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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:04:11 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:04:11 -0700 |
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diff --git a/35628-h/35628-h.htm b/35628-h/35628-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0554504 --- /dev/null +++ b/35628-h/35628-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8511 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Philosophical Dictionary, by Voltaire. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + background: #FAEBD7; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +a:link {color: #0000A0; text-decoration: underline; } + +v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +.small_2 {font-size: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em;} + +.small {font-size: 0.8em;} + +.dialogue {font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center;} + +.caption_fig {text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em; font-family: arial;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35628 ***</div> + + + + + +<h1>A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY</h1> + +<h3>VOLUME VIII</h3> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>VOLTAIRE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION</h4> + +<h3>THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE</h3> + +<h4>A CONTEMPORARY VERSION</h4> + + +<h5>With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized</h5> + +<h5>New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an</h5> + +<h5>Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh</h5> + + +<h4>A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY</h4> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h4>THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY</h4> + +<h5>FORTY-THREE VOLUMES</h5> + + +<h5>One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions</h5> + +<h5>of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures,</h5> + +<h5>and curious fac-similes</h5> + + +<h4>VOLUME XII</h4> + + +<h4>E.R. DuMONT</h4> + +<h4>PARIS—LONDON—NEW YORK—CHICAGO</h4> + +<h4>1901</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><i>The WORKS of VOLTAIRE</i></h3> + +<blockquote><p><i>"Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundred +years apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say it +with a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. +Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the +sweetness of the present civilization."</i></p></blockquote> +<p style="margin-left: 35em;"><i>VICTOR HUGO.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="caption"> +<a name="LIST_OF_PLATES" id="LIST_OF_PLATES"></a>LIST OF PLATES—Vol. VIII +</p> + +<p class="small_2"> +<a href="#Illustration_Allegorical_bust_of_Voltaire">ALLEGORICAL BUST OF VOLTAIRE</a>—frontispiece<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#The_Initial_Banishing">THE INITIATE BANISHING THE PRIEST</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#Jean_Jacques_Rousseau">JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#John_Calvin">JOHN CALVIN</a> +</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 34em;"><a href="#TABLE_OF_CONTENTS">Table of Contents</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 366px;"> +<a name="Illustration_Allegorical_bust_of_Voltaire" id="Illustration_Allegorical_bust_of_Voltaire"></a> +<img src="images/im01_voltaire_buste.jpg" width="366" alt="Allegorical bust of Voltaire." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">Allegorical bust of Voltaire.</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<h4>VOLTAIRE</h4> + +<h3>A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY.</h3> + +<h4>IN TEN VOLUMES</h4> + +<h4>VOL. VIII</h4> + +<h4>MONEY—PRIVILEGE</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h3><a name="MONEY" id="MONEY"></a>MONEY.</h3> + + +<p>A word made use of to express gold. "Sir, will you lend me a hundred +louis d'or?" "Sir, I would with all my heart, but I have no money; I am +out of ready money." The Italian will say to you: "<i>Signore, non ha di +danari</i>"—"I have no deniers."</p> + +<p>Harpagon asks Maître Jacques: "Wilt thou make a good entertainment?" +"Yes, if you will give me plenty of money."</p> + +<p>We continually inquire which of the countries of Europe is the richest +in money? By that we mean, which is the people who circulate the most +metals representative of objects of commerce? In the same manner we ask, +which is the poorest? and thirty contending nations present +themselves—the Westphalian, Limousin, Basque, Tyrolese, Valois, Grison, +Istrian, Scotch, and Irish, the Swiss of a small canton, and above all +the subjects of the pope.</p> + +<p>In deciding which has most, we hesitate at present between France, +Spain, and Holland, which had none in 1600.</p> + +<p>Formerly, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, the +province of the papal treasury had no doubt the most ready money, and +therefore the greatest trade. How do you sell that? would be asked of a +theological merchant, who replied, For as much as the people are fools +enough to give me.</p> + +<p>All Europe then sent its money to the Roman court, who gave in change +consecrated beads, agnuses, indulgences plenary and limited, +dispensations, confirmations, exemptions, benedictions, and even +excommunications against those whom the subscriber chose, and who had +not sufficient faith in the court of Rome.</p> + +<p>The Venetians sold nothing of all this, but they traded with all the +West by Alexandria, and it was through them only that we had pepper and +cinnamon. The money which went not to the papal treasury came to them, +excepting a little to the Tuscans and Genoese. All the other kingdoms of +Europe were so poor in ready money that Charles VIII. was obliged to +borrow the jewels of the duchess of Savoy and put them in pawn, to raise +funds to conquer Naples, which he soon lost again. The Venetians +supported stronger armies than his. A noble Venetian had more gold in +his coffers, and more vessels of silver on his table, than the emperor +Maximilian surnamed "<i>Pochi danari.</i>"</p> + +<p>Things changed when the Portuguese traded with India as conquerors, and +the Spaniards subjugated Mexico and Peru with six or seven hundred men. +We know that then the commerce of Venice, and the other towns of Italy +all fell to the ground. Philip II., the master of Spain, Portugal, the +Low Countries, the Two Sicilies, and the Milanese, of fifteen hundred +leagues of coast in Asia, and mines of gold and silver in America, was +the only rich, and consequently the only powerful prince in Europe. The +spies whom he gained in France kissed on their knees the Catholic +doubloons, and the small number of angels and caroluses which circulated +in that country had not much credit. It is pretended that America and +Asia brought him in nearly ten million ducats of revenue. He would have +really bought Europe with his money, but for the iron of Henry IV. and +the fleets of Queen Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>The "<i>Dictionnaire Encyclopédique,</i>" in the article on "Argent," quotes +the "Spirits of Laws," in which it is said: "I have heard deplored a +thousand times, the blindness of the council of Francis I., who rejected +the proposal of Christopher Columbus for the discovery of the +Indies—perhaps this imprudence has turned out a very wise thing."</p> + +<p>We see by the enormous power of Philip that the pretended council of +Francis I. could not have done such a wise thing. But let us content +ourselves with remarking that Francis I. was not born when it is +pretended that he refused the offers of Christopher Columbus. The +Genoese captain landed in America in 1492, and Francis I. was born in +1497, and did not ascend the throne until 1515. Let us here compare the +revenues of Henry III., Henry IV., and Queen Elizabeth, with those of +Philip II. The ordinary income of Elizabeth was only one hundred +thousand pound sterling, and with extras it was, one year with another, +four hundred thousand; but she required this surplus to defend herself +from Philip II. Without extreme economy she would have been lost, and +England with her.</p> + +<p>The revenue of Henry III. indeed increased to thirty millions of livres +of his time; this, to the sum that Philip drew from the Indies, was as +three to ten; but not more than a third of this money entered into the +coffers of Henry III., who was very prodigal, greatly robbed, and +consequently very poor. We find that Philip II. in one article was ten +times richer than Henry.</p> + +<p>As to Henry IV., it is not worth while to compare his treasures with +those of Philip II. Until the Peace of Vervins, he had only what he +could borrow or win at the point of his sword; and he lived as a +knight-errant, until the time in which he became the first king in +Europe. England had always been so poor that King Edward III. was the +first king who coined money of gold.</p> + +<p>Would we know what became of the money which flowed continually from +Mexico and Peru into Spain? It entered the pockets of the French, +English and Dutch, who traded with Cadiz under Spanish names; and who +sent to America the productions of their manufactories. A great part of +this money goes to the East Indies to pay for spices, cotton, saltpetre, +sugar, candy, tea, cloths, diamonds, and monkeys.</p> + +<p>We may afterwards demand, what is become of all the treasures of the +Indies? I answer that Shah Thamas Kouli-Khan or Shah Nadir had carried +away all those of the great Mogul, together with his jewels. You would +know where those jewels are, and this money that Shah Nadir carried with +him into Persia? A part was hidden in the earth during the civil wars; +predatory leaders made use of the rest to raise troops against one +another; for, as Cæsar very well remarks: "With money we get soldiers, +and with soldiers we steal money."</p> + +<p>Your curiosity is not yet satisfied; you are troubled to know what have +become of the treasures of Sesostris, of Crœ, Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, and +above all of Solomon, who, it is said, had to his own share equal to +twenty millions and more of our pounds in his coffers.</p> + +<p>I will tell you. It is spread all over the world. Things find their +level in time. Be sure, that in the time of Cyrus, the Gauls, Germany, +Denmark, Poland, and Russia, had not a crown. Besides, that which is +lost in gilding, which is fooled away upon our Lady of Loretto, and +other places, and which has been swallowed up by the avaricious sea must +be counted.</p> + +<p>How did the Romans under their great Romulus, the son of Mars, and a +vestal, and under the devout Numa Pompilius? They had a Jupiter of oak; +rudely carved huts for palaces; a handful of hay at the end of a stick +for a standard; and not a piece of money of twelve sous value in their +pockets. Our coachmen have gold watches that the seven kings of Rome, +the Camilluses, Manliuses, and Fabiuses, could not have paid for.</p> + +<p>If by chance the wife of a receiver-general of finances was to have this +chapter read at her toilette by the bel-esprit of the house, she would +have a strange contempt for the Romans of the three first centuries, and +would not allow a Manlius, Curius, or Fabius to enter her antechamber, +should he come on foot, and not have wherewithal to take his part at +play.</p> + +<p>Their ready money was of brass. It served at once for arms and money. +They fought and reckoned with brass. Three or four pounds of brass, of +twelve ounces weight, paid for an ox. They bought necessaries at market, +as we buy them at present; and men had, as in all times, food, clothing, +and habitations. The Romans, poorer than their neighbors, conquered +them, and continually augmented their territory for the space of five +hundred years, before they coined silver money.</p> + +<p>The soldiers of Gustavus Adolphus in Sweden had nothing but copper money +for their pay, before the time that they made conquests out of their own +country.</p> + +<p>Provided we have a pledge of exchange for the necessary things of life, +commerce will continually go on. It signifies not whether this pledge be +of shells or paper. Gold and silver have prevailed everywhere, only +because they have been the most rare.</p> + +<p>It was in Asia that the first manufactures of money of these two metals +commenced, because Asia was the cradle of all the arts.</p> + +<p>There certainly was no money in the Trojan war. Gold and silver passed +by weight; Agamemnon might have had a treasure, but certainly no money.</p> + +<p>What has made several hardy scholars suspect that the "Pentateuch" was +not written until the time in which the Hebrews began to procure coins +from their neighbors is that in more than one passage mention is made of +shekels. It is there said that Abraham, who was a stranger and had not +an inch of land in the country of Canaan, bought there a field and a +cave in which to bury his wife, for four hundred shekels of silver +current money. The judicious Dom Calmet values this sum at four hundred +and forty-eight livres, six sous, nine deniers, according to the ancient +calculation adopted at random, in which the silver mark was of +six-and-twenty livres value. As the silver mark has, however, increased +by half the sum, the present value would be eight hundred and ninety-six +livres.</p> + +<p>Now, as in that time there was no coined money answering to the word +"<i>pecunia,</i>" that would make a little difficulty, from which it is not +easy to extricate ourselves.</p> + +<p>Another difficulty is, that in one place it is said that Abraham bought +this field in Hebron, and in another at Sichem. On that point consult +the venerable Bede, Raban, Maure, and Emanuel Sa.</p> + +<p>We will now speak of the riches which David left to Solomon in coined +money. Some make it amount to twenty-one or twenty-two millions of +French livres, others to five-and-twenty. There is no keeper of the +royal treasure, nor <i>tefterdan</i> of the grand Turk's, who can exactly +compute the treasure of King Solomon; but the young bachelors of Oxford +and the Sorbonne make out the amount without difficulty.</p> + +<p>I will not speak of the innumerable adventures which have happened to +money since it has been stamped, marked, valued, altered, increased, +buried, and stolen, having through all its transformations constantly +remained the idol of mankind. It is so much loved that among all +Christian princes there still exists an old law which is not to allow +gold and silver to go out of their kingdoms. This law implies one of two +things—either that these princes reign over fools who lavish their +money in a foreign country for their pleasure, or that we must not pay +our debts to foreigners. It is, however, clear that no person is foolish +enough to give his money without reason, and that, when we are in debt +to a foreigner, we should pay him either in bills of exchange, +commodities, or legitimate coin. Thus this law has not been executed +since we began to open our eyes—which is not long ago.</p> + +<p>There are many things to be said on coined money; as on the unjust and +ridiculous augmentation of specie, which suddenly loses considerable +sums to a state on the melting down again; on the re-stamping, with an +augmentation of ideal value, which augmentation invites all your +neighbors and all your enemies to re-coin your money and gain at your +expense; in short, on twenty other equally ruinous expedients. Several +new books are full of judicious remarks upon this subject. It is more +easy to write on money than to obtain it; and those who gain it, jest +much at those who only know how to write about it.</p> + +<p>In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as +possible from one part of the citizens to give to the other.</p> + +<p>It is demanded, if it be possible radically to ruin a kingdom of which +the soil in general is fertile. We answer that the thing is not +practicable, since from the war of 1689 till the end of 1769, in which +we write, everything has continually been done which could ruin France +and leave it without resource, and yet it never could be brought about. +It is a sound body which has had a fever of eighty years with relapses, +and which has been in the hands of quacks, but which will survive.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="MONSTERS" id="MONSTERS"></a>MONSTERS.</h3> + + +<p>The definition of monsters is more difficult than is generally imagined. +Are we to apply the term to animals of enormous size; to a fish, or a +serpent fifteen feet long, for instance? There are some, however, that +are twenty or even thirty feet long, in comparison with which of course +the others, instead of enormous or monstrous, would appear small.</p> + +<p>There are monsters through defect. But, if a generally well-made and +handsome man were destitute from his birth of the little toes and little +fingers, would he be a monster? Teeth are more necessary to a man; I +have seen a man who never had a tooth. He was in other respects pleasing +in his person. Being destitute of the organs of generation, still more +necessary in the system of nature, would not constitute the person thus +defective a monster.</p> + +<p>There are monsters by excess as well as by defect. But those who have +six fingers, or three testicles, or two perforations instead of one, or +the spine elongated in the form of a small tail, are not considered +monsters.</p> + +<p>The third kind consists of those which have members of other animals; +as, for example, a lion with the wings of an ostrich, or a serpent with +the wings of an eagle, like the griffin and ixion of the Jews. But all +bats have wings, and flying fish have them, without being monsters.</p> + +<p>Let us, then, reserve the name for animals whose deformities strike us +with horror.</p> + +<p>Yet the first negro, upon this idea, was a monster to white women; and +the most admirable of European beauties was a monster in the eyes of +negroes.</p> + +<p>If Polyphemus and the Cyclops had really existed, people who carried an +eye on each side of the root of the nose, would, in the island of +Lipari, and the neighborhood of Mount Ætna, have been pronounced +monsters.</p> + +<p>I once saw, at a fair, a young woman with four nipples, or rather dugs, +and what resembled the tail of a cow hanging down between them. She was +decidedly a monster when she displayed her neck, but was rather an +agreeable woman in appearance when she concealed it.</p> + +<p>Centaurs and Minotaurs would have been monsters, but beautiful monsters. +The well-proportioned body of a horse serving as a base or support to +the upper part of a man would have been a masterpiece of nature's +workmanship on earth; just as we draw the masterpieces of heaven—those +spirits which we call angels, and which we paint and sculpture in our +churches—adorned sometimes with two wings, sometimes with four, and +sometimes even with six.</p> + +<p>We have already asked, with the judicious Locke, what is the boundary of +distinction between the human and merely animal figure; what is the +point of monstrosity at which it would be proper to take your stand +against baptizing an infant, against admitting it as a member of the +human species, against according to it the possession of a soul? We have +seen that this boundary is as difficult to be settled as it is difficult +to ascertain what a soul is; for there certainly are none who know what +it is but theologians.</p> + +<p>Why should the satyrs which St. Jerome saw, the offspring of women and +baboons, have been reputed monsters? Might it not be thought, on the +contrary, that their lot was in reality happier than ours? Must they not +have possessed more strength and more agility? and would they not have +laughed at us as an unfortunate race, to whom nature had refused both +tails and clothing? A mule, the offspring of two different species; a +jumart, the offspring of a bull and a mare; a tarin, the offspring, we +are told, of a canary bird and hen linnet—are not monsters.</p> + +<p>But how is it that mules, jumarts, and tarins, which are thus produced +in nature, do not themselves reproduce? And how do the seminists, +ovists, or animalculists, explain, upon their respective theories, the +formation of these mongrel productions?</p> + +<p>I will tell you plainly, that they do not explain it at all. The +seminists never discovered how it is that the ass communicates to his +mule offspring a resemblance only in the ears and crupper; the ovists +neither inform us, nor understand how a mare should contain in her egg +anything but an animal of her own species. And the animalculists cannot +perceive how a minute embryo of an ass could introduce its ears into the +matrix of a mare.</p> + +<p>The theorist who, in a work entitled the "Philosophy of Venus," +maintained that all animals and all monsters are formed by attraction, +was still less successful than those just mentioned, in accounting for +phenomena so common and yet so surprising.</p> + +<p>Alas! my good friends! you none of you know how you originate your own +offspring; you are ignorant of the secrets of nature in your own +species, and yet vainly attempt to develop them in the mule!</p> + +<p>It may, however, be confidently presumed, in reference to a monster by +defect, that the whole seminal matter did not reach its destined +appropriation; or, perhaps, that the small spermatic worm had lost a +portion of its substance; or, perhaps that the egg was crazed and +injured. With respect to a monster by excess, you may imagine that some +portions of the seminal matter superabounded; that of two spermatic +worms united, one could only animate a single member of the animal, and +that that member remains in supererogation; that two eggs have blended +together, and that one of them has produced but a single member, which +was joined to the body of the other.</p> + +<p>But what would you say of so many monstrosities arising from the +addition of parts of animals of a totally different species? How would +you explain a crab on the neck of a girl? or the tail of a rat upon the +thigh? or, above all, the four dugs and tail of a cow, which was +exhibited at the fair at St. Germain? You would be reduced to the +supposition that the unfortunate woman's mother belonged to the very +extraordinary family of <i>Pasiphæ.</i></p> + +<p>Let each of us boldly and honestly say, How little is it that I really +know.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="MORALITY" id="MORALITY"></a>MORALITY.</h3> + + +<p>Babblers, preachers, extravagant controversialists! endeavor to remember +that your master never announced that the sacrament was the visible sign +of an invisible thing; He has nowhere admitted four cardinal virtues, +and three divine ones. He has never decided whether His mother came into +the world maculate or immaculate. Cease, therefore, to repeat things +which never entered into His mind. He has said, in conformity with a +truth as ancient as the world—Love God and your neighbor. Abide by that +precept, miserable cavillers! Preach morality and nothing more. Observe +it, and let the tribunals no longer echo with your prosecutions; snatch +no longer, by the claw of an attorney, their morsel of bread from the +widow and the orphan. Dispute not concerning some petty benefice with +the same fury as the papacy was disputed in the great schism of the +West. Monks! place not to the utmost of your power, the universe under +contribution, and we may then be able to believe you. I have just read +these words in a piece of declamation in fourteen volumes, entitled, +"The History of the Lower Empire"; "The Christians had a morality, but +the Pagans had none."</p> + +<p>Oh, M. Le Beau! author of these fourteen volumes, where did you pick up +this absurdity? What becomes of the morality of Socrates, of Zaleucus, +of Charondas, of Cicero, of Epictetus, and of Marcus Aurelius?</p> + +<p>There is but one morality, M. Le Beau, as there is but one geometry. But +you will tell me that the greater part of mankind are ignorant of +geometry. True; but if they apply a little to the study of it, all men +draw the same conclusions. Agriculturists, manufacturers, artisans, do +not go through a regular course of morality; they read neither the "<i>De +Finibus</i>" of Cicero, nor the "Ethics" of Aristotle; but as soon as they +reflect, they are, without knowing it, disciples of Cicero. The Indian +dyer, the Tartarian shepherd, and the English seaman, are acquainted +with justice and injustice. Confucius did not invent a system of morals, +as men construct physical systems. He found his in the hearts of all +mankind.</p> + +<p>This morality existed in the bosom of the prætor Festus, when the Jews +pressed him to put Paul to death for having taken strangers into their +temple. "Learn," said he, "that the Romans never condemn any one +unheard."</p> + +<p>If the Jews were deficient in a moral sense, the Romans were not, and +paid it homage.</p> + +<p>There is no morality in superstition; it exists not in ceremonies, and +has nothing to do with dogmas. We cannot repeat too frequently that +dogmas differ, but that morality is the same among all men who make use +of their reason. Morality proceeds from God, like light; our +superstitions are only darkness. Reflect, reader; pursue the truth, and +draw the consequences.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="MOSES" id="MOSES"></a>MOSES.</h3> + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + + +<p>Philosophy, of which we sometimes pass the boundaries, researches of +antiquity, and the spirit of discussion and criticism, have been carried +so far that several learned men have finally doubted if there ever was a +Moses, and whether this man was not an imaginary being, such as were +Perseus, Bacchus, Atlas, Penthesilea, Vesta, Rhea Silvia, Isis, +Sammonocodom, Fo, Mercury, Trismegistus, Odin, Merlin, Francus, Robert +the Devil, and so many other heroes of romance whose lives and prowess +have been recorded.</p> + +<p>It is not very likely, say the incredulous, that a man ever existed +whose life is a continual prodigy.</p> + +<p>It is not very likely that he worked so many stupendous miracles in +Egypt, Arabia, and Syria, without their being known throughout the +world.</p> + +<p>It is not likely that no Egyptian or Greek writer should have +transmitted these miracles to posterity. They are mentioned by the Jews +alone; and in the time that this history was written by them, they were +not known to any nation—not indeed until towards the second century. +The first author who expressly quotes the Book of Moses is Longinus, +minister of Queen Zenobia, in the time of the emperor Aurelian.</p> + +<p>It is to be remarked that the author of the "<i>Mercury Trismegistus,</i>" +who certainly was an Egyptian, says not a single word about this Moses.</p> + +<p>If a single ancient author had related a single one of these miracles, +Eusebius would no doubt have triumphed in this evidence, either in his +"History" or in his "Evangelical Preparation."</p> + +<p>It is true, he mentions authors who have quoted his name, but none who +have cited his prodigies. Before him, the Jews, Josephus and Philo, who +have so much celebrated their own nation, sought all the writers in +which the name of Moses is found, but there was not a single one who +made the least mention of the marvellous actions attributed to him.</p> + +<p>In this silence of the whole world, the incredulous reason with a +temerity which refutes itself.</p> + +<p>The Jews are the only people who possessed the Pentateuch, which they +attribute to Moses. It is said, even in their books, that this +Pentateuch was not known until the reign of their king Josiah, +thirty-six years before the destruction and captivity of Jerusalem; and +they then only possessed a single copy, which the priest Hilkiah found +at the bottom of a strong box, while counting money. The priest sent it +to the king by his scribe Shaphan. All this, say they, necessarily +obscures the authenticity of the Pentateuch.</p> + +<p>In short, if the Pentateuch was known to all the Jews, would +Solomon—the wise Solomon, inspired by God Himself to build a +temple—have ornamented this temple with so many statues, contrary to +the express order of Moses?</p> + +<p>All the Jewish prophets, who prophesied in the name of the Lord from the +time of Moses till that of King Josiah, would they not have been +supported in all their prophecies by the laws of Moses? Would they not a +thousand times have quoted his own words? Would they not have commented +upon them? None of them, however, quote two lines—no one follows the +text of Moses—they even oppose them in several places.</p> + +<p>According to these unbelievers, the books attributed to Moses were only +written among the Babylonians during the captivity, or immediately +afterwards by Esdras. Indeed, we see only Persian and Chaldæan +terminations in the Jewish writings: "<i>Babel,</i>" gate of God; +"<i>Phegor-beel,</i>" or "<i>Beel-phegor,</i>" god of the precipices; +"<i>Zebuth-beel,</i>" or "<i>Beel-zebuth,</i>" god of insects; "<i>Bethel,</i>" house +of God; "<i>Daniel,</i>" judgment of God; "<i>Gabriel,</i>" man of God; "<i>Jahel,</i>" +afflicted of God; "<i>Jael,</i>" the life of God; "<i>Israel,</i>" seeing God; +"<i>Oviel,</i>" strength of God; "<i>Raphael,</i>" help of God; "<i>Uriel,</i>" fire of +God.</p> + +<p>Thus, all is foreign in the Jewish nation, a stranger itself in +Palestine; circumcision, ceremonies, sacrifices, the ark, the cherubim, +the goat Hazazel, baptism of justice, simple baptism, proofs, +divination, interpretation of dreams, enchantment of serpents—nothing +originated among these people, nothing was invented by them.</p> + +<p>The celebrated Lord Bolingbroke believed not that Moses ever existed; he +thought he saw in the Pentateuch a crowd of contradictions and puzzling +chronological and geographical faults; names of towns not then built, +precepts given to kings at a time when not only the Jews had no kings, +but in which it is probable there were none, since they lived in +deserts, in tents, in the manner of the Bedouin Arabs.</p> + +<p>What appears to him above all the most palpable contradiction is the +gift of forty-eight cities with their suburbs, made to the Levites in a +country in which there was not a single village; and it is principally +on these forty-eight cities that he refutes Abbadie, and even has the +cruelty to treat him with the aversion and contempt of a lord of the +Upper Chamber, or a minister of state towards a petty foreign priest who +would be so impertinent as to reason with him.</p> + +<p>I will take the liberty of representing to Viscount Bolingbroke, and to +all those who think with him, not only that the Jewish nation has always +believed in the existence of Moses, and in that of his books, but that +even Jesus Christ has acknowledged him. The four Gospels, the Acts of +the Apostles, recognize him. St. Matthew says expressly, that Moses and +Elias appeared to Jesus Christ on the mountain during the night of the +transfiguration, and St. Luke says the same.</p> + +<p>Jesus Christ declares in St. Matthew that he is not come to abolish this +law, but to accomplish it. In the New Testament, we are often referred +to the law of Moses and to the prophets. The whole Church has always +believed the Pentateuch written by Moses; and further, of five hundred +different societies, which have been so long established in Christendom, +none have ever doubted the existence of this great prophet. We must, +therefore, submit our reason, as so many men have done before us.</p> + +<p>I know very well that I shall gain nothing in the mind of the viscount, +or of those of his opinion. They are too well persuaded that the Jewish +books were not written until very late, and during the captivity of the +two tribes which remained. But we shall possess the consolation of +having the Church with us.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>If you would be instructed and amused with antiquity, read the life of +Moses in the article on "Apocrypha."</p> + +<p>In vain have several scholars believed that the Pentateuch could not +have been written by Moses. They say that it is affirmed even by the +Scripture, that the first known copy was found in the time of King +Josiah, and that this single copy was brought to the king by the +secretary Shaphan. Now, between the time of Moses and this adventure of +the secretary Shaphan, there were one thousand one hundred and +sixty-seven years, by the Hebrew computation. For God appeared to Moses +in the burning bush, in the year of the world 2213, and the secretary +Shaphan published the book of the law in the year of the world 3380. +This book found under Josiah, was unknown until the return from the +Babylonish captivity; and it is said that it was Esdras, inspired by +God, who brought the Holy Scriptures to light.</p> + +<p>But whether it was Esdras or another who digested this book is +absolutely indifferent, since it is inspired. It is not said in the +Pentateuch, that Moses was the author; we might, therefore, be permitted +to attribute it to the declaration of some other divine mind, if the +Church had not decided that the book is by Moses.</p> + +<p>Some opposers add, that no prophet has quoted the books of the +Pentateuch, that there is no mention of it either in the Psalms or in +the books attributed to Solomon, in Jeremiah or Isaiah, or, in short, in +any canonical book of the Jews. Words answering to those of Genesis, +Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, are not found in any other +language recognized by them as authentic. Others, still more bold, have +put the following questions:</p> + +<p>1. In what language could Moses have written in a savage desert? It +could only be in Egyptian; for by this same book we are told that Moses +and all his people were born in Egypt. It is therefore probable that +they spoke no other language. The Egyptians had yet made no use of +papyrus; they engraved hieroglyphics on tables of wood or marble. It is +even said, that the tables of the commandments were engraved on polished +stones, which required prodigious time and labor.</p> + +<p>2. Is it likely, that in a desert where the Jewish people had neither +shoemaker nor tailor—in which the God of the universe was obliged to +work a continual miracle to preserve the old dresses and shoes of the +Jews—men could be found clever enough to engrave the five books of the +Pentateuch on marble or wood? You will say, that they found laborers who +made a golden calf in one night, and who afterwards reduced the gold +into powder—an operation impracticable to common chemistry, which was +not yet discovered. Who constructed the tabernacle? Who ornamented +thirty columns of brass with capitals of silver? Who wove and +embroidered veils of linen with hyacinth, purple, and scarlet? An +account that supports the opinion of the contradictors. They answer, +that it was not possible that in a desert, where they were in want of +everything, for them to perform works so intricate; that they must have +begun by making shoes and tunics; that those who wanted necessaries +could not indulge in luxuries; and that it is an evident contradiction +to say, that they had founders, engravers, and embroiderers, when they +had neither clothes nor bread.</p> + +<p>3. If Moses had written the first chapter of Genesis, would all young +people have been forbidden to read the first chapter? Would so little +respect have been paid to the legislator? If it was Moses who said that +God punished the iniquity of the fathers to the fourth generation, would +Ezekiel have dared to say the contrary?</p> + +<p>4. If Moses wrote Leviticus, could he have contradicted it in +Deuteronomy? Leviticus forbids a woman to marry her brother, Deuteronomy +commands it.</p> + +<p>5. Could Moses have spoken of towns which existed not in his time? Would +he have said that towns which, in regard to him, were on the east of the +Jordan were on the west?</p> + +<p>6. Would he have assigned forty-eight cities to the Levites, in a +country in which there were never ten, and in a desert in which he had +always wandered without habitation?</p> + +<p>7. Would he have prescribed rules for the Jewish kings, when not only +there were no kings among this people, but they were held in horror, and +it was not probable they would ever have any? What! would Moses have +given precepts for the conduct of kings who came not until five hundred +years after him, and have said nothing in relation to the judges and +priests who succeeded him? Does not this religion lead us to believe +that the Pentateuch was composed in the time of kings, and that the +ceremonies instituted by Moses were only traditional.</p> + +<p>8. Suppose he had said to the Jews: I have made you depart to the number +of six hundred thousand combatants from the land of Egypt under the +protection of your God? Would not the Jews have answered him: You must +have been very timid not to lead us against Pharaoh of Egypt; he could +not have opposed to us an army of two hundred thousand men. There never +was such an army on foot in Egypt; we should have conquered them easily; +we should have been the masters of their country. What! has the God, who +talks to you, to please us slain all the first-born of Egypt, which, if +there were in this country three hundred thousand families, makes three +hundred thousand men destroyed in one night, simply to avenge us, and +yet you have not seconded your God and given us that fertile country +which nothing could withhold from us. On the contrary you have made us +depart from Egypt as thieves and cowards, to perish in deserts between +mountains and precipices. You might, at least, have conducted us by the +direct road to this land of Canaan, to which we have no right, but which +you have promised us, and on which we have not yet been able to enter.</p> + +<p>It was natural that, from the land of Goshen, we should march towards +Tyre and Sidon, along the Mediterranean; but you made us entirely pass +the Isthmus of Suez, and re-enter Egypt, proceed as far as Memphis, when +we find ourselves at Beel-Sephor on the borders of the Red Sea, turning +our backs on the land of Canaan, having journeyed eighty leagues in this +Egypt which we wished to avoid, so as at last to nearly perish between +the sea and the army of Pharaoh!</p> + +<p>If you had wished to deliver us to our enemies, you could not have taken +a different route and other measures. God has saved us by a miracle, you +say; the sea opened to let us pass; but after such a favor, should He +let us die of hunger and fatigue in the horrible deserts of +Kadesh-barnea, Mara, Elim, Horeb, and Sinai? All our fathers perished in +these frightful solitudes; and you tell us, at the end of forty years, +that God took particular care of them.</p> + +<p>This is what these murmuring Jews, these unjust children of the +vagabonds who died in the desert, might have said to Moses, if he had +read Exodus and Genesis to them. And what might they not have said and +done on the article of the golden calf? What! you dare to tell us that +your brother made a calf for our fathers, when you were with God on the +mountain? You, who sometimes tell us that you have spoken to God face to +face, and sometimes that you could only see His back! But no matter, you +were with this God, and your brother cast a golden calf in one day, and +gave it to us to adore it; and instead of punishing your unworthy +brother, you make him our chief priest, and order your Levites to slay +twenty-three thousand men of your people. Would our fathers have +suffered this? Would they have allowed themselves to be sacrificed like +so many victims by sanguinary priests? You tell us that, not content +with this incredible butchery, you have further massacred twenty-four +thousand of our poor followers because one of them slept with a +Midianitish woman, whilst you yourself espoused a Midianite; and yet you +add, that you are the mildest of men! A few more instances of this +mildness, and not a soul would have remained.</p> + +<p>No; if you have been capable of all this cruelty, if you can have +exercised it, you would be the most barbarous of men, and no punishment +would suffice to expiate so great a crime.</p> + +<p>These are nearly the objections which all scholars make to those who +think that Moses is the author of the Pentateuch. But we answer them, +that the ways of God are not those of men; that God has proved, +conducted, and abandoned His people by a wisdom which is unknown to us; +that the Jews themselves, for more than two thousand years, have +believed that Moses is the author of these books; that the Church, which +has succeeded the synagogue, and which is equally infallible, has +decided this point of controversy; and that scholars should remain +silent when the Church pronounces.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>We cannot doubt that there was a Moses, a legislator of the Jews. We +will here examine his history, following merely the rules of criticism; +the Divine is not submitted to similar examination. We must confine +ourselves to the probable; men can only judge as men. It is very natural +and very probable that an Arab nation dwelt on the confines of Egypt, on +the side of Arabia Deserta; that it was tributary or slave to the +Egyptian kings, and that afterwards it sought to establish itself +elsewhere; but that which reason alone cannot admit is, that this +nation, composed of seventy persons at most in the time of Joseph, +increased in two hundred and fifteen years, from Joseph to Moses, to the +number of six hundred thousand combatants, according to the Book of +Exodus, which six hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms imply a +multitude of about two millions, counting old men, women, and children. +It is not certainly in the course of nature for a colony of seventy +persons, as many males as females, to produce in two centuries two +millions of inhabitants. The calculations made on this progression by +men very little versed in the things of this world, are falsified by the +experience of all nations and all times. Children are not made by a +stroke of the pen. Reflect well that at this rate a population of ten +thousand persons in two hundred years would produce more inhabitants +than the globe of the earth could sustain.</p> + +<p>Is it any more probable, that these six hundred thousand combatants, +favored by the Author of nature who worked for them so many prodigies, +were forced to wander in the deserts in which they died, instead of +seeking to possess themselves of fertile Egypt?</p> + +<p>By these rules of an established and reasonable human criticism, we must +agree that it is very likely that Moses conducted a small people from +the confines of Egypt. There was among the Egyptians an ancient +tradition, related by Plutarch in his "Treatise on Isis and Osiris," +that Tiphon, the father of Jerosselaim and Juddecus, fled from Egypt on +an ass. It is clear from this passage that the ancestors of the Jews, +the inhabitants of Jerusalem, were supposed to have been fugitives from +Egypt. A tradition, no less ancient and more general is, that the Jews +were driven from Egypt, either as a troop of unruly brigands, or a +people infected with leprosy. This double accusation carries its +probability even from the land of Goshen, which they had inhabited, a +neighboring land of the vagabond Arabs, and where the disease of +leprosy, peculiar to the Arabs, might be common. It appears even by the +Scripture that this people went from Egypt against their will. The +seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy forbids kings to think of leading the +Jews back to Egypt.</p> + +<p>The conformity of several Egyptian and Jewish customs still more +strengthens the opinion that this people was an Egyptian colony, and +what gives it a new degree of probability is the feast of the Passover; +that is to say, of the flight or passage instituted in memory of their +evasion. This feast alone would be no proof; for among all peoples there +are solemnities established to celebrate fabulous and incredible events; +such were most of the feasts of the Greeks and Romans; but a flight from +one country to another is nothing uncommon, and calls for belief. The +proof drawn from this feast of the Passover receives a still greater +force by that of the Tabernacles, in memory of the time in which the +Jews inhabited the desert on their departure from Egypt. These +similitudes, united with so many others, prove that a colony really went +from Egypt, and finally established itself for some time at Palestine.</p> + +<p>Almost all the rest is of a kind so marvellous that human sagacity +cannot digest it. All that we can do is to seek the time in which the +history of this flight—that is to say, the Book of Exodus—can have +been written, and to examine the opinions which then prevailed; +opinions, of which the proof is in the book itself, compared with the +ancient customs of nations.</p> + +<p>With regard to the books attributed to Moses, the most common rules of +criticism permit us not to believe that he can be the author of them.</p> + +<p>1. It is not likely that he spoke of the places by names which were not +given to them until long afterwards. In this book mention is made of the +cities of Jair, and every one agrees that they were not so named until +long after the death of Moses. It also speaks of the country of Dan, and +the tribe of Dan had not given its name to the country of which it was +not yet the master.</p> + +<p>2. How could Moses have quoted the book of the wars of the Lord, when +these wars and this book were after his time?</p> + +<p>3. How could Moses speak of the pretended defeat of a giant named Og, +king of Bashan, vanquished in the desert in the last year of his +government? And how could he add, that he further saw his bed of iron of +nine cubits long in Rabath? This city of Rabath was the capital of the +Ammonites, into whose country the Hebrews had not yet penetrated. Is it +not apparent, that such a passage is the production of a posterior +writer, which his inadvertence betrays? As an evidence of the victory +gained over the giant, he brings forward the bed said to be still at +Rabath, forgetting that it is Moses whom he makes speak, who was dead +long before.</p> + +<p>4. How could Moses have called cities beyond the Jordan, which, with +regard to him, were on this side? Is it not palpable, that the book +attributed to him was written a long time after the Israelites had +crossed this little river Jordan, which they never passed under his +conduct?</p> + +<p>5. Is it likely that Moses told his people, that in the last year of his +government he took, in the little province of Argob—a sterile and +frightful country of Arabia Petræa—sixty great towns surrounded with +high fortified walls, independent of an infinite number of open cities? +Is it not much more probable that these exaggerations were afterwards +written by a man who wished to flatter a stupid nation?</p> + +<p>6. It is still less likely, that Moses related the miracles with which +this history is filled.</p> + +<p>It is easy to persuade a happy and victorious people that God has fought +for them; but it is not in human nature that a people should believe a +hundred miracles in their favor, when all these prodigies ended only in +making them perish in a desert. Let us examine some of the miracles +related in Exodus.</p> + +<p>7. It appears contradictory and injurious to the divine essence to +suppose that God, having formed a people to be the sole depository of +His laws, and to reign over all nations, should send a man of this +people to demand of the king, their oppressor, permission to go into the +desert to sacrifice to his God, that this people might escape under the +pretence of this sacrifice. Our common ideas cannot forbear attaching an +idea of baseness and knavery to this management, far from recognizing +the majesty and power of the Supreme Being.</p> + +<p>When, immediately after, we read that Moses changed his rod into a +serpent, before the king, and turned all the waters of the kingdom into +blood; that he caused frogs to be produced which covered the surface of +the earth; that he changed all the dust into lice, and filled the air +with venomous winged insects; that he afflicted all the men and animals +of the country with frightful ulcers; that he called hail, tempests, and +thunder, to ruin all the country; that he covered it with locusts; that +he plunged it in fearful darkness for three days; that, finally, an +exterminating angel struck with death all the first-born of men and +animals in Egypt, commencing with the son of the king; again, when we +afterwards see his people walking across the Red Sea, the waves +suspended in mountains to the right and left, and later falling on the +army of Pharaoh, which they swallowed up—when, I say, we read all these +miracles, the first idea which comes into our minds is, that this +people, for whom God performed such astonishing things, no doubt became +the masters of the universe. But, no! the fruit of so many wonders was, +that they suffered want and hunger in arid sands; and—prodigy upon +prodigy—all died without seeing the little corner of earth in which +their descendants afterwards, for some years, established themselves! It +is no doubt pardonable if we disbelieve this crowd of prodigies, at the +least of which reason so decidedly revolts.</p> + +<p>This reason, left to itself, cannot be persuaded that Moses wrote such +strange things. How can we make a generation believe so many miracles +uselessly wrought for it, and all of which, it is said, were performed +in the desert? What being, enjoying divine power, would employ it in +preserving the clothes and shoes of these people, after having armed all +nature in their favor?</p> + +<p>It is therefore very natural to think that all this prodigious history +was written a long time after Moses, as the romances of Charlemagne were +forged three centuries after him; and as the origins of all nations have +not been written until they were out of sight, the imagination has been +left at liberty to invent. The more coarse and unfortunate a people are, +the more they seek to exalt their ancient history; and what people have +been longer miserable, or more barbarous, than the Jews?</p> + +<p>It is not to be believed that, when they had not wherewithal to make +shoes in their deserts, under the government of Moses, there were any +cunning enough to write. We should presume, that the poor creatures born +in these deserts did not receive a very brilliant education; and that +the nation only began to read and write when it had some commerce with +Phœnicia. It was probably in the commencement of monarchy that the Jews, +feeling they had some genius, wrote the Pentateuch, and adjusted their +traditions. Would they have made Moses recommend kings to read and write +his law in a time in which there were no kings? Is it not probable, that +the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy was composed to moderate the +power of royalty; and that it was written by priests in the time of +Saul?</p> + +<p>It is most likely at this epoch that we must place the digest of the +Pentateuch. The frequent slaveries to which this people were subject +seem badly calculated to establish literature in a nation, and to render +books very common; and the more rare these books were in the +commencement, the more the authors ventured to fill them with miracles.</p> + +<p>The Pentateuch, attributed to Moses, is, no doubt, very ancient; if it +was put in order in the time of Saul and Solomon, it was about the time +of the Trojan war, and is one of the most curious monuments of the +manner of thinking of that time. We see that all known nations, in +proportion to their ignorance, were fond of prodigies. All was then +performed by celestial ministry in Egypt, Phrygia, Greece, and Asia.</p> + +<p>The authors of the Pentateuch give us to understand that every nation +has its gods, and that these gods have all nearly an equal power.</p> + +<p>If Moses, in the name of God, changed his rod into a serpent, the +priests of Pharaoh did as much; if he changed all the waters of Egypt +into blood, even to that which was in the vases, the priests immediately +performed the same prodigy, without our being able to conceive on what +waters they performed this metamorphosis; at least, unless they +expressly created new waters for the purpose. The Jewish writers prefer +being reduced to this absurdity, rather than allow us to suspect that +the gods of Egypt had not the power of changing water into blood as well +as the God of Jacob.</p> + +<p>But when the latter fills the land of Egypt with lice, changing all the +dust into them, His entire superiority appears; the magi cannot imitate +it, and they make the God of the Jews speak thus: "Pharaoh shall know +that nothing is equal to me." These words put into his mouth, merely +mark a being who believes himself more powerful than his rivals; he was +equalled in the metamorphosis of a rod into a serpent, and in that of +the waters into blood; but he gains the victory in the article of the +lice and the following miracles.</p> + +<p>This idea of the supernatural power of priests of all countries is +displayed in several places of Scripture. When Balaam, the priest of the +little state of a petty king, named Balak, in the midst of deserts, is +near cursing the Jews, their God appears to him to prevent him. It seems +that the malediction of Balaam was much to be feared. To restrain this +priest, it is not enough that God speaks to him, he sends before him an +angel with a sword, and speaks Himself again by the mouth of his ass. +All these precautions certainly prove the opinion which then prevailed, +that the malediction of a priest, whatever it was, drew fatal +consequences after it.</p> + +<p>This idea of a God superior to other gods, though He made heaven and +earth, was so rooted in all minds, that Solomon in his last prayer +cries: "Oh, my God! there is no other god like thee in earth or heaven." +It is this opinion which rendered the Jews so credulous respecting the +sorceries and enchantments of other nations.</p> + +<p>It is this which gave rise to the story of the Witch of Endor, who had +the power of invoking the shade of Saul. Every people had their +prodigies and oracles, and it never even came into the minds of any +nations to doubt the miracles and prophecies of others. They were +contented with opposing similar arms; it seems as if the priests, in +denying the prodigies of other nations, feared to discredit their own. +This kind of theology prevailed a long time over all the earth.</p> + +<p>It is not for us to enter here on the detail of all that is written on +Moses. We speak of his laws in more than one place in this work. We will +here confine ourselves to remarking how much we are astonished to see a +legislator inspired by God; a prophet, through whom God Himself speaks, +proposing to us no future life. There is not a single word in Leviticus, +which can lead us to suspect the immortality of the soul. The reply to +this overwhelming difficulty is, that God proportioned Himself to the +ignorance of the Jews. What a miserable answer! It was for God to +elevate the Jews to necessary knowledge—not to lower Himself to them. +If the soul is immortal, if there are rewards and punishments in another +life, it is necessary for men to be informed of it. If God spoke, He +must have informed them of this fundamental dogma. What legislator, what +god but this, proposes to his people wine, oil, and milk alone! What god +but this always encourages his believers, as a chief of robbers +encourages his troops, with the hope of plunder only! Once more; it is +very pardonable for mere human reason simply to see, in such a history, +the barbarous stupidity of the first ages of a savage people. Man, +whatever he does, cannot reason otherwise; but if God really is the +author of the Pentateuch, we must submit without reasoning.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="MOTION" id="MOTION"></a>MOTION.</h3> + + +<p>A philosopher, in the neighborhood of Mount Krapak, argued with me that +motion is essential to matter.</p> + +<p>"Everything moves," says he; "the sun continually revolves on its own +axis; the planets do the same, and every planet has many different +motions; everything is a sieve; everything passes through a sieve; the +hardest metal is pierced with an infinity of pores, by which escapes a +constant torrent of vapors that circulate in space. The universe is +nothing but motion; motion, therefore, is essential to matter."</p> + +<p>"But, sir," said I to him, "might not any one say, in answer to what you +have advanced: This block of marble, this cannon, this house, this +motion, are not in motion; therefore motion is not essential?"</p> + +<p>"They do move," he replied; "they move in space together with the earth +by the common motion, and they move so incontestably—although +insensibly—by their own peculiar motion, that, at the expiration of an +indefinite number of centuries, there will remain not a single atom of +the masses which now constitute them, from which particles are detaching +themselves every passing moment."</p> + +<p>"But, my good sir, I can conceive matter to be in a state of rest; +motion, therefore, cannot be considered essential to it."</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly, it must be of vast consequence whether you conceive it +to be, or conceive it not to be, in a state of rest. I still repeat, +that it is impossible for it to be so."</p> + +<p>"This is a bold assertion; but what, let me ask you, will you say to +chaos?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, chaos! If we were inclined to talk about chaos, I should tell you +that all was necessarily in motion, and that 'the breath of God moved +upon the waters'; that the element of water was recognized in existence, +and that the other elements existed also; that, consequently, fire +existed; that there cannot be fire without motion, that motion is +essential to fire. You will not succeed much with chaos."</p> + +<p>"Alas! who can succeed with all these subjects of dispute? But, as you +are so very fully acquainted with these things, I must request you to +inform me why one body impels another: whether it is because matter is +impenetrable, or because two bodies cannot be together in one place; or +because, in every case of every description, the weak is driven before +the strong?"</p> + +<p>"Your last reason is rather more facetious than philosophical. No person +has hitherto been able to discover the cause of the communication of +motion."</p> + +<p>"That, however, does not prevent its being essential to matter. No one +has ever been able to discover the cause of sensation in animals; yet +this sensation is so essential to them, that, if you exclude the idea of +it, you no longer have the idea of an animal."</p> + +<p>"Well, I will concede to you, for a moment, that motion is essential to +matter—just for a moment, let it be remembered, for I am not much +inclined to embroil myself with the theologians—and now, after this +admission, tell me how one ball produces motion in another?"</p> + +<p>"You are very curious and inquisitive; you wish me to inform you of what +no philosopher ever knew."</p> + +<p>"It appears rather curious, and even ludicrous, that we should know the +laws of motion, and yet be profoundly ignorant of the principle of the +communication of motion!"</p> + +<p>"It is the same with everything else; we know the laws of reasoning, but +we know not what it is in us that reasons. The ducts through which our +blood and other animal fluids pass are very well known to us, but we +know not what forms that blood and those fluids. We are in life, but we +know not in what the vital principle consists."</p> + +<p>"Inform me, however, at least, whether, if motion be essential to +matter, there has not always existed the same quantity of motion in the +world?"</p> + +<p>"That is an old chimera of Epicurus revived by Descartes. I do not, for +my own part, see that this equality of motion in the world is more +necessary than an equality of triangles. It is essential that a triangle +should have three angles and three sides, but it is not essential that +the number of triangles on this globe should be always equal."</p> + +<p>"But is there not always an equality of forces, as other philosophers +express it?"</p> + +<p>"That is a similar chimera. We must, upon such a principle, suppose that +there is always an equal number of men, and animals, and moving beings, +which is absurd."</p> + +<p>By the way, what, let me ask, is the force of a body in motion? It is +the product of its quantity multiplied by its velocity in a given time. +Calling the quantity of a body four, and its velocity four, the force of +its impulse will be equal to sixteen. Another quantity we will assume to +be two, and its velocity two; the force with which that impels is as +four. This is the grand principle of mechanics. Leibnitz decidedly and +pompously pronounced the principle defective. He maintained that it was +necessary to measure that force, that product, by the quantity +multiplied by the square of the velocity. But this was mere captious +sophistry and chicanery, an ambiguity unworthy of a philosopher, founded +on an abuse of the discovery of the great Galileo, that the spaces +traversed with a motion uniformly accelerated were, to each other, as +the squares of the times and velocities.</p> + +<p>Leibnitz did not consider the time which he should have considered. No +English mathematician adopted his system. It was received for a while by +a small number of geometricians in France. It pervaded some books, and +even the philosophical institutions of a person of great celebrity. +Maupertuis is very abusive of Mairan, in a little work entitled "A, B, +C"; as if he thought it necessary to teach the <i>a, b, c,</i> of science to +any man who followed the old and, in fact, the true system of +calculation. Mairan was, however, in the right. He adhered to the +ancient measurement, that of the quantity multiplied by the velocity. He +gradually prevailed over his antagonists, and his system recovered its +former station; the scandal of mathematics disappeared, and the quackery +of the square of the velocity was dismissed at last to the extramundane +spaces, to the limbo of vanity, together with the monads which Leibnitz +supposed to constitute the concentric mirror of nature, and also with +his elaborate and fanciful system of "pre-established harmony."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="MOUNTAIN" id="MOUNTAIN"></a>MOUNTAIN.</h3> + + +<p>The fable of the mountain which, after alarming the whole neighborhood +with its outcries in labor, was ridiculed by all present when it became +delivered of a mouse, is at once ancient and universal. The company, +however, who thus gave way to ridicule were not a company of +philosophers. Those who mocked should in reality have admired. A +mountain's being delivered of a mouse was an event as extraordinary, and +as worthy of admiration, as a mouse's being delivered of a mountain. A +rock's producing a rat is a case absolutely prodigious, and the world +never beheld anything approaching to such a miracle. All the worlds in +the universe could not originate a fly. Thus, in cases where the vulgar +mock, the philosopher admires; and where the vulgar strain their eyes in +stupid astonishment, he often smiles.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="NAIL" id="NAIL"></a>NAIL.</h3> + + +<p>We only ask here from the censors of books, permission to transcribe +from that which the Dominican missionary Labat, proveditor of the holy +office, has written concerning the nails of the cross, into which it is +more than probable no nails were ever driven.</p> + +<p>"The Italian priest who conducted us had sufficient interest to get us, +among other things, a sight of the nails with which our Saviour was +fastened to the cross. They appeared to me very different from those +which the Benedictines show at St. Denis. Possibly those belonging to +St. Denis served for the feet, and the others for the hands. It was +necessary that those for the hands should be sufficiently large and +strong to support all the weight of the body. However, the Jews must +either have made use of more than four nails, or some of those which are +shown to the faithful are not genuine. History relates that St. Helena +threw one of them into the sea, to appease a furious tempest which +assailed the ship in which she had embarked. Constantine made use of +another, to make a bit for the bridle of his horse. One is shown entire +at St. Denis in France; another also entire at the Holy Cross of +Jerusalem at Rome. A very celebrated Roman author of our day asserts +that the iron crown with which they crown the emperors in Italy was made +out of one of these nails. We are shown at Rome and at Carpentras two +bridle bits also made of these nails, not to mention more at other +places. To be sure, several of them are discreet enough to say, that it +is the head or point only of these nails which they exhibit."</p> + +<p>The missionary speaks in the same tone of all the relics. He observes in +the same passage, that when the body of the first deacon, St. Stephen, +was brought from Jerusalem to Rome, in 557, and placed in the tomb of +the deacon of St. Lawrence: "St. Lawrence made way of himself to give +the right hand to his predecessor; an action which procured him the name +of the civil Spaniard."</p> + +<p>Upon this passage we venture only one reflection, which is, that if some +philosopher had said as much, in the "Encyclopædia", as the Dominican +Labat, a crowd of Pantouillets, Nonnottes, Chiniacs, Chaumeix, and other +knaves, would have exclaimed—Deist, atheist, and geometrician! +According to circumstances things change their names.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Selon ce que l'on peut être</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Les choses changent de nom.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">—<i>Amphytrion,</i> Prologue.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="NATURE" id="NATURE"></a>NATURE.</h3> + +<h4><i>Dialogue Between The Philosopher And Nature.</i></h4> + + +<p class="dialogue">PHILOSOPHER.</p> + +<p>What are you, Nature? I live in you? but I have been searching for you +for fifty years, and have never yet been able to find you.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">NATURE.</p> + +<p>The ancient Egyptians, whose lives it is said extended to twelve hundred +years, attached the same reproach to me. They called me Isis; they +placed a thick veil over my head; and they said that no one could ever +raise it.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">PHILOSOPHER.</p> + +<p>It is on that account that I apply directly to yourself. I have been +able to measure some of your globes, to ascertain their courses, and to +point out the laws of motion; but I have never been able to ascertain +what you are yourself.</p> + +<p>Are you always active? Are you always passive? Do your elements arrange +themselves, as water places itself over sand, oil over water, and air +over oil? Have you a mind which directs all your operations—as councils +are inspired as soon as they meet, although the individual members +composing them are often ignorant? Explain to me, I entreat, the enigma +in which you are enveloped.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">NATURE.</p> + +<p>I am the great universal system. I know nothing farther. I am no +mathematician, and yet everything in and about me is arranged agreeably +to mathematical laws. Conjecture, if you can, how all this is effected.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">PHILOSOPHER.</p> + +<p>Certainly, since your great universal system knows nothing of +mathematics, and yet the laws by which you are regulated are those of +the most profound geometry, there must necessarily be an eternal +geometrician, who directs you, and presides over your operations.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">NATURE.</p> + +<p>You are perfectly right; I am water, earth, fire, air, metal, mineral, +stone, vegetable, and animal. I clearly perceive that there is an +intelligence in me: you possess an intelligence, although you see it +not. Neither do I see mine; I feel this invisible power; I am unable to +know it: why should you, who are only a very minute portion of myself, +be anxious to know what I myself am ignorant of?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">PHILOSOPHER.</p> + +<p>We are curious. I should be pleased to learn how it is, that while so +rough and coarse in your mountains, and deserts, and seas, you are at +the same time so ingenious and finished in your animals and vegetables?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">NATURE.</p> + +<p>My poor child, shall I tell you the real truth? I have had bestowed upon +me a name that does not at all suit me: I am called nature, while I am +all art.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">PHILOSOPHER.</p> + +<p>That word deranges all my ideas. What! is it possible that nature should +be nothing but art.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">NATURE.</p> + +<p>It is undoubtedly the case. Do you not know that there is infinite art +in those seas and mountains which you represent as so rough and so +coarse? Do you not know that all those waters gravitate towards the +centre of the earth, and are raised only by immutable laws; and that +those mountains which crown the earth are immense reservoirs of eternal +snows, incessantly producing the fountains, lakes, and rivers, without +which my animal and vegetable off-spring would inevitably perish? And, +with respect to what are denominated my animal, vegetable, and mineral +kingdoms, constituting thus only three kingdoms, be assured that I have +in fact millions of them. But if you consider the formation of an +insect, of an ear of corn, of gold, or of copper, all will exhibit to +you prodigies of art.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">PHILOSOPHER.</p> + +<p>It is undoubtedly true. The more I reflect on the subject, the more +clearly I perceive that you are only the art of some Great Being, +extremely powerful and skilful, who conceals Himself and exhibits you. +All the reasoners, from the time of Thales, and probably long before +him, have been playing at hide and seek with you. They have said, "I +have hold of you"; and they in fact held nothing. We all resemble Ixion: +he thought he embraced Juno, when he embraced only a cloud.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">NATURE.</p> + +<p>Since I am the whole that exists, how is it possible for a being like +you, so small a portion of myself, to comprehend me? Be contented, my +dear little atomic children, with seeing a few particles that surround +you, with drinking a few drops of my milk, with vegetating for a few +moments in my bosom, and at last dying without any knowledge of your +mother and your nurse.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">PHILOSOPHER.</p> + +<p>My beloved mother, pray tell me a little why you exist—why anything has +existed?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">NATURE.</p> + +<p>I will answer you in the language in which I always have answered, for +so long a series of ages, those who have interrogated me on the subject +of first principles: "I know nothing at all about the matter."</p> + +<p class="dialogue">PHILOSOPHER.</p> + +<p>Nothing itself, would it not be preferable to that multitude of +existences formed to be continually dissolved; those tribes of animals +born and reproduced to devour others, and devoured in their turn; those +numberless beings endued with sensation, and formed to experience so +many sensations of pain; and those other tribes of reasoning beings +which never, or at least only rarely, listen to reason? For what +purpose, Nature, was all this?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">NATURE.</p> + +<p>Oh! pray go and inquire of Him who made me.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="NECESSARY_NECESSITY" id="NECESSARY_NECESSITY"></a>NECESSARY—NECESSITY.</h3> + + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>Do you not assert that everything is necessary?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>If all be not necessary, it follows that God does unnecessary things.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>That is to say, it was necessary for the Divine Nature to do what it has +done.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>I believe, or at least I suspect so. There are men who think +differently. I do not understand them; but possibly they are right. I +fear to dispute on this subject.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>It is, however, necessary for me to talk to you upon it.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>In what manner? Would you speak of what is necessary to sustain life, or +the evil to which people are reduced who cannot procure it?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>No; for that which is necessary to one is not always necessary to +another. It is necessary for an Indian to possess rice, for an +Englishman to eat animal food, as Russians must wear furs, and Africans +gauze. One man believes that he has need of a dozen coach-horses, +another limits himself to a pair of shoes, and a third walks gayly on +his bare feet. I wish to speak to you of that which is necessary to all +men.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>It appears to me that God has given us all that is necessary in this +sense: eyes to see, feet to walk, a mouth to eat, a gullet to swallow, a +stomach to digest, a brain to reason, and organs to produce our kind.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>How happens it then that men are sometimes born who are deprived of a +part of these necessary faculties?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>Because the general laws of nature are liable to accidents which produce +monsters; but in general man is provided with all things necessary to +his existence in society.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>Are there not notions common to all men necessary to this purpose?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>Yes; I have travelled with Paul Lucas, and wherever I went I saw that +man respected his father and mother; that he thought himself bound to +keep his promise; that he pitied oppressed innocence; that he detested +persecution; that he regarded freedom of thinking as a right of nature, +and the enemies of that freedom as the enemies of the human race. They +who think differently appear to me to be badly organized, and monsters, +like those who are born without eyes or heads.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>These necessary things—are they necessary in all times, and in all +places?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>Yes: otherwise they would not be necessary to human kind.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>Therefore, a new creed is not necessary to mankind. Men could live in +society, and perform all their duties towards God, before they believed +that Mahomet had frequent conversations with the angel Gabriel.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>Nothing is more evident; it would be ridiculous to think that man could +not perform his duties until Mahomet came into the world. It was no way +necessary for men to believe the Koran. The world went on before the +appearance of Mahomet, precisely as at present. If Mahometanism was +necessary to the world, it would exist everywhere. God, who has given us +two eyes to see the sun, would have bestowed upon us some means of +discovering the truths of the Mahometan religion. That sect therefore +resembles the arbitrary laws which change according to times and places, +like fashions or the theories of physicians, which displace and succeed +one another. The Mahometan religion cannot therefore be essentially +necessary to man.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>But since it exists, God has permitted it.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>Yes, as He permits all the world to abound in absurdities, errors, and +calamities. This is not saying that men were absolutely created in order +to be foolish and unhappy. God permits some men to be eaten by serpents, +but we ought not to say that God made man to be eaten by serpents.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>What do you mean by saying that God permits? Can anything happen but by +His orders? To permit and to will—are they not with Him the same thing?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>He permits crime, but does not commit it.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>To commit a crime is to act against Divine justice—to disobey God. +Therefore, as God cannot disobey Himself, He cannot commit crime; but He +has so made man that man commits it frequently. How does that arise?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>Some men can tell, but I am not one of them. All that I know is, that +the Koran is ridiculous, although possessing here and there things which +are passable. The Koran, however, is certainly not necessary to +man—that I maintain. I perceive clearly that which is false, but know +very little of that which is true.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>I thought that you would instruct me, but you teach me nothing.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>Is it not something to know the men who deceive you, and the gross and +dangerous errors they promulgate?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">OSMIN.</p> + +<p>I should have cause to complain of a physician who made me acquainted +with poisonous plants, without instructing me in regard to such as are +salutary.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">SELIM.</p> + +<p>I am no physician, nor are you a sick man; and it appears to me that I +give you a very useful prescription, when I say to you: Distrust the +inventions of charlatans; worship God; be an honest man; and believe +that two and two make four.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="NEW_NOVELTIES" id="NEW_NOVELTIES"></a>NEW—NOVELTIES.</h3> + + +<p>It seems as if the first words of Ovid's "Metamorphoses"—"<i>In nova fert +animus</i>"—were the emblem of mankind. No one is touched with the +admirable spectacle of the sun which rises or seems to rise every day; +but everybody runs at the smallest meteor which appears for a moment in +the map of vapors which surround the earth, and which we call heaven. We +despise whatever is common, or which has been long known:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Vilia sunt nobis quæcumque prioribus annis</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Vidimus, et sordet quidquid spectavimus olim.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>A hawker will not burden himself with a "Virgil" or a "Horace," but with +a new book, were it ever so detestable. He draws you aside and says to +you: "Sir, will you have some books from Holland?"</p> + +<p>From the commencement of the world, women have complained of the +infidelities done to them in favor of the first new object which +presents itself, and which has often this novelty for its only merit. +Several ladies—we must confess it, notwithstanding the infinite respect +which we have for them—have treated men as they complain that the men +have treated them; and the story of Jocondo is much more ancient than +Ariosto.</p> + +<p>Perhaps this universal taste for novelty is a benefit of nature. We are +told: Content yourselves with what you have; desire nothing beyond your +situation; subdue the restlessness of your mind. These are very good +maxims; but if we had followed them, we should still live upon acorns +and sleep under the stars, and we should have had neither Corneille, +Racine, Molière, Poussin, Le Brun, Lemoine, nor Pigal.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="NUDITY" id="NUDITY"></a>NUDITY.</h3> + + +<p>Why do we shut up a man or a woman whom we find naked in the streets? +and why is no one offended at entirely naked statues, and with certain +paintings of Jesus and of Magdalen which are to be seen in some of the +churches? It is very likely that human beings existed for a considerable +time without clothing. In more than one island and on the continent of +America, people are still found who are ignorant of clothing.</p> + +<p>The most civilized of them conceal the organs of generation by leaves, +by interlaced rushes or mats, and by feathers. Whence this latter +modesty? Is it the instinct of nature to provoke desire by the +concealment of that which we are inclined to discover? Is it true that +among nations somewhat more polished than the Jews and demi-Jews, there +are entire sects who, when they worship God, deprive themselves of +clothing. Such have been, it is said, the Adamites and the Abelians. +They assembled, naked, to sing the praises of God. St. Epiphanius and +St. Augustine say this, who, it is true, were not contemporaries, and +who lived very distant from their country. But after all, this folly is +possible, and is not more extraordinary or insane than a hundred other +follies which have made the tour of the world, one after another.</p> + +<p>We have seen, in the article "Emblem", that the Mahometans still possess +saints who are mad, and who go about naked as apes. It is very possible +that crazy people have existed, who thought that it was more proper to +present ourselves before the Deity in the state in which He has formed +us, than under any disguise of our own invention. It is possible that +these persons exposed themselves out of pure devotion. There are so few +well-made people of either sex, that nudity may have inspired chastity, +or rather disgust, instead of augmenting desire.</p> + +<p>It is moreover asserted that the Abelians renounced marriage. If they +abounded in youthful gallants and amorous maidens, they were the less +comparable with St. Adhelm and the happy Robert D'Arbriselle, who lay +with the most beautiful women, only in order to prove the strength of +their continence. I confess, however, that it must be pleasant to +witness a hundred naked Helens and Parises singing anthems, giving one +another the kiss of peace, and performing the ceremonies of the agapæ.</p> + +<p>All this proves that there is nothing so singular, so extravagant, or so +superstitious, which has not been conceived by the head of man. Happy it +is, when these follies do not trouble society, and make of it a scene of +hate, of discord, and of fury. It is doubtless better to pray to God +stark naked, than to soil His altars and the public places with human +blood.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="NUMBER" id="NUMBER"></a>NUMBER.</h3> + + +<p>Was Euclid right in defining number to be a collection of unities of the +same kind? When Newton says that number is an abstract relation of one +quantity to another of the same kind, does he not understand by that the +use of numbers in arithmetic and geometry? Wolfe says, number is that +which has the same relation with unity as one right line has with +another. Is not this rather a property attributed to a number, than a +definition? If I dared, I would simply define numbers the idea of +several unities.</p> + +<p>I see white—I have a sensation, an idea of white. It signifies not +whether these two things are or are not of the same species; I can +reckon two ideas. I see four men and four horses—I have the idea of +eight; in like manner, three stones and six trees will give me the idea +of nine.</p> + +<p>That I add, multiply, subtract, and divide these, are operations of the +faculty of thought which I have received from the master of nature; but +they are not properties inherent to number. I can square three and cube +it, but there is not certainly in nature any number which can be squared +or cubed. I very well conceive what an odd or even number is, but I can +never conceive either a perfect or an imperfect one.</p> + +<p>Numbers can have nothing by themselves. What properties, what virtue, +can ten flints, ten trees, ten ideas, possess because they are ten? What +superiority will one number divisible in three even parts have over +another divisible in two?</p> + +<p>Pythagoras was the first, it is said, who discovered divine virtue in +numbers. I doubt whether he was the first; for he had travelled in +Egypt, Babylon, and India, and must have related much of their arts and +knowledge. The Indians particularly, the inventors of the combined and +complicated game of chess, and of ciphers, so convenient that the Arabs +learned of them, through whom they have been communicated to us after so +many ages—these same Indians, I say, joined strange chimeras to their +sciences. The Chaldæans had still more, and the Egyptians more still. We +know that self-delusion is in our nature. Happy is he who can preserve +himself from it! Happy is he who, after having some access of this fever +of the mind, can recover tolerable health.</p> + +<p>Porphyrius, in the "Life of Pythagoras," says that the number 2 is +fatal. We might say, on the contrary, that it is the most favorable of +all. Woe to him that is always single! Woe to nature, if the human +species and that of animals were not often two and two!</p> + +<p>If 2 was of bad augury, 3, by way of recompense, was admirable, and 4 +was divine; but the Pythagoreans and their imitators forgot that this +mysterious 4, so divine, was composed of twice that diabolical number 2! +Six had its merit, because the first statuaries divided their figures +into six modules. We have seen that, according to the Chaldæans, God +created the world in six <i>gahambars;</i> but 7 was the most marvellous +number; for there were at first but seven planets, each planet had its +heaven, and that made seven heavens, without anyone knowing what was +meant by the word heaven.</p> + +<p>All Asia reckoned seven days for a week. We divide the life of man into +seven ages. How many reasons have we in favor of this number!</p> + +<p>The Jews in time collected some scraps of this philosophy. It passed +among the first Christians of Alexandria with the dogmas of Plato. It is +principally displayed in the "Apocalypse of Cerinthus," attributed to +John the Apostle.</p> + +<p>We see a striking example of it in the number of the beast: "That no man +might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, +or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath +understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a +man; and his number is six hundred three score and six."</p> + +<p>We know what great pains all the great scholars have taken to divine the +solution of this enigma. This number, composed of three times two at +each figure, does it signify three times fatal to the third power? There +were two beasts, and we know not yet of which the author would speak.</p> + +<p>We have seen that Bossuet, less happy in arithmetic than in funeral +orations, has demonstrated that Diocletian is the beast, because we find +the Roman figures 666 in the letters of his name, by cutting off those +which would spoil this operation. But in making use of Roman figures, he +does not remember that the Apocalypse was written in Greek. An eloquent +man may fall into this mistake. The power of numbers was much more +respected among us when we knew nothing about them.</p> + +<p>You may observe, my dear reader, in the article on "Figure," some fine +allegories that Augustine, bishop of Hippo, extracted from numbers.</p> + +<p>This taste subsisted so long, that it triumphed at the Council of Trent. +We preserve its mysteries, called "Sacraments" in the Latin church, +because the Dominicans, with Soto at their head, allege that there are +seven things which contribute to life, seven planets, seven virtues, +seven mortal sins, six days of creation and one of repose, which make +seven; further, seven plagues of Egypt, seven beatitudes; but +unfortunately the fathers forget that Exodus reckons ten plagues, and +that the beatitudes are to the number of eight in St. Matthew and four +in St. Luke. But scholars have overcome this difficulty; by retrenching +from St. Matthew the four beatitudes of St. Luke, there remain six, and +add unity to these six, and you will have seven. Consult Fra Paolo +Sarpi, in the second book of his history of the County of Trent.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="NUMBERING" id="NUMBERING"></a>NUMBERING.</h3> + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + + +<p>The most ancient numberings that history has left us are those of the +Israelites, which are indubitable, since they are extracted from the +Jewish books. We believe that we must not reckon as a numbering the +flight of the Israelites to the number of six hundred thousand men on +foot, because the text specifies them not tribe by tribe; it adds, that +an innumerable troop of people gathered together and joined them. This +is only a relation.</p> + +<p>The first circumstantial numbering is that which we see in the book of +the "Viedaber," which we call Numbers. By the reckoning which Moses and +Aaron made of the people in the desert, we find, in counting all the +tribes except that of Levi, six hundred and three thousand five hundred +and fifty men capable of bearing arms; and if we add the tribe of Levi, +supposing it equal in number to the others, the strong with the weak, we +shall have six hundred and fifty-three thousand nine hundred and +thirty-five men, to which we must add an equal number of old women and +children, which will compose two millions six hundred and fifteen +thousand seven hundred and forty-two persons, who departed from Egypt.</p> + +<p>When David, after the example of Moses, ordered the numbering of all the +people, he found eight hundred thousand warriors of the tribes of +Israel, and five hundred thousand of that of Judah, according to the +Book of Kings; but according to Chronicles they reckoned eleven hundred +thousand warriors in Israel; and less than five hundred thousand in +Judah.</p> + +<p>The Book of Kings formally excludes Levi and Benjamin, and counts them +not. If therefore we join these two tribes to the others in their +proportion, the total of the warriors will amount to nineteen hundred +and twenty thousand. This is a great number for the little country of +Judæa, the half of which is composed of frightful rocks and caverns: but +it was a miracle.</p> + +<p>It is not for us to enter into the reasons for which the Sovereign +Arbiter of kings and people punished David for an operation which he +himself commanded to Moses. It still less becomes us to seek why God, +being irritated against David, punished the people for being numbered. +The prophet Gad ordered the king on the part of God to choose war, +famine, or pestilence. David accepted the pestilence, and seventy +thousand Jews died of it in three days.</p> + +<p>St. Ambrosius, in his book of "Repentance," and St. Augustine in his +book against Faustus, acknowledged that pride and ambition led David to +make this calculation. Their opinion is of great weight, and we can +certainly submit to their decision by extinguishing all the deceitful +lights of our own minds.</p> + +<p>Scripture relates a new numbering in the time of Esdras, when the Jewish +nation returned from captivity. "All this multitude (say equally Esdras +and Nehemiah, being as one man) amounted to forty-two thousand three +hundred and sixty persons." They were all named by families, and they +counted the number of Jews of each family, and the number of priests. +But in these two authors there are not only differences between the +numbers and the names of families, but we further see an error of +calculation in both. By the calculation of Esdras, instead of forty-two +thousand men, after computation we find but twenty-nine thousand eight +hundred and eighteen; and by that of Nehemiah we find thirty-one +thousand and eighty-nine.</p> + +<p>We must consult the commentators on this apparent mistake, particularly +Dom Calmet, who adding to one of these calculations what is wanting to +the other, and further adding what is wanted to both of them, solves all +the difficulty. To the computations of Esdras and Nehemiah, as reckoned +by Calmet, are wanting ten thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven +persons; but we find them in families which could not give their +genealogy; besides, if there were any fault of the copyist, it could not +destroy the veracity of the divinely inspired text.</p> + +<p>It is to be believed that the great neighboring kings of Palestine made +numberings of their people as frequently as possible. Herodotus gives us +the amount of all those who followed Xerxes, without including his naval +forces. He reckons seventeen hundred thousand men, and he pretends, that +to arrive at this computation, they were sent in divisions of ten +thousand into a place which would only hold this number of men closely +crowded. This method is very faulty, for by crowding a little less, each +division of ten thousand might easily contain only from eight to nine. +Further, this method is not at all soldier-like, and it would have been +much more easy to have counted the whole by making the soldiers march in +rank and file.</p> + +<p>It should further be observed, how difficult it was to support seventeen +hundred thousand men in the country of Greece, which they went to +conquer. We may very well doubt of this number, and the manner of +reckoning it; of the whipping given to the Hellespont; and of the +sacrifice of a thousand oxen made to Minerva by a Persian king, who knew +her not, and who adored the sun alone as the only emblem of the +Divinity. Besides, the numbering of seventeen hundred thousand men is +not complete, even by the confession of Herodotus, since Xerxes further +carried with him all the people of Thrace and Macedonia, whom he forced, +he says, to follow him, apparently the sooner to starve his army. We +should therefore do here what all wise men do in reading ancient, and +even modern histories—suspend our judgment and doubt much.</p> + +<p>The first numbering which we have of a profane nation is that made by +Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. He found, says Titus Livius, +eighty thousand combatants, all Roman citizens: that implies three +hundred and twenty thousand citizens at least, as many old people, women +and children, to which we must add at least twenty thousand domestics, +slaves and freemen.</p> + +<p>Now we may reasonably doubt whether the little Roman state contained +this number. Romulus only reigned (if we may call him king) over about +three thousand bandits, assembled in a little town between the +mountains. This town was the worst land of Italy. The circuit of all his +country was not three thousand paces. Servius was the sixth chief or +king of this rising people. The rule of Newton, which is indubitable for +elective kingdoms, gives twenty-one years' reign to each king, and by +that contradicts all the ancient historians, who have never observed the +order of time, nor given any precise date. The five kings of Rome must +have reigned about a hundred years.</p> + +<p>It is certainly not in the order of nature that an ungrateful soil, +which was not five leagues in length or three in breadth, and which must +have lost many of its inhabitants in its almost continual little wars, +could be peopled with three hundred and forty thousand souls. There is +not half the number in the same territory at present, when Rome is the +metropolis of the Christian world; when the affluence of foreigners and +the ambassadors of so many nations must serve to people the towns; when +gold flows from Poland, Hungary, half of Germany, Spain, and France, by +a thousand channels into the purse of the treasury, and must further +facilitate population, if other causes intercept it.</p> + +<p>As the history of Rome was not written until more than five hundred +years after its foundation, it would not be at all surprising if the +historians had liberally given Servius Tullius eighty thousand warriors +instead of eight thousand, through false zeal for their country. Their +zeal would have been much more judicious if they had confessed the weak +commencement of their republic. It is much more noble to be raised from +so poor an origin to so much greatness, than to have had double the +soldiers of Alexander to conquer about fifteen leagues of country in +four hundred years.</p> + +<p>The census was never taken except of Roman citizens. It is pretended +that under Augustus it amounted to four millions one hundred and +thirty-seven thousand in the year 29 before our vulgar era, according to +Tillemont, who is very exact, and Dion Cassius, who is no less so.</p> + +<p>Lawrence Echard admits but one numbering, of four millions one hundred +and thirty-seven thousand men, in the year 14 of our era. The same +Echard speaks of a general numbering of the empire for the first year of +the same era; but he quotes no Roman author, nor specifies any +calculation of the number of citizens. Tillemont does not speak in any +way of this numbering.</p> + +<p>We have quoted Tacitus and Suetonius, but to very little purpose. The +census of which Suetonius speaks is not a numbering of citizens; it is +only a list of those to whom the public furnished corn. Tacitus only +speaks, in book ii., of a census established among the Gauls, for the +purpose of raising more tribute on each head. Augustus never made a +calculation of the other subjects of his empire, because they paid not +the poll-tax, which he wished to establish in Gaul.</p> + +<p>Tacitus says that Augustus had a memoir, written in his own hand, which +contained the revenues of the empire, the fleets and contributary +kingdoms. He speaks not of any numbering. Dion Cassius speaks of a +census, but he specifies no number.</p> + +<p>Josephus, in his "Antiquities," says that in the year 759 of Rome—the +time answering to the eleventh year of our era—Cyrenius, then +constituted governor of Syria, caused a list to be made of all the +property of the Jews, which caused a revolt. This has no relation to a +general numbering, and merely proves that this Cyrenius was not governor +of Judæa—which was then a little province of Syria—until ten years +after, and not at the birth of our Saviour.</p> + +<p>These seem to me to be all the principal passages that we can collect in +profane histories, touching the numberings attributed to Augustus. If we +refer to them, Jesus Christ would be born under the government of Varus, +and not under that of Cyrenius; and there could have been no universal +numbering. But St. Luke, whose authority should prevail over that of +Josephus, Suetonius, Tacitus, Dion Cassius, and all the writers of +Rome—St. Luke affirms positively that there was a universal numbering +of all the earth, and that Cyrenius was governor of Judæa. We must +therefore refer solely to him, without even seeking to reconcile him +with Flavius Josephus, or with any other historian. As to the rest, +neither the New nor the Old Testament has been given to us to enlighten +points of history, but to announce salutary truths, before which all +events and opinions should vanish. It is thus that we always reply to +the false calculations, contradictions, absurdities, enormous faults of +geography, chronology, physics, and even common sense, with which +philosophers tell us the Holy Scripture is filled; we cease not to reply +that there is here no question of reason, but of faith and piety.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>With regard to the numbers of the moderns, kings fear not at present +that a doctor Gad should propose to them on the part of God, either +famine, war, or pestilence, to punish them for wishing to know the +amount of their subjects. None of them know it. We conjecture and guess, +and always possibly within a few millions of men.</p> + +<p>I have carried the number of inhabitants which compose the empire of +Russia to twenty-four millions, in the statements which have been sent +to me; but I have not guaranteed this valuation, because I know very +little about it. I believe that Germany possessed as many people, +reckoning the Hungarians. If I am deceived by one or two millions, we +know it is a trifle in such a case.</p> + +<p>I beg pardon of the King of Spain, if I have only awarded him seven +millions of subjects in our continent. It is a very small number; but +Don Ustaris, employed in the ministry, gives him no more. We reckon from +about nine to ten millions of free beings in the three kingdoms of Great +Britain. In France we count between sixteen and twenty millions. This is +a proof that Doctor Gad has nothing wherewith to reproach the ministry +of France.</p> + +<p>As to the capital towns, opinions are further divided. According to some +calculators, Paris has seven hundred thousand inhabitants, and according +to others five hundred thousand. It is thus with London, Constantinople, +and Grand Cairo.</p> + +<p>As to the subjects of the pope, they will make a crowd in paradise, but +the multitude is moderate on earth. Why so?—because they are subjects +of the pope. Would Cato the Censor have ever believed the Romans would +come to that pass?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="OCCULT_QUALITIES" id="OCCULT_QUALITIES"></a>OCCULT QUALITIES.</h3> + + +<p>Occult qualities have for a very long time been much derided; it would +be more proper to deride those who do not believe in them. Let us for +the hundredth time repeat that every principle, every primitive source +of any of the works which come from the hand of the <i>demiourgos,</i> is +occult, and eternally hidden from mortals.</p> + +<p>What is the centripetal force, the force of gravitation, which acts +without contact at such immense distances? What causes our hearts to +beat sixty times a minute? What other power changes this grass into milk +in the udder of a cow? and this bread into the flesh, blood, and bone of +that child, who grows proportionally while he eats it, until he arrives +at the height determined by nature, after which there is no art which +can add a line to it.</p> + +<p>Vegetables, minerals, animals, where is your originating principle? In +the hands of Him who turns the sun on its axis, and who has clothed it +with light. This lead will never become silver, nor this silver gold; +this gold will never become diamond, nor this straw be transformed into +lemons and bananas. What corpuscular system of physics, what atoms, +determine their nature? You know nothing about it, and the cause will be +eternally occult to you. All that surrounds us, all within us, is an +enigma which it is not in the power of man to divine.</p> + +<p>The furred ignoramus ought to have been aware of this truth when he said +that beasts possess a vegetative and sensitive soul, and man a soul +which is vegetative, sensitive, and intellectual. Poor man, kneaded up +of pride, who has pronounced only words—have you ever seen a soul? Know +you how it is made? We have spoken much of the soul in these inquiries, +but have always confessed our ignorance. I now repeat this confession +still more emphatically, since the more I read, the more I meditate, and +the more I acquire, the more am I enabled to affirm that I know nothing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="OFFENCES_LOCAL" id="OFFENCES_LOCAL"></a>OFFENCES (LOCAL).</h3> + + +<p>If we travel throughout the whole earth, we still find that theft, +murder, adultery, calumny, etc., are regarded as offences which society +condemns and represses; but that which is approved in England and +condemned in Italy, ought it to be punished in Italy, as if it were one +of the crimes against general humanity? That which is a crime only in +the precincts of some mountains, or between two rivers, demands it not +from judges more indulgence than those outrages which are regarded with +horror in all countries? Ought not the judge to say to himself, I should +not dare to punish in Ragusa what I punish at Loretto? Should not this +reflection soften his heart, and moderate the hardness which it is too +apt to contract in the long exercise of his employment? The "Kermesses" +of Flanders are well known; they were carried in the last century to a +degree of indecency, revolting to the eyes of all persons who were not +accustomed to such spectacles.</p> + +<p>The following is the manner in which Christmas is celebrated in some +countries. In the first place appears a young man half-naked, with wings +on his shoulders; he repeats the Ave Maria to a young girl, who replies +"fiat," and the angel kisses her on the mouth; after which a child, shut +up in a great cock of pasteboard, imitates the crowing of the cock. +"<i>Puer natus est nobis.</i>" A great ox bellows out "ubi"; a sheep baas out +"Bethlehem"; an ass brays "hihanus", to signify "eamus"; and a long +procession, preceded by four fools with bells and baubles, brings up the +rear. There still remain some traces of this popular devotion, which +among a civilized and educated people would be taken for profanation. A +Swiss, out of patience, and possibly more intoxicated than the +performers of the ox and the ass, took the liberty of remonstrating with +them at Louvain, and was rewarded with no small number of blows; they +would indeed have hanged him, and he escaped with great difficulty.</p> + +<p>The same man had a dangerous quarrel at The Hague for violently taking +the part of Barnevelt against an outrageous Gomarist. He was imprisoned +at Amsterdam for saying that priests were the scourge of humanity, and +the source of all our misfortunes. "How!" said he, "if we maintain that +good works are necessary to salvation, we are sent to a dungeon; and if +we laugh at a cock and an ass we risk hanging!" Ridiculous as this +adventure was, it is sufficient to convince us that we may be criminal +in one or two points in our hemisphere, and innocent in all the rest of +the world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="ONAN" id="ONAN"></a>ONAN.</h3> + + +<p>The race of Onan exhibits great singularities. The patriarch Judah, his +father, lay with his daughter-in-law, Tamar the Phœnician, in the +highroad; Jacob, the father of Judah, was at the same time married to +two sisters, the daughters of an idolater; and deluded both his father +and father-in-law. Lot, the granduncle of Jacob, lay with his two +daughters. Saleum, one of the descendants of Jacob and of Judah, +espoused Rahab the Canaanite, a prostitute. Boaz, son of Saleum and +Rahab, received into his bed Ruth the Midianite; and was great +grandfather of David. David took away Bathsheba from the warrior Uriah, +her husband, and caused him to be slain, that he might be unrestrained +in his amour. Lastly, in the two genealogies of Christ, which differ in +so many points, but agree in this, we discover that he descended from +this tissue of fornication, adultery, and incest.</p> + +<p>Nothing is more proper to confound human prudence; to humble our limited +minds; and to convince us that the ways of Providence are not like our +ways. The reverend father Dom Calmet makes this reflection, in alluding +to the incest of Judah with Tamar, and to the sin of Onan, spoken of in +the 38th chapter of "Genesis": "Scripture," he observes, "gives us the +details of a history, which on the first perusal strikes our minds as +not of a nature for edification; but the hidden sense which is shut up +in it is as elevated as that of the mere letter appears low to carnal +eyes. It is not without good reasons that the Holy Spirit has allowed +the histories of Tamar, of Rahab, of Ruth, and of Bathsheba, to form a +part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ."</p> + +<p>It might have been well if Dom Calmet had explained these sound reasons, +by which we might have cleared up the doubts and appeased the scruples +of all the honest and timorous souls who are anxious to comprehend how +this Supreme Being, the Creator of worlds, could be born in a Jewish +village, of a race of plunderers and of prostitutes. This mystery, which +is not less inconceivable than other mysteries, was assuredly worthy the +explanation of so able a commentator—but to return to our subject.</p> + +<p>We perfectly understand the crime of the patriarch Judah, and of the +patriarchs Simeon and Levi, his brothers, at Sichem; but it is more +difficult to understand the sin of Onan. Judah had married his eldest +son Er to the Phœnician, Tamar. Er died in consequence of his +wickedness, and the patriarch wished his second son to espouse the +widow, according to an ancient law of the Egyptians and Phœnicians, +their neighbors, which was called raising up seed for his brother. The +first child of this second marriage bore the name of the deceased, and +this Onan objected to. He hated the memory of his brother, or to produce +a child to bear the name of Er; and to avoid it took the means which are +detailed in the chapter of "Genesis" already mentioned, and which are +practised by no species of animals but apes and human beings.</p> + +<p>An English physician wrote a small volume on this vice, which he called +after the name of the patriarch who was guilty of it. M. Tissot, the +celebrated physician of Lausanne, also wrote on this subject, in a work +much more profound and methodical than the English one. These two works +detail the consequences of this unhappy habit—loss of strength, +impotence, weakness of the stomach and intestines, tremblings, vertigo, +lethargy, and often premature death.</p> + +<p>M. Tissot, however, to console us for this evil, relates as many +examples of the mischiefs of repletion in both sexes. There cannot be a +stronger argument against rash vows of chastity. From the examples +afforded, it is impossible to avoid being convinced of the enormous +folly of condemning ourselves to these turpitudes in order to renounce a +connection which has been expressly commanded by God Himself. In this +manner think the Protestants, the Jews, the Mahometans, and many other +nations; the Catholics offer other reasons in favor of converts. I shall +merely say of the Catholics what Dom Calmet says of the Holy Ghost—That +their reasons are doubtless good, could we understand them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="OPINION" id="OPINION"></a>OPINION.</h3> + + +<p>What is the opinion of all the nations of the north of America, and +those which border the Straits of Sunda, on the best of governments, and +best of religions; on public ecclesiastical rights; on the manner of +writing history; on the nature of tragedy, comedy, opera, eclogue, epic +poetry; on innate ideas, concomitant grace, and the miracles of Deacon +Paris? It is clear that all these people have no opinions on things of +which they have no ideas.</p> + +<p>They have a confused feeling of their customs, and go not beyond this +instinct. Such are the people who inhabit the shores of the Frozen Sea +for the space of fifteen hundred leagues. Such are the inhabitants of +the three parts of Africa, and those of nearly all the isles of Asia; of +twenty hordes of Tartars, and almost all men solely occupied with the +painful and continual care of providing their subsistence. Such are, at +two steps from us, most of the Morlachians, many of the Savoyards, and +some citizens of Paris.</p> + +<p>When a nation begins to be civilized, it has some opinions which are +quite false. It believes in spirits, sorcerers, the enchantment of +serpents and their immortality; in possessions of the devil, exorcisms, +and soothsayers. It is persuaded that seeds must grow rotten in the +earth to spring up again, and that the quarters of the moon are the +causes of accesses of fever.</p> + +<p>A Talapoin persuades his followers that the god Sammonocodom sojourned +some time at Siam, and that he cut down all the trees in a forest which +prevented him from flying his kite at his ease, which was his favorite +amusement. This idea takes root in their heads; and finally, an honest +man who might doubt this adventure of Sammonocodom, would run the risk +of being stoned. It requires ages to destroy a popular opinion. Opinion +is called the queen of the world; it is so; for when reason opposes it, +it is condemned to death. It must rise twenty times from its ashes to +gradually drive away the usurper.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="OPTIMISM" id="OPTIMISM"></a>OPTIMISM.</h3> + + +<p>I beg of you, gentlemen, to explain to me how everything is for the +best; for I do not understand it. Does it signify that everything is +arranged and ordered according to the laws of the impelling power? That +I comprehend and acknowledge. Do you mean that every one is well and +possesses the means of living—that nobody suffers? You know that such +is not the case. Are you of the opinion that the lamentable calamities +which afflict the earth are good in reference to God; and that He takes +pleasure in them? I credit not this horrible doctrine; neither do you.</p> + +<p>Have the goodness to explain how all is for the best. Plato, the +dialectician, condescended to allow to God the liberty of making five +worlds; because, said he, there are five regular solids in geometry, the +tetrahedron, the cube, the hexahedron, the dodecahedron, and the +icosahedron. But why thus restrict divine power? Why not permit the +sphere, which is still more regular, and even the cone, the pyramid of +many sides, the cylinder, etc.?</p> + +<p>God, according to Plato, necessarily chose the best of all possible +worlds; and this system has been embraced by many Christian +philosophers, although it appears repugnant to the doctrine of original +sin. After this transgression, our globe was no more the best of all +possible worlds. If it was ever so, it might be so still; but many +people believe it to be the worst of worlds instead of the best.</p> + +<p>Leibnitz takes the part of Plato; more readers than one complain of +their inability to understand either the one or the other; and for +ourselves, having read both of them more than once, we avow our +ignorance according to custom; and since the gospel has revealed nothing +on the subject, we remain in darkness without remorse.</p> + +<p>Leibnitz, who speaks of everything, has treated of original sin; and as +every man of systems introduces into his plan something contradictory, +he imagined that the disobedience towards God, with the frightful +misfortunes which followed it, were integral parts of the best of +worlds, and necessary ingredients of all possible felicity: "<i>Calla, +calla, senor don Carlos; todo che se haze es por su ben.</i>"</p> + +<p>What! to be chased from a delicious place, where we might have lived for +ever only for the eating of an apple? What! to produce in misery +wretched children, who will suffer everything, and in return produce +others to suffer after them? What! to experience all maladies, feel all +vexations, die in the midst of grief, and by way of recompense be burned +to all eternity—is this lot the best possible? It certainly is not +<i>good</i> for us, and in what manner can it be so for God? Leibnitz felt +that nothing could be said to these objections, but nevertheless made +great books, in which he did not even understand himself.</p> + +<p>Lucullus, in good health, partaking of a good dinner with his friends +and his mistress in the hall of Apollo, may jocosely deny the existence +of evil; but let him put his head out of the window and he will behold +wretches in abundance; let him be seized with a fever, and he will be +one himself.</p> + +<p>I do not like to quote; it is ordinarily a thorny proceeding. What +precedes and what follows the passage quoted is too frequently +neglected; and thus a thousand objections may rise. I must, +notwithstanding, quote Lactantius, one of the fathers, who, in the +thirteenth chapter on the anger of God, makes Epicurus speak as follows: +"God can either take away evil from the world and will not; or being +willing to do so, cannot; or He neither can nor will; or, lastly, He is +both able and willing. If He is willing to remove evil and cannot, then +is He not omnipotent. If He can, but will not remove it, then is He not +benevolent; if He is neither able nor willing, then is He neither +powerful nor benevolent; lastly, if both able and willing to annihilate +evil, how does it exist?"</p> + +<p>The argument is weighty, and Lactantius replies to it very poorly by +saying that God wills evil, but has given us wisdom to secure the good. +It must be confessed that this answer is very weak in comparison with +the objection; for it implies that God could bestow wisdom only by +allowing evil—a pleasant wisdom truly! The origin of evil has always +been an abyss, the depth of which no one has been able to sound. It was +this difficulty which reduced so many ancient philosophers and +legislators to have recourse to two principles—the one good, the other +wicked. Typhon was the evil principle among the Egyptians, Arimanes +among the Persians. The Manichæans, it is said, adopted this theory; but +as these people have never spoken either of a good or of a bad +principle, we have nothing to prove it but the assertion.</p> + +<p>Among the absurdities abounding in this world, and which may be placed +among the number of our evils, that is not the least which presumes the +existence of two all-powerful beings, combating which shall prevail most +in this world, and making a treaty like the two physicians in Molière: +"Allow me the emetic, and I resign to you the lancet."</p> + +<p>Basilides pretended, with the platonists of the first century of the +church, that God gave the making of our world to His inferior angels, +and these, being inexpert, have constructed it as we perceive. This +theological fable is laid prostrate by the overwhelming objection that +it is not in the nature of a deity all-powerful and all-wise to intrust +the construction of a world to incompetent architects.</p> + +<p>Simon, who felt the force of this objection, obviates it by saying that +the angel who presided over the workmen is damned for having done his +business so slovenly, but the roasting of this angel amends nothing. The +adventure of Pandora among the Greeks scarcely meets the objection +better. The box in which every evil is enclosed, and at the bottom of +which remains Hope, is indeed a charming allegory; but this Pandora was +made by Vulcan, only to avenge himself on Prometheus, who had stolen +fire to inform a man of clay.</p> + +<p>The Indians have succeeded no better. God having created man, gave him a +drug which would insure him permanent health of body. The man loaded his +ass with the drug, and the ass being thirsty, the serpent directed him +to a fountain, and while the ass was drinking, purloined the drug.</p> + +<p>The Syrians pretended that man and woman having been created in the +fourth heaven, they resolved to eat a cake in lieu of ambrosia, their +natural food. Ambrosia exhaled by the pores; but after eating cake, they +were obliged to relieve themselves in the usual manner. The man and the +woman requested an angel to direct them to a water-closet. Behold, said +the angel, that petty globe which is almost of no size at all; it is +situated about sixty millions of leagues from this place, and is the +privy of the universe—go there as quickly as you can. The man and woman +obeyed the angel and came here, where they have ever since remained; +since which time the world has been what we now find it. The Syrians +will eternally be asked why God allowed man to eat the cake and +experience such a crowd of formidable ills?</p> + +<p>I pass with speed from the fourth heaven to Lord Bolingbroke. This +writer, who doubtless was a great genius, gave to the celebrated Pope +his plan of "all for the best," as it is found word for word in the +posthumous works of Lord Bolingbroke, and recorded by Lord Shaftesbury +in his "Characteristics." Read in Shaftesbury's chapter of the +"Moralists" the following passage:</p> + +<p>"Much may be replied to these complaints of the defects of nature—How +came it so powerless and defective from the hands of a perfect +Being?—But I deny that it is defective. Beauty is the result +of contrast, and universal concord springs out of a perpetual +conflict.... It is necessary that everything be sacrificed to other +things—vegetables to animals, and animals to the earth.... The laws of +the central power of gravitation, which give to the celestial bodies +their weight and motion, are not to be deranged in consideration of a +pitiful animal, who, protected as he is by the same laws, will soon be +reduced to dust."</p> + +<p>Bolingbroke, Shaftesbury, and Pope, their working artisan, resolve their +general question no better than the rest. Their "all for the best" says +no more than that all is governed by immutable laws; and who did not +know that? We learn nothing when we remark, after the manner of little +children, that flies are created to be eaten by spiders, spiders by +swallows, swallows by hawks, hawks by eagles, eagles by men, men by one +another, to afford food for worms; and at last, at the rate of about a +thousand to one, to be the prey of devils everlastingly.</p> + +<p>There is a constant and regular order established among animals of all +kinds—a universal order. When a stone is formed in my bladder, the +mechanical process is admirable; sandy particles pass by small degrees +into my blood; they are filtered by the veins; and passing the urethra, +deposit themselves in my bladder; where, uniting agreeably to the +Newtonian attraction, a stone is formed, which gradually increases, and +I suffer pains a thousand times worse than death by the finest +arrangement in the world. A surgeon, perfect in the art of Tubal-Cain, +thrusts into me a sharp instrument; and cutting into the perineum, +seizes the stone with his pincers, which breaks during the endeavors, by +the necessary laws of mechanism; and owing to the same mechanism, I die +in frightful torments. All this is "for the best", being the evident +result of unalterable physical principles, agreeably to which I know as +well as you that I perish.</p> + +<p>If we were insensitive, there would be nothing to say against this +system of physics; but this is not the point on which we treat. We ask +if there are not physical evils, and whence do they originate? There is +no absolute evil, says Pope in his "Essay on Man"; or if there are +particular evils, they compose a general good. It is a singular general +good which is composed of the stone and the gout—of all sorts of crime +and sufferings, and of death and damnation.</p> + +<p>The fall of man is our plaister for all these particular maladies of +body and soul, which you call "the general health"; but Shaftesbury and +Bolingbroke have attacked original sin. Pope says nothing about it; but +it is clear that their system saps the foundations of the Christian +religion, and explains nothing at all.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, this system has been since approved by many +theologians, who willingly embrace contradictions. Be it so; we ought to +leave to everybody the privilege of reasoning in their own way upon the +deluge of ills which overwhelm us. It would be as reasonable to prevent +incurable patients from eating what they please. "God," says Pope, +"beholds, with an equal eye, a hero perish or a sparrow fall; the +destruction of an atom, or the ruin of a thousand planets; the bursting +of a bubble, or the dissolution of a world."</p> + +<p>This, I must confess, is a pleasant consolation. Who does not find a +comfort in the declaration of Lord Shaftesbury, who asserts, "that God +will not derange His general system for so miserable an animal as man?" +It must be confessed at least that this pitiful creature has a right to +cry out humbly, and to endeavor, while bemoaning himself, to understand +why these eternal laws do not comprehend the good of every individual.</p> + +<p>This system of "all for the best" represents the Author of Nature as a +powerful and malevolent monarch, who cares not for the destruction of +four or five hundred thousand men, nor of the many more who in +consequence spend the rest of their days in penury and tears, provided +He succeeds in His designs.</p> + +<p>Far therefore from the doctrine—that this is the best of all possible +worlds—being consolatory, it is a hopeless one to the philosophers who +embrace it. The question of good and evil remains in irremediable chaos +for those who seek to fathom it in reality. It is a mere mental sport to +the disputants, who are captives that play with their chains. As to +unreasoning people, they resemble the fish which are transported from a +river to a reservoir, with no more suspicion that they are to be eaten +during the approaching Lent, than we have ourselves of the facts which +originate our destiny.</p> + +<p>Let us place at the end of every chapter of metaphysics the two letters +used by the Roman judges when they did not understand a pleading. N.L. +<i>non liquet</i>—it is not clear. Let us, above all, silence the knaves +who, overloaded like ourselves with the weight of human calamities, add +the mischief of their calumny; let us refute their execrable imposture +by having recourse to faith and Providence.</p> + +<p>Some reasoners are of opinion that it agrees not with the nature of the +Great Being of Beings for things to be otherwise than they are. It is a +rough system, and I am too ignorant to venture to examine it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="ORACLES" id="ORACLES"></a>ORACLES.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>After the sect of the Pharisees among the Jews had become acquainted +with the devil, some reasoners among them began to entertain the idea +that the devil and his companions inspired, among all other nations, the +priests and statues that delivered oracles. The Sadducees had no belief +in such beings. They admitted neither angels nor demons. It appears that +they were more philosophic than the Pharisees, and consequently less +calculated to obtain influence and credit with the people.</p> + +<p>The devil was the great agent with the Jewish populace in the time of +Gamaliel, John the Baptist, James Oblia, and Jesus his brother, who was +our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Accordingly, we perceive that the devil +transports Jesus sometimes into the wilderness, sometimes to the +pinnacle of the temple, and sometimes to a neighboring hill, from which +might be discovered all the kingdoms of the world; the devil takes +possession, when he pleases, of the persons of boys, girls, and animals.</p> + +<p>The Christians, although mortal enemies of the Pharisees, adopted all +that the Pharisees had imagined of the devil; as the Jews had long +before introduced among themselves the customs and ceremonies of the +Egyptians. Nothing is so common as to imitate the practices of enemies, +and to use their weapons.</p> + +<p>In a short time the fathers of the church ascribed to the devil all the +religions which divided the earth, all pretended prodigies, all great +events, comets, plagues, epilepsies, scrofula, etc. The poor devil, who +was supposed to be roasting in a hole under the earth, was perfectly +astonished to find himself master of the world. His power afterwards +increased wonderfully from the institution of monks.</p> + +<p>The motto or device of all these newcomers was, "Give me money and I +will deliver you from the devil." But both the celestial and terrestrial +power of these gentry received at length a terrible check from the hand +of one of their own brotherhood, Luther, who, quarreling with them about +some beggarly trifle, disclosed to the world all the trick and villainy +of their mysteries. Hondorf, an eye-witness, tells us that the reformed +party having expelled the monks from a convent at Eisenach in Thuringia, +found in it a statue of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, contrived +with such art that, when offerings were placed upon the altar, the +Virgin and Child bent their heads in sign of grateful acknowledgment, +but turned their backs on those who presented themselves with empty +hands.</p> + +<p>In England the case was much worse. When by order of Henry VIII., a +judicial visitation took place of all the convents, half of the nuns +were found in a state of pregnancy; and this, at least it may be +supposed, was not by the operation of the devil. Bishop Burnet relates +that in a hundred and forty-four convents the depositions taken by the +king's commissioners attested abominations which those of Sodom and +Gomorrah did not even approach. In fact, the English monks might +naturally be expected to be more dissolute than the inhabitants of +Sodom, as they were richer. They were in possession of the best lands in +the kingdom. The territory of Sodom and Gomorrah, on the contrary, +produced neither grain, fruit, nor pulse; and being moreover deficient +even in water fit to drink, could be neither more nor less than a +frightful desert, inhabited by miserable wretches too much occupied in +satisfying their absolute necessities to have much time to devote to +pleasures.</p> + +<p>In short, these superb asylums of laziness having been suppressed by act +of parliament, all the instruments of their pious frauds were exposed in +the public places; the famous crucifix of Brocksley, which moved and +marched like a puppet; phials of a red liquid which was passed off for +blood shed by the statues of saints when they were dissatisfied with the +court; candlesticks of tinned iron, in which the lighted candles were +carefully placed so as to make the people believe they were the same +candles that were always burning; speaking tubes—<i>sarbacans</i>—which +communicated between the sacristy and the roof of the church, and by +which celestial voices were occasionally heard by apparently devotees, +who were paid for hearing them; in short, everything that was ever +invented by knavery to impose upon imbecility.</p> + +<p>Many sensible persons who lived at this period, being perfectly +convinced that the monks, and not the devils, had employed all these +pious stratagems, began to entertain the idea that the case had been +very similar with the religions of antiquity; that all the oracles and +all the miracles so highly vaunted by ancient times had been merely the +tricks of charlatans; that the devil had never had anything to do with +such matters; and that the simple fact was, that the Greek, Roman, +Syrian, and Egyptian priests had been still more expert than our modern +monks.</p> + +<p>The devil, therefore, thus lost much of his credit; insomuch that at +length the honest Bekker, whose article you may consult, wrote his +tiresome book against the devil, and proved by a hundred arguments that +he had no existence. The devil himself made no answer to him, but the +ministers of the holy gospel, as you have already seen, did answer him; +they punished the honest author for having divulged their secret, and +took away his living; so that Bekker fell a victim to the nullity of +Beelzebub.</p> + +<p>It was the lot of Holland to produce the most formidable enemies of the +devil. The physician Van Dale—a humane philosopher, a man of profound +learning, a most charitable citizen, and one whose naturally bold mind +became proportionately bolder, in consequence of his intrepidity being +founded on virtue—undertook at length the task of enlightening mankind, +always enslaved by ancient errors, and always spreading the bandage that +covers their eyes, until at last some powerful flash of light discovers +to them a corner of truth of which the greater number are completely +unworthy. He proved, in a work abounding in the most recondite learning, +that the devils had never delivered a single oracle, had never performed +a single prodigy, and had never mingled in human affairs at all; and +that there never had in reality been any demons but those impostors who +had deceived their fellow men. The devil should never ridicule or +despise a sensible physician. Those who know something of nature are +very formidable enemies to all juggling performers of prodigies. If the +devil would be advised by me, he would always address himself to the +faculty of theology, and never to the faculty of medicine.</p> + +<p>Van Dale proved, then, by numberless authorities, not merely that the +Pagan oracles were mere tricks of the priests, but that these knaveries, +consecrated all over the world, had not ceased at the time of John the +Baptist and Jesus Christ, as was piously and generally thought to be the +case. Nothing was more true, more clear, more decidedly demonstrated, +than this doctrine announced by the physician Van Dale; and there is no +man of education and respectability who now calls it in question.</p> + +<p>The work of Van Dale is not, perhaps, very methodical, but it is one of +the most curious works that ever came from the press. For, from the +gross forgeries of the pretended Histape and the Sibyls; from the +apocryphal history of the voyage of Simon Barjonas to Rome, and the +compliments which Simon the magician sent him through the medium of his +dog; from the miracles of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, and especially the +letter which that saint wrote to the devil, and which was safely +delivered according to its address, down to the miracles of the reverend +fathers, the Jesuits, and the reverend fathers, the Capuchins, nothing +is forgotten. The empire of imposture and stupidity is completely +developed before the eyes of all who can read; but they, alas! are only +a small number.</p> + +<p>Far indeed was that empire, at that period, from being destroyed in +Italy, France, Spain, the states of Austria, and more especially in +Poland, where the Jesuits then bore absolute sway. Diabolical +possessions and false miracles still inundated one-half of besotted and +barbarized Europe. The following account is given by Van Dale of a +singular oracle that was delivered in his time at Terni, in the States +of the Pope, about the year 1650; and the narrative of which was printed +at Venice by order of the government:</p> + +<p>A hermit of the name of Pasquale, having heard that Jacovello, a citizen +of Terni, was very covetous and rich, came to Terni to offer up his +devotions in the church frequented by the opulent miser, soon formed an +acquaintance with him, flattered him in his ruling passion, and +persuaded him that it was a service highly acceptable to God to take as +much care as possible of money; it was indeed expressly enjoined in the +gospel, as the negligent servant who had not put out his lord's money to +interest at five hundred per cent was thrown into outer darkness.</p> + +<p>In the conversations which the hermit had with Jacovello, he frequently +entertained him with plausible discourses held by crucifixes and by a +quantity of Italian Virgin Marys. Jacovello agreed that the statues of +saints sometimes spoke to men, and told him that he should believe +himself one of the elect if ever he could have the happiness to hear the +image of a saint speak.</p> + +<p>The friendly Pasquale replied that he had some hope he might be able to +give him that satisfaction in a very little time; that he expected every +day from Rome a death's head, which the pope had presented to one of his +brother hermits; and that this head spoke quite as distinctly and +sensibly as the trees of Dodona, or even the ass of Balaam. He showed +him the identical head, in fact, four days after this conversation. He +requested of Jacovello the key of a small cave and an inner chamber, +that no person might possibly be a witness of the awful mystery. The +hermit, having introduced a tube from this cave into the head, and made +every other suitable arrangement, went to prayer with his friend +Jacovello, and the head at that moment uttered the following words: +"Jacovello, I will recompense thy zeal. I announce to thee a treasure of +a hundred thousand crowns under a yew tree in thy garden. But thou shalt +die by a sudden death if thou makest any attempt to obtain this treasure +until thou hast produced before me a pot containing coin amounting to +ten gold marks."</p> + +<p>Jacovello ran speedily to his coffers and placed before the oracle a pot +containing the ten marks. The good hermit had had the precaution to +procure a similar vessel which he had filled with sand, and he +dexterously substituted that for the pot of Jacovello, on his turning +his back, and then left the pious miser with one death's head more, and +ten gold marks less, than he had before. Nearly such is the way in which +all oracles have been delivered, beginning with those of Jupiter Ammon, +and ending with that of Trophonius.</p> + +<p>One of the secrets of the priests of antiquity, as it is of our own, was +confession in the mysteries. It was by this that they gained correct and +particular information about the affairs of families, and qualified +themselves in a great measure to give pertinent and suitable replies to +those who came to consult them. To this subject applies the anecdote +which Plutarch has rendered so celebrated. A priest once urging an +initiated person to confession, that person said: "To whom should I +confess?" "To God," replied the priest. "Begone then, man," said the +desired penitent; "begone, and leave me alone with God."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 363px;"> +<a name="The_Initial_Banishing" id="The_Initial_Banishing"></a> +<img src="images/im02_priest_banished.jpg" width="363" alt="The Initial Banishing of the Priest.—Begone and leave me +alone with God." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">The Initial Banishing of the Priest.—Begone and leave me +alone with God.</span> +</div> + +<p>It would be almost endless to recount all the interesting facts and +narratives with which Van Dale has enriched his book. Fontenelle did not +translate it. But he extracted from it what he thought would be most +suitable to his countrymen, who love sprightly anecdote and observation +better than profound knowledge. He was eagerly read by what in France is +called good company; and Van Dale, who had written in Latin and Greek, +had been read only by the learned. The rough diamond of Van Dale shone +with exquisite brilliancy after the cutting and polish of Fontenelle: +the success of the work was such that the fanatics became alarmed. +Notwithstanding all Fontenelle's endeavors to soften down the +expressions of Van Dale, and his explaining himself sometimes with the +license of a Norman, he was too well understood by the monks, who never +like to be told that their brethren have been impostors.</p> + +<p>A certain Jesuit of the name of Baltus, born near Messina, one of that +description of learned persons who know how to consult old books, and to +falsify and cite them, although after all nothing to the purpose, took +the part of the devil against Van Dale and Fontenelle. The devil could +not have chosen a more tiresome and wretched advocate; his name is now +known solely from the honor he had of writing against two celebrated men +who advocated a good cause.</p> + +<p>Baltus likewise, in his capacity of Jesuit, caballed with no little +perseverance and bitterness on the occasion, in union with his brethren, +who at that time were as high in credit and influence as they have since +been plunged deep in ignominy. The Jansenists, on their part, more +impassionate and exasperated than even the Jesuits, clamored in a still +louder tone than they did. In short, all the fanatics were convinced +that it would be all over with the Christian religion, if the devil were +not supported in his rights.</p> + +<p>In the course of time the books of Jansenists and Jesuits have all sunk +into oblivion. That of Van Dale still remains for men of learning, and +that of Fontenelle for men of wit. With respect to the devil, he +resembles both Jesuits and Jansenists, and is losing credit from day to +day.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>Some curious and surprising histories of oracles, which it was thought +could be ascribed only to the power of genii, made the Christians think +they were delivered by demons, and that they had ceased at the coming of +Christ. They were thus enabled to save the time and trouble that would +have been required by an investigation of the facts; and they thought to +strengthen the religion which informed them of the existence of demons +by referring to those beings such events.</p> + +<p>The histories however that were circulated on the subject of oracles are +exceedingly suspicious. That of Thamus, to which Eusebius gives credit, +and which Plutarch alone relates, is followed in the same history by +another story so ridiculous, that that would be sufficient to throw +discredit upon it; but it is, besides, incapable of any reasonable +interpretation. If this great Pan were a demon, can we suppose the +demons incapable of communicating the event of his death to one another +without employing Thamus about it? If the great Pan were Jesus Christ, +how came it that not a single Pagan was undeceived with respect to his +religion, and converted to the belief that this same Pan was in fact +Jesus Christ who died in Judæa, if God Himself compelled the demons to +announce this death to the pagans?</p> + +<p>The history of Thulis, whose oracle is clear and positive on the subject +of the Trinity, is related only by Suidas. This Thulis, king of Egypt, +was not certainly one of the Ptolemies. What becomes of the whole oracle +of Serapis, when it is ascertained that Herodotus does not speak of that +god, while Tacitus relates at length how and why one of the Ptolemies +brought the god Serapis from Pontus, where he had only until then been +known?</p> + +<p>The oracle delivered to Augustus about the Hebrew infant who should be +obeyed by all the gods, is absolutely inadmissible. Cedrenus quotes it +from Eusebius, but it is not now to be found in him. It certainly is not +impossible that Cedrenus quotes it from Eusebius, but it is not now to +be found in him. It certainly is not impossible that Cedrenus may have +made a false quotation, or have quoted a work falsely ascribed to +Eusebius; but how is it to be accounted for, that all the early +apologists for Christianity should have preserved complete silence with +respect to an oracle so favorable to their religion?</p> + +<p>The oracles which Eusebius relates from Porphyry, who was attached to +paganism, are not of a more embarrassing nature than those just noticed. +He gives them to us stripped of all the accompanying circumstances that +attended them in the writings of Porphyry. How do we know whether that +pagan did not refute them. For the interest of his cause it would +naturally have been an object for him to do so; and if he did not do it, +most assuredly it was from some concealed motive, such, for instance, as +presenting them to the Christians only for an occasion to prove and +deride their credulity, if they should really receive them as true and +rest their religion on such weak foundations.</p> + +<p>Besides, some of the ancient Christians reproached the pagans with being +the dupes of their priests. Observe how Clement of Alexandria speaks of +them: "Boast as long as you please of your childish and impertinent +oracles, whether of Claros or the Pythian Apollo, of Dindymus or +Amphilocus; and add to these your augurs and interpreters of dreams and +prodigies. Bring forward also those clever gentry who, in the presence +of the mighty Pythian Apollo, effect their divinations through the +medium of meal or barley, and those also who, by a certain talent of +ventriloquism, have obtained such high reputation. Let the secrets of +the Egyptian temples, and the necromancy of the Etruscans, remain in +darkness; all these things are most certainly nothing more than decided +impostures, as completely tricks as those of a juggler with his cups and +balls. The goats carefully trained for the divination, the ravens +elaborately instructed to deliver the oracles, are—if we may use the +expression—merely accomplices of the charlatans by whom the whole world +has thus been cheated."</p> + +<p>Eusebius, in his turn, displays a number of excellent reasons to prove +that oracles could be nothing but impostures; and if he attributes them +to demons, it is the result of deplorable prejudices or of an affected +respect for general opinion. The pagans would never admit that their +oracles were merely the artifices of their priests; it was imagined +therefore, by rather an awkward process of reasoning, that a little was +gained in the dispute by admitting the possibility, that there might be +something supernatural in their oracles, and insisting at the same time, +that if there were, it was the operation, not of the deity, but of +demons.</p> + +<p>It is no longer necessary now, in order to expose the finesse and +stratagems of priests, to resort to means which might themselves appear +too strongly marked by those qualities. A time has already been when +they were completely exhibited to the eyes of the whole world—the time, +I mean when the Christian religion proudly triumphed over paganism under +Christian emperors.</p> + +<p>Theodoret says that Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, exhibited to the +inhabitants of that city the hollow statues into which the priests +entered, from secret passages, to deliver the oracles. When, by +Constantine's order, the temple of Æsculapius at Ægea, in Cilicia, was +pulled down, there was driven out of it, says Eusebius in his life of +that emperor, not a god, nor a demon, but the human impostor who had so +long duped the credulity of nations. To this he adds the general +observation that, in the statues of the gods that were thrown down, not +the slightest appearance was found of gods, or demons, or even any +wretched and gloomy spectres, but only hay, straw, or the bones of the +dead.</p> + +<p>The greatest difficulty respecting oracles is surmounted, when it is +ascertained and admitted, that demons had no concern with them. There is +no longer any reason why they should cease precisely at the coming of +Jesus Christ. And moreover, there are many proofs that oracles continued +more than four hundred years after Jesus Christ, and that they were not +totally silenced but by the total destruction of paganism.</p> + +<p>Suetonius, in the life of Nero, says the oracle of Delphi warned that +emperor to be aware of seventy-three years, and that Nero concluded he +was to die at that age, never thinking upon old Galba, who, at the age +of seventy-three, deprived him of the empire.</p> + +<p>Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius of Tyana, who saw Domitian, +informs us that Apollonius visited all the oracles of Greece, and that +of Dodona, and that of Delphos; and that of Amphiaraus. Plutarch, who +lived under Trajan, tells us that the oracles of Delphos still +subsisted, although there was then only one priestess, instead of two or +three. Under Adrian, Dion Chrysostom relates that he consulted the +oracle of Delphos; he obtained from it an answer which appeared to him +not a little perplexed, and which in fact was so.</p> + +<p>Under the Antonines, Lucian asserts that a priest of Tyana went to +inquire of the false prophet Alexander, whether the oracles which were +then delivered at Dindymus, Claros, and Delphos, were really answers of +Apollo, or impostures? Alexander had some fellow-feeling for these +oracles, which were of a similar description to his own, and replied to +the priest, that that was not permitted to be known; but when the same +wise inquirer asked what he should be after his death, he was boldly +answered, "You will be a camel, then a horse, afterwards a philosopher, +and at length a prophet as great as Alexander."</p> + +<p>After the Antonines, three emperors contended for the empire. The oracle +of Delphos was consulted, says Spartian, to ascertain which of the three +the republic might expect as its head. The oracle answered in a single +verse to the following purport: The black is better; the African is +good; the white is the worst. By the black was understood Pescennius +Niger; by the African, Severus Septimus, who was from Africa; and by the +white, Claudius Albinus.</p> + +<p>Dion, who did not conclude his history before the eighth year of +Alexander Severus, that is, the year 230, relates that in his time +Amphilocus still delivered oracles in dreams. He informs us also, that +there was in the city of Apollonia an oracle which declared future +events by the manner in which the fire caught and consumed the incense +thrown upon an altar.</p> + +<p>Under Aurelian, about the year 272, the people of Palmyra, having +revolted, consulted an oracle of Sarpedonian Apollo in Cilicia; they +again consulted that of the Aphacian Venus. Licinus, according to the +account of Sozomen, designing to renew the war against Constantine, +consulted the oracle of Apollo of Dindymus, and received from it in +answer two verses of Homer, of which the sense is—Unhappy old man, it +becomes not you to combat with the young! you have no strength, and are +sinking under the weight of age.</p> + +<p>A certain god, scarcely if at all known, of the name of Besa, if we may +credit Ammianus Marcellinus, still delivered oracles on billets at +Abydos, in the extremity of the Thebais, under the reign of Constantius. +Finally, Macrobius, who lived under Arcadius and Honorius, sons of +Theodosius, speaks of the god of Heliopolis of Syria and his oracle, and +of the fortunes of Antium, in terms which distinctly imply that they all +still subsisted in his time.</p> + +<p>We may observe that it is not of the slightest consequence whether these +histories are true or whether the oracles in fact delivered the answers +attributed to them; it is completely sufficient for the purpose that +false answers could be attributed only to oracles which were in fact +known still to subsist; and the histories which so many authors have +published clearly prove that they did not cease but with the cessation +of paganism itself.</p> + +<p>Constantine pulled down but few temples, nor indeed could he venture to +pull them down but on a pretext of crimes committed in them. It was on +this ground that he ordered the demolition of those of the Aphacian +Venus, and of Æsculapius which was at Ægea in Cilicia, both of them +temples in which oracles were delivered. But he forbade sacrifices to +the gods, and by that edict began to render temples useless.</p> + +<p>Many oracles still subsisted when Julian assumed the reins of empire. He +re-established some that were in a state of ruin; and he was even +desirous of being the prophet of that of Dindymus. Jovian, his +successor, began his reign with great zeal for the destruction of +paganism; but in the short space of seven months, which comprised the +whole time he reigned, he was unable to make any great progress. +Theodosius, in order to attain the same object, ordered all the temples +of the pagans to be shut up. At last, the exercise of that religion was +prohibited under pain of death by an edict of the emperors Valentinian +and Marcian, in the year 451 of the vulgar era; and the destruction of +paganism necessarily involved that of oracles.</p> + +<p>This conclusion has nothing in it surprising or extraordinary: it is the +natural consequence of the establishment of a new worship. Miraculous +facts, or rather what it is desired should be considered as such, +diminish in a false religion, either in proportion as it becomes firmly +established and has no longer occasion for them, or in proportion as it +gradually becomes weaker and weaker, because they no longer obtain +credit. The ardent but useless desire to pry into futurity gave birth to +oracles; imposture encouraged and sanctioned them; and fanaticism set +the seal; for an infallible method of making fanatics is to persuade +before you instruct. The poverty of the people, who had no longer +anything left them to give; the imposture detected in many oracles, and +thence naturally concluded to exist in all; and finally the edicts of +the Christian emperors; such are the real causes of the establishment, +and of the cessation, of this species of imposture. The introduction of +an opposite state of circumstances into human affairs made it completely +disappear; and oracles thus became involved in the vicissitudes +accompanying all human institutions.</p> + +<p>Some limit themselves to observing that the birth of Jesus Christ is the +first epoch of the cessation of oracles. But why, on such an occasion, +should some demons have fled, while others remained? Besides, ancient +history proves decidedly that many oracles had been destroyed before +this birth. All the distinguished oracles of Greece no longer existed, +or scarcely existed, and the oracle was occasionally interrupted by the +silence of an honest priest who would not consent to deceive the people. +"The oracle of Delphi," says Lucian, "remains dumb since princes have +become afraid of futurity; they have prohibited the gods from speaking, +and the gods have obeyed them."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="ORDEAL" id="ORDEAL"></a>ORDEAL.</h3> + + +<p>It might be imagined that all the absurdities which degrade human nature +were destined to come to us from Asia, the source at the same time of +all the sciences and arts! It was in Asia and in Egypt that mankind +first dared to make the life or death of a person accused, dependent on +the throw of a die, or something equally unconnected with reason and +decided by chance—on cold water or hot water, on red hot iron, or a bit +of barley bread. Similar superstition, we are assured by travellers, +still exists in the Indies, on the coast of Malabar, and in Japan.</p> + +<p>This superstition passed from Egypt into Greece. There was a very +celebrated temple at Trezène in which every man who perjured himself +died instantly of apoplexy. Hippolytus, in the tragedy of "Phædra," in +the first scene of the fifth act, addresses the following lines to his +mistress Aricia:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Aux portes de Trezène, et parmi ces tombeaux,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Des princes de ma race antiques sepultures,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Est un temple sacré formidable aux parjures.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>C'est là que les mortels n'osent jurer en vain;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Le perfide y reçoit un châtiment soudain;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Et, craignant d'y trouver la mort inévitable,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Le mensonge n'a point de frem plus redoubtable.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">At Trezène's gates, amidst the ancient tombs</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">In which repose the princes of my race,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">A sacred temple stands, the perjurer's dread.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">No daring mortal there may falsely swear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">For swift the vengeance which pursues his crime,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Inevitable death his instant lot;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Nowhere has falsehood a more awful curb.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>The learned commentator of the great Racine makes the following remark +on these Trezenian proofs or ordeals:</p> + +<p>"M. de la Motte has remarked that Hippolytus should have proposed to his +father to come and hear his justification in this temple, where no one +dared venture on swearing to a falsehood. It is certain, that in such a +case Theseus could not have doubted the innocence of that young prince; +but he had received too convincing evidence against the virtue of +Phædra, and Hippolytus was not inclined to make the experiment. M. de la +Motte would have done well to have distrusted his own good taste, when +he suspected that of Racine, who appears to have foreseen the objection +here made. In fact, Theseus is so prejudiced against Hippolytus that he +will not even permit him to justify himself by an oath."</p> + +<p>I should observe that the criticism of La Motte was originally made by +the deceased marquis de Lassai. He delivered it at M. de la Faye's, at a +dinner party at which I was present together with the late M. de la +Motte, who promised to make use of it; and, in fact, in his "Discourses +upon Tragedy," he gives the honor of the criticism to the marquis de +Lassai. The remark appeared to me particularly judicious, as well as to +M. de la Faye and to all the guests present, who—of course excepting +myself—were the most able critics in Paris. But we all agreed that +Aricia was the person who should have called upon Theseus to try the +accused by the ordeal of the Trezenian temple; and so much the more so, +as Theseus immediately after talks for a long time together to that +princess, who forgets the only thing that could clear up the doubts of +the father and vindicate the son. The commentator in vain objects that +Theseus has declared to his son he will not believe his oaths:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Toujours les scélérats ont recours au parjure.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;">—<i>Phedra.</i> Act iv., scene 2.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The wicked always have recourse to oaths.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>There is a prodigious difference between an oath taken in a common +apartment, and an oath taken in a temple where the perjured are punished +by sudden death. Had Aricia said but a single word on the subject, +Theseus could have had no excuse for not conducting Hippolytus to this +temple; but, in that case, what would have become of the catastrophe?</p> + +<p>Hippolytus, then, should not have mentioned at all the appalling power +of the temple of Trezene to his beloved Aricia; he had no need whatever +to take an oath of his love to her, for of that she was already most +fully persuaded. In short, his doing so is an inadvertence, a small +fault, which escaped the most ingenious, elegant, and impassioned +tragedian that we ever had.</p> + +<p>From this digression, I return to the barbarous madness of ordeals. They +were not admitted in the Roman republic. We cannot consider as of one of +these ordeals, the usage by which the most important enterprises were +made to depend upon the manner in which the sacred pullets ate their +vetches. We are here considering only ordeals applied to ascertain the +guilt or innocence of men. It was never proposed to the Manliuses, +Camilluses, or Scipios, to prove their innocence by plunging their hands +into boiling water without its scalding them.</p> + +<p>These suggestions of folly and barbarism were not admitted under the +emperors. But the Tartars who came to destroy the empire—for the +greater part of these plunderers issued originally from Tartary—filled +our quarter of the world with their ridiculous and cruel jurisprudence, +which they derived from the Persians. It was not known in the Eastern +Empire till the time of Justinian, notwithstanding the detestable +superstition which prevailed in it. But from that time the ordeals we +are speaking of were received. This manner of trying men is so ancient +that we find it established among the Jews in all periods of their +history.</p> + +<p>Korah, Dathan, and Abiram dispute the pontificate with the high priest +Aaron in the wilderness; Moses commands them to bring him two hundred +and fifty censors, and says to them: Let God choose between their +censors and that of Aaron. Scarcely had the revolted made their +appearance in order to submit to this ordeal, before they were swallowed +up by the earth, and fire from heaven struck two hundred and fifty of +their principal adherents; after which, the Lord destroyed fourteen +thousand seven hundred more men of that party. The quarrel however for +the priesthood still continued between the chiefs of Israel and Aaron. +The ordeal of rods was then employed; each man presented his rod, and +that of Aaron was the only one which budded.</p> + +<p>Although the people of God had levelled the walls of Jericho by the +sound of trumpets, they were overcome by the inhabitants of Ai. This +defeat did not appear at all natural to Joshua; he consulted the Lord, +who answered that Israel had sinned; that some one had appropriated to +his own use a part of the plunder that had been taken at Jericho, and +there devoted as accursed. In fact, all ought to have been burned, +together with the men and women, children and cattle, and whoever had +preserved and carried off any part was to be exterminated. Joshua, in +order to discover the offender, subjected all the tribes to the trial by +lot. The lot first fell on the tribe of Judah, then on the family of +Zarah, then on the house of Zabdi, and finally on the grandson of Zabdi, +whose name was Acham.</p> + +<p>Scripture does not explain how it was that these wandering tribes came +to have houses; neither does it inform us what kind of lots were made +use of on the occasion; but it is clear from the text, that Acham, being +convicted of stealing a small wedge of gold, a scarlet mantle, and two +hundred shekels of silver, was burned to death in the valley of Achor, +together with his sons, his sheep, his oxen, and his asses; and even his +very tent was burned with him.</p> + +<p>The promised land was divided by lot; lots were drawn respecting the two +goats of expiation which should be sacrificed to the Lord, and which +should go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. When Saul was to be +chosen king, lots were consulted, and the lot fell on the tribe of +Benjamin, on the family of Metri belonging to that tribe, and finally on +Saul, the son of Kish, in the family of Metri.</p> + +<p>The lot fell on Jonathan to be punished for having eaten some honey at +the end of a rod. The sailors of Joppa drew lots to learn from God what +was the cause of the tempest. The lot informed them that it was Jonah; +and they threw him into the sea.</p> + +<p>All these ordeals by lot, which among other nations were merely profane +superstitions, were the voice of God Himself when employed by His +cherished and beloved people; and so completely and decidedly the voice +of God that even the apostles filled the place of the apostle Judas by +lot. The two candidates for the succession were Matthias and Barnabas. +Providence declared in favor of St. Matthias.</p> + +<p>Pope Honorius, the third of that name, forbade by a decretal from that +time forward the method of choosing bishops by lot. Deciding by lots was +a very common practice, and was called by the pagans, "<i>sortilegium.</i>" +Cato, in the "Pharsalia," says, "<i>Sortilegis egeant dubil....</i>"</p> + +<p>There were other ordeals among the Jews in the name of the Lord; as, for +example, the waters of jealousy. A woman suspected of adultery was +obliged to drink of that water mixed with ashes, and consecrated by the +high priest. If she was guilty she instantly swelled and died. It is +upon the foundation of this law that the whole Christian world in the +West established oracles for persons under juridical accusation, not +considering that what was ordained even by God Himself in the Old +Testament was nothing more or less than an absurd superstition in the +New.</p> + +<p>Duel by wager of battle was one of those ordeals, and lasted down to the +sixteenth century. He who killed his adversary was always in the right. +The most dreadful of all these curious and barbarous ordeals, was that +of a man's carrying a bar of red-hot iron to the distance of nine paces +without burning himself. Accordingly, the history of the middle ages, +fabulous as it is, does not record any instance of this ordeal, nor of +that which consisted in walking over nine burning ploughshares. All the +others might be doubted, or the deceptions and tricks employed in +relation to them to deceive the judges might be easily explained. It was +very easy, for example, to appear to pass through the trial of boiling +water without injury; a vessel might be produced half full of cold +water, into which the judicial boiling water might be put; and the +accused might safely plunge his arm up to the elbow in the lukewarm +mixture, and take up from the bottom the sacred blessed ring that had +been thrown into it for that purpose.</p> + +<p>Oil might be made to boil with water; the oil begins to rise and appears +to boil when the water begins to simmer, and the oil at that time has +acquired but a small degree of heat. In such circumstances, a man seems +to plunge his hand into boiling water; but, in fact, moistens it with +the harmless oil, which preserves it from contact with and injury by the +water.</p> + +<p>A champion may easily, by degrees, harden and habituate himself to +holding, for a few seconds, a ring that has been thrown into the fire, +without any very striking or painful marks of burning. To pass between +two fires without being scorched is no very extraordinary proof of skill +or address, when the movement is made with great rapidity and the face +and hands are well rubbed with ointment. It is thus that the formidable +Peter Aldobrandini, or "The Fiery Peter," as he was called, used to +manage—if there is any truth in his history—when he passed between two +blazing fires at Florence, in order to demonstrate, with God's help, +that his archbishop was a knave and debauchee. O, charlatans! +charlatans! henceforth disappear forever from the pages of history!</p> + +<p>There existed a rather ludicrous ordeal, which consisted in making an +accused person try to swallow a piece of barley bread, which it was +believed would certainly choke him if he were guilty. I am not, however, +so much diverted with this case as with the conduct of Harlequin, when +the judge interrogated him concerning a robbery of which Dr. Balouard +accused him. The judge was sitting at table, and drinking some excellent +wine at the time, when Harlequin was brought in; perceiving which, the +latter takes up the bottle, and, pouring the whole of its contents into +a glass, swallows it at a draught, saying to the doctor: "If I am guilty +of what you accuse me, sir, I hope this wine will prove poison to me."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="ORDINATION" id="ORDINATION"></a>ORDINATION.</h3> + + +<p>If a soldier, charged by the king of France with the honor of conferring +the order of St. Louis upon another soldier, had not, when presenting +the latter with the cross, the intention of making him a knight of that +order, would the receiver of the badge be on that account the less a +member of the order than if such intention had existed? Certainly not.</p> + +<p>How was it, then, that many priests thought it necessary to be +re-ordained after the death of the celebrated Lavardin, bishop of Mans? +That singular prelate, who had instituted the order of "Good +Fellows"—Des Coteaux—bethought himself on his deathbed of a singular +trick, in the way of revenge, on a class of persons who had much annoyed +him. He was well known as one of the most daring freethinkers of the age +of Louis XIV., and had been publicly upbraided with his infidel +sentiments, by many of those on whom he had conferred orders of +priesthood. It is natural at the approach of death, for a sensitive and +apprehensive soul to revert to the religion of its early years. Decency +alone would have required of the bishop, that at least at his death he +should give an example of edification to the flock to which he had given +so much scandal by his life. But he was so deeply exasperated against +his clergy, as to declare, that not a single individual of those whom he +had himself ordained was really and truly a priest; that all their acts +in the capacity of priests were null and void; and that he never +entertained the intention of conferring any sacrament.</p> + +<p>Such reasoning seems certainly characteristic, and just such as might be +expected from a drunken man; the priests of Mans might have replied to +him, "It is not your intention that is of any consequence, but ours. We +had an ardent and determined desire to be priests; we did all in our +power to become such. We are perfectly ingenuous and sincere; if you are +not so, that is nothing at all to us." The maxim applicable to the +occasion is, "<i>quic quid accipitur ad modum recipientis accipitur,</i>" and +not "<i>ad modum dantis.</i>" "When our wine merchant has sold us a half a +hogshead of wine, we drink it, although he might have a secret intention +to hinder us from drinking it; we shall still be priests in spite of +your testament."</p> + +<p>Those reasons were sound and satisfactory. However, the greater number +of those who had been ordained by that bishop did not consider +themselves as real and authorized priests, and subjected themselves to +ordination a second time. Mascaron, a man of moderate talents, but of +great celebrity as a preacher, persuaded them, both by his discourses +and example, to have the ceremony repeated. The affair occasioned great +scandal at Mans, and Paris, and Versailles; but like everything else was +soon forgotten.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="ORIGINAL_SIN" id="ORIGINAL_SIN"></a>ORIGINAL SIN.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>This is a subject on which the Socinians or Unitarians take occasion to +exult and triumph. They denominate this foundation of Christianity its +"original sin." It is an insult to God, they say; it is accusing Him of +the most absurd barbarity to have the hardihood to assert, that He +formed all the successive generations of mankind to deliver them over to +eternal tortures, under the pretext of their original ancestor having +eaten of a particular fruit in a garden. This sacrilegious imputation is +so much the more inexcusable among Christians, as there is not a single +word respecting this same invention of original sin, either in the +Pentateuch, or in the prophets, or the gospels, whether apocryphal or +canonical, or in any of the writers who are called the "first fathers of +the Church."</p> + +<p>It is not even related in the Book of Genesis that God condemned Adam to +death for eating an apple. God says to him, indeed, "in the day that +thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." But the very same Book of +Genesis makes Adam live nine hundred and thirty years after indulging in +this criminal repast. The animals, the plants, which had not partaken of +this fruit, died at the respective periods prescribed for them by +nature. Man is evidently born to die, like all the rest.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the punishment of Adam was never, in any way, introduced into +the Jewish law. Adam was no more a Jew than he was a Persian or +Chaldæan. The first chapters of Genesis—at whatever period they were +composed—were regarded by all the learned Jews as an allegory, and even +as a fable not a little dangerous, since that book was forbidden to be +read by any before they had attained the age of twenty-one.</p> + +<p>In a word, the Jews knew no more about original sin than they did about +the Chinese ceremonies; and, although divines generally discover in the +Scripture everything they wish to find there, either "<i>totidem verbis,</i>" +or "<i>totidem literis,</i>" we may safely assert that no reasonable divine +will ever discover in it this surprising and overwhelming mystery.</p> + +<p>We admit that St. Augustine was the first who brought this strange +notion into credit; a notion worthy of the warm and romantic brain of an +African debauchee and penitent, Manichæan and Christian, tolerant and +persecuting—who passed his life in perpetual self-contradiction.</p> + +<p>What an abomination, exclaim the strict Unitarians, so atrociously to +calumniate the Author of Nature as even to impute to Him perpetual +miracles, in order that He may damn to all eternity the unhappy race of +mankind, whom he introduces into the present life only for so short a +span! Either He created souls from all eternity, upon which system, as +they must be infinitely more ancient than the sin of Adam, they can have +no possible connection with it; or these souls are formed whenever man +and woman sexually associate; in which case the Supreme Being must be +supposed continually watching for all the various associations of this +nature that take place, to create spirits that He will render eternally +miserable; or, finally, God is Himself the soul of all mankind, and upon +this system damns Himself. Which of these three suppositions is the most +absurd and abominable? There is no fourth. For the opinion that God +waits six weeks before He creates a damned soul in a fœtus is, in fact, +no other than that which creates it at the moment of sexual connection: +the difference of six weeks cannot be of the slightest consequence in +the argument. I have merely related the opinion of the Unitarians; but +men have now attained such a degree of superstition that I can scarcely +relate it without trembling.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>It must be acknowledged that we are not acquainted with any father of +the Church before St. Augustine and St. Jerome, who taught the doctrine +of original sin. St. Clement of Alexandria, notwithstanding his profound +knowledge of antiquity, far from speaking in any one passage of his +works of that corruption which has infected the whole human race, and +rendered it guilty from its birth, says in express words, "What evil can +a new-born infant commit? How could it possibly prevaricate? How could +such a being, which has, in fact, as yet done no one thing, fall under +the curse of Adam?"</p> + +<p>And it is worth observing that he does not employ this language in order +to combat the rigid opinion of original sin, which was not at that time +developed, but merely to show that the passions, which are capable of +corrupting all mankind, have, as yet, taken no hold of this innocent +infant. He does not say: This creature of a day would not be damned if +it should now die, for no one had yet conjectured that it would be +damned. St. Clement could not combat a system absolutely unknown.</p> + +<p>The great Origen is still more decisive than St. Clement of Alexandria. +He admits, indeed, in his exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the +Romans, that sin entered into the world by Adam, but he maintains that +it is the inclination to sin that thus entered; that it is very easy to +commit evil, but that it is not on that account said, man will always +commit evil, and is guilty even as soon as he is born.</p> + +<p>In short, original sin, in the time of Origen, consisted only in the +misfortune of resembling the first man by being liable to sin like him. +Baptism was a necessary ordinance; it was the seal of Christianity; it +washed away all sins; but no man had yet said, that it washed away those +which the subject of it had not committed. No one yet asserted that an +infant would be damned, and burned in everlasting flames, in consequence +of its dying within two minutes of its birth. And an unanswerable proof +on this point is, that a long period passed away before the practice of +baptizing infants became prevalent. Tertullian was averse to their being +baptized; but, on the persuasion that original sin—of which these poor +innocents could not possibly be guilty—would affect their reprobation, +and expose them to suffer boundless and endless torture, for a deed of +which it was impossible for them to have the slightest knowledge: to +refuse them the consecrated bath of baptism, would be wilfully +consigning them to eternal damnation. The souls of all the executioners +in the world, condensed into the very essence of ingenious cruelty, +could not have suggested a more execrable abomination.</p> + +<p>In a word, it is an incontestable fact that Christians did not for a +certain period baptize their infants, and it is therefore equally +incontestable that they were very far from damning them.</p> + +<p>This, however, is not all; Jesus Christ never said: "The infant that is +not baptized will be damned." He came on the contrary to expiate all +sins, to redeem mankind by His blood; therefore, infants could not be +damned. Infants would, of course, <i>a fortiori,</i> and, preferably, enjoy +this privilege. Our divine Saviour never baptized any person. Paul +circumcised his disciple Timothy, but is nowhere said to have baptized +him.</p> + +<p>In a word, during the two first centuries, the baptism of infants was +not customary; it was not believed, therefore, that infants would become +victims of the fault of Adam. At the end of four hundred years their +salvation was considered in danger, and great uncertainty and +apprehension existed on the subject.</p> + +<p>In the fifth century appears Pelagius. He treated the opinion of +original sin as monstrous. According to him, this dogma, like all +others, was founded upon a mere ambiguity. God had said to Adam in the +garden: "In the day in which thou shalt eat of the tree of knowledge, +thou shalt die." But, he did not die; and God pardoned him. Why, then, +should He not spare His race to the thousandth generation? Why should He +consign to infinite and eternal torments the innocent infants whose +father He received back into forgiveness and favor?</p> + +<p>Pelagius considered God, not merely as an absolute master, but as a +parent, who left His children at perfect liberty, and rewarded them +beyond their merits, and punished them less than their faults deserved. +The language used by him and his disciples was: "If all men are born +objects of the eternal wrath of that Being who confers on them life; if +they can possibly be guilty before they can even think, it is then a +fearful and execrable offence to give them being, and marriage is the +most atrocious of crimes. Marriage, on this system, is nothing more or +less than an emanation from the Manichæan principle of evil; and those +who engage in it, instead of adoring God, adore the devil."</p> + +<p>Pelagius and his partisans propagated this doctrine in Africa, where the +reputation and influence of St. Augustine were unbounded. He had been a +Manichæan, and seemed to think himself called upon to enter the lists +against Pelagius. The latter was ill able to resist either Augustine or +Jerome; various points, however, were contested, and the dispute +proceeded so far that Augustine pronounced his sentence of damnation +upon all children born, or to be born, throughout the world, in the +following terms: "The Catholic faith teaches that all men are born so +guilty that even infants are certainly damned when they die without +having been regenerated in Jesus."</p> + +<p>It would be but a wretched compliment of condolence to offer to a queen +of China, or Japan, or India, Scythia, or Gothia, who had just lost her +infant son to say: "Be comforted, madam; his highness the prince royal +is now in the clutches of five hundred devils, who turn him round and +round in a great furnace to all eternity, while his body rests embalmed +and in peace within the precincts of your palace."</p> + +<p>The astonished and terrified queen inquires why these devils should +eternally roast her dear son, the prince royal. She is answered that the +reason of it is that his great-grandfather formerly ate of the fruit of +knowledge, in a garden. Form an idea, if possible, of the looks and +thoughts of the king, the queen, the whole council, and all the +beautiful ladies of the court!</p> + +<p>The sentence of the African bishop appeared to some divines—for there +are some good souls to be found in every place and class—rather severe, +and was therefore mitigated by one Peter Chrysologus, or Peter +Golden-tongue, who invented a suburb to hell, called "limbo", where all +the little boys and girls that died before baptism might be disposed of. +It is a place in which these innocents vegetate without sensation; the +abode of apathy; the place that has been called "The paradise of fools." +We find this very expression in Milton. He places this paradise +somewhere near the moon!</p> + + +<p class="caption"><i>Explication Of Original Sin.</i></p> + +<p>The difficulty is the same with respect to this substituted limbo as +with respect to hell. Why should these poor little wretches be placed in +this limbo? what had they done? how could their souls, which they had +not in their possession a single day, be guilty of a gormandizing that +merited a punishment of six thousand years?</p> + +<p>St. Augustine, who damns them, assigns as a reason, that the souls of +all men being comprised in that of Adam, it is probable that they were +all accomplices. But, as the Church subsequently decided that souls are +not made before the bodies which they are to inhabit are originated, +that system falls to the ground, notwithstanding the celebrity of its +author.</p> + +<p>Others said that original sin was transmitted from soul to soul, in the +way of emanation, and that one soul, derived from another, came into the +world with all the corruption of the mother-soul. This opinion was +condemned.</p> + +<p>After the divines had done with the question, the philosophers tried at +it. Leibnitz, while sporting with his monads, amused himself with +collecting together in Adam all the human monads with their little +bodies of monads. This was going further than St. Augustine. But this +idea, which was worthy of Cyrano de Bergerac, met with very few to adopt +and defend it. Malebranche explains the matter by the influence of the +imagination on mothers. Eve's brain was so strongly inflamed with the +desire of eating the fruit that her children had the same desire; just +like the irresistibly authenticated case of the woman who, after having +seen a man racked, was brought to bed of a dislocated infant.</p> + +<p>Nicole reduced the affair to "a certain inclination, a certain tendency +to concupiscence, which we have derived from our mothers. This +inclination is not an act; but it will one day become such." Well said, +Nicole; bravo! But, in the meantime, why am I to be damned? Nicole does +not even touch the difficulty, which consists in ascertaining how our +own souls, which have but recently been formed, can be fairly made +responsible for the fault of another soul that lived some thousands of +years ago.</p> + +<p>What, my good friends, <i>ought</i> to be said upon the subject? Nothing. +Accordingly, I do not give <i>my</i> explication of the difficulty: I say not +a single word.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="OVID" id="OVID"></a>OVID.</h3> + + +<p>Scholars have not failed to write volumes to inform us exactly to what +corner of the earth Ovidius Naso was banished by Octavius Cepias, +surnamed Augustus. All that we know of it is, that, born at Sulmo and +brought up at Rome, he passed ten years on the right shore of the +Danube, in the neighborhood of the Black Sea. Though he calls this land +barbarous, we must not fancy that it was a land of savages. There were +verses made there; Cotis, the petty king of a part of Thrace, made Getic +verses for Ovid. The Latin poet learned Getic, and also composed lines +in this language. It seems as if Greek poetry should have been +understood in the ancient country of Orpheus, but this country was then +peopled by nations from the North, who probably spoke a Tartar dialect, +a language approaching to the ancient Slavonian. Ovid seemed not +destined to make Tartar verses. The country of the Tomites, to which he +was banished, was a part of Mysia, a Roman province, between Mount Hemus +and the Danube. It is situated in forty-four and a half degrees north +latitude, like one of the finest climates of France; but the mountains +which are at the south, and the winds of the north and east, which blow +from the Euxine, the cold and dampness of the forests, and of the +Danube, rendered this country insupportable to a man born in Italy. Thus +Ovid did not live long, but died there at the age of sixty. He complains +in his "Elegies" of the climate, and not of the inhabitants. "<i>Quos ego, +cum loca sim vestra perosus, amo.</i>"</p> + +<p>These people crowned him with laurel, and gave him privileges, which +prevented him not from regretting Rome. It was a great instance of the +slavery of the Romans and of the extinction of all laws, when a man born +of an equestrian family, like Octavius, exiled a man of another +equestrian family, and when one citizen of Rome with one word sent +another among the Scythians. Before this time, it required a +"plebiscitum", a law of the nation, to deprive a Roman of his country. +Cicero, although banished by a cabal, had at least been exiled with the +forms of law.</p> + +<p>The crime of Ovid was incontestably that of having seen something +shameful in the family of Octavius:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Cur aliquid vidi, cur noxia lumina feci?</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Why saw I aught, or why discover crime?</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The learned have not decided whether he had seen Augustus with a +prettier boy than Mannius, whom he said he would not have because he was +too ugly; whether he saw some page in the arms of the empress Livia, +whom this Augustus had espoused, while pregnant by another; whether he +had seen the said Augustus occupied with his daughter or granddaughter; +or, finally, whether he saw him doing something still worse, "<i>torva tu +entibus hircis?</i>" It is most probable that Ovid detected an incestuous +correspondence, as an author, almost contemporary, named Minutionus +Apuleius, says: "<i>Pulsum quoque in exilium quod Augusti incestum +vidisset.</i>"</p> + +<p>Octavius made a pretext of the innocent book of the "Art of Love," a +book very decently written, and in which there is not an obscene word, +to send a Roman knight to the Black Sea. The pretence was ridiculous. +How could Augustus, of whom we have still verses filled with +obscenities, banish Ovid for having several years before given to his +friends some copies of the "Art of Love"? How could he impudently +reproach Ovid for a work written with decorum, while he approved of +Horace, who lavishes allusions and phrases on the most infamous +prostitution, and who proposed girls and boys, maid servants and valets +indiscriminately? It is nothing less than impudence to blame Ovid and +tolerate Horace. It is clear that Octavius alleged a very insufficient +reason, because he dared not allude to the real one. One proof that it +related to some secret adventure of the sacred imperial family is that +the goat of Caprea—Tiberius, immortalized by medals for his +debaucheries; Tiberius, that monster of lust and dissimulation—did not +recall Ovid, who, rather than demand the favor from the author of the +proscriptions and the poisoner of Germanicus, remained on the shores of +the Danube.</p> + +<p>If a Dutch, Polish, Swedish, English, or Venetian gentleman had by +chance seen a stadtholder, or a king of Great Britain, Sweden, or +Poland, or a doge of Venice, commit some great sin, even if it was not +by chance that he saw it; if he had even sought the occasion, and was so +indiscreet as to speak of it, this stadtholder, king, or doge could not +legally banish him.</p> + +<p>We can reproach Ovid almost as much as Augustus and Tiberius for having +praised them. The eulogiums which he lavishes on them are so extravagant +that at present they would excite indignation if he had even given them +to legitimate princes, his benefactors, instead of to tyrants, and to +his tyrants in particular. You may be pardoned for praising a little too +much a prince who caresses you; but not for treating as a god one who +persecutes you. It would have been a hundred times better for him to +have embarked on the Black Sea and retired into Persia by the Palus +Mæotis, than to have written his "Tristia." He would have learned +Persian as easily as Getic, and might have forgotten the master of Rome +near the master of Ecbatana. Some strong minds will say that there was +still another part to take, which was to go secretly to Rome, address +himself to some relations of Brutus and Cassius, and get up a twelfth +conspiracy against Octavius; but that was not in elegiac taste.</p> + +<p>Poetical panegyrics are strange things! It is very clear that Ovid +wished with all his heart, that some Brutus would deliver Rome from that +Augustus, to whom in his verses he wished immortality. I reproach Ovid +with his "Tristia" alone. Bayle forms his system on the philosophy of +chaos so ably exhibited in the commencement of the "Metamorphoses":</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ante mare et terras, et quod tegit omnia cœlum,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Unus erat toto naturæ vultus in orbe.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Bayle thus translates these first lines: "Before there was a heaven, an +earth, and a sea, nature was all homogeneous." In Ovid it is, "The face +of nature was the same throughout the universe," which means not that +all was homogeneous, but heterogeneous—this assemblage of different +things appeared the same; "<i>unus vultus.</i>" Bayle criticises chaos +throughout. Ovid, who in his verses is only the poet of the ancient +philosophy, says that things hard and soft, light and heavy, were mixed +together:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">—<span class="small">OVID'S</span> Met., b. i., l. 20.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>And this is the manner in which Bayle reasons against him: "There is +nothing more absurd than to suppose a chaos which had been homogeneous +from all eternity, though it had the elementary qualities, at least +those which we call alteratives, which are heat, cold, humidity, and +dryness, as those which we call matrices, which are lightness and +weight, the former the cause of upper motion, the latter of lower. +Matter of this nature cannot be homogeneous, and must necessarily +contain all sorts of heterogeneousness. Heat and cold, humidity and +dryness, cannot exist together, unless their action and reaction temper +and convert them into other qualities which assume the form of mixed +bodies; and as this temperament can be made according to innumerable +diversities of combinations, chaos must contain an incredible number of +compound species. The only manner of conceiving matter homogeneous is by +saying that the alterative qualities of the elements modify all the +molecules of matter in the same degree in such a way, that throughout +there is the same warmth, the same softness, the same odor, etc. But +this would be to destroy with one hand that which has been built up with +the other; it would be by a contradiction in terms to call chaos the +most regular, the most marvellous for its symmetry, and the most +admirable in its proportions that it is possible to conceive. I allow +that the taste of man approves of a diversified rather than of a regular +work; but our reason teaches us that the harmony of contrary qualities, +uniformly preserved throughout the universe, would be as admirable a +perfection as the unequal division of them which has succeeded chaos. +What knowledge and power would not the diffusion of this uniform harmony +throughout nature demand! It would not be sufficient to place in any +compound an equal quantity of all the four ingredients; of one there +must be more and of another less, according as their force is greater or +less for action or resistance; for we know that philosophers bestow +action and reaction in a different degree on the elementary qualities. +All would amount to an opinion that the power which metamorphosed chaos +has withdrawn it, not from a state of strife and confusion as is +pretended, but from a state of the most admirable harmony, which by the +adjustment of the equilibrium of contrary forces, retained it in a +repose equivalent to peace. It is certain, therefore, that if the poets +will insist on the homogeneity of chaos, they must erase all which they +have added concerning the wild confusion of contrary seeds, of the +undigested mass, and of the perpetual combat of conflicting principles.</p> + +<p>"Passing over this contradiction we shall find sufficient subject for +opposing them in other particulars. Let us recommence the attack on +eternity. There is nothing more absurd than to admit, for an infinite +time, the mixture of the insensible particles of four elements; for as +soon as you suppose in them the activity of heat, the action and +reaction of the four primary qualities, and besides these, motion +towards the centre in the elements of earth and water, and towards the +circumference in those of fire and air, you establish a principle which +necessarily separates these four kinds of bodies, the one from the +other, and for which a definite period alone is necessary. Consider a +little, that which is denominated "the vial of the four elements". There +are put into it some small metallic particles, and then three liquids, +the one much lighter than the other. Shake these well together, and you +no longer discern any of these component parts singly; each is +confounded with the other. But leave your vial at rest for a short time, +and you will find every one of them resume its pristine situation. The +metallic particles will reassemble at the bottom of the vial, the +lightest liquid will rise to the top, and the others take their stations +according to their respective degrees of gravity. Thus a very short time +will suffice to restore them to the same relative situation which they +occupied before the vial was shaken. In this vial you behold the laws +which nature has given in this world to the four elements, and, +comparing the universe to this vial, we may conclude, that if the earth +reduced to powder had been mingled with the matter of the stars, and +with that of air and of water, in such a way as that the compound +exhibited none of the elements by themselves, all would have immediately +operated to disengage themselves, and at the end of a certain time, the +particles of earth would form one mass, those of fire another; and thus +of the others in proportion to the lightness or heaviness of each of +them."</p> + +<p>I deny to Bayle, that the experiment of the vial infers a definite +period for the duration of chaos. I inform him, that by heavy and light +things, Ovid and the philosophers intended those which became so after +God had placed His hand on them. I say to him: "You take for granted +that nature arranged all, and bestowed weight upon herself. You must +begin by proving to me that gravity is an essential quality of matter, a +position which has never been proved." Descartes, in his romance has +pretended that body never became heavy until his vortices of subtle +matter began to push them from the centre. Newton, in his correct +philosophy, never says that gravitation or attraction is a quality +essential to matter. If Ovid had been able to divine the "Principia" of +Newton, he would have said: "Matter was neither heavy nor in motion in +my chaos; it was God who endowed it with these properties; my chaos +includes not the forces you imagine"—"<i>nec quidquam nisi pondus +iners;</i>" it was a powerless mass; "pondus" here signifies not weight but +mass.</p> + +<p>Nothing could possess weight, before God bestowed on matter the +principle of gravitation. In whatever degree one body is impelled +towards the centre of another, would it be drawn or impelled by another, +if the Supreme Power had not bestowed upon it this inexplicable virtue? +Therefore Ovid will not only turn out a good philosopher but a passable +theologian.</p> + +<p>You say: "A scholastic theologian will admit without difficulty, that if +the four elements had existed independently of God, with all the +properties which they now possess, they would have formed of themselves +the machine of the world, and have maintained it in the state which we +now behold. There are therefore two great faults in the doctrine of +chaos; the first of which is, that it takes away from God the creation +of matter, and the production of the qualities proper to air, fire, +earth, and water; the other, that after taking God away, He is made to +appear unnecessarily on the theatre of the world, in order to assign +their places to the four elements. Our modern philosophers, who have +rejected the faculties and the qualities of the peripatetician physics, +will find the same defects in the description of the chaos of Ovid; for +that which they call general laws of motion, mechanical principles, +modifications of matter, the form, situation, and arrangement of atoms, +comprehends nothing beyond the active and passive virtue of nature, +which the peripatetics understand by the alterative and formative +qualities of the four elements. Seeing, therefore, that, according to +the doctrine of this school, these four bodies, separated according to +their natural heaviness and lightness, form a principle which suffices +for all generation, the Cartesians, Gassendists, and other modern +philosophers, ought to maintain that the motion, situation, and form of +the particles of matter, are sufficient for the production of all +natural effects, without excepting even the general arrangement which +has placed the earth, the air, the water, and the stars where we see +them. Thus, the true cause of the world, and of the effect which it +produces, is not different from the cause which has bestowed motion on +particles of matter—whether at the same time that it assigned to each +atom a determinate figure, as the Gassendists assert, or that it has +only given to particles entirely cubic, an impulsion which, by the +duration of the motion according to certain laws, makes it ultimately +take all sorts of forms—which is the hypothesis of the Cartesians. Both +the one and the other consequently agree, that if matter had been, +before the generation of the present world, as Ovid describes, it would +have been capable of withdrawing itself from chaos by its own necessary +operation, without the assistance of God. Ovid may therefore be accused +of two oversights—having supposed, in the first place, that without the +assistance of the Divinity, matter possessed the seeds of every +compound, heat, motion, etc.; and in the second, that without the same +assistance it could extricate itself from confusion. This is to give at +once too much and too little to both God and matter; it is to pass over +assistance when most needed, and to demand it when no longer necessary."</p> + +<p>Ovid may still reply: "You are wrong in supposing that my elements +originally possessed all the qualities which they possess at present. +They had no qualities; matter existed naked, unformed, and powerless; +and when I say, that in my chaos, heat was mingled with cold, and +dryness with humidity, I only employ these expressions to signify that +there was neither cold, nor heat, nor wet, nor dry, which are qualities +that God has placed in our sensations, and not in matter. I have not +made the mistakes of which you accuse me. Your Cartesians and your +Gassendists commit oversights with their atoms and their cubic +particles; and their imaginations deal as little in truth as my +"Metamorphoses". I prefer Daphne changed into a laurel, and Narcissus +into a flower, to subtile matter changed into suns, and denser matter +transformed into earth and water. I have given you fables for fables, +and your philosophers have given you fables for truth."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PARADISE" id="PARADISE"></a>PARADISE.</h3> + + +<p>There is no word whose meaning is more remote from its etymology. It is +well known that it originally meant a place planted with fruit trees; +and afterwards, the name was given to gardens planted with trees for +shade. Such, in distant antiquity, were those of Saana, near Eden, in +Arabia Felix, known long before the hordes of the Hebrews had invaded a +part of the territory of Palestine.</p> + +<p>This word "paradise" is not celebrated among the Jews, except in the +Book of Genesis. Some Jewish canonical writers speak of gardens; but not +one of them has mentioned a word about the garden denominated the +"earthly paradise". How could it happen that no Jewish writer, no Jewish +prophet, or Jewish psalmodist, should have once cited that terrestrial +paradise which we are talking of every day of our lives? This is almost +incomprehensible. It has induced many daring critics to believe that +Genesis was not written till a very late period.</p> + +<p>The Jews never took this orchard or plantation of trees—this garden, +whether of plants or flowers—for heaven. St. Luke is the first who uses +the word "paradise," as signifying heaven, when Jesus Christ says to the +good thief: "This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise."</p> + +<p>The ancients gave the name of "heaven" to the clouds. That name would +not have been exactly appropriate, as the clouds actually touch the +earth by the vapors of which they are formed, and as heaven is a vague +word signifying an immense space in which exist innumerable suns, +planets, and comets, which has certainly but little resemblance to an +orchard.</p> + +<p>St. Thomas says that there are three paradises—the terrestrial, the +celestial, and the spiritual. I do not, I acknowledge, perfectly +understand the difference between the spiritual and celestial. The +spiritual orchard is according to him, the beatific vision. But it is +precisely that which constitutes the celestial paradise, it is the +enjoyment of God Himself. I do not presume to dispute against the "angel +of the schools." I merely say—Happy must he be who always resides in +one of these three paradises!</p> + +<p>Some curious critics have thought the paradise of the Hesperides, +guarded by a dragon, was an imitation of the garden of Eden, kept by a +winged ox or a cherub. Others, more rash, have ventured to assert that +the ox was a bad copy of the dragon, and that the Jews were always gross +plagiarists; but this will be admitted to be blasphemy, and that idea is +insupportable.</p> + +<p>Why has the name of paradise been applied to the square courts in the +front of a church? Why has the third row of boxes at the theatre or +opera house been called paradise? Is it because, as these places are +less dear than others, it was thought they were intended for the poor, +and because it is pretended that in the other paradise there are far +more poor persons than rich? Is it because these boxes are so high that +they have obtained a name which also signifies heaven? There is, +however, some difference between ascending to heaven, and ascending to +the third row of boxes. What would a stranger think on his arrival at +Paris, when asked: "Are you inclined to go to paradise to see +Pourceaugnac?"</p> + +<p>What incongruities and equivoques are to be found in all languages! How +strongly is human weakness manifested in every object that is presented +around us! See the article "Paradise" in the great Encyclopædia. It is +certainly better than this. We conclude with the Abbé de St. Pierre's +favorite sentiment—"Paradise to the beneficent."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PASSIONS" id="PASSIONS"></a>PASSIONS.</h3> + +<h4><i>Their Influence Upon The Body, And That Of The Body Upon Them.</i></h4> + + +<p>Pray inform me, doctor—I do not mean a doctor of medicine, who really +possesses some degree of knowledge, who has long examined the +sinuosities of the brain, who has investigated whether there is a +circulating fluid in the nerves, who has repeatedly and assiduously +dissected the human matrix in vain, to discover something of the +formation of thinking beings, and who, in short, knows all of our +machine that can be known; alas! I mean a very different person, a +doctor of theology—I adjure you, by that reason at the very name of +which you shudder, tell me why it is, that in consequence of your young +and handsome housekeeper saying a few loving words, and giving herself a +few coquettish airs, your blood becomes instantly agitated, and your +whole frame thrown into a tumult of desire, which speedily leads to +pleasures, of which neither herself nor you can explain the cause, but +which terminate with the introduction into the world of a thinking being +encrusted all over with original sin. Inform me, I entreat you, how the +action tends to or is connected with the result? You may read and +re-read Sanchez and Thomas Aquinas, and Scot and Bonaventure, but you +will never in consequence know an iota the more of that incomprehensible +mechanism by which the eternal architect directs your ideas and your +actions, and originates the little bastard of a priest predestined to +damnation from all eternity.</p> + +<p>On the following morning, when taking your chocolate, your memory +retraces the image of pleasure which you experienced the evening before, +and the scene and rapture are repeated. Have you any idea, my great +automaton friend, what this same memory, which you possess in common +with every species of animals, really is? Do you know what fibres recall +your ideas, and paint in your brain the joys of the evening by a +continuous sentiment, a consciousness, a personal identity which slept +with you, and awoke with you? The doctor replies, in the language of +Thomas Aquinas, that all this is the work of his vegetative soul, his +sensitive soul, and his intellectual soul, all three of which compose a +soul which, although without extension itself, evidently acts on a body +possessed of extension in course.</p> + +<p>I perceived by his embarrassed manner, that he has been stammering out +words without a single idea; and I at length say to him: If you feel, +doctor, that, however reluctantly, you must in your own mind admit that +you do not know what a soul is, and that you have been talking all your +life without any distinct meaning, why not acknowledge it like an honest +man? Why do you not conclude the same as must be concluded from the +physical promotion of Doctor Bourssier, and from certain passages of +Malebranche, and, above all, from the acute and judicious Locke, so far +superior to Malebranche—why do you not, I say, conclude that your soul +is a faculty which God has bestowed on you without disclosing to you the +secret of His process, as He has bestowed on you various others? Be +assured, that many men of deep reflection maintain that, properly +speaking, the unknown power of the Divine Artificer, and His unknown +laws, alone perform everything in us: and that, to speak more correctly +still, we shall never know in fact anything at all about the matter.</p> + +<p>The doctor at this becomes agitated and irritated; the blood rushes into +his face; if he had been stronger than myself, and had not been +restrained by a sense of decency, he would certainly have struck me. His +heart swells; the systole and diastole are interrupted in their regular +operation; his brain is compressed; and he falls down in a fit of +apoplexy. What connection could there be between this blood, and heart, +and brain, and an old opinion of the doctor contrary to my own? Does a +pure intellectual spirit fall into syncope when another is of a +different opinion? I have uttered certain sounds; he has uttered certain +sounds; and behold! he falls down in apoplexy—he drops dead!</p> + +<p>I am sitting at table, "<i>prima mensis,</i>" in the first of the month, +myself and my soul, at the Sorbonne, with five or six doctors, "<i>socii +Sorbonnici,</i>" fellows of the institution. We are served with bad and +adulterated wine; at first our souls are elevated and maddened; half an +hour afterwards our souls are stupefied, and as it were annihilated; and +on the ensuing morning these same worthy doctors issue a grand decree, +deciding that the soul, although occupying no place, let it be +remembered, and absolutely immaterial—is lodged in the "<i>corpus +callosum</i>" of the brain, in order to pay their court to surgeon La +Peyronie.</p> + +<p>A guest is sitting at table full of conversation and gayety. A letter is +brought him that overwhelms him with astonishment, grief, and +apprehension. Instantly the muscles of his abdomen contract and relax +with extraordinary violence, the peristaltic motion of the intestines is +augmented, the sphincter of the rectum is opened by the convulsions +which agitate his frame, and the unfortunate gentleman, instead of +finishing his dinner in comfort, produces a copious evacuation. Tell me, +then, what secret connection nature has established between an idea and +a water-closet.</p> + +<p>Of all those persons who have undergone the operation of trepanning, a +great proportion always remain imbecile. Of course, therefore, the +thinking fibres of their brain have been injured; but where are these +thinking fibres? Oh, Sanchez! Oh, Masters de Grillandis, Tamponet, +Riballier! Oh, Cogé-Pecus, second regent and rector of the university, +do give me a clear, decisive, and satisfactory explanation of all this, +if you possibly can!</p> + +<p>While I was writing this article at Mount Krapak for my own private +improvement, a book was brought to me called "The Medicine of the Mind," +by Doctor Camus, professor of medicine in the University of Paris. I was +in hopes of finding in this book a solution of all my difficulties. But +what was it that I found in fact? Just nothing at all. Ah, Master Camus! +you have not displayed much mind in preparing your "Medicine of the +Mind." This person strongly recommends the blood of an ass, drawn from +behind the ear, as a specific against madness. "The virtue of the blood +of an ass," he says, "re-establishes the soul in its functions." He +maintains, also, that madmen are cured by giving them the itch. He +asserts, likewise, that in order to gain or strengthen a memory, the +meat of capons, leverets, and larks, is of eminent service, and that +onions and butter ought to be avoided above all things. This was printed +in 1769 with the king's approbation and privilege; and there really were +people who consigned their health to the keeping of Master Camus, +professor of medicine! Why was he not made first physician to the king?</p> + +<p>Poor puppets of the Eternal Artificer, who know neither why nor how an +invisible hand moves all the springs of our machine, and at length packs +us away in our wooden box! We constantly see more and more reason for +repeating, with Aristotle, All is occult, all is secret.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><a name="PAUL" id="PAUL"></a>PAUL.</h3> + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<h4><i>Questions Concerning Paul.</i></h4> + + +<p>Was Paul a Roman citizen, as he boasted? If he was a native of Tarsus in +Cilicia, Tarsus was not a Roman colony until a hundred years after his +death; upon this point all antiquaries are agreed. If he belonged to the +little town or village of Gescala, as St. Jerome believed, this town was +in Galilee, and certainly the Galileans were not Roman citizens.</p> + +<p>Is it true, that St. Paul entered into the rising society of Christians, +who at that time were demi-Jews, only because Gamaliel, whose disciple +he was, refused him his daughter in marriage? It appears that this +accusation is to be found exclusively in the Acts of the Apostles, which +are received by the Ebionites, and refuted by the Bishop Epiphanius in +his thirtieth chapter.</p> + +<p>Is it true, that St. Thecla sought St. Paul in the disguise of a man, +and are the acts of St. Thecla admissible? Tertullian, in the thirteenth +chapter of his book on "Baptism," maintains that this history was +composed by a priest attached to Paul. Jerome and Cyprian, in refuting +the story of the lion baptized by St. Thecla, affirm the genuineness of +these acts, in which we find that singular portrait of St. Paul, which +we have already recorded. "He was fat, short, and broad shouldered; his +dark eyebrows united across his aquiline nose; his legs were crooked, +his head bald, and he was full of the grace of the Lord." This is pretty +nearly his portrait in the "Philopatris" of Lucian, with the exception +of "the grace of God," with which Lucian unfortunately had no +acquaintance.</p> + +<p>Is Paul to be reprehended for his reproof of the Judaizing of St. Peter, +who himself Judaized for eight days together in the temple of Jerusalem? +When Paul was traduced before the governor of Judæa for having +introduced strangers into the temple, was it proper for him to say to +the governor, that he was prosecuted on account of his teaching the +resurrection of the dead, whilst of the resurrection of the dead nothing +was said at all.</p> + +<p>Did Paul do right in circumcising his disciple Timothy, after having +written to the Galatians, that if they were circumcised Jesus would not +profit them? Was it well to write to the Corinthians, chap. ix.: Have we +not power to eat and drink at your expense? "Have we not power to lead +about a sister, a wife?" etc. Was it proper to write in his Second +Epistle to the Corinthians, that he will pardon none of them, neither +those who have sinned nor others? What should we think at present of a +man who pretended to live at our expense, himself, and his wife; and to +judge and to punish us, confounding the innocent with the guilty? What +are we to understand by the ascension of Paul into the third +heaven?—what is the third heaven? Which is the most probable—humanly +speaking? Did St. Paul become a Christian in consequence of being thrown +from a horse by the appearance of a great light at noon day, from which +a celestial voice exclaimed: Saul, "Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" or +was it in consequence of being irritated against the Pharisees, either +by the refusal of Gamaliel to give him his daughter, or by some other +cause?</p> + +<p>In all other history, the refusal of Gamaliel would appear more probable +than the celestial voice; especially if, moreover, we were not obliged +to believe in this miracle. I only ask these questions in order to be +instructed; and I request all those who are willing to instruct me to +speak reasonably.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>The Epistles of St. Paul are so sublime, it is often difficult to +understand them. Many young bachelors demand the precise signification +of the following words: "Every man praying or prophesying, having his +head covered, dishonoreth his head." What does he mean by the words: "I +have learned from the Lord, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which +He was betrayed, took bread?"</p> + +<p>How could he learn anything from that Jesus Christ to Whom he had never +spoken, and to Whom he had been a most cruel enemy, without ever having +seen Him? Was it by inspiration, or by the recital of the apostles? or +did he learn it when the celestial light caused him to fall from his +horse? He does not inform us on this point.</p> + +<p>The following again: "The woman shall be saved in child-bearing." This +is certainly to encourage population: it appears not that St. Paul +founded convents. He speaks of seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; +of those whose consciences are seared up with a red-hot iron, who forbid +to marry, and command to abstain from meats. This is very strong. It +appears that he abjured monks, nuns, and fast-days. Explain this +contradiction; deliver me from this cruel embarrassment.</p> + +<p>What is to be said of the passage in which he recommends the bishops to +have one wife?—"<i>Unius uxoris virum.</i>" This is positive. He permits the +bishops to have but one wife, whilst the Jewish pontiffs might have +several. He says unequivocally, that the last judgment will happen +during his own time, that Jesus will descend from on high, as described +by St. Luke, and that St. Paul and the righteous inhabitants of +Thessalonica will be caught up to Him in the air, etc.</p> + +<p>Has this occurred? or is it an allegory, a figure? Did he actually +believe that he should make this journey, or that he had been caught up +into the third heaven? Which is the third heaven? How will he ascend +into the air? Has he been there? "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, +the Father of Glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom." Is this +acknowledging Jesus to be the same God as the Father? He has manifested +His power over Jesus "when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at +His own right hand." Does this constitute the divinity of Jesus?</p> + +<p>"Thou madest him (Jesus) a little lower than angels; thou crownedst him +with glory." If He is inferior to angels—is He God?</p> + +<p>"For if by one man's offence death reigneth, much more they who receive +of the abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign +in life by one Jesus Christ." Almost man and never God, except in a +single passage contested by Erasmus, Grotius, Le Clerc, etc.</p> + +<p>"Children of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." Is not this +constantly regarding Jesus as one of us, although superior by the grace +of God? "To God, alone wise, honor and glory, through Jesus Christ." How +are we to understand these passages literally, without fearing to offend +Jesus Christ; or, in a more extended sense, without the risk of +offending God the Father?</p> + +<p>There are many more passages of this kind, which exercise the sagacity +of the learned. The commentators differ, and we pretend not to possess +any light which can remove the obscurity. We submit with heart and mouth +to the decision of the Church. We have also taken some trouble to +penetrate into the meaning of the following passages:</p> + +<p>"For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keepest the law; but if thou +be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." "Now +we know, that whatever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the +law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become +guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be +justified; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.... Seeing that it is +one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and +uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law, through +faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." "For if Abraham was +justified by his works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God."</p> + +<p>We fear that even the ingenuous and profound Dom Calmet himself gives us +not, upon these somewhat obscure passages, a light which dissipates all +our darkness. It is without doubt our own fault that we do not +understand the commentators, and are deprived of that complete +conception of the text, which is given only to privileged souls. As +soon, however, as an explanation shall come from the chair of truth, we +shall comprehend the whole perfectly.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>Let us add this little supplement to the article "Paul." It is better to +edify ourselves with the Epistles of this apostle, than to weaken our +piety by calumniating the times and persons for which they were written. +The learned search in vain for the year and the day in which St. Paul +assisted to stone St. Stephen, and to guard the mantles of his +executioners.</p> + +<p>They dispute on the year in which he was thrown from his horse by a +miraculous light at noonday, and on the epoch of his being borne away +into the third heaven. They can agree neither upon the year in which he +was conducted to Rome, nor that in which he died. They are unacquainted +with the date of any of his letters. St. Jerome, in his commentary on +the "Epistle to Philemon" says that Paul might signify the <i>embouchure</i> +of a flute.</p> + +<p>The letters of St. Paul to Seneca, and from Seneca to St. Paul, were +accounted as authentic in the primitive ages of the Church, as all the +rest of the Christian writings. St. Jerome asserts their authenticity, +and quotes passages from these letters in his catalogue. St. Augustine +doubts them not in his 153d letter to Macedonius. We have thirty letters +of these two great men, Paul and Seneca, who, it is pretended, were +linked together by a strict friendship in the court of Nero. The seventh +letter from Paul to Seneca is very curious. He tells him that the Jews +and the Christians were often burned as incendiaries at Rome:</p> + +<p>"<i>Christiani et Judæi tanquam machinatores incendii supplicio affici +solent.</i>" It is in fact probable, that the Jews and the Christians, +whose mutual enmity was extremely violent, reciprocally accused each +other of setting the city on fire; and that the scorn and horror felt +towards the Jews, with whom the Christians were usually confounded, +rendered them equally the objects of public suspicion and vengeance.</p> + +<p>We are obliged to acknowledge, that the epistolary correspondence of +Seneca and Paul is in a ridiculous and barbarous Latin; that the +subjects of these letters are as inconsistent as the style; and that at +present they are regarded as forgeries. But, then, may we venture to +contradict the testimony of St. Jerome and St. Augustine? If writings, +attested by them, are nothing but vile impostures, how shall we be +certain of the authenticity of others more respectable? Such is the +important objection of many learned persons. If we are unworthily +deceived, say they, in relation to the letters of Paul and Seneca on the +Apostolical Institutes, and the Acts of St. Peter, why may we not be +equally imposed upon by the Acts of the Apostles? The decision of the +Church and faith are unequivocal answers to all these researches of +science and suggestions of the understanding.</p> + +<p>It is not known upon what foundation Abdias, first bishop of Babylon, +says, in his "History of the Apostles," that St. Paul caused St. James +the Less to be stoned by the people. Before he was converted, however, +he might as readily persecute St. James as St. Stephen. He was certainly +very violent, because it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, that he +"breathed threatenings and slaughter". Abdias has also taken care to +observe, that the mover of the sedition in which St. James was so +cruelly treated, was the same Paul whom God had since called to the +apostleship.</p> + +<p>This book, attributed to Abdias, is not admitted into the canon; but +Julius Africanus, who has translated it into Latin, believes it to be +authentic. Since, however, the church has not admitted it, <i>we</i> must not +admit it. Let us content ourselves with adoring Providence, and wishing +that all persecutors were transformed into charitable and compassionate +apostles.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PERSECUTION" id="PERSECUTION"></a>PERSECUTION.</h3> + + +<p>I will not call Diocletian a persecutor, for he protected the Christians +for eighteen years; and if, during his latter days, he did not save them +from the resentment of Galerius, he only furnished the example of a +prince seduced, like many others, by intrigue and cabal, into a conduct +unworthy of his character. I will still less give the name of persecutor +to Trajan or Antonius. I should regard myself as uttering blasphemy.</p> + +<p>What is a persecutor? He whose wounded pride and fanaticism irritate +princes and magistrates into fury against innocent men, whose only crime +is that of being of a different opinion. Impudent man! you have +worshipped God; you have preached and practised virtue; you have served +and assisted man; you have protected the orphan, have succored the poor; +you have changed deserts, in which slaves dragged on a miserable +existence, into fertile districts peopled with happy families; but I +have discovered that you despise me, and have never read my +controversial work. I will, therefore, seek the confessor of the prime +minister, or the magistrate; I will show them, with outstretched neck +and twisted mouth, that you hold an erroneous opinion in relation to the +cells in which the Septuagint was studied; that you have even spoken +disrespectfully for these ten years past of Tobit's dog, which you +assert to have been a spaniel, whilst I maintain that it was a +greyhound. I will denounce you as the enemy of God and man! Such is the +language of the persecutor; and if these words do not precisely issue +from his lips, they are engraven on his heart with the graver of +fanaticism steeped in the gall of envy.</p> + +<p>It was thus that the Jesuit Letellier dared to persecute Cardinal de +Noailles, and that Jurieu persecuted Bayle. When the persecution of the +Protestants commenced in France, it was not Francis I., nor Henry II., +nor Francis II., who sought out these unfortunate people, who hardened +themselves against them with reflective bitterness, and who delivered +them to the flames in the spirit of vengeance. Francis I. was too much +engaged with the Duchess d'Étampes; Henry II., with his ancient Diana, +and Francis II. was too much a child. Who, then, commenced these +persecutions? Jealous priests, who enlisted in their service the +prejudices of magistrates and the policy of ministers.</p> + +<p>If these monarchs had not been deceived, if they had foreseen that these +persecutions would produce half a century of civil war, and that the two +parts of the nation would mutually exterminate each other, they would +have extinguished with their tears the first piles which they allowed to +be lighted. Oh, God of mercy! if any man can resemble that malignant +being who is described as actually employed in the destruction of Your +works, is it not the persecutor?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PETER_SAINT" id="PETER_SAINT"></a>PETER (SAINT).</h3> + + +<p>Why have the successors of St. Peter possessed so much power in the West +and none in the East? This is just the same as to ask why the bishops of +Würzburg and Salzburg obtained for themselves regal prerogatives in a +period of anarchy, while the Greek bishops always remained subjects. +Time, opportunity, the ambition of some, and the weakness of others, +have done and will do everything in the world. We always except what +relates to religion. To this anarchy, must be added opinion; and opinion +is the queen of mankind. Not that, in fact, they have any very clear and +definite opinion of their own, but words answer the same end with them.</p> + +<p>"I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." The zealous +partisans of the bishop of Rome contended, about the eleventh century, +that whoever gives the greater gives the less; that heaven surrounded +the earth; and that, as Peter had the keys of the container, he had also +the keys of what was contained. If by heaven we understand all the stars +and planets, it is evident, according to Tomasius, that the keys given +to Simon Barjonas, surnamed Peter, were a universal passport. If we +understand by heaven the clouds, the atmosphere, the ether, and the +space in which the planets revolve, no smith in the world, as Meursius +observes, could ever make a key for such gates as these. Railleries, +however, are not reasons.</p> + +<p>Keys in Palestine were wooden latches with strings to them. Jesus says +to Barjonas, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in +heaven." The pope's clergy concluded from these words, that the popes +had received authority to bind and unbind the people's oath of fidelity +to their kings, and to dispose of kingdoms at their pleasure. This +certainly was concluding magnificently. The Commons in the +states-general of France, in 1302, say, in their memorial to the king, +that "Boniface VIII. was a b—— for believing that God bound and +imprisoned in heaven what Boniface bound on earth." A famous German +Lutheran—the great Melancthon—could not endure the idea of Jesus +having said to Simon Barjonas, Cepha or Cephas, "Thou art Peter, and +upon this rock will I build my assembly, my church." He could not +conceive that God would use such a play of words, and that the power of +the pope could have been established on a pun. Such a doubt, however, +can be indulged only by a Protestant.</p> + +<p>Peter has been considered as having been bishop of Rome; but it is well +known that, in the apostolic age, and long after, there was no +particular and appropriate bishopric. The society of Christians did not +assume a regular form until about the middle of the second century. It +may be true that Peter went to Rome, and even that he was crucified with +his head downwards, although that was not the usual mode of crucifixion; +but we have no proof whatever of all this. We have a letter under his +name, in which he says that he is at Babylon: acute and shrewd canonists +have contended that, by Babylon, we ought to understand Rome; and on the +same principle, if he had dated at Rome, we might have concluded that +the letter had been written at Babylon. Men have long been in the habit +of drawing such reasonable and judicious inferences as these; and it is +in this manner that the world has been governed.</p> + +<p>There was once a clergyman who, after having been made to pay +extortionately for a benefice at Rome—an offence known by the name of +simony—happened to be asked, some time afterwards, whether he thought +Simon Peter had ever been in that city? He replied, "I do not think that +Peter was ever there, but I am sure Simon was."</p> + +<p>With respect to the personal character and behavior of St. Peter, it +must be acknowledged that Paul is not the only one who was scandalized +at his conduct. He was often "withstood to the face," as well as his +successors. St. Paul vehemently reproached him with eating forbidden +meats: that is, pork, blood-pudding, hare, eels, the ixion, and the +griffin; Peter vindicated himself by saying that he had seen heaven +opened about the sixth hour, and as it were a great sheet descending +from the four corners of it, which was filled with creeping things, +quadrupeds, and birds, while the voice of an angel called out to him, +saying, "Kill and eat." This, says Woolston, seems to have been the same +voice which has called out to so many pontiffs since, "Kill everything; +eat up the substance of the people." But this reproach is much too +strong.</p> + +<p>Casaubon cannot by any means bring himself to approve the manner in +which St. Peter treated Ananias and Sapphira, his wife. "By what right," +says Casaubon, "did a Jew slave of the Romans order or permit that all +those who believed in Jesus should sell their inheritance, and lay down +the price paid for it at his feet?" If an Anabaptist at London was to +order all the money belonging to his brethren to be brought and laid at +his feet, would he not be apprehended as a seditious seducer, as a thief +who would certainly be hanged at Tyburn? Was it not abominable to kill +Ananias, because, after having sold his property and delivered over the +bulk of the produce to Peter, he had retained for himself and his wife a +few crowns for any case of necessity, without mentioning it? Scarcely, +moreover, has Ananias expired, before his wife arrives. Peter, instead +of warning her charitably that he had just destroyed her husband by +apoplexy for having kept back a few oboli, and cautioning her therefore +to look well to herself, leads her as it were intentionally into the +snare. He asks her if her husband has given all his money to the saints; +the poor woman replies in the affirmative, and dies instantly. This is +certainly rather severe.</p> + +<p>Corringius asks, why Peter, who thus killed the persons that had given +him alms and showed him kindness, did not rather go and destroy all the +learned doctors who had brought Jesus Christ to the cross, and who more +than once brought a scourging on himself. "Oh, Peter!" says Corringius, +"you put to death two Christians who bestowed alms on you, and at the +same time suffer those to live who crucified your God!"</p> + +<p>In the reigns of Henry IV., and Louis XIII., we had an advocate-general +of the parliament of Provence, a man of quality, called d'Oraison de +Torame, who, in a book respecting the church militant, dedicated to +Henry IV., has appropriated a whole chapter to the sentences pronounced +by St. Peter in criminal causes. He says, that the sentence pronounced +by Peter on Ananias and Sapphira was executed by God Himself, "in the +very terms and forms of spiritual jurisdiction." His whole book is in +the same strain; but Corringius, as we perceive, is of a different +opinion from that of our sagacious and liberal provincial advocate. It +is pretty evident that Corringius was not in the country of the +Inquisition when he published his bold remarks.</p> + +<p>Erasmus, in relation to St. Peter, remarked a somewhat curious +circumstance, which is, that the chief of the Christian religion began +his apostleship with denying Jesus Christ, and that the first pontiff of +the Jews commenced his ministry by making a golden calf and worshipping +it.</p> + +<p>However that may be, Peter is described as a poor man instructing the +poor. He resembles those founders of orders who lived in indigence, and +whose successors have become great lords and even princes.</p> + +<p>The pope, the successor of Peter, has sometimes gained and sometimes +lost; but there are still about fifty millions of persons in the world +submitting in many points to his laws, besides his own immediate +subjects.</p> + +<p>To obtain a master three or four hundred leagues from home; to suspend +your own opinion and wait for what he puts forth as his; not to dare to +give a final decision on a cause relating to certain of our +fellow-citizens, but through commissioners appointed by this stranger; +not to dare to take possession of certain fields and vineyards granted +by our own sovereign, without paying a considerable sum to this foreign +master; to violate the laws of our country, which prohibit a man's +marriage with his niece, and marry her legitimately by giving this +foreign master a sum still more considerable than the former one; not to +dare to cultivate one's field on the day this stranger is inclined to +celebrate the memory of some unknown person whom he has chosen to +introduce into heaven by his own sole authority; such are a part only of +the conveniences and comforts of admitting the jurisdiction of a pope; +such, if we may believe Marsais, are the liberties of the Gallican +Church.</p> + +<p>There are some other nations that carry their submission further. We +have, in our own time, actually known a sovereign request permission of +the pope to try in his own courts certain monks accused of parricide, +and able neither to obtain this permission nor to venture on such trial +without it!</p> + +<p>It is well known that, formerly, the power of the popes extended +further. They were far above the gods of antiquity; for the latter were +merely supposed to dispose of empires, but the popes disposed of them in +fact. Sturbinus says, that we may pardon those who entertain doubts of +the divinity and infallibility of the pope, when we reflect: that forty +schisms have profaned the chair of St. Peter, twenty-seven of which have +been marked by blood; that Stephen VII., the son of a priest, +disinterred the corpse of Formosus, his predecessor, and had the head of +it cut off; that Sergius III., convicted of assassinations, had a son by +Marozia, who inherited the popedom; that John X., the paramour of +Theodora, was strangled in her bed; that John XI., son of Sergius III., +was known only by his gross intemperance; that John XII. was +assassinated in the apartments of his mistress; that Benedict IX. both +bought and sold the pontificate; that Gregory VII. was the author of +five hundred years of civil war, carried on by his successors; that, +finally, among so many ambitious, sanguinary, and debauched popes, there +was an Alexander VI., whose name is pronounced with the same horror as +those of Nero and Caligula.</p> + +<p>It is, we are told, a proof of the divinity of their character, that it +has subsisted in connection with so many crimes; but according to this, +if the caliphs had displayed still more atrocious and abominable +conduct, they would have been still more divine. This argument, +inferring their divinity from their wickedness, is urged by Dermius. He +has been properly answered; but the best reply is to be found in the +mitigated authority which the bishops of Rome at present exercise with +discretion; in the long possession which the emperors permit them to +enjoy, because in fact they are unable to deprive them of it; and in the +system of the balance of power, which is watched with jealousy by every +court in Europe.</p> + +<p>It has been contended, and very lately, that there are only two nations +which could invade Italy and crush Rome. These are the Turks and +Russians; but they are necessarily enemies; and, besides, I cannot +distinctly anticipate misfortunes so distant.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Je ne sais point prévoir les malheurs de si loin.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">—<span class="small">RACINE</span>, <i>Andromache,</i> act. i, scene 2.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PETER_THE_GREAT_AND_JJ_ROUSSEAU" id="PETER_THE_GREAT_AND_JJ_ROUSSEAU"></a>PETER THE GREAT AND J.J. ROUSSEAU.</h3> + + +<p>"The Czar Peter ... had not true genius—that which creates and makes +all of nothing. Some things which he did were good; the greater part +were misplaced. He saw that his people were barbarous; he has not seen +that they were not prepared for polishing; he would civilize them when +they only wanted training. He wished at once to make Germans and English +when he should have commenced by making Russians. He prevented his +subjects from becoming what they might be, by persuading them that they +were what they are not. It is thus that a French preceptor forms his +pupil to shine for a moment in his childhood, and never afterwards to be +anything. The empire of Russia would subjugate Europe, and will be +subjugated itself. The Tartars, its subjects or neighbors, will become +its masters and ours. This revolution appears to me unavoidable: all the +kings of Europe labor together to accelerate it." (<i>Contrat Social,</i> +livre ii. chap. viii.) These words are extracted from a pamphlet +entitled the "<i>Contrat Social,</i>" or "unsocial," of the very unsociable +Jean Jacques Rousseau. It is not astonishing, that having performed +miracles at Venice he should prophesy on Moscow; but as he well knows +that the good time of miracles and prophecies has passed away, he ought +to believe, that his prediction against Russia is not so infallible as +it appeared to him in his first fit of divination. It is pleasant to +announce the fall of great empires; it consoles us for our littleness. +It will be a fine gain for philosophy, when we shall constantly behold +the Nogais Tartars—who can, I believe, bring twelve thousand men into +the field—coming to subjugate Russia, Germany, Italy, and France. But I +flatter myself, that the Emperor of China will not suffer it; he has +already acceded to perpetual peace, and as he has no more Jesuits about +him, he will not trouble Europe. Jean Jacques, who possesses, as he +himself believes, true genius, finds that Peter the Great had it not.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 349px;"> +<a name="Jean_Jacques_Rousseau" id="Jean_Jacques_Rousseau"></a> +<img src="images/im03_jj_rousseau.jpg" width="349" alt="JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU" title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">Jean Jacques Rousseau</span> +</div> + +<p>A Russian lord, a man of much wit, who sometimes amuses himself with +reading pamphlets, while reading this, remembered some lines of Molière, +implying, that three miserable authors took it into their heads, that it +was only necessary to be printed and bound in calf, to become important +personages and dispose of empires:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Il semble à trois gredins, dans leur petit cerveau,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Que pour être imprimés et reliés en veau,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Les voilà dans l'état d'importantes personnes,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Qu'avec leur plume ils font le destin des couronnes.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The Russians, says Jean Jacques, were never polished. I have seen some +at least very polite, and who had just, delicate, agreeable, cultivated, +and even logical minds, which Jean Jacques will find very extraordinary. +As he is very gallant, he will not fail to say, that they are formed at +the court of the empress of Russia, that her example has influenced +them: but that prevents not the correctness of his prophecy—that this +empire will soon be destroyed.</p> + +<p>This good little man assures us, in one of his modest works, that a +statue should be erected to him. It will not probably be either at +Moscow or St. Petersburg, that anyone will trouble himself to sculpture +Jean Jacques.</p> + +<p>I wish, in general, that when people judge of nations from their +garrets, they would be more honest and circumspect. Every poor devil can +say what he pleases of the Romans, Athenians, and ancient Persians. He +can deceive himself with impunity on the tribunes, comitia, and +dictatorships. He can govern in idea two or three thousand leagues of +country, whilst he is incapable of governing his servant girl. In a +romance, he can receive "an acrid kiss" from his Julia, and advise a +prince to espouse the daughter of a hangman. These are follies without +consequence—there are others which may have disastrous effects.</p> + +<p>Court fools were very discreet; they insulted the weak alone by their +buffooneries, and respected the powerful: country fools are at present +more bold. It will be answered, that Diogenes and Aretin were tolerated. +Granted; but a fly one day seeing a swallow wing away with a spider's +web, would do the same thing, and was taken.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>May we not say of these legislators who govern the universe at two sous +the sheet, and who from their garrets give orders to all kings, what +Homer said to Calchas?:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Os ede ta conta, taere essomena, pro theonta.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">He knew the past, present, and future.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It is a pity that the author of the little paragraph which we are going +to quote, knew nothing of the three times of which Homer speaks. "Peter +the Great," says he, "had not the genius which makes all of nothing." +Truly, Jean Jacques, I can easily believe it; for it is said that God +alone has this prerogative. "He has not seen that his people were not +prepared for polishing."</p> + +<p>In this case, it was admirable of the czar to prepare them. It appears +to me, that it is Jean Jacques who had not seen that he must make use of +the Germans and English to form Russians.</p> + +<p>"He has prevented his subjects from ever becoming what they might be," +etc. Yet these same Russians have become the conquerors of the Turks and +Tartars, the conquerors and legislators of the Crimea, and twenty +different nations. Their sovereign has given laws to nations of which +even the names were unknown in Europe.</p> + +<p>As to the prophecy of Jean Jacques, he may have exalted his soul +sufficiently to read the future. He has all the requisites of a prophet; +but as to the past and the present, it must be confessed that he knows +nothing about them. I doubt whether antiquity has anything comparable to +the boldness of sending four squadrons from the extremity of the Baltic +into the seas of Greece—of reigning at once over the Ægean and the +Euxine Seas—of carrying terror into Colchis, and to the Dardanelles—of +subjugating Taurida, and forcing the vizier Azem to fly from the shores +of the Danube to the gates of Adrianople.</p> + +<p>If Jean Jacques considers so many great actions which astonished the +attentive world as nothing, he must at least confess, that there was +some generosity in one Count Orloff, who having taken a vessel which +contained all the family and treasures of a pasha, sent him back both +his family and treasures. If the Russians were not prepared for +polishing in the time of Peter the Great, let us agree that they are now +prepared for greatness of soul; and that Jean Jacques is not quite +prepared for truth and reasoning. With regard to the future, we shall +know it when we have Ezekiels, Isaiahs, Habakkuks, and Micahs; but their +time has passed away; and if we dare say so much, it is to be feared +that it will never return.</p> + +<p>I confess that these lies, printed in relation to present times, always +astonish me. If these liberties are allowed in an age in which a +thousand volumes, a thousand newspapers and journals, are constantly +correcting each other, what faith can we have in those histories of +ancient times, which collected all vague rumors without consulting any +archives, which put into writing all that they had heard told by their +grandmothers in their childhood, very sure that no critic would discover +their errors?</p> + +<p>We had for a long time nine muses: wholesome criticism is the tenth, +which has appeared very lately. She existed not in the time of Cecrops, +of the first Bacchus, or of Sanchoniathon, Thaut, Bramah, etc. People +then wrote all they liked with impunity. At present we must be a little +more careful.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PHILOSOPHER" id="PHILOSOPHER"></a>PHILOSOPHER.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>Philosopher, "lover of wisdom," that is, "of truth." All philosophers +have possessed this two-fold character; there is not one among those of +antiquity who did not give examples of virtue to mankind, and lessons of +moral truth. They might be mistaken, and undoubtedly were so, on +subjects of natural philosophy; but that is of comparatively so little +importance to the conduct of life, that philosophers had then no need of +it. Ages were required to discover a part of the laws of nature. A +single day is sufficient to enable a sage to become acquainted with the +duties of man.</p> + +<p>The philosopher is no enthusiast; he does not set himself up for a +prophet; he does not represent himself as inspired by the gods. I shall +not therefore place in the rank of philosophers the ancient Zoroaster, +or Hermes, or Orpheus, or any of those legislators in whom the countries +of Chaldæa, Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Greece made their boast. Those who +called themselves the sons of gods were the fathers of imposture; and if +they employed falsehood to inculcate truths, they were unworthy of +inculcating them; they were not philosophers; they were at best only +prudent liars.</p> + +<p>By what fatality, disgraceful perhaps to the nations of the West, has it +happened that we are obliged to travel to the extremity of the East, in +order to find a sage of simple manners and character, without arrogance +and without imposture, who taught men how to live happy six hundred +years before our era, at a period when the whole of the North was +ignorant of the use of letters, and when the Greeks had scarcely begun +to distinguish themselves by wisdom? That sage is Confucius, who deemed +too highly of his character as a legislator for mankind, to stoop to +deceive them. What finer rule of conduct has ever been given since his +time, throughout the earth?</p> + +<p>"Rule a state as you rule a family; a man cannot govern his family well +without giving a good example; virtue should be common to the laborer +and the monarch; be active in preventing crimes, that you may lessen the +trouble of punishing them.</p> + +<p>"Under the good kings Yao and Xu, the Chinese were good; under the bad +kings Kie and Chu, they were wicked.</p> + +<p>"Do to another as to thyself; love mankind in general, but cherish those +who are good; forget injuries, but never benefits."</p> + +<p>I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of +virtue. Let us acknowledge that no legislator ever announced to the +world more useful truths.</p> + +<p>A multitude of Greek philosophers taught afterwards a morality equally +pure. Had they distinguished themselves only by their vain systems of +natural philosophy, their names would be mentioned at the present day +only in derision. If they are still respected, it is because they were +just, and because they taught mankind to be so.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to read certain passages of Plato, and particularly the +admirable exordium of the laws of Zaleucus, without experiencing an +ardent love of honorable and generous actions. The Romans have their +Cicero who alone is perhaps more valuable than all the philosophers of +Greece. After him come men more respectable still, but whom we may +almost despair of imitating; these are Epictetus in slavery, and the +Antonines and Julian upon a throne.</p> + +<p>Where is the citizen to be found among us who would deprive himself, +like Julian, Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius, of all the refined +accommodations of our delicate and luxurious modes of living? Who would, +like them, sleep on the bare ground? Who would restrict himself to their +frugal habits? Who would, like them, march bareheaded and barefooted at +the head of the armies, exposed sometimes to the burning sun, and at +other times to the freezing blast? Who would, like them, keep perfect +mastery of all his passions? We have among us devotees, but where are +the sages? where are the souls just and tolerant, serene and undaunted?</p> + +<p>There have been some philosophers of the closet in France; and all of +them, with the exception of Montaigne, have been persecuted. It seems to +me the last degree of malignity that our nature can exhibit, to attempt +to oppress those who devote their best endeavors to correct and improve +it.</p> + +<p>I can easily conceive of the fanatics of one sect slaughtering those of +another sect; that the Franciscans should hate the Dominicans, and that +a bad artist should cabal and intrigue for the destruction of an artist +that surpasses him; but that the sage Charron should have been menaced +with the loss of life; that the learned and noble-minded Ramus should +have been actually assassinated; that Descartes should have been obliged +to withdraw to Holland in order to escape the rage of ignorance; that +Gassendi should have been often compelled to retire to Digne, far +distant from the calumnies of Paris, are events that load a nation with +eternal opprobrium.</p> + +<p>One of the philosophers who were most persecuted, was the immortal +Bayle, the honor of human nature. I shall be told that the name of +Jurieu, his slanderer and persecutor, is become execrable; I acknowledge +that it is so; that of the Jesuit Letellier is become so likewise; but +is it the less true that the great men whom he oppressed ended their +days in exile and penury?</p> + +<p>One of the pretexts made use of for reducing Bayle to poverty, was his +article on David, in his valuable dictionary. He was reproached with not +praising actions which were in themselves unjust, sanguinary, atrocious, +contrary to good faith, or grossly offensive to decency.</p> + +<p>Bayle certainly has not praised David for having, according to the +Hebrew historian, collected six hundred vagabonds overwhelmed with debts +and crimes; for having pillaged his countrymen at the head of these +banditti; for having resolved to destroy Nabal and his whole family, +because he refused paying contributions to him; for having hired out his +services to King Achish, the enemy of his country; for having afterwards +betrayed Achish, notwithstanding his kindness to him; for having sacked +the villages in alliance with that king; for having massacred in these +villages every human being, including even infants at the breast, that +no one might be found on a future day to give testimony of his +depredations, as if an infant could have possibly disclosed his +villainy; for having destroyed all the inhabitants of some other +villages under saws, and harrows, and axes, and in brick-kilns; for +having wrested the throne from Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, by an act of +perfidy; for having despoiled of his property and afterwards put to +death Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul, and son of his own peculiar +friend and generous protector, Jonathan; or for having delivered up to +the Gibeonites two other sons of Saul, and five of his grandsons who +perished by the gallows.</p> + +<p>I do not notice the extreme incontinence of David, his numerous +concubines, his adultery with Bathsheba, or his murder of Uriah.</p> + +<p>What then! is it possible that the enemies of Bayle should have expected +or wished him to eulogize all these cruelties and crimes? Ought he to +have said: Go, ye princes of the earth, and imitate the man after God's +own heart; massacre without pity the allies of your benefactor; destroy +or deliver over to destruction the whole family of your king; +appropriate to your own pleasures all the women, while you are pouring +out the blood of the men; and you will thus exhibit models of human +virtue, especially if, in addition to all the rest, you do but compose a +book of psalms?</p> + +<p>Was not Bayle perfectly correct in his observation, that if David was +the man after God's own heart, it must have been by his penitence, and +not by his crimes? Did not Bayle perform a service to the human race +when he said, that God, who undoubtedly dictated the Jewish history, has +not consecrated all the crimes recorded in that history?</p> + +<p>However, Bayle was in fact persecuted, and by whom? By the very men who +had been elsewhere persecuted themselves; by refugees who in their own +country would have been delivered over to the flames; and these refugees +were opposed by other refugees called Jansenists, who had been driven +from their own country by the Jesuits; who have at length been +themselves driven from it in their turn.</p> + +<p>Thus all the persecutors declare against each other mortal war, while +the philosopher, oppressed by them all, contents himself with pitying +them.</p> + +<p>It is not generally known, that Fontenelle, in 1718, was on the point of +losing his pensions, place, and liberty, for having published in France, +twenty years before, what may be called an abridgement of the learned +Van Dale's "Treatise on Oracles", in which he had taken particular care +to retrench and modify the original work, so as to give no unnecessary +offence to fanaticism. A Jesuit had written against Fontenelle, and he +had not deigned to make him any reply; and that was enough to induce the +Jesuit Letellier, confessor to Louis XIV., to accuse Fontenelle to the +king of atheism.</p> + +<p>But for the fortunate mediation of M. d'Argenson, the son of a forging +solicitor of Vire—a son worthy of such a father, as he was detected in +forgery himself—would have proscribed, in his old age, the nephew of +the great Corneille.</p> + +<p>It is so easy for a confessor to seduce his penitent, that we ought to +bless God that Letellier did no more harm than is justly imputed to him. +There are two situations in which seduction and calumny cannot easily be +resisted—the bed and the confessional.</p> + +<p>We have always seen philosophers persecuted by fanatics. But can it be +really possible, that men of letters should be seen mixed up in a +business so odious; and that they should often be observed sharpening +the weapons against their brethren, by which they are themselves almost +universally destroyed or wounded in their turn. Unhappy men of letters, +does it become you to turn informers? Did the Romans ever find a +Garasse, a Chaumeix, or a Hayet, to accuse a Lucretius, a Posidonius, a +Varro, or a Pliny?</p> + +<p>How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how horrible is +it to be a mischievous and malignant hypocrite! There were no hypocrites +in ancient Rome, which reckoned us a small portion of its innumerable +subjects. There were impostors, I admit, but not religious hypocrites, +which are the most profligate and cruel species of all. Why is it that +we see none such in England, and whence does it arise that there still +are such in France? Philosophers, you will solve this problem with ease.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>This brilliant and beautiful name has been sometimes honored, and +sometimes disgraced; like that of poet, mathematician, monk, priest, and +everything dependent on opinion. Domitian banished the philosophers, and +Lucian derided them. But what sort of philosophers and mathematicians +were they whom the monster Domitian exiled? They were jugglers with +their cups and balls; the calculators of horoscopes, fortune-tellers, +miserable peddling Jews, who composed philtres and talismans; gentry who +had special and sovereign power over evil spirits, who evoked them from +their infernal habitations, made them take possession of the bodies of +men and women by certain words or signs, and dislodged them by other +words or signs.</p> + +<p>And what were the philosophers that Lucian held up to public ridicule? +They were the dregs of the human race. They were a set of profligate +beggars incapable of applying to any useful profession or occupation; +men perfectly resembling the "Poor Devil," who has been described to us +with so much both of truth and humor; men who are undecided whether to +wear a livery, or to write the almanac of the "<i>Annus Mirabilis,</i>" the +marvellous year; whether to work on reviews, or on roads; whether to +turn soldiers or priests; who in the meantime frequent the +coffee-houses, to give their opinion upon the last new piece, upon God, +upon being in general, and the various modes of being; who will then +borrow your money, and immediately go away and write a libel against you +in conjunction with the barrister Marchand, or the creature called +Chaudon, or the equally despicable wretch called Bonneval.</p> + +<p>It was not from such a school that the Ciceros, the Atticuses, the +Epictetuses, the Trajans, Adrians, Antonines, and Julians proceeded. It +was not such a school that formed a king of Prussia, who has composed as +many philosophical treatises as he has gained battles, and who has +levelled with the dust as many prejudices as enemies.</p> + +<p>A victorious empress, at whose name the Ottomans tremble, and who so +gloriously rules an empire more extensive than that of Rome, would never +have been a great legistratrix, had she not been a philosopher. Every +northern prince is so, and the North puts the South to absolute shame. +If the confederates of Poland had only a very small share of philosophy, +they would not expose their country, their estates, and their houses, to +pillage; they would not drench their territory in blood; they would not +obstinately and wantonly reduce themselves to being the most miserable +of mankind; they would listen to the voice of their philosophic king, +who has given so many noble proofs and so many admirable lessons of +moderation and prudence in vain.</p> + +<p>The great Julian was a philosopher when he wrote to his ministers and +pontiffs his exquisite letters abounding in clemency and wisdom, which +all men of judgment and feeling highly admire, even at the present day, +however sincerely they may condemn his errors.</p> + +<p>Constantine was not a philosopher when he assassinated his relations, +his son and his wife, and when, reeking with the blood of his family, he +swore that God had sent to him the "<i>Labarum</i>" in the clouds. It is a +long bound that carries us from Constantine to Charles IX., and Henry +III., kings of one of the fifty great provinces of the Roman Empire. But +if these kings had been philosophers, one would not have been guilty of +the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the other would not have made +scandalous processions, nor have been reduced to the necessity of +assassinating the duke of Guise and the cardinal, his brother, and at +length have been assassinated himself by a young Jacobin, for the love +of God and of the holy church.</p> + +<p>If Louis the Just, the thirteenth monarch of that name, had been a +philosopher, he would not have permitted the virtuous de Thou and the +innocent Marshal de Marillac to have been dragged to the scaffold; he +would not have suffered his mother to perish with hunger at Cologne; and +his reign would not have been an uninterrupted succession of intestine +discords and calamities.</p> + +<p>Compare with those princes, thus ignorant, superstitious, cruel, and +enslaved by their own passions or those of their ministers, such a man +as Montaigne, or Charron, or the Chancellor de l'Hôpital, or the +historian de Thou, or la Mothe Le Vayer, or a Locke, a Shaftesbury, a +Sidney, or a Herbert; and say whether you would rather be governed by +those sovereigns or by these sages.</p> + +<p>When I speak of philosophers I do not mean the coarse and brutal cynics +who appear desirous of being apes of Diogenes, but the men who imitate +Plato and Cicero. As for you, voluptuous courtiers, and you also, men of +petty minds, invested with a petty employment which confers on you a +petty authority in a petty country, who uniformly exclaim against and +abuse philosophy, proceed as long as you please with your invective +railing. I consider you as the Nomentanuses inveighing against Horace; +and the Cotins attempting to cry down Boileau.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>The stiff Lutheran, the savage Calvinist, the proud Anglican high +churchman, the fanatical Jansenist, the Jesuit always aiming at +dominion, even in exile and at the very gallows, the Sorbonnist who +deems himself one of the fathers of a council; these, and some imbecile +beings under their respective guidance, inveigh incessantly and bitterly +against philosophy. They are all different species of the canine race, +snarling and howling in their peculiar ways against a beautiful horse +that is pasturing in a verdant meadow, and who never enters into contest +with them about any of the carrion carcasses upon which they feed, and +for which they are perpetually fighting with one another.</p> + +<p>They every day produce from the press their trash of philosophic +theology, their philosophico-theological dictionaries; their old and +battered arguments, as common as the streets, which they denominate +"demonstrations"; and their ten thousand times repeated and ridiculous +assertions which they call "lemmas," and "corollaries"; as false coiners +cover a lead crown with a plating of silver.</p> + +<p>They perceive that they are despised by all persons of reflection, and +that they can no longer deceive any but a few weak old women. This state +is far more humiliating and mortifying than even being expelled from +France and Spain and Naples. Everything can be supported except +contempt. We are told that when the devil was conquered by Raphael—as +it is clearly proved he was—that haughty compound of body and spirit at +first easily consoled himself with the idea of the chances of war. But +when he understood that Raphael laughed at him, he roundly swore that he +would never forgive him. Accordingly, the Jesuits never forgave Pascal; +accordingly, Jerieu went on calumniating Bayle even to the grave; and +just in the same manner all the Tartuffes, all the hypocrites, in +Molière's time, inveighed against that author to his dying day. In their +rage they resort to calumnies, as in their folly they publish arguments.</p> + +<p>One of the most determined slanderers, as well as one of the most +contemptible reasoners that we have among us, is an ex-Jesuit of the +name of Paulian, who published a theologico-philosophical rhapsody in +the city of Avignon, formerly a papal city, and perhaps destined to be +so again. This person accuses the authors of the "Encyclopædia" of +having said:</p> + +<p>"That as man is by his nature open only to the pleasures of the senses, +these pleasures are consequently the sole objects of his desires; that +man in himself has neither vice nor virtue, neither good nor bad morals, +neither justice nor injustice; that the pleasures of the senses produce +all the virtues; that in order to be happy, men must extinguish remorse, +etc."</p> + +<p>In what articles of the "Encyclopædia," of which five new editions have +lately commenced, are these horrible propositions to be found? You are +bound actually to produce them. Have you carried the insolence of your +pride and the madness of your character to such an extent as to imagine +that you will be believed on your bare word? These ridiculous +absurdities may be found perhaps in the works of your own casuists, or +those of the Porter of the Chartreux, but they are certainly not to be +found in the articles of the "Encyclopædia" composed by M. Diderot, M. +d'Alembert, the chevalier Jaucourt, or M. de Voltaire. You have never +seen them in the articles of the Count de Tressan, nor in those of +Messrs. Blondel, Boucher-d'Argis, Marmontel, Venel, Tronchin, +d'Aubenton, d'Argenville, and various others, who generously devoted +their time and labors to enrich the "Encyclopædic Dictionary," and +thereby conferred an everlasting benefit on Europe. Most assuredly, not +one of them is chargeable with the abominations you impute to them. Only +yourself, and Abraham Chaumeix, the vinegar merchant and crucified +convulsionary, could be capable of broaching so infamous a calumny.</p> + +<p>You confound error with truth, because you have not sense sufficient to +distinguish between them. You wish to stigmatize as impious the maxim +adopted by all publicists, "That every man is free to choose his +country."</p> + +<p>What! you contemptible preacher of slavery, was not Queen Christina free +to travel to France and reside at Rome? Were not Casimir and Stanislaus +authorized to end their days in France? Was it necessary, because they +were Poles, that they should die in Poland? Did Goldoni, Vanloo, and +Cassini give offense to God by settling at Paris? Have all the Irish, +who have established themselves in fame and fortune in France, committed +by so doing a mortal sin?</p> + +<p>And you have the stupidity to print such extravagance and absurdity as +this, and Riballier has stupidity enough to approve and sanction you; +and you range in one and the same class Bayle, Montesquieu, and the +madman de La Mettrie; and it may be added, you have found the French +nation too humane and indulgent, notwithstanding all your slander and +malignity, to deliver you over to anything but scorn!</p> + +<p>What! do you dare to calumniate your country—if indeed a Jesuit can be +said to have a country? Do you dare to assert "that philosophers alone +in France attribute to chance the union and disunion of the atoms which +constitute the soul of man?" "<i>Mentiris impudentissime!</i>" I defy you to +produce a single book, published within the last thirty years, in which +anything at all is attributed to chance, which is merely a word without +a meaning.</p> + +<p>Do you dare to accuse the sagacious and judicious Locke of having said +"that it is possible the soul may be a spirit, but that he is not +perfectly sure it is so; and that we are unable to decide what it may be +able or unable to acquire?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Mentiris impudentissime!</i>" Locke, the truly respectable and venerable +Locke, says expressly, in his answer to the cavilling and sophistical +Stilling-fleet, "I am strongly persuaded, although it cannot be shown, +by mere reason, that the soul is immaterial, because the veracity of God +is a demonstration of the truth of all that He has revealed, and the +absence of another demonstration can never throw any doubt upon what is +already demonstrated."</p> + +<p>See, moreover, under the article "Soul," how Locke expresses himself on +the bounds of human knowledge, and the immensity of the power of the +Supreme Being. The great philosopher Bolingbroke declares that the +opinion opposite to Locke's is blasphemy. All the fathers, during the +first three ages of the church, regarded the soul as a light, attenuated +species of matter, but did not the less, in consequence, regard it as +immortal. But now, forsooth, even your college drudges consequentially +put themselves forward and denounce as "atheists" those who, with the +fathers of the Christian church, think that God is able to bestow and to +preserve the immortality of the soul, whatever may be the substance it +consists of.</p> + +<p>You carry your audacity so far as to discover atheism in the following +words, Who produces motion in nature? God. "Who produces vegetation in +plants? God. Who produces motion in animals? God. Who produces thought +in man? God."</p> + +<p>We cannot so properly say on this occasion, "<i>Mentiris impudentissime</i>"; +but we should rather say you impudently blaspheme the truth. We conclude +with observing that the hero of the ex-Jesuit Paulian is the ex-Jesuit +Patouillet, the author of a bishop's mandate in which all the +parliaments of the kingdom are insulted. This mandate was burned by the +hands of the executioner. Nothing after this was wanting but for the +ex-Jesuit Paulian to elevate the ex-Jesuit Nonnotte to be a father of +the church, and to canonize the Jesuits Malagrida, Guignard, Garnet, and +Oldham, and all other Jesuits to whom God has granted the grace of being +hanged or quartered; they were all of them great metaphysicians, great +philosophico-theologians.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<p>People who never think frequently inquire of those who do think, what +has been the use of philosophy? To destroy in England the religious rage +which brought Charles I. to the scaffold; to deprive an archbishop in +Sweden of the power, with a papal bull in his hand, of shedding the +blood of the nobility; to preserve in Germany religious peace, by +holding up theological disputes to ridicule; finally, to extinguish in +Spain the hideous and devouring flames of the Inquisition.</p> + +<p>Gauls! unfortunate Gauls! it prevents stormy and factious times from +producing among you a second "Fronde," and a second "Damiens." Priests +of Rome! it compels you to suppress your bull <i>In cœna domini,</i> that +monument of impudence and stupidity. Nations! it humanizes your manners. +Kings, it gives you instruction!</p> + + +<h5>SECTION V.</h5> + +<p>The philosopher is the lover of wisdom and truth; to be a sage is to +avoid the senseless and the depraved. The philosopher, therefore, should +live only among philosophers.</p> + +<p>I will suppose that there are still some sages among the Jews; if one of +these, when dining in company with some rabbis, should help himself to a +plate of eels or hare, or if he cannot refrain from a hearty laugh at +some superstitious and ridiculous observations made by them in the +course of conversation, he is forever ruined in the synagogue; the like +remark may be made of a Mussulman, a Gueber, or a Banian.</p> + +<p>I know it is contended by many that the sage should never develop his +opinions to the vulgar; that he should be a madman with the mad, and +foolish among fools; no one, however, has yet ventured to say that he +should be a knave among knaves. But if it be required that a sage should +always join in opinion with the deluders of mankind, is not this clearly +the same as requiring that he should not be an honest man? Would any one +require that a respectable physician should always be of the same +opinion as charlatans?</p> + +<p>The sage is a physician of souls. He ought to bestow his remedies on +those who ask them of him, and avoid the company of quacks, who will +infallibly persecute him. If, therefore, a madman of Asia Minor, or a +madman of India, says to the sage: My good friend, I think you do not +believe in the mare Borac, or in the metamorphoses of Vishnu; I will +denounce you, I will hinder you from being bostanji, I will destroy your +credit; I will persecute you—the sage ought to pity him and be silent.</p> + +<p>If ignorant persons, but at the same time persons of good understanding +and dispositions, and willing to receive instruction, should ask him: +Are we bound to believe that the distance between the moon and Venus is +only five hundred leagues, and that between Mercury and the sun the +same, as the principal fathers of the Mussulman religion insist, in +opposition to all the most learned astronomers?—the sage may reply to +them that the fathers may possibly be mistaken. He should at all times +inculcate upon them that a hundred abstract dogmas are not of the value +of a single good action, and that it is better to relieve one individual +in distress than to be profoundly acquainted with the abolishing and +abolished. When a rustic sees a serpent ready to dart at him, he will +kill it; when a sage perceives a bigot and a fanatic, what will he do? +He will prevent them from biting.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PHILOSOPHY" id="PHILOSOPHY"></a>PHILOSOPHY.</h3> + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + + +<p>Write filosophy or philosophy as you please, but agree that as soon as +it appears it is persecuted. Dogs to whom you present an aliment for +which they have no taste, bite you. You will say that I repeat myself; +but we must a hundred times remind mankind that the holy conclave +condemned Galileo; and that the pedants who declared all the good +citizens excommunicated who should submit to the great Henry IV., were +the same who condemned the only truths which could be found in the works +of Descartes.</p> + +<p>All the spaniels of the theological kennel bark at one another, and all +together at de Thou, la Mothe, Le Vayer, and Bayle. What nonsense has +been written by little Celtic scholars against the wise Locke!</p> + +<p>These Celts say that Cæsar, Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, and Marcus Aurelius, +might be philosophers, but that philosophy is not permitted among the +Celts. We answer that it is permitted and very useful among the French; +that nothing has done more good to the English; and that it is time to +exterminate barbarity. You reply that that will never come to pass. No; +with the uninformed and foolish it will not; but with honest people the +affair is soon concluded.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>One of the great misfortunes, as also one of the great follies, of +mankind, is that in all countries which we call polished, except, +perhaps, China, priests concern themselves with what belongs only to +philosophers. These priests interfered with regulating the year; it was, +they say, their right; for it was necessary that the people should know +their holy days. Thus the Chaldæan, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman priests, +believed themselves mathematicians and astronomers; but what mathematics +and astronomy! Whoever makes a trade of quackery cannot have a just and +enlightened mind. They were astrologers, and never astronomers.</p> + +<p>The Greek priests themselves first made the year to consist only of +three hundred and sixty days. Their geometricians must have informed +them that they were deceived by five days and more. They, therefore, +corrected their year. Other geometricians further showed them that they +were deceived by six hours. Iphitus obliged them to change their Greek +almanac. They added one day in four years to their faulty year; Iphitus +celebrated this change by the institution of the Olympiads.</p> + +<p>They were finally obliged to have recourse to the philosopher Meton, +who, combining the year of the moon with that of the sun, composed his +cycle of nineteen years, at the end of which the sun and moon returned +to the same point within an hour and a half. This cycle was graven in +gold in the public place of Athens; and it is of this famous golden +number that we still make use, with the necessary corrections.</p> + +<p>We well know what ridiculous confusion the Roman priests introduced in +their computation of the year. Their blunders were so great that their +summer holidays arrived in winter. Cæsar, the universal Cæsar, was +obliged to bring the philosopher Sosigenes from Alexandria to repair the +enormous errors of the pontiffs. When it was necessary to correct the +calendar of Julius Cæsar, under the pontificate of Gregory XIII., to +whom did they address themselves? Was it to some inquisitor? It was to a +philosopher and physician named Lilio.</p> + +<p>When the almanac was given to Professor Cogé, rector of the university, +to compose, he knew not even the subject. They were obliged to apply to +M. de Lalande, of the Academy of Sciences, who was burdened with this +very painful task, too poorly recompensed. The rhetorician Cogé, +therefore, made a great mistake when he proposed for the prize of the +university this subject so strangely expressed:</p> + +<p>"<i>Non magis Deo quam regibus infensa est ista quæ vocatur hodie +philosophia.</i>"—"That which we now call philosophy, is not more the +enemy of God than of kings." He would say <i>less</i> the enemy. He has taken +<i>magis</i> for <i>minus.</i> And the poor man ought to know that our academies +are not enemies either to the king or God.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>If philosophy has done so much honor to France in the "Encyclopædia," it +must also be confessed that the ignorance and envy which have dared to +condemn this work would have covered France with opprobrium, if twelve +or fifteen convulsionaries, who formed a cabal, could be regarded as the +organs of France; they were really only the ministers of fanaticism and +sedition; those who forced the king to dissolve the body which they had +seduced. Their fanatical credulity for convulsions and the miserable +impostures of St. Médard, was so strong, that they obliged a magistrate, +elsewhere wise and respectable, to say in full parliament that the +miracles of the Catholic church always existed. By these miracles, we +can only understand those of convulsions, for assuredly it never +performed any others; at least, if we believe not in the little children +resuscitated by St. Ovid. The time of miracles is passed; the triumphant +church has no longer occasion for them. Seriously, was there one of the +persecutors of the Encyclopædia who understood one word of the articles +Astronomy, Dynamics, Geometry, Metaphysics, Botany, Medicine, or +Anatomy, of which this book, become so necessary, treats in every +volume. What a crowd of absurd imputations and gross calumnies have they +accumulated against this treasure of all the sciences! They should be +reprinted at the end of the "Encyclopædia," to eternize their shame. See +what it is to judge a work which they were not even fit to study. The +fools! they have exclaimed that philosophy ruined Catholicism. What, +then, in twenty millions of people, has one been found who has vexed the +least officer of the parish! one who has failed in respect to the +churches! one who has publicly proffered against our ceremonies a single +word which approached the virulence with which these railers have +expressed themselves against the regal authority! Let us repeat that +philosophy never did evil to the state, and that fanaticism, joined to +the <i>esprit du corps,</i> has done much in all times.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<h4><i>Substance Of Ancient Philosophy.</i></h4> + + +<p>I have consumed about forty years of my pilgrimage in two or three +corners of the world, seeking the philosopher's stone called truth. I +have consulted all the adepts of antiquity, Epicurus and Augustine, +Plato and Malebranche, and I still remain in ignorance. In all the +crucibles of philosophers, there are perhaps two or three ounces of +gold, but all the rest is <i>caput mortuum,</i> insipid mire, from which +nothing can be extracted.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that the Greeks, our masters, wrote much more to show +their intellect, than they made use of their intellect to instruct +themselves. I see not a single author of antiquity who has a consistent, +methodical, clear system, going from consequence to consequence.</p> + +<p>All that I have been able to obtain by comparing and combining the +systems of Plato, of the tutor of Alexander, Pythagoras, and the +Orientals, is this: Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist +without a cause. The world is arranged according to mathematical laws; +therefore, it is arranged by an intelligence.</p> + +<p>It is not an intelligent being like myself who presided at the formation +of the world; for I cannot form a miserable worm; therefore, the world +is the work of an intelligence prodigiously superior. Does this being, +who possesses intelligence and power in so high a degree, necessarily +exist? It must be so, for he must either have received being from +another, or through his own nature. If he has received his being from +another, which is very difficult to conceive, I must look up to this +other, which will in that case be the first cause. On whichever side I +turn, I must admit a first cause, powerful and intelligent, who by his +own nature is necessarily so.</p> + +<p>Has this first cause created things out of nothing? We cannot conceive +that to create out of nothing is to change nothing into something. I +cannot admit such a creation, at least until I find invincible reasons +which force me to admit what my mind can never comprehend. All that +exists appears to exist necessarily, since it exists; for if to-day +there is a reason for the existence of things, there was one yesterday; +there has been one in all times; and this cause must always have had its +effect, without which it would have been a useless cause during +eternity.</p> + +<p>But how can things have always existed, being visibly under the hand of +the first cause? This power must always have acted in like manner. There +is no sun without light, there is no motion without a being passing from +one point of space to another.</p> + +<p>There is, therefore, a powerful and intelligent being who has always +acted; and if this being had not acted, of what use to him would have +been his existence? All things are, therefore, emanations from this +first cause. But how can we imagine that stone and clay may be +emanations of the eternal, intelligent, and puissant being? Of two +things, one must be; either that the matter of this stone and mine +necessarily exists of itself, or that it exists necessarily by this +first cause; there is no medium.</p> + +<p>Thus, therefore, there are but two parts to take; either to admit matter +eternal of itself, or matter eternally proceeding from a powerful, +intelligent, eternal being. But existing of its own nature, or emanating +from a producing being, it exists from all eternity, because it exists; +and there is no reason that it might not have always existed.</p> + +<p>If matter is eternally necessary, it is in consequence impossible—it is +contradictory, that it should not exist; but what man can assure you +that it is impossible, that it is contradictory, that this fly and this +flint have not always existed? We are, however, obliged to swallow this +difficulty, which more astonishes the imagination than contradicts the +principles of reasoning.</p> + +<p>Indeed, as soon as we have conceived that all has emanated from the +supreme and intelligent being; that nothing has emanated from him +without reason; that this being, always existing, must always have +acted; that, consequently, all things must have eternally proceeded from +the bosom of his existence—we should no more be deterred from believing +the matter of which this fly and flint are formed is eternal, than we +are deterred from conceiving light to be an emanation of the +all-powerful being.</p> + +<p>Since I am an extended and thinking being, my extent and thought are the +necessary productions of this being. It is evident to me that I cannot +give myself extent or thought. I have, therefore, received both from +this necessary being.</p> + +<p>Can he have given me what he has not? I have intelligence; I am in +space; therefore, he is intelligent and is in space. To say that the +Eternal Being, the All-Powerful God, has from all time necessarily +filled the universe with His productions, is not taking from Him His +free-will; but on the contrary, for free-will is but the power of +acting. God has always fully acted; therefore God has always used the +plenitude of His liberty.</p> + +<p>The liberty which we call indifference is a word without an idea—an +absurdity; for this would be to determine without reason; it would be an +effect without a cause. Therefore God cannot have this pretended +free-will, which is a contradiction in terms. He has, therefore, always +acted by the same necessity which causes His existence. It is, +therefore, impossible for the world to exist without God; it is +impossible for God to exist without the world. This world is filled with +beings who succeed each other; therefore, God has always produced beings +in succession.</p> + +<p>These preliminary assertions are the basis of the ancient eastern +philosophy, and of that of the Greeks. We must except Democritus and +Epicurus, whose corpuscular philosophy has combated these dogmas. But +let us remark that the Epicureans were founded on an entirely erroneous +philosophy, and that the metaphysical system of all the other philosophy +subsisted with all the physical systems. All nature, except the void, +contradicts Epicurus, and no phenomenon contradicts the philosophy which +I explain. Now, a philosophy which agrees with all which passes in +nature, and which contents the most attentive mind, is it not superior +to all other unrevealed systems?</p> + +<p>After the assertions of the most ancient philosophers, which I have +approached as nearly as possible, what remains to us? A chaos of doubts +and chimeras. I believe that there never was a philosopher of a system +who did not confess at the end of his life that he had lost his time. It +must be confessed that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been +much more useful to men than the inventors of syllogisms. He who +imagined a ship, towers much above him who imagined innate ideas.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PHYSICIANS" id="PHYSICIANS"></a>PHYSICIANS.</h3> + + +<p>Regimen is superior to medicine, especially as, from time immemorial, +out of every hundred physicians, ninety-eight are charlatans. Molière +was right in laughing at them; for nothing is more ridiculous than to +witness an infinite number of silly women, and men no less than women, +when they have eaten, drunk, sported, or abstained from repose too much, +call in a physician for the headache, invoke him like a god, and request +him to work the miracle of producing an alliance between health and +intemperance, not omitting to fee the said god, who laughs at their +folly.</p> + +<p>It is not, however, the less true that an able physician may preserve +life on a hundred occasions, and restore to us the use of our limbs. +When a man falls into an apoplexy, it is neither a captain of infantry +nor a sergeant at law who will cure him. If cataracts are formed on my +eyes, it is not my neighbor who will relieve me. I distinguish not +between physicians and surgeons, these professions being so intimately +connected.</p> + +<p>Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the +joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the +earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is +almost as noble as to create. The Roman people had no physicians for +more than five hundred years. This people, whose sole occupation was +slaughter, in particular cultivated not the art of prolonging life. +What, therefore, happened at Rome to those who had a putrid fever, a +fistula, a gangrene, or an inflammation of the stomach? They died. The +small number of great physicians introduced into Rome were only slaves. +A physician among the great Roman patricians was a species of luxury, +like a cook. Every rich man had his perfumers, his bathers, his harpers, +and his physician. The celebrated Musa, the physician of Augustus, was a +slave; he was freed and made a Roman knight; after which physicians +became persons of consideration.</p> + +<p>When Christianity was so fully established as to bestow on us the +felicity of possessing monks, they were expressly forbidden, by many +councils, from practising medicine. They should have prescribed a +precisely contrary line of conduct, if it were desirable to render them +useful to mankind.</p> + +<p>How beneficial to society were monks obliged to study medicine and to +cure our ailments for God's sake! Having nothing to gain but heaven, +they would never be charlatans; they would equally instruct themselves +in our diseases and their remedies, one of the finest of occupations, +and the only one forbidden them. It has been objected that they would +poison the impious; but even that would be advantageous to the church. +Had this been the case, Luther would never have stolen one-half of +Catholic Europe from our holy father, the pope; for in the first fever +which might have seized the Augustine Luther, a Dominican would have +prepared his pills. You will tell me that he would not have taken them; +but with a little address this might have been managed. But to proceed:</p> + +<p>Towards the year 1517 lived a citizen, animated with a Christian zeal, +named John; I do not mean John Calvin, but John, surnamed of God, who +instituted the Brothers of Charity. This body, instituted for the +redemption of captives, is composed of the only useful monks, although +not accounted among the orders. The Dominicans, Bernardines, Norbertins, +and Benedictines, acknowledge not the Brothers of Charity. They are +simply adverted to in the continuation of the "Ecclesiastical History" +of Fleury. Why? Because they have performed cures instead of +miracles—have been useful and not caballed—cured poor women without +either directing or seducing them. Lastly, their institution being +charitable, it is proper that other monks should despise them.</p> + +<p>Medicine, having then become a mercenary profession in the world, as the +administration of justice is in many places, it has become liable to +strange abuses. But nothing is more estimable than a physician who, +having studied nature from his youth, knows the properties of the human +body, the diseases which assail it, the remedies which will benefit it, +exercises his art with caution, and pays equal attention to the rich and +the poor. Such a man is very superior to the general of the Capuchins, +however respectable this general may be.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PIRATES_OR_BUCCANEERS" id="PIRATES_OR_BUCCANEERS"></a>PIRATES OR BUCCANEERS.</h3> + + +<p>In the time of Cardinal Richelieu, when the Spaniards and French +detested each other, because Ferdinand the Catholic laughed at Louis +XII., and Francis I. was taken at the battle of Pavia by an army of +Charles V.—while this hatred was so strong that the false author of the +political romance, and political piece of tediousness, called the +"Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu," feared not to call the +Spaniards "an insatiable nation, who rendered the Indies tributaries of +hell"; when, in short, we were leagued in 1635 with Holland against +Spain; when France had nothing in America, and the Spaniards covered the +seas with their galleys—then buccaneers began to appear. They were at +first French adventurers, whose quality was at most that of corsairs.</p> + +<p>One of them, named Legrande, a native of Dieppe, associated himself with +fifty determined men, and went to tempt fortune in a bark which had not +even a cannon. Towards the Isle of Hispaniola (St. Domingo), he +perceived a galley strayed from the great Spanish fleet; he approached +it as a captain wishing to sell provisions; he mounted, attended by his +people; he entered the chamber of the captain, who was playing at cards, +threw him down, made him prisoner with his cargo, and returned to Dieppe +with his vessel laden with immense riches. This adventure was the signal +for forty years' unheard-of exploits.</p> + +<p>French, English, and Dutch buccaneers associated together in the caverns +of St. Domingo, of the little islands of St. Christopher and Tortola. +They chose a chief for each expedition, which was the first origin of +kings. Agriculturists would never have wished for a king; they had no +need of one to sow, thrash, and sell corn.</p> + +<p>When the buccaneers took a great prize, they bought with it a little +vessel and cannon. One happy chance produced twenty others. If they were +a hundred in number they were believed to be a thousand; it was +difficult to escape them, still more so to follow them. They were birds +of prey who established themselves on all sides, and who retired into +inaccessible places; sometimes they ravaged from four to five hundred +leagues of coast; sometimes they advanced on foot, or horseback, two +hundred leagues up the countries. They surprised and pillaged the rich +towns of Chagra, Maracaybo, Vera Cruz, Panama, Porto Rico, Campeachy, +the island of St. Catherine, and the suburbs of Cartagena.</p> + +<p>One of these pirates, named Olonois, penetrated to the gates of Havana, +followed by twenty men only. Having afterwards retired into his boat, +the governor sent against him a ship of war with soldiers and an +executioner. Olonois rendered himself master of the vessel, cut off the +heads of the Spanish soldiers, whom he had taken himself, and sent back +the executioner to the governor. Such astonishing actions were never +performed by the Romans, or by other robbers. The warlike voyage of +Admiral Anson round the world is only an agreeable promenade in +comparison with the passage of the buccaneers in the South Sea, and with +what they endured on terra firma.</p> + +<p>Had their policy been equal to their invincible courage, they would have +founded a great empire in America. They wanted females; but instead of +ravishing and marrying Sabines, like the Romans, they procured them from +the brothels of Paris, which sufficed not to produce a second +generation.</p> + +<p>They were more cruel towards the Spaniards than the Israelites ever were +to the Canaanites. A Dutchman is spoken of, named Roc, who put several +Spaniards on a spit and caused them to be eaten by his comrades. Their +expeditions were tours of thieves, and never campaigns of conquerors; +thus, in all the West Indies, they were never called anything but <i>los +ladrones.</i> When they surprised and entered the house of a father of a +family, they put him to the torture to discover his treasures. That +sufficiently proves what we say in the article "Question," that torture +was invented by robbers.</p> + +<p>What rendered their exploits useless was, that they lavished in +debauches, as foolish as monstrous, all that they acquired by rapine and +murder. Finally, there remains nothing more of them than their name, and +scarcely that. Such were the buccaneers.</p> + +<p>But what people in Europe have not been pirates? The Goths, Alans, +Vandals, and Huns, were they anything else? What were Rollo, who +established himself in Normandy, and William Fier-a-bras, but the most +able pirates? Was not Clovis a pirate, who came from the borders of the +Rhine into Gaul?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PLAGIARISM" id="PLAGIARISM"></a>PLAGIARISM.</h3> + + +<p>It is said that this word is derived from the Latin word <i>plaga,</i> and +that it signifies the condemnation to the scourge of those who sold +freemen for slaves. This has nothing in common with the plagiarism of +authors, who sell not men either enslaved or free. They only for a +little money occasionally sell themselves.</p> + +<p>When an author sells the thoughts of another man for his own, the +larceny is called plagiarism. All the makers of dictionaries, all +compilers who do nothing else than repeat backwards and forwards the +opinions, the errors, the impostures, and the truths already printed, we +may term plagiarists, but honest plagiarists, who arrogate not the merit +of invention. They pretend not even to have collected from the ancients +the materials which they get together; they only copy the laborious +compilers of the sixteenth century. They will sell you in quarto that +which already exists in folio. Call them if you please bookmakers, not +authors; range them rather among second-hand dealers than plagiarists.</p> + +<p>The true plagiarist is he who gives the works of another for his own, +who inserts in his rhapsodies long passages from a good book a little +modified. The enlightened reader, seeing this patch of cloth of gold +upon a blanket, soon detects the bungling purloiner.</p> + +<p>Ramsay, who after having been a Presbyterian in his native Scotland, an +Anglican in London, then a Quaker, and who finally persuaded Fénelon +that he was a Catholic, and even pretended a penchant for celestial +love—Ramsay, I say, compiled the "Travels of Cyrus," because his master +made his Telemachus travel. So far he only imitated; but in these +travels he copies from an old English author, who introduces a young +solitary dissecting his dead goat, and arriving at a knowledge of the +Deity by the process, which is very much like plagiarism. On conducting +Cyrus into Egypt, in describing that singular country, he employs the +same expressions as Bossuet, whom he copies word for word without +citing; this is plagiarism complete. One of my friends reproached him +with this one day; Ramsay replied that he was not aware of it, and that +it was not surprising he should think like Fénelon and write like +Bossuet. This was making out the adage, "Proud as a Scotsman."</p> + +<p>The most singular of all plagiarism is possibly that of Father Barre, +author of a large history of Germany in ten volumes. The history of +Charles XII. had just been printed, and he inserted more than two +hundred pages of it in his work; making a duke of Lorraine say precisely +that which was said by Charles XII.</p> + +<p>He attributes to the emperor Arnold that which happened to the Swedish +monarch. He relates of the emperor Rudolph that which was said of King +Stanislaus. Waldemar, king of Denmark, acts precisely like Charles at +Bender, etc.</p> + +<p>The most pleasant part of the story is, that a journalist, perceiving +this extraordinary resemblance between the two works, failed not to +impute the plagiarism to the author of the history of Charles XII., who +had composed his work twenty years before the appearance of that of +Father Barre. It is chiefly in poetry that plagiarism is allowed to +pass; and certainly, of all larcenies, it is that which is least +dangerous to society.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PLATO" id="PLATO"></a>PLATO.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<h4><i>Of The Timæus Of Plato And Some Other Things.</i></h4> + + +<p>The fathers of the Church, of the first four centuries, were all Greeks +and Platonists: you find not one Roman who wrote for Christianity, or +who had the slightest tincture of philosophy. I will here observe, by +the way, that it is strange enough, the great Church of Rome, which +contributed in nothing to this establishment, has alone reaped all the +advantage. It has been with this revolution, as with all those produced +by civil wars: the first who trouble a state, always unknowingly labor +for others rather than for themselves.</p> + +<p>The school of Alexandria, founded by one named Mark, to whom succeeded +Athenagoras, Clement, and Origen, was the centre of the Christian +philosophy. Plato was regarded by all the Greeks of Alexandria as the +master of wisdom, the interpreter of the divinity. If the first +Christians had not embraced the dogmas of Plato, they would never have +had any philosophers, any man of mind in their party. I set aside +inspiration and grace which are above all philosophy, and speak only of +the ordinary course of human events.</p> + +<p>It is said that it was principally in the "Timæus" of Plato that the +Greek fathers were instructed. This "Timæus" passes for the most sublime +work of all ancient philosophy. It is almost the only one which Dacier +has not translated, and I think the reason is, because he did not +understand it, and that he feared to discover to clear-sighted readers +the face of this Greek divinity, who is only adored because he is +veiled.</p> + +<p>Plato, in this fine dialogue, commences by introducing an Egyptian +priest, who teaches Solon the ancient history of the city of Athens, +which was preserved faithfully for nine thousand years in the archives +of Egypt.</p> + +<p>Athens, says the priest, was once the finest city of Greece, and the +most renowned in the world for the arts of war and peace. She alone +resisted the warriors of the famous island Atlantis, who came in +innumerable vessels to subjugate a great part of Europe and Asia. Athens +had the glory of freeing so many vanquished people, and of preserving +Egypt from the servitude which menaced us. But after this illustrious +victory and service rendered to mankind, a frightful earthquake in +twenty-four hours swallowed the territory of Athens, and all the great +island of Atlantis. This island is now only a vast sea, which the ruins +of this ancient world and the slime mixed with its waters rendered +unnavigable.</p> + +<p>This is what the priest relates to Solon: and such is the manner in +which Plato prepares to explain to us subsequently, the formation of the +soul, the operations of the "Word," and his trinity. It is not +physically impossible that there might be an island Atlantis, which had +not existed for nine thousand years, and which perished by an +earthquake, like Herculaneum and so many other cities; but our priest, +in adding that the sea which washes Mount Atlas is inaccessible to +vessels, renders the history a little suspicious.</p> + +<p>It may be, after all, that since Solon—that is to say, in the course of +three thousand years—vessels have dispersed the slime of the ancient +island Atlantis and rendered the sea navigable; but it is still +surprising that he should prepare by this island to speak of the "Word."</p> + +<p>Perhaps in telling this priest's or old woman's story, Plato wished to +insinuate something contrary to the vicissitudes which have so often +changed the face of the globe. Perhaps he would merely say what +Pythagoras and Timæus of Locris have said so long before him, and what +our eyes tell us every day—that everything in nature perishes and is +renewed. The history of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the fall of Phæthon, are +fables: but inundations and conflagrations are truths.</p> + +<p>Plato departs from his imaginary island, to speak of things which the +best of philosophers of our days would not disavow. "That which is +produced has necessarily a cause, an author. It is difficult to discover +the author of this world; and when he is found it is dangerous to speak +of him to the people."</p> + +<p>Nothing is more true, even now, than that if a sage, in passing by our +Lady of Loretto, said to another sage, his friend, that our Lady of +Loretto, with her little black face, governs not the entire universe, +and a good woman overheard these words, and related them to other good +women of the march of Ancona, the sage would be stoned like Orpheus. +This is precisely the situation in which the first Christians were +believed to be, who spoke not well of Cybele and Diana, which alone +should attach them to Plato. The unintelligible things which he +afterwards treats of, ought not to disgust us with him.</p> + +<p>I will not reproach Plato with saying, in his "Timæus," that the world +is an animal; for he no doubt understands that the elements in motion +animate the world; and he means not, by animal, a dog or a man, who +walks, feels, eats, sleeps, and engenders. An author should always be +explained in the most favorable sense; and it is not while we accuse +people, or when we denounce their books, that it is right to interpret +malignantly and poison all their words; nor is it thus that I shall +treat Plato.</p> + +<p>According to him there is a kind of trinity which is the soul of matter. +These are his words: "From the indivisible substance, always similar to +itself, and the divisible substance, a third substance is composed, +which partakes of the same and of others."</p> + +<p>Afterwards came the Pythagorean number, which renders the thing still +more unintelligible, and consequently more respectable. What ammunition +for people commencing a paper war! Friend reader, a little patience and +attention, if you please: "When God had formed the soul of the world of +these three substances, the soul shot itself into the midst of the +universe, to the extremities of being; spreading itself everywhere, and +reacting upon itself, it formed at all times a divine origin of eternal +wisdom."</p> + +<p>And some lines afterwards: "Thus the nature of the immense animal which +we call <i>the world,</i> is eternal." Plato, following the example of his +predecessors, then introduces the Supreme Being, the Creator of the +world, forming this world before time; so that God could not exist +without the world, nor the world without God; as the sun cannot exist +without shedding light into space, nor this light steal into space +without the sun.</p> + +<p>I pass in silence many Greek, or rather Oriental ideas; as for +example—that there are four sorts of animals—celestial gods, birds of +the air, fishes, and terrestrial animals, to which last we have the +honor to belong.</p> + +<p>I hasten to arrive at a second trinity: "the being engendered, the being +who engenders, and the being which resembles the engendered and the +engenderer." This trinity is formal enough, and the fathers have found +their account in it.</p> + +<p>This trinity is followed by a rather singular theory of the four +elements. The earth is founded on an equilateral triangle, water on a +right-angled triangle, air on a scalene, and fire on an isosceles +triangle. After which he demonstratively proves that there can be but +five worlds, because there are but five regular solid bodies, and yet +that there is but one world which is round.</p> + +<p>I confess that no philosopher in Bedlam has ever reasoned so powerfully. +Rouse yourself, friend reader, to hear me speak of the other famous +trinity of Plato, which his commentators have so much vaunted: it is the +Eternal Being, the Eternal Creator of the world; His word, intelligence, +or idea; and the good which results from it. I assure you that I have +sought for it diligently in this "Timæus," and I have never found it +there; it may be there "<i>totidem literis,</i>" but it is not "<i>totidem +verbis,</i>" or I am much mistaken.</p> + +<p>After reading all Plato with great reluctance, I perceived some shadow +of the trinity for which he is so much honored. It is in the sixth book +of his "Chimerical Republic," in which he says: "Let us speak of the +Son, the wonderful production of good, and His perfect image." But +unfortunately he discovers this perfect image of God to be the sun. It +was therefore the physical sun, which with the Word and the Father +composed the platonic trinity. In the "Epinomis" of Plato there are very +curious absurdities, one of which I translate as reasonably as I can, +for the convenience of the reader:</p> + +<p>"Know that there are eight virtues in heaven: I have observed them, +which is easy to all the world. The sun is one of its virtues, the moon +another; the third is the assemblage of stars; and the five planets, +with these three virtues, make the number eight. Be careful of thinking +that these virtues, or those which they contain, and which animate them, +either move of themselves or are carried in vehicles; be careful, I say, +of believing that some may be gods and others not; that some may be +adorable, and others such as we should neither adore or invoke. They are +all brothers; each has his share; we owe them all the same honors; they +fill all the situations which the Word assigned to them, when it formed +the visible universe."</p> + +<p>Here is the Word already found: we must now find the three persons. They +are in the second letter from Plato to Dionysius, which letters +assuredly are not forged; the style is the same as that of his +dialogues. He often says to Dionysius and Dion things very difficult to +comprehend, and which we might believe to be written in numbers, but he +also tells us very clear ones, which have been found true a long time +after him. For example, he expresses himself thus in his seventh letter +to Dion:</p> + +<p>"I have been convinced that all states are very badly governed; there is +scarcely any good institution or administration. We see, as it were, day +after day, that all follow the path of fortune rather than that of +wisdom." After this short digression on temporal affairs, let us return +to spiritual ones, to the Trinity. Plato says to Dionysius:</p> + +<p>"The King of the universe is surrounded by His works: all is the effect +of His grace. The finest of things have their first cause in Him; the +second in perfection have in Him their second cause, and He is further +the third cause of works of the third degree."</p> + +<p>The Trinity, such as we acknowledge, could not be recognized in this +letter; but it was a great point to have in a Greek author a guaranty of +the dogmas of the dawning Church. Every Greek church was therefore +Platonic, as every Latin church was peripatetic, from the commencement +of the third century. Thus two Greeks whom we have never understood, +were the masters of our opinions until the time in which men at the end +of two thousand years were obliged to think for themselves.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<h4><i>Questions On Plato And Some Other Trifles.</i></h4> + + +<p>Plato, in saying to the Greeks what so many philosophers of other +nations have said before him, in assuring them that there is a Supreme +Intelligence which arranged the universe—did he think that this Supreme +Intelligence resided in a single place, like a king of the East in his +seraglio? Or rather did he believe that this Powerful Intelligence +spread itself everywhere like light, or a being still more delicate, +prompt, active, and penetrating than light? The God of Plato, in a word, +is he in matter, or is he separated from it? Oh, you who have read Plato +attentively, that is to say, seven or eight fantastical dreams hidden in +some garret in Europe, if ever these questions reach you, I implore you +to answer them.</p> + +<p>The barbarous island of Cassite rides, in which men lived in the woods +in the time of Plato, has finally produced philosophers who are as much +beyond him as Plato was beyond those of his contemporaries who reasoned +not at all. Among these philosophers, Clarke is perhaps altogether the +clearest, the most profound, the most methodical, and the strongest of +all those who have spoken of the Supreme Being.</p> + +<p>When he gave his excellent book to the public he found a young gentleman +of the county of Gloucester who candidly advanced objections as strong +as his demonstrations. We can see them at the end of the first volume of +Clarke; it was not on the necessary existence of the Supreme Being that +he reasoned; it was on His infinity and immensity.</p> + +<p>It appears not indeed, that Clarke has proved that there is a being who +penetrates intimately all which exists, and that this being whose +properties we cannot conceive has the property of extending Himself to +the greatest imaginable distance.</p> + +<p>The great Newton has demonstrated that there is a void in nature; but +what philosopher could demonstrate to me that God is in this void; that +He touches it; that He fills it? How, bounded as we are, can we attain +to the knowledge of these mysteries? Does it not suffice, that it proves +to us that a Supreme Master exists? It is not given to us to know what +He is nor how He is.</p> + +<p>It seems as if Locke and Clarke had the keys of the intelligible world. +Locke has opened all the apartments which can be entered; but has not +Clarke wished to penetrate a little above the edifice? How could a +philosopher like Samuel Clarke, after so admirable a work on the +existence of God, write so pitiable a one on matters of fact?</p> + +<p>How could Benedict Spinoza, who had as much profundity of mind as Samuel +Clarke, after raising himself to the most sublime metaphysics, how could +he not perceive that a Supreme Intelligence presides over works visibly +arranged with a supreme intelligence—if it is true after all that such +is the system of Spinoza?</p> + +<p>How could Newton, the greatest of men, comment upon the Apocalypse, as +we have already remarked? How could Locke, after having so well +developed the human understanding, degrade his own in another work? I +fancy I see eagles, who after darting into a cloud go to rest on a +dunghill.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POETS" id="POETS"></a>POETS.</h3> + + +<p>A young man on leaving college deliberates whether he shall be an +advocate, a physician, a theologian, or a poet—whether he shall take +care of our body, our soul, or our entertainment. We have already spoken +of advocates and physicians; we will now speak of the prodigious fortune +which is sometimes made by the theologian.</p> + +<p>The theologian becomes pope, and has not only his theological valets, +cooks, singers, chamberlains, physicians, surgeons, sweepers, <i>agnus +dei</i> makers, confectioners, and preachers, but also his poet. I know not +what inspired personage was the poet of Leo X., as David was for some +time the poet of Saul.</p> + +<p>It is surely of all the employments in a great house, that which is the +most useless. The kings of England, who have preserved in their island +many of the ancient usages which are lost on the continent, have their +official poet. He is obliged once a year to make an ode in praise of St. +Cecilia, who played so marvellously on the organ or psalterium that an +angel descended from the ninth heaven to listen to her more +conveniently—the harmony of the psaltery, in ascending from this place +to the land of angels, necessarily losing a small portion of its volume.</p> + +<p>Moses is the first poet that we know of; but it is thought that before +him the Chaldæans, the Syrians, and the Indians practised poetry, since +they possessed music. Nevertheless, the fine canticle which Moses +chanted with his sister Miriam, when they came out of the Red Sea, is +the most ancient poetical monument in hexameter verse that we possess. I +am not of the opinion of those impious and ignorant rogues, Newton, Le +Clerc, and others, who prove that all this was written about eight +hundred years after the event, and who insolently maintain that Moses +could not write in Hebrew, since Hebrew is only a comparatively modern +dialect of the Phœnician, of which Moses could know nothing at all. I +examine not with the learned Huet how Moses was able to sing so well, +who stammered and could not speak.</p> + +<p>If we listened to many of these authors, Moses would be less ancient +than Orpheus, Musæus, Homer, and Hesiod. We perceive at the first glance +the absurdity of this opinion; as if a Greek could be an ancient as a +Jew!</p> + +<p>Neither will I reply to those impertinent persons who suspect that Moses +is only an imaginary personage, a fabulous imitation of the fable of the +ancient Bacchus; and that all the prodigies of Bacchus, since attributed +to Moses, were sung in orgies before it was known that Jews existed in +the world. This idea refutes itself; it is obvious to good sense that it +is impossible that Bacchus could have existed before Moses.</p> + +<p>We have still, however, an excellent Jewish poet undeniably anterior to +Horace—King David; and we know well how infinitely superior the +"<i>Miserere,</i>" is to the "<i>Justum ac tenacem propositi virum.</i>" But what +is most astonishing, legislators and kings have been our earliest poets. +We find even at present people so good as to become poets for kings. +Virgil indeed had not the office of poet to Augustus, nor Lucan that of +poet to Nero; but I confess that it would have debased the profession +not a little to make gods of either the one or the other.</p> + +<p>It is asked, why poetry, being so unnecessary to the world, occupies so +high a rank among the fine arts? The same question may be put with +regard to music. Poetry is the music of the soul, and above all of great +and of feeling souls. One merit of poetry few persons will deny; it says +more and in fewer words than prose. Who was ever able to translate the +following Latin words with the brevity with which they came from the +brain of the poet: "<i>Vive memor lethi, fugit hora, hoc quod loquor inde +est?</i>"</p> + +<p>I speak not of the other charms of poetry, as they are well known; but I +insist upon the grand precept of Horace, "<i>Sapere est principium et +fons.</i>" There can be no great poetry without great wisdom; but how +connect this wisdom with enthusiasm, like Cæsar, who formed his plan of +battle with circumspection, and fought with all possible ardor?</p> + +<p>There have no doubt been ignorant poets, but then they have been bad +poets. A man acquainted only with dactyls and spondees, and with a head +full of rhymes, is rarely a man of sense; but Virgil is endowed with +superior reason.</p> + +<p>Lucretius, in common with all the ancients, was miserably ignorant of +physical laws, a knowledge of which is not to be acquired by wit. It is +a knowledge which is only to be obtained by instruments, which in his +time had not been invented. Glasses are necessary—microscopes, +pneumatic machines, barometers, etc., to have even a distant idea of the +operations of nature.</p> + +<p>Descartes knew little more than Lucretius, when his keys opened the +sanctuary; and an hundred times more of the path has been trodden from +the time of Galileo, who was better instructed physically than +Descartes, to the present day, than from the first Hermes to Lucretius.</p> + +<p>All ancient physics are absurd: it was not thus with the philosophy of +mind, and that good sense which, assisted by strength of intellect, can +acutely balance between doubts and appearances. This is the chief merit +of Lucretius; his third book is a masterpiece of reasoning. He argues +like Cicero, and expresses himself like Virgil; and it must be confessed +that when our illustrious Polignac attacked his third book, he refuted +it only like a cardinal.</p> + +<p>When I say, that Lucretius reasons in his third book like an able +metaphysician, I do not say that he was right. We may argue very +soundly, and deceive ourselves, if not instructed by revelation. +Lucretius was not a Jew, and we know that Jews alone were in the right +in the days of Cicero, of Posidonius, of Cæsar, and of Cato. Lastly, +under Tiberius, the Jews were no longer in the right, and common sense +was possessed by the Christians exclusively.</p> + +<p>Thus it was impossible that Lucretius, Cicero, and Cæsar could be +anything but imbecile, in comparison with the Jews and ourselves; but it +must be allowed that in the eyes of the rest of the world they were very +great men. I allow that Lucretius killed himself, as also did Cato, +Cassius, and Brutus, but they might very well kill themselves, and still +reason like men of intellect during their lives.</p> + +<p>In every author let us distinguish the man from his works. Racine wrote +like Virgil, but he became Jansenist through weakness, and he died in +consequence of weakness equally great—because a man in passing through +a gallery did not bestow a look upon him. I am very sorry for all this; +but the part of Phædra is not therefore the less admirable.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POISONINGS" id="POISONINGS"></a>POISONINGS.</h3> + + +<p>Let us often repeat useful truths. There have always been fewer +poisonings than have been spoken of: it is almost with them as with +parricides; the accusations have been very common, and the crimes very +rare. One proof is, that we have a long time taken for poison that which +is not so. How many princes have got rid of those who were suspected by +them by making them drink bullock's blood! How many other princes have +swallowed it themselves to avoid falling into the hands of their +enemies! All ancient historians, and even Plutarch, attest it.</p> + +<p>I was so infatuated with these tales in my childhood that I bled one of +my bulls, in the idea that his blood belonged to me, since he was born +in my stable—an ancient pretension of which I will not here dispute the +validity. I drank this blood, like Atreus and Mademoiselle de Vergi, and +it did me no more harm than horse's blood does to the Tartars, or +pudding does to us every day, if it be not too rich.</p> + +<p>Why should the blood of a bull be a poison, when that of a goat is +considered a remedy? The peasants of my province swallow the blood of a +cow, which they call fricassée, every day; that of a bull is not more +dangerous. Be sure, dear reader, that Themistocles died not of it.</p> + +<p>Some speculators of the court of Louis XIV. believed they discovered +that his sister-in-law, Henrietta of England, was poisoned with powder +of diamonds, which was put into a bowl of strawberries, instead of +grated sugar; but neither the impalpable powder of glass or diamonds, +nor that of any production of nature which was not in itself venomous, +could be hurtful.</p> + +<p>They are only sharp-cutting active points which can become violent. The +exact observer, Mead, a celebrated English physician, saw through a +microscope the liquor shot from the gums of irritated vipers. He +pretends that he has always found them strewn with these cutting, +pointed blades, the immense number of which tear and pierce the internal +membranes.</p> + +<p>The cantarella, of which it is pretended that Pope Alexander VI. and his +bastard, the duke of Borgia, made great use, was, it is said, the foam +of a hog rendered furious by suspending him by the feet with his head +downwards, in which situation he was beaten to death; it was a poison as +prompt and violent as that of the viper. A great apothecary assures me +that Madame la Tofana, that celebrated poisoner of Naples, principally +made use of this receipt; all which is perhaps untrue. This science is +one of those of which we should be ignorant.</p> + +<p>Poisons which coagulate the blood, instead of tearing the membranes, are +opium, hemlock, henbane, aconite, and several others. The Athenians +became so refined as to cause their countrymen, condemned to death, to +die by poisons reputed cold; an apothecary was the executioner of the +republic. It is said that Socrates died very peacefully, and as if he +slept: I can scarcely believe it.</p> + +<p>I made one remark on the Jewish books, which is, that among this people +we see no one who was poisoned. A crowd of kings and priests perished by +assassination; the history of the nation is the history of murders and +robberies; but a single instance only is mentioned of a man who was +poisoned, and this man was not a Jew—he was a Syrian named Lysias, +general of the armies of Antiochus Epiphanes. The second Book of +Maccabees says that he poisoned himself—"<i>veneno vitam finivit</i>;" but +these Books of Maccabees are very suspicious. My dear reader, I have +already desired you to believe nothing lightly.</p> + +<p>What astonishes me most in the history of the manners of the ancient +Romans is the conspiracy of the Roman women to cause to perish by +poison, not only their husbands, but the principal citizens in general. +"It was," says Titus Livius, "in the year 423 from the foundation of +Rome, and therefore in the time of the most austere virtue; it was +before there was any mention of divorce, though divorce was authorized; +it was when women drank no wine, and scarcely ever went out of their +houses, except to the temples." How can we imagine, that they suddenly +applied themselves to the knowledge of poisons; that they assembled to +compose them; and, without any apparent interest, thus administered +death to the first men in Rome?</p> + +<p>Lawrence Echard, in his abridged compilation, contents himself with +saying, that "the virtue of the Roman ladies was strangely belied; that +one hundred and seventy who meddled with the art of making poisons, and +of reducing this art into precepts, were all at once accused, convicted, +and punished." Titus Livius assuredly does not say that they reduced +this art into rules. That would signify that they held a school of +poisons, that they professed it as a science; which is ridiculous. He +says nothing about a hundred and seventy professors in corrosive +sublimate and verdigris. Finally, he does not affirm that there were +poisoners among the wives of the senators and knights.</p> + +<p>The people were extremely foolish, and reasoned at Rome as elsewhere. +These are the words of Titus Livius: "The year 423 was of the number of +unfortunate ones; there was a mortality caused by the temperature of the +air or by human malice. I wish that we could affirm with some author +that the corruption of the air caused this epidemic, rather than +attribute the death of so many Romans to poison, as many historians have +falsely written, to decry this year."</p> + +<p>They have therefore written falsely, according to Titus Livius, who +believes not that the ladies of Rome were poisoners: but what interest +had authors in decrying this year? I know not.</p> + +<p>"I relate the fact," continues he, "as it was related before me." This +is not the speech of a satisfied man; besides, the alleged fact much +resembles a fable. A slave accuses about seventy women, among whom are +several of the patrician rank, of causing the plague in Rome by +preparing poisons. Some of the accused demand permission to swallow +their drugs, and expire on the spot; and their accomplices are condemned +to death without the manner of their punishment being specified.</p> + +<p>I suspect that this story to which Titus Livius gives no credit, +deserves to be banished to the place in which the vessel is preserved +which a vestal drew to shore with a girdle; where Jupiter in person +stopped the flight of the Romans; where Castor and Pollux came to combat +on horseback in their behalf; where a flint was cut with a razor; and +where Simon Barjonas, surnamed Peter, disputed miracles with Simon the +magician.</p> + +<p>There is scarcely any poison of which we cannot prevent the consequences +by combating it immediately. There is no medicine which is not a poison +when taken in too strong a dose. All indigestion is a poison. An +ignorant physician, and even a learned but inattentive one, is often a +poisoner. A good cook is a certain slow poisoner, if you are not +temperate.</p> + +<p>One day the marquis d'Argenson, minister of state for the foreign +department, whilst his brother was minister of war, received from London +a letter from a fool—as ministers do by every post; this fool proposed +an infallible means of poisoning all the inhabitants of the capital of +England. "This does not concern me," said the marquis d'Argenson to us; +"it is a packet to my brother."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POLICY" id="POLICY"></a>POLICY.</h3> + + +<p>The policy of man consists, at first, in endeavoring to arrive at a +state equal to that of animals, whom nature has furnished with food, +clothing, and shelter. To attain this state is a matter of no little +time and difficulty. How to procure for himself subsistence and +accommodation, and protect himself from evil, comprises the whole object +and business of man.</p> + +<p>This evil exists everywhere; the four elements of nature conspire to +form it. The barrenness of one-quarter part of the world, the numberless +diseases to which we are subject, the multitude of strong and hostile +animals by which we are surrounded, oblige us to be constantly on the +alert in body and in mind, to guard against the various forms of evil.</p> + +<p>No man, by his own individual care and exertion, can secure himself from +evil; he requires assistance. Society therefore is as ancient as the +world. This society consists sometimes of too many, and sometimes of too +few. The vicissitudes of the world have often destroyed whole races of +men and other animals, in many countries, and have multiplied them in +others.</p> + +<p>To enable a species to multiply, a tolerable climate and soil are +necessary; and even with these advantages, men may be under the +necessity of going unclothed, of suffering hunger, of being destitute of +everything, and of perishing in misery.</p> + +<p>Men are not like beavers, or bees, or silk-worms; they have no sure and +infallible instinct which procures for them necessaries. Among a hundred +men, there is scarcely one that possesses genius; and among women, +scarcely one among five hundred.</p> + +<p>It is only by means of genius that those arts are invented, which +eventually furnish something of that accommodation which is the great +object of all policy.</p> + +<p>To attempt these arts with success, the assistance of others is +requisite; hands to aid you, and minds sufficiently acute and +unprejudiced to comprehend you, and sufficiently docile to obey you. +Before, however, all this can be discovered and brought together, +thousands of years roll on in ignorance and barbarism; thousands of +efforts for improvement terminate only in abortion. At length, the +outlines of an art are formed, but thousands of ages are still requisite +to carry it to perfection.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Foreign Policy.</i></p> + +<p>When any one nation has become acquainted with metallurgy, it will +certainly beat its neighbors and make slaves of them. You possess arrows +and sabres, and were born in a climate that has rendered you robust. We +are weak, and have only clubs and stones. You kill us, or if you permit +us to live, it is that we may till your fields and build your houses. We +sing some rustic ditty to dissipate your spleen or animate your languor, +if we have any voice; or we blow on some pipes, in order to obtain from +you clothing and bread. If our wives and daughters are handsome, you +appropriate them without scruple to yourselves. The young gentleman, +your son, not only takes advantage of the established policy, but adds +new discoveries to this growing art. His servants proceed, by his +orders, to emasculate my unfortunate boys, whom he then honors with the +guardianship of his wives and mistresses. Such has been policy, the +great art of making mankind contribute to individual advantage and +enjoyment; and such is still policy throughout the largest portion of +Asia.</p> + +<p>Some nations, or rather hordes, having thus by superior strength and +skill brought into subjection others, begin afterwards to fight with one +another for the division of the spoil. Each petty nation maintains and +pays soldiers. To encourage, and at the same time to control these +soldiers, each possesses its gods, its oracles, and prophecies; each +maintains and pays its soothsayers and slaughtering priests. These +soothsayers or augurs begin with prophesying in favor of the heads of +the nation; they afterwards prophesy for themselves and obtain a share +in the government. The most powerful and shrewd prevail at last over the +others, after ages of carnage which excite our horror, and of impostures +which excite our laughter. Such is the regular course and completion of +policy.</p> + +<p>While these scenes of ravage and fraud are carried on in one portion of +the globe, other nations, or rather clans, retire to mountain caverns, +or districts surrounded by inaccessible swamps, marshes, or some verdant +and solitary spot in the midst of vast deserts of burning sand, or some +peninsular and consequently easily protected territory, to secure +themselves against the tyrants of the continent. At length all become +armed with nearly the same description of weapons; and blood flows from +one extremity of the world to the other.</p> + +<p>Men, however, cannot forever go on killing one another; and peace is +consequently made, till either party thinks itself sufficiently strong +to recommence the war. Those who can write draw up these treaties of +peace; and the chiefs of every nation, with a view more successfully to +impose upon their enemies, invoke the gods to attest with what sincerity +they bind themselves to the observance of these compacts. Oaths of the +most solemn character are invented and employed, and one party engages +in the name of the great Somonocodom, and the other in that of Jupiter +the Avenger, to live forever in peace and amity; while in the same names +of Somonocodom and Jupiter, they take the first opportunity of cutting +one another's throats.</p> + +<p>In times of the greatest civilization and refinement, the lion of Æsop +made a treaty with three animals, who were his neighbors. The object was +to divide the common spoil into four equal parts. The lion, for certain +incontestable and satisfactory reasons which he did not then deem it +necessary to detail, but which he would be always ready to give in due +time and place, first takes three parts out of the four for himself, and +then threatens instant strangulation to whoever shall dare to touch the +fourth. This is the true sublime of policy.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Internal Policy.</i></p> + +<p>The object here is to accumulate for our own country the greatest +quantity of power, honor, and enjoyment possible. To attain these in any +extraordinary degree, much money is indispensable. In a democracy it is +very difficult to accomplish this object. Every citizen is your rival; a +democracy can never subsist but in a small territory. You may have +wealth almost equal to your wishes through your own mercantile dealings, +or transmitted in patrimony from your industrious and opulent +grandfather; your fortune will excite jealousy and envy, but will +purchase little real co-operation and service. If an affluent family +ever bears sway in a democracy, it is not for a long time.</p> + +<p>In an aristocracy, honors, pleasures, power, and money, are more easily +obtainable. Great discretion, however, is necessary. If abuse is +flagrant, revolution will be the consequence. Thus in a democracy all +the citizens are equal. This species of government is at present rare, +and appears to but little advantage, although it is in itself natural +and wise. In aristocracy, inequality or superiority makes itself +sensibly felt; but the less arrogant its demeanor, the more secure and +successful will be its course.</p> + +<p>Monarchy remains to be mentioned. In this, all mankind are made for one +individual: he accumulates all honors with which he chooses to decorate +himself, tastes all pleasures to which he feels an inclination, and +exercises a power absolutely without control; provided, let it be +remembered, that he has plenty of money. If he is deficient in that, he +will be unsuccessful at home as well as abroad, and will soon be left +destitute of power, pleasures, honors, and perhaps even of life.</p> + +<p>While this personage has money, not only is he successful and happy +himself, but his relations and principal servants are flourishing in +full enjoyment also; and an immense multitude of hirelings labor for +them the whole year round, in the vain hope that they shall themselves, +some time or other, enjoy in their cottages the leisure and comfort +which their sultans and pashas enjoy in their harems. Observe, however, +what will probably happen.</p> + +<p>A jolly, full-fed farmer was formerly in possession of a vast estate, +consisting of fields, meadows, vineyards, orchards, and forests. A +hundred laborers worked for him, while he dined with his family, drank +his wine, and went to sleep. His principal domestics, who plundered him, +dined next, and ate up nearly everything. Then came the laborers, for +whom there was left only a very meagre and insufficient meal. They at +first murmured, then openly complained, speedily lost all patience, and +at last ate up the dinner prepared for their master, and turned him out +of his house. The master said they were a set of scoundrels, a pack of +undutiful and rebellious children who assaulted and abused their own +father. The laborers replied that they had only obeyed the sacred law of +nature, which he had violated. The dispute was finally referred to a +soothsayer in the neighborhood, who was thought to be actually inspired. +The holy man takes the farm into his own hands, and nearly famishes both +the laborers and the master; till at length their feelings counteract +their superstition, and the saint is in the end expelled in his turn. +This is domestic policy.</p> + +<p>There have been more examples than one of this description; and some +consequences of this species of policy still subsist in all their +strength. We may hope that in the course of ten or twelve thousand ages, +when mankind become more enlightened, the great proprietors of estates, +grown also more wise, will on the one hand treat their laborers rather +better, and on the other take care not to be duped by soothsayers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POLYPUS" id="POLYPUS"></a>POLYPUS.</h3> + + +<p>In quality of a doubter, I have a long time filled my vocation. I have +doubted when they would persuade me, that the <i>glossopetres</i> which I +have seen formed in my fields, were originally the tongues of sea-dogs, +that the lime used in my barn was composed of shells only, that corals +were the production of the excrement of certain little fishes, that the +sea by its currents has formed Mount Cenis and Mount Taurus, and that +Niobe was formerly changed into marble.</p> + +<p>It is not that I love not the extraordinary, the marvellous, as well as +any traveller or man of system; but to believe firmly, I would see with +my own eyes, touch with my own hands, and that several times. Even that +is not enough; I would still be aided by the eyes and hands of others.</p> + +<p>Two of my companions, who, like myself, form questions on the +"Encyclopædia," have for some time amused themselves with me in studying +the nature of several of the little films which grow in ditches by the +side of water lentils. These light herbs, which we call polypi of soft +water, have several roots, from which circumstance we have given them +the name of polypi. These little parasite plants were merely plants, +until the commencement of the age in which we live. Leuenhoeck raises +them to the rank of animals. We know not if they have gained much by it.</p> + +<p>We think that, to be considered as an animal, it is necessary to be +endowed with sensation. They therefore commence by showing us, that +these soft water polypi have feeling, in order that we should present +them with our right of citizenship.</p> + +<p>We have not dared to grant it the dignity of sensation, though it +appeared to have the greatest pretensions to it. Why should we give it +to a species of small rush? Is it because it appears to bud? This +property is common to all trees growing by the water-side; to willows, +poplars, aspens, etc. It is so light, that it changes place at the least +motion of the drop of water which bears it; thence it has been concluded +that it walked. In like manner, we may suppose that the little, +floating, marshy islands of St. Omer are animals, for they often change +their place.</p> + +<p>It is said its roots are its feet, its stalk its body, its branches are +its arms; the pipe which composes its stalk is pierced at the top—it is +its mouth. In this pipe there is a light white pith, of which some +almost imperceptible animalcules are very greedy; they enter the hollow +of this little pipe by making it bend, and eat this light paste;—it is +the polypus who captures these animals with his snout, though it has not +the least appearance of head, mouth, or stomach.</p> + +<p>We have examined this sport of nature with all the attention of which we +are capable. It appeared to us that the production called polypus +resembled an animal much less than a carrot or asparagus. In vain we +have opposed to our eyes all the reasonings which we formerly read; the +evidence of our eyes has overthrown them. It is a pity to lose an +illusion. We know how pleasant it would be to have an animal which could +reproduce itself by offshoots, and which, having all the appearances of +a plant, could join the animal to the vegetable kingdom.</p> + +<p>It would be much more natural to give the rank of an animal to the +newly-discovered plant of Anglo-America, to which the pleasant name of +Venus' fly-trap has been given. It is a kind of prickly sensitive-plant, +the leaves of which fold of themselves; the flies are taken in these +leaves and perish there more certainly than in the web of a spider. If +any of our physicians would call this plant an animal, he would have +partisans.</p> + +<p>But if you would have something more extraordinary, more worthy of the +observation of philosophers, observe the snail, which lives one and two +whole months after its head is cut off, and which afterwards has a +second head, containing all the organs possessed by the first. This +truth, to which all children can be witnesses, is more worthy than the +illusion of polypi of soft water. What becomes of its sensorium, its +magazine of ideas, and soul, when its head is cut off? How do all these +return? A soul which is renewed is a very curious phenomenon; not that +it is more strange than a soul begotten, a soul which sleeps and awakes, +or a condemned soul.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POLYTHEISM" id="POLYTHEISM"></a>POLYTHEISM.</h3> + + +<p>The plurality of gods is the great reproach at present cast upon the +Greeks and Romans: but let any man show me, if he can, a single fact in +the whole of their histories, or a single word in the whole of their +books, from which it may be fairly inferred that they believed in many +supreme gods; and if neither that fact nor word can be found, if, on the +contrary, all antiquity is full of monuments and records which attest +one sovereign God, superior to all other gods, let us candidly admit +that we have judged the ancients as harshly as we too often judge our +contemporaries.</p> + +<p>We read in numberless passages that Zeus, Jupiter, is the master of gods +and men. "<i>Jovis omnia plena.</i>"—"All things are full of Jupiter." And +St. Paul gives this testimony in favor of the ancients: "<i>In ipso +vivimus, movemur, et sumus, ut quidam vestrorum poetarum dixit.</i>"—"In +God we live, and move, and have our being, as one of your own poets has +said." After such an acknowledgment as this, how can we dare to accuse +our instructors of not having recognized a supreme God?</p> + +<p>We have no occasion whatever to examine upon this subject, whether there +was formerly a Jupiter who was king of Crete, and who may possibly have +been considered and ranked as a god; or whether the Egyptians had twelve +superior gods, or eight, among whom the deity called Jupiter by the +Latins might be one. The single point to be investigated and ascertained +here is, whether the Greeks and Romans acknowledged one celestial being +as the master or sovereign of other celestial beings. They constantly +tell us that they do; and we ought therefore to believe them.</p> + +<p>The admirable letter of the philosopher Maximus of Madaura to St. +Augustine is completely to our purpose: "There is a God," says he, +"without any beginning, the common Father of all, but who never produced +a being like Himself. What man is so stupid and besotted as to doubt +it?" Such is the testimony of a pagan of the fourth century on behalf of +all antiquity.</p> + +<p>Were I inclined to lift the veil that conceals the mysteries of Egypt, I +should find the deity adored under the name of Knef, who produced all +things and presides over all the other deities; I should discover also a +Mithra among the Persians, and a Brahma among the Indians, and could +perhaps show, that every civilized nation admitted one supreme being, +together with a multitude of dependent divinities. I do not speak of the +Chinese, whose government, more respectable than all the rest, has +acknowledged one God only for a period of more than four thousand years. +Let us here confine ourselves to the Greeks and Romans, who are the +objects of our immediate researches. They had among them innumerable +superstitions—it is impossible to doubt it; they adopted fables +absolutely ridiculous—everybody knows it; and I may safely add, that +they were themselves sufficiently disposed to ridicule them. After all, +however, the foundation of their theology was conformable to reason.</p> + +<p>In the first place, with respect to the Greeks placing heroes in heaven +as a reward for their virtues, it was one of the most wise and useful of +religious institutions. What nobler recompense could possibly be +bestowed upon them; what more animating and inspiring hope could be held +out to them? Is it becoming that we, above all others, should censure +such a practice—we who, enlightened by the truth, have piously +consecrated the very usage which the ancients imagined? We have a far +greater number of the blessed in honor of whom we have created altars, +than the Greeks and Romans had of heroes and demi-gods; the difference +is, that they granted the apotheosis to the most illustrious and +resplendent actions, and we grant it to the most meek and retired +virtues. But their deified heroes never shared the throne of Jupiter, +the great architect, the eternal sovereign of the universe; they were +admitted to his court and enjoyed his favors. What is there unreasonable +in this? Is it not a faint shadow and resemblance of the celestial +hierarchy presented to us by our religion? Nothing can be of a more +salutary moral tendency than such an idea; and the reality is not +physically impossible in itself. We have surely, upon this subject, no +fair ground for ridiculing nations to whom we are indebted even for our +alphabet.</p> + +<p>The second object of our reproaches, is the multitude of gods admitted +to the government of the world; Neptune presiding over the sea, Juno +over the air, Æolus over the winds, and Pluto or Vesta over the earth, +and Mars over armies. We set aside the genealogies of all these +divinities, which are as false as those which are every day fabricated +and printed respecting individuals among ourselves; we pass sentence of +condemnation on all their light and loose adventures, worthy of being +recorded in the pages of the "Thousand and One Nights," and which never +constituted the foundation or essence of the Greek and Roman faith; but +let us at the same time candidly ask, where is the folly and stupidity +of having adopted beings of a secondary order, who, whatever they may be +in relation to the great supreme, have at least some power over our very +differently-constituted race, which, instead of belonging to the second, +belongs perhaps to the hundred thousandth order of existence? Does this +doctrine necessarily imply either bad metaphysics or bad natural +philosophy? Have we not ourselves nine choirs of celestial spirits, more +ancient than mankind? Has not each of these choirs a peculiar name? Did +not the Jews take the greater number of these names from the Persians? +Have not many angels their peculiar functions assigned them? There was +an exterminating angel, who fought for the Jews, and the angel of +travellers, who conducted Tobit. Michael was the particular angel of the +Hebrews; and, according to Daniel, he fights against the angel of the +Persians, and speaks to the angel of the Greeks. An angel of inferior +rank gives an account to Michael, in the book of Zachariah, of the state +in which he had found the country. Every nation possessed its angel; the +version of the Seventy Days, in Deuteronomy, that the Lord allotted the +nations according to the number of angels. St. Paul, in the Acts of the +Apostles, talks to the angel of Macedonia. These celestial spirits are +frequently called gods in Scripture, <i>Eloim.</i> For among all nations, the +word that corresponds with that of Theos, Deus, Dieu, God, by no means +universally signifies the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth; it +frequently signifies a celestial being, a being superior to man, but +dependent upon the great Sovereign of Nature; and it is sometimes +bestowed even on princes and judges.</p> + +<p>Since to us it is a matter of truth and reality, that celestial +substances actually exist, who are intrusted with the care of men and +empires, the people who have admitted this truth without the light of +revelation are more worthy of our esteem than our contempt.</p> + +<p>The ridicule, therefore, does not attach to polytheism itself, but to +the abuse of it; to the popular fables of superstition; to the multitude +of absurd divinities which have been supposed to exist and to the number +of which every individual might add at his pleasure.</p> + +<p>The goddess of nipples, "<i>dea Rumilia</i>"; the goddess of conjugal union, +"<i>dea Pertunda</i>"; the god of the water-closet, "<i>deus Stercutius</i>"; the +god of flatulence, "<i>deus Crepitus</i>"; are certainly not calculated to +attract the highest degree of veneration. These ridiculous absurdities, +the amusement of the old women and children of Rome, merely prove that +the word <i>deus</i> had acceptations of a widely different nature. Nothing +can be more certain or obvious, than that the god of flatulence, "<i>deus +Crepitus,</i>" could never excite the same idea as <i>deus divûm et hominum +sator,</i> the source of gods and men. The Roman pontiffs did not admit the +little burlesque and baboon-looking deities which silly women introduced +into their cabinets. The Roman religion was in fact, in its intrinsic +character, both serious and austere. Oaths were inviolable; war could +not be commenced before the college of heralds had declared it just; and +a vestal convicted of having violated her vow of virginity, was +condemned to death. These circumstances announce a people inclined to +austerities, rather than a people volatile, frivolous, and addicted to +ridicule.</p> + +<p>I confine myself here to showing that the senate did not reason absurdly +in adopting polytheism. It is asked, how that senate, to two or three +deputies from which we were indebted both for chains and laws, could +permit so many extravagances among the people, and authorize so many +fables among the pontiffs? It would be by no means difficult to answer +this question. The wise have in every age made use of fools. They freely +leave to the people their lupercals and their saturnalia, if they only +continue loyal and obedient; and the sacred pullets that promised +victory to the armies, are judiciously secured against the sacrilege of +being slaughtered for the table. Let us never be surprised at seeing, +that the most enlightened governments have permitted customs and fables +of the most senseless character. These customs and fables existed before +government was formed; and no one would pull down an immense city, +however irregular in its buildings, to erect it precisely according to +line and level.</p> + +<p>How can it arise, we are asked, that on one side we see so much +philosophy and science, and on the other so much fanaticism? The reason +is, that science and philosophy were scarcely born before Cicero, and +that fanaticism reigned for centuries. Policy, in such circumstances, +says to philosophy and fanaticism: Let us all three live together as +well as we can.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POPERY" id="POPERY"></a>POPERY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="small">PAPIST</span>.—His highness has within his principality Lutherans, Calvinists, +Quakers, Anabaptists, and even Jews; and you wish that he would admit +Unitarians?</p> + +<p><span class="small">TREASURER</span>.—Certainly, if these Unitarians bring with them wealth and +industry. You will only be the better paid your wages.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAPIST</span>.—I must confess that a diminution of my wages would be more +disagreeable to me than the admission of these persons; but, then, they +do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.</p> + +<p><span class="small">TREASURER</span>.—What does that signify to you, provided that you are +permitted to believe it, and are well lodged, well clothed, and well +fed? The Jews are far from believing that He is the Son of God, and yet +you are very easy with the Jews, with whom you deposit your money at six +per cent. St. Paul himself has never spoken of the divinity of Jesus +Christ, who is undisguisedly called a man. Death, says he, entered into +the world by the sin of one man ... and by one man, Jesus Christ, the +gift of grace hath abounded unto many, etc. All the early fathers of the +Church thought like Paul. It is evident that, for three hundred years, +Jesus was content with His humanity; imagine yourself a Christian of one +of the first three centuries.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAPIST</span>.—Yes, sir; but neither do they believe in eternal punishments.</p> + +<p><span class="small">TREASURER</span>.—Nor I either; be you damned eternally if you please; for my +own part, I do not look for that advantage.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAPIST</span>.—Ah, sir! it is very hard not to be able to damn at pleasure all +the heretics in the world; but the rage which the Unitarian displays for +rendering everybody finally happy is not my only complaint. Know, that +these monsters believe the resurrection of the body no more than the +Sadducees. They say, that we are all anthropophagi, and that the +particles which compose our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, having +been necessarily dispersed in the atmosphere, become carrots and +asparagus, and that it is possible we may have devoured a portion of our +ancestors.</p> + +<p><span class="small">TREASURER</span>.—Be it so; our children will do as much by us; it is but +repayment, and Papists will be as much benefited as others. This is no +reason for driving you from the states of his highness; and why any more +so for ejecting the Unitarians? Rise again, if you are able; it matters +little whether the Unitarians rise again or no, provided they are useful +during their lives.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAPIST</span>.—And what, sir, do you say to original sin, which they boldly +deny? Are you not scandalized by their assertion, that the Pentateuch +says not a word about it, that the bishop of Hippo, St. Augustine, is +the first who decidedly taught this dogma, although it is evidently +indicated by St. Paul?</p> + +<p><span class="small">TREASURER</span>.—Truly, if the Pentateuch does not mention it, that is not my +fault. Why not add a text or two about original sin to the Old +Testament, as it is said you have added on other subjects? I know +nothing of these subtleties; it is my business only to pay you your +stipend, when I have the money to do so.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POPULATION" id="POPULATION"></a>POPULATION.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>There were very few caterpillars in my canton last year, and we killed +nearly the whole of them. God has rendered them this year more numerous +than the leaves. Is it not nearly thus with other animals, and above all +with mankind? Famine, pestilence, death, and the two sister diseases +which have visited us from Arabia and America, destroy the inhabitants +of a province, and we are surprised at finding it abound with people a +hundred years afterwards.</p> + +<p>I admit that it is a sacred duty to people this world, and that all +animals are stimulated by pleasure to fulfil this intention of the great +Demiourgos. Why this inhabiting of the earth? and to what purpose form +so many beings to devour one another, and the animal man to cut the +throat of his fellow, from one end of the earth to the other? I am +assured that I shall one day be in the possession of this secret, and in +my character of an inquisitive man I exceedingly desire it.</p> + +<p>It is clear that we ought to people the earth as much as we are able; +even our health renders it necessary. The wise Arabians, the robbers of +the desert, in the treaties which they made with travellers, always +stipulated for girls. When they conquered Spain, they imposed a tribute +of girls. The country of Media pays the Turks in girls. The buccaneers +brought girls from Paris to the little island of which they took +possession; and it is related that, at the fine spectacle with which +Romulus entertained the Sabines, he stole from them three hundred girls.</p> + +<p>I cannot conceive why the Jews, whom moreover I revere, killed everybody +in Jericho, even to the girls; and why they say in the Psalms, that it +will be sweet to massacre the infants at the mother's breast, without +excepting even girls. All other people, whether Tartars, Cannibals, +Teutons, or Celts, have always held girls in great request.</p> + +<p>Owing to this happy instinct, it seems that the earth may one day be +covered with animals of our own kind. Father Petau makes the inhabitants +of the earth seven hundred millions, two hundred and eighty years after +the deluge. It is not, however, at the end of the "Arabian Nights" that +he has printed this pleasant enumeration.</p> + +<p>I reckon at present on our globe about nine hundred millions of +contemporaries, and an equal number of each sex. Wallace makes them a +thousand millions. Am I in error, or is he? Possibly both of us; but a +tenth is a small matter; the arithmetic of historians is usually much +more erroneous.</p> + +<p>I am somewhat surprised that the arithmetician Wallace, who extends the +number of people at present existing to a thousand millions, should +pretend in the same page, that in the year 966, after the creation, our +forefathers amounted to sixteen hundred and ten millions.</p> + +<p>In the first place, I wish the epoch of the creation to be clearly +established; and as, in our western world, we have no less than eighty +theories of this event, there will be some difficulty to hit on the +correct one. In the second place, the Egyptians, the Chaldæans, the +Persians, the Indians, and the Chinese, have all different calculations; +and it is still more difficult to agree with them. Thirdly, why, in the +nine hundred and sixty-sixth year of the world, should there be more +people than there are at present?</p> + +<p>To explain this absurdity, we are told that matters occurred otherwise +than at present; that nature, being more vigorous, was better concocted +and more prolific; and, moreover, that people lived longer. Why do they +not add, that the sun was warmer, and the moon more beautiful.</p> + +<p>We are told, that in the time of Cæsar, although men had begun to +greatly degenerate, the world was like an ants' nest of bipeds; but that +at present it is a desert. Montesquieu, who always exaggerates, and who +sacrifices anything to an itching desire of displaying his wit, ventures +to believe, and in his "Persian Letters" would have others believe, that +there were thirty times as many people in the world in the days of Cæsar +as at present.</p> + +<p>Wallace acknowledges that this calculation made at random is too much; +but for what reason? Because, before the days of Cæsar, the world +possessed more inhabitants than during the most brilliant period of the +Roman republic. He then ascends to the time of Semiramis, and if +possible exaggerates more than Montesquieu.</p> + +<p>Lastly, in conformity with the taste which is always attributed to the +Holy Spirit for hyperbole, they fail not to instance the eleven hundred +and sixty thousand men, who marched so fiercely under the standards of +the great monarch, Josophat, or Jehosophat, king of the province of +Judah. Enough, enough, Mr. Wallace; the Holy Spirit cannot deceive; but +its agents and copyists have badly calculated and numbered. All your +Scotland would not furnish eleven hundred thousand men to attend your +sermons, and the kingdom of Judah was not a twentieth part of Scotland. +See, again, what St. Jerome says of this poor Holy Land, in which he so +long resided. Have you well calculated the quantity of money the great +King Jehosophat must have possessed, to pay, feed, clothe, and arm +eleven hundred thousand chosen men? But thus is history written.</p> + +<p>Mr. Wallace returns from Jehosophat to Cæsar, and concludes, that since +the time of this dictator of short duration, the world has visibly +decreased in the number of its inhabitants. Behold, said he, the Swiss: +according to the relation of Cæsar, they amounted to three hundred and +sixty-eight thousand, when they so wisely quitted their country to seek +their fortunes, like the Cimbri.</p> + +<p>I wish by this example to recall those partisans into a little due +consideration, who gift the ancients with such wonders in the way of +generation, at the expense of the moderns. The canton of Berne alone, +according to an accurate census, possesses a greater number of +inhabitants than quitted the whole of Helvetia in the time of Cæsar. The +human species is, therefore, doubled in Helvetia since that expedition.</p> + +<p>I likewise believe, that Germany, France, and England are much better +peopled now than at that time; and for this reason: I adduce the vast +clearance of forests, the number of great towns built and increased +during the last eight hundred years, and the number of arts which have +originated in proportion. This I regard as a sufficient answer to the +brazen declamation, repeated every day in books, in which truth is +sacrificed to sallies, and which are rendered useless by their abundant +wit.</p> + +<p>"<i>L'Ami des Hommes</i>" says, that in the time of Cæsar fifty-two millions +of men were assigned to Spain, which Strabo observes has always been +badly peopled, owing to the interior being so deficient in water. Strabo +is apparently right, and "<i>L'Ami des Hommes</i>" erroneous. But they scare +us by asking what has become of the prodigious quantity of Huns, Alans, +Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, and Lombards, who spread like a torrent +over Europe in the fifth century.</p> + +<p>I distrust these multitudes, and suspect that twenty or thirty thousand +ferocious animals, more or less, were sufficient to overwhelm with +fright the whole Roman Empire, governed by a Pulcheria, by eunuchs, and +by monks. It was enough for ten thousand barbarians to pass the Danube; +for every parish rumor, or homily, to make them more numerous than the +locusts in the plains of Egypt; and call them a scourge from God, in +order to inspire penitence, and produce gifts of money to the convents. +Fear seized all the inhabitants, and they fled in crowds. Behold +precisely the fright which a wolf caused in the district of Gevanden in +the year 1766.</p> + +<p>Mandarin the robber, at the head of fifty vagabonds, put an entire town +under contribution. As soon as he entered at one gate, it was said at +the other, that he brought with him four thousand men and artillery. If +Attila, followed by fifty thousand hungry assassins, ravaged province +after province, report would call them five hundred thousand.</p> + +<p>The millions of men who followed Xerxes, Cyrus, Tomyris, the thirty or +forty-four millions of Egyptians, Thebes with her hundred gates—"<i>Et +quicquid Grecia mendax audet in historia</i>"—resemble the five hundred +thousand men of Attila, which company of pleasant travellers it would +have been difficult to find on the journey.</p> + +<p>These Huns came from Siberia, and thence I conclude that they came in +very small numbers. Siberia was certainly not more fertile than in our +own days. I doubt whether in the reign of Tomyris a town existed equal +to Tobolsk, or that these frightful deserts can feed a great number of +inhabitants.</p> + +<p>India, China, Persia, and Asia Minor were thickly peopled; this I can +credit without difficulty; and possibly they are not less so at present, +notwithstanding the destructive prevalence of invasions and wars. +Throughout, Nature has clothed them with pasturage; the bull freely +unites with the heifer, the ram with the sheep, and man with woman.</p> + +<p>The deserts of Barca, of Arabia, and of Oreb, of Sinai, of Jerusalem, of +Gobi, etc., were never peopled, are not peopled at present, and never +will be peopled; at least, until some natural revolution happens to +transform these plains of sand and flint into fertile land.</p> + +<p>The land of France is tolerably good, and it is sufficiently inhabited +by consumers, since of all kinds there are more than are well supplied; +since there are two hundred thousand impostors, who beg from one end of +the country to the other, and sustain their despicable lives at the +expense of the rich; and lastly, since France supports more than eighty +thousand monks, of which not a single one assists to produce an ear of +corn.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>I believe that England, Protestant Germany, and Holland are better +peopled in proportion than France. The reason is evident; those +countries harbor not monks who vow to God to be useless to man. In these +countries, the clergy, having little else to do, occupy themselves with +study and propagation. They give birth to robust children, and give them +a better education than that which is bestowed on the offspring of +French and Italian marquises.</p> + +<p>Rome, on the contrary, would be a desert without cardinals, ambassadors, +and travellers. It would be only an illustrious monument, like the +temple of Jupiter Ammon. In the time of the first Cæsar, it was computed +that this sterile territory, rendered fertile by manure and the labor of +slaves, contained some millions of men. It was an exception to the +general law, that population is ordinarily in proportion to fertility of +soil.</p> + +<p>Conquest rendered this barren country fertile and populous. A form of +government as strange and contradictory as any which ever astonished +mankind, has restored to the territory of Romulus its primitive +character. The whole country is depopulated from Orvieto to Terracina. +Rome, reduced to its own citizens, would be to London only as one to +twelve; and in respect to money and commerce, would be to the towns of +Amsterdam and London as one to a thousand.</p> + +<p>That which Rome has lost, Europe has not only regained, but the +population has almost tripled since the days of Charlemagne. I say +tripled, which is much; for propagation is <i>not</i> in geometrical +progression. All the calculations made on the idea of this pretended +multiplication, amount only to absurd chimeras.</p> + +<p>If a family of human beings or of apes multiplied in this manner, at the +end of two hundred years the earth would not be able to contain them. +Nature has taken care at once to preserve and restrain the various +species. She resembles the fates, who spin and cut threads continually. +She is occupied with birth and destruction alone.</p> + +<p>If she has given to man more ideas and memory than to other animals; if +she has rendered him capable of generalizing his ideas and combining +them; if he has the advantage of the gift of speech, she has not +bestowed on him that of multiplication equal to insects. There are more +ants in a square league of heath, than of men in the world, counting all +that have ever existed.</p> + +<p>When a country possesses a great number of idlers, be sure that it is +well peopled; since these idlers are lodged, clothed, fed, amused, and +respected by those who labor. The principal object, however, is not to +possess a superfluity of men, but to render such as we have as little +unhappy as possible.</p> + +<p>Let us thank nature for placing us in the temperate zone, peopled almost +throughout by a more than sufficient number of inhabitants, who +cultivate all the arts; and let us endeavor not to lessen this advantage +by our absurdities.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>It must be confessed, that we ordinarily people and depopulate the world +a little at random; and everybody acts in this manner. We are little +adapted to obtain an accurate notion of things; the <i>nearly</i> is our only +guide, and it often leads us astray.</p> + +<p>It is still worse when we wish to calculate precisely. We go and see +farces and laugh at them; but should we laugh less in our closets when +we read grave authors deciding exactly how many men existed on the earth +two hundred and eighty-five years after the general deluge. We find, +according to Father Petau, that the family of Noah had produced one +thousand two hundred and twenty-four millions seven hundred and +seventeen thousand inhabitants, in three hundred years. The good priest +Petau evidently knew little about getting children and rearing them, if +we are to judge by this statement.</p> + +<p>According to Cumberland, this family increased to three thousand three +hundred and thirty millions, in three hundred and forty years; and +according to Whiston, about three hundred years after the Deluge, they +amounted only to sixty-five millions four hundred and thirty-six.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to reconcile and to estimate these accounts, such is the +extravagance when people seek to make things accord which are repugnant, +and to explain what is inexplicable. This unhappy endeavor has deranged +heads which in other pursuits might have made discoveries beneficial to +society.</p> + +<p>The authors of the English "Universal History" observe, it is generally +agreed that the present inhabitants of the earth amount to about four +thousand millions. It is to be remarked, that these gentlemen do not +include in this number the natives of America, which comprehends nearly +half of the globe. For my own part, if, instead of a common romance, I +wished to amuse myself by reckoning up the number of brethren I have on +this unhappy little planet, I would proceed as follows: I would first +endeavor to estimate pretty nearly the number of inhabited square +leagues this earth contains on its surface; I should then say: The +surface of the globe contains twenty-seven millions of square leagues; +take away two-thirds at least for seas, rivers, lakes, deserts, +mountains, and all that is uninhabited; this calculation, which is very +moderate, leaves us nine millions of square leagues to account for.</p> + +<p>In France and Germany, there are said to be six hundred persons to a +square league; in Spain, one hundred and fifty; in Russia, fifteen; and +Tartary, ten. Take the mean number at a hundred, and you will have about +nine hundred millions of brethren, including mulattoes, negroes, the +brown, the copper-colored, the fair, the bearded, and the unbearded. It +is not thought, indeed, that the number is so great as this; and if +eunuchs continue to be made, monks to multiply, and wars to be waged on +the most trifling pretexts, it is easy to perceive that we shall not +very soon be able to muster the four thousand millions, with which the +English authors of the "Universal History" have so liberally favored us; +but, then, of what consequence is it, whether the number of men on the +earth be great or small? The chief thing is to discover the means of +rendering our miserable species as little unhappy as possible.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<h4><i>Of The Population Of America.</i></h4> + +<p>The discovery of America—that field of so much avarice and so much +ambition—has also become an object of philosophical curiosity. A great +number of writers have endeavored to prove that America was a colony of +the ancient world. Some modest mathematicians, on the contrary, have +said, that the same power which has caused the grass to grow in American +soil, was able to place man there; but this simple and naked system has +not been attended to.</p> + +<p>When the great Columbus suspected the existence of this new world, it +was held to be impossible; and Columbus was taken for a visionary. When +it was really discovered, it was then found out that it had been known +long before.</p> + +<p>It was pretended that Martin Behem, a native of Nuremberg, quitted +Flanders about the year 1460, in search of this unknown world; that he +made his way even to the Straits of Magellan, of which he left unknown +charts. As, however, it is certain that Martin Behem did not people +America, it must certainly have been one of the later grandchildren of +Noah, who took this trouble. All antiquity is then ransacked for +accounts of long voyages, to which they apply the discovery of this +fourth quarter of the globe. They make the ships of Solomon proceed to +Mexico, and it is thence that he drew the gold of Ophir, to procure +which he borrowed them from King Hiram. They find out America in Plato, +give the honor of it to the Carthaginians, and quote this anecdote from +a book of Aristotle which he never wrote.</p> + +<p>Hornius pretends to discover some conformity between the Hebrew language +and that of the Caribs. Father Lafiteau, the Jesuit, has not failed to +follow up so fine an opening. The Mexicans, when greatly afflicted, tore +their garments; certain people of Asia formerly did the same, and of +course they are the ancestors of the Mexicans. It might be added, that +the natives of Languedoc are very fond of dancing; and that, as in their +rejoicings the Hurons dance also, the Languedocians are descended from +the Hurons, or the Hurons from the Languedocians.</p> + +<p>The authors of a tremendous "Universal History" pretend that all the +Americans are descended from the Tartars. They assure us that this +opinion is general among the learned, but they do not say whether it is +so among the learned who reflect. According to them, some descendants of +Noah could find nothing better to do, than to go and settle in the +delicious country of Kamchatka, in the north of Siberia. This family +being destitute of occupation, resolved to visit Canada either by means +of ships, or by marching pleasantly across some slip of connecting land, +which has not been discovered in our own times. They then began to busy +themselves in propagation, until the fine country of Canada soon +becoming inadequate to the support of so numerous a population, they +went to people Mexico, Peru, Chile; while certain of their +great-granddaughters were in due time brought to bed of giants in the +Straits of Magellan.</p> + +<p>As ferocious animals are found in some of the warm countries of America, +these authors pretend, that the Christopher Columbuses of Kamchatka took +them into Canada for their amusement, and carefully confined themselves +to those kinds which are no longer to be found in the ancient +hemisphere.</p> + +<p>But the Kamchatkans have not alone peopled the new world; they have been +charitably assisted by the Mantchou Tartars, by the Huns, by the +Chinese, and by the inhabitants of Japan. The Mantchou Tartars are +incontestably the ancestors of the Peruvians, for Mango Capac was the +first inca of Peru. Mango resembles Manco; Manco sounds like Mancu; +Mancu approaches Mantchu, and Mantchou is very close to the latter. +Nothing can be better demonstrated. As for the Huns, they built in +Hungary a town called Cunadi. Now, changing Cu into Ca, we have Canadi, +from which Canada manifestly derives its name.</p> + +<p>A plant resembling the ginseng of the Chinese, grows in Canada, which +the Chinese transplanted into the latter even before they were masters +of the part of Tartary where it is indigenous. Moreover, the Chinese are +such great navigators, they formerly sent fleets to America without +maintaining the least correspondence with their colonies.</p> + +<p>With respect to the Japanese, they are the nearest neighbors of America, +which, as they are distant only about twelve hundred leagues, they have +doubtless visited in their time, although latterly they have neglected +repeating the voyage. Thus is history written in our own days. What +shall we say to these, and many other systems which resemble them? +Nothing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POSSESSED" id="POSSESSED"></a>POSSESSED.</h3> + + +<p>Of all those who boast of having leagues with the devil, to the +possessed alone it is of no use to reply. If a man says to you, "I am +possessed," you should believe it on his word. They are not obliged to +do very extraordinary things; and when they do them, it is more than can +fairly be demanded. What can we answer to a man who rolls his eyes, +twists his mouth, and tells you that he has the devil within him? +Everyone feels what he feels; and as the world was formerly full of +possessed persons, we may still meet with them. If they take measures to +conquer the world, we give them property and they become more moderate; +but for a poor demoniac, who is content with a few convulsions, and does +no harm to anyone, it is not right to make him injurious. If you dispute +with him, you will infallibly have the worst of it. He will tell you, +"The devil entered me to-day under such a form; from that time I have +had a supernatural colic, which all the apothecaries in the world cannot +assuage." There is certainly no other plan to be taken with this man, +than to exorcise or abandon him to the devil.</p> + +<p>It is a great pity that there are no longer possessed magicians or +astrologers. We can conceive the cause of all these mysteries. A hundred +years ago all the nobility lived in their castles; the winter evenings +are long, and they would have died of ennui without these noble +amusements. There was scarcely a castle which a fairy did not visit on +certain marked days, like the fairy Melusina at the castle of Lusignan. +The great hunter, a tall black man, hunted with a pack of black dogs in +the forest of Fontainebleau. The devil twisted Marshal Fabert's neck. +Every village had its sorcerer or sorceress; every prince had his +astrologer; all the ladies had their fortunes told; the possessed ran +about the fields; it was who had seen the devil or could see him; all +these things were inexhaustible subjects of conversation which kept +minds in exercise. In the present day we insipidly play at cards, and we +have lost by being undeceived.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POST" id="POST"></a>POST.</h3> + + +<p>Formerly, if you had one friend at Constantinople and another at Moscow, +you would have been obliged to wait for their return before you could +obtain any intelligence concerning them. At present, without either of +you leaving your apartments, you may familiarly converse through the +medium of a sheet of paper. You may even despatch to them by the post, +one of Arnaults sovereign remedies for apoplexy, which would be received +much more infallibly, probably, than it would cure.</p> + +<p>If one of your friends has occasion for a supply of money at St. +Petersburg, and the other at Smyrna, the post will completely and +rapidly effect your business. Your mistress is at Bordeaux, while you +are with your regiment before Prague; she gives you regular accounts of +the constancy of her affections; you know from her all the news of the +city, except her own infidelities. In short, the post is the grand +connecting link of all transactions, of all negotiations. Those who are +absent, by its means become present; it is the consolation of life.</p> + +<p>France, where this beautiful invention was revived, even in our period +of barbarism, has hereby conferred the most important service on all +Europe. She has also never in any instance herself marred and tainted so +valuable a benefit, and never has any minister who superintended the +department of the post opened the letters of any individual, except when +it was absolutely necessary that he should know their contents. It is +not thus, we are told, in other countries. It is asserted, that in +Germany private letters, passing through the territories of five or six +different governments, have been read just that number of times, and +that at last the seal has been so nearly destroyed that it became +necessary to substitute a new one.</p> + +<p>Mr. Craggs, secretary of state in England, would never permit any person +in his office to open private letters; he said that to do so was a +breach of public faith, and that no man ought to possess himself of a +secret that was not voluntarily confided to him; that it is often a +greater crime to steal a man's thoughts than his gold; and that such +treachery is proportionally more disgraceful, as it may be committed +without danger, and without even the possibility of conviction.</p> + +<p>To bewilder the eagerness of curiosity and defeat the vigilance of +malice, a method was at first invented of writing a part of the contents +of letters in ciphers; but the part written in the ordinary hand in this +case sometimes served as a key to the rest. This inconvenience led to +perfecting the art of ciphers, which is called "stenography."</p> + +<p>Against these enigmatical productions was brought the art of +deciphering; but this art was exceedingly defective and inefficient. The +only advantage derived from it was exciting the belief in weak and +ill-formed minds, that their letters had been deciphered, and all the +pleasure it afforded consisted in giving such persons pain. According to +the law of probabilities, in a well-constructed cipher there would be +two, three, or even four hundred chances against one, that in each mark +the decipherer would not discover the syllable of which it was the +representative.</p> + +<p>The number of chances increases in proportion to the complication of the +ciphers; and deciphering is utterly impossible when the system is +arranged with any ingenuity. Those who boast that they can decipher a +letter, without being at all acquainted with the subject of which it +treats, and without any preliminary assistance, are greater charlatans +than those who boast, if any such are to be found, of understanding a +language which they never learned.</p> + +<p>With respect to those who in a free and easy way send you by post a +tragedy, in good round hand, with blank leaves, on which you are +requested kindly to make your observations, or who in the same way +regale you with a first volume of metaphysical researches, to be +speedily followed by a second, we may just whisper in their ear that a +little more discretion would do no harm, and even that there are some +countries where they would run some risk by thus informing the +administration of the day that there are such things in the world as bad +poets and bad metaphysicians.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POWER_OMNIPOTENCE" id="POWER_OMNIPOTENCE"></a>POWER—OMNIPOTENCE.</h3> + + +<p>I presume every reader of this article to be convinced that the world is +formed with intelligence, and that a slight knowledge of astronomy and +anatomy is sufficient to produce admiration of that universal and +supreme intelligence. Once more I repeat "<i>mens agitat molem.</i>"</p> + +<p>Can the reader of himself ascertain that this intelligence is +omnipotent, that is to say, infinitely powerful? Has he the slightest +notion of infinity, to enable him to comprehend the meaning and extent +of almighty power?</p> + +<p>The celebrated philosophic historian, David Hume, says, "A weight of ten +ounces is raised in a balance by another weight; this other weight +therefore is more than ten ounces; but no one can rationally infer that +it must necessarily be a hundred weight."</p> + +<p>We may fairly and judiciously apply here the same argument. You +acknowledge a supreme intelligence sufficiently powerful to form +yourself, to preserve you for a limited time in life, to reward you and +to punish you. Are you sufficiently acquainted with it to be able to +demonstrate that it can do more than this? How can you prove by your +reason that a being can do more than it has actually done?</p> + +<p>The life of all animals is short. Could he make it longer? All animals +are food for one another without exception; everything is born to be +devoured. Could he form without destroying? You know not what his nature +is. It is impossible, therefore, that you should know whether his nature +may not have compelled him to do only the very things which he has done.</p> + +<p>The globe on which we live is one vast field of destruction and carnage. +Either the Supreme Being was able to make of it an eternal mode of +enjoyment for all beings possessed of sensation, or He was not. If He +was able and yet did not do it, you will undoubtedly tremble to +pronounce or consider Him a maleficent being; but if He was unable to do +so, do not tremble to regard Him as a power of very great extent indeed, +but nevertheless circumscribed by His nature within certain limits.</p> + +<p>Whether it be infinite or not, is not of any consequence to you. It is +perfectly indifferent to a subject whether his sovereign possesses five +hundred leagues of territory or five thousand; he is in either case +neither more nor less a subject. Which would reflect most strongly on +this great and ineffable Being: to say He made miserable beings because +it was indispensable to do so; or that He made them merely because it +was His will and pleasure?</p> + +<p>Many sects represent Him as cruel; others, through fear of admitting the +existence of a wicked Deity, are daring enough to deny His existence at +all. Would it not be far preferable to say that probably the necessity +of His own nature and that of things have determined everything?</p> + +<p>The world is the theatre of moral and natural evil; this is too +decidedly found and felt to be the case; and the "all is for the best" +of Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and Pope, is nothing but the effusion of a +mind devoted to eccentricity and paradox; in short, nothing but a dull +jest.</p> + +<p>The two principles of Zoroaster and Manes, so minutely investigated by +Bayle, are a duller jest still. They are, as we have already observed, +the two physicians of Molière, one of whom says to the other: "You +excuse my emetics, and I will excuse your bleedings." Manichæism is +absurd; and that circumstance will account for its having had so many +partisans.</p> + +<p>I acknowledge that I have not had my mind enlightened by all that Bayle +has said about the Manichæans and Paulicians. It is all controversy; +what I wanted was pure philosophy. Why speak about our mysteries to +Zoroaster? As soon as ever we have the temerity to discuss the critical +subject of our mysteries, we open to our view the most tremendous +precipices.</p> + +<p>The trash of our own scholastic theology has nothing to do with the +trash of Zoroaster's reveries. Why discuss with Zoroaster the subject of +original sin? That subject did not become a matter of dispute until the +time of St. Augustine. Neither Zoroaster nor any other legislator of +antiquity ever heard it mentioned. If you dispute with Zoroaster, lock +up your Old and New Testament, with which he had not the slightest +acquaintance, and which it is our duty to revere without attempting to +explain.</p> + +<p>What I should myself have said to Zoroaster would have been this: My +reason opposes the admission of two gods in conflict with each other; +such an idea is allowable only in a poem in which Minerva quarrels with +Mars. My weak understanding much more readily acquiesces in the notion +of only one Great Being, than in that of two great beings, of whom one +is constantly counteracting and spoiling the operations of the other. +Your evil principle, Arimanes, has not been able to derange a single +astronomical and physical law established by the good principle of +Oromazes; everything proceeds, among the numberless worlds which +constitute what we call the heavens, with perfect regularity and +harmony; how comes it that the malignant Arimanes has power only over +this little globe of earth?</p> + +<p>Had I been Arimanes, I should have assailed Oromazes in his immense and +noble provinces, comprehending numbers of suns and stars. I should never +have been content to confine the war to an insignificant and miserable +village. There certainly is a great deal of misery in this same village; +but how can we possibly ascertain that it is not absolutely inevitable?</p> + +<p>You are compelled to admit an intelligence diffused through the +universe. But in the first place, do you absolutely know that this +intelligence comprises a knowledge of the future? You have asserted a +thousand times that it does; but you have never been able to prove it to +me, or to comprehend it yourself. You cannot have any idea how any being +can see what does not exist; well, the future does not exist, therefore +no being can see it. You are reduced to the necessity of saying that he +foresees it; but to foresee is only to conjecture.</p> + +<p>Now a god who, according to your system, conjectures may be mistaken. He +is, on your principles, really mistaken; for if he had foreseen that his +enemy would poison all his works in this lower world, he would never +have produced them; he would not have been accessory to the disgrace he +sustains in being perpetually vanquished.</p> + +<p>Secondly, is he not much more honored upon my hypothesis, which +maintains that he does everything by the necessity of his own nature, +than upon yours, which raises up against him an enemy, disfiguring, +polluting, and destroying all his works of wisdom and kindness +throughout the world!</p> + +<p>In the third place, it by no means implies a mean and unworthy idea of +God to say that, after forming millions of worlds, in which death and +evil may have no residence, it might be necessary that death and evil +should reside in this.</p> + +<p>Fourth, it is not deprecating God to say that He could not form man +without bestowing on him self-love; that this self-love could not be his +guide without almost always leading him astray; that his passions are +necessary, but at the same time noxious; that the continuation of the +species cannot be accomplished without desires; that these desires +cannot operate without exciting quarrels; and that these quarrels +necessarily bring on wars, etc.</p> + +<p>Fifth, on observing a part of the combinations of the vegetable, animal, +and mineral kingdoms, and the porous nature of the earth, in every part +so minutely pierced and drilled like a sieve, and from which exhalations +constantly rise in immense profusion, what philosopher will be bold +enough, what schoolman will be weak enough, decidedly to maintain that +nature could possibly prevent the ravages of volcanoes, the +intemperature of seasons, the rage of tempests, the poison of +pestilence, or, in short, any of those scourages which afflict the +world?</p> + +<p>Sixth, a very great degree of power and skill are required to form lions +who devour bulls, and to produce men who invent arms which destroy, by a +single blow, not merely the life of bulls and lions, but—melancholy as +the idea is—the life of one another. Great power is necessary to +produce the spiders which spread their exquisitely fine threads and +net-work to catch flies; but this power amounts not to omnipotence—it +is not boundless power.</p> + +<p>In the seventh place, if the Supreme Being had been infinitely powerful, +no reason can be assigned why He should not have made creatures endowed +with sensation infinitely happy; He has not in fact done so; therefore +we ought to conclude that He could not do so.</p> + +<p>Eighth, all the different sects of philosophers have struck on the rock +of physical and moral evil. The only conclusion that can be securely +reached is, that God, acting always for the best, has done the best that +He was able to do.</p> + +<p>Ninth, this necessity cuts off all difficulties and terminates all +disputes. We have not the hardihood to say: "All is good"; we say: +"There is no more evil than was absolutely inevitable."</p> + +<p>Tenth, why do some infants die at the mother's breast? Why are others, +after experiencing the first misfortune of being born, reserved for +tormentes as lasting as their lives, which are at length ended by an +appalling death? Why has the source of life been poisoned throughout the +world since the discovery of America? Why, since the seventh century of +the Christian era, has the smallpox swept away an eighth portion of the +human species? Why, in every age of the world, have human bladders been +liable to be converted into stone quarries? Why pestilence, and war, and +famine, and the Inquisition? Consider the subject as carefully, as +profoundly, as the powers of the mind will absolutely permit, you will +find no other possible solution than that all is necessary.</p> + +<p>I address myself here solely to philosophers, and not to divines. We +know that faith is the clue to guide us through the labyrinth. We know +full well that the fall of Adam and Eve, original sin, the vast power +communicated to devils, the predilection entertained by the Supreme +Being for the Jewish people, and the ceremony of baptism substituted for +that of circumcision, are answers that clear up every difficulty. We +have been here arguing only against Zoroaster, and not against the +University of Coimbra, to whose decisions and doctrines, in all the +articles of our work, we submit with all possible deference and faith. +See the letters of Memmius to Cicero; and answer them if you can.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POWER" id="POWER"></a>POWER.</h3> + +<h4><i>The Two Powers.</i></h4> + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + + +<p>Whoever holds both the sceptre and the censer has his hands completely +occupied. If he governs a people possessed of common sense he may be +considered as a very able man; but if his subjects have no more mind +than children or savages, he may be compared to Bernier's coachman, who +was one day suddenly surprised by his master in one of the public places +of Delhi, haranguing the populace, and distributing among them his quack +medicines. "What! Lapierre," says Bernier to him, "have you turned +physician?" "Yes, sir," replied the coachman; "like people, like +doctor."</p> + +<p>The dairo of the Japanese, or the grand lama of Thibet, might make just +the same remark. Even Numa Pompilius, with his Egeria, would have +answered Bernier in the same manner. Melchizedek was probably in a +similar situation, as well as the Anius whom Virgil introduces in the +following two lines of the third book of his "Æneid":</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phœbique sacerdos</i>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Vittis et sacra redimitus tempora lauro</i>.—VIRGIL.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Anius, the priest and king, with laurel crowned</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">His hoary locks with purple fillets bound.—DRYDEN.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>This charlatan Anius was merely king of the isle of Delos, a very paltry +kingdom, which, next to those of Melchizedek and Yvetot, was one of the +least considerable in the world; but the worship of Apollo had conferred +on it a high reputation; a single saint is enough to raise any country +into credit and consequence.</p> + +<p>Three of the German electors are more powerful than Anius, and, like +him, unite the rights of the mitre with those of the crown; although in +subordination, at least apparently so, to the Roman emperor, who is no +other than the emperor of Germany. But of all the countries in which the +plenitude of ecclesiastical and the plenitude of royal claims combine to +form the most full and complete power that can be imagined, modern Rome +is the chief.</p> + +<p>The pope is regarded in the Catholic part of Europe as the first of +kings and the first of priests. It was the same in what was called +"pagan" Rome; Julius Cæsar was at once chief pontiff, dictator, warrior, +and conqueror; distinguished also both for eloquence and gallantry; in +every respect the first of mankind; and with whom no modern, except in a +dedication, could ever be compared.</p> + +<p>The king of England, being the head also of the Church, possesses nearly +the same dignities as the pope. The empress of Russia is likewise +absolute mistress over her clergy, in the largest empire existing upon +earth. The notion that two powers may exist, in opposition to each +other, in the same state, is there regarded even by the clergy +themselves as a chimera equally absurd and pernicious.</p> + +<p>In this connection I cannot help introducing a letter which the empress +of Russia, Catherine II., did me the honor to write to me at Mount +Krapak, on Aug. 22, 1765, and which she permitted me to make use of as I +might see occasion:</p> + +<p>"The Capuchins who are tolerated at Moscow (for toleration is general +throughout the Russian empire, and the Jesuits alone are not suffered to +remain in it), having, in the course of the last winter, obstinately +refused to inter a Frenchman who died suddenly, under a pretence that he +had not received the sacraments, Abraham Chaumeix drew up a factum, or +statement, against them, in order to prove to them that it was +obligatory upon them to bury the dead. But neither this factum, nor two +requisitions of the governor, could prevail on these fathers to obey. At +last they were authoritatively told that they must either bury the +Frenchman or remove beyond the frontiers. They actually removed +accordingly; and I sent some Augustins from this place, who were +somewhat more tractable, and who, perceiving that no trifling or delay +would be permitted, did all that was desired on the occasion. Thus +Abraham Chaumeix has in Russia become a reasonable man; he absolutely is +an enemy to persecution; were he also to become a man of wit and +intellect, he would make the most incredulous believe in miracles; but +all the miracles in the world will not blot out the disgrace of having +been the denouncer of the 'Encyclopædia.'</p> + +<p>"The subjects of the Church, having suffered many, and frequently +tyrannical, grievances, which the frequent change of masters very +considerably increased, towards the end of the reign of the empress +Elizabeth, rose in actual rebellion; and at my accession to the throne +there were more than a hundred thousand men in arms. This occasioned me, +in 1762, to execute the project of changing entirely the administration +of the property of the clergy, and to settle on them fixed revenues. +Arsenius, bishop of Rostow, strenuously opposed this, urged on by some +of his brother clergy, who did not feel it perfectly convenient to put +themselves forward by name. He sent in two memorials, in which he +attempted to establish the absurd principle of two powers. He had made +the like attempt before, in the time of the empress Elizabeth, when he +had been simply enjoined silence; but his insolence and folly +redoubling, he was now tried by the metropolitan of Novgorod and the +whole synod, condemned as a fanatic, found guilty of attempts contrary +to the orthodox faith, as well as to the supreme power, deprived of his +dignity and priesthood, and delivered over to the secular arm. I acted +leniently towards him; and after reducing him to the situation of a +monk, extended his punishment no farther."</p> + +<p>Such are the very words of the empress; and the inference from the whole +case is that she well knows both how to support the Church and how to +restrain it; that she respects humanity as well as religion; that she +protects the laborer as well as the priest; and that all orders in the +state ought both to admire and bless her.</p> + +<p>I shall hope to be excused for the further indiscretion of transcribing +here a passage contained in another of her letters, written on November +28, 1765:</p> + +<p>"Toleration is established among us; it constitutes a law of the state; +persecution is prohibited. We have indeed fanatics who, as they are not +persecuted by others, burn themselves; but if those of other countries +also did the same, no great harm could result; the world, in consequence +of such a system, would have been more tranquil, and Calas would not +have been racked to death."</p> + +<p>Do not imagine that she writes in this style from a feeling of transient +and vain enthusiasm, contradicted afterwards in her practice, nor even +from a laudable desire of obtaining throughout Europe the suffrages and +applause of those who think, and teach others the way to think. She lays +down these principles as the basis of her government. She wrote with her +own hand, in the "Council of Legislations," the following words, which +should be engraved on the gates of every city in the world:</p> + +<p>"In a great empire, extending its sway over as many different nations as +there are different creeds among mankind, the most pernicious fault +would be intolerance."</p> + +<p>It is to be observed that she does not hesitate to put intolerance in +the rank of faults—I had nearly said offences. Thus does an absolute +empress, in the depths of the North, put an end to persecution and +slavery—while in the South—.</p> + +<p>Judge for yourself, sir, after this, whether there will be found a man +in Europe who will not be ready to sign the eulogium you propose. Not +only is this princess tolerant, but she is desirous that her neighbors +should be so likewise. This is the first instance in which supreme power +has been exercised in establishing liberty of conscience. It constitutes +the grandest epoch with which I am acquainted in modern history.</p> + +<p>The case of the ancient Persians forbidding the Carthaginians to offer +human sacrifices is a somewhat similar instance. Would to God, that +instead of the barbarians who formerly poured from the plains of +Scythia, and the mountains of Imaus and Caucasus, towards the Alps and +Pyrenees, carrying with them ravage and desolation, armies might be seen +at the present day descending to subvert the tribunal of the +Inquisition—a tribunal more horrible than even the sacrifices of human +beings which constitute the eternal reproach of our forefathers.</p> + +<p>In short, this superior genius wishes to convince her neighbors of what +Europe is now beginning to comprehend, that metaphysical unintelligible +opinions, which are the daughters of absurdity, are the mothers of +discord; and that the Church, instead of saying: "I come to bring, not +peace, but the sword," should exclaim aloud: "I bring peace, and not the +sword." Accordingly the empress is unwilling to draw the sword against +any but those who wish to crush the dissidents.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<h4><i>Conversation Between The Reverend Father Bouvet, Missionary Of The +Company Of Jesus, And The Emperor Camhi, In The Presence Of Brother +Attiret, A Jesuit; Extracted From The Private Memoirs Of The Mission, In +1772.</i></h4> + + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>Yes, may it please your sacred majesty, as soon as you will have had the +happiness of being baptized by me, which I hope will be the case, you +will be relieved of one-half of the immense burden which now oppresses +you. I have mentioned to you the fable of Atlas, who supported the +heavens on his shoulders. Hercules relieved him and carried away the +heavens. You are Atlas, and Hercules is the pope. There will be two +powers in your empire. Our excellent Clement will be the first. Upon +this plan you will enjoy the greatest of all advantages; those of being +at leisure while you live, and of being saved when you die.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>I am exceedingly obliged to my dear friend, the pope, for condescending +to take so much trouble; but how will he be able to govern my empire at +the distance of six thousand leagues?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>Nothing, may it please your Imperial Majesty, can be more easy. We are +his vicars apostolic, and he is the vicar of God; you will therefore be +governed by God Himself.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>How delightful that will be! I am not, however, quite easy on the +subject. Will your vice-god share the imperial revenues with myself? For +all labor ought to be paid for.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>Our vice-god is so kind and good that in general he will not take, at +most, more than a quarter, except in cases of disobedience. Our +emoluments will not exceed fifty million ounces of pure silver, which is +surely a trifling object in comparison with heavenly advantages.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>Yes, it is certainly, as you say, giving them almost for nothing. I +suppose your celebrated and benevolent city derives just about the same +sum from each of my three neighbors—the Great Mogul, the Emperor of +Japan, and the Empress of Russia; and also from the Persian and the +Turkish empires?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>I cannot exactly say that is yet the case; but, with Gods help and our +own, I have no doubt it will be so.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>And how are you, who are the vicars apostolic, to be paid?</p> + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>We have no regular wages; but we are somewhat like the principal female +character in a comedy written by one Count Caylus, a countryman of mine; +all that I ... is for myself.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>But pray inform me whether your Christian princes in Europe pay your +Italian friend or patron in proportion to the assessment laid on me.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>No, they do not! One-half of Europe has separated from him and pays him +nothing; and the other pays him no more than it is obliged to pay.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>You told me some time since that he was sovereign of a very fine and +fertile territory.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>Yes; but it produces very little to him; it lies mostly uncultivated.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>Poor man! he does not know how to cultivate his own territory, and yet +pretends to govern mine.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>Formerly, in one of our councils—that is, in one of our assemblies of +priests, which was held in a city called Constance—our holy father +caused a proposition to be made for a new tax for the support of his +dignity. The assembly replied that any necessity for that would be +perfectly precluded by his attending to the cultivation of his own +lands. This, however, he took effectual care not to do. He preferred +living on the produce of those who labor in other kingdoms. He appeared +to think that this manner of living had an air of greater grandeur.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>Well, go and tell him from me, that I not only make those about me +labor, but that I also labor myself; and I doubt much whether it will be +for him.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>Holy Virgin! I am absolutely taken for a fool!</p> + +<p class="dialogue">THE EMPEROR.</p> + +<p>Begone, this instant! I have been too indulgent.</p> + +<p class="dialogue">BROTHER ATTIRET TO FATHER BOUVET.</p> + +<p>I was right, you see, when I told you that the emperor, with all his +excellence of heart, had also more understanding than both of us +together.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PRAYER_PUBLIC_THANKSGIVING_ETC" id="PRAYER_PUBLIC_THANKSGIVING_ETC"></a>PRAYER (PUBLIC), THANKSGIVING, ETC.</h3> + + +<p>Very few forms of public prayers used by the ancients still remain. We +have only Horace's beautiful hymn for the secular games of the ancient +Romans. This prayer is in the rhythm and measure which the other Romans +long after imitated in the hymn, "<i>Ut queat laxis resonare fibris.</i>"</p> + +<p>The <i>Pervigilium Veneris</i> is written in a quaint and affected taste, and +seems unworthy of the noble simplicity of the reign of Augustus. It is +possible that this hymn to Venus may have been chanted in the festivals +celebrated in honor of that goddess; but it cannot be doubted that the +poem of Horace was chanted with much greater solemnity.</p> + +<p>It must be allowed that this secular poem of Horace is one of the finest +productions of antiquity; and that the hymn, "<i>Ut queat laxis,</i>" is one +of the most flat and vapid pieces that appeared during the barbarous +period of the decline of the Latin language. The Catholic Church in +those times paid little attention to eloquence and poetry. We all know +very well that God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart, to the +finest verses possible chanted by the wicked. Good verses, however, +never yet did any harm, and—all other things being equal—must deserve +a preference.</p> + +<p>Nothing among us ever approached the secular games, which were +celebrated at the expiration of every hundred and ten years. Our jubilee +is only a faint and feeble copy of it. Three magnificent altars were +erected on the banks of the Tiber. All Rome was illuminated for three +successive nights; and fifteen priests distributed the lustral water and +wax tapers among the men and women of the city who were appointed to +chant the prayers. A sacrifice was first offered to Jupiter as the great +god, the sovereign master of the gods; and afterwards to Juno, Apollo, +Latona, Diana, Pluto, Proserpine, and the Fates, as to inferior powers. +All these divinities had their own peculiar hymns and ceremonies. There +were two choirs, one of twenty-seven boys, and the other of twenty-seven +girls, for each of the divinities. Finally, on the last day, the boys +and girls, crowned with flowers, chanted the ode of Horace.</p> + +<p>It is true that in private houses his other odes, for Ligurinus and +Liciscus and other contemptible characters, were heard at table; +performances which undoubtedly were not calculated to excite the finest +feelings of devotion; but there is a time for all things, "<i>pictoribus +atque poetis.</i>" Caraccio, who drew the figures of Aretin, painted saints +also; and in all our colleges we have excused in Horace what the masters +of the Roman Empire excused in him without any difficulty.</p> + +<p>As to forms of prayer, we have only a few slight fragments of that which +was recited at the mysteries of Isis. We have quoted it elsewhere, but +we will repeat it here, because it is at once short and beautiful:</p> + +<p>"The celestial powers obey thee; hell is in subjection to thee; the +universe revolves under thy moving hand; thy feet tread on Tartarus; the +stars are responsive to thy voice; the seasons return at thy command; +the elements are obedient to thy will."</p> + +<p>We repeat also the form supposed to have been used in the worship of the +ancient Orpheus, which we think superior even to the above respecting +Isis:</p> + +<p>"Walk in the path of justice; adore the sole Master of the Universe; He +is One Alone, and self-existent; all other beings owe their existence to +Him; He acts both in them and by them; He sees all, but has never been +Himself seen by mortal eyes."</p> + +<p>It is not a little extraordinary that in the Leviticus and Deuteronomy +of the Jews, there is not a single public prayer, not one single formula +of public worship. It seems as if the Levites were fully employed in +dividing among themselves the viands that were offered to them. We do +not even see a single prayer instituted for their great festivals of the +Passover, the Pentecost, the trumpets, the tabernacles, the general +expiation, or the new moon.</p> + +<p>The learned are almost unanimously agreed that there were no regular +prayers among the Jews, except when, during their captivity at Babylon, +they adopted somewhat of the manners, and acquired something of the +sciences, of that civilized and powerful people. They borrowed all from +the Chaldaic Persians, even to their very language, characters, and +numerals; and joining some new customs to their old Egyptian rites, they +became a new people, so much the more superstitious than before, in +consequence of their being, after the conclusion of a long captivity, +still always dependent upon their neighbors.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><i>... In rebus acerbis</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Arcius advertunt animos ad religionem.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">—<span class="small">LUCRETIUS</span>, book iii., 52, 53.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>... The common rout,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>When cares and dangers press, grow more devout.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;">—<span class="small">CREECH</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>With respect to the ten other tribes who had been previously dispersed, +we may reasonably believe that they were as destitute of public forms of +prayer as the two others, and that they had not, even up to the period +of their dispersion, any fixed and well-defined religion, as they +abandoned that which they professed with so much facility, and forgot +even their own name, which cannot be said of the small number of +unfortunate beings who returned to rebuild Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, at that period that the two tribes, or rather the two +tribes and a half, seemed to have first attached themselves to certain +invariable rites, to have written books, and used regular prayers. It is +not before that time that we begin to see among them forms of prayer. +Esdras ordained two prayers for every day, and added a third for the +Sabbath; it is even said that he instituted eighteen prayers, that there +might be room for selection, and also to afford variety in the service. +The first of these begins in the following manner:</p> + +<p>"Blessed be Thou, O Lord God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, +and Jacob; the great God, the powerful, the terrible, the most high, the +liberal distributor of good things, the former and possessor of the +world, who rememberest good actions, and sendest a Redeemer to their +descendants for Thy name's sake. O King, our help and Saviour, our +buckler, blessed be Thou, O Lord, the buckler of our father Abraham."</p> + +<p>It is asserted that Gamaliel, who lived in the time of Jesus Christ, and +who had such violent quarrels with St. Paul, ordered a nineteenth +prayer, which is as follows:</p> + +<p>"Grant peace, benefits, blessing, favor, kindness, and piety to us, and +to Thy people Israel. Bless us, O our Father! bless us altogether with +the light of Thy countenance; for by the light of Thy countenance Thou +hast given us, O Lord our God, the law of life, love, kindness, equity, +blessing, piety, and peace. May it please Thee to bless, through all +time, and at every moment, Thy people Israel, by giving them peace. +Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who blessest Thy people Israel by giving them +peace. Amen."</p> + +<p>There is one circumstance deserving of remark with regard to many +prayers, which is, that every nation has prayed for the direct contrary +events to those prayed for by their neighbors.</p> + +<p>The Jews, for example, prayed that God would exterminate the Syrians, +Babylonians, and Egyptians; and these prayed that God would exterminate +the Jews; and, accordingly, they may be said to have been so, with +respect to the ten tribes, who have been confounded and mixed up with so +many nations; and the remaining two tribes were more unfortunate still; +for, as they obstinately persevered in remaining separate from all other +nations in the midst of whom they dwelt, they were deprived of the grand +advantages of human society.</p> + +<p>In our own times, in the course of the wars that we so frequently +undertake for the sake of particular cities, or even perhaps villages, +the Germans and Spaniards, when they happened to be the enemies of the +French, prayed to the Holy Virgin, from the bottom of their hearts, that +she would completely defeat the Gauls and the Gavaches, who in their +turn supplicated her, with equal importunity, to destroy the Maranes and +the Teutons.</p> + +<p>In England advocates of the red rose offered up to St. George the most +ardent prayers to prevail upon him to sink all the partisans of the +white rose to the bottom of the sea. The white rose was equally devout +and importunate for the very opposite event. We can all of us have some +idea of the embarrassment which this must have caused St. George; and if +Henry VII. had not come to his assistance, St. George would never have +been able to get extricated from it.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>We know of no religion without prayers; even the Jews had them, although +there was no public form of prayer among them before the time when they +sang their canticles in their synagogues, which did not take place until +a late period.</p> + +<p>The people of all nations, whether actuated by desires or fears, have +invoked the assistance of the Divinity. Philosophers, however, more +respectful to the Supreme Being, and rising more above human weakness, +have been habituated to substitute, for prayer, resignation. This, in +fact, is all that appears proper and suitable between creature and +Creator. But philosophy is not adapted to the great mass of mankind; it +soars too high above the vulgar; it speaks a language they are unable to +comprehend. To propose philosophy to them would be just as weak as to +propose the study of conic sections to peasants or fish-women.</p> + +<p>Among the philosophers themselves, I know of no one besides Maximus +Tyrius who has treated of this subject. The following is the substance +of his ideas upon it: "The designs of God exist from all eternity. If +the object prayed for be conformable to His immutable will, it must be +perfectly useless to request of Him the very thing which He has +determined to do. If He is prayed to for the reverse of what He has +determined to do, He is prayed to be weak, fickle, and inconstant; such +a prayer implies that this is thought to be His character, and is +nothing better than ridicule or mockery of Him. You either request of +Him what is just and right, in which case He ought to do it, and it will +be actually done without any solicitation, which in fact shows distrust +of His rectitude; or what you request is unjust, and then you insult +Him. You are either worthy or unworthy of the favor you implore: if +worthy, He knows it better than you do yourself; if unworthy, you commit +an additional crime in requesting that which you do not merit."</p> + +<p>In a word, we offer up prayers to God only because we have made Him +after our own image. We treat Him like a pasha, or a sultan, who is +capable of being exasperated and appeased. In short, all nations pray to +God: the sage is resigned, and obeys Him. Let us pray with the people, +and let us be resigned to Him with the sage.</p> + +<p>We have already spoken of the public prayers of many nations, and of +those of the Jews. That people have had one from time immemorial, which +deserves all our attention, from its resemblance to the prayer taught us +by Jesus Christ Himself. This Jewish prayer is called the Kadish, and +begins with these words: "O, God! let Thy name be magnified and +sanctified; make Thy kingdom to prevail; let redemption flourish, and +the Messiah come quickly!"</p> + +<p>As this Kadish is recited in Chaldee it has induced the belief that it +is as ancient as the captivity, and that it was at that period that the +Jews began to hope for a Messiah, a Liberator, or Redeemer, whom they +have since prayed for in the seasons of their calamities.</p> + +<p>The circumstance of this word "Messiah" being found in this ancient +prayer has occasioned much controversy on the subject of the history of +this people. If the prayer originated during the Babylonish captivity, +it is evident that the Jews at that time must have hoped for and +expected a Redeemer. But whence does it arise, that in times more +dreadfully calamitous still, after the destruction of Jerusalem by +Titus, neither Josephus nor Philo ever mentioned any expectation of a +Messiah? There are obscurities in the history of every people; but those +of the Jews form an absolute and perpetual chaos. It is unfortunate for +those who are desirous of information, that the Chaldæans and Egyptians +have lost their archives, while the Jews have preserved theirs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PREJUDICE" id="PREJUDICE"></a>PREJUDICE.</h3> + + +<p>Prejudice is an opinion without judgment. Thus, throughout the world, +children are inspired with opinions before they can judge. There are +universal and necessary prejudices, and these even constitute virtue. In +all countries, children are taught to acknowledge a rewarding and +punishing God; to respect and love their fathers and mothers; to regard +theft as a crime, and interested lying as a vice, before they can tell +what is a virtue or a vice. Prejudice may, therefore, be very useful, +and such as judgment will ratify when we reason.</p> + +<p>Sentiment is not simply prejudice, it is something much stronger. A +mother loves not her son because she is told that she must love him; she +fortunately cherishes him in spite of herself. It is not through +prejudice that you run to the aid of an unknown child nearly falling +down a precipice, or being devoured by a beast.</p> + +<p>But it is through prejudice that you will respect a man dressed in +certain clothes, walking gravely, and talking at the same time. Your +parents have told you that you must bend to this man; you respect him +before you know whether he merits your respect; you grow in age and +knowledge; you perceive that this man is a quack, made up of pride, +interest, and artifice; you despise that which you revered, and +prejudice yields to judgment. Through prejudice, you have believed the +fables with which your infancy was lulled: you are told that the Titans +made war against the gods, that Venus was amorous of Adonis; at twelve +years of age you take these fables for truth; at twenty, you regard them +as ingenious allegories.</p> + +<p>Let us examine, in a few words, the different kinds of prejudices, in +order to arrange our ideas. We shall perhaps be like those who, in the +time of the scheme of Law, perceived that they had calculated upon +imaginary riches.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Prejudices Of The Senses.</i></p> + +<p>Is it not an amusing thing, that our eyes always deceive us, even when +we see very well, and that on the contrary our ears do not? When your +properly-formed ear hears: "You are beautiful; I love you," it is very +certain that the words are not: I hate you; you are ugly; but you see a +smooth mirror—it is demonstrated that you are deceived; it is a very +rough surface. You see the sun about two feet in diameter; it is +demonstrated that it is a million times larger than the earth.</p> + +<p>It seems that God has put truth into your ears, and error into your +eyes; but study optics, and you will perceive that God has not deceived +you, and that it was impossible for objects to appear to you otherwise +than you see them in the present state of things.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Physical Prejudices.</i></p> + +<p>The sun rises, the moon also, the earth is immovable; these are natural +physical prejudices. But that crabs are good for the blood, because when +boiled they are of the same color; that eels cure paralysis, because +they frisk about; that the moon influences our diseases, because an +invalid was one day observed to have an increase of fever during the +wane of the moon: these ideas and a thousand others were the errors of +ancient charlatans, who judged without reason, and who, being themselves +deceived, deceived others.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Historical Prejudices.</i></p> + +<p>The greater part of historians have believed without examining, and this +confidence is a prejudice. Fabius Pictor relates, that, several ages +before him, a vestal of the town of Alba, going to draw water in her +pitcher, was violated, that she was delivered of Romulus and Remus, that +they were nourished by a she-wolf. The Roman people believed this fable; +they examined not whether at that time there were vestals in Latium; +whether it was likely that the daughter of a king should go out of her +convent with a pitcher, or whether it was probable that a she-wolf +should suckle two children, instead of eating them: prejudice +established it.</p> + +<p>A monk writes that Clovis, being in great danger at the battle of +Tolbiac, made a vow to become a Christian if he escaped; but is it +natural that he should address a strange god on such an occasion? Would +not the religion in which he was born have acted the most powerfully? +Where is the Christian who, in a battle against the Turks, would not +rather address himself to the holy Virgin Mary, than to Mahomet? He +adds, that a pigeon brought the vial in his beak to anoint Clovis, and +that an angel brought the oriflamme to conduct him: the prejudiced +believed all the stories of this kind. Those who are acquainted with +human nature well know, that the usurper Clovis, and the usurper Rollo, +or Rol, became Christians to govern the Christians more securely; as the +Turkish usurpers became Mussulmans to govern the Mussulmans more +securely.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Religious Prejudices.</i></p> + +<p>If your nurse has told you, that Ceres presides over corn, or that +Vishnu and Xaca became men several times, or that Sammonocodom cut down +a forest, or that Odin expects you in his hall near Jutland, or that +Mahomet, or some other, made a journey to heaven; finally, if your +preceptor afterwards thrusts into your brain what your nurse has +engraven on it, you will possess it for life. If your judgment would +rise above these prejudices, your neighbors, and above all, the ladies, +exclaim "impiety!" and frighten you; your dervish, fearing to see his +revenue diminished, accuses you before the cadi; and this cadi, if he +can, causes you to be impaled, because he would command fools, and he +believes that fools obey better than others; which state of things will +last until your neighbors and the dervish and cadi begin to comprehend +that folly is good for nothing, and that persecution is abominable.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PRESBYTERIAN" id="PRESBYTERIAN"></a>PRESBYTERIAN.</h3> + + +<p>The Anglican religion is predominant only in England and Ireland; +Presbyterianism is the established religion of Scotland. This +Presbyterianism is nothing more than pure Calvinism, such as once +existed in France, and still exists at Geneva.</p> + +<p>In comparison with a young and lively French bachelor in divinity, +brawling during the morning in the schools of theology, and singing with +the ladies in the evening, a Church-of-England divine is a Cato; but +this Cato is himself a gallant in presence of the Scottish +Presbyterians. The latter affect a solemn walk, a serious demeanor, a +large hat, a long robe beneath a short one, and preach through the nose. +All churches in which the ecclesiastics are so happy as to receive an +annual income of fifty thousand livres, and to be addressed by the +people as "my lord," "your grace," or "your eminence," they denominate +the whore of Babylon. These gentlemen have also several churches in +England, where they maintain the same manners and gravity as in +Scotland. It is to them chiefly that the English are indebted for the +strict sanctification of Sunday throughout the three kingdoms. They are +forbidden either to labor or to amuse themselves. No opera, no concert, +no comedy, in London on a Sunday. Even cards are expressly forbidden; +and there are only certain people of quality, who are deemed open souls, +who play on that day. The rest of the nation attend sermons, taverns, +and their small affairs of love.</p> + +<p>Although Episcopacy and Presbyterianism predominate in Great Britain, +all other opinions are welcome and live tolerably well together, +although the various preachers reciprocally detest one another with +nearly the same cordiality as a Jansenist damns a Jesuit.</p> + +<p>Enter into the Royal Exchange of London, a place more respectable than +many courts, in which deputies from all nations assemble for the +advantage of mankind. There the Jew, the Mahometan, and the Christian +bargain with one another as if they were of the same religion, and +bestow the name of infidel on bankrupts only. There the Presbyterian +gives credit to the Anabaptist, and the votary of the establishment +accepts the promise of the Quaker. On the separation of these free and +pacific assemblies, some visit the synagogue, others repair to the +tavern. Here one proceeds to baptize his son in a great tub, in the name +of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; there another deprives his boy of a +small portion of his foreskin, and mutters over the child some Hebrew +words which he cannot understand; a third kind hasten to their chapels +to wait for the inspiration of the Lord with their hats on; and all are +content.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 362px;"> +<a name="John_Calvin" id="John_Calvin"></a> +<img src="images/im04_john_calvin.jpg" width="362" alt="John Calvin." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">John Calvin.</span> +</div> + +<p>Was there in London but one religion, despotism might be apprehended; if +two only, they would seek to cut each others throats; but as there are +at least thirty, they live together in peace and happiness.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><a name="PRETENSIONS" id="PRETENSIONS"></a>PRETENSIONS.</h3> + + +<p>There is not a single prince in Europe who does not assume the title of +sovereign of a country possessed by his neighbor. This political madness +is unknown in the rest of the world. The king of Boutan never called +himself emperor of China; nor did the sovereign of Tartary ever assume +the title of king of Egypt.</p> + +<p>The most splendid and comprehensive pretensions have always been those +of the popes; two keys, <i>saltier,</i> gave them clear and decided +possession of the kingdom of heaven. They bound and unbound everything +on earth. This ligature made them masters of the continent; and St. +Peter's nets gave them the dominion of the seas.</p> + +<p>Many learned theologians thought, that when these gods were assailed by +the Titans, called Lutherans, Anglicans, and Calvinists, etc., they +themselves reduced some articles of their pretensions. It is certain +that many of them became more modest, and that their celestial court +attended more to propriety and decency; but their pretensions were +renewed on every opportunity that offered. No other proof is necessary +than the conduct of Aldobrandini, Clement VIII., to the great Henry IV., +when it was deemed necessary to give him an absolution that he had no +occasion for, on account of his being already absolved by the bishops of +his own kingdom, and also on account of his being victorious.</p> + +<p>Aldobrandini at first resisted for a whole year, and refused to +acknowledge the duke of Nemours as the ambassador of France. At last he +consented to open to Henry the gate of the kingdom of heaven, on the +following conditions:</p> + +<p>1. That Henry should ask pardon for having made the sub-porters—that +is, the bishops—open the gate to him, instead of applying to the grand +porter.</p> + +<p>2. That he should acknowledge himself to have forfeited the throne of +France till Aldobrandini, by the plenitude of his power, reinstated him +on it.</p> + +<p>3. That he should be a second time consecrated and crowned; the first +coronation having been null and void, as it was performed without the +express order of Aldobrandini.</p> + +<p>4. That he should expel all the Protestants from his kingdom; which +would have been neither honorable nor possible. It would not have been +honorable, because the Protestants had profusely shed their blood to +establish him as king of France; and it would not have been possible, as +the number of these dissidents amounted to two millions.</p> + +<p>5. That he should immediately make war on the Grand Turk, which would +not have been more honorable or possible than the last condition, as the +Grand Turk had recognized him as king of France at a time when Rome +refused to do so, and as Henry had neither troops, nor money, nor ships, +to engage in such an insane war with his faithful ally.</p> + +<p>6. That he should receive in an attitude of complete prostration the +absolution of the pope's legate, according to the usual form in which it +is administered; that is in fact, that he should be actually scourged by +the legate.</p> + +<p>7. That he should recall the Jesuits, who had been expelled from his +kingdom by the parliament for the attempt made to assassinate him by +Jean Châtel, their scholar.</p> + +<p>I omit many other minor pretensions. Henry obtained a mitigation of a +number of them. In particular, he obtained the concession, although with +a great deal of difficulty, that the scourging should be inflicted only +by proxy, and by the hand of Aldobrandini himself.</p> + +<p>You will perhaps tell me, that his holiness was obliged to require those +extravagant conditions by that old and inveterate demon of the South, +Philip II., who was more powerful at Rome than the pope himself. You +compare Aldobrandini to a contemptible poltroon of a soldier whom his +colonel forces forward to the trenches by caning him.</p> + +<p>To this I answer, that Clement VIII. was indeed afraid of Philip II., +but that he was not less attached to the rights of the tiara; and that +it was so exquisite a gratification for the grandson of a banker to +scourge a king of France, that Aldobrandini would not altogether have +conceded this point for the world.</p> + +<p>You will reply, that should a pope at present renew such pretensions, +should he now attempt to apply the scourge to a king of France, or +Spain, or Naples, or to a duke of Parma, for having driven the reverend +fathers, the Jesuits, from their dominions, he would be in imminent +danger of incurring the same treatment as Clement VII. did from Charles +V., and even of experiencing still greater humiliations; that it is +necessary to sacrifice pretensions to interests; that men must yield to +times and circumstances; and that the sheriff of Mecca must proclaim Ali +Bey king of Egypt, if he is successful and firm upon the throne. To this +I answer, that you are perfectly right.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Pretensions Of The Empire; Extracted From Glafey And Schwedar.</i></p> + +<p>Upon Rome (none). Even Charles V., after he had taken Rome, claimed no +right of actual domain.</p> + +<p>Upon the patrimony of St. Peter, from Viterbo to Civita Castellana, the +estates of the countess Mathilda, but solemnly ceded by Rudolph of +Hapsburg.</p> + +<p>Upon Parma and Placentia, the supreme dominion as part of Lombardy, +invaded by Julius II., granted by Paul III., to his bastard Farnese: +homage always paid for them to the pope from that time; the sovereignty +always claimed by the seigneurs of Lombardy; the right of sovereignty +completely ceded to the emperor by the treaties of Cambray and of +London, at the peace of 1737.</p> + +<p>Upon Tuscany, right of sovereignty exercised by Charles V.; an estate of +the empire, belonging now to the emperor's brother.</p> + +<p>Upon the republic of Lucca, erected into a duchy by Louis of Bavaria, in +1328; the senators declared afterwards vicars of the empire by Charles +IV. The Emperor Charles VI., however, in the war of 1701, exercised in +it his right of sovereignty by levying upon it a large contribution.</p> + +<p>Upon the duchy of Milan, ceded by the Emperor Wincenslaus to Galeas +Visconti, but considered as a fief of the empire.</p> + +<p>Upon the duchy of Mirandola, reunited to the house of Austria in 1711 by +Joseph I.</p> + +<p>Upon the duchy of Mantua, erected into a duchy by Charles V.; reunited +in like manner in 1708.</p> + +<p>Upon Guastalla, Novellara, Bozzolo, and Castiglione, also fiefs of the +empire, detached from the duchy of Mantua.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole of Montferrat, of which the duke of Savoy received the +investiture at Vienna in 1708.</p> + +<p>Upon Piedmont, the investiture of which was bestowed by the emperor +Sigismund on the duke of Savoy, Amadeus VIII.</p> + +<p>Upon the county of Asti, bestowed by Charles V., on the house of Savoy: +the dukes of Savoy always vicars in Italy from the time of the emperor +Sigismund.</p> + +<p>Upon Genoa, formerly part of the domain of the Lombard kings. Frederick +Barbarossa granted to it in fief the coast from Monaco to Portovenere; +it is free under Charles V., in 1529; but the words of the instrument +are <i>In civitate nostra Genoa, et salvis Romani imperii juribus.</i></p> + +<p>Upon the fiefs of Langues, of which the dukes of Savoy have the direct +domain.</p> + +<p>Upon Padua, Vicenza, and Verona, rights fallen into neglect.</p> + +<p>Upon Naples and Sicily, rights still more fallen into neglect. Almost +all the states of Italy are or have been in vassalage to the empire.</p> + +<p>Upon Pomerania and Mecklenburg, the fiefs of which were granted by +Frederick Barbarossa.</p> + +<p>Upon Denmark, formerly a fief of the empire; Otho I. granted the +investiture of it.</p> + +<p>Upon Poland, for the territory on the banks of the Vistula.</p> + +<p>Upon Bohemia and Silesia, united to the empire by Charles IV., in 1355.</p> + +<p>Upon Prussia, from the time of Henry VII.; the grand master of Prussia +acknowledged a member of the empire in 1500.</p> + +<p>Upon Livonia, from the time of the knights of the sword. Upon Hungary, +from the time of Henry II.</p> + +<p>Upon Lorraine, by the treaty of 1542; acknowledged an estate of the +empire, paying taxes to support the war against the Turks.</p> + +<p>Upon the duchy of Bar down to the year 1311, when Philip the Fair, who +conquered it, did homage for it.</p> + +<p>Upon the duchy of Burgundy, by virtue of the rights of Mary of Burgundy.</p> + +<p>Upon the kingdom of Arles and Burgundy on the other side of the Jura, +which Conrad the Salian, possessed in chief by his wife.</p> + +<p>Upon Dauphiny, as part of the kingdom of Arles; the emperor Charles IV. +having caused himself to be crowned at Arles in 1365, and created the +dauphin of France his viceroy.</p> + +<p>Upon Provence, as a member of the kingdom of Arles, for which Charles of +Anjou did homage to the empire.</p> + +<p>Upon the principality of Orange, as an arrière-fief of the empire.</p> + +<p>Upon Avignon, for the same reason.</p> + +<p>Upon Sardinia, which Frederick II. erected into a kingdom.</p> + +<p>Upon Switzerland, as a member of the kingdoms of Arles and Burgundy.</p> + +<p>Upon Dalmatia, a great part of which belongs at present wholly to the +Venetians, and the rest to Hungary.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PRIDE" id="PRIDE"></a>PRIDE.</h3> + + +<p>Cicero, in one of his letters, says familiarly to his friend: "Send to +me the persons to whom you wish me to give the Gauls." In another, he +complains of being fatigued with letters from I know not what princes, +who thank him for causing their provinces to be erected into kingdoms; +and he adds that he does not even know where these kingdoms are +situated.</p> + +<p>It is probable that Cicero, who often saw the Roman people, the +sovereign people, applaud and obey him, and who was thanked by kings +whom he knew not, had some emotions of pride and vanity.</p> + +<p>Though the sentiment is not at all consistent in so pitiful an animal as +man, yet we can pardon it in a Cicero, a Cæsar, or a Scipio; but when in +the extremity of one of our half barbarous provinces, a man who may have +bought a small situation, and printed poor verses, takes it into his +head to be proud, it is very laughable.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PRIESTS" id="PRIESTS"></a>PRIESTS.</h3> + + +<p>Priests in a state approach nearly to what preceptors are in private +families: it is their province to teach, pray, and supply example. They +ought to have no authority over the masters of the house; at least until +it can be proved that he who gives the wages ought to obey him who +receives them. Of all religions the one which most positively excludes +the priesthood from civil authority, is that of Jesus. "Give unto Cæsar +the things which are Cæsar's."—"Among you there is neither first nor +last."—"My kingdom is not of this world."</p> + +<p>The quarrels between the empires and the priesthood, which have bedewed +Europe with blood for more than six centuries, have therefore been, on +the part of the priests, nothing but rebellion at once against God and +man, and a continual sin against the Holy Ghost.</p> + +<p>From the time of Calchas, who assassinated the daughter of Agamemnon, +until Gregory XII., and Sixtus V., two bishops who would have deprived +Henry IV., of the kingdom of France, sacerdotal power has been injurious +to the world.</p> + +<p>Prayer is not dominion, nor exhortation despotism. A good priest ought +to be a physician to the soul. If Hippocrates had ordered his patients +to take hellebore under pain of being hanged, he would have been more +insane and barbarous than Phalaris, and would have had little practice. +When a priest says: Worship God; be just, indulgent, and compassionate; +he is then a good physician; when he says: Believe me, or you shall be +burned; he is an assassin.</p> + +<p>The magistrate ought to support and restrain the priest in the same +manner as the father of a family insures respect to the preceptor, and +prevents him from abusing it. The agreement of Church and State is of +all systems the most monstrous, for it necessarily implies division, and +the existence of two contracting parties. We ought to say the protection +given by government to the priesthood or church.</p> + +<p>But what is to be said and done in respect to countries in which the +priesthood have obtained dominion, as in Salem, where Melchizedek was +priest and king; in Japan, where the dairo has been for a long time +emperor? I answer, that the successors of Melchizedek and the dairos +have been set aside.</p> + +<p>The Turks are wise in this; they religiously make a pilgrimage to Mecca; +but they will not permit the xerif of Mecca to excommunicate the sultan. +Neither will they purchase from Mecca permission not to observe the +ramadan, or the liberty of espousing their cousins or their nieces. They +are not judged by imans, whom the xerif delegates; nor do they pay the +first year's revenue to the xerif. What is to be said of all that? +Reader, speak for yourself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PRIESTS_OF_THE_PAGANS" id="PRIESTS_OF_THE_PAGANS"></a>PRIESTS OF THE PAGANS.</h3> + + +<p>Father Navarette, in one of his letters to Don John of Austria, relates +the following speech of the dalai-lama to his privy council: "My +venerable brothers, you and I know very well that I am not immortal; but +it is proper that the people should think so. The Tartars of great and +little Thibet are people with stiff necks and little information, who +require a heavy yoke and gross inventions. Convince them of my +immortality, and the glory will reflect on you, and you will procure +honors and riches.</p> + +<p>"When the time shall come in which the Tartars will be more enlightened, +we may then confess that the grand lamas are not now immortal, but that +their predecessors were so; and that what is necessary for the erection +of a grand edifice, is no longer so when it is established on an +immovable foundation.</p> + +<p>"I hesitated at first to distribute the <i>agremens</i> of my water-closet, +properly inclosed in crystals ornamented with gilded copper, to the +vassals of my empire; but these relics have been received with so much +respect, that the usage must be continued, which after all exhibits +nothing repugnant to sound morals, and brings much money into our sacred +treasury.</p> + +<p>"If any impious reasoner should ever endeavor to persuade the people +that one end of our sacred person is not so divine as the other—should +they protest against our relics, you will maintain their value and +importance to the utmost of your power.</p> + +<p>"And if you are finally obliged to give up the sanctity of our nether +end, you must take care to preserve in the minds of the reasoners the +most profound respect for our understanding, just as in a treaty with +the Moguls, we have ceded a poor province, in order to secure our +peaceable possession of the remainder.</p> + +<p>"So long as our Tartars of great and little Thibet are unable to read +and write, they will remain ignorant and devout; you may therefore +boldly take their money, intrigue with their wives and their daughters, +and threaten them with the anger of the god Fo if they complain.</p> + +<p>"When the time of correct reasoning shall arrive—for it will arrive +some day or other—you will then take a totally opposite course, and say +directly the contrary of what your predecessors have said, for you ought +to change the nature of your curb in proportion as the horses become +more difficult to govern. Your exterior must be more grave, your +intrigues more mysterious, your secrets better guarded, your sophistry +more dazzling, and your policy more refined. You will then be the pilots +of a vessel which is leaky on all sides. Have under you subalterns +continually employed at the pumps, and as caulkers to stop all the +holes. You will navigate with difficulty, but you will still proceed, +and be enabled to cast into the fire or the water, as may be most +convenient, all those who would examine whether you have properly +refitted the vessel.</p> + +<p>"If among the unbelievers is a prince of Calkas, a chief of the +Kalmucks, a prince of Kasan, or any other powerful prince, who has +unhappily too much wit, take great care not to quarrel with him. Respect +him, and continually observe that you hope he will return to the holy +path. As to simple citizens, spare them not, and the better men they +are, the more you ought to labor to exterminate them; for being men of +honor they are the most dangerous of all to you. You will exhibit the +simplicity of the dove, the prudence of the serpent, and the paw of the +lion, according to circumstances."</p> + +<p>The dalai-lama had scarcely pronounced these words when the earth +trembled; lightnings sparkled in the firmament from one pole to the +other; thunders rolled, and a celestial voice was heard to exclaim, +"Adore God and not the grand lama."</p> + +<p>All the inferior lamas insisted that the voice said, "Adore God and the +grand lama;" and they were believed for a long time in the kingdom of +Thibet; but they are now believed no longer.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PRIOR_BUTLER_AND_SWIFT" id="PRIOR_BUTLER_AND_SWIFT"></a>PRIOR, BUTLER, AND SWIFT.</h3> + + +<p>It was not known to France that Prior, who was deputed by Queen Anne to +adjust the treaty of Utrecht with Louis XIV., was a poet. France has +since repaid England in the same coin, for Cardinal Dubois sent our +Destouches to London, where he passed as little for a poet as Prior in +France. Prior was originally an attendant at a tavern kept by his uncle, +when the earl of Dorset, a good poet himself and a lover of the bottle, +one day surprised him reading Horace; in the same manner as Lord Ailsa +found his gardener reading Newton. Ailsa made his gardener a good +geometrician, and Dorset made a very agreeable poet of his vintner.</p> + +<p>It was Prior who wrote the history of the soul under the title of +"Alma," and it is the most natural which has hitherto been composed on +an existence so much felt, and so little known. The soul, according to +"Alma," resides at first, in the extremities; in the feet and hands of +children, and from thence gradually ascends to the centre of the body at +the age of puberty. Its next step is to the heart, in which it engenders +sentiments of love and heroism; thence it mounts to the head at a mature +age, where it reasons as well as it is able; and in old age it is not +known what becomes of it; it is the sap of an aged tree which +evaporates, and is not renewed again. This work is probably too long, +for all pleasantry should be short; and it might even be as well were +the serious short also.</p> + +<p>Prior made a small poem on the battle of Hochstädt. It is not equal to +his "Alma"; there is, however, one good apostrophe to Boileau, who is +called a satirical flatterer for taking so much pains to sing that Louis +did <i>not</i> pass the Rhine. Our plenipotentiary finished by paraphrasing, +in fifteen hundred verses, the words attributed to Solomon, that "all is +vanity". Fifteen thousand verses might be written on this subject; but +woe to him who says all which can be said upon it!</p> + +<p>At length Queen Anne dying, the ministry changed, and the peace adjusted +by Prior being altogether unpopular, he had nothing to depend upon +except an edition of his works; which were subscribed for by his party: +after which he died like a philosopher, which is the usual mode of dying +of all respectable Englishmen.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Hudibras.</i></p> + +<p>There is an English poem which it is very difficult to make foreigners +understand, entitled "Hudibras." It is a very humorous work, although +the subject is the civil war of the time of Cromwell. A struggle which +cost so much blood and so many tears, originated a poem which obliges +the most serious reader to smile. An example of this contrast is found +in our "Satire of Menippus." Certainly the Romans would not have made a +burlesque poem on the wars of Pompey and Cæsar, or the proscription of +Antony and Octavius. How then is it that the frightful evils of the +League in France, and of the wars between the king and parliament in +England, have proved sources of pleasantry? because at bottom there is +something ridiculous hid beneath these fatal quarrels. The citizens of +Paris, at the head of the faction of Sixteen, mingled impertinence with +the miseries of faction. The intrigues of women, of the legates and of +the monks, presented a comic aspect, notwithstanding the calamities +which they produced. The theological disputes and enthusiasm of the +Puritans in England, were also very open to raillery; and this fund of +the ridiculous, well managed, might pleasantly enough aid in dispersing +the tragical horrors which abound on the surface. If the bull +<i>Unigenitus</i> caused the shedding of blood, the little poem "Philotanus" +was no less suitable to the subject; and it is only to be complained of +for not being so gay, so pleasant, and so various as it might have been; +and for not fulfilling in the course of the work the promise held out by +its commencement.</p> + +<p>The poem of "Hudibras" of which I speak, seems to be a composition of +the satire of "Menippus" and of "Don Quixote." It surpasses them in the +advantage of verse and also in wit; the former indeed does not come near +it; being a very middling production; but notwithstanding his wit, the +author of "Hudibras" is much beneath "Don Quixote." Taste, vivacity, the +art of narrating and of introducing adventures, with the faculty of +never being tedious, go farther than wit; and moreover, "Don Quixote" is +read by all nations, and "Hudibras" by the English alone.</p> + +<p>Butler, the author of this extraordinary poem, was contemporary with +Milton, and enjoyed infinitely more temporary popularity than the +latter, because his work was humorous, and that of Milton melancholy. +Butler turned the enemies of King Charles II. into ridicule, and all the +recompense he received was the frequent quotation of his verses by that +monarch. The combats of the knight Hudibras were much better known than +the battles between the good and bad angels in "Paradise Lost"; but the +court of England treated Butler no better than the celestial court +treated Milton; both the one and the other died in want, or very near +it.</p> + +<p>A man whose imagination was impregnated with a tenth part of the comic +spirit, good or bad, which pervades this work, could not but be very +pleasant; but he must take care how he translates "Hudibras." It is +difficult to make foreign readers laugh at pleasantries which are almost +forgotten by the nation which has produced them. Dante is little read in +Europe, because we are ignorant of so much of his allusion; and it is +the same with "Hudibras." The greater part of the humor of this poem +being expended on the theology and theologians of its own time, a +commentary is eternally necessary. Pleasantry requiring explanation +ceases to be pleasantry; and a commentator on <i>bon mots</i> is seldom +capable of conveying them.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Of Dean Swift.</i></p> + +<p>How is it that in France so little is understood of the works of the +ingenious Doctor Swift, who is called the Rabelais of England? He has +the honor, like the latter, of being a churchman and an universal joker; +but Rabelais was not above his age, and Swift is much above Rabelais.</p> + +<p>Our curate of Meudon, in his extravagant and unintelligible book, has +exhibited extreme gayety and equally great impertinence. He has lavished +at once erudition, coarseness and ennui. A good story of two pages is +purchased by a volume of absurdities. There are only some persons of an +eccentric taste who pique themselves upon understanding and valuing the +whole of this work. The rest of the nation laugh at the humor of +Rabelais, and despise the work; regarding him only as the first of +buffoons. We regret that a man who possessed so much wit, should have +made so miserable a use of it. He is a drunken philosopher, who wrote +only in the moments of his intoxication.</p> + +<p>Dr. Swift is Rabelais sober, and living in good company. He has not +indeed the gayety of the former, but he has all the finesse, sense, +discrimination, which is wanted by our curate of Meudon. His verse is in +a singular taste, and almost inimitable. He exhibits a fine vein of +humor, both in prose and in verse; but in order to understand it, it is +necessary to visit his country.</p> + +<p>In this country, which appears so extraordinary to other parts of +Europe, it has excited little surprise that Doctor Swift, dean of a +cathedral, should make merry in his "Tale of a Tub" with Catholicism, +Lutheranism, and Calvinism; his own defence is that he has not meddled +with Christianity. He pretends to respect the parent, while he scourges +the children. Certain fastidious persons are of opinion that his lashes +are so long they have even reached the father.</p> + +<p>This famous "Tale of a Tub" is the ancient story of the three invisible +rings which a father bequeathed to his three children. These three rings +were the Jewish, the Christian, and the Mahometan religions. It is still +more an imitation of the history of Mero and Enégu by Fontenelle. Mero +is the anagram of Rome; Enégu of Geneva, and they are two sisters who +aspire to the succession of the kingdom of their father. Mero reigns the +first, and Fontenelle represents her as a sorceress, who plays tricks +with bread and effects conjuration with dead bodies. This is precisely +the Lord Peter of Swift, who presents a piece of bread to his two +brothers, and says to them, "Here is some excellent Burgundy, my +friends; this partridge is of a delicious flavor." Lord Peter in Swift +performs the same part with the Mero of Fontenelle.</p> + +<p>Thus almost all is imitation. The idea of the "Persian Letters" was +taken from that of the "Turkish Spy." Boyardo imitated Pulci; Ariosto, +Boyardo; the most original wits borrow from one another. Cervantes makes +a madman of his Don Quixote, but is Orlando anything else? It would be +difficult to decide by which of the two knight-errantry is more +ridiculed, the grotesque portraiture of Cervantes, or the fertile +imagination of Ariosto. Metastasia has borrowed the greater part of his +operas from our French tragedies; and many English authors have copied +us and said nothing about it. It is with books as with the fires in our +grates; everybody borrows a light from his neighbor to kindle his own, +which in its turn is communicated to others, and each partakes of all.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><a name="PRIVILEGE" id="PRIVILEGE"></a>PRIVILEGE—PRIVILEGED CASES.</h3> + + +<p>Custom, which almost always prevails against reason, would have the +offences of ecclesiastics and monks against civil orders, which are very +frequent, called privileged offences; and those offences common which +regard only ecclesiastical discipline, cases that are abandoned to the +sacerdotal hierarchy, and with which the civil power does not interfere.</p> + +<p>The Church having no jurisdiction but that which sovereigns have granted +it, and the judges of the Church being thus only judges privileged by +the sovereign, those cases should be called privileged which it is their +province to judge, and those common offences which are punishable by the +prince's officers. But the canonists, who are very rarely exact in their +expressions, particularly when treating of regal jurisprudence, having +regarded a priest called the official, as being of right the sole judge +of the clergy, they have entitled that privilege, which in common law +belongs to lay tribunals, and the ordinances of the monarch have adopted +this expression in France.</p> + +<p>To conform himself to this custom, the judge of the Church takes +cognizance only of common crime; in respect to privileged cases he can +act only concurrently with the regal judge, who repairs to the episcopal +court, where, however, he is but the assessor of the judge of the +Church. Both are assisted by their register; each separately, but in one +another's presence, takes notes of the course of the proceedings. The +official who presides alone interrogates the accused; and if the royal +judge has questions to put to him, he must have permission of the +ecclesiastical judge to propose them.</p> + +<p>This procedure is composed of formalities, and produces delays which +should not be admitted in criminal jurisprudence. Judges of the Church +who have not made a study of laws and formalities are seldom able to +conduct criminal proceedings without giving place to appeals, which ruin +the accused in expense, make him languish in chains, or retard his +punishment if he is guilty.</p> + +<p>Besides, the French have no precise law to determine which are +privileged cases. A criminal often groans in a dungeon for a whole year, +without knowing what tribunal will judge him. Priests and monks are in +the state and subjects of it. It is very strange that when they trouble +society they are not to be judged, like other citizens, by the officers +of the sovereign.</p> + +<p>Among the Jews, even the high priest had not the privilege which our +laws grant to simple parish priests. Solomon deposed the high priest +Abiathar, without referring him to the synagogue to take his trial. +Jesus Christ, accused before a secular and pagan judge, challenged not +his jurisdiction. St. Paul, translated to the tribunal of Felix and +Festus, declined not their judgment. The Emperor Constantine first +granted this privilege to bishops. Honorius and Theodosius the younger +extended it to all the clergy, and Justinian confirmed it.</p> + +<p>In digesting the criminal code of 1670, the counsellor of state, +Pussort, and the president of Novion, wished to abolish the conjoint +proceeding, and to give to royal judges alone the right of judging the +clergy accused of privileged cases; but this so reasonable desire was +combated by the first president De Lamoignon, and the advocate-general +Talon, and a law which was made to reform our abuses confirmed the most +ridiculous of them.</p> + +<p>A declaration of the king on April 26, 1657, forbids the Parliament of +Paris to continue the proceeding commenced against Cardinal Retz, +accused of high treason. The same declaration desires that the suits of +cardinals, archbishops, and bishops of the kingdom, accused of the crime +of high treason, are to be conducted and judged by ecclesiastical +judges, as ordered by the canons.</p> + +<p>But this declaration, contrary to the customs of the kingdoms, has not +been registered in any parliament, and would not be followed. Our books +relate several sentences which have doomed cardinals, archbishops, and +bishops to imprisonment, deposition, confiscation, and other +punishments. These punishments were pronounced against the bishop of +Nantes, by sentence of June 25, 1455; against Jean de la Balue, cardinal +and bishop of Angers, by sentence dated July 29, 1469; Jean Hebert, +bishop of Constance, in 1480; Louis de Rochechouart, bishop of Nantes, +in 1481; Geoffroi de Pompadour, bishop of Périgueux, and George +d'Amboise, bishop of Montauban, in 1488; Geoffroi Dintiville, bishop of +Auxerre, in 1531; Bernard Lordat, bishop of Pumiers, in 1537; Cardinal +de Châtillon, bishop of Beauvais, the 19th of March, 1569; Geoffroi de +La Martonie, bishop of Amiens, the 9th of July, 1594; Gilbert Génébrard, +archbishop of Aix, the 26th of January, 1596; William Rose, bishop of +Senlis, September 5, 1598; Cardinal de Sourdis, archbishop of Bordeaux, +November 17, 1615.</p> + +<p>The parliament sentenced Cardinal de Bouillon to be imprisoned, and +seized his property on June 20, 1710.</p> + +<p>Cardinal de Mailly, archbishop of Rheims, in 1717, made a law tending to +destroy the ecclesiastical peace established by the government. The +hangman publicly burned the law by sentence of parliament.</p> + +<p>The sieur Languet, bishop of Soissons, having maintained that he could +not be judged by the justice of the king even for the crime of high +treason, was condemned to pay a fine of ten thousand livres.</p> + +<p>In the shameful troubles excited by the refusal of sacraments, the +simple presidial of Nantes condemned the bishop of that city to pay a +fine of six thousand francs for having refused the communion to those +who demanded it.</p> + +<p>In 1764, the archbishop of Auch, of the name of Montillet, was fined, +and his command, regarded as a defamatory libel, was burned by the +executioner at Bordeaux.</p> + +<p>These examples have been very frequent. The maxim, that ecclesiastics +are entirely amenable to the justice of the king, like other citizens, +has prevailed throughout the kingdom. There is no express law which +commands it; but the opinion of all lawyers, the unanimous cry of the +nation, and the good of the state, are in themselves a law.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + + +<p class="caption"><a name="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS" id="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS"></a>TABLE OF CONTENTS</p> +<p class="small"> +<br /> + +<a href="#LIST_OF_PLATES"><b>LIST OF PLATES—Vol. VIII</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#MONEY"><b>MONEY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MONSTERS"><b>MONSTERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MORALITY"><b>MORALITY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MOSES"><b>MOSES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MOTION"><b>MOTION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MOUNTAIN"><b>MOUNTAIN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NAIL"><b>NAIL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NATURE"><b>NATURE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NECESSARY_NECESSITY"><b>NECESSARY—NECESSITY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NEW_NOVELTIES"><b>NEW—NOVELTIES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NUDITY"><b>NUDITY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NUMBER"><b>NUMBER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NUMBERING"><b>NUMBERING.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#OCCULT_QUALITIES"><b>OCCULT QUALITIES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#OFFENCES_LOCAL"><b>OFFENCES (LOCAL).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ONAN"><b>ONAN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#OPINION"><b>OPINION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#OPTIMISM"><b>OPTIMISM.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ORACLES"><b>ORACLES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ORDEAL"><b>ORDEAL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ORDINATION"><b>ORDINATION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ORIGINAL_SIN"><b>ORIGINAL SIN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#OVID"><b>OVID.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PARADISE"><b>PARADISE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PASSIONS"><b>PASSIONS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PAUL"><b>PAUL</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PERSECUTION"><b>PERSECUTION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PETER_SAINT"><b>PETER (SAINT).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PETER_THE_GREAT_AND_JJ_ROUSSEAU"><b>PETER THE GREAT AND J.J. ROUSSEAU.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PHILOSOPHER"><b>PHILOSOPHER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PHILOSOPHY"><b>PHILOSOPHY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PHYSICIANS"><b>PHYSICIANS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PIRATES_OR_BUCCANEERS"><b>PIRATES OR BUCCANEERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PLAGIARISM"><b>PLAGIARISM.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PLATO"><b>PLATO.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POETS"><b>POETS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POISONINGS"><b>POISONINGS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POLICY"><b>POLICY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POLYPUS"><b>POLYPUS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POLYTHEISM"><b>POLYTHEISM.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POPERY"><b>POPERY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POPULATION"><b>POPULATION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POSSESSED"><b>POSSESSED.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POST"><b>POST.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POWER_OMNIPOTENCE"><b>POWER—OMNIPOTENCE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POWER"><b>POWER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PRAYER_PUBLIC_THANKSGIVING_ETC"><b>PRAYER (PUBLIC), THANKSGIVING, ETC.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PREJUDICE"><b>PREJUDICE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PRESBYTERIAN"><b>PRESBYTERIAN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PRETENSIONS"><b>PRETENTIONS</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PRIDE"><b>PRIDE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PRIESTS"><b>PRIESTS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PRIESTS_OF_THE_PAGANS"><b>PRIESTS OF THE PAGANS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PRIOR_BUTLER_AND_SWIFT"><b>PRIOR, BUTLER, AND SWIFT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PRIVILEGE"><b>PRIVILEGE—PRIVILEGED CASES</b></a><br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35628 ***</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/35628-h/images/im01_voltaire_buste.jpg b/35628-h/images/im01_voltaire_buste.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a3e49b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/35628-h/images/im01_voltaire_buste.jpg diff --git a/35628-h/images/im02_priest_banished.jpg b/35628-h/images/im02_priest_banished.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2680222 --- /dev/null +++ b/35628-h/images/im02_priest_banished.jpg diff --git a/35628-h/images/im03_jj_rousseau.jpg b/35628-h/images/im03_jj_rousseau.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1919a3a --- /dev/null +++ b/35628-h/images/im03_jj_rousseau.jpg diff --git a/35628-h/images/im04_john_calvin.jpg b/35628-h/images/im04_john_calvin.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..133a606 --- /dev/null +++ b/35628-h/images/im04_john_calvin.jpg |
