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diff --git a/35629-h/35629-h.htm b/35629-h/35629-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a890ec --- /dev/null +++ b/35629-h/35629-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9058 @@ +<!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 35629 ***</div> + + + + + +<h1>A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY</h1> + +<h3>VOLUME IX</h3> + +<h4>By</h4> + +<h2>VOLTAIRE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION</h4> + +<h3>THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE</h3> + +<h4>A CONTEMPORARY VERSION</h4> + + +<h5>With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized</h5> + +<h5>New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an</h5> + +<h5>Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh</h5> + + +<h4>A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY</h4> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h4>THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY</h4> + +<h5>FORTY-THREE VOLUMES</h5> + + +<h5>One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions</h5> + +<h5>of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures,</h5> + +<h5>and curious fac-similes</h5> + + +<h4>VOLUME XIII</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> + +<p style="margin-left: 35em;"> +<i>VICTOR HUGO.</i> +</p></blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="caption"><a name="LIST_OF_PLATES" id="LIST_OF_PLATES"></a>LIST OF PLATES—VOL. IX +</p> +<p class="small_2"> +<a href="#The_Houdon_Bust">VOLTAIRE: THE HOUDON BUST—<i>Frontispiece</i></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#Genius_Inspiring_the_Muses">GENIUS INSPIRING THE MUSES</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#Samson_Destroying_the_Temple">SAMSON DESTROYING THE TEMPLE</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#John_Locke">JOHN LOCKE</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: 313px;"> +<a name="The_Houdon_Bust" id="The_Houdon_Bust"></a> +<img src="images/img_01_voltaire.jpg" width="313" alt="Voltaire: The Houdon Bust." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">Voltaire: The Houdon Bust.</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h4>VOLTAIRE</h4> + +<h3>A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY</h3> + +<h4>IN TEN VOLUMES</h4> + +<h4>VOL. IX.</h4> + +<h4>PROPERTY—STATES-GENERAL</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PROPERTY" id="PROPERTY"></a>PROPERTY.</h3> + + +<p>"Liberty and property" is the great national cry of the English. It is +certainly better than "St. George and my right," or "St. Denis and +Montjoie"; it is the cry of nature. From Switzerland to China the +peasants are the real occupiers of the land. The right of conquest alone +has, in some countries, deprived men of a right so natural.</p> + +<p>The general advantage or good of a nation is that of the sovereign, of +the magistrate, and of the people, both in peace and war. Is this +possession of lands by the peasantry equally conducive to the prosperity +of the throne and the people in all periods and circumstances? In order +to its being the most beneficial system for the throne, it must be that +which produces the most considerable revenue, and the most numerous and +powerful army.</p> + +<p>We must inquire, therefore, whether this principle or plan tends clearly +to increase commerce and population. It is certain that the possessor of +an estate will cultivate his own inheritance better than that of +another. The spirit of property doubles a man's strength. He labors for +himself and his family both with more vigor and pleasure than he would +for a master. The slave, who is in the power of another, has but little +inclination for marriage; he often shudders even at the thought of +producing slaves like himself. His industry is damped; his soul is +brutalized; and his strength is never exercised in its full energy and +elasticity. The possessor of property, on the contrary, desires a wife +to share his happiness, and children to assist in his labors. His wife +and children constitute his wealth. The estate of such a cultivator, +under the hands of an active and willing family, may become ten times +more productive than it was before. The general commerce will be +increased. The treasure of the prince will accumulate. The country will +supply more soldiers. It is clear, therefore, that the system is +beneficial to the prince. Poland would be thrice as populous and wealthy +as it is at present if the peasants were not slaves.</p> + +<p>Nor is the system less beneficial to the great landlords. If we suppose +one of these to possess ten thousand acres of land cultivated by serfs, +these ten thousand acres will produce him but a very scanty revenue, +which will be frequently absorbed in repairs, and reduced to nothing by +the irregularity and severity of the seasons. What will he in fact be, +although his estates may be vastly more extensive than we have +mentioned, if at the same time they are unproductive? He will be merely +the possessor of an immense solitude. He will never be really rich but +in proportion as his vassals are so; his prosperity depends on theirs. +If this prosperity advances so far as to render the land too populous; +if land is wanting to employ the labor of so many industrious hands—as +hands in the first instance were wanting to cultivate the land—then the +superfluity of necessary laborers will flow off into cities and +seaports, into manufactories and armies. Population will have produced +this decided benefit, and the possession of the lands by the real +cultivators, under payment of a rent which enriches the landlords, will +have been the cause of this increase of population.</p> + +<p>There is another species of property not less beneficial; it is that +which is freed from payment of rent altogether, and which is liable only +to those general imposts which are levied by the sovereign for the +support and benefit of the state. It is this property which has +contributed in a particular manner to the wealth of England, of France, +and the free cities of Germany. The sovereigns who thus enfranchised the +lands which constituted their domains, derived, in the first instance, +vast advantage from so doing by the franchises which they disposed of +being eagerly purchased at high prices; and they derive from it, even at +the present day, a greater advantage still, especially in France and +England, by the progress of industry and commerce.</p> + +<p>England furnished a grand example to the sixteenth century by +enfranchising the lands possessed by the church and the monks. Nothing +could be more odious and nothing more pernicious than the before +prevailing practice of men, who had voluntarily bound themselves, by the +rules of their order, to a life of humility and poverty, becoming +complete masters of the very finest estates in the kingdom, and treating +their brethren of mankind as mere useful animals, as no better than +beasts to bear their burdens. The state and opulence of this small +number of priests degraded human nature; their appropriated and +accumulated wealth impoverished the rest of the kingdom. The abuse was +destroyed, and England became rich.</p> + +<p>In all the rest of Europe commerce has never flourished; the arts have +never attained estimation and honor, and cities have never advanced both +in extent and embellishment, except when the serfs of the Crown and the +Church held their lands in property. And it is deserving of attentive +remark that if the Church thus lost rights, which in fact never truly +belonged to it, the Crown gained an extension of its legitimate rights; +for the Church, whose first obligation and professed principle it is to +imitate its great legislator in humility and poverty, was not originally +instituted to fatten and aggrandize itself upon the fruit of the labors +of mankind; and the sovereign, who is the representative of the State, +is bound to manage with economy, the produce of that same labor for the +good of the State itself, and for the splendor of the throne. In every +country where the people labor for the Church, the State is poor; but +wherever they labor for themselves and the sovereign, the State is rich.</p> + +<p>It is in these circumstances that commerce everywhere extends its +branches. The mercantile navy becomes a school for the warlike navy. +Great commercial companies are formed. The sovereign finds in periods of +difficulty and danger resources before unknown. Accordingly, in the +Austrian states, in England, and in France, we see the prince easily +borrowing from his subjects a hundred times more than he could obtain by +force while the people were bent down to the earth in slavery.</p> + +<p>All the peasants will not be rich, nor is it necessary that they should +be so. The State requires men who possess nothing but strength and good +will. Even such, however, who appear to many as the very outcasts of +fortune, will participate in the prosperity of the rest. They will be +free to dispose of their labor at the best market, and this freedom will +be an effective substitute for property. The assured hope of adequate +wages will support their spirits, and they will bring up their families +in their own laborious and serviceable occupations with success, and +even with gayety. It is this class, so despised by the great and +opulent, that constitutes, be it remembered, the nursery for soldiers. +Thus, from kings to shepherds, from the sceptre to the scythe, all is +animation and prosperity, and the principle in question gives new force +to every exertion.</p> + +<p>After having ascertained whether it is beneficial to a State that the +cultivators should be proprietors, it remains to be shown how far this +principle may be properly carried. It has happened, in more kingdoms +than one, that the emancipated serf has attained such wealth by his +skill and industry as has enabled him to occupy the station of his +former masters, who have become reduced and impoverished by their +luxury. He has purchased their lands and assumed their titles; the old +noblesse have been degraded, and the new have been only envied and +despised. Everything has been thrown into confusion. Those nations which +have permitted such usurpations, have been the sport and scorn of such +as have secured themselves against an evil so baneful. The errors of one +government may become a lesson for others. They profit by its wise and +salutary institutions; they may avoid the evil it has incurred through +those of an opposite tendency.</p> + +<p>It is so easy to oppose the restrictions of law to the cupidity and +arrogance of upstart proprietors, to fix the extent of lands which +wealthy plebeians may be allowed to purchase, to prevent their +acquisition of large seigniorial property and privileges, that a firm +and wise government can never have cause to repent of having +enfranchised servitude and enriched indigence. A good is never +productive of evil but when it is carried to a culpable excess, in which +case it completely ceases to be a good. The examples of other nations +supply a warning; and on this principle it is easy to explain why those +communities, which have most recently attained civilization and regular +government, frequently surpass the masters from whom they drew their +lessons.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PROPHECIES" id="PROPHECIES"></a>PROPHECIES.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>This word, in its ordinary acceptation, signifies prediction of the +future. It is in this sense that Jesus declared to His disciples: "All +things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in +the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their +understanding that they might understand the Scriptures."</p> + +<p>We shall feel the indispensable necessity of having our minds opened to +comprehend the prophecies, if we reflect that the Jews, who were the +depositories of them, could never recognize Jesus for the Messiah, and +that for eighteen centuries our theologians have disputed with them to +fix the sense of some which they endeavor to apply to Jesus. Such is +that of Jacob—"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver +from between his feet, until Shiloh come." That of Moses—"The Lord thy +God will raise up unto thee a prophet like unto me from the nations and +from thy brethren; unto Him shall ye hearken." That of Isaiah—"Behold a +virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and shall call his name +Immanuel." That of Daniel—"Seventy weeks have been determined in favor +of thy people," etc. But our object here is not to enter into +theological detail.</p> + +<p>Let us merely observe what is said in the Acts of the Apostles, that in +giving a successor to Judas, and on other occasions, they acted +expressly to accomplish prophecies; but the apostles themselves +sometimes quote such as are not found in the Jewish writings; such is +that alleged by St. Matthew: "And He came and dwelt in a city called +Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, +He shall be called a Nazarene."</p> + +<p>St. Jude, in his epistle, also quotes a prophecy from the book of +"Enoch," which is apocryphal; and the author of the imperfect work on +St. Matthew, speaking of the star seen in the East by the Magi, +expresses himself in these terms: "It is related to me on the evidence +of I know not what writing, which is not authentic, but which far from +destroying faith encourages it, that there was a nation on the borders +of the eastern ocean which possessed a book that bears the name of Seth, +in which the star that appeared to the Magi is spoken of, and the +presents which these Magi offered to the Son of God. This nation, +instructed by the book in question, chose twelve of the most religious +persons amongst them, and charged them with the care of observing +whenever this star should appear. When any of them died, they +substituted one of their sons or relations. They were called magi in +their tongue, because they served God in silence and with a low voice.</p> + +<p>"These Magi went every year, after the corn harvest, to a mountain in +their country, which they called the Mount of Victory, and which is very +agreeable on account of the fountains that water and the trees which +cover it. There is also a cistern dug in the rock, and after having +there washed and purified themselves, they offered sacrifices and prayed +to God in silence for three days.</p> + +<p>"They had not continued this pious practice for many generations, when +the happy star descended on their mountain. They saw in it the figure of +a little child, on which there appeared that of the cross. It spoke to +them and told them to go to Judæa. They immediately departed, the star +always going before them, and were two days on the road."</p> + +<p>This prophecy of the book of Seth resembles that of Zorodascht or +Zoroaster, except that the figure seen in his star was that of a young +virgin, and Zoroaster says not that there was a cross on her. This +prophecy, quoted in the "Gospel of the Infancy," is thus related by +Abulpharagius: "Zoroaster, the master of the Magi, instructed the +Persians of the future manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and +commanded them to offer Him presents when He was born. He warned them +that in future times a virgin should conceive without the operation of +any man, and that when she brought her Son into the world, a star should +appear which would shine at noonday, in the midst of which they would +see the figure of a young virgin. 'You, my children,' adds Zoroaster, +'will see it before all nations. When, therefore, you see this star +appear, go where it will conduct you. Adore this dawning child; offer it +presents, for it is the <i>word</i> which created heaven.'"</p> + +<p>The accomplishment of this prophecy is related in Pliny's "Natural +History"; but besides that the appearance of the star should have +preceded the birth of Jesus by about forty years, this passage seems +very suspicious to scholars, and is not the first nor only one which +might have been interpolated in favor of Christianity. This is the exact +account of it: "There appeared at Rome for seven days a comet so +brilliant that the sight of it could scarcely be supported; in the +middle of it a god was perceived under the human form; they took it for +the soul of Julius Cæsar, who had just died, and adored it in a +particular temple."</p> + +<p>M. Assermany, in his "Eastern Library," also speaks of a book of +Solomon, archbishop of Bassora, entitled "The Bee," in which there is a +chapter on this prediction of Zoroaster. Hornius, who doubted not its +authenticity, has pretended that Zoroaster was Balaam, and that was very +likely, because Origen, in his first book against Celsus, says that the +Magi had no doubt of the prophecies of Balaam, of which these words are +found in Numbers: "There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre +shall rise out of Israel." But Balaam was no more a Jew than Zoroaster, +since he said himself that he came from Aram—from the mountains of the +East.</p> + +<p>Besides, St. Paul speaks expressly to Titus of a Cretan prophet, and St. +Clement of Alexandria acknowledged that God, wishing to save the Jews, +gave them prophets; with the same motive, He ever created the most +excellent men of Greece; those who were the most proper to receive His +grace, He separated from the vulgar, to be prophets of the Greeks, in +order to instruct them in their own tongue. "Has not Plato," he further +says, "in some manner predicted the plan of salvation, when in the +second book of his 'Republic,' he has imitated this expression of +Scripture: 'Let us separate ourselves from the Just, for he incommodes +us'; and he expresses himself in these terms: 'The Just shall be beaten +with rods, His eyes shall be put out, and after suffering all sorts of +evils, He shall at last be crucified.'"</p> + +<p>St. Clement might have added, that if Jesus Christ's eyes were not put +out, notwithstanding the prophecy, neither were His bones broken, though +it is said in a psalm: "While they break My bones, My enemies who +persecute Me overwhelm Me with their reproaches." On the contrary, St. +John says positively that the soldiers broke the legs of two others who +were crucified with Him, but they broke not those of Jesus, that the +Scripture might be fulfilled: "A bone of Him shall not be broken."</p> + +<p>This Scripture, quoted by St. John, extended to the letter of the +paschal lamb, which ought to be eaten by the Israelites; but John the +Baptist having called Jesus the Lamb of God, not only was the +application of it given to Him, but it is even pretended that His death +was predicted by Confucius. Spizeli quotes the history of China by +Maitinus, in which it is related that in the thirty-ninth year of the +reign of King-hi, some hunters outside the gates of the town killed a +rare animal which the Chinese called kilin, that is to say, the Lamb of +God. At this news, Confucius struck his breast, sighed profoundly, and +exclaimed more than once: "Kilin, who has said that thou art come?" He +added: "My doctrine draws to an end; it will no longer be of use, since +you will appear."</p> + +<p>Another prophecy of the same Confucius is also found in his second book, +which is applied equally to Jesus, though He is not designated under the +name of the Lamb of God. This is it: We need not fear but that when the +expected Holy One shall come, all the honor will be rendered to His +virtue which is due to it. His works will be conformable to the laws of +heaven and earth.</p> + +<p>These contradictory prophecies found in the Jewish books seem to excuse +their obstinacy, and give good reason for the embarrassment of our +theologians in their controversy with them. Further, those which we are +about to relate of other people, prove that the author of Numbers, the +apostles and fathers, recognized prophets in all nations. The Arabs +also pretend this, who reckon a hundred and eighty thousand prophets +from the creation of the world to Mahomet, and believe that each of them +was sent to a particular nation. We shall speak of prophetesses in the +article on "Sibyls."</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>Prophets still exist: we had two at the Bicêtre in 1723, both calling +themselves Elias. They were whipped; which put it out of all doubt. +Before the prophets of Cévennes, who fired off their guns from behind +hedges in the name of the Lord in 1704, Holland had the famous Peter +Jurieu, who published the "Accomplishment of the Prophecies." But that +Holland may not be too proud, he was born in France, in a little town +called Mer, near Orleans. However, it must be confessed that it was at +Rotterdam alone that God called him to prophesy.</p> + +<p>This Jurieu, like many others, saw clearly that the pope was the beast +in the "Apocalypse," that he held "<i>poculum aureum plenum +abominationum</i>," the golden cup full of abominations; that the four +first letters of these four Latin words formed the word papa; that +consequently his reign was about to finish; that the Jews would re-enter +Jerusalem; that they would reign over the whole world during a thousand +years; after which would come the Antichrist; finally, Jesus seated on a +cloud would judge the quick and the dead.</p> + +<p>Jurieu prophesies expressly that the time of the great revolution and +the entire fall of papistry "will fall justly in the year 1689, which I +hold," says he, "to be the time of the apocalyptic vintage, for the two +witnesses will revive at this time; after which, France will break with +the pope before the end of this century, or at the commencement of the +next, and the rest of the anti-Christian empire will be everywhere +abolished."</p> + +<p>The disjunctive particle "or," that sign of doubt, is not in the manner +of an adroit man. A prophet should not hesitate; he may be obscure, but +he ought to be sure of his fact.</p> + +<p>The revolution in papistry not happening in 1689, as Peter Jurieu +predicted, he quickly published a new edition, in which he assured the +public that it would be in 1690; and, what is more astonishing, this +edition was immediately followed by another. It would have been very +beneficial if Bayle's "Dictionary" had had such a run in the first +instance; the works of the latter have, however, remained, while those +of Peter Jurieu are not even to be found by the side of Nostradamus.</p> + +<p>All was not left to a single prophet. An English Presbyterian, who +studied at Utrecht, combated all which Jurieu said on the seven vials +and seven trumpets of the Apocalypse, on the reign of a thousand years, +the conversion of the Jews, and even on Antichrist. Each supported +himself by the authority of Cocceius, Coterus, Drabicius, and Commenius, +great preceding prophets, and by the prophetess Christina. The two +champions confined themselves to writing; we hoped they would give each +other blows, as Zedekiah smacked the face of Micaiah, saying: "Which way +went the spirit of the Lord from my hand to thy cheek?" or literally: +"How has the spirit passed from thee to me?" The public had not this +satisfaction, which is a great pity.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>It belongs to the infallible church alone to fix the true sense of +prophecies, for the Jews have always maintained, with their usual +obstinacy, that no prophecy could regard Jesus Christ; and the Fathers +of the Church could not dispute with them with advantage, since, except +St. Ephrem, the great Origen, and St. Jerome, there was never any Father +of the Church who knew a word of Hebrew.</p> + +<p>It is not until the ninth century that Raban the Moor, afterwards bishop +of Mayence, learned the Jewish language. His example was followed by +some others, and then they began disputing with the rabbi on the sense +of the prophecies.</p> + +<p>Raban was astonished at the blasphemies which they uttered against our +Saviour; calling Him a bastard, impious son of Panther, and saying that +it is not permitted them to pray to God without cursing Jesus: "<i>Quod +nulla oratio posset apud Deum accepta esse nisi in ea Dominum nostrum +Jesum Christum maledicant. Confitentes eum esse impium et filium impii, +id est, nescio cujus æthnici quern nominant Panthera, a quo dicunt +matrem Domini adulteratam.</i>"</p> + +<p>These horrible profanations are found in several places in the "Talmud," +in the books of Nizachon, in the dispute of Rittangel, in those of +Jechiel and Nachmanides, entitled the "Bulwark of Faith," and above all +in the abominable work of the Toldos Jeschut. It is particularly in the +"Bulwark of Faith" of the Rabbin Isaac, that they interpret all the +prophecies which announce Jesus Christ by applying them to other +persons.</p> + +<p>We are there assured that the Trinity is not alluded to in any Hebrew +book, and that there is not found in them the slightest trace of our +holy religion. On the contrary, they point out a hundred passages, +which, according to them, assert that the Mosaic law should eternally +remain.</p> + +<p>The famous passage which should confound the Jews, and make the +Christian religion triumph in the opinion of all our great theologians, +is that of Isaiah: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and +shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may +know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child +shall know how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that +thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. And it shall come to +pass in that day, that the Lord shall whistle for the flies that are in +the brooks of Egypt, and for the bees that are in the land of Assyria. +In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, +namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head and +the hair of the genitals, and he will also consume the beard.</p> + +<p>"Moreover, the Lord said unto me, take thee a great roll, and write +in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz. And I took +unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zachariah +the son of Jeberechiah. And I went in unto the prophetess; and +she conceived and bare a son; then said the Lord to me, call his name +Maher-shalal-hash-baz. For before the child shall have knowledge to +cry my father and my mother, the riches of Damascus, and the spoil of +Samaria, shall be taken away before the king of Assyria."</p> + +<p>The Rabbin Isaac affirms, with all the other doctors of his law, that +the Hebrew word "alma" sometimes signifies a virgin and sometimes a +married woman; that Ruth is called "alma" when she was a mother; that +even an adulteress is sometimes called "alma"; that nobody is meant here +but the wife of the prophet Isaiah; that her son was not called +Immanuel, but Maher-shalal-hash-baz; that when this son should eat honey +and butter, the two kings who besieged Jerusalem would be driven from +the country, etc.</p> + +<p>Thus these blind interpreters of their own religion, and their own +language, combated with the Church, and obstinately maintained, that +this prophecy cannot in any manner regard Jesus Christ. We have a +thousand times refuted their explication in our modern languages. We +have employed force, gibbets, racks, and flames; yet they will not give +up.</p> + +<p>"He has borne our ills, he has sustained our griefs, and we have beheld +him afflicted with sores, stricken by God, and afflicted." However +striking this prediction may appear to us, these obstinate Jews say that +it has no relationship to Jesus Christ, and that it can only regard the +prophets who were persecuted for the sins of the people.</p> + +<p>"And behold my servant shall prosper, shall be honored, and raised very +high." They say, further, that the foregoing passage regards not Jesus +Christ but David; that this king really did prosper, but that Jesus, +whom they deny, did not prosper. "Behold I will make a new pact with the +house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." They say that this +passage signifies not, according to the letter and the sense, anything +more than—I will renew my covenant with Judah and with Israel. However, +this pact has not been renewed; and they cannot make a worse bargain +than they have made. No matter, they are obstinate.</p> + +<p>"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands +of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth a ruler in Israel; whose +goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."</p> + +<p>They dare to deny that this prophecy applies to Jesus Christ. They say +that it is evident that Micah speaks of some native captain of +Bethlehem, who shall gain some advantage in the war against the +Babylonians: for the moment after he speaks of the history of Babylon, +and of the seven captains who elected Darius. And if we demonstrate that +he treated of the Messiah, they still will not agree.</p> + +<p>The Jews are grossly deceived in Judah, who should be a lion, and who +has only been an ass under the Persians, Alexander, the Seleucides, +Ptolemys, Romans, Arabs, and Turks.</p> + +<p>They know not what is understood by the Shiloh, and by the rod, and the +thigh of Judah. The rod has been in Judæa but a very short time. They +say miserable things; but the Abbé Houteville says not much more with +his phrases, his neologism, and oratorical eloquence; a writer who +always puts words in the place of things, and who proposes very +difficult objections merely to reply to them by frothy discourse, or +idle words!</p> + +<p>All this is, therefore, labor in vain; and when the French abbé would +make a still larger book, when he would add to the five or six thousand +volumes which we have on the subject, we shall only be more fatigued, +without advancing a single step.</p> + +<p>We are, therefore, plunged in a chaos which it is impossible for the +weakness of the human mind to set in order. Once more, we have need of a +church which judges without appeal. For in fact, if a Chinese, a Tartar, +or an African, reduced to the misfortune of having only good sense, read +all these prophecies, it would be impossible for him to apply them to +Jesus Christ, the Jews, or to anyone else. He would be in astonishment +and uncertainty, would conceive nothing, and would not have a single +distinct idea. He could not take a step in this abyss without a guide. +With this guide, he arrives not only at the sanctuary of virtue, but at +good canon-ships, at large commanderies, opulent abbeys, the crosiered +and mitred abbots of which are called monseigneur by his monks and +peasants, and to bishoprics which give the title of prince. In a word, +he enjoys earth, and is sure of possessing heaven.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PROPHETS" id="PROPHETS"></a>PROPHETS.</h3> + + +<p>The prophet Jurieu was hissed; the prophets of the Cévennes were hanged +or racked; the prophets who went from Languedoc and Dauphiny to London +were put in the pillory; the Anabaptist prophets were condemned to +various modes and degrees of punishment; and the prophet Savonarola was +baked at Florence. If, in connection with these, we may advert to the +case of the genuine Jewish prophets, we shall perceive their destiny to +have been no less unfortunate; the greatest prophet among the Jews, St. +John the Baptist, was beheaded.</p> + +<p>Zachariah is stated to have been assassinated; but, happily, this is not +absolutely proved. The prophet Jeddo, or Addo, who was sent to Bethel +under the injunction neither to eat nor drink, having unfortunately +tasted a morsel of bread, was devoured in his turn by a lion; and his +bones were found on the highway between the lion and his ass. Jonah was +swallowed by a fish. He did not, it is true, remain in the fish's +stomach more than three days and three nights; even this, however, was +passing threescore and twelve hours very uncomfortably.</p> + +<p>Habakkuk was transported through the air, suspended by the hair of his +head, to Babylon; this was not a fatal or permanent calamity, certainly; +but it must have been an exceedingly uncomfortable method of travelling. +A man could not help suffering a great deal by being suspended by his +hair during a journey of three hundred miles. I certainly should have +preferred a pair of wings, or the mare Borak, or the Hippogriffe.</p> + +<p>Micaiah, the son of Imla, saw the Lord seated on His throne, surrounded +by His army of celestial spirits; and the Lord having inquired who could +be found to go and deceive King Ahab, a demon volunteered for that +purpose, and was accordingly charged with the commission; and Micaiah, +on the part of the Lord, gave King Ahab an account of this celestial +adventure. He was rewarded for this communication by a tremendous blow +on his face from the hand of the prophet Zedekiah, and by being shut up +for some days in a dungeon. His punishment might undoubtedly have been +more severe; but still, it is unpleasant and painful enough for a man +who knows and feels himself divinely inspired to be knocked about in so +coarse and vulgar a manner, and confined in a damp and dirty hole of a +prison.</p> + +<p>It is believed that King Amaziah had the teeth of the prophet Amos +pulled out to prevent him from speaking; not that a person without teeth +is absolutely incapable of speaking, as we see many toothless old ladies +as loquacious and chattering as ever; but a prophecy should be uttered +with great distinctness; and a toothless prophet is never listened to +with the respect due to his character.</p> + +<p>Baruch experienced various persecutions. Ezekiel was stoned by the +companions of his slavery. It is not ascertained whether Jeremiah was +stoned or sawed asunder. Isaiah is considered as having been +incontestably sawed to death by order of Manasseh, king of Judah.</p> + +<p>It cannot be denied, that the occupation of a prophet is exceedingly +irksome and dangerous. For one who, like Elijah, sets off on his tour +among the planets in a chariot of light, drawn by four white horses, +there are a hundred who travel on foot, and are obliged to beg their +subsistence from door to door. They may be compared to Homer, who, we +are told, was reduced to be a mendicant in the same seven cities which +afterwards sharply disputed with each other the honor of having given +him birth. His commentators have attributed to him an infinity of +allegories which he never even thought of; and prophets have frequently +had the like honor conferred upon them. I by no means deny that there +may have existed elsewhere persons possessed of a knowledge of the +future. It is only requisite for a man to work up his soul to a high +state of excitation, according to the doctrine of one of our doughty +modern philosophers, who speculates upon boring the earth through to the +Antipodes, and curing the sick by covering them all over with +pitch-plaster.</p> + +<p>The Jews possessed this faculty of exalting and exciting the soul to +such a degree that they saw every future event as clearly as possible; +only unfortunately, it is difficult to decide whether by Jerusalem they +always mean eternal life; whether Babylon means London or Paris; +whether, when they speak of a grand dinner, they really mean a fast, and +whether red wine means blood, and a red mantle faith, and a white mantle +charity. Indeed, the correct and complete understanding of the prophets +is the most arduous attainment of the human mind.</p> + +<p>There is likewise a further difficulty with respect to the Jewish +prophets, which is, that many among them were Samaritan heretics. Hosea +was of the tribe of Issachar, which dwelt in the Samaritan territory, +and Elisha and Elijah were of the same tribe. But the objection is very +easily answered. We well know that "the wind bloweth where it listeth," +and that grace lights on the most dry and barren, as well as on the most +fertile soil.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PROVIDENCE" id="PROVIDENCE"></a>PROVIDENCE.</h3> + + +<p>I was at the grate of the convent when Sister Fessue said to Sister +Confite: "Providence takes a visible care of me; you know how I love my +sparrow; he would have been dead if I had not said nine ave-marias to +obtain his cure. God has restored my sparrow to life; thanks to the Holy +Virgin."</p> + +<p>A metaphysician said to her: "Sister, there is nothing so good as +ave-marias, especially when a girl pronounces them in Latin in the +suburbs of Paris; but I cannot believe that God has occupied Himself so +much with your sparrow, pretty as he is; I pray you to believe that He +has other matters to attend to. It is necessary for Him constantly to +superintend the course of sixteen planets and the rising of Saturn, in +the centre of which He has placed the sun, which is as large as a +million of our globes. He has also thousands and thousands of millions +of other suns, planets, and comets to govern. His immutable laws, and +His eternal arrangement, produce motion throughout nature; all is bound +to His throne by an infinite chain, of which no link can ever be put out +of place!" If certain ave-marias had caused the sparrow of Sister Fessue +to live an instant longer than it would naturally have lived, it would +have violated all the laws imposed from eternity by the Great Being; it +would have deranged the universe; a new world, a new God, and a new +order of existence would have been rendered unavoidable.</p> + +<p><span class="small">SISTER FESSUE</span>.—What! do you think that God pays so little attention to +Sister Fessue?</p> + +<p><span class="small">METAPHYSICIAN</span>.—I am sorry to inform you, that like myself you are but +an imperceptible link in the great chain; that your organs, those of +your sparrow, and my own, are destined to subsist a determinate number +of minutes in the suburbs of Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="small">SISTER FESSUE</span>.—If so, I was predestined to say a certain number of +ave-marias.</p> + +<p><span class="small">METAPHYSICIAN</span>.—Yes; but they have not obliged the Deity to prolong the +life of your sparrow beyond his term. It has been so ordered, that in +this convent at a certain hour you should pronounce, like a parrot, +certain words in a certain language which you do not understand; that +this bird, produced like yourself by the irresistible action of general +laws, having been sick, should get better; that you should imagine that +you had cured it, and that we should hold together this conversation.</p> + +<p><span class="small">SISTER FESSUE</span>.—Sir, this discourse savors of heresy. My confessor, the +reverend Father de Menou, will infer that you do not believe in +Providence.</p> + +<p><span class="small">METAPHYSICIAN</span>.—I believe in a general Providence, dear sister, which +has laid down from all eternity the law which governs all things, like +light from the sun; but I believe not that a particular Providence +changes the economy of the world for your sparrow or your cat.</p> + +<p><span class="small">SISTER FESSUE</span>.—But suppose my confessor tells you, as he has told me, +that God changes His intentions every day in favor of the devout?</p> + +<p><span class="small">METAPHYSICIAN</span>.—He would assert the greatest absurdity that a confessor +of girls could possibly utter to a being who thinks.</p> + +<p><span class="small">SISTER FESSUE</span>.—My confessor absurd! Holy Virgin Mary!</p> + +<p><span class="small">METAPHYSICIAN</span>.—I do not go so far as that. I only observe that he +cannot, by an enormously absurd assertion, justify the false principles +which he has instilled into you—possibly very adroitly—in order to +govern you.</p> + +<p><span class="small">SISTER FESSUE</span>.—That observation merits reflection. I will think of it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PURGATORY" id="PURGATORY"></a>PURGATORY.</h3> + + +<p>It is very singular that the Protestant churches agree in exclaiming +that purgatory was invented by the monks. It is true that they invented +the art of drawing money from the living by praying to God for the dead; +but purgatory existed before the monks.</p> + +<p>It was Pope John XIV., say they, who, towards the middle of the tenth +century, instituted the feast of the dead. From that fact, however, I +only conclude that they were prayed for before; for if they then took +measures to pray for all, it is reasonable to believe that they had +previously prayed for some of them; in the same way as the feast of All +Saints was instituted, because the feast of many of them had been +previously celebrated. The difference between the feast of All Saints +and that of the dead, is, that in the first we invoke, and that in the +second we are invoked; in the former we commend ourselves to the +blessed, and in the second the unblessed commend themselves to us.</p> + +<p>The most ignorant writers know, that this feast was first instituted at +Cluny, which was then a territory belonging to the German Empire. Is it +necessary to repeat, "that St. Odilon, abbot of Cluny, was accustomed to +deliver many souls from purgatory by his masses and his prayers; and +that one day a knight or a monk, returning from the holy land, was cast +by a tempest, on a small island, where he met with a hermit, who said to +him, that in that island existed enormous caverns of fire and flames, in +which the wicked were tormented; and that he often heard the devils +complain of the Abbot Odilon and his monks, who every day delivered some +soul or other; for which reason it was necessary to request Odilon to +continue his exertions, at once to increase the joy of the saints in +heaven and the grief of the demons in hell?"</p> + +<p>It is thus that Father Gerard, the Jesuit, relates the affair in his +"Flower of the Saints," after Father Ribadeneira. Fleury differs a +little from this legend, but has substantively preserved it. This +revelation induced St. Odilon to institute in Cluny the feast of the +dead, which was then adopted by the Church.</p> + +<p>Since this time, purgatory has brought much money to those who possess +the power of opening the gates. It was by virtue of this power that +English John, that great landlord, surnamed Lackland, by declaring +himself the liegeman of Pope Innocent III., and placing his kingdom +under submission, delivered the souls of his parents, who had been +excommunicated: "<i>Pro mortuo excommunico, pro quo supplicant +consanguinei.</i>"</p> + +<p>The Roman chancery had even its regular scale for the absolution of the +dead; there were many privileged altars in the fifteenth century, at +which every mass performed for six liards delivered a soul from +purgatory. Heretics could not ascend beyond the truth, that the apostles +had the right of unbinding all who were bound on earth, but not <i>under</i> +the earth; and many of them, like impious persons, doubted the power of +the keys. It is however to be remarked, that when the pope is inclined +to remit five or six hundred years of purgatory, he accords the grace +with full power: "<i>Pro potestate a Deo accepta concedit</i>."</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Of the Antiquity of Purgatory.</i></p> + +<p>It is pretended that purgatory was, from time immemorial, known to the +famous Jewish people, and it is founded on the second book of the +Maccabees, which says expressly, "that there being found concealed in +the vestments of the Jews (at the battle of Adullam), things consecrated +to the idols of Jamma, it was manifest that on that account they had +perished; and having made a gathering of twelve thousand drachms of +silver, Judas, who thought religiously of the resurrection, sent them to +Jerusalem for the sins of the dead."</p> + +<p>Having taken upon ourselves the task of relating the objections of the +heretics and infidels, for the purpose of confounding them by their own +opinions, we will detail here these objections to the twelve thousand +drachms transmitted by Judas; and to purgatory. They say: 1. That twelve +thousand drachms of silver was too much for Judas Maccabeus, who only +maintained a petty war of insurgency against a great king.</p> + +<p>2. That they might send a present to Jerusalem for the sins of the dead, +in order to bring down the blessing of God on the survivors.</p> + +<p>3. That the idea of a resurrection was not entertained among the Jews at +this time, it being ascertained that this doctrine was not discussed +among them until the time of Gamaliel, a little before the ministry of +Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>4. As the laws of the Jews included in the "Decalogue," Leviticus and +Deuteronomy, have not spoken of the immortality of the soul, nor of the +torments of hell, it was impossible that they should contain the +doctrine of purgatory.</p> + +<p>5. Heretics and infidels make the greatest efforts to demonstrate in +their manner, that the books of the Maccabees are evidently apocryphal. +The following are their pretended proofs:</p> + +<p>The Jews have never acknowledged the books of the Maccabees to be +canonical, why then should we acknowledge them? Origen declares formally +that the books of the Maccabees are to be rejected, and St. Jerome +regards them as unworthy of credit. The Council of Laodicea, held in +567, admits them not among the canonical books. The Athanasiuses, the +Cyrils, and the Hilarys, have also rejected them. The reasons for +treating the foregoing books as romances, and as very bad romances, are +as follows:</p> + +<p>The ignorant author commences by a falsehood, known to be such by all +the world. He says: "Alexander called the young nobles, who had been +educated with him from their infancy, and parted his kingdom among them +while he still lived." So gross and absurd a lie could not issue from +the pen of a sacred and inspired writer.</p> + +<p>The author of the Maccabees, in speaking of Antiochus Epiphanes, says: +"Antiochus marched towards Elymais, and wished to pillage it, but was +not able, because his intention was known to the inhabitants, who +assembled in order to give him battle, on which he departed with great +sadness, and returned to Babylon. Whilst he was still in Persia, he +learned that his army in Judæa had fled ... and he took to his bed and +died."</p> + +<p>The same writer himself, in another place, says quite the contrary; for +he relates that Antiochus Epiphanes was about to pillage Persepolis, and +not Elymais; that he fell from his chariot; that he was stricken with an +incurable wound; that he was devoured by worms; that he demanded pardon +of the god of the Jews; that he wished himself to be a Jew: it is there +where we find the celebrated versicle, which fanatics have applied so +frequently to their enemies; "<i>Orabet scelestus ille veniam quam non +erat consecuturus</i>." The wicked man demandeth a pardon, which he cannot +obtain. This passage is very Jewish; but it is not permitted to an +inspired writer to contradict himself so flagrantly.</p> + +<p>This is not all: behold another contradiction, and another oversight. +The author makes Antiochus die in a third manner, so that there is quite +a choice. He remarks that this prince was stoned in the temple of +Nanneus; and those who would excuse the stupidity pretend that he here +speaks of Antiochus Eupator; but neither Epiphanes nor Eupator was +stoned.</p> + +<p>Moreover, this author says, that another Antiochus (the Great) was taken +by the Romans, and that they gave to Eumenes the Indies and Media. This +is about equal to saying that Francis I. made a prisoner of Henry VIII., +and that he gave Turkey to the duke of Savoy. It is insulting the Holy +Ghost to imagine it capable of dictating so many disgusting absurdities.</p> + +<p>The same author says, that the Romans conquered the Galatians; but they +did not conquer Galatia for more than a hundred years after. Thus the +unhappy story-teller did not write for more than a hundred years after +the time in which it was supposed that he wrote: and it is thus, +according to the infidels, with almost all the Jewish books.</p> + +<p>The same author observes, that the Romans every year nominated a chief +of the senate. Behold a well-informed man, who did not even know that +Rome had two consuls! What reliance, say infidels, can be placed in +these rhapsodies and puerile tales, strung together without choice or +order by the most imbecile of men? How shameful to believe in them! and +the barbarity of persecuting sensible men, in order to force a belief of +miserable absurdities, for which they could not but entertain the most +sovereign contempt, is equal to that of cannibals.</p> + +<p>Our answer is, that some mistakes which probably arose from the copyists +may not affect the fundamental truths of the remainder; that the Holy +Ghost inspired the author only, and not the copyists; that if the +Council of Laodicea rejected the Maccabees, they have been admitted by +the Council of Trent; that they are admitted by the Roman Church; and +consequently that we ought to receive them with due submission.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Of the Origin of Purgatory.</i></p> + +<p>It is certain that those who admitted of purgatory in the primitive +church were treated as heretics. The Simonians were condemned who +admitted the purgation of souls—<i>Psuken Kadaron.</i></p> + +<p>St. Augustine has since condemned the followers of Origen who maintained +this doctrine. But the Simonians and the Origenists had taken their +purgatory from Virgil, Plato and the Egyptians. You will find it clearly +indicated in the sixth book of the "Æneid," as we have already remarked. +What is still more singular, Virgil describes souls suspended in air, +others burned, and others drowned:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;"><i>Aliæ panduntur inanes</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Suspensæ ad ventos: aliis sub gurgite vasto</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 15.5em;">—&<span class="small">ÆNEID</span>, Book vi, 740-742.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">For this are various penances enjoined,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And some are hung to bleach upon the wind;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Some plunged in waters, others purged in fires,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Till all the dregs are drained, and all the rust expires.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 16.5em;">—<span class="small">DRYDEN</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>And what is more singular still, Pope Gregory, surnamed the great, not +only adopts this doctrine from Virgil, but in his theology introduces +many souls who arrive from purgatory after having been hanged or +drowned.</p> + +<p>Plato has spoken of purgatory in his "Phædon," and it is easy to +discover, by a perusal of "Hermes Trismegistus" that Plato borrowed from +the Egyptians all which he had not borrowed from Timæus of Locris.</p> + +<p>All this is very recent, and of yesterday, in comparison with the +ancient Brahmins. The latter, it must be confessed, invented purgatory +in the same manner as they invented the revolt and fall of the genii or +celestial intelligences.</p> + +<p>It is in their Shasta, or Shastabad, written three thousand years before +the vulgar era, that you, my dear reader, will discover the doctrine of +purgatory. The rebel angels, of whom the history was copied among the +Jews in the time of the rabbin Gamaliel, were condemned by the Eternal +and His Son, to a thousand years of purgatory, after which God pardoned +and made them men. This we have already said, dear reader, as also that +the Brahmins found eternal punishment too severe, as eternity never +concludes. The Brahmins thought like the Abbé Chaulieu, and called upon +the Lord to pardon them, if, impressed with His bounties, they could not +be brought to conceive that they would be punished so rigorously for +vain pleasures, which passed away like a dream:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Pardonne alors, Seigneur, si, plein de tes bontés,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Je n'ai pu concevoir que mes fragilités,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Ni tous ces vains plaisirs que passent comme un songe,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Pussent être l'objet de tes sévérités;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Et si j'ai pu penser que tant des cruautés.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Puniraient un peu trop la douceur d'un mensonge.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">—<span class="small">EPITRE SUR LA MORT</span>, au Marquis de la Fare.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="QUACK_OR_CHARLATAN" id="QUACK_OR_CHARLATAN"></a>QUACK (OR CHARLATAN).</h3> + + +<p>The abode of physicians is in large towns; there are scarcely any in +country places. Great towns contain rich patients; debauchery, excess at +the tables, and the passions, cause their maladies. Dumoulin, the +physician, who was in as much practice as any of his profession, said +when dying that he left two great physicians behind him—simple diet and +soft water.</p> + +<p>In 1728, in the time of Law, the most famous of quacks of the first +class, another named Villars, confided to some friends, that his uncle, +who had lived to the age of nearly a hundred, and who was then killed by +an accident, had left him the secret of a water which could easily +prolong life to the age of one hundred and fifty, provided sobriety was +attended to. When a funeral passed, he affected to shrug up his +shoulders in pity: "Had the deceased," he exclaimed, "but drank my +water, he would not be where he is." His friends, to whom he generously +imparted it, and who attended a little to the regimen prescribed, found +themselves well, and cried it up. He then sold it for six francs the +bottle, and the sale was prodigious. It was the water of the Seine, +impregnated with a small quantity of nitre, and those who took it and +confined themselves a little to the regimen, but above all those who +were born with a good constitution, in a short time recovered perfect +health. He said to others: "It is your own fault if you are not +perfectly cured. You have been intemperate and incontinent, correct +yourself of these two vices, and you will live a hundred and fifty years +at least." Several did so, and the fortune of this good quack augmented +with his reputation. The enthusiastic Abbé de Pons ranked him much above +his namesake, Marshal Villars. "He caused the death of men," he +observed to him, "whereas you make men live."</p> + +<p>It being at last discovered that the water of Villars was only river +water, people took no more of it, and resorted to other quacks in lieu +of him. It is certain that he did much good, and he can only be accused +of selling the Seine water too dear. He advised men to temperance, and +so far was superior to the apothecary Arnault, who amused Europe with +the farce of his specific against apoplexy, without recommending any +virtue.</p> + +<p>I knew a physician of London named Brown, who had practised at +Barbadoes. He had a sugar-house and negroes, and the latter stole from +him a considerable sum. He accordingly assembled his negroes together, +and thus addressed them: "My friends," said he to them, "the great +serpent has appeared to me during the night, and has informed me that +the thief has at this moment a paroquet's feather at the end of his +nose." The criminal instantly applied his hand to his nose. "It is thou +who hast robbed me," exclaimed the master; "the great serpent has just +informed me so;" and he recovered his money. This quackery is scarcely +condemnable, but then it is applicable only to negroes.</p> + +<p>The first Scipio Africanus, a very different person from the physician +Brown, made his soldiers believe that he was inspired by the gods. This +grand charlatanism was in use for a long time. Was Scipio to be blamed +for assisting himself by the means of this pretension? He was possibly +the man who did most honor to the Roman republic; but why the gods +should inspire him has never been explained.</p> + +<p>Numa did better: he civilized robbers, and swayed a senate composed of a +portion of them which was the most difficult to govern. If he had +proposed his laws to the assembled tribes, the assassins of his +predecessor would have started a thousand difficulties. He addressed +himself to the goddess Egeria, who favored him with pandects from +Jupiter; he was obeyed without a murmur, and reigned happily. His +instructions were sound, his charlatanism did good; but if some secret +enemy had discovered his knavery, and had said, "Let us exterminate an +impostor who prostitutes the names of the gods in order to deceive men," +he would have run the risk of being sent to heaven like Romulus. It is +probable that Numa took his measures ably, and that he deceived the +Romans for their own benefit, by a policy adapted to the time, the +place, and the early manners of the people.</p> + +<p>Mahomet was twenty times on the point of failure, but at length +succeeded with the Arabs of Medina, who believed him the intimate friend +of the angel Gabriel. If any one at present was to announce in +Constantinople that he was favored by the angel Raphael, who is superior +to Gabriel in dignity, and that he alone was to be believed, he would +be publicly empaled. Quacks should know their time.</p> + +<p>Was there not a little quackery in Socrates with his familiar dæmon, and +the express declaration of Apollo, that he was the wisest of all men? +How can Rollin in his history reason from this oracle? Why not inform +youth that it was a pure imposition? Socrates chose his time ill: about +a hundred years before he might have governed Athens.</p> + +<p>Every chief of a sect in philosophy has been a little of a quack; but +the greatest of all have been those who have aspired to govern. Cromwell +was the most terrible of all quacks, and appeared precisely at a time in +which he could succeed. Under Elizabeth he would have been hanged; under +Charles II., laughed at. Fortunately for himself he came at a time when +people were disgusted with kings: his son followed, when they were weary +of protectors.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Of the Quackery of Sciences and of Literature.</i></p> + +<p>The followers of science have never been able to dispense with quackery. +Each would have his opinions prevail; the subtle doctor would eclipse +the angelic doctor, and the profound doctor would reign alone. Everyone +erects his own system of physics, metaphysics, and scholastic theology; +and the question is, who will value his merchandise? You have dependants +who cry it up, fools who believe you, and protectors on whom to lean. +Can there be greater quackery than the substitution of words for things, +or than a wish to make others believe what we do not believe ourselves?</p> + +<p>One establishes vortices of subtile matter, branched, globular, and +tubular; another, elements of matter which are not matter, and a +pre-established harmony which makes the clock of the body sound the +hour, when the needle of the clock of the soul is duly pointed. These +chimeras found partisans for many years, and when these ideas went out +of fashion, new pretenders to inspiration mounted upon the ambulatory +stage. They banished the germs of the world, asserted that the sea +produced mountains, and that men were formerly fishes.</p> + +<p>How much quackery has always pervaded history: either by astonishing the +reader with prodigies, tickling the malignity of human nature with +satire, or by flattering the families of tyrants with infamous eulogies!</p> + +<p>The unhappy class who write in order to live, are quacks of another +kind. A poor man who has no trade, and has had the misfortune to have +been at college, thinks that he knows how to write, and repairing to a +neighboring bookseller, demands employment. The bookseller knows that +most persons keeping houses are desirous of small libraries, and require +abridgments and new tables, orders an abridgment of the history of Rapin +Thoyras, or of the church; a collection of <i>bon mots</i> from the +Menagiana, or a dictionary of great men, in which some obscure pedant +is placed by the side of Cicero, and a sonneteer of Italy as near as +possible to Virgil.</p> + +<p>Another bookseller will order romances or the translation of romances. +If you have no invention, he will say to his workman: You can collect +adventures from the grand Cyrus, from Gusman d'Alfarache, from the +"Secret Memoirs of a Man of Quality" or of a "Woman of Quality"; and +from the total you will make a volume of four hundred pages.</p> + +<p>Another bookseller gives ten years' newspapers and almanacs to a man of +genius, and says: You will make an abstract from all that, and in three +months bring it me under the name of a faithful "History of the Times," +by M. le Chevalier ——, Lieutenant de Vaisseau, employed in the office +for foreign affairs.</p> + +<p>Of this sort of books there are about fifty thousand in Europe, and the +labor still goes on like the secret for whitening the skin, blackening +the hair, and mixing up the universal remedy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="RAVAILLAC" id="RAVAILLAC"></a>RAVAILLAC.</h3> + + +<p>I knew in my infancy a canon of Péronne of the age of ninety-two years, +who had been educated by one of the most furious burghers of the +League—he always used to say, the late M. de Ravaillac. This canon had +preserved many curious manuscripts of the apostolic times, although they +did little honor to his party. The following is one of them, which he +bequeathed to my uncle:</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Dialogue of a Page of the Duke of Sully, and of Master Filesac, Doctor +of the Sorbonne, one of the two Confessors of Ravaillac.</i></p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—God be thanked, my dear page, Ravaillac has died like a +saint. I heard his confession; he repented of his sin, and determined no +more to fall into it. He wished to receive the holy sacrament, but it is +not the custom here as at Rome; his penitence will serve in lieu of it, +and it is certain that he is in paradise.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—He in paradise, in the Garden of Eden, the monster!</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—Yes, my fine lad, in that garden, or heaven, it is the +same thing.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—I believe so; but he has taken a bad road to arrive there.</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—You talk like a young Huguenot. Learn that what I say +to you partakes of faith. He possessed attrition, and attrition, joined +to the sacrament of confession, infallibly works out the salvation which +conducts straightway to paradise, where he is now praying to God for +you.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—I have no wish that he should address God on my account. Let him +go to the devil with his prayers and his attrition.</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—At the bottom, he was a good soul; his zeal led him to +commit evil, but it was not with a bad intention. In all his +interrogatories, he replied that he assassinated the king only because +he was about to make war on the pope, and that he did so to serve God. +His sentiments were very Christian-like. He is saved, I tell you; he was +bound, and I have unbound him.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—In good faith, the more I listen to you the more I regard you as +a man bound yourself. You excite horror in me.</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—It is because that you are not yet in the right way; +but you will be one day. I have always said that you were not far from +the kingdom of heaven; but your time is not yet come.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—And the time will never come in which I shall be made to believe +that you have sent Ravaillac to the kingdom of heaven.</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—As soon as you shall be converted, which I hope will be +the case, you will believe as I do; but in the meantime, be assured that +you and the duke of Sully, your master, will be damned to all eternity +with Judas Iscariot and the wicked rich man Dives, while Ravaillac will +repose in the bosom of Abraham.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—How, scoundrel!</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—No abuse, my little son. It is forbidden to call our +brother "<i>raca</i>," under the penalty of the <i>gehenna</i> or hell fire. +Permit me to instruct without enraging you.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—Go on; thou appearest to me so "<i>raca</i>," that I will be angry no +more.</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—I therefore say to you, that agreeably to faith you +will be damned, as unhappily our dear Henry IV. is already, as the +Sorbonne always foresaw.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—My dear master damned! Listen to the wicked wretch! A cane! a +cane!</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—Be patient, good young man; you promised to listen to +me quietly. Is it not true that the great Henry died without confession? +Is it not true that he died in the commission of mortal sin, being still +amorous of the princess of Condé, and that he had not time to receive +the sacrament of repentance, God having allowed him to be stabbed in the +left ventricle of the heart, in consequence of which he was instantly +suffocated with his own blood? You will absolutely find no good Catholic +who will not say the same as I do.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—Hold thy tongue, master madman; if I thought that thy doctors +taught a doctrine so abominable, I would burn them in their lodgings.</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—Once again, be calm; you have promised to be so. His +lordship the marquis of Cochini, who is a good Catholic, will know how +to prevent you from being guilty of the sacrilege of injuring my +colleagues.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—But conscientiously, Master Filesac, does thy party really think +in this manner?</p> + +<p><span class="small">MASTER FILESAC</span>.—Be assured of it; it is our catechism.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PAGE</span>.—Listen; for I must confess to thee, that one of thy Sorbonnists +almost seduced me last year. He induced me to hope for a pension or a +benefice. Since the king, he observed, has heard mass in Latin, you who +are only a petty gentleman may also attend it without derogation. God +takes care of His elect, giving them mitres, crosses, and prodigious +sums of money, while you of the reformed doctrine go on foot, and can do +nothing but write. I own I was staggered; but after what thou hast just +said to me, I would rather a thousand times be a Mahometan than of thy +creed.</p> + +<p>The page was wrong. We are not to become Mahometans because we are +incensed; but we must pardon a feeling young man who loved Henry IV. +Master Filesac spoke according to his theology; the page attended to his +heart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="REASONABLE_OR_RIGHT" id="REASONABLE_OR_RIGHT"></a>REASONABLE, OR RIGHT.</h3> + + +<p>At the time that all France was carried away by the system of Law, and +when he was comptroller-general, a man who was always in the right came +to him one day and said:</p> + +<p>"Sir, you are the greatest madman, the greatest fool, or the greatest +rogue, who has yet appeared among us. It is saying a great deal; but +behold how I prove it. You have imagined that we may increase the riches +of a state ten-fold by means of paper. But this paper only represents +money, which is itself only a representative of genuine riches, the +production of the earth and manufacture. It follows, therefore, that you +should have commenced by giving us ten times as much corn, wine, cloth, +linen, etc.; this is not enough, they must be certain of sale. Now you +make ten times as many notes as we have money and commodities; ergo, you +are ten times more insane, stupid, or roguish, than all the comptrollers +or superintendents who have preceded you. Behold how rapidly I will +prove my major."</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he commenced his major than he was conducted to St. +Lazarus. When he came out of St. Lazarus, where he studied much and +strengthened his reason, he went to Rome. He demanded a public audience, +and that he should not be interrupted in his harangue. He addressed his +holiness as follows:</p> + +<p>"Holy father, you are Antichrist, and behold how I will prove it to your +holiness. I call him ante-Christ or antichrist, according to the meaning +of the word, who does everything contrary to that which Christ +commanded. Now Christ was poor, and you are very rich. He paid tribute, +and you exact it. He submitted himself to the powers that be, and you +have become one of them. He wandered on foot, and you visit Castle +Gandolfo in a sumptuous carriage. He ate of all that which people were +willing to give him, and you would have us eat fish on Fridays and +Saturdays, even when we reside at a distance from the seas and rivers. +He forbade Simon Barjonas using the sword, and you have many swords in +your service, etc. In this sense, therefore, your holiness is +Antichrist. In every other sense I exceedingly revere you, and request +an indulgence '<i>in articulo mortis</i>.'"</p> + +<p>My free speaker was immediately confined in the castle of St. Angelo. +When he came out of the castle of St. Angelo, he proceeded to Venice, +and demanded an audience of the doge. "Your serenity," he exclaimed, +"commits a great extravagance every year in marrying the sea; for, in +the first place, people marry only once with the same person; secondly, +your marriage resembles that of Harlequin, which was only half +performed, as wanting the consent of one of the parties; thirdly, who +has told you that, some day or other, the other maritime powers will not +declare you incapable of consummating your marriage?"</p> + +<p>Having thus delivered his mind, he was shut up in the tower of St. Mark. +When he came out of the tower of St. Mark, he proceeded to +Constantinople, where he obtained an interview with the mufti, and thus +addressed him: "Your religion contains some good points, such as the +adoration of the Supreme Being, and the necessity of being just and +charitable; nevertheless, it is a mere hash composed out of Judaism and +a wearisome heap of stories from Mother Goose. If the archangel Gabriel +had brought from some planet the leaves of the Koran to Mahomet, all +Arabia would have beheld his descent. Nobody saw him, therefore Mahomet +was a bold impostor, who deceived weak and ignorant people."</p> + +<p>He had scarcely pronounced these words before he was empaled; +nevertheless, he had been all along in the right.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="RELICS" id="RELICS"></a>RELICS.</h3> + + +<p>By this name are designated the remains or remaining parts of the body, +or clothes, of a person placed after his death by the Church in the +number of the blessed.</p> + +<p>It is clear that Jesus condemned only the hypocrisy of the Jews, in +saying: "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye +build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the +righteous." Thus orthodox Christians have an equal veneration for the +relics and images of saints, and I know not what. Doctor Henry ventures +to say that when bones or other relics are changed into worms, we must +not adore these worms; the Jesuit Vasquez decided that the opinion of +Henry is absurd and vain, for it signifies not in what manner corruption +takes place; "consequently," says he, "we can adore relics as much under +the form of worms as under that of ashes."</p> + +<p>However this may be, St. Cyril of Alexandria avows that the origin of +relics is Pagan; and this is the description given of their worship by +Theodoret, who lived in the commencement of the Christian era: "They +run to the temples of martyrs," says this learned bishop, "some to +demand the preservation of their health, others the cure of their +maladies; and barren women for fruitfulness. After obtaining children, +these women ask the preservation of them. Those who undertake voyages, +pray the martyrs to accompany and conduct them; and on their return they +testify to them their gratitude. They adore them not as gods, but they +honor them as divine men; and conjure them to become their intercessors.</p> + +<p>"The offerings which are displayed in their temples are public proofs +that those who have demanded with faith, have obtained the +accomplishment of their vows and the cure of their disorders. Some hang +up artificial eyes, others feet, and others hands of gold and silver. +These monuments publish the virtue of those who are buried in these +tombs, as their influence publishes that the god for whom they suffered +is the true God. Thus Christians take care to give their children the +names of martyrs, that they may be insured their protection."</p> + +<p>Finally, Theodoret adds, that the temples of the gods were demolished, +and that the materials served for the construction of the temples of +martyrs: "For the Lord," said he to the Pagans, "has substituted his +dead for your gods; He has shown the vanity of the latter, and +transferred to others the honors paid to them." It is of this that the +famous sophist of Sardis complains bitterly in deploring the ruin of +the temple of Serapis at Canopus, which was demolished by order of the +emperor Theodosius I. in the year 389.</p> + +<p>"People," says Eunapius, "who had never heard of war, were, however, +very valiant against the stones of this temple; and principally against +the rich offerings with which it was filled. These holy places were +given to monks, an infamous and useless class of people, who provided +they wear a black and slovenly dress, hold a tyrannical authority over +the minds of the people; and instead of the gods whom we acknowledge +through the lights of reason, these monks give us heads of criminals, +punished for their crimes, to adore, which they have salted in order to +preserve them."</p> + +<p>The people are superstitious, and it is superstition which enchains +them. The miracles forged on the subject of relics became a loadstone +which attracted from all parts riches to the churches. Stupidity and +credulity were carried so far that, in the year 386, the same Theodosius +was obliged to make a law by which he forbade buried corpses to be +transported from one place to another, or the relics of any martyr to be +separated and sold.</p> + +<p>During the first three ages of Christianity they were contented with +celebrating the day of the death of martyrs, which they called their +natal day, by assembling in the cemeteries where their bodies lay, to +pray for them, as we have remarked in the article on "Mass." They +dreamed not then of a time in which Christians would raise temples to +them, transport their ashes and bones from one place to another, show +them in shrines, and finally make a traffic of them; which excited +avarice to fill the world with false relics.</p> + +<p>But the Third Council of Carthage, held in the year 397, having inserted +in the Scriptures the Apocalypse of St. John, the authenticity of which +was till then contested, this passage of chapter vi., "I saw under the +altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God"—authorized +the custom of having relics of martyrs under the altars; and this +practice was soon regarded so essential that St. Ambrose, +notwithstanding the wishes of the people, would not consecrate a church +where there were none; and in 692, the Council of Constantinople, in +Trullo, even ordered all the altars to be demolished under which it +found no relics.</p> + +<p>Another Council of Carthage, on the contrary, in the year 401, ordered +bishops to build altars which might be seen everywhere, in fields and on +high roads, in honor of martyrs; from which were here and there dug +pretended relics, on dreams and vain revelations of all sorts of people.</p> + +<p>St. Augustine relates that towards the year 415, Lucian, the priest of a +town called Caphargamata, some miles distant from Jerusalem, three times +saw in a dream the learned Gamaliel, who declared to him that his body, +that of Abibas his son, of St. Stephen, and Nicodemus, were buried in a +part of his parish which he pointed out to him. He commanded him, on +their part and his own, to leave them no longer neglected in the tomb in +which they had been for some ages, but to go and tell John, bishop of +Jerusalem, to come and dig them up immediately, if he would prevent the +ills with which the world was threatened. Gamaliel added that this +translation must be made in the episcopacy of John, who died about a +year after. The order of heaven was that the body of St. Stephen should +be transported to Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>Either Lucian did not clearly understand, or he was unfortunate—he dug +and found nothing; which obliged the learned Jew to appear to a very +simple and innocent monk, and indicate to him more precisely the place +where the sacred relics lay. Lucian there found the treasure which he +sought, according as God had revealed it unto him. In this tomb there +was a stone on which was engraved the word "<i>cheliel</i>," which signifies +"crown" in Hebrew, as "<i>stephanos</i>" does in Greek. On the opening of +Stephen's coffin the earth trembled, a delightful odor issued, and a +great number of sick were cured. The body of the saint was reduced to +ashes, except the bones, which were transported to Jerusalem, and placed +in the church of Sion. At the same hour there fell a great rain, until +which they had had a great drouth.</p> + +<p>Avitus, a Spanish priest who was then in the East, translated into Latin +this story, which Lucian wrote in Greek. As the Spaniard was the friend +of Lucian, he obtained a small portion of the ashes of the saint, some +bones full of an oil which was a visible proof of their holiness, +surpassing newly-made perfumes, and the most agreeable odors. These +relics, brought by Orosius into the island of Minorca, in eight days +converted five hundred and forty Jews.</p> + +<p>They were afterwards informed by divers visions that some monks of Egypt +had relics of St. Stephen which strangers had brought there. As the +monks, not then being priests, had no churches of their own, they took +this treasure to transport it to a church which was near Usala. Above +the church some persons soon saw a star which seemed to come before the +holy martyr. These relics did not remain long in this church; the bishop +of Usala, finding it convenient to enrich his own, transported them, +seated on a car, accompanied by a crowd of people, who sang the praises +of God, attended by a great number of lights and tapers.</p> + +<p>In this manner the relics were borne to an elevated place in the church +and placed on a throne ornamented with hangings. They were afterwards +put on a little bed in a place which was locked up, but to which a +little window was left, that cloths might be touched, which cured +several disorders. A little dust collected on the shrine suddenly cured +one that was paralytic. Flowers which had been presented to the saint, +applied to the eyes of a blind man, gave him sight. There were even +seven or eight corpses restored to life.</p> + +<p>St. Augustine, who endeavors to justify this worship by distinguishing +it from that of adoration, which is due to God alone, is obliged to +agree that he himself knew several Christians who adored sepulchres and +images. "I know several who drink to great excess on the tombs, and who, +in giving entertainments to the dead, fell themselves on those who were +buried."</p> + +<p>Indeed, turning fresh from Paganism, and charmed to find deified men in +the Christian church, though under other names, the people honored them +as much as they had honored their false gods; and it would be grossly +deceiving ourselves to judge of the ideas and practices of the populace +by those of enlightened and philosophic bishops. We know that the sages +among the Pagans made the same distinctions as our holy bishops. "We +must," said Hierocles, "acknowledge and serve the gods so as to take +great care to distinguish them from the supreme God, who is their author +and father. We must not too greatly exalt their dignity. And finally the +worship which we give them should relate to their sole creator, whom you +may properly call the God of gods, because He is the Master of all, and +the most excellent of all." Porphyrius, who, like St. Paul, terms the +supreme God, the God who is above all things, adds that we must not +sacrifice to Him anything that is sensible or material, because, being +a pure Spirit, everything material is impure to Him. He can only be +worthily honored by the thoughts and sentiments of a soul which is not +tainted with any sinful passion.</p> + +<p>In a word, St. Augustine, in declaring with <i>naïveté</i> that he dared not +speak freely on several similar abuses on account of giving opportunity +for scandal to pious persons or to pedants, shows that the bishops made +use of the artifice to convert the Pagans, as St. Gregory recommended +two centuries after to convert England. This pope, being consulted by +the monk Augustine on some remains of ceremonies, half civil and half +Pagan, which the newly converted English would not renounce, answered, +"We cannot divest hard minds of all their habits at once; we reach not +to the top of a steep rock by leaping, but by climbing step by step."</p> + +<p>The reply of the same pope to Constantina, the daughter of the emperor +Tiberius Constantine, and the wife of Maurice, who demanded of him the +head of St. Paul, to place in a temple which she had built in honor of +this apostle, is no less remarkable. St. Gregory sent word to the +princess that the bodies of saints shone with so many miracles that they +dared not even approach their tombs to pray without being seized with +fear. That his predecessor (Pelagius II.) wishing to remove some silver +from the tomb of St. Peter to another place four feet distant, he +appeared to him with frightful signs. That he (Gregory) wishing to make +some repairs in the monument of St. Paul, as it had sunk a little in +front, and he who had the care of the place having had the boldness to +raise some bones which touched not the tomb of the apostle, to transport +them elsewhere, he appeared to him also in a terrible manner, and he +died immediately. That his predecessor also wishing to repair the tomb +of St. Lawrence, the shroud which encircled the body of the martyr was +imprudently discovered; and although the laborers were monks and +officers of the church, they all died in the space of ten days because +they had seen the body of the saint. That when the Romans gave relics, +they never touched the sacred bodies, but contented themselves with +putting some cloths, with which they approached them, in a box. That +these cloths have the same virtue as relics, and perform as many +miracles. That certain Greeks, doubting of this fact, Pope Leo took a +pair of scissors, and in their presence cutting some of the cloth which +had approached the holy bodies, blood came from it. That in the west of +Rome it is a sacrilege to touch the bodies of saints; and that if any +one attempts, he may be assured that his crime will not go unpunished. +For which reason the Greeks cannot be persuaded to adopt the custom of +transporting relics. That some Greeks daring to disinter some bodies in +the night near the church of St. Paul, intending to transport them into +their own country, were discovered, which persuaded them that the relics +were false. That the easterns, pretending that the bodies of St. Peter +and St. Paul belonged to them, came to Rome to take them to their own +country; but arriving at the catacombs where these bodies repose, when +they would have taken them, sudden lightning and terrible thunder +dispersed the alarmed multitude and forced them to renounce their +undertaking. That those who suggested to Constantina the demand of the +head of St. Paul from him, had no other design than that of making him +lose his favor. St. Gregory concludes with these words: "I have that +confidence in God, that you will not be deprived of the fruit of your +good will, nor of the virtue of the holy apostles, whom you love with +all your heart and with all your mind; and that, if you have not their +corporeal presence, you will always enjoy their protection."</p> + +<p>Yet the ecclesiastical history pretends that the translation of relics +was equally frequent in the East and West; and the author of the notes +to this letter further observes that the same St. Gregory afterwards +gave several holy bodies, and that other popes have given so many as six +or seven to one individual.</p> + +<p>After this, can we be astonished at the favor which relics find in the +minds of people and kings? The sermons most commonly preached among the +ancient French were composed on the relics of saints. It was thus that +the kings Gontran, Sigebert, and Chilperic divided the states of +Clotaire, and agreed to possess Paris in common. They made oath on the +relics of St. Polyeuctus, St. Hilary, and St. Martin. Yet Chilperic +possessed himself of the place and merely took the precaution of having +a shrine, with a quantity of relics, which he had carried as a safeguard +at the head of his troops, in hopes that the protection of these new +patrons would shelter him from the punishment due to his perjury. +Finally, the catechism of the Council of Trent approved of the custom of +swearing by relics.</p> + +<p>It is further observed that the kings of France of the first and second +races kept in their palaces a great number of relics; above all, the cap +and mantle of St. Martin; and that they had them carried in their trains +and in their armies. These relics were sent from the palaces to the +provinces when an oath of fidelity was made to the king, or any treaty +was concluded.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="RELIGION" id="RELIGION"></a>RELIGION.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>The Epicureans, who had no religion, recommended retirement from public +affairs, study, and concord. This sect was a society of friends, for +friendship was their principal dogma. Atticus, Lucretius, Memmius, and a +few other such men, might live very reputably together; this we see in +all countries; philosophize as much as you please among yourselves. A +set of amateurs may give a concert of refined and scientific music; but +let them beware of performing such a concert before the ignorant and +brutal vulgar, lest their instruments be broken over their heads. If you +have but a village to govern, it <i>must</i> have a religion.</p> + +<p>I speak not here of an error; but of the only good, the only necessary, +the only proved, and the second revealed.</p> + +<p>Had it been possible for the human mind to have admitted a religion—I +will not say at all approaching ours—but not so bad as all the other +religions in the world—what would that religion have been?</p> + +<p>Would it not have been that which should propose to us the adoration of +the supreme, only, infinite, eternal Being, the former of the world, who +gives it motion and life, "<i>cui nec simile, nec secundum</i>"? That which +should re-unite us to this Being of beings, as the reward of our +virtues, and separate us from Him, as the chastisement of our crimes?</p> + +<p>That which should admit very few of the dogmas invented by unreasoning +pride; those eternal subjects of disputation; and should teach a pure +morality, about which there should never be any dispute?</p> + +<p>That which should not make the essence of worship consist in vain +ceremonies, as that of spitting into your mouth, or that of taking from +you one end of your prepuce, or of depriving you of one of your +testicles—seeing that a man may fulfil all the social duties with two +testicles and an entire foreskin, and without another's spitting into +his mouth?</p> + +<p>That of serving one's neighbor for the love of God, instead of +persecuting and butchering him in God's name? That which should tolerate +all others, and which, meriting thus the goodwill of all, should alone +be capable of making mankind a nation of brethren?</p> + +<p>That which should have august ceremonies, to strike the vulgar, without +having mysteries to disgust the wise and irritate the incredulous?</p> + +<p>That which should offer men more encouragements to the social virtues +than expiations for social crimes?</p> + +<p>That which should insure to its ministers a revenue large enough for +their decent maintenance, but should never allow them to usurp dignities +and power that might make them tyrants?</p> + +<p>That which should establish commodious retreats for sickness and old +age, but never for idleness?</p> + +<p>A great part of this religion is already in the hearts of several +princes; and it will prevail when the articles of perpetual peace, +proposed by the abbé de St. Pierre, shall be signed by all potentates.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>Last night I was meditating; I was absorbed in the contemplation of +nature, admiring the immensity, the courses, the relations of those +infinite globes, which are above the admiration of the vulgar.</p> + +<p>I admired still more the intelligence that presides over this vast +machinery. I said to myself: A man must be blind not to be impressed by +this spectacle; he must be stupid not to recognize its author; he must +be mad not to adore him. What tribute of adoration ought I to render +him? Should not this tribute be the same throughout the extent of space, +since the same Supreme Power reigns equally in all that extent?</p> + +<p>Does not a thinking being, inhabiting a star of the Milky Way, owe him +the same homage as the thinking being on this little globe where we are? +Light is the same to the dog-star as to us; morality, too, must be the +same.</p> + +<p>If a feeling and thinking being in the dog-star is born of a tender +father and mother, who have labored for his welfare, he owes them as +much love and duty as we here owe to our parents. If any one in the +Milky Way sees another lame and indigent, and does not relieve him, +though able to do it, he is guilty in the sight of every globe.</p> + +<p>The heart has everywhere the same duties; on the steps of the throne of +God, if He has a throne, and at the bottom of the great abyss, if there +be an abyss.</p> + +<p>I was wrapt in these reflections, when one of those genii who fill the +spaces between worlds, came down to me. I recognized the same aerial +creature that had formerly appeared to me, to inform me that the +judgments of God are different from ours, and how much a good action is +preferable to controversy.</p> + +<p>He transported me into a desert covered all over with bones piled one +upon another; and between these heaps of dead there were avenues of +evergreen trees, and at the end of each avenue a tall man of august +aspect gazing with compassion on these sad remains.</p> + +<p>"Alas! my archangel," said I, "whither have you brought me?" "To +desolation," answered he. "And who are those fine old patriarchs whom I +see motionless and melancholy at the end of those green avenues, and who +seem to weep over this immense multitude of dead?" "Poor human creature! +thou shalt know," replied the genius; "but, first, thou must weep."</p> + +<p>He began with the first heap. "These," said he, "are the twenty-three +thousand Jews who danced before a calf, together with the twenty-four +thousand who were slain while ravishing Midianitish women; the number of +the slaughtered for similar offences or mistakes amounts to nearly three +hundred thousand.</p> + +<p>"At the following avenues are the bones of Christians, butchered by one +another on account of metaphysical disputes. They are divided into +several piles of four centuries each; it was necessary to separate them; +for had they been all together, they would have reached the sky."</p> + +<p>"What!" exclaimed I, "have brethren thus treated their brethren; and +have I the misfortune to be one of this brotherhood?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;"> +<a name="Genius_Inspiring_the_Muses" id="Genius_Inspiring_the_Muses"></a> +<img src="images/img_02_genius.jpg" width="407" alt="Genius inspiring the muses." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">Genius inspiring the muses.</span> +</div> + +<p>"Here," said the spirit, "are twelve millions of Americans slain in +their own country for not having been baptized." "Ah! My God! why were +not these frightful skeletons left to whiten in the hemisphere where the +bodies were born, and where they were murdered in so many various ways? +Why are all these abominable monuments of barbarity and fanaticism +assembled here?" "For thy instruction."</p> + +<p>"Since thou art willing to instruct me," said I to the genius, "tell me +if there be any other people than the Christians and the Jews, whom zeal +and religion, unhappily turned into fanaticism, have prompted to so many +horrible cruelties?" "Yes," said he; "the Mahometans have been stained +by the same inhuman acts, but rarely; and when their victims have cried +out '<i>amman</i>!' (mercy!) and have offered them tribute, they have +pardoned them. As for other nations, not one of them, since the +beginning of the world, has ever made a purely religious war. Now, +follow me!" I followed.</p> + +<p>A little beyond these heaps of dead we found other heaps; there were +bags of gold and silver; and each pile had its label: "Substance of the +heretics massacred in the eighteenth century, in the seventeenth, in the +sixteenth," and so on. "Gold and silver of the slaughtered Americans," +etc.; and all these piles were surmounted by crosses, mitres, crosiers, +and tiaras, enriched with jewels.</p> + +<p>"What! my genius, was it then to possess these riches that these +carcasses were accumulated?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my son."</p> + +<p>I shed tears; and when by my grief I had merited to be taken to the end +of the green avenues, he conducted me thither.</p> + +<p>"Contemplate," said he, "the heroes of humanity who have been the +benefactors of the earth, and who united to banish from the world, as +far as they were able, violence and rapine. Question them."</p> + +<p>I went up to the first of this band; on his head was a crown, and in his +hand a small censer. I humbly asked him his name. "I," said he, "am Numa +Pompilius; I succeeded a robber, and had robbers to govern; I taught +them virtue and the worship of God; after me they repeatedly forgot +both. I forbade any image to be placed in the temples, because the +divinity who animates nature cannot be represented. During my reign the +Romans had neither wars nor seditions; and my religion did nothing but +good. Every neighboring people came to honor my funeral, which has +happened to me alone...."</p> + +<p>I made my obeisance and passed on to the second. This was a fine old +man, of about a hundred, clad in a white robe; his middle finger was +placed on his lip, and with the other hand he was scattering beans +behind him. In him I recognized Pythagoras. He assured me that he had +never had a golden thigh, and that he had never been a cock, but that he +had governed the Crotonians with as much justice as Numa had governed +the Romans about the same time, which justice was the most necessary and +the rarest thing in the world. I learned that the Pythagoreans examined +their consciences twice a day. What good people! and how far are we +behind them! Yet we, who for thirteen hundred years have been nothing +but assassins, assert that these wise men were proud.</p> + +<p>To please Pythagoras I said not a word to him, but went on to Zoroaster, +who was engaged in concentrating the celestial fire in the focus of a +concave mirror, in the centre of a vestibule with a hundred gates, each +one leading to wisdom. On the principal of these gates I read these +words, which are the abstract of all morality, and cut short all the +disputes of the casuists: "When thou art in doubt whether an action is +good or bad, abstain from it."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said I to my genius, "the barbarians who immolated all the +victims whose bones I have seen had not read these fine words."</p> + +<p>Then we saw Zaleucus, Thales, Anaximander, and all the other sages who +had sought truth and practised virtue.</p> + +<p>When we came to Socrates I quickly recognized him by his broken nose. +"Well," said I, "you then are among the confidants of the Most High! All +the inhabitants of Europe, excepting the Turks and the Crim Tartars, who +know nothing, pronounce your name with reverence. So much is that great +name venerated, so much is it loved, that it has been sought to +discover those of your persecutors. Melitus and Anitus are known because +of you, as Ravaillac is known because of Henry IV.; but of Anitus I know +only the name. I know not precisely who that villain was by whom you +were calumniated, and who succeeded in procuring your condemnation to +the hemlock."</p> + +<p>"I have never thought of that man since my adventure," answered +Socrates; "but now that you put me in mind of him, I pity him much. He +was a wicked priest, who secretly carried on a trade in leather, a +traffic reputed shameful amongst us. He sent his two children to my +school; the other disciples reproached them with their father's being a +currier, and they were obliged to quit. The incensed father was +unceasing in his endeavors until he had stirred up against me all the +priests and all the sophists. They persuaded the council of the five +hundred that I was an impious man, who did not believe that the moon, +Mercury, and Mars were deities. I thought indeed, as I do now, that +there is but one God, the master of all nature. The judges gave me up to +the republic's poisoner, and he shortened my life a few days. I died +with tranquillity at the age of seventy years, and since then I have led +a happy life with all these great men whom you see, and of whom I am the +least...."</p> + +<p>After enjoying the conversation of Socrates for some time, I advanced +with my guide into a bower, situated above the groves, where all these +sages of antiquity seemed to be tasting the sweets of repose.</p> + +<p>Here I beheld a man of mild and simple mien, who appeared to me to be +about thirty-five years old. He was looking with compassion upon the +distant heaps of whitened skeletons through which I had been led to the +abode of the sages. I was astonished to find his feet swelled and +bloody, his hands in the same state, his side pierced, and his ribs laid +bare by flogging. "Good God!" said I, "is it possible that one of the +just and wise should be in this state? I have just seen one who was +treated in a very odious manner; but there is no comparison between his +punishment and yours. Bad priests and bad judges poisoned him. Was it +also by priests and judges that you were so cruelly assassinated?"</p> + +<p>With great affability he answered—"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And who were those monsters?"</p> + +<p>"They were hypocrites."</p> + +<p>"Ah! you have said all! by that one word I understand that they would +condemn you to the worst of punishments. You then had proved to them, +like Socrates, that the moon was not a goddess, and that Mercury was not +a god?"</p> + +<p>"No; those planets were quite out of the question. My countrymen did not +even know what a planet was; they were all arrant ignoramuses. Their +superstitions were quite different from those of the Greeks."</p> + +<p>"Then you wished to teach them a new religion?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all; I simply said to them—'Love God with all your hearts, and +your neighbor as yourselves; for that is all.' Judge whether this +precept is not as old as the universe; judge whether I brought them a +new worship. I constantly told them that I was come, not to abolish +their law, but to fulfil it; I had observed all their rites; I was +circumcised as they all were; I was baptized like the most zealous of +them; like them I paid the corban; like them I kept the Passover; and +ate, standing, lamb cooked with lettuce. I and my friends went to pray +in their temple; my friends, too, frequented the temple after my death. +In short, I fulfilled all their laws without one exception."</p> + +<p>"What! could not these wretches even reproach you with having departed +from their laws?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not."</p> + +<p>"Why, then, did they put you in the state in which I now see you?"</p> + +<p>"Must I tell you?—They were proud and selfish; they saw that I knew +them; they saw that I was making them known to the citizens; they were +the strongest; they took away my life; and such as they will always do +the same, if they can, to whoever shall have done them too much +justice."</p> + +<p>"But did you say nothing; did you do nothing, that could serve them as a +pretext?"</p> + +<p>"The wicked find a pretext in everything."</p> + +<p>"Did you not once tell them that you were come to bring, not peace, but +the sword?"</p> + +<p>"This was an error of some scribe. I told them that I brought, not the +sword, but peace. I never wrote anything; what I said might be miscopied +without any ill intent."</p> + +<p>"You did not then contribute in anything, by your discourses, either +badly rendered or badly interpreted, to those frightful masses of bones +which I passed on my way to consult you?"</p> + +<p>"I looked with horror on those who were guilty of all these murders."</p> + +<p>"And those monuments of power and wealth—of pride and avarice—those +treasures, those ornaments, those ensigns of greatness, which, when +seeking wisdom, I saw accumulated on the way—do they proceed from you?"</p> + +<p>"It is impossible; I and mine lived in poverty and lowliness; my +greatness was only in virtue."</p> + +<p>I was on the point of begging of him to have the goodness just to tell +me who he was; but my guide warned me to refrain. He told me that I was +not formed for comprehending these sublime mysteries. I conjured him to +tell me only in what true religion consisted.</p> + +<p>"Have I not told you already?—Love God and your neighbor as yourself."</p> + +<p>"What! Can we love God and yet eat meat on a Friday?"</p> + +<p>"I always ate what was given me; for I was too poor to give a dinner to +any one."</p> + +<p>"Might we love God and be just, and still be prudent enough not to +intrust all the adventures of one's life to a person one does not know?"</p> + +<p>"Such was always my custom."</p> + +<p>"Might not I, while doing good, be excused from making a pilgrimage to +St. James of Compostello?"</p> + +<p>"I never was in that country."</p> + +<p>"Should I confine myself in a place of retirement With blockheads?"</p> + +<p>"For my part, I always made little journeys from town to town."</p> + +<p>"Must I take part with the Greek or with the Latin Church?"</p> + +<p>"When I was in the world, I never made any difference between the Jew +and the Samaritan."</p> + +<p>"Well, if it be so, I take you for my only master."</p> + +<p>Then he gave me a nod, which filled me with consolation. The vision +disappeared, and I was left with a good conscience.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<h4><i>Questions on Religion.</i></h4> + + +<p class="dialogue">FIRST QUESTION.</p> + +<p>Warburton, bishop of Gloucester, author of one of the most learned works +ever written, thus expresses himself ("Divine Legation of Moses," i., +8): "A religion, a society, which is not founded on the belief of a +future state, must be supported by an extraordinary Providence. Judaism +is not founded on the belief of a future state; therefore, Judaism was +supported by an extraordinary Providence."</p> + +<p>Many theologians rose up against him; and, as all arguments are +retorted, so was his retorted upon himself; he was told:</p> + +<p>"Every religion which is not founded on the dogma of the immortality of +the soul, and on everlasting rewards and punishments, is necessarily +false. Now these dogmas were unknown to the Jews; therefore Judaism, far +from being supported by Providence, was, on your own principles, a false +and barbarous religion by which Providence was attacked."</p> + +<p>This bishop had some other adversaries, who maintained against him that +the immortality of the soul was known to the Jews even in the time of +Moses; but he proved to them very clearly that neither the Decalogue, +nor Leviticus, nor Deuteronomy, had said one word of such a belief; and +that it is ridiculous to strive to distort and corrupt some passages of +other books, in order to draw from them a truth which is not announced +in the book of the law.</p> + +<p>The bishop, having written four volumes to demonstrate that the Jewish +law proposed neither pains nor rewards after death, has never been able +to answer his adversaries in a very satisfactory manner. They said to +him: "Either Moses knew this dogma, and so deceived the Jews by not +communicating it, or he did not know it, in which case he did not know +enough to found a good religion. Indeed, if the religion had been good +why should it have been abolished? A true religion must be for all times +and all places; it must be as the light of the sun, enlightening all +nations and generations."</p> + +<p>This prelate, enlightened as he is, has found it no easy task to +extricate himself from so many difficulties. But what system is free +from them?</p> + + +<p class="dialogue">SECOND QUESTION.</p> + +<p>Another man of learning, and a much greater philosopher, who is one of +the profoundest metaphysicians of the day, advances very strong +arguments to prove that polytheism was the primitive religion of +mankind, and that men began with believing in several gods before their +reason was sufficiently enlightened to acknowledge one only Supreme +Being.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, I venture to believe that in the beginning they +acknowledged one only God, and that afterwards human weakness adopted +several. My conception of the matter is this:</p> + +<p>It is indubitable that there were villages before large towns were +built, and that all men have been divided into petty commonwealths +before they were united in great empires. It is very natural that the +people of a village, being terrified by thunder, afflicted at the loss +of its harvests, ill-used by the inhabitants of a neighboring village, +feeling every day its own weakness, feeling everywhere an invisible +power, should soon have said: There is some Being above us who does us +good and harm.</p> + +<p>It seems to me to be impossible that it should have said: There are two +powers; for why more than one? In all things we begin with the simple; +then comes the compound; and after, by superior light, we go back to the +simple again. Such is the march of the human mind!</p> + +<p>But what is this being who is thus invoked at first? Is it the sun? Is +it the moon? I do not think so. Let us examine what passes in the minds +of children; they are nearly like those of uninformed men. They are +struck, neither by the beauty nor by the utility of the luminary which +animates nature, nor by the assistance lent us by the moon, nor by the +regular variations of her course; they think not of these things; they +are too much accustomed to them. We adore, we invoke, we seek to +appease, only that which we fear. All children look upon the sky with +indifference; but when the thunder growls they tremble and run to hide +themselves. The first men undoubtedly did likewise. It could only be a +sect of philosophers who first observed the courses of the planets, made +them admired, and caused them to be adored; mere tillers of the ground, +without any information, did not know enough of them to embrace so noble +an error.</p> + +<p>A village then would confine itself to saying: There is a power which +thunders and hails upon us, which makes our children die; let us appease +it. But how shall we appease it? We see that by small presents we have +calmed the anger of irritated men; let us then make small presents to +this power. It must also receive a name. The first that presents itself +is that of "chief," "master," "lord." This power then is styled "My +Lord." For this reason perhaps it was that the first Egyptians called +their god "knef"; the Syrians, "Adonai"; the neighboring nations, +"Baal," or "Bel," or "Melch," or "Moloch"; the Scythians, "Papæus"; all +these names signifying "lord," "master."</p> + +<p>Thus was nearly all America found to be divided into a multitude of +petty tribes, each having its protecting god. The Mexicans, too, and the +Peruvians, forming great nations, had only one god—the one adoring +Manco Capak, the other the god of war. The Mexicans called their warlike +divinity "<i>Huitzilipochtli</i>," as the Hebrews had called their Lord +"<i>Sabaoth</i>."</p> + +<p>It was not from a superior and cultivated reason that every people thus +began with acknowledging one only Divinity; had they been philosophers, +they would have adored the God of all nature, and not the god of a +village; they would have examined those infinite relations among all +things which prove a Being creating and preserving; but they examined +nothing—they felt. Such is the progress of our feeble understanding. +Each village would feel its weakness and its need of a protector; it +would imagine that tutelary and terrible being residing in the +neighboring forest, or on a mountain, or in a cloud. It would imagine +only one, because the clan had but one chief in war; it would imagine +that one corporeal, because it was impossible to represent it otherwise. +It could not believe that the neighboring tribe had not also its god. +Therefore it was that Jephthah said to the inhabitants of Moab: "You +possess lawfully what your god Chemoth has made you conquer; you should, +then, let us enjoy what our god has given us by his victories."</p> + +<p>This language, used by one stranger to other strangers, is very +remarkable. The Jews and the Moabites had dispossessed the natives of +the country; neither had any right but that of force; and the one says +to the other: "Your god has protected you in your usurpation; suffer our +god to protect us in ours."</p> + +<p>Jeremiah and Amos both ask what right the god Melchem had to seize the +country of Gad? From these passages it is evident that the ancients +attributed to each country a protecting god. We find other traces of +this theology in Homer.</p> + +<p>It is very natural that, men's imaginations being heated, and their +minds having acquired some confused knowledge, they should soon multiply +their gods, and speedily assign protectors to the elements, the seas, +the forests, the fountains, and the fields. The more they observed the +stars, the more they would be struck with admiration. How, indeed, +should they have adored the divinity of a brook, and not have adored the +sun? The first step being taken, the earth would soon be covered with +gods; and from the stars men would at last come down to cats and +onions.</p> + +<p>Reason, however, will advance towards perfection; time at length found +philosophers who saw that neither onions, nor cats, nor even the stars, +had arranged the order of nature. All those philosophers—Babylonians, +Persians, Egyptians, Scythians, Greeks, and Romans—admitted a supreme, +rewarding, and avenging God.</p> + +<p>They did not at first tell it to the people; for whosoever should have +spoken ill of onions and cats before priests and old women, would have +been stoned; whosoever should have reproached certain of the Egyptians +with eating their gods would himself have been eaten—as Juvenal relates +that an Egyptian was in reality killed and eaten quite raw in a +controversial dispute.</p> + +<p>What then did they do? Orpheus and others established mysteries, which +the initiated swore by oaths of execration not to reveal—of which +mysteries the principal was the adoration of a supreme God. This great +truth made its way through half the world, and the number of the +initiated became immense. It is true that the ancient religion still +existed; but as it was not contrary to the dogma of the unity of God, it +was allowed to exist. And why should it have been abolished? The Romans +acknowledged the "<i>Deus optimus maximus</i>" and the Greeks had their +Zeus—their supreme god. All the other divinities were only intermediate +beings; heroes and emperors were ranked with the gods, i.e., with the +blessed; but it is certain that Claudius, Octavius, Tiberius, and +Caligula, were not regarded as the creators of heaven and earth.</p> + +<p>In short, it seems proved that, in the time of Augustus, all who had a +religion acknowledged a superior, eternal God, with several orders of +secondary gods, whose worship was called idolatry.</p> + +<p>The laws of the Jews never favored idolatry; for, although they admitted +the Malachim, angels and celestial beings of an inferior order, their +law did not ordain that they should worship these secondary divinities. +They adored the angels, it is true; that is, they prostrated themselves +when they saw them; but as this did not often happen, there was no +ceremonial nor legal worship established for them. The cherubim of the +ark received no homage. It is beyond a doubt that the Jews, from +Alexander's time at least, openly adored one only God, as the +innumerable multitude of the initiated secretly adored Him in their +mysteries.</p> + + +<p class="dialogue">THIRD QUESTION.</p> + +<p>It was at the time when the worship of a Supreme God was universally +established among all the wise in Asia, in Europe, and in Africa, that +the Christian religion took its birth.</p> + +<p>Platonism assisted materially the understanding of its dogmas. The +"<i>Logos</i>," which with Plato meant the "wisdom," the reason of the +Supreme Being, became with us the "word," and a second person of God. +Profound metaphysics, above human intelligence, were an inaccessible +sanctuary in which religion was enveloped.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary here to repeat how Mary was afterwards declared to +be the mother of God; how the consubstantiality of the Father and the +"word" was established; as also the proceeding of the "<i>pneuma</i>," the +divine organ of the divine <i>Logos</i>; as also the two natures and two +wills resulting from the hypostasis; and lastly, the superior +manducation—the soul nourished as well as the body, with the flesh and +blood of the God-man, adored and eaten in the form of bread, present to +the eyes, sensible to the taste, and yet annihilated. All mysteries have +been sublime.</p> + +<p>In the second century devils began to be cast out in the name of Jesus; +before they were cast out in the name of Jehovah or Ihaho; for St. +Matthew relates that the enemies of Jesus having said that He cast out +devils in the name of the prince of devils, He answered, "If I cast out +devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?"</p> + +<p>It is not known at what time the Jews recognized Beelzebub, who was a +strange god, as the prince of devils; but it is known, for Josephus +tells us, that there were at Jerusalem exorcists appointed to cast out +devils from the bodies of the possessed; that is, of such as were +attacked by singular maladies, which were then in a great part of the +world attributed to the malific genii.</p> + +<p>These demons were then cast out by the true pronunciation of Jehovah, +which is now lost, and by other ceremonies now forgotten.</p> + +<p>This exorcism by Jehovah or by the other names of God, was still in use +in the first ages of the church. Origen, disputing against Celsus, says +to him: "If, when invoking God, or swearing by Him, you call Him 'the +God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,' you will by those words do things, +the nature and force of which are such that the evil spirits submit to +those who pronounce them; but if you call him by another name, as 'God +of the roaring sea,' etc., no effect will be produced. The name of +'Israel,' rendered in Greek, will work nothing; but pronounce it in +Hebrew with the other words required, and you will effect the +conjuration."</p> + +<p>The same Origen has these remarkable words: "There are names which are +powerful from their own nature. Such are those used by the sages of +Egypt, the Magi of Persia, and the Brahmins of India. What is called +'magic,' is not a vain and chimerical art, as the Stoics and Epicureans +pretend. The names '<i>Sabaoth</i>' and '<i>Adonai</i>' were not made for created +beings, but belong to a mysterious theology which has reference to the +Creator; hence the virtue of these names when they are arranged and +pronounced according to rule."</p> + +<p>Origen, when speaking thus, is not giving his private opinion; he is but +repeating the universal opinion.</p> + +<p>All the religions then known admitted a sort of magic, which was +distinguished into celestial magic, and infernal magic, necromancy and +theurgy—all was prodigy, divination, oracle. The Persians did not deny +the miracles of the Egyptians, nor the Egyptians those of the Persians. +God permitted the primitive Christians to be persuaded of the truth of +the oracles attributed to the Sibyls, and left them a few other +unimportant errors, which were no essential detriment to their religion. +Another very remarkable thing is, that the Christians of the primitive +ages held temples, altars, and images in abhorrence. Origen acknowledges +this (No. 347). Everything was afterwards changed, with the discipline, +when the Church assumed a permanent form.</p> + + +<p class="dialogue">FOURTH QUESTION.</p> + +<p>When once a religion is established in a state, the tribunals are all +employed in perverting the continuance or renewal of most of the things +that were done in that religion before it was publicly received. The +founders used to assemble in private, in spite of magistrates; but now +no assemblies are permitted but public ones under the eyes of the law, +and all concealed associations are forbidden. The maxim formerly was, +that "it is better to obey God than man"; the opposite maxim is now +adopted, that "to follow the laws of the state is to obey God." Nothing +was heard of but obsessions and possessions; the devil was then let +loose upon the world, but now the devil stays at home. Prodigies and +predictions were necessary; now they are no longer admitted: a man who +in the places should foretell calamities, would be sent to a madhouse. +The founders secretly received the money of the faithful; but now, a man +who should gather money for his own disposal, without being authorized +by the law, would be brought before a court of justice to answer for so +doing. Thus the scaffoldings that have served to build the edifice are +no longer made use of.</p> + + +<p class="dialogue">FIFTH QUESTION.</p> + +<p>After our own holy religion, which indubitably is the only good one, +what religion would be the least objectionable?</p> + +<p>Would it not be that which should be the simplest; that which should +teach much morality and very few dogmas; that which should tend to make +men just, without making them absurd; that which should not ordain the +belief of things impossible, contradictory, injurious to the Divinity, +and pernicious to mankind; nor dare to threaten with eternal pains +whosoever should possess common sense? Would it not be that which should +not uphold its belief by the hand of the executioner, nor inundate the +earth with blood to support unintelligible sophisms; that in which an +ambiguous expression, a play upon words, and two or three supported +charters, should not suffice to make a sovereign and a god of a priest +who is often incestuous, a murderer, and a poisoner; which should not +make kings subject to this priest; that which should teach only the +adoration of one God, justice, tolerance, and humanity.</p> + + +<p class="dialogue">SIXTH QUESTION.</p> + +<p>It has been said, that the religion of the Gentiles was absurd in many +points, contradictory, and pernicious; but have there not been imputed +to it more harm than it ever did, and more absurdities than it ever +preached?</p> + +<p>Show me in all antiquity a temple dedicated to Leda lying with a swan, +or Europa with a bull. Was there ever a sermon preached at Athens or at +Rome, to persuade the young women to cohabit with their poultry? Are the +fables collected and adorned by Ovid religious? Are they not like our +Golden Legend, our Flower of the Saints? If some Brahmin or dervish were +to come and object to our story of St. Mary the Egyptian, who not having +wherewith to pay the sailors who conveyed her to Egypt, gave to each of +them instead of money what are called "favors," we should say to the +Brahmin: Reverend father, you are mistaken; our religion is not the +Golden Legend.</p> + +<p>We reproach the ancients with their oracles, and prodigies; if they +could return to this world, and the miracles of our Lady of Loretto and +our Lady of Ephesus could be counted, in whose favor would be the +balance?</p> + +<p>Human sacrifices were established among almost every people, but very +rarely put in practice. Among the Jews, only Jephthah's daughter and +King Agag were immolated; for Isaac and Jonathan were not. Among the +Greeks, the story of "Iphigenia" is not well authenticated; and human +sacrifices were very rare among the ancient Romans. In short, the +religion of the Pagans caused very little blood to be shed, while ours +has deluged the earth. Ours is doubtless the only good, the only true +one; but we have done so much harm by its means that when we speak of +others we should be modest.</p> + + +<p class="dialogue">SEVENTH QUESTION.</p> + +<p>If a man would persuade foreigners, or his own countrymen, of the truth +of his religion, should he not go about it with the most insinuating +mildness and the most engaging moderation? If he begins with telling +them that what he announces is demonstrated, he will find a multitude of +persons incredulous; if he ventures to tell them that they reject his +doctrine only inasmuch as it condemns their passions; that their hearts +have corrupted their minds; that their reasoning is only false and +proud, he disgusts them; he incenses them against himself; he himself +ruins what he would fain establish.</p> + +<p>If the religion he announces be true, will violence and insolence render +it more so? Do you put yourself in a rage, when you say that it is +necessary to be mild, patient, beneficent, just, and to fulfil all the +duties of society? No; because everyone is of your own opinion. Why, +then, do you abuse your brother when preaching to him a mysterious +system of metaphysics? Because his opinion irritates your self-love. You +are so proud as to require your brother to submit his intelligence to +yours; humbled pride produces the wrath; it has no other source. A man +who has received twenty wounds in a battle does not fly into a passion; +but a divine, wounded by the refusal of your assent, at once becomes +furious and implacable.</p> + + +<p class="dialogue">EIGHTH QUESTION.</p> + +<p>Must we not carefully distinguish the religion of the state from +theological religion? The religion of the state requires that the imans +keep registers of the circumcised, the vicars or pastors registers of +the baptized; that there be mosques, churches, temples, days consecrated +to rest and worship, rites established by law; that the ministers of +those rites enjoy consideration without power; that they teach good +morals to the people, and that the ministers of the law watch over the +morals of the ministers of the temples. This religion of the state +cannot at any time cause any disturbance.</p> + +<p>It is otherwise with theological religion: this is the source of all +imaginable follies and disturbances; it is the parent of fanaticism and +civil discord; it is the enemy of mankind. A bonze asserts that <i>Fo</i> is +a God,-that he was foretold by fakirs, that he was born of a white +elephant, and that every bonze can by certain grimaces make a <i>Fo</i>. A +<i>talapoin</i> says, that <i>Fo</i> was a holy man, whose doctrine the bonzes +have corrupted, and that <i>Sammonocodom</i> is the true God. After a +thousand arguments and contradictions, the two factions agree to refer +the question to the <i>dalai-lama</i>, who resides three hundred leagues off, +and who is not only immortal, but also infallible. The two factions send +to him a solemn deputation; and the <i>dalai-lama</i> begins, according to +his divine custom, by distributing among them the contents of his +close-stool.</p> + +<p>The two rival sects at first receive them with equal reverence; have +them dried in the sun, and encase them in little chaplets which they +kiss devoutly; but no sooner have the <i>dalai-lama</i> and his council +pronounced in the name of <i>Fo</i>, than the condemned party throw their +chaplets in the vice-god's face, and would fain give him a sound +thrashing. The other party defend their <i>lama</i>, from whom they have +received good lands; both fight a long time; and when at last they are +tired of mutual extermination, assassination, and poisoning, they +grossly abuse each other, while the <i>dalai-lama</i> laughs, and still +distributes his excrement to whosoever is desirous of receiving the good +father lama's precious favors.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="RHYME" id="RHYME"></a>RHYME.</h3> + + +<p>Rhyme was probably invented to assist the memory, and to regulate at the +same time the song and the dance. The return of the same sounds served +to bring easily and readily to the recollection the intermediate words +between the two rhymes. Those rhymes were a guide at once to the singer +and the dancer; they indicated the measure. Accordingly, in every +country, verse was the language of the gods.</p> + +<p>We may therefore class it among the list of probable, that is, of +uncertain, opinions, that rhyme was at first a religious appendage or +ceremony; for after all, it is possible that verses and songs might be +addressed by a man to his mistress before they were addressed by him to +his deities; and highly impassioned lovers indeed will say that the +cases are precisely the same.</p> + +<p>A rabbi who gave a general view of the Hebrew language, which I never +was able to learn, once recited to me a number of rhymed psalms, which +he said we had most wretchedly translated. I remember two verses, which +are as follows:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Hibbitu clare vena haru</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ulph nehem al jeck pharu.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"They looked upon him and were lightened, and their faces were not +ashamed."</p> + +<p>No rhyme can be richer than that of those two verses; and this being +admitted, I reason in the following manner:</p> + +<p>The Jews, who spoke a jargon half Phœnician and half Syriac, rhymed; +therefore the great and powerful nations, under whom they were in +slavery, rhymed also. We cannot help believing, that the Jews—who, as +we have frequently observed, adopted almost everything from their +neighbors—adopted from them also rhyme.</p> + +<p>All the Orientals rhyme; they are steady and constant in their usages. +They dress now as they have dressed for the long series of five or six +thousand years. We may, therefore, well believe that they have rhymed +for a period of equal duration.</p> + +<p>Some of the learned contend that the Greeks began with rhyming, whether +in honor of their gods, their heroes, or their mistresses; but, that +afterwards becoming more sensible of the harmony of their language, +having acquired a more accurate knowledge of prosody, and refined upon +melody, they made those requisite verses without rhyme which have been +transmitted down to us, and which the Latins imitated and very often +surpassed.</p> + +<p>As for us, the miserable descendants of Goths, Vandals, Gauls, Franks, +and Burgundians—barbarians who are incapable of attaining either the +Greek or Latin melody—we are compelled to rhyme. Blank verse, among all +modern nations, is nothing but prose without any measure; it is +distinguished from ordinary prose only by a certain number of equal and +monotonous syllables, which it has been agreed to denominate "verse."</p> + +<p>We have remarked elsewhere that those who have written in blank verse +have done so only because they were incapable of rhyming. Blank verse +originated in an incapacity to overcome difficulty, and in a desire to +come to an end sooner.</p> + +<p>We have remarked that Ariosto has made a series of forty-eight thousand +rhymes without producing either disgust or weariness in a single reader. +We have observed how French poetry, in rhyme, sweeps all obstacles +before it, and that pleasure arose even from the very obstacles +themselves. We have been always convinced that rhyme was necessary for +the ears, not for the eyes; and we have explained our opinions, if not +with judgment and success, at least without dictation and arrogance.</p> + +<p>But we acknowledge that on the receipt at Mount Krapak of the late +dreadful literary intelligence from Paris, our former moderation +completely abandons us. We understand that there exists a rising sect of +barbarians, whose doctrine is that no tragedy should henceforward be +ever written but in prose. This last blow alone was wanting, in addition +to all our previous afflictions. It is the abomination of desolation in +the temple of the muses. We can very easily conceive that, after +Corneille had turned into verse the "Imitation of Jesus Christ," some +sarcastic wag might menace the public with the acting of a tragedy in +prose, by Floridor and Mondori; but this project having been seriously +executed by the abbé d'Aubignac, we well know with what success it was +attended. We well know the ridicule and disgrace that were attached to +the prose "Œdipus" of De la Motte Houdart, which were nearly as great +as those which were incurred by his "Œdipus" in verse. What miserable +Visigoth can dare, after "Cinna" and "Andromache," to banish verse from +the theatre? After the grand and brilliant age of our literature, can we +be really sunk into such degradation and opprobrium! Contemptible +barbarians! Go, then, and see this your prose tragedy performed by +actors in their riding-coats at Vauxhall, and afterwards go and feast +upon shoulder of mutton and strong beer.</p> + +<p>What would Racine and Boileau have said had this terrible intelligence +been announced to them? "<i>Bon Dieu</i>"! Good God! from what a height have +we fallen, and into what a slough are we plunged!</p> + +<p>It is certain that rhyme gives a most overwhelming and oppressive +influence to verses possessing mere mediocrity of merit. The poet in +this case is just like a bad machinist, who cannot prevent the harsh and +grating sounds of his wires and pulleys from annoying the ear. His +readers experience the same fatigue that he underwent while forming his +own rhymes; his verses are nothing but an empty jingling of wearisome +syllables. But if he is happy in his thoughts and happy also in his +rhyme, he then experiences and imparts a pleasure truly exquisite—a +pleasure that can be fully enjoyed only by minds endowed with +sensibility, and by ears attuned to harmony.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="RESURRECTION" id="RESURRECTION"></a>RESURRECTION.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>We are told that the Egyptians built their pyramids for no other purpose +than to make tombs of them, and that their bodies, embalmed within and +without, waited there for their souls to come and reanimate them at the +end of a thousand years. But if these bodies were to come to life again, +why did the embalmers begin the operation by piercing the skull with a +gimlet, and drawing out the brain? The idea of coming to life again +without brains would make one suspect that—if the expression may be +used—the Egyptians had not many while alive; but let us bear in mind +that most of the ancients believed the soul to be in the breast. And why +should the soul be in the breast rather than elsewhere? Because, when +our feelings are at all violent, we do in reality feel, about the region +of the heart, a dilatation or compression, which caused it to be thought +that the soul was lodged there. This soul was something aerial; it was a +slight figure that went about at random until it found its body again.</p> + +<p>The belief in resurrection is much more ancient than historical times. +Athalides, son of Mercury, could die and come to life again at will; +Æsculapius restored Hippolytus to life, and Hercules, Alceste. Pelops, +after being cut in pieces by his father, was resuscitated by the gods. +Plato relates that Heres came to life again for fifteen days only.</p> + +<p>Among the Jews, the Pharisees did not adopt the dogma of the +resurrection until long after Plato's time.</p> + +<p>In the Acts of the Apostles there is a very singular fact, and one well +worthy of attention. St. James and several of his companions advise St. +Paul to go into the temple of Jerusalem, and, Christian as he was, to +observe all the ceremonies of the Old Law, in order—say they—"that all +may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning thee +are nothing, but that thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the +law." This is clearly saying: "Go and lie; go and perjure yourself; go +and publicly deny the religion which you teach."</p> + +<p>St. Paul then went seven days into the temple; but on the seventh he was +discovered. He was accused of having come into it with strangers, and of +having profaned it. Let us see how he extricated himself.</p> + +<p>But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other +Pharisees, he cried out in the council—"Men and brethren, I am a +Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; of the hope and resurrection of the +dead I am called in question." The resurrection of the dead formed no +part of the question; Paul said this only to incense the Pharisees and +Sadducees against each other.</p> + +<p>"And when he had so said there arose a dissension between the Pharisees +and the Sadducees; and the multitude was divided.</p> + +<p>"For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor +spirit; but the Pharisees confess both."</p> + +<p>It has been asserted that Job, who is very ancient, was acquainted with +the doctrine of resurrection; and these words are cited: "I know that +my Redeemer liveth, and that one day His redemption shall rise upon me; +or that I shall rise again from the dust, that my skin shall return, and +that in my flesh I shall again see God."</p> + +<p>But many commentators understand by these words that Job hopes soon to +recover from his malady, and that he shall not always remain lying on +the ground, as he then was. The sequel sufficiently proves this +explanation to be the true one; for he cries out the next moment to his +false and hardhearted friends: "Why then do you say let us persecute +Him?" Or: "For you shall say, because we persecuted Him." Does not this +evidently mean—you will repent of having ill used me, when you shall +see me again in my future state of health and opulence. When a sick man +says: I shall rise again, he does not say: I shall come to life again. +To give forced meanings to clear passages is the sure way never to +understand one another; or rather, to be regarded by honest men as +wanting sincerity.</p> + +<p>St. Jerome dates the birth of the sect of the Pharisees but a very short +time before Jesus Christ. The rabbin Hillel is considered as having been +the founder of the Pharisaïc sect; and this Hillel was contemporary with +St. Paul's master, Gamaliel.</p> + +<p>Many of these Pharisees believed that only the Jews were brought to life +again, the rest of mankind not being worth the trouble. Others +maintained that there would be no rising again but in Palestine; and +that the bodies of such as were buried elsewhere would be secretly +conveyed into the neighborhood of Jerusalem, there to rejoin their +souls. But St. Paul, writing to the people of Thessalonica, says:</p> + +<p>"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are +alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them +which are asleep.</p> + +<p>"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the +voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in +Christ shall rise first.</p> + +<p>"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with them in the +clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the +Lord."</p> + +<p>Does not this important passage clearly prove that the first Christians +calculated on seeing the end of the world? as, indeed, it was foretold +by St. Luke to take place while he himself was alive? But if they did +not see this end of the world, if no one rose again in their day, that +which is deferred is not lost.</p> + +<p>St. Augustine believed that children, and even still-born infants, would +rise again in a state of maturity. Origen, Jerome, Athanasius, Basil, +and others, did not believe that women would rise again with the marks +of their sex.</p> + +<p>In short, there have ever been disputes about what we have been, about +what we are, and about what we shall be.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>Father Malebranche proves resurrection by the caterpillars becoming +butterflies. This proof, as every one may perceive, is not more weighty +than the wings of the insects from which he borrows it. Calculating +thinkers bring forth arithmetical objections against this truth which he +has so well proved. They say that men and other animals are really fed +and derive their growth from the substance of their predecessors. The +body of a man, reduced to ashes, scattered in the air, and falling on +the surface of the earth, becomes corn or vegetable. So Cain ate a part +of Adam; Enoch fed on Cain; Irad on Enoch; Mahalaleel on Irad; +Methuselah on Mahalaleel; and thus we find that there is not one among +us who has not swallowed some portion of our first parent. Hence it has +been said that we have all been cannibals. Nothing can be clearer than +that such is the case after a battle; not only do we kill our brethren, +but at the end of two or three years, when the harvests have been +gathered from the field of battle, we have eaten them all; and we, in +turn, shall be eaten with the greatest facility imaginable. Now, when we +are to rise again, how shall we restore to each one the body that +belongs to him, without losing something of our own?</p> + +<p>So say those who trust not in resurrection; but the resurrectionists +have answered them very pertinently.</p> + +<p>A rabbin named Samaï demonstrates resurrection by this passage of +Exodus: "I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and swore +to give unto them the land of Canaan." Now—says this great +rabbin—notwithstanding this oath, God did not give them that land; +therefore, they will rise again to enjoy it, in order that the oath be +fulfilled.</p> + +<p>The profound philosopher Calmet finds a much more conclusive proof in +vampires. He saw vampires issuing from churchyards to go and suck the +blood of good people in their sleep; it is clear that they could not +suck the blood of the living if they themselves were still dead; +therefore they had risen again; this is peremptory.</p> + +<p>It is also certain that at the day of judgment all the dead will walk +under ground, like moles—so says the "Talmud"—that they may appear in +the valley of Jehoshaphat, which lies between the city of Jerusalem and +the Mount of Olives. There will be a good deal of squeezing in this +valley; but it will only be necessary to reduce the bodies +proportionately, like Milton's devils in the hall of Pandemonium.</p> + +<p>This resurrection will take place to the sound of the trumpet, according +to St. Paul. There must, of course, be more trumpets than one; for the +thunder itself is not heard more than three or four leagues round. It is +asked: How many trumpets will there be? The divines have not yet made +the calculation; it will nevertheless be made.</p> + +<p>The Jews say that Queen Cleopatra, who no doubt believed in the +resurrection like all the ladies of that day, asked a Pharisee if we +were to rise again quite naked? The doctor answered that we shall be +very well dressed, for the same reason that the corn that has been sown +and perished under ground rises again in ear with a robe and a beard. +This rabbin was an excellent theologian; he reasoned like Dom Calmet.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<h4><i>Resurrection of the Ancients.</i></h4> + +<p>It has been asserted that the dogma of resurrection was much in vogue +with the Egyptians, and was the origin of their embalmings and their +pyramids. This I myself formerly believed. Some said that the +resurrection was to take place at the end of a thousand years; others at +the end of three thousand. This difference in their theological opinions +seems to prove that they were not very sure about the matter.</p> + +<p>Besides, in the history of Egypt, we find no man raised again; but among +the Greeks we find several. Among the latter, then, we must look for +this invention of rising again.</p> + +<p>But the Greeks often burned their bodies, and the Egyptians embalmed +them, that when the soul, which was a small, aerial figure, returned to +its habitation, it might find it quite ready. This had been good if its +organs had also been ready; but the embalmer began by taking out the +brain and clearing the entrails. How were men to rise again without +intestines, and without the medullary part by means of which they think? +Where were they to find again the blood, the lymph, and other humors?</p> + +<p>You will tell me that it was still more difficult to rise again among +the Greeks, where there was not left of you more than a pound of ashes +at the utmost—mingled, too, with the ashes of wood, stuffs and spices.</p> + +<p>Your objection is forcible, and I hold with you, that resurrection is a +very extraordinary thing; but the son of Mercury did not the less die +and rise again several times. The gods restored Pelops to life, although +he had been served up as a ragout, and Ceres had eaten one of his +shoulders. You know that Æsculapius brought Hippolytus to life again; +this was a verified fact, of which even the most incredulous had no +doubt; the name of "<i>Virbius</i>," given to Hippolytus, was a convincing +proof. Hercules had resuscitated Alceste and Pirithous. Heres did, it is +true—according to Plato—come to life again for fifteen days only; +still it was a resurrection; the time does not alter the fact.</p> + +<p>Many grave schoolmen clearly see purgatory and resurrection in Virgil. +As for purgatory, I am obliged to acknowledge that it is expressly in +the sixth book. This may displease the Protestants, but I have no +alternative:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Non tamen omne malum miseris, nec funditus omnes</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Corporea excedunt pestes,...</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Not death itself can wholly wash their stains;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">But long contracted filth even in the soul remains.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The relics of inveterate vice they wear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And spots of sin obscene in every face appear,...</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But we have already quoted this passage in the article on "Purgatory," +which doctrine is here expressed clearly enough; nor could the kinsfolks +of that day obtain from the pagan priests an indulgence to abridge their +sufferings for ready money. The ancients were much more severe and less +simoniacal than we are notwithstanding that they imputed so many foolish +actions to their gods. What would you have? Their theology was made up +of contradictions, as the malignant say is the case with our own.</p> + +<p>When their purgation was finished, these souls went and drank of the +waters of Lethe, and instantly asked that they might enter fresh bodies +and again see daylight. But is this a resurrection? Not at all; it is +taking an entirely new body, not resuming the old one; it is a +metempsychosis, without any relation to the manner in which we of the +true faith are to rise again.</p> + +<p>The souls of the ancients did, I must acknowledge, make a very bad +bargain in coming back to this world, for seventy years at most, to +undergo once more all that we know is undergone in a life of seventy +years, and then suffer another thousand years' discipline. In my humble +opinion there is no soul that would not be tired of this everlasting +vicissitude of so short a life and so long a penance.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<h4><i>Resurrection of the Moderns.</i></h4> + +<p>Our resurrection is quite different. Every man will appear with +precisely the same body which he had before; and all these bodies will +be burned for all eternity, excepting only, at most, one in a hundred +thousand. This is much worse than a purgatory of ten centuries, in order +to live here again a few years.</p> + +<p>When will the great day of this general resurrection arrive? This is not +positively known; and the learned are much divided. Nor do they any more +know how each one is to find his own members again. Hereupon they start +many difficulties.</p> + +<p>1. Our body, say they, is, during life, undergoing a continual change; +at fifty years of age we have nothing of the body in which our soul was +lodged at twenty.</p> + +<p>2. A soldier from Brittany goes into Canada; there, by a very common +chance, he finds himself short of food, and is forced to eat an Iroquois +whom he killed the day before. This Iroquois had fed on Jesuits for two +or three months; a great part of his body had become Jesuit. Here, then, +the body of a soldier is composed of Iroquois, of Jesuits, and of all +that he had eaten before. How is each to take again precisely what +belongs to him? and which part belongs to each?</p> + +<p>3. A child dies in its mother's womb, just at the moment that it has +received a soul. Will it rise again fœtus, or boy, or man?</p> + +<p>4. To rise again—to be the same person as you were—you must have your +memory perfectly fresh and present; it is memory that makes your +identity. If your memory be lost, how will you be the same man?</p> + +<p>5. There are only a certain number of earthly particles that can +constitute an animal. Sand, stone, minerals, metals, contribute nothing. +All earth is not adapted thereto; it is only the soils favorable to +vegetation that are favorable to the animal species. When, after the +lapse of many ages, every one is to rise again, where shall be found the +earth adapted to the formation of all these bodies?</p> + +<p>6. Suppose an island, the vegetative part of which will suffice for a +thousand men, and for five or six thousand animals to feed and labor for +that thousand men; at the end of a hundred thousand generations we shall +have to raise again a thousand millions of men. It is clear that matter +will be wanting: "<i>Materies opus est, ut crescunt post era saecla</i>."</p> + +<p>7. And lastly, when it is proved, or thought to be proved, that a +miracle as great as the universal deluge, or the ten plagues of Egypt, +will be necessary to work the resurrection of all mankind in the valley +of Jehoshaphat, it is asked: What becomes of the souls of all these +bodies while awaiting the moment of returning into their cases?</p> + +<p>Fifty rather knotty questions might easily be put; but the divines would +likewise easily find answers to them all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="RIGHTS" id="RIGHTS"></a>RIGHTS.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<h4><i>National Rights—Natural Rights—Public Rights.</i></h4> + +<p>I know no better way of commencing this subject than with the verses of +Ariosto, in the second stanza of the 44th canto of the "<i>Orlando +Furioso</i>," which observes that kings, emperors, and popes, sign fine +treaties one day which they break the next, and that, whatever piety +they may affect, the only god to whom they really appeal, is their +interest:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Fan lega oggi re, papi et imperatori</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Doman saran nimici capitali:</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Perche, qual Papparenze esteriori,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Non hanno i cor, non han gli animi tali,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Che non mirando al torto piu che al dritto.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Attendon solamente al lor profitto.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>If there were only two men on earth, how would they live together? They +would assist each other; they would annoy each other; they would court +each other; they would speak ill of each other; fight with each other; +be reconciled to each other; and be neither able to live with nor +without each other. In short, they would do as people at present do, +who possess the gift of reason certainly, but the gift of instinct also; +and will feel, reason, and act forever as nature has destined.</p> + +<p>No god has descended upon our globe, assembled the human race, and said +to them, "I ordain that the negroes and Kaffirs go stark naked and feed +upon insects.</p> + +<p>"I order the Samoyeds to clothe, themselves with the skins of reindeer, +and to feed upon their flesh, insipid as it is, and eat dry and half +putrescent fish without salt. It is my will that the Tartars of Thibet +all believe what their <i>dalai-lama</i> shall say; and that the Japanese pay +the same attention to their <i>dairo</i>.</p> + +<p>"The Arabs are not to eat swine, and the Westphalians nothing else but +swine.</p> + +<p>"I have drawn a line from Mount Caucasus to Egypt, and from Egypt to +Mount Atlas. All who inhabit the east of that line may espouse as many +women as they please; those to the west of it must be satisfied with +one.</p> + +<p>"If, towards the Adriatic Gulf, or the marshes of the Rhine and the +Meuse, or in the neighborhood of Mount Jura, or the Isle of Albion, any +one shall wish to make another despotic, or aspire to be so himself, let +his head be cut off, on a full conviction that destiny and myself are +opposed to his intentions.</p> + +<p>"Should any one be so insolent as to attempt to establish an assembly +of free men on the banks of the Manzanares, or on the shores of the +Propontis, let him be empaled alive or drawn asunder by four horses.</p> + +<p>"Whoever shall make up his accounts according to a certain rule of +arithmetic at Constantinople, at Grand Cairo, at Tafilet, at Delhi, or +at Adrianople, let him be empaled alive on the spot, without form of +law; and whoever shall dare to account by any other rule at Lisbon, +Madrid, in Champagne, in Picardy, and towards the Danube, from Ulm unto +Belgrade, let him be devoutly burned amidst chantings of the +'<i>Miserere</i>.'</p> + +<p>"That which is just along the shores of the Loire is otherwise on the +banks of the Thames; for my laws are universal," etc.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed that we have no very clear proof, even in the +"<i>Journal Chrétien</i>," nor in "The Key to the Cabinet of Princes," that a +god has descended in order to promulgate such a public law. It exists, +notwithstanding, and is literally practised according to the preceding +announcement; and there have been compiled, compiled, and compiled, upon +these national rights, very admirable commentaries, which have never +produced a sou to the great numbers who have been ruined by war, by +edicts, and by tax-gatherers.</p> + +<p>These compilations closely resemble the case of conscience of Pontas. It +is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished who kill not +in large companies, and to the sound of trumpets; it is the rule.</p> + +<p>At the time when Anthropophagi still existed in the forest of Ardennes, +an old villager met with a man-eater, who had carried away an infant to +devour it. Moved with pity, the villager killed the devourer of children +and released the little boy, who quickly fled away. Two passengers, who +witnessed the transaction at a distance, accused the good man with +having committed a murder on the king's highway. The person of the +offender being produced before the judge, the two witnesses—after they +had paid the latter a hundred crowns for the exercise of his +functions—deposed to the particulars, and the law being precise, the +villager was hanged upon the spot for doing that which had so much +exalted Hercules, Theseus, Orlando, and Amadis the Gaul. Ought the judge +to be hanged himself, who executed this law to the letter? How ought the +point to be decided upon a general principle? To resolve a thousand +questions of this kind, a thousand volumes have been written.</p> + +<p>Puffendorff first established moral existences: "There are," said he, +"certain modes which intelligent beings attach to things natural, or to +physical operations, with the view of directing or restraining the +voluntary actions of mankind, in order to infuse order, convenience, and +felicity into human existence."</p> + +<p>Thus, to give correct ideas to the Swedes and the Germans of the just +and the unjust, he remarks that "there are two kinds of place, in regard +to one of which, it is said, that things are for example, here or there; +and in respect to the other, that they have existed, do, or will exist +at a certain time, as for example, yesterday, to-day, or to-morrow. In +the same manner we conceive two sorts of moral existence, the one of +which denotes a moral state, that has some conformity with place, simply +considered; the other a certain time, when a moral effect will be +produced," etc.</p> + +<p>This is not all; Puffendorff curiously distinguishes the simple moral +from the modes of opinion, and the formal from the operative qualities. +The formal qualities are simple attributes, but the operative are to be +carefully divided into original and derivated.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Barbeyrac has commented on these fine things, and they +are taught in the universities, and opinion is divided between Grotius +and Puffendorff in regard to questions of similar importance. Take my +recommendation; read Tully's "Offices."</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>Nothing possibly can tend more to render a mind false, obscure, and +uncertain than the perusal of Grotius, Puffendorff, and almost all the +writers on the "<i>jus gentium</i>."</p> + +<p>We must not do evil that good may come of it, says the writer to whom +nobody hearkens. It is permitted to make war on a power, lest it should +become too strong, says the "Spirit of Laws."</p> + +<p>When rights are to be established by prescription, the publicists call +to their aid divine right and human right; and the theologians take +their part in the dispute. "Abraham and his seed," say they, "had a +right to the land of Canaan, because he had travelled there; and God had +given it to him in a vision." But according to the vulgate sage +teachers, five hundred and forty-seven years elapsed between the time +when Abraham purchased a sepulchre in the country and Joshua took +possession of a small part of it. No matter, his right was clear and +correct. And then prescription? Away with prescription! Ought that which +once took place in Palestine to serve as a rule for Germany and Italy? +Yes, for He said so. Be it so, gentlemen; God preserve me from disputing +with you!</p> + +<p>The descendants of Attila, it is said, established themselves in +Hungary. Till what time must the ancient inhabitants hold themselves +bound in conscience to remain serfs to the descendants of Attila?</p> + +<p>Our doctors, who have written on peace and war, are very profound; if we +attend to them, everything belongs of right to the sovereign for whom +they write; he, in fact, has never been able to alienate his domains. +The emperor of right ought to possess Rome, Italy, and France; such was +the opinion of Bartholus; first, because the emperor was entitled king +of the Romans; and, secondly, because the archbishop of Cologne is +chancellor of Italy, and the archbishop of Trier chancellor of Gaul. +Moreover, the emperor of Germany carries a gilded ball at his +coronation, which of course proves that he is the rightful master of the +whole globe.</p> + +<p>At Rome there is not a single priest who has not learned, in his course +of theology, that the pope ought to be master of this earth, seeing it +is written that it was said to Simon, the son of Jonas: "Thou art Peter, +and upon this rock I will build my church." It was well said to Gregory +VII. that this treated only of souls, and of the celestial kingdom. +Damnable observation! he replied; and would have hanged the observer had +he been able.</p> + +<p>Spirits, still more profound, establish this reasoning by an argument to +which there is no reply. He to whom the bishop of Rome calls himself +vicar has declared that his dominion is not of this world; can this +world then belong to the vicar, when his master has renounced it? Which +ought to prevail, human nature or the decretals? The decretals, +indisputably.</p> + +<p>If it be asked whether the massacre of ten or twelve millions of unarmed +men in America was defensible, it is replied that nothing can be more +just and holy, since they were not Catholic, apostolic and Roman.</p> + +<p>There is not an age in which the declarations of war of Christian +princes have not authorized the attack and pillage of all the subjects +of the prince, to whom war has been announced by a herald, in a coat of +mail and hanging sleeves. Thus, when this signification has been made, +should a native of Auvergne meet a German, he is bound to kill, and +entitled to rob him either before or after the murder.</p> + +<p>The following has been a very thorny question for the schools: The ban, +and the arrière-ban, having been ordered out in order to kill and be +killed on the frontiers, ought the Suabians, being satisfied that the +war is atrociously unjust, to march? Some doctors say yes; others, more +just, pronounce no. What say the politicians?</p> + +<p>When we have fully discussed these great preliminary questions, with +which no sovereign embarrasses himself, or is embarrassed, we must +proceed to discuss the right of fifty or sixty families upon the county +of Alost; the town of Orchies; the duchy of Berg and of Juliers; upon +the countries of Tournay and Nice; and, above all, on the frontiers of +all the provinces, where the weakest always loses his cause.</p> + +<p>It was disputed for a hundred years whether the dukes of Orleans, Louis +XII., and Francis I., had a claim on the duchy of Milan, by virtue of a +contract of marriage with Valentina de Milan, granddaughter of the +bastard of a brave peasant, named Jacob Muzio. Judgment was given in +this process at the battle of Pavia.</p> + +<p>The dukes of Savoy, of Lorraine, and of Tuscany still pretend to the +Milanese; but it is believed that a family of poor gentlemen exist in +Friuli, the posterity in a right line from Albion, king of the Lombards, +who possess an anterior claim.</p> + +<p>The publicists have written great books upon the rights of the kingdom +of Jerusalem. The Turks have written none, and Jerusalem belongs to +them; at least at this present writing; nor is Jerusalem a kingdom.</p> + + +<h5>CANONICAL RIGHTS—OR LAW.</h5> + +<p class="caption"><i>General Idea of the Rights of the Church or Canon Law, by M. Bertrand, +Heretofore First Pastor of the Church of Berne.</i></p> + +<p>We assume neither to adopt nor contradict the principles of M. Bertrand; +it is for the public to judge of them.</p> + +<p>Canon law, or the canon, according to the vulgar opinion, is +ecclesiastical jurisprudence. It is the collection of canons, rules of +the council, decrees of the popes, and maxims of the fathers.</p> + +<p>According to reason, and to the rights of kings and of the people, +ecclesiastical jurisprudence is only an exposition of the privileges +accorded to ecclesiastics by sovereigns representing the nation.</p> + +<p>If two supreme authorities, two administrations, having separate rights, +exist, and the one will make war without ceasing upon the other, the +unavoidable result will be perpetual convulsions, civil wars, anarchy, +tyranny, and all the misfortunes of which history presents so miserable +a picture.</p> + +<p>If a priest is made sovereign; if the dairo of Japan remained emperor +until the sixteenth century; if the <i>dalai-lama</i> is still sovereign at +Thibet; if Numa was at once king and pontiff; if the caliphs were heads +of the state as well as of religion; and if the popes reign at +Rome—these are only so many proofs of the truth of what we advance; the +authority is not divided; there is but one power. The sovereigns of +Russia and of England preside over religion; the essential unity of +power is there preserved.</p> + +<p>Every religion is within the State; every priest forms a part of civil +society, and all ecclesiastics are among the number of the subjects of +the sovereign under whom they exercise their ministry. If a religion +exists which establishes ecclesiastical independence, and supports them +in a sovereign and legitimate authority, that religion cannot spring +from God, the author of society.</p> + +<p>It is even to be proved, from all evidence, that in a religion of which +God is represented as the author, the functions of ministers, their +persons, property, pretensions, and manner of inculcating morality, +teaching doctrines, celebrating ceremonies, the adjustment of spiritual +penalties; in a word, all that relates to civil order, ought to be +submitted to the authority of the prince and the inspection of the +magistracy.</p> + +<p>If this jurisprudence constitutes a science, here will be found the +elements.</p> + +<p>It is for the magistracy, solely, to authorize the books admissible into +the schools, according to the nature and form of the government. It is +thus that M. Paul Joseph Rieger, counsellor of the court, judiciously +teaches canon law in the University of Vienna; and, in the like manner, +the republic of Venice examined and reformed all the rules in the states +which have ceased to belong to it. It is desirable that examples so wise +should generally prevail.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<h4><i>Of the Ecclesiastical Ministry.</i></h4> + +<p>Religion is instituted only to preserve order among mankind, and to +render them worthy of the bounty of the Deity by virtue. Everything in a +religion which does not tend to this object ought to be regarded as +foreign or dangerous.</p> + +<p>Instruction, exhortation, the fear of punishment to come, the promises +of a blessed hereafter, prayer, advice, and spiritual consolation are +the only means which churchmen can properly employ to render men +virtuous on earth and happy to all eternity.</p> + +<p>Every other means is repugnant to the freedom of reason; to the nature +of the soul; to the unalterable rights of conscience; to the essence of +religion; to that of the clerical ministry; and to the just rights of +the sovereign.</p> + +<p>Virtue infers liberty, as the transport of a burden implies active +force. With constraint there is no virtue, and without virtue no +religion. Make me a slave and I shall be the worse for it.</p> + +<p>Even the sovereign has no right to employ force to lead men to religion, +which essentially presumes choice and liberty. My opinions are no more +dependent on authority than my sickness or my health.</p> + +<p>In a word, to unravel all the contradictions in which books on the canon +law abound, and to adjust our ideas in respect to the ecclesiastical +ministry, let us endeavor, in the midst of a thousand ambiguities, to +determine what is the Church.</p> + +<p>The Church, then, is all believers, collectively, who are called +together on certain days to pray in common, and at all times to perform +good actions.</p> + +<p>Priests are persons appointed, under the authority of the State, to +direct these prayers, and superintend public worship generally.</p> + +<p>A numerous Church cannot exist without ecclesiastics; but these +ecclesiastics are not the Church.</p> + +<p>It is not less evident that if the ecclesiastics, who compose a part of +civil society, have acquired rights which tend to trouble or destroy +such society, such rights ought to be suppressed.</p> + +<p>It is still more obvious that if God has attached prerogatives or rights +to the Church, these prerogatives and these rights belong exclusively +neither to the head of the Church nor to the ecclesiastics; because +these are not the Church itself, any more than the magistrates are the +sovereign, either in a republic or a monarchy.</p> + +<p>Lastly; it is very evident that it is our souls only which are submitted +to the care of the clergy, and that for spiritual objects alone.</p> + +<p>The soul acts inwardly; its inward acts are thought, will, inclination, +and an acquiescence in certain truths, all which are above restraint; +and it is for the ecclesiastical ministry to instruct, but not to +command them.</p> + +<p>The soul acts also outwardly. Its exterior acts are submission to the +civil law; and here constraint may take place, and temporal or corporeal +penalties may punish the violations of the law.</p> + +<p>Obedience to the ecclesiastical order ought, consequently, to be always +free and voluntary; it ought to exact no other. On the contrary, +submission to the civil law may be enforced.</p> + +<p>For the same reason ecclesiastical penalties, always being spiritual, +attach in this world to those only who are inwardly convinced of their +error. Civil penalties, on the contrary, accompanied by physical evil +produce physical effects, whether the offender acknowledge the justice +of them or not.</p> + +<p>Hence it manifestly results that the authority of the clergy can only be +spiritual—that it is unacquainted with temporal power, and that any +co-operative force belongs not to the administration of the Church, +which is essentially destroyed by it.</p> + +<p>It moreover follows that a prince, intent not to suffer any division of +his authority, ought not to permit any enterprise which places the +members of the community in an outward or civil dependence on the +ecclesiastical corporation.</p> + +<p>Such are the incontestable principles of genuine canonical right or law, +the rules and the decisions of which ought at all times to be submitted +to the test of eternal and immutable truths, founded upon natural rights +and the necessary order of society.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<h4><i>Of the Possessions of Ecclesiastics.</i></h4> + +<p>Let us constantly ascend to the principles of society, which, in civil +as in religious order, are the foundations of all right.</p> + +<p>Society in general is the proprietor of the territory of a country, and +the source of national riches. A portion of this national revenue is +devoted to the sovereign to support the expenses of government. Every +individual is possessor of that part of the territory, and of the +revenue, which the laws insure him; and no possession or enjoyment can +at any time be sustained, except under the protection of law.</p> + +<p>In society we hold not any good, or any possession as a simple natural +right, as we give up our natural rights and submit to the order of civil +society, in return for assurance and protection. It is, therefore, by +the law that we hold our possessions.</p> + +<p>No one can hold anything on earth through religion, neither lands nor +chattels; since all its wealth is spiritual. The possessions of the +faithful, as veritable members of the Church, are in heaven; it is there +where their treasures are laid up. The kingdom of Jesus Christ, which He +always announced as at hand, was not, nor could it be, of this world. No +property, therefore, can be held by divine right.</p> + +<p>The Levites under the Hebrew law had, it is true, their tithe by a +positive law of God; but that was under a theocracy which exists no +longer—God Himself acting as the sovereign. All those laws have ceased, +and cannot at present communicate any title to possession.</p> + +<p>If any body at present, like that of the priesthood, pretend to possess +tithes or any other wealth by positive right divine, it must produce an +express and incontestable proof enregistered by divine revelation. This +miraculous title would be, I confess, an exception to the civil law, +authorized by God, who says: "All persons ought to submit to the powers +that be, because they are ordained of God and established in His name."</p> + +<p>In defect of such a title, no ecclesiastical body whatever can enjoy +aught on earth but by consent of the sovereignty and the authority of +the civil laws. These form their sole title to possession. If the clergy +imprudently renounce this title, they will possess none at all, and +might be despoiled by any one who is strong enough to attempt it. Its +essential interest is, therefore, to support civil society, to which it +owes everything.</p> + +<p>For the same reason, as all the wealth of a nation is liable without +exception to public expenditure for the defence of the sovereign and the +nation, no property can be exempt from it but by force of law, which law +is always revocable as circumstances vary. Peter cannot be exempt +without augmenting the tax of John. Equity, therefore, is eternally +claiming for equality against surcharges; and the State has a right, at +all times, to examine into exemptions, in order to replace things in a +just, natural, proportionate order, by abolishing previously granted +immunities, whether permitted or extorted.</p> + +<p>Every law which ordains that the sovereign, at the expense of the +public, shall take care of the wealth or possessions of any individual +or a body, without this body or individual contributing to the common +expenses, amounts to a subversion of law.</p> + +<p>I moreover assert that the quota, whether the contribution of a body or +an individual, ought to be proportionately regulated, not by him or +them, but by the sovereign or magistracy, according to the general form +and law. Thus the sovereign or state may demand an account of the wealth +and of the possessions of everybody as of every individual.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, once more on these immutable principles that the rules +of the canon law should be founded which relate to the possessions and +revenue of the clergy.</p> + +<p>Ecclesiastics, without doubt, ought to be allowed sufficient to live +honorably, but not as members of or as representing the Church, for the +Church itself claims neither sovereignty nor possession in this world.</p> + +<p>But if it be necessary for ministers to preside at t the altar, it is +proper that society should support them in the same manner as the +magistracy and soldiers. It is, therefore, for the civil law to make a +suitable provision for the priesthood.</p> + +<p>Even when the possessions of the ecclesiastics have been bestowed on +them by wills, or in any other manner, the donors have not been able to +denationalize the property by abstracting it from public charges and the +authority of the laws. It is always under the guarantee of the laws, +without which they would not possess the insured and legitimate +possessions which they enjoy.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, still left to the sovereign, or the magistracy in his +name, to examine at all times if the ecclesiastical revenues be +sufficient; and if they are not, to augment the allotted provision; if, +on the contrary, they are excessive, it is for them to dispose of the +superfluity for the general good of society.</p> + +<p>But according to the right, commonly called canonical, which has sought +to form a State within the State, "<i>imperium in imperio</i>," +ecclesiastical property is sacred and intangible, because it belongs to +religion and the Church; they have come of God, and not of man.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it is impossible to appropriate this terrestrial +wealth to religion, which has nothing temporal. They cannot belong to +the Church, which is the universal body of the believers, including the +king, the magistracy, the soldiery, and all subjects; for we are never +to forget that priests no more form the Church than magistrates the +State.</p> + +<p>Lastly, these goods come only from God in the same sense as all goods +come from Him, because all is submitted to His providence.</p> + +<p>Therefore, every ecclesiastical possessor of riches, or revenue, enjoys +it only as a subject and citizen of the State, under the single +protection of the civil law.</p> + +<p>Property, which is temporal and material, cannot be rendered sacred or +holy in any sense, neither literally nor figuratively. If it be said +that a person or edifice is sacred, it only signifies that it has been +consecrated or set apart for spiritual purposes.</p> + +<p>The abuse of a metaphor, to authorize rights and pretensions destructive +to all society, is an enterprise of which history and religion furnish +more than one example, and even some very singular ones, which are not +at present to my purpose.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<h4><i>Of Ecclesiastical or Religious Assemblies.</i></h4> + +<p>It is certain that nobody can call any public or regular assembly in a +state but under the sanction of civil authority.</p> + +<p>Religious assemblies for public worship must be authorized by the +sovereign, or civil magistracy, before they can be legal.</p> + +<p>In Holland, where the civil power grants the greatest liberty, and very +nearly the same in Russia, in England, and in Prussia, those who wish to +form a church have to obtain permission, after which the new church is +in the states, although not of the religion of the states. In general, +as soon as there is a sufficient number of persons, or of families, who +wish to cultivate a particular mode of worship, and to assemble for that +purpose, they can without hesitation apply to the magistrate, who makes +himself a judge of it; and once allowed, it cannot be disturbed without +a breach of public order. The facility with which the government of +Holland has granted this permission has never produced any disorder; and +it would be the same everywhere if the magistrate alone examined, +judged, and protected the parties concerned.</p> + +<p>The sovereign, or civil power, possesses the right at all times of +knowing what passes within these assemblies, of regulating, them in +conformity with public order, and of preventing such as produce +disorder. This perpetual inspection is an essential portion of +sovereignty, which every religion ought to acknowledge.</p> + +<p>Everything in the worship, in respect to form of prayer, canticles, and +ceremonies, ought to be open to the inspection of the magistrate. The +clergy may compose these prayers; but it is for the State to approve or +reform them in case of necessity. Bloody wars have been undertaken for +mere forms, which would never have been waged had sovereigns understood +their rights.</p> + +<p>Holidays ought to be no more established without the consent and +approbation of the State, who may at all times abridge and regulate +them. The multiplication of such days always produces a laxity of +manners and national impoverishment.</p> + +<p>A superintendence over oral instruction and books of devotion, belongs +of right to the State. It is not the executive which teaches, but which +attends to the manner in which the people are taught. Morality above all +should be attended to, which is always necessary; whereas disputes +concerning doctrines are often dangerous.</p> + +<p>If disputes exist between ecclesiastics in reference to the manner of +teaching, or on points of doctrine, the State may impose silence on both +parties, and punish the disobedient.</p> + +<p>As religious congregations are not permitted by the State in order to +treat of political matters, magistrates ought to repress seditious +preachers, who heat the multitude by punishable declamation: these are +pests in every State.</p> + +<p>Every mode of worship presumes a discipline to maintain order, +uniformity, and decency. It is for the magistrate to protect this +discipline, and to bring about such changes as times and circumstances +may render necessary.</p> + +<p>For nearly eight centuries the emperors of the East assembled councils +in order to appease religious disputes, which were only augmented by the +too great attention paid to them. Contempt would have more certainly +terminated the vain disputation, which interest and the passions had +excited. Since the division of the empire of the West into various +kingdoms, princes have left to the pope the convocation of these +assemblies. The rights of the Roman pontiff are in this respect purely +conventional, and the sovereigns may agree in the course of time, that +they shall no longer exist; nor is any one of them obliged to submit to +any canon without having examined and approved it. However, as the +Council of Trent will most likely be the last, it is useless to agitate +all the questions which might relate to a future general council.</p> + +<p>As to assemblies, synods, or national councils, they indisputably cannot +be convoked except when the sovereign or State deems them necessary. The +commissioners of the latter ought therefore to preside, direct all their +deliberations, and give their sanction to the decrees.</p> + +<p>There may exist periodical assemblies of the clergy, to maintain order, +under the authority of the State, but the civil power ought uniformly to +direct their views and guide their deliberations. The periodical +assembly of the clergy of France is only an assembly of regulative +commissioners for all the clergy of the kingdom.</p> + +<p>The vows by which certain ecclesiastics oblige themselves to live in a +body according to certain rules, under the name of monks, or of +religieux, so prodigiously multiplied in Europe, should always be +submitted to the inspection and approval of the magistrate. These +convents, which shut up so many persons who are useless to society, and +so many victims who regret the liberty which they have lost; these +orders, which bear so many strange denominations, ought not to be valid +or obligatory, unless when examined and sanctioned by the sovereign or +the State.</p> + +<p>At all times, therefore, the prince or State has a right to take +cognizance of the rules and conduct of these religious houses, and to +reform or abolish them if held to be incompatible with present +circumstances, and the positive welfare of society.</p> + +<p>The revenue and property of these religious bodies are, in like manner, +open to the inspection of the magistracy, in order to judge of their +amount and of the manner in which they are employed. If the mass of the +riches, which is thus prevented from circulation, be too great; if the +revenues greatly exceed the reasonable support of the regulars; if the +employment of these revenues be opposed to the general good; if this +accumulation impoverish the rest of the community; in all these cases it +becomes the magistracy, as the common fathers of the country, to +diminish and divide these riches, in order to make them partake of the +circulation, which is the life of the body politic; or even to employ +them in any other way for the benefit of the public.</p> + +<p>Agreeably to the same principles, the sovereign authority ought to +forbid any religious order from having a superior who is a native or +resident of another country. It approaches to the crime of lèse-majesté.</p> + +<p>The sovereign may prescribe rules for admission into these orders; he +may, according to ancient usage, fix an age, and hinder taking vows, +except by the express consent of the magistracy in each instance. Every +citizen is born a subject of the State, and has no right to break his +natural engagements with society without the consent of those who +preside over it.</p> + +<p>If the sovereign abolishes a religious order, the vows cease to be +binding. The first vow is that to the State; it is a primary and tacit +oath authorized by God; a vow according to the decrees of Providence; a +vow unalterable and imprescriptible, which unites man in society to his +country and his sovereign. If we take a posterior vow, the primitive one +still exists; and when they clash, nothing can weaken or suspend the +force of the primary engagement. If, therefore, the sovereign declares +this last vow, which is only conditional and dependent on the first, +incompatible with it, he does not dissolve a vow, but decrees it to be +necessarily void, and replaces the individual in his natural state.</p> + +<p>The foregoing is quite sufficient to dissipate all the sophistry by +which the canonists have sought to embarrass a question so simple in the +estimation of all who are disposed to listen to reason.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<h4><i>On Ecclesiastical Penalties.</i></h4> + +<p>Since neither the Church, which is the body of believers collectively, +nor the ecclesiastics, who are ministers in the Church in the name of +the sovereign and under his authority, possess any coactive strength, +executive power, or terrestrial authority, it is evident that these +ministers can inflict only spiritual punishments. To threaten sinners +with the anger of heaven is the sole penalty that a pastor is entitled +to inflict. If the name of punishment or penalty is not to be given to +those censures or declamations, ministers of religion have none at all +to inflict.</p> + +<p>May the Church eject from its bosom those who disgrace or who trouble +it? This is a grand question, upon which the canonists have not +hesitated to adopt the affirmative. Let us repeat, in the first place, +that ecclesiastics are not the Church. The assembled Church, which +includes the State or sovereign, doubtless possesses the right to +exclude from the congregations a scandalous sinner, after repeated +charitable and sufficient warnings. The exclusion, even in this case, +cannot inflict any civil penalty, any bodily evil, or any merely earthly +privation; but whatever right the Church may in this way possess, the +ecclesiastics belonging to it can only exercise it as far as the +sovereign and State allow.</p> + +<p>It is therefore still more incumbent on the sovereign, in this case, to +watch over the manner in which this permitted right is exercised, +vigilance being the more necessary in consequence of the abuse to which +it is liable. It is, consequently, necessary for the supreme civil power +to consult the rules for the regulation of assistance and charity, to +prescribe suitable restrictions, without which every declaration of the +clergy, and all excommunication, will be null and without effect, even +when only applicable to the spiritual order. It is to confound different +eras and circumstances, to regulate the proceedings of present times +from the practice of the apostles. The sovereign in those days was not +of the religion of the apostles, nor was the Church included in the +State, so that the ministers of worship could not have recourse to the +magistrates. Moreover, the apostles were ministers extraordinary, of +which we now perceive no resemblance. If other examples of +excommunication, without the authority of the sovereign, be quoted, I +can only say that I cannot hear, without horror, of examples of +excommunication insolently fulminated against sovereigns and +magistrates; I boldly reply, that these denunciations amount to manifest +rebellion, and to an open violation of the most sacred duties of +religion, charity, and natural right.</p> + +<p>Let us add, in order to afford a complete idea of excommunication, and +of the true rules of canonical right or law in this respect, that +excommunication, legitimately pronounced by those to whom the sovereign, +in the name of the Church, expressly leaves the power, includes +privation only of spiritual advantages on earth, and can extend to +nothing else: all beyond this will be abuse, and more or less +tyrannical. The ministers of the Church can do no more than declare that +such and such a man is no more a member of the Church. He may still, +however, enjoy notwithstanding the excommunication, all his natural, +civil, and temporal rights as a man and a citizen. If the magistrate +steps in and deprives such a man, in consequence, of an office or +employment in society, it then becomes a civil penalty for some fault +against civil order.</p> + +<p>Let us suppose that which may very likely happen, as ecclesiastics are +only men, that the excommunication which they have been led to pronounce +has been prompted by some error or some passion; he who is exposed to a +censure so precipitate is clearly justified in his conscience before +God; the declaration issued against him can produce no effect upon the +life to come. Deprived of exterior communion with the true Church, he +may still enjoy the consolation of the interior communion. Justified by +his conscience, he has nothing to fear in a future existence from the +judgment of God, his only true judge.</p> + +<p>It is then a great question, as to canonical rights, whether the clergy, +their head, or any ecclesiastical body whatever, can excommunicate the +sovereign or the magistracy, under any pretext, or for any abuse of +their power? This question is essentially scandalous, and the simple +doubt a direct rebellion. In fact, the first duty of man in society is +to respect the magistrate, and to advance his respectability, and you +pretend to have a right to censure and set him aside. Who has given you +this absurd and pernicious right? Is it God, who governs the political +world by delegated sovereignty, and who ordains that society shall +subsist by subordination?</p> + +<p>The first ecclesiastics at the rise of Christianity—did they conceive +themselves authorized to excommunicate Tiberius, Nero, Claudius, or even +Constantine, who was a heretic? How then have pretensions thus +monstrous, ideas thus atrocious, wicked attempts equally condemned by +reason and by natural and religious rights, been suffered to last so +long? If a religion exists which teaches like horrors, society ought to +proscribe it, as directly subversive of the repose of mankind. The cry +of whole nations is already lifted up against these pretended canonical +laws, dictated by ambition and by fanaticism. It is to be hoped that +sovereigns, better instructed in their rights, and supported by the +fidelity of their people, will terminate abuses so enormous, and which +have caused so many misfortunes. The author of the "Essay on the Manners +and Spirit of Nations" has been the first to forcibly expose the +atrocity of enterprises of this nature.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION V.</h5> + +<h4><i>Of the Superintendence of Doctrine.</i></h4> + +<p>The sovereign is not the judge of the truth of doctrine; he may judge +for himself, like all other men; but he ought to take cognizance of it +in respect to everything which relates to civil order, whether in regard +to purport or delivery.</p> + +<p>This is the general rule from which magistrates ought never to depart. +Nothing in a doctrine merits the attention of the police, except as it +interests public order: it is the influence of doctrine upon manners +that decides its importance. Doctrines which have a distant connection +only with good conduct can never be fundamental. Truths which conduce to +render mankind gentle, humane, obedient to the laws and to the +government, interest the State, and proceed evidently from God.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VI.</h5> + +<h5><i>Superintendence of the Magistracy Over the Administration of the +Sacraments.</i></h5> + +<p>The administration of the sacraments ought to be submitted to the +careful inspection of the magistrates in everything which concerns +public order.</p> + +<p>It has already been observed that the magistrate ought to watch over the +form of the public registry of marriages, baptisms, and deaths, without +any regard to the creed of the different inhabitants of the State.</p> + +<p>Similar reasons in relation to police and good government—do they not +require an exact registry in the hands of the magistracy of all those +who make vows, and enter convents in those countries in which convents +are permitted?</p> + +<p>In the sacrament of repentance, the minister who refuses or grants +absolution is accountable for his judgment only to God; and in the same +manner, the penitent is accountable to God alone, whether he consummates +it all, or does so well or ill.</p> + +<p>No pastor, himself a sinner, ought to have the right of publicly +refusing, on his own private authority, the eucharist to another sinner. +The sinless Jesus Christ refused not the communion to Judas.</p> + +<p>Extreme unction and the viaticum, if demanded or requested by the sick, +should be governed by the same, rule. The simple right of the minister +is to exhort the sick person, and it is the duty of the magistrate to +take care that the pastor abuse not circumstances, in order to persecute +the invalid.</p> + +<p>Formerly, it was the Church collectively which called the pastors, and +conferred upon them the right of governing and instructing the flock. At +present, ecclesiastics alone consecrate others, and the magistracy ought +to be watchful of this privilege.</p> + +<p>It is doubtless a great, though ancient abuse, that of conferring orders +without functions; it is depriving the State of members, without adding +to the Church. The magistrate is called upon to reform this abuse.</p> + +<p>Marriage, in a civil sense, is the legitimate union of a man with a +woman for the procreation of children, to secure their due nurture and +education, and in order to assure unto them their rights and properties +under the protection of the laws. In order to confirm and establish this +union, it is accompanied by a religious ceremony, regarded by some as a +sacrament, and by others as a portion of public worship; a genuine +logomachy, which changes nothing in the thing. Two points are therefore +to be distinguished in marriage—the civil contract, or natural +engagement, and the sacrament, or sacred ceremony. Marriage may +therefore exist, with all its natural and civil effects, independently +of the religious ceremony. The ceremonies of the Church are only +essential to civil order, because the State has adopted them. A long +time elapsed before the ministers of religion had anything to do with +marriage. In the time of Justinian, the agreement of the parties, in the +presence of witnesses, without any ceremonies of the Church, legalized +marriages among Christians. It was that emperor who, towards the middle +of the sixth century, made the first laws by which the presence of +priests was required, as simple witnesses, without, however, prescribing +any nuptial benediction. The emperor Leo, who died in 886, seems to have +been the first who placed the religious ceremony in the number of +necessary conditions. The terms of the law itself indeed, which ordains +it, prove it to have been a novelty.</p> + +<p>From the correct idea which we now form of marriage, it results in the +first place, that good order, and even piety, render religious forms +adopted in all Christian countries necessary. But the essence of +marriage cannot be denationalized, and this engagement, which is the +principal one in society, ought uniformly, as a branch of civil and +political order, to be placed under the authority of the magistracy.</p> + +<p>It follows, therefore, that a married couple, even educated in the +worship of infidels and heretics, are not obliged to marry again, if +they have been united agreeably to the established forms of their own +country; and it is for the magistrate in all such instances to +investigate the state of the case.</p> + +<p>The priest is at present the magistrate freely nominated by the law, in +certain countries, to receive the pledged faith of persons wishing to +marry. It is very evident, that the law can modify or change as it +pleases the extent of this ecclesiastical authority.</p> + +<p>Wills and funerals are incontestably under the authority of the civil +magistracy and the police. The clergy have never been allowed to usurp +the authority of the law in respect to these. In the age of Louis XIV. +however, and even in that of Louis XV., striking examples have been +witnessed of the endeavors of certain fanatical ecclesiastics to +interfere in the regulation of funerals. Under the pretext of heresy, +they refused the sacraments, and interment; a barbarity which Pagans +would have held in horror.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VII.</h5> + +<h4><i>Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction.</i></h4> + +<p>The sovereign or State may, without doubt, give up to an ecclesiastical +body, or a single priest, a jurisdiction over certain objects and +certain persons, with a power suitable to the authority confided. I +examine not into the prudence of remitting a certain portion of civil +authority into the hands of any body or person who already enjoys an +authority in things spiritual. To deliver to those who ought to be +solely employed in conducting men to heaven, an authority upon earth, is +to produce a union of two powers, the abuse of which is only too easy; +but at least it is evident that any man, as well as an ecclesiastic, may +be intrusted with the same jurisdiction. By whomsoever possessed, it has +either been conceded by the sovereign power, or usurped; there is no +medium. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of this world; he refused to +be a judge upon earth, and ordered that men should give unto Cæsar the +things which belonged unto Cæsar: he forbade all dominations to his +apostles, and preached only humility, gentleness, and dependence. From +him ecclesiastics can derive neither power, authority, domination, nor +jurisdiction in this world. They can therefore possess no legitimate +authority, but by a concession from the sovereign or State, from which +all authority in a society can properly emanate.</p> + +<p>There was a time in the unhappy epoch of the feudal ages in which +ecclesiastics were possessed in various countries with the principal +functions of the magistracy: the authority of the lords of the lay +fiefs, so formidable to the sovereign and oppressive to the people, has +been since bounded; but a portion of the independence of the +ecclesiastical jurisdictions still exists. When will sovereigns be +sufficiently informed and courageous to take back from them the usurped +authority and numerous privileges which they have so often abused, to +annoy the flock which they ought to protect?</p> + +<p>It is by this inadvertence of princes that the audacious enterprises of +ecclesiastics against sovereigns themselves have originated. The +scandalous history of these attempts has been consigned to records which +cannot be contested. The bull "<i>In cœna Domini</i>," in particular, +still remains to prove the continual enterprises of the clergy against +royal and civil authority.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Extract from the Tariff of the Rights Exacted in France by the Court of +Rome for Bulls, Dispensations, Absolutions, etc., which Tariff was +Decreed in the King's Council, Sept. 4, 1691, and Which is Reported +Entire in the Brief of James Lepelletier, Printed at Lyons in 1699, with +the Approbation and Permission of the King. Lyons: Printed for Anthony +Boudet, Eighth Edition.</i></p> + +<p>1. For absolution for the crime of apostasy, payable to the pope, +twenty-four livres.</p> + +<p>2. A bastard wishing to take orders must pay twenty-five livres for a +dispensation; if desirous to possess a benefice, he must pay in addition +one hundred and eighty livres; if anxious that his dispensation should +not allude to his illegitimacy, he will have to pay a thousand and fifty +livres.</p> + +<p>3. For dispensation and absolution of bigamy, one thousand and fifty +livres.</p> + +<p>4. For a dispensation for the error of a false judgment in the +administration of justice or the exercise of medicine, ninety livres.</p> + +<p>5. Absolution for heresy, twenty-four livres.</p> + +<p>6. Brief of forty hours, for seven years, twelve livres.</p> + +<p>7. Absolution for having committed homicide in self-defence, or +undesignedly, ninety-five livres. All in company of the murderer also +need absolution, and are to pay for the same eighty-five livres each.</p> + +<p>8. Indulgences for seven years, twelve livres.</p> + +<p>9. Perpetual indulgences for a brotherhood, forty livres.</p> + +<p>10. Dispensation for irregularity and incapacity, twenty-five livres; if +the irregularity is great, fifty livres.</p> + +<p>11. For permission to read forbidden books, twenty-five livres.</p> + +<p>12. Dispensation for simony, forty livres; with an augmentation +according to circumstances.</p> + +<p>13. Brief to permit the eating of forbidden meats, sixty-five livres.</p> + +<p>14. Dispensation for simple vows of chastity or of religion, fifteen +livres. Brief declaratory of the nullity of the profession of a monk or +a nun, one hundred livres. If this brief be requested ten years after +profession, double the amount.</p> + +<p class="caption"><i>Dispensations in Relation to Marriage.</i></p> + +<p>Dispensations for the fourth degree of relationship, with cause, +sixty-five livres; without cause, ninety livres; with dispensation for +familiarities that have passed between the future married persons, one +hundred and eighty livres.</p> + +<p>For relations of the third or fourth degree, both on the side of the +father and mother, without cause, eight hundred and eighty livres; with +cause, one hundred and forty-five livres.</p> + +<p>For relations of the second degree on one side, and the fourth on the +other; nobles to pay one thousand four hundred and thirty livres; +roturiers, one thousand one hundred and fifty livres.</p> + +<p>He who would marry the sister of the girl to whom he has been affianced, +to pay for a dispensation, one thousand four hundred and thirty livres.</p> + +<p>Those who are relations in the third degree, if they are nobles, or live +creditably, are to pay one thousand four hundred and thirty livres; if +the relationship is on the side of father as well as mother, two +thousand four hundred and thirty livres.</p> + +<p>Relations in the second degree to pay four thousand five hundred and +thirty livres; and if the female has accorded favors to the male, in +addition for absolution, two thousand and thirty livres.</p> + +<p>For those who have stood sponsors at the baptism of the children of each +other, the dispensation will cost two thousand seven hundred and thirty +livres. If they would be absolved from premature familiarity, one +thousand three hundred and thirty livres in addition.</p> + +<p>He who has enjoyed the favors of a widow during the life of her deceased +husband, in order to legitimately espouse her, will have to pay one +hundred and ninety livres.</p> + +<p>In Spain and Portugal, the marriage dispensations are still dearer. +Cousins-german cannot obtain them for less than two thousand crowns.</p> + +<p>The poor not being able to pay these taxes, abatements may be made. It +is better to obtain half a right, than lose all by refusing the +dispensation.</p> + +<p>No reference is had here to the sums paid to the pope for the bulls of +bishops, abbots, etc., which are to be found in the almanacs; but we +cannot perceive by what authority the pope of Rome levies taxes upon +laymen who choose to marry their cousins.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="RIVERS" id="RIVERS"></a>RIVERS.</h3> + + +<p>The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to +error. It is not long since it was discovered that all rivers originate +in those eternal masses of snow which cover the summits of lofty +mountains, those snows in rain, that rain in the vapor exhaled from the +land and sea; and that thus everything is a link in the great chain of +nature.</p> + +<p>When a boy, I heard theses delivered which proved that all rivers and +fountains came from the sea. This was the opinion of all antiquity. +These rivers flowed into immense caverns, and thence distributed their +waters to all parts of the world.</p> + +<p>When Aristeus goes to lament the loss of his bees to Cyrene his mother, +goddess of the little river Enipus in Thessaly, the river immediately +divides itself, forming as it were two mountains of water, right and +left, to receive him according to ancient and immemorial usage; after +which he has a view of those vast and beautiful grottoes through which +flow all the rivers of the earth; the Po, which descends from Mount Viso +in Piedmont, and traverses Italy; the Teverone, which comes from the +Apennines; the Phasis, which issues from Mount Caucasus, and falls into +the Black Sea; and numberless others.</p> + +<p>Virgil, in this instance, adopted a strange system of natural +philosophy, in which certainly none but poets can be indulged.</p> + +<p>Such, however, was the credit and prevalence of this system that, +fifteen hundred years afterwards, Tasso completely imitated Virgil in +his fourteenth canto, while imitating at the same time with far greater +felicity Ariosto. An old Christian magician conducts underground the two +knights who are to bring back Rinaldo from the arms of Armida, as +Melissa had rescued Rogero from the caresses of Alcina. This venerable +sage makes Rinaldo descend into his grotto, from which issue all the +rivers which refresh and fertilize our earth. It is a pity that the +rivers of America are not among the number. But as the Nile, the Danube, +the Seine, the Jordan, and the Volga have their source in this cavern, +that ought to be deemed sufficient. What is still more in conformity to +the physics of antiquity is the circumstance of this grotto or cavern +being in the very centre of the earth. Of course, it is here that +Maupertuis wanted to take a tour.</p> + +<p>After admitting that rivers spring from mountains, and that both of them +are essential parts of this great machine, let us beware how we give in +to varying and vanishing systems.</p> + +<p>When Maillet imagined that the sea had formed the mountains, he should +have dedicated his book to Cyrano de Bergerac. When it has been said, +also, that the great chains of mountains extend from east to west, and +that the greatest number of rivers also flow always to the west, the +spirit of system has been more consulted than the truth of nature.</p> + +<p>With respect to mountains, disembark at the Cape of Good Hope, you will +perceive a chain of mountains from the south as far north as Monomotapa. +Only a few persons have visited that quarter of the world, and travelled +under the line in Africa. But Calpe and Abila are completely in the +direction of north and south. From Gibraltar to the river Guadiana, in a +course directly northward, there is a continuous range of mountains. New +and Old Castile are covered with them, and the direction of them all is +from south to north, like that of all the mountains in America. With +respect to the rivers, they flow precisely according to the disposition +or direction of the land.</p> + +<p>The Guadalquivir runs straight to the south from Villanueva to San +Lucar; the Guadiana the same, as far as Badajos. All the rivers in the +Gulf of Venice, except the Po, fall into the sea towards the south. Such +is the course of the Rhone from Lyons to its mouth. That of the Seine is +from the north-northwest. The Rhine, from Basle, goes straight to the +north. The Meuse does the same, from its source to the territory +overflowed by its waters. The Scheldt also does the same.</p> + +<p>Why, then, should men be so assiduous in deceiving themselves, just for +the pleasure of forming systems, and leading astray persons of weak and +ignorant minds? What good can possibly arise from inducing a number of +people—who must inevitably be soon undeceived—to believe that all +rivers and all mountains are in a direction from east to west, or from +west to east; that all mountains are covered with oyster-shells—which +is most certainly false—that anchors have been found on the summit of +the mountains of Switzerland; that these mountains have been formed by +the currents of the ocean; and that limestone is composed entirely of +seashells? What! shall we, at the present day, treat philosophy as the +ancients formerly treated history?</p> + +<p>To return to streams and rivers. The most important and valuable things +that can be done in relation to them is preventing their inundations, +and making new rivers—that is, canals—out of those already existing, +wherever the undertaking is practicable and beneficial. This is one of +the most useful services that can be conferred upon a nation. The canals +of Egypt were as serviceable as its pyramids were useless.</p> + +<p>With regard to the quantity of water conveyed along the beds of rivers, +and everything relating to calculation on the subject, read the article +on "River," by M. d'Alembert. It is, like everything else done by him, +clear, exact, and true; and written in a style adapted to the subject; +he does not employ the style of Telemachus to discuss subjects of +natural philosophy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="ROADS" id="ROADS"></a>ROADS.</h3> + + +<p>It was not until lately that the modern nations of Europe began to +render roads practicable and convenient, and to bestow on them some +beauty. To superintend and keep in order the road is one of the most +important cares of both the Mogul and Chinese emperors. But these +princes never attained such eminence in this department as the Romans. +The Appian, the Aurelian, the Flaminian, the Æmilian, and the Trajan +ways exist even at the present day. The Romans alone were capable of +constructing such roads, and they alone were capable of repairing them.</p> + +<p>Bergier, who has written an otherwise valuable book, insists much on +Solomon's employing thirty thousand Jews in cutting wood on Mount +Lebanon, eighty thousand in building the temple, seventy thousand on +carriages, and three thousand six hundred in superintending the labors +of others. We will for a moment admit it all to be true; yet still there +is nothing said about his making or repairing highways.</p> + +<p>Pliny informs us that three hundred thousand men were employed for +twenty years in building one of the pyramids of Egypt; I am not disposed +to doubt it; but surely three hundred thousand men might have been much +better employed. Those who worked on the canals in Egypt; or on the +great wall, the canals, or highways of China; or those who constructed +the celebrated ways of the Roman Empire were much more usefully occupied +than the three hundred thousand miserable slaves in building a pyramidal +sepulchre for the corpse of a bigoted Egyptian.</p> + +<p>We are well acquainted with the prodigious works accomplished by the +Romans, their immense excavations for lakes of water, or the beds of +lakes formed by nature, filled up, hills levelled, and a passage bored +through a mountain by Vespasian, in the Flaminian way, for more than a +thousand feet in length, the inscription on which remains at present. +Pausilippo is not to be compared with it.</p> + +<p>The foundations of the greater part of our present houses are far from +being so solid as were the highways in the neighborhood of Rome; and +these public ways were extended throughout the empire, although not upon +the same scale of duration and solidity. To effect that would have +required more men and money than could possibly have been obtained.</p> + +<p>Almost all the highways of Italy were erected on a foundation four feet +deep; when a space of marshy ground or bog was on the track of the road, +it was filled up; and when any part of it was mountainous, its +pretipitousness was reduced to a gentle and trifling inclination from +the general line of the road. In many parts, the roads were supported by +solid walls.</p> + +<p>Upon the four feet of masonry, were placed large hewn stones of marble, +nearly one foot in thickness, and frequently ten feet wide; they were +indented by the chisel to prevent the slipping of the horses. It was +difficult to say which most attracted admiration—the utility or the +magnificence of these astonishing works.</p> + +<p>Nearly all of these wonderful constructions were raised at the public +expense. Cæsar repaired and extended the Appian way out of his own +private funds; those funds, however, consisted of the money of the +republic.</p> + +<p>Who were the persons employed upon these works? Slaves, captives taken +in war, and provincials that were not admitted to the distinction of +Roman citizens. They worked by "<i>corvée</i>," as they do in France and +elsewhere; but some trifling remuneration was allowed them.</p> + +<p>Augustus was the first who joined the legions with the people in labors +upon the highways of the Gauls, and in Spain and Asia. He penetrated the +Alps by the valley which bore his name, and which the Piedmontese and +the French corruptly called the "Valley of Aöste." It was previously +necessary to bring under subjection all the savage hordes by which these +cantons were inhabited. There is still visible, between Great and Little +St. Bernard, the triumphal arch erected by the senate in honor of him +after this expedition. He again penetrated the Alps on another side +leading to Lyons, and thence into the whole of Gaul. The conquered never +effected for themselves so much as was effected for them by their +conquerors.</p> + +<p>The downfall of the Roman Empire was that of all the public works, as +also of all orderly police, art, and industry. The great roads +disappeared in the Gauls, except some causeways, "<i>chaussées</i>," which +the unfortunate Queen Brunehilde kept for a little time in repair. A man +could scarcely move on horseback with safety on the ancient celebrated +ways, which were now becoming dreadfully broken up, and impeded by +masses of stone and mud. It was found necessary to pass over the +cultivated fields; the ploughs scarcely effected in a month what they +now easily accomplish in a week. The little commerce that remained was +limited to a few woollen and linen cloths, and some wretchedly wrought +hardwares, which were carried on the backs of mules to the +fortifications or prisons called "<i>châteaux</i>" situated in the midst of +marshes, or on the tops of mountains covered with snow.</p> + +<p>Whatever travelling was accomplished—and it could be but little—during +the severe seasons of the year, so long and so tedious in northern +climates, could be effected only by wading through mud or climbing over +rocks. Such was the state of the whole of France and Germany down to the +middle of the seventeenth century. Every individual wore boots; and in +many of the cities of Germany the inhabitants went into the streets on +stilts.</p> + +<p>At length, under Louis XIV., were begun those great roads which other +nations have imitated. Their width was limited to sixty feet in the year +1720. They are bordered by trees in many places to the extent of thirty +leagues from the capital, which has a most interesting and delightful +effect. The Roman military ways were only sixteen feet wide, but were +infinitely more solid. It was necessary to repair them every year, as is +the practice with us. They were embellished by monuments, by military +columns, and even by magnificent tombs; for it was not permitted, either +in Greece or Italy, to bury the dead within the walls of cities, and +still less within those of temples; to do so would have been no less an +offence than sacrilege. It was not then as it is at present in our +churches, in which, for a sum of money, ostentatious and barbarous +vanity is allowed to deposit the dead bodies of wealthy citizens, +infecting the very place where men assemble to adore their God in +purity, and where incense seems to be burned solely to counteract the +stench of carcasses; while the poorer classes are deposited in the +adjoining cemetery; and both unite their fatal influence to spread +contagion among survivors.</p> + +<p>The emperors were almost the only persons whose ashes were permitted to +repose in the monuments erected at Rome.</p> + +<p>Highways, sixty feet in width, occupy too much land; it is about forty +feet more than necessary. France measures two hundred leagues, or +thereabouts, from the mouth of the Rhone to the extremity of Brittany, +and about the same from Perpignan to Dunkirk; reckoning the league at +two thousand five hundred toises. This calculation requires, merely for +two great roads, a hundred and twenty millions of square feet of land, +all which must of course be lost to agriculture. This loss is very +considerable in a country where the harvests are by no means always +abundant.</p> + +<p>An attempt was made to pave the high road from Orleans, which was not of +the width above mentioned; but it was seen, in no long time, that +nothing could be worse contrived for a road constantly covered with +heavy carriages. Of these hewn paving stones laid on the ground, some +will be constantly sinking, and others rising above the correct level, +and the road becomes rugged, broken, and impracticable; it was therefore +found necessary that the plan should be abandoned.</p> + +<p>Roads covered with gravel and sand require a renewal of labor every +year; this labor interferes with the cultivation of land, and is ruinous +to agriculture.</p> + +<p>M. Turgot, son of the mayor of Paris—whose name is never mentioned in +that city but with blessings, and who was one of the most enlightened, +patriotic, and zealous of magistrates—and the humane and beneficent M. +de Fontette have done all in their power, in the provinces of Limousin +and Normandy, to correct this most serious inconvenience.</p> + +<p>It has been contended that we should follow the example of Augustus and +Trajan, and employ our troops in the construction of highways. But in +that case the soldier must necessarily have an increase of pay; and a +kingdom, which was nothing but a province of the Roman Empire, and which +is often involved in debt, can rarely engage in such undertakings as the +Roman Empire accomplished without difficulty.</p> + +<p>It is a very commendable practice in the Low Countries, to require the +payment of a moderate toll from all carriages, in order to keep the +public roads in proper repair. The burden is a very light one. The +peasant is relieved from the old system of vexation and oppression, and +the roads are in such fine preservation as to form even an agreeable +continued promenade.</p> + +<p>Canals are much more useful still. The Chinese surpass all other people +in these works, which require continual attention and repair. Louis +XIV., Colbert, and Riquet, have immortalized themselves by the canal +which joins the two seas. They have never been as yet imitated. It is no +difficult matter to travel through a great part of France by canals. +Nothing could be more easy in Germany than to join the Rhine to the +Danube; but men appear to prefer ruining one another's fortunes, and +cutting each other's throats about a few paltry villages, to extending +the grand means of human happiness.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="ROD" id="ROD"></a>ROD.</h3> + + +<p>The Theurgists and ancient sages had always a rod with which they +operated.</p> + +<p>Mercury passes for the first whose rod worked miracles. It is asserted +that Zoroaster also bore a great rod. The rod of the ancient Bacchus was +his Thyrsus, with which he separated the waters of the Orontes, the +Hydaspus, and the Red Sea. The rod of Hercules was his club. Pythagoras +was always represented with his rod. It is said it was of gold; and it +is not surprising that, having a thigh of gold, he should possess a rod +of the same metal.</p> + +<p>Abaris, priest of the hyperborean Apollo, who it is pretended was +contemporary with Pythagoras, was still more famous for his rod. It was +indeed only of wood, but he traversed the air astride of it. Porphyry +and Iamblichus pretend that these two grand Theurgists, Abaris and +Pythagoras, amicably exhibited their rods to each other.</p> + +<p>The rod, with sages, was at all times a sign of their superiority. The +sorcerers of the privy council of Pharaoh at first effected as many +feats with their rods as Moses with his own. The judicious Calmet +informs us, in his "Dissertation on the Book of Exodus," that "these +operations of the Magi were not miracles, properly speaking, but +metamorphoses, viz.: singular and difficult indeed, but nevertheless +neither contrary to nor above the laws of nature." The rod of Moses had +the superiority, which it ought to have, over those of the Chotins of +Egypt.</p> + +<p>Not only did the rod of Aaron share in the honor of the prodigies of +that of his brother Moses, but he performed some admirable things with +his own. No one can be ignorant that, out of thirteen rods, Aaron's +alone blossomed, and bore buds and flowers of almonds.</p> + +<p>The devil, who, as is well known, is a wicked aper of the deeds of +saints, would also have his rod or wand, with which he gratified the +sorcerers: Medea and Circe were always armed with this mysterious +instrument. Hence, a magician never appears at the opera without his +rod, and on which account they call their parts, "<i>rôles de baguette</i>." +No performer with cups and balls can manage his hey presto! without his +rod or wand.</p> + +<p>Springs of water and hidden treasures are discovered by means of a rod +made of a hazel twig, which fails not to press the hand of a fool who +holds it too fast, but which turns about easily in that of a knave. M. +Formey, secretary of the academy of Berlin, explains this phenomenon by +that of the loadstone. All the conjurers of past times, it was thought, +repaired to a sabbath or assembly on a magic rod or on a broom-stick; +and judges, who were no conjurers, burned them.</p> + +<p>Birchen rods are formed of a handful of twigs of that tree with which +malefactors are scourged on the back. It is indecent and shameful to +scourge in this manner the posteriors of young boys and girls; a +punishment which was formerly that of slaves. I have seen, in some +colleges, barbarians who have stripped children almost naked; a kind of +executioner, often intoxicated, lacerate them with long rods, which +frequently covered them with blood, and produced extreme inflammation. +Others struck them more gently, which from natural causes has been known +to produce consequences, especially in females, scarcely less +disgusting.</p> + +<p>By an incomprehensible species of police, the Jesuits of Paraguay +whipped the fathers and mothers of families on their posteriors. Had +there been no other motive for driving out the Jesuits, that would have +sufficed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="ROME_COURT_OF" id="ROME_COURT_OF"></a>ROME (COURT OF).</h3> + + +<p>Before the time of Constantine, the bishop of Rome was considered by the +Roman magistrates, who were unacquainted with our holy religion, only as +the chief of a sect, frequently tolerated by the government, but +frequently experiencing from it capital punishment. The names of the +first disciples, who were by birth Jews, and of their successors, who +governed the little flock concealed in the immense city of Rome, were +absolutely unknown by all the Latin writers. We well know that +everything was changed, and in what manner everything was changed under +Constantine.</p> + +<p>The bishop of Rome, protected and enriched as he was, was always in +subjection to the emperors, like the bishop of Constantinople, and of +Nicomedia, and every other, not making even the slightest pretension to +the shadow of sovereign authority. Fatality, which guides the affairs of +the universe, finally established the power of the ecclesiastical Roman +court, by the hands of the barbarians who destroyed the empire.</p> + +<p>The ancient religion, under which the Romans had been victorious for +such a series of ages, existed still in the hearts of the population, +notwithstanding all the efforts of persecution, when, in the four +hundred and eighth year of our era, Alaric invaded Italy and beseiged +Rome. Pope Innocent I. indeed did not think proper to forbid the +inhabitants of that city sacrificing to the gods in the capitol, and in +the other temples, in order to obtain the assistance of heaven against +the Goths. But this same Pope Innocent, if we may credit Zosimus and +Orosius, was one of the deputation sent to treat with Alaric, a +circumstance which shows that the pope was at that time regarded as a +person of considerable consequence.</p> + +<p>When Attila came to ravage Italy in 452, by the same right which the +Romans themselves had exercised over so many and such powerful nations; +by the right of Clovis, of the Goths, of the Vandals, and the Heruli, +the emperor sent Pope Leo I., assisted by two personages of consular +dignity, to negotiate with that conqueror. I have no doubt, that +agreeably to what we are positively told, St. Leo was accompanied by an +angel, armed with a flaming sword, which made the king of the Huns +tremble, although he had no faith in angels, and a single sword was not +exceedingly likely to inspire him with fear. This miracle is very finely +painted in the Vatican, and nothing can be clearer than that it never +would have been painted unless it had actually been true. What +particularly vexes and perplexes me is this angel's suffering Aquileia, +and the whole of Illyria, to be sacked and ravaged, and also his not +preventing Genseric, at a later period, from giving up Rome to his +soldiers for fourteen days of plunder. It was evidently not the angel of +extermination.</p> + +<p>Under the exarchs, the credit and influence of the popes augmented, but +even then they had not the smallest degree of civil power. The Roman +bishop, elected by the people, craved protection for the bishop, of the +exarch of Ravenna, who had the power of confirming or of cancelling the +election.</p> + +<p>After the exarchate was destroyed by the Lombards, the Lombard kings +were desirous of becoming masters also of the city of Rome; nothing +could certainly be more natural.</p> + +<p>Pepin, the usurper of France, would not suffer the Lombards to usurp +that capital, and so become too powerful against himself; nothing again +can be more natural than this.</p> + +<p>It is pretended that Pepin and his son Charlemagne gave to the Roman +bishops many lands of the exarchate, which was designated the Justices +of St. Peter—"<i>les Justices de St. Pierre</i>." Such is the real origin of +their temporal power. From this period, these bishops appear to have +assiduously exerted themselves to obtain something of rather more +consideration and of more consequence than these justices.</p> + +<p>We are in possession of a letter from Pope Arian I. to Charlemagne, in +which he says, "The pious liberality of the emperor Constantine the +Great, of sacred memory, raised and exalted, in the time of the blessed +Roman Pontiff, Sylvester, the holy Roman Church, and conferred upon it +his own power in this portion of Italy."</p> + +<p>From this time, we perceive, it was attempted to make the world believe +in what is called the Donation of Constantine, which was, in the sequel, +for a period of five hundred years, not merely regarded as an article of +faith, but an incontestable truth. To entertain doubts on the subject of +this donation included at once the crime of treason and the guilt of +mortal sin.</p> + +<p>After the death of Charlemagne, the bishop augmented his authority in +Rome from day to day; but centuries passed away before he came to be +considered as a sovereign prince. Rome had for a long period a patrician +municipal government.</p> + +<p>Pope John XII., whom Otho I., emperor of Germany, procured to be deposed +in a sort of council, in 963, as simoniacal, incestuous, sodomitical, an +atheist, in league with the devil, was the first man in Italy as +patrician and consul, before he became bishop of Rome; and +notwithstanding all these titles and claims, notwithstanding the +influence of the celebrated Marosia, his mother, his authority was +always questioned and contested.</p> + +<p>Gregory VII., who from the rank of a monk became pope, and pretended to +depose kings and bestow empires, far from being in fact complete master +of Rome, died under the protection, or rather as the prisoner of those +Norman princes who conquered the two Sicilies, of which he considered +himself the paramount lord.</p> + +<p>In the grand schism of the West, the popes who contended for the empire +of the world frequently supported themselves on alms.</p> + +<p>It is a fact not a little extraordinary that the popes did not become +rich till after the period when they dared not to exhibit themselves at +Rome.</p> + +<p>According to Villani, Bertrand de Goth, Clement V. of Bordeaux, who +passed his life in France, sold benefices publicly, and at his death +left behind him vast treasures.</p> + +<p>The same Villani asserts that he died worth twenty-five millions of gold +florins. St. Peter's patrimony could not certainly have brought him such +a sum.</p> + +<p>In a word, down to the time of Innocent VIII., who, made himself master +of the castle of St. Angelo, the popes never possessed in Rome actual +sovereignty.</p> + +<p>Their spiritual authority was undoubtedly the foundation of their +temporal; but had they confined themselves to imitating the conduct of +St. Peter, whose place it was pretended they filled, they would never +have obtained any other kingdom than that of heaven. Their policy always +contrived to prevent the emperors from establishing themselves at Rome, +notwithstanding the fine and flattering title of "king of the Romans." +The Guelph faction always prevailed in Italy over the Ghibelline. The +Romans were more disposed to obey an Italian priest than a German king.</p> + +<p>In the civil wars, which the quarrel between the empire and the +priesthood excited and kept alive for a period of five hundred years, +many lords obtained sovereignties, sometimes in quality of vicars of the +empire, and sometimes in that of vicars of the Holy See. Such were the +princes of Este at Ferrara, the Bentivoglios at Bologna, the Malatestas +at Rimini, the Manfredis at Faenza, the Bagliones at Perouse, the Ursins +in Anguillara and in Serveti, the Collonas in Ostia, the Riarios at +Forli, the Montefeltros in Urbino, the Varanos in Camerino, and the +Gravinas in Senigaglia.</p> + +<p>All these lords had as much right to the territories they possessed as +the popes had to the patrimony of St. Peter; both were founded upon +donations.</p> + +<p>It is known in what manner Pope Alexander VI. made use of his bastard to +invade and take possession of all these principalities. King Louis XII. +obtained from that pope the cancelling of his marriage, after a +cohabitation of eighteen years, on condition of his assisting the +usurper.</p> + +<p>The assassinations committed by Clovis to gain possession of the +territories of the petty kings who were his neighbors, bear no +comparison to the horrors exhibited on this occasion by Alexander and +his son.</p> + +<p>The history of Nero himself is less abominable; the atrocity of whose +crimes was not increased by the pretext of religion; and it is worth +observing, that at the very time these diabolical excesses were +performed, the kings of Spain and Portugal were suing to that pope, one +of them for America, and the other for Asia, which the monster +accordingly granted them in the name of that God he pretended to +represent. It is also worth observing that not fewer than a hundred +thousand pilgrims flocked to his jubilee and prostrated themselves in +adoration of his person.</p> + +<p>Julius II. completed what Alexander had begun. Louis XII., born to +become the dupe of all his neighbors, assisted Julius in seizing upon +Bologna and Perouse. That unfortunate monarch, in return for his +services, was driven out of Italy, and excommunicated by the very pope +whom the archbishop of Auch, the king's ambassador at Rome, addressed +with the words "your wickedness," instead of "your holiness."</p> + +<p>To complete his mortification, Anne of Brittany, his wife, a woman as +devout as she was imperious, told him in plain terms, that he would be +damned for going to war with the pope.</p> + +<p>If Leo X. and Clement VII. lost so many states which withdrew from the +papal communion, their power continued no less absolute than before over +the provinces which still adhered to the Catholic faith. The court of +Rome excommunicated the emperor Henry III., and declared Henry IV. +unworthy to reign.</p> + +<p>It still draws large sums from all the Catholic states of Germany, from +Hungary, Poland, Spain, and France. Its ambassadors take precedence of +all others; it is no longer sufficiently powerful to carry on war; and +its weakness is in fact its happiness. The ecclesiastical state is the +only one that has regularly enjoyed the advantages of peace since the +sacking of Rome by the troops of Charles V. It appears, that the popes +have been often treated like the gods of the Japanese, who are sometimes +presented with offerings of gold, and sometimes thrown into the river.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SAMOTHRACE" id="SAMOTHRACE"></a>SAMOTHRACE.</h3> + + +<p>Whether the celebrated isle of Samothrace be at the mouth of the river +Hebrus, as it is said to be in almost all the geographical dictionaries, +or whether it be twenty miles distant from it, which is in fact the +case, is not what I am now investigating.</p> + +<p>This isle was for a long time the most famous in the whole archipelago, +and even in the whole world. Its deities called Cabiri, its hierophants, +and its mysteries, conferred upon it as much reputation as was obtained +not long since by St. Patrick's cave in Ireland.</p> + +<p>This Samothrace, the modern name of which is Samandrachi, is a rock +covered with a very thin and barren soil, and inhabited by poor +fishermen. They would be extremely surprised at being told of the glory +which was formerly connected with their island; and they would probably +ask, What is glory?</p> + +<p>I inquire, what were these hierophants, these holy free masons, who +celebrated their ancient mysteries in Samothrace, and whence did they +and their gods Cabiri come?</p> + +<p>It is not probable that these poor people came from Phœnicia, as +Bochart infers by a long train of Hebrew etymologies, and as the Abbé +Barrier, after him, is of opinion also. It is not in this manner that +gods gain establishments in the world. They are like conquerors who +subjugate nations, not all at once, but one after another. The distance +from Phœnicia to this wretched island is too great to admit of the +supposition that the gods of the wealthy Sidon and the proud Tyre should +come to coop themselves up in this hermitage. Hierophants are not such +fools.</p> + +<p>The fact is, that there were gods of the Cabiri, priests of the Cabiri, +and mysteries of the Cabiri, in this contemptible and miserable island. +Not only does Herodotus mention them, but the Phœnician historian +Sanchoniathon, who lived long before Herodotus, speaks of them in those +fragments which have been so fortunately preserved by Eusebius. What is +worse still, this Sanchoniathon, who certainly lived before the period +in which Moses flourished, cites the great Thaut, the first Hermes, the +first Mercury of Egypt; and this same great Thaut lived eight hundred +years before Sanchoniathon, as that Phœnician acknowledges himself.</p> + +<p>The Cabiri were therefore in estimation and honor two thousand and three +or four hundred years before the Christian era.</p> + +<p>Now, if you are desirous of knowing whence those gods of the Cabiri, +established in Samothrace, came, does it not seem probable that they +came from Thrace, the country nearest to that island, and that that +small island was granted them as a theatre on which to act their farces, +and pick up a little money? Orpheus might very possibly be the prime +minstrel of these gods.</p> + +<p>But who were these gods? They were what all the gods of antiquity were, +phantoms invented by coarse and vulgar knaves, sculptured by artisans +coarser still, and adored by brutes having the name of men.</p> + +<p>There were three sorts of Cabiri; for, as we have already observed, +everything in antiquity was done by threes. Orpheus could not have made +his appearance in the world until long after the invention of these +three gods; for he admits only one in his mysteries. I am much disposed +to consider Orpheus as having been a strict Socinian.</p> + +<p>I regard the ancient gods Cabiri as having been the first gods of +Thrace, whatever Greek names may have been afterwards given to them.</p> + +<p>There is something, however, still more curious, respecting the history +of Samothrace. We know that Greece and Thrace were formerly afflicted +by many inundations. We have read of the deluges of Deucaleon and +Ogyges. The isle of Samothrace boasted of a yet more ancient deluge; and +its deluge corresponds, in point of time, with the period in which it is +contended that the ancient king of Thrace, Xixuter, lived, whom we have +spoken of under the article on "Ararat."</p> + +<p>You may probably recollect that the gods of Xixuter, or Xissuter, who +were in all probability the Cabiri, commanded him to build a vessel +about thirty thousand feet long, and a hundred and twelve wide; that +this vessel sailed for a long time over the mountains of Armenia during +the deluge; that, having taken on board with him some pigeons and many +other domestic animals, he let loose his pigeons to ascertain whether +the waters had withdrawn; and that they returned covered with dirt and +slime, which induced Xixuter to resolve on disembarking from his immense +vessel.</p> + +<p>You will say that it is a most extraordinary circumstance that +Sanchoniathon does not make any mention of this curious adventure. I +reply, that it is impossible for us to decide whether it was mentioned +in his history or not, as Eusebius, who has only transmitted to us some +fragments of this very ancient historian, had no particular inducement +to quote any passage that might have existed in his work respecting the +ship and pigeons. Berosus, however, relates the case, and he connects it +with the marvellous, according to the general practice of the ancients. +The inhabitants of Samothrace had erected monuments of this deluge.</p> + +<p>What is more extraordinary and astonishing still is, as indeed we have +already partly remarked, that neither Greece nor Thrace, nor the people +of any other country, ever knew anything of the real and great deluge, +the deluge of Noah.</p> + +<p>How could it be possible, we once more ask, that an event so awful and +appalling as that of the submersion of the whole earth should be unknown +by the survivors? How could the name of our common father, Noah, who +re-peopled the world, be unknown to all those who were indebted to him +for life? It is the most prodigious of all progidies, that, of so many +grandchildren, not one should have ever spoken of his grandfather!</p> + +<p>I have applied to all the learned men that I have seen, and said, Have +you ever met with any old work in Greek, Tuscan, Arabian, Egyptian, +Chaldæan, Indian, Persian, or Chinese, in which the name of Noah is to +be found? They have all replied in the negative. This is a fact that +perpetually perplexes and confounds me.</p> + +<p>But that the history of this universal inundation should be found in a +single page of a book written in the wilderness by fugitives, and that +this page should have been unknown to all the rest of the world till +about nine hundred years after the foundation of Rome—this perfectly +petrifies me. I cannot not recover from its impression. The effect +is completely overpowering. My worthy reader, let us both together +exclaim: "<i>O altitudo ignorantiarum!</i>"</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 459px;"> +<a name="Samson_Destroying_the_Temple" id="Samson_Destroying_the_Temple"></a> +<img src="images/img_03_samson.jpg" width="459" alt="Samson destroying the Temple." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">Samson destroying the Temple.</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SAMSON" id="SAMSON"></a>SAMSON.</h3> + + +<p>In quality of poor alphabetical compilers, collectors of anecdotes, +gatherers of trifles, pickers of rags at the corners of the streets, we +glorify ourselves with all the pride attached to our sublime science, on +having discovered that "Samson the Strong," a tragedy, was played at the +close of the sixteenth century, in the town of Rouen, and that it was +printed by Abraham Couturier. John Milton, for a long time a +schoolmaster of London, afterwards Latin secretary to the protector, +Cromwell—Milton, the author of "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise +Regained"—wrote the tragedy of "Samson Agonistes"; and it is very +unfortunate that we cannot tell in what year.</p> + +<p>We know, however, that it has been printed with a preface, in which much +is boasted, by one of our brethren, the commentator named Paræus, who +first perceived by the force of his genius, that the Apocalypse is a +tragedy. On the strength of this discovery he divided the Apocalypse +into five acts, and inserted choruses worthy of the elegance and fine +nature of the piece. The author of this preface speaks to us of the fine +tragedies of St. Gregory of Nazianzen. He asserts, that a tragedy should +never have more than five acts, and to prove it, he gives us the +"Samson Agonistes" of Milton, which has but one. Those who like +elaborate declamation will be satisfied with this piece.</p> + +<p>A comedy of Samson was played for a long time in Italy. A translation of +it was made in Paris in 1717, by one named Romagnesi; it was represented +on the French theatre of the pretended Italian comedy, formerly the +palace of the dukes of Burgundy. It was published, and dedicated to the +duke of Orleans, regent of France.</p> + +<p>In this sublime piece, Arlequin, the servant of Samson, fights with a +turkey-cock, whilst his master carries off the gates of Gaza on his +shoulders.</p> + +<p>In 1732, it was wished to represent, at the opera of Paris, a tragedy of +Samson, set to music by the celebrated Rameau; but it was not permitted. +There was neither Arlequin nor turkey-cock; but the thing appeared too +serious; besides, certain people were very glad to mortify Rameau, who +possessed great talents. Yet at that time they performed the opera of +"Jephthah," extracted from the Old Testament, and the comedy of the +"Prodigal Son," from the New Testament.</p> + +<p>There is an old edition of the "Samson Agonistes" of Milton, preceded by +an abridgment of the history of the hero. The following is this +abridgment:</p> + +<p>The Jews, to whom God promised by oath all the country which is between +the river of Egypt and the Euphrates, and who through their sins never +had this country, were on the contrary reduced to servitude, which +slavery lasted for forty years. Now there was a Jew of the tribe of Dan, +named Manoah; and the wife of this Manoah was barren; and an angel +appeared to this woman, and said to her, "Behold, thou shalt conceive +and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any +unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazarite to God, from the womb +to the day of his death."</p> + +<p>The angel afterwards appeared to the husband and wife; they gave him a +kid to eat; he would have none of it, and disappeared in the midst of +the smoke; and the woman said, We shall surely die, because we have seen +God; but they died not.</p> + +<p>The slave Samson being born, was consecrated a Nazarite. As soon as he +was grown up, the first thing he did was to go to the Phœnician or +Philistine town of Timnath, to court a daughter of one of his masters, +whom he married.</p> + +<p>In going to his mistress he met a lion, and tore him in pieces with his +naked hand, as he would have done a kid. Some days after, he found a +swarm of bees in the throat of the dead lion, with some honey, though +bees never rest on carrion.</p> + +<p>Then he proposed this enigma to his companions: Out of the eater came +forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness: if you guess, I +will give you thirty tunics and thirty gowns; if not, you shall give me +thirty gowns and thirty tunics. The comrades, not being able to guess in +what the solution of the enigma consisted, gained over the young wife +of Samson; she drew the secret from her husband, and he was obliged to +give them thirty tunics and thirty gowns. "Ah," said he to them, "if ye +had not ploughed with my heifer, ye would not have found out my riddle."</p> + +<p>Soon after, the father-in-law of Samson gave another husband to his +daughter.</p> + +<p>Samson, enraged at having lost his wife, immediately caught three +hundred foxes, tied them two together by the tails with lighted +firebrands, and they fired the corn of the Philistines.</p> + +<p>The Jewish slaves, not being willing to be punished by their masters for +the exploits of Samson, surprised him in the cavern in which he dwelt, +tied him with great ropes, and delivered him to the Philistines. As soon +as he was in the midst of them, he broke his cords, and finding the +jawbone of an ass, with one effort he killed a thousand Philistines. +Such an effort making him very warm, he was dying of thirst, on which +God made a fountain spout from one of the teeth of the ass's jaw-bone. +Samson, having drunk, went into Gaza, a Philistine town; he there +immediately became smitten with a courtesan. As he slept with her, the +Philistines shut the gates of the town, and surrounded the house, when +he arose, took the gates, and carried them away. The Philistines, in +despair at not being able to overcome this hero, addressed themselves to +another courtesan named Delilah, with whom he afterwards slept. She +finally drew from him the secret in which his strength consisted: it was +only necessary to shave him, to render him equal to other men. He was +shaved, became weak, and his eyes being put out, he was made to turn a +mill and to play on the violin. One day, while playing in a Philistine +temple, between two of its columns, he became indignant that the +Philistines should have columned temples, whilst the Jews had only a +tabernacle supported on four poles. He also felt that his hair began to +grow; and being transported with a holy zeal, he pulled down the two +pillars; by which concussion the temple was overthrown, the Philistines +were crushed to death, and he with them.</p> + +<p>Such is this preface, word for word.</p> + +<p>This is the history which is the subject of the piece of Milton, and +Romagnesi: it is adapted to Italian farce.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SATURNS_RING" id="SATURNS_RING"></a>SATURN'S RING.</h3> + + +<p>This astonishing phenomenon, but not more astonishing than others, this +solid and luminous body, which surrounds the planet Saturn, which it +enlightens, and by which it is enlightened, whether by the feeble +reflection of the sun's rays, or by some unknown cause, was, according +to a dreamer who calls himself a philosopher, formerly a sea. This sea, +according to him, has hardened and become earth or rock; once it +gravitated towards two centres, whereas at present it gravitates only +towards one.</p> + +<p>How pleasantly you proceed, my ingenious dreamer! how easily you +transform water into rock! Ovid was nothing in the comparison. What a +marvellous power you exercise over nature; imagination by no means +confounds you. Oh, greediness to utter novelties! Oh, fury for systems! +Oh, weakness of the human mind! If anyone has spoken of this reverie in +the "Encyclopædia," it is doubtless to ridicule it, without which other +nations would have a right to say: Behold the use which the French make +of the discovery of other people! Huyghens discovered the ring of +Saturn, and calculated its appearances; Hook and Flamstead have done the +same thing. A Frenchman has discovered that this solid body was even a +circular ocean, and this Frenchman is not Cyrano de Bergerac!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SCANDAL" id="SCANDAL"></a>SCANDAL.</h3> + + +<p>Without inquiring whether scandal originally meant a stone which might +occasion people to stumble and fall, or a quarrel, or a seduction, we +consider it here merely in its present sense and acceptation. A scandal +is a serious indecorum which is used generally in reference to the +clergy. The tales of Fontaine are libertine or licentious; many passages +of Sanchez, of Tambourin, and of Molina are scandalous.</p> + +<p>A man is scandalous by his writings or by his conduct. The siege which +the Augustins maintained against the patrol, at the time of the Fronde, +was scandalous. The bankruptcy of the brother La Valette, of the Society +of Jesuits, was more than scandalous. The lawsuit carried on by the +reverend fathers of the order of the Capuchins of Paris, in 1764, was a +most satisfactory and delightful scandal to thousands. For the +edification of the reader, a word or two upon that subject in this place +will not be ill employed.</p> + +<p>These reverend fathers had been fighting in their convent; some of them +had hidden their money, and others had stolen the concealed treasure. Up +to this point the scandal was only particular, a stone against which +only Capuchins could trip and tumble; but when the affair was brought +before the parliament, the scandal became public.</p> + +<p>It is stated in the pleadings in the cause, that the convent of the St. +Honoré consumes twelve hundred pounds of bread a week, and meat and wood +in proportion; and that there are four collecting friars, "<i>quêteurs</i>," +whose office it is, conformably to the term, to raise contributions in +the city. What a frightful, dreadful scandal! Twelve hundred pounds of +meat and bread per week for a few Capuchins, while so many artisans +overwhelmed with old age, and so many respectable widows, are exposed to +languish in want, and die in misery!</p> + +<p>That the reverend father Dorotheus should have accumulated an income of +three thousand livres a year at the expense of the convent, and +consequently of the public, is not only an enormous scandal, but an +absolute robbery, and a robbery committed upon the most needy class of +citizens in Paris; for the poor are the persons who pay the tax imposed +by the mendicant monks. The ignorance and weakness of the people make +them imagine that they can never obtain heaven without parting with +their absolute necessaries, from which these monks derive their +superfluities.</p> + +<p>This single brother, therefore, the chief of the convent, Dorotheus, to +make up his income of a thousand crowns a year, must have extorted from +the poor of Paris, no less a sum than twenty thousand crowns.</p> + +<p>Consider, my good reader, that such cases are by no means rare, even in +this eighteenth century of our era, which has produced useful books to +expose abuses and enlighten minds; but, as I have before observed, the +people never read. A single Capuchin, Recollet, or Carmelite is capable +of doing more harm than the best books in the world will ever be able to +do good.</p> + +<p>I would venture to propose to those who are really humane and +well-disposed, to employ throughout the capital a certain number of +anti-Capuchins and anti-Recollets, to go about from house to house +exhorting fathers and mothers to virtue, and to keep their money for the +maintenance of their families, and the support of their old age; to love +God with all their hearts, but to give none of their money to monks. +Let us return, however, to the real meaning of the word "scandal."</p> + +<p>In the above-mentioned process on the subject of the Capuchin convent, +Brother Gregory is accused of being the father of a child by +Mademoiselle Bras-defer, and of having her afterwards married to +Moutard, the shoe-maker. It is not stated whether Brother Gregory +himself bestowed the nuptial benediction on his mistress and poor +Moutard, together with the required dispensation. If he did so, the +scandal is rendered as complete as possible; it includes fornication, +robbery, adultery, and sacrilege. "<i>Horresco referens</i>."</p> + +<p>I say in the first place "fornication," as Brother Gregory committed +that offence with Magdalene Bras-defer, who was not at the time more +than fifteen years of age.</p> + +<p>I also say "robbery," as he gave an apron and ribbons to Magdalene; and +it is clear he must have robbed the convent in order to purchase them, +and to pay for suppers, lodgings, and other expenses attending their +intercourse.</p> + +<p>I say "adultery," as this depraved man continued his connection with +Magdalene after she became Madame Moutard.</p> + +<p>And I say "sacrilege," as he was the confessor of Magdalene. And, if he +himself performed the marriage ceremony for his mistress, judge what +sort of man Brother Gregory must really have been.</p> + +<p>One of our colleagues in this little collection of philosophic and +encyclopædic questions is now engaged on a moral work, on the subject of +scandal, against the opinion of Brother Patouillet. We hope it will not +be long before it sees the light.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SCHISM" id="SCHISM"></a>SCHISM.</h3> + + +<p>All that we had written on the subject of the grand schism between the +Greeks and Latins, in the essay on the manners and spirit of nations, +has been inserted in the great encyclopædic dictionary. We will not here +repeat ourselves.</p> + +<p>But when reflecting on the meaning of the word "schism," which signifies +a dividing or rending asunder, and considering also the present state of +Poland, divided and rent as it is in a manner the most pitiable, we +cannot help anew deploring that a malady so destructive should be +peculiar to Christians. This malady, which we have not described with +sufficient particularity, is a species of madness which first affects +the eyes and the mouth; the patient looks with an impatient and +resentful eye on the man who does not think exactly like himself, and +soon begins to pour out all the abuse and reviling that his command of +language will permit. The madness next seizes the hands; and the +unfortunate maniac writes what exhibits, in the most decided manner, the +inflamed and delirious state of the brain. He falls into demoniacal +convulsions, draws his sword, and fights with fury and desperation to +the last gasp. Medicine has never been able to find a remedy for this +dreadful disease. Time and philosophy alone can effect a cure.</p> + +<p>The Poles are now the only people among whom this contagion at present +rages. We may almost believe that the disorder is born with them, like +their frightful plica. They are both diseases of the head, and of a most +noxious character. Cleanliness will cure the plica; wisdom alone can +extirpate schism.</p> + +<p>We are told that both these diseases were unknown to the Samartians +while they were Pagans. The plica affects only the common people at +present, but all the evils originating in schism are corroding and +destroying the higher classes of the republic.</p> + +<p>The cause of the evil is the fertility of their land, which produces too +much corn. It is a melancholy and deplorable case that even the blessing +of heaven should in fact have involved them in such direful calamity. +Some of the provinces have contended that it was absolutely necessary to +put leaven in their bread, but the greater part of the nation entertain +an obstinate and unalterable belief, that, on certain days of the year, +fermented bread is absolutely mortal.</p> + +<p>Such is one of the principal causes of the schism or the rending asunder +of Poland; the dispute has infused acrimony into their blood. Other +causes have added to the effect.</p> + +<p>Some have imagined, in the paroxysms and convulsions of the malady under +which they labor, that the Holy Spirit proceeded both from the Father +and the Son: and the others have exclaimed, that it proceeded from the +Father only. The two parties, one of which is called the Roman party, +and the other the Dissident, look upon each other as if they were +absolutely infected by the plague; but, by a singular symptom peculiar +to this complaint, the infected Dissidents have always shown an +inclination to approach the Catholics, while the Catholics on the other +hand have never manifested any to approach them.</p> + +<p>There is no disease which does not vary in different circumstances and +situations. The diet, which is generally esteemed salutary, has been so +pernicious to this unhappy nation, that after the application of it in +1768, the cities of Uman, Zablotin, Tetiou, Zilianki, and Zafran were +destroyed and inundated with blood; and more than two hundred thousand +patients miserably perished.</p> + +<p>On one side the empire of Russia, and on the other that of Turkey, have +sent a hundred thousand surgeons provided with lancets, bistouries, and +all sorts of instruments, adapted to cut off the morbid and gangrened +parts; but the disease has only become more virulent. The delirium has +even been so outrageous, that forty of the patients actually met +together for the purpose of dissecting their king, who had never been +attacked by the disease, and whose brain and all the vital and noble +parts of his body were in a perfectly sound state, as we shall have to +remark under the article on "Superstition." It is thought that if the +contending parties would refer the case entirely to him, he might effect +a cure of the whole nation; but it is one of the symptoms of this cruel +malady to be afraid of being cured, as persons laboring under +hydrophobia dread even the sight of water.</p> + +<p>There are some learned men among us who contend that the disease was +brought, a long time ago, from Palestine, and that the inhabitants of +Jerusalem and Samaria were long harassed by it. Others think that the +original seat of the disease was Egypt, and that the dogs and cats, +which were there held in the highest consideration, having become mad, +communicated the madness of schism, or tearing asunder, to the greater +part of the Egyptians, whose weak heads were but too susceptible to the +disorder.</p> + +<p>It is remarked also, that the Greeks who travelled to Egypt, as, for +example, Timeus of Locris and Plato, somewhat injured their brains by +the excursion. However, the injury by no means reached madness, or +plague, properly so called; it was a sort of delirium which was not at +all times easily to be perceived, and which was often concealed under a +very plausible appearance of reason. But the Greeks having, in the +course of time, carried the complaint among the western and northern +nations, the malformation or unfortunate excitability of the brain in +our unhappy countries occasioned the slight fever of Timeus and Plato to +break out among us into the most frightful and fatal contagion, which +the physicians sometimes called intolerance, and sometimes persecution; +sometimes religious war, sometimes madness, and sometimes pestilence.</p> + +<p>We have seen the fatal ravages committed by this infernal plague over +the face of the earth. Many physicians have offered their services to +destroy this frightful evil at its very root. But what will appear to +many scarcely credible is, that there are entire faculties of medicine, +at Salamanca and Coimbra, in Italy and even in Paris, which maintain +that schism, division, or tearing asunder, is necessary for mankind; +that corrupt humors are drawn off from them through the wounds which it +occasions; that enthusiasm, which is one of the first symptoms of the +complaint, exalts the soul, and produces the most beneficial +consequences; that toleration is attended with innumerable +inconveniences; that if the whole world were tolerant, great geniuses +would want that powerful and irresistible impulse which has produced so +many admirable works in theology; that peace is a great calamity to a +state, because it brings back the pleasures in its train; and pleasures, +after a course of time, soften down that noble ferocity which forms the +hero; and that if the Greeks had made a treaty of commerce with the +Trojans, instead of making war with them, there would never have been an +Achilles, a Hector, or a Homer, and that the race of man would have +stagnated in ignorance.</p> + +<p>These reasons, I acknowledge, are not without force; and I request time +for giving them due consideration.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SCROFULA" id="SCROFULA"></a>SCROFULA.</h3> + + +<p>It has been pretended that divine power is appealed to in regard to this +malady, because it is scarcely in human power to cure it.</p> + +<p>Possibly some monks began by supposing that kings, in their character of +representatives of the divinity, possessed the privilege of curing +scrofula, by touching the patients with their anointed hands. But why +not bestow a similar power on emperors, whose dignity surpasses that of +kings, or on popes, who call themselves the masters of emperors, and who +are more than simple images of God, being His vicars on earth? It is +possible, that some imaginary dreamer of Normandy, in order to render +the usurpation of William the Bastard the more respectable, conceded to +him, in quality of God's representative, the faculty of curing scrofula +by the tip of his finger.</p> + +<p>It was some time after William that this usage became established. We +must not gratify the kings of England with this gift, and refuse it to +those of France, their liege lords. This would be in defiance of the +respect due to the feudal system. In short, this power is traced up to +Edward the Confessor in England, and to Clovis in France.</p> + +<p>The only testimony, in the least degree credible, of the antiquity of +this usage, is to be found in the writings in favor of the house of +Lancaster, composed by the judge, Sir John Fortescue, under Henry VI., +who was recognized king of France at Paris in his cradle, and then king +of England, but who lost both kingdoms. Sir John Fortescue asserts, that +from time immemorial, the kings of England were in possession of the +power of curing scrofula by their touch. We cannot perceive, however, +that this pretension rendered their persons more sacred in the wars +between the roses.</p> + +<p>Queens consort could not cure scrofula, because they were not anointed +in the hands, like the kings: but Elizabeth, a queen regnant and +anointed, cured it without difficulty.</p> + +<p>A sad thing happened to Mortorillo the Calabrian, whom we denominate St. +Francis de Paulo. King Louis XI. brought him to Plessis les Tours to +cure him of his tendency to apoplexy, and the saint arrived afflicted by +scrofula.</p> + +<p>"<i>Ipse fuit detentus gravi, inflatura, quam in parte inferiori, genæ suæ +dextrae circa guttur patiebatur. Chirugii dicebant, mortum esse +scrofarum.</i>"</p> + +<p>The saint cured not the king, and the king cured not the saint.</p> + +<p>When the king of England, James II., was conducted from Rochester to +Whitehall, somebody proposed that he should exhibit a proof of genuine +royalty, as for instance, that of touching for the evil; but no one was +presented to him. He departed to exercise his sovereignty in France at +St. Germain, where he touched some Hibernians. His daughter Mary, King +William, Queen Anne, and the kings of the house of Brunswick have cured +nobody. This sacred gift departed when people began to reason.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SECT" id="SECT"></a>SECT.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>Every sect, of whatever opinion it may be, is a rallying point for doubt +and error. Scotists, Thomists, Realists, Nominalists, Papists, +Calvinists, Molinists, and Jansenists, are only warlike appellations.</p> + +<p>There is no sect in geometry; we never say: A Euclidian, an Archimedian. +When truth is evident, it is impossible to divide people into parties +and factions. Nobody disputes that it is broad day at noon.</p> + +<p>That part of astronomy which determines the course of the stars, and the +return of eclipses, being now known, there is no longer any dispute +among astronomers.</p> + +<p>It is similar with a small number of truths, which are similarly +established; but if you are a Mahometan, as there are many men who are +not Mahometans, you may possibly be in error.</p> + +<p>What would be the true religion, if Christianity did not exist? That in +which there would be no sects; that in which all minds necessarily +agreed.</p> + +<p>Now, in what doctrine are all minds agreed? In the adoration of one God, +and in probity. All the philosophers who have professed a religion have +said at all times: "There is a God, and He must be just." Behold then +the universal religion, established throughout all time and among all +men! The point then in which all agree is true; the systems in regard to +which all differ are false.</p> + +<p>My sect is the best, says a Brahmin. But, my good friend, if thy sect is +the best, it is necessary; for if not absolutely necessary, thou must +confess that it is useless. If, on the contrary, it is necessary, it +must be so to all men; how then is it that all men possess not what is +absolutely necessary to them? How is it that the rest of the world +laughs at thee and thy Brahma?</p> + +<p>When Zoroaster, Hermes, Orpheus, Minos, and all the great men say: Let +us worship God, and be just, no one laughs; but all the world sneers at +him who pretends, that to please God it is proper to die holding a cow +by the tail; at him who cuts off a particle of foreskin for the same +purpose; at him who consecrates crocodiles and onions; at him who +attaches eternal salvation to the bones of dead men carried underneath +the shirt, or to a plenary indulgence purchased at Rome for two sous and +a half.</p> + +<p>Whence this universal assemblage of laughing and hissing from one end of +the universe to the other? It must be that the things which all the +world derides are not evident truths. What shall we say to a secretary +of Sejanus, who dedicates to Petronius a book, in a confused and +involved style, entitled "The Truth of the Sibylline Oracles, Proved +from Facts."</p> + +<p>This secretary at first proves to you, that God sent upon earth many +Sibyls, one after the other, having no other means of instructing men. +It is demonstrated, that God communicated with these Sibyls, because the +word "sibyl" signifies "Council of God." They ought to live a long time, +for this privilege at least belongs to persons with whom God +communicates. They amounted to twelve, because this number is sacred. +They certainly predicted all the events in the world, because Tarquin +the Proud bought their book from an old woman for a hundred crowns. What +unbeliever, exclaims the secretary, can deny all these evident facts, +which took place in one corner of the earth, in the face of all the +world? Who can deny the accomplishment of their prophecies? Has not +Virgil himself cited the predictions of the Sibyls? If we have not the +first copies of the Sibylline books, written at a time when no one could +read and write, we have authentic copies. Impiety must be silent before +such proofs. Thus spoke Houteville to Sejanus, and hoped to obtain by it +the place of chief augur, with a revenue of fifty thousand livres; but +he obtained nothing.</p> + +<p>That which my sect teaches me is obscure, I confess it, exclaims a +fanatic; and it is in consequence of that obscurity that I must believe +it; for it says itself that it abounds in obscurities. My sect is +extravagant, therefore it is divine; for how, appearing so insane, +would it otherwise have been embraced by so many people. It is precisely +like the Koran, which the Sonnites say presents at once the face of an +angel and that of a beast. Be not scandalized at the muzzle of the +beast, but revere the face of the angel. Thus spoke this madman; but a +fanatic of another sect replied to the first fanatic: It is thou who art +the beast, and I who am the angel.</p> + +<p>Now who will judge this process, and decide between these two inspired +personages? The reasonable and impartial man who is learned in a science +which is not that of words; the man divested of prejudice, and a lover +of truth and of justice; the man, in fine, who is not a beast, and who +pretends not to be an angel.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>Sect and error are synonymous terms. Thou art a peripatetic and I a +Platonist; we are therefore both in the wrong; for thou opposest Plato, +because his chimeras repel thee; and I fly from Aristotle, because it +appears to me that he knew not what he said. If the one or the other had +demonstrated the truth, there would have been an end of sect. To declare +for the opinion of one in opposition to that of another, is to take part +in a civil war. There is no sect in mathematics or experimental +philosophy: a man who examines the relation between a cone and a sphere +is not of the sect of Archimedes; and he who perceived that the square +of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the +squares of the other two sides, is not in consequence a Pythagorean.</p> + +<p>When we say that the blood circulates, that the air is weighty, that the +rays of the sun are a bundle of seven refrangible rays, it follows not +that we are of the sect of Harvey, of Torricelli, or of Newton; we +simply acquiesce in the truths which they demonstrate, and the whole +universe will be of the same opinion.</p> + +<p>Such is the character of truth, which belongs to all time and to all +men. It is only to be produced to be acknowledged, and admits of no +opposition. A long dispute signifies that both parties are in error.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SELF-LOVE" id="SELF-LOVE"></a>SELF-LOVE.</h3> + + +<p>Nicole, in his "Moral Essays," written after two or three thousand +volumes on morals (Treatise on Charity, chap, ii.), says, that "by means +of the gibbets and tortures which are established in common, the +tyrannical designs of the self-love of each individual are repressed."</p> + +<p>I will not examine whether we have gibbets in common, as we have fields +and woods in common, and a common purse, or if thoughts are repressed by +wheels; but it seems to me very strange that Nicole has taken highway +robbery and murder for self-love. The distinctions must be a little +more examined. He who should say that Nero killed his mother from +self-love, that Cartouche had much self-love, would not express himself +very correctly. Self-love is not a wickedness; it is a sentiment natural +to all men; it is much more the neighbor of vanity than of crime.</p> + +<p>A beggar of the suburbs of Madrid boldly asked alms; a passenger said to +him: Are you not ashamed to carry on this infamous trade, when you can +work? Sir, replied the mendicant, I ask you for money, and not for +advice; and turned his back on him with Castilian dignity. This +gentleman was a haughty beggar; his vanity was wounded by very little: +he asked alms for love of himself, and would not suffer the reprimand +from a still greater love of himself.</p> + +<p>A missionary, travelling in India, met a fakir loaded with chains, naked +as an ape, lying on his stomach, and lashing himself for the sins of his +countrymen, the Indians, who gave him some coins of the country. What a +renouncement of himself! said one of the spectators. Renouncement of +myself! said the fakir, learn that I only lash myself in this world to +serve you the same in the next, when you will be the horses and I the +rider.</p> + +<p>Those who said that love of ourselves is the basis of all our sentiments +and actions were right; and as it has not been written to prove to men +that they have a face, there is no occasion to prove to them that they +possess self-love. This self-love is the instrument of our +preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind; +it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must +conceal it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SENSATION" id="SENSATION"></a>SENSATION.</h3> + + +<p>Oysters, it is said, have two senses; moles four; all other animals, +like man, five. Some people contend for a sixth, but it is evident that +the voluptuous sensation to which they allude is reducible to that of +touch; and that five senses are our lot. It is impossible for us to +imagine anything beyond them, or to desire out of their range.</p> + +<p>It may be, that in other globes the inhabitants possess sensations of +which we can form no idea. It is possible that the number of our senses +augments from globe to globe, and that an existence with innumerable and +perfect senses will be the final attainment of all being.</p> + +<p>But with respect to ourselves and our five senses, what is the extent of +our capacity? We constantly feel in spite of ourselves, and never +because we will do so: it is impossible for us to avoid having the +sensation which our nature ordains when any object excites it. The +sensation is within us, but depends not upon ourselves. We receive it, +but how do we receive it? It is evident that there is no connection +between the stricken air, the words which I sing, and the impression +which these words make upon my brain.</p> + +<p>We are astonished at thought, but sensation is equally wonderful. A +divine power is as manifest in the sensation of the meanest of insects +as in the brain of Newton. In the meantime, if a thousand animals die +before our eyes, we are not anxious to know what becomes of their +faculty of sensation, although it is as much the work of the Supreme +Being as our own. We regard them as the machines of nature, created to +perish, and to give place to others.</p> + +<p>For what purpose and in what manner may their sensations exist, when +they exist no longer? What need has the author of all things to preserve +qualities, when the substance is destroyed? It is as reasonable to +assert that the power of the plant called "sensitive," to withdraw its +leaves towards its branches, exists when the plant is no more. You will +ask, without doubt, in what manner the sensation of animals perishes +with them, while the mind of man perishes not? I am too ignorant to +solve this question. The eternal author of mind and of sensation alone +knows how to give, and how to preserve them.</p> + +<p>All antiquity maintains that our understanding contains nothing which +has not been received by our senses. Descartes, on the contrary, asserts +in his "Romances," that we have metaphysical ideas before we are +acquainted with the nipple of our nurse. A faculty of theology +proscribed this dogma, not because it was erroneous, but because it was +new. Finally, however, it was adopted, because it had been destroyed by +Locke, an English philosopher, and an Englishman must necessarily be in +the wrong. In fine, after having so often changed opinion, the ancient +opinion which declares that the senses are the inlets to the +understanding is finally proscribed. This is acting like deeply indebted +governments, who sometimes issue certain notes which are to pass +current, and at other times cry them down; but for a long time no one +will accept the notes of the said faculty of theology.</p> + +<p>All the faculties in the world will never prevent a philosopher from +perceiving that we commence by sensation, and that our memory is nothing +but a continued sensation. A man born without his five senses would be +destitute of all idea, supposing it possible for him to live. +Metaphysical notions are obtained only through the senses; for how is a +circle or a triangle to be measured, if a circle or a triangle has +neither been touched nor seen? How form an imperfect notion of infinity, +without a notion of limits? And how take away limits, without having +either beheld or felt them?</p> + +<p>Sensation includes all our faculties, says a great philosopher. What +ought to be concluded from all this? You who read and think, pray +conclude.</p> + +<p>The Greeks invented the faculty "<i>Psyche</i>" for sensation, and the +faculty "<i>Nous</i>" for mind. We are, unhappily, ignorant of the nature of +these two faculties: we possess them, but their origin is no more known +to us than to the oyster, the sea-nettle, the polypus, worms, or plants. +By some inconceivable mechanism, sensitiveness is diffused throughout my +body, and thought in my head alone. If the head be cut off, there will +remain a very small chance of its solving a problem in geometry. In the +meantime, your pineal gland, your fleshly body, in which abides your +soul, exists for a long time without alteration, while your separated +head is so full of animal spirits that it frequently exhibits motion +after its removal from the trunk. It seems as if at this moment it +possessed the most lively ideas, resembling the head of Orpheus, which +still uttered melodious song, and chanted Eurydice, when cast into the +waters of the Hebrus.</p> + +<p>If we think no longer, after losing our heads, whence does it happen +that the heart beats, and appears to be sensitive after being torn out?</p> + +<p>We feel, you say, because all our nerves have their origin in the brain; +and in the meantime, if you are trepanned, and a portion of your brain +be thrown into the fire, you feel nothing the less. Men who can state +the reason of all this are very clever.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SENTENCES_REMARKABLE" id="SENTENCES_REMARKABLE"></a>SENTENCES (REMARKABLE).</h3> + +<h4><i>On Natural Liberty.</i></h4> + +<p>In several countries, and particularly in France, collections have been +made of the juridical murders which tyranny, fanaticism, or even error +and weakness, have committed with the sword of justice.</p> + +<p>There are sentences of death which whole years of vengeance could +scarcely expiate, and which will make all future ages tremble. Such are +the sentences given against the natural king of Naples and Sicily, by +the tribunal of Charles of Anjou; against John Huss and Jerome of +Prague, by priests and monks; and against the king of England, Charles +I., by fanatical citizens.</p> + +<p>After these enormous crimes, formally committed, come the legal murders +committed by indolence, stupidity, and superstition, and these are +innumerable. We shall relate some of them in other articles.</p> + +<p>In this class we must principally place the trials for witchcraft, and +never forget that even in our days, in 1750, the sacerdotal justice of +the bishop of Würzburg has condemned as a witch a nun, a girl of +quality, to the punishment of fire. I here repeat this circumstance, +which I have elsewhere mentioned, that it should not be forgotten. We +forget too much and too soon.</p> + +<p>Every day of the year I would have a public crier, instead of crying as +in Germany and Holland what time it is—which is known very well without +their crying—cry: It was on this day that, in the religious wars +Magdeburg and all its inhabitants were reduced to ashes. It was on May +14th that Henry IV. was assassinated, only because he was not submissive +to the pope; it was on such a day that such an abominable cruelty was +perpetrated in your town, under the name of justice.</p> + +<p>These continual advertisements would be very useful; but the judgments +given in favor of innocence against persecutors should be cried with a +much louder voice. For example, I propose, that every year, the two +strongest throats which can be found in Paris and Toulouse shall cry +these words in all the streets: It was on such a day that fifty +magistrates of the council re-established the memory of John Calas, with +a unanimous voice, and obtained for his family the favors of the king +himself, in whose name John Calas had been condemned to the most +horrible execution.</p> + +<p>It would not be amiss to have another crier at the door of all the +ministers, to say to all who came to demand <i>lettres de cachet</i>, in +order to possess themselves of the property of their relations, friends, +or dependents: Gentlemen, fear to seduce the minister by false +statements, and to abuse the name of the king. It is dangerous to take +it in vain. There was in the world one Gerbier, who defended the cause +of the widow and orphan oppressed under the weight of a sacred name. It +was he who, at the bar of the Parliament of Paris, obtained the +abolishment of the Society of Jesus. Listen attentively to the lesson +which he gave to the society of St. Bernard, conjointly with Master +Loiseau, another protector of widows.</p> + +<p>You must first know, that the reverend Bernardine fathers of Clairvaux +possess seventeen thousand acres of wood, seven large forges, fourteen +large farms, a quantity of fiefs, benefices, and even rights in foreign +countries. The yearly revenue of the convent amounts to two hundred +thousand livres. The treasure is immense; the abbot's palace is that of +a prince. Nothing is more just; it is a poor recompense for the services +which the Bernardines continually render to the State.</p> + +<p>It happened, that a youth of seventeen years of age, named Castille, +whose baptismal name was Bernard, believed, for that reason, that he +should become a Bernardine. It is thus that we reason at seventeen, and +sometimes at thirty. He went to pass his novitiate at Lorraine, in the +abbey of Orval. When he was required to pronounce his vows, grace was +wanting in him: he did not sign them; he departed and became a man +again. He established himself at Paris, and at the end of thirty years, +having made a little fortune, he married, and had children.</p> + +<p>The reverend father, attorney of Clairvaux, named Mayeur, a worthy +solicitor, brother of the abbot, having learned from a woman of pleasure +at Paris, that this Castille was formerly a Bernardine, plotted to +challenge him as a deserter—though he was not really engaged—to make +his wife pass for his concubine, and to place his children in the +hospital as bastards. He associated himself with another rogue, to +divide the spoils. Both went to the court for <i>lettres de cachet</i>, +exposed their grievances in the name of St. Bernard, obtained the +letter, seized Bernard Castille, his wife, and their children, possessed +themselves of all the property, and are now devouring it, you know +where.</p> + +<p>Bernard Castille was shut up at Orval in a dungeon, where he was +executed after six months, for fear that he should demand justice. His +wife was conducted to another dungeon, at St. Pelagie, a house for +prostitutes. Of three children, one died in the hospital.</p> + +<p>Things remained in this state for three years. At the end of this time, +the wife of Castille obtained her enlargement. God is just: He gave a +second husband to the widow. The husband, named Lannai, was a man of +head, who discovered all the frauds, horrors, and crimes employed +against his wife. They both entered into a suit against the monks. It is +true, that brother Mayeur, who is called Dom Mayeur, was not hanged, but +the convent of Clairvaux was condemned to pay forty thousand livres. +There is no convent which would not rather see its attorney hanged than +lose its money.</p> + +<p>This history should teach you, gentlemen, to use much moderation in the +fact of <i>lettres de cachet</i>. Know, that Master Elias de Beaumont, that +celebrated defender of the memory of Calas, and Master Target that other +protector of oppressed innocence, caused the man to pay a fine of twenty +thousand francs, who by his intrigues had gained a <i>lettre de cachet</i> +to seize upon the dying countess of Lancize, to drag her from the bosom +of her family and divest her of all her titles.</p> + +<p>When tribunals give such sentences as these, we hear clapping of hands +from the extent of the grand chamber to the gates of Paris. Take care of +yourselves, gentlemen; do not lightly demand <i>lettres de cachet</i>.</p> + +<p>An Englishman, on reading this article, exclaimed, "What is a <i>lettre de +cachet</i>?" We could never make him comprehend it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SENTENCES_OF_DEATH" id="SENTENCES_OF_DEATH"></a>SENTENCES OF DEATH.</h3> + + +<p>In reading history, and seeing its course continually interrupted with +innumerable calamities heaped upon this globe, which some call the best +of all possible worlds, I have been particularly struck with the great +quantity of considerable men in the State, in the Church, and in +society, who have suffered death like robbers on the highway. Setting +aside assassinations and poisonings, I speak only of massacres in a +juridical form, performed with loyalty and ceremony; I commence with +kings and queens; England alone furnishes an ample list; but for +chancellors, knights, and esquires, volumes are required. Of all who +have thus perished by justice, I do not believe that there are four in +all Europe who would have undergone their sentence if their suits had +lasted some time longer, or if the adverse parties had died of apoplexy +during the preparation.</p> + +<p>If fistula had gangrened the rectum of Cardinal Richelieu some months +longer, the virtuous de Thou, Cinq-Mars, and so many others would have +been at liberty. If Barneveldt had had as many Arminians for his judges +as Gomerists, he would have died in his bed; if the constable de Luynes +had not demanded the confiscation of the property of the lady of the +Marshal d'Ancre, she would not have been burned as a witch. If a really +criminal man, an assassin, a public thief, a poisoner, a parricide, be +arrested, and his crime be proved, it is certain that in all times and +whoever the judges, he will be condemned. But it is not the same with +statesmen; only give them other judges, or wait until time has changed +interests, cooled passions, and introduced other sentiments, and their +lives will be in safety.</p> + +<p>Suppose Queen Elizabeth had died of an indigestion on the eve of the +execution of Mary Stuart, then Mary Stuart would have been seated on the +throne of England, Ireland, and Scotland, instead of dying by the hand +of an executioner in a chamber hung with black. If Cromwell had only +fallen sick, care would have been taken how Charles I.'s head was cut +off. These two assassinations—disguised, I know not how, in the garb of +the laws—scarcely entered into the list of ordinary injustice. Figure +to yourself some highwaymen who, having bound and robbed two passengers, +amuse themselves with naming in the troop an attorney-general, a +president, an advocate and counsellors, and who, having signed a +sentence, cause the two victims to be hanged in ceremony; it was thus +that the Queen of Scotland and her grandson were judged.</p> + +<p>But of common judgments, pronounced by competent judges against princes +or men in place, is there a single one which would have been either +executed, or even passed, if another time had been chosen? Is there a +single one of the condemned, immolated under Cardinal Richelieu, who +would not have been in favor if their suits had been prolonged until the +regency of Anne of Austria? The Prince of Condé was arrested under +Francis II., he was condemned to death by commissaries; Francis II. +died, and the Prince of Condé again became powerful.</p> + +<p>These instances are innumerable; we should above all consider the spirit +of the times. Vanini was burned on a vague suspicion of atheism. At +present, if any one was foolish and pedantic enough to write such books +as Vanini, they would not be read, and that is all which could happen to +them. A Spaniard passed through Geneva in the middle of the sixteenth +century; the Picard, John Calvin, learned that this Spaniard was lodged +at an inn; he remembered that this Spaniard had disputed with him on a +subject which neither of them understood. Behold! my theologian, John +Calvin, arrested the passenger, contrary to all laws, human or divine, +contrary to the right possessed by people among all nations; immured him +in a dungeon, and burned him at a slow fire with green faggots, that the +pain might last the longer. Certainly this infernal manœuvre would +never enter the head of any one in the present day; and if the fool +Servetus had lived in good times, he would have had nothing to fear; +what is called justice is therefore as arbitrary as fashion. There are +times of horrors and follies among men, as there are times of +pestilence, and this contagion has made the tour of the world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SERPENTS" id="SERPENTS"></a>SERPENTS.</h3> + + +<p>"I certify that I have many times killed serpents by moistening in a +slight degree, with my spittle, a stick or a stone, and giving them a +slight blow on the middle of the body, scarcely sufficient to produce a +small contusion. January 19, 1757. Figuier, Surgeon."</p> + +<p>The above surgeon having given me this certificate, two witnesses, who +had seen him kill serpents in this manner, attested what they had +beheld. Notwithstanding, I wished to behold the thing myself; for I +confess that, in various parts of these queries, I have taken St. Thomas +of Didymus for my patron saint, who always insisted on an examination +with his own hands.</p> + +<p>For eighteen hundred years this opinion has been perpetuated among the +people, and it might possibly be even eighteen thousand years old, if +Genesis had not supplied us with the precise date of our enmity to this +reptile. It may be asserted that if Eve had spit on the serpent when he +took his place at her ear, a world of evil would have been spared human +nature.</p> + +<p>Lucretius, in his fourth book, alludes to this manner of killing +serpents as very well known:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Est utique ut serpens hominis contacta salivis.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Disperit, ac sese mandendo conficit ipsa.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<span class="small">LIB</span>., iv, v. 642-643.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Spit on a serpent, and his vigor flies,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">He straight devours himself, and quickly dies.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>There is some slight contradiction in painting him at once deprived of +vigor and self-devouring, but my surgeon Figuier asserts not that the +serpents which he killed were self-devouring. Genesis says wisely that +we kill them with our heels, and not with spittle.</p> + +<p>We are in the midst of winter on January 19, which is the time when +serpents visit us. I cannot find any at Mount Krapak; but I exhort all +philosophers to spit upon every serpent they meet with in the spring. It +is good to know the extent of the power of the saliva of man.</p> + +<p>It is certain that Jesus Christ employed his spittle to cure a man who +was deaf and dumb. He took him aside, placed His fingers on his ears, +and looking up to heaven, sighed and said to him: "<i>Ephphatha</i>"—"be +opened"—when the deaf and dumb person immediately began to speak.</p> + +<p>It may therefore be true that God has allowed the saliva of man to kill +serpents; but He may have also permitted my surgeon to assail them with +heavy blows from a stick or a stone, in such a way that they would die +whether he spat upon them or not.</p> + +<p>I beg of all philosophers to examine the thing with attention. For +example, should they meet Freron in the street, let them spit in his +face, and if he die, the fact will be confirmed, in spite of all the +reasoning of the incredulous.</p> + +<p>I take this opportunity also to beg of philosophers not to cut off the +heads of any more snails; for I affirm that the head has returned to +snails which I have decapitated very effectively. But it is not enough +that I know it by experience, others must be equally satisfied in order +that the fact be rendered probable; for although I have twice succeeded, +I have failed thirty times. Success depends upon the age of the snail, +the time in which the head is cut off, the situation of the incision, +and the manner in which it is kept until the head grows again.</p> + +<p>If it is important to know that death may be inflicted by spitting, it +is still more important to know that heads may be renewed. Man is of +more consequence than a snail, and I doubt not that in due time, when +the arts are brought to perfection, some means will be found to give a +sound head to a man who has none at all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SHEKEL" id="SHEKEL"></a>SHEKEL.</h3> + + +<p>A weight and denomination of money among the Jews; but as they never +coined money, and always made use of the coinage of other people, all +gold coins weighing about a guinea, and all silver coins of the weight +of a small French crown, were called a shekel; and these shekels were +distinguished into those of the weight of the sanctuary, and those of +the weight of the king.</p> + +<p>It is said in the Book of Samuel that Absalom had very fine hair, from +which he cut a part every year. Many profound commentators assert that +he cut it once a month, and that it was valued at two hundred shekels. +If these shekels were of gold, the locks of Absalom were worth two +thousand four hundred guineas per annum. There are few seigniories which +produce at present the revenue that Absalom derived from his head.</p> + +<p>It is said that when Abraham bought a cave in Hebron from the Canaanite +Ephron, Ephron sold him the cave for four hundred shekels of silver, of +current money with the merchant—<i>probatæ monetæ publicæ</i>.</p> + +<p>We have already remarked that there was no coined money in these days, +and thus these four hundred shekels of silver became four hundred +shekels in weight, which, valued at present at three livres four sous +each, are equal to twelve hundred and eighty livres of France.</p> + +<p>It follows that the little field, which was sold with this cavern, was +excellent land, to bring so high a price.</p> + +<p>When Eleazar, the servant of Abraham, met the beautiful Rebecca, the +daughter of Bethnel, carrying a pitcher of water upon her shoulder, from +which she gave him and his camels leave to drink, he presented her with +earrings of gold, which weighed two shekels, and bracelets which weighed +ten, amounting in the whole to a present of the value of twenty-four +guineas.</p> + +<p>In the laws of Exodus it is said that if an ox gored a male or female +slave, the possessor of the ox should give thirty shekels of silver to +the master of the slave, and that the ox should be stoned. It is +apparently to be understood that the ox in this case has produced a very +dangerous wound, otherwise thirty-two crowns was a large sum for the +neighborhood of Mount Sinai, where money was uncommon. It is for the +same reason that many grave, but too hasty, persons suspect that Exodus +as well as Genesis was not written until a comparatively late period.</p> + +<p>What tends to confirm them in this erroneous opinion is a passage in the +same Exodus: "Take of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet +cinnamon half as much; of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels; +of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; and +of olive-oil a ton, to form an ointment to annoint the tabernacle"; and +whosoever anointed himself or any stranger with a similar composition, +was to be put to death.</p> + +<p>It is added that with all these aromatics were to be united stacte, +onyx, galbanum, and frankincense; and that a perfume was to be mixed up +according to the art of the apothecary or perfumer.</p> + +<p>But I cannot perceive anything in this composition which ought to excite +the doubt of the incredulous. It is natural to imagine that the +Jews—who, according to the text, stole from the Egyptians all which +they could bring away—had also taken frankincense, galbanum, onyx, +stacte, olive-oil, cassia, sweet calamus, cinnamon, and myrrh. They +also, without doubt, stole many shekels; indeed, we have seen, that one +of the most zealous partisans of this Hebrew horde estimates what they +stole, in gold alone, at nine millions. I abide by his reckoning.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SIBYL" id="SIBYL"></a>SIBYL.</h3> + + +<p>The first woman who pronounced oracles at Delphos was called Sibylla. +According to Pausanias, she was the daughter of Jupiter, and of Lamia, +the daughter of Neptune, and she lived a long time before the siege of +Troy. From her all women were distinguished by the name of sibyls, who, +without being priestesses, or even attached to a particular oracle, +announced the future, and called themselves inspired. Different ages and +countries have had their sibyls, or preserved predictions which bear +their name, and collections were formed of them.</p> + +<p>The greatest embarrassment to the ancients was to explain by what happy +privilege these sibyls had the gift of predicting the future. Platonists +found the cause of it in the intimate union which the creature, arrived +at a certain degree of perfection, might have with the Divinity. Others +attribute this divine property of the sibyls to the vapors and +exhalations of the caves which they inhabited. Finally others attributed +the prophetic spirit of the sibyls to their sombre and melancholy humor, +or to some singular malady.</p> + +<p>St. Jerome maintained that this gift was to them a recompense for their +chastity; but there was at least one very celebrated one who boasted of +having had a thousand lovers without being married. It would have been +much more sensible in St. Jerome and other fathers of the Church to have +denied the prophetic spirit of the sibyls, and to have said that by +means of hazarding predictions at a venture, they might sometimes have +been fulfilled, particularly with the help of a favorable commentary, by +which words, spoken by chance, have been turned into facts which it was +impossible they could have predicted.</p> + +<p>It is singular that their predictions were collected after the event. +The first collection of sibylline leaves, bought by Tarquin, contained +three books; the second was compiled after the fire of the capitol, but +we are ignorant how many books it contained; and the third is that which +we possess in eight books, and in which it is doubtful whether the +author has not inserted several predictions of the second. This +collection is the fruit of the pious fraud of some Platonic Christians, +more zealous than clever, who in composing it thought to lend arms to +the Christian religion, and to put those who defended it in a situation +to combat paganism with the greatest advantage.</p> + +<p>This confused compilation of different prophecies was printed for the +first time in the year 1545 from manuscripts, and published several +times after, with ample commentaries, burdened with an erudition often +trivial, and almost always foreign to the text, which they seldom +enlightened. The number of works composed for and against the +authenticity of these sibylline books is very great, and some even very +learned; but there prevails so little order and reasoning, and the +authors are so devoid of all philosophic spirit that those who might +have courage to read them would gain nothing but ennui and fatigue. The +date of the publication is found clearly indicated in the fifth and +eighth books. The sibyl is made to say that the Roman Empire will have +only fifteen emperors, fourteen of which are designated by the numeral +value of the first letter of their names in the Greek alphabet. She adds +that the fifteenth, who would be a man with a white head, would bear the +name of a sea near Rome. The fifteenth of the Roman emperors was Adrian, +and the Asiatic gulf is the sea of which he bears the name.</p> + +<p>From this prince, continues the sibyl, three others will proceed who +will rule the empire at the same time; but finally one of them will +remain the possessor. These three shoots were Antoninus, Marcus +Aurelius, and Lucius Verus. The sibyl alludes to the adoptions and +associations which united them. Marcus Aurelius found himself sole +master of the empire at the death of Lucius Verus, at the commencement +of the year 169; and he governed it without any colleague until the year +177, when he associated with his son Commodus. As there is nothing which +can have any relation to this new colleague of Marcus Aurelius, it is +evident that the collection must have been made between the years 169 +and 177 of the vulgar era.</p> + +<p>Josephus, the historian, quotes a work of the sibyl, in which the Tower +of Babel and the confusion of tongues are spoken of nearly as in +Genesis; which proves that the Christians are not the first authors of +the supposition of the sibylline books. Josephus not relating the exact +words of the sibyl, we cannot ascertain whether what is said of the same +event in our collection was extracted from the work quoted by Josephus; +but it is certain that several lines, attributed to the sibyl, in the +exhortations found in the works of St. Justin, of Theophilus of Antioch, +of Clement of Alexandria, and in some other fathers, are not in our +collection; and as most of these lines bear no stamp of Christianity, +they might be the work of some Platonic Jew.</p> + +<p>In the time of Celsus, sibyls had already some credit among the +Christians, as it appears by two passages of the answer of Origen. But +in time sibylline prophecies appearing favorable to Christianity, they +were commonly made use of in works of controversy with much more +confidence than by the pagans themselves, who, acknowledging sibyls to +be inspired women, confined themselves to saying that the Christians had +falsified their writings, a fact which could only be decided by a +comparison of the two manuscripts, which few people are in a situation +to make.</p> + +<p>Finally, it was from a poem of the sibyl of Cumea that the principal +dogmas of Christianity were taken. Constantine, in the fine discourse +which he pronounced before the assembly of the saints, shows that the +fourth eclogue of Virgil is only a prophetic description of the Saviour; +and if that was not the immediate object of the poet, it was that of the +sibyl from whom he borrowed his ideas, who, being filled with the spirit +of God, announced the birth of the Redeemer.</p> + +<p>He believed that he saw in this poem the miracle of the birth of Jesus +of a virgin, the abolition of sin by the preaching of the gospel, and +the abolition of punishment by the grace of the Redeemer. He believed he +saw the old serpent overthrown, and the mortal venom with which he +poisoned human nature entirely deadened. He believed that he saw that +the grace of the Lord, however powerful it might be, would nevertheless +suffer the dregs and traces of sin to remain in the faithful; in a +word, he believed that he saw Jesus Christ announced under the great +character of the Son of God.</p> + +<p>In this eclogue there are many other passages which might have been said +to be copies of the Jewish prophets, who apply it themselves to Jesus +Christ; it is at least the general opinion of the Church. St. Augustine, +like others, has been persuaded of it, and has pretended that the lines +of Virgil can only be applied to Jesus Christ. Finally, the most clever +moderns maintain the same opinion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SINGING" id="SINGING"></a>SINGING.</h3> + +<h4><i>Questions on Singing, Music, Modulation, Gesticulation, etc.</i></h4> + + +<p>Could a Turk conceive that we have one kind of singing for the first of +our mysteries when we celebrate it in music, another kind which we call +"motetts" in the same temple, a third kind at the opera, and a fourth at +the theatre?</p> + +<p>In like manner, can we imagine how the ancients blew their flutes, +recited on their theatres with their heads covered by enormous masks, +and how their declamation was written down.</p> + +<p>Law was promulgated in Athens nearly as in Paris we sing an air on the +Pont-Neuf. The public crier sang an edict, accompanying himself on the +lyre.</p> + +<p>It is thus that in Paris the rose in bud is cried in one tone; old +silver lace to sell in another; only in the streets of Paris the lyre is +dispensed with.</p> + +<p>After the victory of Chæronea, Philip, the father of Alexander, sang the +decree by which Demosthenes had made him declare war, and beat time with +his foot. We are very far from singing in our streets our edicts, or +finances, or upon the two sous in the livre.</p> + +<p>It is very probable that the melopée, or modulation, regarded by +Aristotle in his poetic art as an essential part of tragedy, was an +even, simple chant, like that which we call the preface to mass, which +in my opinion is the Gregorian chant, and not the Ambrosian, and which +is a true melopée.</p> + +<p>When the Italians revived tragedy in the sixteenth century the +recitative was a melopée which could not be written; for who could write +inflections of the voice which are octaves and sixths of tone? They were +learned by heart. This custom was received in France when the French +began to form a theatre, more than a century after the Italians. The +"<i>Sophonisba</i>" of Mairet was sung like that of Trissin, but more +grossly; for throats as well as minds were then rather coarser at Paris. +All the parts of the actors, but particularly of the actresses, were +noted from memory by tradition. Mademoiselle Bauval, an actress of the +time of Corneille, Racine, and Molière, recited to me, about sixty years +ago or more, the commencement of the part of <i>Emilia</i>, in "Cinna," as it +had been played in the first representations by La Beaupré. This +modulation resembled the declamation of the present day much less than +our modern recitative resembles the manner of reading the newspaper.</p> + +<p>I cannot better compare this kind of singing, this modulation, than to +the admirable recitative of Lulli, criticised by adorers of double +crochets, who have no knowledge of the genius of our language, and who +are ignorant what help this melody furnishes to an ingenious and +sensible actor.</p> + +<p>Theatrical modulation perished with the comedian Duclos, whose only +merit being a fine voice without spirit and soul, finally rendered that +ridiculous which had been admired in Des Œuillets, and in Champmeslé.</p> + +<p>Tragedy is now played dryly; if we were not heated by the pathos of the +spectacle and the action, it would be very insipid. Our age, commendable +in other things, is the age of dryness.</p> + +<p>It is true that among the Romans one actor recited and another made +gestures. It was not by chance that the abbé Dubos imagined this +pleasant method of declaiming. Titus Livius, who never fails to instruct +us in the manners and customs of the Romans, and who, in that respect is +more useful than the ingenious and satirical Tacitus, informs us, I say, +that Andronicus, being hoarse while singing in the interludes, got +another to sing for him while he executed the dance; and thence came the +custom of dividing interludes between dancers and singers: "<i>Dicitur +cantum egisse magis vigente motu quum nihil vocis usis impediebat</i>." The +song is expressed by the dance. "Cantum egisse magis vigente motu." With +more vigorous movements.</p> + +<p>But they divided not the story of the piece between an actor who only +gesticulates and another who only sings. The thing would have been as +ridiculous as impracticable.</p> + +<p>The art of pantomimes, which are played without speaking, is quite +different, and we have seen very striking examples of it; but this art +can please only when a marked action is represented, a theatrical event +which is easily presented to the imagination of the spectator. It can +represent Orosmanes killing Zaïre and killing himself; Semiramis +wounded, dragging herself on the frontiers to the tomb of Ninus, and +holding her son in her arms. There is no occasion for verses to express +these situations by gestures to the sound of a mournful and terrible +symphony. But how would two pantomimes paint the dessertation of Maximus +and Cinna on monarchical and popular governments?</p> + +<p>Apropos of the theatrical execution of the Romans, the abbé Dubos says +that the dancers in the interludes were always in gowns. Dancing +requires a closer dress. In the Pays de Vaud, a suite of baths built by +the Romans, is carefully preserved, the pavement of which is mosaic. +This mosaic, which is not decayed, represents dancers dressed like opera +dancers. We make not these observations to detect errors in Dubos; +there is no merit in having seen this antique monument which he had not +seen; and besides, a very solid and just mind might be deceived by a +passage of Titus Livius.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SLAVES" id="SLAVES"></a>SLAVES.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>Why do we denominate slaves those whom the Romans called "<i>servi</i>," and +the Greeks "<i>duloi</i>"? Etymology is here exceedingly at fault; and +Bochart has not been able to derive this word from the Hebrew.</p> + +<p>The most ancient record that we possess in which the word "slave" is +found is the will of one Ermangaut, archbishop of Narbonne, who +bequeathed to Bishop Fredelon his slave Anaph—"Anaphinus Slavonium." +This Anaph was very fortunate in belonging to two bishops successively.</p> + +<p>It is not unlikely that the Slavonians came from the distant North with +other indigent and conquering hordes, to pillage from the Roman Empire +what that empire had pilliged from other nations, and especially in +Dalmatia and Illyria. The Italians called the misfortune of falling into +their hands "<i>shiavitu</i>," and "<i>schiavi</i>" the captives themselves.</p> + +<p>All that we can gather from the confused history of the middle ages is +that in the time of the Romans the known world was divided between +freemen and slaves. When the Slavonians, Alans, Huns, Heruli, +Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, Burgundians, Franks and Normans came to +despoil Europe, there was little probability that the multitude of +slaves would diminish. Ancient masters, in fact, saw themselves reduced +to slavery, and the smaller number enslaved the greater, as negroes are +enslaved in the colonies, and according to the practice in many other +cases.</p> + +<p>We read nothing in ancient authors concerning the slaves of the +Assyrians and the Babylonians. The book which speaks most of slaves is +the "Iliad." In the first place, Briseis is slave to Achilles; and all +the Trojan women, and more especially the princesses, fear becoming +slaves to the Greeks, and spinners for their wives.</p> + +<p>Slavery is also as ancient as war, and war as human nature. Society was +so accustomed to this degradation of the species that Epictetus, who was +assuredly worth more than his master, never expresses any surprise at +his being a slave.</p> + +<p>No legislator of antiquity ever attempted to abrogate slavery; on the +contrary, the people most enthusiastic for liberty—the Athenians, the +Lacedæmonians, the Romans, and the Carthaginians—were those who enacted +the most severe laws against their serfs. The right of life and death +over them was one of the principles of society. It must be confessed +that, of all wars, that of Spartacus was the most just, and possibly the +only one that was ever absolutely so.</p> + +<p>Who would believe that the Jews, created as it might appear to serve all +nations in turn, should also appear to possess slaves of their own? It +is observed in their laws, that they may purchase their brethren for +six years, and strangers forever. It was said, that the children of Esau +would become bondsmen to the children of Jacob; but since, under a +different dispensation, the Arabs, who call themselves descendants of +Esau, have enslaved the posterity of Jacob.</p> + +<p>The Evangelists put not a single word into the mouth of Jesus Christ +which recalls mankind to the primitive liberty to which they appear to +be born. There is nothing said in the New Testament on this state of +degradation and suffering, to which one-half of the human race was +condemned. Not a word appears in the writings of the apostles and the +fathers of the Church, tending to change beasts of burden into citizens, +as began to be done among ourselves in the thirteenth century. If +slavery be spoken of, it is the slavery of sin.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to comprehend how, in St. John, the Jews can say to +Jesus: "We have never been slaves to any one"—they who were at that +time subjected to the Romans; they who had been sold in the market after +the taking of Jerusalem; they of whom ten tribes, led away as slaves by +Shalmaneser, had disappeared from the face of the earth, and of whom two +other tribes were held in chains by the Babylonians for seventy years; +they who had been seven times reduced to slavery in their promised land, +according to their own avowal; they who in all their writings speak of +their bondage in that Egypt which they abhorred, but to which they ran +in crowds to gain money, as soon as Alexander condescended to allow +them to settle there. The reverend Dom Calmet says, that we must +understand in this passage, "intrinsic servitude," an explanation which +by no means renders it more comprehensible.</p> + +<p>Italy, the Gauls, Spain, and a part of Germany, were inhabited by +strangers, by foreigners become masters, and natives reduced to serfs. +When the bishop of Seville, Opas, and Count Julian called over the +Mahometan Moors against the Christian kings of the Visigoths, who +reigned in the Pyrenees, the Mahometans, according to their custom, +proposed to the natives, either to receive circumcision, give battle, or +pay tribute in money and girls. King Roderick was vanquished, and slaves +were made of those who were taken captive.</p> + +<p>The conquered preserved their wealth and their religion by paying; and +it is thus that the Turks have since treated Greece, except that they +imposed upon the latter a tribute of children of both sexes, the boys of +which they circumcise and transform into pages and janissaries, while +the girls are devoted to the harems. This tribute has since been +compromised for money. The Turks have only a few slaves for the interior +service of their houses, and these they purchase from the Circassians, +Mingrelians, and nations of Lesser Tartary.</p> + +<p>Between the African Mahometans and the European Christians, the custom +of piracy, and of making slaves of all who could be seized on the high +seas, has always existed. They are birds of prey who feed upon one +another; the Algerines, natives of Morocco, and Tunisians, all live by +piracy. The Knights of Malta, successors to those of Rhodes, formally +swear to rob and enslave all the Mahometans whom they meet; and the +galleys of the pope cruise for Algerines on the northern coasts of +Africa. Those who call themselves whites and Christians proceed to +purchase negroes at a good market, in order to sell them dear in +America. The Pennsylvanians alone have renounced this traffic, which +they account flagitious.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<p>I read a short time ago at Mount Krapak, where it is known that I +reside, a book written at Paris, abounding in wit and paradoxes, bold +views and hardihood, resembling in some respects those of Montesquieu, +against whom it is written. In this book, slavery is decidedly preferred +to domesticity, and above all to the free labor. This book exceedingly +pities those unhappy free men who earn a subsistence where they please, +by the labor for which man is born, and which is the guardian of +innocence, as well as the support of life. It is incumbent on no one, +says the author, either to nourish or to succor them; whereas, slaves +are fed and protected by their masters like their horses. All this is +true; but human beings would rather provide for themselves than depend +on others; and horses bred in the forest prefer them to stables.</p> + +<p>He justly remarks that artisans lose many days in which they are +forbidden to work, which is very true; but this is not because they are +free, but because ridiculous laws exist in regard to holidays.</p> + +<p>He says most truly, that it is not Christian charity which has broken +the fetters of servitude, since the same charity has riveted them for +more than twelve centuries; and that Christians, and even monks, all +charitable as they are, still possess slaves reduced to a frightful +state of bondage, under the name of "<i>mortaillables, mainmortables</i>" and +serfs of the soil.</p> + +<p>He asserts that which is very true, that Christian princes only +affranchised their serfs through avarice. It was, in fact, to obtain the +money laboriously amassed by these unhappy persons, that they signed +their letters of manumission. They did not bestow liberty, but sold it. +The emperor Henry V. began: he freed the serfs of Spires and Worms in +the twelfth century. The kings of France followed his example; and +nothing tends more to prove the value of liberty than the high price +these gross men paid for it.</p> + +<p>Lastly, it is for the men on whose condition the dispute turns to decide +upon which state they prefer. Interrogate the lowest laborer covered +with rags, fed upon black bread, and sleeping on straw, in a hut half +open to the elements; ask this man, whether he will be a slave, better +fed, clothed, and bedded; not only will he recoil with horror at the +proposal, but regard you with horror for making the proposal. Ask a +slave if he is willing to be free, and you will hear his answer. This +alone ought to decide the question.</p> + +<p>It is also to be considered that a laborer may become a farmer, and a +farmer a proprietor. In France, he may even become a counsellor of the +king, if he acquire riches. In England, he may become a freeholder, or a +member of parliament. In Sweden, he may become a member of the national +states. These possibilities are of more value than that of dying +neglected in the corner of his master's stable.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<p>Puffendorff says, that slavery has been established "by the free consent +of the opposing parties." I will believe Puffendorff, when he shows me +the original contract.</p> + +<p>Grotius inquires, whether a man who is taken captive in war has a right +to escape; and it is to be remarked, that he speaks not of a prisoner on +his parole of honor. He decides, that he has no such right; which is +about as much as to say that a wounded man has no right to get cured. +Nature decides against Grotius.</p> + +<p>Attend to the following observations of the author of the "Spirit of +Laws," after painting negro slavery with the pencil of Molière:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Perry says that the Moscovites sell themselves readily; I can +guess the reason—their liberty is worth nothing."</p> + +<p>Captain John Perry, an Englishman, who wrote an account of the state of +Russia in 1714, says nothing of that which the "Spirit of Laws" makes +him say. Perry contains a few lines only on the subject of Russian +bondage, which are as follows: "The czar has ordered that, throughout +his states, in future, no one is to be called '<i>golup</i>' or slave; but +only '<i>raab</i>,' which signifies subject. However, the people derive no +real advantage from this order, being still in reality slaves."</p> + +<p>The author of the "Spirit of Laws" adds, that according to Captain +Dampier, "everybody sells himself in the kingdom of Achem." This would +be a singular species of commerce, and I have seen nothing in the +"Voyage" of Dampier which conveys such a notion. It is a pity that a man +so replete with wit should hazard so many crudities, and so frequently +quote incorrectly.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<p class="caption"><i>Serfs of the Body, Serfs of the Glebe, Mainmort, etc.</i></p> + +<p>It is commonly asserted that there are no more slaves in France; that it +is the kingdom of the Franks, and that slave and Frank are contradictory +terms; that people are so free there that many financiers die worth more +than thirty millions of francs, acquired at the expense of the +descendants of the ancient Franks. Happy French nation to be thus free! +But how, in the meantime, is so much freedom compatible with so many +species of servitude, as for instance, that of the <i>mainmort</i>?</p> + +<p>Many a fine lady at Paris, who sparkles in her box at the opera, is +ignorant that she descends from a family of Burgundy, the Bourbonnais, +Franche-Comté, Marche, or Auvergne, which family is still enslaved, +<i>mortaillable</i> and <i>mainmortable</i>.</p> + +<p>Of these slaves, some are obliged to work three days a week for the +lord, and others two. If they die without children, their wealth belongs +to the lord; if they leave children, the lord takes only the finest +cattle and, according to more than one custom, the most valuable +movables. According to other customs, if the son of a <i>mainmortable</i> +slave visits not the house of his father within a year and a day from +his death, he loses all his father's property, yet still remains a +slave; that is to say, whatever wealth he may acquire by his industry, +becomes at his death the property of the lord.</p> + +<p>What follows is still better: An honest Parisian pays a visit to his +parents in Burgundy and in Franche-Comté, resides a year and a day in a +<i>mainmortable</i> house, and returning to Paris finds that his property, +wherever situated, belongs to the lord, in case he dies without issue.</p> + +<p>It is very properly asked how the province of Burgundy obtained the +nickname of "free," while distinguished by such a species of servitude? +It is without doubt upon the principle that the Greeks called the +furies <i>Eumenides</i>, "good hearts."</p> + +<p>But the most curious and most consolatory circumstance attendant on this +jurisprudence is that the lords of half these <i>mainmortable</i> territories +are monks.</p> + +<p>If by chance a prince of the blood, a minister of state, or a chancellor +cast his eyes upon this article, it will be well for him to recollect, +that the king of France, in his ordinance of May 18, 1731, declares to +the nation, "that the monks and endowments possess more than half of the +property of Franche-Comté."</p> + +<p>The marquis d'Argenson, in "<i>Le Droit Public Ecclesiastique</i>," says, +that in Artois, out of eighteen ploughs, the monks possess thirteen. The +monks themselves are called <i>mainmortables</i>, and yet possess slaves. Let +us refer these monkish possessions to the chapter of contradictions.</p> + +<p>When we have made some modest remonstrances upon this strange tyranny on +the part of people who have vowed to God to be poor and humble, they +will then reply to us: We have enjoyed this right for six hundred years; +why then despoil us of it? We may humbly rejoin, that for these thirty +or forty thousand years, the weasels have been in the habit of sucking +the blood of our pullets; yet we assume to ourselves the right of +destroying them when we can catch them.</p> + +<p>N.B. It is a mortal sin for a Chartreux to eat half an ounce of mutton, +but he may with a safe conscience devour the entire substance of a +family. I have seen the Chartreux in my neighborhood inherit a hundred +thousand crowns from one of their mainmortable slaves, who had made a +fortune by commerce at Frankfort. But all the truth must be told; it is +no less true, that his family enjoys the right of soliciting alms at the +gate of the convent.</p> + +<p>Let us suppose that the monks have still fifty or sixty thousand slaves +in the kingdom of France. Time has not been found hitherto to reform +this Christian jurisprudence; but something is beginning to be thought +about it. It is only to wait a few hundred years, until the debts of the +state be paid.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SLEEPERS_THE_SEVEN" id="SLEEPERS_THE_SEVEN"></a>SLEEPERS (THE SEVEN).</h3> + + +<p>Fable supposes that one Epimenides in a single nap, slept twenty-seven +years, and that on his awaking he was quite astonished at finding his +grandchildren—who asked him his name—married, his friends dead, his +town and the manners of its inhabitants changed. It was a fine field for +criticism, and a pleasant subject for a comedy. The legend has borrowed +all the features of the fable, and enlarged upon them.</p> + +<p>The author of the "Golden Legend" was not the first who, in the +thirteenth century, instead of one sleeper, gave us seven, and bravely +made them seven martyrs. He took his edifying history from Gregory de +Tours, a veridical writer, who took it from Sigebert, who took it from +Metaphrastes, who had taken it from Nicephorus. It is thus that truth is +handed down from man to man.</p> + +<p>The reverend father Peter Ribadeneira, of the company of Jesus, goes +still further in this celebrated "Flower of the Saints," of which +mention Is made in Molière's "<i>Tartuffe</i>." It was translated, augmented; +and enriched with engravings, by the reverend Antony Girard, of the same +society: nothing was wanting to it.</p> + +<p>Some of the curious will doubtless like to see the prose of the reverend +father Girard: behold a specimen! "In the time of the emperor Decius, +the Church experienced a violent and fearful persecution. Among other +Christians, seven brothers were accused, young, well disposed, and +graceful; they were the children of a knight of Ephesus, and called +Maximilian, Marius, Martinian, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and +Constantine. The emperor first took from them their golden girdles; then +they hid themselves in a cavern, the entrance of which Decius caused to +be walled up that they might die of hunger."</p> + +<p>Father Girard proceeds to say, that all seven quickly fell asleep, and +did not awake again until they had slept one hundred and seventy-seven +years.</p> + +<p>Father Girard, far from believing that this is the dream of a man awake, +proves its authenticity by the most demonstrative arguments; and when +he could find no other proof, alleges the names of these seven +sleepers—names never being given to people who have not existed. The +seven sleepers doubtless could neither be deceived nor deceivers, so +that it is not to dispute this history that we speak of it, but merely +to remark that there is not a single fabulous event of antiquity which +has not been <i>rectified</i> by ancient legendaries. All the history of +Œdipus, Hercules, and Theseus is found among them, accommodated to +their style. They have invented little, but they have <i>perfected</i> much.</p> + +<p>I ingenuously confess that I know not whence Nicephorus took this fine +story. I suppose it was from the tradition of Ephesus; for the cave of +the seven sleepers, and the little church dedicated to them, still +exist. The least awakened of the poor Greeks still go there to perform +their devotions. Sir Paul Rycaut and several other English travellers +have seen these two monuments; but as to their devotions there, we hear +nothing about them.</p> + +<p>Let us conclude this article with the reasoning of Abbadie: "These are +memorials instituted to celebrate forever the adventure of the seven +sleepers. No Greek in Ephesus has ever doubted of it, and these Greeks +could not have been deceived, nor deceive anybody else; therefore the +history of the seven sleepers is incontestable."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SLOW_BELLIES_VENTRES_PARESSEUX" id="SLOW_BELLIES_VENTRES_PARESSEUX"></a>SLOW BELLIES (VENTRES PARESSEUX).</h3> + + +<p>St. Paul says, that the Cretans were all "liars," "evil beasts," and +"slow bellies." The physician Hequet understood by slow bellies, that +the Cretans were costive, which vitiated their blood, and rendered them +ill-disposed and mischievous. It is doubtless very true that persons of +this habit are more prone to choler than others: their bile passes not +away, but accumulates until their blood is overheated.</p> + +<p>When you have a favor to beg of a minister, or his first secretary, +inform yourself adroitly of the state of his stomach, and always seize +on "mollia fandi tempora."</p> + +<p>No one is ignorant that our character and turn of mind are intimately +connected with the water-closet. Cardinal Richelieu was sanguinary, +because he had the piles, which afflicted his rectum and hardened his +disposition. Queen Anne of Austria always called him "<i>cul pourri</i>" +(sore bottom), which nickname redoubled his bile, and possibly cost +Marshal Marillac his life, and Marshal Bassompierre his liberty; but I +cannot discover why certain persons should be greater liars than others. +There is no known connection between the anal sphincter and falsehood, +like that very sensible one between our stomach and our passions, our +manner of thinking and our conduct.</p> + +<p>I am much disposed to believe, that by "slow bellies" St. Paul +understood voluptuous men and gross feeders—a kind of priors, canons, +and abbots-commendatory—rich prelates, who lay in bed all the morning +to recover from the excesses of the evening, as Marot observes in his +eighty-sixth epigram in regard to a fat prior, who lay in bed and +fondled his grandson while his partridges were preparing:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Un gros prieur son petit fils baisait,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Et mignardait au matin dans sa couche,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Tandis rôtir sa perdrix en faisait, etc.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But people may lie in bed all the morning without being either liars, or +badly disposed. On the contrary, the voluptuously indolent are generally +socially gentle, and easy in their commerce with the world.</p> + +<p>However this may be, I regret that St. Paul should offend an entire +people. In this passage, humanly speaking, there is neither politeness, +ability, or even truth. Nothing is gained from men by calling them evil +beasts; and doubtless men of merit were to be found in Crete. Why thus +outrage the country of Minos, which Archbishop Fénelon, infinitely more +polished than St. Paul, so much eulogizes in his "Telemachus"?</p> + +<p>Was not St. Paul somewhat difficult to live with, of a proud spirit, and +of a hard and imperious character? If I had been one of the apostles, or +even a disciple only, I should infallibly have quarrelled with him. It +appears to me, that the fault was all on his side, in his dispute with +Simon Peter Barjonas. He had a furious passion for domination. He often +boasts of being an apostle, and more an apostle than his associates—he +who had assisted to stone St. Stephen, he who had been assistant +persecutor under Gamaliel, and who was called upon to weep longer for +his crimes than St. Peter for his weakness!—always, however, humanly +speaking.</p> + +<p>He boasts of being a Roman citizen born at Tarsus, whereas St. Jerome +pretends that he was a poor provincial Jew, born at Giscala in Galilee. +In his letters addressed to the small flock of his brethren, he always +speaks magisterially: "I will come," says he to certain Corinthians, +"and I will judge of you all on the testimony of two or three witnesses; +and I will neither pardon those who have sinned, nor others." This "nor +others" is somewhat severe.</p> + +<p>Many men at present would be disposed to take the part of St. Peter +against St. Paul, but for the episode of Ananias and Sapphira, which has +intimidated persons inclined to bestow alms.</p> + +<p>I return to my text of the Cretan liars, evil beasts, and slow bellies; +and I recommend to all missionaries never to commence their labors among +any people with insults.</p> + +<p>It is not that I regard the Cretans as the most just and respectable of +men, as they were called by fabulous Greece. I pretend not to reconcile +their pretended virtue with the pretended bull of which the beautiful +Pasiphæ was so much enamored; nor with the skill exerted by the artisan +Dædalus in the construction of a cow of brass, by which Pasiphæ was +enabled to produce a Minotaur, to whom the pious and equitable Minos +sacrificed every year—and not every nine years—seven grown-up boys and +seven virgins of Athens.</p> + +<p>It is not that I believe in the hundred large cities in Crete, meaning a +hundred poor villages standing upon a long and narrow rock, with two or +three towns. It is to be regretted that Rollin, in his elegant +compilation of "Ancient History," has repeated so many of the ancient +fables of Crete, and that of Minos among others.</p> + +<p>With respect to the poor Greeks and Jews who now inhabit the steep +mountains of this island, under the government of a pasha, they may +possibly be liars and evil disposed, but I cannot tell if they are slow +of digestion: I sincerely hope, however, that they have sufficient to +eat.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SOCIETY_ROYAL_OF_LONDON_AND_ACADEMIES" id="SOCIETY_ROYAL_OF_LONDON_AND_ACADEMIES"></a>SOCIETY (ROYAL) OF LONDON, AND ACADEMIES.</h3> + + +<p>Great men have all been formed either before academies or independent of +them. Homer and Phidias, Sophocles and Apelles, Virgil and Vitruvius, +Ariosto and Michelangelo, were none of them academicians. Tasso +encountered only unjust criticism from the Academy della Crusca, and +Newton was not indebted to the Royal Society of London for his +discoveries in optics, upon gravitation, upon the integral calculus, and +upon chronology. Of what use then are academies? To cherish the fire +which great genius has kindled.</p> + +<p>The Royal Society of London was formed in 1660, six years before the +French Academy of Science. It has no rewards like ours, but neither has +it any of the disagreeable distinctions invented by the abbé Bignon, who +divided the Academy of Sciences between those who paid, and honorary +members who were not learned. The society of London being independent, +and only self-encouraged, has been composed of members who have +discovered the laws of light, of gravitation, of the aberration of the +stars, the reflecting telescope, the fire engine, solar microscope, and +many other inventions, as useful as admirable. Could they have had +greater men, had they admitted pensionaries or honorary members?</p> + +<p>The famous Doctor Swift, in the last years of the reign of Queen Anne, +formed the idea of establishing an academy for the English language, +after the model of the Académie Française. This project was countenanced +by the earl of Oxford, first lord of the treasury, and still more by +Lord Bolingbroke, secretary of state, who possessed the gift of speaking +extempore in parliament with as much purity as Doctor Swift composed in +his closet, and who would have been the patron and ornament of this +academy. The members likely to compose it were men whose works will last +as long as the English language. Doctor Swift would have been one, and +Mr. Prior, whom we had among us as public minister, and who enjoyed a +similar reputation in England to that of La Fontaine among ourselves. +There were also Mr. Pope, the English Boileau, and Mr. Congreve, whom +they call their Molière, and many more whose names escape my +recollection. The queen, however, dying suddenly, the Whigs took it into +their heads to occupy themselves in hanging the protectors of academies, +a process which is very injurious to the belles-lettres. The members of +this body would have enjoyed much greater advantages than were possessed +by the first who composed the French Academy. Swift, Prior, Congreve, +Dryden, Pope, Addison, and others, had fixed the English language by +their writings, whereas Chapelain, Colletet, Cassaigne, Faret, and +Cotin, our first academicians, were a scandal to the nation; and their +names have become so ridiculous that if any author had the misfortune to +be called Chapelain or Cotin at present, he would be obliged to change +his name.</p> + +<p>Above all, the labors of an English academy would have materially +differed from our own. One day, a wit of that country asked me for the +memoirs of the French Academy. It composes no memoirs, I replied; but it +has caused sixty or eighty volumes of compliments to be printed. He ran +through one or two, but was not able to comprehend the style, although +perfectly able to understand our best authors. "All that I can learn by +these fine compositions," said he to me, "is, that the new member, +having assured the body that his predecessor was a great man, Cardinal +Richelieu a very great man, and Chancellor Séguier a tolerably great +man, the president replies by a similar string of assurances, to which +he adds a new one, implying that the new member is also a sort of great +man; and as for himself, the president, he may also perchance possess a +spice of pretension." It is easy to perceive by what fatality all the +academic speeches are so little honorable to the body. "<i>Vitium est +temporis, potius quam hominis</i>." It insensibly became a custom for every +academician to repeat those eulogies at his reception; and thus the body +imposed upon themselves a kind of obligation to fatigue the public. If +we wish to discover the reason why the most brilliant among the men of +genius, who have been chosen by this body, have so frequently made the +worst speeches, the cause may be easily explained. It is, that they have +been anxious to shine, and to treat worn-out matter in a new way. The +necessity of saying something; the embarrassment produced by the +consciousness of having nothing to say; and the desire to exhibit +ability, are three things sufficient to render even a great man +ridiculous. Unable to discover new thoughts, the new members fatigue +themselves for novel terms of expression, and often speak without +thinking; like men who, affecting to chew with nothing in their mouths, +seem to eat while perishing with hunger. Instead of a law in the French +Academy to have these speeches printed, a law should be passed in +prevention of that absurdity.</p> + +<p>The Academy of Belles-Lettres imposed upon itself a task more judicious +and useful—that of presenting to the public a collection of memoirs +comprising the most critical and curious disquisitions and researches. +These memoirs are already held in great esteem by foreigners. It is only +desirable, that some subjects were treated more profoundly, and others +not treated of at all. They might, for example, very well dispense with +dissertations upon the prerogative of the right hand over the left; and +of other inquiries which, under a less ridiculous title, are not less +frivolous. The Academy of Sciences, in its more difficult and useful +investigation, embraces a study of nature, and the improvement of the +arts; and it is to be expected that studies so profound and +perseveringly pursued, calculations so exact, and discoveries so +refined, will in the end produce a corresponding benefit to the world at +large.</p> + +<p>As to the French Academy, what services might it not render to letters, +to the language, and the nation, if, instead of printing volumes of +compliments every year, it would reprint the best works of the age of +Louis XIV., purified from all the faults of language which have crept +into them! Corneille and Molière are full of them, and they swarm in La +Fontaine. Those which could not be corrected might at least be marked, +and Europe at large, which reads these authors, would then learn our +language with certainty, and its purity would be forever fixed. Good +French books, printed with care at the expense of the king, would be +one of the most glorious monuments of the nation. I have heard say, that +M. Despréaux once made this proposal, which has since been renewed by a +man whose wit, wisdom, and sound criticism are generally acknowledged; +but this idea has met with the fate of several other useful +projects—that of being approved and neglected.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SOCRATES" id="SOCRATES"></a>SOCRATES.</h3> + + +<p>Is the mould broken of those who loved virtue for itself, of a +Confucius, a Pythagoras, a Thales, a Socrates? In their time, there were +crowds of devotees to their pagods and divinities; minds struck with +fear of Cerberus and of the Furies, who underwent initiations, +pilgrimages, and mysteries, who ruined themselves in offerings of black +sheep. All times have seen those unfortunates of whom Lucretius speaks:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Qui quocumque tamen miseri venere parentant,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Et nigras mactant pecudes, et manibu Divis</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>In ferias mittunt; multoque in rebus acerbis</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Acrius advertunt animus ad religionem.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 15.5em;">—<span class="small">LUCRETIUS</span>, iii, 51-54.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Who sacrifice black sheep on every tomb</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To please the manes; and of all the rout</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">When cares and dangers press, grow most devout.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 17em;">—<span class="small">CREECH</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Mortifications were in use; the priests of Cybele castrated themselves +to preserve continence. How comes it, that among all the martyrs of +superstition, antiquity reckons not a single great man—a sage? It is, +that fear could never make virtue, and that great men have been +enthusiasts in moral good. Wisdom was their predominant passion; they +were sages as Alexander was a warrior, as Homer was a poet, and Apelles +a painter—by a superior energy and nature; which is all that is meant +by the demon of Socrates.</p> + +<p>One day, two citizens of Athens, returning from the temple of Mercury, +perceived Socrates in the public place. One said to the other: "Is not +that the rascal who says that one can be virtuous without going every +day to offer up sheep and geese?" "Yes," said the other, "that is the +sage who has no religion; that is the atheist who says there is only one +God." Socrates approached them with his simple air, his dæmon, and his +irony, which Madame Dacier has so highly exalted. "My friends," said he +to them, "one word, if you please: a man who prays to God, who adores +Him, who seeks to resemble Him as much as human weakness can do, and who +does all the good which lies in his power, what would you call him?" "A +very religious soul," said they. "Very well; we may therefore adore the +Supreme Being, and have a great deal of religion?" "Granted," said the +two Athenians. "But do you believe," pursued Socrates, "that when the +Divine Architect of the world arranged all the globes which roll over +our heads, when He gave motion and life to so many different beings, He +made use of the arm of Hercules, the lyre of Apollo, or the flute of +Pan?" "It is not probable," said they. "But if it is not likely that He +called in the aid of others to construct that which we see, it is not +probable that He preserves it through others rather than through +Himself. If Neptune was the absolute master of the sea, Juno of the air, +Æolus of the winds, Ceres of harvests—and one would have a calm, when +the other would have rain—you feel clearly, that the order of nature +could not exist as it is. You will confess, that all depends upon Him +who has made all. You give four white horses to the sun, and four black +ones to the moon; but is it not more likely, that day and night are the +effect of the motion given to the stars by their Master, than that they +were produced by eight horses?" The two citizens looked at him, but +answered nothing. In short, Socrates concluded by proving to them, that +they might have harvests without giving money to the priests of Ceres; +go to the chase without offering little silver statues to the temple of +Diana; that Pomona gave not fruits; that Neptune gave not horses; and +that they should thank the Sovereign who had made all.</p> + +<p>His discourse was most exactly logical. Xenophon, his disciple, a man +who knew the world, and who afterwards sacrificed to the wind, in the +retreat of the ten thousand, took Socrates by the sleeve, and said to +him: "Your discourse is admirable; you have spoken better than an +oracle; you are lost; one of these honest people to whom you speak is a +butcher, who sells sheep and geese for sacrifices; and the other a +goldsmith, who gains much by making little gods of silver and brass for +women. They will accuse you of being a blasphemer, who would diminish +their trade; they will depose against you to Melitus and Anitus, your +enemies, who have resolved upon your ruin: have a care of hemlock; your +familiar spirit should have warned you not to say to a butcher and a +goldsmith what you should only say to Plato and Xenophon."</p> + +<p>Some time after, the enemies of Socrates caused him to be condemned by +the council of five hundred. He had two hundred and twenty voices in his +favor, which may cause it to be presumed that there were two hundred and +twenty philosophers in this tribunal; but it shows that, in all +companies, the number of philosophers is always the minority.</p> + +<p>Socrates therefore drank hemlock, for having spoken in favor of the +unity of God; and the Athenians afterwards consecrated a temple to +Socrates—to him who disputed against all temples dedicated to inferior +beings.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SOLOMON" id="SOLOMON"></a>SOLOMON.</h3> + + +<p>Several kings have been good scholars, and have written good books. The +king of Prussia, Frederick the Great, is the latest example we have had +of it: German monarchs will be found who compose French verses, and who +write the history of their countries. James I. in England, and even +Henry VIII. have written. In Spain, we must go back as far as Alphonso +X. Still it is doubtful whether he put his hand to the "Alphonsine +Tables."</p> + +<p>France cannot boast of having had an author king. The empire of Germany +has no book from the pen of its emperors; but Rome was glorified in +Cæsar, Marcus Aurelius, and Julian. In Asia, several writers are +reckoned among the kings. The present emperor of China, Kien Long, +particularly, is considered a great poet; but Solomon, or Solyman, the +Hebrew, has still more reputation than Kien Long, the Chinese.</p> + +<p>The name of Solomon has always been revered in the East. The works +believed to be his, the "Annals of the Jews," and the fables of the +Arabs, have carried his renown as far as the Indies. His reign is the +great epoch of the Hebrews.</p> + +<p>He was the third king of Palestine. The First Book of Kings says that +his mother, Bathsheba, obtained from David, the promise that he should +crown Solomon, her son, instead of Adonijah, his eldest. It is not +surprising that a woman, an accomplice in the death of her first +husband, should have had artifice enough to cause the inheritance to be +given to the fruit of her adultery, and to cause the legitimate son to +be disinherited, who was also the eldest.</p> + +<p>It is a very remarkable fact that the prophet Nathan, who reproached +David with his adultery, the murder of Uriah, and the marriage which +followed this murder, was the same who afterwards seconded Bathsheba in +placing that Solomon on the throne, who was born of this sanguine and +infamous marriage. This conduct, reasoning according to the flesh, would +prove, that the prophet Nathan had, according to circumstances, two +weights and two measures. The book even says not that Nathan received a +particular mission from God to disinherit Adonijah. If he had one, we +must respect it; but we cannot admit that we find it written.</p> + +<p>It is a great question in theology, whether Solomon is most renowned for +his ready money, his wives, or his books. I am sorry that he commenced +his reign in the Turkish style by murdering his brother.</p> + +<p>Adonijah, excluded from the throne by Solomon, asked him, as an only +favor, permission to espouse Abishag, the young girl who had been given +to David to warm him in his old age. Scripture says not whether Solomon +disputed with Adonijah, the concubine of his father; but it says, that +Solomon, simply on this demand of Adonijah, caused him to be +assassinated. Apparently God, who gave him the spirit of wisdom, refused +him that of justice and humanity, as he afterwards refused him the gift +of continence.</p> + +<p>It is said in the same Book of Kings that he was the master of a great +kingdom which extended from the Euphrates to the Red Sea and the +Mediterranean; but unfortunately it is said at the same time, that the +king of Egypt conquered the country of Gezer, in Canaan, and that he +gave the city of Gezer as a portion to his daughter, whom it is +pretended that Solomon espoused. It is also said that there was a king +at Damascus; and the kingdoms of Tyre and Sidon flourished. Surrounded +thus with powerful states, he doubtless manifested his wisdom in living +in peace with them all. The extreme abundance which enriched his country +could only be the fruit of this profound wisdom, since, as we have +already remarked, in the time of Saul there was not a worker in iron in +the whole country. Those who reason find it difficult to understand how +David, the successor of Saul, so vanquished by the Philistines, could +have established so vast an empire.</p> + +<p>The riches which he left to Solomon are still more wonderful; he gave +him in ready money one hundred and three thousand talents of gold, and +one million thirteen thousand talents of silver. The Hebraic talent of +gold, according; to Arbuthnot, is worth six thousand livres sterling, +the talent of silver, about five hundred livres sterling. The sum total +of the legacy in ready money, without the jewels and other effects, and +without the ordinary revenue—proportioned no doubt to this +treasure—amounted, according to this calculation, to one billion, one +hundred and nineteen millions, five hundred thousand pounds sterling, or +to five billions, five hundred and ninety-seven crowns of Germany, or to +twenty-five billions, forty-eight millions of francs. There was not then +so much money circulating through the whole world. Some scholars value +this treasure at a little less, but the sum is always very large for +Palestine.</p> + +<p>We see not, after that, why Solomon should torment himself so much to +send fleets to Ophir to bring gold. We can still less divine how this +powerful monarch, in his vast states, had not a man who knew how to +fashion wood from the forest of Libanus. He was obliged to beg Hiram, +king of Tyre, to lend him wood cutters and laborers to work it. It must +be confessed that these contradictions exceedingly exercise the genius +of commentators.</p> + +<p>Every day, fifty oxen, and one hundred sheep were served up for the +dinner and supper of his houses, and poultry and game in proportion, +which might be about sixty thousand pounds weight of meat per day. He +kept a good house. It is added, that he had forty thousand stables, and +as many houses for his chariots of war, but only twelve thousand stables +for his cavalry. Here is a great number of chariots for a mountainous +country; and it was a great equipage for a king whose predecessor had +only a mule at his coronation, and a territory which bred asses alone.</p> + +<p>It was not becoming a prince possessing so many chariots to be limited +in the article of women; he therefore possessed seven hundred who bore +the name of queen; and what is strange, he had but three hundred +concubines; contrary to the custom of kings, who have generally more +mistresses than wives.</p> + +<p>He kept four hundred and twelve thousand horses, doubtless to take the +air with them along the lake of Gennesaret, or that of Sodom, in the +neighborhood of the Brook of Kedron, which would be one of the most +delightful places upon earth, if the brook was not dry nine months of +the year, and if the earth was not horribly stony.</p> + +<p>As to the temple which he built, and which the Jews believed to be the +finest work of the universe, if the Bramantes, the Michelangelos, and +the Palladios, had seen this building, they would not have admired it. +It was a kind of small square fortress, which enclosed a court; in this +court was one edifice of forty cubits long, and another of twenty; and +it is said, that this second edifice, which was properly the temple, the +oracle, the holy of holies, was only twenty cubits in length and +breadth, and twenty cubits high. M. Souflot would not have been quite +pleased with those proportions.</p> + +<p>The books attributed to Solomon have lasted longer than his temple.</p> + +<p>The name of the author alone has rendered these books respectable. They +should be good, since they were written by a king, and this king passed +for the wisest of men.</p> + +<p>The first work attributed to him is that of Proverbs. It is a collection +of maxims, which sometimes appear to our refined minds trifling, low, +incoherent, in bad taste, and without meaning. People cannot be +persuaded that an enlightened king has composed a collection of +sentences, in which there is not one which regards the art of +government, politics, manners of courtiers, or customs of a court. They +are astonished at seeing whole chapters in which nothing is spoken of +but prostitutes, who invite passengers in the streets to lie with them. +They revolt against sentences in the following style: "There are three +things that are never satisfied, a fourth which never says 'enough'; the +grave; the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water, are the +three; and the fourth is fire, which never sayeth 'enough.'</p> + +<p>"There be three things which are too wonderful for me; yea, four which I +know not. The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a +rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man +with a maid.</p> + +<p>"There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are +exceeding wise. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their +meat in the summer; the conies are but a feeble race, yet they make +their houses in rocks; the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all +of them by bands; the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in +kings' palaces."</p> + +<p>Can we impute such follies as these to a great king, to the wisest of +mortals? say the objectors. This criticism is strong; it should deliver +itself with more respect.</p> + +<p>The Proverbs have been attributed to Isaiah, Elijah, Sobna, Eliakim, +Joachim, and several others; but whoever compiled this collection of +Eastern sentences, it does not appear that it was a king who gave +himself the trouble. Would he have said that the terror of the king is +like the roaring of a lion? It is thus that a subject or a slave speaks, +who trembles at the anger of his master. Would Solomon have spoken so +much of unchaste women? Would he have said: "Look thou not upon the wine +when it is red, when it giveth its color in the glass"?</p> + +<p>I doubt very much whether there were any drinking glasses in the time of +Solomon; it is a very recent invention; all antiquity drank from cups of +wood or metal; and this single passage perhaps indicates that this +Jewish collection was composed in Alexandria, as well as most of the +other Jewish books.</p> + +<p>The Book of Ecclesiastes, which is attributed to Solomon, is in quite a +different order and taste. He who speaks in this work seems not to be +deceived by visions of grandeur, to be tired of pleasures, and disgusted +with science. We have taken him for an Epicurean who repeats on each +page, that the just and unjust are subject to the same accidents; that +man is nothing more than the beast which perishes; that it is better not +to be born than to exist; that there is no other life; and that there is +nothing more good and reasonable than to enjoy the fruit of our labors +with a woman whom we love.</p> + +<p>It might happen that Solomon held such discourse with some of his wives; +and it is pretended that these are objections which he made; but these +maxims, which have a libertine air, do not at all resemble objections; +and it is a joke to profess to understand in an author the exact +contrary of that which he says.</p> + +<p>We believe that we read the sentiments of a materialist, at once sensual +and disgusted, who appears to have put an edifying word or two on God in +the last verse, to diminish the scandal which such a book must +necessarily create. As to the rest, several fathers say that Solomon did +penance; so that we can pardon him.</p> + +<p>Critics have difficulty in persuading themselves that this book can be +by Solomon; and Grotius pretends that it was written under Zerubbabel. +It is not natural for Solomon to say: "Woe to thee, O land, when thy +king is a child!" The Jews had not then such kings.</p> + +<p>It is not natural for him to say: "I observe the face of the king." It +is much more likely, that the author spoke of Solomon, and that by this +alienation of mind, which we discover in so many rabbins, he has often +forgotten, in the course of the book, that it was a king whom he caused +to speak.</p> + +<p>What appears surprising to them is that this work has been consecrated +among the canonical books. If the canon of the Bible were to be +established now, say they, perhaps the Book of Ecclesiastes might not be +inserted; but it was inserted at a time when books were very rare, and +more admired than read. All that can be done now is to palliate the +Epicureanism which prevails in this work. The Book of Ecclesiastes has +been treated like many other things which disgust in a particular +manner. Being established in times of ignorance, we are forced, to the +scandal of reason, to maintain them in wiser times, and to disguise the +horror or absurdity of them by allegories. These critics are too bold.</p> + +<p>The "Song of Songs" is further attributed to Solomon, because the name +of that king is found in two or three places; because it is said to the +beloved, that she is beautiful as the curtains of Solomon; because she +says that she is black, by which epithet it is believed that Solomon +designated his Egyptian wife.</p> + +<p>These three reasons have not proved convincing:</p> + +<p>1. When the beloved, in speaking to her lover, says "The king hath +brought me into his chamber," she evidently speaks of another than her +lover; therefore the king is not this lover; it is the king of the +festival; it is the paranymph, the master of the house, whom she means; +and this Jewess is so far from being the mistress of a king, that +throughout the work she is a shepherdess, a country girl, who goes +seeking her lover through the fields, and in the streets of the town, +and who is stopped at the gates by a porter who steals her garment.</p> + +<p>2. "I am beautiful as the curtains of Solomon," is the expression of a +villager, who would say: I am as beautiful as the king's tapestries; and +it is precisely because the name of Solomon is found in this work, that +it cannot be his. What monarch could make so ridiculous a comparison? +"Behold," says the beloved, "behold King Solomon with the crown +wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals!" Who +recognizes not in these expressions the common comparisons which girls +make in speaking of their lovers? They say: "He is as beautiful as a +prince; he has the air of a king," etc.</p> + +<p>It is true that the shepherdess, who is made to speak in this amorous +song, says that she is tanned by the sun, that she is brown. Now if this +was the daughter of the king of Egypt, she was not so tanned. Females of +quality in Egypt were fair. Cleopatra was so; and, in a word, this +person could not be at once a peasant and a queen.</p> + +<p>A monarch who had a thousand wives might have said to one of them: "Let +her kiss me with the lips of her mouth; for thy breasts are better than +wine." A king and a shepherd, when the subject is of kissing, might +express themselves in the same manner. It is true, that it is strange +enough it should be pretended, that the girl speaks in this place, and +eulogizes the breasts of her lover.</p> + +<p>We further avow that a gallant king might have said to his mistress: "A +bundle of myrrh is my well beloved unto me; he shall lie all night +between my breasts."</p> + +<p>That he might have said to her: "Thy navel is like a round goblet which +wanteth not liquor; thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with +lilies; thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins; thy neck +is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fish pools in Heshbon; and +thy nose as the tower of Lebanon."</p> + +<p>I confess that the "Eclogues" of Virgil are in a different style; but +each has his own, and a Jew is not obliged to write like Virgil.</p> + +<p>We have not noticed this fine turn of Eastern eloquence: "We have a +little sister, and she hath no breasts. What shall we do for our sister +in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build +upon her; and if she be a door, we will close it."</p> + +<p>Solomon, the wisest of men, might have spoken thus in his merry moods; +but several rabbins have maintained, not only that this voluptuous +eclogue was not King Solomon's, but that it is not authentic. Theodore +of Mopsuestes was of this opinion, and the celebrated Grotius calls the +"Song of Songs," a libertine flagitious work. However, it is +consecrated, and we regard it as a perpetual allegory of the marriage of +Jesus Christ with the Church. We must confess, that the allegory is +rather strong, and we see not what the Church could understand, when the +author says that his little sister has no breasts.</p> + +<p>After all, this song is a precious relic of antiquity; it is the only +book of love of the Hebrews which remains to us. Enjoyment is often +spoken of in it. It is a Jewish eclogue. The style is like that of all +the eloquent works of the Hebrews, without connection, without order, +full of repetition, confused, ridiculously metaphorical, but containing +passages which breathe simplicity and love.</p> + +<p>The "Book of Wisdom" is in a more serious taste; but it is no more +Solomon's than the "Song of Songs." It is generally attributed to Jesus, +the son of Sirac, and by some to Philo of Biblos; but whoever may be the +author, it is believed, that in his time the Pentateuch did not exist; +for he says in chapter x., that Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac at +the time of the Deluge; and in another place he speaks of the patriarch +Joseph as of a king of Egypt. At least, it is the most natural sense.</p> + +<p>The worst of it is, that the author in the same chapter pretends, that +in his time the statue of salt into which Lot's wife was changed was to +be seen. What critics find still worse is that the book appears to them +a tiresome mass of commonplaces; but they should consider that such +works are not made to follow the vain rules of eloquence. They are +written to edify, and not to please, and we should even combat our +disinclination to read them.</p> + +<p>It is very likely that Solomon was rich and learned for his time and +people. Exaggeration, the inseparable companion of greatness, attributes +riches to him which he could not have possessed, and books which he +could not have written. Respect for antiquity has since consecrated +these errors.</p> + +<p>But what signifies it to us, that these books were written by a Jew? +Our Christian religion is founded on the Jewish, but not on all the +books which the Jews have written.</p> + +<p>For instance, why should the "Song of Songs" be more sacred to us than +the fables of Talmud? It is, say they, because we have comprised it in +the canon of the Hebrews. And what is this canon? It is a collection of +authentic works. Well, must a work be divine to be authentic? A history +of the little kingdoms of Judah and Sichem, for instance—is it anything +but a history? This is a strange prejudice. We hold the Jews in horror, +and we insist that all which has been written by them, and collected by +us, bears the stamp of Divinity. There never was so palpable a +contradiction.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SOMNAMBULISTS_AND_DREAMERS" id="SOMNAMBULISTS_AND_DREAMERS"></a>SOMNAMBULISTS AND DREAMERS.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>I have seen a somnambulist, but he contented himself with rising, +dressing himself, making a bow, and dancing a minuet, all which he did +very properly; and having again undressed himself, returned to bed and +continued to sleep.</p> + +<p>This comes not near the somnambulist of the "Encyclopædia." The last was +a young seminarist, who set himself to compose a sermon in his sleep. He +wrote it correctly, read it from one end to the other, or at least +appeared to read it, made corrections, erased some lines, substituted +others, and inserted an omitted word. He even composed music, noted it +with precision, and after preparing his paper with his ruler, placed the +words under the notes without the least mistake.</p> + +<p>It is said, that an archbishop of Bordeaux has witnessed all these +operations, and many others equally astonishing. It is to be wished that +this prelate had affixed his attestation to the account, signed by his +grand vicars, or at least by his secretary.</p> + +<p>But supposing that this somnambulist has done all which is imputed to +him, I would persist in putting the same queries to him as to a simple +dreamer. I would say to him: You have dreamed more forcibly than +another; but it is upon the same principle; one has had a fever only, +the other a degree of madness; but both the one and the other have +received ideas and sensations to which they have not attended. You have +both done what you did not intend to do.</p> + +<p>Of two dreamers, the one has not a single idea, the other a crowd; the +one is as insensible as marble, while the other experiences desires and +enjoyments. A lover composes a song on his mistress in a dream, and in +his delirium imagines himself to be reading a tender letter from her, +which he repeats aloud:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Scribit amatori meretrix; dat adultera munus</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>In noctis spatio miserorum vulnera durant.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;">—<span class="small">PETRONIUS</span>, chap. civ.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Does anything pass within you during this powerful dream more than what +passes every day when you are awake?</p> + +<p>You, Mr. Seminarist, born with the gift of imitation, you have listened +to some hundred sermons, and your brain is prepared to make them: moved +by the talent of imitation, you have written them waking; and you are +led by the same talent and impulse when you are asleep. But how have you +been able to become a preacher in a dream? You went to sleep, without +any desire to preach. Remember well the first time that you were led to +compose the sketch of a sermon while awake. You thought not of it a +quarter of an hour before; but seated in your chamber, occupied in a +reverie, without any determinate ideas, your memory recalls, without +your will interfering, the remembrance of a certain holiday; this +holiday reminds you that sermons are delivered on that day; you remember +a text; this text suggests an exordium; pens, ink, and paper, are lying +near you; and you begin to write things you had not the least previous +intention of writing. Such is precisely what came to pass in your +noctambulism.</p> + +<p>You believe yourself, both in the one and the other occupation, to have +done only what you intended to do; and you have been directed without +consciousness by all which preceded the writing of the sermon.</p> + +<p>In the same manner when, on coming from vespers, you are shut up in your +cell to meditate, you have no design to occupy yourself with the image +of your fair neighbor; but it somehow or another intrudes; your +imagination is inflamed; and I need not refer to the consequences. You +may have experienced the same adventure in your sleep.</p> + +<p>What share has your will had in all these modifications of sensation? +The same that it has had in the coursing of your blood through your +arteries and veins, in the action of your lymphatic vessels, or in the +pulsation of your heart, or of your brain.</p> + +<p>I have read the article on "Dreams" in the "Encyclopædia," and have +understood nothing; and when I search after the cause of my ideas and +actions, either in sleeping or waking, I am equally confounded.</p> + +<p>I know well, that a reasoner who would prove to me when I wake, and when +I am neither mad nor intoxicated, that I am then an active agent, would +but slightly embarrass me; but I should be still more embarrassed if I +undertook to prove to him that when he slept he was passive and a pure +automaton.</p> + +<p>Explain to me an animal who is a mere machine one-half of his life, and +who changes his nature twice every twenty-four hours.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<h4><i>Letter on Dreams to the Editor of the Literary Gazette, August, 1764.</i></h4> + +<p>Gentlemen: All the objects of science are within your jurisdiction; +allow chimeras to be so also. "<i>Nil sub sole novum</i>"—"nothing new under +the sun". Thus it is not of anything which passes in noonday that I am +going to treat, but of that which takes place during the night. Be not +alarmed; it is only with dreams that I concern myself.</p> + +<p>I confess, gentlemen, that I am constantly of the opinion of the +physician of M. Pourceaugnac; he inquires of his patient the nature of +his dreams, and M. Pourceaugnac, who is not a philosopher, replies that +they are of the nature of dreams. It is most certain however, with no +offence to your Limousin, that uneasy and horrible dreams denote pain +either of body or mind; a body overcharged with aliment, or a mind +occupied with melancholy ideas when awake.</p> + +<p>The laborer who has waked without chagrin, and fed without excess, +sleeps sound and tranquil, and dreams disturb him not; so long as he is +in this state, he seldom remembers having a dream—a truth which I have +fully ascertained on my estate in Herefordshire. Every dream of a +forcible nature is produced by some excess, either in the passions of +the soul, or the nourishment of the body; it seems as if nature intended +to punish us for them, by suggesting ideas, and making us think in spite +of ourselves. It may be inferred from this, that those who think the +least are the most happy; but it is not that conclusion which I seek to +establish.</p> + +<p>We must acknowledge, with Petronius, "<i>Quidquid luce fuit, tenebris +agit</i>." I have known advocates who have pleaded in dreams; +mathematicians who have sought to solve problems; and poets who have +composed verses. I have made some myself, which are very passable. It +is therefore incontestable, that consecutive ideas occur in sleep, as +well as when we are awake, which ideas as certainly come in spite of us. +We think while sleeping, as we move in our beds, without our will having +anything to do either in the motive or the thought. Your Father +Malebranche is right in asserting that we are not able to give ourselves +ideas. For why are we to be masters of them, when waking, more than +during sleep? If your Malebranche had stopped there, he would have been +a great philosopher; he deceived himself only by going too far: of him +we may say:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Processit longe flammantia mœnia mundi.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<span class="small">LUCRETIUS</span>, i, 74.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">His vigorous and active mind was hurled</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Beyond the flaming limits of this world.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">—<span class="small">CREECH</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>For my part, I am persuaded that the reflection that our thoughts +proceed not from ourselves, may induce the visit of some very good +thoughts. I will not, however, undertake to develop mine, for fear of +tiring some readers, and astonishing others.</p> + +<p>I simply beg to say two or three words in relation to dreams. Have you +not found, like me, that they are the origin of the opinion so generally +diffused throughout antiquity, touching spectres and manes? A man +profoundly afflicted at the death of his wife or his son, sees them in +his sleep; he speaks to them; they reply to him; and to him they have +certainly appeared. Other men have had similar dreams; it is therefore +impossible to deny that the dead may return; but it is certain, at the +same time, that these deceased, whether inhumed, reduced to ashes, or +buried in the abyss of the sea, have not been able to reserve their +bodies; it is, therefore, the soul which we have seen. This soul must +necessarily be extended, light, and impalpable, because in speaking to +it we have not been able to embrace it: "<i>Effugit imago par levibus +ventis</i>." It is moulded and designed from the body that it inhabits, +since it perfectly resembles it. The name of shade or manes is given it; +from all which a confused idea remains in the head, which differs itself +so much more because no one can understand it.</p> + +<p>Dreams also appear to me to have been the sensible origin of primitive +prophecy or prediction. What more natural or common than to dream that a +person dear to us is in danger of dying, or that we see him expiring? +What more natural, again, than that such a person may really die soon +after this ominous dream of his friend? Dreams which have come to pass +are always predictions which no one can doubt, no account being taken of +the dreams which are never fulfilled; a single dream accomplished has +more effect than a hundred which fail. Antiquity abounds with these +examples. How constructed are we for the reception of error! Day and +night unite to deceive us!</p> + +<p>You see, gentlemen, that by attending to these ideas, we may gather +some fruit from the book of my compatriot, the dreamer; but I finish, +lest you should take me myself for a mere visionary.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Yours,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 17em;">JOHN DREAMER.</span><br /> +</p> + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<h4><i>Of Dreams.</i></h4> + +<p>According to Petronius, dreams are not of divine origin, but +self-formed:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Somnia qua mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Non delumbra deum nec ab æthere numina mittunt,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Sed sibi quisque facit.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But how, all the senses being defunct in sleep, does there remain an +internal one which retains consciousness? How is it, that while the eyes +see not, the ears hear not, we notwithstanding understand in our dreams? +The hound renews the chase in a dream: he barks, follows his prey, and +is in at the death. The poet composes verses in his sleep; the +mathematician examines his diagram; and the metaphysician reasons well +or ill; of all which there are striking examples.</p> + +<p>Are they only the organs of the machine which act? Is it the pure soul, +submitted to the empire of the senses, enjoying its faculties at +liberty?</p> + +<p>If the organs alone produce dreams by night, why not alone produce ideas +by day? If the soul, pure and tranquil, acting for itself during the +repose of the senses, is the sole cause of our ideas while we are +sleeping, why are all these ideas usually irregular, unreasonable, and +incoherent? What! at a time when the soul is least disturbed, it is so +much disquieted in its imagination? Is it frantic when at liberty? If it +was produced with metaphysical ideas, as so many sages assert who dream +with their eyes open, its correct and luminous ideas of being, of +infinity, and of all the primary principles, ought to be revealed in the +soul with the greatest energy when the body sleeps. We should never be +good philosophers except when dreaming.</p> + +<p>Whatever system we embrace, whatever our vain endeavors to prove that +the memory impels the brain, and that the brain acts upon the soul, we +must allow that our ideas come, in sleep, independently of our will. It +is therefore certain that we can think seven or eight hours running +without the least intention of doing so, and even without being certain +that we think. Pause upon that, and endeavor to divine what there is in +this which is animal.</p> + +<p>Dreams have always formed a great object of superstition, and nothing is +more natural. A man deeply affected by the sickness of his mistress +dreams that he sees her dying; she dies the next day; and of course the +gods have predicted her death.</p> + +<p>The general of an army dreams that he shall gain a battle; he +subsequently gains one; the gods had decreed that he should be a +conqueror. Dreams which are accomplished are alone attended to. Dreams +form a great part of ancient history, as also of oracles.</p> + +<p>The "Vulgate" thus translates the end of Leviticus, xix, 26: "You shall +not observe dreams." But the word "dream" exists not in the Hebrew; and +it would be exceedingly strange, if attention to dreams was reproved in +the same book in which it is said that Joseph became the benefactor of +Egypt and his family, in consequence of his interpretation of three +dreams.</p> + +<p>The interpretation of dreams was a thing so common, that the supposed +art had no limits, and the interpreter was sometimes called upon to say +what another person had dreamed. Nebuchadnezzar, having forgotten his +dream, orders his Magi to say what it was he had dreamed, and threatened +them with death if they failed; but the Jew Daniel, who was in the +school of the Magi, saved their lives by divining at once what the king +had dreamed, and interpreting it. This history, and many others, may +serve to prove that the laws of the Jews did not forbid oneiromancy, +that is to say, the science of dreams.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 13em;">Lausanne, Oct. 25, 1757.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In one of my dreams, I supped with M. Touron, who appeared to compose +verses and music, which he sang to us. I addressed these four lines to +him in my dream:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Mon cher Touron, que tu m'enchantes</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Par la douceur de tes accens!</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Que tes vers sont doux et coulans!</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Tu les fais comme tu tes chantes.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thy gentle accents, Touron dear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Sound most delightful to my ear!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With how much ease the verses roll,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Which flow, while singing, from thy soul!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In another dream, I recited the first canto of the "Henriade" quite +different from what it is. Yesterday, I dreamed that verses were recited +at supper, and that some one pretended they were too witty. I replied +that verses were entertainments given to the soul, and that ornaments +are necessary in entertainments.</p> + +<p>I have therefore said things in my sleep which I should have some +difficulty to say when awake; I have had thoughts and reflections, in +spite of myself, and without the least voluntary operation on my own +part, and nevertheless combined my ideas with sagacity, and even with +genius. What am I, therefore, if not a machine?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SOPHIST" id="SOPHIST"></a>SOPHIST.</h3> + + +<p>A geometrician, a little severe, thus addressed us one day: There is +nothing in literature more dangerous than rhetorical sophists; and among +these sophists none are more unintelligible and unworthy of being +understood than the divine Plato.</p> + +<p>The only useful idea to be found in him, is that of the immortality of +the soul, which was already admitted among cultivated nations; but, +then, how does he prove this immortality?</p> + +<p>We cannot too forcibly appeal to this proof, in order to correctly +appreciate this famous Greek. He asserts, in his "Phædon" that death is +the opposite of life, that death springs from life, and the living from +the dead, consequently that our souls will descend beneath the earth +when we die.</p> + +<p>If it is true that the sophist Plato, who gives himself out for the +enemy of all sophists, reasons always thus, what have been all these +pretended great men, and in what has consisted their utility?</p> + +<p>The grand defect of the Platonic philosophy is the transformation of +abstract ideas into realities. A man can only perform a fine action, +because a beauty really exists, which is its archetype.</p> + +<p>We cannot perform any action, without forming an idea of the +action—therefore these ideas exist I know not where, and it is +necessary to study them.</p> + +<p>God formed an idea of the world before He created it. This was His +<i>logos</i>: the world, therefore, is the production of the <i>logos</i>!</p> + +<p>What disputes, how many vain and even sanguinary contests, has this +manner of argument produced upon earth! Plato never dreamed that his +doctrine would be able, at some future period, to divide a church which +in his time was not in existence.</p> + +<p>To conceive a just contempt for all these foolish subtilties, read +Demosthenes, and see if in any one of his harangues he employs one of +these ridiculous sophisms. It is a clear proof that, in serious +business, no more attention is paid to these chimeras than in a council +of state to theses of theology.</p> + +<p>Neither will you find any of this sophistry in the speeches of Cicero. +It was a jargon of the schools, invented to amuse idleness—the quackery +of mind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SOUL" id="SOUL"></a>SOUL.</h3> + + +<h5>SECTION I.</h5> + +<p>This is a vague and indeterminate term, expressing an unknown principle +of known effects, which we feel in ourselves. This word "soul" answers +to the "anima" of the Latins—to the "pneuma" of the Greeks—to the term +which each and every nation has used to express what they understood no +better than we do.</p> + +<p>In the proper and literal sense of the Latin and the languages derived +from it, it signifies that which animates. Thus people say, the soul of +men, of animals, and sometimes of plants, to denote their principle of +vegetation and life. This word has never been uttered with any but a +confused idea, as when it is said in Genesis: "God breathed into his +nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul"; and: "The +soul of animals is in the blood"; and: "Stay not my soul."</p> + +<p>Thus the soul was taken for the origin and the cause of life, and for +life itself. Hence all known nations long imagined that everything died +with the body. If anything can be discerned with clearness in the chaos +of ancient histories, it seems that the Egyptians were at least the +first who made a distinction between the intelligence and the soul; and +the Greeks learned from them to distinguish their "<i>nous</i>" and their +"<i>pneuma</i>." The Latins, after the example of the Greeks, distinguished +"<i>animus</i>" and "<i>anima</i>"; and we have, too, our soul and our +understanding. But are that which is the principle of our life, and that +which is the principle of our thoughts, two different things? Does that +which causes us to digest, and which gives us sensation and memory, +resemble that which is the cause of digestion in animals, and of their +sensations and memory?</p> + +<p>Here is an eternal object for disputation: I say an eternal object, for +having no primitive notion from which to deduce in this investigation, +we must ever continue in a labyrinth of doubts and feeble conjectures.</p> + +<p>We have not the smallest step on which to set our foot, to reach the +slightest knowledge of what makes us live and what makes us think. How +should we? For we must then have seen life and thought enter a body. +Does a father know how he produced his son? Does a mother know how she +conceived him? Has anyone ever been able to divine how he acts, how he +wakes, or how he sleeps? Does anyone know how his limbs obey his will? +Has anyone discovered by what art his ideas are traced in his brain, and +issue from it at his command? Feeble automata, moved by the invisible +hand which directs us on the stage of this world, which of us has ever +perceived the thread which guides us?</p> + +<p>We dare to put in question, whether the intelligent soul is spirit or +matter; whether it is created before us, or proceeds from nothing at our +birth; whether, after animating us for a day on this earth, it lives +after us in eternity. These questions appear sublime; what are they? +Questions of blind men asking one another: What is light?</p> + +<p>When we wish to have a rude knowledge of a piece of metal, we put it on +the fire in a crucible; but have we any crucible wherein to put the +soul? It is spirit, says one; but what is spirit? Assuredly, no one +knows. This is a word so void of meaning, that to tell what spirit is, +you are obliged to say what it is not. The soul is matter, says another; +but what is matter? We know nothing of it but a few appearances and +properties; and not one of these properties, not one of these +appearances, can bear the least affinity to thought.</p> + +<p>It is something distinct from matter, you say; but what proof have you +of this? Is it because matter is divisible and figurable, and thought is +not? But how do you know that the first principles of matter are +divisible and figurable? It is very likely that they are not; whole +sects of philosophers assert that the elements of matter have neither +figure nor extent. You triumphantly exclaim: Thought is neither wood, +nor stone, nor sand, nor metal; therefore, thought belongs not to +matter. Weak and presumptuous reasoners! Gravitation is neither wood, +nor sand, nor metal, nor stone; nor is motion, or vegetation, or life, +any of all these; yet life, vegetation, motion, gravitation, are given +to matter. To say that God cannot give thought to matter, is to say the +most insolently absurd thing that has ever been advanced in the +privileged schools of madness and folly. We are not assured that God has +done this; we are only assured that He can do it. But of what avail is +all that has been said, or all that will be said, about the soul? What +avails it that it has been called "<i>entelechia</i>," quintessence, flame, +ether—that it has been believed to be universal, uncreated, +transmigrant?</p> + +<p>Of what avail, in these questions inaccessible to reason, are the +romances of our uncertain imaginations? What avails it, that the fathers +in the four primitive ages believed the soul to be corporeal? What +avails it that Tertullian, with a contradictoriness that was familiar to +him, decided that it is at once corporeal, figured, and simple? We have +a thousand testimonies of ignorance, but not one which affords us a ray +of probability.</p> + +<p>How, then, shall we be bold enough to affirm what the soul is? We know +certainly that we exist, that we feel, that we think. Seek we to advance +one step further—we fall into an abyss of darkness; and in this abyss, +we have still the foolish temerity to dispute whether this soul, of +which we have not the least idea, is made before us or with us, and +whether it is perishable or immortal?</p> + +<p>The article on "Soul," and all articles belonging to metaphysics, +should begin with a sincere submission to the indubitable tenets of the +Church. Revelation is doubtless much better than philosophy. Systems +exercise the mind, but faith enlightens and guides it.</p> + +<p>Are there not words often pronounced of which we have but a very +confused idea, or perhaps no idea at all? Is not the word "soul" one of +these? When the tongue of a pair of bellows is out of order, and the +air, escaping through the valve, is not driven with violence towards the +fire, the maid-servant says: "The soul of the bellows is burst." She +knows no better, and the question does not at all disturb her quiet.</p> + +<p>The gardener uses the expression, "Soul of the plants"; and cultivates +them very well without knowing what the term means.</p> + +<p>The musical-instrument maker places, and shifts forward or backward, the +soul of a violin, under the bridge, in the interior of the instrument: a +sorry bit of wood more or less gives it or takes from it a harmonious +soul.</p> + +<p>We have several manufactures in which the workmen give the appellation +of "soul" to their machines; but they are never heard to dispute about +the word: it is otherwise with philosophers.</p> + +<p>The word "soul," with us, signifies in general that which animates. Our +predecessors, the Celts, gave their soul the name of "<i>seel</i>," of which +the English have made soul, while the Germans retain "<i>seel</i>"; and it +is probable that the ancient Teutons and the ancient Britons had no +university quarrels about this expression.</p> + +<p>The Greeks distinguished three sorts of souls: "<i>Psyche</i>," signifying +the sensitive soul—the soul of the senses; and hence it was that Love, +the son of Aphrodite, had so much passion for Psyche, and that she loved +him so tenderly; "<i>Pneuma</i>," the breath which gave life and motion to +the whole machine, and which we have rendered by "<i>spiritus</i>"—spirit—a +vague term, which has received a thousand different acceptations: and +lastly, "<i>nous</i>," intelligence.</p> + +<p>Thus we possess three souls, without having the slightest notion of any +one of them. St. Thomas Aquinas admits these three souls in his quality +of peripatetic, and distinguishes each of the three into three parts.</p> + +<p>"<i>Psyche</i>" was in the breast; "<i>Pneuma</i>" was spread throughout the body; +and "<i>Nous</i>" was in the head. There was no other philosophy in our +schools until the present day; and woe to the man who took one of these +souls for another!</p> + +<p>In this chaos of ideas, there was however a foundation. Men had clearly +perceived that in their passions of love, anger, fear, etc., motions +were excited within them; the heart and the liver were the seat of the +passions. When thinking deeply, one feels a laboring in the organs of +the head; "therefore, the intellectual soul is in the brain. Without +respiration there is no vegetation, no life; therefore, the vegetative +soul is in the breast, which receives the breath of the air."</p> + +<p>When men had seen in their sleep their dead relatives or friends, they +necessarily sought to discover what had appeared to them. It was not the +body, which had been consumed on a pile or swallowed up in the sea and +eaten by the fishes. However, they would declare it was something, for +they had seen it; the dead man had spoken; the dreamer had questioned +him. Was it "<i>Psyche</i>"; was it "<i>Pneuma</i>"; was it "<i>Nous</i>" with whom he +had conversed in his sleep? Then a phantom was imagined—a slight +figure; it was "<i>skia</i>"—it was "<i>daimonos</i>"—a shade of the manes; a +small soul of air and fire, extremely slender, wandering none knew +where.</p> + +<p>In after times, when it was determined to sound the matter, the +undisputed result was, that this soul was corporeal, and all antiquity +had no other idea of it. At length came Plato, who so subtilized this +soul, that it was doubted whether he did not entirely separate it from +matter; but the problem was never resolved until faith came to enlighten +us.</p> + +<p>In vain do the materialists adduce the testimony of some fathers of the +Church who do not express themselves with exactness. St. Irenæus says +that the soul is but the breath of life, that it is incorporeal only in +comparison with the mortal body, and that it retains the human figure in +order that it may be recognized.</p> + +<p>In vain does Tertullian express himself thus:</p> + +<p>"The corporality of the soul shines forth in the Gospel. <i>'Corporalitas +animæ in ipso evangelio relucesseit.'</i>" For if the soul had not a body, +the image of the soul would not have the image of the body.</p> + +<p>In vain does he even relate the vision of a holy woman who had seen a +very brilliant soul of the color of the air.</p> + +<p>In vain does Tatian expressly say:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ψυχὴ μὲν οὖν εἰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πυλυμερής ἐστιν</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>—"The soul of man is composed of several parts."</p> + +<p>In vain do they adduce St. Hilary, who said in later times: "There is +nothing created which is not corporeal, neither in heaven nor on earth; +neither visible nor invisible; all is formed of elements; and souls, +whether they inhabit a body or are without a body, have always a +corporeal substance."</p> + +<p>In vain does St. Ambrose, in the fourth century, say: "We know nothing +but what is material, excepting only the ever-venerable Trinity."</p> + +<p>The whole body of the Church has decided that the soul is immaterial. +These holy men had fallen into an error then universal; they were men: +but they were not mistaken concerning immortality, because it is +evidently announced in the Gospels.</p> + +<p>So evident is our need of the decision of the infallible Church on these +points of philosophy, that indeed we have not of ourselves any +sufficient notion of what is called pure spirit, nor of what is called +matter. Pure spirit is an expression which gives us no idea; and we are +acquainted with matter only by a few phenomena. So little do we know of +it, that we call it substance, which word "substance" means that which +is beneath; but this beneath will eternally be concealed from us; this +beneath is the Creator's secret, and this secret of the Creator is +everywhere. We do not know how we receive life, how we give it, how we +grow, how we digest, how we sleep, how we think, nor how we feel. The +great difficulty is, to comprehend how a being, whatsoever it be, has +thoughts.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION II.</h5> + +<h4><i>Locke's Doubts concerning the Soul.</i></h4> + +<p>The author of the article on "Soul," in the "Encyclopædia," who has +scrupulously followed Jacquelot, teaches us nothing. He also rises up +against Locke, because the modest Locke has said:</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we shall never be capable of knowing whether a material being +thinks or not; for this reason—that it is impossible for us to +discover, by the contemplation of our own ideas, 'without revelation,' +whether God has not given to some portion of matter, disposed as He +thinks fit, the power of perceiving and thinking; or whether He has +joined and united to matter so disposed, an immaterial and thinking +substance. For with regard to our notions, it is no less easy for us to +conceive that God can, if He pleases, add to an idea of matter the +faculty of thinking, than to comprehend that He joins to it another +substance with the faculty of thinking; since we know not in what +thought consists, nor to what kind of substance this all-powerful Being +has thought fit to grant this power, which could be created only by +virtue of the good-will and pleasure of the Creator. I do not see that +there is any contradiction in God—that thinking, eternal, and +all-powerful Being—giving, if He wills it, certain degrees of feeling, +perception, and thought, to certain portions of matter, created and +insensible, which He joins together as he thinks fit."</p> + +<p>This was speaking like a profound, religious, and modest man. It is +known what contests he had to maintain concerning this opinion, which he +appeared to have hazarded, but which was really no other than a +consequence of the conviction he felt of the omnipotence of God, and the +weakness of man. He did not say that matter thought; but he said that we +do not know enough to demonstrate that it is impossible for God to add +the gift of thought to the unknown being called "matter," after granting +to it those of gravitation and of motion, which are equally +incomprehensible.</p> + +<p>Assuredly, Locke was not the only one who advanced this opinion; it was +that of all the ancients—regarding the soul only as very subtile +matter, they consequently affirmed that matter could feel and think.</p> + +<p>Such was the opinion of Gassendi, as we find in his objections to +Descartes. "It is true," says Gassendi, "that you know that you think; +but you, who think, know not of what kind of substance you are. Thus, +though the operation of thought is known to you, the principle of your +essence is hidden from you, and you do not know what is the nature of +that substance, one of the operations of which is to think. You resemble +a blind man who, feeling the heat of the sun, and being informed that it +is caused by the sun, should believe himself to have a clear and +distinct idea of that luminary, because, if he were asked what the sun +is, he could answer, that it is a thing which warms...."</p> + +<p>The same Gassendi, in his "Philosophy of Epicurus," repeats several +times that there is no mathematical evidence of the pure spirituality of +the soul.</p> + +<p>Descartes, in one of his letters to Elizabeth, princess palatine, says +to her: "I confess, that by natural reason alone, we can form many +conjectures about the soul, and conceive flattering hopes; but we can +have no assurance." And here Descartes combats in his letters what he +advances in his books—a too ordinary contradiction.</p> + +<p>We have seen, too, that all the fathers in the first ages of the Church, +while they believed the soul immortal, believed it to be material. They +thought it as easy for God to preserve as to create. They said, God made +it thinking, He will preserve it thinking.</p> + +<p>Malebranche has clearly proved, that by ourselves we have no idea, and +that objects are incapable of giving us any; whence he concludes that we +see all things in God. This, in substance, is the same as making God +the author of all our ideas; for wherewith should we see ourselves in +Him, if we had not instruments for seeing? and these instruments are +held and directed by him alone. This system is a labyrinth, of which one +path would lead you to Spinozism, another to Stoicism, another to chaos.</p> + +<p>When men have disputed well and long on matter and spirit, they always +end in understanding neither one another nor themselves. No philosopher +has ever been able to lift by his own strength the veil which nature has +spread over the first principle of things. They dispute, while nature is +acting.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION III.</h5> + +<h4><i>On the Souls of Beasts, and on Some Empty Ideas.</i></h4> + +<p>Before the strange system which supposes animals to be pure machines +without any sensation, men had never imagined an immaterial soul in +beasts; and no one had carried temerity so far as to say that an oyster +has a spiritual soul. All the world peaceably agreed that beasts had +received from God feeling, memory, ideas, but not a pure spirit. No one +had abused the gift of reason so far as to say that nature has given to +beasts the organs of feeling, in order that they may have no feeling. No +one had said that they cry out when wounded, and fly when pursued, +without experiencing either pain or fear.</p> + +<p>God's omnipotence was not then denied: it was in His power to +communicate to the organized matter of animals pleasure, pain, +remembrance, the combination of some ideas; it was in His power to give +to several of them, as the ape, the elephant, the hound, the talent of +perfecting themselves in the arts which are taught them: not only was it +in His power to endow almost all carnivorous animals with the talent of +making war better in their experienced old age than in their confiding +youth; not only was it in His power to do this, but He had done it, as +the whole world could witness.</p> + +<p>Pereira and Descartes maintained against the whole world that it was +mistaken; that God had played the conjurer; that He had given to animals +all the instruments of life and sensation, that they might have neither +sensation or life properly so called. But some pretended philosophers, I +know not whom, in order to answer Descartes' chimera, threw themselves +into the opposite chimera very liberally, giving "pure spirit" to toads +and insects. "<i>In vitium ducit culpæ fuga.</i>"</p> + +<p>Betwixt these two follies, the one depriving of feeling the organs of +feeling, the other lodging pure spirit in a bug—a mean was imagined, +viz., instinct. And what is "instinct"? Oh! it is a substantial form; it +is a plastic form; it is a—I know not what—it is instinct. I will be +of your opinion, so long as you apply to most things "I know not what"; +so long as your philosophy shall begin and end with "I know not"; but +when you "affirm," I shall say to you with Prior, in his poem on the +vanity of the world:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Then vainly the philosopher avers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">That reason guides our deeds, and instinct theirs.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">How can we justly different causes frame,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">When the effects entirely are the same?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Instinct and reason how can we divide?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Tis the fool's ignorance, and the pedant's pride.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The author of the article on "Soul," in the "Encyclopædia," explains +himself thus: "I represent to myself the soul of beasts as a substance +immaterial and intelligent." But of what kind? It seems to me, that it +must be an active principle having sensations, and only sensations.... +If we reflect on the nature of the souls of beasts, it does not of +itself give us any grounds for believing that their spirituality will +save them from annihilation.</p> + +<p>I do not understand how you represent to yourself an immaterial +substance. To represent a thing to yourself is to make to yourself an +image of it; and hitherto no one has been able to paint the mind. I am +willing to suppose that by the word "represent," the author means I +"conceive"; for my part, I own that I do not conceive it. Still less do +I conceive how a spiritual soul is annihilated, because I have no +conception of creation or of nothing; because I never attended God's +council; because I know nothing at all of the principle of things.</p> + +<p>If I seek to prove that the soul is a real being, I am stopped, and told +that it is a faculty. If I affirm that it is a faculty, and that I have +that of thinking, I am answered, that I mistake; that God, the eternal +master of all nature, does everything in me, directing all my actions, +and all my thoughts; that if I produced my thoughts, I should know +those which I should have the next minute; that I never know this; that +I am but an automaton with sensations and ideas, necessarily dependent, +and in the hands of the Supreme Being, infinitely more subject to Him +than clay is to the potter.</p> + +<p>I acknowledge then my ignorance; I acknowledge that four thousand +volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what our soul is.</p> + +<p>An orthodox philosopher said to a heterodox philosopher, "How can you +have brought yourself to imagine that the soul is of its nature mortal, +and that it is eternal only by the pure will of God?" "By my +experience," says the other. "How! have you been dead then?" "Yes, very +often: in my youth I had a fit of epilepsy; and I assure you, that I was +perfectly dead for several hours: I had no sensation, nor even any +recollection from the moment that I was seized. The same thing happens +to me now almost every night. I never feel precisely the moment when I +fall asleep, and my sleep is absolutely without dreams. I cannot +imagine, but by conjectures, how long I have slept. I am dead regularly +six hours in twenty-four, which is one-fourth of my life."</p> + +<p>The orthodox then maintained against him that he always thought while he +was asleep, without his knowing of it. The heterodox replied: "I +believe, by revelation, that I shall think forever in the next world; +but I assure you, that I seldom think in this."</p> + +<p>The orthodox was not mistaken in affirming the immortality of the soul, +since faith demonstrates that truth; but he might be mistaken in +affirming that a sleeping man constantly thinks.</p> + +<p>Locke frankly owned that he did not always think while he was asleep. +Another philosopher has said: "Thought is peculiar to man, but it is not +his essence."</p> + +<p>Let us leave every man at liberty to seek into himself and to lose +himself in his ideas. However, it is well to know that in 1750, a +philosopher underwent a very severe persecution, for having +acknowledged, with Locke, that his understanding was not exercised every +moment of the day and of the night, no more than his arms or his legs. +Not only was he persecuted by the ignorance of the court, but the +malicious ignorance of some pretended men of letters assailed the object +of persecution. That which in England had produced only some +philosophical disputes, produced in France the most disgraceful +atrocities: a Frenchman was made the victim of Locke.</p> + +<p>There have always been among the refuse of our literature, some of those +wretches who have sold their pens and caballed against their very +benefactors. This remark is to be sure foreign to the article on "Soul": +but ought one to lose a single opportunity of striking terror into those +who render themselves unworthy of the name of literary men, who +prostitute the little wit and conscience they have to a vile interest, +to a chimerical policy, who betray their friends to flatter fools, who +prepare in secret the hemlock-draught with which powerful and wicked +ignorance would destroy useful citizens.</p> + +<p>Did it ever occur in true Rome, that a Lucretius was denounced to the +consuls for having put the system of Epicurus into verse; a Cicero, for +having repeatedly written, that there is no pain after death; or that a +Pliny or a Varro was accused of having peculiar notions of the divinity? +The liberty of thinking was unlimited among the Romans. Those of harsh, +jealous, and narrow minds, who among us have endeavored to crush this +liberty—the parent of our knowledge, the mainspring of the +understanding—have made chimerical dangers their pretext; they have +forgotten that the Romans, who carried this liberty much further than we +do, were nevertheless our conquerors, our lawgivers; and that the +disputes of schools have no more to do with government than the tub of +Diogenes had with the victories of Alexander.</p> + +<p>This lesson is worth quite as much as a lesson on the soul. We shall +perhaps have occasion more than once to recur to it.</p> + +<p>In fine, while adoring God with all our soul, let us ever confess our +profound ignorance concerning that soul—that faculty of feeling and +thinking which we owe to His infinite goodness. Let us acknowledge that +our weak reasonings can neither take from nor add to revelation and +faith. Let us, in short, conclude that we ought to employ this +intelligence, whose nature is unknown, in perfecting the sciences which +are the object of the "Encyclopædia," as watchmakers make use of springs +in their watches, without knowing what <i>spring</i> is.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IV.</h5> + +<h4><i>On the Soul, and on our Ignorance.</i></h4> + +<p>Relying on our acquired knowledge, we have ventured to discuss the +question: Whether the soul is created before us? Whether it arrives from +nothing in our bodies? At what age it came and placed itself between the +bladder and the intestines, "cæcum" and "rectum"? Whether it received or +brought there any ideas, and what those ideas are? Whether, after +animating us for a few moments, its essence is to live after us in +eternity, without the intervention of God Himself? Whether, it being a +spirit, and God being spirit, they are of like nature? These questions +have an appearance of sublimity. What are they but questions of men born +blind discussing the nature of light?</p> + +<p>What have all the philosophers, ancient and modern, taught us? A child +is wiser than they: he does not think about what he cannot conceive.</p> + +<p>How unfortunate, you will say, for an insatiable curiosity, for an +unquenchable thirst after well-being, that we are thus ignorant of +ourselves! Granted: and there are things yet more unfortunate than this; +but I will answer you: "<i>Sors tua mortalis, non est mortale quod +optas."</i>—"Mortal thy fate, thy wishes those of gods."</p> + +<p>Once more let it be repeated, the nature of every principle of things +appears to be the secret of the Creator. How does the air convey sound? +How are animals formed? How do some of our members constantly obey our +will? What hand places ideas in our memory, keeps them there as in a +register, and draws them thence sometimes at our command, and sometimes +in spite of us? Our own nature, that of the universe, that of the +smallest plant—all, to us, involved in utter darkness.</p> + +<p>Man is an acting, feeling, and thinking being; this is all we know of +the matter: it is not given to us to know either what renders us feeling +or thinking, or what makes us act, or what causes us to be. The acting +faculty is to us as incomprehensible as the thinking faculty. The +difficulty is not so much to conceive how this body of clay has feelings +and ideas as to conceive how a being, whatever it be, has ideas and +feelings.</p> + +<p>Behold on one hand the soul of Archimedes, and on the other that of a +simpleton; are they of the same nature? If their essence is to think, +then they think always and independently of the body, which cannot act +without them. If they think by their own nature, can a soul, which is +incapable of performing a single arithmetical operation, be of the same +species as that which has measured the heavens? If it is the organs of +the body that have made Archimedes think, why does not my idiot think, +seeing that he is better constituted than Archimedes, more vigorous, +digesting better, performing all his functions better? Because, say you, +his brain is not so good; but you suppose this; you have no knowledge of +it. No difference has ever been found among sound brains that have been +dissected; indeed, it is very likely that the brain-pan of a blockhead +would be found in a better state than that of Archimedes, which has been +prodigiously fatigued, and may be worn and contracted.</p> + +<p>Let us then conclude what we have concluded already, that we are +ignorant of all first principles. As for those who are ignorant and +self-sufficient, they are far below the ape.</p> + +<p>Now then dispute, ye choleric arguers; present memorials against one +another; abuse one another; pronounce your sentences—you who know not a +syllable of the matter!</p> + + +<h5>SECTION V.</h5> + +<h4><i>Warburtons Paradox on the Immortality of the Soul.</i></h4> + +<p>Warburton, the editor and commentator of Shakespeare, and Bishop of +Gloucester, using English liberty, and abusing the custom of +vituperating against adversaries, has composed four volumes to prove +that the immortality of the soul was never announced in the Pentateuch; +and to conclude from this very proof, that the mission of Moses, which +he calls "legation," was divine. The following is an abstract of his +book, which he himself gives at the commencement of the first volume:</p> + +<p>"1. That to inculcate the doctrine of a future state of rewards and +punishments is necessary to the well-being of civil society.</p> + +<p>"2. That all mankind [wherein he is mistaken], especially the most wise +and learned nations of antiquity, have concurred in believing and +teaching, that this doctrine was of such use to civil society.</p> + +<p>"3. That the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments is +not to be found in, nor did it make part of, the Mosaic dispensation.</p> + +<p>"That therefore the law of Moses is of divine origin;</p> + +<p>"Which one or both of the two following syllogisms will evince:</p> + +<p>"I. Whatever religion and society have no future state for their support +must be supported by an extraordinary Providence.</p> + +<p>"The Jewish religion and society had no future state for their support;</p> + +<p>"Therefore the Jewish religion and society were supported by an +extraordinary Providence.</p> + +<p>"And again,</p> + +<p>"II. The ancient lawgivers universally believed that such a religion +could be supported only by an extraordinary Providence.</p> + +<p>"Moses, an ancient lawgiver, versed in all the wisdom of Egypt, +purposely instituted such a religion; Therefore Moses believed his +religion was supported by an extraordinary Providence."</p> + +<p>What is most extraordinary, is this assertion of Warburton, which he has +put in large characters at the head of his work. He has often been +reproached with his extreme temerity and dishonesty in daring to say +that all ancient lawgivers believed that a religion which is not founded +on rewards and punishments after death cannot be upheld but by an +extraordinary Providence: not one of them ever said so. He does not even +undertake to adduce a single instance of this in his enormous book, +stuffed with an immense number of quotations, all foreign to the +subject. He has buried himself under a heap of Greek and Latin authors, +ancient and modern, that no one may reach him through this horrible +accumulation of coverings. When at length the critic has rummaged to the +bottom, the author is raised to life from among all those dead, to load +his adversaries with abuse.</p> + +<p>It is true, that near the close of the fourth volume, after ranging +through a hundred labyrinths, and fighting all he met with on the way, +he does at last come back to his great question from which he has so +long wandered. He takes up the Book of Job, which the learned consider +as the work of an Arab; and he seeks to prove, that Job did not believe +in the immortality of the soul. He then explains, in his own way, all +the texts of Scripture that have been brought to combat his opinion.</p> + +<p>All that should be said of him is, that if he was in the right, it was +not for a bishop to be so in the right. He should have felt that two +dangerous consequences might be drawn: but all goes by chance in this +world. This man, who became an informer and a persecutor, was not made a +bishop through the patronage of a minister of state, until immediately +after he wrote his book.</p> + +<p>At Salamanca, at Coimbra, or at Rome, he would have been obliged to +retract and to ask pardon. In England he became a peer of the realm, +with an income of a hundred thousand livres. Here was something to +soften his manners.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VI.</h5> + +<h4><i>On the Need of Revelation.</i></h4> + +<p>The greatest benefit for which we are indebted to the New Testament is +its having revealed to us the immortality of the soul. It is therefore +quite in vain that this Warburton has sought to cloud this important +truth, by continually representing, in his "Legation of Moses," that +"the ancient Jews had no knowledge of this necessary dogma," and that +"the Sadducees did not admit it in the time of our Lord Jesus."</p> + +<p>He interprets in his own way, the very words which Jesus Christ is made +to utter: "Have ye not read that which is spoken unto you by God saying, +I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: God +is not the God of the dead, but of the living." He gives to the parable +of the rich bad man a sense contrary to that of all the churches. +Sherlock, bishop of London, and twenty other learned men, have refuted +him. Even the English philosophers have reminded him how scandalous it +is in an English bishop to manifest an opinion so contrary to the Church +of England; and after all, this man has thought proper to call others +impious: like Harlequin, in the farce of "The Housebreaker" (<i>Le +Dévaliseur des Maisons</i>) who, after throwing the furniture out at the +window, seeing a man carrying some articles away, cries with all his +might—"Stop, thief!"</p> + +<p>The revelation of the immortality of the soul, and of pains and rewards +after death, is the more to be blessed, as the vain philosophy of men +always doubted of it. The great Cæsar had no faith in it. He explained +himself clearly to the whole senate, when, to prevent Catiline from +being put to death, he represented to them that death left man without +feeling—that all died with him: and no one refuted this opinion.</p> + +<p>The Roman Empire was divided between two great principal sects: that of +Epicurus, who affirmed that the divinity was useless to the world, and +the soul perished with the body; and that of the Stoics, who regarded +the soul as a portion of the divinity, which after death was reunited to +its original—to the great All from which it had emanated. So that, +whether the soul was believed to be mortal, or to be immortal, all +sects united in contemning the idea of rewards and punishments after +death.</p> + +<p>There are still remaining numerous monuments of this belief of the +Romans. It was from the force of this opinion profoundly engraved on all +hearts, that so many Roman heroes and so many private citizens put +themselves to death without the smallest scruple; they did not wait for +a tyrant to deliver them into the hands of the executioner.</p> + +<p>Even the most virtuous men, and the most thoroughly persuaded of the +existence of a God, did not then hope any reward, nor did they fear any +punishment. It has been seen in the article on "Apocrypha," that Clement +himself, who was afterwards pope and saint, began with doubting what the +first Christians said of another life, and that he consulted St. Peter +at Cæsarea. We are very far from believing that St. Clement wrote the +history which is attributed to him; but it shows what need mankind had +of a precise revelation. All that can surprise us is that a tenet so +repressing and so salutary should have left men a prey to so many +horrible crimes, who have so short a time to live, and find themselves +pressed between the eternities.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VII.</h5> + +<h4><i>Souls of Fools and Monsters.</i></h4> + +<p>A child, ill-formed, is born absolutely imbecile, has no ideas, lives +without ideas; instances of this have been known. How shall this animal +be defined? Doctors have said that it is something between man and +beast; others have said that it is a sensitive soul, but not an +intellectual soul: it eats, it drinks, it sleeps, it wakes, it has +sensations, but it does not think.</p> + +<p>Is there for it another life, or is there none? The case has been put, +and has not yet been entirely resolved.</p> + +<p>Some have said that this creature must have a soul, because its father +and its mother had souls. But by this reasoning it would be proved that +if it had come into the world without a nose, it should have the +reputation of having one, because its father and its mother had one.</p> + +<p>A woman is brought to bed: her infant has no chin; its forehead is flat +and somewhat black, its eyes round, its nose thin and sharp; its +countenance is not much unlike that of a swallow: yet the rest of his +body is made like ours. It is decided by a majority of voices that it is +a man, and possesses an immaterial soul; whereupon the parents have it +baptized. But if this little ridiculous figure has pointed claws, and a +mouth in the form of a beak, it is declared to be a monster; it has no +soul; it is not baptized.</p> + +<p>It is known, that in 1726, there was in London a woman who was brought +to bed every eight days of a young rabbit. No difficulty was made of +refusing baptism to this child, notwithstanding the epidemic folly which +prevailed in London for three weeks, of believing that this poor jade +actually brought forth wild rabbits. The surgeon who delivered her, +named St. André, swore that nothing was more true; and he was believed. +But what reason had the credulous for refusing a soul to this woman's +offspring? She had a soul; her children must likewise have been +furnished with souls, whether they had hands? or paws, whether they were +born with a snout or with a face: cannot the Supreme Being vouchsafe the +gift of thought and sensation to a little nondescript, born of a woman, +with the figure of a rabbit, as well as a little nondescript born with +the figure of a man? Will the soul which was ready to take up its abode +in this woman's fœtus return unhoused?</p> + +<p>It is very well observed by Locke, with regard to monsters, that +immortality must not be attributed to the exterior of a body—that it +has nothing to do with the figure. "This immortality," says he, "is no +more attached to the form of one's face or breast than it is to the way +in which one's beard is clipped or one's coat is cut."</p> + +<p>He asks: What is the exact measure of deformity by which you can +recognize whether an infant has a soul or not? What is the precise +degree at which it is to be declared a monster and without a soul?</p> + +<p>Again, it is asked: What would a soul be that should have none but +chimerical ideas? There are some which never go beyond such. Are they +worthy or unworthy? What is to be made of their pure spirit?</p> + +<p>What are we to think of a child with two heads, which is otherwise well +formed? Some say that it has two souls, because it is furnished with two +pineal glands, with two callous substances, with two "<i>sensoria +communia</i>." Others answer that there cannot be two souls, with but one +breast and one navel.</p> + +<p>In short, so many questions have been asked about this poor human soul, +that if it were necessary to put an end to them all, such an examination +of its own person would cause it the most insupportable annoyance. The +same would happen to it as happened to Cardinal Polignac at a conclave: +his steward, tired of having never been able to make him pass his +accounts, took a journey to Rome, and went to the small window of his +cell, laden with an immense bundle of papers; he read for nearly two +hours; at last, finding that no answer was made, he thrust forward his +head: the cardinal had been gone almost two hours. Our souls will be +gone before their stewards have finished their statements; but let us be +just before God—ignorant as both we and our stewards are.</p> + +<p>See what is said on the soul in the "Letters of Memmius."</p> + + +<h5>SECTION VIII.</h5> + +<h4><i>Different Opinions Criticised—Apology for Locke.</i></h4> + +<p>I must acknowledge, that when I examined the infallible Aristotle, the +evangelical doctor, and the divine Plato, I took all these epithets for +nicknames. In all the philosophers who have spoken of the human +soul, I have found only blind men, full of babble and temerity, +striving to persuade themselves that they have an eagle eye; and others, +curious and foolish, believing them on their word, and imagining that +they see something too.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 436px;"> +<a name="John_Locke" id="John_Locke"></a> +<img src="images/img_04_locke.jpg" width="436" alt="John Locke." title="" /> +<span class="caption_fig">John Locke.</span> +</div> + + +<p>I shall not feign to rank Descartes and Malebranche with these teachers +of error. The former assures us that the soul of man is a substance, +whose essence is to think, which is always thinking, and which, in the +mother's womb, is occupied with fine metaphysical ideas and general +axioms, which it afterwards forgets.</p> + +<p>As for Father Malebranche, he is quite persuaded that we see all in +God—and he has found partisans: for the most extravagant fables are +those which are the best received by the weak imaginations of men. +Various philosophers then had written the romance of the soul: at +length, a wise man modestly wrote its history. Of this history I am +about to give an abridgment, according to the conception I have formed +of it. I very well know that all the world will not agree with Locke's +ideas; it is not unlikely, that against Descartes and Malebranche, Locke +was right, but that against the Sorbonne he was wrong: I speak according +to the lights of philosophy, not according to the relations of the +faith.</p> + +<p>It is not for me to think otherwise than humanly; theologians decide +divinely, which is quite another thing: reason and faith are of contrary +natures. In a word, here follows a short abstract of Locke, which I +would censure, if I were a theologian, but which I adopt for a moment, +simply as a hypothesis—a conjecture of philosophy. Humanly speaking, +the question is: What is the soul?</p> + +<p>1. The word "soul" is one of those which everyone pronounces without +understanding it; we understand only those things of which we have an +idea; we have no idea of soul—spirit; therefore we do not understand +it.</p> + +<p>2. We have then been pleased to give the name of soul to the faculty of +feeling and thinking, as we have given that of life to the faculty of +living, and that of will to the faculty of willing.</p> + +<p>Reasoners have come and said: Man is composed of matter and spirit: +matter is extended and divisible; spirit is neither extended nor +divisible; therefore, say they, it is of another nature. This is a +joining together of beings which are not made for each other, and which +God unites in spite of their nature. We see little of the body, we see +nothing of the soul; it has no parts, therefore it is eternal; it has +ideas pure and spiritual, therefore it does not receive them from +matter; nor does it receive them from itself, therefore God gives them +to it, and it brings with it at its birth the ideas of God, infinity, +and all general ideas.</p> + +<p>Still humanly speaking, I answer these gentlemen that they are very +knowing. They tell us, first, that there is a soul, and then what that +soul must be. They pronounce the word "matter," and then plainly decide +what it is. And I say to them: You have no knowledge either of spirit or +of matter. By spirit you can imagine only the faculty of thinking; by +matter you can understand only a certain assemblage of qualities, +colors, extents, and solidities, which it has pleased you to call +matter; and you have assigned limits to matter and to the soul, even +before you are sure of the existence of either the one or the other.</p> + +<p>As for matter, you gravely teach that it has only extent and solidity; +and I tell you modestly, that it is capable of a thousand properties +about which neither you nor I know anything. You say that the soul is +indivisible, eternal; and here you assume that which is in question. You +are much like the regent of a college, who, having never in his life +seen a clock, should all at once have an English repeater put into his +hands. This man, a good peripatetic, is struck by the exactness with +which the hands mark the time, and still more astonished that a button, +pressed by the finger, should sound precisely the hour marked by the +hand. My philosopher will not fail to prove that there is in this +machine a soul which governs it and directs its springs. He learnedly +demonstrates his opinion by the simile of the angels who keep the +celestial spheres in motion; and in the class he forms fine theses, +maintained on the souls of watches. One of his scholars opens the watch, +and nothing is found but springs; yet the system of the soul of watches +is still maintained, and is considered as demonstrated. I am that +scholar, opening the watch called man; but instead of boldly defining +what we do not understand, I endeavor to examine by degrees what we wish +to know.</p> + +<p>Let us take an infant at the moment of its birth, and follow, step by +step, the progress of its understanding. You do me the honor of +informing me that God took the trouble of creating a soul, to go and +take up its abode in this body when about six weeks old; that this soul, +on its arrival, is provided with metaphysical ideas—having consequently +a very clear knowledge of spirit, of abstract ideas, of infinity—being, +in short, a very knowing person. But unfortunately it quits the uterus +in the uttermost ignorance: for eighteen months it knows nothing but its +nurse's teat; and when at the age of twenty years an attempt is made to +bring back to this soul's recollection all the scientific ideas which it +had when it entered its body, it is often too dull of apprehension to +conceive any one of them. There are whole nations which have never had +so much as one of these ideas. What, in truth, were the souls of +Descartes and Malebranche thinking of, when they imagined such reveries? +Let us then follow the idea of the child, without stopping at the +imaginings of the philosophers.</p> + +<p>The day that his mother was brought to bed of him and his soul, there +were born in the house a dog, a cat, and a canary bird. At the end of +eighteen months I make the dog an excellent hunter; in a year the +canary bird whistles an air; in six weeks the cat is master of its +profession; and the child, at the end of four years, does nothing. I, a +gross person, witnessing this prodigious difference, and never having +seen a child, think at first that the cat, the dog, and the canary are +very intelligent creatures, and that the infant is an automaton. +However, by little and little, I perceive that this child has ideas and +memory, that he has the same passions as these animals; and then I +acknowledge that he is, like them, a rational creature. He communicates +to me different ideas by some words which he has learned, in like manner +as my dog, by diversified cries, makes known to me exactly his different +wants. I perceive at the age of six or seven years the child combines in +his little brain almost as many ideas as my hound in his; and at length, +as he grows older, he acquires an infinite variety of knowledge. Then +what am I to think of him? Shall I believe that he is of a nature +altogether different? Undoubtedly not; for you see on one hand an idiot, +and on the other a Newton; yet you assert that they are of one and the +same nature—that there is no difference but that of greater and less. +The better to assure myself of the verisimilitude of my probable +opinion, I examine the dog and the child both waking and sleeping—I +have them each bled immediately; then their ideas seem to escape with +their blood. In this state I call them—they do not answer; and if I +draw from them a few more ounces, my two machines, which before had +ideas in great plenty and passions of every kind, have no longer any +feeling. I next examine my two animals while they sleep; I perceive that +the dog, after eating too much, has dreams; he hunts and cries after the +game; my youngster, in the same state, talks to his mistress and makes +love in his dreams. If both have eaten moderately, I observe that +neither of them dream; in short, I see that the faculties of feeling, +perceiving, and expressing their ideas unfold themselves gradually, and +also become weaker by degrees. I discover many more affinities between +them than between any man of strong mind and one absolutely imbecile. +What opinion then shall I entertain of their nature? That which every +people at first imagined, before Egyptian policy asserted the +spirituality, the immortality, of the soul. I shall even suspect that +Archimedes and a mole are but different varieties of the same +species—as an oak and a grain of mustard are formed by the same +principles, though the one is a large tree and the other the seed of a +small plant. I shall believe that God has given portions of intelligence +to portions of matter organized for thinking; I shall believe that +matter has sensations in proportion to the fineness of its senses, that +it is they which proportion them to the measure of our ideas; I shall +believe that the oyster in its shell has fewer sensations and senses, +because its soul being attached to its shell, five senses would not at +all be useful to it. There are many animals with only two senses; we +have five—which are very few. It is to be believed that in other +worlds there are other animals enjoying twenty or thirty senses, and +that other species, yet more perfect, have senses to infinity.</p> + +<p>Such, it appears to me, is the most natural way of reasoning on the +matter—that is, of guessing and inspecting with certainty. A long time +elapsed before men were ingenious enough to imagine an unknown being, +which is ourselves, which does all in us, which is not altogether +ourselves, and which lives after us. Nor was so bold an idea adopted all +at once. At first this word "soul" signifies life, and was common to us +and the other animals; then our pride made us a soul apart, and caused +us to imagine a substantial form for other creatures. This human pride +asks: What then is that power of perceiving and feeling, which in man is +called soul, and in the brute instinct? I will satisfy this demand when +the natural philosophers shall have informed me what is sound, light, +space, body, time. I will say, in the spirit of the wise Locke: +Philosophy consists in stopping when the torch of physical science fails +us. I observe the effects of nature; but I freely own that of first +principles I have no more conception than you have. All I do know is +that I ought not to attribute to several causes—especially to unknown +causes—that which I can attribute to a known cause; now I can attribute +to my body the faculty of thinking and feeling; therefore I ought not to +seek this faculty of thinking and feeling in another substance, called +soul or spirit, of which I cannot have the smallest idea. You exclaim +against this proposition. Do you then think it irreligious to dare to +say that the body can think? But what would you say, Locke would answer, +if you yourselves were found guilty of irreligion in thus daring to set +bounds to the power of God? What man upon earth can affirm, without +absurd impiety, that it is impossible for God to give to matter +sensation and thought? Weak and presumptuous that you are! you boldly +advance that matter does not think, because you do not conceive how +matter of any kind should think.</p> + +<p>Ye great philosophers, who decide on the power of God, and say that God +can of a stone make an angel—do you not see that, according to +yourselves, God would in that case only give to a stone the power of +thinking? for if the matter of the stone did not remain, there would no +longer be a stone; there would be a stone annihilated and an angel +created. Whichever way you turn you are forced to acknowledge two +things—your ignorance and the boundless power of the Creator; your +ignorance, to which thinking matter is repugnant; and the Creator's +power, to which certes it is not impossible.</p> + +<p>You, who know that matter does not perish, will dispute whether God has +the power to preserve in that matter the noblest quality with which He +has endowed it. Extent subsists perfectly without body, through Him, +since there are philosophers who believe in a void; accidents subsist +very well without substance with Christians who believe in +transubstantiation. God, you say, cannot do that which implies +contradiction. To be sure of this, it is necessary to know more of the +matter than you do know; it is all in vain; you will never know more +than this—that you are a body, and that you think. Many persons who +have learned at school to doubt of nothing, who take their syllogisms +for oracles and their superstitions for religion, consider Locke as +impious and dangerous. These superstitious people are in society what +cowards are in an army; they are possessed by and communicate panic +terror. We must have the compassion to dissipate their fears; they must +be made sensible that the opinions of philosophers will never do harm to +religion. We know for certain that light comes from the sun, and that +the planets revolve round that luminary; yet we do not read with any the +less edification in the Bible that light was made before the sun, and +that the sun stood still over the village of Gibeon. It is demonstrated +that the rainbow is necessarily formed by the rain; yet we do not the +least reverence the sacred text which says that God set His bow in the +clouds, after the Deluge, as a sign that there should never be another +inundation.</p> + +<p>What though the mystery of the Trinity and that of the eucharist are +contradictory to known demonstrations? They are not the less venerated +by Catholic philosophers, who know that the things of reason and those +of faith are different in their nature. The notion of the antipodes was +condemned by the popes and the councils; yet the popes discovered the +antipodes and carried thither that very Christian religion, the +destruction of which had been thought to be sure, in case there could be +found a man who, as it was then expressed, should have, as relative to +our own position, his head downwards and his feet upwards, and who, as +the very unphilosophical St. Augustine says, should have fallen from +heaven.</p> + +<p>And now, let me once repeat that, while I write with freedom, I warrant +no opinion—I am responsible for nothing. Perhaps there are, among these +dreams, some reasonings, and even some reveries, to which I should give +the preference; but there is not one that I would not unhesitatingly +sacrifice to religion and to my country.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION IX.</h5> + +<p>I shall suppose a dozen of good philosophers in an island where they +have never seen anything but vegetables. Such an island, and especially +twelve such philosophers, would be very hard to find; however, the +fiction is allowable. They admire the life which circulates in the +fibres of the plants, appearing to be alternately lost and renewed; and +as they know not how a plant springs up, how it derives its nourishment +and growth, they call this a vegetative soul. What, they are asked, do +you understand by a vegetative soul? They answer: It is a word that +serves to express the unknown spring by which all this is operated. But +do you not see, a mechanic will ask them, that all this is naturally +done by weights, levers, wheels, and pulleys? No, the philosophers will +say; there is in this vegetation something other than ordinary motion; +there is a secret power which all plants have of drawing to themselves +the juices which nourish them; and this power cannot be explained by any +system of mechanics; it is a gift which God has made to matter, and the +nature of which neither you nor we comprehend.</p> + +<p>After disputing thus, our reasoners at length discover animals. Oh, oh! +say they, after a long examination, here are beings organized like +ourselves. It is indisputable that they have memory, and often more than +we have. They have our passions; they have knowledge; they make us +understand all their wants; they perpetuate their species like us. Our +philosophers dissect some of these beings, and find in them hearts and +brains. What! say they, can the author of these machines, who does +nothing in vain, have given them all the organs of feeling, in order +that they may have no feeling? It were absurd to think so—there is +certainly something in thera which, for want of knowing a better term, +we likewise call soul—something that experiences sensations, and has a +certain number of ideas. But what is this principle? Is it something +absolutely different from matter? Is it a pure spirit? Is it a middle +being, between matter, of which we know little, and pure spirit, of +which we know nothing? Is it a property given by God to organized +matter?</p> + +<p>They then make experiments upon insects; upon earth worms—they cut them +into several parts, and are astonished to find that, after a short time, +there come heads to all these divided parts; the same animal is +reproduced, and its very destruction becomes the means of its +multiplication. Has it several souls, which wait until the head is cut +off the original trunk, to animate the reproduced parts? They are like +trees, which put forth fresh branches, and are reproduced from slips. +Have these trees several souls? It is not likely. Then it is very +probable that the soul of these reptiles is of a different kind from +that which we call vegetative soul in plants; that it is a faculty of a +superior order, which God has vouchsafed to give to certain portions of +matter. Here is a fresh proof of His power—a fresh subject of +adoration.</p> + +<p>A man of violent temper, and a bad reasoner, hears this discourse and +says to them: You are wicked wretches, whose bodies should be burned for +the good of your souls, for you deny the immortality of the soul of man. +Our philosophers then look at one another in perfect astonishment, and +one of them mildly answers him: Why burn us so hastily? Whence have you +concluded that we have an idea that your cruel soul is mortal? From your +believing, returns the other, that God has given to the brutes which are +organized like us, the faculty of having feelings and ideas. Now this +soul of the beasts perishes with them; therefore you believe that the +soul of man perishes also.</p> + +<p>The philosopher replies: We are not at all sure that what we call "soul" +in animal perishes with them; we know very well that matter does not +perish, and we believe that God may have put in animals something which, +if God will it, shall forever retain the faculty of having ideas. We are +very far from affirming that such is the case, for it is hardly for men +to be so confident; but we dare not set bounds to the power of God. We +say that it is very probable that the beasts, which are matter, have +received from Him a little intelligence. We are every day discovering +properties of matter—that is, presents from God—of which we had before +no idea. We at first defined matter to be an extended substance; next we +found it necessary to add solidity; some time afterwards we were obliged +to admit that this matter has a force which is called "<i>vis inertiæ</i>"; +and after this, to our great astonishment, we had to acknowledge that +matter gravitates.</p> + +<p>When we sought to carry our researches further, we were forced to +recognize beings resembling matter in some things, but without the +other, attributes with which matter is gifted. The elementary fire, for +instance, acts upon our senses like other bodies; but it does not, like +them, tend to a centre; on the contrary, it escapes from the centre in +straight lines on every side. It does not seem to obey the laws of +attraction, of gravitation, like other bodies. There are mysteries in +optics, for which it would be hard to account, without venturing to +suppose that the rays of light penetrate one another. There is certainly +something in light which distinguishes it from known matter. Light seems +to be a middle being between bodies and other kinds of beings of which +we are ignorant! It is very likely that these other kinds are themselves +a medium leading to other creatures, and that there is a chain of +substances extending to infinity. "<i>Usque adeo quod tangit idem est, +tamen ultima distant!</i>"</p> + +<p>This idea seems to us to be worthy of the greatness of God, if anything +is worthy of it. Among these substances He has doubtless had power to +choose one which He has lodged in our bodies, and which we call the +human soul; and the sacred books which we have read inform us that this +soul is immortal. Reason is in accordance with revelation; for how +should any substance perish? Every mode is destroyed; the substance +remains. We cannot conceive the creation of a substance; we cannot +conceive its annihilation; but we dare not affirm that the absolute +master of all beings cannot also give feelings and perceptions to the +being which we call matter. You are quite sure that the essence of your +soul is to think; but we are not so sure of this; for when we examine a +fœtus, we can hardly believe that its soul had many ideas in its +head; and we very much doubt whether, in a sound and deep sleep, or in a +complete lethargy, any one ever meditated. Thus it appears to us that +thought may very well be, not the essence of the thinking being, but a +present made by the Creator to beings which we call thinking; from all +which we suspect that, if He would, He could make this present to an +atom; and could preserve this atom and His present forever, or destroy +it at His pleasure. The difficulty consists not so much in divining how +matter could think, as in divining how any substance whatever does +think. You have ideas only because God has been pleased to give them to +you; why would you prevent Him from giving them to other species? Can +you really be so fearless as to dare to believe that your soul is +precisely of the same kind as the substances which approach nearest to +the Divinity? There is great probability that they are of an order very +superior, and that consequently God has vouchsafed to give them a way of +thinking infinitely finer, just as He has given a very limited measure +of ideas to the animals which are of an order inferior to you. I know +not how I live, nor how I give life; yet you would have me know how I +have ideas. The soul is a timepiece which God has given us to manage; +but He has not told us of what the spring of this timepiece is composed.</p> + +<p>Is there anything in all this from which it can be inferred that our +souls are mortal? Once more let us repeat it—we think as you do of the +immortality announced to us by faith; but we believe that we are too +ignorant to affirm that God has not the power of granting thought to +whatever being He pleases. You bound the power of the Creator, which is +boundless; and we extend it as far as His existence extends. Forgive us +for believing Him to be omnipotent, as we forgive you for restraining +His power. You doubtless know all that He can do, and we know nothing of +it. Let us live as brethren; let us adore our common Father in +peace—you with your knowing and daring souls, we with our ignorant and +timid souls. We have a day to live; let us pass it calmly, without +quarrelling about difficulties that will be cleared up in the immortal +life which will begin to-morrow.</p> + +<p>The brutal man, having nothing good to say in reply, talked a long +while, and was very angry. Our poor philosophers employed themselves for +some weeks in reading history; and after reading well, they spoke as +follows to this barbarian, who was so unworthy to have an immortal soul:</p> + +<p>My friend, we have read that in all antiquity things went on as well as +they do in our own times—that there were even greater virtues, and that +philosophers were not persecuted for the opinions which they held; why, +then, should you seek to injure us for opinions which we do not hold? We +read that all the ancients believed matter to be eternal. They who saw +that it was created left the others at rest. Pythagoras had been a cock, +his relations had been swine; but no one found fault with this; his sect +was cherished and revered by all, except the cooks and those who had +beans to sell.</p> + +<p>The Stoics acknowledged a god, nearly the same as the god afterwards so +rashly admitted by the Spinozists; yet Stoicism was a sect the most +fruitful in heroic virtues, and the most accredited.</p> + +<p>The Epicureans made their god like our canons, whose indolent corpulence +upholds their divinity, and who take their nectar and ambrosia in quiet, +without meddling with anything. These Epicureans boldly taught the +materiality and the mortality of the soul; but they were not the less +respected; they were admitted into all offices; and their crooked atoms +never did the world any harm.</p> + +<p>The Platonists, like the Gymnosophists, did not do us the honor to think +that God had condescended to form us Himself. According to them, He left +this task to His officers—to genii, who in the course of their work +made many blunders. The god of the Platonists was an excellent workman, +who employed here below very indifferent assistants; but men did not the +less reverence the school of Plato.</p> + +<p>In short, among the Greeks and the Romans, so many sects as there were, +so many ways of thinking about God and the soul, the past and the +future, none of these sects were persecutors. They were all +mistaken—and we are very sorry for it; but they were all peaceful—and +this confounds us, this condemns us, this shows us that most of the +reasoners of the present day are monsters, and that those of antiquity +were men. They sang publicly on the Roman stage: "<i>Post mortem nihil +est, ipsaque mors nihil.</i>"—"Naught after death, and death is nothing."</p> + +<p>These opinions made men neither better nor worse; all was governed, all +went on as usual; and Titus, Trajan, and Aurelius governed the earth +like beneficent deities.</p> + +<p>Passing from the Greeks and the Romans to barbarous nations, let us only +contemplate the Jews. Superstitious, cruel, and ignorant as this +wretched people were, still they honored the Pharisees, who admitted the +fatality of destiny and the metempsychosis; they also paid respect to +the Sadducees, who absolutely denied the immortality of the soul and the +existence of spirits, taking for their foundation the law of Moses, +which had made no mention of pain or reward after death. The Essenes, +who also believed in fatality, and who never offered up victims in the +temple, were reverenced still more than the Pharisees and the Sadducees. +None of their opinions ever disturbed the government. Yet here were +abundant subjects for slaughtering, burning, and exterminating one +another, had they been so inclined. Oh, miserable men! profit by these +examples. Think, and let others think. It is the solace of our feeble +minds in this short life. What! will you receive with politeness a Turk, +who believes that Mahomet travelled to the moon; will you be careful not +to displease the pasha Bonneval; and yet will you have your brother +hanged, drawn, and quartered, because he believes that God created +intelligence in every creature?</p> + +<p>So spake one of the philosophers; and another of them added: Believe me, +it need never be feared that any philosophical opinion will hurt the +religion of a country. What though our mysteries are contrary to our +demonstrations, they are not the less reverenced by our Christian +philosophers, who know that the objects of reason and faith are of +different natures. Philosophers will never form a religious sect; and +why? Because they are without enthusiasm. Divide mankind into twenty +parts; and of these, nineteen consist of those who labor with their +hands, and will never know that there has been such a person as Locke in +the world. In the remaining twentieth, how few men will be found who +read! and among those who read, there are twenty that read novels for +one that studies philosophy. Those who think are excessively few; and +those few do not set themselves to disturb the world.</p> + +<p>Who are they who have waved the torch of discord in their native +country? Are they Pomponatius, Montaigne, La Vayer, Descartes, Gassendi, +Bayle, Spinoza, Hobbes, Shaftesbury, Boulainvilliers, the Consul +Maillet, Toland, Collins, Flood, Woolston, Bekker, the author disguised +under the name of Jacques Massé, he of the "Turkish Spy," he of the +"<i>Lettres Persanes</i>" of the "<i>Lettres Juives</i>," of the "<i>Pensées +Philosophiques</i>"? No; they are for the most part theologians, who, +having at first been ambitious of becoming leaders of a sect, have soon +become ambitious to be leaders of a party. Nay, not all the books of +modern philosophy put together will ever make so much noise in the world +as was once made by the dispute of the Cordeliers about the form of +their hoods and sleeves.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION X.</h5> + +<h4><i>On the Antiquity of the Dogma of the Immortality of the Soul—A +Fragment</i>.</h4> + +<p>The dogma of the immortality of the soul is at once the most consoling +and the most repressing idea that the mind of man can receive. This fine +philosophy was as ancient among the Egyptians as their pyramids; and +before them it was known to the Persians. I have already elsewhere +related the allegory of the first Zoroaster, cited in the "Sadder," in +which God shows to Zoroaster a place of chastisement, such as the +<i>Dardaroth</i> or <i>Keron</i> of the Egyptians, the <i>Hades</i> and the <i>Tartarus</i> +of the Greeks, which we have but imperfectly rendered in our modern +tongues by the words "<i>inferno</i>," "<i>enfer</i>," "infernal regions," "hell," +"bottomless pit." In this place of punishment God showed to Zoroaster +all the bad kings; one of them had but one foot; Zoroaster asked the +reason; and God answered that this king had done only one good action in +his life, which was by approaching to kick forward a trough which was +not near enough to a poor ass dying of hunger. God had placed this +wicked man's foot in heaven; the rest of his body was in hell.</p> + +<p>This fable, which cannot be too often repeated, shows how ancient was +the opinion of another life. The Indians were persuaded of it, as their +metempsychosis proves. The Chinese venerated the souls of their +ancestors. Each of these nations had founded powerful empires long +before the Egyptians. This is a very important truth, which I think I +have already proved by the very nature of the soil of Egypt. The most +favorable grounds must have been cultivated the first; the ground of +Egypt is the least favorable of all, being under water four months of +the year; it was not until after immense labor, and consequently after a +prodigious lapse of time, that towns were at length raised which the +Nile could not inundate.</p> + +<p>This empire, then, ancient as it was, was much less ancient than the +empires of Asia; and in both one and the other it was believed that the +soul existed after death. It is true that all these nations, without +exception, considered the soul as a light ethereal form, an image of the +body; the Greek word signifying "breath" was invented long after by the +Greeks. But it is beyond a doubt that a part of ourselves was considered +as immortal. Rewards and punishments in another life were the grand +foundation of ancient theology.</p> + +<p>Pherecides was the first among the Greeks who believed that souls +existed from all eternity, and not the first, as has been supposed, who +said that the soul survived the body. Ulysses, long before Pherecides, +had seen the souls of heroes in the infernal regions; but that souls +were as old as the world was a system which had sprung up in the East, +and was brought into the West by Pherecides. I do not believe that there +is among us a single system which is not to be found among the ancients. +The materials of all our modern edifices are taken from the wreck of +antiquity.</p> + + +<h5>SECTION XI.</h5> + +<p>It would be a fine thing to see one's soul. "Know thyself" is an +excellent precept; but it belongs only to God to put it in practice. Who +but He can know His own essence?</p> + +<p>We call "soul" that which animates. Owing to our limited intelligence we +know scarcely anything more of the matter. Three-fourths of mankind go +no further, and give themselves no concern about the thinking being; the +other fourth seek it; no one has found it, or ever will find it.</p> + +<p>Poor pedant! thou seest a plant which vegetates, and thou sayest, +"vegetation," or perhaps "vegetative soul." Thou remarkest that bodies +have and communicate motion, and thou sayest, "force"; thou seest thy +dog learn his craft under thee, and thou exclaimest, "instinct," +"sensitive soul"! Thou hast combined ideas, and thou exclaimest, +"spirit!"</p> + +<p>But pray, what dost thou understand by these words? This flower +vegetates; but is there any real being called vegetation? This body +pushes along another, but does it possess within itself a distinct being +called force? Thy dog brings thee a partridge, but is there any being +called instinct? Wouldst thou not laugh, if a reasoner—though he had +been preceptor to Alexander—were to say to thee: All animals live; +therefore there is in them a being, a substantial form, which is life?</p> + +<p>If a tulip could speak and were to tell thee: I and my vegetation are +two beings evidently joined together; wouldst thou not laugh at the +tulip?</p> + +<p>Let us at first see what thou knowest, of what thou art certain; that +thou walkest with thy feet; that thou digestest with thy stomach; that +thou feelest with thy whole body; and that thou thinkest with thy head. +Let us see if thy reason alone can have given thee light enough by which +to conclude, without supernatural aid, that thou hast a soul.</p> + +<p>The first philosophers, whether Chaldæans or Egyptians, said: There must +be something within us which produces our thoughts; that something must +be very subtile; it is a breath; it is fire; it is ether; it is a +quintessence; it is a slender likeness; it is an antelechia; it is a +number; it is a harmony. Lastly, according to the divine Plato, it is a +compound of the <i>same</i> and the <i>other</i>. "It is atoms which think in us," +said Epicurus, after Democrites. But, my friend, how does an atom think? +Acknowledge that thou knowest nothing of the matter.</p> + +<p>The opinion which one ought to adopt is, doubtless, that the soul is an +immaterial being; but certainly we cannot conceive what an immaterial +being is. No, answer the learned; but we know that its nature is to +think. And whence do you know this? We know, because it does think. Oh, +ye learned! I am much afraid that you are as ignorant as Epicurus! The +nature of a stone is to fall, because it does fall; but I ask you, what +makes it fall?</p> + +<p>We know, continue they, that a stone has no soul. Granted; I believe it +as well as you. We know that an affirmative and a negative are not +divisible, are not parts of matter. I am of your opinion. But matter, +otherwise unknown to us, possesses qualities which are not material, +which are not divisible; it has gravitation towards a centre, which God +has given it; and this gravitation has no parts; it is not divisible. +The moving force of bodies is not a being composed of parts. In like +manner the vegetation of organized bodies, their life, their instinct, +are not beings apart, divisible beings; you can no more cut in two the +vegetation of a rose, the life of a horse, the instinct of a dog, than +you can cut in two a sensation, an affirmation, a negation. Therefore +your fine argument, drawn from the indivisibility of thought, proves +nothing at all.</p> + +<p>What, then, do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot +of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of +anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.</p> + +<p>Now tell me honestly, is this power of feeling and thinking the same as +that which causes you to digest and to walk? You own that it is not; for +in vain might your understanding say to your stomach—Digest; it will +not, if it be sick. In vain might your immaterial being order your feet +to walk; they will not stir, if they have the gout.</p> + +<p>The Greeks clearly perceived that thought has frequently nothing to do +with the play of our organs; they admitted the existence of an animal +soul for these organs, and for the thoughts a soul finer, more +subtile—a <i>nous</i>.</p> + +<p>But we find that this soul of thought has, on a thousand occasions, the +ascendency over the animal soul. The thinking soul commands the hands to +take, and they obey. It does not tell the heart to beat, the blood to +flow, the chyle to form; all this is done without it. Here then are two +souls much involved, and neither of them having the mastery.</p> + +<p>Now, this first animal soul certainly does not exist; it is nothing more +than the movement of our organs. Take heed, O man! lest thou have no +more proofs but thy weak reason that the other soul exists. Thou canst +not know it but by faith; thou art born, thou eatest, thou thinkest, +thou wakest, thou sleepest, without knowing how. God has given thee the +faculty of thinking, as He has given thee all the rest; and if He had +not come at the time appointed by His providence, to teach thee that +thou hast an immaterial and an immortal soul, thou wouldst have no +proof whatever of it.</p> + +<p>Let us examine the fine systems on the soul, which thy philosophy has +fabricated.</p> + +<p>One says that the soul of man is part of the substance of God Himself; +another that it is part of the great whole; a third that it is created +from all eternity; a fourth that it is made, and not created. Others +assure us that God makes souls according as they are wanted, and that +they arrive at the moment of copulation. They are lodged in the seminal +animalcules, cries one. No, says another, they take up their abode in +the Fallopian tubes. A third comes and says: You are all wrong; the soul +waits for six weeks, until the fœtus is formed, and then it takes +possession of the pineal gland; but if it finds a false conception, it +returns and waits for a better opportunity. The last opinion is that its +dwelling is in the callous body; this is the post assigned to it by La +Peyronie. A man should be first surgeon to the king of France to dispose +in this way of the lodging of the soul. Yet the callous body was not so +successful in the world as the surgeon was.</p> + +<p>St. Thomas in his question 75 and following, says that the soul is a +form subsisting <i>per se</i>, that it is all in all, that its essence +differs from its power; that there are three vegetative souls, viz., the +nutritive, the argumentative, and the generative; that the memory of +spiritual things is spiritual, and the memory of corporeal things is +corporeal; that the rational soul is a form "immaterial as to its +operations, and material as to its being." St. Thomas wrote two thousand +pages, of like force and clearness; and he is the angel of the schools.</p> + +<p>Nor have there been fewer systems contrived on the way in which this +soul will feel, when it shall have laid aside the body with which it +felt; how it will hear without ears, smell without a nose, and touch +without hands; what body it will afterwards resume, whether that which +it had at two years old, or at eighty; how the <i>I</i>—the identity of the +same person will subsist; how the soul of a man become imbecile at the +age of fifteen, and dying imbecile at the age of seventy, will resume +the thread of the ideas which he had at the age of puberty; by what +contrivance a soul, the leg of whose body shall be cut off in Europe, +and one of its arms lost in America, will recover this leg and arm, +which, having been transformed into vegetables, will have passed into +the blood of some other animal. We should never finish, if we were to +seek to give an account of all the extravagances which this poor human +soul has imagined about itself.</p> + +<p>It is very singular that, in the laws of God's people, not a word is +said of the spirituality and immortality of the soul; nothing in the +Decalogue, nothing in Leviticus, or in Deuteronomy.</p> + +<p>It is quite certain, it is indubitable, that Moses nowhere proposes to +the Jews pains and rewards in another life; that he never mentions to +them the immortality of their souls; that he never gives them hopes of +heaven, nor threatens them with hell; all is temporal.</p> + +<p>Many illustrious commentators have thought that Moses was perfectly +acquainted with these two great dogmas; and they prove it by the words +of Jacob, who, believing that his son had been devoured by wild beasts, +said in his grief: "I will go down into the grave—<i>in infernum</i>—unto +my son"; that is, I will die, since my son is dead.</p> + +<p>They further prove it by the passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel; but the +Hebrews, to whom Moses spoke, could not have read either Ezekiel or +Isaiah, who did not come until several centuries after.</p> + +<p>It is quite useless to dispute about the private opinions of Moses. The +fact is that in his public laws he never spoke of a life to come; that +he limited all rewards and punishments to the time present. If he knew +of a future life, why did he not expressly set forth that dogma? And if +he did not know of it, what were the object and extent of his mission? +This question is asked by many great persons. The answer is, that the +Master of Moses, and of all men, reserved to Himself the right of +expounding to the Jews, at His own time, a doctrine which they were not +in a condition to understand when they were in the desert.</p> + +<p>If Moses had announced the immortality of the soul, a great school among +the Jews would not have constantly combated it. This great retreat of +the Sadducees would not have been authorized in the State; the Sadducees +would not have filled the highest offices, nor would pontiffs have been +chosen from their body.</p> + +<p>It appears that it was not until after the founding of Alexandria that +the Jews were divided into three sects—the Pharisees, the Sadducees, +and the Essenes. The historian Josephus, who was a Pharisee, informs us +in the thirteenth book of his "Antiquities" that the Pharisees believed +in the metempsychosis; the Sadducees believed that the soul perished +with the body; the Essenes, says Josephus, held that souls were +immortal; according to them souls descended in an aerial form into the +body, from the highest region of the air, whither they were carried back +again by a violent attraction; and after death, those which had belonged +to the good dwelt beyond the ocean in a country where there was neither +heat nor cold, nor wind, nor rain. The souls of the wicked went into a +climate of an opposite description. Such was the theology of the Jews.</p> + +<p>He who alone was to instruct all men came and condemned these three +sects; but without Him we could never have known anything of our soul; +for the philosophers never had any determinate idea of it; and +Moses—the only true lawgiver in the world before our own—Moses, who +talked with God face to face, left men in the most profound ignorance on +this great point. It is, then, only for seventeen hundred years that +there has been any certainty of the soul's existence and its +immortality.</p> + +<p>Cicero had only doubts; his grandson and granddaughter might learn the +truth from the first Galileans who came to Rome.</p> + +<p>But before that time, and since then, in all the rest of the earth where +the apostles did not penetrate, each one must have said to his soul: +What art thou? whence comest thou? what dost thou? whither goest thou? +Thou art I know not what, thinking and feeling: and wert thou to feel +and think for a hundred thousand millions of years, thou wouldst never +know any more by thine own light without the assistance of God.</p> + +<p>O man! God has given thee understanding for thy own good conduct, and +not to penetrate into the essence of the things which He has created.</p> + +<p>So thought Locke; and before Locke, Gassendi; and before Gassendi, a +multitude of sages; but we have bachelors who know all of which those +great men were ignorant.</p> + +<p>Some cruel enemies of reason have dared to rise up against these truths, +acknowledged by all the wise. They have carried their dishonesty and +impudence so far as to charge the authors of this work with having +affirmed that the soul is matter. You well know, persecutors of +innocence, that we have said quite the contrary. You must have read +these very words against Epicurus, Democritus, and Lucretius: "My +friend, how does an atom think? Acknowledge that thou knowest nothing +of the matter." It is then evident, ye are calumniators.</p> + +<p>No one knows what that material being is, which is called "spirit," to +which—be it observed—you give this material name, signifying "wind." +All the first fathers of the Church believed the soul to be corporeal. +It is impossible for us limited beings to know whether our intelligence +is substance or faculty: we cannot thoroughly know either the extended +being, or the thinking beings, or the mechanism of thought.</p> + +<p>We exclaim to you, with the ever to be revered Gassendi and Locke, that +we know nothing by ourselves of the secrets of the Creator. And are you +gods, who know everything? We repeat to you, that you cannot know the +nature and distinction of the soul but by revelation. And is not this +revelation sufficient for you? You must surely be enemies of this +revelation which we claim, since you persecute those who expect +everything from it, and believe only in it.</p> + +<p>Yes, we tell you, we defer wholly to the word of God; and you, enemies +of reason and of God, treat the humble doubt and humble submission of +the philosopher as the wolf in the fable treated the lamb; you say to +him: You said ill of me last year; I must suck your blood. Philosophy +takes no revenge; she smiles in peace at your vain endeavors; she mildly +enlightens mankind, whom you would brutalize, to make them like +yourselves.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SPACE" id="SPACE"></a>SPACE.</h3> + + +<p>What is space? "There is no space in void," exclaimed Leibnitz, after +having admitted a void; but when he admitted a void, he had not +embroiled himself with Newton, nor disputed with him on the calculus of +fluxions, of which Newton was the inventor. This dispute breaking out, +there was no longer space or a void for Leibnitz.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, whatever may be said by philosophers on these insolvable +questions, whether it be for Epicurus, for Gassendi, for Newton, for +Descartes, or Rohaut, the laws of motion will be always the same.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Que Rohaut vainement sèche pour concevoir</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Comment tout étant plein, tout a pu se mouvoir</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;">—<span class="small">BOILEAU</span>, Ep. v, 31-32.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>That Rohaut exhausts himself by vainly endeavoring to understand how +motion can exist in a plenum will not prevent our vessels from sailing +to the Indies, and all motion proceeding with regularity. Pure space, +you say, can neither be matter, nor spirit; and as there is nothing in +this world but matter and spirit, there can therefore be no space.</p> + +<p>So, gentlemen, you assert that there is only matter and spirit, to us +who know so little either of the one or the other—a pleasant decision, +truly! "There are only two things in nature, and these we know not." +Montezuma reasons more justly in the English tragedy of Dryden: "Why +come you here to tell me of the emperor Charles the Fifth? There are +but two emperors in the world; he of Peru and myself." Montezuma spoke +of two things with which he was acquainted, but we speak of two things +of which we have no precise idea.</p> + +<p>We are very pleasant atoms. We make God a spirit in a mode of our own; +and because we denominate that faculty spirit, which the supreme, +universal, eternal, and all-powerful Being has given us, of combining a +few ideas in our little brain, of the extent of six inches more or less, +we suppose God to be a spirit in the same sense. God always in <i>our</i> +image—honest souls!</p> + +<p>But how, if there be millions of beings of another nature from our +matter, of which we know only a few qualities, and from our spirit, our +ideal breath of which we accurately know nothing at all? and who can +assert that these millions of beings exist not; or suspects not that +God, demonstrated to exist by His works, is eminently different from all +these beings, and that space may not be one of them?</p> + +<p>We are far from asserting with Lucretius—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ergo, præter inane et corpora, tertia per se</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Nulla potest rerum in numero natura referri.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<span class="small">LIB</span>., i, v. 446, 447.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">That all consists of body and of space.—CREECH.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But may we venture to believe with him, that space is infinite?</p> + +<p>Has any one been ever able to answer his question: Speed an arrow from +the limits of the world—will it fall into nothing, into nihility?</p> + +<p>Clarke, who spoke in the name of Newton, pretends that "space has +properties, for since it is extended, it is measurable, and therefore +exists." But if we answer, that something may be put where there is +nothing, what answer will be made by Newton and Clarke?</p> + +<p>Newton regards space as the sensorium of God. I thought that I +understood this grand saying formerly, because I was young; at present, +I understand it no more than his explanation of the Apocalypse. Space, +the sensorium, the internal organ of God! I lose both Newton and myself +there.</p> + +<p>Newton thought, according to Locke, that the creation might be explained +by supposing that God, by an act of His will and His power, had rendered +space impenetrable. It is melancholy that a genius so profound as that +possessed by Newton should suggest such unintelligible things.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="STAGE_POLICE_OF_THE" id="STAGE_POLICE_OF_THE"></a>STAGE (POLICE OF THE).</h3> + + +<p>Kings of France were formerly excommunicated; all from Philip I. to +Louis VIII. were solemnly so; as also the emperors from Henry IV. to +Louis of Bavaria inclusively. The kings of England had likewise a very +decent part of these favors from the court of Rome. It was the rage of +the times, and this rage cost six or seven hundred thousand men their +lives. They actually excommunicated the representatives of monarchs; I +do not mean ambassadors, but players, who are kings and emperors three +or four times a week, and who govern the universe to procure a +livelihood.</p> + +<p>I scarcely know of any but this profession, and that of magicians, to +which this honor could now be paid; but as sorcerers have ceased for the +eighty years that sound philosophy has been known to men, there are no +longer any victims but Alexander, Cæsar, Athalie, Polyeucte, Andromache, +Brutus, Zaïre, and Harlequin.</p> + +<p>The principal reason given is, that these gentlemen and ladies represent +the passions; but if depicting the human heart merits so horrible a +disgrace, a greater rigor should be used with painters and sculptors. +There are many licentious pictures which are publicly sold, while we do +not represent a single dramatic poem which maintains not the strictest +decorum. The Venus of Titian and that of Correggio are quite naked, and +are at all times dangerous for our modest youth; but comedians only +recite the admirable lines of "Cinna" for about two hours, and with the +approbation of the magistracy under the royal authority. Why, therefore, +are these living personages on the stage more condemned than these mute +comedians on canvas? "<i>Ut pictura poesis erit</i>." What would Sophocles +and Euripides have said, if they could have foreseen that a people, who +only ceased to be barbarous by imitating them, would one day inflict +this disgrace upon the stage, which in their time received such high +glory?</p> + +<p>Esopus and Roscius were not Roman senators, it is true; but the Flamen +did not declare them infamous; and the art of Terence was not doubted. +The great pope and prince, Leo X., to whom we owe the renewal of good +tragedy and comedy in Europe, and who caused dramatic pieces to be +represented in his palace with so much magnificence, foresaw not that +one day, in a part of Gaul, the descendants of the Celts and the Goths +would believe they had a right to disgrace that which he honored. If +Cardinal Richelieu had lived—he who caused the Palais Royal to be +built, and to whom France owes the stage—he would no longer have +suffered them to have dared to cover with ignominy those whom he +employed to recite his own works.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed that they were heretics who began to outrage the +finest of all the arts. Leo X., having revived the tragic scene, the +pretended reformers required nothing more to convince them that it was +the work of Satan. Thus the town of Geneva, and several illustrious +places of Switzerland, have been a hundred and fifty years without +suffering a violin amongst them. The Jansenists, who now dance on the +tomb of St. Paris, to the great edification of the neighborhood, in the +last century forbade a princess of Conti, whom they governed, to allow +her son to learn dancing, saying that dancing was too profane. However, +as it was necessary he should be graceful, he was taught the minuet, but +they would not allow a violin, and the director was a long time before +he would suffer the prince of Conti to be taught with castanets. A few +Catholic Visigoths on this side the Alps, therefore, fearing the +reproaches of the reformers, cried as loudly as they did. Thus, by +degrees, the fashion of defaming Cæsar and Pompey, and of refusing +certain ceremonies to certain persons paid by the king, and laboring +under the eyes of the magistracy, was established in France. We do not +declaim against this abuse; for who would embroil himself with powerful +men of the present time, for hedra and heroes of past ages?</p> + +<p>We are content with finding this rigor absurd, and with always paying +our full tribute of admiration to the masterpieces of our stage.</p> + +<p>Rome, from whom we have learned our catechism, does not use it as we do; +she has always known how to temper her laws according to times and +occasions; she has known how to distinguish impudent mountebanks, who +were formerly rightly censured, from the dramatic pieces of Trissin, and +of several bishops and cardinals who have assisted to revive tragedy. +Even at present, comedies are publicly represented at Rome in religious +houses. Ladies go to them without scandal; they think not that +dialogues, recited on boards, are a diabolical infamy. We have even seen +the piece of "George Dandin" executed at Rome by nuns, in the presence +of a crowd of ecclesiastics and ladies. The wise Romans are above all +careful how they excommunicate the gentlemen who sing the trebles in the +Italian operas; for, in truth, it is enough to be castrated in this +world, without being damned in the other.</p> + +<p>In the good time of Louis XIV., there was always a bench at the +spectacles, which was called the bench of bishops. I have been a +witness, that in the minority of Louis XV., Cardinal Fleury, then bishop +of Fréjus, was very anxious to revive this custom. With other times and +other manners, we are apparently much wiser than in the times in which +the whole of Europe came to admire our shows, when Richelieu revived the +stage in France, when Leo X. renewed the age of Augustus in Italy: but a +time will come in which our children, seeing the impertinent work of +Father Le Brun against the art of Sophocles, and the works of our great +men printed at the same time, will exclaim: Is it possible that the +French could thus contradict themselves, and that the most absurd +barbarity has so proudly raised its head against some of the finest +productions of the human mind?</p> + +<p>St. Thomas of Aquinas, whose morals were equal to those of Calvin and +Father Quesnel—St. Thomas, who had never seen good comedy, and who knew +only miserable players, thinks however that the theatre might be useful. +He had sufficient good sense and justice to feel the merit of this art, +unfinished as it was, and permitted and approved of it. St. Charles +Borromeo personally examined the pieces which were played at Milan, and +gave them his approbation and signature. Who after that will be +Visigoths enough to treat Roderigo and Chimene as soul-corrupters? +Would to God that these barbarians, the enemies of the finest of arts, +had the piety of Polyeucte, the clemency of Augustus, the virtue of +Burrhus, and would die like the husband of Al-zira!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="STATES_GOVERNMENTS" id="STATES_GOVERNMENTS"></a>STATES—GOVERNMENTS.</h3> + + +<p>Which is the best? I have not hitherto known any person who has not +governed some state. I speak not of messieurs the ministers, who really +govern; some two or three years, others six months, and others six +weeks; I speak of all other men, who, at supper or in their closet, +unfold their systems of government, and reform armies, the Church, the +gown, and finances.</p> + +<p>The Abbé de Bourzeis began to govern France towards the year 1645, under +the name of Cardinal Richelieu, and made the "Political Testament," in +which he would enlist the nobility into the cavalry for three years, +make chambers of accounts and parliaments pay the poll-tax, and deprive +the king of the produce of the excise. He asserts, above all, that to +enter a country with fifty thousand men, it is essential to economy that +a hundred thousand should be raised. He affirms that "Provence alone has +more fine seaports than Spain and Italy together."</p> + +<p>The Abbé de Bourzeis had not travelled. As to the rest, his work abounds +with anachronisms and errors; and as he makes Cardinal Richelieu sign +in a manner in which he never signed, so he makes him speak as he had +never spoken. Moreover, he fills a whole chapter with saying that reason +should guide a state, and in endeavoring to prove this discovery. This +work of obscurities, this bastard of the Abbé de Bourzeis, has long +passed for the legitimate offspring of the Cardinal Richelieu; and all +academicians, in their speeches of reception, fail not to praise +extravagantly this political masterpiece.</p> + +<p>The Sieur Gatien de Courtilz, seeing the success of the "<i>Testament +Politique</i>" of Richelieu, published at The Hague the "<i>Testament de +Colbert</i>" with a fine letter of M. Colbert to the king. It is clear that +if this minister made such a testament, it must have been suppressed; +yet this book has been quoted by several authors.</p> + +<p>Another ignoramus, of whose name we are ignorant, failed not to produce +the "<i>Testament de Louis</i>" still worse, if possible, than that of +Colbert. An abbé of Chevremont also made Charles, duke of Lorraine, form +a testament. We have had the political testaments of Cardinal Alberoni, +Marshal Belle-Isle, and finally that of Mandrin.</p> + +<p>M. de Boisguillebert, author of the "Détail de la France" published in +1695, produced the impracticable project of the royal tithe, under the +name of the marshal de Vauban.</p> + +<p>A madman, named La Jonchere, wanting bread, wrote, in 1720, a "Project +of Finance," in four volumes; and some fools have quoted this +production as a work of La Jonchere, the treasurer-general, imagining +that a treasurer could not write a bad book on finance.</p> + +<p>But it must be confessed that very wise men, perhaps very worthy to +govern, have written on the administration of states in France, Spain, +and England. Their books have done much good; not that they have +corrected ministers who were in place when these books appeared, for a +minister does not and cannot correct himself. He has attained his +growth, and more instruction, more counsel, he has not time to listen +to. The current of affairs carries him away; but good books form, young +people, destined for their places; and princes and statesmen of a +succeeding generation are instructed.</p> + +<p>The strength and weakness of all governments has been narrowly examined +in latter times. Tell me, then, you who have travelled, who have read +and have seen, in what state, under what sort of government, would you +be born? I conceive that a great landed lord in France would have no +objection to be born in Germany: he would be a sovereign instead of a +subject. A peer of France would be very glad to have the privileges of +the English peerage: he would be a legislator. The gownsman and +financier would find himself better off in France than elsewhere. But +what country would a wise freeman choose—a man of small fortune, +without prejudices?</p> + +<p>A rather learned member of the council of Pondicherry came into Europe, +by land, with a brahmin, more learned than the generality of them. "How +do you find the government of the Great Mogul?" said the counsellor. +"Abominable," answered the brahmin; "how can you expect a state to be +happily governed by Tartars? Our rajahs, our omras, and our nabobs are +very contented, but the citizens are by no means so; and millions of +citizens are something."</p> + +<p>The counsellor and the brahmin traversed all Upper Asia, reasoning on +their way. "I reflect," said the brahmin, "that there is not a republic +in all this vast part of the world." "There was formerly that of Tyre," +said the counsellor, "but it lasted not long; there was another towards +Arabia Petræa, in a little nook called Palestine—if we can honor with +the name of republic a horde of thieves and usurers, sometimes governed +by judges, sometimes by a sort of kings, sometimes by high priests; who +became slaves seven or eight times, and were finally driven from the +country which they had usurped."</p> + +<p>"I fancy," said the brahmin, "that we should find very few republics on +earth. Men are seldom worthy to govern themselves. This happiness should +only belong to little people, who conceal themselves in islands, or +between mountains, like rabbits who steal away from carnivorous animals, +but at length are discovered and devoured."</p> + +<p>When the travellers arrived in Asia Minor, the counsellor said to the +brahmin, "Would you believe that there was a republic formed in a corner +of Italy, which lasted more than five hundred years, and which +possessed this Asia Minor, Asia, Africa, Greece, the Gauls, Spain, and +the whole of Italy?" "It was therefore soon turned into a monarchy?" +said the brahmin. "You have guessed it," said the other; "but this +monarchy has fallen, and every day we make fine dissertations to +discover the causes of its decay and fall." "You take much useless +pains," said the Indian: "this empire has fallen because it existed. All +must fall. I hope that the same will happen to the empire of the Great +Mogul." "Apropos," said the European, "do you believe that more honor is +required in a despotic state, and more virtue in a republic?" The term +"honor" being first explained to the Indian, he replied, that honor was +more necessary in a republic, and that there is more need of virtue in a +monarchical state. "For," said he, "a man who pretends to be elected by +the people, will not be so, if he is dishonored; while at court he can +easily obtain a place, according to the maxim of a great prince, that to +succeed, a courtier should have neither honor nor a will of his own. +With respect to virtue, it is prodigiously required in a court, in order +to dare to tell the truth. The virtuous man is much more at his ease in +a republic, having nobody to flatter."</p> + +<p>"Do you believe," said the European, "that laws and religions can be +formed for climates, the same as furs are required at Moscow, and gauze +stuffs at Delhi?" "Yes, doubtless," said the brahmin; "all laws which +concern physics are calculated for the meridian which we inhabit; a +German requires only one wife, and a Persian must have two or three.</p> + +<p>"Rites of religion are of the same nature. If I were a Christian, how +would you have me say mass in my province, where there is neither bread +nor wine? With regard to dogmas, it is another thing; climate has +nothing to do with them. Did not your religion commence in Asia, from +whence it was driven? does it not exist towards the Baltic Sea, where it +was unknown?"</p> + +<p>"In what state, under what dominion, would you like to live?" said the +counsellor. "Under any but my own," said his companion, "and I have +found many Siamese, Tonquinese, Persians, and Turks who have said the +same." "But, once more," said the European, "what state would you +choose?" The brahmin answered, "That in which the laws alone are +obeyed." "That is an odd answer," said the counsellor. "It is not the +worse for that," said the brahmin. "Where is this country?" said the +counsellor. The brahmin: "We must seek it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="STATES-GENERAL" id="STATES-GENERAL"></a>STATES-GENERAL.</h3> + + +<p>There have been always such in Europe, and probably in all the earth, so +natural is it to assemble the family, to know its interests, and to +provide for its wants! The Tartars had their <i>cour-ilté</i>. The Germans, +according to Tacitus, assembled to consult. The Saxons and people of the +North had their <i>witenagemot</i>. The people at large formed +states-general in the Greek and Roman republics.</p> + +<p>We see none among the Egyptians, Persians, or Chinese, because we have +but very imperfect fragments of their histories: we scarcely know +anything of them until since the time in which their kings were +absolute, or at least since the time in which they had only priests to +balance their authority.</p> + +<p>When the comitia were abolished at Rome, the Prætorian guards took their +place: insolent, greedy, barbarous, and idle soldiers were the republic. +Septimius Severus conquered and disbanded them.</p> + +<p>The states-general of the Ottoman Empire are the janissaries and +cavalry; in Algiers and Tunis, it is the militia. The greatest and most +singular example of these states-general is the Diet of Ratisbon, which +has lasted a hundred years, where the representatives of the empire, the +ministers of electors, princes, counts, prelates and imperial cities, to +the number of thirty-seven, continually sit.</p> + +<p>The second states-general of Europe are those of Great Britain. They are +not always assembled, like the Diet of Ratisbon; but they are become so +necessary that the king convokes them every year.</p> + +<p>The House of Commons answers precisely to the deputies of cities +received in the diet of the empire; but it is much larger in number, and +enjoys a superior power. It is properly the nation. Peers and bishops +are in parliament only for themselves, and the House of Commons for all +the country.</p> + +<p>This parliament of England is only a perfected imitation of certain +states-general of France. In 1355, under King John, the three states +were assembled at Paris, to aid him against the English. They granted +him a considerable sum, at five livres five sous the mark, for fear the +king should change the numerary value. They regulated the tax necessary +to gather in this money, and they established nine commissioners to +preside at the receipt. The king promised for himself and his +successors, not to make any change in the coin in future.</p> + +<p>What is promising for himself and his heirs? Either it is promising +nothing, or it is saying: Neither myself nor my heirs have the right of +altering the money; we have not the power of doing ill.</p> + +<p>With this money, which was soon raised, an army was quickly formed, +which prevented not King John from being made prisoner at the battle of +Poitiers.</p> + +<p>Account should be rendered at the end of the year, of the employment of +the granted sum. This is now the custom in England, with the House of +Commons. The English nation has preserved all that the French nation has +lost.</p> + +<p>The states-general of Sweden have a custom still more honorable to +humanity, which is not found among any other people. They admit into +their assemblies two hundred peasants, who form a body separated from +the three others, and who maintain the liberty of those who labor for +the subsistence of man.</p> + +<p>The states-general of Denmark took quite a contrary resolution in 1660; +they deprived themselves of all their rights, in favor of the king. They +gave him an absolute and unlimited power; but what is more strange is, +that they have not hitherto repented it.</p> + +<p>The states-general in France have not been assembled since 1613, and the +cortes of Spain lasted a hundred years after. The latter were assembled +in 1712, to confirm the renunciation of Philip V., of the crown of +France. These states-general have not been convoked since that +time.</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. IX</b></a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#PROPERTY"><b>PROPERTY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PROPHECIES"><b>PROPHECIES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PROPHETS"><b>PROPHETS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PROVIDENCE"><b>PROVIDENCE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PURGATORY"><b>PURGATORY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#QUACK_OR_CHARLATAN"><b>QUACK (OR CHARLATAN).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RAVAILLAC"><b>RAVAILLAC.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#REASONABLE_OR_RIGHT"><b>REASONABLE, OR RIGHT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RELICS"><b>RELICS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RELIGION"><b>RELIGION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RHYME"><b>RHYME.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RESURRECTION"><b>RESURRECTION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RIGHTS"><b>RIGHTS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RIVERS"><b>RIVERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ROADS"><b>ROADS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ROD"><b>ROD.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ROME_COURT_OF"><b>ROME (COURT OF).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SAMOTHRACE"><b>SAMOTHRACE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SAMSON"><b>SAMSON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SATURNS_RING"><b>SATURN'S RING.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SCANDAL"><b>SCANDAL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SCHISM"><b>SCHISM.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SCROFULA"><b>SCROFULA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SECT"><b>SECT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SELF-LOVE"><b>SELF-LOVE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SENSATION"><b>SENSATION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SENTENCES_REMARKABLE"><b>SENTENCES (REMARKABLE).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SENTENCES_OF_DEATH"><b>SENTENCES OF DEATH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SERPENTS"><b>SERPENTS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SHEKEL"><b>SHEKEL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SIBYL"><b>SIBYL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SINGING"><b>SINGING.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SLAVES"><b>SLAVES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SLEEPERS_THE_SEVEN"><b>SLEEPERS (THE SEVEN).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SLOW_BELLIES_VENTRES_PARESSEUX"><b>SLOW BELLIES (VENTRES PARESSEUX).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOCIETY_ROYAL_OF_LONDON_AND_ACADEMIES"><b>SOCIETY (ROYAL) OF LONDON, AND ACADEMIES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOCRATES"><b>SOCRATES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOLOMON"><b>SOLOMON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOMNAMBULISTS_AND_DREAMERS"><b>SOMNAMBULISTS AND DREAMERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOPHIST"><b>SOPHIST.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOUL"><b>SOUL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SPACE"><b>SPACE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#STAGE_POLICE_OF_THE"><b>STAGE (POLICE OF THE).</b></a><br /> +<a href="#STATES_GOVERNMENTS"><b>STATES—GOVERNMENTS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#STATES-GENERAL"><b>STATES-GENERAL.</b></a><br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35629 ***</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/35629-h/images/img_01_voltaire.jpg b/35629-h/images/img_01_voltaire.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..96ea77f --- /dev/null +++ b/35629-h/images/img_01_voltaire.jpg diff --git a/35629-h/images/img_02_genius.jpg b/35629-h/images/img_02_genius.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..03e68cc --- /dev/null +++ b/35629-h/images/img_02_genius.jpg diff --git a/35629-h/images/img_03_samson.jpg b/35629-h/images/img_03_samson.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8864742 --- /dev/null +++ b/35629-h/images/img_03_samson.jpg diff --git a/35629-h/images/img_04_locke.jpg b/35629-h/images/img_04_locke.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..407cc78 --- /dev/null +++ b/35629-h/images/img_04_locke.jpg |
