montfort. Having been appointed by the pope inquisitor +in Languedoc, he there founded his order, which was approved of and +ratified, in 1216, by Honorius III. Under the auspices of St. Madelaine, +Count Montfort took the city of Gezer by assault, and put all the +inhabitants to the sword; and at Laval, four hundred Albigenses were +burned at once. "In all the histories of the Inquisition that I ever +read," says Paramo, "I never met with an act of faith so eminent, or a +spectacle so solemn. At the village of Cazera, sixty were burned; and in +another place a hundred and eighty." + +The Inquisition was adopted by the count of Toulouse in 1229, and +confided to the Dominicans by Pope Gregory IX. in 1233; Innocent IV. in +1251 established it in the whole of Italy, with the exception of Naples. +At the commencement, indeed, heretics were not subjected in the Milanese +to the punishment of death, which they nevertheless so richly deserved, +because the popes were not sufficiently respected by the emperor +Frederick, to whom that state belonged; but a short time afterwards +heretics were burned at Milan, as well as in the other parts of Italy; +and our author remarks, that in 1315 some thousands of heretics having +spread themselves through Cremasco, a small territory included in the +jurisdiction of the Milanese, the Dominican brothers burned the greater +part of them; and thus checked the ravages of the theological pestilence +by the flames. + +As the first canon of the Council of Toulouse enjoined the bishops to +appoint in every parish a priest and two or three laymen of reputation, +who should be bound by oath to search carefully and frequently for +heretics, in houses, caves, and all places wherever they might be able +to hide themselves, and to give the speediest information to the +bishop, the seigneur of the place, or his bailiff, after having taken +all necessary precautions against the escape of any heretics discovered, +the inquisitors must have acted at this time in concert with the +bishops. The prisons of the bishop and of the Inquisition were +frequently the same; and, although in the course of the procedure the +inquisitor might act in his own name, he could not, without the +intervention of the bishop, apply the torture, pronounce any definitive +sentence, or condemn to perpetual imprisonment, etc. The frequent +disputes that occurred between the bishops and the inquisitors, on the +limits of their authority, on the spoils of the condemned, etc., +compelled Pope Sixtus IV., in 1473, to make the Inquisitions independent +and separate from the tribunals of the bishops. He created for Spain an +Inquisitor-general, with full powers to nominate particular inquisitors; +and Ferdinand V., in 1478, founded and endowed the Inquisition. + +At the solicitation of Turrecremata (or Torquemada), a brother of the +Dominican order, and grand inquisitor of Spain, the same Ferdinand, +surnamed the Catholic, banished from his kingdom all the Jews, allowing +them three months from the publication of his edict, after the +expiration of which period they were not to be found in any of the +Spanish dominions under pain of death. They were permitted, on quitting +the kingdom, to take with them the goods and merchandise which they had +purchased, but forbidden to take out of it any description of gold or +silver. + +The brother Turrecremata followed up and strengthened this edict, in the +diocese of Toledo, by prohibiting all Christians, under pain of +excommunication, from giving anything whatever to the Jews, even that +which might be necessary to preserve life itself. + +In consequence of these decrees about a million Jews departed from +Catalonia, the kingdom of Aragon, that of Valencia, and other countries +subject to the dominion of Ferdinand; the greater part of whom perished +miserably; so that they compare the calamities that they suffered during +this period to those they experienced under Titus and Vespasian. This +expulsion of the Jews gave incredible joy to all Catholic sovereigns. + +Some divines blamed these edicts of the king of Spain; their principal +reasons are that unbelievers ought not to be constrained to embrace the +faith of Jesus Christ, and that these violences are a disgrace to our +religion. + +But these arguments are very weak, and I contend, says Paramo, that the +edict is pious, just, and praiseworthy, as the violence with which the +Jews are required to be converted is not an absolute but a conditional +violence, since they might avoid it by quitting their country. Besides, +they might corrupt those of the Jews who were newly converted, and even +Christians themselves; but, as St. Paul says, what communion is there +between justice and iniquity, light and darkness, Jesus Christ and +Belial? + +With respect to the confiscation of their goods, nothing could be more +equitable, as they had acquired them only by usury towards Christians, +who only received back, therefore, what was in fact their own. + +In short, by the death of our Lord, the Jews became slaves, and +everything that a slave possesses belongs to his master. We could not +but suspend our narrative for a moment to make these remarks, in +opposition to persons who have thus calumniated the piety, the spotless +justice, and the sanctity of the Catholic king. + +At Seville, where an example of severity to the Jews was ardently +desired, it was the holy will of God, who knows how to draw good out of +evil, that a young man who was in waiting in consequence of an +assignation, should see through the chinks of a partition an assembly of +Jews, and in consequence inform against them. A great number of the +unhappy wretches were apprehended, and punished as they deserved. By +virtue of different edicts of the kings of Spain, and of the +inquisitors, general and particular, established in that kingdom, there +were, in a very short time, about two thousand heretics burned at +Seville, and more than four thousand from 1482 to 1520. A vast number of +others were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, or exposed to +inflictions of different descriptions. The emigration from it was so +great that five hundred houses were supposed to be left in consequence +quite empty, and in the whole diocese, three thousand; and altogether +more than a hundred thousand heretics were put to death, or punished in +some other manner, or went into banishment to avoid severer suffering. +Such was the destruction of heretics accomplished by these pious +brethren. + +The establishment of the Inquisition at Toledo was a fruitful source of +revenue to the Catholic Church. In the short space of two years it +actually burned at the stake fifty-two obstinate heretics, and two +hundred and twenty more were outlawed; whence we may easily conjecture +of what utility the Inquisition has been from its original +establishment, since in so short a period it performed such wonders. + +From the beginning of the fifteenth century, Pope Boniface IX. attempted +in vain to establish the Inquisition in Portugal, where he created the +provincial of the Dominicans, Vincent de Lisbon, inquisitor-general. +Innocent VII., some years after, having named as inquisitor the Minim +Didacus de Sylva, King John I. wrote to that pope that the establishment +of the Inquisition in his kingdom was contrary to the good of his +subjects, to his own interests, and perhaps also to the interests of +religion. + +The pope, affected by the representations of a too mild and easy +monarch, revoked all the powers granted to the inquisitors newly +established, and authorized Mark, bishop of Senigaglia, to absolve the +persons accused; which he accordingly did. Those who had been deprived +of their dignities and offices were re-established in them, and many +were delivered from the fear of the confiscation of their property. + +But how admirable, continues Paramo, is the Lord in all his ways! That +which the sovereign pontiffs had been unable effectually to obtain with +all their urgency, King John granted spontaneously to a dexterous +impostor, whom God made use of as an instrument for accomplishing the +good work. In fact, the wicked are frequently useful instruments in +God's hands, and he does not reject the good they bring about. Thus, +when John remarks to our Lord Jesus Christ, "Lord, we saw one who was +not Thy disciple casting out demons in Thy name, and we prevented him +from doing so," Jesus answered him, "Prevent him not; for he who works +miracles in My name will not speak ill of Me; and he who is not against +Me is for Me." + +Paramo relates afterwards that he saw in the library of St. Laurence, at +the Escorial, a manuscript in the handwriting of Saavedra, in which that +knave details his fabrication of a false bull, and obtaining thereby his +_entrée_ into Seville as legate, with a train of a hundred and twenty +domestics; his defrauding of thirteen thousand ducats the heirs of a +rich nobleman in that neighborhood, during his twenty days' residence in +the palace of the archbishop, by producing a counterfeit bond for the +same sum, which the nobleman acknowledged, in that instrument, to have +borrowed of the legate when he visited Rome; and finally, after his +arrival at Badajoz, the permission granted him by King John III., to +whom he was presented by means of forged letters of the pope, to +establish tribunals of the Inquisition in the principal cities of the +kingdom. + +These tribunals began immediately to exercise their jurisdiction; and a +vast number of condemnations and executions of relapsed heretics took +place, as also of absolutions of recanting and penitent heretics. Six +months had passed in this manner, when the truth was made apparent of +that expression in the Gospel, "There is nothing hid which shall not be +made known." The Marquis de Villeneuve de Barcarotta, a Spanish +nobleman, assisted by the governor of Mora, had the impostor apprehended +and conducted to Madrid. He was there carried before John de Tavera, +archbishop of Toledo. That prelate, perfectly astonished at all that now +transpired of the knavery and address of the false legate, despatched +all the depositions and documents relative to the case to Pope Paul +III.; as he did also the acts of the inquisitions which Saavedra had +established, and by which it appeared that a great number of heretics +had already been judged and condemned, and that the impostor had +extorted from his victims more than three hundred thousand ducats. + +The pope could not help acknowledging in this the finger of God and a +miracle of His providence; he accordingly formed the congregation of the +tribunal of the Inquisition, under the denomination of "The Holy +Office," in 1545, and Sixtus V. confirmed it in 1588. + +All writers but one agree with Paramo on the subject of the +establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal. Antoine de Sousa alone, in +his "Aphorisms of Inquisitors," calls the history of Saavedra in +question, under the pretence that he may very easily be conceived to +have accused himself without being in fact guilty, in consideration of +the glory which would redound to him from the event, and in the hope of +living in the memory of mankind. But Sousa, in the very narrative which +he substitutes for that of Paramo, exposes himself to the suspicion of +bad faith, in citing two bulls of Paul III., and two others from the +same pope to Cardinal Henry, the king's brother; bulls which Sousa has +not introduced into his printed work, and which are not to be found in +any collection of apostolical bulls extant; two decisive reasons for +rejecting his opinion, and adhering to that of Paramo, Hiescas, Salasar, +Mendoça, Fernandez, and Placentinus. + +When the Spaniards passed over to America they carried the Inquisition +with them; the Portuguese introduced it in the Indies, immediately upon +its being established at Lisbon, which led to the observation which +Louis de Paramo makes in his preface, that this flourishing and verdant +tree had extended its branches and its roots throughout the world, and +produced the most pleasant fruits. + +In order to form some correct idea of the jurisprudence of the +Inquisition, and the forms of its proceedings, unknown to civil +tribunals, let us take a cursory view of the "Directory of Inquisitors," +which Nicolas Eymeric, grand inquisitor of the kingdom of Aragon about +the middle of the fourteenth century, composed in Latin, and addressed +to his brother inquisitors, in virtue of the authority of his office. + +A short time after the invention of printing, an edition of this work +was printed at Barcelona, and soon conveyed to all the inquisitions in +the Christian world. A second edition appeared at Rome in 1578, in +folio, with scholia and commentaries by Francois Pegna, doctor in +theology and canonist. + +The following eulogium on the work is given by the editor in an epistle +dedicatory to Gregory XIII.: "While Christian princes are everywhere +engaged in combating with arms the enemies of the Catholic religion, and +pouring out the blood of their soldiers to support the unity of the +Church and the authority of the apostolic see, there are also zealous +and devoted writers, who toil in obscurity, either to refute the +opinions of innovators or to arm and direct the power of the laws +against their persons, in order that the severity of punishments, and +the solemnity and torture attending executions, keeping them within the +bounds of duty, may produce that effect upon them which cannot be +produced in them by the love of virtue. + +"Although I fill only the lowest place among these defenders of +religion, I am nevertheless animated with the same zeal for repressing +the impious audacity and horrible depravity of the broachers of +innovation. The labor which I here present to you on the 'Directory of +Inquisitions,' will be a proof of my assertion. This work of Nicolas +Eymeric, respectable for its antiquity, contains a summary of the +principal articles of faith, and an elaborate and methodical code of +instruction for the tribunals of the Holy Inquisition, on the means +which they ought to employ for the repression and extirpation of +heretics; on which account I felt it my duty to offer it in homage to +your holiness, as the chief of the Christian republic." + +He declares, elsewhere, that he had it reprinted for the instruction of +inquisitors; that the work is as much to be admired as respected, and +teaches with equal piety and learning the proper means of repressing and +exterminating heretics. He acknowledges, however, that he is in +possession of other useful and judicious methods, for which he refers to +practice, which will instruct much more effectually than any lessons, +and that he more readily thus silently refers to practice, as there are +certain matters relating to the subject which it is of importance not to +divulge, and which, at the same time, are generally well known to +inquisitors. He cites a vast number of writers, all of whom have +followed the doctrine of the "Directory"; and he even complains that +many have availed themselves of it without ascribing any honor to +Eymeric for the good things they have in fact stolen from him. + +We will secure ourselves from any reproach of this description, by +pointing out exactly what we mean to borrow both from the author and the +editor. Eymeric says, in the fifty-eighth page, "Commiseration for the +children of the criminal, who by the severity used towards him are +reduced to beggary, should never be permitted to mitigate that severity, +since both by divine and human laws children are punished for the faults +of their fathers." + +Page 123. "If a charge entered for prosecution were destitute of every +appearance of truth, the inquisitor should not on that account expunge +it from his register, because what at one period has not been +discovered, may be so at another." + +Page 291. "It is necessary for the inquisitor to oppose cunning and +stratagem to those employed by heretics, that he may thus pay the +offenders in their own coin, and be enabled to adopt the language of the +apostle, 'Being crafty, I caught you with guile.'" + +Page 296. "The information and depositions (_procès-verbal_) may be read +over to the accused, completely suppressing the names of the accusers; +and then it is for him to conjecture who the persons are that have +brought against him any particular charges, to challenge them as +incompetent witnesses, or to weaken their testimony by contrary +evidence. This is the method generally used. The accused must not be +permitted to imagine that challenges of witnesses will be easily allowed +in cases of heresy, for it is of no consequence whether witnesses are +respectable or infamous, accomplices in the prisoner's offence, +excommunicated, heretical, or in any manner whatever guilty, or +perjured, etc. This has been so ruled in favor of the faith." + +Page 202. "The appeal which a prisoner makes from the Inquisition does +not preclude that tribunal from trial and sentence of him upon other +heads of accusation." + +Page 313. "Although the form of the order for applying the torture may +suppose variation in the answers of the accused, and also in addition +sufficient presumptive evidence against him for putting him to the +question; both these circumstances are not necessary, and either will be +sufficient for the purpose without the other." + +Pegna informs us, in the hundred and eighteenth scholium on the third +book, that inquisitors generally employ only five kinds of torture when +putting to the question, although Marsilius mentions fifteen kinds, and +adds, that he has imagined others still--such, for example, as +precluding the possibility of sleep, in which he is approved by +Grillandus and Locatus. + +Eymeric continues, page 319: "Care should be taken never to state in the +form of absolution, that the prisoner is innocent, but merely that there +was not sufficient evidence against him; a precaution necessary to +prevent the prisoner, absolved in one case, from pleading that +absolution in defence against any future charge that may be brought +against him." + +Page 324. "Sometimes abjuration and canonical purgation are prescribed +together. This is done, when, to a bad reputation of an individual in +point of doctrine are joined inconsiderable presumptions, which, were +they a little stronger, would tend to convict him of having really said +or done something injurious to the faith. The prisoner who stands in +these circumstances is compelled to abjure all heresy in general; and +after that, if he falls into any heresy of any description whatever, +however different from those which may have constituted the matter of +the present charge or suspicion against him, he is punished as a +relapsed person, and delivered over to the secular arm." + +Page 331. "Relapsed persons, when the relapse is clearly proved, must be +delivered up to secular justice, whatever protestation they may make as +to their future conduct, and whatever contrition they may express. The +inquisitor will, in such circumstances, inform the secular authorities, +that on such a particular day and hour, and in such a particular place, +a heretic will be delivered up to them and should provide that notice be +given to the public that they will be expected to be present at the +ceremony, as the inquisitor will deliver a sermon on the occasion in +defence of the true faith, and those who attend will obtain the usual +indulgences." + +These indulgences are accordingly detailed: after the form of sentence +given against the penitent heretic, the inquisitor will grant forty +days' indulgence to all persons present; three years to those who +contributed to the apprehension, abjuration, condemnation, etc., of the +said heretic; and finally, three years also will be granted by our holy +father, the pope, to all who will denounce any other heretic. + +Page 332. "When the culprit has been delivered over to the secular +authority, it shall pronounce its sentence, and the criminal shall be +conveyed to the place of punishment; some pious persons shall accompany +him, and associate him in their prayers, and even pray with him; and not +leave him till he has rendered up his soul to his Creator. But it is +their duty to take particular care neither to say or to do anything +which may hasten the moment of his death, for fear of falling into some +irregularity. Accordingly, they should not exhort the criminal to mount +the scaffold, or present himself to the executioner, or advise the +executioner to get ready and arrange his instruments of punishment, so +that the death may take place more quickly, and the prisoner be +prevented from lingering; all for the sake of avoiding irregularity." + +Page 335. "Should it happen that the heretic, when just about to be +fixed to the stake to be burned, were to give signs of conversion, he +might, perhaps, out of singular lenity and favor, be allowed to be +received and shut up, like penitent heretics, within four walls, +although it would be weak to place much reliance on a confession of this +nature, and the indulgence is not authorized by any express law; such +lenity, however, is very dangerous. I was witness of an example in point +at Barcelona: A priest who was condemned, with two other impenitent +heretics, to be burned, and who was actually in the midst of the flames, +called on the bystanders to pull him out instantly, for he was willing +to be converted; he was accordingly extricated, dreadfully scorched on +one side. I do not mean to decide whether this was well or ill done; but +I know that, fourteen years afterwards, he was still dogmatizing, and +had corrupted a considerable number of persons; he was therefore once +more given up to justice, and was burned to death." + +"No person doubts," says Pegna, scholium 47, "that heretics ought to be +put to death; but the particular method of execution may well be a topic +of discussion." Alphonso de Castro, in the second book of his work, "On +the Just Punishment of Heretics," considers it a matter of great +indifference whether they are destroyed by the sword, by fire, or any +other method; but Hostiensis Godofredus, Covarruvias, Simancas, Roxas, +etc., maintain that they ought decidedly to be burned. In fact, as +Hostiensis very well expressed it, execution by fire is the punishment +appropriate to heresy. We read in St. John, "If any one remain not in +me, he shall be cast forth, as a branch, and wither, and men shall +gather it and cast it into the fire and burn it." "It may be added," +continued 'Pegna, "that the universal custom of the Christian republic +is in support of this opinion. Simancas and Roxas decide that heretics +ought to be burned alive; but one precaution should always be taken in +burning them, which is tearing out the tongue and keeping the mouth +perfectly closed, in order to prevent their scandalizing the spectators +by their impieties." + +Finally, page 369, Eymeric enjoins those whom he addresses to proceed in +matters of heresy straight forward, without any wranglings of advocates, +and without so many forms and solemnities as are generally employed in +criminal cases; that is, to make the process as short as possible, by +cutting off useless delays, by going on with the hearing and trial of +such causes, even on days when the labors of the other judges are +suspended; by disallowing every appeal which has for its apparent object +merely a postponement of final judgment; and by not admitting an +unnecessary multitude of witnesses, etc. + +This revolting system of jurisprudence has simply been put under some +restriction in Spain and Portugal; while at Milan the Inquisition itself +has at length been entirely suppressed. + + +SECTION II. + +The Inquisition is well known to be an admirable and truly Christian +invention for increasing the power of the pope and monks, and rendering +the population of a whole kingdom hypocrites. + +St. Dominic is usually considered as the person to whom the world is +principally indebted for this institution. In fact, we have still extant +a patent granted by that great saint, expressed precisely in the +following words: "I, brother Dominic, reconcile to the Church Roger, the +bearer of these presents, on condition of his being scourged by a priest +on three successive Sundays from the entrance of the city to the church +doors; of his abstaining from meat all his life; of his fasting for the +space of three Lents in a year; of his never drinking wine; of his +carrying about him the '_san benito_' with crosses; of his reciting the +breviary every day, and ten paternosters in the course of the day, and +twenty at midnight; of his preserving perfect chastity, and of his +presenting himself every month before the parish priest, etc.; the whole +under pain of being treated as heretical, perjured, and impenitent." + +Although Dominic was the real founder of the Inquisition, yet Louis de +Paramo, one of the most respectable writers and most brilliant +luminaries of the Holy Office, relates, in the second chapter of his +second book, that God was the first institutor of the Holy Office, and +that he exercised the power of the preaching brethren, that is of the +Dominican Order, against Adam. In the first place Adam is cited before +the tribunal: "_Adam ubi es?_"--Adam, where art thou? "And in fact," +adds Paramo, "the want of this citation would have rendered the whole +procedure of God null." + +The dresses formed of skins, which God made for Adam and Eve, were the +model of the "_san benito_," which the Holy Office requires to be worn +by heretics. It is true that, according to this argument, God was the +first tailor; it is not, however, the less evident, on account of that +ludicrous and profane inference, that he was the first inquisitor. + +Adam was deprived of the immovable property he possessed in the +terrestrial paradise, and hence the Holy Office confiscates the property +of all whom it condemns. + +Louis de Paramo remarks, that the inhabitants of Sodom were burned as +heretics because their crime is a formal heresy. He thence passes to the +history of the Jews: and in every part of it discovers the Holy Office. + +Jesus Christ is the first inquisitor of the new law; the popes were +inquisitors by divine right; and they afterwards communicated their +power to St. Dominic. + +He afterwards estimates the number of all those whom the Inquisition has +put to death; he states it to be considerably above a hundred thousand. + +His book was printed in 1589, at Madrid, with the approbation of +doctors, the eulogiums of bishops, and the privilege of the king. We +can, at the present day, scarcely form any idea of horrors at once so +extravagant and abominable; but at that period nothing appeared more +natural and edifying. All men resemble Louis de Paramo when they are +fanatics. + +Paramo was a plain, direct man, very exact in dates, omitting no +interesting fact, and calculating with precision the number of human +victims immolated by the Holy Office throughout the world. + +He relates, with great naïveté, the establishment of the Inquisition in +Portugal, and coincides perfectly with four other historians who have +treated of that subject. The following account they unanimously agree +in: + +_Singular. Establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal._ + +Pope Boniface had long before, at the beginning of the fifteenth +century, delegated some Dominican friars to go to Portugal, from one +city to another, to burn heretics, Mussulmans, and Jews; but these were +itinerant and not stationary; and even the kings sometimes complained of +the vexations caused by them. Pope Clement VII. was desirous of giving +them a fixed residence in Portugal, as they had in Aragon and Castile. +Difficulties, however, arose between the court of Rome and that of +Lisbon; tempers became irritated, the Inquisition suffered by it, and +was far from being perfectly established. + +In 1539, there appeared at Lisbon a legate of the pope, who came, he +said, to establish the holy Inquisition on immovable foundations. He +delivered his letters to King John III. from Pope Paul III. He had other +letters from Rome for the chief officers of the court; his patents as +legate were duly sealed and signed; and he exhibited the most ample +powers for creating a grand inquisitor and all the judges of the Holy +Office. He was, however, in fact an impostor of the name of Saavedra, +who had the talent of counterfeiting hand-writings, seals, and +coats-of-arms. He had acquired the art at Rome, and was perfected in it +at Seville, at which place he arrived in company with two other +sharpers. His train was magnificent, consisting of more than a hundred +and twenty domestics. To defray, at least in part, the enormous expense +with which all this splendor was attended, he and his associates +borrowed at Seville large sums in the name of the apostolic chamber of +Rome; everything was concerted with the most consummate art. + +[Illustration: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL] + +The king of Portugal was at first perfectly astonished at the pope's +despatching a legate to him without any previous announcement to him of +his intention. The legate hastily observed that in a concern so urgent +as that of establishing the Inquisition on a firm foundation, his +holiness could admit of no delays, and that the king might consider +himself honored by the holy father's having appointed a legate to be the +first person to announce his intention. The king did not venture to +reply. The legate on the same day constituted a grand inquisitor, and +sent about collectors to receive the tenths; and before the court could +obtain answers from Rome to its representations on the subject, the +legate had brought two hundred victims to the stake, and collected more +than two hundred thousand crowns. + +However, the marquis of Villanova, a Spanish nobleman, of whom the +legate had borrowed at Seville a very considerable sum upon forged +bills, determined, if possible, to repay himself the money with his own +hands, instead of going to Lisbon and exposing himself to the intrigues +and influence of the swindler there. The legate was at this time making +his circuit through the country, and happened very conveniently to be on +the borders of Spain. The marquis unexpectedly advanced upon him with +fifty men well armed, carried him off prisoner, and conducted him to +Madrid. + +The whole imposture was speedily discovered at Lisbon; the Council of +Madrid condemned the legate Saavedra to be flogged and sent to the +galleys for ten years; but the most admirable circumstance was, that +Pope Paul IV. confirmed subsequently all that the impostor had +established; out of the plenitude of his divine power he rectified all +the little irregularities of the various procedures, and rendered sacred +what before was merely human. Of what importance the arm which God +employs in His sacred service?--"_Qu'importe de quel bras Dieu daigne se +servir?_" + +Such was the manner in which the Inquisition became established at +Lisbon; and the whole kingdom extolled the wisdom and providence of God +on the occasion. + +To conclude, the methods of procedure adopted by this tribunal are +generally known; it is well known how strongly they are opposed to the +false equity and blind reason of all other tribunals in the world. Men +are imprisoned on the mere accusation of persons the most infamous; a +son may denounce his father, and the wife her husband; the accused is +never confronted with the accusers; and the property of the person +convicted is confiscated for the benefit of the judges: such at least +was the manner of its proceeding down to our own times. Surely in this +we must perceive something decidedly divine; for it is absolutely +incomprehensible that men should have patiently submitted to this yoke. + +At length Count Aranda has obtained the blessings of all Europe by +paring the nails and filing the teeth of the monster in Spain; it +breathes, however, still. + + + + +INSTINCT. + + +"Instinctus, _impulsus_," impulse; but what power impels us? + +All feeling is instinct. A secret conformity of our organs to their +respective objects forms our instinct. It is solely by instinct that we +perform numberless involuntary movements, just as it is by instinct that +we possess curiosity, that we run after novelty, that menaces terrify +us, that contempt irritates us, that an air of submission appeases us, +and that tears soften us. + +We are governed by instinct, as well as cats and goats; this is one +further circumstance in which we resemble the mere animal tribes--a +resemblance as incontestable as that of our blood, our necessities, and +the various functions of our bodies. + +Our instinct is never so shrewd and skilful as theirs, and does not even +approach it; a calf and a lamb, as soon as they are born, rush to the +fountain of their mother's milk; but unless the mother of the infant +clasped it in her arms, and folded it to her bosom, it would inevitably +perish. + +No woman in a state of pregnancy was ever invincibly impelled to prepare +for her infant a convenient wicker cradle, as the wren with its bill and +claws prepares a nest for her offspring. But the power of reflection +which we possess, in conjunction with two industrious hands presented to +us by nature, raises us to an equality with the instinct of animals, and +in the course of time places us infinitely above them, both in respect +to good and evil--a proposition condemned by the members of the ancient +parliament and by the Sorbonne, natural philosophers of distinguished +eminence, and who, it is well known, have admirably promoted the +perfection of the arts. + +Our instinct, in the first place, impels us to beat our brother when he +vexes us, if we are roused into a passion with him and feel that we are +stronger than he is. Afterwards, our sublime reason leads us on to the +invention of arrows, swords, pikes, and at length muskets, to kill our +neighbors with. + +Instinct alone urges us all to _make_ love--"_Amor omnibus idem_;" but +Virgil, Tibullus, and Ovid _sing_ it. It is from instinct alone that a +young artisan stands gazing with respect and admiration before the +superfine gilt coach of a commissioner of taxes. Reason comes to the +assistance of the young artisan; he is made a collector; he becomes +polished; he embezzles; he rises to be a great man in his turn, and +dazzles the eyes of his former comrades as he lolls at ease in his own +carriage, more profusely gilded than that which originally excited his +admiration and ambition. + +What is this instinct which governs the whole animal kingdom, and which +in us is strengthened by reason or repressed by habit? Is it "_divinæ +particula auræ_?" Yes, undoubtedly it is something divine; for +everything is so. Everything is the incomprehensible effect of an +incomprehensible cause. Everything is swayed, is impelled by nature. We +reason about everything, and originate nothing. + + + + +INTEREST. + + +We shall teach men nothing, when we tell them that everything we do is +done from interest. What! it will be said, is it from motives of +interest that the wretched fakir remains stark naked under the burning +sun, loaded with chains, dying with hunger, half devoured by vermin, and +devouring them in his turn? Yes, most undoubtedly it is; as we have +stated elsewhere, he depends upon ascending to the eighteenth heaven, +and looks with an eye of pity on the man who will be admitted only into +the ninth. + +The interest of the Malabar widow, who burns herself with the corpse of +her husband, is to recover him in another world, and be there more happy +even than the fakir. For, together with their metempsychosis, the +Indians have another world; they resemble ourselves; their system admits +of contradictions. + +Were you ever acquainted with any king or republic that made either war +or peace, that issued decrees, or entered into conventions, from any +other motive than that of interest? + +With respect to the interest of money, consult, in the great +"Encyclopædia," the article of M. d'Alembert, on "Calculation," and that +of M. Boucher d'Argis, on "Jurisprudence." We will venture to add a few +reflections. + +1. Are gold and silver merchandise? Yes; the author of the "Spirit of +Laws" does not think so when he says: "Money, which is the price of +commodities, is hired and not bought." + +It is both lent and bought. I buy gold with silver, and silver with +gold; and their price fluctuates in all commercial countries from day to +day. + +The law of Holland requires bills of exchange to be paid in the silver +coin of the country, and not in gold, if the creditor demands it. Then I +buy silver money, and I pay for it in gold, or in cloth, corn, or +diamonds. + +I am in want of money, corn, or diamonds, for the space of a year; the +corn, money, or diamond merchant says--I could, for this year, sell my +money, corn, or diamonds to advantage. Let us estimate at four, five, or +six per cent., according to the usage of the country, what I should lose +by letting you have it. You shall, for instance, return me at the end of +the year, twenty-one carats of diamonds for the twenty which I now lend +you; twenty-one sacks of corn for the twenty; twenty-one thousand crowns +for twenty thousand crowns. Such is interest. It is established among +all nations by the law of nature. The maximum or highest rate of +interest depends, in every country, on its own particular law. In Rome +money is lent on pledges at two and a half per cent., according to law, +and the pledges are sold, if the money be not paid at the appointed +time. I do not lend upon pledges, and I require only the interest +customary in Holland. If I were in China, I should ask of you the +customary interest at Macao and Canton. + +2. While the parties were proceeding with this bargain at Amsterdam, it +happened that there arrived from St. Magliore, a Jansenist (and the fact +is perfectly true, he was called the Abbé des Issarts); this Jansenist +says to the Dutch merchant, "Take care what you are about; you are +absolutely incurring damnation; money must not produce money, '_nummus +nummum non parit_.' No one is allowed to receive interest for his money +but when he is willing to sink the principal. The way to be saved is to +make a contract with the gentleman; and for twenty thousand crowns which +you are never to have returned to you, you and your heirs will receive a +thousand crowns per annum to all eternity." + +"You jest," replies the Dutchman; "you are in this very case proposing +to me a usury that is absolutely of the nature of an infinite series. I +should (that is, myself and heirs would) in that case receive back my +capital at the end of twenty years, the double of it in forty, the +four-fold of it in eighty; this you see would be just an infinite +series. I cannot, besides, lend for more than twelve months, and I am +contented with a thousand crowns as a remuneration." + +THE ABBÉ DES ISSARTS.--I am grieved for your Dutch soul; God forbade the +Jews to lend at interest, and you are well aware that a citizen of +Amsterdam should punctually obey the laws of commerce given in a +wilderness to runaway vagrants who had no commerce. + +THE DUTCHMAN.--That is clear; all the world ought to be Jews; but it +seems to me, that the law permitted the Hebrew horde to gain as much by +usury as they could from foreigners, and that, in consequence of this +permission, they managed their affairs in the sequel remarkably well. +Besides, the prohibition against one Jew's taking interest from another +must necessarily have become obsolete, since our Lord Jesus, when +preaching at Jerusalem, expressly said that interest was in his time +one hundred per cent.; for in the parable of the talents he says, that +the servant who had received five talents gained five others in +Jerusalem by them; that he who had two gained two by them; and that the +third who had only one, and did not turn that to any account, was shut +up in a dungeon by his master, for not laying it out with the +money-changers. But these money-changers were Jews; it was therefore +between Jews that usury was practised at Jerusalem; therefore this +parable, drawn from the circumstances and manners of the times, +decidedly indicates that usury or interest was at the rate of a hundred +per cent. Read the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew; he was +conversant with the subject; he had been a commissioner of taxes in +Galilee. Let me finish my argument with this gentleman; and do not make +me lose both my money and my time. + +THE ABBÉ DES ISSARTS.--All that you say is very good and very fine; but +the Sorbonne has decided that lending money on interest is a mortal sin. + +THE DUTCHMAN.--You must be laughing at me, my good friend, when you cite +the Sorbonne as an authority to a merchant of Amsterdam. There is not a +single individual among those wrangling railers themselves who does not +obtain, whenever he can, five or six per cent, for his money by +purchasing revenue bills, India bonds, assignments, and Canada bills. +The clergy of France, as a corporate body, borrow at interest. In many +of the provinces of France, it is the custom to stipulate for interest +with the principal. Besides, the university of Oxford and that of +Salamanca have decided against the Sorbonne. I acquired this information +in the course of my travels; and thus we have authority against +authority. Once more, I must beg you to interrupt me no longer. + +THE ABBÉ DES ISSARTS.--The wicked, sir, are never at a loss for reasons. +You are, I repeat, absolutely destroying yourself, for the Abbé de St. +Cyran, who has not performed any miracles, and the Abbé Paris, who +performed some in St. Médard.... + +3. Before the abbé had finished his speech, the merchant drove him out +of his counting-house; and after having legally lent his money, to the +last penny, went to represent the conversation between himself and the +abbé, to the magistrates, who forbade the Jansenists from propagating a +doctrine so pernicious to commerce. + +"Gentlemen," said the chief bailiff, "give us of efficacious grace as +much as you please, of predestination as much as you please, and of +communion as little as you please; on these points you are masters; but +take care not to meddle with the laws of commerce." + + + + +INTOLERANCE. + + +Read the article on "Intolerance" in the great "Encyclopædia." Read the +treatise on "Toleration" composed on occasion of the dreadful +assassination of John Calas, a citizen of Toulouse; and if, after that, +you allow of persecution in matters of religion, compare yourself at +once to Ravaillac. Ravaillac, you know, was highly intolerant. The +following is the substance of all the discourses ever delivered by the +intolerant: + +You monster; you will be burned to all eternity in the other world, and +whom I will myself burn as soon as ever I can in this, you really have +the insolence to read de Thou and Bayle, who have been put into the +index of prohibited authors at Rome! When I was preaching to you in the +name of God, how Samson had killed a thousand men with the jawbone of an +ass, your head, still harder than the arsenal from which Samson obtained +his arms, showed me by a slight movement from left to right that you +believed nothing of what I said. And when I stated that the devil +Asmodeus, who out of jealousy twisted the necks of the seven husbands of +Sarah among the Medes, was put in chains in upper Egypt, I saw a small +contraction of your lips, in Latin called _cachinnus_ (a grin) which +plainly indicated to me that in the bottom of your soul you held the +history of Asmodeus in derision. + +And as for you, Isaac Newton; Frederick the Great, king of Prussia and +elector of Brandenburg; John Locke; Catherine, empress of Russia, +victorious over the Ottomans; John Milton; the beneficent sovereign of +Denmark; Shakespeare; the wise king of Sweden; Leibnitz; the august +house of Brunswick; Tillotson; the emperor of China; the Parliament of +England; the Council of the great Mogul; in short, all you who do not +believe one word which I have taught in my courses on divinity, I +declare to you, that I regard you all as pagans and publicans, as, in +order to engrave it on your unimpressible brains, I have often told you +before. You are a set of callous miscreants; you will all go to gehenna, +where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched; for I am right, +and you are all wrong; and I have grace, and you have none. I confess +three devotees in my neighborhood, while you do not confess a single +one; I have executed the mandates of bishops, which has never been the +case with you; I have abused philosophers in the language of the +fish-market, while you have protected, imitated, or equalled them; I +have composed pious defamatory libels, stuffed with infamous calumnies, +and you have never so much as read them. I say mass every day in Latin +for fourteen sous, and you are never even so much as present at it, any +more than Cicero, Cato, Pompey, Cæsar, Horace, or Virgil, were ever +present at it--consequently you deserve each of you to have your right +hand cut off, your tongue cut out, to be put to the torture, and at last +burned at a slow fire; for God is merciful. + +Such, without the slightest abatement, are the maxims of the intolerant, +and the sum and substance of all their books. How delightful to live +with such amiable people! + + + + + +INUNDATION. + + +"Was there ever a time when the globe was entirely inundated? It is +physically impossible. + +It is possible that the sea may successively have covered every land, +one part after another; and even this can only have happened by very +slow gradation, and in a prodigious number of centuries. In the course +of five hundred years the sea has retired from Aigues-Mortes, Fréjus, +and Ravenna, which were considerable ports, and left about two leagues +of land dry. According to the ratio of such progression, it is clear +that it would require two million and two hundred and fifty thousand +years to produce the same effect through the whole circuit of the globe. +It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance that this period of time nearly +falls in with that which the axis of the earth would require to be +raised, so as to coincide with the equator; a change extremely probable, +which began to be considered so only about fifty years since, and which +could not be completed in a shorter period of time than two million and +three hundred thousand years. + +The beds or strata of shells, which have been discovered at the distance +of some leagues from the sea, are an incontestable evidence that it has +gradually deposited these marine productions on tracts which were +formerly shores of the ocean; but that the water should have ever +covered the whole globe at once is an absurd chimera in physics, +demonstrated to be impossible by the laws of gravitation, by the laws +of fluids, and by the insufficient quantity of water for the purpose. We +do not, however, by these observations, at all mean to impeach the truth +of the universal deluge, related in the Pentateuch; on the contrary, +that is a miracle which it is our duty to believe; it is a miracle, and +therefore could not have been accomplished by the laws of nature. + +All is miracle in the history of the deluge--a miracle, that forty days +of rain should have inundated the four quarters of the world, and have +raised the water to the height of fifteen cubits above the tops of the +loftiest mountains; a miracle, that there should have been cataracts, +floodgates, and openings in heaven; a miracle, that all sorts of animals +should have been collected in the ark from all parts of the world; a +miracle that Noah found the means of feeding them for a period of ten +months; a miracle that all the animals with all their provisions could +have been included and retained in the ark; a miracle, that the greater +part of them did not die; a miracle, that after quitting the ark, they +found food enough to maintain them; and a further miracle, but of a +different kind, that a person, by the name of Lepelletier, thought +himself capable of explaining how all the animals could be contained and +fed in Noah's ark naturally, that is, without a miracle. + +But the history of the deluge being that of the most miraculous event of +which the world ever heard, it must be the height of folly and madness +to attempt an explanation of it: it is one of the mysteries which are +believed by faith; and faith consists in believing that which reason +does not believe--which is only another miracle. + +The history of the universal deluge, therefore, is like that of the +tower of Babel, of Balaam's ass, of the falling of the walls of Jericho +at the sound of trumpets, of waters turned into blood, of the passage of +the Red Sea, and of the whole of the prodigies which God condescended to +perform in favor of his chosen people--depths unfathomable to the human +understanding. + + + + +JEHOVAH. + + +Jehovah, the ancient name of God. No people ever pronounced it "Geova," +as the French do; they pronounced it "Iëvo"; you find it so written in +Sanchoniathon, cited by Eusebius, Prep., book x.; in Diodorus, book ii.; +and in Macrobius, Sat., book i. All nations have pronounced it _ie_ and +not _g_. This sacred name was formed out of the vowels _i_, _e_, _o_, +_u_, in the east. Some pronounced _ïe_, _oh_, with an aspirate, _i_, _e +o_, _va_. The word was always to be constituted of four letters, +although we have here used five, for want of power to express these four +characters. + +We have already observed that, according to Clement of Alexandria, by +seizing on the correct pronunciation of this name a person had it in his +power to produce the death of any man. Clement gives an instance of it. + +Long before the time of Moses, Seth had pronounced the name of +"Jehovah," as is related in the fourth chapter of Genesis; and, +according to the Hebrew, Seth was even called "Jehovah." Abraham swore +to the king of Sodom by Jehovah, chap. xiv. 22. + +From the word "Jehovah," the Latins derived "_Jove_," "_Jovis_," +"_Jovispeter_," "_Jupiter_." In the bush, the Almighty says to Moses, +"My name is Jehovah." In the orders which he gave Him for the court of +Pharaoh, he says to him: "I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as +the mighty God, only by my name, Adonai,' I was not known to them, and I +made a covenant with them." + +The Jews did not for a long time pronounce this name. It was common to +the Phoenicians and Egyptians. It signified, that which is; and hence, +probably, is derived the inscription of Isis: "I am all that is." + + + + +JEPHTHAH. + + +SECTION I. + +It is evident from the text of the Book of Judges that Jephthah promised +to sacrifice the first person that should come out of his house to +congratulate him on his victory over the Ammonites. His only daughter +presented herself before him for that purpose; he tore his garments and +immolated her, after having promised her to go and deplore in the +recesses of the mountains the calamity of her dying a virgin. The +daughters of Israel long continued to celebrate this painful event, and +devoted four days in the year to lamentation for the daughter of +Jephthah. + +In whatever period this history was written, whether it was imitated +from the Greek history of Agamemnon and Idomeneus, or was the model from +which that history was taken; whether it might be anterior or posterior +to similar narratives in Assyrian history is not the point I am now +examining. I keep strictly to the text. Jephthah vowed to make his +daughter a burnt offering, and fulfilled his vow. + +It was expressly commanded by the Jewish law to sacrifice men devoted to +the Lord: "Every man that shall be devoted shall not be redeemed, but +shall be put to death without remission." The Vulgate translates it: "He +shall not be redeemed, but shall die the death." + +It was in virtue of this law that Samuel hewed in pieces King Agag, +whom, as we have already seen, Saul had pardoned. In fact, it was for +sparing Agag that Saul was rebuked by the Lord, and lost his kingdom. + +Thus, then, we perceive sacrifices of human blood clearly established; +there is no point of history more incontestable: we can only judge of a +nation by its own archives, and by what it relates concerning itself. + + +SECTION II. + +There are, then, it seems, persons to be found who hesitate at nothing, +who falsify a passage of Scripture as intrepidly as if they were quoting +its very words, and who hope to deceive mankind by their falsehoods, +knowing them perfectly to be such. If such daring impostors are to be +found now, we cannot help supposing, that before the invention of +printing, which affords such facility, and almost certainty of +detection, there existed a hundred times as many. + +One of the most impudent falsifiers who have lately appeared, is the +author of an infamous libel entitled "The Anti-Philosophic Dictionary," +which truly deserves its title. But my readers will say, "Do not be so +irritated; what is it to you that a contemptible book has been +published?" Gentlemen, it is to the subject of Jephthah, to the subject +of human victims, of the blood of men sacrificed to God, that I am now +desirous of drawing your attention! + +The author, whoever he may be, translates the thirty-ninth verse of the +first chapter of the history of Jephthah as follows: "She returned to +the house of her father, who fulfilled the consecration which he had +promised by his vow, and his daughter remained in the state of +virginity." + +Yes, falsifier of the Bible, I am irritated at it, I acknowledge; but +you have lied to the holy spirit; which you ought to know is a sin which +is never pardoned. + +The passage in the Vulgate is as follows: + +"_Et reversa est ad patrem suum, et fecit ei sicut voverat quæ ignorabat +virum. Exinde mos increbruit in Israel et consuetudo servata est, ut +post anni circulum conveniant in unum filiæ Israel, et plangant filiam +Jephte Galaaditæ, diebus quatuor._" + +"And she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed, to +her who had never known man; and hence came the usage, and the custom is +still observed, that the daughters of Israel assemble every year to +lament the daughter of Jephthah for four days." + +You will just have the goodness, Mr. Anti-philosopher, to tell us, +whether four days of lamentation every year have been devoted to weeping +the fate of a young woman because she was consecrated? + +Whether any nuns (_religieuses_) were ever solemnly appointed among a +people who considered virginity an opprobrium? + +And also, what is the natural meaning of the phrase, he did to her as he +had vowed--"_Fecit ei sicut voverat?_" + +What had Jephthah vowed? What had he promised by an oath to perform? To +kill his daughter; to offer her up as a burnt offering--and he did kill +her. + +Read Calmet's dissertation on the rashness of Jephthah's vow and its +fulfilment; read the law which he cites, that terrible law of Leviticus, +in the twenty-seventh chapter, which commands that all which shall be +devoted to the Lord shall not be ransomed, but shall die the death: +"_Non redimetur, sed morte morletur_." + +Observe the multitude of examples by which this most astonishing truth +is attested. Look at the Amalekites and Canaanites; look at the king of +Arvad and all his family subjected to the law of devotion; look at the +priest Samuel slaying King Agag with his own hands, and cutting him into +pieces as a butcher cuts up an ox in his slaughter-house. After +considering all this, go and corrupt, falsify, or deny holy Scripture, +in order to maintain your paradox; and insult those who revere the +Scripture, however astonishing and confounding they may find it. Give +the lie direct to the historian Josephus, who transcribes the narrative +in question, and positively asserts that Jephthah immolated his +daughter. Pile revilings upon falsehoods, and calumny upon ignorance; +sages will smile at your impotence; and sages, thank God, are at present +neither few nor weak. Oh, that you could but see the sovereign contempt +with which they look down upon the Rouths, when they corrupt the holy +Scripture, and when they boast of having disputed with the president +Montesquieu in his last hour, and convinced him that he ought to think +exactly like the Jesuits! + + + + +JESUITS; OR PRIDE. + + +The Jesuits have been so much a subject of discourse and discussion +that, after having engaged the attention of Europe for a period of two +hundred years, they at last begin to weary and disgust it, whether they +write themselves, or whether any one else writes for or against that +singular society; in which it must be confessed there have been found, +and are to be found still, individuals of very extraordinary merit. + +They have been reproached, in the six thousand volumes that have been +written against them, with their lax morality, which has not, however, +been more lax than that of the Capuchins; and with their doctrine +relating to the safety of the person of kings; a doctrine which after +all is not to be compared with the horn-handled knife of James Clement; +nor with the prepared host, the sprinkled wafer, which so well answered +the purpose of Ange de Montepulciano, another Jacobin, and which +poisoned the emperor Henry VII. + +It is not versatile grace which has been their ruin, nor the fraudulent +bankruptcy of the reverend Father Lavalette, prefect of the apostolic +missions. A whole order has not been expelled from France and Spain and +the two Sicilies, because that order contained a single bankrupt. Nor +was it affected by the odious deviations of the Jesuit Guyot-Desfontaines, +or the Jesuit Fréron, or the reverend father Marsy, so injurious, in the +latter instance, to the youthful and high-born victim. The public +refused to attend these Greek and Latin imitations of Anacreon and +Horace. + +What is it then that was their ruin?--_pride_, What, it may be asked by +some, were the Jesuits prouder than any other monks? Yes; and so much so +that they procured a _lettre de cachet_ against an ecclesiastic for +calling them monks. One member of the society, called Croust, more +brutal than the rest, a brother of the confessor of the second +dauphiness, was absolutely, in my presence, going to beat the son of M. +de Guyot, afterwards king's advocate (prêteur-royal) at Strasburg, +merely for saying he would go to see him in his convent. + +It is perfectly incredible with what contempt they considered every +university where they had not been educated, every book which they had +not written, every ecclesiastic who was not "a man of quality." Of this +I have myself, times without number, been a witness. They express +themselves in the following language, in their libel entitled "It is +Time to Speak Out": "Should we condescend even to speak to a magistrate +who says the Jesuits are proud and ought to be humbled?" They were so +proud that they would not suffer any one to blame their pride! + +Whence did this hateful pride originate? From Father Guinard's having +been hanged? which is literally true. + +It must be remarked that after the execution of that Jesuit under Henry +IV., and after the banishment of the society from the kingdom, they were +recalled only on the indispensable condition that one Jesuit should +always reside at court, who should be responsible for all the rest. +Coton was the person who thus became a hostage at the court of Henry +IV.; and that excellent monarch, who was not without his little +stratagems of policy, thought to conciliate the pope by making a hostage +of his confessor. + +From that moment every brother of the order seemed to feel as if he had +been raised to be king's confessor. This place of first spiritual +physician became a department of the administration under Louis XIII., +and moreso still under Louis XIV. The brother Vadblé, valet de chambre +of Father La Chaise, granted his protection to the bishops of France; +and Father Letellier ruled with a sceptre of iron those who were very +well disposed to be so ruled. It was impossible that the greater part of +the Jesuits should not be puffed up by the consequence and power to +which these two members of their society had been raised, and that they +should not become as insolent as the lackeys of M. Louvois. There have +been among them, certainly, men of knowledge, eloquence, and genius; +these possessed some modesty, but those who had only mediocrity of +talent or acquirement were tainted with that pride which generally +attaches to mediocrity and to the pedantry of a college. + +From the time of Father Garasse almost all their polemical works have +been pervaded with an indecent and scornful arrogance which has roused +the indignation of all Europe. This arrogance frequently sank into the +most pitiful meanness; so that they discovered the extraordinary secret +of being objects at once of envy and contempt. Observe, for example, how +they expressed themselves of the celebrated Pasquier, advocate-general +of the chamber of accounts: + +"Pasquier is a mere porter, a Parisian varlet, a second-rate showman and +jester, a journeyman retailer of ballads and old stories, a contemptible +hireling, only fit to be a lackey's valet, a scrub, a disgusting +ragamuffin, strongly suspected of heresy, and either heretical or much +worse, a libidinous and filthy satyr, a master-fool by nature, in sharp, +in flat, and throughout the whole gamut, a three-shod fool, a fool +double-dyed, a fool in grain, a fool in every sort of folly." + +They afterwards polished their style; but pride, by becoming less gross, +only became the more revolting. + +Everything is pardoned except pride; and this accounts for the fact that +all the parliaments in the kingdom, the members of which had the greater +part of them been disciples of the Jesuits, seized the first opportunity +of effecting their annihilation; and the whole land rejoiced in their +downfall. + +So deeply was the spirit of pride rooted in them that it manifested +itself with the most indecent rage, even while they were held down to +the earth by the hand of justice, and their final sentence yet remained +to be pronounced. We need only read the celebrated memorial already +mentioned, entitled "It is Time to Speak Out," printed at Avignon in +1763, under the assumed name of Anvers. It begins with an ironical +petition to the persons holding the court of parliament. It addresses +them with as much superiority and contempt as could be shown in +reprimanding a proctor's clerk. The illustrious M. de Montclar, +procureur-général, the oracle of the Parliament of Provence, is +continually treated as "M. Ripert," and rebuked with as much consequence +and authority as a mutinous and ignorant scholar by a professor in his +chair. They pushed their audacity so far as to say that M. de Montclar +"blasphemed" in giving an account of the institution of the Jesuits. + +In their memorial, entitled "All Shall be Told," they insult still more +daringly the Parliament of Metz, and always in the style of arrogance +and dictation derived from the schools. + +They have retained this pride even in the very ashes to which France and +Spain have now reduced them. From the bottom of those ashes the serpent, +scotched as it has been, has again raised its hostile head. We have seen +a contemptible creature, of the name of Nonnotte, set himself up for a +critic on his masters; and, although possessing merely talent enough for +preaching to a mob in the church-yard, discoursing with all the ease of +impudence about things of which he has not the slightest notion. Another +insolent member of the society, called Patouillet, dared, in the +bishop's mandates, to insult respectable citizens and officers of the +king's household, whose very lackeys would not have permitted him to +speak to them. + +One of the things on which they most prided themselves, was introducing +themselves into the houses of the great in their last illness, as +ambassadors of God, to open to them the gates of heaven, without their +previously passing through purgatory. Under Louis XIV. it was considered +as having a bad aspect, it was unfashionable and discreditable, to die +without having passed through the hands of a Jesuit; and the wretch, +immediately after the fatal scene had closed, would go and boast to his +devotees that he had just been converting a duke and peer, who, without +his protection, would have been inevitably damned. + +The dying man might say: "By what right, you college excrement, do you +intrude yourself on me in my dying moments? Was I ever seen to go to +your cells when any of you had the fistula or gangrene, and were about +to return your gross and unwieldy bodies to the earth? Has God granted +your soul any rights over mine? Do I require a preceptor at the age of +seventy? Do you carry the keys of Paradise at your girdle? You dare to +call yourself an ambassador of God; show me your patent and if you have +none, let me die in peace. No Benedictine, Chartreux, or Premonstrant, +comes to disturb my dying moments; they have no wish to erect a trophy +to their pride upon the bed of our last agony; they remain peacefully in +their cells; do you rest quietly in yours; there can be nothing in +common between you and me." + +A comic circumstance occurred on a truly mournful occasion, when an +English Jesuit, of the name of Routh, eagerly strove to possess himself +of the last hour of the great Montesquieu. "He came," he said, "to bring +back that virtuous soul to religion;" as if Montesquieu had not known +what religion was better than a Routh; as if it had been the will of God +that Montesquieu should think like a Routh! He was driven out of the +chamber, and went all over Paris, exclaiming, "I have converted that +celebrated man; I prevailed upon him to throw his 'Persian Letters' and +his 'Spirit of Laws' into the fire." Care was taken to print the +narrative of the conversion of President Montesquieu by the reverend +father Routh in the libel entitled "The Anti-Philosophic Dictionary." + +Another subject of pride and ambition with the Jesuits was making +missions to various cities, just as if they had been among Indians or +Japanese. They would oblige the whole magistracy to attend them in the +streets; a cross was borne before them, planted in the principal public +places; they dispossessed the resident clergy; they became complete +masters of the city. A Jesuit of the name of Aubert performed one of +these missions to Colmar, and compelled the advocate-general of the +sovereign council to burn at his feet his copy of "Bayle," which had +cost him no less than fifty crowns. For my own part, I acknowledge that +I would rather have burned brother Aubert himself. Judge how the pride +of this Aubert must have swelled with this sacrifice as he boasted of it +to his comrades at night, and as he exultingly wrote the account of it +to his general. + +O monks, monks! be modest, as I have already advised you; be moderate, +if you wish to avoid the calamities impending over you. + + + + +JEWS. + + +SECTION I. + +You order me to draw you a faithful picture of the spirit of the Jews, +and of their history, and--without entering into the ineffable ways of +Providence, which are not our ways--you seek in the manners of this +people the source of the events which that Providence prepared. + +It is certain that the Jewish nation is the most singular that the world +has ever seen; and although, in a political view, the most contemptible +of all, yet in the eyes of a philosopher, it is, on various accounts, +worthy consideration. + +The Guebers, the Banians, and the Jews, are the only nations which exist +dispersed, having no alliance with any people, are perpetuated among +foreign nations, and continue apart from the rest of the world. + +The Guebers were once infinitely more considerable than the Jews, for +they are castes of the Persians, who had the Jews under their dominion; +but they are now scattered over but one part of the East. + +The Banians, who are descended from the ancient people among whom +Pythagoras acquired his philosophy, exist only in India and Persia; but +the Jews are dispersed over the whole face of the earth and if they were +assembled, would compose a nation much more numerous than it ever was in +the short time that they were masters of Palestine. Almost every people +who have written the history of their origin, have chosen to set it off +by prodigies; with them all has been miracle; their oracles have +predicted nothing but conquest; and such of them as have really become +conquerors have had no difficulty in believing these ancient oracles +which were verified by the event. The Jews are distinguished among the +nations by this--that their oracles are the only true ones, of which we +are not permitted to doubt. These oracles, which they understand only in +the literal sense, have a hundred times foretold to them that they +should be masters of the world; yet they have never possessed anything +more than a small corner of land, and that only for a small number of +years, and they have not now so much as a village of their own. They +must, then, believe, and they do believe, that their predictions will +one day be fulfilled, and that they shall have the empire of the earth. + +Among the Mussulmans and the Christians they are the lowest of all +nations, but they think themselves the highest. This pride in their +abasement is justified by an unanswerable reason--viz., that they are in +reality the fathers of both Christians and Mussulmans. The Christian and +the Mussulman religion acknowledge the Jewish as their parent; and, by a +singular contradiction, they at once hold this parent in reverence and +in abhorrence. + +It were foreign to our present purpose to repeat that continued +succession of prodigies which astonishes the imagination and exercises +the faith. We have here to do only with events purely historical, wholly +apart from the divine concurrence and the miracles which God, for so +long a time, vouchsafed to work in this people's favor. + +First, we find in Egypt a family of seventy persons producing, at the +end of two hundred and fifteen years, a nation counting six hundred +thousand fighting men; which makes, with the women, the children and the +old men, upward of two millions of souls. There is no example upon earth +of so prodigious an increase of population; this people, having come out +of Egypt, stayed forty years in the deserts of Stony Arabia, and in that +frightful country the people much diminished. + +What remained of this nation advanced a little northward in those +deserts. It appears that they had the same principles which the tribes +of Stony and Desert Arabia have since had, of butchering without mercy +the inhabitants of little towns over whom they had the advantage, and +reserving only the young women. The interests of population have ever +been the principal object of both. We find that when the Arabs had +conquered Spain, they imposed tributes of marriageable girls; and at +this day the Arabs of the desert make no treaty without stipulating for +some girls and a few presents. + +The Jews arrived in a sandy, mountainous country, where there were a few +towns, inhabited by a little people called the Midianites. In one +Midianite camp, alone, they took six hundred and seventy-five thousand +sheep, seventy-two thousand oxen, sixty-one thousand asses, and +thirty-two thousand virgins. All the men, all the wives, and all the +male children, were massacred; the girls and the booty were divided +between the people and the sacrificers. + +They then took, in the same country, the town of Jericho; but having +devoted the inhabitants of that place to the anathema, they massacred +them all, including the virgins, pardoning none but Rahab, a courtesan, +who had aided them in surprising the town. + +The learned have agitated the question whether the Jews, like so many +other nations, really sacrificed men to the Divinity. This is a dispute +on words; those, whom the people consecrated to the anathema were not +put to death on an altar, with religious rites; but they were not the +less immolated, without its being permitted to pardon any one of them. +Leviticus (xxvii., 29) expressly forbids the redeeming of those who +shall have been devoted. Its words are, "They shall surely be put to +death." By virtue of this law it was that Jephthah devoted and killed +his daughter, that Saul would have killed his son, and that the prophet +Samuel cut in pieces King Agag, Saul's prisoner. It is quite certain +that God is the master of the lives of men, and that it is not for us to +examine His laws. We ought to limit ourselves to believing these things, +and reverencing in silence the designs of God, who permitted them. + +It is also asked what right had strangers like the Jews to the land of +Canaan? The answer is, that they had what God gave them. + +No sooner had they taken Jericho and Lais than they had a civil war +among themselves, in which the tribe of Benjamin was almost wholly +exterminated--men, women, and children; leaving only six hundred males. +The people, unwilling that one of the tribes should be annihilated, +bethought themselves of sacking the whole city of the tribe of Manasseh, +killing all the men, old and young, all the children, all the married +women, all the widows, and taking six hundred virgins, whom they gave to +the six hundred survivors of the tribe of Benjamin, to restore that +tribe, in order that the number of their twelve tribes might still be +complete. + +Meanwhile, the Phoenicians, a powerful people settled in the coasts +from time immemorial, being alarmed at the depredations and cruelties of +these newcomers, frequently chastised them; the neighboring princes +united against them; and they were seven times reduced to slavery, for +more than two hundred years. + +At last they made themselves a king, whom they elected by lot. This king +could not be very mighty; for in the first battle which the Jews fought +under him, against their masters, the Philistines, they had, in the +whole army, but one sword and one lance, and not one weapon of steel. +But David, their second king, made war with advantage. He took the city +of Salem, afterwards so celebrated under the name of Jerusalem, and then +the Jews began to make some figure on the borders of Syria. Their +government and their religion took a more august form. Hitherto they had +not the means of raising a temple, though every neighboring nation had +one or more. Solomon built a superb one, and reigned over this people +about forty years. + +Not only were the days of Solomon the most flourishing days of the Jews, +but all the kings upon earth could not exhibit a treasure approaching +Solomon's. His father, David, whose predecessor had not even iron, left +to Solomon twenty-five thousand six hundred and forty-eight millions of +French livres in ready money. His fleets, which went to Ophir, brought +him sixty-eight millions per annum in pure gold, without reckoning the +silver and jewels. He had forty thousand stables, and the same number of +coach-houses, twelve thousand stables for his cavalry, seven hundred +wives, and three hundred concubines. Yet he had neither wood nor workmen +for building his palace and the temple; he borrowed them of Hiram, king +of Tyre, who also furnished gold; and Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in +payment. The commentators have acknowledged that these things need +explanation, and have suspected some literal error in the copyist, who +alone can have been mistaken. + +On the death of Solomon, a division took place among the twelve tribes +composing the nation. The kingdom was torn asunder, and separated into +two small provinces, one of which was called Judah, the other +Israel--nine tribes and a half composing the Israelitish province, and +only two and a half that of Judah. Then there was between these two +small peoples a hatred, the more implacable as they were kinsmen and +neighbors, and as they had different religions; for at Sichem and at +Samaria they worshipped "_Baal_"--giving to God a Sidonian name; while +at Jerusalem they worshipped "_Adonai_." At Sichem were consecrated two +calves; at Jerusalem, two cherubim--which were two winged animals with +double heads, placed in the sanctuary. So, each faction having its +kings, its gods, its worship, and its prophets, they made a bloody war +upon each other. + +"While this war was carried on, the kings of Assyria, who conquered the +greater part of Asia, fell upon the Jews; as an eagle pounces upon two +lizards while they are fighting. The nine and a half tribes of Samaria +and Sichem were carried off and dispersed forever; nor has it been +precisely known to what places they were led into slavery. + +It is but twenty leagues from the town of Samaria to Jerusalem, and +their territories joined each other; so that when one of these towns was +enslaved by powerful conquerors, the other could not long hold out. +Jerusalem was sacked several times; it was tributary to kings Hazael and +Razin, enslaved under Tiglath-Pileser, three times taken by +Nebuchodonosor, or Nebuchadnezzar, and at last destroyed. Zedekiah, who +had been set up as king or governor by this conqueror, was led, with his +whole people, into captivity in Babylonia; so that the only Jews left in +Palestine were a few enslaved peasants, to sow the ground. + +As for the little country of Samaria and Sichem, more fertile than that +of Jerusalem, it was re-peopled by foreign colonies, sent there by +Assyrian kings, who took the name of Samaritans. + +The two and a half tribes that were slaves in Babylonia and the +neighboring towns for seventy years, had time to adopt the usages of +their masters, and enriched their own tongue by mixing with it the +Chaldæan; this is incontestable. The historian Josephus tells us that he +wrote first in Chaldæan, which is the language of his country. It +appears that the Jews acquired but little of the science of the Magi; +they turned brokers, money-changers, and old-clothes men; by which they +made themselves necessary, as they still do, and grew rich. + +Their gains enabled them to obtain, under Cyrus, the liberty of +rebuilding Jerusalem; but when they were to return into their own +country, those who had grown rich at Babylon, would not quit so fine a +country for the mountains of Coelesyria, nor the fruitful banks of the +Euphrates and the Tigris, for the torrent of Kedron. Only the meanest +part of the nation returned with Zorobabel. The Jews of Babylon +contributed only their alms to the rebuilding of the city and the +temple; nor was the collection a large one; for Esdras relates that no +more than seventy thousand crowns could be raised for the erection of +this temple, which was to be that of all the earth. + +The Jews still remained subject to the Persians; they were likewise +subject to Alexander; and when that great man, the most excusable of all +conquerors, had, in the early years of his victorious career, begun to +raise Alexandria, and make it the centre of the commerce of the world, +the Jews flocked there to exercise their trade of brokers; and there it +was that their rabbis at length learned something of the sciences of the +Greeks. The Greek tongue became absolutely necessary to all trading +Jews. + +After Alexander's death, this people continued subject in Jerusalem to +the kings of Syria, and in Alexandria to the kings of Egypt; and when +these kings were at war, this people always shared the fate of their +subjects, and belonged to the conqueror. + +From the time of their captivity at Babylon, the Jews never had +particular governors taking the title of king. The pontiffs had the +internal administration, and these pontiffs were appointed by their +masters; they sometimes paid very high for this dignity, as the Greek +patriarch at Constantinople pays for his at present. + +Under Antiochus Epiphanes they revolted; the city was once more +pillaged, and the walls demolished. After a succession of similar +disasters, they at length obtained, for the first time, about a hundred +and fifty years before the Christian era, permission to coin money, +which permission was granted them by Antiochus Sidetes. They then had +chiefs, who took the name of kings, and even wore a diadem. Antigonus +was the first who was decorated with this ornament, which, without the +power, confers but little honor. + +At that time the Romans were beginning to become formidable to the kings +of Syria, masters of the Jews; and the latter gained over the Roman +senate by presents and acts of submission. It seemed that the wars in +Asia Minor would, for a time at least, give some relief to this +unfortunate people; but Jerusalem no sooner enjoyed some shadow of +liberty than it was torn by civil wars, which rendered its condition +under its phantoms of kings much more pitiable than it had ever been in +so long and various a succession of bondages. + +In their intestine troubles, they made the Romans their judges. Already +most of the kingdoms of Asia Minor, Southern Africa, and three-fourths +of Europe, acknowledged the Romans as their arbiters and masters. + +Pompey came into Syria to judge the nation and to depose several petty +tyrants. Being deceived by Aristobulus, who disputed the royalty of +Jerusalem, he avenged himself upon him and his party. He took the city; +had some of the seditious, either priests or Pharisees, crucified; and +not long after, condemned Aristobulus, king of the Jews, to execution. + +The Jews, ever unfortunate, ever enslaved, and ever revolting, again +brought upon them the Roman arms. Crassus and Cassius punished them; and +Metellus Scipio had a son of King Aristobulus, named Alexander, the +author of all the troubles, crucified. + +Under the great Cæsar, they were entirely subject and peaceable. Herod, +famed among them and among us, for a long time was merely tetrarch, but +obtained from Antony the crown of Judæa, for which he paid dearly; but +Jerusalem would not recognize this new king, because he was descended +from Esau, and not from Jacob, and was merely an Idumæan. The very +circumstance of his being a foreigner caused him to be chosen by the +Romans, the better to keep this people in check. The Romans protected +the king of their nomination with an army; and Jerusalem was again taken +by assault, sacked, and pillaged. + +Herod, afterwards protected by Augustus, became one of the most powerful +sovereigns among the petty kings of Arabia. He restored Jerusalem, +repaired the fortifications that surrounded the temple, so dear to the +Jews, and rebuilt the temple itself; but he could not finish it, for he +wanted money and workmen. This proves that, after all, Herod was not +rich; and the Jews, though fond of their temple, were still fonder of +their money. + +The name of king was nothing more than a favor granted by the Romans; it +was not a title of succession. Soon after Herod's death, Judæa was +governed as a subordinate Roman province, by the proconsul of Syria, +although from time to time the title of king was granted, sometimes to +one Jew, sometimes to another, for a considerable sum of money, as under +the emperor Claudius, when it was granted to the Jew Agrippa. + +A daughter of Agrippa was that Berenice, celebrated for having been +beloved by one of the best emperors Rome can boast. She it was who, by +the injustice she experienced from her countrymen, drew down the +vengeance of the Romans upon Jerusalem. She asked for justice, and the +factions of the town refused it. The seditious spirit of the people +impelled them to fresh excesses. Their character at all times was to be +cruel; and their fate, to be punished. + +This memorable siege, which ended in the destruction of the city, was +carried on by Vespasian and Titus. The exaggerating Josephus pretends +that in this short war more than a million of Jews were slaughtered. It +is not to be wondered at that an author who puts fifteen thousand men in +each village should slay a million. What remained were exposed in the +public markets; and each Jew was sold at about the same price as the +unclean animal of which they dare not eat. + +In this last dispersion they again hoped for a deliverer; and under +Adrian, whom they curse in their prayers, there arose one Barcochebas, +who called himself a second Moses--a Shiloh--a Christ. Having assembled +many of these wretched people under his banners, which they believed to +be sacred, he perished with all his followers. It was the last struggle +of this nation, which has never lifted its head again. Its constant +opinion, that barrenness is a reproach, has preserved it; the Jews have +ever considered as their two first duties, to get money and children. + +From this short summary it results that the Hebrews have ever been +vagrants, or robbers, or slaves, or seditious. They are still vagabonds +upon the earth, and abhorred by men, yet affirming that heaven and +earth and all mankind were created for them alone. + +It is evident, from the situation of Judæa, and the genius of this +people, that they could not but be continually subjugated. It was +surrounded by powerful and warlike nations, for which it had an +aversion; so that it could neither be in alliance with them, nor +protected by them. It was impossible for it to maintain itself by its +marine; for it soon lost the port which in Solomon's time it had on the +Red Sea; and Solomon himself always employed Tyrians to build and to +steer his vessels, as well as to erect his palace and his temple. It is +then manifest that the Hebrews had neither trade nor manufactures, and +that they could not compose a flourishing people. They never had an army +always ready for the field, like the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, +the Syrians, and the Romans. The laborers and artisans took up arms only +as occasion required, and consequently could not form well-disciplined +troops. Their mountains, or rather their rocks, are neither high enough, +nor sufficiently contiguous, to have afforded an effectual barrier +against invasion. The most numerous part of the nation, transported to +Babylon, Persia, and to India, or settled in Alexandria, were too much +occupied with their traffic and their brokerage to think of war. Their +civil government, sometimes republican, sometimes pontifical, sometimes +monarchial, and very often reduced to anarchy, seems to have been no +better than their military discipline. + +You ask, what was the philosophy of the Hebrews? The answer will be a +very short one--they had none. Their legislator himself does not +anywhere speak expressly of the immortality of the soul, nor of the +rewards of another life. Josephus and Philo believe the soul to be +material; their doctors admitted corporeal angels; and when they +sojourned at Babylon, they gave to these angels the names given them by +the Chaldæans--Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel. The name of Satan is +Babylonian, and is in somewise the Arimanes of Zoroaster. The name of +Asmodeus also is Chaldæan; and Tobit, who lived in Nineveh, is the first +who employed it. The dogma of the immortality of the soul was developed +only in the course of ages, and among the Pharisees. The Sadducees +always denied this spirituality, this immortality, and the existence of +the angels. Nevertheless, the Sadducees communicated uninterruptedly +with the Pharisees, and had even sovereign pontiffs of their own sect. +The prodigious difference in opinion between these two great bodies did +not cause any disturbance. The Jews, in the latter times of their +sojourn at Jerusalem, were scrupulously attached to nothing but the +ceremonials of their law. The man who had eaten pudding or rabbit would +have been stoned; while he who denied the immortality of the soul might +be high-priest. + +It is commonly said that the abhorrence in which the Jews held other +nations proceeded from their horror of idolatry; but it is much more +likely that the manner in which they at the first exterminated some of +the tribes of Canaan, and the hatred which the neighboring nations +conceived for them, were the cause of this invincible aversion. As they +knew no nations but their neighbors, they thought that in abhorring them +they detested the whole earth, and thus accustomed themselves to be the +enemies of all men. + +One proof that this hatred was not caused by the idolatry of the nations +is that we find in the history of the Jews that they were very often +idolaters. Solomon himself sacrificed to strange gods. After him, we +find scarcely any king in the little province of Judah that does not +permit the worship of these gods and offer them incense. The province of +Israel kept its two calves and its sacred groves, or adored other +divinities. + +This idolatry, with which so many nations are reproached, is a subject +on which but little light has been thrown. Perhaps it would not be +difficult to efface this stain upon the theology of the ancients. All +polished nations had the knowledge of a supreme God, the master of the +inferior gods and of men. The Egyptians themselves recognized a first +principle, which they called Knef, and to which all beside was +subordinate. The ancient Persians adored the good principle, named +Orosmanes; and were very far from sacrificing to the bad principle, +Arimanes, whom they regarded nearly as we regard the devil. Even to this +day, the Guebers have retained the sacred dogma of the unity of God. The +ancient Brahmins acknowledged one only Supreme Being; the Chinese +associated no inferior being with the Divinity, nor had any idol until +the times when the populace were Jed astray by the worship of Fo, and +the superstitions of the bonzes. The Greeks and the Romans, +notwithstanding the multitude of their gods, acknowledged in Jupiter the +absolute sovereign of heaven and earth. Homer, himself in the most +absurd poetical fictions, has never lost sight of this truth. He +constantly represents Jupiter as the only Almighty, sending good and +evil upon earth, and, with a motion of his brow, striking gods and men +with awe. Altars were raised, and sacrifices offered to inferior gods, +dependent on the one supreme. There is not a single monument of +antiquity in which the title of sovereign of heaven is given to any +secondary deity--to Mercury, to Apollo, to Mars. The thunderbolt was +ever the attribute of the master of all, and of him only. + +The idea of a sovereign being, of his providence, of his eternal +decrees, is to be found among all philosophers and all poets. In short, +it is perhaps as unjust to think that the ancients equalled the heroes, +the genii, the inferior gods, to him whom they called "the father and +master of the gods," as it would be ridiculous to imagine that we +associate with God the blessed and the angels. + +You then ask whether the ancient philosophers and law-givers borrowed +from the Jews, or the Jews from them? We must refer the question to +Philo; he owns that before the translation of the Septuagint the books +of his nation were unknown to strangers. A great people cannot have +received their laws and their knowledge from a little people, obscure +and enslaved. In the time of Osias, indeed, the Jews had no books; in +his reign was accidentally found the only copy of the law then in +existence. This people, after their captivity at Babylon, had no other +alphabet than the Chaldæan; they were not famed for any art, any +manufacture whatsoever; and even in the time of Solomon they were +obliged to pay dear for foreign artisans. To say that the Egyptians, the +Persians, the Greeks, were instructed by the Jews, were to say that the +Romans learned the arts from the people of Brittany. The Jews never were +natural philosophers, nor geometricians, nor astronomers. So far were +they from having public schools for the instruction of youth, that they +had not even a term in their language to express such an institution. +The people of Peru and Mexico measured their year much better than the +Jews. Their stay in Babylon and in Alexandria, during which individuals +might instruct themselves, formed the people to no art save that of +usury. They never knew how to stamp money; and when Antiochus Sidetes +permitted them to have a coinage of their own, they were almost +incapable of profiting by this permission for four or five years; +indeed, this coin is said to have been struck at Samaria. Hence, it is, +that Jewish medals are so rare, and nearly all false. In short, we find +in them only an ignorant and barbarous people, who have long united the +most sordid avarice with the most detestable superstition and the most +invincible hatred for every people by whom they are tolerated and +enriched. Still, we ought not to burn them. + + +SECTION II. + +_The Jewish Law._ + +Their law must appear, to every polished people, as singular as their +conduct; if it were not divine, it would seem to be the law of savages +beginning to assemble themselves into a nation; and being divine, one +cannot understand how it is that it has not existed from all ages, for +them, and for all men. + +But it is more strange than all that the immortality of the soul is not +even intimated in this law, entitled "Vaicrah and Addebarim," Leviticus +and Deuteronomy. + +In this law it is forbidden to eat eels, because they have no scales; +and hares, because they chew the cud, and have cloven feet. Apparently, +the Jews had hares different from ours. The griffin is unclean, and +four-footed birds are unclean, which animals are somewhat rare. Whoever +touches a mouse, or a mole is unclean. The women are forbidden to lie +with horses or asses. The Jewish women must have been subject to this +sort of gallantry. The men are forbidden to offer up their seed to +Moloch; and here the term seed is not metaphorical. It seems that it was +customary, in the deserts of Arabia, to offer up this singular present +to the gods; as it is said to be usual in Cochin and some other +countries of India, for the girls to yield their virginity to an iron +Priapus in a temple. These two ceremonies prove that mankind is capable +of everything. The Kaffirs, who deprive themselves of one testicle, are +a still more ridiculous example of the extravagance of superstition. + +Another law of the Jews, equally strange, is their proof of adultery. A +woman accused by her husband must be presented to the priests, and she +is made to drink of the waters of jealousy, mixed with worm-wood and +dust. If she is innocent, the water makes her more beautiful; if she is +guilty, her eyes start from her head, her belly swells, and she bursts +before the Lord. + +We shall not here enter into the details of all these sacrifices, which +were nothing more than the operations of ceremonial butchers; but it of +great importance to remark another kind of sacrifice too common in those +barbarous times. It is expressly ordered, in the twenty-seventh chapter +of Leviticus, that all men, vowed in anathema to the Lord, be immolated; +they "shall surely be put to death"; such are the words of the text. +Here is the origin of the story of Jephthah, whether his daughter was +really immolated, or the story was copied from that of Iphigenia. Here, +too, is the source of the vow made by Saul, who would have immolated his +son, but that the army, less superstitious than himself, saved the +innocent young man's life. + +It is then but too true that the Jews, according to their law, +sacrificed human victims. This act of religion is in accordance with +their manners; their own books represent them as slaughtering without +mercy all that came in their way, reserving only the virgins for their +use. + +It would be very difficult--and should be very unimportant--to know at +what time these laws were digested into the form in which we now have +them. That they are of very high antiquity is enough to inform us how +gross and ferocious the manners of that antiquity were. + + +SECTION III. + +_The Dispersion of the Jews._ + +It has been pretended that the dispersion of this people had been +foretold, as a punishment for their refusing to acknowledge Jesus Christ +as the Messiah; the asserters affecting to forget that they had been +dispersed throughout the known world long before Jesus Christ. The books +that are left us of this singular nation make no mention of a return of +the twelve tribes transported beyond the Euphrates by Tiglath-Pileser +and his successor Shalmaneser; and it was six hundred years after, that +Cyrus sent back to Jerusalem the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which +Nebuchodonosor had brought away into the provinces of his empire. The +Acts of the Apostles certify that fifty-three days after the death of +Jesus Christ, there were Jews from every nation under heaven assembled +for the feast of Pentecost. St. James writes to the twelve dispersed +tribes; and Josephus and Philo speak of the Jews as very numerous +throughout the East. + +It is true that, considering the carnage that was made of them under +some of the Roman emperors, and the slaughter of them so often repeated +in every Christian state, one is astonished that this people not only +still exists, but is at this day no less numerous than it was formerly. +Their numbers must be attributed to their exemption from bearing arms, +their ardor for marriage, their custom of contracting it in their +families early, their law of divorce, their sober and regular way of +life, their abstinence, their toil, and their exercise. + +Their firm attachment to the Mosaic law is no less remarkable, +especially when we consider their frequent apostasies when they lived +under the government of their kings and their judges; and Judaism is +now, of all the religions in the world, the one most rarely +abjured--which is partly the fruit of the persecutions it has suffered. +Its followers, perpetual martyrs to their creed, have regarded +themselves with progressively increasing confidence, as the fountain of +all sanctity; looking upon us as no other than rebellious Jews, who have +abjured the law of God, and put to death or torture those who received +it from His hand. + +Indeed, if while Jerusalem and its temple existed, the Jews were +sometimes driven from their country by the vicissitudes of empires, they +have still more frequently been expelled through a blind zeal from every +country in which they have dwelt since the progress of Christianity and +Mahometanism. They themselves compare their religion to a mother, upon +whom her two daughters, the Christian and the Mahometan, have inflicted +a thousand wounds. But, how ill soever she has been treated by them, she +still glories in having given them birth. She makes use of them both to +embrace the whole world, while her own venerable age embraces all time. + +It is singular that the Christians pretend to have accomplished the +prophecies by tyrannizing over the Jews, by whom they were transmitted. +We have already seen how the Inquisition banished the Jews from Spain. +Obliged to wander from land to land, from sea to sea, to gain a +livelihood; everywhere declared incapable of possessing any landed +property, or holding any office, they have been obliged to disperse, and +roam from place to place, unable to establish themselves permanently in +any country, for want of support, of power to maintain their ground, and +of knowledge in the art of war. Trade, a profession long despised by +most of the nations of Europe, was, in those barbarous ages, their only +resource; and as they necessarily grew rich by it, they were treated as +infamous usurers. Kings who could not ransack the purses of their +subjects, put the Jews, whom they regarded not as citizens, to torture. + +What was done to them in England may give some idea of what they +experienced in other countries. King John, being in want of money, had +the rich Jews in his kingdom imprisoned. One of them, having had seven +of his teeth drawn one after another, to obtain his property, gave, on +losing the eighth, a thousand marks of silver. Henry III. extorted from +Aaron, a Jew of York, fourteen thousand marks of silver, and ten +thousand for his queen. He sold the rest of the Jews of his country to +his brother Richard, for the term of one year, in order, says Matthew +Paris, that this count might disembowel those whom his brother had +flayed. + +In France they were put in prison, plundered, sold, accused of magic, of +sacrificing children, of poisoning the fountains. They were driven out +of the kingdom; they were suffered to return for money; and even while +they were tolerated, they were distinguished from the rest of the +inhabitants by marks of infamy. And, by an inconceivable whimsicality, +while in other countries the Jews were burned to make them embrace +Christianity, in France the property of such as became Christians was +confiscated. Charles IV., by an edict given at Basville, April 4, 1392, +abrogated this tyrannical custom, which, according to the Benedictine +Mabillon, had been introduced for two reasons: + +First, to try the faith of these new converts, as it was but too common +for those of this nation to feign submission to the gospel for some +personal interest, without internally changing their belief. + +Secondly, because as they had derived their wealth chiefly from usury, +the purity of Christian morals appeared to require them to make a +general restitution, which was effected by confiscation. + +But the true reason of this custom, which the author of the "Spirit of +Laws" has so well developed, was a sort of "_droit d'amortissement_"--a +redemption for the sovereign, or the seigneurs, of the taxes which they +levied on the Jews, as mortmainable serfs, whom they succeeded; for they +were deprived of this benefit when the latter were converted to the +Christian faith. + +At length, being incessantly proscribed in every country, they +ingeniously found the means of saving their fortunes and making their +retreats forever secure. Being driven from France under Philip the Long, +in 1318, they took refuge in Lombardy; there they gave to the merchants +bills of exchange on those to whom they had entrusted their effects at +their departure, and these were discharged. + +The admirable invention of bills of exchange sprang from the extremity +of despair; and then, and not until then, commerce was enabled to elude +the efforts of violence, and to maintain itself throughout the world. + + +SECTION IV. + +_In Answer to Some Objections._ + +_Letters to Joseph, Ben, Jonathan, Aaron, Mathatai, and David Wincker._ + + +FIRST LETTER. + +Gentlemen: When, forty-four years ago, your countryman Medina became a +bankrupt in London, being twenty thousand francs in my debt, he told me +that "it was not his fault; that he was unfortunate"; that "he had never +been one of the children of Belial"; that "he had always endeavored to +live as a son of God"--that is, as an honest man, a good Israelite. I +was affected; I embraced him; we joined in the praise of God; and I lost +eighty per cent. + +You ought to know that I never hated your nation; I hate no one; not +even Fréron. + +Far from hating, I have always pitied you. If, like my protector, good +Pope Lambertini, I have sometimes bantered a little, I am not therefore +the less sensitive. I wept, at the age of sixteen, when I was told that +a mother and her daughter had been burned at Lisbon for having eaten, +standing, a little lamb, cooked with lettuce, on the fourteenth day of +the red moon; and I can assure you that the extreme beauty that this +girl was reported to have possessed, had no share in calling forth my +tears, although it must have increased the spectators' horror for the +assassins, and their pity for the victim. + +I know not how it entered my head to write an epic poem at the age of +twenty. (Do you know what an epic poem is? For my part I knew nothing of +the matter.) The legislator Montesquieu had not yet written his "Persian +Letters," which you reproach me with having commented on; but I had +already of myself said, speaking of a monster well known to your +ancestors, and which even now is not without devotees: + + _Il vient; le fanatisme est son horrible nom;_ + _Enfant dénaturé de la religion;_ + _Armé pour la défendre, il cherche à la détruire,_ + _Et reçu dans son sein, l'embrasse et le déchire,_ + + _C'est lui qui dans Raba, sur les bords de l'Arnon_ + _Guidait les descendans du malheureux Ammon,_ + _Quand à Moloch leur dieu des mères gémissantes_ + _Offraient de leurs enfans les entrailles fumantes._ + _Il dicta de Jephté le serment inhumain;_ + _Dans le coeur de sa fille il conduisait sa main._ + _C'est lui qui, de Calchas ouvrant la bouche impie_ + _Demanda par sa voix la mort d'Iphigénie._ + _France, dans tes forêts il habita long-temps,_ + _À l'affreux Tentatès il offrit ton encens._ + _Tu n'a point oublié ces sacres homicides,_ + _Qu' à tes indignes dieux présentaient tes druides._ + _Du haut du capitole il criait aux Païens._ + _"Frappez, exterminez, déchirez les chrétiens."_ + _Mais lorsqu'au fils de Dieu Rome enfin, fut soumise,_ + _Du capitole en cendre il passa dans l'Eglise;_ + _Et dans les coeurs chrétiens inspirant ses fureurs,_ + _De martyrs qu'ils étaient les fit persécuteurs._ + _Dans Londres il a formé la secte turbulente_ + _Qui sur un roi trop faible a mis sa main sanglante;_ + _Dans Madrid, dans Lisbonne, il allume ces feux,_ + _Ces buchers solennels où des Juifs malheureux_ + _Sont tous les ans en pompe envoyés par des prêtres,_ + _Pour n'avoir point quitté la foi de leurs ancêtres._ + + He comes; the fiend Fanaticism comes-- + Religion's horrid and unnatural child-- + Armed to defend her, arming to destroy-- + Tearing her bosom in his feigned embrace. + + 'Twas he who guided Amnion's wretched race + On Anion's banks, where mothers offered up + Their children's mangled limbs on Moloch's altars. + 'Twas he who prompted Jephthah's barbarous oath, + And aimed the poniard at his daughter's heart. + 'Twas he who spoke, when Calchas' impious tongue + Called for the blameless Iphigenia's death. + France, he long revelled in thy forest shades, + Offering thy incense to the grim Tentâtes, + Whetting the savage Druid's murderous knife + To sate his worthless gods with human gore. + He, from the Capitol, stirred Pagan hearts + To exterminate Christ's followers; and he, + When Rome herself had bowed to Christian truth, + Quitted the Capitol to rule the church-- + To reign supreme in every Christian soul, + And make the Pagans martyrs in their turn. + His were in England the fierce sect who laid + Their bloody hands on a too feeble king. + His are Madrid's and Lisbon's horrid fires, + The yearly portion of unhappy Jews, + By priestly judges doomed to temporal flames + For thinking their forefathers' faith the best. + +You clearly see, then, that even so long ago I was your servant, your +friend, your brother; although my father and mother had preserved to me +my fore-skin. + +I am aware that virility, whether circumcised or uncircumcised, has +caused very fatal quarrels. I know what it cost Priam's son Paris, and +Agamemnon's brother Menelaus. I have read enough of your books to know +that Hamor's son Sichem ravished Leah's daughter Dinah, who at most was +not more than five years old, but was very forward for her age. He +wanted to make her his wife; and Jacob's sons, brothers of the violated +damsel, gave her to him in marriage on condition that he and all his +people should be circumcised. When the operation was performed, and all +the Sichemites, or Sechemites, were lying-in of the pains consequent +thereupon, the holy patriarchs Simeon and Levi cut all their throats one +after another. But, after all, I do not believe that uncircumcision +ought now to produce such abominable horrors; and especially I do not +think that men should hate, detest, anathematize, and damn one another +every Saturday and Sunday, on account of a morsel more or less of flesh. + +If I have said that some of the circumcised have clipped money at Metz, +at Frankfort on the Oder, and at Warsaw (which I do not remember) I ask +their pardon; for, being almost at the end of my pilgrimage, I have no +wish to embroil myself with Israel. + +I have the honor to be (as they say), + + Yours, etc. + + +SECOND LETTER. + +_Antiquity of the Jews._ + +Gentlemen: I have ever agreed, having read a few historical books for +amusement, that you are a very ancient people, and your origin may be +dated much farther back than that of the Teutones, the Celts, the +Slavonians, the Angles, and Hurons. I see you assembling as a people in +a capital called, sometimes Hershalaïm, sometimes Shaheb, on the hill +Moriah, and on the hill Sion, near a desert, on a stony soil, by a +small torrent which is dry six months of the year. + +When you began to-establish yourselves in your corner, I will not say of +land, but of pebbles, Troy had been destroyed by the Greeks about two +centuries. + +Medon was archon of Athens. Echestratus was reigning in Lacedæmon. +Latinus Sylvius was reigning in Latium; and Osochor in Egypt. The Indies +had been flourishing for a long succession of ages. + +This was the most illustrious period of Chinese history. The emperor +Tchin-wang was reigning with glory over that vast empire; all the +sciences were there cultivated; and the public annals inform us that the +king of Cochin China, being come to pay his respects to this emperor, +Tchin-wang, received from him a present of a mariner's compass. This +compass might have been of great service to your Solomon, for his fleets +that went to the fine country of Ophir, which no one has ever known +anything about. + +Thus, after the Chaldæans, the Syrians, the Persians, the Phoenicians, +the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Indians, the Chinese, the Latins, and the +Etruscans, you are the first people upon earth who had any known form of +government. + +The Banians, the Guebers, and yourselves, are the only nations which, +dispersed out of their own country, have preserved their ancient rites; +if I make no account of the little Egyptian troops, called Zingari in +Italy, Gypsies in England, and Bohemians in France, which had preserved +the antique ceremonies of the worship of Isis, the sistrum, the cymbals, +the dance of Isis, the prophesying, and the art of robbing hen-roosts. + +These sacred troops are beginning to disappear from the face of the +earth; while their pyramids still belong to the Turks, who perhaps will +not always be masters of them--the figure of all things on this earth +doth so pass away. + +You say, that you have been settled in Spain ever since the days of +Solomon: I believe it, and will even venture to think that the +Phoenicians might have carried some Jews thither long before, when you +were slaves in Phoenicia, after the horrid massacres which you say +were committed by the robber Joshua, and by that other robber Caleb. + +Your books indeed say, that you were reduced to slavery under +Chushan-Rashataim, king of Mesopotamia, for eight years; under Eglon, +king of Moab, for eighteen years; then under Jabin, king of Canaan, for +twenty years; then in the little canton of Midian, from which you had +issued, and where you dwelt in caverns, for seven years; then in Gilead, +for eighteen years--notwithstanding that Jair, your prince, had thirty +sons, each mounted on a fine ass--then under the Phoenicians (called +by you Philistines), for forty years--until at last the Lord Adonai sent +Samson, who tied three hundred foxes, one to another by the tails, and +slew a thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass, from which +issued a fountain of clear water; which has been very well represented +at the Comédie Italienne. + +Here are, by your own confession, ninety-six years of captivity in the +land of promise. Now it is very probable that the Syrians, who were the +factors for all nations, and navigated as far as the great ocean, bought +some Jewish slaves, and took them to Cadiz, which they founded. You see +that you are much more ancient than you think. It is indeed very likely +that you inhabited Spain several centuries before the Romans, the Goths, +the Vandals, and the Moors. + +I am not only your friend, your brother, but moreover your genealogist. +I beg, gentlemen, that you will have the goodness to believe, that I +never have believed, I do not believe, and I never will believe, that +you are descended from those highway robbers whose ears and noses were +cut off by order of King Actisanes, and whom, according to Diodorus of +Sicily, he sent into the desert between Lake Sirbo and Mount Sinai--a +frightful desert where water and every other necessary of life are +wanting. They made nets to catch quails, which fed them for a few weeks, +during the passage of the birds. + +Some of the learned have pretended that this origin perfectly agrees +with your history. You yourselves say, that you inhabited this desert, +that there you wanted water, and lived on quails, which in reality +abound there. Your accounts appear in the main to confirm that of +Diodorus; but I believe only the Pentateuch. The author does not say +that you had your ears and noses cut off. As far as I remember, (for I +have not Diodorus at hand), you lost only your noses. I do not now +recollect where I read that your ears were of the party; it might be in +some fragments of Manetho, cited by St. Ephraem. + +In vain does the secretary, who has done me the honor of writing to me +in your name, assure me that you stole to the amount of upwards of nine +millions in gold, coined or carved, to go and set up your tabernacle in +the desert. I maintain, that you carried off nothing but what lawfully +belonged to you, reckoning interest at forty per cent., which was the +lawful rate. + +Be this as it may, I certify that you are of very good nobility, and +that you were lords of Hershalaïm long before the houses of Suabia, +Anhalt, Saxony, and Bavaria were heard of. + +It may be that the negroes of Angola, and those of Guinea, are much more +ancient than you, and that they adored a beautiful serpent before the +Egyptians knew their Isis, and you dwelt near Lake Sirbo; but the +negroes have not yet communicated their books to us. + + +THIRD LETTER. + +_On a few Crosses which befell God's People._ + +Far from accusing you, gentlemen, I have always regarded you with +compassion. Permit me here to remind you of what I have read in the +preliminary discourse to the "Essay on the Spirit and Manners of +Nations," and on general history. Here we find, that two hundred and +thirty-nine thousand and twenty Jews were slaughtered by one another, +from the worshipping of the golden calf to the taking of the ark by the +Philistines--which cost fifty thousand and seventy Jews their lives, for +having dared to look upon the ark, while those who had so insolently +taken it in war, were acquitted with only the piles, and a fine of five +golden mice, and five golden anuses. You will not deny that the +slaughter of two hundred and thirty-nine thousand and twenty men, by +your fellow-countrymen, without reckoning those whom you lost in +alternate war and slavery, must have been very detrimental to a rising +colony. + +How should I do otherwise than pity you? seeing that ten of your tribes +were absolutely annihilated, or perhaps reduced to two hundred families, +which, it is said, are to be found in China and Tartary. As for the two +other tribes, I need not tell you what has happened to them. Suffer then +my compassion, and do not impute to me ill-will. + + +FOURTH LETTER. + +_The Story of Micah._ + +Be not displeased at my asking from you some elucidation of a singular +passage in your history, with which the ladies of Paris and people of +fashion are but slightly acquainted. + +Your Moses had not been dead quite thirty-eight years when the mother +of Micah, of the tribe of Benjamin, lost eleven hundred shekels, which +are said to be equivalent to about six hundred livres of our money. Her +son returned them to her; the text does not inform us that he had not +stolen them. The good Jewess immediately had them made into idols, and, +according to custom, built them a little movable chapel. A Levite of +Bethlehem offered himself to perform the service for ten francs per +annum, two tunics, and his victuals. + +A tribe (afterwards called the tribe of Dan) searching that neighborhood +for something to plunder, passed near Micah's house. The men of Dan, +knowing that Micah's mother had in her house a priest, a seer, a +diviner, a rhoë, inquired of him if their excursion would be lucky--if +they should find a good booty. The Levite promised them complete +success. They began by robbing Micah's chapel, and took from her even +her Levite. In vain did Micah and his mother cry out: "You are carrying +away my gods! You are stealing my priest!" The robbers silenced them, +and went, through devotion, to put to fire and sword the little town of +Dan, whose name this tribe adopted. + +These freebooters were very grateful to Micah's gods, which had done +them such good service, and placed them in a new tabernacle. The crowd +of devotees increasing, a new priest was wanted, and one presented +himself. Those who are not conversant with your history will never +divine who this chaplain was: but, gentlemen, _you_ know that it was +Moses' own grandson, one Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses and +Jethro's daughter. + +You will agree with me, that the family of Moses was rather a singular +one. His brother, at the age of one hundred, cast a golden calf and +worshipped it; and his grandson turned chaplain to the idols for money. +Does not this prove that your religion was not yet formed, and that you +were a long time groping in the dark before you became perfect +Israelites as you now are? + +To my question you answer, that our Simon Peter Barjonas did as much; +that he commenced his apostleship with denying his master. I have +nothing to reply, except it be, that we must always distrust ourselves; +and so great is my own self-distrust, that I conclude my letter with +assuring you of my utmost indulgence, and requesting yours. + + +FIFTH LETTER. + +_Jewish Assassinations. Were the Jews Cannibals? Had their Mothers +Commerce with Goats? Did their Fathers and Mothers Immolate their +Children? With a few other fine Actions of God's People._ + +Gentlemen,--I have been somewhat uncourteous to your secretary. It is +against the rules of politeness to scold a servant in the presence of +his master; but self-important ignorance is revolting in a Christian who +makes himself the servant of a Jew. I address myself directly to you, +that I may have nothing more to do with your livery. + +_Jewish Calamities and Great Assassinations._ + +Permit me, in the first place, to lament over all your calamities; for, +besides the two hundred and thirty-nine thousand and twenty Israelites +killed by order of the Lord, I find that Jephthah's daughter was +immolated by her father. Turn which way you please--twixt the text as +you will--dispute as you like against the fathers of the Church; still +he did to her as he had vowed; and he had vowed to cut his daughter's +throat in thanksgiving to God. An excellent thanksgiving! + +Yes, you have immolated human victims to the Lord; but be consoled; I +have often told you that our Celts and all nations have done so +formerly. What says M. de Bougainville, who has returned from the island +of Otaheite--that island of Cytherea, whose inhabitants, peaceful, mild, +humane, and hospitable, offer to the traveller all that they +possess--the most delicious of fruits--the most beautiful and most +obliging of women? He tells us that these people have their jugglers; +and that these jugglers force them to sacrifice their children to apes, +which they call their gods. + +I find that seventy brothers of Abimelech were put to death on the same +stone by this Abimelech, the son of Gideon and a prostitute. This son of +Gideon was a bad kinsman, and this Gideon, the friend of God, was very +debauched. + +Your Levite going on his ass to Gibeah--the Gibeonites wanting to +violate him--his poor wife violated in his stead, and dying in +consequence--the civil war that ensued--all your tribe of Benjamin +exterminated, saving only six hundred men--give me inexpressible pain. + +You lost, all at once, five fine towns which the Lord destined for you, +at the end of the lake of Sodom; and that for an inconceivable attempt +upon the modesty of two angels. Really, this is much worse than what +your mothers are accused of with the goats. How should I have other than +the greatest pity for you, when I find murder and bestiality established +against your ancestors, who are our first spiritual fathers, and our +near kinsmen according to the flesh? For after all, if you are descended +from Shem, we are descended from Japhet. We are therefore evidently +cousins. + +_Melchim, or Petty Kings of the Jews._ + +Your Samuel had good reason for not wishing you to have kings; for +nearly all your kings were assassins, beginning with David, who +assassinated Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, his tender friend, whom he +"loved with a love-greater than that of woman"; who assassinated Uriah, +the husband of Bathsheba; who assassinated even the infants at the +breast in the villages in alliance with his protector Achish; who on his +death-bed commanded the assassination of his general Joab and his +counsel Shimei--beginning, I say, with this David, and with Solomon, who +assassinated his own brother Adonijah, clinging in vain to the altar, +and ending with Herod "the Great," who assassinated his brother-in-law, +his wife, and all his kindred, including even his children. + +I say nothing of the fourteen thousand little boys whom your petty king, +this mighty Herod, had slaughtered in the village of Bethlehem. They +are, as you know, buried at Cologne with our eleven thousand virgins; +and one of these infants is still to be seen entire. You do not believe +this authentic story, because it is not in your canon, and your Flavius +Josephus makes no mention of it. I say nothing of the eleven hundred +thousand men killed in the town of Jerusalem alone, during its siege by +Titus. In good faith, the cherished nation is a very unlucky one. + +_Did the Jews Eat Human Flesh?_ + +Among your calamities, which have so often made me shudder, I have +always reckoned your misfortune in having eaten human flesh. You say +that this happened only on great occasions; that it was not you whom the +Lord invited to His table to eat the horse and the horseman, and that +only the birds were the guests. I am willing to believe it. + +_Were the Jewish Ladies Intimate with Goats?_ + +You assert that your mothers had no commerce with he-goats, nor your +fathers with she-goats. But pray, gentlemen, why are you the only people +upon earth whose laws have forbidden such commerce? Would any legislator +ever have thought of promulgating this extraordinary law if the offence +had not been common? + +_Did the Jews Immolate Human Victims?_ + +You venture to affirm that you have never immolated human victims to the +Lord. What, then, was the murder of Jephthah's daughter, who was really +immolated, as we have already shown from your own books? + +How will you explain the anathema of the thirty-two virgins, that were +the tribute of the Lord, when you took thirty-two thousand Midianitish +virgins and sixty-one thousand asses? I will not here tell you, that +according to this account there were not two asses for each virgin; but +I will ask you, what was this tribute for the Lord? According to your +Book of Numbers, there were sixteen thousand girls for your soldiers, +sixteen thousand for your priests, and on the soldiers' share there was +levied a tribute of thirty-two virgins for the Lord. What became of +them? You had no nuns. What was the Lord's share in all your wars, if it +was not blood? Did not the priest Samuel hack in pieces King Agag, whose +life King Saul had saved? Did he not sacrifice him as the Lord's share? + +Either renounce your sacred books, in which, according to the decision +of the church, I firmly believe, or acknowledge that your forefathers +offered up to God rivers of human blood, unparalleled by any people on +earth. + +_The Thirty-two Thousand Virgins, the Seventy-five Thousand Oxen, and +the Fruitful Desert of Midian._ + +Let your secretary no longer evade--no longer equivocate, respecting the +carnage of the Midianites and their villages. I feel great concern that +your butcher-priest Eleazar, general of the Jewish armies, should have +found in that little miserable and desert country, seventy-five thousand +oxen, sixty-one thousand asses, and six hundred and seventy-five +thousand sheep, without reckoning the rams and the lambs. + +Now if you took thirty-two thousand infant girls, it is likely that +there were as many infant boys, and as many fathers and mothers. These +united amount to a hundred and twenty-eight thousand captives, in a +desert where there is nothing to eat, nothing to drink but brackish +water, and which is inhabited by some wandering Arabs, to the number of +two or three thousand at most. You will besides observe, that, on all +the maps, this frightful country is not more than eight leagues long, +and as many broad. + +But were it as large, as fertile, and as populous as Normandy or the +Milanese, no matter. I hold to the text, which says, the Lord's share +was thirty-two maidens. Confound as you please Midian by the Red Sea +with Midian by Sodom; I shall still demand an account of my thirty-two +thousand virgins. Have you employed your secretary to calculate how many +oxen and maidens the fine country of Midian is capable of feeding? + +Gentlemen, I inhabit a canton which is not the Land of Promise; but we +have a lake much finer than that of Sodom, and our soil is moderately +productive. Your secretary tells me that an acre of Midian will feed +three oxen: I assure you, gentlemen, that with us an acre will feed but +one. If your secretary will triple the revenue of my lands, I will give +him good wages, and will not pay him with drafts on the +receivers-general. He will not find a better situation in all the +country of Midian than with me; but unfortunately this man knows no more +of oxen than he does of golden calves. + +As for the thirty-two thousand maidenheads, I wish him joy of them. Our +little country is as large as Midian. It contains about four thousand +drunkards, a dozen attorneys, two men of sense, and four thousand +persons of the fair sex, who are not uniformly pretty. These together +make about eight thousand people, supposing that the registrar who gave +me the account did not exaggerate by one-half, according to custom. +Either your priests or ours would have had considerable difficulty in +finding thirty-two thousand virgins for their use in our country. This +makes me very doubtful concerning the numberings of the Roman people, at +the time when their empire extended just four leagues from the Tarpeian +rock, and they carried a handful of hay at the end of a pole for a +standard. Perhaps you do not know that the Romans passed five hundred +years in plundering their neighbors before they had any historian, and +that their numberings, like their miracles, are very suspicious. + +As for the sixty-one thousand asses, the fruits of your conquests in +Midian--enough has been said of asses. + +_Jewish Children Immolated by their Mothers._ + +I tell you, that your fathers immolated their children; and I call your +prophets to witness. Isaiah reproaches them with this cannibalish crime: +"Slaying the children of the valleys under the clefts of the rocks." + +You will tell me, that it was not to the Lord Adonai that the women +sacrificed the fruit of their womb--that it was to some other god. But +what matters it whether you called him to whom you offered up your +children Melkom, or Sadaï, or Baal, or Adonai? That which it concerns us +to know is, that you were parricides. It was to strange idols, you say, +that your fathers made their offerings. Well,--I pity you still more for +being descended from fathers at once both parricidal and idolatrous. I +condole with you, that your fathers were idolaters for forty successive +years in the desert of Sinai, as is expressly said by Jeremiah, Amos, +and St. Stephen. + +You were idolaters in the time of the Judges; and the grandson of Moses +was priest of the tribe of Dan, who, as we have seen, were all +idolaters; for it is necessary to repeat--to insist; otherwise +everything is forgotten. + +You were idolaters under your kings; you were not faithful to one God +only, until after Esdras had restored your books. Then it was that your +uninterruptedly true worship began; and by an incomprehensible +providence of the Supreme Being, you have been the most unfortunate of +all men ever since you became the most faithful--under the kings of +Syria, under the kings of Egypt, under Herod the Idumæan, under the +Romans, under the Persians, under the Arabs, under the Turks--until now, +that you do me the honor of writing to me, and I have the honor of +answering you. + + +SIXTH LETTER. + +_Beauty of the Land of Promise._ + +Do not reproach me with not loving you. I love you so much that I wish +you were in Hershalaïm, instead of the Turks, who ravage your country; +but who, nevertheless, have built a very fine mosque on the foundations +of your temple, and on the platform constructed by your Herod. + +You would cultivate that miserable desert, as you cultivated it +formerly; you would carry earth to the bare tops of your arid mountains; +you would not have much corn, but you would have very good vines, a few +palms, olive trees, and pastures. + +Though Palestine does not equal Provence, though Marseilles alone is +superior to all Judæa, which had not one sea-port; though the town of +Aix is incomparably better situated than Jerusalem, you might +nevertheless make of your territory almost as much as the Provencals +have made of theirs. You might execute, to your hearts' content, your +own detestable psalmody in your own detestable jargon. + +It is true, that you would have no horses; for there are not, nor have +there ever been, about Hershalaïm, any but asses. You would often be in +want of wheat, but you would obtain it from Egypt or Syria. + +You might convey merchandise to Damascus and to Said on your asses--or +indeed on camels--which you never knew anything of in the time of your +Melchim, and which would be a great assistance to you. In short, +assiduous toil, to which man is born, would fertilize this land, which +the lords of Constantinople and Asia Minor neglect. + +This promised land of yours is very bad. Are you acquainted with St. +Jerome? He was a Christian priest, one of those men whose books you do +not read. However, he lived a long time in your country; he was a very +learned person--not indeed slow to anger, for when contradicted he was +prodigal of abuse--but knowing your language better than you do, for he +was a good grammarian. Study was his ruling passion; anger was only +second to it. He had turned priest, together with his friend Vincent, on +condition that they should never say mass nor vespers, lest they should +be too much interrupted in their studies; for being directors of women +and girls, had they been moreover obliged to labor in the priestly +office, they would not have had two hours in the day left for Greek, +Chaldee, and the Jewish idiom. At last, in order to have more leisure, +Jerome retired altogether, to live among the Jews at Bethlehem, as Huet, +bishop of Avranches, retired to the Jesuits, at the house of the +professed, Rue St. Antoine, at Paris. + +Jerome did, it is true, embroil himself with the bishop of Jerusalem, +named John, with the celebrated priest Rufinus, and with several of his +friends; for, as I have already said, Jerome was full of choler and +self-love, and St. Augustine charges him with levity and fickleness: but +he was not the less holy, he was not the less learned, nor is his +testimony the less to be received, concerning the nature of the wretched +country in which his ardor for study and his melancholy confined him. + +Be so obliging as to read his letter to Dardanus, written in the year +414 of our era, which, according to the Jewish reckoning, is the year of +the world 4000, or 4001, or 4003, or 4004, as you please. + +"I beg of those who assert that the Jewish people, after the coming out +of Egypt, took possession of this country, which to us, by the passion +and resurrection of our Saviour, has become truly a land of promise--I +beg of them, I say, to show us what this people possessed. Their whole +dominions extended only from Dan to Beersheba, about one hundred and +sixty miles in length. The Holy Scriptures give no more to David and to +Solomon.... I am ashamed to say what is the breadth of the land of +promise, and I fear that the pagans will thence take occasion to +blaspheme. It is but forty-six miles from Joppa to our little town of +Bethlehem, beyond which all is a frightful desert." + +Read also the letter to one of his devotees, in which he says, that from +Jerusalem to Bethlehem there is nothing but pebbles, and no water to +drink; but that farther on, towards the Jordan, you find very good +valleys in that country full of bare mountains. This really was a land +of milk and honey, in comparison with the abominable desert of Horeb and +Sinai, from which you originally came. The sorry province of Champagne +is the land of promise, in relation to some parts of the Landes of +Bordeaux--the banks of the Aar are the land of promise, when compared +with the little Swiss cantons; all Palestine is very bad land, in +comparison with Egypt, which you say you came out of as thieves; but it +is a delightful country, if you compare it with the deserts of +Jerusalem, Sodom, Horeb, Sinai, Kadesh, etc. + +Go back to Judæa as soon as you can. I ask of you only two or three +Hebrew families, in order to establish a little necessary trade at Mount +Krapak, where I reside. For, if you are (like us) very ridiculous +theologians, you are very intelligent buyers and sellers, which we are +not. + + +SEVENTH LETTER. + +_Charity which God's People and the Christians should entertain for each +other._ + +My tenderness for you has only a few words more to say. We have been +accustomed for ages to hang you up between two dogs; we have repeatedly +driven you away through avarice; we have recalled you through avarice +and stupidity; we still, in more towns than one, make you pay for +liberty to breathe the air: we have, in more kingdoms than one, +sacrificed you to God; we have burned you as holocausts--for I will not +follow your example, and dissemble that we have offered up sacrifices of +human blood; all the difference is, that our priests, content with +applying your money to their own use, have had you burned by laymen; +while your priests always immolated the human victims with their own +sacred hands. You were monsters of cruelty and fanaticism in Palestine; +we have been so in Europe: my friends, let all this be forgotten. + +Would you live in peace? Imitate the Banians and the Guebers. They are +much more ancient than you are; they are dispersed like you; they are, +like you, without a country. The Guebers, in particular, who are the +ancient Persians, are slaves like you, after being for a long while +masters. They say not a word. Follow their example. You are calculating +animals--try to be thinking ones. + + + + +JOB. + + +Good day, friend Job! thou art one of the most ancient originals of +which books make mention; thou wast not a Jew; we know that the book +which bears thy name is more ancient than the Pentateuch. If the +Hebrews, who translated it from the Arabic, made use of the word +"Jehovah" to signify God, they borrowed it from the Phoenicians and +Egyptians, of which men of learning are assured. The word "Satan" was +not Hebrew; it was Chaldæan, as is well known. + +Thou dwelledst on the confines of Chaldæa. Commentators, worthy of their +profession, pretend that thou didst believe in the resurrection, +because, being prostrate on thy dunghill, thou hast said, in thy +nineteenth chapter, that thou wouldst one day rise up from it. A patient +who wishes his cure is not anxious for resurrection in lieu of it; but I +would speak to thee of other things. + +Confess that thou wast a great babbler; but thy friends were much +greater. It is said that thou possessedst seven thousand sheep, three +thousand camels, one thousand cows, and five hundred she-asses. I will +reckon up their value: + + LIVRES +Seven thousand sheep, at three livres ten + sous apiece 22,500 + +Three thousand camels at fifty crowns apiece 450,000 + +A thousand cows, one with the other, cannot + be valued at less than 80,000 + +And five hundred she-asses, at twenty francs + an ass 10,000 + +The whole amounts to 562,500 + +without reckoning thy furniture, rings and jewels. + +I have been much richer than thou; and though I have lost a great part +of my property and am ill, like thyself I have not murmured against God, +as thy friends seem to reproach thee with sometimes doing. + +I am not at all pleased with Satan, who, to induce thee to sin, and to +make thee forget God, demanded permission to take away all thy property, +and to give thee the itch. It is in this state that men always have +recourse to divinity. They are prosperous people who forgot God. Satan +knew not enough of the world at that time; he has improved himself +since; and when he would be sure of any one, he makes him a +farmer-general, or something better if possible, as our friend Pope has +clearly shown in his history of the knight Sir Balaam. + +Thy wife was an impertinent, but thy pretended friends Eliphaz the +Temanite, Bildad the Shuite, and Zophar, the Naamathite, were much more +insupportable. They exhorted thee to patience in a manner that would +have roused the mildest of men; they made thee long sermons more +tiresome than those preached by the knave V----e at Amsterdam, and by so +many other people. + +It is true that thou didst not know what thou saidst, when +exclaiming--"My God, am I a sea or a whale, to be shut up by Thee as in +a prison?" But thy friends knew no more when they answered thee, "that +the morn cannot become fresh without dew, and that the grass of the +field cannot grow without water." Nothing is less consolatory than this +axiom. + +Zophar of Naamath reproached thee with being a prater; but none of these +good friends lent thee a crown. I would not have treated thee thus. +Nothing is more common than people who advise; nothing more rare than +those who assist. Friends are not worth much, from whom we cannot +procure a drop of broth if we are in misery. I imagine that when God +restored thy riches and health, these eloquent personages dared not +present themselves before thee, hence the comforters of Job have become +a proverb. + +God was displeased with them, and told them sharply, in chap, xlii., +that they were tiresome and imprudent, and he condemned them to a fine +of seven bullocks and seven rams, for having talked nonsense. I would +have condemned them for not having assisted their friend. + +I pray thee, tell me if it is true, that thou livedst a hundred and +forty years after this adventure. I like to learn that honest people +live long; but men of the present day must be great rogues, since their +lives are comparatively so short. + +As to the rest, the book of Job is one of the most precious of +antiquity. It is evident that this book is the work of an Arab who lived +before the time in which we place Moses. It is said that Eliphaz, one of +the interlocutors, is of Teman, which was an ancient city of Arabia. +Bildad was of Shua, another town of Arabia. Zophar was of Naamath, a +still more eastern country of Arabia. + +But what is more remarkable, and which shows that this fable cannot be +that of a Jew, is, that three constellations are spoken of, which we now +call Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades. The Hebrews never had the least +knowledge of astronomy; they had not even a word to express this +science; all that regards the mental science was unknown to them, +inclusive even of the term geometry. + +The Arabs, on the contrary, living in tents, and being continually led +to observe the stars, were perhaps the first who regulated their years +by the inspection of the heavens. + +The more important observation is, that one God alone is spoken of in +this book. It is an absurd error to imagine that the Jews were the only +people who recognized a sole God; it was the doctrine of almost all the +East, and the Jews were only plagiarists in that as in everything else. + +In chapter xxxviii. God Himself speaks to Job from the midst of a +whirlwind, which has been since imitated in Genesis. We cannot too often +repeat, that the Jewish books are very modern. Ignorance and fanaticism +exclaim, that the Pentateuch is the most ancient book in the world. It +is evident, that those of Sanchoniathon, and those of Thaut, eight +hundred years anterior to those of Sanchoniathon; those of the first +Zerdusht, the "Shasta," the "Vedas" of the Indians, which we still +possess; the "Five Kings of China"; and finally the Book of Job, are of +a much remoter antiquity than any Jewish book. It is demonstrated that +this little people could only have annals while they had a stable +government; that they only had this government under their kings; that +its jargon was only formed, in the course of time, of a mixture of +Phoenician and Arabic. These are incontestable proofs that the +Phoenicians cultivated letters a long time before them. Their +profession was pillage and brokerage; they were writers only by chance. +We have lost the books of the Egyptians and Phoenicians, the Chinese, +Brahmins, and Guebers; the Jews have preserved theirs. All these +monuments are curious, but they are monuments of human imagination +alone, in which not a single truth, either physical or historical, is to +be learned. There is not at present any little physical treatise that +would not be more useful than all the books of antiquity. + +The good Calmet, or Dom Calmet (for the Benedictines like us to give +them their Dom), that simple compiler of so many reveries and +imbecilities; that man whom simplicity has rendered so useful to whoever +would laugh at antique nonsense, faithfully relates the opinion of those +who would discover the malady with which Job was attacked, as if Job was +a real personage. He does not hesitate in saying that Job had the +smallpox, and heaps passage upon passage, as usual, to prove that which +is not. He had not read the history of the smallpox by Astruc; for +Astruc being neither a father of the Church nor a doctor of Salamanca, +but a very learned physician, the good man Calmet knew not that he +existed. Monkish compilers are poor creatures! + + BY AN INVALID, + At the Baths of Aix-la-Chapelle. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 6 +(of 10), by François-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY *** + +***** This file should be named 35626-8.txt or 35626-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/6/2/35626/ + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & Marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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